[Milton-L] RE: Milton and Pullman

[Campbell, W. Gardner]

For what it's worth, in my view Pullman is sometimes a fine storyteller indeed and the first two books are full of interest for me in that regard. I have a friend who thinks the first book is nothing but empty contrivance, but he also notices and minds continuity errors in movies that I either don't notice or notice and don't care about, so strong is the pull of the narrative.

But I do very much agree that Pullman is a shallow theologian and metaphysician. The large questions he puts into play in the first two books, including that terrible and terrifying sacrifice at the end of "The Golden Compass" ("The Northern Lights" in the UK), were interesting to me because it was not at all clear (to me anyway) that Lord Asriel should command our respect or admiration. Instead, Lyra's gift as a symbol-reader in the first two books seemed to me to be the main engine of the narrative. The passage in the first book where Lyra learns to read the alethiometer still seems to me to be one of the more beautiful and clear accounts of symbol-reading I've seen. And the pathos of Roger's death as Lyra experiences it did not in any way (again, it seemed to me) recommend Lord Asriel as some kind of God-slaying hero.

All that changes for me in the third book, in which Pullman's violently anti-religious polemic overwhelms the narrative and leads to episodes that are rushed in conception, unelaborated in execution, and just plain silly at times (the nun throwing her crucifix into the ocean after a night of erotic splendor is pure dark-and-stormy-night bad, I think).

I can accept the verdict of "sinister" based on what Pullman reveals of his agenda in the third book, if by "sinister" one means "maliciously disingenuous." I remember feeling not only let down but tricked by the third book. I thought Pullman was urging a kind of negative capability in the first two volumes, but after the third book I felt I'd been suckered by a fake alethiometer that left green stains on my hands.

Gardner

From: milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu [mailto:milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu] On Behalf Of Horace Jeffery Hodges
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 3:53 PM
To: John Milton Discussion List
Subject: Re: [Milton-L] RE: Milton and Pullman

You're not "alone in finding Pullman both shallow and sinister." Even worse, he can't tell a good story.

In the mid-90s, I was sitting in a cafe in London reading book reviews in some newspaper and came across two reviews, one of Rowling and the other of Pullman. An excerpt from the latter's book aroused my curiosity, but I didn't actually read the series until around 2005, long after I'd read most of the Harry Potter series.

I was greatly disappointed by the story's development in the Pullman's series. I started reading with high expectations, and the quality of his writing is certainly very good, but the story went nowhere. Even the writing seemed to falter in the latter book . . . but perhaps I was just getting bored.

Like Professor Fleming, I was troubled by the "noble sacrifice" -- though there may have been an allusion to Christianity in that -- but whatever Pullman might have intended by that, and by the entire series, I finished reading him with a sense of letdown.

In my opinion, he let his animus toward Christianity distort his story.

Despite Pullman's literary gifts, which are considerable and far better than Rowlings', the latter tells a much better story that kept me interested to the very end.

The 'noble sacrifice' in the Harry Potter series worked rather better, too.

For anyone interested, I blogged on my reaction to Pullman back in 2005, soon after having finished him in disappointment:

http://gypsyscholarship.blogspot.com/2005/10/his-dark-materials.html

Jeffery Hodges

--- On Fri, 3/27/09, James Fleming <jfleming at sfu.ca> wrote:

From: James Fleming <jfleming at sfu.ca>
Subject: Re: [Milton-L] RE: Milton and Pullman
To: "John Milton Discussion List" <milton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
Date: Friday, March 27, 2009, 2:59 PM
Am I alone in finding Pullman both shallow and sinister?

As far as I can tell, _The Golden Compass_ ends with Lord Asriel, the good-scary guy, murdering a child (Roger). This is presented as a noble sacrifice, allowing the great man to open up the heavens in defiance of an authoritarian God.

A little _Brothers Karamazov_ rids us of this deed.

JD Fleming


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