I have not read Golden Compass (I have it on hold in the library and will be picking it up this weekend) but I was able to get The Subtle Knife, the second in the trilogy.
Don't get me wrong. I love fantasy stories, even poorly-written ones. And this is NOT poorly-written. I love fantasy movies of all stripes, and was seriously considering attending this "just because". Now I probably won't.
This is a typical 'alternate universe' world, in which there is a tyrannical government or institution that the protagonists end up trying to overthrow. In that light, it could be the
Harkonens, or
Sauron, or the
war lord of Arawn, or the
Black Thing.
However, my problem with it is that it is not just some new dictatorial, tyrannical overlord or evil institution. It's not just some fantasy religion. It really bears a more-than-passing resemblance to the worst of the medieval Catholic church, and the story plays up many of the most common arguments against religion in general and Christianity in particular.
While the book was very well written, I found little reason to identify with, or even like, the protagonists, especially the girl. I am fine with a well-drawn antihero (
Thomas Covenant, anyone?), but she's just a nasty, selfish, brat of a girl in this book.
Be that as it may, my real beef was with how they portray the Magisterium ("the Church") as their evil governmental entity, and the Authority as its god. Yes, it's not our god. There's no love, no sacrifice, nothing but power for power's sake. It is all Law, all the time. No Gospel in sight. But it bears enough resemblance to our history that it makes my teeth ache. And more than that, it is so black-and-white as to be ludicrous. ("
Money good. Napster bad!")
So here are some excerpts from the book, that may show the underlying flavor of how the Magisterium is described by Pullman. Remember, it's not an overwhelming theme (most of this book revolves around the girl and the boy becoming traveling companions, getting the Knife, and filling in some background). But it's there. By the third book, the reader should be fully on board with not only how evil the Magisterium is, but the implicit understanding of why it should be destroyed. That's how fantasy overthrows work.
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When a group of the witches (long-lived humanoids who have nature powers and fly on brooms) speak together, one of them speaks of the war to come. The incident in Bolvangar is from the first book (and which will be touched upon in the movie, I suppose), in which the Church is cutting the souls (daemons) from children, so that they may become obedient automatons. The daemons are animal-shaped, and separate from the person. In fact, one of the girl's confusions about the boy in the Subtle Knife is that he is from our world, and his daemon is "inside" him, rather than outside in animal form.
From the description in the book, a person without a daemon is like a zombie unfeeling, unthinking, and horrific to those who still have their souls intact. Daemons can show the emotion or personality of a person, even if the person himself is good at hiding it. (bold emphasis mine)
Sisters, let me tell you what is happening, and who it is that we must fight. For there is a war coming. I dont know who will join with us, but I know whom we must fight. It is the Magesterium, the church. For all its history and thats not long by our lives, but its many, many of theirs its tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. And when it cant control them, it cuts them out. Some of you have seen what they did at Bolvangar. And that was horrible, but it is not the only such place, not the only such practice. Sisters, you know only the north; I have traveled in the south lands. There are churches there, believe me, that cut their children too, as the people of Bolvangar did not in the same way, but just as horribly. They cut their sexual organs, yes, both boys and girls; they cut them with knives so that they shant feel. That is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling. So if a war comes, and the Church is on one side of it, we must be on the other, no matter what strange allies we find ourselves bound to.
In another section, a traveler is trying to find information about a scientific discovery. The Magesterium controls much of the science in this world. In fact, the girl who crosses into our world expects that the Scholars (scientists) at the University will be members of the Church, because what she calls theology in her world is science in ours. Anyway, in this scene, the traveler is realizing that the man whose daemon is antagonistic.
And then Lee saw something else; the Skraeling was wearing a ring with the Churchs symbol engraved on it. Suddenly he realized the reason for the mans silence. Every philosophical research establishment, so hed heard, had to include on its staff a representative of the Magisterium, to act as a censor and suppress the news of any heretical discoveries.
In another section, a different witch is trying to rally her sisters to join the army against the Authority. She speaks of her visit with Lord Asriel, who is gathering the forces to lead against the Authority.
He showed me that to rebel was right and just, when you considered what the agents of the Authority did in His name
And I thought of the Bolvangar children, and the other terrible mutilations I have seen in our own southlands; and he told me of many more hideous cruelties dealt out in the Authoritys name of how they capture witches, in some worlds, and burn them alive, sister. Yes, witches like ourselves
He opened my eyes. He showed me things I had never seen, cruelties and horrors all committed in the name of the Authority, all designed to destroy the joys and the truthfulness of life.
And finally, the boy meets with his father, a great explorer and shaman, at the end of the book. The man is wounded, but realizes that the boy is the wielder of the Subtle Knife which can cut through the veil between the multiple universes. It is the only thing strong enough to hurt the Authority.
If youre the bearer of the knife, you have a task thats greater than you can imagine. A child
how could they let it happen? Well, so it must be
There is a war coming, boy. The greatest war there ever was. Something like it happened before, and this time the right side must win. Weve had nothing but lies and propaganda and cruelty and deceit for all the thousands of years of human history. Its time we started again, but properly this time
There are two great powers, the man said, and theyve been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit.
