While visiting my in-laws most recently, my step-mother-in-law had occasion to be horrified that I’d not read the “His Dark Materials” series by Philip Pullman. “Could I borrow your copies?” I asked. She became, if possible, even more horrified. “No,” she replied, “I read them too often.” Later that day, I had a set of my own.
The first in the series, the Golden Compass is set to be butchered by Hollywood this xmas season. Having read the whole series now, I have no desire to see it (although after finishing the first book, I did want to). I read the first one while in Seattle, finishing it just in time to get off the plane, drive home, and pick up the second: the Subtle Knife. The second book is nowhere near as good as either the first or the third, and probably just serves to set up the events in the third book, but I was bringing it to work, it was so good. I’d sit on my break with my cell phone on my knee so I knew when I could clock back in, and devour it, chapters at a time. One of my bosses caught me reading it and we began to enthuse at each other about how great it was! Both he and I had gotten the feeling early on that Pullman was going to throw us a Christian agenda (not even a thinly veiled one) but later weren’t so sure. Now that I’ve read the last book, I would have ventured that he’s an atheist. Wikipedia says he’s a Humanist (my husband would be proud), and may have written the books as a direct rebuttal of “the Chronic(what)cles of Narnia”.
The third of the series is the Amber Spyglass and sews up the plot ends perfectly. There are some books I’ve read that, when I finish them, I wish for more, even though I know it’s in vain. But this book leaves no question that the story (myth? allegory?) is complete.
The whole series is epic in length as well as in scope. Metaphysics, “experimental theology”, morality, God, angels, the Church, alternate universes, sex, the mind-body soul connection, love, death, rebirth…you name it. And yet it never feels preachy or crowded. By the end of them, I felt as though I’d been given a glimpse at some Truths that I’d never considered before.
Perhaps soon I’ll do a post about that, but for now, I’m going to bask in the glory of being alive, part of the universe, and loved. More than anything else, I brought out a sense of how important conscious beings are to one another. Many books of fiction have changed or shaped my world-view. This one simply reinforced it. Go out and read them. Now!
