"The Golden Compass": A Book Review

The first book in Philip Pullman's fantasy trilogy is about to become a movie.  Before even its premiere, it is drawing fire from the Christian Right and being called an anti-Narnia.  In this sectarian hubbub, one thing is clear -- a lot more people are talking about the book than reading it.  It reminds one of the "cult" accusations made aimed at various Christian sects which are slightly off the Protestant mainstream.  Comments which are also sometimes based upon the comments of religious leaders than upon actual knowledge.

Now, it is fair to state that "The Golden Compass" is no Narnia.  But some might remember that the Christian Right was not terribly enthused about Tolkein's trilogy when it was about to become a movie either, and many were early critics of Harry Potter even before it became a movie.  By the time "The Lion and The Wardrobe," came out they were for the most part standing and cheering since Aslan was an obvious stand-in for Christ, and C.S. Lewis had a well earned Christian reputation, even it if he was a close friend of Tolkein.

The problem with "The Golden Compass" is that while it is normally classified as young adult fantasy, it has layers that are clearly operating at the adult level.  It also is a very well crafted tale and fully designed alternative world. 

To add to its hostile reception is the fact that the Church appears to be harboring some definitely "not so nice" people.  The Church also appears to be empowering a couple power hungry self-obsessed people who are doing some rather nasty things to commoners especially the poor and the fringe elements.

Pullman does not pull any punches about what can happen if political operatives are empowered by the blessing of the Church.  Without going into the plot of the book, basically the book on the adult level suggests that the establishment is seeking a manner to sever humanity from natural sensuality as a means of eliminating original sin.  For those too dull to get the point, Pullman makes a clear analogy between what is being described in the fantasy novel and the medieval/renaisance practice of castrating choirboys so they will continue to sing in the higher ranges.  This layer of the book, however, requires the adult to exercise some thought as to the point of the book and is not the tale laid out for the young adults -- one may search in vain for any sex scenes.

For the young adults, the tale is simply a tale of a young girl trying to help her friends, some colorful and good people, and some relatively amoral races who strangely have loyalties which somehow manage to portray them in a very good light.  She is working to protect these people from an evil being perpetrated in the name of good, and in doing so she is caught up in a tumultuous whirlwind of two peculiarly self-obsessed adults having tremendous social and economic resources at their beck and call.  In other words, its a really good read.

As to this first book, it seems very unlikely that any youth or adult is going to apostasize from the true faith as a result of reading the book.  But, it might dredge up some very interesting discussions between youth and adults -- if the adults bother to actually read the book, rather than rely on the comments of their spiritual "experts."