The Republic of Heaven

The increasingly-fraught-with-tension two-windows-open thread made me think of this:

John Parry/Jopari/Staninslaus Grumman spends his working life searching for a window between his world and Lyra's world. Then he finds that window, walks through it, and spends his working life as Grumman searching for the window again.

This has the unintentional consequence of making him absent from his son's life, and not 'building the Republic of Heaven where he is' (but rather searching for some 'elsewhere').

So, my question is, do you think Pullman is critical of Jopari's choice to devote his life to walking between the worlds, or do you think he presents a neutral view on the subject?

He has no idea that the republic of heaven even exists. Remember he got lost ten years before Asriel set out.

As for Will, he was only a few years old when he went north. I think that once he realised he couldn't get back to his own world, he sort of resigned himself to the fact that he would never see them again.

Pullman isn't really critical of his choice- it wasn't his choice that got him there, and nobody at the time knew about the whole dust drain etc thing. He was dead long before he had a chance to make the choice. He certainly doesn't portray him as bad. He's a good man- he loves his son and his wife and he tries his best to help them.

Interestingly, now that I think of it, what do you think was the purpose of his character?

Ultracommando93 wrote:I think that once he realised he couldn't get back to his own world, he sort of resigned himself to the fact that he would never see them again.

But he spent his whole life trying to figure out how to get back to them.

Interestingly, now that I think of it, what do you think was the purpose of his character?

He helped with a lot of exposition - in NL/TGC he was working on Dust before Asriel, and Asriel used him as an excuse to go to the North - he said to the Scholars that he wanted to find out what happened to Grumman. (remember the trepanned head?)

In TSK he was meant to show how living in the 'wrong' world causes you to get sick. And to provide a heart-wrenchingly tragic scene when he finally meets his son, only to die.

Aletheia Dolorosa wrote:

Ultracommando93 wrote:I think that once he realised he couldn't get back to his own world, he sort of resigned himself to the fact that he would never see them again.

But he spent his whole life trying to figure out how to get back to them.

Interestingly, now that I think of it, what do you think was the purpose of his character?

He helped with a lot of exposition - in NL/TGC he was working on Dust before Asriel, and Asriel used him as an excuse to go to the North - he said to the Scholars that he wanted to find out what happened to Grumman. (remember the trepanned head?)

In TSK he was meant to show how living in the 'wrong' world causes you to get sick. And to provide a heart-wrenchingly tragic scene when he finally meets his son, only to die.

I think he was basically a fleshed out plot deivce, thats all, and very poorly fleshed out as well. One of Pullmans weaker characters.

Aletheia Dolorosa wrote:So, my question is, do you think Pullman is critical of Jopari's choice to devote his life to walking between the worlds, or do you think he presents a neutral view on the subject?

No, I don't think so. John Parry found the window by accident. It wasn't his fault that he couldn't find it again.

Also, he did a lot of good in his lifetime. He used the knowledge he had from his own world and the new things he discovered in L-world to good effect. He became a shaman as well. I don't think he wasted his life. He had a noble goal. It was just unfortunate that he couldn't be with his wife and son.

What intrigued me I guess were the parallels. Will and Lyra were told explicitly not to spend their entire lives searching for open windows. John Parry spend his entire life looking for open windows. I don't know if it means anything, though, or if it's just an elegant thematic choice.

Yeah, I guess it's tragic irony. Searching for a way to other worlds seems like a great voyage of discovery. But for both Lord Asriel and John Parry, their life's work turned out to be for nothing, since you can't survive in another world anyway.

This must mean that Pullman's viewpoint of colonisation is negative - it would make sense considering his viewpoints on how we're destroying the Earth.

moonflash wrote:This must mean that Pullman's viewpoint of colonisation is negative - it would make sense considering his viewpoints on how we're destroying the Earth.

Yep, the only way to do anything is to stay where you are a build it.

Does this then suggest he is opposed to exploration of any kind and thinks that people must remain where they are and change things? This strikes me as quite unlikely.

Aletheia Dolorosa wrote:Does this then suggest he is opposed to exploration of any kind and thinks that people must remain where they are and change things? This strikes me as quite unlikely.

But it's a conclusion that's hard to avoid. At the very least he seems to be saying, "Clean things up at home before you even think about taking your problems abroad"

I don't think he is opposed to exploration... It is after all a series about a voyage of discovery. A voyage truly exploring both the self and the surroundings. But I think he's saying, that if you don't take what you learned home and apply it, its all useless information. The "home" that you can take it to can be either literal- Lyra's world vs. Our world- or metaphoric- Build the republic of heaven in your heart-, but without application and sharing, knowledge is a pretty self-centered and ultimately pointless possession.