More Dark Materials
Well, I finished "Subtle Knife" last night.
I really tore through this one. It went much faster than Golden Compass. Damn, this book was plotted so hard you could practically tap-dance to it. I was amazed the number of characters, settings and plot threads Pullman was able to juggle and manage to keep them all relevant, interconnected, and bring them together at the right time.
I'm puzzled why he's keeping Lord Asriel very conspicously off-camera. People are always talking about him and doing things because or him or in response to him and we never SEE the guy.
Now, I know basically what happens in the end of the series, so I admit it colored my reading a bit. I keep watching Lyra and Will for signs of their burgeoning GREAT AND T00BY LOVE and stuff. I already knew the knife's other name (Aeshaetter) so it wasn't a mystery when they were talking about it. But I did NOT know that Lee Scoresby died! WAH! And I did know that John Parry died (because I knew that Will and Lyra meet him in the land of the dead) but I did not know how or when! OMG that was so horrible...and, I must admit, one of the plot twists that did not feel adequately supported. The witch who killed him felt like a planted plot device whose sole purpose was to kill him at the most heartwrenching moment possible.
I know that most of the religious-allegory stuff comes in during Amber Spyglass, but I can see it starting here. I do not imagine that I'll be offended by any of Pullman's descriptions of the evils of religion, mainly because I feel the same way about religion (well, some religion). They fear Dust because it brings intellectual maturity, sexual awareness, and free will and all three of those things are enemies of the Church, who want to suppress free thought (which might lead people away from it), acceptance of the sexual nature of humans and freedom of mind.
And yet...there are plenty of religions (some Christian, some not) that aren't so constrictive, that encourage people to seek their potential and express themselves. I suppose what Pullman is writing about are a certain kind of religion that controls rather than empowers. Methinks he had some bad experiences, yes? Possibly with some less-then-enlightened Catholics (which is what the book's Church resembles the most).
It's really tempting to say that the antagonism of the Church entity in Pullman's universe is a direct criticism of our religions here...but that might not be totally warranted. Pullman has drawn a picture of a world controlled by the Church far more than ours is (in this century, anyway) and whose hands reach into everything. Perhaps he cautions not against religion, but against theocracy.
I'm fascinated the the idea of original sin that he's drawing, though. It's clear that he's equating the idea of original sin with the awakening of higher consciousness that comes with adolescence and adulthood. Perhaps the Fall was nothing more than growing up. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were childlike and innocent. Their "sin" was in growing out of that nursery environment and seeking greater fulfillment in their own minds and bodies. If that is so, then original sin was no sin at all...but merely the bad reaction of a controlling parent figure to the inevitability of his children becoming adults. One must then go to the prophecy about Eve, who is identified as Lyra. This would cast Will as the Adam figure, and Mary Malone is told that she must play the serpent...with her story about the marzipan, she helps Lyra realize what her feelings actually are, and Dust is drawn to Will and Lyra only after they discover each other (physically or not depending on who you ask).
I really tore through this one. It went much faster than Golden Compass. Damn, this book was plotted so hard you could practically tap-dance to it. I was amazed the number of characters, settings and plot threads Pullman was able to juggle and manage to keep them all relevant, interconnected, and bring them together at the right time.
I'm puzzled why he's keeping Lord Asriel very conspicously off-camera. People are always talking about him and doing things because or him or in response to him and we never SEE the guy.
Now, I know basically what happens in the end of the series, so I admit it colored my reading a bit. I keep watching Lyra and Will for signs of their burgeoning GREAT AND T00BY LOVE and stuff. I already knew the knife's other name (Aeshaetter) so it wasn't a mystery when they were talking about it. But I did NOT know that Lee Scoresby died! WAH! And I did know that John Parry died (because I knew that Will and Lyra meet him in the land of the dead) but I did not know how or when! OMG that was so horrible...and, I must admit, one of the plot twists that did not feel adequately supported. The witch who killed him felt like a planted plot device whose sole purpose was to kill him at the most heartwrenching moment possible.
I know that most of the religious-allegory stuff comes in during Amber Spyglass, but I can see it starting here. I do not imagine that I'll be offended by any of Pullman's descriptions of the evils of religion, mainly because I feel the same way about religion (well, some religion). They fear Dust because it brings intellectual maturity, sexual awareness, and free will and all three of those things are enemies of the Church, who want to suppress free thought (which might lead people away from it), acceptance of the sexual nature of humans and freedom of mind.
And yet...there are plenty of religions (some Christian, some not) that aren't so constrictive, that encourage people to seek their potential and express themselves. I suppose what Pullman is writing about are a certain kind of religion that controls rather than empowers. Methinks he had some bad experiences, yes? Possibly with some less-then-enlightened Catholics (which is what the book's Church resembles the most).
It's really tempting to say that the antagonism of the Church entity in Pullman's universe is a direct criticism of our religions here...but that might not be totally warranted. Pullman has drawn a picture of a world controlled by the Church far more than ours is (in this century, anyway) and whose hands reach into everything. Perhaps he cautions not against religion, but against theocracy.
I'm fascinated the the idea of original sin that he's drawing, though. It's clear that he's equating the idea of original sin with the awakening of higher consciousness that comes with adolescence and adulthood. Perhaps the Fall was nothing more than growing up. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were childlike and innocent. Their "sin" was in growing out of that nursery environment and seeking greater fulfillment in their own minds and bodies. If that is so, then original sin was no sin at all...but merely the bad reaction of a controlling parent figure to the inevitability of his children becoming adults. One must then go to the prophecy about Eve, who is identified as Lyra. This would cast Will as the Adam figure, and Mary Malone is told that she must play the serpent...with her story about the marzipan, she helps Lyra realize what her feelings actually are, and Dust is drawn to Will and Lyra only after they discover each other (physically or not depending on who you ask).