Philip Pullman

[Thadlerian]

What I have been curious about since the book first came out is why the Daemon's are all opposite in gender to the people they are with.

I've never thought of this, but now that you mention it, I might have a possible answer: I think Pullman might be addressing established gender conceptions. By giving a man a female dæmon, he is given both "maleness" and "femaleness", as these are both part of him. After all, "man" and "woman" are merely social constructions, labels handed to us as soon as we're able to percieve society around us, and, socialization and norms put aside, have little to no meaning to describe a human being's identity.

By the way, do we ever get to know how to tell a dæmon's gender? Perhaps it is the voice? It seems it's something the humans instinctively know. Perhaps dæmons are opposite gender of their owners to maintain a kind of natural genderlessness in the person's identity, to make up for the damage done when society started ascribing separate roles for the genders.

 

[Ljomi]

Well, as we've probably all heard before a persons personality is split, example: a male would have a female demon as a sign of his feminine side. Perhaps Pullman believes in equal rights for both genders and is just using this as a way to express his beliefs.

 

[aarti]

I've been interested in reading people's responses to His Dark Materials. I myself have a sort of ambivalent response to the series. I thought it started strong, but then my attention really petered out. Unfortunately, I skimmed through a lot of The Amber Spyglass. Perhaps I just didn't "get" what Pullman was trying to pull together at the end, but I really started to lose interest. In fact, it's quite possible I just didn't "get" it because now I think of it, I have no really firm idea as to where the series descriptive "His Dark Materials" comes from. Oh, dear!

The first movie adaptation of the trilogy is supposed to be coming out soon, isn't it? Though it's been in the works for some time, as far as I know.

 

[McMurphy]

The first movie adaptation of the trilogy is supposed to be coming out soon, isn't it? Though it's been in the works for some time, as far as I know.

You are quite right. HERE is a link directly from the author's homepage that speaks of the film adaption development.

Various blog and online sources are quoting the end of 2007 as the film's release date.

 

[Thadlerian]

I have no really firm idea as to where the series descriptive "His Dark Materials" comes from. Oh, dear!

It's from John Milton's Paradise Lost from 1600-something. It's a freaking long poem telling the story of Lucifer's fall from Heaven, his creation of Hell, and the Fall of Man. Extremely boring, but with some quite interesting passages. It might quite possibly be here the term "devil's advocate" comes from: Milton uses the devil's dialogue with Eve in the garden to adress a range of liberal issues. John Milton is considered one of the forefathers of European liberalism.

I can't recall the exact place "his dark materials" are mentioned, anyway, Pullman's HDM parallels Paradise Lost a whole lot, except that the morality is turned around, that the rebellion and the fall is something good.

Milton also mentions "golden compasses" within the poem.

I recommend Paradise Lost to anyone who's interested in HDM and spun-off-from-christianity-themed fantasy, like angels and demons and large battles in heaven and hell. Jasper Fforde considers it one of the ten most boring literary texts in history, but there you are.

 

[aarti]

Thanks for such an illuminating response, Thadlerian! I don't know if I'll ever actually pick Milton up (though I did write a paper about him back in high school), but it's nice to know where the term "his dark materials" comes from. And that actually makes a lot of sense. Thanks again!

 

[Thadlerian]

After Paradise Lost, I find that I like (and understand) HDM, especially The Amber Spyglass, a whole lot more.

 

[TiwazTyrsfist]

I really enjoyed it, but the end of the series, like the last half of the last book, seemed to come out of left field. I won't spoil by revealing things, but seriously, it was like we were driving down the C.S.Lewis Highway, and took a sudden left turn against traffic onto Nabokov Bollivard.

 

[thorn]

i stumbled about this thread while surfing the net, and it actually made me join this forum. i got the HDM trilogy when i was about fourteen but for some reason i didn't read it for a couple of years...when i finally did i was really amazed, after the first couple of chapters the story really gets a grip on you - and in my opinion it gets better from book to book. these books made me wish i could read them again for the first time (if you know what i mean)...in some way this book gives an alternative story of "adam and eve" ...and it does it in a really imaginative and fascinating way...for me definitely a "must-read"

 

[Kailana]

I am probably the only person in the world that really was not impressed with the first book in this trilogy. I read it last year... or maybe the end of the year before... and it was just okay for me. I know lots of people that love it, but it just didn't work well for me. I hardly even remember what it was about. Needless to say, the sequels have stayed on my shelf. I have not felt the compulsion to read them. I will likely see the movie, though.