His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)
by Philip Pullman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Philip PullmanBrand: Books
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-08-28
ISBN: 0375842381
Number of pages: 1312
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Book Reviews of His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)
Book Review: His Dark Purposes
Summary: 1 Stars
Pro:
Philip Pullman shows glimmers of brilliance as a writer. His characters are engaging, his worlds are vivid, his prose is delightful at times, and he occasionally produces lush and beautifully drawn descriptive paragraphs. His "science" is goofy but inventive, and without it his story couldn't work. He also demonstrates a good understanding of what appeals to an adolescent reader. I enjoyed the first volume, though my interest plateaued in the second volume and dropped like a stone in the third.
Con:
Philip Pullman is one of a growing group of authors who market their own controversial adult ideas and themes as juvenile fiction/fantasy. While I affirm his right to have, and to express his view of the world, Mr. Pullman's method of garnering an uncritical and captive audience for his message is despicable. Pullman is a skillful and sometimes powerful writer who understands his audience well; sadly he uses that skill and knowledge to entice, seduce, and manipulate the immature reader.
Here is a summary of how the Pullman method works:
The Golden Compass is a compelling action adventure of a young, smart, defiant, and spirited pre-adolescent (12-year old) girl. There are dark characters, ugly episodes and wicked happenings in this volume, but spunky Lyra is up to the challenge. And, she has cool friends (noble gypsies and armored bears, among others) to help her.
In The Subtle Knife we meet Lyra's male counterpart Will. By the end of this also dark and rather convoluted part of the story we like Will a lot, too. And we hate the bad guys, although sometimes it's hard to tell just who the bad guys are. Will finds himself possessing a knife that only he can use; a knife that allows him to open windows into other, sometimes parallel, worlds.
Now that Mr. Pullman has set his stage (and the child has a significant investment in the story), he force-feeds the unsuspecting reader his world view in The Amber Spyglass. Yes, there is some foreshadowing of what's coming in the first volumes, but until we get to the third volume we keep hoping that these are literary red herrings thrown in just to keep us off balance. Alas, no such luck.
In short order Mr. Pullman informs us that:
- The God of Judaism and Christianity is a fake, a liar, a dictatorial despot, a draconian authoritarian intent on making everybody miserable. Mr. Pullman's definition of "god, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father the Almighty" is that he is the source of everything that's wrong with the world.
- The church is run by self-serving, power-hungry dupes and mercenaries who ensure God's tyranny is carried out. Everyone else of faith is a discounted as a closed-minded simpleton who wouldn't know what to do without being told.
- The health of this world and all of Pullman's "billions and billions" of other worlds is dependent on invisible, sentient dust, reminiscent of the Mitichlorians behind The Force of Star Wars lore. This dust is the product of man's gaining wisdom, a "natural" process that Pullman places in direct opposition to man's knowledge of God.
- The "good guys" in this world are the secular naturalists, the amoral, the animals, the witches, and the rebellious angels who have set out to help overthrow and destroy God, and
- Elite, self-actualized young men and women of character (like the reader, of course) possess the power to destroy God, and should destroy God because, after all, it's the right thing to do. With the assurance of Lyra's and Will's feelings that if we do destroy God then all will be well with the world and we will be happy.
Harry Potter, meet Bertrand Russell and Ayn Rand. And don't forget Jean Genet, for flavor.
Along the way Pullman gives lectures on:
- The moral relativism of infanticide (it's bad to kill children if you are aligned with God, but its O.K. to kill children when necessary to further a "good" cause (i.e. deposing God, or whatever)),
- The nature of homosexuality (though angels are nonphysical spirit beings that doesn't prevent them from being, and stereotypically behaving like, homosexuals), and
- The pervasiveness of the supernatural (pretty much all of us have some kind of "spirit being/guide" counterpart that can help us do magical things, assuming we are just "special" enough, by virtue of birth and fate, to tap into this other self)
In other words, Pullman uses the first two books to build a platform from which to deliver his elitist-humanist/post-modern/New Age message.
There are several passages in the volumes when Lyra or Will actually ask a tough question (What happens when we die? Where do we go? Why are we here?). To these questions a more mature, more worldly adult character always sagely answers: "it's not time for you to know that now." Pullman glosses over his answers to these questions as he finishes his story. As it turns out, Mr. Pullman subscribes to the philosophy of despair: we have no purpose other than to do what we think best, and when we die we're just dead. End of story. Which is fine from Pullman's perspective because with God in power Mr. Pullman's future is likely to be, well . . . . . Hell.
Spoiler Warning (though if you are a parent you will definitely want to know this): The long-anticipated climax of this 1,200-page book never materializes. In the end, it turns out that destroying God isn't such a big thing after all, and certainly doesn't solve all of the worlds' problems. Only when God is gone does Pullman come clean that the real reason the worlds are dying is because of what men have done to the universe, and now the children will have to devote their lives to fixing the mess. In this unexpected extension of the story, Pullman now has our two (now newly adolescent) heroes take a big step in repairing the world by falling in love, immediately followed by a carefree afternoon of sensual intimacy. Pullman omits a clinical account of what happens that afternoon, but whatever it is, it is magic: suddenly the relentless decay in the worlds is halted. Does this make any sense? No. But it helps to tie off a major loose end in the story, and provides Pullman a way to repeat an earlier theme to his young readers: that without God we are free to engage in sex without any restraint or guilt. Because with the death of God we are now free to be our own God. We can define our own morality, or lack of it, constrained only by what an open-minded society sets as limits in the new Republic of Heaven.
Once finished with the books I went online; perhaps I was reading too much into this children's book. I wasn't surprised by what I learned.
Mr. Pullman:
- Is a self-described atheist.
- Is listed as a member of the British Humanist Association (the goal of which is "an end to the privileged position of religion in law, education, broadcasting and wherever else it occurs")
- Is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society (The society campaigns for: 1) the disestablishment of the Church of England, 2) the withdrawal of state subsidies to religious schools, 3) the end of tax exemptions for churches, 4) the abolition of the blasphemy law, 5) an end to the public funding of chaplains in prisons, hospitals and the armed services)
Is His Dark Materials simply the anti-Narnia tome that Pullman says he set out to write? Perhaps. C. S. Lewis' Narnia stories are allegories of good and evil, principles and the lack of them, the nature of man and the nature of God, love, forgiveness, sacrifice, pride and humility. Pullman offers nothing more than shades of evil, ego, and seduction; God is dead, and man has no need for forgiveness, for Pullman's superman is intrinsically good and there is nothing to forgive. On the other hand, one could argue Pullman simply has a vendetta against God in general and against the Church of England in particular, and uses a book marketed at children to further his goal of revenge.
In interviews, Mr. Pullman has claimed neither he nor his book is anti-religious. This is as an odd and dishonest position to take; akin to as if Lewis had said his Chronicles of Narnia has nothing to do with Christianity. True, Pullman is careful not to say anything about Allah in his primer on atheism, but one suspects that this Englishman's reason for the omission has somewhat more to do with cowardice and less to do with tolerance. Pullman assumes that in a politically correct publishing world he can get away with being anti-Semitic and anti-Christian. Leaving one to wonder: if a public speaker boldly and loudly teaches that the Judeo-Christian faith is responsible for all that is wrong and hurtful and evil in the world, and that the only way to solve the problem is to destroy what it stands for (and destroy most of the believers in the process), what more is necessary to classify the ranting as hate speech? If the speaker substituted any other group (Muslims, homosexuals, persons of color) in the sentence above, would society be so tolerant?
His Dark Materials is unabashed humanist propaganda written to delight a child's mind. But just as devious is the way the author chooses to misrepresent faith. Mr. Pullman uses the traditional images, phrases, words, and symbols of the Jewish and Christian faiths in his book, but infuses his own meanings into them to twist them into serving his purpose. He trusts that his target audience doesn't know enough to spot his deceptions, or is insecure enough to accept his definitions as plausible. Further, he makes several outrageous and false claims in the process; at one point Pullman casually purports Calvin to be an advocate for child killing, as if there were some documented and widely recognized historical basis for his comment. Just speculation on my part, but perhaps Mr. Pullman does these things and says these things because he assumes few will ever call him on them. And that if he tells his lies enough times in enough ways, the populace he so despises will eventually repeat his mantra as truth.
While I cannot respect Mr. Pullman's condemnation of those who are aware of an authority higher than themselves, I could advocate a discussion of his thoughts on the subject if I believed he actually understood what he was talking about. Unfortunately, his own stunted and malignant grasp of the world view he opposes appears to have atrophied at about the age of his target audience. An audience better served listening to another voice.
More His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) reviews:
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Summary of His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)
Published in 40 countries, Philip Pullman?s His Dark Materials trilogy ? The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass ? has graced the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Book Sense, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists.
The Golden Compass forms the first part of a story in three volumes. The first volume is set in a world like ours, but different in many ways. The second volume is set partly in the world we know. The third moves between many worlds.
In The Golden Compass, readers meet 11-year-old Lyra Belacqua, a precocious orphan growing up within the precincts of Jordan College in Oxford, England. It quickly becomes clear that Lyra's Oxford is not precisely like our own?nor is her world. In Lyra's world, everyone has a personal dæmon, a lifelong animal familiar. This is a world in which science, theology and magic are closely intertwined.
The Subtle Knife is the second part of the trilogy that began with The Golden Compass. That first book was set in a world like ours, but different. This book begins in our own world.
In The Subtle Knife, readers are introduced to Will Parry, a young boy living in modern-day Oxford, England. Will is only twelve years old, but he bears the responsibilities of an adult. Following the disappearance of his explorer-father, John Parry, during an expedition in the North, Will became parent, provider and protector to his frail, confused mother. And it's in protecting her that he becomes a murderer, too: he accidentally kills a man who breaks into their home to steal valuable letters written by John Parry. After placing his mother in the care of a kind friend, Will takes those letters and sets off to discover the truth about his father.
The Amber Spyglass brings the intrigue of The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife to a heartstopping close, marking the third and final volume as the most powerful of the trilogy. Along with the return of Lyra, Will, Mrs. Coulter, Lord Asriel, Dr. Mary Malone, and Iorek Byrnison the armored bear, The Amber Spyglass introduces a host of new characters: the Mulefa, mysterious wheeled creatures with the power to see Dust; Gallivespian Lord Roke, a hand-high spy-master to Lord Asriel; and Metatron, a fierce and mighty angel. And this final volume brings startling revelations, too: the painful price Lyra must pay to walk through the land of the dead, the haunting power of Dr. Malone's amber spyglass, and the names of who will live?and who will die?for love. And all the while, war rages with the Kingdom of Heaven, a brutal battle that?in its shocking outcome?will reveal the secret of Dust.
In the epic trilogy His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman unlocks the door to worlds parallel to our own. Dæmons and winged creatures live side by side with humans, and a mysterious entity called Dust just might have the power to unite the universes--if it isn't destroyed first. The three books in Pullman's heroic fantasy series, published as trade paperbacks, are united here in one dazzling boxed set that includes The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. In these new editions, each chapter opens with artwork by Pullman himself, along with chapter quotations from the likes of Milton, Donne, Black, Byron, and the Bible that did not appear in earlier editions. Join Lyra, Pantalaimon, Will, and the rest as they embark on the most breathtaking, heartbreaking adventure of their lives. The fate of the universe is in their hands. (Ages 13 and older)
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