His Dark Materials

His Dark Materials

Cover of Scholastic collected edition, 2008
Author Philip Pullman
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre Science Fantasy
High fantasy
Publisher Scholastic
Published 1995–2000
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)

His Dark Materials is an epic trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of Northern Lights (1995, published as The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife (1997), and The Amber Spyglass (2000). It follows the coming of age of two children, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, as they wander through a series of parallel universes. The three novels have won a number of awards, most notably the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year prize, won by The Amber Spyglass. Northern Lights won the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in the UK in 1995. The trilogy took third place in the BBC's Big Read poll in 2003.

The fantasy elements include witches and armoured polar bears, but the trilogy also alludes to ideas from physics, philosophy and theology. The trilogy functions in part as a retelling and inversion of John Milton's epic Paradise Lost,[1] with Pullman commending humanity for what Milton saw as its most tragic failing, original sin.[2] The series has drawn criticism for its negative portrayal of Christianity and religion in general.

Pullman's publishers have primarily marketed the series to young adults, but Pullman also intended to speak to both older children and adults.[3] North American printings of The Amber Spyglass have censored passages describing Lyra's incipient sexuality.[4][5]

Pullman has published two short stories related to His Dark Materials: "Lyra and the Birds", which appears with accompanying illustrations in the small hardcover book Lyra's Oxford (2003), and Once Upon a Time in the North (2008). He has been working on another, larger companion book to the series, The Book of Dust, for several years.

The National Theatre in London staged a major, two-part adaptation of the series in 2003–2004, and New Line Cinema released a film based on Northern Lights, titled The Golden Compass, in 2007.

Settings

The trilogy takes place across a multiverse, moving between many parallel worlds. In Northern Lights, the story takes place in a world with some similarities to our own; dress-style resembles that of the UK's Victorian era, and technology has not evolved to include automobiles or fixed-wing aircraft, while zeppelins feature as a notable mode of transport.

The dominant religion has parallels with Christianity,[6] and is at certain points in the series (especially in the later books) explicitly named so; while Adam and Eve are referenced in the text (particularly in The Subtle Knife, in which Dust tells Mary Malone that Lyra Belacqua is a new Eve to whom she is to be the serpent), Jesus Christ is not.[7] The Church (called the "Magisterium", the same name as the Catholic body) exerts a strong control over society and has some of the appearance and organisation of the Catholic Church, but one in which the centre of power had moved from Rome to Geneva, moved there by Pullman's fictional "Pope John Calvin" (Geneva was the home of the real, historical John Calvin).[8]

In The Subtle Knife, the story moves between the world of the first novel, our own world, and in another world, a city called Cittàgazze. In The Amber Spyglass the story crosses through an array of diverse worlds.

At first glance, the universe of Northern Lights appears considerably behind that of our own world (resembling an industrial society between the late 19th century and the outbreak of the First World War), but in many fields it equals or surpasses ours. For instance, it emerges that Lyra's world has the same knowledge of particle physics, referred to as "experimental theology", as we do. In The Amber Spyglass, discussion takes place about an advanced inter-dimensional weapon which, when aimed using a sample of the target's DNA, can track the target to any universe and disrupt the very fabric of space-time to form a bottomless abyss into nothing, forcing the target to suffer a fate far worse than normal death. Other advanced devices include the Intention Craft, which carries (amongst other things) an extremely potent energy-weapon, though this craft, first seen and used outside Lyra's universe, may originate in the work of engineers from other universes.

Series

Titles

Satan struggles through hell in a Gustave Doré illustration of Paradise Lost.

The title of the series, His Dark Materials, comes from 17th century poet John Milton's Paradise Lost, Book 2:

Into this wilde Abyss,
The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave,
Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mixt
Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more Worlds,
Into this wilde Abyss the warie fiend
Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while,
Pondering his Voyage; for no narrow frith
He had to cross.

— Paradise Lost, Book 2, lines 910–920

Pullman earlier proposed to name the series The Golden Compasses, also a reference to Paradise Lost,[9] where they denote God's circle-drawing instrument used to establish and set the bounds of all creation:

God as architect, wielding the golden compasses, by William Blake (left) and Jesus as Geometer in a 13th-century medieval illuminated manuscript.

Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things:
One foot he centered, and the other turned
Round through the vast profundity obscure

— Paradise Lost, Book 7, lines 224–229

Despite the confusion with the other common meaning of compass (the navigational instrument) The Golden Compass became the title of the American edition of Northern Lights (the book features an 'alethiometer', a device that one might label a "golden compass"). In The Subtle Knife Pullman rationalizes the first book's American title, by having Mary twice refer to Lyra's alethiometer as a "compass" or "compass thing."[10]

Northern Lights (or The Golden Compass)

Northern Lights (published in some countries as The Golden Compass) revolves around Lyra Belacqua, a young girl who lives in a world in which humans are constantly accompanied by dæmons: the animal embodiments of their inner-selves. Dæmons alter their forms frequently when people are young but begin to settle into a fixed, animal form when children reach puberty. Lyra, whose dæmon is named Pantalaimon, is brought up in the cloistered world of Jordan College, Oxford, where she accidentally learns of the existence of Dust — a strange elementary particle being researched by Lord Asriel, who Lyra has been told is her uncle. The Magisterium is a powerful Church body that represses heresy, and believes Dust to be related to Original Sin. Dust is less attracted to children than to adults, and a desire to learn why and to prevent children from acquiring Dust when they become adults leads to grisly experiments, carried out to separate kidnapped children from their dæmons. The experiments are directed by Mrs. Coulter and conducted in the distant North by "experimental theologians" (scientists) of the Magisterium. The Master of Jordan College, who has been raising Lyra, turns her over to Mrs. Coulter under pressure from the Church. But first he gives Lyra the alethiometer, an instrument that uses Dust to reveal any truth and can answer any question when properly manipulated. Lyra, initially excited at being placed in the care of the elegant and mysterious Mrs. Coulter, discovers to her horror that Coulter heads the secretive General Oblation Board, who are rumoured to be the ones kidnapping children throughout England for experimentation; they are known among children as the "Gobblers" (from the initials of General Oblation Board). Learning of Mrs. Coulter's Gobbler activity, Lyra runs away and the Gyptians, who live on riverboats, rescue her from pursuers. From them she learns that Mrs. Coulter is her mother and Lord Asriel is her father, not her uncle. Taking Lyra along, the Gyptians mount an expedition to rescue the missing children, many of whom are Gyptian children. Lyra hopes to find and save her best friend, Roger Parslow, who she suspects has been taken by the Gobblers. Aided by the exiled armoured bear Iorek Byrnison and a clan of witches, the Gyptians save the kidnapped children, including Roger. Lyra and Iorek, along with the balloonist Lee Scoresby, next continue on to Svalbard, home of the armoured bears. There Lyra helps Iorek, who regains his kingdom by killing his rival, King Iofur Raknison. Lyra then carries on to find Lord Asriel, exiled to Svalbard at Mrs. Coulter's request. She mistakenly thinks her mission all along has been to bring Asriel her alethiometer, when in fact she was destined to bring him a child, Roger. Lord Asriel has been developing a means of building a bridge to another world that can be seen in the sky through the northern lights. The bridge requires a vast amount of energy to split open the boundary between the two worlds. Asriel acquires the energy by severing Roger from his dæmon, killing Roger in the process. Lyra arrives too late to save Roger. Asriel then travels across the bridge to the new world in order to find the source of Dust. Lyra and Pantalaimon follow Asriel into the new world.

The Subtle Knife

Main article: The Subtle Knife

In The Subtle Knife, Lyra journeys through the Aurora to Cittàgazze, an otherworldly city whose denizens have discovered a clean path between worlds at a far earlier point in time than others in the storyline. Cittàgazze's reckless use of the technology has released soul-eating Spectres, to which children are immune, rendering much of the world incapable of transit by adults. Here Lyra meets Will Parry, a twelve-year-old boy from our world. Will, who recently killed a man to protect his ailing mother, has stumbled into Cittàgazze in an effort to locate his long-lost father. Will becomes the bearer of the eponymous Subtle Knife, a tool forged 300 years ago by Cittàgazze's scientists from the same materials used to make Bolvangar's silver guillotine. One edge of the knife can divide even subatomic particles and form subtle divisions in space, creating portals between worlds; the other edge easily cuts through any form of matter. After meeting with witches from Lyra's world, they journey on. Will finds his father, who had gone missing in Lyra's world under the assumed name of Stanislaus Grumman, only to watch him murdered almost immediately by a witch who loved him but was turned down, and Lyra is kidnapped.

The Amber Spyglass

Main article: The Amber Spyglass

The Amber Spyglass tells of Lyra's kidnapping by her mother, Mrs. Coulter, an agent of the Magisterium who has learned of the prophecy identifying Lyra as the next Eve. A pair of angels, Balthamos and Baruch, inform Will that he must travel with them to give the Subtle Knife to Lyra's father, Lord Asriel, as a weapon against The Authority. Will ignores the angels; with the help of a local girl named Ama, the Bear King Iorek Byrnison, and Lord Asriel's Gallivespian spies, the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia, he rescues Lyra from the cave where her mother has hidden her from the Magisterium, which has become determined to kill her before she yields to temptation and sin like the original Eve.

Will, Lyra, Tialys and Salmakia journey to the Land of the Dead, temporarily parting with their dæmons to release the ghosts from their captivity. Mary Malone, a scientist from Will's world interested in "shadows" (or Dust in Lyra's world), travels to a land populated by strange sentient creatures called Mulefa. There she comes to understand the true nature of Dust, which is both created by and nourishes life which has become self-aware. Lord Asriel and the reformed Mrs. Coulter work to destroy the Authority's Regent Metatron. They succeed, but themselves suffer annihilation in the process by pulling Metatron into the abyss. The Authority himself dies of his own frailty when Will and Lyra free him from the crystal prison wherein Metatron had trapped him, able to do so because an attack by cliff-ghasts kills or drives away the prison's protectors. When Will and Lyra emerge from the land of the dead, they find their dæmons. The book ends with Will and Lyra falling in love but realising they cannot live together in the same world, because all windows — except one from the underworld to the world of the Mulefa — must be closed to prevent the loss of Dust, and because each of them can only live full lives in their native worlds. This is the temptation that Mary was meant to give them; to help them fall in love and then choose whether they should stay together or not. During the return, Mary learns how to see her own dæmon, who takes the form of a black Alpine chough. Lyra loses her ability to intuitively read the alethiometer and determines to learn how to use her conscious mind to achieve the same effect.

Lyra's Oxford

Main article: Lyra's Oxford

The first of two short novels, Lyra's Oxford takes place two years after the timeline of The Amber Spyglass. A witch who seeks revenge for her son's death in the war against the Authority draws Lyra, now 15, into a trap. Birds mysteriously rescue her and Pan, and she makes the acquaintance of an alchemist, formerly the witch's lover.

Once Upon a Time in the North

This short novel serves as a prequel to His Dark Materials and focuses on the 24-year-old Texan aeronaut Lee Scoresby. After winning his hot-air balloon, Scoresby heads to the North, landing on the Arctic island Novy Odense, where he finds himself pulled into a dangerous conflict between the oil-tycoon Larsen Manganese, the corrupt mayoral candidate Ivan Poliakov, and his longtime enemy from the Dakota Country, Pierre McConville. The story tells of Lee and Iorek's first meeting and of how they overcame these enemies.

The Collectors

Pullman's short story, "The Collectors", written exclusively as a digital audiobook, was released in December 2014. The story is described as providing a glimpse into the early life of Mrs Coulter and is set in the senior common room of an Oxford college in Lyra's universe.

The audiobook is narrated by actor Bill Nighy and was released by Audible.[11]

The Book of Dust

Main article: The Book of Dust

The forthcoming companion to the trilogy, The Book of Dust will not continue the story, but was originally said to offer several short stories with the same characters, world, etc. Later, however, it was said it would be about Lyra when she is older, about 2 years after Lyra's Oxford, when she will go on a new adventure and learn to read the alethiometer again. The book will touch on research into Dust as well as on the portrayal of religion in His Dark Materials. Pullman has not yet finished writing this work.

Future books

In August 2007, Pullman said: ''Lyra's Oxford'' was a dark red book. ''Once Upon a Time in the North'' will be a dark blue book. There still remains a green book. And that will be Will's book. Eventually."[12]

Characters

All humans in Lyra's world, including witches, have a Dæmon. It is the physical manifestation of a person's 'inner being', soul or spirit. It takes the form of a creature (moth, bird, dog, monkey, snake, etc.) and is usually the opposite sex to its human counterpart. The dæmons of children have the ability to change form - from one creature to another - but towards the end of a child's puberty, their dæmon "settles" into a permanent form, which reflects the person's personality. When a person dies, the dæmon dies too. Armoured bears, cliff ghasts and other creatures do not have dæmons. An armoured bear's armour is his soul.

Dæmons

Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine (1489–90), along with two portraits by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Hans Holbein the Younger, helped inspire Pullman's "dæmon" concept.[1]

One distinctive aspect of Pullman's story is the presence of "dæmons" (pronounced "demon"). In the birth-universe of the story's protagonist Lyra Belacqua, a human individual's inner-self[13] manifests itself throughout life as an animal-shaped "dæmon", that almost always stays near its human counterpart.

Dæmons usually only talk to their own associated humans, but they can communicate with other humans and with other dæmons autonomously. During the childhood of its associated human, a dæmon can change its shape at will, but with the onset of adolescence it settles into a fixed, final form that reveals the person's true nature and personality. In Lyra's world, it is considered to be "the grossest breach of etiquette imaginable"[14] for one person to touch another's dæmon — this violates the strictest of taboos. "A human being with no dæmon is like someone without a face, or with their ribs laid open and their heart torn out: something unnatural and uncanny that belonged to the world of night-ghasts, not the waking world of sense."[15]

Dæmons and their humans can become separated through intercision, a process involving cutting the link between the dæmon and the human. This process can take place in a medical setting, as with the guillotine used at Bolvangar, or as a form of torture used by the Skraelings. This separation entails a high mortality rate and changes both human and dæmon into a zombie-like state. Severing the link using the silver guillotine method releases tremendous amounts of unnamed energy, convertible to anbaric (electric) power.

Influences

Pullman has identified three major literary influences on His Dark Materials: the essay On the Marionette Theatre by Heinrich von Kleist,[16] the works of William Blake, and, most important, John Milton's Paradise Lost, from which the trilogy derives its title.[17] In his introduction, he adapts a famous description of Milton by Blake to quip that he (Pullman) "is of the Devil's party and does know it."

Critics have compared the trilogy with The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis, Pullman however has characterised the Narnia series as "blatantly racist", "monumentally disparaging of women", "immoral", and "evil".[18][19] The trilogy has also been compared with such fantasy books as Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle[20][21]

Awards and recognition

The Amber Spyglass won the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year award,[22] a prestigious British literary award. This is the first time that such an award has been bestowed on a book from their "children's literature" category.

The first volume, Northern Lights, won the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in the UK in 1995.[23] In 2007, the judges of the CILIP Carnegie Medal for children's literature selected it as one of the ten most important children's novels of the previous 70 years. In June 2007 it was voted, in an online poll, as the best Carnegie Medal winner in the seventy-year history of the award, the Carnegie of Carnegies.[24][25]

The Observer cites Northern Lights as one of the 100 best novels.[26]

On 19 May 2005, Pullman attended the British Library in London to receive formal congratulations for his work from culture secretary Tessa Jowell "on behalf of the government".

On 25 May 2005, Pullman received the Swedish government's Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for children's and youth literature (sharing it with Japanese illustrator Ryōji Arai).[27] Swedes regard this prize as second only to the Nobel Prize in Literature; it has a value of 5 million Swedish Kronor or approximately £385,000.

The trilogy came third in the 2003 BBC's Big Read, a national poll of viewers' favourite books, after The Lord of the Rings and Pride and Prejudice. At the time, only His Dark Materials and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire amongst the top five works lacked a screen-adaptation (the film version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which came fifth, was released in 2005).

Controversies

A traditional depiction of the Fall of Man Doctrine by Thomas Cole (Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, 1828). His Dark Materials presents the Fall as a positive act of maturation.

His Dark Materials has occasioned controversy, primarily amongst some Christian groups.[28][29] While sales in the United States equalled those of The Harry Potter Series, Pullman's series did not receive as much conservative media backlash in the United States as it had received in the United Kingdom.[30]

Pullman has expressed surprise over what he perceives as a low level of criticism for His Dark Materials on religious grounds, saying "I've been surprised by how little criticism I've got. Harry Potter's been taking all the flak... Meanwhile, I've been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God".[31]

Some of the characters criticise institutional religion. Ruta Skadi, a witch and friend of Lyra's calling for war against the Magisterium in Lyra's world, says that "For all of [the Church's] history... it's tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. And when it can't control them, it cuts them out". Skadi later extends her criticism to all organised religion: "That's what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling". By this part of the book, the witches have made reference to how they are treated criminally by the church in their worlds. Mary Malone, one of Pullman's main characters, states that "the Christian religion... is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all". Formerly a Catholic nun, she gave up her vows when the experience of falling in love caused her to doubt her faith. Pullman has warned, however, against equating these views with his own, saying of Malone: "Mary is a character in a book. Mary's not me. It's a story, not a treatise, not a sermon or a work of philosophy".[32] In another inversion, the tenet that the Church can absolve a penitent of sin is subverted when the priest selected to assassinate Lyra has built up sufficient penitential credit before attempting to carry out this sin for the Church.[33]

Pullman portrays life after death very differently from the Christian concept of heaven: In the third book, the afterlife plays out in a bleak underworld, similar to the Greek vision of the afterlife, wherein harpies torment people until Lyra and Will descend into the land of the dead. At their intercession, the harpies agree to stop tormenting the dead souls, and instead receive the true stories of the dead in exchange for leading them again to the upper world. When the dead souls emerge, they dissolve into atoms and merge with the environment.

Pullman's concept of "intercision" has been compared to circumcision and female genital mutilation. In the Subtle Knife, Ruta Skadi says, "Some of you have seen what they did at Bolvangar. And that was horrible, but it is not the only such place, not the only practice. Sisters, you know only the north: I have travelled in the south lands. There are churches there, believe me, that cut their children too, as the people of Bolvangar did – not in the same way, but just as horribly – they cut their sexual organs, yes, both boys and girls – they cut them with knives so that they shan’t feel." [34]

Pullman's "Authority", though worshipped on Lyra's earth as God, emerges as the first conscious creature to evolve. Pullman makes it explicit that the Authority did not create worlds, and his trilogy does not speculate on who or what (if anything) might have done so. Members of the Church are typically displayed as zealots.[35]

Cynthia Grenier, in the Catholic Culture, said: "In the world of Pullman, God Himself (the Authority) is a merciless tyrant". His Church is an instrument of oppression, and true heroism consists of overthrowing both."[36] William A. Donohue of the Catholic League has described Pullman's trilogy as "atheism for kids".[37] Pullman has said of Donohue's call for a boycott, "Why don't we trust readers? [...] Oh, it causes me to shake my head with sorrow that such nitwits could be loose in the world".[38]

Pullman has, however, found support from some other Christians, most notably from Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury (spiritual head of the Anglican church), who argues that Pullman's attacks focus on the constraints and dangers of dogmatism and the use of religion to oppress, not on Christianity itself.[39] Williams has also recommended the His Dark Materials series of books for inclusion and discussion in Religious Education classes, and stated that "To see large school-parties in the audience of the Pullman plays at the National Theatre is vastly encouraging".[40] Pullman and Williams took part in a National Theatre platform debate a few days later to discuss myth, religious experience and its representation in the arts.[41]

Pullman has singled out certain elements of Christianity for criticism, as in the following: "I suppose technically, you'd have to put me down as an agnostic. But if there is a God, and he is as the Christians describe him, then he deserves to be put down and rebelled against".[42] However, Pullman has also said in interviews and appearances that his argument can extend to all religions.[43][44]

In a November 2002 interview Pullman was asked to respond to the fact that the Catholic Herald had called his books "the stuff of nightmares" and "worthy of the bonfire". He replied: "My response to that was to ask the publishers to print it in the next book, which they did! I think it's comical, it's just laughable".[45] The original remark in Catholic Herald (which was "there are numerous candidates that seem to me to be far more worthy of the bonfire than Harry Potter") was written in the context of parents in South Carolina pressing their Board of Education to ban the Harry Potter books.[46]

Terminology used in the books

To enhance the feeling of being in parallel universes, Pullman renames various common objects or ideas of our world with archaic terms or new words of his own. The names he chooses often follow plausible alternative etymologies to those which have prevailed in modern English, thus making it possible to guess what everyday object or person he is referring to. Below are some of the significant renamings as well as new words the author has developed.

Pullman underlines the differences between the history of Lyra's world and ours by using archaic or adapted names for otherwise familiar peoples, regions and places.

Pronunciation

The pronunciations given here are those used in the radio plays and the audio book readings of the trilogy (narrated by Pullman himself).[52]

Adaptations

His Dark Materials has been adapted for radio, theatre and film, In addition there have been unabridged audio books of the three main novels in His Dark Materials on which Philip Pullman himself is the narrator, the other parts are read by various actors, including Jo Wyatt, Steven Webb, Peter England, Stephen Thorne and Douglas Blackwell.

Radio

The BBC made His Dark Materials into a radio drama on BBC Radio 4 starring Terence Stamp as Lord Asriel and Lulu Popplewell as Lyra. The play was broadcast in 2003 and is now published by the BBC on CD and cassette. In the same year, a radio drama of Northern Lights was made by RTÉ (Irish public radio).

The BBC Radio 4 version of His Dark Materials was repeated on BBC Radio 7 between 7 December 2008 to 11 January 2009. With 3 episodes in total, each episode was 2.5 hours long.

Theatre

Nicholas Hytner directed a theatrical version of the books as a two-part, six-hour performance for London's Royal National Theatre in December 2003, running until March 2004. It starred Anna Maxwell-Martin as Lyra, Dominic Cooper as Will, Timothy Dalton as Lord Asriel and Patricia Hodge as Mrs Coulter with dæmon puppets designed by Michael Curry. The play was enormously successful and was revived (with a different cast and a revised script) for a second run between November 2004 and April 2005. It has since been staged by several other theatres in the UK and elsewhere.

A new production was staged at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in March and April 2009, directed by Rachel Kavanaugh and Sarah Esdaile and starring Amy McAllister as Lyra. This version toured the UK and included a performance in Philip Pullman's hometown of Oxford. Philip Pullman made a cameo appearance much to the delight of the audience and Oxford media. The production finished up at West Yorkshire Playhouse in June 2009.

Film

New Line Cinema released a film adaptation, titled The Golden Compass, on 7 December 2007. Directed by Chris Weitz, the production had a mixed reception, and though worldwide sales were strong, its U.S. earnings were not as high as the studio had hoped.[53]

The filmmakers obscured the explicitly Biblical character of the Authority to avoid offending viewers. Weitz declared that he would not do the same for the planned sequels. "Whereas The Golden Compass had to be introduced to the public carefully", he said, "the religious themes in the second and third books can't be minimised without destroying the spirit of these books. ...I will not be involved with any 'watering down' of books two and three, since what I have been working towards the whole time in the first film is to be able to deliver on the second and third".[54] In May 2006, Pullman said of a version of the script that "all the important scenes are there and will have their full value";[55] in March 2008, he said of the finished film that "a lot of things about it were good.... Nothing can bring out all that's in the book. There are always compromises".[56]

The Golden Compass film stars Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra, Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter, and Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel. Eva Green plays Serafina Pekkala, Ian McKellen voices Iorek Byrnison, and Freddie Highmore voices Pantalaimon.

No sequels are planned, Compass actor Sam Elliott blamed the Catholic Church's opposition for forcing their cancellation, but UK Guardian film critic Stuart Heritage thought that critical "disappointment" with the first film may have been the real reason.[57]

Television

In November 2015, the BBC announced that it had commissioned a television adaptation of His Dark Materials, to be produced by Bad Wolf and New Line Cinema.[58]

See also

Further reading

References

  1. 1 2 Robert Butler (3 December 2007). "An Interview with Philip Pullman". The Economist. Intelligent Life. Retrieved 10 July 2008.
  2. ↑ Freitas, Donna; King, Jason Edward (2007). Killing the imposter God: Philip Pullman's spiritual imagination in His Dark Materials. San Francisco, CA: Wiley. pp. 68–9. ISBN 978-0-7879-8237-9.
  3. ↑ "The Man Behind the Magic: An Interview with Philip Pullman". Retrieved 8 March 2007.
  4. ↑ Rosin, Hanna (1 December 2007). "How Hollywood Saved God". The Atlantic Monthly. The Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved 1 December 2007.
  5. ↑ Corliss, Richard (8 December 2007). "What Would Jesus See?". TIME. Time Inc. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  6. ↑ Squires (2003: 61): "Religion in Lyra's world...has similarities to the Christianity of 'our own universe', but also crucial differences…[it] is based not in the Catholic centre of Rome, but in Geneva, Switzerland, where the centre of religious power, narrates Pullman, moved in the Middle Ages under the aegis of John Calvin."
  7. ↑ Miller, Laura (26 December 2005). "Far From Narnia". The New Yorker. 2011 Condé Nast Digital. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  8. ↑ Northern Lights p. 31: "Ever since Pope John Calvin had moved the seat of the papacy to Geneva...the Church's power over every aspect of life had been absolute.
  9. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions". BridgeToTheStars.net. Retrieved 20 August 2007.
  10. ↑ Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife (New York: Knopf, 1997), 90, 238.
  11. ↑ Flood, Alison (17 December 2014). "Baddies in books: Mrs Coulter, the mother of all evil". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  12. ↑ Hisdarkmaterials.org
  13. ↑ "Pullman's Jungian concept of the soul": Lenz (2005: 163)
  14. ↑ Pullman, Philip (2007) [1995]. The Northern Lights. His Dark Materials. London: Scholastic UK Ltd. p. 126. ISBN 978-1-4071-0405-8.
  15. ↑ Pullman, Philip (2007) [1995]. The Northern Lights. His Dark Materials. London: Scholastic UK Ltd. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-4071-0405-8. Chapter 13
  16. ↑ Parry, Idris. "Online Traduction". Southern Cross Review. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  17. ↑ Fried, Kerry. "Darkness Visible: An Interview with Philip Pullman". Amazon.com. Retrieved 13 April 2007.
  18. ↑ Ezard, John (3 June 2002). "Narnia books attacked as racist and sexist". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 4 April 2007.
  19. ↑ Abley, Mark (4 December 2007). "Writing the book on intolerance". The Star. Toronto. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  20. ↑ Crosby, Vanessa. "Innocence and Experience: The Subversion of the Child Hero Archetype in Philip Pullman's Speculative Soteriology" (PDF). University of Sydney. Retrieved 12 April 2007.
  21. ↑ Miller, Laura (26 December 2005). "Far From Narnia: Philip Pullman's secular fantasy for children". The New Yorker. Retrieved 12 April 2007.
  22. ↑ "Children's novel triumphs in 2001 Whitbread Book Of The Year" (Press release). 23 January 2002. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
  23. ↑ "Living Archive: Celebrating the Carnegie and Greenaway Winners". CarnegieGreenaway.org.uk. Retrieved 5 April 2007.
  24. ↑ Pauli, Michelle (21 June 2007). "Pullman wins 'Carnegie of Carnegies'". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  25. ↑ "70 years celebration the publics favourite winners of all time".
  26. ↑ "The best novels ever (version 1.2)". The Guardian. London. 19 August 2008. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  27. ↑ SLA – Philip Pullman receives the Astrid Lindgren Award
  28. ↑ Overstreet, Jeffrey (20 February 2006). "Reviews:His Dark Materials". Christianity Today. Archived from the original on 18 March 2007. Retrieved 12 April 2007.
  29. ↑ Thomas, John (2006). "Opinion". Librarians' Christian Fellowship. Retrieved 12 April 2007.
  30. ↑ Gray, Mike (2013). Transfiguring Transcendence in Harry Potter, His Dark Materials and Left Behind. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 41. ISBN 9783525604472.
  31. ↑ Meacham, Steve (13 December 2003). "The shed where God died". Sydney Morning Herald Online. Retrieved 13 December 2003.
  32. ↑ "A dark agenda? Interview with Philip Pullman". surefish.co.uk. November 2002. Retrieved 4 May 2008.
  33. ↑ Lenz; Scott (2005: 97)
  34. ↑ "His Dark Materials a disturbing allegory of genital mutilation".
  35. ↑ Greene, Mark. "Pullman's Purpose". The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 14 April 2007.
  36. ↑ Grenier, Cynthia (October 2001). "Philip Pullman's Dark Materials". The Morley Institute Inc. Retrieved 5 April 2007.
  37. ↑ Donohue, Bill (9 October 2007). ""The Golden Compass" Sparks Protest". The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Retrieved 4 January 2008.
  38. ↑ David Byers (27 November 2007). "Philip Pullman: Catholic boycotters are 'nitwits'". The Times. UK. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  39. ↑ Petre, Jonathan (10 March 2004). "Williams backs Pullman". Daily Telegraph. UK. Retrieved 12 April 2007.
  40. ↑ Rowan, Williams (10 March 2004). "Archbishop wants Pullman in class". BBC News Online. Retrieved 10 March 2004.
  41. ↑ Oborne, Peter (17 March 2004). "The Dark Materials debate: life, God, the universe...". Daily Telegraph. UK. Retrieved 1 April 2008.
  42. ↑ "Sympathy for the Devil by Adam R. Holz". Plugged In Online. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
  43. ↑ Spanner, Huw (13 February 2002). "Heat and Dust". ThirdWay.org.uk. Archived from the original on 10 April 2004. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  44. ↑ Bakewell, Joan (2001). "Belief". BBC News Online. Archived from the original on 11 September 2004. Retrieved 5 April 2007.
  45. ↑ "A dark agenda?"
  46. ↑ Catholic Herald - The stuff of nightmares - Leonie Caldecott (29th October 1999) |
  47. ↑ pg.294 "I think it was my grandfather's magic lantern that Lord Asriel used..."Pullman, Philip (1995). Northern Lights. scholastic Point. ISBN 0-590-66054-3.
  48. ↑ pg.5 "...a decanter containing a rich golden wine..." Pullman, Philip (1995). Northern Lights. scholastic Point. ISBN 0-590-66054-3.
  49. ↑ pg.517; "How often he and his companions had played that heroic battle...taking turns to be Danes and French!" Pullman, Philip (1997). The Subtle Knife. Scholastic Point. ISBN 0-590-11289-9.
  50. ↑ Quiller-Couch, Arthur (Ed) (1919). The Oxford Book of English Verse: Sir Patrick Spens. Oxford University Press.
  51. ↑ Pullman, Philip (2008). Once Upon A Time In The North. Great Britain: David Fickling Books. p. 100. ISBN 9780385614320. Book contains fictionalized extract from "The 'Shipping World' Year Book" which contains coordinates for the port of "Novorossisk, Russia", located in Finland in our world (60°47′N 21°24′E / 60.783°N 21.400°E).
  52. ↑ "Bridge to the Stars - Pronunciation". Retrieved 2 February 2007.
  53. ↑ Dawtrey, Adam (13 March 2008). "'Compass' spins foreign frenzy". Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved 13 March 2008.
  54. ↑ "'Golden Compass' Director Chris Weitz Answers Your Questions: Part I by Brian Jacks". MTV Movies Blog. Retrieved 14 November 2007.
  55. ↑ Pullman, Philip (May 2006). "May message". Retrieved 24 September 2008. And the latest script, from Chris Weitz, is truly excellent; I know, because I`ve just this morning read it. I think it's a model of how to condense a story of 400 pages into a script of 110 or so. All the important scenes are there and will have their full value.
  56. ↑ Silverman, Rosa (22 March 2008). "Exclusive interview with Philip Pullman". The Times. UK. Retrieved 1 December 2008.
  57. ↑ Heritage, Stuart (15 December 2009). "Who killed off The Golden Compass?". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 16 March 2010.
  58. ↑ "BBC One commissions adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials". 3 November 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
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