Anyone read ‘His dark Materials’? (Serious spoilers)
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So has anybody read the ‘His dark Materials’ trilogy by Philip Pullman? Excellent set of books. And once again, a kids’ book has attracted the notice of adults. I recommend them.
However, for those who have read them, I have questions.
1. How did he get away with it? I mean poor old Salman Rushdie had to go into hiding just for suggesting that a prophet may have been a man. Was there any outcry at Pullman suggesting that God is a usurper? Not that I’m complaining, they were a right rivetting read, but you’ve got to admire the man’s courage.
2. SERIOUS SPOILER – What was that bit about Lyra being the new Eve and re-doing The Fall? OK, so she put a bit of fruit in Will’s mouth, but it wasn’t a special fruit, they’d already had some for dinner the night before. Yes, they both became sexually aware at that point, but haven’t young people been doing that for thousands of years? I thought The Fall was more about eating apples and wearing clothes. I couldn’t see what was so special about Will and Lyra. Any ideas?
Actually the Fall of Man is an interesting subject. And no I haven’t read these books, but they sound interesting 😉
My girlfriend is a Jew, and I was raised Catholic, but reading her books has given me an interesting insight to the Old Testament.
For one, if you read it closely enough you’ll find that there’s not a single God, but many Gods in the Garden. Some have used this as a justification of the Trinity. That God was simply speaking with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. But regardless it brings the next interesting fact.
Adam and Eve were not thrown out of Eden for eating from the Tree of Knowledge. They were *cursed* for that reason, but not banished.
They were banished out of fear that they would eat from the Tree of Life, thus making them Gods as well.
To quote:
“And the LORD G** said, Behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know Good and Evil:and now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Therefore the LORD G** sent him forth from the garden of E’den to till the ground from whence he was taken”As for Lyra, she is probably a corruption of Lilith or vice-versa, I’ll have to ask. But in some Judiac children books, there’s an addition to Eve in the form of Lilith. She’s the woman that brought evil to Adam, and convinced him to eat the fruit.
Edit:
As to the Sexuality and the Fruit. That’s kind of an old tale as well. Some people take the symbolism to mean they brought about their own downfall and mortality by eating of the first fruit of knowledge. Basically the theory goes: Anything that reproduces, dies. Once you can produce young there’s no more reason for immortality. Seem’s a little too Occam to me, but it would be an awfully crowded place 🙄
[quote=”LexxLurker”]Actually the Fall of Man is an interesting subject. And no I haven’t read these books, but they sound interesting 😉 [/quote]
They are interesting, well the religious side doesn’t really come over fully until the third book. Being of an atheistic bent myself, I saw them as an interesting concept. I’d never seen the fall portrayed as a good thing before. Everything was turned upside down and I’d be interested to see what a religious person would make of it and if it could be viewed objectively.Thanks for the info on the Eden stories, I find all of that stuff quite fascinating, particularly the stories that often get left out.
I’m still of the opinion that putting a tree of life and a tree of knowledge in a garden and saying ‘Don’t scrump’ is a bit like putting a big red button on the wall with the sign saying ‘Don’t push the button’. You just know what’s going to happen. 🙄
But then that was covered in ‘Good Omens’ by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman, another book which I highly recommend. 😉
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