kriadydragon | Thoughts on "The Golden Compass"

They made a movie out of the first book of His Dark Materials and I'm curious to see how they handle it. As surmised would happen, the contrversy has already begun.

If you haven't read the trilogy, much of the story deals with rather anti-religious themes. I'm Christian and I have read the books. Setting the religious aspects aside for a moment, Pullman has created quite a marvelous world, with well-rounded characters and conflicts. I especially loved (pretty much became obsessed with) the concept of the daemons - a peice of our souls made flesh in animal form. I sometimes like to think about what this person's or that person's daemon would look like (I'm pretty sure mine would be a cat.)

As for the religious aspects, things didn't start to really bother me until book three. Pullman uses a mix of doctrine (mostly Catholic doctrine) and fantasy in how he handles religion. If you're strong in your beliefs, faith (and depending on your beliefs) it's more bothersome and uncomfortable than offensive - at least to me it was. Pullman kind of pushes it in your face rather than using types and shadows like C.S. Lewis did in the Chronicles of Narnia. You can't help but see the anti-religious undertones and, if you are Christian, it makes the book a little less enjoyable to read. There were some things I had a big problem with (the portrayal of Satan as a good-guy and that he was actually doing right, for example) and some things I was like "yeah, I can understand that" (people using religion as a way to influence or get power - of course, what isn't mentioned is how that's more the fault of people, not the religion itself.) Still, it was easy for me to look at it as a fantasy world, and the Christian religion reorganized more into a fantasy religion (like an alternate universe where everything is the opposite).

Though the "religion is bad"undertones annoyed me, I pretty much ignored them to finish out the rest of the book. Book three I didn't like, but the story as a whole - that is, the characters' stories and not whatever message Pullman was trying to send concerning religion - I enjoyed.

However, though I don't mind recommending this book to adults, I definitely wouldn't recommend them for children, especially under the age of eleven and especially depending on your family's beliefs. Kids are pretty impressionable and the concept of this books is, to me, just a little too deep and complicated for them. I'm not saying that a child will automatically think "oh, since God is the bad guy in this book, then he must be bad." However, they could be troubled by it. Either that or just plain confused. Also, kids that young just aren't into books that complex, yet I always find it in the section for young readers at libraries and bookstores (adolescent and down). Though the main characters are kids, I felt this book more appropriate for teen and adult readers.

There's already groups petitioning that people boycott the movie out of concern that it will get kids to want to read the book. Nothing volatile as of yet, more like a "proceed with caution" kind of deal. As for myself, I do plan on seeing the movie out of curiosity and because I did enjoy the first two books. Really it's the parent's call as to whether they should let their kids read the books. Personally, I'd wait until they're older to let them read it. It's pretty heavy stuff for a supposed kids book.