摘要：历时三十载，跨越六部小说，菲利普·普尔曼宏大的《黑暗物质》与《尘之书》系列终于迎来终章《玫瑰原》。那个曾溜进牛津乔丹学院食堂的勇敢女孩莱拉，如今已成长为穿梭于沙漠与异界的年轻女性。然而，《经济学人》书评指出，这部承载无数读者期待的终结篇，却未能延续曾经的辉煌。

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后台私信关键词“ Book of Dust ”

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The Economist ｜Culture

经济学人 ｜ 文化

Dust to dust

尘归尘

Philip Pullman’s magisterial fantasy series has come to an end

菲利普·普尔曼的宏伟奇幻系列迎来终结

After 30 years and six novels, Lyra Belacqua reaches her final destination in “The Rose Field”

历时30年、六部小说之后，莱拉·贝拉奎在《玫瑰原》中抵达了她的最终目的地

The Rose Field: The Book of Dust Volume Three. By Philip Pullman. Knopf Books for Young Readers; 672 pages; $29.99. Penguin and David Fickling Books; £25

《玫瑰原：尘之书第三卷》。作者：菲利普·普尔曼。克诺夫青少年读物出版社；672页；29.99美元。企鹅图书与大卫·菲克林图书公司；25英镑

她是现代文学中伟大的女主角之一。读者们首次遇见莱拉·贝拉奎——一个勇敢、聪明的11岁女孩——是在1995年的《北方之光》中，当时她正和她最好的朋友罗杰在牛津大学的乔丹学院里四处探险。她展开了一场横跨六本书的追寻之旅，带她去了北极和士麦那，进入了平行世界和死者之国。莱拉的超凡冒险证明了其迷人的魅力：《黑暗物质》三部曲和《尘之书》三部曲在全球已售出约5000万册，并被改编成舞台剧和影视作品（见图）。但如今，在30年之后，菲利普·普尔曼爵士宣布，莱拉的旅程将以《玫瑰原》画上句点。

该系列在一个想象丰富的宇宙中展开了史诗般的战斗。它是一篇反对制度化宗教的议论文章，其方式与C.S.路易斯的《纳尼亚传奇》作为亲基督教的寓言非常相似。在《黑暗物质》三部曲中，莱拉和她的盟友们穿梭于各个领域，对抗旨在压迫和控制的宗教机构——教会。

普尔曼爵士在整个系列中融合了幻想与现实。莱拉的家乡世界与真实世界有许多共同之处。乔丹学院是虚构的，但牛津大学却被生动地描绘出来。教会的总部设在日内瓦——一个对新教改革至关重要的城市——但其名称却源自天主教关于礼仪权威的术语。

第二部三部曲似乎承诺了更多同样引人入胜的内容。故事主要发生在莱拉的世界。《美丽野兽》始于《黑暗物质》之前，解释了莱拉如何来到乔丹学院。第二卷《秘密共和国》和第三卷则发生在之后，那时莱拉已是一位年轻女性。她与自己的守护精灵疏远并分离——这在她的世界里是很少有人能做到的事。

在《玫瑰原》中，莱拉和她的守护精灵分别前往沙漠中的一栋建筑，据说那里藏着一个与"尘"有关的秘密。将"尘"与原罪联系起来的教会出于恶意也试图找到同一个地方。莱拉也希望重新与她的守护精灵建立联系，重新发现她的想象力，并找回她在青春期后期失去的知识上的开放性。

《尘之书》三部曲有其亮点。不幸的是，这部作品将追寻与成长小说结合起来的手法，从未能很好地融合成令人信服的整体。部分问题在于，普尔曼爵士为成熟这个主题所选择的寓言不够精妙。许多人长大后过于激烈地摒弃童年的习惯和观点：大多数人最终会自我修正。弗里德里希·尼采相信成熟意味着重获孩子在玩耍时的严肃性，这并非没有道理。

在第一部三部曲中，读者关心莱拉是因为她勇敢，她的直觉正确，而她的敌人可憎。在这一部中，普尔曼爵士依赖于读者保留那份喜爱，但《玫瑰原》却常常沦为一场情节松散的苦旅。

普尔曼爵士似乎已经厌倦了创作。他的角色往好里说是扁平化的；有些角色感觉是为了情节需要而被随意摆布，而非自然呈现。莱拉的敌人可能显得卡通化的可憎。通常，就像书中假定的反派奥利维尔·邦纳维尔那样，他们挑战着读者的可信度。

这本书的主要观点——生命是一份礼物；这个世界充满等待被发现的财富；以及同情、好奇和善良是首要的美德——从根本上与第一部三部曲相同，但表达方式却不那么巧妙。诚然，从一口井中汲取六部长篇小说的内容确实很多。但对于这样一个宏伟的系列及其英勇的女主角来说，一个平淡无奇的结局无疑是一个苦涩的失望。■

Philip Pullman

菲利普·普尔曼（Philip Pullman，1946- ），当代英国最杰出的作家之一。国际畅销书“黑质三部曲”作者。毕业于牛津大学，曾任教威斯敏斯特学院，教授维多利亚时期文学与民间故事。普尔曼善于讲故事，行文简洁朴素又不失文学深度，其作品曾获“英国国家图书奖”“卡耐基儿童文学奖”英国儿童文学最高奖“卫报小说奖”“林格伦儿童文学奖”等多项大奖。2004年，因其杰出的文学成就，被授予大英帝国勋章（CBE）。2008年，被《泰晤士报》评为“1945年后五十位最伟大的英国作家之一”。《黑暗物质三部曲》出版后，畅销不坠，风靡欧美，皆认为其深度与文学性足堪名列文学史。普尔曼也因此被认为是“继《魔戒》作者J·R·R·托尔金之后最优秀的盎格鲁-撒克逊奇幻小说家”。

SHE IS ONE of modern literature’s great heroines. Readers first met Lyra Belacqua, a gutsy, clever 11-year-old, in “Northern Lights” (1995) as she sneaked around Jordan College, Oxford, with her best friend Roger. She embarked on a quest that spanned six books and took her to the Arctic and Smyrna, into parallel worlds and the Land of the Dead. Lyra’s otherworldly adventures have proved captivating: the “His Dark Materials” and “The Book of Dust” trilogies have sold some 50m copies worldwide and have been adapted for the stage and the screen (see pictures). But now, after 30 years, Sir Philip Pullmanhas announced that Lyra’s journey will come to an end with “The Rose Field”.

The series sets epic battles in a richly imagined universe. It is a polemic against organised religion in much the same way that C.S. Lewis’s“The Chronicles of Narnia” was a pro-Christian allegory. In the “Dark Materials” trilogy, Lyra and her allies travel through realms fighting the Magisterium, a religious institution bent on repression and control.

Sir Philip blends fantasy and reality throughout. Lyra’s home world has much in common with the real one. Jordan College is fictional, but Oxford is vividly described. The Magisterium is based in Geneva, a city crucial to the Protestant Reformation, but takes its name from a Catholic term for liturgical authority.

Lyra’s allies include angels, witches, talking bears and tiny humanoids. In her world, people have daemons: animal companions that represent their interior selves. Technology has a magical bent. Lyra proves an adept reader of a truth-telling machine called an alethiometer. One of her companions wields a knife that can create openings into other worlds; another invents a sort of telescope that can see “dust”, physical evidence of consciousness.

The second trilogy seemed to promise more of the same gripping stuff. The action mostly takes place in Lyra’s world. “La Belle Sauvage”(2017) begins before “His Dark Materials” and explains how Lyra came to Jordan College. The second (“The Secret Commonwealth”, 2019) and third volumes take place afterwards, when Lyra is a young woman. She grows alienated from her daemon and parts from him—something few people in her world can do.

In “The Rose Field” Lyra and her daemon set out separately for a building in the desert said to contain a secret pertaining to dust. The Magisterium, which associates dust with original sin, seeks to find the same place for malevolent reasons. Lyra also hopes to reconnect with her daemon, rediscover her imagination and recover an intellectual openness that she had lost in late adolescence.

The “Book of Dust” trilogy has had its high points. Unfortunately this instalment’s combination of quest and bildungsroman never quite coheres into something convincing. Part of the problem is that Sir Philip has not chosen the most subtle of allegories for maturing. Many people, as they grow up, too vehemently reject childhood habits and opinions: most people correct themselves eventually. Not for nothing did Friedrich Nietzschebelieve that maturity meant regaining the seriousness of a child at play.

In the first trilogy, readers cared about Lyra because she was brave, her instincts were correct and her enemies detestable. In this one, Sir Philip depends on readers retaining that affection, but too often “The Rose Field” descends into an episodic slog.

Sir Philip seems to have grown tired of creating. At best his characters are two-dimensional; some feel pushed around for the sake of the plot rather than discovered. Lyra’s enemies can be cartoonishly odious. Often, as in the case of the book’s putative antagonist, Olivier Bonneville, they test the reader’s credulity.

In the early novels, each step revealed something about Lyra’s world. Here that world is less profuse: instead of diverse species with their own array of characters, “The Rose Field” has gryphons, all of whom are avaricious warriors. When Lyra argues with an angel—the only one in the book, who seems to appear just to have this conversation—about the nature of imagination, the reader can feel Sir Philip’s hands working their mouths. Part of Lyra’s task is to find the alkahest, a universal solvent. It gives little away to say that this is a metaphor. Anyone who has heard Sir Philip interviewed about society can probably guess what it pertains to.

The book’s main points—that life is a gift; this world is full of riches waiting to be discovered; and compassion, curiosity and kindness are the cardinal virtues—are fundamentally the same as in the first trilogy, but less artfully expressed. It is true that six long novels is a lot to draw from one well. But a lacklustre ending for such a magnificent series and its swashbuckling heroine is a bitter disappointment. ■

来源：左右图史