The Golden Compass/ Northern Lights: His Dark Materials book recommendation and review / Ogled i preporuka knjige: Sjeverna svjetla/ Zlatni kompas

Today I'm doing a book review and outfit post together. Seeing that I had the book at hand when these images were taken, I don't see why not but first things first. I've read this book fairly recently, only a few days ago and it is very fresh in my mind. Not that I would have mattered if I had read it a long time ago, my memory is phenomenal when it comes to books, I wish it was so efficient in other aspects of my life. I more likely to forget somebody's name in real life, that a name of a fictional character. Why my brain works that way I haven't the slightest clue. Let's get back to this post. The location is, once again, Buna river in vicinity of Mostar. Most of these photographs were taken in restaurant and motel Kolo. You can see some of my previous posts about river Buna here, here, here and here. I'm obviously there a lot. It makes sense it being so near Mostar, doesn’t it? 

Danas je na rasporedu ogled knjige i odjevna objava. Budući da mi je knjiga bila pri ruci kada su ove slike uslikane, ne vidim zašto ne. Pročitala sam ovu knjigu nedavno, prije svega par dana tako da mi je svježa u sjećanju, ali iskreno ne bi bilo bitno ni da sam je davno pročitala jer  mi je memorija kada su knjige u pitanju fenomenalna. Voljela bi da tako dobro radi i u drugim aspektima života. Veća je vjerojatnost da ću zaboraviti nečije ime u stvarnom životu nego ime nekoga izmišljenoga lika. Nemam pojma zašto moj mozak tako radi. Vratimo se ovu objavu. Mjesto snimanja je još jednom, rijela Buna u blizini Mostara. Većina ovih slika je uslikana u restoranu i motelu Kolo. Možete vidjeti neke od mojih prijašnjih objava o rijeci Buni ovdje, ovdje, ovdje i ovdje. Očito je da sam često tamo, a ima smisla jer je tako blizu Mostara, zar ne? 

The outfit I'm wearing here is very comfortable. I paired a striped cardigan with vintage jeans here. There is a DIY element to these jeans and no it has nothing to with the fact they're ripped. That actually happened on its own because they have been worn and washed a lot. I have never had the need to create DIY ripped jeans because I’m usually so happy to find jeans that fit that I wear them out. Not to mention these jeans were vintage to start with so no wonder they’re distressed by now. No, the DIY element is the painting (done with red textile paint) on them. My niece (who will turn two soon) really likes them. She identified heself (ka- that's what she calls herself, I’m not sure is she referring to her name or to her nickname because one starts with syllable ka and the other ends with it ), myself (tete) and her mother (mama) on my textile drawings. So, these jeans got positive feedback from (almost) two years old art critic:):). My niece always makes me laugh with her observations. My husband says that little girls are always the biggest fans of my personal style. Must be because of all the colours and patterns….and I tend to draw on my clothing often (with textile paints) so I guess that makes my style playful.  

Odjevna kombinacija koju nosim je jako udobna. Spojila sam prugasti kardigan s vintage trapericama. Ima nešto u vezi ovih traperica za što sam sama zaslužna i to nema nikakve veze s time što su iskidane. To se zapravo dogodilo jer sam ih puno puta prala i nosila. Zapravo nikad i nisam imala potrebu da sama režem svoje traperice jer mi je tako teško pronaći par koji mi odgovara da kada ga nađem nosim ga dok se ne raspadne. Uz to, ove traperice su bile vintage kada sam ih dobila tako da ništa čudno što su već popucale. Ne, ono što je moja dorada na ovim trapericama je slikanje na njima (koristila sam crvenu boju za tkaninu). Moja nećakinja, koja će uskoro napuniti dvije godine, je oduševljena s njima. Pronašla je sebe ( ka- kako sebe zove, ne znam misli li na svoje ime ili nadimak jer jedno počinje s tim slogom a drugo završava) , mene (zove me tete) i svoju majku (koju naravno zove mama). Tako da su ove traperice dobile pozitivnu kritiku od skoro dvogodišnje kritičarke umjetnosti. Nećakinja me uvijek nasmije sa svojim opažanjima. Moj muž kaže da su djevojčice uvijek najveći obožavatelji moga stila odijevanja...možda to ima nešto veze s bojama i uzorcima....a i često slikam na odjeći tekstilnim bojama, pa valjda i to čini moj stil zaigranim. 

I made friends with one female duck this time. I gave her my cake (which was kind of hard because I'm such a sweet tooth), but she rewarded me for my gesture by spenting her time me. She even climbed onto the little island and got under my feet, like a cat. I have this thing about ducks. Well, birds in general. Actually, I have a thing about animals. I've always loved them and I probably always will. I guess I'm just an animal lovel. Speaking of animals, do you love polar bears? If you do and you happen to be an animal lover too, you might like this book I'm about to review. Recently it was made into a Hollywood movie, hence it is no longer known under its original name: Northern Lights.

Taj put sam se sprijateljila s jednom patkicom. Dala sam svoj kolač, što i nije lako jer volim slatko, ali me nagradila tako da je provela svoje vrijeme sa mnom. Čak se popela na mali otočić i uvukla mi se ispod nogu, kao da je mačka. Jako volim patke. Zapravo, sve ptice. Ili je bolje reći da jednostavno volim životinje? Koliko se sjećam uvijek su mi bile drage i vjerovatno će opet biti. Kad smo na temi životinja, volite li polarne medvjede? Ako jeste i ako volite i životinje, mogla bi vam se svidjeti ova knjiga o kojoj ću danas pričati. Nedavno je pretvorena u hollywood-ski film, pa više nije poznata po svom originalnom nazivu: Sjeverna svjetla.

So, today I will also be reviewing Northern Lights, a novel by Philip Pullman. It is better know as under the name The Golden Compass. I believe it was published under that name in the Northern America. Interestingly, the devide in question is not really called the golden compass in the book (it has a different name but I will let you discover it on your own). If I'm not mistaken only once or twice is it referred to as a compass at all. I will refer to this novel as The Golden Compass for the purpuses of this review (because it has become common practive to do so). I wasn't aware that it was originally published under a different name in the UK. The copy I have at hand, I had borrowed from the American  corner in Mostar and that's the only title I knew of while I was writing this review. Speaking of which, this review might contain some minor spoilers. Not spoilers in the sense of telling you what exactly is going to happen, but the kind of spoilers that are quite vague and that might not even be considered spoilers by some. Nevertheless, this review might let you see some things coming. Hence do avoid it if you want to dive into this book blissfully unaware of just about everything- as I did actually. I only read a few reviews of this book and none of them contained any spoilers so I experienced a few surprises as the plot unfolded.

Danas ću pisati o Sjevernim svjetlima, romanu Philipa Pullmana. Bolje je poznat pod imenom Zlatni kompas. Koliko znam pod tim je imenom objavljen u Sjevernoj Americi. Zanimljivo, uređaj u pitanju se zapravo ne naziva zlatnim kompasom u samom romanu i samo jednom ili dvaput ga uspoređuju s  kompasom, a zapravo ima drugi naziv (koji je to pustiti ću vam da sami otkrijete). U ovome ogledu ću roman zvati Zlatni kompas jer je to već ušlo u upotrebu, ali i zbog toga jer nisam ni znala da je u originalu u Engleskoj izdan pod drugim imenom. Ovu sam knjigu, koju držim u ovoj objavi, posudila u Američkom kutku u Mostaru i to je jedini naslov za koji sam znala kada sam pisala o njoj. Kad smo kod toga, u ovome ogledu će biti manjih spoilera. Ne u stilu da ću vam reći točno što će se dogoditi ili otkriti kako će se zaplet razvijati, ali ću dati naslutiti neke stvari, tako ako ne želite znati ništa o ovoj knjizi, ako je želite čitati bez da imate pojma o ičemu, onda preskočite ovu recenziju. Ja sam pročitala svega par ogleda ove knjige i nijedan nije imao nikakve spoilere tako da mi je bilo baš zanimljivo sve sama otkrivati i par zaokreta u radnji me baš iznenadilo. Želite li i vi takvo iskustvo čitanja, slobodno preskočite ostatak teksta. 

While I was reading Northern Lights ( i.e. The Golden Compass) I kept thinking: “What a shame I didn't have the chance to read it as a kid. I would have loved it!”. The world described is wonderfully imaginative. It seemed like the perfect book for children to me. Lyra is such a charming protagonist. Her portrayal is very believable, her thoughts absolutely logical for a child of her age. Moreover, you can really the narrative developing from the point of a view of a child. The narrative form itself is told in the third person, but we get to see things from Lyra's point of view very often. This was handled very well in the novel. The language is simple enough, I imagine it would be easy enough for children to read it.  However, as the narrative progressed things started to get a lot darker. Surprisingly, by the time I finished the first part of this book, I was glad I didn't read it as a child. I'm pretty sure I would have found it disturbing. I might be wrong; it is quite possible that what disturbed me might even go unnoticed by children. I still feel like I should warn the parents. Let’s say it like this. If I had a young child, I wouldn’t want it to read this book. I imagine that a sensitive kid could be genuinely shocked by the amount of cruelty that is to be found in this book. I just had a flashback of my friend who had seen the film version in the cinema ( I haven't seen the film) telling me how kids that were in the cinema were quite traumatized by it. 'Mommie, why are those bears killing one another?', one kid asked his mother. If I remember well, my friend said that the film is not suitable for children and I have the same opinion about the book. I did enjoy this novel, but I took one star off it on my goodreads review for this very reason.

Dok sam čitala Sjeverna Svjetla ( to jest Zlatni Kompas), stalno sam razmišljala kako je šteta što ga nisam pročitala kao dijete jer sam bila sigurna da bi mi se svidio. Svijet koji opisuje je divno maštovit. Činila mi se kao savršena knjiga za djecu. Lyra se divan protagonist. Njen portret je vrlo uvjerljiv, njene misli potpuno logične za dijete njene dobi. Štoviše, u ovom romanu stvarno vidite kako se radnja razvija s točke gledišta djeteta. Sami pripovjedni slijed je u trećem licu, ali često vidimo stvari i iz perspektive ove djevojčice. To je jako dobro razrađeno u ovom romanu. Jezik je dosta jednostavan, pretpostavljam da bi djetetu bilo ugodno i dovoljno lako čitati ovaj roman. No, kako se priča razvijala, sve je postalo mračnije. Iznenadilo me je to što mi je zapravo bilo drago što je nisam pročitala kao dijete. Sigurna sam da bi je smatrala uznemirujućom. Možda sam u krivu i moguće je da ono što me uznemirilo, neko dijete ne bi ni primijetilo. Ipak imam osjećaj da bi trebala upozoriti roditelje. Recimo to ovako. Da imam dijete mlađe dobi, ne bi željela da čita ovu knjigu jer mi se čini da bi osjetljivo dijete moglo zbilja biti šokirano količinom okrutnosti koja postoji u ovoj knjizi. Upravo sam se sjetila kako mi je prijateljica koja je gledala filmsku verziju ove knjige u kinu ( nisam pogledala film) rekla kako su djeca koja su bila u kinu bila traumatizirana ovim filmom. " Mama, zašto se ovi medvjedi ubijaju?", pitalo je neko dijete. Tako da ako se dobro sjećam, prijateljica mi je rekla da film nije za djecu, a ja bi rekla isto za  knjigu.  Svidio mi se roman, ali sam mu oduzela jednu zvjezdicu na goodreads stranici zbog toga razloga. 

 So, in my opinion this is NOT a book for children, or more specifically young children. Is it suitable for adolescents? Yes, I would say it is a great read for both teenagers and adults, but for very young children I don’t think it is very suitable. Most adult characters to be found in this novel wouldn’t stop at nothing to get what they want and lives of children don’t seem to matter to them at all. If anything, it seems like they care less about children. This is something I found believable but disturbing. Unfortunately, children are often mistreated in this world. Generally speaking, I would say that the rights of children are the most endangered ones in our world, in a far greater scope than the rights of women that are more often talked about. Children are quite defenseless, that is why any kind of violence towards them is very disturbing. In today’s world, I think that neglect is a very high of the list of offenses towards children, but I’m straying away from the subject. For me personally, there is nothing more distressing than reading about children being subjected to harsh treatment or abuse. Towards the end of the book, there were parts that were very hard to read because I was quite shock by the way adults were treating children.

Moje je mišljenje da ovo nije knjiga za djecu, to jest za mlađi uzrast djece. Je li prikladna za adolescente? Svakako, i za  njih i za odrasle je odlično štivo, ali za mlađu djecu baš i ne. Većina odraslih u ovome romanu ne preza pred ničim da bi se dočekali onoga što žele, a životi djece im i nisu previše važni. Ako išta, čini se da ih je još manje briga za djecu. To je nešto što mi je bilo uvjerljivo, ali u isto vrijeme i uznemirujuće. Nažalost, sa djecom se često loše postupa u ovome svijetu, a u globalu rekla bi da su prava djeca puno više ugrožena nego prava žena o kojima se daleko češće govori. Djeca su posve ranjiva, zato je nasilje prema njima jako uznemirujuće. U današnjem svijetu, mislim da je zanemarivanje visoko na listi prekršaja prema djeci, ali sada se udaljavam od teme. Za mene osobno, nema ništa što je više stresno nego čitanje kako se nešto loše događa djeci, kako ih se tretira loše ili zlostavlja. Pri kraju knjige, neki dijelovi su bili teški za čitanje i šokiralo me kako su neki odrasli ponašali prema djeci.

It is not that it is a one side kind of book, that it is about adults vs. children, this novel is a bit more complex than that. I have to say that a sensitive child might not feel very trusting towards adults after reading this one.  I don't mean it in that cute ‘peter pan’ sort of way. You might not think this is a bit deal, but child psychology teaches us that trusting adults (especially parents) is a normal part of children's psychological developemnt. Should there be a serious lack of trust, a child can be traumatized.  So, I don’t think it is the best kind of book for young kids. There are no graphic scenes of violence in this novel that I can think of, but there is psychological and physical violence present in it. Sometimes it is just hinted at, but at other times it is stated clearly. It is, however, always well connected with the plot. You never have this sense that something unpleasant is being mentioned just for the sake of it. It is always there to convey a message of some kind. Machiavellian aspect of The Golden Compass actually seems quite credible and its politics well developed. It is after all, a world very much like our own. How much of that would child pick on, I’m not sure, but as an adult reader, I could see a lot of sinister and dark motives behind character’s actions. I'm not sure what to make of the critique of this book as an anti-religious one. I would have to read the sequels to form an opinion on that one. At the moment I'm giving it a benefit of a doubt. If you want to read the rest of my review (there are  a few paragraphs left), you can do so here.

Nije da je ova knjiga napisana samo s jedne strane,  u smislu "djeca protiv odraslih", ovaj roman je malo složeniji od toga. Morala bi reći da bi neko osjetljivo dijete moglo razviti nepovjerenje prema odraslima nakon što pročita ovu knjiga, a ne mislim u onom slatkom stilu petra pana.  Možda vam se ne čini da je to nešto važno, ali dječja psihologija nas uči da je povjerenje prema odraslima normalan dio psihološkoga razvoja djeteta. Pojavi li se problem u povjerenju, dijete može biti lako traumatizirano. Tako da ne mislim da je ovaj roman najbolji izbor za mlađu djecu. Nema ovdje nikakvih detaljnih opisa nasilja, ali ima psihološkoga i fizičkoga nasilja u romanu. Ponekad je to samo nešto što se da naslutiti, a ponekad je jasno izražena. No, uvijek je dobro povezano s zapletom. Nikada nemate osjećaj da se nešto neugodno spominje da bi se šokiralo, već je uvijek tu s nekakvim smislom i porukom. Taj makijavelistički aspekt Zlatnoga kompasa i njegove politike je dobro razvijen. Ipak je to svijet koji je vrlo sličan našem. Koliko toga bi dijete moglo osjetiti čitajući nisam sigurna, ali kao odrasla osoba mogla sam vidjeti puno mračnih i zlih motiva koji vode likove u romanu. Što se tiče kritike ovoga romana kao anti-religioznoga, nisam sigurna što o tome mislim. Morala bi pročitati nastavke da bi stekla neko mišljenje o tome. Zasada ga neću za ništa optuživati. Želite li pročitati ostatak moga ogleda ove knjige, možete to učiniti ovdje.

“You are so young, Lyra, too young to understand this, but I shall tell you anyway and you'll understand it later: men pass in front of our eyes like butterflies, creatures of a brief season. We love them; they are brave, proud, beautiful, clever; and they die almost at once. They die so soon that our hearts are continually racked with pain. We bear their children, who are witches if they are female, human if not; and then in the blink of an eye they are gone, felled, slain, lost. Our sons, too. When a little boy is growing, he thinks he is immortal. His mother knows he isn't. Each time becomes more painful, until finally your heart is broken. Perhaps that is when Yambe-Akka comes for you. She is older than the tundra. Perhaps, for her, witches' lives are as brief as men's are to us.” ― Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

“There was an open gate a little way along, and Lyra could have followed him, bit she hung back unwillingly. Pantalaimon looked at her, and then became a badger. She knew what he was doing. Dæmons could move no more than a few yards from their humans, and if she stood by the fence and he remained a bird, he wouldn't get near the bear; so he was going to pull. She felt angry and miserable. His badger claws dug into the earth and he walked forwards. It was such a strange tormenting feeling when your dæmon was pulling at the link between you; part physical pain deep in the chest, part intense sadnessmand love. And she knew it was the same for him. Everyone tested it when they were growing up: seeing how far they could apart, coming back with intense relief. He tugged a little harder. "Don't, Pan!" But he didn't stop. The bear watched motionless. The pain in Lyra's heart grew more and more unbearable, and a sob of longing rose in her throat. "Pan –" then she was through the gate, scrambling over the icy mud towards him, and he turned into a wildcat and sprang up into her arms, and then they were clinging together tightly with little shaky sounds of unhappiness coming from both. "I thought you really would –" "No –" "I couldn't belief how much it hurt–" and then she brushed away the tears angrily and sniffed hard. He nestled in her arms, and she knew she would rather die than let them be parted and face that sadness again; it would send her mad with grief and terror.” ― Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

striped cardigan/ prugasti kardigan: Cndirect
red shirt/ red shirt: Amadeus
jeans/ traperice: old/stare
boots/ čizme: Peko