Reply #35: Pullman isn't a "happy" writer. (SPOILERS FOR BOOK THREE)

[WritingIsMyReligion]

That's sort of his point--the Church might want you to dream and dream and get lost in religion, but that's not really living. Really living is accepting the bad along with the good and enjoying things when they happen, because there is no second chance at life, no heaven and not even a hell, just oblivion. Although I don't have AMBER SPYGLASS in front of me, I know when Lyra/Will go to the underworld place, the ghost of a nun implores people to follow them into the real world and dissolve into the earth again, and implores Lyra and Will to spread the word that living for religion, living just for the hope of eternal rewards, is the wrong way to live, as there are no eternal rewards, only what you know--essentially, life isn't a proving ground or "practice" for some other existence; it's all there is.

It is very, very sad, of course, especially the parting between Lyra and Will and that you KNOW they will never meet again, but that's all part of Pullman's point. Lyra and Will's relationship was made all the sweeter by its briefness.