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Listening to @girlsgonecanon’s patreon ep on LA BELLE SAUVAGE earlier today I had some thoughts about sanctuary and refuge in these books that I wanted to share (spoilers LBS and slight spoiler TSC 
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So, right in the beginning of the book Mal talks to sister Fenella about the ability to seek sanctuary in the priory or similar holy places. They also mention scholastic sanctuary which obviously comes into play later.
This is presented as a really nice concept, a way for people fleeing danger and prosecution to find safety.
Later Mal talks to Hannah abt scholastic sanctuary and she explains that one needs to be a scholar + say a complicated Latin phrase. So one needs some definite privledge.
Later Mal talks to Hannah abt scholastic sanctuary and she explains that one needs to be a scholar + say a complicated Latin phrase. So one needs some definite privledge.
When Mal, Alice, and Lyra flee during the flood Mal first thinks to get them to Jordan to seek scholastic sanctuary even if it might not apply to Lyra, but the very nature of the flood makes it impossible for them to get there.
After a harrowing journey, almost resulting in death several times, and definitely resulting trauma for Mal and Alice they get to London and with the help of LORD Asriel get Lyra to Jordan Collage anyway (via gyrocopter). Through his privledge his daughter gets sanctuary.
I can’t help but thinking about this in relation to refugees in our world trying to find refuge and safety. Having to flee across dangerous waters on faulty ships/boats. While someone with the right economic + cultural privilege could just fly into a country and move there.
(I mean not JUST, it’s still a process, but it would be a lot easier for me to move to esp another EU country but also say the US)
Pullman addresses this a lot more directly in THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH when we see people fleeing across the Mediterranean on faulty boats and many of these people drown (again fleeing across water). He’s obviously drawing on contemporary events here.
I just thought this idea of sanctuary and who can get it was very interesting...
