bookshelves: fantasy
His Dark Materials is a three volume adolescent adventure tale occurring in a pseudo-Victorian universe parallel to our own. In this “steam-punk” environment religion and science are alloyed in clever and interesting ways. For example, a mechanical bug is a flying machine with a trapped evil spirit as its energy source, and physics is called experimental theology.
The protagonist of this trilogy is a pre-adolescent named Lyra Belacque. Lyra is a girl with a destiny, a feisty, clever child who lies almost reflexively to get what she wants. When Lyra’s friend Roger is kidnapped she begins a series of adventures in hopes of rescuing him while also searching for her father in the frozen north lands. Along the way she enlists a novel cast of characters including; a giant armored polar bear, a band of water gypsies or “gyptians,” a tribe of Siberian witches, and a Texas Aeronaut. Eventually, Lyra meets up with Will, another budding adolescent with whom she travels across parallel worlds facing grave dangers and impossible odds, while gaining maturity and falling in first love. Throughout all three books Lyra is pursued by agents of the sinister and powerful church known as The Magisterium.
In the principal world of HDM, each human has a constant animal companion called a daemon which is both friend and conscience. One’s daemon symbolically reveals the essence of one’s character. For example, Lord Azriel’s snow leopard shows us his ferocious strength, while Mrs. Coulter’s monkey is diabolically manipulative and cruel. HDM’s villains are deliciously evil, dripping in cold malice or driven by hot hatred. And none of them seem more malevolent than Lyra’s own parents. And even though Lyra is devoted to her parents, we don’t like them because they are the most bloodthirsty and amoral characters in the story despite the author’s insistence that the Magisterium and its Archangel patron are far worse.
This story has lots of interesting and admirable minor heroes, but HDM’s main heroes are characters which generally lack warmth. Lyra too is often amoral and Will is constantly distant, guilt ridden, and unapproachable. So even though the story tells us they are falling in love, and we want to believe it since we have all shared so much danger, yet it is still a poorly portrayed romance, barely budding in fact even if the narrator tells us it has already bloomed.
In the end, the large cast of characters are very cleverly contrived but bloodless, and we are more likely to shed tears for a polar bear than a parent, and feel as much affection for a balloonist as for the young lovers themselves. So while Pullman deserves acclaim for his delightful inventiveness in cast and setting, the principle characterizations do not ring warm, nor true. But characterization is not the most popular aspect of children’s fantasy. To most young readers this story is simply a fantastic adventure into adolescence. Despite it’s mature themes, His Dark Materials is ultimately a children's book and both adults and children should be dazzled and delighted by the rich and imaginative texture of Pullman’s fantasy, without paying too much attention to the author’s bitter attacks upon religion.
His Darker Materials: A 2nd Review for Overly Serious and Slightly Obsessive Adults
Phillip Pullman is one of England's most outspoken atheists who has expressed a desire to become the “anti-C.S. Lewis” by weaving anti-Christian themes into his fiction. Even though most of the anti-Christian themes will not be obvious to a young audience, they may become overly tendentious to adult readers. For example, while C. S. Lewis’s central character in his Narnia fantasy gives his life to save the world from evil before miraculously returning to life, Pullman’s God does precisely the opposite. He disengages from his creation, retires, and after having been deposed by his Regent and imprisoned in a crystal cage he dies in an auto accident and is eaten by vultures. This may seem to be delightfully dark humor to the ardent atheist, but to most readers it will seem irrelevant to the story - just another ax ground down to the handle. What makes this supposed irony meaningless is that Pullman’s God is utterly unrecognizable. He has none of the characteristics we associate with God except authority - and even that has been impossibly usurped. Pullman’s cardboard God plays no role in the faith of the characters, nor the plot development, so most readers will not be terribly distressed by his ignominious demise because even though it is a gratuitously bitter aside, it is not really an attack on anyone we know.
In 1996, Philip Pullman asserted that "[t:]here are some themes, some subjects, too large for adult fiction; they can only be dealt with adequately in a children's book." While I am not sure I agree with Pullman, neither can I join those who accuse HDM of being too sophisticated for children. I think it is perfectly acceptable to texture a story with history, symbols, and language that are beyond the understanding of children, because they generally have a remarkable ability to ignore that which seems irrelevant. After all, young readers are used to living in a world which is so complex as to be indistinguishable from magic. My principal complaint with Pullman’s work is not because he has embedded mature themes in a children’s fantasy, but because those themes themselves have little integrity. They are mostly inconsistent, contradictory, and unilluminating. If they are as important as Pullman asserts, then they deserve better treatment than here.
Lost Threads
HDM sets up a variety of seemingly important elements which are lost or undeveloped. For instance, the central force driving the story is every faction's belief that Lyra has a crucial choice to make which will determine the fate of the multiverse. Yet whether she ever actually makes that choice is completely unclear. Similarly there is a much emphasized prophecy that Lyra will commit a "great betrayal" that will "hurt her greatly," yet what actually happens is not clearly a betrayal and does not hurt her any more than her companions who make the same sacrifice. Indeed this “betrayal” leads to greater power and freedom for herself and her dearest friend.
The value and nature of the soul is a recurring question that seems to drive all of the characters, but its relation to the story is dropped. The relationship between free will and sin also underlies the story but then it either dissolves into a question of sentience or disappears altogether. The origin of sentience itself is a question asked but unanswered. It could be caused by tool use, which itself might be caused by intelligent dust. The issue remains unclear, except that the author is certain that sentience is definitely not God’s doing.
Inconsistencies
Before embarking on her adventure Lyra is given an alethiometer, a device which can omnisciently tell the truth but is very difficult to read. Lyra reads it instinctively because of the dust within her. She loses her reading ability as she matures, although in theory that is when she receives more dust. So the facts of the story contradict the premise of the golden compass itself. Later we learn that the self-conscious dust is what is apparently omniscient, though why this benevolent dust is not the ultimate deific moral authority is unclear. I suppose the atheist author might be reticent to create a dust-god when his avowed purpose is to debunk all gods.
It is prophesied that Lyra will become Eve, but the way she eventually does this is to fall in silly, sweet, infatuous love like countless other budding adolescents. By falling in love, Lyra and Will supposedly reverse the spiritual/ecological disaster of “dust exodus,” though no one knows how. Nor do we learn why neither other people’s love, nor the Mulefa’s could attract the fleeing dust.
The prophesied temptress who brings Lyra to this Eve-like decision, tempts her by recounting her own personal liberation from religion. Mary tells young Lyra that she left the church and stopped being a nun during a business conference when she kissed an Italian man and felt sexual desire. She then happily left her vows, and became free to love, and be fulfilled instead of being alone. Of course she admits she did not marry him, nor the man she lived with for 4 years subsequent because even though she became free to not be alone like a nun, she learned that in fact she doesn’t need men, and she is happier alone as a non-nun.
In the end, it is utterly unclear how this tale of liberation from consistency, commitment and genuine love can possibly awaken Lyra’s desire for Will. After all, we readers saw the signs of first-love coming five hundred pages before ever hearing Mary’s tale of self-deceiving liberation. So while Lyra is to become Eve after yielding to temptation, the temptation is unclear, the yielding is unclear, and the effect is unexplained. By failing to truly show Lyra’s significance and destiny, the driving force of the whole story is lost.
It was also prophesied that because of Lyra, death should cease. In the first place, Pullman’s death is imprisonment in a “super-dungeon of the soul” made by God to make both good and bad souls miserable forever. In the second place, because of Lyra death didn’t really cease. People still die. But now, imprisoned spirits can escape to the surface and dissolve into nature. Even if you see blessed oblivion as a step up from the awful spirit prison, it is hardly an end to death.
Though Lord Azriel admits indifference to his daughter, he makes a sudden turn-around to protect her in the final climactic battle, though he doesn’t know why, and neither do we except that now another prophecy may somehow be fulfilled. Lyra’s mother likewise sacrifices herself to overthrow the Archangelic Authority. Thus she too is redeemed from being demonic throughout the story, because even though both parents are arrogant, vicious child murderers, at least they have the eventual moral fortitude to rebel against the even worse malevolence of the Church. To me the parents final redemption and demise is inexplicable, and not at all touching.
Preaching the New Religion
HDM is dripping with bitterness against religion as can be seen by its numerous jabs at the Catholic church. But Pullman also attacks institutional religion in general by asserting that God should not have won the war in heaven. HDM posits an heroic anti-authoritarian resistance to the tyranny of heaven, and suggests we would all be better off with a “Republic of Heaven.” But the heavenly war was not fought over the choice of Kingdom or Republic. Satan’s alternative to God’s benevolent kingdom was an oppressive totalitarian dictatorship. And because Lord Azriel, Pullman's Promethean voice of reason against the Church, is as arrogant as Lucifer and excuses the ample blood on his hands, we have every indication that his “Republic of Heaven” would be no more free than any other police state set up by 20th century intellectual revolutionaries seeking a better world, only to create dystopia.
Moral relativism is another great theme given insipid treatment in HDM. Toward the end of the story, one of the main characters spends several pages asserting that though his own morality is different from God’s version, it is every bit as valid. I think Pullman unintentionally shows here that it is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to show the moral superiority of a moral-relativist.
The author shows poor judgment by commending profligacy in a children’s book by treating the free and uninhibited sexual relations of witches and men as a positive thing, and by applauding Mary’s promiscuity. He even encourages a physical relationship between the two pre-teen heroes (though some passages were excised in the US edition).
Pullman’s story includes several other religious heresies. For instance, the notion that beings with bodies are more powerful than beings of spirit only, and that there exists in the universe elementary particles of intelligence. He also suggests that the only true spirituality is self-awareness, and that the fall of Adam and Eve was brought about for a good purpose. Because these controversial ideas are consistent with my own unorthodox form of Christianity, I have no objection to including them in a speculative fiction, though I can’t help suspecting that they were employed principally to aggravate the religiously orthodox.
His Golden Conclusion
Pullman’s fantasy is so very inventive and clever, it almost compensates for being ideologically pretentious and fragmented. I recommend the reader ignore the philosophizing. It doesn't go anywhere and it doesn't actually impact the stories in the ways it seems like it should. In the end too many of the pieces don’t fit together, and Pullman’s grand themes end up not being so grand. But for the most part that is OK because few of children care much about the large themes, and those adults who do care ought to lighten up or go elsewhere.
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bookshelves: art
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bookshelves: general-fiction
Tom Clancy’s Red Storm arises amidst the cold-war of the 1980s, when complex events persuade Soviet hardliners to launch an audacious plan to seize Middle-East oil, while framing the Germans for starting a war. In this, the author makes a bold, yet credible portrayal of Kremlin intrigue, and attitudes towards the west. I grew up in the constant shadow of the cold-war, and I remember how the Warsaw pact conventional forces were widely considered superior to those of the NATO alliance. And because I personally witnessed many debates on the critical question of whether we could win a hot war without nukes, I find this scenario especially interesting.
Of the half- dozen Tom Clancy techno-thrillers I have read, this is the most overwhelmingly technical. It is the author’s second novel, following on the heels of the superb Hunt for Red October. Clancy earned such fame and acclaim for his revealing look at submarine cat-and-mouse games that he naturally attempted to repeat the same war game type approach but on a larger scale. Consequently, the author spends many hundreds of pages revealing the minutiae of global and local military strategy. He once again pours out in exquisite detail the technical requirements of war, but this time on the multiple fronts of land, sea, and air. This technical approach is made more palatable when seen from multiple points of view on all sides of the conflict. Even so, for most of this tale’s 800 pages we are immersed in the political maneuvering and intelligence gathering , as well as the actual military operations of a cold war gone hot. If you are intrigued by the game of war, this is a great book.
On the other hand, this book has relatively little human interest compared to Clancy’s other books. Aside from a very good side plot of covert operations by weathermen stationed in Greenland, this is pure war game type simulation. Despite the reported casualties, this war story seems remote and bloodless. There are hardly any closeups of casualties, or grunts, and there is no Jack Ryan super-hero. Instead, our story follows several different characters through interleaving subplots which show how the tide of even a global war can turn on the inspiration, resourcefulness, and good luck of pawns in the storm.
Even though it is a less balanced novel than Tom Clancy’s other books, it is a thrilling tale of military and geopolitical intrigue which I enjoyed immensely ]]>
John
read and liked
Joe's
review of Red Storm Rising:
"Ah, clancy. If you like his stuff, you'll love this book. If you like the books that he didn't write that have his name on them, you'll probably really like this book.
Few people know that this book was written as part of a competition t...more "
"Ah, clancy. If you like his stuff, you'll love this book. If you like the books that he didn't write that have his name on them, you'll probably really like this book.
Few people know that this book was written as part of a competition t...more "
by Alan Moore
I concur with most of your critique of the radical left whose worldview I cannot abide. I also believe that the leftist critique is mostly a grim fantasy and a severe social pathology. I suppose that is why I consider Watchman a guilty pleasure - a well made glimpse into the mind of American nihlism. ]]>
bookshelves: art
The art of relief print-making has remained much the same for hundreds of years. Both wood cuts and wood engravings are created today much as they were in the days of Albrect Durer and Thomas Bewick. Even so, a few of the tools, inks and paper have been modernized, and of course the artist’s styles and subject matter have changed dramatically. In this book, George Walker has given an excellent overview of the historical techniques of Woodcut as well as providing many practical tips to the novice printmaker.
As you expect in an introductory work, the author begins with a short history of woodcut and wood engraving techniques, and then proceeds to survey the specifics of the craft such as selecting and sharpening tools, selecting the appropriate block materials (such as linoleum, wood, or resingrave), as well as the various types inks and papers. He covers this material well, but this work really begins to shine when it discusses the artistic processes of designing and executing a wood engraving. The book provides both clear text and illustration to guide the novice artist. And Walker shares many practical tips on avoiding pitfalls and repairing mistakes which he undoubtedly gleaned from his years of teaching experience
One of the most resonant comments in Walker’s excellent preface is that “the best training in technique is to look at the work of other artists.” Consistent with this philosophy, this book has a remarkable number of outstanding woodcuts and engravings from many different eras, along with comments on the artistic techniques employed. The culminating chapter of the book is a gallery with an excellent selection of prints employing a wide variety of techniques.
Another strength of this book is Walker’s discussion of practical considerations often neglected in an introductory text such as how to arrange the workspace, deciding the size of an edition, safely using solvents, and ways to use, mount and store prints. This handbook’s reference quality is further enhanced by the appendices which include a glossary, artist bios, bibliography, and a list of sources for information and materials.
I think that George Walker's Woodcut Artist’s Handbook is an excellent introduction to relief printmaking, and I would gladly recommend it to both printmaker and print lover. ]]>
bookshelves: art
I have many hundreds of books and magazines on various types of woodworking, and this is one of my favorites. Theda Bassman has beautifully photographed some of the finest Native American art, by 25 of the best Hopi carvers of the late 1980s. She has also included interviews with each of these carvers. These interviews reveal the simplicity of the Hopi, the pervasive reverence of their culture, and a remarkably spiritual approach to an ever increasingly sophisticated art form.
Kachina are supernatural beings who dwell in the San Francisco Peaks near Falgstaff, Arizona. For untold years these Kachina have left their mountain homes to visit the Hopi villages from February through July. The Hopi petition the Gods through these Kachina intermediaries for favorable weather, bountiful crops, and a peaceful, prosperous life. In sacred ceremony, costumed men and women represent the Kachina in song and dance. Similarly costumed Kachina dolls are given to girls and women as prized possessions and religious reminders.
Before the 1975 Migratory Bird Act forbade the Hopi from using wild bird feathers in their doll making, dolls were made of relatively crudely carved pieces of wood glued together, and decorated with feathers, fur and fabric. Since then, with traditional feathers unavailable, the style of one piece doll carving has taken root in both shop and gallery. These modern creations include carved feathers, fur and fabric. This style has become increasingly sculptural and sophisticated in portraying both the costume and representative motions of the ceremonial Kachina. These one piece Hopi Kachina dolls are currently among the finest genre of Native American art, perhaps exceeded only by the North West form-line carvers.
Their work inspires me and amazes me. It leaves me in awe, and with more than a little envy of the ability to combine faith and aesthetics, with a craft I dearly love to create such a magnificent art form that is both new and ancient. I consider these carvings to be artistically fascinating and culturally priceless. ]]>
bookshelves: religion
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bookshelves: religion
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bookshelves: religion
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