{"id":473,"date":"2011-08-09T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T13:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=473"},"modified":"2011-08-07T23:03:13","modified_gmt":"2011-08-08T06:03:13","slug":"mark-reads-the-amber-spyglass-chapter-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/08\/mark-reads-the-amber-spyglass-chapter-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Amber Spyglass’: Chapter 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventeenth chapter of The Amber Spyglass<\/em>, Dr. Mary Malone finally discovers the mystery behind Dust\/Shadows and why it only appeared after a certain point in history. When she does, the mulefa reveal that she has an unknown purpose for coming to their world. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read The Amber Spyglass<\/em>.<\/p>\n

CHAPTER 17: OIL AND LACQUER<\/strong><\/p>\n

I mean THE ANSWER WAS JUST SITTING THERE<\/em>. HOW DID I MISS THIS??? I think that is–if I may pat myself on the back just a bit–half the fun of the pedantic method that I use for this process. I’m already thinking about how agonizing it must have been to have me toe right up to the line and not say, “Oh, Dust\/Shadows occurred at the exact moment that Eve was tempted and everyone received Knowledge.” I basically danced around it for the past month. IT WAS RIGHT THERE<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I also imagine that quite a few of you (correctly) knew that I would flip my shit at every single revelation in chapter seventeen, most especially the way that Pullman sets up this dichotomy for knowledge and Authority. Oh, and the idea that EVERY SINGLE PARALLEL WORLD WAS TEMPTED AT THE EXACT SAME MOMENT<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

a;slkddfjks;asdklfj<\/p>\n

as;dklfkl;dsja;slkdfja;lsdkfj;asldjf;lkasjdfalksdjf<\/p>\n

asd;lfajsd;lkfja;sldkfja;sldkfhsabgja ;kljask;s;fdkjsfmn ;dslkkldf ;j s;fkdlj ;fsadfjk sd<\/p>\n

I’ve been enjoying The Amber Spyglass<\/em>, but until yesterday’s chapter, I sort of felt like we weren’t getting that many HEAD EXPLOSIONS as the first two books, so this caught me completely off-guard. On top of that, I loved Mary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s scenes with the mulefa<\/em>, but I was starting to wonder what they were for, in the sense that I knew they would relate to complete narrative, but I just wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seeing how.<\/p>\n

Pullman takes his time answering that question in this chapter, but even right from the beginning, I got the feeling we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d see a huge development here. If Mary was going to try to see if she could observe Shadows in this world, I imagined we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d learn something new about this alternate universe.<\/p>\n

So Mary sets about building a mirror of sorts, inspired by a revealing conversation with a mulefa<\/em> named Atal about Mary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s experiments in her own world. Like many things here in this universe, I love that Pullman always acknowledges that many basic concepts we take for granted are entirely foreign and strange here. As Mary tries to explain the concept of her research, her lab, the idea behind her experiments, and how she came to discover that these particles were actually conscious, she frets about the possibility that Atal will simply be unable to understand what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s saying. The scientific method means nothing in Mary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s terms to the mulefa<\/em>, though we have seen it acted out in a different way among these creatures.<\/p>\n

…but Atal surprised her by saying, Yes–we know what you mean–we call it…<\/em>and then she used a word that sounded like their word for light<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Mary said, Light?<\/em><\/p>\n
Atal said, Not light, but<\/em>…and said the word more slowly for mary to catch, explaining: like the light on water when it makes small ripples, at sunset, and the light comes off in bright flakes, we call it that, but it is a make-like<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Make-like<\/em> was their term for metaphor, Mary had discovered.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It became incredibly obvious to me that all of these parallel worlds developed and evolved and adapted in such stark, varied ways, but we were now seeing that Dust\/Shadows\/Light appears to be in every<\/em> world. My immediate question upon reading this: What else do these worlds have in common?<\/p>\n
Sraf<\/em>. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what they have in common. Atal explains that this is why the mulefa<\/em> knew that they could inherently trust Mary. (I did laugh that Atal called her \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bizarre and horrible,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not at all meant as an insult.) When Mary asks where it comes from, and Atal replies that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s from the mulefa<\/em> and the oil from the seedpods, a trillion lightbulbs started going off in my head. Apparently, the same thing happened with Mary, who starts to put together all of her ideas regarding the nature of the Shadows. She remembers what Lyra had told her about Dust, that it all has to do with The Fall and Original Sin, and that it all appeared at a very specific point in history.<\/p>\n
She said to Atal:<\/p>\n
How long have there been mulefa?<\/em><\/p>\n
And Atal said:<\/p>\n
Thirty-three thousand years<\/em>.<\/p>\n
She was able to read Mary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s expressions by this time, or the most obvious of them at least, and she laughed at the way Mary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jaw dropped.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
AHHHHHHHHH ALL OF THE WORLDS ARE THE SAME<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 But nothing could have prepared me for the origin story Atal tells, giving Mary the reason she knows why there have only been mulefa<\/em> for 33,000 years. Long ago, a female creature with no name discovered a seedpod, and a visitor arrived once she started playing with it:<\/p>\n
She saw a snake coiling itself through the hole in a seedpod, and the snake said–<\/em><\/p>\n
The snake spoke to her?<\/em><\/p>\n
No, no! it is a make-like. The story tells that the snake said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What do you know? What do you remember? What do you see ahead?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And she said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Nothing, nothing, nothing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And then my head exploded a trillion times over. GOD TEMPTED EVERY EVE IN <\/em>EVERY WORLD<\/em><\/strong>. oh my god <\/em>ads;klfjas as;klfjas;d fas;dlkfjasd;lk asd;lkfjasd ;lfkj as;dlfkjasdkl;fsdjklasfd<\/p>\n
What I really like about this scene, though, is that it exemplifies my main problem with the Temptation and the Fall. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very little for us to work off of in the Bible, so Pullman does take liberties in giving us the part of the story where the snake speaks to this unnamed creature. (Well, unnamed due to lack of knowledge, which we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to.) But I imagine there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no other way to explain this state, even if it is metaphorical: without knowledge<\/em>, the first humans (or creatures in any world) would know nothing<\/em>. There would be no memory, no history, no future, no speculation, and, most important of them all, no context<\/em>. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re talking about theological zombies, in essence, humans without history or learning or foresight or anticipation, who merely drift the earth in some designed paradise of pure boredom<\/em>.<\/p>\n
The story of Eve and the story of the first mulefa<\/em> are both identical in this sense. God tempts these beings. He does so with the full knowledge that they are absolutely unable to make a decision that is the slightest bit informed, and he then punishes the rest of the future of humanity for this, all the while fully aware that only out of sheer luck would Eve choose not to eat the apple from the Tree of Knowledge. And I use the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153luck\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because Eve (and the first mulefa) do not have the capacity to even have a reason<\/em> to choose one or the other. That requires knowledge and they have none.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for this reason that Pullman paints the mulefa<\/em> history as one that is entirely accepting and respecting of knowledge: that knowledge they gained helped them determine how to use the seedpods, how to name one another, and helped them teach their offspring how they were supposed to live as well. In the Bible, the Fall is mankind\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s greatest error, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spent thousands of years believing that receiving knowledge of the world and ourselves was our worst mistake. I feel that Pullman is working towards a moment to explain just how absurd that notion is, but I I also think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still relevant 33,000 years later, as theocratic politicians the world round profess the same idea and legislate them into law. Is knowledge our worst sin?<\/p>\n
Philip Pullman doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think so, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably no better example of that than Mary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s construction of the mirror. Like the subtle knife forging scene, I was endlessly fascinated by the process, even if I was distracted by how complex it was and how difficult it was for me to visualize a lot of it. Mary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind operates completely in the pursuit of knowledge. She uses the same process the mulefa<\/em> use for creating lacquer, which has the same properties as spar, in order to create some sort of mirror to view Shadows. Yet even that<\/em> is a lot easier said than done, and she sets out on the prolonged journey to create this instrument. I like that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not something that she sits down and makes on a nice summer afternoon. It takes her days<\/em> to complete it. She makes mistakes, she fails, but she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a silver backing to the mirror, so it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even work as she intended. She listens intently when Atal explains more about the lacquer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s property, and what she could use it for. She even comes up with the idea of sticking two sheets of glass against each other to see if it makes a difference when she views the world through it.<\/p>\n
And through all of this, I noticed something very peculiar: aside from Atal, none of the mulefa cared what Mary was doing<\/em>. Hell, Pullman even stresses how uninterested they are in her little project and, at one point, even Atal tires of this process. In that moment, when Mary puts aside her little experiment and the two spend some time grooming each other (SORRY THIS SCENE IS SO AMAZING AND AFFECTIONATE UGH I LOVE IT<\/em>), it all comes together:<\/p>\n
She held the two plates a hand span apart so that they showed that clear, bright image she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen before, but something had happened.<\/p>\n
As she looked through, she saw a swarm of golden sparkles surrounding the form of Atal. They were only visible through one small part of the lacquer, and then Mary realized why: at that point she had touched the surface of it with her oily fingers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
THIS IS SPECTACULAR. Oh god, I would love to see this done on film, to see Mary view the mulefa<\/em> world through this lens, to see Dust swirling over these creatures, or settling in around those who were older and had conquered knowledge.<\/p>\n
Aaaaaannnd then everything gets weird for a bit.<\/p>\n
So at last you can see<\/em>, said Atal. Well, now you must come with me.<\/em><\/p>\n
Mary looked at her friend in puzzlement. Atal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tone was strange: it was as if she were saying, Finally you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re ready; we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been waiting; now things must change<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deny how unsettled I was by this, by reading how the mulefa <\/em>start to assemble, <\/em>by Atal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gentle assurance that she will not be harmed, by Mary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s realization that this was clearly planned for a long time. What are they doing? Why are they meeting like this?<\/p>\n
Mary is introduced to the oldest mulefa<\/em> that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ever seen, Sattamax, whose cloud of Shadows \u00e2\u20ac\u0153was so rich and complex that Mary herself felt respect, even though she knew so little of what it meant.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And Sattamax begins to speak, revealing that the entire group has been waiting for the moment when Mary had conquered some of their language and, more important than anything, could fully understand what sraf<\/em> was. Having done so, Sattamax says, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for her to help<\/em> the mulefa<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Oh, Pullman. I was so unprepared<\/em>.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure what it all means, but Sattamax tells Mary how three hundred years earlier, the trees carrying their seedpods began to die. Surprisingly, there are now creatures in this world without<\/em> Dust, the tualapi<\/em> are working to destroy the mulefa<\/em>, and they all desperately need a cure to the sickness that affects their trees, or they will all die.<\/p>\n
And this is where Dr. Mary Malone comes in. Mary must come up with a cure, and she agrees. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that this is all directly related to the Authority in some way. If the Gallivespians had human agents of the Authority to deal with, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Magisterium in Lyra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world, or the Specters\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.what is happening in this world to threaten the lives of the mulefa<\/em>?<\/p>\n
But Pullman doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t leave us with this happy moment, choosing to give us a brief glimpse at Father Gomez, who is still traveling through Citt\u00c3\u00a1gazze, heading towards the mountain where Mary found the door to the world she is in now.<\/p>\n
GREAT. AWESOME.<\/p>\n
———-<\/p>\n
Remember to enter the BridgeToTheStars\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>contest<\/a> to win a copy of The Amber Spyglass<\/em>, and to visit this week’s spoiler thread!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the seventeenth chapter of The Amber Spyglass, Dr. Mary Malone finally discovers the mystery behind Dust\/Shadows and why it only appeared after a certain point in history. When she does, the mulefa reveal that she has an unknown purpose … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,79],"tags":[23,81,62,61,80],"class_list":["post-473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-his-dark-materials","category-the-amber-spyglass","tag-mark-reads","tag-mark-reads-the-amber-spyglass","tag-philip-pullman","tag-religion","tag-the-amber-spyglass-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}