His Dark Materials Adapted for Theater

Or should I say "theatre" since we're talking about a London production? Either way, a two-part adaptation of his work is supposed to be staged by the National Theatre in London this Christmas, and it has set a house record for pre-performance bookings.

Though I loved The Golden Compass, I was nowhere near as fond of the second book in the trilogy and gave up on reading the third one. The books are heavy on religion of a rather mysterious nature as far as I was concerned. I'm not objecting to whatever religious philosophy Pullman was writing about. I'm objecting to the fact that I couldn't figure out what he was writing about. However, the article regarding the theater production that I linked to above goes along way to explaining what was going on. You see, you have to have read Paradise Lost by John Milton. You have to have read Paradise Lost, which I did while I was in college, and you have to have understood it, which I didn't.

Aha!

Evidently there were also references to Blake, Keats, and Dante that I didn't get, either.

Nonetheless, there is talk of a movie version, which I would probably go see hoping the screenwriter would be better educated that I am and clear everything up for me.