Title: The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3)
Author: Philip Pullman
Published by: Scholastic
Published on: 2000
Page numbers: 518 pages
Tell them stories. They need the truth. You must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, everything. Just tell them stories.
Chapter 32: Morning
I remember reading The Amber Spyglass just two days before the new year back in 2019. I was really in a roll because the flow of the story was so exciting and the promised showdown seemed to be going in the right direction.
Emphasise on seemed to be. Because mate, I was sorely disappointed when I finished it only hours before the new year. Sort of like how the year 2020 for most of us -- started of with a bang, ended with a whimper, and everyone couldn't wait to be rid of it.
Let me elaborate on the story first.
We began with Lyra on a cave with Mrs Coulter. She was highly sedated by her mum, hence from her perspective it was mostly in and out of a dream-like state. Mrs Coulter intended it that way to protect her, since Lyra was now the ultimate target of the Magisterium, who'd learned her role in the prophecy (as the next Eve). Our favourite conflicted villain tried to pass off as a mother whose daughter is unwell to the locals, and every day (or every couple of days? I forgot) a family always came bringing them food supply and medicine. It was an idylic, albeit rather twisted life, and I think in a way Mrs Coulter enjoyed it.
In her dreams, though, Lyra wasn't alone. She was often visited by Roger, who claimed that he could not get out and she was the only who could rescued him from the Land of the Dead. Which would be important later on, but now let's focus our attention on Will and the Angels, Balthamos and Baruch. As the Knife-bearer, Will was obliged to lend his support to Lord Asriel, whose army was prepared to attack the Magisterium and bring down the Authority. The Angels said that the Authority was actually the first Angel who could harness the power of Dust, and now he'd grown feeble. Most of his works were delegated to his right-hand Angel (TRYING TO BE FUNNY YES), Metatron. Yet Will insisted on finding Lyra first, which led to them being attacked by the aforementioned Metatron.
As for Mary Malone, she found herself in a world of strange creatures called mulefa. When reading the description, I pictured them as some sort of elephants with wheels as feet.
....yeah, same difference :P
Though they communicate in an absolutely different language (not even in words, more like telepathy and sign language, I guess?), Mary could soon adapt and live with them. An interesting part about the whole thing is, there was Dust in this world and it nourished the trees which was important for the mulefas' feed. Unfortunately though, for some unknown reasons that surely affected the rest of the universe, the Dust ran out and the mulefas were on the verge of extinction.
All of these were happening, while war was raging. Could Lord Asriel overthrow the Authority and build the Republic of Heaven he'd dreamed of? Would Will and Lyra be able to meet and save each other again? Was Roger okay in the Land of the Dead? And most importantly, what shoud be done to keep Dust?
EGGLYSIS
I told you I was highly disappointed in this final installment, no? But if you read the synopsis, everything seems to be going in a very thrilling direction. Which is not a very bad thing, since Philip Pullman, as he always does, managed to glue me into his books right up to the end.
So what then is my main issue?
Imagine reading this book like being an archer trying to shoot a target right in the bullseye. You're a very competent archer and the target, while not necessarily easy, is achievable. The arrow and bow are in good condition, the wind is normal, and you are in fit condition. You could see yourself hitting that mark. But as you pull the bowstring and let the arrow loose, something happens beyond your imagination and calculation that ends up in you missing the target completely.
That's what happens here. Pullman missed the target, and somehow nearing the climax almost everyone is reacting out of character. I'm trying not to spoil anything here, but Mrs Coulter and Lord Asriel were promised to be problematic since the beginning. They were both selfish people who cared for no one and nothing but themselves and their ambition. While they tried to stay connected to Lyra, but it was mostly to serve their own personal goal. James McAvoy and Ruth Wilson played them with such humanity and subtlety that both characters actually became sort of endearing -- which I think had a point considering where their endgame is headed. But still, in the novel, that sudden change of heart did not make sense and it felt like such a huge betrayal to Lord Asriel's and Mrs Coulter's characters.
Also, the ending. When I first read it, it absolutely didn't make sense. This once great and promising trilogy was suddenly reduced to a cheap teen love story? What the hell happened during the writing process, did Pullman somehow lose his creative juice or he just did not know where to end it? Don't even get me started on them being the epitome of tRuE lOvE because I couldn't hold my eye roll everytime it appeared on page. They were only 13-14ish for goodness' sake, of course EVERYTHING feels like true love.
Then I figured it out upon reading the interviews. According to Pullman, he wanted to emulate the original sin, the Fall of Adam and Eve. Since Lyra was to be Eve in the prophecy, so her sexual awakening at the end of the story was to represent Eve's, whose Fall was also about sexual awakening. According to Pullman.
While it finally makes sense, but it left me furious because Pullman DID NOT understand the Bible enough to be writing criticisim about it. The Fall was never about sexual awakening, it's about obedience. Eve already sinned even before she ate the forbidden fruit because she did not obey the one and only law God gave to her and Adam. Like mate, do your fucking research before writing something that's basically a big middle finger to the essence of something you're trying to critique. It doesn't even read like a satire or a valid reevaluation, just someone making fun of a belief without even caring to understand its roots.
So, yeah. Overall, The Amber Spyglass...
Look, how the mighty have fallen.
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