How could I cheer ‘Light’
that ill-uses a man as
darkly as The Dark?
This entry was posted
on Saturday, April 5th, 2008 at 11:17 pm and is filed under Haiku Book Reviews.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
2 Responses to “The Dark Is Rising - Susan Cooper”
So I don’t think you will be reading the series?! I renewed Greenwitch twice (kept it a total of 6 weeks or so from the Oak Park Public Library) but couldn’t manage to get more than a few pages into it. The moment for reading the series has passed, I think…
I always get frustrated by series of “good” vs. “evil” where the folks who are allegedly “good” use the same strategies as the evil.
In this book, young Will is so determined to Get What He Wants that he physically and emotionally intimidates a bewildered and confused old man to coerce him into a certain action. Asking politely did not work, so now Will feels he’s justified in abusing this guy. Wow.
And it’s certainly not the only instance in this story where someone from the side of “light” is manipulative, emotionally abusive, etc. They all feel pity for the old ‘Watcher,’ but the reality is, they helped create his misery.
Sanctimonious pricks who take no responsibility for their actions. Well, they’re *sorry* sort of…but oh well, wha’chu gonna do? So they continue to abuse him to their their way.
If you use the exact same strategies as evil, then guess what? You ARE the evil, no matter in how grand a story you tell yourself. No wonder “The Dark is rising.”
April 10th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
So I don’t think you will be reading the series?! I renewed Greenwitch twice (kept it a total of 6 weeks or so from the Oak Park Public Library) but couldn’t manage to get more than a few pages into it. The moment for reading the series has passed, I think…
April 15th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Yeah, I won’t be reading the series.
I always get frustrated by series of “good” vs. “evil” where the folks who are allegedly “good” use the same strategies as the evil.
In this book, young Will is so determined to Get What He Wants that he physically and emotionally intimidates a bewildered and confused old man to coerce him into a certain action. Asking politely did not work, so now Will feels he’s justified in abusing this guy. Wow.
And it’s certainly not the only instance in this story where someone from the side of “light” is manipulative, emotionally abusive, etc. They all feel pity for the old ‘Watcher,’ but the reality is, they helped create his misery.
Sanctimonious pricks who take no responsibility for their actions. Well, they’re *sorry* sort of…but oh well, wha’chu gonna do? So they continue to abuse him to their their way.
If you use the exact same strategies as evil, then guess what? You ARE the evil, no matter in how grand a story you tell yourself. No wonder “The Dark is rising.”
There’s no one in this story who isn’t dark.