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His Dark Materials?
PostPosted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 9:52 pm
by Stardust
Maybe there's already been a question about this, but I need to know.
What are the "dark materials?"
Why are they dark?
Whose are they?
Ideas, anyone?
PostPosted: Mon Jun 09, 2003 10:59 pm
by eloquent
Into this Wild abyss,
The womb of nature and perhaps her grave,
Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mixed
Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless the mighty maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more worlds,
Into this wild abyss the wary fiend
Stood on the brink of hell and looked a while,
Pondering his voyage...
PostPosted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 4:03 am
by Stardust
Still lost........
PostPosted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 4:35 am
by Gabe
Philip Pullman got the name from that poem...
PostPosted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 5:14 pm
by Kinders
Yes, but what the khyber does it mean?
PostPosted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 5:44 pm
by Tristan
His would be God/The Almighty maker, dark materials apparently are something used in creation. So's the Golden Compass, actually... the name has nothing to do with the alethiometer.... its another thing from paradise lost used by God in the creation of the world.
PostPosted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 7:13 pm
by eloquent
"Dark materials" is also a metaphor for "Dark matter", a.k.a. sraf.
PostPosted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 8:27 pm
by Kinders
Aha, interesting... and to think me and Thom were getting all hung up on the fact that the Golden Compass isn't actually a compass...
PostPosted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 9:08 pm
by Will
*Signs them up to the pro-NL brigade*
The slighty disturbing thing is that I can say that passage eloquent wrote, off by heart... It was at the start of the audiobooks and I was able to join in
PostPosted: Tue Jun 10, 2003 10:21 pm
by jessia
well it's described as a "sort of compass" in the first book.
-------------------------------------------------------------
com·pass [kúmpəss, kómpəss]
n (plural com·pass·es)
1. direction finder: a device for finding directions, usually with a magnetized needle that automatically swings to magnetic north
2. personal direction: a sense of personal direction
a leader who was devoid of moral compass
3. scope: the scope of something such as a subject or area
beyond the compass of the inquiry
Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003. © 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------
it doesn't neccesarily have to point north.
PostPosted: Wed Jun 11, 2003 1:59 pm
by eloquent
Indeed. If you were standing on the north pole it would point south.
PostPosted: Wed Jun 11, 2003 7:55 pm
by jopari
geees. you don't have to be so negitive.
PostPosted: Wed Jun 11, 2003 8:14 pm
by eloquent
What, it would! There's a big difference between true north and magnetic north.
PostPosted: Wed Jun 11, 2003 10:24 pm
by Stardust
Still lost.....lol
What makes these "materials" dark?
Are they really dark, or dark as in "evil".......?
Sorry guys, I'm not always the sharpest knife in the drawer
(haha sharpest knife....get it?)
PostPosted: Wed Jun 11, 2003 11:47 pm
by jessia
LoL, read into the passage a bit more.
PostPosted: Thu Jun 12, 2003 8:25 pm
by la bohemia
I always thought the dark materials were the compass, etc. but then I was enlighted by actually reading the poem in front ^^;
PostPosted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 9:30 pm
by AySz88
So's the Golden Compass, actually... the name has nothing to do with the alethiometer.... its another thing from paradise lost used by God in the creation of the world.
Woah, wait...then what exactly IS the Golden Compass???
PostPosted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 9:41 pm
by Tristan
Here's the quote:
For Chaos heard his voice: Him all his train
Followed in bright procession, to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
Then staid the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things:
One foot he centered, and the other turned
Round through the vast profundity obscure;
And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
This be thy just circumference, O World!
Thus God the Heaven created, thus the Earth.
...PP mentions it in one of the interviews, don't know which one.
PostPosted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 9:53 pm
by AySz88
Oh, that would be like the circle compass, but I doubt that "compass" has same meaning as the Golden Compass in the title...
PostPosted: Fri Jun 13, 2003 11:03 pm
by jessia
another question for another letter for philip pullman.