Dark Materials
I first heard about Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy in a New Yorker article in 2003. A playwright had adapted the books into a musical playing in London. Pullman's books were essentially billed as the anti-Narnia. An intellectual book of self-determination and such, aimed at kids. Well, I love kids books and such, so I went out and started reading. I made it through two before I threw my hands up in defeat. I found the anti-religious slant obvious. I found the story to be kind of stupid. I think what bothered me, in part, was that the characters made stupid decisions. I cannot stand it when people make stupid decisions. And it's not just one, it's like, multiple. Case in point, the film Little Black Book, in which the protagonist not just peeks at her boyfriend's Palm Pilot for info on his ex-girlfriends, she contacts and meets them in these contrived situations and lies repeatedly to them. Sometimes in hurtful ways. When the protagonist couldn't get out of the spiraling lies, I thought the movie was awful. Why doesn't she just walk away?! In the end, it all made sense, but it was pretty miserable in the middle.

I don't really remember enough details about the Dark Materials to recount to you the specifics of the narrative that annoyed me. But the story's other weakness to me was that it was exactly what it was not. I mean, I loved the Narnia books, in part, because of the sweeping emotion that the Christian allegory evoked. By the end of the second Dark Materials book, I felt low and hopeless, even as the protagonist struggled with her own will and self-determination.

The final shortcoming, I think, is that I did not read the Dark Materials as a child, whereas I stumbled onto the Narnia books in 3rd grade. I would often just stroll through the aisles of the modest library at the small Catholic school I attended at the time. I ended up finding many magical books using this tactic (a great King Arthur book I've never been able to find). And also some bad ones, as one day I randomly pulled Moby Dick off the shelves. I didn't get past the first page. Anyways, I found the Narnia books, and the randomness of the discovery added to the magicalness of the find. I've come to the Dark Materials because the intellectual snob in me was compelled by the New Yorker.

Well, here we go again. The New Yorker has recently featured another story on the Pullman books. And the intellectual snob in me wants to try the books again, perhaps with a more critical eye. The books have won many awards and Pullman said something to the effect that he was trying to write a literary kid's book. (Where as LOTR and Harry Potter certainly are not.) Perhaps the key to liking the books this time around is to approach them intellectually, instead of hoping for the same magical reaction I had when I read the Narnia books the first time around.