Re: So it is true...

Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> Neeraj Mathur wrote:
> >
> > "Seán O'Leathlóbhair" <jwlawler@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> > news:1133900549.123273.137530@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > >Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> > >> The three schools in Goblet of Fire are clearly from different polities
> > >> -- a Francophone one and a Slavophone one, beyond the Anglophone host
> > >> one.
> > >
> > >Good point. So there is not a worldwide wizard government. It is
> > >still not clear whether their countries correspond to ours.
> >
> > I just saw the film a few nights ago (I'm afraid I've never had the patience
> > with the books), and I got the impression that all three schools, as well as
> > the international quidditch match, were subject to the authority of a
> > Council of Magic or something like that..?
>
> In the book (I can wait for the DVD), it's just an intervarsity sort of
> thing -- something the schools themselves came up with.
>
> I read the first three in one weekend (Thursday to Sunday), the fourth
> took a week, and the fifth several weeks (by which volume she's
> basically turned him into Job).
>
> I gather she had a better editor for #6.
>
> They're certainly plotted better than *The Hobbit*, which could probably
> have been extended indefinitely with new adventures; but HP has such
> literary devices as _foreshadowing_ and _intertextuality_.
>
> I've struggled through two of the three volumes of "His Dark Materials,"
> because two trustworthy people told me it was worthwhile, but it's even
> more meandering than Tolkien can be -- every few chapters, he simply
> invents a new impossible thing to believe before breakfast. (I wonder
> whether the third volume includes any sort of hint of how daemons could
> have evolved.)

I read the first of these books because I was recommended it by a
colleague. I did not enjoy it very much. Despite my
disrecommendation, my son borrowed it from school, read it, and enjoyed
it. He went on to read the sequels. He read them much more rapidly
than the Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. Since my son had read the
sequels, I read them so I could discuss them with him. I did not enjoy
them any more than the first. I do not recall any explanation of the
possible origin of daemons but plenty more impossible things occur.

I sometimes read science fiction. I can usually tolerate one
impossible thing but I don't like multiple impossible things.

> I hope the Narnia movies are faithful to the books, and that they'll
> cause the books to be read.

The reviews that I have read are not very favourable.

(Still haven't seen LotR -- the half hour or
> so I saw on TV wasn't impressive.)

They were OK but by the third one, I could not be bothered going to the
cinema. Even after finding the DVD at a bargain price, it was a long
time before I got around to watching it.

> --
> Peter T. Daniels grammatim@xxxxxxx

--
Seán O'Leathlóbhair

.

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