Does Pullman like Led Zeppelin?

[callmecrono]

Hey all,
I have just finished reading HDM again, and I did it more slowoly and more methodically. I actually read the chapter titles ( I was too engrossed the first 3 times to even notice them lol) and tried to understand their meaning. Everything was easy until the best chapter in the book "Over The Hills And Far Away".
Does anyone else here listen to Led Zeppelin? Over the Hills and Far Away is one of their best songs (my fav actually) and the lyrics begin with the words "Hey lady/ You've got the love I need". The naming of such a crucial part in the trilogy can only be seen by me as a tribute to Led Zeppelin. So my point is, does anyone know if PP is a huge Led Zeppelin fan?

[Enitharmon]

Might be - he's about the right age. But he was more of a folkie I think than a heavy metal fan.

On the other hand, there's also Percy Grainger's Children's March: Over The Hills and Far Away - a setting of a traditional song. My guess is that this is likely to be PP's source although I wouldn't rule out the possiblility of filtering through Led Zep. It was almosr certainly Led Zep's source.

Hope that helps.

[All_That_Jazz]

There's also that song about the mother duck..

"five little ducks went out one day, over the hills and far away, mother duck said 'quack, quack quack quack,' but only four little ducks came back." (it makes me cry )

Does anyone know if PP is a fan of ducks?

No, i'm kidding. I think it's just one of those phrases, and was around before Led Zeppelin wrote a song by that title.

[eloquent]

I dare anyone to mention the teletubbies...

*loads gun*

[callmecrono]

hey all,
yeah I know it is a popular phrase, I just thought that it was cool how both the chapter and the song are about falling love and realizing a new way to live one's life.

[Enitharmon]

yeah I know it is a popular phrase, I just thought that it was cool how both the chapter and the song are about falling love and realizing a new way to live one's life.

Something like half the songs in all popular music are about that!

[callmecrono]

lol I know!
But that's why I was wondering if PP was a Led Zeppelin fan because out of all of the songs and stories he named the chapter after just one (ok maybe a few who knows?) thing. Despite all of the songs that have that same theme it just seemed more than coincidental to me that he picked the title from a LZ song.
Maybe I should just e-mail him and ask him...

[Enitharmon]

lol I know!
But that's why I was wondering if PP was a Led Zeppelin fan because out of all of the songs and stories he named the chapter after just one (ok maybe a few who knows?) thing. Despite all of the songs that have that same theme it just seemed more than coincidental to me that he picked the title from a LZ song.
Maybe I should just e-mail him and ask him...

You could try - but don't discount Percy Grainger, it's a 'Children's March' after all!

[Rueful Rabbit]

"Over the Hills and Far Away" predates Percy Grainger by many years. There was a version of it in The Beggar's Opera in the mid-18th century, and it was an old song even then. I remember it from my childhood, and I'm of Philip Pullman's generation, and I don't think it was Percy Grainger's version - could well have been sung on "Listen with Mother" on the radio.

[Enitharmon]

"Over the Hills and Far Away" predates Percy Grainger by many years. There was a version of it in The Beggar's Opera in the mid-18th century, and it was an old song even then. I remember it from my childhood, and I'm of Philip Pullman's generation, and I don't think it was Percy Grainger's version - could well have been sung on "Listen with Mother" on the radio.

Tom, Tom the piper's son, you mean! And something else but I can't quite get a handle on it - has a whiff of Owen Brannigan about it, with Gerald Moore on piano accompaniment.

I did say the Grainger was a setting of a traditional song! (She says, wriggling)

Does Ceres know you're challenging for his jealously-guarded Oldest Member position?

[Peter]

.... So my point is, does anyone know if PP is a huge Led Zeppelin fan?

No, no more than I know if Beatrix Potter was (The Tale Of Pigling Bland). But apropos of nothing at all, the titles of the last two chapters of IM Banks' Against A Dark Background are (from memory):

All Castles Made Of Sand
and
Fall In The Sea

There's an unpublished epilogue to the book (findable out there), but I don't think it's entitled Eventually.

One for you, eh, Will? BTW, the LZ video for Over The Green Hills is wonderful.

Are you going to make an age claim, Rueful?

[Enitharmon]

Thinking about this topic, I was trying to work out a schema for the chapter titles in HDM - I like to use themed titles myself - but I couldn't come up with anything. Some of the titles seem much more resonant than others, some feel like the first obvious think that came into the author's head. Some are full of allegorical significance, some are just banal. Some of the ones that interest me are:

The Idea of North: Just seems strangely poetic, and the phrase comes up later, used by Martin Lanselius when comparing the alethjiometer to a compass.

Lyra's Jordan: This one really fascinates me. Seems so obvious at first glance - but it's actually rather clever. It's the longest chapter in the whole caboodle by the way, by quite a margin. Not all that much of it has to do with Jordan College; it might more logically be called Lyra's Oxford as the author hadn't a use for that title at that time, but even then it's the chapter that covers Tony Makarios's abduction from London. Why does he call his fictional college Jordan anyway? It seems an odd name for an Oxford College. The only connection between Oxford and the name Jordan that I can think of is the Jordan Hill Business Park in Wolvercote - and that's precisely the spot over which, in another universe, sits the Torre degli Angeli! The name Jordan is surely significant - and then we think of the Israelites crossing the Jordan to claim their Promised Land. So Lyra's Jordan is a crossing, a point of no return, after which her life can never be the same again.

The Cocktail Party: A play by T S Eliot...

Fencing: A pun, surely? Sword play, but also enclosure.

The Silver Guillotine: Makes me think of the French Revolution. As do the gallivespians later on, and also as does...

À Outrance: In which a flamboyant and hedonistic king is overthrown by a popular leader. 'Iron is bear metal. Gold is not'.

Fog and Ice: Makes me think of Nicht und Nebel , and also Sturm und Drang. And Phineas Fogg in his balloon.

A lot of the chapters on TSK seem to have distinct resonances that I can't quite get a handle on.

Lighted Fliers: Nicely suggestive - angels of course but also suggests lighted fires, the beginning of a revolution.

Bloodmoss: Blood ties

I could probably write a book about the chapter titles in TAS. But, does anybody have any more thoughts on the subject?

Should I split this thread, do you think?

[Rueful Rabbit]

The Idea of North: Just seems strangely poetic, and the pgrase comes up later, used by Martin Lanselius when comparing the alethjiometer to a compass.

I think "The Idea of North" comes from the well-known CBC radio documentary made by Glenn Gould, the Canadian classical pianist, in the 60s. Here's a quote from http://www.collectionscanada.ca/glenngo ... 5.3-e.html :

The North was, for Gould, a moral concept as well as an excursion to frozen wastelands. It meant an exploration of the unknown, a quest for serenity and peace. The Idea of North was the first in a trilogy of documentaries dealing with people outside the mainstream, people for whom apartness and solitude are sources of spiritual strength. The Idea of North held a particular appeal for Gould with its implications of solitude, winter darkness and cold weather, all of which he associated with purity

There was a very good film about Glenn Gould fairly recently - "Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould"

[jessia]

The Idea of North: Just seems strangely poetic, and the pgrase comes up later, used by Martin Lanselius when comparing the alethjiometer to a compass.

I think "The Idea of North" comes from the well-known CBC radio documentary made by Glenn Gould, the Canadian classical pianist, in the 60s. Here's a quote from http://www.collectionscanada.ca/glenngo ... 5.3-e.html :

The North was, for Gould, a moral concept as well as an excursion to frozen wastelands. It meant an exploration of the unknown, a quest for serenity and peace. The Idea of North was the first in a trilogy of documentaries dealing with people outside the mainstream, people for whom apartness and solitude are sources of spiritual strength. The Idea of North held a particular appeal for Gould with its implications of solitude, winter darkness and cold weather, all of which he associated with purity

There was a very good film about Glenn Gould fairly recently - "Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould"

starring colm feore. i haven't yet seen it, but it's colm feore playing a dead canadian, it has to be good.

[callmecrono]

jkhgfxdcghvjb

[Max]

You sly thing you. I can't decide whether that's charmingly romantic or the best bit of manipulative artifice to the end of attaining the affections of a partner I've ever heard of.

Either way - brilliant, very well done.

I find the libation on their part of copious alcoholic liquids is a more simple technique, however.

[Enitharmon]

I find the libation on their part of copious alcoholic liquids is a more simple technique, however.

Hmm. We know your sort, young Max.

Have some madeira m'dear

[Max]

Hmm. We know your sort, young Max.

I've never actually done that, although I've been the recipient of such treatment. <Disbelief abounds>

Really though, that marzipan stunt was pure class. I don't doubt she adores you after that.

[callmecrono]

yeah, exactly... except i can't read what you wrote in tiny text

[Max]

yeah, exactly... except i can't read what you wrote in tiny text

If you want to see what it says, you select it, copy it, and paste it anywhere and it'll reappear as a legible size. I often use the address bar for this purpose.