Sifting Through His Dark Materials, Part Two

The Negative:

It is hard for me to write about the negative aspects of these stories. I am quite sure that people will accuse me of looking for the negative because I disagree with Pullman's worldview. I am sure, there are elements of that in my understanding of his stories. But, I have to say, I really wanted these books to be good. I was rooting for it to change my mind about them as i read them. A case in point for me was when I read Harry Potter. I was highly skeptical when I read the first book. And now, all seven sit on my shelf, having been paid the ultimate compliment by me with food stains and finger prints on the book pages.

Most of my critiques about these books flow from my take that His Dark Materials has to be one of the grim fantasy series I have ever read. What I mean is, there is very little humor in the books. To compare, in Harry Potter, even in the dark moments of the book, there is a humor there that just makes you laugh every time. When reading His Dark Materials, I didnt laugh once and in fact, I dreaded to pick up the books. I think this comes from the fact Pullman seems to take himself entirely too seriously. Nearly every interview I have read (and I have read a lot of them) there is very little humor in his response to questions. I hope I am not representing him in the wrong light, but those are my impressions.

Now, I am not saying Pullman has to be like Rowling, but there were times were I was asking myself, "holy crap, can this book get any grimer?" And, it isn't just the fact that there are dark and dangerous times. Any good book should have them. But, when there is hardly any laughter or joy in a book, you have to wonder.

And that grimness and seriousness flows out into the book, especially in the writing style. The writing is overwrought in many places, and focused on telling, rather than showing. There were parts in the book I grew highly annoyed, because Pullman kept telling me how I should feel about someone or a situation, rather than showing me. I think this is especially true of the whole authority and church business. Okay, in the first book, we got the church cutting off the souls of children. Pretty bad, but then Pullman just leaves that, and seems to expect that horrible experiment to drive our emotions for the rest of the trilogy. It didn't for me, because he never showed how bad the whole church or the god figure could be in other areas. Rather, we are told this. But really, all I could see was that a rebel angel and a rogue element in the church were reponsible for all of this. We don't get a sense of the evil, the danger, the pressing need to war on this supposed god.


And even more, the characters on the good side were poorly drawn. There is no one I wanted to root for at all. We are supposed to feel that for Lyra and Will, but I couldn't. They gave me no reason to want to, or rather, Pullman gives me no reason to want them to succeed. Will is the closest one who draws out our sympathy, but Lyra is a spoiled, pretentious brat. One of Pullman's stated intents with this book is to present a better girl to womanhood story than CS Lewis' take on Lucy and Susan. Granted, I have a disagreement with Lewis' treatment of Susan, but I don't think Pullman's Lyra is a good one either. She is supposedly strong, but falls apart, expecting Will to be her strength in key areas of the book.

I think Hermoine Granger in Harry Potter is a great example of a strong, multifaceted girl/woman in kids literature. She is complex, varied, and strong. And more, she is real, you can identify with her. I can't identify with Lyra, I wanted to, but Pullman never pulls it off. I honestly just didn't care what happend to her at all.

And finally, you have Lord Asriel, who is leading this war on heaven. We are supposed to have sympathy with his aims, and goals. But the guy is a total jackass. I kept asking myself, okay so the authority is evil, but is Lord Asriel any better? Do we really want what he wants? The question would be, why? Seems like the people would be overthrowing one bad thing for another. I realize he dies, they want to establish the Republic of heaven, blah, blah, blah. Again, goes back to the confused picture of the evil in this book, I think.

So, here is my final word on the negative. There is so much promise in these books. Great potential, but I think Pullman fails in his story. I think he failed to bring everything together. And when great potential fails to bring about its promise, we are all left with the feeling of sadness. His books could have been one of the great fantasy stories, but he just never got there.
Lots of cool stuff, but never brought to greatness.

So, there is my reactions to the books as stories. Next up, will be my look at the worldview behind the books. That will come in the next few days, as it will take longer to get my thoughts together.