Post by Canuovea on Jun 20, 2015 7:53:25 GMT
So to kick this off, I'm going to start with reviewing a book. A book series in fact:
His Dark Materials Trilogy.
Doesn't sound familiar? It starts with "The Golden Compass". And yes, they made that book into a pretty bad movie a little while back. The best part was a giant armoured war bear voiced by Ian McKellan.
Huh. Suddenly I want to watch that movie again...
But yeah, the best part of The Golden Compass is probably... uh... a giant armoured war bear that would be badass if voiced by Ian Mckellan. The only thing that could make that more awesome would be if his rival were voiced by Christopher Lee- oh. Right. But the rest of it isn't bad. Except for at least one tiny itty bitty little detail that made me... concerned.
The book starts off by telling us that the story is set in an alternate version of our world, that the second book takes place in our world, and that the third takes place sort of in between them all.
So this Alternate World has a few features that are different from ours:
1) People's souls exist outside their bodies in the form of animals that can speak and share a kind of link with their owners. These souls are called daemons. Generally speaking, people don't touch other people's daemons. Daemons cannot go far from their owner and vice versa, otherwise there is great pain and such, the only exception to this are the Witches, who tend to have bird deamons and are only female. And the Armoured Bears do not have deamons, their soul is apparently their armour.
This is actually all pretty neat as your deamon generally reflects your personality (dogs for servants, minks for awesome people, golden monkeys for really really creepy ladies). However, they only settle into one specific form after adolescence/puberty. Before that, deamons are kind of like shape shifters.
OH, and they are usually of the opposite sex to their human counterpart. Not in all cases, though, and it seems that if your daemon is the same sex as you are, then you're probably gay. It isn't made explicit, just highly... inferred.
I like this little twist, to be honest, it is clever and gives you a few more characters to work with. There really is no such thing as talking to yourself in this world. Or, uh, it is actually really common. One of the two.
2) TheCatholic Church Magisterium is a massive all powerful organization. They're the bad guys, they're obsessed with "sin" and "original sin" and so forth. They're also evil.
3) The technology seems roughly start of the 1900s. Scientists are called "Experimental Theologians". They do some things better than we do, but not that many.
Plot and Characters:
The story is mostly told through the point of view of a young (about 10) girl named Lyra (last name I can't spell and not really important) and her daemon named Pantalaimon. Her main attributes are her friendship with some poor boy named Roger, her fiery nature, cleverness, and being absolutely amazing at lying and spinning false tales. She also later picks up something called an alethiometer, which looks like a golden compass (hence the title) and can be used like a ouiji board to find things out. However, it is generally really difficult to make work and to understand. Lyra, however, is quite adept at figuring this all out and doing so very quickly. There is also a prophecy about her, but she can't actually know the details because if she does it won't work out.
There is also this thing they call Dust which is generally invisible to the naked eye, but can be seen in other ways. It generally ignores children and gathers around adults. What is Dust? What does it do? Who knows? But some say it comes from other worlds (many worlds experimental theology is, of course, heresy), and the Church claims that it is actually original sin (hence why it is more attracted to adults than children... and that is only when they talk about it. Knowing about it is probably heresy).
And of course, now we're going to hit into spoiler territory. You have been warned.
Lyra's uncle Lord Asriel (secretly her daddy) gets money from Jordan College in Oxford (where he keeps Lyra) for an expedition to the North to investigate Dust. Kids, especially poor and Gyptian (Allegorical water gypsies/Native Americans??) kids. Because they're expendable, get it? Guess who is behind it... Then a woman named Mrs. Coulter shows up, charms Lyra by promising to take her North. She's secretly Lyra's mom. She's also a terrible terrible person. Oh, and Lyra's friend Roger gets kidnapped.
What follows is a series of madcap adventures featuring Lyra teaming up with the Gyptians, Witches, a Texan airballoonist named Lee Scoresby, and Iorek Byrinson a giant fucking armoured bear who has been all Shakespeared out of power by a corrupt rival. Also, his last name is basically a pun on the word "bear," that takes guts.
Yes. Yes they gave him a motivational poster. Just imagine Sir Ian McKellan's voice coming from that thing. No wait. You don't have to imagine! Hold on! (Spoilers)
That... okay so that isn't so great. But it sure as hell gives a new meaning to that "Teddy Bears having a picnic" song.
The bears are more awesome in the books. They've got bear mounted zeppelin killing catapults.
More Spoilery! Very Spoilery: Highlight to read.
Turns out the kids disappearing is the fault of theCatholic Church Magisterium, or at least a branch of it called the "Oblation Board" who are interested in separating children from their daemons (which is horrible, of course) because they think doing so will prevent them from being infected by Dust (original sin, remember?). They're being led in this by Mrs. Coulter.
Stuff happens, then the above bear fight happens (which Lyra engineers because she's a sneak). Lyra rescues Roger, Lyra gets Roger killed by her Father because Lord Asriel uses him to open a portal to another world by severing him from his daemon (and then he falls to his death or something).
Less Spoilery:
So what is my nitty gritty little problem with the story? I mean, I found it interesting and had a decent time with it overall, but...
You know how I have nothing but rage and hate for the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis? Okay, that is an exaggeration, but Lewis' patronizing allegorical Furry-Jesus injection did bother me a good bit. There are hints that The Golden Compass is very much like that but for the Leftists and Atheists.
Woo! That is good, right?
No, no it isn't. Because it borders on patronizing allegory, and I dislike patronizing allegory. I'd be a hypocrite if I only complained about patronizing allegory I disagreed with.
What allegory?
1) The Magisterium is the Catholic Church... and actually, pretty much any organized religion that is meant to gain control over your thoughts and instill blind obedience while being terrified of sexuality and free thinking (so... all religions then? No no... I'm not serious. Totally. But you'd think maybe the author would agree with that statement). This is one of the most obvious ones.
2) Gyptians are kind of gypsies, yes, but they're also a stand in for oppressed minorities generally. Much like First Nations in Canada, there is a whole thing about the evil government and Church attacking their ancient land (or water) treaty rights. Spoilers: They are also looked down upon and have their children forcibly taken from them to be experimented on. Not much different from Canadian Residential Schools. /Spoilers.
3) Witches represent a certain female side. They're also sort of like the Elves of the series. Obvious stuff is obvious. They fly using sticks and shoot things with bows.
4) Finally, the one that really clued me in, involves the bears. The King of the Bears who exiled Iorek Byrnison is clearly a major villain. But why? Simply put, he wants to be more "human" which means "White European and Christian" really. He wants to be a human so much that he has started changing bear culture and carries around a stuffed doll that is meant to be a deamon. He makes his court do the same thing. He is clearly meant to represent European/"Western" cultural imperialism.
Spoilers: So of course when the true bear king Iorek fights the bad fake king, Iorek is wearing armour he made himself (which is a bear's soul, remember). The false king is wearing fancied up armour that he didn't make, his soul is fake just like his armour, which crumples like aluminum foil, just like the idea of cultural imperialism. /Spoilers
So we see the virtue of rejecting Western Values (as it were) and retaining your own culture no matter the cost. And so forth. And that alone made me feel like the author thought I was an idiot who needed to have that shoved down my throat. I might agree with multiculturalism, but really? Like that?
Conclusion:
Overall, it was a decent story and I liked it, but as I finished it I moved on to the next one with some trepidation. I was discouraged by some of the obvious allegory and worried the next book would contain more. Later I'll tell you what I made of "The Subtle Knife", but I should leave this for now.
His Dark Materials Trilogy.
Doesn't sound familiar? It starts with "The Golden Compass". And yes, they made that book into a pretty bad movie a little while back. The best part was a giant armoured war bear voiced by Ian McKellan.
Huh. Suddenly I want to watch that movie again...
But yeah, the best part of The Golden Compass is probably... uh... a giant armoured war bear that would be badass if voiced by Ian Mckellan. The only thing that could make that more awesome would be if his rival were voiced by Christopher Lee- oh. Right. But the rest of it isn't bad. Except for at least one tiny itty bitty little detail that made me... concerned.
The book starts off by telling us that the story is set in an alternate version of our world, that the second book takes place in our world, and that the third takes place sort of in between them all.
So this Alternate World has a few features that are different from ours:
1) People's souls exist outside their bodies in the form of animals that can speak and share a kind of link with their owners. These souls are called daemons. Generally speaking, people don't touch other people's daemons. Daemons cannot go far from their owner and vice versa, otherwise there is great pain and such, the only exception to this are the Witches, who tend to have bird deamons and are only female. And the Armoured Bears do not have deamons, their soul is apparently their armour.
This is actually all pretty neat as your deamon generally reflects your personality (dogs for servants, minks for awesome people, golden monkeys for really really creepy ladies). However, they only settle into one specific form after adolescence/puberty. Before that, deamons are kind of like shape shifters.
OH, and they are usually of the opposite sex to their human counterpart. Not in all cases, though, and it seems that if your daemon is the same sex as you are, then you're probably gay. It isn't made explicit, just highly... inferred.
I like this little twist, to be honest, it is clever and gives you a few more characters to work with. There really is no such thing as talking to yourself in this world. Or, uh, it is actually really common. One of the two.
2) The
3) The technology seems roughly start of the 1900s. Scientists are called "Experimental Theologians". They do some things better than we do, but not that many.
Plot and Characters:
The story is mostly told through the point of view of a young (about 10) girl named Lyra (last name I can't spell and not really important) and her daemon named Pantalaimon. Her main attributes are her friendship with some poor boy named Roger, her fiery nature, cleverness, and being absolutely amazing at lying and spinning false tales. She also later picks up something called an alethiometer, which looks like a golden compass (hence the title) and can be used like a ouiji board to find things out. However, it is generally really difficult to make work and to understand. Lyra, however, is quite adept at figuring this all out and doing so very quickly. There is also a prophecy about her, but she can't actually know the details because if she does it won't work out.
There is also this thing they call Dust which is generally invisible to the naked eye, but can be seen in other ways. It generally ignores children and gathers around adults. What is Dust? What does it do? Who knows? But some say it comes from other worlds (many worlds experimental theology is, of course, heresy), and the Church claims that it is actually original sin (hence why it is more attracted to adults than children... and that is only when they talk about it. Knowing about it is probably heresy).
And of course, now we're going to hit into spoiler territory. You have been warned.
Lyra's uncle Lord Asriel (secretly her daddy) gets money from Jordan College in Oxford (where he keeps Lyra) for an expedition to the North to investigate Dust. Kids, especially poor and Gyptian (Allegorical water gypsies/Native Americans??) kids. Because they're expendable, get it? Guess who is behind it... Then a woman named Mrs. Coulter shows up, charms Lyra by promising to take her North. She's secretly Lyra's mom. She's also a terrible terrible person. Oh, and Lyra's friend Roger gets kidnapped.
What follows is a series of madcap adventures featuring Lyra teaming up with the Gyptians, Witches, a Texan airballoonist named Lee Scoresby, and Iorek Byrinson a giant fucking armoured bear who has been all Shakespeared out of power by a corrupt rival. Also, his last name is basically a pun on the word "bear," that takes guts.
Yes. Yes they gave him a motivational poster. Just imagine Sir Ian McKellan's voice coming from that thing. No wait. You don't have to imagine! Hold on! (Spoilers)
That... okay so that isn't so great. But it sure as hell gives a new meaning to that "Teddy Bears having a picnic" song.
The bears are more awesome in the books. They've got bear mounted zeppelin killing catapults.
More Spoilery! Very Spoilery: Highlight to read.
Turns out the kids disappearing is the fault of the
Stuff happens, then the above bear fight happens (which Lyra engineers because she's a sneak). Lyra rescues Roger, Lyra gets Roger killed by her Father because Lord Asriel uses him to open a portal to another world by severing him from his daemon (and then he falls to his death or something).
Less Spoilery:
So what is my nitty gritty little problem with the story? I mean, I found it interesting and had a decent time with it overall, but...
You know how I have nothing but rage and hate for the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis? Okay, that is an exaggeration, but Lewis' patronizing allegorical Furry-Jesus injection did bother me a good bit. There are hints that The Golden Compass is very much like that but for the Leftists and Atheists.
Woo! That is good, right?
No, no it isn't. Because it borders on patronizing allegory, and I dislike patronizing allegory. I'd be a hypocrite if I only complained about patronizing allegory I disagreed with.
What allegory?
1) The Magisterium is the Catholic Church... and actually, pretty much any organized religion that is meant to gain control over your thoughts and instill blind obedience while being terrified of sexuality and free thinking (so... all religions then? No no... I'm not serious. Totally. But you'd think maybe the author would agree with that statement). This is one of the most obvious ones.
2) Gyptians are kind of gypsies, yes, but they're also a stand in for oppressed minorities generally. Much like First Nations in Canada, there is a whole thing about the evil government and Church attacking their ancient land (or water) treaty rights. Spoilers: They are also looked down upon and have their children forcibly taken from them to be experimented on. Not much different from Canadian Residential Schools. /Spoilers.
3) Witches represent a certain female side. They're also sort of like the Elves of the series. Obvious stuff is obvious. They fly using sticks and shoot things with bows.
4) Finally, the one that really clued me in, involves the bears. The King of the Bears who exiled Iorek Byrnison is clearly a major villain. But why? Simply put, he wants to be more "human" which means "White European and Christian" really. He wants to be a human so much that he has started changing bear culture and carries around a stuffed doll that is meant to be a deamon. He makes his court do the same thing. He is clearly meant to represent European/"Western" cultural imperialism.
Spoilers: So of course when the true bear king Iorek fights the bad fake king, Iorek is wearing armour he made himself (which is a bear's soul, remember). The false king is wearing fancied up armour that he didn't make, his soul is fake just like his armour, which crumples like aluminum foil, just like the idea of cultural imperialism. /Spoilers
So we see the virtue of rejecting Western Values (as it were) and retaining your own culture no matter the cost. And so forth. And that alone made me feel like the author thought I was an idiot who needed to have that shoved down my throat. I might agree with multiculturalism, but really? Like that?
Conclusion:
Overall, it was a decent story and I liked it, but as I finished it I moved on to the next one with some trepidation. I was discouraged by some of the obvious allegory and worried the next book would contain more. Later I'll tell you what I made of "The Subtle Knife", but I should leave this for now.