Lee & Hester

Hester was failing.

“Hester, don’t you go before I do,” Lee whispered.

“Lee, I couldn't’t abide to be anywhere away from you for a single second,” she whispered back.

I am currently reading the fantasy trilogy, “His Dark Materials,” by Phillip Pullman.

The first book of the trilogy (“Northern Light”) was made into a movie called “The Golden Compass,” which was just released last month. You probably have seen the posters where a little girl was sitting astride a white giant polar bear with Nicole Kidman glaring menacingly behind.

What intrigued me the most about this particular fantasy world created by Mr. Pullman is its reference to a broad range of ideas such as metaphysics, philosophy and religion. In particular, he talks about the existence of parallel universes and how they intertwined with one another.

One concept which fascinated me the most is Mr. Pullman’s manifestation of the conscious human soul as an independent form outside of the human body in one particular universe. In that universe, the conscious soul of each human takes the form of an animal and is known as a “daemon”.

A child's daemon has no fixed form, and may change form according to whim and circumstances. But as he/she grows up and attains more resolved personal characteristics, their daemons settle into a form reflective of his/her personality. I noticed from the movie that if the human is a loyal servant, his/her daemon usually takes the form of a dog. And if the human is of evil disposition, its daemon will be of similar nature e.g. serpent.

The bond between a daemon and human is very, very intimate and they must be at close proximity at all times. When the human dies, his/her daemon would invariably perish too.

His books are extremely easy to read because Mr. Pullman’s writing is very honest and straightforward. In other words, he calls a spade a spade and no other. Here’s an abstract which got me staring at the page for the longest time:

(Note: Lee Scoresby is one of the ‘good guys’ assisting in the young heroine’s cause. He is a Southern Texan “aeronaut” who flies a balloon ship. His daemon, Hester, takes the form of a hare)

Lee saw the fireball and heard through the roar in his ears Hester saying, “That’s all of ‘em, Lee.”

He said, or thought, “Those poor men didn’t have to come to this, and nor did we.”

She said, “We held ‘em off. We held out. We’re a-helping Lyra.”

Then she was pressing her little proud broken self against his face, as close as she could get, and then they died.

And then they died?????

I don’t believe I have ever read any novel that describe the event of death as simply as that! But no less, this chapter left me totally drained because the emotional led-up to Lee & Hester’s death was flawless.

I highly recommend.



Errr… did I just give part of the storyline away??

To think about: What do you think YOUR daemon would be?