{"id":500,"date":"2011-08-22T06:00:57","date_gmt":"2011-08-22T13:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=500"},"modified":"2011-08-22T08:51:28","modified_gmt":"2011-08-22T15:51:28","slug":"mark-reads-the-amber-spyglass-chapter-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/08\/mark-reads-the-amber-spyglass-chapter-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Amber Spyglass’: Chapter 26"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the twenty-sixth chapter of The Amber Spyglass<\/em>, Will and Lyra lead the procession of the dead toward their ultimate goal of escaping this wretched world, but that idea is easier said than done. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read The Amber Spyglass<\/em>.<\/p>\n

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: THE ABYSS<\/strong><\/p>\n

OOPS I FORGOT THIS<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

New banner! And omg I ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND THE REFERENCE IN THIS WEEK’S ART. omg y’all over at BridgeToTheStars are PURE GENIUSES.<\/p>\n

Here’s the link to the full banner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And this week, BTTS is hosting a spoiler thread<\/a> to discuss all reviews up to chapter 30, as well as the war against the Authority and its effect on multiple universes. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

For once–FINALLY<\/em>–we get to experience joy. And not the joy of exception, and not moments that are wonderful and then get crushed without mercy just seconds later. JOY<\/em>. It’s made even better by the fact that things get REALLY close to being abysmal. (Does that count as a pun? I’m counting it.)<\/p>\n

I think part of this stems from the fact that I thought I’d been given every sign that this wasn’t go well. We open chapter twenty-six with the bleakness of the trek towards whatever location the harpies say can be used to escape. The Chevalier’s dragonfly has already died from a lack of food, and Lady Salmakia’s is not far behind. I was totally taken back by Salmakia offering her dragonfly her own blood<\/em> in order to survive. That is just such a touching<\/em> and intimate thing to do.<\/p>\n

What contributed to my opening statement about the sense of impending doom that I got was how what happens in this chapter almost feels like a good bye. It’s as if everything has come together in just<\/em> the right way and just <\/em>the right time, and I thought that it was inevitable that this would fall apart. The first such moment is the appearance of Lee Scoresby. God, the fact that I get to type that is huge<\/em> to me, and if there was ever a way that Pullman was going to figure out how to bring back past characters, this was it. LEE SCORESBY, I MISS YOU DEARLY<\/em>. And standing next to him? JOHN PARRY. a;ldsfkjas;dlfkjasd;flkj WILL OMG MY HEART IS BURSTING FOR YOU<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And then something happens, and I get the purpose of it, and I understand absolutely none of it<\/em>. I know that I am missing a huge piece of this puzzle, so it’s not like I don’t understand what I’ve been give. It’s clear part of this was left out on purpose. But John Parry tells Will that he has to cut away the hair from where a lock of Lyra’s hair has been stolen. So it’s clear to me that the lone hair left in the bomb was Lyra’s, not the monkey’s. Therefore, I understand why<\/em> this happens, and how it relates to the story at large. I do not understand HOW THEY KNOW ABOUT THIS<\/strong>. How do either of these ghosts have an outside connection to the world? Isn’t that why<\/em> the world of the dead is so terrible? You are specifically disconnected from everything involving life. Are there ghosts who can escape? Do they have ghostly spies? IS THERE A FORM OF GHOST TEXT MESSAGING? (As soon as I typed that, I thought of Ghost Umbridge yelling DID YOU GET MAH TEXT?)<\/p>\n

Again, I get why<\/em> it happens, I’m fascinated by the outcome, and I DON’T GET HOW IT IS EVEN POSSIBLE TO PULL OFF. Why do I get the sense that this is not going to be explained to me? Well…wait, that’s not true, but I’ll get to that at the end. LET US TALK OF THE ABYSS<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I really love that word, and it has always creeped me out. I blame that on old horror and sci-fi films and stories. An abyss has always implied this endless pit of darkness, where mysterious, unseen creatures dwell and eat you. It might explain my obsession with the earth opening up to eat people. It just might<\/em>. So there’s something about the presence of an abyss (perhaps THE abyss) here in chapter twenty-six that both frightens me and excites me. What would the purpose of one serve? Where would it lead to, if anything at all? What happens if something living or ghost-like falls into it? What happens if I shove KING JOFFREY INTO THIS HOLE? <\/em>None of you understand my hatred for him I AM A SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE.<\/p>\n

I am avoiding commenting on the abyss in any serious way because I do have a deep-seeded fear of things without ends to them, specifically: holes, the deep ocean, pools I can see the bottom of, cliffs, high mountains, the tops of skyscrapers without proper protection around them, and other such ridiculous things. Sometimes it’s a near-phobia, and for years I would hyperventilate if I had to travel across a bridge that spanned open water. It’s not so bad these days, but the feeling that Pullman describes here through Lyra is eerily accurate to what I have experienced in terms of my own fear of heights and how vertigo works for me. (To be fair, though, I chuckled at the thought that ghosts still<\/em> had to obey the laws of gravity in the world of the dead. This truly is a shit place if ghosts can’t float and fear falling into a black abyss. THIS IS A SHIT GHOST LIFE.)<\/p>\n

Harkening back to my open statements, I started to believe that ghosts would begin to plummet into the abyss as Pullman described the way it “seemed to pull the eyesight down into it,” which is a fairly accurate description of how vertigo affects me. It was inevitable, I thought, and I felt that this entire chapter would lead to something utterly horrible or, at the very least, extremely bittersweet. As the ghosts began to doubt they’d ever reach the upper world, I started worrying that they might shove<\/em> Lyra in, but then I remember they can’t, and I wondered how my brain ever allowed itself to come to that conclusion.<\/p>\n

But really, Will’s explanation of why he doesn’t like the abyss is the worst of it all:<\/p>\n

“And I tell you something about that hole down there. It’s the same kind of thing as when I cut a window. The same kind of edge. There’s something special about that kind of edge; once you’ve felt it you never forget it. And I can see it there, just where the rock falls away into the dark. But that big space down there, that’s not another world like all the others. It’s different. I don’t like it. I wish I could close it up.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
WELL, I’M EXTREMELY COMFORTED BY THIS. Actually, I was truly comforted by the small side conversation that John Parry, Lee Scoresby, and Chevalier Tialys have about fighting the Specters since they don’t have d\u00c3\u00a6mons. Um\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6could this please happen? I don’t understand how<\/em> that is possible, but I just want to spend more time with John Parry and Scoresby. Is that so much to ask? Plus, Tialys says he only has a few more days to live, and his death won’t be as shocking if I know he can “return” to the action.<\/p>\n
While I thought I had this much of the story figured out, I must say that Lyra’s “fall” took me completely by surprise. As soon as she slipped due to the vertigo, I thought that Pullman would take this all in a new direction, that Lyra would find out what existed in this black world of nothingness (if<\/em> that is indeed what is there). I wasn’t excited<\/em> to see her fall to her doom, but I also figured that Lyra would find some<\/em> way to escape. Plus, Will was the only one there who had the physical strength to save her, and he is forced to watch her slide farther away from him. God, that is THE WORST. He literally can do nothing without sacrificing himself\u00c2\u00a0 in the process. At best, he might be able to slow down her descent, but who else could help them? Ghosts have no physical presence.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, Pullman has done such a fantastic job showing us just how awful the harpies are, so it’s a sign of just how important Lyra is that No-Name chooses to save<\/em> Lyra. Given that they were so resistant to touching them before, this is a huge moment for Lyra and the harpies. I wouldn’t say it’s just as strong as the time Lyra’s d\u00c3\u00a6mon is touched in The Golden Compass<\/em>, but it’s akin to the idea at work there. Pullman is able to convey the meaning of a world that has no real familiarity to our own. We understand<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0that this act of No-Name’s has never been done before. But what’s even more striking is how all of these creatures and ghosts react to Lyra being saved:<\/p>\n
They were the only two human beings in that vast gulf of death. They clung together, and the ghosts clustered around, whispering comfort, blessing the harpy. Closest at hand were Will’s father and Lee Scoresby, and how they longed to hold her, too; and Tialys and Salmakia spoke to No-Name, praising her, calling her the savior of them all, generous one, blessing her kindness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Well, that definitely<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0has never happened. I don’t think this event is just a piece of the plot. I think it is indicative of the fierce way that Lyra and Will have sacrificed so much in order to do what they believe is right, and this<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0is the ramification of that. They’ve found a way to bring joy, solace, and love to a world where all human emotion and life is literally and figuratively dead. They’re amazing in my book because of this. (Well, and everything else they’ve done, to be fair.)<\/p>\n
Yet I still<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0worried that something was waiting to happen and that this chapter would not end on a good note. Perhaps I’m just used to cynicism and negativity, or perhaps it’s just been a long while since things have gone right for Will and Lyra. But shockingly so, the group makes it up to pass over the abyss, and Will is able to cut into open space<\/em>. They aren’t below the ground anymore.<\/p>\n
They did it. Right? Right<\/em>?<\/p>\n
But then John Parry pulls his son aside, and drops some horrifying<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0backstory onto his son, and we learn why<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0he was sick, why<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0the Guild of the Torre degli Angeli ruined their world, and why<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0Lord Asriel’s plan will eventually fail:<\/p>\n
Because a d\u00c3\u00a6mon can get sick if it spends too much time in a world not its own.<\/p>\n
I mean THAT IS SO LOGICAL AND OBVIOUS, and yet I did not think about it once. If anything, I thought about it backwards<\/em>. I wondered if those who did not live in Lyra’s world got a d\u00c3\u00a6mon after traveling there, but that now makes no sense. They already have one, but it is specific to the world they were born in. Thus:<\/p>\n
“Lord Asriel’s great enterprise will fail in the end for the same reason: we have to build the Republic of Heaven where we are, because for us there is no elsewhere.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
OH MY HEART. I LOVE THIS IDEA. But why are all the d\u00c3\u00a6mons in Lord Asriel’s world? And is Parry’s ability to “see” things the explanation for how he “saw” the bomb? ARE WE GOING TO GET A HUGE, MONUMENTAL FIGHT IN LORD ASRIEL’S WORLD? Because I’d love nothing more at this point. Still, I do feel like there is an awful lot left to tie up this trilogy, and there’s very little time to do that. To be fair, though, I felt the same thing about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows<\/em>, and up until the end of the Battle of Hogwarts chapter, I thought the same thing: OH GOD HOW ARE YOU GOING TO TIE THIS ALL TOGETHER I AM IN FEAR OF SUCH THINGS<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, though, chapter twenty-six does give us something so goddamn beautiful and cathartic that, for the moment, it’s easy for me to forget about the bigger questions. I think it’s touching and kind of wistful to end this chapter in the way Pullman chooses to do so, and I’d like to quote it and bask in its gorgeous warmth:<\/p>\n
The first ghost to leave the world of the dead was Roger. He took a step forward, and turned to look back at Lyra, and laughed in surprise as he found himself turning into the night, the starlight, the air…and then he was gone, leaving behind such a vivid little burst of happiness that Will was reminded of the bubbles in a glass of champagne.<\/p>\n
The other ghosts followed Roger, and Will and Lyra fell exhausted on the dew-laden grass, every nerve in their bodies blessing the sweetness of the good soil, the night air, the stars.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
They really did it. They freed the ghosts trapped in the world of the dead. It’s fitting that Roger, the boy Lyra came back to save, is the first to experience the elation of becoming part of the world, and I am immensely satisfied with the mental image of Will and Lyra laying in the grass, watching the dead transform into Dust, spreading out to make up everything else around them.<\/p>\n
It’s okay to feel good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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