As a young teen, Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was winsomely clever, dry, and sardonic. Having relished the books and the wacky BBC television production. I found the 2005 movie production, almost, well adolescent. It wasn’t as funny and biting and clever. Rather, it was olde (as in ye olde with an “e” because all that was left was the nostalgia for what I have hoped it would be).

I can’t help believe that some significant event rather than my taste had had an impact on how I perceived the world. It’s my thought that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the USSR was that significant event which had changed my perspective.

Consequently, Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass, last in the His Dark Materials Trilogy was pre-9-11.

I can’t help believe that 9-11 has altered the way we view reality so significantly, that the book’s divination of democratic, universal rule is not only impossible, but in the minds of most, it’s unattainable, and therefore, Pullman’s world-view is not only false, but it’s irrelevant.