"Dark Matter" by Philip Pullman. A trilogy that can be enjoyed by all ages.

Dark Matter

I recently remembered the disastrous film adaptation of Dark matter by Philip Pullman (since only the first book was shot, with the name of The Golden Compass), and I felt that I should break a spear in favor of a saga that I liked as a child, and even more as an adult. So, let's look at the three volumes in this trilogy, and why they are interesting.

Northern Lights

Iorek Byrnison put down the mug and went to the door to look at the old man's face, but Farder Coram was not flinched.
"I know who you're looking for, you're going after the cutters," replied the bear. The day before yesterday they left the city to move further north, with more children. Nobody will tell you anything about them, people close their eyes because child cutters give them money and good deals. But since I don't like child-cutters at all, I'll answer you accordingly. If I stay here and drink liquor, it is because the men of this land took off my armor and without a breastplate I can hunt seals, but not go to war. I am an armored bear, for me war is the sea where I swim and the air that I breathe. The men of this city give me liquor and let me drink until I fall asleep, but they have removed my breastplate. If I knew where they kept it, I would scramble the entire city just to get it back. If you want to have my services, the price you have to pay is this: give me back the breastplate. I want my breastplate, then I won't need any more alcohol. "

Philip Pullman, "Northern Lights."

The first volume of Dark matter is titled, very appropriately, Northern Lights, and transports us to an alternative universe with some characteristics steampunk. However, the most important thing in this world is that the soul of people is not inside their body, but outside. These "souls" are called daemon, entities that adopt a zoomorphic appearance, and that represent the personality of the individual.

I could go a long way talking about the plot, but suffice it to say that in this novel Lyra belacqua, the protagonist, must travel from Oxford to the Far North. It is the most accessible volume of the saga for children and young people, since it is an entertaining adventure story, with charismatic characters such as the polar bear Iorek Byrnison. Despite everything, it has a very interesting subtext, both on a philosophical and metaphysical level.

Dagger

Ruta Skadi was four hundred and sixteen years old and had all the haughtiness and knowledge of a grown witch queen. Although he possessed more wisdom than any human being could accumulate in his short life, he did not realize how childish he appeared alongside these ancient beings. Nor did she suspect that the consciousness of those creatures reached beyond her, like filamentous tentacles, to the remotest intricacies of worlds whose existence she had not even dreamed of; nor that he saw them in human form just because they expected to see his eyes. Had they been perceived with their true appearance, they would have resembled more architectures than organisms, a sort of gigantic structures composed of intelligence and feeling.

Philip Pullman, "The Dagger."

The second volume, Dagger, introduces us fully into the multiverse of Pullman, with a new protagonist of our own world, Will, which has an object with which to travel to other dimensions. Many of the concepts outlined in the first novel, such as Original Sin, are developed in more detail in this volume, where the author's criticism of Christianity is evident.

Dark Matter

The lacquered spyglass

"—Authority, God, the Lord, Yahweh, He, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty," said Balthamos softly, "are names that he imposed on himself. He was an angel like us, the first, true, the most powerful, but he was formed from Dust, just like us, and Dust is the only name applicable to what happens when matter begins to understand itself. Matter loves matter. She wants to know more about herself, and the Dust is formed. The first angels condensed from Dust, and Authority was the first of them all. He explained to those who followed him that he had created them, but it was a lie. One of those who followed him, a female entity, was wiser than him and found out the truth, and then he banished her. We still serve it. The Authority continues to reign in the Kingdom; and Metatron is its Ruler. "

Philip Pullman, "The Lacquered Spyglass."

The lacquered spyglass it is the last volume, as well as the densest and most voluminous of the trilogy. It is also the crudest, politically incorrect, and transgressive part of the entire saga. Describe the fight against The authority, a being that proclaims himself god of the multiverse, without having created it. In this sense, it bears a certain relation to the demiurge of Christian Gnosticism, an entity opposed to God, who embodies evil, and chains men to their material passions.

El dualism between science and religion it is treated much more explicitly than in the first two volumes. These lines prove it: “I believed that I could practice physics to the glory of God, until I realized that God did not exist and that physics was more interesting than I had imagined. The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing error, that's all. "

However, the novel is not a mere excuse to capture the author's thoughts. You can delve into them, of course, but you don't need to enjoy a story that exudes epicity, drama, and courage on all four sides. This book is also a metaphor, a rite of passage, the personal journey of two children, Will and Lyra, and how they become adults. We are facing a great saga, which is undoubtedly worth reading.


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