BiblioAddict

On His Dark Materials, the great love story:

I have been putting this off for some time now because, truthfully, no amount of words could express just how much I loved His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.

Before reading this trilogy, I wasn’t sure how I would respond to something that had been labeled children’s literature.  After reading The Golden Compass it was abundantly clear that I could at least greatly enjoy reading children’s lit.  Yet it wasn’t until about somewhere towards the end of The Subtle Knife that I learned it was within the realm of possibilities for me to actually love this trilogy.

A brief summary for those of you who may not be familiar: The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights) opens up set in an alternate universe similar yet incredibly different from our own.  The most noticeable difference is that people’s souls take the visible form of talking animals, called daemons.

The main character is Lyra, a precocious young girl who one day saves who she believes to be her uncle from being poisoned.  Soon after, her best friend Roger is kidnapped by “loppers” who, as rumor would have it, kidnap kids and take them to the North (pole) for weird experiments.  Lyra vows to save Roger and embarks on an adventure to do so that eventually takes her all the way to the world of the dead.

But more rests on Lyra’s shoulders than just the fate of her friend.  In fact, unbeknownst to her, the fate of entire worlds rest on her actions and the actions of another: Will, who is introduced in The Subtle Knife.

Words could not express how much I loved this series, so don’t be surprised if this is a pretty rambling post.  At the conclusion of The Amber Spyglass I hugged the book close to my chest, infinitely sad that it ever have to end (not to mention, sad too because of the bitter-sweet ending!)

I think it’s interesting that much has been made of the controversial religious aspects of the trilogy when it seems to me hardly anyone talks about what I thought was the central theme of the book.  It wasn’t God, it wasn’t religion, and it wasn’t even childhood, though those things do play a major role.  It was, simply put, love.  If nothing else, His Dark Materials is a love story.

And I’m not talking about the very real, heartrending love between Lyra and Will.  I’m talking about love as a force that drives most of the the plot and the action of the books.  Lyra’s quest to save her friend, a quest which takes all the way to the world of the dead speaks very clearly about the love that exits between friends.

Then there is complicated adult love (Mrs. Coulter and Asriel), love between mother and daughter, father and son, mother and son (Mrs. Coulter and Lyra, Will and his father, Will and his mother), and innocent romantic love (Lyra and Will).

The “temptation” that occurs in The Amber Spyglass is nothing more than a simple love story.  It is a description of what it’s like to feel that little prick in your heart for the first time, the glory and the pain.  It’s the story that tempts Lyra to see what’s already in her own heart – love for her own companion.  It’s the story that essentially saves the world from destruction and gradual disintegration.

But there’s more.  His Dark Materials is about love of life over fear of death, and knowledge over ignorance.  His Dark Materials invites us to remember that this life is beautiful and that we should take joy in being a part of this grand universe: the air, the trees, the grass, the clouds, the wind, the dirt, the mountains, the animals, us.  We are apart of one another, made up of the same atoms and that is a beautiful thing.  Flesh, Pullman says, is a gift and we should glory in it – not be ashamed of it.

*spoilers ahead!*

Of all the characters, I thought Mrs. Coulter and almost to the same extent Lord Asriel, was the most complicated.  She lies so well that I was often confused about what her actual motivations were.  The ending of course validates her love for her daughter, but I thought it unclear as to how much that love motivated her previous actions.  Did she really set out from the beginning to protect Lyra or was it all a lie as Lord Asriel assumes?  And just what would she have done when she reached for her gun if they hadn’t been interrupted?

As for Lord Asriel,  I found him the most inscrutable, which I suppose is very true to his character.  One of the weaknesses of the series is that it’s never really explained why he sets out to destroy the Authority or how he even gets the power to build the army that he does.

I also found it interesting how Will and Lyra in many ways mirrored Lord Asreal and Mrs. Coulter.  Both Will and Asreal are fierce warriors, and both Lyra and Mrs. Coulter are accomplished liars.  What was fascinating was that, through Will and Lyra you could see how Lord Asreal’s and Mrs. Coulter’s relationship might have been if maybe they’d trusted a litle more and been less cold and calculating.

And isn’t it funny how, in the end, both of these couples who mirror each other in so many ways, must part just as soon as they acknowledge that love?  Lord Asreal and Mrs. Coulter through death; Will and Lyra through the inconvenience of having to live in different worlds?  Perhaps, Pullman’s point here is that love is not easily found but it’s easily lost.  And that we should cherish every day we’re allowed to bask in the gift of love, even if it’s just for a moment.

In the end, after all the battles and all the journeys – the world is not saved through might and great thinking.  It’s saved through love.  Lord Asreal and Mrs. Coulter defeat Metatron through love.  Only that could have forced them to do what they did.  Love for their daughter and love for each other.  Finally, Will and Lyra stop the departure of dust with their love.

*spoilers ended*

So I could talk about the religious elements in the trilogy – the God, the Regent, the angels, the sin – and about what that all means, but I won’t because to me all that is incidental, though never uninteresting.  I don’t know Pullman’s mind but I suspect that he didn’t set out to write a political book so much as he did a love story.

Or maybe his intention was to do both.  I don’t know.  All I know is that I adored this trilogy.  It broke my heart (I cried and cried at the end!), but all great love stories do, if only because they have to end.

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Yearling Books / May 2003
$22.50