{"id":390,"date":"2011-06-20T07:00:19","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=390"},"modified":"2011-06-18T18:43:21","modified_gmt":"2011-06-19T01:43:21","slug":"mark-reads-the-golden-compass-chapter-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/06\/mark-reads-the-golden-compass-chapter-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Golden Compass’: Chapter 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eighteenth chapter of The Golden Compass<\/em>, Lyra begins her journey to Svalbard to rescue Lord Asriel with Lee Scoresby and Serafina Pekkala along her side, where we learn even more about who Lyra might actually be. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Golden Compass<\/em>.<\/p>\n

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: FOG AND ICE<\/strong><\/p>\n

You know, even for a rather \u00e2\u20ac\u0153slow\u00e2\u20ac\u009d chapter, this is fucked up<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get there in a bit. I know Pullman has done it before, but chapter eighteen is another great example of his ability to shift who his third person narration focuses on and in a way that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not jarring either. This book certainly focuses on Lyra almost exclusively, but when Pullman feels the need to talk about her or reveal information about her, he can switch to Farder Coram or Lee Scoresby when necessary and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel that it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fit.<\/p>\n

He does that right away as Lyra falls asleep and Lee and Serafina begin to have a conversation that is ONE HELL OF A WEIRD TRIP. First of all, the conversation acts as a great way for Pullman to explain to all of us that the social and cultural differences between humans and witches, both to answer my questions about witch society and to create a fascinating dynamic.<\/p>\n

Lee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s initial concern about traveling with Lyra is certainly natural for him to bring up: Lee is a practical man, and his pragmatism deals with the fee he was paid by the gyptians to provide a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153normal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d service. And surely what just happened in Bolvangar is not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153normal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by any means.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mr. Scoresby,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the witch, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wish I could answer your question. All I can say is that all of us, humans, witches, bears, are engaged in a war already, although not all of us know it. Whether you find danger on Svalbard or whether you fly off unharmed, you are recruit, under arms, a soldier.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I kind of adore the way that Serafina speaks. Like the gyptians, she is quite direct, matter-of-fact and simple, communicating exactly what she needs to precisely in the way she thinks will impart the message. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to say that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s detached, because the strips what emotion she does show here, but she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got a way of talking that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an interesting parallel to Lee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pragmatism. Her and Lee trade off about choice and you can see how they both come from two different worlds: one is concerned with human matters and the other\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.well, the world of witches has not much in common with what we are used to in life.<\/p>\n
But this then brings up another issue that I was pleasantly surprised appeared in this book at all: free will. I suppose the thought had only briefly crossed my mind when Farder Coram spoke with the witch consul about Lyra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bizarre destiny. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not a big fan of the idea, I suppose, and I commented that Pullman so far has avoided my distaste for it. And he still does and this section certainly helps that. Lyra is to be kept ignorant <\/em>of her \u00e2\u20ac\u0153destiny,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for whatever reason that is still left unsaid.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are all subject to the fates. But we must all act as if we are not,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the witch, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153or die of despair.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Stripped of the context of Lyra, this is one amazing bit of philosophy dropped on us. The existential tinge to it all of course satisfies me, but as Serafina continues, she gives us a huge chunk of the reason why<\/em> Lyra is so important:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is a curious prophecy about this child: she is destined to bring about the end of destiny. But she must do so without knowing what she is doing, as if it were her nature and not her destiny to do it. If she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s told what she must do, it will all fail; death will sweep through all the worlds; it will be the triumph of despair, forever. The universes will all become nothing more than interlocking machines, blind and empty of thought, feeling, life\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
WELL SHIT. What a head-scratcher! Does this mean she is bringing the end of destiny for herself or everyone<\/em>? Does Serafina mean that all people are controlled by some unnamable idea of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153destiny\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and Lyra is going to free people of that? And why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/em> she be told? Why will that cause mass death between all of the parallel universes?<\/p>\n
The thing is, this still doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a whole lot of sense to me, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m simultaneously way more interested in Lyra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s destiny than I was before. Serafina speaks as if the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fates\u00e2\u20ac\u009d brought<\/em> Roger to Bolvangar specifically because Lyra would follow and set into motion her own destiny.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m early into this trilogy, so I understand very little of this at this point. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get it. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ok with that because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the fun of the experience. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m itching to know why<\/em> this is all happening, especially since it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being hinted that there is<\/em> a reason why. At the very least, though, I know that Serafina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s witch clan is on Lyra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s side:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Whatever they were doing at Bolvangar, we felt it was wrong with all our hearts. Lyra is their enemy; so we are her friends. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see more clearly than that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I find it interesting that the witches didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/em> know what was happening in Bolvangar.<\/p>\n
Their conversation takes a turn for the immediate future and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made clear to me that landing in Svalbard is not going to be an easy thing at all. Lee confirms (in a wonderful bit) that Iorek is on their side as well:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attached himself to the little girl as a kind of protector. She helped him get his armor back, you see. Who knows what bears feel? But if a bear ever loved a human being, he loves her.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
THERE IS NO GIF FOR WHAT I AM FEELING NOW!!!!! oh Iorek. PLEASE COME RESCUE ME NEXT.<\/p>\n
Lyra awakes to a cold moonlit sky and she converses with Serafina about the oncoming difficulty of Svalbard. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually kind of funny to me because Bolvangar seems to have set the bar for what \u00e2\u20ac\u0153difficult\u00e2\u20ac\u009d entails. I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6HOW COULD IT BE WORSE THAN THAT<\/em>. The problem, though, is that Svalbard is a much more treacherous geographical location, and<\/em> the panserbj\u00c3\u00b8rne <\/em>are going to be much harder to defeat than the Tartar guards and their wolf d\u00c3\u00a6mons.<\/p>\n
But Lyra doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to set herself on this idea much at all, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of neat how her conversation with Serafina sort of reads like a curious child who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop asking a question, getting an answer, and then asking forty more questions to follow that. She interrogates the witch about Lord Asriel, about why witches don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel cold, how long they live, and whether they are all women. Actually, that little speech that Serafina gives about men is spectacular:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You are so young, Lyra, too young to understand this, but I shall tell you anyway and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll understand it later: men pass in front of our eyes like butterflies, creatures of a brief season. We love them; they are brave, proud, beautiful, clever; and they die almost at once. They die so soon that our hearts are continually racked with pain. We bear their children, who are witches if they are female, human if not; and then in the blink of an eye they are gone, felled, slain, lost. Our sons, too. When a little boy is growing, he thinks he is immortal. His mother knows he isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Each time becomes more painful, until your heart is finally broken.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And this remarkably depressing passage is then used to explore the tragic past (that we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know about) between Farder Coram and Serafina. Not only were they in love, but THEY HAD A SON TOGETHER. who died<\/em>. AND THEN SHE NEVER SAW FARDER CORAM AGAIN.<\/p>\n
seriously this book is going to make my heart stop functioning or something holy god. <\/em><\/p>\n
Lyra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s little interrogation session is silenced briefly after she suggests that Serafina actually go see see Farder, but she asks a question I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve wanted to know the answer to since the beginning of the book: Why do people have d\u00c3\u00a6mons? Unfortunately, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no answer given. Even Serafina doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why. They just do<\/em>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s simply the way of this world. And you know, thinking about it right now, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t suppose I ever need<\/em> to know why, either. If that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how the natural world works in this parallel universe, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m at a point in the story where I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care to have an explanation for it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not necessary. I accept it as it is. (At the same time\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel bad if I do get an answer!)<\/p>\n
Their talk turns to the armored bears and I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ready to make a bonafide guess as to what is going on with Iofur Raknison. When we first heard his name, I, like probably all of you, assumed he was a man, but we now know he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s king of the bears. I still think I remember it correctly, too: Iofur wants his own d\u00c3\u00a6mon. So, reading this section about how Iofur is a different<\/em> kind of bear in terms of the way he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leading the panserbj\u00c3\u00b8rne<\/em>, making treaties and alliances, living in a palace, working with humans. So\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6..IOFUR DOESN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T WANT TO BE A BEAR. Ok, this is probably a terrible theory that will never be developed beyond this, but I thought it was interesting that he wants a d\u00c3\u00a6mon, he acts more like a human king than a king of bears, and…just seriously, THAT WOULD BE COOL. Also, this:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When bears act like people, perhaps they can be tricked,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Serafina Pekkala.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S ALL SET UP TO COME TRUE. Oh god, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be so embarrassed if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m wrong.<\/p>\n
We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen before that the witches didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t comment on Dust, but Serafina pretty much confirms that witches don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know what Dust is:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Witches have never worried about Dust. All I can tell you is that where there are priests, there is fear of Dust. Mrs. Coulter is not a priest, of course, but she is a powerful agent of the Magisterium, and it was she who set up the Oblation Board and persuaded the Church to pay for Bolvangar, because of her interest in Dust.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m wondering…was Mrs. Coulter telling the truth? Well, I should rephrase that: Does she genuinely believe that Dust is actually bad? She mentioned that it makes people feel things that are evil and wrong and wicked. So it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not an issue of her lying to Lyra: she actually believed what she was saying.
\nSo what the hell does Dust do???<\/p>\n
This momentary break doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t last long. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually one of the very few \u00e2\u20ac\u0153slow\u00e2\u20ac\u009d parts I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had in a while and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re back to chaos again when Lyra wakes up in the morning to discover Lee having some difficultly flying as the balloon starts rapidly descending into the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153thickest fog Lyra had ever known.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s here that we get our first introduction to a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cliff-ghast,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d some sort of creature \u00e2\u20ac\u0153half the size of a man, with leathery wings and hooked claws,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that tries to claw its way into the balloon. I actually laughed when Iorek just swats it away and merely names the creature and then sits back. Cliff-ghasts are nothing to Iorek.<\/em> Unfortunately, something hits the balloon and it begins to fall so quickly that Lyra thinks the basket may have separated from the balloon. WHICH IS FUN, RIGHT. And the jolts continue and even though she tries to hang on to Iorek\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fur, she is dumped from the basket into a snowdrift below on the ground, the sounds of cliff-ghasts and some sort of battle going on above them. As her and Pan try desperately to find anyone from the balloon (as she couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have been the only one knocked out of the balloon), Lyra is relieved to see Iorek coming towards her.<\/p>\n
BUT NO. NOT IOREK. ANOTHER ARMORED BEAR. WHO CALLS OUT AND BECKONS A SECOND BEAR.<\/p>\n
The bears didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t move until the first one said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Your name?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lyra.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Where have you come from?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The sky.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In a balloon?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Come with us. You are a prisoner. Move, now. Quickly.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Weary and scary, Lyra began to stumble over the harsh and slippery rocks, following the bear, wondering how she could talk her way out of this.<\/p>\n
OH SHIT YEAH IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S ON. <\/em>Lyra versus bears LYRA WILL PROBABLY WIN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the eighteenth chapter of The Golden Compass, Lyra begins her journey to Svalbard to rescue Lord Asriel with Lee Scoresby and Serafina Pekkala along her side, where we learn even more about who Lyra might actually be. Intrigued? Then … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/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":[23,60,62,61],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-his-dark-materials","category-the-golden-compass","tag-mark-reads","tag-mark-reads-the-golden-compass","tag-philip-pullman","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","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=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}