His Dark Materials

[OHC]

I haven't been watching the show, but I have been rereading the books for the first time since I was a kid. They still hold up really well and will retake their position among my favorites - but naturally I've been paying more attention to the alternate history elements this time around.

Obviously the setting is soft AH with lots of supernatural elements, not quite like what we do here (although I do think it's useful for all AH writers as a great example of how to establish an alternate world without infodumping - you get a good sense of what a daemon is by the end of the first chapter, without any explanation required). I would like to bring up one of the less supernatural elements as a question here, though:

One main difference between Lyra's world and ours seems to be the role of Christianity. Instead of a schismatic Reformation, John Calvin took over the Catholic Church from the inside; by the present day, the Church, based in Geneva, is still a politically untouchable superpower and is so philosophically influential that physics is known as "experimental theology." I'm pretty ignorant of religious history, but is it plausible at all for the Reformation to be an internal process within Catholicism that changes the church's structure and doctrine but allows it to retain its preeminent position in European society?

 

[Alex Richards]

Both volumes of Book of Dust, but especially the just released Secret Commonwealth shed a lot more light on this, so I'm going to be a tad hesitant on responding without knowing if you've read those ones yet, but in principle it would be possible yes. The entire reason for the Reformation being called that was because Martin Luther's demands were not for a new church but the removal of certain practices that he saw as corrupt or not justified by the bible, and the Council of Trent effectively started doing a lot of that to start the 'hearts and minds' fightback.

Now John Calvin taking over and managing to do all the changes in the books feels... markedly less plausible. But equally it wouldn't be remotely surprising from what we see of the Magisterium for them to underplay the level of opposition and attempted schisms.

 

[Makemakean]

I have so many questions about Lapland.

I admit, I only read half of Northern Lights when I was a kid, and never got further than Trollesund.

From googling, and watching the sets, I won't lie, it is incredibly inspiring-looking stuff, and fills my head with countless ideas of a Lapland as a kind of "Nordic Alaska during the goldrush". Exactly how much information is revealed about Lapland?

Actually, looking over the basic plot description of Northern Lights on Wikipedia, it looks like this is very much inspired by H. C. Andersen's The Snow Queen.

I mean, the Finns, and witches, and Lapland being this magical country and all and the further North you travel the weirder it gets, and talking animals, and these small little dangerous, elusive fragments all over the the Universe, and-... wait. The Gyptians, are they meant to-... are they meant to be the Røverne? That could prove somewhat problematic. And there's this woman who sort of adopts the protagonists, but she is not really what she seems, and-... There's this whole sinister thing about stealing children and taking them North, and-...

Wait a minute, it is The Snow Queen!

 

[OHC]

Both volumes of Book of Dust, but especially the just released Secret Commonwealth shed a lot more light on this, so I'm going to be a tad hesitant on responding without knowing if you've read those ones yet, but in principle it would be possible yes.

I haven't picked up Secret Commonwealth yet so thank you for your restraint! And for the answer. I should've guessed that the Reformation started as... Reformist.

From googling, and watching the sets, I won't lie, it is incredibly inspiring-looking stuff, and fills my head with countless ideas of a Lapland as a kind of "Nordic Alaska during the goldrush". Exactly how much information is revealed about Lapland?

It's all kind of oblique but there's a general sense that the Arctic is a political hotspot, contested between Christendom, a Tartar state that fills the Russian/Soviet bugbear role for Western Europe, Native Americans from a Norse-colonized America and local powers like the bears. There's fossil fuel exploration and theologically significant scientific research at stake. Really it's just a land of magical adventure.

Actually, a slightly-steampunk Scandinavian adventure seems up your alley...

Wait a minute, it is The Snow Queen!

I wouldn't be surprised - Pullman has published an edition of Grimm's fairy tales and claims he learned to tell stories from studying folktales.

 

[Makemakean]

Actually, a slightly-steampunk Scandinavian adventure seems up your alley...

That's kind of why I am very hesitant to actually read them now, even though, I admit, I very much would want to.

I don't want to get too enarmoured with his conception of Lapland that I am only ever able to develop either a blatant rip-off or something that is incredibly contrived to be the exact opposite.

Fortunately, @Redolegna still has my copy of The Northern Lights at his home in Paris as hostage until I return his copy of Anthony Goldsworthy's Caesar, so I should be fine.

 

[OHC]

That's kind of why I am very hesitant to actually read them now, even though, I admit, I very much would want to.

I don't want to get too enarmoured with his conception of Lapland that I am only ever able to develop either a blatant rip-off or something that is incredibly contrived to be the exact opposite.

Fortunately, @Redolegna still has my copy of The Northern Lights at his home in Paris as hostage until I return his copy of Anthony Goldsworthy's Caesar, so I should be fine.

Does this mean the Nordic Election Night is going to Lapland?

 

[Makemakean]

Does this mean the Nordic Election Night is going to Lapland?

Heh. I don't think so, really. I don't really have any good ideas there, other than that were going to be, at some point, a reference to Sir Plantagenet Hastings' expedition to find Lake Måmeljaur, and its odd disappearance, but other than that, nothing really.

 

[Geordie]

The Gyptians, are they meant to-... are they meant to be the Røverne?

I always assumed that the Gyptians were an analogue of the Gypsy/Roma/Traveller people, except with narrowboats, not caravans.

 

[Charles EP M.]

Yeah, they seem a clear traveller homage (and it seems in the HDM world, they've been allowed to form their own aristocracy without existing nations going "oh yeah?")