the golden compass
so, i just finished reading the trilogy that the golden compass movie coming out on friday is based on. i realy enjoyed the trilogy. also, some people have their panties in a twist about the story and the movie and whatnot.
so, first, people have compared the religious bits to that of books like narnia. i read the narnia books and wasn't the least fazed by whatever christian metaphors were there. they might bug me a bit if i were to reread them, but honestly, if you don't know the christian stories it doesn't in the least change the narnia stories. hell, the bible has some pretty groovy stories in it, i can't blame anyone for reskinning it.. *)
the golden compass is different. the religious bits aren't some metaphor, they are pretty clear. not really so much in the first book, but in the later books, they are clearly unhappy with their religion. also, its a story. as a story, the idea is suggested that god isn't a creator and isn't nessc. on the side of good. ok, cool, now we have a conflict to keep the story interesting. now, if i was a parent of a young child who hasn't quite grasped the differences between stories and reality, i probably wouldn't want them to read this book just yet. also, if i was part of a religion where any close scrutiny caused the whole thing to fall down, i'd feel threatened by this book. however, because this is a *story* one would hope that the readers could enjoy the story w/o feeling like they immediately needed to kill god or defy religion or whatever the hell. now, i'm not a christian, so i didn't feel the need to worry overly much about this whole thing until i was most of the way through the book, but the general feeling i got was that maybe corrupt churches weren't the best thing for people. so yeah, defeat the evil corrupt churches! also, giant talking polar bears rule and i want one. *)
completely ignoring all the controversial stuff, i really liked the concepts of daemons and enjoyed all the bits where you'd meet a new character and their daemon's shape was clever and amusing. i liked the different worlds and the clashing of two very similar and very different societies of lyra and will. i appreciated that i didn't see the ending coming from a mile away. these books were all super easy to read and enjoyable and light and kept my attention such that i didn't want to put the book down (but not so on the edge that i couldn't put it down to sleep).
so, first, people have compared the religious bits to that of books like narnia. i read the narnia books and wasn't the least fazed by whatever christian metaphors were there. they might bug me a bit if i were to reread them, but honestly, if you don't know the christian stories it doesn't in the least change the narnia stories. hell, the bible has some pretty groovy stories in it, i can't blame anyone for reskinning it.. *)
the golden compass is different. the religious bits aren't some metaphor, they are pretty clear. not really so much in the first book, but in the later books, they are clearly unhappy with their religion. also, its a story. as a story, the idea is suggested that god isn't a creator and isn't nessc. on the side of good. ok, cool, now we have a conflict to keep the story interesting. now, if i was a parent of a young child who hasn't quite grasped the differences between stories and reality, i probably wouldn't want them to read this book just yet. also, if i was part of a religion where any close scrutiny caused the whole thing to fall down, i'd feel threatened by this book. however, because this is a *story* one would hope that the readers could enjoy the story w/o feeling like they immediately needed to kill god or defy religion or whatever the hell. now, i'm not a christian, so i didn't feel the need to worry overly much about this whole thing until i was most of the way through the book, but the general feeling i got was that maybe corrupt churches weren't the best thing for people. so yeah, defeat the evil corrupt churches! also, giant talking polar bears rule and i want one. *)
completely ignoring all the controversial stuff, i really liked the concepts of daemons and enjoyed all the bits where you'd meet a new character and their daemon's shape was clever and amusing. i liked the different worlds and the clashing of two very similar and very different societies of lyra and will. i appreciated that i didn't see the ending coming from a mile away. these books were all super easy to read and enjoyable and light and kept my attention such that i didn't want to put the book down (but not so on the edge that i couldn't put it down to sleep).