Assignment Week Seven: His Dark Materials (trilogy) by Philip Pullman (8 points)

-

 

        His Dark Materials (trilogy) by Philip Pullman were the books I have read for this week. I have yet to watch the series and I watched the movie as kid consistently. However, the books while reading have a sense world building that the movie wasn’t able to present to its viewers. The first book explains the world/ dimension of the books and lets us be able to understand and be swept into it. With the soul connections between daemons and people and the corruption of the magisterium are values all three books show to the read.

            Starting with the golden compass, in the book the compass is a truth-telling mechanism that is one of the last ones known in the world. However, the compass is the symbolism for a moral compass, encouraging the children who read these books to maintain a sense of right and wrong. Pullman criticizes the oppression, cruelty, and narrow-mindedness of societies high powers that try to force them onto its subjects, whether they be through the church or government. The books, mostly the first one, has introduced millions of its young readers to ideas of humanism, complex theoretical physics and the cruelty of large political organizations. Having these ideas manifested into a fantasy world, where our souls walk beside us throughout our lives, lets readers learn more serious topics than many other works that are heavy in fantasy.

            During the other books as Lyra starts growing up she engages in a sexual relationship with another character named Will. In doing so we see a correlation with Eve (bible) and Lyra, her choice to express her love for will restores Dust to the world and ensures that the Church will be defeated. After she made her decision, everyone with have the right to mature and make independent decisions. This is very similar to the fall of Adam and Eve, furthering the religious connections with the books. The books are focused on the motifs of destiny, innocence, and physical pleasure. Philip Pullman wrote this trilogy similar to lord of the rings in its construction and morals, but also with a steampunk mechanical world most kids don’t get to experience. His Dark Materials are full of values that many kids will learn or has already known.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Assignment Week 12: BloodChild by Octavia E. Butler and The Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (8 points + 5 points)

-
1.     What is your reaction to the text you just read? Bloodchild was a very interesting read, I must say. You don’t really have much to go off of in the beginning on what the story is or who the characters are. However, once you continue it becomes more clear that this is a alien host story. Where humans are no longer the superior race and aliens roam. There still were questions I had however, after reading, who were the alien species? (all we really get are names a their physical appearance). What connections did you make with the story? Discuss what elements of the story with which you were able to connect? There weren’t many connections to other movies or books to connect this to, all I really thought of was the host, the 5 th wave, and Alien. However, the connections I made from the book about experiences in reality are far greater. The main thing I made a connection with were how the aliens are birthed vs. Bot flies. Another connection I made from that was the fear of
Read more

Assignment Week Elven: Soulless by Gail Carriger and The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey (10 points, 5 each)

-
  Soulless by Gail Carriger is one of the novel I decided to read for this week. Its set in London, England in Victorian times. The world and society however consist of werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and natural humans. The title, Soulless , comes from a character that is a soulless person who can touch a supernatural person and neutralize them. On top of all this steampunk is intertwined in its inventions, society and the world. Both the werewolves and vampires have the market on these inventions. The villains are scientists, led by a powerful man, who hid their devious tricks and horrible experiments in London. This novel was something I enjoyed more than usual. I adore steampunk, however, this combined everything I love to read. Vampires especially, reading how well everything combines into a mystery based novel really entrances the reader. The themes embracing this novel is love and equality between men and women. Love is a center idea in the book due to the connection between Ma
Read more

Assignment Week One: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (4points)

-
       Frankenstein , the book I chose to read for this week, was interesting to say the least. I grew up with mostly the idea of Frankenstein, but I never heard the entire story of him. The fantastic book is connected with the Gothic style for many reasons. One being the places giving the feeling of loneliness and paranoid in the arctic and feeling claustrophobic and stressed in the homes he lived in. Another being because of the tie between the archaic and modern times. This is not necessarily in the direction of the modern to archaic, however it still has ties with the religious society and the taboo science of life and death. These ties and the strangeness of the science of life and death is what makes the book Gothic. The time of the 1700s death was never a friend and many people died. Therefore, the crisis of death and the catholic church with science around this time cause stories to grab the viewer from the tension. Making the overlap to it past and present as well, for the p
Read more