{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2724",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 2724,
    "subject": "OT: Amber Spyglass (again)",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2001-07-16T09:22:05+00:00",
    "last": "2001-07-16T09:22:05+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0552@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Tony Ellis",
        "address": "littlesense at necronomicon.co.uk"
      },
      "date": "2001-07-16T09:22:05+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) OT: Amber Spyglass (again)",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "My first post after months of absence, and it's both off-topic out of date.\nSorry about that, but pleased as I was to see the name of Philip Pullman\ncausing a little controversy in the list earlier this year, back then I hadn\n't read the all-important final volume. I've only just finished it now.\n\nA quick glance at the reader reviews on Amazon.com shows that even Pullman's\nfans are divided over whether this is THE BEST! BOOK!! EVER!!!! or a\nlet-down. Well, it's not the best book ever, but for me it was certainly the\nbest of the trilogy. It had me on the edge of my seat, it brought a tear to\nmy eye, and it made me care. I also find Pullman's brand of subversion\namusing: gay angels indeed, and priestly absolution granted in advance for\nmurder! The portrayal of God as a senile, frightened old man was\nparticularly striking. It's good to know that there is a book like this out\nthere which is accessible to children.\n\nDid I find the ending unsatisfying? Yes, but only in terms of a failure of\nthe author's imagination. I think the principle behind Will and Lyra's\nseparation - that we must look for love and happiness in the real world\ninstead of escaping to some fantasy land - is a sound one. It's just the way\nthe author rigs events to enforce this that fails to convince.\n\nFinal thought: much mention has been made of the influence of the biblical\nand Gnostic stories of Genesis, but it was Paradise Lost, which Pullman\nactually cites as an influence, that I found myself drawing comparisons\nwith. Ending, as it does, with one of the most memorable, bittersweet exiles\nin english literature:\n\n    ...They hand in hand with wand'ring steps and slow,\n    Through Eden took their solitary way.\n\n\"Hand in hand\", you notice. But Adam and Eve are leaving Eden to be mere\npawns in the predestined future Milton's nasty, totalitarian God has already\nmapped out. It's tempting to see Will and Lyra's going it alone as a\nreflection of the hope that 'this time, we'll make our own fate'."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}