Dust (His Dark Materials)

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Dust in Philip Pullman's trilogy of novels His Dark Materials is a fictional form of dark matter (as we call it in our world), an elementary particle that is of fundamental importance to the novels. Dust is invisible to the human eye and can not be seen without the use of special instruments such as the The Amber Spyglass or a special film. However, while humans cannot see dust without the use of outside devices, creatures such as the mulefa are able to see dust with their own eyes.

Unlike ordinary particles, Dust is conscious. It falls from the sky and is attracted to people (especially adults) and objects made by people. This makes it of great interest to the Church, which believes that it may be the physical manifestation of Original Sin. We later learn that Dust actually confers consciousness, knowledge and wisdom. This allows creatures who have the ability to see dust to identify other sentient and intelligent creatures. An example of this is when the mulefa are able to distinguish Mary Malone as an intelligent being, because of the dust surrounding her, when compared to the other animals in the mulefa's world.

It is Dust that provides the answers given by the alethiometer, and by the I Ching system of divination.

Dust has various different names among the various different worlds within the trilogy. Dust was previously known (in Lyra Belacqua's universe) as Rusakov particles after their discoverer, Boris Rusakov. It is known also as Shadows (in our world) and the mulefa's word sraf accompanied by a leftward flick of the trunk (or arm for humans).

Angels, including The Authority, are formed when Dust condenses, but they are not in reality the human-like figures they appear to be.

[edit] Inspiration

It has been suggested that the term dust derives from the story in Genesis of God's creation of Adam and Eve from dust; or possibly from the poetry of William Blake. In the first book, Northern Lights, Lord Asriel shows the bible to Lyra: "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". Another possibility is that in Buddhism the term "dust" is almost universally used to refer to the sensation, knowledge and entanglement with the world that inhibits enlightenment.

[edit] See also

• The Book of Dust, a forthcoming Pullman novel in the same series.

[edit] References

• His Dark Materials: A Look into Pullman's Interpretation of Milton's Paradise Lost, by Karen D. Robinson. Mythlore[1], #92 24.2, 2005.