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Old 08-01-2006, 01:00 PM   #46
davem
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties
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davem is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.davem is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
I can't help wondering whether Pullman is attempting to make his fiction fit with his 'philosophy'. Its as if while writing he allows his imagination free reign, but when he 'analyses' it, he sees things in it which aren't actually there, or even imposes an opposing meaning on it.

His work doesn't seem to mean what he says it means. Many of his condemnations of Tolkien could be applied to his own work. I have to say that the essay was by another writer we couldn't take it seriously as an analysis of HDM. As I said, his position is hardly shared by most of his readers, as far as I can see, & it seems it is not shared by his 'Muse' - which is oddest of all. It seems that it is in the first volume that he allows his muse free rein, & that is by far the most successful (& absorbing) of the trilogy. It is in the final volume where he seems to have been able to impose his philosophy on the work, & that is the one that most readers find least convincing or entertaining. I can't help wondering if something happened half way through - even if that was simply that his imagination gave out. I note there was a long gap between the second & third volumes.

Whatever. It seems that what we see in Pullman is a clever writer of children's fiction who found his work being read (praised) by adults & started to take himself too seriously in response.

Whether he likes it or not HDM is read as a fantasy novel, & is being made into a fantasy film. We're told that the attack on organised religion is being toned down for the movie, the Death of God being turned into the end of an oppressive regime - in other words, the elements of HDM that Pullman plays up in his speeches & lectures will be pushed into the background in favour of what he considers the 'trivialities' (armoured bears & witches, etc). And guess what - none of his 'fans' will care as long as those 'trivialities' make it to the screen.
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