Re: His Dark Materials (was Re: "Da Vinci" Debunking

I read the books a couple of years ago and I wasn't impressed. The first volume
seemed promising. The quality of the second started declining about half-way
through. And I wasn't able to finish reading the third.

It's something like 'the atheist's answer to Narnia'.

Apart from its strident anti-spiritual world view, I found the quality of the
story itself to be bad. It becomes more and more cartoonish, or action-movie-ish
towards the end. The characters become progressively less real and more flat and
cardboardy. The story becomes less and less gripping and moving.

There's some classical connection: an underworld scene with harpies in charge of
the spirits of the dead. (Yes, there is an afterlife of an unpleasant kind in
Pullman's universe, and there's a God in heaven too, but he's a bad guy. The
different realms are all pretty material and physical.)

> What the Fundamentalists etc really need to be worried about is Philip
> Pullman's *His Dark Materials* trilogy.

I don't think that anybody needs to worry unduly. These books are ultimately
forgettable and not very enjoyable. I don't think that many people will still be
reading them in 10 or 20 years. But I think that people will still be reading 
the
Narnia books, Harry Potter, and Tolkien for the foreseeable future.

"All infidel writers drop into oblivion, when personal connections and the
floridness of novelty are gone; though now and then a foolish fellow, who thinks
he can be witty upon them, may bring them again into notice. There will 
sometimes
start up a College joker, who does not consider that what is a joke in a College
will not do in the world." - Samuel Johnson

David




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