He's No John Milton!

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Recently, after I had been called "pompous" and "rude" by a dear friend because I had the horrible temerity to suggest that the quality of Philip Pullman's writing was sadly lacking when compared to the literary achievements of J. R. R. Tolkien, or even of C. S. Lewis, I determined to research these specific Pullman books a bit more to see if perhaps I was somehow mistaken. So, I bought a cheap, second-hand set of the books to skim and reread various selected passages. Nothing I have reread in the last few hours has changed my original opinion to any significant extent.

I also went online and looked for commentary about Pullman's work, or reviews of the books themselves, that might express similar views to what my own views had originally been. I was definitely NOT looking for any of the current visceral "trashing" of the books by those Catholics or Evangelicals who oppose them, or who oppose the new film version. What I found, and what I think fairly accurately conveys the essence of my original objections to the quality of the writing is included here below. I would urge anyone who has any interest in these books (on any level) to seriously read the full content of the material below for the sake of getting a relatively fair and well-rounded view of these specific volumes.


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Customer Reviews:

369 of 444 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Going, going, gone, September 7, 2005
By readerwriter

I'd like to offer a bit of dissent from all the raves concerning the Dark Materials trilogy.

Let's begin at the beginning. *The Golden Compass* is a work of true genius, sparkling with inventiveness and carrying the reader on through its essentially absurd plot (do you *really* believe that any eleven-year-old girl, no matter how precocious, could accomplish all those things?) with fine panache and an unflagging sense of wonder. Don't stop to think, just sit back and enjoy the ride. Lyra, the girl from the parallel universe, is out to save her father from the captivity of armored polar bears and at the same time free her friends from the diabolical experiments of the fiendish Mrs. Coulter. What could be better?

Book Two, *The Subtle Knife*, jars us a bit by switching the viewpoint to our own world, where Will, a young lad about Lyra's age, also sets out on a quest to find his lost father. Will is another full-fledged superkid, able to accomplish tasks that would daunt even Odysseus as he meets Lyra, interacts with all manner of bizarre beings and hops from world to world with tireless stamina.

Alas, Will is never quite as convincing as Lyra, perhaps because he's so thoroughly grounded in our own mundane world, perhaps because his beyond-adult courage, wisdom, endurance and innate nobility are so utterly over-the-top (far eclipsing even Lyra's astonishing talents) that they begin to test the boundaries of our suspension of disbelief. Even James Bond was never this resourceful, and certainly never so remarkably articulate. There are some things that just don't wash, even in a fantasy. But all the same, there's action aplenty, and if you're not in too critical a frame of mind, *The Subtle Knife* makes for an enjoyable read.

But by Book Three, *The Amber Spyglass*, Pullman's characters and storylines begin to explode in all directions, leaving us to wonder just which of the many players we're supposed to be rooting for -- and why. Multiple plotlines are fine, if they're kept within reason, but when the device is overdone, the reader becomes like a passenger on a fast-moving train, trying to look at all the passing landmarks but unable to concentrate on any of them long enough to really appreciate them. Maybe it's simple authorial zeal; but then again, maybe it's to keep the reader from looking closely enough to spot the ever-multiplying logical inconsistencies.

Very quickly, the author's astonishing inventiveness begins to betray him as new concepts, magical gadgetry and otherworldly beings are piled on in such relentless layers that we very quickly reach the saturation point at which anything is possible and therefore nothing can any longer be surprising. Worse, many of them seem to have been invented as mere devices for hauling the characters in and out of the latest alarming predicament. Does the Intention Craft, to name just one, really have any purpose in the storyline other than to give Mrs. Coulter a way to escape from Lord Asriel's fortress?

But most unforgivable of all, *The Amber Spyglass* is less of a novel than a thinly-fictionalized religious -- or should I say anti-religious? -- screed disguised as a fantasy novel. For Lord Asriel's intention is nothing less than to slay God himself and leave the multiverse the exclusive property of its wise inhabitants. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that God turns out to be nothing more than a drooling, withered, senile angel who gratefully evaporates when the two juvenile protagonists release him from his crystal life-support coffin, but Lord Asriel is undaunted. After all, there's still God's Regent to contend with, a lustful angel with a name ("Metatron") that would hardly be out of place on a Japanese giant robot.

Of course with no God, there's always the thorny question of life after death, but militant atheist Pullman has an answer to that one, too. There is neither Heaven nor Hell, but there is a sort of Homeric underground afterlife where the powerless, whispering shades of the dead go to mutter to each other while harpies mock them for their earthly shortcomings.

Not too appealing, you say? Will and Lyra agree, and after the usual superhuman efforts, they descend into Hades and free the dead souls. But being dead, after all, where can the shades go? Why, to oblivion, of course! They now have the option of choosing utter dissolution over an eternity of ghostly mediocrity, and just so we don't get the mistaken impression that this isn't really much of a choice, Pullman shows us that the dead are just deliriously happy to die for the second time, this time for keeps.

I single this oddity out as an example of the author's relentless atheistic digs not because it's unique but because it's simply one of so very many from which to choose. Personally, I have no problem with atheists, but I can't abide *strident* atheists any more than I can abide strident religious fanatics, and *The Amber Spyglass* is one long atheist tract masquerading as a fantasy novel. Again, I emphasize that both atheists and atheist novels per se are fine with me, but when the ideology starts to overwhelm the storyline, it's time to bail out. Pullman's loathing of religion -- particularly Christianity, *most* particularly Roman Catholicism -- drips from every page, until even the most militant apostate is ready to scream "enough!"

Whatever the characters are fighting *for* in this great battle against the All-not-so-Mighty, isn't entirely clear, since the multiverse still seems to be an awfully bleak and unappealing place after the Dust finally settles. It certainly isn't Love, because none of the couples in the trilogy -- be they Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter, the homosexual angels (yes) Baruch and Balthamos, or Lyra and Will themselves -- are allowed to come to a non-tragic end after their travails. In fact, poor Will and Lyra are cheated out of their hard-earned right to each other by a plot device so heavy-handedly contrived and artificial that we can only believe that the author was determined that there should be nothing remotely resembling anything as trite as a Happy Ending tainting the lunar landscape of his saga, no matter the cost to the readers' credibility. The "tragic" ending to *The Amber Spyglass* isn't so much tear-jerky as simply jerky.

The *His Dark Materials* trilogy certainly is not, as the cover blurbs would have it, a new and formidable competitor to *Lord of the Rings*. It is, in fact, a kind of antimatter version of C.S. Lewis' heavy-handedly preachy Narnia books, but sadly lacking any trace of Lewis' charm. Fanatical Pullman fans will (and do) loudly proclaim that only "fundamentalist Christians" (aka "religious bigots") could possibly be disappointed with *The Amber Spyglass*, but in fact it's more like disappointment in a trilogy that begins so promisingly only to deteriorate into a rambling, unfocused, illogical rant in what should have been the climactic volume.

My recommendation: buy *The Golden Compass*, and enjoy it without hesitation. If you feel that you absolutely *have* to see more of what's going on in Philip Pullman's sad multiverse, go ahead and get *The Subtle Knife*, too. But unless you have an unslakable thirst for obsessive antireligious tracts wrapped up in grimly contrived fantasy trappings that fairly groan at their stretching seams (and I know there are many people out there who do), don't bother with *The Amber Spyglass*.

Well, if you *really* want to read it, I have a copy I'm willing to let go. Cheap.




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147 of 199 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
First Book is Great, the last two crap out, January 28, 2007
By A Kid's Review

Let's face it: most books are terrible. However, many readers get sucked in by a great first chapter---and then watch in dismay as the rest of the book seems to be a slow slide into poor writing, contrived plots, irritating side stories.

The Golden Compass was very, very good. Lyra was amusing, brave, and the surrounding cast of characters; the gyptians, Lord Asriel, Iorek.... It was an excellent book, with a fantastic ending. I highly recommend this first book. It is both satisfying and tantalizing---you can read just this book (which, frankly, I would advise) or launch eagerly into the next book. Given that several characters are left kind of dangling, you will probably do so immeaditely.

You will be slightly confused when, instead of continuing with Lyra's story, we dumped into our world, or rather, Will's world. You're told way too much about his mentally disturbed mother, his missing father (oh, oh, THAT'S original) and watch with bland interest as he manages to (accidentally) kill a man. Poor Will.

Magic appears in the form of a `window' into another world. That's convenient for lil Will. My biggest problem with the whole windows into other worlds and the handy *subtle* knife is that it means that Asriel's accomplishment is rendered completely unremarkable. You're expecting that Asriel is going to step into some marvelous world, the Northern Lights world.

Instead, we barely hear about Asriel, and Lyra is practically abandoned so we can follow Will around. Will is a weirdly stoic, dull, uninteresting, unamusing and nasty character who belongs more in some morbid `literary' novel. And he gets PAGES of screen time. Since he managed to get the immensely powerful Subtle Knife (hint: it's far, far from Subtle) he effs off anyone who gets in his way.

He effs off angels, even helpful angels, and basically sends one to his death. He offers no comfort to the grief-stricken angel who is left behind. The character of Balthamos, who added much needed sarcasm and humor, is effectively castrated when he promises to be nicer (hint: much more boring) to the irritating Will.

Will is exactly the type of character that C.S.Lewis would have parodied with sly and biting humor. I hate Will. He is an immense bore, who quickly grows tedious in his continuous use of this all-powerful knife. He probably attended Experiment House.

I realized from the first that Pullman disliked Christianity and organized religion. However, whether through poor writing skills, or the rabid rage that blinded him, the last two books totally dissolve. There are brilliant scenes interspersed---and then there are the hideously irritating side plots. Mary, the ex-nun, offers an idiotic reason why she left her religion. Basically, she falls in love, and decides that God doesn't exist. Her reasons as follows

1. He just doesn't.
2. It's more fun and convenient.
3. Physics are more interesting.

She also is the protaganist of a side story that creaks and groans and screams to any sensible editor KILL ME! Wheeled elephants, who are sooo cute in their wisdom and sweet, innocent ways, show what Pullman thinks the world could be like if people just didn't believe in God. Wheee! Mary's role as supposed serpent/tempter never materializes. Likewise, neither does Lyra's supposed role as Eve, etc.

The Great Battle That Never Was:

Little to no tension is built up when SUDDENLY we're expected to care about this battle. However, much more time is spent in the world of the dead, where Lyra and Will free the ghosts from the hideous, Hades like underworld. However, like obedient readers, we trot along.

Then, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM! Pullman, in obvious desperation and frustration, kills Asriel, Mrs. Coulter, and Metatron in a scene that disappoints on every level. You keep waiting for Mrs. Coulter to pull of one of her marvelous and wicked schemes that leaves everyone else gasping in the dust. Instead, she turns all sweet and gooshy, swearing that she loves Lyra, and ends up `standin by her man' and expiring alongside Asriel and that stupid angel. Asriel is built up as a fascinating, amazing, cruel, brave and incredible character that ends up dying in this crappy scene. Ugh. Mrs. Coulter is completely given the shaft with this last minute redemptions that destroys her intricate character.

Oh, and yeah, and God/Authority blows away. Yup. He blows away----you know how you turn a mostly empty bag of chips upside down, and the crumbs somehow end up all over your lap? Well, that's basically his end. 0 stars for this empty chip bag death scene that ultimately showcases Pullman's none too subtle message to Christians: just let God die, even he'll be happier!

Basically, the whole last books craps out on everyone. Lyra isn't Eve, and the temptation never happens. The idea of Dust is explained, and the focal point becomes this epic battle against the Authority, a battle that never happens and merely is a vehicle for Pullman to spew out his trembling dislike of Christianity. Oh, and you thought that Lyra's great betrayal was betraying Roger? Nope. Pullman actually has to TELL the reader what the big betrayal is.

I'm left with questions. Did this trilogy collapse because Pullman is a lousy writer, or because he let his rabid hate of Christianity muddle the story.

Well, the Golden Compass seems to indicate that he can write well. However, the last two books just crumble under his attempt to show

1. How idiotic Christianity is
2. How smart atheists are
3. How nice they are
4. How Christians are easily fooled, killed by the smarter atheists, and generally, fairly easily defeated by the marvelous atheist heroes.

Pullman can write well. However, he carries over crippling hatreds into his writing that just ruin the book. Frankly, if he managed to write the last two books as well as the Golden Compass, I'd simply suspend moral judgement and enjoy the books. I would disagree with his atheism---but I would enjoy the excellent writing.

However, he couldn't restrain himself. He managed the Golden Compass, and for that, I am thankful. It was simply painful watching the slow, certain slide into oblivion and poor writing. It was rendered more painful by occasional glimpses of the writing skill that delighted us before. Certain characters, ideas and scenes are thrown like scraps to keep us limping on through the waste land.

I am very sad. The trilogy promises much and then blows up in your face. Let's get this clear: I disagree with Pullman on many points, but was willing to forgo those points because I enjoyed his writing. However, when his writing disintegrates, those points simply grate louder.

I exit, weeping.




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169 of 250 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
His Dark Purposes, May 1, 2006
By Red Badge

Fascinating book inappropriately marketed to children.

Pro:
Philip Pullman shows glimmers of brilliance as a writer. His characters are engaging, his worlds are vivid, his prose is delightful at times, and he occasionally produces lush and beautifully drawn descriptive paragraphs. His "science" is goofy but inventive, and without it his story couldn't work. He also demonstrates a good understanding of what appeals to an adolescent reader. I enjoyed the first volume, though my interest plateaued in the second volume and dropped like a stone in the third.

Con:
Philip Pullman is one of a growing group of authors who market their own controversial adult ideas and themes as juvenile fiction/fantasy. While I affirm his right to have, and to express his view of the world, Mr. Pullman's method of garnering an uncritical and captive audience for his message is despicable. Pullman is a skillful and sometimes powerful writer who understands his audience well; sadly he uses that skill and knowledge to entice, seduce, and manipulate the immature reader.

Here is a summary of how the Pullman method works:

The Golden Compass is a compelling action adventure of a young, smart, defiant, and spirited pre-adolescent (12-year old) girl. There are dark characters, ugly episodes and wicked happenings in this volume, but spunky Lyra is up to the challenge. And, she has cool friends (noble gypsies and armored bears, among others) to help her.

In The Subtle Knife we meet Lyra's male counterpart Will. By the end of this also dark and rather convoluted part of the story we like Will a lot, too. And we hate the bad guys, although sometimes it's hard to tell just who the bad guys are. Will finds himself possessing a knife that only he can use; a knife that allows him to open windows into other, sometimes parallel, worlds.

Now that Mr. Pullman has set his stage (and the child has a significant investment in the story), he force-feeds the unsuspecting reader his world view in The Amber Spyglass. Yes, there is some foreshadowing of what's coming in the first volumes, but until we get to the third volume we keep hoping that these are literary red herrings thrown in just to keep us off balance. Alas, no such luck.

In short order Mr. Pullman informs us that:

- The God of Judaism and Christianity is a fake, a liar, a dictatorial despot, a draconian authoritarian intent on making everybody miserable. Mr. Pullman's definition of "god, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father the Almighty" is that he is the source of everything that's wrong with the world.
- The church is run by self-serving, power-hungry dupes and mercenaries who ensure God's tyranny is carried out. Everyone else of faith is a discounted as a closed-minded simpleton who wouldn't know what to do without being told.
- The health of this world and all of Pullman's "billions and billions" of other worlds is dependent on invisible, sentient dust, reminiscent of the Mitichlorians behind The Force of Star Wars lore. This dust is the product of man's gaining wisdom, a "natural" process that Pullman places in direct opposition to man's knowledge of God.
- The "good guys" in this world are the secular naturalists, the amoral, the animals, the witches, and the rebellious angels who have set out to help overthrow and destroy God, and
- Elite, self-actualized young men and women of character (like the reader, of course) possess the power to destroy God, and should destroy God because, after all, it's the right thing to do. With the assurance of Lyra's and Will's feelings that if we do destroy God then all will be well with the world and we will be happy.

Harry Potter, meet Bertrand Russell and Ayn Rand. And don't forget Jean Genet, for flavor.

Along the way Pullman gives lectures on:

- The moral relativism of infanticide (it's bad to kill children if you are aligned with God, but its O.K. to kill children when necessary to further a "good" cause (i.e. deposing God, or whatever)),
- The nature of homosexuality (though angels are nonphysical spirit beings that doesn't prevent them from being, and stereotypically behaving like, homosexuals), and
- The pervasiveness of the supernatural (pretty much all of us have some kind of "spirit being/guide" counterpart that can help us do magical things, assuming we are just "special" enough, by virtue of birth and fate, to tap into this other self)
In other words, Pullman uses the first two books to build a platform from which to deliver his elitist-humanist/post-modern/New Age message.

There are several passages in the volumes when Lyra or Will actually ask a tough question (What happens when we die? Where do we go? Why are we here?). To these questions a more mature, more worldly adult character always sagely answers: "it's not time for you to know that now." Pullman glosses over his answers to these questions as he finishes his story. As it turns out, Mr. Pullman subscribes to the philosophy of despair: we have no purpose other than to do what we think best, and when we die we're just dead. End of story. Which is fine from Pullman's perspective because with God in power Mr. Pullman's future is likely to be, well . . . . . Hell.

Spoiler Warning (though if you are a parent you will definitely want to know this): The long-anticipated climax of this 1,200-page book never materializes. In the end, it turns out that destroying God isn't such a big thing after all, and certainly doesn't solve all of the worlds' problems. Only when God is gone does Pullman come clean that the real reason the worlds are dying is because of what men have done to the universe, and now the children will have to devote their lives to fixing the mess. In this unexpected extension of the story, Pullman now has our two (now newly adolescent) heroes take a big step in repairing the world by falling in love, immediately followed by a carefree afternoon of sensual intimacy. Pullman omits a clinical account of what happens that afternoon, but whatever it is, it is magic: suddenly the relentless decay in the worlds is halted. Does this make any sense? No. But it helps to tie off a major loose end in the story, and provides Pullman a way to repeat an earlier theme to his young readers: that without God we are free to engage in sex without any restraint or guilt. Because with the death of God we are now free to be our own God. We can define our own morality, or lack of it, constrained only by what an open-minded society sets as limits in the new Republic of Heaven.

Once finished with the books I went online; perhaps I was reading too much into this children's book. I wasn't surprised by what I learned.

Mr. Pullman:

- Is a self-described atheist.

- Is listed as a member of the British Humanist Association (the goal of which is "an end to the privileged position of religion in law, education, broadcasting and wherever else it occurs")

- Is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society (The society campaigns for: 1) the disestablishment of the Church of England, 2) the withdrawal of state subsidies to religious schools, 3) the end of tax exemptions for churches, 4) the abolition of the blasphemy law, 5) an end to the public funding of chaplains in prisons, hospitals and the armed services)

Is His Dark Materials simply the anti-Narnia tome that Pullman says he set out to write? Perhaps. C. S. Lewis' Narnia stories are allegories of good and evil, principles and the lack of them, the nature of man and the nature of God, love, forgiveness, sacrifice, pride and humility. Pullman offers nothing more than shades of evil, ego, and seduction; God is dead, and man has no need for forgiveness, for Pullman's superman is intrinsically good and there is nothing to forgive. On the other hand, one could argue Pullman simply has a vendetta against God in general and against the Church of England in particular, and uses a book marketed at children to further his goal of revenge.

In interviews, Mr. Pullman has claimed neither he nor his book is anti-religious. This is as an odd and dishonest position to take; akin to as if Lewis had said his Chronicles of Narnia has nothing to do with Christianity. True, Pullman is careful not to say anything about Allah in his primer on atheism, but one suspects that this Englishman's reason for the omission has somewhat more to do with cowardice and less to do with tolerance. Pullman assumes that in a politically correct publishing world he can get away with being anti-Semitic and anti-Christian. Leaving one to wonder: if a public speaker boldly and loudly teaches that the Judeo-Christian faith is responsible for all that is wrong and hurtful and evil in the world, and that the only way to solve the problem is to destroy what it stands for (and destroy most of the believers in the process), what more is necessary to classify the ranting as hate speech? If the speaker substituted any other group (Muslims, homosexuals, persons of color) in the sentence above, would society be so tolerant?

His Dark Materials is unabashed humanist propaganda written to delight a child's mind. But just as devious is the way the author chooses to misrepresent faith. Mr. Pullman uses the traditional images, phrases, words, and symbols of the Jewish and Christian faiths in his book, but infuses his own meanings into them to twist them into serving his purpose. He trusts that his target audience doesn't know enough to spot his deceptions, or is insecure enough to accept his definitions as plausible. Further, he makes several outrageous and false claims in the process; at one point Pullman casually purports Calvin to be an advocate for child killing, as if there were some documented and widely recognized historical basis for his comment. Just speculation on my part, but perhaps Mr. Pullman does these things and says these things because he assumes few will ever call him on them. And that if he tells his lies enough times in enough ways, the populace he so despises will eventually repeat his mantra as truth.

While I cannot respect Mr. Pullman's condemnation of those who are aware of an authority higher than themselves, I could advocate a discussion of his thoughts on the subject if I believed he actually understood what he was talking about. Unfortunately, his own stunted and malignant grasp of the world view he opposes appears to have atrophied at about the age of his target audience. An audience better served listening to another voice.




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His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass

Alas poor Pullman; when the church responds to the theatrical release of The Golden Compass, he’s bound to find himself at the whirling centre of a debate, only to be equalled by that which will envelope Dan Brown’s, Angels and Demons. So far the book, the first in the trilogy, His Dark Materials, has escaped notice of the more easily offended christian community, but the series growing popularity seems destined to put it in the sightlines of not only an offended Catholic Church, but the evangelical flanks as well.

Summation of The Golden Compass

In The Golden Compass, the heroine, Lyra Belacqua, a young girl brought up in the cloistered world of Jordan College, Oxford, and her dæmon Pantalaimon — an animal-shaped manifestation of her soul — learn of the existence of Dust The strange elementary particle is believed by the Church to be evidence for Original Sin.

Dust is less attracted to the innocence of children, and this gives rise to grisly experiments being carried out by Church-controlled scientists on kidnapped children in the icy wastelands of the far North.

Turning the Christ Story on its Head

The Christian Church has been taken to task in all manner of ways; in a broad array of genres; and by the talented and not-talented alike. But never, however, in this way; not at its deepest theological roots; not as an endemically anti-human agent. Pullman follows the logic of “original sin” through to an alternative, but arguably valid, conclusion. In short, what he does is have the church (albeit a revisionist one) attempt to protect children from the effects of original sin by severing their souls from their bodies. A messiah is sent in the form of a young girl, Lyra Belacaqua, whom it’s been prophesied will “alter the fate of all worlds.” Ultimately, and of her own free will, she enters the land of the dead and frees the souls of all who have died.

Sound familiar? It’s Pullman turning the Christ myth on its head. And that’s just a beginning. By the end of the series, he’s set up an act of “original sin between two pure beings,” which as it turns out, is the act which saves the world. Some folks would call it two teenagers hooking up … regardless, we start again, this time unburdened and enlightened … perhaps how Pullman wishes we were in this world.

So, how does he, in The Golden Compass, link sexual maturation, with dust and concepts of original sin?

During the critical expository scene following the near “intercision” of Lyra’s daemon (the removal of her soul), Mrs Coulter, the executrix of the church, explains the process as being “healthy” and a necessary kindness which ensures a child is protected from the “impurity” which adolescence begets.

It’s herein that the conundrum for the conservative 20th century church lies; surely, to remove the agent of original sin is to be lauded; it is after-all what Christ did through his self-sacrifical act. Furthermore, it’s an act played out with each baptism and “born-again” event. Not only that, a soul separate from the body is integral to the church’s idea of spirituality. And in fact, only through the release of the soul from the body is redemption complete.

Pissing in the Face of Long Treasured Beliefs

Pullman had to have known that he was pissing in the face of this treasured belief, and that his novels would be a general “fuck you” to established church doctrine. Removing the soul by force is cruel; would be cruel; has to cruel. Yet it if were to save the soul, is a necessary cruelty.

It comes as no surprise then, when salvation comes to the universe through an allegorical act of that replicates the act of “original sin.” What Pullman is telling us is that the fall of man was truly an extra-ordinary act of love, and if replicated, it’s that act which will redeem us.

Okay the allegorical act is really thinly veiled sex between two deeply in love, just barely adolescent children.

Okay. Ummm … apart from it making readers seem slightly queasy, it all seems so simple, (and its here that fans of the book will excoriate me.) It IS too simple and, when it comes, three books in, it seems juvenile as well. After all the complexities and complications that Lyra and cast go through, to be told that love will save the world just doesn’t cut it. Somehow it seems as if Pullman ran out of steam.

A Remarkable Imagination

Apart from that, the pages of The Golden Compass are popluated by a race of super-bears, beautiful witches, cliff-ghasts, and salt-of-the-earth, gyptians. There is no doubting Pullman’s imaginative genius. It is precisely the same ability Rowling and Tolkien have – of being able to create believable, alternative worlds — that makes this book work. In clumsier hands it would have died by now: instead, producers have paid a pretty penny to make a movie of it which will, without a doubt it will be promoted to the ends of the earth. No longer will the The Golden Compass be a favourite of intellectuals and hardcore fans. Pullman should be prepared.

Reviewed by Trevor Paetkau

External Links

* Philip-Pullman.com Official site
* HisDarkMaterials.com Publisher’s site
* Philip Pullman Wikipedia
* His Dark Materials.org Fansite
* His Dark Materials | Bridge to the Stars Fansite

Book Review, His Dark Materials, philip pullman, The Golden Compass




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His Dark Materials
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

His Dark Materials is a trilogy of fantasy fiction novels by Philip Pullman, comprising Northern Lights (1995 - released as The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife (1997) and The Amber Spyglass (2000). The trilogy follows the coming of age of two children, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, as they wander through a series of parallel universes against a backdrop of epic events. The story involves fantasy elements such as witches and armoured polar bears, but alludes to a broad range of ideas from fields such as physics, philosophy, and theology.

The series is primarily marketed to young adults, but is also intended to speak to adults,[1] and it has also appeared as a single-volume omnibus in the United Kingdom and North America, titled His Dark Materials (2007).

Setting

The trilogy takes place across a multiverse, moving between many alternate worlds. In Northern Lights, the story takes place in a world with some similarities to our own; dress style is similar to our Victorian era, and technology has not evolved to include automobiles or planes; zeppelins are a notable mode of transport. It appears that in this world The Reformation never took place; John Calvin is referred to as a Pope. The church (often referred to as the "Magisterium") controls all of the western world and probably the entire planet. In The Subtle Knife, the story takes place in our world and the world of Cittàgazze, and in The Amber Spyglass it crosses through an array of diverse worlds.

One defining aspect of Pullman's story is his concept of dæmons. In several universes in the trilogy's world, including that where the story's protagonist Lyra Belacqua is born, the human soul is manifested throughout life as an animal-shaped dæmon that always stays near its human counterpart. Witches and some humans have entered areas where dæmons cannot physically enter; as such, their dæmons can move as far away from their humans as desired. Dæmons will usually only talk to their humans, but they can communicate with other humans and dæmons autonomously. During childhood, the dæmon can change its shape at will, but upon adolescence it settles into one form. The final form reveals the person's true nature and personality, implying that these stabilize after adolescence. Spectres, in some of the universes, prey upon the dæmons of adolescents and adults, consuming them and rendering said dæmon's human essentially catatonic; they lose all thought and eventually fade away and die. Dæmons and their humans can also be separated by intercision, a process involving cutting the dæmon away from the human. This process can be conducted in a medical setting, such as the titanium and manganese guillotine used at Bolvangar, or as a form of torture used by the Skraelings. This separation has a high mortality rate and renders both human and dæmon little more than obedient zombies. Severing the link using the silver guillotine method releases tremendous amounts of unnamed energy which can be converted to anbaric, or electric, power.

The universe of Northern Lights has interesting technology; at a glance, it appears to be considerably behind our own world, but in many fields it is equal or superior to ours. As evidence, it is revealed that Lyra's world has the same knowledge of particle physics, referred to as experimental theology, as we do. In The Amber Spyglass, an advanced interdimensional weapon is discussed which, when aimed using a sample of the target's DNA, can track the target to any universe and disrupt the very fabric of space-time to form a bottomless abyss into nothing, forcing the target to suffer a fate far worse than normal death. Other advanced devices include the Intention Craft, which carries an extremely potent energy weapon amongst other things. (Though this craft is first seen and used outside Lyra's universe, and may be the invention of engineers from other universes.)

Plot summary

Northern Lights/The Golden Compass

In Northern Lights (released in the United States and Canada as The Golden Compass), the heroine, Lyra Belacqua, a young girl brought up in the cloistered world of Jordan College, Oxford, and her dæmon Pantalaimon learn of the existence of Dust, a strange elementary particle believed by the Church to be evidence for Original Sin. Dust appears to be less attracted to the innocence of children, and this gives rise to grisly experiments being carried out by Church-controlled scientists on kidnapped children in the icy wastelands of the distant North. Lyra and Pantalaimon journey to save their best friend Roger Parslow and other kidnapped children from this peril, with the aid of the Panserbjørne (armoured bear) Iorek Byrnison, John Faa and Farder Coram, leaders of the Gyptians, the aeronaut Lee Scoresby, and the witch Serafina Pekkala. After dealings with armoured bears and witches and success in many arenas, Roger is killed by Lyra's father Lord Asriel in his own successful experiment to create a bridge into another world. Lord Asriel, followed by Lyra and Pantalaimon, journey through it separately in search of the source of Dust, unaware that they both mean to prevent the Church from destroying it.

The Subtle Knife

In The Subtle Knife, Lyra journeys through the Aurora to Cittàgazze, an otherworldly city whose denizens have discovered a clean path between worlds at a far earlier point in time than others in the storyline. Cittàgazze's reckless use of the technology has released soul-eating Spectres, rendering the world incapable of transit by post-adolescents. Here, Lyra meets Will Parry, a twelve-year-old boy from our own world who has stumbled into Cittàgazze after recently killing a man to protect his ailing mother in an effort to locate his long-lost father. Will becomes the bearer of the titular Subtle Knife, a tool forged 300 years ago by Cittàgazze's scientists of the same materials as the silver guillotine. One edge of the knife is capable of creating portals between worlds and the other edge easily cuts through any form of matter. After meeting with witches from Lyra's world, they journey on. Will finds his father, who has been lost in Lyra's world under the assumed name of Stanislaus Grumman, only to watch him murdered almost immediately, and Lyra is kidnapped by her mother, Mrs. Coulter, an agent of the Magisterium who has learned of the prophecy that Lyra is to be the next Eve. Will is then instructed by a pair of angelic lovers, Balthamos and Baruch, that he must travel with them to give the Subtle Knife to Lyra's father, Lord Asriel, as a weapon against The Authority.

The Amber Spyglass

In The Amber Spyglass, Will ignores the angels and with the help of a local girl named Ama, the Bear King Iorek Byrnison, and Lord Asriel's Gallivespian spies, the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia, rescues Lyra from the cave she has been hidden in. They journey to the Land of the Dead, temporarily parting with their dæmons to release the ghosts from their captivity imposed by the oppressive Authority. Mary Malone, a scientist of our world interested in Dust (or Shadows, as she knows them), travels to a land populated by strange sentient creatures called Mulefa. There she learns of the true nature of Dust, existing as panpsychic particles of self-awareness. Lord Asriel and a reformed Mrs. Coulter team up to destroy The Authority's Regent, Metatron, but are killed in the process, taking Metatron down with them. The Authority himself dies of his own frailty amongst a massive battle between the rebels and his servants. The book ends with Will and Lyra falling in love but realising they cannot live together in the same world as all windows must be closed to prevent the flow of Dust.

Character histories

* Lyra Belacqua is a wild, tomboyish 12-year-old girl who was brought up in the fictional Jordan College, Oxford. She prides herself on her capacity for mischief, especially her ability to lie with "bare-faced conviction". Because of this ability, she was given the surname Silvertongue by Iorek Byrnison. Her constant companion is her dæmon Pantalaimon, who settles upon a pine marten as his final form at the series' conclusion.

* Will Parry is a sensible, morally conscious, highly assertive 12-year-old boy from our world who serves as the bearer of the Subtle Knife. He is very independent and responsible for his age, having looked after his mentally unstable mother for many years. He is strong for his age, and knows how to remain inconspicuous. At the end of his adventures he discovers the name and form of his dæmon, Kirjava, a cat.

* Lord Asriel is known to Lyra as her uncle at first, but later she learns that he is in fact her father. He opens a rift between the worlds in his pursuit of Dust. His dream of establishing a Republic of Heaven to rival The Authority's Kingdom leads him to use his considerable power and force of will to raise a grand army from across the multiverse to rise up in rebellion. Stelmaria the snow leopard is his dæmon.

* Marisa Coulter is the coldly beautiful, highly manipulative mother of Lyra and former lover of Lord Asriel, who serves the Church in kidnapping children for research into the nature of Dust. She has black hair, a thin build, and looks younger than she is. She later captures Lyra and secludes her away, perhaps seeking to protect her. Later in the story, Mrs. Coulter switches sides regularly between the Authority and Lord Asriel's Republic. Her maternal instincts finally win out in the end, as she uses her duplicitous core to deceive the Regent Metatron, working together with her former lover to pull him down into the abyss. Her dæmon (named Ozymandias in the BBC Radio adaptations but never named in the books), is a golden monkey with a cruel, abusive streak. Though he often communicates with Mrs. Coulter, he is rarely heard to speak.

* Mary Malone is a physicist and former nun from the same world as Will whose studies of Dust (referred to as Shadows, shadow particles or dark matter in her world) draw her into Lyra's adventures. She lives for a time amongst the mulefa, and constructs the Amber Spyglass in an effort to discern why Dust appears to be leaving the universe. Mary relates a story of a lost love to Will and Lyra, serving as the catalyst for their coming of age and the halting of Dust's exodus. With effort, she discovers that she too has a dæmon, which, though unnamed, takes the shape of an Alpine Chough. It is found out that Mary is to play the part as the tempter (the snake).

* Iorek Byrnison is a massive armoured bear who regains his armour, his dignity, and his kingship over the Panserbjørne with Lyra's help. In gratitude, and impressed by her cunning, he dubs her "Lyra Silvertongue". A powerful warrior and armoursmith, Iorek repairs the Subtle Knife when it shatters and goes to war against The Authority when Lyra and Will are threatened. As a bear instead of a human, he has no dæmon; instead, his soul constitutes his armour, which he himself shapes.

* John Faa and Farder Coram are leaders of the community of river gyptians. When the gyptians' children are kidnapped by the Church to serve as experiments in the frozen outpost of Bolvangar, they mount a rescue expedition, bringing Lyra along. John Faa is also the name of several historical Gypsies and a romantic hero in a ballad about Gypsies.

* Lee Scoresby is a rangy Texan aeronaut who pilots a balloon for Lyra and the gyptians in their expedition North; he is also a friend of Iorek Byrnison, and comes to aid Lyra in a number of her battles. His loyal dæmon Hester takes the form of a hare. He dies while fending off enemy soldiers in an effort to save Stanislaus Grumman.

* Stanislaus Grumman, also known as John Parry, or Jopari, is Will Parry's father, an explorer, and a former officer in the Royal Marines. He leaves our world on an expedition into the far North, in which he finds one of the many trans-dimensional windows, leading to the world from which Lyra Belacqua originates. When he gets there, he becomes a shaman, and receives a ceremonial hole in his skull. Though not born in the world of external dæmons, he somehow acquires one: a female osprey named Sayan Kötör, who disappears when he dies. Lee Scoresby gives his life to save him, and eventually he meets up with his son, but he is shot down by a vengeful witch whose love he once spurned. Grumman's pseudonym is a possible allusion to Stanislaw Ulam, the renowned nuclear physicist.

* Serafina Pekkala is the beautiful queen of a clan of Northern witches. As with all witches, her snow goose dæmon Kaisa can travel much farther apart from her than the dæmons of normal humans. She comes to the aid of Lyra and her friends on a number of occasions. She is several hundred years old but, because she is not a human, she will live many hundreds more.

* Roger Parslow is a young boy, Lyra's best friend and loyal compatriot at Jordan College. His death at the hands of Lord Asriel tears open a bridge between the worlds, through which Lyra and Asriel travel in a search for the origins of Dust. Guilt-stricken over Roger's death, Lyra determines to travel through the Land of Dead to apologize and release him; in doing so, she and Will succeed in liberating the lost souls of the dead, allowing their essence to merge with the particles of Dust that permeate the universe. His dæmon was Salcilia, who frequently took the form of a terrier.

* The Authority The Authority is the first angel to have emerged from Dust. He is not God the Creator, but posed as such to subsequently formed angels. At the time of the trilogy, the Authority is quite weak, having given most of his power to his regent, Metatron, and has spent most of his existence retired to "comprehend deeper mysteries". He is extremely aged, and is shown as fragile, kind, and na?ve, unlike his bitter and thoroughly malicious underling. He eventually dies by being exposed to a gust of wind, his weak form unable to resist it, but appears to find death a release.

Influences and criticism

The three major literary influences on His Dark Materials acknowledged by Pullman himself are the essay On the Marionette Theatre by Heinrich von Kleist (which can be found at southerncrossreview.org), the works of William Blake, and, most importantly, John Milton's Paradise Lost, from which the trilogy derives its title as well as many of its basic ideas.[2] Pullman's stated intention was to invert Milton's story of a war between heaven and hell.[3] In his introduction, he adapts a famous description of Milton by Blake to quip that he (Pullman) "is of the Devil's party and does know it." The novels also draw heavily on gnostic ideas, and His Dark Materials has been a subject of controversy, especially with Christian groups.[4][5] The verse from Paradise Lost in which the phrase "his dark materials" is used follows:

…Into this wilde Abyss,
The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave,
Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire,
But all these in thir pregnant causes mix't
Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more Worlds,
Into this wilde Abyss the warie fiend
Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while,
Pondering his Voyage...

Pullman has accused C. S. Lewis of being "blatantly racist," "monumentally disparaging of women," "immoral," and "evil" in his novels.[6][7] Yet Pullman denies that His Dark Materials can be seen as the antithesis of The Chronicles of Narnia, the seven-book fantasy series by Lewis.[8]

Institutional religion is criticized by some of the characters. For example, Ruta Skadi, a witch and friend of Lyra's calling for war against the Magisterium in Lyra's world, says that "For all of [the Church's] history...it's tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. And when it can't control them, it cuts them out." (see intercision). Skadi later extends her criticism to all organized religion: "That's what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling." (By this part of the book, the witches have made reference to how they are treated criminally by the church in their worlds.) Mary Malone, one of Pullman's main characters, states that "the Christian religion…is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all." She was formerly a Catholic nun, but gave up her vows when the experience of being in love caused her to doubt her faith.

Pullman portrays the Christian heaven to be a lie. In the third book, the real afterlife is depicted as a bleak place where people are tormented by harpies until Lyra and Will descend into the land of the dead. Through their intercession, the harpies agree to stop tormenting the dead souls, and instead receive the true stories of the dead in exchange for leading them again to the upper world. When the dead souls emerge, they dissolve as they become one with the universe.

Pullman's "Authority" is worshipped on Lyra's earth as God, but he turns out to be the first angel instead. It is explicitly stated that the Authority was in fact not the creator of worlds. Pullman's trilogy does not speculate on who or what might have created worlds. Members of the Church are typically displayed as zealots. Two characters who once belonged to the Church, Mary Malone and Marisa Coulter, are both displayed in a positive light only insofar as they have rebelled against the Church.[9][10]

Cynthia Grenier, in the Catholic Culture, has said: "In the world of Pullman, God Himself (the Authority) is a merciless tyrant, His Church is an instrument of oppression, and true heroism consists of overthrowing both."[11]

Pullman has, however, found support from other Christians, most notably Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who argues that Pullman's attacks are focused on the constraints and dangers of dogmatism and the use of religion to oppress, not on Christianity itself.[12] Pullman himself has said in interviews and appearances[8][13] that his argument can be extended to all religions. The trilogy shows the downfall of the Kingdom of Heaven, a hierarchy under the control of the Authority and his regent. In its place is the task to build the Republic of Heaven.

In terms of popularity, the trilogy is sometimes compared with fantasy books like A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle,[14] the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling[15] and the Narnia Heptology itself.[16]

Awards

The Amber Spyglass won the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year award, a prestigious British literature award. This is the first time that such an award has been bestowed on a book from their "children's literature" category.

The first volume, Northern Lights, won the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in the UK in 1995.[17] In 2007 it was selected by judges of the CILIP Carnegie Medal for children's literature as one of the ten most important children's novels of the past 70 years. In June 2007 it was voted, in an online poll, as the best Carnegie Medal winner in the seventy year history of the award, the Carnegie of Carnegies[18][19]

The Observer cites it as one of the 100 best novels.[1]

On May 19, 2005, Pullman was invited to the British Library in London to be formally congratulated for his work by culture secretary Tessa Jowell "on behalf of the government"; and shortly afterwards received the Swedish government's Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for children's and youth literature (sharing it with Japanese illustrator Ryôji Arai). In Sweden, the prize is second only to the Nobel Prize in Literature and is worth 5 million Swedish Kronor or approximately £385,000.

The trilogy came third in the 2003 BBC's Big Read, a national poll of viewers' favourite books, after The Lord of the Rings and Pride and Prejudice. It was one of only two books in the top five not to have had a screen adaptation at that time (the film version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which came fifth, was not released until 2005), and those two books were the only entries in the top ten to have been written in the last twenty-five years.

Adaptations

His Dark Materials has been adapted for radio, theatre and film. It was made into a radio drama on BBC Radio 4 starring Terence Stamp as Lord Asriel and Lulu Popplewell as Lyra. The play was broadcast in 2003 and is now published by the BBC on CD and cassette. In the same year, a radio drama of Northern Lights was made by RTÉ (Irish public radio).

A theatrical version of the books was directed by Nicholas Hytner as a two-part, six-hour performance for London's Royal National Theatre in December 2003, running until March 2004. It starred Anna Maxwell-Martin as Lyra, Dominic Cooper as Will, Timothy Dalton as Lord Asriel and Patricia Hodge as Mrs Coulter with dæmon puppets designed by Michael Curry. The play was enormously successful and was revived (with a different cast and a revised script) for a second run between November 2004 and April 2005. It has since been staged by several less known theatres in the UK, notably at the Playbox Theatre in Warwick (a major youth theatre company in the West Midlands). The play had its Irish Premiere at the O'Reilly Theatre in Dublin when it was staged by the dramatic society of Belvedere College.

A film adaptation, titled The Golden Compass, was released on December 5, 2007 by New Line Cinema, the company behind The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The film was to be directed by Chris Weitz, who also acted as screenwriter. Weitz felt himself unable to deal with the "technical challenges" of the film, and so was replaced for a time by Anand Tucker, but Tucker ultimately left the project due to creative differences and Weitz returned. The production hopes to stay as true to the book as possible. Prior to his initial departure from the project, Weitz suggested that its film treatment might minimize the explicitly religious character of The Authority so as to avoid offending some viewers. Pullman has since stated that "All the important scenes are there and will have their full value."

Dakota Blue Richards plays Lyra. Nicole Kidman plays Mrs. Coulter, Daniel Craig is Lord Asriel, and Eva Green will play Serafina Pekkala throughout the trilogy. Iorek Byrnison is voiced by Ian McKellen. Reception to the film has been mixed.[20]

[edit] Further reading

* Gribbin, John and Mary (2005). The Science of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Knopf Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0-375-83144-4.
* Lenz, Millicent (2005). His Dark Materials Illuminated: Critical Essays on Phillip Pullman's Trilogy. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3207-2.
* Squires, Claire (2003). Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy: A Reader's Guide. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-1479-6.
* Yeffeth, Glenn (2005). Navigating the Golden Compass: Religion, Science and Daemonology in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Benbella Books. ISBN 1-932100-52-0.
* Frost, Laurie (2006). The Elements of His Dark Materials: A Guide to Phillip Pullman's trilogy. Fell Press. ISBN 0-9759430-1-4.
* Squires, Claire. Philip Pullman, Master Storyteller - A Guide to the Worlds of His Dark Materials
* Wheat, Leonard F. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials - A Multiple Allegory: Attacking Religious Superstition in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Paradise Lost

[edit] References

1. ^ The Man Behind the Magic: An Interview with Philip Pullman. Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
2. ^ Fried, Kerry. Darkness Visible: An Interview with Philip Pullman. Amazon.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
3. ^ Mitchison, Amanda. "The art of darkness", Daily Telegraph, 2003-11-03. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
4. ^ Overstreet, Jeffrey. "His Dark Materials...here's what ...reviewers are saying", Christianity Today, 2006-02-20. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
5. ^ Thomas, John. "Opinion", Librarians' Christian Fellowship, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
6. ^ Ezard, John. "Narnia books attacked as racist and sexist", The Guardian, Guardian Unlimited, June 3, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-04-04.
7. ^ http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/282172
8. ^ a b Spanner, Huw (February 13, 2002). Heat and Dust. ThirdWay.org.uk. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
9. ^ Ebbs, Rachael. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials: An Attack Against Christianity or a Confirmation of Human Worth?. BridgeToTheStars.Net. Retrieved on 2007-04-13.
10. ^ Greene, Mark. Pullman’s Purpose. The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Retrieved on 2007-04-14.
11. ^ Grenier, Cynthia (October 2001). Philip Pullman's Dark Materials. The Morley Institute Inc. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
12. ^ Petre, Jonathan. "Williams backs Pullman", Daily Telegraph, 2004-03-10. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
13. ^ Bakewell, Joan (2001). Belief. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
14. ^ Crosby, Vanessa. Innocence and Experience: The Subversion of the Child Hero Archetype in Philip Pullman’s Speculative Soteriology. University of Sydney. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
15. ^ The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Old Orchard Junior High School. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
16. ^ Miller, Laura. "Far From Narnia Philip Pullman’s secular fantasy for children", The New Yorker, 2005-12-26. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
17. ^ Living Archive - Celebrating the Carnegie and Greenaway Winners. CarnegieGreenaway.org.uk. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
18. ^ "Pullman wins 'Carnegie of Carnegies'.
19. ^ "70 years celebration the publics favourite winners of all time".
20. ^ Josh Friedman. "'Golden Compass' points overseas", Los Angeles Times, 2007-12-10. Retrieved on 2007-12-10.

External links

* Philip Pullman, author's website
* BridgetotheStars.net, a His Dark Materials fansite
* HisDarkMaterials.org, a His Dark Materials fansite
* DaemonNet.com, a His Dark Materials fansite
* Scholastic: His Dark Materials, the UK publisher's website
* Randomhouse: His Dark Materials, the U.S. publisher's website
* The BBC's His Dark Materials pages
* The Archbishop of Canterbury and Philip Pullman in conversation, from "The Daily Telegraph"
* BridgetotheStars' Interview with Chris Weitz and a report on this interview from "The Times", December 2004
* Production images from the 2003-4 National Theatre stage adaptation
* [2] Parchment & Pen blog with annotated list of twenty book and web resources on His Dark Materials
* Pullman Watch - some responses from an independent group of Roman Catholics


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Spencer