{"id":439,"date":"2011-07-18T07:00:18","date_gmt":"2011-07-18T14:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=439"},"modified":"2011-07-18T05:23:41","modified_gmt":"2011-07-18T12:23:41","slug":"mark-reads-the-amber-spyglass-chapter-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/07\/mark-reads-the-amber-spyglass-chapter-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Amber Spyglass’: Chapter 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first chapter of The Amber Spyglass<\/em>, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Amber Spyglass<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Well, hello Readers! I’ve always wanted to figure out a way to involve the existing fandom of something I’m reading\/watching while I am still working my way through that particular show or book. I’m happy to announce that I can finally do that!<\/p>\n

During the course of reading The Amber Spyglass<\/em>, I’ll be working with BridgeToTheStars.net, the largest Philip Pullman fansite and community EVER. They have all been wonderful to me, and we came up with some neat ways for those of you who have read this series to continue to enjoy The Amber Spyglass<\/em> without having to worry about spoiling me.<\/p>\n

First of all, each week BTTS will host a themed discussion wherein you may discuss this week’s chapters in a spoilery fashion. This week, please visit the thread in their beautifully designed forum for chapters one through five<\/a>. In the coming days, I’ll be announcing a contest running simultaneous to this with BTTS where you can win a signed copy of The Amber Spyglass<\/em>. UM VICTORY<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, you should probably check out the real image that the new banner is cropped from<\/a>. Just sayin’.<\/p>\n

Ok, last book of the His Dark Materials<\/em> trilogy, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to make these predictions AWESOME. Shall we?<\/p>\n

Mark\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Totally Beautiful and Always-Right Predictions For The Amber Spyglass<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. <\/strong>Ok, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty obvious that Mrs. Coulter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s people have Lyra, so that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of my prediction. The other half: She is not<\/em> going to destroy her as she told Lord Boreal. I predict she is using her for another purpose to further herself.<\/li>\n
  2. <\/strong> Will is going to use the subtle knife to kill someone or something before chapter ten.<\/li>\n
  3. <\/strong> We will learn why this trilogy is called His Dark Materials<\/em> and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to tie together these objects that Will and Lyra have in their possession. (The alethiometer and the subtle knife.<\/li>\n
  4. <\/strong>The amber spyglass will enable a person to see from one world to another.<\/li>\n
  5. <\/strong>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that Pullman will show us exactly three<\/strong> more parallel worlds in addition to our world, Lyra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world, and Citt\u00c3\u00a1gazze.<\/li>\n
  6. <\/strong>We will get to see inside of Lord Asriel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fortress and we will learn that he houses a secret weapon in the fight against the Authority.<\/li>\n
  7. <\/strong>Lord Asriel will die by the end of the book.<\/li>\n
  8. <\/strong>We will FINALLY learn why<\/em> the Authority absolutely must be killed and why Lyra must kill \u00e2\u20ac\u0153destiny.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n
  9. <\/strong>Will is going to successfully kill the authority.<\/li>\n
  10. <\/strong> Ok, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m willing to admit that this is probably foolish to guess about, since I literally cannot understand the mechanics of how it works, but Will, Lyra, and Dr. Malone will somehow re-create The Fall but instead choose to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153embrace\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the concept of sin without feeling shame.<\/li>\n
  11. <\/strong> Dr. Malone will die by the end of the book. (I HATE TYPING THAT. But after the end of The Subtle Knife<\/em>, I honestly don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think anyone is safe. Also, I will never heal from the death of Lee\/Hester. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sorry, that is just so traumatic<\/em>.)<\/li>\n
  12. <\/strong> Ok, I am absolutely not sure about this, but why not further make a fool of myself? Somehow, Mrs. Coulter will \u00e2\u20ac\u0153redeem\u00e2\u20ac\u009d herself and choose to ultimately turn against the Church.<\/li>\n
  13. <\/strong> We will discover more versions of the Church\/Magisterium in other universes.<\/li>\n
  14. <\/strong> I think we will get the first appearances of doubles. By that, I mean versions of people in different worlds.<\/li>\n
  15. <\/strong> We will find out where Specters came from and if there are indeed versions of them in other worlds. (Or if they are the same thing but called something different.)<\/li>\n
  16. <\/strong> Will is going to be reunited with his mother.<\/li>\n
  17. <\/strong> We will learn the identity of the pale-haired man. Oh, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to die.<\/li>\n
  18. <\/strong> I will finally learn more conclusively than in the first two books why<\/em> Christians apparently hate this series. (It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been remarkably tame so far.)<\/li>\n
  19. <\/strong> There will be people. (I WANT ONE EASY PREDICTION.)<\/li>\n
  20. <\/strong> At the end of The Amber Spyglass<\/em>, all the windows to the worlds will be closed and no one will ever be able to travel between then again.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    WELL, THAT WAS FUN. Also, do you know how awkward it is that one of the characters is named Will? I had to rewrite sentences that started with, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Will will do this,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because it looked terrible. THANKS, PHILIP PULLMAN. Just kidding, I love you can we be friends<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    CHAPTER ONE: THE ENCHANTED SLEEPER<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Okay, well I was sort of right? Damn, I am seriously unprepared for this novel.<\/p>\n

    I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have guessed that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d see Mrs. Coulter right off the bat, but Pullman has a penchant for taking my expectations and drop-kicking them off a cliff into a pit of nightmares. Even more interesting is the way in which he gives us almost no information at all, and yet I feel as if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s communicated an entire volume worth of information to me.<\/p>\n

    I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come to adore the way he writes about the physical world around his characters; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this playful, loving style of syntax and use of vocabulary to give us colors, feelings, and mental images full of rich detail. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll always appreciate just how wonderful this story is, but never forgets that he has to make us believe this world. He accomplishes that through his attention to detail. He contrasts the forest of pines and the valley rhododendrons with the creepy horror of the cave that Mrs. Coulter now occupies. What makes this all the more effective is just how unsettled we feel when we realize we actually don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t <\/em>know what Mrs. Coulter is doing out here with just Lyra and herself. Of course, I had expected that the Specters had invaded Will and Lyra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s camp to take out the witches protecting her, and then Lyra herself was captured, to be brought back to Mrs. Coulter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possession. But I quickly realized that there was no one else with this woman in the holy cave. Why? Why wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she have anyone with her? Why is she pretending to be a holy woman in this manner?<\/p>\n

    It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a chance for us to see how Mrs. Coulter uses her manipulative charm to get what she wants. We meet (briefly) a local village girl named Ama; she brings Mrs. Coulter food and gifts, believing her to be a holy woman, but she has arrived this time with her father and some reservations of her own. The village is well aware that there Mrs. Coulter has a young girl with her, and that this young girl was not ordinary in any sense.<\/p>\n

    Mrs. Coulter turns on that frightening charm in an instant. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s honestly like there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a switch in her head that she flips on and off without any sort of preparation. God, it is just so creepy<\/em>. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help that when Mrs. Coulter shows Ama Lyra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sleeping body, the golden monkey d\u00c3\u00a6mon is also being affectionate towards Pantalaimon. HOW DARE YOU TOUCH HIM, YOU DIRTY <\/em>APE<\/em><\/strong>. But was this affection real or an act? I actually cannot tell.<\/p>\n

    I definitely wanted to believe that Mrs. Coulter was doing something to harm Lyra. She makes some sort of potion in the cave and slowly feeds it to her daughter right as she starts to wake up; it causes her to fall back asleep. So…she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s keep Lyra asleep for the time being? Seriously, why?<\/em><\/p>\n

    But this confusion is only natural. This is the first chapter of the book. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what Pullman has planned. However, a new sensation creeps into me: What if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gotten Mrs. Coulter all wrong? We learn that her d\u00c3\u00a6mon is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153discontented.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

    He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like what she was doing here in the cave, and when he tried to express his concern, she brushed him away.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Okay, what???<\/em> I know that d\u00c3\u00a6mons can and do express themselves separate of their owners, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m lost. Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t her d\u00c3\u00a6mon generally pretty hellbent on being a conniving, sneaky asshole? So if her d\u00c3\u00a6mon is upset with her, what does that mean in terms of her own behavior? Pullman describes the monkey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153skepticism,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d immediately after this revelation, which throws yet another wrench into this. Shit, what could this d\u00c3\u00a6mon possibly doubt?<\/p>\n

    …she wondered what in the world she thought she was doing, and whether she had gone mad, and, over and over again, what would happen when the Church found out. The golden monkey was right. She wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t only hiding Lyra: she was hiding her own eyes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    WHAT?!?!?!?!!?<\/em><\/strong> I MEAN. That sounds like a fairly tacit acknowledgement that Mrs. Coulter is doing something the Church would not be all too happy with. Of all people, she<\/em> is doing something like this? She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hiding<\/em> Lyra??? And what on earth does Pullman mean about Mrs. Coulter \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hiding her own eyes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n

    Oh, this is gonna be so good.<\/p>\n

    This short chapter ends with what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing is Lyra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dream sequence while she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kept asleep by her mother. She is some other world, described as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the end of all places and the last of all worlds,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and there are beings<\/em> with her, ones without faces or names. Are they imprisoned as Lyra believes? Are these actual ghosts?<\/p>\n

    Surprisingly, Roger is here. He says this is the world of the dead. And he is very afraid, unsure if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done something right or wrong.<\/p>\n

    I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m inclined to believe that even if this is <\/em>a dream, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually real. I think this is a real place. So now is there a possibility to get Roger back<\/em> from the dead?<\/p>\n

    Oh, I am so terribly excited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In the first chapter of The Amber Spyglass, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Amber Spyglass.<\/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":[23,81,62,80],"class_list":["post-439","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-the-amber-spyglass-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}