In the twenty-second chapter of The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman finds joy in the world of the dead, and we realize it is the infectious, rebellious spark that is Lyra Belacqua. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read The Amber Spyglass.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: THE WHISPERERS
If there was any question why His Dark Materials focused on Lyra’s perspective more than anyone else’s, then this chapter is Pullman’s resounding answer: because it could not be anyone else who leads this rebellion against the Authority.
It’s not spelled out at all in chapter twenty-two, so I’m still guessing, but I think the land of the dead is entirely the Authority’s doing, and that by doing what Lyra starts here, humanity can finally fight back against the oppressive force of God. And it’s now clear to me that destiny has jack shit to do with this. Even if Lyra has a prophecy written about her, it is not affecting her agency or her free will. Everything that has brought Lyra to this point was done entirely out of her own choice and her own desire to right the things that are wrong. Now I wonder…is that why Lyra could never know of the prophecy? Would it affect her agency? Hmmm.
Anyway, THE LAND OF THE DEAD. I mean HOLY SHIT. We’ll get to the actual physical layout of it, but I love that right from the start, this place makes you feel something. For Lyra, the loss she’s experienced and the heartbreak leads her to feel that she’s worthless, that even her last refuge of power, her ability to lie, is her only hope, and she just lost that, too. I did chuckle when Will replied to state that she could also read the alethiometer because….dude, what a shitty friend! I mean, I know what you meant, but if I told you I felt worthless and you replied, “Yeah, but you can ride a bicycle,” I’d probably punch you in the face. Metaphorically. Obviously, he wasn’t trying to say that this was LITERALLY the only thing she was capable of doing, but it made me laugh nonetheless.
So they turn to investigating the world of the dead, which is just as grim and overwhelming as I imagined. In my head, aided by the descriptions that Pullman gives me, this world is devoid of any real color, or at least bright ones. I like the idea of it all being just shades of black and white, but straying far more towards the grays, and of millions of “ghosts” drifting aimlessly and without purpose. Of every detail Pullman does tell, I think that one is the most disturbing: For as long as anyone can remember, the only thing that has happened is the torment of the harpies and….nothing else. Nothing happens, nothing marks the passage of time, and NOTHING HAPPENS. God, that is horrifying. Why has the Authority allowed this to exist?
I don’t know why it happens for sure, but I’d be willing to make a guess as to why the dead can only whisper: they lost the will to talk, and for those who have been here hundreds or thousands of years, it’s been a long time since they have spoken. It’s clear just how difficult this plan of Lyra’s is going to be to execute. The sheer volume of ghosts present is going to make this a challenge to locate Roger, but how can they even attempt this if they can’t communicate with anyone?
But it starts off slow enough, and the child ghosts are drawn to these clearly living creatures who have wandered into their world, and Pullman describes it as an attraction to their energy, something I’d not really thought about. It’s an energy inherent in life, and no one in this world has seen anything like it since they arrived here. Yet the flow of ghosts becomes overwhelming:
The two living children felt that little by little they hadn’t got an infinite amount of life and warmth to give, and they were so cold already, and the endless crowds pressing forward looked as if they were never going to stop.
Finally Lyra had to plead with them to hold back.
One ghost child in particular is enamored with the appearance of blood on Lyra’s forehead and she ends up being the first person to actually speak so that Will and Lyra can hear her. Unfortunately, it’s not good news in the slightest. We learn that the harpies pick on those who are newest to the land of the dead. Why? Who knows! They’re evil? They guard the world of the dead and they can’t experience joy? I suppose it doesn’t matter in the slightest. They’re just another addition to THE WORST PLACE EVER.
Yet Will and Lyra refuse to relent, despite the seeming impossibility of what they have before them. Pullman hadn’t even discussed the size of this world yet, and I knew that it was going to be a problem, but Lyra figures that they made it this far, so they might as well do what they can. BUT DARN THOSE PESKY HARPIES. Christ, must you always get in the way? You know, when I first read this chapter, the thought had not occurred to me, but now I can’t ignore it. Whatever Will and Lyra decide to do, how are they going to get back past the harpies? Surely the harpies will be none-too-happy about the prospect of people leaving the world of the dead, and they’ve already proven to be willing to use violence to stop them.
It’s partially answered when Will realizes that the harpies seem to be avoiding all physical contact with these living beings, and he guesses that it was actually a mistake that No-Name had struck Lyra. I can’t pretend to understand why this is the case. Is it the subtle knife? Do they know Will has it? Or is it some rule of the world of the dead that the harpies are not allowed to touch anyone, only scream obscenities and insults at the ghosts?
Either way, the very act of standing up to the harpies is clearly something that was previously inconceivable to the ghosts in the world of the dead. They begin to rise up and drift closer to the two human children who have finally found a way to reject the fury and misery of the harpies.
“Will,” she said, “I’m so glad we came down here together…”
He heard a tone in her voice and he saw an expression on her face that he knew and liked more than anything he’d ever known: it showed she was thinking of something daring, but she wasn’t ready to speak of it yet.
He nodded, to show he’d understood.
AHHHHH I LOVE THESE CHARACTERS SO MUCH. These two deserve one another, and the fierce rebellion both of them had building inside of them for years has now come to the forefront, but IN THE WORLD OF THE DEAD. But what is this idea that Lyra has???
We don’t find out at first. A few children begin to speak openly about dæmons with Lyra, asking where hers is, and offering up details about their own. One of these children is particularly upset at the notion that dæmons disappear forever upon death, insisting they have to go somewhere. Could this…could this be foreshadowing? Please? I just want Pan back. 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁
I thought it was also pretty awesome that Pullman doesn’t ignore that there are ghosts him from parallel worlds, such as one from Will’s world, and another from a world where your death is with you your whole life, much like a soul or a dæmon. Yet all of these different experiences agree on one thing: The appearance of Will, Lyra, and the Gallivespians is the first thing that has ever happened in this world. Literally. I can’t even conceive of that notion, that concept of repetition and banality. It’s just as confusing and repulsive to Lyra as well, and I got a better idea of what she wanted to do: set the ghosts free.
There’s a great transition in this moment, too, as Pullman switches over to the perspective of the Gallivespians, who are flying high over this scene. They’re able to see how the thousands and thousands of ghosts are all drifting and swirling around these children, and it leads them to wonder if they, too, have dæmons, and to ponder the nature of Lyra herself. It’s fascinating to me because their tone is such a marked change from what it was before this. Tialys, at the very least, no longer speaks with the same infuriated, pretentious air of importance, and I think part of that is the sheer spectacle of how Lyra has been able to command the attention of the dead. When Salmakia asks if this was the choice Lyra was destined to make, leaving her dæmon behind, he looks upon Lyra below him.
The Chevalier looked down on the slow-moving millions on the floor of the land of the dead, all drifting after that bright and living spark Lyra Silvertongue. He could just make out her hair, the lightest thing in the gloom, and beside it the boy’s head, black-haired and solid and strong.
“No,” he said, “not yet. That’s still to come, whatever it may be.”
“Then we must bring her to it safely.”
“Bring them both. They’re bound together now.”
Just like that, they agree to make this their sole mission. The spies have seen nothing like this in their entire existence, and even if this trip to the world of the dead results in the death of all of them, they can no longer deny that Lyra is something special. And she really is special, and not in that ~speshul snowflake~ way; she possesses no unique powers or super strengths or magical abilities. The capacity of her heart is endless, and there are few beings ever who love like she does. It’s only a character like Lyra who would sacrifice her own dæmon in order to apologize to someone, “die” in the process, and then, when she reaches the afterlife, set forth to free all of the lost souls there. She tells Will this plan, and…oh god, I’ll just quote it:
He turned and gave her a true smile, so warm and happy she felt something stumble and falter inside her; at least, it felt like that, but without Pantalaimon she couldn’t ask herself what it meant. It might have been a new way for her heart to beat. Deeply surprised, she told herself to walk straight and stop feeling giddy.
Oh, Lyra. There are so many layers to this, with the first being that Lyra said something to create a smile in the most grim, depressing location in every universe ever. That is Lyra’s true power. And, of course, there’s the adorable subtext that she herself is pleased by Will’s approval; perhaps she is even beginning to experience a crush as well, but that is something to be dealt with at a much later time.
That’s because this chapter finally–FINALLY–gives us something from Will and Lyra’s story that is pure and simple bliss. Far ahead of these two, Lady Salmakia spots a lone ghost boy, confused by something the other spirits are telling him, and she calls out to him, asking if he is Roger. He confirms (!!!!!!!!!), and she flies back to Lyra with the news. He is but an hour’s walk away from them.
Lyra’s infectious excitement spills over on to me, and even though the chapter ends at this moment, I’m going to allow myself this brief sensation. Lyra has traveled to the world of the dead, and she has found the friend she lost, and they are about to see each other. She has done the impossible.
———-
If you are just aching to discuss the many spoilery things that this chapter and others I’ll read this week, BridgeToTheStars is hosting a conversation about THE WORLD OF THE DEAD and you should probably go hang out there with other His Dark Materials fans. You still have a chance to enter the contest BTTS is hosting in conjunction with me to give away a signed copy of The Amber Spyglass!
It's similar to her going to Bolvangar after him, isn't it? That was a metaphorical descent into the underworld and this is a literal one.
"One of these children is particularly upset at the notion that dæmons disappear forever upon death, insisting they have to go somewhere. Could this…could this be foreshadowing? Please? I just want Pan back. 🙁 🙁 🙁 :("
What does what happens to dead dæmons have to do with Pan?
It's pretty clear to me that the child was wondering what happens to their daemon upon his/her death. In going to the world of the dead and separating from Pan, Lyra technically "died" so it would be the same as her wondering what happened to Pan. I can't imagine he just disappeared after she left and neither could Mark.
I also briefly questioned if Lyra leaving Pan was the "Eve" choice she had to make, but then I remembered that Mary Malone is the serpent in that scenario, and it still seemed like they were very far from meeting up. Except that the book is now more than half over, so I knew Pullman would be pulling out all the stops from here on. The story's climax is on its way, and there's no way you're even slightly prepared for the awesomeness of it.
The ghosts' voices are very creepy in the audiobook; they're slightly above a whisper as described, but also blend into each other, kind of like a hive mind from the endless time they've spent together. And I love the hint that one of them is Tony Makarios (he talks about seeing daemons taken away, and such).
Chapter 22 Epigraph!
<img src="http://www.bridgetothestars.net/misc_gallery/cache/Extras/TAS-Epigraphs/scan0055_595.jpg">
"She has done the impossible."
… and that makes her mighty?
She aims to misbehave
Mal and Lyra would probably be best friends. Or Lyra and River.
Lyra and River would have a badass-off.
god someone make this happen
is there fic of this
i would read the fuck out of that.
Burn the land and boil the sea,
…Lyra won’t care, she’ll just get Will to cut a window into another world and leave.
She has gone BEYOND the impossible, and has proceeded to KICK REASON TO THE CURB.
ROW ROW FIGHT THE AUTHORITY.
You know what blows my mind? When Lyra tells the ghosts who she's looking for, she says he's only been here a few weeks. These past two books have taken place in so little time, but sooooo much has happened. The amount of time you've spent reading TSK and this far into TAS is probably longer than the time that passed in-universe. It makes sense, timeline-wise, but it reminds you that Lyra, who is planning to free all the ghosts from the world of the dead, is still 11, maybe 12 if her birthday passed and we missed it. How many people would have the daring and gumption that she does at 4 times her age? She's so cool.
Also, the line where Lyra saw the dragonflies and was glad there was something beautiful in the world of the dead made me think of this little ditty from Starship by Starkind (it's better if you can see it, the song starts at 2:30). But if you plan on watching the musical and don't want to see it yet, here's the version off their soundtrack. The line about dragonflies now always brings this song to mind.
Hasn't it already said she is 13? I know for sure it mentioned at some point that she was 13. The timeline of these events are a little dodgy, because that would suggest that two years had passed since the start of Northern Lights, or at the very least just over one year if she was almost twelve at the start of the first book.
I'm almost positive she's 11 at the start of TGC, but time passed a lot more quickly in that book so she could definitely have turned 12 at some point when she was with Mrs. Coulter or the gyptians. I have no memory if they ever say she is 13, which isn't to say it didn't happen. I very easily could have missed it; I'm not that great with remembering ages or dates (I'm a bad history major, I do better with concepts than specifics). Either way, the amount of time needed is still pretty short for the amount of things going on. And it definitely doesn't change how awesome she is.
But I think TSK takes place over about a week or so. And maybe a lot of time is spent traveling in TAS. But Lyra's been awake for a handful of days now, so not too much time can have passed, right? But I think you're right that, whatever age Lyra is now, the timeline is a bit off and not set in stone. I would like more details and clarity please, Pullman!
We pretty much know that Will is twelve, but the only mention of Lyra's age so far was when she told the nurse at Bolvangar that she was eleven, and there was some discussion of whether or not she was lying. I don't think there was a definite conclusion to that, but I think the general consensus is that she's either eleven or twelve.
Nobhg gjb puncgref sebz abj, Znevfn gryyf ZnpCunvy gung Ylen "vf abj gjryir lrnef byq." V'q fnl fur'f gryyvat gur gehgu orpnhfr fur'q unir yvggyr vapragvir gb yvr urer (rfc. fvapr gurl fgvyy unir Sen Cniry), ohg gura ntnva jura unf gung fgbccrq ure va gur cnfg? Nffhzvat fur vf gryyvat gur gehgu, gubhtu, gur vapyhfvba bs gur jbeq "abj" zvtug nyfb fhttrfg gung Ylen bayl erpragyl ghearq gjryir.
Va gur fprar jurer Nfevry naq Znevfn gnxr qbja Zrgngeba, vg fnlf gung Ylen unq orra pbaprvirq ebhtuyl guvegrra lrnef orsber.
It's like you say. And we do know for sure thanks to Lyra's words that it's only been a few weeks since the incident in Svalbard. Remember she was told everything that happened by Will and Iorek and they know the time that's passed. Especially Iorek.
Lrf, fur gryyf Sngure ZnpCunvy (V'z tynq V qvqa'g zvfgnxr gur anzr va zl bja pbzzrag) gung fur'f ghearq gjryir fvapr gnxvat ure sebz Wbeqna Pbyyrtr. Naq ab, V qba'g guvax fur'f ylvat urer. Erzrzore ubj fur nyfb fcbxr bs abg nyybjvat n tebhc bs qvegl zbaxf gb unir gur pner bs n tvey ernpuvat choregl? Fur jnf gryyvat gung gb uryc ure pnfr.
When she says she is 11 she also says (thinks to us) that people say she looks young for her age, implying that it is a lie. I cant find any specific quotes at the moment but Wikipedia says she was 12 at the start.
V guvax gur bayl ernfba fur zvtug unir gb yvr jbhyq or gb znxr Ylen lbhatre (yrff guerngravat, qnrzba abg lrg frggyrq).
Rot13, read only if you've read the book already:
Va gjb puncgref, gur bar pnyyrq "Zef Pbhygre va Trarin", fur gryyf Sngure ZnpCunvy (V guvax gung jnf gur anzr) gung Ylen unf nyernql ghearq gjryir fvapr gur gvzr fur gbbx ure sebz Wbeqna Pbyyrtr naq gung fur'yy fbba pbzr gb choregl. Vg'f n fcrpvsvp vasbezngvba fur tvirf gb fgeratugra ure pnfr.
A brilliant ballet at fifty miles an hour!
God I love Starship. I'll say it again, Darren Criss is a genius. Mark HAS GOT to watch it.
I agree. I wish he would write a soundtrack for my life. I feel that the awesome factor in my life would have to increase exponentially just to accommodate his songs. Plus, I'd have some great music accompanying me at all times. It's a win-win situation.
AHHHHH I LOVE THESE CHARACTERS SO MUCH. These two deserve one another…
YES this is so true, they just seem to go with each other so well, which makes it so much more of a pleasure to read. Like when Will just understands Lyra's expression, it is just perfect.
I personally think it comes from the fact that neither of them have ever had a real equal in their lives, I mean okay Lyra had Roger, but I always get the impression he just followed her around and did everything she said. But Will challenges Lyra and they have a much more balanced relationship which is just awesome.
I agree on the comparison between the Roger/Lyra and Will/Lyra relationships.
Gung bs pbhefr vf jung znxrf gurve riraghny frcnengvba fb urnegoernxvat, V guvax Znex vf tbvat gb arrq nf znal nfgeny cynar uhtf nf cbffvoyr ng gung cbvag…
I'm still impressed by Lyra's joy in the world of the dead. I can feel how heavy and grey it is, and she doesn't seem to be as affected as Will by the draining of the ghosts just because she's finally found Roger. Oh, and she has a plan to free every dead person ever. Wow. That passage about her heart skipping a beat it also really sweet. I agree, she is special because she cares, not because of some extraordinary superpower, and that makes her pretty unique as a hero.
Mmmmmhrrrrmrfgggghrrfmmmmrrrfm….
Spoiler’s are people you don’t want around
Spoiler’s are people you don’t want around
Spoiler’s are people you don’t want around
Spoiling in the morning!
GRYY FGBEVRF GB GUR UNECVRF! TNNNNNNNU GUVF VF JUNG ZNXRF ZL YVSR JBEGU YVIVAT!
Exactly! V ubcr V unir fbzrguvat jbegujuvyr gb gryy gurz jura V trg gurer.
(Also, I definitely rot13'd your first line, just to be sure. :P)
I love how Lyra suddenly thinks, oh well, I'm going to free the dead, and it doesn't seem impossible to her, she wants to do it because it's right. She's amazing !
How awful is this afterlife ? Personnally I'd rather there wasn't anything at all and just not exist than be miserable and bored for the whole of eternity.
About daemons : Even if Lyra and Cie are in the world of the dead, they aren't dead themselves. Leaving their daemons on the shore doesn't make Lyra, Will and the Gallivespian dead: they're clearly not ghosts and have their bodies, so their deamons haven't vanished like deamons do when you die.
This is the part of the chapter that amazed me:
" 'Oh, they en't daemons,' Lyra burst out compassionately; 'and if my own daemon was here, you could all stroke him and touch him, I promise–'"
Even though touching someone else's daemon is Not Done, and even though Lyra desperately misses Pan and must want to have him all to herself again more than anything else, she would let all these ghost children break the taboo so they could experience what it felt like to be reunited with their daemons again. What a truly kind thing to even contemplate.
Also Mark, didn't Baruch or Bathlamos state earlier than the Authority set the World of the Dead up as something of a prison camp or holding area where the deceased would go? So I imagine he just dumped everyone there so he didn't have to personally deal with the dead.
Yup, I was about to quote that. In Chapter Two (so long ago!), Balthamos, Baruch, and Will have a conversation about this very thing.
Will said, "So you're not going to tell me this secret of yours? All right. Tell me this, instead: what happens when we die?"
Balthamos looked back, in surprise.
Baruch said, "Well, there is a world of the dead. Where it is, and what happens there, no one knows. My ghost, thanks to Balthamos, never went there; I am what was once the ghost of Baruch. The world of the dead is just dark to us."
"It is a prison camp," said Balthamos. "The Authority established it in the early ages. Why do you want to know? You will see it in time."
"My father has just died, that's why. He would have told me all he knew, if he hadn't been killed. You say it's a world – do you mean world like this one, another universe?"
Balthamos looked at Baruch, who shrugged.
"And what happens in the world of the dead?" Will went on.
"It's impossible to say," said Baruch. "Everything about it is secret. Even the churches don't know; they tell their believers that they'll live in Heaven, but that's a lie. If people really knew…"
"And my father's ghost has gone there."
"Without a doubt, and so have the countless millions who died before him."
Will found his imagination trembling.
So this whole thing has been brewing since then, on both Will and Lyra's sides – since he had that conversation and she had the much more pressing one with Roger's ghost. They've both got valid reasons to be there, and I do look forward to everything else that happens now that they are there.
Part 2 in Pullman’s land of the dead and classical and Christian mythology:
In the last chapter we saw what Pullman took from Virgil to create the entrance to the underworld and the harpies. Given that Dante took many of these same elements, it could still be seen in some way as a reflection of the Christian hell. In this chapter, the total alienation from Christian and even Virgilian tradition becomes clear. In all Roman and Christian sources, the underworld is a very well-ordered place, with different sections for dead infants, the virtuous dead, murderers, suicides, etc. Dante assigns a place and a specific punishment for every sin, often in some way an ironic reflection on the effects of that sin in the living world (those who could not control their lust are blown around by a terrible wind, those who would not choose either good or evil have to chase a meaningless banner, thieves who could not respect the difference between their own property and others must constantly change shape and switch bodies). Virgil even mentions some punishments for specific people in Tartarus, the place for the wicked dead. Pullman’s underworld, on the other hand, is flat, undifferentiated, almost unfinished-seeming. The Authority does not seemed to have cared about it at all. Everyone is gathered together without any care for who they were in life. In this way, Pullman resembles Homer more than Virgil. Odysseus calls for the dead to come and speak to him, and they come in an almost-undifferentiated throng to crowd around his sacrifice. Here, there are still some few noted to have some special reward or punishment, but most say nothing about that, and life is said by Achilles to be better than even the best fate after death: “No winning words about death to me, shining Odysseus!/By god, I’d rather slave on earth for another man/some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive/than rule down here over all the breathless dead.”
It probably means nothing to you, but Achilles lines bring to my mind a part in Dragon Ball Z: Vegeta's death and time in Hell, where he was the strongest of all the demons, fighting everyone all the time and being completely bored because nobody was strong enough to face him. There are other places like that and all seem to take the idea from the same homeric source.
Somehow the land of the dead here does remind me of some myths but I can't remember which. Not classical, but from another part of the world.
I'm so glad you came up with a valid excuse for me to create Dragonball/Dark Materials fan fiction. 😉
Always happy to help give ideas for twisted fanfiction. 😉 Yu Yu Hakusho is another of that kind of hell/underworld fighting ring. Disney's Hercules? The souls are drifting in a vortex for all eternity.
Yu Yu Hakusho? Oh man, we could have a SUBTLE knife-edge death-match! And now that I think about it, Will does have some similarities to Kuwabara and his spirt sword. You're a genius, Tilja.
Kuwabara will always remind me of Hanamichi Sakuragi from Slam Dunk; they're twins separated at birth! Both have that unending will power that seems to relish been beaten down so they can come back up and kick fate on the face. Well, isn't that Will's power as well?
If we keep thinking, we can end up making Lyra a magical girl or a digigirl with Pan as her transformation device. LOL on how much you can make up out of anime!
Also (and please correct me if I'm wrong), the girl ghost who speaks to Lyra after being fascinated by the blood references the fact that shades in the underworld have to taste blood to speak. I think I remember that from the Aeneid.
Sounds right. I remember Diana Wynne Jones used that in Time of the Ghost, and it was hilarious, because of the ways in which the characters got others to donate blood and the way the whole thing escalated.
Yeah, I think it would be nice to have some confirmation that the Authority is behind all this. But, y'know, it's only the last half of the final book. NO RUSH. ;P
And is that the reason Pan was cast aside!? Just so Lyra could cling to Will next? Dude, be careful; she's on the rebound! She'll dump you like a bad habit if she gets her dæmon back! Trust me––I've had it happen!
I'm also not sure about there being equal representation in this afterlife. I mean, where are all the bears, witches, and little spies, hm?
I think in one of the previous chapters Iorek said something about bears not having souls, so there is no afterlife for them.
Nuh-uh, Roon! Iorek said the ARMORS are their souls, and that means that he would take off his stuff before getting on the boat and then he would cross over and give me a HUG.
Big fan of this theory.
You've been snagged and then dumped by a girl on the rebound from abandoning her daemon in the World of the Dead?
…..rough life, dude.
Okay, so maybe she just went back to a GUY named Damon, leaving me alone in a really smoky bar. 😉
So the bar was the world of the dead, yeah? It's all an allegory! LOL
There are so many people and other beings – I think we just don't see all of them, including witches and bears and spies and such.
BUT DARN THOSE PESKY HARPIES
Hey you dang kids, get off my lawn!
Sorry. Had to. That was one of my only coherent thoughts after this review. Partly because I'm packing to move, and partly because…. I mean, Lyra is in the World of the Dead. And she's alive. And she just left her daemon behind. And she lost her ability to lie. And she is talking to millions of ghosts, trying to find one, just so she can apologize . And then, as if that all isn't enough, she wants to set them all free. I mean, holy god….. this girl has some balls.
Metaphorical ones, I hope. 😛
(Also, THIS to everything.)
Perhaps, like dæmons, they are not always visible. Deep thinking, deep thinking.
Reminds me of a moment in very early series of NCIS – I guess I better ROT-13 just in case.
Xngr Gbqq gryyf Tvoof fur "rnearq ure wbpxfgenc". Ur nfxf vs vg rire tvirf ure "gung rzcgl srryvat". Fur ergbegf, "yvxr fbzr fcrpvrf bs sebt, V tebj jung V arrq."
Xngr naq Ylen jbhyq cebonoyl trg ba, gubhtu V guvax Ylen vf zber bs n onqnff 😉
(I'm highly amused that Gibbs becomes Tvoof in rot-13…)
I guess, for girls/women, our balls would be our ovaries? It still works.
I always say women have balls, they're just higher up, and then I shake my boobs and chuckle.
Classy, I know.
I teared up reading your review of this chapter. What is wrong with me
Harry Potter interuption.
This is beautiful and everyone needs to see it:
http://youtu.be/DFBzZfxkWUg
(If someone could help me embed it, I cant figure it out.)
It was posted on the Ravenclaw Facebook group and have made it my mission to spread it across the internet.
That was an amazing video thank you for sharing it. I would have never found it.
THAT IS SO GOOD! It deserves to be upvoted till the end of times.
Wow, someone has some serious editing skills. Amazing vid – actually gave me chills. Beautifully done, thank you for sharing!
beautiful.
I love that Lyra just flat-out doesn’t care how difficult something is once she sets her mind to it. She’s going to do it, and no one can tell her it can’t be done, because that’s just ridiculous. I mean, several different times she’s told that once she enters the world of the dead, she can’t leave, because no one ever has; but that doesn’t phase her one bit. So it only seems natural that, once she had seen the bleakness and misery in the world of the dead, that she’d want to help the ghosts escape from there. The word “impossible” doesn’t even exist in her vocabulary.
"He turned and gave her a true smile, so warm and happy she felt something stumble and falter inside her; at least, it felt like that, but without Pantalaimon she couldn’t ask herself what it meant. It might have been a new way for her heart to beat. Deeply surprised, she told herself to walk straight and stop feeling giddy."
Such a beautiful description, and also it provides an interesting insight into her relationship with Pan. She can't ask herself what it means… I mean what a fascinating glimpse of what Pan is to her!