The late great mythologist Joseph Campbell once remarked that an individual should find someone - whether that someone be a writer or philosopher or artist or what have you - who really and truly inspires them. Who sets their whole heart and soul ablaze with insight and inspiration, who catapults them into a universe where they've never visited but nonetheless immediately feel alive and at home.
But he didn't stop there. Not only should an individual find someone like that, he argued, but said individual should then research and go back and find who inspired them. And then who inspired them. And so on and so forth. And once a person did this, the universe would unfold in a marvelously consistent and harmonious manner.
As my current Philip Pullman-inspired reading illustrates (see above), this is precisely what I have chosen to do, and I am seldom disappointed. Part of this is necessity, as I am timidly starting to do research and take notes for my potential book on all of the Pullmanverse, much in the style of my other McFarland Press work.
That is particularly true with my copy of Northern Lights, as I am lining up possible themes and quotes and all of that while rereading. I have already written a post on Eternity's Sunrise, which is an exploration of the imaginative world of William Blake. Next up is my superlative edition of Paradise Lost, written by John Milton and boasting wonderful illustrations by Gustave Dore. Lastly is a souvenir guide I purchased on Amazon exploring the Bodleian Library, a place I would very much like to visit and one of acute importance to Pullman and the alternate Brytain he created.
For anyone eager to take Campbell's advice and allow the universe to bloom and flower into its full, inspired potential, I do have some initial suggestions for this in relation to Pullman. The first and most simple being to follow the trail of breadcrumbs he himself lays out across his numerous books and essays and lectures.
It goes without saying that one should plumb the depths of his seminal nonfiction piece, Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling. After that, Pullman himself outlines his major influences in the back of The Amber Spyglass. While he unhesitatingly admits to stealing "from every book" he has ever read (shades of Tennyson's "I am a part of all that I have met" here?), he does give particular credit to three works for HDM - namely the poet William Blake, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Heinrich Von Kleist's "On the Marionette Theater."
I fully support the bit about William Blake, as Pullman himself is currently the acting President of the Blake Society in London. In your aim to become a Pullman Scholar, I certainly recommending watching videos like this address to said Society. Paradise Lost is a given, as it is not only a profound staple of the Western canon (which yes, does still exist no matter what some may politically protest), but is a staple of HDM itself. I also highly recommend reading "On the Marionette Theater," as it is not only rich in HDM allusions (see the bit about fencing with a bear, Will and Iorek-style!), but is short and immediately accessible on the internet.
For literary and intellectual journeys beyond that, I will certainly be providing a hopefully pretty comprehensive guide with the eventual bibliography for my aforementioned HDM and The Book of Dust tome. I would also unhesitatingly recommend any good and reasonably comprehensive collection of Romantic poetry, such as one which I recently finished, not just Blake. And again, Pullman has greatly influenced my understanding of and appreciation for poetry, as I explored in great length a few months ago in this post on Edgar Allan Poe.
But in the meantime, there a few other books which I have found to be essential to the reading and understanding of Pullman's work, particularly his latest literary exploits in The Book of Dust. The first two he directly referenced in one of his most sublime poetic articles, initially printed in The Guardian here. Both of them are about William Blake, but like Pullman's own work, they encompass far more than that.
The first book is Roderick Tweedy's The God of the Left Hemisphere: Blake, Bolte Taylor and the Myth of Creation, and it is a masterclass on the relationship between the right and left hemispheres of the brain, as well as Blake's mapping out of them over two hundred years ago. I cannot say enough good things about it, as it is one of those rich, life-altering works that come along quite rarely.
The second referenced is curiously along those exact same lines, and is Iain McGilchrist's The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. McGilchrist has become a bit of a celebrity on YouTube in his own right, and I first referenced his work in my review of Serpentine.
At any rate, it is equally extraordinary, as is the best kind of seminal philosophy that makes sense of the world for you in a way that nothing ever has, yet immediately feels eerily familiar. With cross fertilization in the fields of neuroscience and literature alike, McGilchrist is a tour de force, outlining not the way in which the hemispheres do different things, but rather do the same things completely differently, shifting the way we perceive the entire world in the process.
Granted, The Master and His Emissary is a demanding work of enormous length, and I admit I personally have not navigated the entire book. However, I believe it offers incredible insight not only into our world, but the worlds of Philip Pullman as well, specifically the human-daemon relationship and bond. If nothing else, I wildly and enthusiastically recommend this lecture given to the Blake Society by McGilchrist. It is a favorite of Pullman's as well.
Lastly, I will suggest Philip Goff's Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness as a must-read for Pullman scholars. Again, Pullman is the one who introduced me to Goff's work, as it delves heavily into one of his favorite subjects - consciousness. And not simply the kind that resides somewhere behind the eyes and between the ears of human beings, but potentially everywhere and in everything, as explored in both of his trilogies.
Goff and Pullman have even engaged in conversations together, and will be a subject of another separate blog post.
Well, hopefully this posting has not been too lengthy, but has served as a meaningful introduction to the kind of things that interest me, and will hopefully interest others. I do find Campbell's advice about seeking out those deep reservoirs of wisdom and information from those who have inspired those who have inspired us to be a profound piece of advice. Clearly it has guided a lot of my own life and work. I would certainly suggest it for anyone who is into the academic game of the real-world Jordan Scholar.
i say follow those trails of insight like Ariadne's thread, as if your very life might depend on them. Because the depth and richness of it most probably will.
Not to mention, it is certainly a very Republic of Heaven sort of thing to do ...
Stay Dusty My Friends
#PhilipPullman #JosephCampbell #WilliamBlake #JohnMilton #HeinrichVonKleist #IainMcGilchrist #PhilipGoff #RoderickTweedy #TheBookOfDust #HisDarkMaterials
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