Material #7: Dark Materials
In exploring different uses of “material”, as a word, a concept, and a substance(s), I was intrigued to look up how Philip Pullman came to name his trilogy “His Dark Materials”.
The phrase comes from a section in Milton’s poem Paradise Lost:
“… into this wild abyss,
The womb of nature and perhaps her grave,
Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mixed
Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless the almighty maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more worlds,
Into this wild abyss the wary fiend
Stood on the brink of hell and looked a while,
Pondering his voyage…
Materials here are physical and metaphysical. They are forces that are beyond our control but also make us what we are, reinforcing the interconnectedness that characterizes existence and making our individual powers both limited and crackling with potential.
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Through 2024, It’s Material is sharing one use of the word “material” each week, on Tuesdays.