Long awaited, first impressions: The Book of Dust, La Belle Sauvage, by Philip Pullman

First, a few notes from the open Yale course on Milton: Anglican church politics and Protestant work ethic, contractual and economic language in the light of Milton’s poetics of power, his reception and critical prominence in the canon a tool of repression and of liberation (Woolf) -

Then, How much of this, how closely does this bear on  Pullman’s treatment of the great writer, his (Pullman's) conception of himself as a story-teller rather than a poet, a workman rather than divinely-inspired maker?

The whole topic of free speech and prophecy - can prophecy be free speech? - authority based on sentiment, on experience, rather than on coercive power. The infant (lit. 'not-speaking') depending on others, the nuns and the inn mirroring one another across the river--the flood foretold and prepared for which blurs the distinctions and suddenly pushes the plot into precipitate action. Profanity and corruption walking on three legs, but otherwise appearing friendly. The acorn with Bible-thin paper wrapped inside, the aura or aurora associate with Lyra’s name, the clockwise/ counter- imagery connected with problem-solving and seeing the world in a new way. The wretched league dedicated to betrayal of friends and family and subversion of the educational purpose of school. These characters who disappear - Mr Boatwright from the inn, Mr W the headmaster, Mr Taphouse the carpenter, and the curiously muted role of Malcolm’s real parents beside the allure of these other father-figures. The mysterious status of parents overall in the tale: Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter, the one kept away from his daughter by force, the other seemingly unwilling to care for her but curious about her significance once it becomes mythic, intertwined with her passion, which is power, and her chosen avenue the church. National names, Brytain, Swiss War, mentioned for the first time (her hair color changed from black to gold? Any other changes, questions of temporality and causality here?)

The primacy of the Oxford tutorial system recast as conversations with Dr Hannah Relf, even with or superseding the importance of their spying, the reading they do and discuss together. The metaphor of reading the alethiometer, the books of research, the literal reading of real books: Agatha Christie, Stephen Hawking, but not so far poetry--though they quote a hymn and call out the allusion to Noah. (Faerie Queene at the end).

Now, to eagerly await the next book, meanwhile reading all those this one mentions and re-reading this one!