“Can you imagine my astonishment, in turn, at learning that part of my own nature was female, and bird-formed, and beautiful?”

—  Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials trilogy

Stanislaus Grumman in Ch. 10 : The Shaman
His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997)
Context: People here cannot conceive of worlds where dæmons are a silent voice in the mind and no more. Can you imagine my astonishment, in turn, at learning that part of my own nature was female, and bird-formed, and beautiful?

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Philip Pullman161
English author 1946

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