{"id":364,"date":"2011-06-01T07:00:05","date_gmt":"2011-06-01T14:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=364"},"modified":"2011-06-01T12:03:07","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T19:03:07","slug":"mark-reads-the-golden-compass-chapter-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/06\/mark-reads-the-golden-compass-chapter-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Golden Compass’: Chapter 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eighth chapter of The Golden Compass<\/em>, we learn how gyptian society functions when the plan to head to the north is finally laid out publicly. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Golden Compass<\/em>.<\/p>\n

CHAPTER EIGHT: FRUSTRATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is not going to be an easy journey for Lyra Belacqua.<\/p>\n

Lyra had to adjust to her new sense of her own story, and that couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be done in a day. To see Lord Asriel as her father was one thing, but to accept Mrs. Coulter as her mother was nowhere near so easy. A couple of months ago she would have rejoiced, of course, and she knew that too, and felt confused.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I have certainly never had to deal with something as complex or as life-changing as this, but there was a part of me that understood why Pullman used the phrase \u00e2\u20ac\u0153new sense of her own story\u00e2\u20ac\u009d here. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if this is the case with other people who have been adopted, but there comes a time when you learn you are <\/em>adopted, and your own internal story has<\/em> to change. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a really, really weird sensation, and in my case, it actually happened twice<\/em>. My parents told me that I was adopted at a really young age and that fact was unavoidable. They had<\/em> to tell me by the time I got to elementary school. Here was a mixed Latino kid with a dark-skinned Hawaiian-Japanese father and a pale white mother with fiery red hair, and it was impossible to look at my family and ever think that my twin brother and I somehow came out of that. I look absolutely nothing like my parents, which…I guess that is weird? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what that experience is like, to resemble my parents, so I have nothing to compare it to. But in those days, the story was always very, very simple: my birth mother could not take care of me, and my brother and I became wards of the state before we were adopted out of foster care. The end!<\/p>\n
I learned a few months before my eighteenth birthday that this story was horrifically simplified, and for a good reason: my birth mother had been trying to find me for many years and always spoke about taking us back. My mom hid that detail (as well as the fact that my biological mom was actually her step-daughter BRAIN EXPLOSION) for years to keep me safe. It factors into why she was so strict with me as well, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a story for another time.<\/p>\n
In short, you have to learn to internalize these details, because the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153story\u00e2\u20ac\u009d you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been telling everyone about your life is now suddenly wrong, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a weird thing. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your own life! How could you be wrong about it? So, in a way, I get how bizarre this must be for Lyra. However, her situation is far more dramatic than mine, and learning that Mrs. Coulter is your mother is not fun in any universe ever. Seriously, MAJORLY FUCKED UP<\/em>. Also, whomever made The Golden Compass<\/em> movie: you did an absolutely awful job because I remember NONE OF THIS AT ALL.<\/p>\n
Lyra copes, though, and she chooses to do it in the way she knows best: through braggadocio and hyperbole. I almost feel like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a running gag to see how ridiculous she can get when telling stories about Lord Asriel, and I rather enjoy the idea that he poisons people just for the fuck of it<\/em>. Strangely, as absurd as her stories are, at this point, they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually seem terribly out-of-character for Lord Asriel. As far as I know, he does <\/em>poison people with the venom from a Turkish serpent that is stolen through a honey-covered sponge. Which\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.whatever, LYRA YOU ARE AMAZING.<\/p>\n
She takes this same zest for the fantastical details of her father and incessantly pesters Ma Costa about what happened on the day her father killed Edward Coulter. I feel like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sign of her character that she is so obsessed about murder<\/em>, but she seems to be the kind of person attracted to these kind of stories. Maybe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not as real to her, since she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not experienced things of this nature, but I also know that part of this is her way of coping with the new news. Like earlier, she has a new story to tell, and the pride she feels for her father is compounded into her desire to know absolutely everything about him. Gosh, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even weird to me, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve only been reading this book for just short of two weeks. Lord Asriel is her father. OH, PULLMAN, THE THINGS YOU ARE DOING TO ME<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Lyra also takes time often to pull out the alethiometer, given her recent knowledge of how it works, and fool around with it:<\/p>\n
Remembering what Farder Coram had said, she tried to focus her mind on three symbols taken at random, and clicked the hands round to point at them, and found that if she held the alethiometer just so in her palms and gazed at it in a particular lazy way, as she thought of it, the long needle would begin to move more purposely. Instead of its wayward divagations around the dial it swung smoothly rom one picture to another. Sometimes it would pause at three, sometimes two, sometimes five or more, and although she understood nothing of it, she gained a deep calm enjoyment from it, unlike anything she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d known.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So now I wonder, of course, if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another meaning to it. Can any person learn to control an alethiometer, or is this one of those things where only certain people are gifted enough to use it? And given its complexity, I wonder how Pullman is going to explain precisely how it works using the specific symbols and signs without confusing readers.<\/p>\n
The narrative shifts to the second Roping meeting, set three days after the first one, when John Faa learns the results of the taxing and liens from the six major families of gyptians. What I adore most here is that Pullman shows us the way that politics work in the gyptian society, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clearly something he thought about for an extensive amount of time. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d learned before that the gyptians are split into six ruling families, and those families have an hierarchy within themselves, but this second Roping meeting more clearly lays out how open this society is about the way it runs.<\/p>\n
The transparency we see here seems so practical and efficient, and I kind of adore how John Faa is held accountable by the people underneath him and how the system is set up so that people can express their concerns and problems in the open, which forces Faa to provide satisfactory answers. Honestly? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never quite seen anything like it.<\/p>\n
And so the meeting commences. The head of each of the six families comes forward to report how many men they can offer for the journey and how much gold they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve collected. At the end of it all, with on hundred and seventy men volunteered for the mission, John Faa very plainly lays out what is going to happen. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a relatively simple plan, for now, with the gyptains taking a ship up to the north with the intentions to rescue as many children as possible. The details are not given publicly, and I suppose there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no need to at this point. Then, like he did before, John Faa opens the meeting to the gyptian citizens for any questions or concerns the might have.<\/p>\n
It starts off innocently enough, with one man asking if Faa knows why<\/em> the Gobblers are taking children, and all Faa can answer is that it appears to be a theological matter as far as he knows. But regardless, any reason is not worth having their kinds stolen from them.<\/p>\n
The second question comes from Raymond van Gerrit, who spoke up at the last Roping. This time, he asks a question that, at face value, seems fairly pragmatic: Knowing how sought out Lyra is, exactly who<\/em> is she to deserve as much protection from the gyptians when she simultaneously seems to be putting them all in danger?<\/p>\n
John Faa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s answer is NOT AT ALL WHAT I EXPECTED.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But if any man or woman needs a reason for doing good, ponder on this. That little girl is the daughter of Lord Asriel, no less. For them as has forgotten, it were Lord Asriel who interceded with the Turk of the life of Sam Broekman. It were Lord Asriel who allowed gyptian boats free passage on the canals through his property. It were Lord Asriel who defeated the Watercourse Bill in Parliament, to our great and lasting benefit. And it were Lord Asriel who fought day and night in the floods of \u00e2\u20ac\u212253, and plunged headlong in the water twice to pull out young Ruud and Nellie Koopman. You forgotten that? Shame, shame on you, shame.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Seriously? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like Lord Asriel is part of that Chuck Norris meme. LORD ASRIEL CREATED CLOUDS WHEN HE TOOK HIS FIRST SHOWER. LORD ASRIEL CAN PUNCH A MAN INTO THE FUTURE. LORD ASRIEL IS GOD\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S ANSWER TO \u00e2\u20ac\u0153HAVE YOU EVER MADE A MAN IN YOUR IMAGE?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d What hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/em> he done?<\/p>\n
Having made his point abundantly clear, John Faa moves on to assigning various men tasks that need to be done in preparation for battle: collecting arms and munitions, commanding fighting, gathering supplies, dealing with money, SPYING (omg fuck yes MORE ON THIS PLEASE), and the chain of commands.<\/p>\n
You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll notice that I said he assigned various men<\/em> for the job, and I love that a woman named Nell hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forgotten this.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lord Faa, en\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you a taking any women on this expedition to look after them kids once you found \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153No, Nell. We shall have little space as it is. Any kids we free will be better off in our car than where they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But supposing you find out that you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t rescue \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem without such women in disguise as guards or nurses or whatever?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t thought of that,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d John Faa admitted. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll consider that most carefully when we retire into the parley room, you have my promise.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Well, at least he can admit that, right? Still, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious if every<\/em> society in this series is divided so rigidly by gender and how this is going to effect Lyra herself.<\/p>\n
The questions continue, as another man asks how in the hell they are going to beat a bunch of vicious armored bears to get to Lord Asriel, to which I would have replied TOUCHE, SIR<\/em>, but Faa is much more convincing than I am as a leader. Like we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see with the next question, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m constantly surprised how practical Faa comes off as, always ready to answer a question that is the most logical and fair assessment of the situation. Here, he states that their primary goal is to rescue the children, but that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll use any resource provided to find a way to rescue him, too. The next question relates directly to that answer, too.<\/p>\n
A woman stands up and relates how they\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcve all heard of the awful things that the Gobblers might<\/em> be doing to their children and that, at the very least, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still guilty of stealing their kids. This whole time, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve appreciated the calm and peaceful demeanor of John Faa, but this woman seems to fear <\/em>it, in the sense that she is worried he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be too soft on the Gobblers. And Faa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s response, like many things he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s said, stirs one hell of a sense of respect in my heart:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153To be sure, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a warm passion behind what you say. But if you give in to that passion, friends, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a doing whta I always warned you agin: you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a placing the satisfaction of your own feelings above the work you have to do. Our work here is first rescue, then punishment. It en\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t gratification for upset feelings. Our feelings don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter. If we rescue the kids but we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t punish the Gobblers, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done the main task. But if we aim to punish the Gobblers first and by doing so lose the chance of rescuing the kids, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve failed.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
BE STILL, MY HEART. how is this man the most perfect thing ever. my god. Because even after saying that, he states that when the time is right to punish, he will basically DESTROY THE GOBBLERS. I mean…I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly know what that entails and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know for sure what the Oblation Board is made up of or what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing in the north, but the man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainty is surely addictive.<\/p>\n
Throughout all of this, as the point of view has mostly focused on Lyra being a spectator of the Roping, and after it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s over, we switch back to her desire to be a part of the action. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tad disappointed that Faa never spoke of her role in the journey to the north. When she brings this up to Tony, he laughs in her face, stating that her role has already been done. Upset that she feels she hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t done much, she vocalizes her discontent to Tony, but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not interested. And who could be, when this is happening?<\/p>\n
For this part, Pantalaimon occupied himself by making monkey faces at Tony\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s d\u00c3\u00a6mon, who closed her tawny eyes in disdain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My hero.<\/p>\n
Lyra, unsatisfied with merely sitting back and letting this all pan out without her, marches her way right up to the parley room, knocks on the door, and plainly lays out her case. She is going so she can save her father and Roger. She can take anbaromagnetic readings, knows which parts of a bear you can eat (BLESS HER), and can certainly use her alethiometer if needed.<\/p>\n
God, I love her bold confidence. AT ELEVEN. I mean, I was confident about my use of words like LITERALLY and SPECIFICALLY and I knew every Poe tale like the back of my hand, but Lyra has this fierce streak of confidence that fills me with joy. Unfortunately, John Faa quickly dismisses the notion, ordering her to stay and help Ma Costa and stay safe. When Lyra tries to protests, he makes it clear that traveling north is not an option for her. Yet as she leaves the parley room, she makes her intentions clear to her d\u00c3\u00a6mon.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We will<\/em> go,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said to Pantalaimon. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Let \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem try to stop us. We will<\/em>!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
GOD SHE IS SERIOUSLY AMAZING. can i just be<\/em> lyra please<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the eighth chapter of The Golden Compass, we learn how gyptian society functions when the plan to head to the north is finally laid out publicly. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Golden Compass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,57],"tags":[60,62,61],"class_list":["post-364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-his-dark-materials","category-the-golden-compass","tag-mark-reads-the-golden-compass","tag-philip-pullman","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}