The Golden Compass
Kasia October 30th, 2007
Some of you may have heard about a movie coming out soon that is loosely based on Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass. You may have also heard that the actual series of books Pullman wrote is anti-Christian. This appears to be true. (I say “appears” because I haven’t read the books myself, but all available evidence supports the assertion).
Rather than giving Pullman and his likeminded fans the satisfaction (not to mention the publicity) of declaring his books to be some sort of dreaded menace to Christianity (after all, if the Faith were as brittle as that, it would have collapsed centuries ago), my intentions are simple and twofold. First, I think it’s worth telling people who might have been unaware of the fact that the books are anti-Christian. That allows for a) an informed decision on the part of the consumer, and b) an awareness of the underlying message of the books. (From what I’ve heard so far, the film has largely excised the anti-Christian parts, presumably in a bid to increase its potential audience.)
Second, I think it’s worth looking at the opinions of someone I respect who has actually read the books. I recommend Dr. Mabuse’s review of the series. You’ll note that the creative semi-expletive (not kid-safe!) in the title very concisely summarizes what she thinks of Pullman’s efforts, but her critique is strictly literary (and looks pretty sound to me).
Do with this information as you see fit. I certainly don’t plan to see The Golden Compass, and I don’t have plans to read the books either. I think outright boycotts often give something more publicity than it deserves, but I certainly wouldn’t blame a Christian parent for choosing not to take their kids to see it.
I read the thrilling (not) trilogy years before I’d actually heard of Pullman’s hobby horse, partially because it was being sold so cheaply by a bookclub that had carried really good writers like C.L. Moore. Let me give you a synopsis.
The first book isn’t bad, although I noticed that the main character Lyra is supposed to be a bad girl. She smokes and gets drunk on purloined wine from the “master’s cellar”. She also lies all the time (Lyra = liar, get it?) But in typical Huck Finn fashion, everyone watches out for this “orphan” because of her father or her mother (who are, respectively, an arrogant prick who pretends to be her uncle and a scientific murderer who gave Lyra away after the affair but before her husband went to kill Lyra’s father but was subsequently killed by him. Phew!) Everyone who meets her, from gypsies to bears, loves her even though she doesn’t do very much. You get a couple of characters talking about how beloved and important she is when she’s asleep, for example. She also seems to remember useful things out of the blue; e.g. throwing flour in a fire-filled room will cause an explosion. (Does that actually work?) The story leaves off when she saves the children from her mother’s experiments – except her best friend, whom her father kills as a sacrifice to open a way to another world.
The second book has the interesting premise of a knife that cuts holes to parallel worlds. There’s a creepy city without adults, peopled by creepy children who want to hurt strangers. But I started to see the plot outline more. It’s as if the plot were the skeleton of the story and Pullman didn’t put enough flesh on it. For example, the Hero From Another World (our world) thinks Lyra’s dirty and smells bad. But it’s obvious they’re going to fall in love. And there’s more lecturing going on by adults. That type of exposition made sense in the first book because it started off in a college and there was a meeting of Gypsies who were choosing sides. But this time it’s an ex-nun who explains to these minor children that she stopped being a nun when some guy chatted her up, after which she had several different lovers and finally started following mysterious e-mailed instructions from an “angel”. (Even though these books pre-date the DaVinci Code, I call this the “DaVinci Effect” – when supposedly brainy females has beliefs that are questioned by a mysterious stranger, at which point she follows him like a good dog.)
There is a hotair balloonist from Texas (alternate world) who’s rather a fun character, especially since Pullman seems be basing him off of Gary Cooper or possibly John Wayne. However, he was killed in the third book. Which was sad for about one line, at which point his friend the bear ate his corpse. (And I laughed!)
Everything pretty much falls apart in the third book, literally. Lyra and Will go to the underworld (reminiscent of that in Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea) and figure out a way for them to make a deal with the harpies that are holding them captive. So the dead go out (including Roger, the murdered best friend of Lyra) and dissolve out of Being but not out of existance.
And “God” is killed when Lyra’s mother shows off her body to the bad angel in charge. So this version of Satan tries to leave his palinquin but is dissipated by a breeze. Evidentally this is some reference to Genesis, where the angels lusted after the daughters of Men.
This is supposed to be a world-shattering event and Lyra is destined to be a “new Eve” whose decisions will establish a new “Republic of Heaven” or some such thing. It doesn’t pan out. She doesn’t even get to kill the evil priest who’s out to assassinate her. (Sadly, the alternate reality Church has no albino monks.) She and Will make out and apparently get beyond first base, but then go their separate worlds… erm, ways.
You know what the funny thing is? I’ve had three students in the past few years who’ve read (or tried to read) the series. One commented, “It’s full of lectures instead of conversations.” Another said, “I’d punch that girl if I met her.”
One of my students, a very bright young man, read this trilogy and said he didn’t understand most of the last book. He was a young man raised without religion of any kind, so he had none of the Paradise Lost references or twists on the Bible. He asked me about the harpies, which I explained had no significance in Christianity.
He said he preferred Terry Pratchett – and C.S. Lewis! So here’s Pullman’s idea of the perfect sort of reader – very well-read but not at all religious – and he rejects Pullman’s story.
Oh, Kasia, I’m sorry! I meant to post a link to my livejournal entry. Not the whole stinking thing! I’m sorry! Is there any way for you to delete it?
You mean the synopsis here of the Pullman tripe…oops, I mean trilogy? Nah, it’s too good to pitch!
Unless you mean the odd little comment I got from something called “cellulitediary.info” that echoed part of my latest post – I did delete that, because I couldn’t get any information on it and the links didn’t seem to work.
Do me a favor and post your LiveJournal information here so I can add it to my blogroll – I’ve got about a dozen or two links to add as it is, so that’d make a good project for this weekend.