It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the first two volumes of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, that the final part is stridently anti-Christian. The trilogy that began with almost parable-style references to the Church and its beliefs has ended with bald statements on the deceit practiced by "God', His obvious decrepitude and the necessity of His death.
It falls to this reviewer to not so much recommend or reject this volume from a Christian perspective " that much should be obvious! " but to catalogue the author's attacks, so there might be no denying his intentions. There are in fact no shortage of supporters who are championing Pullman's assault even as the author himself denies his writing was ever shaped by an agenda. The question remains, however, what will the young reader make of his sugar-coated arrows?
The Subtle Knife concluded with Lyra, the heroine of the story falling into the hands of her mother and arch nemesis Mrs Coulter. The Amber Spyglass continues with her companion Will setting aside everything to save her even as the forces of Heaven, led by the Church, and those of humanity, championed by Lord Asriel, mass for the final conflict. The various adventures of Pullman's central boy and girl take them on a long quest to discover the fate of all those who have died before them. In so doing they meet the angelic defenders of wisdom, uncover the true perfidy of that being who styles himself "God', witness his ultimate destruction and usher in an age of peace for all worlds based on the individual choice and wisdom that unites all sentient beings.
Once again Pullman populates his writing with fantastical creatures and colourful characters that engage the mind, though from a literary standpoint, the pace is somewhat plodding and frequently interrupted with barely concealed essays placed in the mouths of wise characters. The new additions to the plot, such as the trip to the world of the dead, are clunky and their presence barely explained. Some, such as Dr Mary Malone's sojourn with a race of elephantine creatures, are particularly exhausting, and seem to exist only so that the author can create his own evolutionary proof of the ordinariness of humanity. In that respect, the 526 pages of The Amber Spyglass contain their own inoculation to Pullman's philosophies. The contents is at times so tiresome in comparison to the first two volumes that many readers will simply not persevere to its drawn-out and saccharine-sweet conclusion.
Like the previous two volumes, The Amber Spyglass contains its own mixture of blatant inaccuracies and undeserved images. Reformation great John Calvin is presented as a man who ordered the death of children to achieve ecclesiastical goals.1 The Church as previously is seen to lament this sort of pain but is in fact the source of the suffering in countless worlds. In this edition the focus momentarily shifts away from the Church's decadent and devious leaders to demonstrate that the rot goes from the tallest branches to the commonest roots. Will is introduced to a parish priest who is clearly an alcoholic and kind to the young boy in a slippery way that has all the hallmarks of pedophilia.2 And again, in a fairly obvious attempt to convey "black is white' the Church's opponents like Lord Asriel are decked out with Hellish imagery but cast as the champions of all things good.3 Where interest ebbs, Pullman employs imagery that is wholly unsuited for young children. Mrs Coulter's daemon monkey spends a distressing page dismembering a helpless bat.4 Likewise Lyra and Will finally discover that experience of all forms, particularly sensual passion, is the source of the mysterious "dust' (wisdom's byproduct) and the path to healing for all intelligent beings.5
Woven throughout The Amber Spyglass are also a number of more general themes that are of equal concern for Christians. Readers get their first in-depth introduction to angels, who it appears are spiritual beings who long to be sensual. There is a fairly obvious homosexual relationship6 between two key beings, Balthamos and Baruch. Given the chance, angels would love to have physical bodies so that they could enjoy the world the way that humans should.
"The best part is the body," Will said. "That's what Baruch and Balthamos told me. Angels wish they had bodies. They told me that they can't understand why we don't enjoy the world more."7
In most cases angels are in fact much less powerful than humans; the physical, the "real' is the superior state of being.8 The "fallen' angels are actually the opponents of God who have been fighting his tyranny from the beginning.9 God it seems is no god at all, but a particularly powerful angel calling himself the Authority who has decided to pass himself off as something more.
In Pullman's multiverse, all forms of revelation are on an equal footing, except the Scriptures. Where the holy writings of the Church only repeat the lies of the Authority, science, computers, shamanistic trances and other elements of mystic religions are capable of putting us in touch with the "dust' that is the key to all of humanity's advances. Dust is "" the totality of human wisdom and experience," according to Philip Pullman. 10 Consequently, in The Amber Spyglass we discover that it's not only Lyra's golden compass that always tells the truth, but Mary Malone's computer and the ancient Chinese runes of the I Ching. Listening to all of them in turn is what helps the major characters navigate their troubles and ultimately discover a form of enlightenment in the idyllic world of the Mulefa.
The Mulefa themselves, sentient beings who evolved in a radically different fashion than humans11, are a pictorial argument for the ordinariness of human beings. Rather than the peak of God's creation, Dr Malone (once a fervent nun, now an avowed atheist) discovers that humans are just one of a myriad of intelligent beings that evolution has managed to create on other parallel earths where development proceeded differently to our own. They are in fact superior to modern humans in many respects because they have retained their connections with the natural world around them and acknowledge their equality with it. And they, unlike us, have embraced the wisdom of personal choice and experience. In their "Garden of Eden' story, the snake is actually a positive character who leads the first Mulefa into a new stage of evolution.12 What emerges is a fairly self-satisfied lecture on the physical and moral necessity of environmental harmony.
Far from being the source of human creation and their only hope for betterment, the Authority, occasionally referred to as God and YHWH, is a break on human advancement. Pullman's God has been cruel in the past but he is more often presented as a pathetic figure in The Amber Spyglass. He is a decrepit being kept alive by his allies but largely deranged and of no practical use to anyone. Lyra and Will fail to recognize him as the powerful figure who has caused so much misery when they finally meet, and show their moral superiority by trying to assist in his state of weakness. Their efforts, however, result in his annihilation " an occurrence the tired old Almighty is paradoxically grateful for:
"Between them they helped the ancient of days out of his crystal cell; it wasn't hard, for he was as light as paper, and he would have followed them anywhere, having no will of his own" But in the open air there was nothing to stop the wind from damaging him, and to their dismay his form began to loosen and dissolve. Only a few moments later he had vanished completely, and their last impression was of those eyes, blinking in wonder, and a sigh of the most profound and exhausted relief."13
Pullman's imagery is fairly obvious: God is an outmoded idea belonging to a primitive past, who cannot survive an encounter with the real world. In fact, it is his servants who sustain him and his authority throughout the book for the sake of their own purposes.
There is much more that might be said about Pullman's trilogy " the unfairness of God's Hell, the necessity of not fearing death, the joy of the "nothingness' that follows etc. " but it would only amount to more and unnecessary evidence that the author has deliberately set out to undermine the Christian world view in the hearts of children. This, from the above, might seem obvious but it has not stopped Pullman from mounting a frank denial of the charge as New Line Cinemas prepares to release his first volume as a major motion picture: The Golden Compass.
"As for the atheism, it doesn't matter to me whether people believe in God or not, so I'm not promoting anything of that sort. What I do care about is whether people are cruel or whether they're kind, whether they act for democracy or for tyranny, whether they believe in open-minded enquiry or in shutting the freedom of thought and expression. Good things have been done in the name of religion, and so have bad things; and both good things and bad things have been done with no religion at all. What I care about is the good, wherever it comes from."14
There is no doubt that Philip Pullman is an atheist; he has placed himself on the public record as believing "" there's no God here. There never was."15 But is it religious zealotry he is attacking, as he infers in his interview with the US Today Show above, or does his trilogy aim to discourage faith itself? His statements begin to appear more like spin when you consider how he described his work before movie production began. “I’m trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief,” Pullman told the Washington Post in 2001, in response to a question that compared his work to C.S.Lewis' Narnia Chronicles. "Mr. Lewis would think I was doing the Devil’s work."16 Two years later he expressed similar goals to The Sydney Morning Herald:
"I've been surprised by how little criticism I've got. Harry Potter’s been taking all the flak. I’m a great fan of J.K. Rowling, but the people - mainly from America’s Bible Belt - who complain that Harry Potter promotes Satanism or witchcraft obviously haven't got enough in their lives. 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."17
Is this merely the storyline he's referring to, or did Pullman have an over-arching parable in mind for His Dark Materials? I'll let the author speak for himself:
"I began with the idea of a little girl hiding somewhere she shouldn't be, overhearing something she shouldn’t hear. I didn't know then who she was, where she was, or what she overheard. I just started writing. Before too long I realised I was telling a story which would serve as a vehicle for exploring things which I had been thinking about over the years. Lyra came to me at the right stage of my life " Despite the armoured bears and the angels, I don’t think I’m writing fantasy. I think I’m writing realism. My books are psychologically real."18
If so, then I think it is warranted to take his heroes' philosophical statements at face value, and as a fair reflection of the author's intent. Pullman's beautiful, wise witch Serafina summarises humanity's endeavours as the book draws to a close:
"All the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity. She and the rebel angels, the followers of wisdom, have always tried to open minds; the Authority and his churches have always tried to keep them closed."19
As far as the author is concerned, the only truly free place is one that is free from anything that challenges humanity's lordship. General Ogunwe tells Mrs Coulter: "It is my proudest task to join Lord Asriel in setting up a world where there are " no kings, no bishops, no priests. The kingdom of heaven has been known by that name since the Authority first set himself above the rest of the angels. And we want no part of it."20 Rather than concentrate on building God's kingdom, Lyra and her companions have learnt by the last page that the most important thing is to concentrate on building the perfect world for themselves in the here and now.
"We've got to study and think, and work hard, all of us, in all our different worlds, and then we'll build" "
"And then what"? said her daemon sleepily. "Build what?"
"The republic of heaven," said Lyra.21
Footnotes
1 Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass, Scholastic Press, 10th Anniversary Edition, Sydney, 2005 p.205.
2 ibid. p.99.
3 ibid. p.57.
4 ibid. p.53.
5 ibid. p.477
6 ibid. p.27, 35
7 ibid. p.444
8 ibid. p.11
9 ibid. p.209
10 Steve Meacham, The shed where God died, SMH, December 2003, [url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/12/1071125644900.html]http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/12/1071125644900.html[/url]
11 op.cit. p.127.
12 ibid. p.225.
13 ibid. p.414.
14 The Today Show, [url=http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21595083/]http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21595083/[/url]
15 Steve Meacham, op.cit.
16 The Washington Post, 2001 [url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23371-2001Feb18?language=printer]http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23371-2001Feb18?language=printer[/url]
17 Steve Meacham, The shed where God died, SMH, December 2003, [url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/12/1071125644900.html]http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/12/1071125644900.html[/url]
18 ibid.
19 Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass, Scholastic Press, 10th Anniversary Edition, Sydney, 2005 p.485.
20 ibid. p.210.
21 ibid. pp.525-526.
