5
Clockwork, especially for Classes Ping & Lien
(2005/2/6): http://www.readingmatters.co.uk/book.php?id=104
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Clockwork or All Wound Up by Philip Pullman (1996) a book review for readingmatters.co.uk
5
1 It's short, but it's not that simple.
2 It's one of those winter evenings, when the wind is biting and the snow is thick and heavy and the best place to be is by the stove in the inn at supper time. It's a great night for a story by the fire - and Fritz the novelist is persuaded to present his latest work.
3 Now, we know something which the audience in the inn doesn't know. The fact is, Fritz can't think up an ending to his story. He's stuck half way. But anyway, he isn't too concerned because he thinks he might be able to dream something up on the spot.
4 It's a rather unpleasant little story about the local aristocrat, Prince Otto and his young son, Prince Florian, who went out together on a hunting trip. No one knew what had happened but when they returned, Prince Otto was dead, with a clockwork mechanism fitted into his chest where his heart should have been. You really need to remember that Fritz is recalling this bit of his story as a true report:
5 I wonder if any of you remember the extraordinary business at the palace a few years ago? They tried to hush it up, but some details came out, and a bizarre mystery it was, too.
6 Fritz is just getting to the bit he claims to have made up, the part played by the mysterious Dr Kalmenius, when who should walk through the inn door, but Dr Kalmenius himself!
7 On the threshold stood a man in a long black cloak with a loose hood like a monk's. His grey hair hung down on either side of his face: a long, narrow face with a prominent nose and jaw, and eyes that looked like burning coals in caverns of darkness.
8 Oh, the silence as he stepped inside! Every single person in the parlor was gaping, mouth open, eyes wide; and when they saw what the stranger was pulling behind him - a little sledge with something wrapped in canvas - more than one crossed themselves and stood up in fear.
9 Fritz is appalled. Why? Well, he thinks the Devil has just walked in, because he was so desperate for a good ending to his story, that he offered up his soul to the Devil if only he could come up with something good.
10 Is Dr Kalmenius the Devil? Philip Pullman knows a fair bit about him and he tells us all we need to know about the Doctor's part in that story about Prince Otto and Prince Florian. It's still an unpleasant little story, as you will see when you read it for yourself.
11 Why has Dr Kalmenius turned up at the inn at Glockenheim? Was he summoned by Fritz, desperately searching for a good ending to his story? If so, why doesn't he take Fritz's soul? Maybe he does, I'm not sure about that. Or has Dr Kalmenius come especially to tempt poor Karl, the clockmaker's apprentice?
12 Karl is easy prey. He's been an idle apprentice and now has nothing to show for all his years with his master. He faces public humiliation in the morning when the town turns out to see his contribution to their great clock with its many figures. Nothing will be there because Karl has done nothing. So Karl is pretty desperate to have that figure underneath the canvas on Dr Kalmenius' sledge. What is Dr Kalmenius' price? You'll have to read the book.
13 It's a very moral story, because if Karl and Fritz can sell their souls, Gretl, the charming little barmaid, is able to both give her heart away to Prince Florian, and keep it at the same time. Which only goes to show that if there is evil in this world, there is goodness too.
14 It is a short story, but it isn't quick to read. The big story is made up of lots of little threads. So you will have to concentrate quite hard to see where each thread of the story fits in. A bit like a puzzle. I hope you enjoy it.
What do you think?
Email to the website: http://www.readingmatters.co.uk/bookfeedback.php?id=104
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5
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What you say (Here are some readers’ email.)
bLaCkHoLe oF BoOkS (Alias. DAFYDD), boy, age 12, from CARMARTHENSHIRE, United Kingdom, on 18th January 2005. Rating: 7/10
Quite a good book, but a few loose ends should have been tied up before it was published. I read it in year 5 at school, so my memory of the events is scanty, but it is quite an interesting book, that keeps you immersed in it for ages! Needs tidying up, but deserves a good 7/10.
Samantha, girl, age 9, from London, United Kingdom, on 1st August 2004. Rating: 1/10
I thought it was scary but good the way that a bit of clever clockwork could replace someone’s heart. The bit when Karl gets killed by a clockwork figure took by so much surprise I nearly stopped reading the book, but it ends with a clever and good ending so I think it was good.
April, girl, age 38, from Midwest, United States, on 29th October 2004. Rating: 9/10
This was a great book and best read around Halloween!! It goes really fast I read it in one sitting. It is very creative and flows together like a perfect mystery. It has all the right ingredients for a chilling tale yet it is not overly scary and would be perfect as a story to read out loud for 4th graders and up. The characters are very creative and captivating and the writing of the story keeps you turning the pages one by one till you reach the end. It has a happy ending which is what makes it appealing to the younger kids. I would strongly recommend this book for those who like a chilling Halloween tale that isn't too scary.
Amazon.co.uk Review
(2005/2/6): http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0440863430/202-1814126-8700621#product-details
…With its inspiration lying solidly in the German romantic tradition of E.T.A. Hoffmann and the Brothers Grimm, the story begins, as all good fairy tales do, with someone whose human weakness sets events inescapably in motion. As the townspeople of Glockenheim gather in the White Horse Tavern on the eve of the unveiling of a new figure for their great town clock, Karl, the clockmaker's apprentice, reveals to Fritz, a young storyteller, that he has not been able to construct the figure. A new clock figure is expected of all apprentices, and Karl is the first in hundreds of years to fail. Fritz, in his turn, has the beginnings of a new story to tell, and as it rolls off his tongue, its dark antagonist materializes and offers Karl his dearest wish. Not surprisingly, Karl's Faustian pact brings him destruction, but an innocent child is the deus ex machina that saves another child and the spirit of the town from seemingly ineluctable oblivion. With its eerie black-and-white illustrations by Leonid Gore and its happily-ever-after ending to some thrilling suspense, Clockwork is a fine fairy tale for younger children and a thought-provoking twist on the art of narrative for older ones. --Barrie Trinkle
FAQs (answered by Philip Pullman):
Read more: http://www.philip-pullman.com/about_the_writing.asp
Your books deal with many of life's big questions? God, the church, good and evil, love? And you are not afraid to challenge your young readers. Is that a conscious aim when you sit down in front of a blank sheet of paper? Do you think children's writing has a duty to pose difficult questions?
No. The only duty it has is best expressed in the words of Dr Johnson: "The only aim of writing is to help the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it."
You were a fan of comic books from childhood and your own stories are filled with striking imagery. Do you see your subject matter very visually as you write?
Yes. I like to make various things clear: where a scene is taking place, what time of day it is, where the light's coming from, what the weather's like, who's present - that sort of thing. Not all of them all the time, but some of them most of the time. It helps the reader to see what you would like them to see.
Were you encouraged to be creative?
No, I was ignored. When anyone took any notice it was to point out what a twit I was, and laugh at me. This was the best possible preparation for the life of a novelist. If you have grown-ups fussing over you and encouraging you and taking an interest, you begin to think you're important, and furthermore that you need and deserve their attention. After a while you become incapable of working without someone else motivating you. You're much better off supplying your own energy, and writing in spite of the fact that no-one's interested, and even learning to put up with other people's contempt and ridicule. What do they know, anyway?
What advice would you give to anyone who wants to write?
Don't listen to any advice, that's what I'd say. Write only what you want to write. Please yourself. YOU are the genius; they're not. Especially don't listen to people (such as publishers) who think that you need to write what readers say they want. Readers don't always know what they want. I don't know what I want to read until I go into a bookshop and look around at the books other people have written, and the books I enjoy reading most are books I would never in a million years have thought of myself. So the only thing you need to do is forget about pleasing other people, and aim to please yourself alone. That way, you'll have a chance of writing something that other people WILL want to read, because it'll take them by surprise. It's also much more fun writing to please yourself.
What qualities do you need to be a successful writer?
Stubbornness, for a start. Pig-headed obstinacy. The capacity to sit still in front of an empty sheet of paper for hour upon hour and feel that your time is being valuably spent. Then I'd say an interest in the shapes of things. What shape is a story? Is a short story a different shape from a novel? What shape is a joke? Once you become interested in the structure of stories, you're well on the way.
How far is inspiration a factor in the process of writing?
Less than non-writers think. If you're going to make a living at this business - more importantly, if you're going to write anything that will last - you have to realise that a lot of the time, you're going to be writing without inspiration. The trick is to write just as well without it as with. Of course, you write less readily and fluently without it; but the interesting thing is to look at the private journals and letters of great writers and see how much of the time they just had to do without inspiration. Conrad, for example, groaned at the desperate emptiness of the pages he faced; and yet he managed to cover them. Amateurs think that if they were inspired all the time, they could be professionals. Professionals know that if they relied on inspiration, they'd be amateurs.
Do you test out your stories on anyone while you’re writing them?
Never. My stories are none of the readers' business until I have finished them. The idea of asking people what they think is so bizarre as to be inconceivable to me; if these people know how a story should go, why aren't they writing stories of their own? I am a strong believer in the tyranny, the dictatorship, the absolute authority of the writer. On the other hand, when it comes to reading, the only thing that works is democracy.
Your work has been performed on radio, television and the stage and the film rights to His Dark Materials have been sold. Is it difficult to give up your work to someone else’s interpretation?
No. The democracy of reading (see above) means that as soon as a book is published you lose control of how it's interpreted anyhow, and so you should. To tell someone else how to read your book is to fall into the temptation of fundamentalism. When it comes to performance and film and so on, what you should do, it seems to me, is make sure the people you sell it to know what they're doing, and then leave them alone. You are better employed writing new books than arguing with people about how to interpret your existing ones.
What inspires you?
Three things. (1) Money. I do this for a living. If I don't write well, I won't earn enough money to pay the bills. (2) The desire to make some sort of mark on the world - to make my name known. To leave something behind that will last a little longer than I do. (3) The sheer pleasure of craftsmanship: the endlessly absorbing delight of making things - in my case, stories - and of gradually learning more about how they work, and how to make them better.