THE SUBTLE KNIFE by Philip Pullman
The Subtle Knife is the second in the His Dark Materials trilogy, composed, along with The Subtle Knife, of The Golden Compass and The Amber Spyglass. I read the first book almost a year ago, and though I liked it, I have only now gotten around to book two.
Fantasy books are not usually my bag. Especially children’s fantasy that adults read. I haven’t read, monolithic in the fantasy genre, Narnia, Harry Potter, or the Lord of the Rings. I am missing the essential building blocks of the fantasy genre. So, why start with a second-tier series like His Dark Materials?
The reputation of the trilogy is that where Narnia and, to a lesser-extent, Lord of the Rings (from what I have read of them, and not in them) are Christian tales, His Dark Materials is an atheistic rebuttal. I would like to state that if I chose to read a rebuttal of a style before reading what it is refuting because of some minor confluence of deistic opinion, which at best might be mere surface agreement, I should be beaten about the town square and forced to carry a sign that reads “Jackass.” The sort of small-mind that can only stand that which agrees with it, and will seek it out in a manner that allows it to ignore what that material itself very well might be referencing, is so child-like and retarded as to appear crippled irreparably.
I chose to read His Dark Materials based on strong recommendations from both of my roommates. I have yet to run across as determined a set of personal advocates for the other classics of the fantasy genre, so I bowed in deference to their taste. If a similar fan of Lord of the Rings or Narnia argues for those series as convincingly, I will gladly go through them. I was particularly swayed by the fact that I will, in fact, cry upon finishing the trilogy. I am slightly atwitter about the prospect of having human emotions.
Any advocate of fantasy, however, must first leap through my own prejudices against the genre. I don’t know why, but for some reason the whole business has very, very little appeal for me. Usually, the very mention of goblin, orc, or dwarf will instantly repel me.
The Subtle Knife introduces a new protagonist to the story, and follows him for the first chapters, but does eventually continue the story from the first book. The opening chapters of The Subtle Knife are compelling, portraying a boy of twelve living in Oxford who cares for his mother who is, seemingly, schizophrenic. However, it becomes apparent that something really is after Will and his mother. The story of the Golden Compass was much more traditional children’s fantasy fair, full of heroic little girls, armored bears, and magical fortune telling compasses from the beginning. So, maybe that’s why it took me a year, despite the fact that I liked The Golden Compass, to get to the Subtle Knife.
Which is unfortunate, on my part, because The Subtle Knife is, in my opinion, a superior book to The Golden Compass. It seems like Pullman has given up any semblance of pandering to children. His language isn’t simplistic, and his concerns seem to be as adult as most fiction every strives for.
There is a certain level of enjoyment at how subversive Pullman will go. And as the story shifts into a possible plot to murder God, its tough not to take this back to the realm of its social context. But suppressing that, ignoring that this is a children’s book (or young reader, or whatever the fuck), we have a fantasy story where Pullman has upped the stakes by using very potent symbolic creatures to say something that directly relates to most people with any connection to Western religion. But ignoring the target-audience and potential massive disagreements with the author’s final thesis aren’t exactly small caveats to leap over.
Update: After I wrote this, I decided to do my basic research. Which is Wikipedia. And the article on Pullman kinda made me want to scream. He sounds like a douche. A gigantic douche, in fact. I think I’ll fully delve into the whole thing once I finish with the third book, so as not to shitstain my perception too much with his potentially being a gigantic a-hole.