447:, it is said that no more alethiometers can be built, as their construction depends on a rare metal being subjected to special treatment, knowledge of which has been lost. Oxford has an alethiometer in its library, which is read by Hannah Relf, various other universities have one, and one is missing. After the Magisterium attempts to steal one, a secret society opposed to their actions is able to obtain it, and give it to Relf to use on their behalf. The missing alethiometer is found by Malcolm Polstead in the pack of Gerard Bonneville, and given to the Master of Jordan College, for safekeeping. In
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491:, which allowed them to travel between worlds. However, explorers were not meticulous about closing the cuts in the fabric between worlds, and Dust was lost into the void between universes through the cracks of these windows. At that time, the mulefa noticed that their trees – which depend on Dust for fertilisation – had started producing fewer seeds.
326:, it seems to be something negative; only later do Lyra and her daemon, Pantalaimon, discover that it is good and necessary for survival. Lord Asriel observes that Dust only gathers on adults and not children, leading Lyra to uncover the true meaning of Dust. In her world, the Church has identified Dust as what it calls "
469:, who told all the angels that subsequently condensed that he was the creator of the multiverse. In the trilogy, Angels are formed from condensing Dust. These angels only appear as winged humans because that is what is expected of them; in reality, they have more complex shapes, similar to "architecture".
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Dust came into being when living things became conscious of themselves; but it needed some feedback system to reinforce it and make it safe, as the mulefa had their wheels and the oil from the trees. Without something like that, it would all vanish. Thought, imagination, feeling, would all wither and
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And there's a way they have in that country of talking to Dust, I mean
Shadows, same as you got here and I got with the – I got with pictures, only their way uses sticks. I think it meant that picture on the door, but I didn't understand it, really. I thought when I first saw it there was something
184:
article exploring
Pullman's self-positioning versus C. S. Lewis, Marek Oziewicz and Daniel Hade point out that Pullman subverts Lewis's redemption story in which death is overcome. Whereas Lewis's characters will supposedly live forever in their physical bodies when they enter "the real Narnia", in
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Meanwhile, William A. Oram argues that
Pullman follows Milton in presenting "matter" as inherently good. For Pullman, he says, the ethical opposite is the "void", which is "evil". According to Oram, the Dust is the full embodiment of matter, "because in matter Dust becomes conscious." Oram compares
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Each symbol on the rim of an alethiometer has several levels of meaning; for example, the anchor can mean steadfastness, hope, the sea, or other interpretations. To phrase a question, three adjustable levers are pointed at symbols, and the reader has to hold the level of meaning for each symbol in
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Lord Asriel is one of the few to have seen Dust, but only with the aid of "photograms" taken with "a new specially prepared emulsion". He shows the scholars at Jordan
College a slide show, revealing Dust as "a fountain of glowing particles". Pullman himself has stated that the "projecting lantern"
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Attempts to see and interpret Dust, or see and appreciate evidence of it in other visual manifestations, drive the action of the entire trilogy—which suggests that
Pullman's work, insofar as it employs this investigation into visual literacy, is largely about the way the human subject chooses to
476:, to allow them to interact better, conferring more consciousness. For the mulefa, this was the start of their oral history and memory as a species. When asked directly, Dust states that this was done by rebel angels for vengeance over the war in heaven.
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Dust is attracted to objects that have been formed by consciousness, and can be viewed by special photographic emulsions. It is particularly attracted to consciousnesses that have matured; in the case of humans in Lyra's world, this happens when their
299:, the characters perceive Dust visually; scholar Amanda M. Greenwell observes that "at no point does any character touch, taste, hear, or smell Dust." While the human eye is unable to see Dust unaided, multiple characters still manage to "see" it.
240:'s universe) as "Rusakov particles" named after their discoverer, Boris Mikhailovitch Rusakov. Rusakov discovered a field permeating the universe that enabled consciousness, before the discovery of Dust; its existence was predicted, as:
156:"'Dust is only a name for what happens when matter begins to understand itself. Matter loves matter. It seeks to know more about itself, and Dust is formed. The first angels condensed out of Dust and the Authority was the first of all."
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their head. A fourth lever, made of an alloy sensitive to Dust, swings around, stopping on different symbols to give an answer, with the number of times it stops at a given symbol indicating the level of meaning intended.
430:, alethiometers have a ring of 36 standard symbols, but are all different; some, for example have more elaborate decoration. Over the course of the books, several alethiometers are shown being read, including by
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blow away, leaving nothing but a brutish automatism; and that brief period when life was conscious of itself would flicker out like a candle in every one of the billions of worlds where it had burned brightly.
189:, "Pullman's ghosts laugh in surprise as they find themselves 'turning into the night, the starlight, the air' in a materialist subversion of 'dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return'."
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are particles associated with consciousness that are integral to the plot. In the multiverse in which these trilogies are set, Dust is attracted to consciousness, especially after
453:, it is this alethiometer which is given by the Master to Lyra, who is able to read it intuitively. At that point in the story, only two other alethiometers are known to survive.
180:, particularly the "Great Dance" passages where "Dust" is described as "at the centre" and "whereof allworlds, and the bodies that are not worlds, are made". However, in their
371:, this happens when adolescents start using wheels. Dust is also what connects humans to their dæmons. If the bond between a child and their dæmon is severed (as through
256:
researches dark matter, referring to it as "Shadows" or "Shadow particles". The name "Shadows" was given to the particle by her colleague, Oliver Payne, in references to
264:, involving "shadows on the wall". When she communicates with Shadows by interfacing with her detector, it confirms that they are the same as Dust and dark matter. The
229:"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." —
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and seeks its end. Pullman described Dust in an interview as "an analogy of consciousness, and consciousness is this extraordinary property we have as human beings".
708:"'Without Contraries is no Progression': Dust as an All-Inclusive, Multifunctional Metaphor in Philip Pullman's Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 'His Dark Materials'"
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Within the books, Dust came into existence when consciousness did; it was created by consciousness, as well as being conscious. Occasionally, Dust condensed into
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Anne-Marie Bird links
Pullman's concept of "Dust" to "a conventional metaphor for human physicality inspired by God's judgment on humanity." Writing in
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into a ‘substance’ in which good and evil, and spirit and matter – conceptual opposites that form the basis of religious dualism – coexist."
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is able to construct a computer program that, when paired with a detector, can communicate with Dust by typed questions. Later, Mary uses
268:, who are able to see Dust directly, use the word "sraf" accompanied by a leftward flick of the trunk (or arm for humans) to describe it.
375:), both the child and the dæmon will eventually die. If the separation occurs after Dust has settled on the person (that is, after
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About 33,000 years prior to the time of the books, Dust had induced changes in sapient species, including humans and
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An alethiometer is a truth telling device which can answer any question. The word is derived from the Greek words
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Fantasy, Myth and the
Measure of Truth: Tales of Pullman, Lewis, Tolkien, MacDonald and Hoffmann
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important about it, only I didn't know what. So there must be lots of ways of talking to
Shadows
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Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles
Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature
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Vengeance for – oh! Rebel angels! After the war in Heaven – Satan and the Garden of Eden.
843:"The Marriage of Heaven and Hell? Philip Pullman, C.S. Lewis, and the Fantasy Tradition"
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The dust explains its intervention in the evolution of sentient creatures to
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Dust is able to communicate with humans via several methods shown throughout
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the existence of a
Rusakov field implies the existence of a related particle
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that Asriel uses was based on childhood memories of his own grandfather's
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Dust and Panpsychism in His Dark Materials by Attic Philosophy on YouTube
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Lord Asriel uses a "projecting lantern" based on Pullman's grandfather's
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explaining what she has learned about communication with Dust to
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travels to the frozen North to investigate the mystery of Dust.
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Dust as "dark matter" is compared to the "dark materials" of
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to reveal Dust as "a fountain of glowing particles."
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by Jan Saenredam, after Cornelis van Haarlem, 1604)
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1080:(2): 5–6 – via SWOSU Digital Commons.
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168:Fantasy, Myth and the Measure of Truth
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511:Dark matter
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377:adolescence
373:Intercision
254:Mary Malone
178:C. S. Lewis
128:John Milton
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1301:Characters
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687:References
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1391:Locations
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576:EVIDENTLY
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522:Footnotes
342:Functions
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1384:Other
1007:JSTOR
955:JSTOR
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711:(PDF)
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