I have literally just finished 'The Rose Field' - the final part of Pullman's Book of Dust trilogy.
It's possibly too soon to write my thoughts, but if I don't do it now, then I will just fall back into thinking about blogging rather than doing it. Therefore, these are likely to be more like musings on Philip Pullman than anything else.
He's been in my life for around 25 years. Growing up in Oxford, I was naturally drawn to anything set in that city, and I know I loved His Dark Materials series a lot (although at the time, I was more obsessed with Potter, which frustrates me now). The books followed me into University life too, as my Undergraduate third year included a module which covered the trilogy and the works which inspired them (Blake's Prophetic Books, Paradise Lost, Pilgrim's Progress). That module was fascinating and rich, leaving me with a sense of wanting more - I suspect I'd get a lot out of it now. Perhaps I should re-read Paradise Lost.
With the new trilogy, I absolutely adored La Belle Sauvage - the pace of it, the new character of Malcolm, and the fact Lyra was not so much in it (being a baby) made it feel like a separate story. I know I was disappointed that the sequel felt like it abandoned Malcolm for a Lyra I didn't much care for. I bought The Rose Field as soon as it was published, back in November and then stubbornly refused to pick it up until New Year's Day. It didn't help that The Secret Commonwealth was published almost 6 years ago and I'd not re-read it. I couldn't remember much and didn't want to go in search of a precis.
But 1st January rolled around, as it is wont to do, and I picked up the behomath of 600+ pages and dived in, almost forcing myself to keep reading, despite wanting to pick up my phone to search out whether characters were new or had been referenced before. One character, named Nur Hada el-Wahabi I recalled only too clearly - she was named for a child who had died in the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy. Pullman doesn't mention how this came about, but it was part of a charity auction put together to benefit those left alive. You could bid to name a character, and people were doing so, until (I think I remember rightly) a teacher put in a bid and specifically requested that the character was named after their deceased pupil. From that point onwards, people were adding bids in favour of his, saying 'yes keep this memory alive', until some shithead outbid for their own name. Not that it worked - someone (my memory won't give me the name, but I think it was a successful author) outbid him (by some thousands, I seem to remember) and the dead girl's name was secured to be allowed to live on. It was wonderful to see her name and remember that, even if she was only fleetingly on the page.
But 600+ pages is a lot, and of course the story doesn't have a definite ending. In The Amber Spyglass, there was so much more resolved, but of course Lyra's story went on and whilst she gained a new adventure in this trilogy, her life doesn't just stop. She set out to do what she intended and that's good, but I can't help but feel that more could have been said at the end. What's going to happen to The Rose Field, because it can't be left as it is, surely? Or is Pullman just saying commericialism will keep on happening, despite what we know about the damage it can do to society, and we all just need to live our lives as best we know how? It feels bleak - it possibly IS bleak. I want more resolution, but then I'm half Pullman's age, and perhaps that's the point of my frustration. The world is hell bent on destruction at the moment, and there's not much I can do to stop the big things, but I can donate to charities, and sign petitions and stand up for the world I want to live in.
That got deeper than I had planned (if I had even planned anything). I suppose what I really wanted out of this book was for Lyra and Malcolm to totally defeat the Magisterium, get together, and then have time to plan a life afterwards .... but as I said, the point is that the higher powers can't be totally defeated, Lyra is bound to Will in ways that make other relationships impossible (even if I think her and Pan's thoughts on who Malcolm DOES belong with are childish) and life goes on without us planning, because that's the way time works - which is what January always reminds me, and I hate because it takes so damn long for the month to fade into February.
I'm sad to lose Lyra again, as this second trilogy ends, but I know she's in her other Oxford learning about life and telling stories in her own way and always will be there, despite me not getting to learn about them.
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