Dion's random ramblings: Podcast: [Repost, fixed] An exceptional critique of Philip Pullman's series 'His Dark materials', and the book 'The Golden Compass' by Simon Coupland

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Podcast: [Repost, fixed] An exceptional critique of Philip Pullman's series 'His Dark materials', and the book 'The Golden Compass' by Simon Coupland

This podcast is a pre-recorded talk given by Rev Simon Coupland, a minister of the Church of England in London, on Philip Pullman's books in the 'His dark materials' series.

Simon is levelheaded, his talk is exceptionally well researched. It offers facts about both Philip Pullman, and the contents of each of the three books.

This is the best input I have heard on 'His dark materials' and 'The Golden compass'. Coupland is a Minister, but seems to have been trained as an Historian. So what he offers is tempered and framed by facts and substantiated by quotes from Pullman and the three books. (Thanks to Paddy for the link to Simon Coupland's Church site, and for helping me with the correct spelling!)

Just to warn you, Coupland gives a very good overview of the plot of each of the three books in this series (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber spyglass), so if you have not yet read all three and don't want to spoil the plot please just skip through the first 15 minutes or so of the podcast.

The podcast is just on an hour in length, the sound quality is great (for a change!), and it weighs in at around 12.5MB (so don't go downloading this on your cellphone!).

Thanks for downloading it.

Update: I must appologise! When I uploaded the podcasat previously I accidently left the podcast track muted!!! AAaaaaarrrgghhh!!! So sorry, it has been fixed and reposted (sorry to waste your precious bandwidth!) Simply click on the link below to download the FIXED version!

'Simon Coupland's critique of Philip Pullman and the 'His Dark Materials' series [Fixed].mp3 . (12.5MB)

Technorati tags: Simon Coupland, Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber spyglass, podcast, Dion Forster

6 Comments:

Dion

I get your introduction and then complete silence from this podcast. Don't think its a technical problem my end.

Simon

By SDG, at 2:44 PM
Hi Simon,

Thanks for letting me know about the hitch! I am so sorry to have wasted 12.5MB's of your bandwidth!

I've fixed the problem (I had mixed it using Apple Garageband and muted the main track to record the intros and put the backing track in, then when I exported it I forgot to uncheck the mute button! So sorry!)

You're not by any chance the Simon who is speaking here are you? It would be great to make contact with Simon Coapland!

Best regards, and thanks again for the warning.

Dion

By digitaldion (Dion Forster), at 3:57 PM
Dion

Thanks, it works now.

Sorry to disappoint you, I'm not Simon Coapland. I'm the Simon who encouraged you to put Robert Aboagye Mensah bible studies up last year.

Thanks for you blog, the Lord has spoken to me and I am sure others frequently through it.

Simon Goodfellow

By SDG, at 4:10 PM
Ha ha! Thanks Simon! No disappointment whatsoever! All 'Simons' are welcome! Particularly the kind ones, such as yourself.

How is your father doing? I hope he is doing better?

Best regards,

Dion

By digitaldion (Dion Forster), at 5:14 PM
Dion

Thanks for your kind wishes. Robert's bible studies must have done the trick. My father left hospital shortly after listening to them and after some minor treatment to fix his heart rhythm appears very well. The medics are still confused about why he was there for so long or why some of the tests happened, we might have to wait until we see our Lord face to face to find out why.

I will continue to pray for you, your mother and the rest of your family as you mourn for your father. In this crazy world we live in its easy to forget that mourning is a very important process for all those left behind.

Thanks for your postings especially those around the time of your father's death. I am sure they were difficult to write but they touched our hearts and will have helped many people that read them.

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 NLT)

By SDG, at 5:50 PM
I believe I can shed some light on the mystery Dion, I think he is Simon Coupland rather than Coapland. Some of his more recent talks can be found here:

http://www.stpaulskingston.org.uk/component/biblestudy/studieslist

and he is easily 'googled'!

By Paddy, at 7:58 PM