Pullman again

Alice Turner · 31 Jul 2001, 12:04 · from urth-v0030.mbox · original

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From: "Alice Turner" <pei047 at attglobal.net>
Subject: (urth) Pullman again
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 12:04:49
Message-ID: <urth-v0030-0577 at digest.urth.net>
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Said Dan'l re =3DThe Golden Compass=3D:

> But he hasn't a clue about the logic of fantasy, at the small or at
the
> large level.

I don't think that, with a real writer, it's quite so cut-and-dried.
(Most writers of commercial fantasy are not, by my definition, "real"
writers; Pullman, otoh, most certainly is.)

> At the small level there are things like the naming of names.
"Daemon."
> Okay, I
> understand that it's supposed to come from the Greek _daimonion_ and
really
> only
> means "spirit," and that it's the person's soul (the way the armour is
the
> bear's
> soul). But there's no _reason_ for calling them daemons; it's just an
> in-yer-face
> choice to irritate easily-irritated Christians. Ditto for
"experimental
> theology";
> it is neither, and the words just mislead.

Can't you accept that he is, at one level, joking? And at another being
deliberately provocative? This is quite okay by me, more so than
Madeleine l'Engel maundering on about mitochondria and God in a rather
better known fantasy series for children. Pullman is quite genuinely
(imo) repelled by the efforts of a lot of classic fantasy to push
religious agenda, and he's deliberately countering it--but with humor.

> On a larger scale: does anyone, _can_ anyone, believe that in a world
this
> different -- where every human has an externalized animus/anima, where
bears
> are sentient, etc. -- the history of the world would be _similar_
enough
> that
> someone called John Calvin would become something called Pope of
something
> called the Catholic Church? (I set aside, as irrelevant
Christian-baiting
> the
> nature of "the Church" in this world.)

Dan'l, that is a *joke*. Maybe not the best joke in the world, but
still. It also serves another purpose--it's a signal that he is not
targeting Catholicism or Anglicanism or any other ism, that they're all
in it together. It's the same impetus that causes him to cast witches as
good guys. (Not entirely, as you will see if you continue the series.)

> The logic of fantasy just isn't there, and irritates me far more than
the
> religious whomping.

It doesn't irritate me. It is, perhaps, a reminder to the reader that he
is reading a book, written by an author, who can do as he likes.

> Nonetheless... it's a cracking good book. I just wish Pullman knew
something
>
> about fantasy; then it could have been a _great_ book.

I think it just might be the best juvenile, and even the best fantasy of
the 20th century. Contenders, please? (Single books, only.)

-alga

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