more Phillip Pullman

William Ansley · 18 Apr 2001, 22:52 · from urth-v0030.mbox · original

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From: William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) more Phillip Pullman
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 22:52:27
Message-ID: <urth-v0030-0317 at digest.urth.net>
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Very good, Matthew. You have provided a reply which nicely balances=20
my message. Certainly don't let me discourage anyone from reading the=20
books and making up their own minds about them.

>Just to take up a few points raised:
>
>
>(from William Ansley)
>>In _The Amber Spyglass_ the whole works just blows up in your face. The
>>plot clanks; endless needless complications and characters are introduced.
>I would say that's a bit strong. Certainly the last book is not so well
>controlled as the earlier ones, but I don't think all the new
>complications and characters are needless by any means. I found most of
>the book very satisfying - the war against heaven, the sequence in the
>land of the dead. I'll give you the sections about the creatures on
>wheels though - didn't do much for me.

I found the sequence in the land of the dead to be the weakest part=20
of the book by far. It destroyed the logical cohesion of the multiple=20
worlds idea, as far as as I am concerned.

>
>>The characters, at least some of them, including major ones, start acting
>>unlike themselves.
>I'm wondering who you are thinking of - if it's Mrs Coulter then I have
>to disagree - but I won't go any further down that route in case that's
>not who you're thinking of.

Primarily Mrs. Coulter, yes. I am thinking of some others too, but I=20
would have to reread the book to remember exactly who now.

>
>>And Pullman evidently regards the success of the first
>>two volumes in the series to be a license to turns parts of the third book
>>into a virulent anti-Catholic screed (thinly disguised but unmistakable).=
 I
>>consider myself agnostic, but this aspect of the book made me
>>uncomfortable. A certain anti-church bias is evident in the first two boo=
ks
>>as well, but nothing like what comes out in the third.
>Here I've got to disagree strongly - the anti-religious bias is explicit
>and obvious from the start. The first book largely concerns a branch of
>the church running a torture centre for children let's not forget. You
>can like or dislike this, but it's not fair to Pullman to say he used
>his success as a platform for his views - they were in the work from the
>very start.

To me, he seem to be obsessed with the anti-religious message of the=20
book in the last volume in a way that he wasn't in the first two.=20
But, I agree that this aspect of the books was quite obvious from the=20
start.

>
>>In short, I might recommend this series on the merits of the first two
>>volumes, but only to someone who is not likely to be offended by a very
>>anti-Christian message. (This seems to be a real bugaboo for Pullman. He
>>apparently gave an interview some time ago in which he attacked C. S. Lew=
is
>>and the Narnia books, which garnered him much ill will from their fans.)
>Probably the Interzone interview with Elizabeth Counihan in IZ 161
>(11/00).
>Quoting briefly, "I don't like his (Lewis's) fiction and especially
>detest his children's fiction. I think his Christian apologetics are
>dishonest. (...) He has some very sensible ... things to say about
>writing fiction and writing for children in particular, but his work is
>dedicated to propaganda in the service of a form of religion I find
>poisonous and damaging."
>
>
>You could reasonably argue that HDM is propaganda in the service of the
>form of religion (essentially humanism) that Pullman finds wholesome and
>rewarding. But it's also a good story, with interesting characters. I've
>read most of the Harry Potter books and enjoyed them, but HDM is a work
>on a much more ambitious level, which succeeds more than it fails imho.

I would go so far as to say that you cannot reasonably argue that=20
HDM* is not such propaganda. Let me try to be clear. I also thought=20
very highly of HDM. As I said, some of the anti-religious material=20
made me uncomfortable, but that was only a very small part of why I=20
was disappointed in _The Amber Spyglass_. I made a big deal out of it=20
because it apparently bothered some people a good deal (judging by=20
some reader reviews I have seen posted) and I felt a warning was in=20
order. For the record I have also read and enjoyed the Narnia books=20
by C. S. Lewis. But, Lewis's propagandizing in these books also made=20
me uncomfortable at certain points; I was much more aware of this=20
when I re-read the books after several years had gone by.

My primary complaint about HDM is that it didn't fulfill the promise=20
of the first two in many ways. I felt Pullman violated the logical=20
framework he set up in the first two books in many ways. The=20
revelation of the nature of "dust," such as it was, fell flat for me.=20
I don't want to go into any more detail here so as to avoid spoilers.

I entirely agree that HDM was a better and certainly a much more=20
ambitious series than the Harry Potter books. Frankly, I think J. K.=20
Rowling is becoming a victim of her own success. I felt her fourth=20
book was weaker than the third and she still has three more to go.=20
Then again, I am really being unfair to Rowling; she hasn't even=20
concluded her series and I'm trashing it.

I think I'm in a rut. I don't like the third volume of HDM or the=20
Short Sun books and I am afraid I will not enjoy the conclusion of=20
the Harry Potter series. Well, conclusions are very, very hard.=20
Perhaps I should be a little more forgiving.

>Matt Freestone - matthew at axiomatic.org.uk
>www.axiomatic.org.uk  SF: www.concatenation.org  work: www.mercator.com
>

William Ansley

*His Dark Materials, the overall title of the series.

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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