Consciousness and the Imagination

I just finished listening to Michael Sheen’s reading of The Rose Field, the third in Philip Pullman’s second trilogy, The Book of Dust, following the life of Lyra Belacqua/Lyra Silvertongue. I have not seen any of the visual adaptations of any of the books but was happy to listen to Sheen, who can do a convincing griffon queen and a terrified mouse daemon as well as anyone.

The bonus interview between Sheen and Pullman included at the end of this audiobook has sent me on a long ponder. What is the imagination? What separates us, humans, from animals? What is consciousness? What does it mean to make connections and weave metaphors reflecting our own lives, our lived experience, and particularly, how does the timing of our exposure to these potential metaphors affect the meaning we ascribe to them?