Mary Malone Otherworld Journey
A physicist from Will's world seeks the nature of Dust among the Mulefa.
Dr Mary Malone is a physicist from Will's world investigating dark matter, which is equated with Dust. Her dark matter detector instructs her to go through the window into Cittàgazze, which she does, eventually arriving at the world of the Mulefa. There she builds the amber spyglass, which allows her to see Dust, and investigates the death of the trees that are essential to the Mulefa's environment.
Quick Facts
- Character
- Mary Malone
- Key companion
- The Mulefa
Lore & Background
In the world of the Mulefa, Mary comes to understand the true nature of Dust, which is both created by and nourishes life that has become self-aware. The trees the Mulefa rely on have been dying, and she uses lacquer from their sap to construct a spyglass that allows her to see Dust. She discovers that Dust is no longer falling from the sky to pollinate the trees but is flowing sideways, streaming rapidly away.
Reader's Guide
Sir Charles Latrom offers to fund Mary's research if she will follow his directions, and she refuses. At Lyra's suggestion she uses her computer to communicate with the consciousness of dark matter, which instructs her to destroy the computer and travel through the same window between worlds used by Will and Lyra, explaining that her role is to "play the serpent". When Lyra and Will reach the Mulefa world, Mary tells them of her own past: before becoming a physicist she had been a nun, but lost her faith when she fell in love. At the end of The Amber Spyglass Serafina Pekkala shows Mary how to see her own dæmon, an Alpine chough, and Mary offers to help Will on their return to their own world.
More in Narrative Arcs & Timeline
Elsewhere in His Dark Materials
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