[davem]

I suppose in a way both Tolkien & Pullman are writing about the end of 'magic', & having to build a world without it. But Tolkien views the loss with regret, & still hopes for its return, that it will break through sometime, somewhere. The 'Republic of Heaven' that the Hobbits build in the Shire is one built out of loss, & is an attempt to get back what they once had. Pullman' RoH is one that is built out of a hatred of the past & a sense of relief that its all been left behind.

At least the Hobbits, & the other races of ME are working to a 'template' - they have a real Heaven, which they are attempting to imitate - Truth exists in ME, & all the 'good' races are attempting to manifest that Truth. Their truths are reflections of, attempts to imitate, Truth. Their Republics of Heaven are reflections of, attempts to imitate, Heaven.

Pullman has destroyed 'Heaven' - & made us feel good about it being destroyed, by making it seem like the worst vision of Hell imaginable. I can't see that he leaves the reader, especially the child reader, with any real hope at all. A child swept away by the wonders of the early parts of the story, is, at the end, left bereft of them, having them replaced with the idea of a 'Republic of Heaven' - & if you can get any child to explain what that is, or any adult to define it without falling back onto platitudes about a place/time where everybody is just really, really *N*I*C*E* to each other, I'd love to hear it. What template do we use to build the RoH?

I think Pullman's attempt at fantasy fails not because he doesn't understand Tolkien's view of Fantasy, or enchantment or eucatastrophe, but because he see it as wrong, as immoral - he views it as the flight of the deserter, not the escape of the prisoner. Would 'fantasy' itself be allowed in Pullman's RoH? or would only 'serious' stories - about cars & guns & drugs be allowed? Pullman's idea of humanity 'overeaching itself' by 'crossing' into other worlds, & his presentation of that as being dangerous is a denial of the human imagination - are we worse for having crossed into Middle Earth? Is this world more endangered because of it? Pullman, I think, would say we are & it is - because we've run away from 'reality'.

As to Tolkien's 'comercialism', i don't see it - i think he wrote the only kind of story he could write - & even at the time it was published it was dismissed by the 'inteligensia' as simplistic, old fashioned & reactionary. Most of the critics said nobody would want to read it. If tolkien had been aiming at capturing what the Public was supposed to want, he wouldn't have written what he did. On the other hand, i think Pullman has gone for the cynical, athiestic, 'real-worlders' in an incredibly cynical way, & I'm struck by the number of (a certain 'educated' class of) people who are much happier seeing their children reading Pullman than Tolkien, or even Harry Potter.

I don't think anyone's surprised Pullman is such a success in these times, HDM is a novel for the Damien Hirst/Tracy Emin generation. The thing that gives me some sense of hope is that tolkien is still going strong, & is more popular than its ever been.