his dark materials - a gnostic/humanist fairy tale

[sophiaserpentia]

This morning i finished reading The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman. Now it's time for my review of the His Dark Materials trilogy to which this is the conclusion.

I've been writing this review in my head through half the trilogy, but i wanted to actually finish the trilogy before setting any of it down.

The quality of Pullman's writing craft i'll give a B. It was particularly uneven with regard to vividness. In many parts, there was no attention given to the senses at all - no description of sights, sounds, smells. Now, typically, i don't like prose which is bogged down in elaborate descriptions of things. But a few hints here and there, just to tickle the senses, would have been effective - especially given the (literal) otherwordliness of many of the book's settings. In other places the setting descriptions were so elaborate the scene felt bogged down.

Dialogue was good though, and the characterization was (with one exception) superb. I love that the protagonist is an untidy, poorly-behaved, stomping-in-the-mud, neighborhood-warfare-waging, prank-pulling, truth-challenged 12 year old girl.

The exception is Marisa Coulter, a femme fatale who wields charm, seduction, and manipulation to achieve supernatural results. Coulter is the hardest character to read, because one never knows when she is being upfront and when she is lying until she actually acts. I know this is by design, and that element of not knowing would be laudable if it were done via any different means; but it's still unfortunate to see a character play an essential role mainly because everyone who meets her is stunned by how she looks.

Still, i have to give Pullman some points for writing a work of fantasy in which female characters are just as strong and prominent -- if not, on balance, a little more so -- as male characters.

The plotting and storytelling i'll give an A. As a whole the work is superbly conceived and structured. It's set in an elaborate multiverse and the reader finds herself wishing she could take tangents, just to learn more about this or that. Lyra's world, where the story starts, is fascinatingly different from our own. Even the experience of day to day life as a human being is vastly different there, because every person has a companion, a dæmon, who is an extension of their individual being and nature.

In many ways, this is the ultimate "underdog" story. The heroes are figures usually cast as villains: witches, fallen angels (esp. gay ones), dæmons, harpies, users of divination, gypsies ("gyptians" in Lyra's world), African kings, rebels, dissidents... while the villains of the book are figures of authority: various members of the European upper class, bishops and other church functionaries, and upper ranks of angels, including God himself.

Wait, so God is a villain in His Dark Materials? Well, it's more complicated than that. The true arch-villain of the story is the Regent Lord Metatron, an angel who usurped authority in the Kingdom of Heaven and in so doing created a template for tyranny which was subsequently copied in the human civilizations of innumerable universes.

It's a lovely twist on the religious idea that morality comes from God. In His Dark Materials, it is tyranny and institutional injustice which we learn from God. Things like wonder, ethical rightness, awe, and love, are things which people work out for themselves.

If this sounds familiar to readers of my LJ, particularly those who came here to learn about Gnostic myth, i'll point out that Pullman credits the works of John Milton and William Blake as the primary inspiration for his story. He doesn't mention the Gnostic myths, but given the number of parallels i find it difficult to imagine he did not consciously incorporate various aspects of the Gnostic mythology.

Difficult, but not impossible. I have said before that i believe that the ancient Judeo-Christian Gnostic mythology reflects a common religious reaction to injustice and tyranny: dystheism. The conception of God as villain, when it comes up, spawns myths which have a number of parallels. Those who are familiar with the Gnostic myth as described in The Hypostasis of the Archons and other texts, particularly viewed through the lens of my take on it, may see the parallels without me having to spell them out.

But what really brought joy while reading the trilogy was the sense that, over the course of the story, the characters demonstrated how joy and wonder can come not from exultation of religious doctrine, but rather, mindful awareness of the world around you; and there is more than just a little nod given to a notion kind of reminiscient to my own observation that pleasure can lead us towards what is good and right, if we follow it in openness, selflessness and honesty.

Hmm, not sure how to characterize the last few paragraphs, but since they gel with my own views, i'm going to give it an A. Which means that my overall grade for the trilogy is about an A-.

Comments

Nice review.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review.

[dorisp.livejournal.com]

I too found the writing uneven. I enjoyed the first book immensely more than the second or third and not because of the subject matter but because of the actual writing.

I didn't think Pullman portrayed God as actually being evil though - just a senile old man that was totally past his prime and who's old ideas didn't really have much current relevance. A harmless, loveable, old neighborhood drunk or something.

I really didn't like the characterization of Lyra's parents at all. It didn't matter to me that they did something mildly heroic in the end because they were essentially willing to kill children to reach their own ends.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I didn't want to give *too* much away about the presentation of God or what happens to him - and even though plot-wise it's an aside of an aside, it's one of the most fascinating aspects of the story.

I don't think we're really meant to like Lyra's parents... though actually most of the characters had something or other about them that was unlikeable.

[dorisp.livejournal.com]

My favorite characters were Hester and Lee Scoresby. After they died, the story lost some if its luster for me, I must admit.

[akaiyume.livejournal.com]

I didn't read the under the cut material since I've only read the first book... so i also don't know how valid this comment turns out to be in the long run. But Mrs. Coulter's male equivalent gets by an the sterotypical alpha-male looks/demeanor, and uses that in the same way that she does her beauty. Taken together I see it as a commentary a critique of what society in general deems praiseworthy in terms of gender.

[akaiyume.livejournal.com]

ackkk... forgive the half asleep, working on first cup of caffeinne inability to word things ... hope it makes sense