This week we are discussing Part I: Oxford of His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.
Spoiler Warning!!! This post contains spoilers for His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass.
Discussion:
Michaela: Hello friends and welcome to our first discussion for His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. We chose this book to fit in with a more wintery theme for November. As we approach the inevitable winter why not go on a wintery adventure full of magic and science. I am so enthralled with this book’s entire concept. Parallel worlds? Got em. Magic? Got it. Science? You bet. Adventure? 100%. Talking animals? So many. It’s too much for my literary brain to handle!
Jacilyn: This is a great book to fit a winter theme without going for the more on-the-nose holiday fiction or ski trip murder mystery. From the very beginning, we learn about the idea of the North, which Lyra is absolutely fascinated with. With Asriel being her rather elusive, gruff, cold uncle, always away on adventures, and the only blood family she knows, her desire for adventure isn’t surprising. And then she’s surrounded by these scholars who absolutely bore her, although she could learn a lot about the North from them if she wanted to. I’ve always loved the idea of colleges in Lyra’s world. They’re an entirely different structure than we have here, complete with old customs and rituals and rights. We don’t hear of any young students, so the function of the Colleges appears to be focused entirely on research, which is so interesting to me.
Michaela: Learning just tidbits about the North so far, I agree with Lyra’s fascination. The North sounds so cool and spiritual. Then the colleges are so interesting, there’s so many rules and rituals that Lyra talks about. It seems like an older idea of college in our world, where old men gather to discuss things and do research. It’s almost like a romanticized version of the 1880s, in my head and I love it. I know Lyra gets bored with the people there but I would love to sit down and have a long conversation with all of them. This world is so complex and I just want to know everything about it.
Jacilyn: I think one of my favorite things about this book and the series in general is how Lyra’s world has obvious similarities and parallels to ours, but they’re just a bit different in some way, independent of modernity. It’s almost steampunk-ey, with their anbaric power and machinery like the zeppelins. I remember reading this as a kid and wishing that I could run around an old, mysterious compound like Jordan and explore the rooftops and underground like Lyra and Roger did. Lyra is constantly described as “half-wild,” and although she doesn’t have much for a foundational experience with school, she’s clearly incredibly clever and absorbs matters far beyond her quite easily.
I love that all the scholars and many of the servants care about Lyra quite deeply, much more than Lyra realizes. The Master more than anyone, I think, besides perhaps Roger. The Master says that he tried to poison Asriel to protect Lyra, but his exact reasons for that are vague. All at once, it seems like Asriel, the Magisterium, and Mrs. Coulter have some sort of power and sway over Jordan as a whole, and it seems that the Master is forced to go along with the flow of politics in an attempt at balance and survival. The scholars vote to grant Asriel his funding for research into the Grumman expedition, but the Master knows that the Magisterium can construe this as heretical, and in the middle of this tug of war, Mrs. Coulter seems to slide in with her connections to both Asriel and the Magisterium. The power dynamics are fascinating.
Michaela: I think as a child, if I had read this book, I would have pretended to be Lyra exploring Jordan and the North all the time. The steampunk-ey-ness, magic, and daemons. I would have been all over it and I feel a little cheated out of it since I didn’t read it until now.
I think Lyra for the better part of her life, purely exists in her own world of exploration, “wars” with the other children, and being “half-wild”. Since she lives in her own world so often I think it’s easy for her to forget that other people care for her because from her perspective most of the adults are boring and sullen. The relationship Lyra has with Roger is the most real thing she has and even that she takes for granted a little bit until he disappears.
The Master is a very interesting character and I really wish we could have talked with him more to understand what he was doing. I don’t really believe that his only reason for trying to poison Lord Asriel was to protect Lyra. That may have been one reason or a bonus but I feel that the main reason involved his loyalty to the Holy Church to keep his position. But I also think there’s so much more going on than we know right now. The Master claims to want to poison Lord Asriel to protect Lyra and yet allows Lyra to go away with Mrs. Coulter who, I believe, the Master knew to be dangerous. However, if the Master is concerned about the involvement of the Holy Church then it makes more sense why he wouldn’t want to stand up against Mrs. Coulter. All these politics and power dynamics are definitely just as confusing in this world as it is in ours and I always struggle to keep up with what’s actually going on behind the dialogue.
Then in a scene that’s kind of an “aside” the Master speaks with his companion about how Lyra “will be the betrayer”. What is this all about? I need more information! Is there a prophecy? Why does he know this? I need answers man!
Jacilyn: See, I think if the Master was trying to protect himself from the Magisterium, he wouldn’t have given Lyra the alethiometer. That in itself was treason on his part, which is why he told Lyra to keep it away from Mrs. Coulter. I hate that we never figure out exactly what the Master wanted Lyra to do as far as Asriel and the alethiometer.
I think the Master alluded to gaining this knowledge about Lyra being the “betrayer” from the alethiometer. It’s brief, but he mentions it during that conversation with the Librarian. I doubt that the Master could have ever guessed that Lyra would learn to read the alethiometer herself, which again brings us back to why he gave it to her in the first place. There’s so many motivations there that we just don’t have any insight to.
My favorite thing about this whole story is without a doubt the idea of daemons. To have a part of your soul, in animal form, always there. As a sad lonely child, all I ever wanted was a daemon and as I’ve grown older, that desire hasn’t waned in the slightest. The traditions and rules in place around daemons are fascinating. They’re nearly always of the opposite sex, and it’s unheard of for a human to touch another’s daemon, but they can interact with other daemons. Even in battle, humans don’t touch daemons. They obviously have different temperaments and opinions, as Pan and Lyra illustrate, so it’s almost like they’re the little voice in your head given physical form.
Michaela: I’m just confused on what the Master’s end goals are and his methods to getting there. It will forever be a mystery I think. I think most people underestimate Lyra by quite a lot, even those closest to her often don’t think she can do or handle something and she constantly proves them wrong. Like with the alethiometer, not only did the Master potentially not think she would learn to read it but I also think John Faa and Farder Coram didn’t think she would either.
The idea of daemons is absolutely amazing and beautiful. I was obsessed with the idea of animal companions as a child, such as pokemon and patronuses. I also had a pretty lonely childhood and I constantly wished for a best friend, sibling, or companion that I could bond with in the same way Lyra does with Pan. I also love animals and grew up surrounded by them and the bond between humans and their animals can be magical and this book brings that relationship to a whole new spiritual level. Then the form each daemon takes is so cool and I really hope we get to learn more about it as the story continues because I can’t get enough of it.
Jacilyn: The parallels to the Magisterium in the book and the Church in our own world is not only very interesting, I feel like it was very bold of a children’s author to approach the subject of a religious entity with political and financial power. It’s kind of like how in dystopian novels, we can see how our government could potentially end up mirroring the government we’re reading about, but we’re not to that extreme yet. I feel the same way about the Magisterium in this series. The Magisterium is essentially controlling thought and fighting against discoveries or schools of thought that undermine their authority in some way. Which is where this entire political intrigue we see alluded to in this part of the book begins…. The research into Rasokov particles, or Dust, is strictly controlled by the Magisterium and Asriel knew that he was committing heresy by approaching Jordan College for funding.
In our own world, science and religion typically function independently from one another. Of course, our own scientists may have religious beliefs, but discussion of any sort of religious ideology within scientific research is unheard of at this point in our world. Historically, we’ve seen scientific thinkers persecuted by the Church for heresy, but that was for theories that discredited religious beliefs. It seems that, in Lyra’s world, religious belief is entwined with scientific discovery. Dust is intrinsic to the theology of Lyra’s world in a way that we don’t understand at this point.
Michaela: I love reading the parallels between the Magisterium and the Church in our world. While we may not be there yet it’s really easy to see the similarities. The fact that the Magisterium controls all research and exploration related to Dust makes me so, so angry. This is obviously going to be a very important thing and the fact that the church, from what I can tell, has turned it into something evil and something that needs to be controlled, it drives me crazy. However, I love how science and religion are intertwined in this society and yet, in my opinion, there is still a major disconnect between what the science actually means and what the Magisterium believes to be happening. Even just from the reactions of the Scholars at Jordan College you can tell that some of them think this Dust is a horrible thing while others think its fascinating.
Lord Asriel seems to be approaching the more scientific side of Dust whereas Mrs. Coulter is coming from the religious side with the General Oblation Board. I definitely do not trust Mrs. Coulter for obvious reasons, she is one of the creepiest literary characters I’ve ever read. She has so much rage and need for control just under her skin, it's really unsettling to be around her character especially in cases of children being near her. When her daemon attacked Pan I was completely shocked, it was so violent and suddenly they both pretended everything was fine. Also her interactions with her own daemon is so weird compared to literally everyone else we have met in this book so far. She seems to have a kind of broken connection with her daemon that I do not understand yet. I also don’t know that I trust Lord Asriel either. He doesn’t disturb me like Mrs. Coulter does, that’s for sure. But I still find him to be really suspicious, even knowing how he protected Lyra from Mrs. Coulter’s deceased husband when she was a baby and how he still kind of protects her at Jordan College. I don’t know, something about him rubs me the wrong way. He is just so cold and unfriendly most of the time to Lyra. Then having learned Lyra’s true relation to both of them, any trust I had is completely out the window. I can’t imagine justifying lying to Lyra her entire life like that, everyone including children deserve to know where they come from.
Jacilyn: I definitely don’t trust either Asriel or Mrs. Coulter. I think they’re both going for the same thing in the long run - power. But even in that, they’re different. So far, I think Asriel wants knowledge, which is power. In this case, forbidden knowledge that puts him in a place of advantage over the Magisterium. And honestly, I think Mrs. Coulter wants power over Asriel. They are both so clever, so good at manipulation… a perfect match, but volatile. The book mentions brief moments of Asriel showing fondness or respect to Lyra, such as tipping her off to the underground parts of Jordan, trusting Lyra to spy for him, and allowing her to see his presentation in the Retiring Room, but it feels secondary for him. I wouldn’t be shocked if Asriel’s efforts in keeping Lyra safe from Mrs. Coulter at Jordan College was purely to snub her, and not out of actual affection for the child. And of course, both of these incredibly clever people produced an extraordinarily clever child who they are both missing out on.
Like Pan said, Mrs. Coulter treats Lyra as a pet while in London. Dressing her up, teaching her manners, and manipulating Lyra into forgetting Roger and Jordan College. And, Mrs. Coulter underestimated Lyra, as these adults all want to do. The high society of London was obviously deeply connected to the Magisterium, which provided Lyra and Pan the information they needed to bounce on out of there before things got worse.
You know who really does truly care about Lyra, though? The Gyptians, and Ma Costa in particular.
Michaela: I feel the same way, that Asriel’s care for Lyra is a secondary thought for him. They are both so focused on power and I think both are looking to outdo the other. I think if Asriel had dedicated time to Lyra he would find that he is happy to be her father but he won’t. I don’t have much faith in Mrs. Coulter though and no one else seems to think she would have been willing to be a mother either. All she sees Lyra as is a pet. Everything you said is exactly right. She wants Lyra around to have someone to dote on her and to dress her up. I also think to Mrs. Coulter, finally having Lyra near her is a power move against Asriel. None of this equals love and devotion to Lyra. Also, we should definitely mention how when Mrs. Coulter gets angry there’s a metallic smell, what the hell is up with that? That just adds to the creepy factor of this lady.
The Gyptians are amazing and beautiful people. I love Ma Costa and John Faa has the most calming yet booming presence. I cannot get enough of the Gyptian characters and how their society works. It's honestly refreshing and mesmerizing reading the interactions between the Gyptians with each other and with Lyra. This culture is so full of love, devotion, protection, duty, and even happiness. While they are dealing with some very serious and sad things many of these characters are honestly almost jolly, particularly John Faa, Farder Coram, and Tony Costa. If anything happens to any of these people I will actually lose it, they need to be protected at all costs.
Jacilyn: That was one thing I found interesting about Asriel. He certainly seems to have been an advocate for the Gyptians, who are frowned upon by many others, but I really can’t imagine that was out of any sincere fondness, as opposed to a strategic move that provides him support in the long run. As they’ve started to make clear, Gyptians aren’t ones to fuck with. Much like Lyra, I think they’re underestimated. I’d love to read a history on the Gyptian people.
Farder Coram and Ma Costa are tied as my favorite Gyptians. It seems to me that Farder Coram is one of the first adults not to underestimate Lyra. I love his old, sturdy wisdom and his beautiful cat daemon. And his complete trust in Lyra as she learns the alethiometer under his guidance. I would also happily read a book dedicated to his life story.
One of the things I love the most about the writing of this book is how I can visualize how Lyra reads the alethiometer and mimic it in my own mind. Instead of saying that Lyra just recognizes the symbols and their meanings and that’s that, Pullman describes the process of holding each meaning in your mind, relaxing, and letting the alethiometer answer. It’s another one of those things that make it seem like this reality isn’t so far away from our own. It’s almost magic, but also science. Just like the spirit beetles that are sent after Lyra. They’re machinery, but powered by a spirit with a spell cast on it.
Michaela: I was actually kind of surprised that Asriel has such a history with the Gyptians but I agree, I don’t see it as loyalty or care of these people but more of a tick off a list of people to have to stand up for him when he’s in trouble or people for him to go to for assistance when he might need it. Another level of power basically. I think, like most nomadic cultures, the Gyptians are tremendously underestimated and presumed to be stupid, poor, lazy, weird, or what have you. But they have a rich culture and are beautiful caring and brave people.
I really appreciate Farder Coram’s character and Ma Costa’s as well. They are both so caring and treat Lyra like an adult most of the time. Yet neither of them let her run off with her imagination too much as she does and bring her back to what is really happening and fully explains things to her when she needs it. I think right now my favorite Gyptian character is John Faa, I don’t entirely know why but I love him. He gives me such a warm yet fierce protective vibe, I just want a hug from him. I’m so afraid that all the characters I like are going to end up being horrible people! I won’t be able to handle it.
The alethiometer is so freaking cool. The way that machinery can be embedded with spirits is amazing and I’m convinced the alethiometer is one of those. How it works is so different and yet makes complete sense to me. I just love the combination of science and magic so, so much. I can’t get enough of it. And how the author has Lyra explain how she understand the alethiometer is so interesting and childlike but it makes so much sense. I just love all of it.
Jacilyn: Well, there’s even more to love coming up soon. I’m so glad you’ve been enjoying it so far, and talking about it with someone is so much fun! That wraps up this week’s discussion. Next week, we’ll talk about Part Two! Lyra and the Gyptians are heading North, and danger awaits.
Are you obsessed with the idea of daemons as much as we are? What are your feelings about Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel? Are you fascinated by the alethiometer and the mixture of science and magic? Let us know in the comments below!
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