Moving To The Printed Word

After discussing three TV shows and two movies, it is time to look at a book series (though I plan on ending this set with the film adaptation of the first book, so I won't completely leave the visual world behind). Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy has recently received a lot of press coverage due to the film adaptation of the first book, The Golden Compass (in Pullman's native UK, the first book is called Northern Lights, which I think is a more appropriate title, but the US title works better for the theme of my posts). It has been attacked for being anti-Catholic and anti-religious, but there wasn't an uproar about the series until the movie was made.

My main focus is not on why people got so bent out of shape about the book's themes on the nature of religion until over ten years after they were released, but on the way the novels' characters use and relate to the title objects (the other two books in the series are called The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass). The name His Dark Materials is a reference to a line from Milton's "Paradise Lost", not any particular objects within the series (though the knife likely comes close). However, each book's title refers to an object used by one of the integral characters in the series, and the relationship between person and object is worth exploring.

Up next: Lyra Belacqua and The Golden Compass...