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At the end of last year, the long awaited
third part of an extraordinary trilogy was published. The
Amber Spyglass established Philip Pullman as a name to remember
in the minds of those who both love and hate his writing and
has recently won him the Whitbread Prize for fiction.
Nominated for children's laureate (2001),
winner of the Carnegie Medal (1996), the Guardian Children's
fiction Award (1996) and the United Kingdom Reading Award
(1998), Philip Pullman has spent the past fifteen years writing
fiction for teenagers. None of his work has had the panoramic
scope of his Dark Materials - an epic retelling of mankind's
creation, fall and redemption.
The story's central characters are
Lyra and Will, two early adolescents who adventure through
parallel worlds in a heady mixture of magic and metaphysics.
In their universe 'The Authority' or 'God' is the source of
all repression, cruelty and hatred whilst the 'Rebel Angels'
stand for the virtues of freedom, honesty and self-sacrifice.
In the third book of the trilogy Pullman completes his mission:
'God' (who turns out to be a deceiving angel and not the original
'Creator') is killed, the 'Authority' is overthrown and the
'republic of heaven' is declared.
With a theme like this it is hardly surprising
that Pullman has received some critical comments along with
the fan mail. The Catholic Herald has called it 'the stuff
of nightmares'. Yet around the world the freshness and fantasy
of the trilogy has been translated and enjoyed by both children
and adult readers. Why is it so compelling?
For one thing it is a good story. Exciting, unpredictable
like driving at giddying speeds along some horseshoe pass
with a sheer drop at either side. Secondly it's about teenagers.
Not only does it star two adolescents but it is about adolescence
- as Lyra and Will have to find out who they are through the
tasks set before them, so they encounter more keenly the rites
of passage that have been stifled in our bland 21st Century
lifestyles.
Will and Lyra's increasingly close relationship
is key both to the plot and to Pullman's message. However,
his use and endorsement of full sexual relations between the
main characters (aged somewhere around 14/15 and 12/13 years)
is considered cringing, misplaced romanticism by the teenage
readers to whom I have spoken.
Thirdly, the language is crisp, clear and
often deeply beautiful, with the most careful yet poetic descriptions
of the natural world. He compares the witches flying overhead
to 'scraps of darkness drifting on a secret tide'; mist as
'wisps and tendrils (drifting) ghostlike on the icy water';
a ship's railing as 'fog pearled', a voice as 'bronzed'.
Here in part lies the key to his success.
There is simply so much that is good in these stories that
the theology or philosophy or metaphysics (what you call it
will depend on your perspective) is not taken by teenage readers
as a subject for discussion independent of the story, but
is seen simply as the fabric which holds the whole thing together.
Now of course this is not Pullman's intention. In radio and
newspaper interviews he has been astonishingly disparaging
of C S Lewis, Tolkein and other 'fantasy' writers.
"I dislike them for different
reasons. The Lord of the Rings, for all its scope, weight
and structural integrity is not a serious book because it
doesn't say anything interesting or new or truthful about
human beings … C S Lewis comes from a different tradition:
in the Narnia books he struggles with big ideas. I dislike
the conclusions he comes to because he seems to recommend
the worship of a God who is a fascist and a bully; who dislikes
people of different colours and who thinks of women as being
less valuable in every way." (The Guardian 2/3/01)
Even more provocatively he says, "Blake
once wrote of Milton that he was a true poet and of the Devil's
party without knowing it. I am of the Devil's party and I
know it." (Observer 26/8/01)
Pullman sets out to create a universe in
which it is not God but people who are the arbiters of salvation;
where science is a liberating force and scientific realism
(as opposed to religious hierarchy) the basis for a hopeful
future. At the same time he wishes to expose the church, the
Christian church, as the controlling, lying and tyrannical
force he clearly thinks it is.
Yet the church he describes is not the church I know. The
lying fanaticism, the delight in torture, the mania to control
and a pathetic, whimpering god - all images so far from my
faith reality that they fail to resonate. They are simply
the author's particular setting, the context for his great
work. Certainly throughout history, the church as an institution
has been involved in cruelty and folly. Yet we need only reflect
on the mass genocides of the past century, the -isms of nationalism
and communism, to see that evil grows in the heart of people
when gripped by any power crazy fanaticism, religious or otherwise.
So if you enjoy children's fiction read
these books then pass them on to the rest of the family. For
the joy of language and the power of naked story telling I
haven't read anything better in years - and your teenagers
will probably agree!
The above article presents one view on a very
contentious and, since winning the Whitbread prize for fiction,
now more well-known author. The article on Pullman's works
was commissioned by CARE for Education.
To better understand the Harry Potter
phenomenon other recommend reading includes Mark Greene's
article for example The London Institute for Contemporary
Christianity magazine 'To Read or not to Read?' Nov 2000 (email:
mail@licc.org.uk for
a copy), Mark Stibbe's article 'Friend or Foe' in December's
edition of Christianity and Renewal magazine, John Houghton's
book A Closer Look at Harry Potter and Francis Bridger's book
Charmed Life - The Spirituality of Potterworld.
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