[the_old_crowd] Re: something to read (i.e. His Dark Materials)

[Ebony Elizabeth Thomas]

Hello, everyone--
 
Monika wrote:


It's still on my shelf, but I don't think I'll re-read it either. At
least not as long as I have hundreds of books that look more
interesting, but of course reading tastes vary from person to person.

***************************

Really, I think this is the crux of the matter for me.  That reading tastes range the gamut... and I like Pullman so much that I'm sitting on an NEMLA panel this March in Pittsburgh entitled "The fantasy and the reality must connect:  The Intersection of Genres in the Work of Philip Pullman".  Two of us are writing on HDM, one is working on his Sally Lockhart chronicles, and I'll be looking at his YA issues novels.  But I like him for different reasons than I do Rowling and Harry.  Here's my rationale.

I avoided HDM for a long time for the same reasons that I avoided HP for.  I do agree that The Golden Compass was the slowest of the series, as it took me well over two years to finish the first chapter, but the second two books are much better in my opinion.  In fact, my current bedside reading is *The Subtle Knife*, which is why I chimed in.  There are just passages in this second one in particular that hit all the right chords.  *The Amber Spyglass* was more unsettling and perhaps too muddy, but then again, I think that was authorial intent.

I think Harry and Lyra's literary antecedents come from slightly different places.  While Harry and his friends appeal to the best in us, Lyra and Will make grave mistakes and are much more morally ambiguous.  Both Lyra and Will have antiheroic traits that make sense to me and that teens especially are drawn to.  You don't fall in love with the characters in this world with the fervency that you do with those in the wizarding world, but I'd argue that one isn't supposed to.  So while I love Harry, Ron, and Hermione, I do very much like Lyra and everyone in the HDM world. 

One wishes the wizarding world was real.  But who would want to live in Mrs. Coulter's world?  One author is giving us wish-fulfillment and escape; the other is writing an against-the-establishment tale.  Rowling is interested in absolutes by her own admission, but Pullman doesn't believe absolutes exist in the first place.  So one story tends more black and white and the other more gray.  I enjoy both for different reasons.

I love JKR's wizarding world so much that I spent three years playing in it!  But I must say that I find Pullman's world-building extremely rich, especially Lyra's Oxford and Cittagazze.  I am a HUGE fan of alternate histories, alternate Earths, and alternate universes, so Pullman had me from hello.  Especially when he began The Subtle Knife by telling us that TGC was set in a world like ours but different... but "this book begins in our own world."  I was hooked from that point on.  Pullman plans to tell other tales in this milieu, and I think it will be interesting to see where he goes with it.

Even though I am a Christian, Pullman doesn't unsettle me in that regard much.  I don't equate the Authority plotline with genuine faith, and if Pullman was trying to preach an anti-gospel to me (which he is) I'm too dense to see it.  I saw the Authority more as an Althusserian ISA-type org in that particular world.  Once I got over the proximity of spelling to "demon", I found the concept of daemons fascinating.  I did enjoy Mrs. Coulter's role in the series, and feel she is definitely a fully realized and interesting female villain.  I *like* female villains.  In fact, Pullman tends to privilege female protagonists, which is right up my alley.

The thing I most like about Pullman's work is its complexity.  One finds this not just in HDM, but in the Sally Lockhart series and in his YA issues novels like *The Broken Bridge* (which I teach and am currently writing criticism of) and *The Butterfly Tattoo* (which is *The White Mercedes* across the pond and begins with the tantalizing line "Chris Marshall met the girl he was going to kill on a warm night in early June..."  Wow.  Just *wow*--and the story that follows is poignant).  Most of Pullman's canon, HDM and otherwise, isn't really intended for children at all, but for young adult readers.  

Perhaps that is why HDM turned out the way that it did.  Of course, Will and Lyra *couldn't* have been teenagers, else the story plot wouldn't have worked at all, but he definitely seems more at home writing characters who are 15-18.  I don't recommend Pullman to kids who are not in high school yet, and when my freshmen inevitably follow up *The Broken Bridge* with HDM, I send home a disclaimer. 

A final note is that HDM is very much a commentary on *Paradise Lost*, although Pullman himself once stated that he set out to write an anti-Narnia.  I see more of Milton than Lewis in the series, though.

So yes, I enjoy both the HP series and HDM, but I enjoy them for very different reasons. 

(Now I want to re-read The Amber Spyglass, just to remember why it was TSK and not that one which stuck with me.  Sigh...)

And if it makes you feel better, know that in my creative writing classes today, students had to bring in "their favorite passage in fiction ever."  Five students chose selections from Harry Potter, and this is only Day 1 of at least three days of sharing.  I grinned from ear to ear.  See?  Have not lost my first love.  ;-)  (Also bears noting that NONE of their selections were from OotP.  *whistles*)

--Ebony


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]