| | If you go to the movie website you can find your own daemon -- much like a Myer-Briggs... or a horoscope for all of that -- and work a simulated "alethiometer." This device is wrongly (but permanently now) called "the golden compass" a kind of astrolabe for divining hidden truths. The Magisterium has destroyed all but one, which comes to young Lyra Bellacqua.
Lyra's "guardian" gives it to her just before he announces to his own college that he has proof of "dust" a mysterious substance from outer space dimensions with which it would be possible to travel between "universes." Pursued by the Magisterium, Lyra is rescued by creatures and people who in turn she can help to meet their goals: Gyptians in paddlewheel sailing ships, flying witches, warrior polar bears in meteoric armor, and a cowboy with a dirigible. Their opposition includes the lovely and vicious Marisa Coulter, the Lords of the Magisterium and their Samoyed mercenaries, as well as the evil king of the warrior polar bears.
Lyra is never short of virtue or stalled with doubt. She always knows exactly what to do. She is a force to be reckoned with, never to be underestimated, except at your own peril. Compared to her, Frodo was a cogitator and Harry Potter succeeded only by tripping over his own shoelaces. Like them, she is honest, open, trusting yet demanding justice.
<edit1>
Like much else in common culture, the production has its problems, beginning with the "parallel universes." Lyra announces to Iorek Byrnison that he was tricked out of his armor and therefore has an absolute right to reclaim it by force. How she knew that (either the act of trickery or the legal intricassies of adverse possession) is not clear. The bear believes her instantly with no need for proof or even further demonstration. So,the critical objectivist will be left squirming. Nontheless, with a willing suspension of disbelief, the movie offers value to anyone who enjoys heroism. It is certainly a movie for rational parents with young daughters.
<edit2>
The author of His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman, is an open atheist. The daily work of the Magisterium was too close to some aspects of our own universe, apparently. Even so, other religious commentators also fear that the movie will bring children to the books. Maybe what they fear most is an 11-year old girl who plainly lies to get her way. For the Magisterium to be so specially tagged is curious. Did the National Association of Manufacturers speak out against Saruman's ironworks? Perhaps they should have... The Magisterium are just the Bad Guys.
(Edited by Michael E. Marotta on 12/23, 10:14am)
|
|
