His Dark Mother

[jenny_ravenclaw]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Tabouli" <tabouli at u...> wrote:
 
> To return more specifically to Philip Pullman (SPOILER WARNING!), 
any thoughts on his characters?  One thing I noticed immediately was 
that he has no shortage of strong female characters at all.  Plenty of 
'em flitting around the trilogy, quite apart from Lyra.>

I particularly loved Pullman's portrayal of the witches - the way they 
could feel the stars on their skin...

However, I didn't like the way Lyra took a back seat as soon as Will 
(was that his name?  It has been months since I read the books) came 
into the story.  Lyra was tough, smart and compassionate in the first 
book but seemed to lose some of herself when Will arrived.  Suddenly 
he was making all of the decisions.  I didn't like that.

>I liked the concept of Dust, though. And daemons.  Very clever.>

I can't for the life of me figure out exactly what Dust is.  
Experience?  Adulthood?  Sexuality?   I would love to have a daemon of 
my own, though, and have spent much time thinking about what mine 
would look like.

What I found problematic with HDM was that some of Pullman's ideas 
were crystal clear but others (like Dust) were obscure or confusing.  
Mrs. Coulter's motives were not so easy to understand and Lyra's 
father was an enigma to me.  Why was he so mean to Lyra?  I am not 
Christian (I'm Jewish), so some of the symbolism may have been lost on 
me anyway.

--jenny from ravenclaw ****************************