Maybe he was a Choirboy?
Having read The Subtle Knife, I can confidently say that Philip Pullman has read (and probably loves) the work of William Blake.
I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen;
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.
And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door;
So I turned to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore.
And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be;
And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys and desires.
-- The Garden of Love by William Blake,
from Songs of Experience
(and one of my favourite poems)
Other relevant poems are:
- A Little Boy Lost (Songs of Experience)
- The Divine Image (Songs of Innocence)
- The Chimney Sweeper (Songs of Experience).
As I happen to somewhat share his sentiments on the organized Church¹, particularly the Catholic Church, I'm quite fascinated by that aspect of The Subtle Knife. I can't read it uncritically as fantasy, but I'm really enjoying seeing where he's going with the story and looking at what he's trying to say. His writing is thoughtful, though it doesn't always flow well. It can be sweet. It can also be dark and rather visceral. It's certainly interesting.
The notion that full consciousness and selfhood is something we come to rather later in life is something I've thought about myself for some time. I don't feel like I understand the actions and thoughts of the childhood "me", or feel like remotely the same person - memories are almost like those of a stranger. I know others feel very differently, though, especially a friend who's preoccupied with considerations of identity.
Coming back to Blake, it's interesting that like Blake, Pullman is also preoccupied with adolescence and childhood, the transition from childhood to adulthood, and the associated transition from a supposed state of innocence to one of experience. There are some Lord of the Flies moments in The Subtle Knife that make me wonder just how innocent Pullman thinks kids are, though.
There goes my lunch break. Back to work...
Marshal: Are you William Blake?
Blake: Yes I am. Do you like my poetry?
[ Later edit after I wondered and did a little searching: Well it's nice to see I'm not always oblivious to what I'm reading. Bang on. ]
[ Much later edit after finishing The Golden Spyglass too: Yep, he's into Blake and Milton. Credits Blake's work, and Milton's Paradise Lost, in closing comments. Pullman also starts quoting Blake in chapter openings 1/2 way through The Golden Spyglass. ]
¹ No, I don't dislike religion - of any sort, really, so long as it doesn't advocate doing harm to others. Organized churches in general creep me out though - they combine faith and religion with considerations of power and politics in ways that're really uncomfortable to me. Community churches and the like make sense - they're a social center, a gathering point, and a community of like-minded individuals. Binding them together in larger political structures, though, seems to get weird and rather dangerous in a hurry.