On Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials

Why I am sharing this now ? For a trilogy that had its last installment published in 2000 ?

Well back in July I had just finished a quite emotionally heavy book, and I wanted something lighter to distract myself. His Dark Materials was always at the periphery of my vision as a "children's book" whimsical and something I would like I felt.

I was not prepared for the emotional journey I would be sucked into, how I would burn through those books like a wildfire burning through a forest. I have made my happiest literary discovery in recent years.

Outside of the giants of classical literature, I have found my favourite contemporary author. Something about his simple yet profoundly lyrical style just clicks with me so much: his mythical mindscape, emotional reach, kindred worldview.

Then I couldn't believe it when I discovered there is a second trilogy, "The Book of Dust", and my luck would have it that its final installed was coming out a mere 3 months after my discovery of Pullman. Meaning I don't have to wait years ! Of course I burned through The Book of Dust too and I believe it to be the author's magnum opus. However, despite penning down many thoughts about it I still feel I am months away from getting out verbally everything that it made me feel. I still have a finished Book of Dust review in me.

But lets get back to His Dark Materials. Before I delve in, as a warning: I will not shy away from spoilers, but I will try not to be egregious about it.

This is one of the most beautiful, deep , allegorical, baroque works of fiction that I ever had the pleasure of reading in my entire life , that lurks under the facade of a “Children’s book”. In fact, it is a deeply inclusive work that doesn’t hold up barriers to entry. I am sure the author is clever enough to have “GRR Martin’ed” the text if he wanted, but instead was generous enough to allow children in, to absorb what they can at different points in their development.

This is a serious trilogy , with darkness and light both that children can also read , that is the gist of it. In my opinion everyone should read this work, regardless of where they are in life, and not fret about the marketing language.

Two main things I adore about this story. Firstly , that the “story” is at the center of focus, the alpha and the omega, everything else is subservient to it. There is no attempt at all to create a bullet proof, ultra-engineered universe, it is just the beats of the story in a web of consequence and scene after (sometimes devastating) scene. Time and Space shift and events speed up and slow down and twist to serve the grand beautifully ornamented story. If you are going to worry about things like how did character A get to place B so fast or why can Mrs Coulter control the Spectres and the mechanics of it, you are sadly focusing on the wrong things and reading metaphor literally. This almost reads like an ancient myth, like the poems of the Greeks or the Babylonians , like Homer and Gilgamesh. The technical focus is on the musicality of the flow rather than the world details.

The text is very musical in that sense, like the grand operatic 3 act dramas of classical music. Events happen at just the right place like a melody or harmony drops at just the right spot in a symphony. The most prominent example is the fever dream chapter of Lee Scoresby’s night journey and his last stand in the penultimate chapter of the second book. The book is teeming with those moments, too many to list, but you recognize them when you see them, the sort of moments that force you to put the book down and stare into space in awe of your feelings.

Which brings me to the second thing I just adore about this story, it’s the way that it carries its heart on its sleeve and is not ashamed of risking some readers dismissing it as saccharine in places. What it's trying to say is just too important to worry about image or be self conscious about the appearance of preaching.

Yes ! It's true the books do espouse a deeply atheistic and spiritual world view (yes, atheism can be very spiritual, sometimes even more spiritual than faith), but to me and others like me it is preaching to the choir and I relish in it. I grew into that worldview by the time I was 15 when I finally walked away from religion. I admit that might alienate some people that are deeply religious and I counter that with two points : the books I would say bear animus toward corrupt institutional religion and dogma, that insists on obedience and maintaining power, rather than personal faith. My second counter is to consider that this one is for us. Similar to how some works of art having a deeply LGBTQ focus does not necessarily exclude straight people, even with a clearly atheistic worldview those with faith are definitely not being excluded or maligned. Are we not allowed to have some things for us , no? I will leave it at that.

There is of course all the gorgeous imagery full of allegory and symbolism, and even when not still so gorgeous , still the main attraction, which is executed ever so deliciously , so that they nestle in your mind and you relish them thereafter with tenderness. In no particular order: The bear’s soul (armor) being held by the town’s priest while he is wasting his life on menial jobs and forgetting his sorrows with spirits. The sky opening and Lyra and her daemon walking into another world representing moving away from childhood. The grace of reading the alethiometer and then losing that ability, which now requires a lifetime of work and study. The love between human and daemon expressed so vividly and threatened throughout so cruelly by the world and its powers. The humanity and empathy of the work required in the land of the dead. The vivid scene of Lyra recounting her “true story” by the barren tree where the harpies are suddenly perching and listening so intently, a scene I can easily envision in a lush romantic era painting. The fight between father Gomez and the angel Balthamos, Gomez representing blind faith so sure of itself and its righteousness while Balthamos is imperfect, grief stricken and so full of doubt. The cause of the breaking of the knife shifting from Will’s sorrow for his mother towards his sorrow for Lyra. So on and on, ending with the bench at the Botanic gardens.

I have to say, as gut wrenching as the ending was, I appreciate the story not going with a Romeo and Juliet situation, where one or the other or both sacrifice their lives for love. That moment of accepting the sorrow was much more powerful and life affirming, if profoundly sad. We recognize it because we all carry those bruises in our hearts, we all know exactly how first love feels and how deeply painful losing that love is, it’s a universal experience and we all have lived through that profound pain. I am glad Pullman didn’t attempt to conjure a happy ending for us.

Final note: a major element in the story is the complex interplay between destiny and freewill , and as with all the big questions there is no easy answer provided, as in life. For example, is Mrs Coulter evil because she chose to take the wrong path in life? , or was it destiny guiding her so that even the probing stare of Metatron couldn't see redemption in her ? thus allowing her to lure him and make the future safe for Lyra, fulfilling her destiny. Perhaps as Serafina says in book 1 the best thing to do is live as if we do have free will for the alternative is despair.

I have a friend in these books now , and I will come back, and come back, and come back to them for the rest of my life.

Let’s build the republic of heaven together.