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Young World
Another spellbinder
PREMA SRINIVASAN
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The trilogy captivates with its fantasy and truth. The author emphasises that with love and courage, human beings can survive any tragedy.
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The time now is ripe to throw open the casket of fantasy fiction for children. After the resounding success of Harry Potter's adventures in the land of wizards, children everywhere are looking for more and more spells of magic, which will transport them into alternative worlds of entertainment. Philip Pullman's trilogy Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass have created quite a stir in academic circles and among the reading public. The recurring theme of the three books is best explained in the author's own words: "I'm trying to write a book about what it means to be human, to grow up, to suffer and learn." So we have 12-year-old Lyra, whose friend Roger disappears and Lyra decides to set out on a quest to bring him back. In Northern Lights Lyra's quest leads her into an adventurous escapade to the Polar Regions and she is accompanied by her daemon Pantalaimon. Daemons in these stories are actually "souls" in animal form, attached to human beings for life. They are described as "a thinking talking, feeling animal shaped being, usually of the opposite sex." Through the clever use of these daemon figures the author is able to convey the traits and nature of the character he is describing. This technique recalls the animal figures in the Aesop fables, which symbolise human personalities. The snake was always regarded as a symbol of deceit and the wolf a symbol of the predator. Lyra's adventures do not end with her discoveries at the end of "Northern Lights when she realises who her parents are but goes on further in the two sequels. The second book The Subtle Knife moves between three universes: the universe of Northern Lights which is like ours but also different in many ways, the universe we know and a third universe which is completely different from all that we know. In the final volume The Amber Spyglass the story moves between several universes. In the course of the three books both Lyra and the hero of the trilogy (Will) grow up. They take command of their respective quests: Lyra in her quest for the all-powerful magical "dust" and Will to seek the ghost of his dead father in the underworld. When we leave Lyra finally in the Botanic Garden she says she wants to create a republic of heaven. This book can appeal to different categories of readers. Teenagers hooked onto star war sensations as well as the young adult readers exploring the science fiction category, will find them good entertainment. Although the author has made use of his religious beliefs, knowledge of quantum physics as well as mythology, he tells his story with astonishing grip and simplicity.
Philip Pullman has shown us, in the course of these three novels that human beings can, with courage and love, survive the nightmare of tragedy. Pullman is perhaps not just telling a story, but showing an entire world and explaining not a moral but a worldview for his young readers. While writing these books, Pullman says he has "read like a butterfly" and "written like a bee". John Milton's' Paradise Lost, Kleist's On The Marionette Theatre and William Blake's poetry have been his chief sources of inspiration. Pullman has confessed that he has "stolen ideas from every book he has read" and if his stories contained any honey it is entirely because of the quality of nectar he had found in the better writers. Although the author is very modest, the stories indicate that apart from being fantastic tales they also contain truths, which are timeless.
All said and done, books that satisfy us and feed us and nourish us have to contain this "genuine truth" in them.
Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman, published by Scholastic.
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