Golden Compass Trilogy
Posted
Thursday, January 24, 2008
by
Charlie Trimm
Categories:
Popular Culture
Ever since I started hearing a few months ago about Christians wanting to boycott the Golden Compass, I decided that this would be a good book to read. And since Amazon had the trilogy for just about as cheap as the Golden Compass by itself, I decided this would be a fun change of reading for Christmas break. For those of you who don't know, Philip Pullman, the author, is an athiest and really doesn't like CS Lewis. The movie has received complaints from both sides: Christians are calling for a boycott for the book's anti-religious stance, while secularists are complaining that the movie has taken the heart out of the book by taking away all the anti-religiousness. Frankly, I think that the call for a boycott isn't really called for (of course, one of my favorite soundtracks is Jesus Christ Superstar). But it seems to have become somewhat of a non-issue because the film has not done that well either in box office numbers or in the reviews of critics. I have not seen the movie (nor will I until I get it through netflix at some point in the future), so my comments here will be based on the trilogy. And if you want to read the books for yourself, I do give spoilers. Be warned.
The plot of the book revolves around Lyra Silvertongue (is this a spinoff of the name of John Chrysostom?). The unique part of the book is the concept that each human has a daemon. This daemon is not evil, but is an extension of their personality. The deamons are separate beings and can talk with their humans, but can never go more than a few feet from their human. This is a great idea, I think, and causes great twists in the book, although I hear that it makes the movie screen very crowded. The first book is fairly low key in regards to religion, as it contains only the basic ideas of the Church being controlling and desiring to make its people stupid. Nothing we haven't seen elsewhere. But in the second and third books, the anti-religiousity comes to the fore. God is not God, but is simply the first created being who fooled everyone into following him. He used to be a wrestler in his younger days (Jacob), but is now simply the ancient of days (Daniel), old and decrepit. The real power is now held by the regent, Metatron (Enoch). Lord Asriel (Lyra's somewhat evil? obsessive? father) is on a quest to take on God and free the world, which is exactly what he does in the end, although he dies killing Metatron. God simply melts away (the way angels die in the book) when trying to escape from the attack. Lyra has an item (the golden compass) which seems to be a complex ouija board which always tells her the truth, and she meets a boy who gets a knife that can cut paths between worlds, which makes for the opportunity to get some strange creatures and worlds into the story. At the end of the story Lyra reprises the part of Eve and against all efforts of the church reenacts the fall, which is better for mankind (Gnosticism, anyone?). Another of the main themes in the books, especially in the first, is that each person needs to not try to be someone else, but to just be themselves. The bear king wants to be human, so he carries a doll around with him, pretending that it is a deamon. But then the good bear becomes king and does away such silliness. At the end of the trilogy, each person must stay in their own world, and cannot visit each other, leading once again to the idea that we should be who we are. If they live in a world different from their own, then they will die much more quickly than they would otherwise. I would say that this is the main point of the book, and the religion talk is only a tool to get to that point.
Well, enough rambling about the story. I somewhat enjoyed the Golden Compass, but the second and third books (Subtle Knife and Amber Spyglass) were just tedious, in my opinion. The idea of the daemons was fun at first, but after awhile he drives the idea into the ground, and his interweaving of the killing of God into the story just didn't seem to work real well. And the Golden Compass idea just didn't really work for me. I am naturally biased becuase I am a Christian, but I do truly think that the last two books were not worth reading for anyone. But the Golden Compass is only slightly annoying and rather fun (armored fighting bears are always cool). Due to the movie, this could also open up opportunities to talk to people about God.
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