Getting smacked by armoured polar bears in Pullman’s Northern Lights
Spoilers ahead, so read the book.
Gosh, how do you even categorise this book? It’s got frikkin fighting polar bears with badass armour, witches that would seduce men dry, shape-shifting pets who are also a reflection of your psyche. We might put this into the fantasy category and perhaps this is the closest thing to the genre, but to simply label it as fantasy would be doing the book an injustice. Beneath the imaginative creatures, the book asks philosophical question of who we are, and the possibilities of different realities.
We can argue that Pullman has ventured as far as metaphysics in what is essentially a young adult adventure novel (although Pullman would argue that the novel was not really meant for just children). In the centre of all this is the question of Dust, an elementary particle which drives the life force of things, the all-knowing truth and though invisible, the essential fabric of life. I see this Dust as a jedi would midichlorians. In Lyra we would see a Luke Skywalker figure.
The fancy little 8 ball — the golden compass
Since the movie came out, which I did not watch and not planning to either (I’d rather watch Iron Chef Mehico), the story’s title changed to The Golden Compass, which I guessis more marketable than Northern Lights, not to mention that it is under the umbrella of His Dark Materials trilogy. Confused yet? It’s all pretty simple really. Just read the damn book.
Lyra is an eleven year old, as far as we know an orphan, homeschooled in the prestigious Jordan College by its scholars, yet having no other contact with peers her age. Her friends are the servant children, who’d she bring around to have wars against the gyptians who live in their boats, and exploring the grounds of the college, even being encouraged by her uncle, Lord Asriel to explore underneath. Oh yeah, like everybody else, she’s got a daemon attached to her who would advise her when she’s getting too cocky, and help her do her biddings just as long as she’s physically close by.
In this relatively sheltered life, the echoes of what’s happening outside often trickles through. Children were being kidnapped by a mysterious lady who they’d just follow, cos she’s got candy or promises of good insurance coverage. Anyways, you won’t see these children again. She’s got a daemon in a shape of the golden monkey following her around and also doing her biddings. At this time, Lyra’s playmate Roger had also gone missing. Before her departure, the Master of the College gave her the golden compass, which will become instrumental in her journey.
When this lady came in to Jordan College, the scholars were unable to stop her, she was just rizzing the shit out of these old stepbrothers who probably haven’t touched a woman since they finished their last book, who’d also probably end up buying insurance from her. So away Lyra went, with her new caretaker. But she soon found that Mrs Coulter, her guardian, isn’t what she made out to be. Feeling her life under risk, Lyra escaped and wound up with the gyptians, who by this time had also been missing many of their children.
Lyra gathered news however, that the children had been taken to the North Pole, that through the northern lights there is another world and her now imprisoned uncle, imprisoned by the bears, is key in resolving this mystery as well as the missing children. In her journey, she procured the help of Iorek Byrnison, a disgraced bear who’s now shovelling shit next to a pub.
The essence of *cough cough* Dust
What is dust? What are the essential elements? What are the midichlorians? Shit, sorry. That’s an entirely different studio. The essence of Dust is the key to the plot of the Northern Lights, and I imagine, His Dark Materials and beyond. As humans grew older, Dust will settle on them and they would have become set in their ways. As humans grew older, their daemon will no longer be able to shape-shift and would settle for one shape.
Usually it would be a symbol of their being, their essence. Lord Asriel’s snow leopard is a balance of grace and potential brutality. I suppose a person’s daemon is a symbol of their psyche, their subconscious which would guide them or misguide them — an astute symbolism essential to the plot. The fact that the daemons are usually the reverse gender of its owner balances the masculine and feminine aspect of a person.
The fact that the Gobblers were trying to separate the daemons from their children would leave the children with no drive, motivations and devoid of personality. It seems that the daemons also carried the host’s characters, ambitions and essence, for without it, the child would not live long. Northern Lights is in fact, a novel about growing up (if you’re fancy like me, a bildungsroman if you will).
But it is this question of Dust which also left the scholars and the church in opposing ends. The scholars, led by Lord Asriel is the representation of science and logic — his main objective is to solve the riddle of the dust and explore other universes. For what, I don’t really know, cos I’m still in the first book remember? The Authority, of which the church is the embodiment, are too keen to censor the idea of Dust, repressing the information about it though really, they have no idea what the fuck it does.
And for mine, I have no idea where this Dust sits in the trilogy (and beyond). Piquing other articles about it, seems that it will be even more prevalent, so I really won’t solve this existential problems of vacuuming dust right now. Dust, dust, dust. Sorry, I’m a bit tired. But Dust holds the book together, Dust is what drives the book and that golden compass that’s so easily marketable, moreso than the northern lights. And I don’t know enough metaphysics and haven’t read enough of Hawking to know whether there is something smaller than quarks that allows the remotest possibilities of multiverses, as this book would suggest.
Pullman is an atheist and very critical of the church. His portrayal of the church here is one of a gluttonous entity, willing to censor truths in order to keep its doctrine intact. Yet, on the other side of the coin, science is doing no better. Lord Asriel was more than willing to sacrifice the life of a young child so that he was able to cross to a different universe. Would we sacrifice the few in order to gain knowledge for the greater good? I guess it depends on the severity of the issue. But as I get older, I have no qualms of not knowing everything about the world, though I’m still adamant on reading most books that I can get my hands on. Yes, even books which has armoured polar bears in it. Speaking of which, how fucking awesome is Iorek Byrnison, who is hands down, the best part of the book? That fucking bear is badass as fuck.
I will space out the remaining two books of the trilogy. I do think Pullman writes well, though his action scenes are cinematic in nature and could be a tad too descriptive. But I saw it first and foremost as an adventure novel. In some parts of the book, I was Lyra, and so I was young again, unbridled and keen for what’s next. I suppose that’s what good adventure novels tend to do: to exhilarate and give its readers that adrenaline rush. Imagine yourself in the back of a polar bear moving faster than a Lamborghini under the shelter of the aurora borealis, the cold winds cutting through you. Yeah, it feels pretty wild, doesn’t it? In this, Pullman pulled it off (pun not intended).
