“People are too complicated to have simple labels”
- Emma
- 1 day ago
- 13 min read
The accidental representation of the non-binary in Philip Pullman - An Essay by Emma Whitelaw
Jimmy: Dearest readers, this week we have a special treat - some non-fiction written by our (usually) fiction contributer, Emma Whitelaw. In a Dwalm goes analytical!
The subject of this very fine essay is Phillip Pullman’s twin trilogies (or thrill-ogies?) His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust, and the queerness/non-binary genders expressed therein. I remember having most of His Dark Materials read to me when I was young so Emma’s look at something so radical and interesting within the text that I totally missed (and continued to miss up until now) is such an exciting experience!
I hope you all enjoy the journey as much as I did.
“People are too complicated to have simple labels” – Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass
In light of the newest and final publication of Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust (2017-2025) trilogy – that expands upon the world and characters established in the His Dark Materials (1995-2000) trilogy – I am reminded just how queer this series is. Having written my undergraduate dissertation on this very topic in 2020, I would have thought by now, especially with the completion of the BBC adaptation, there would be even more scope on Pullman’s acclaimed series. And yet, the novels remain pretty unexplored through a Queer lens.
Don’t get me wrong, there are no arguments to be made of this series being anti-LGBTQ+ and within the texts there is explicit representation of LGBTQ+ through the two male angels: Balthamos and Baruch in a romantic same-sex relationship, and more recently with the changing of Mary Malone’s sexuality to a lesbian in the BBC adaptation. Pullman himself is a known hater of the Christian church and has tweeted allyship for LGBTQ+ people openly since 2021 – condemning J.K. Rowling, a similarly successful children’s author debuting in the 90s, for her TERF hate speech (Viva la Death to the Author!). But, I would argue, there is also the equally revolutionary, but inexplicit, representation of gender non-conforming/non-binary people.
