His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

Three of my favourite books that I have ever read are the His Dark Materials trilogy by the genius that is Philip Pullman. I am proud of the fact that I became a fan of his before his books were recognised for the talent they represent, because my Mum used to work as a librarian and would get to review books for a magazine. Therefore, they would send a large bundle of various new books for her to read and review and then her articles were published. Buried amongst one such bundle was Northern Lights. I have always been into fantasy adventure books and she insisted that I read Northern Lights which she had told me was fantastic. So I opened the first page and began to read...I literally could not put the book down and was glued to it ALL day and night until I had finished. Ever since, I have been a huge fan of Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy. I wrote Pullman a letter (I seem to remember I wrote it in big green felt-tip pen words, as I was only a little nipper when I wrote it!)He kindly wrote back in person and I have treasured that letter. I had asked him what other books he could recommend that were similar to his and he replied something along the lines of he didn't actually read fantasy books himself which surprised me! I went to see a theatre performance of His Dark Materials at The National Theatre years later in London and that was a real masterpiece I thought. Wonderful puppetry techniques were enlisted to portray the animals and the actors were thoroughly convincing. In my third year at university I even managed to persuade my tutor to let me write my dissertation on His Dark Materials because there was so much that I wanted to say about it, even though my degree didn't strictly relate as it was in Illustration. I received a First for my dissertation which I think was mainly to do with the fact that I find it much easier to write about things that I am passionate about. Attached below is a small extract from my dissertation:



The portrayal of the Church in His Dark Materials is quite a challenging one. Examining this should be helpful to the task of understanding any messages that the trilogy may have been attempting to put forward about contemporary culture.

For the people of Lyra's world, government is very different than our own. Religion is all powerful and is represented by the Magisterium: a collection of religious colleges, councils and bodies that regulate the actions of people and deal with heretics, keeping a close eye on the scientists of Lyra's world, to make sure they do not do anything the Church would not be comfortable with.

The Church of Lyra's world is recognizably based on the Christianity of the real world; the use of the story of Adam and Eve is one example. It becomes clear that Pullman’s text portrays a disapproving opinion of certain aspects of religion. At its most controversial, Pullman directly attacks the church of Lyra’s world, which is also deliberately impinging on some of the worst characteristics of real Christianity. One example is the condemning words of one of the witches;

“It’s tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. And when it can’t control them it cuts them out. That is what the Church does and every Church is the same, control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling.”

Neither such explicit reference to a religious institution nor such negative and absolute judgment has been seen before in children’s fantasy literature. If this rather accusing statement was not protected by quotation marks, it seems likely that the text could be interpreted as extreme propaganda by some people. The direct insults are given through the speech of characters, rather than the narrator, but the cumulative effect, from the mouths of the more morally sound characters, like the witches and the scientific researcher, Dr. Malone, is determinative in shaping the ideology of the text.

Another such example of clear disapproval of the Church comes from the quote;

“The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake. That’s all.”

The blatant objections to the unpleasant facets of the Church in Pullman’s writing imply a relation to Christianity today. This quote demonstrates Pullman’s intention to highlight how it is possible that people throughout history, right up to the present day, have been, and are being, continuingly hoodwinked by what he sees as a falsity. By calling it powerful, he is probably indicating that religion has the power to do great harm, because he sees it as misguiding many people, so that they are left following the path of something similar to a lie. He is surely attempting to make the reader think about the potential corruption there is to be seen in religion. This can be seen as a good point about the trilogy. Whether religious or not, perhaps we should all, as a society, be open to all viewpoints and we should not turn a blind eye to something just because it is in opposition of what we believe. When we have a strong belief in something, then by studying possible flaws in what we believe in, even though we still may not be swayed by hearing other viewpoints, at least we will have acknowledged their existence and have given consideration to other views. Open-mindedness is surely a good thing.