{"id":351,"date":"2011-05-25T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2011-05-25T14:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=351"},"modified":"2011-05-25T13:55:15","modified_gmt":"2011-05-25T20:55:15","slug":"mark-reads-the-golden-compass-chapter-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/05\/mark-reads-the-golden-compass-chapter-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Golden Compass’: Chapter 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the third chapter of The Golden Compass<\/em>, Phillip Pullman stretches out the narrative to describe to us the rich and detailed world that Lyra lives in, complete with a much more full background on who she is. In the process of doing so, he introduces the Gobblers, a set of alleged kidnappers who are apparently taking children to be eaten. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Golden Compass<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Well, now we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting to the real<\/em> shit, aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t we?<\/p>\n

CHAPTER THREE: LYRA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S JORDAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand the name of this chapter until near the end, when I understood that this was Pullman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way of showing us that Lyra, stuck between two worlds, has to make everything hers in order to feel some control. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s born of nobility, yet she appears to have absolutely nothing in common with those at Jordan College, as she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s drawn more towards those of the underclass than anyone else.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got my confirmation that this is in Britain, specifically Oxford, and that Lyra goes to one of the most prestigious and honored schools in all of Europe. (Well, to her, that is. Which is a strange notion, but one that I think represents her well: She will defend Jordan College to the death, yet she feels almost no affinity towards anyone who actually goes<\/em> there, including the staff.)<\/p>\n

Like\u00c2\u00a0Harry Potter<\/em>, I think a lot of the details of this are hard to grasp because of the direct parallels to the way classes are divided in Britain, which are distinctly different from how we view class in America. As I trudged through this (very long), yet still fascinating chapter, I struggled with all of the information that Pullman sent my way. This was nowhere near as disorienting as the experience with chapter two, as Pullman was much quicker to define a lot of the names, characters, and other such details before moving on.<\/p>\n

I get a much, much better sense of the physical layout of Jordan College, and how all that relates to Lyra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a massive, sprawling campus, and I love the idea that its organization was not planned, but a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153piecemeal\u00e2\u20ac\u009d assemblage of buildings and spaces that evolved over time. I learn about how Jordan affects the surrounding \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kingdom,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which makes me wonder how this whole nation is organized in terms of political power, but I assume that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a journey for a later chapter. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important for me to note is that the college basically has it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own economic system of support, through the mass amount of land that they own, and that the money that goes into the place inherently support the ongoing explorations of Lyra. (I mean, obviously the people running Jordan College would never think such a thing, but the college itself feels like a secondary character because it influences Lyra so much.<\/p>\n

This chapter also introduces the idea that Jordan College is the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153center of experimental theology\u00e2\u20ac\u009d:<\/p>\n

As for what experimental theology was, Lyra had no more idea than the urchins. She had formed the notion that it was concerned with magic, with the movements of the stars and planets, with tiny particles of matter, but that was guesswork, really.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As far as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m concerned, any theory I might have is all guesswork, too. I imagine that the excitement expressed by the Scholars during Lord Asriel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s visit hints that whatever The Dust is, it has everything to do with experimental theology. Of course, knowing that this series is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153controversial\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because of its stance on religion, I wonder how this all fits together. If the experimental theologists accept a theology anyway, why are people so quick to say that this series is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153atheist\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and such things? Obviously, I am completely ignorant to what His Dark Materials<\/em> is actually about, and I kind of like that. I think that so much attention was paid to the fact that Pullman was an atheist that maybe what is<\/em> in here is nowhere near that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153shocking.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But this is certainly a ridiculous thing to discuss at this point, since I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m basically teasing you with the fact that you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually discuss this series with me for now, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll move on. I SWEAR, WE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122LL GET THERE.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m actually enjoying the fact that, for the most part, Lyra is not a particularly likable<\/em> character. It was easy to be excited for her in the first two chapters, as we learn more about this world and her adventurous spying in that wardrobe. But throughout chapter three, we get a much bigger idea of who she is and…well, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of an asshole, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she?<\/p>\n
This is a compliment, by the way! I mean, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been rather easy to either like or insert myself into the life of the main character in nearly everything I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read for Mark Reads. Yes, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Bella Swan, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t count Twilight<\/em> as literature. LOL GET THE JOKE. Seriously, though, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dislike The Golden Compass<\/em> at all, and this is a much better way to experience a character that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t easy to enjoy than SMeyer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s series.<\/p>\n
I wonder what exactly makes her the way she is, and a lot of what Pullman gives here allows us to speculate about why Lyra is such a difficult person. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite know what age she is yet, but I know that part of this could probably be written off by the fact that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fairly young and immature. But, like I said in the beginning of this, Lyra is thrown between two worlds and her own personal morality still revolves around her own selfishness. Pullman introduces us to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153deadly warfare\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of Lyra and the people she knows outside of the college, and the loving way he characterizes the situation gives us insight to the dichotomy of her life.<\/p>\n
She is honored to go to Jordan College, but in the streets, Lyra feels far more at home throwing stone-hard plums at other children, climbing on the roofs of the school, and making allies with local groups in order to attack the brickburners\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 children. This will be vastly conflicted with life inside Jordan College later, but for now, I really loved how much time Pullman spends with events that, at the time, felt like they had nothing<\/em> to do with the Dust or Lord Asriel or Dr. Grumman. This was an exercise in patience and world-building, and as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve said countless times before, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m the kind of reader (and watcher) who is willing to spend time slowly waiting for the right time for a story to move further. Pullman spends so much time showing us the gyptians, the brickburners, and Lyra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life away from the school that I began to wonder what this all had to do with anything.<\/p>\n
Lord Asriel gets a flashback to add context this all, as his visits to Lyra are part of a sign for her that she wants to belong more to the world of Scholars and politics, yet she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unsure both how <\/em>to do that and if that will actually make her feel more satisfied. Lyra is much more comfortable being vulgar, and Asriel, while harsh and powerful, is not a vulgar person at all. He questions Lyra rather diligently with every visit, and I got the sense that he knew that she was a very physical person, interested in warfare and adventures, but he wanted her to be more interested in the scholarly side of things. He asks her about the library, and I thought it was his way of seeing if she would express curiosity for what was in there.<\/p>\n
She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, and instead he gives her a new adventure to fill her brain for the next year: there is a network of tunnels and passageways below the College. Having now read the whole chapter, perhaps this was Lord Asriel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way of getting Lyra far more interested in the world outside of Jordan College, considering what she finds there. Of course, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leading me to more questions, mainly: Does Lord Asriel avoid spelling out the world for Lyra because he also knows she must later become involved in it all? Is he trying to protect her life?<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M TOTALLY PREDICTING THE FUTURE, AREN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T I.<\/p>\n
Pullman takes a very direct narrative turn away from Lyra and gives us a rather chilling story of the Gobblers. Well, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not called the Gobblers at this point, but we get a second bit of the plot for me to become completely and totally obsessed with: Tony Makarios is kidnapped.<\/p>\n
Pullman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s style for this section is a break from when he focuses on Lyra, choosing instead to write in third-person present and, like Suzanne Collins during The Hunger Games<\/em> trilogy, once you get past how odd it is, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually quite successful in building a sense of dread and terror. It helps that Pullman is so descriptive about the nine-year-old boy, giving us a definite picture of him inside our heads, because it makes the plot all the more sad.<\/p>\n
Whomever abducts this kid is manipulative and trusting at the same time, as she catches Tony stealing from a local stall holder, and she moves in when the time is right in order to do her work. This woman, who apparently must be as gorgeous and stunning as Pullman describes, has a d\u00c3\u00a6mon that is a monkey with golden fur<\/em>. What. What sort of message is that<\/em> supposed to give other people about her status? (Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the appearances of a person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s d\u00c3\u00a6mon imply who they are?) This specific d\u00c3\u00a6mon, however, does not seem to act as the moral compass for its owner, as it also<\/em> seduces Tony\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s d\u00c3\u00a6mon away from him as well. (Ugh, I seriously want to know more about how these spirits work.)<\/p>\n
Using chocolate liquor to lure Tony away from the steps at St. Catherine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, this mysterious woman takes the boy to a warehouse where there are a small collection of boys and girls his age. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s at this point that the familiar confusion from chapter two creeped back into me, as the thieving lady addresses the group when one boy finally asks why she has gathered these kids together.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We want your help,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mind helping us, do you?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
No one could say a word. They all gazed, suddenly shy. They had never seen a lady like this; she was so gracious and sweet and kind that they felt they hardly deserved their good luck, and whatever she asked, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d give it gladly so as to stay in her presence a little longer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Yep, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s creepy. She feeds on the desires of the needy to feel wanted and content. When she tells them that they are going to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the North,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I knew this was no coincidence. Whatever is happening there with the Dust most certainly has to do with why she piles all dozen kids or so onto a boat that is to set sail up there with them aboard. But though I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what it is she wants with the children or what possible help they could provide, I do know that she is one awful human being.<\/p>\n
She tells each of the kids that they could send a message home to whomever they wanted, and she obediently writes what these children dictate, placing them into \u00e2\u20ac\u0153scented envelopes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d patting their heads, giving them affection, and promising to pass these messages on. She sends these children off, full of hope and anticipation for the adventure to come.<\/p>\n
Then she turned back inside, with the golden monkey nestled in her breast, and threw the little bundle of letters into the furnace before leaving the way she had come.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
OH NO YOU DIDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like this woman. Not in the slightest.<\/em><\/p>\n
Pullman turns this singular incident into a fairy tale for the people of Britain, and I do adore how accurately he conveys how something that actually<\/em> happens can be twisted into a legend of sorts, like a gigantic game of telephone. This is how the name \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Gobblers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d comes into existence, as many claim that the children are kidnapped in order to be eaten<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Whether that is true or not remains to be revealed, though Lyra and Pantalaimon have an interesting conversation about this towards the end. What I do know is that knowing what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really happening makes the revelation that this has moved on to Oxford all the more eerie to me. But before we get to this (holy god, this chapter is long<\/em>), Lyra takes her friend Roger down to the areas below Jordan College. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the first of a few adventures in the belly of the school, and in this first time, she and Roger head down to the wine cellars, curious about the alcohol held there, and I was fairly surprised that this book already had a scene with young kids getting drunk. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad<\/em> at all, as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty realistic to what a lot of people I know went through, but it was just odd and unexpected. If anything, I think it was a way for Pullman to show us how much Lyra was determined to break the rules for the sake of it, to make bad decisions that she knows are bad, and to be as stubborn as possible about these things. And I must admit I smiled at this:<\/p>\n
The funniest thing was watching their two d\u00c3\u00a6mons, who seemed to be getting more and more muddled: falling over, giggling senselessly, and changing shape to look like gargoyles, each trying to be uglier than the other.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It also gives me the idea that one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s d\u00c3\u00a6mon is intrisically tied to the emotions and environment that their human is in, too. Hmmm.<\/p>\n
Lyra and Roger continue to explore the catacombs and tunnels below the school this time coming upon the crypt that holds the tombs of the past Masters of Jordan College, where I learn this interesting factoid:<\/p>\n
As people became adult, their d\u00c3\u00a6mons lost the power to change and assumed one shape, keeping it permanently.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Well, shit. How does a person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s d\u00c3\u00a6mon decide what form to take? THESE ARE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS I THINK ABOUT.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still not sure what the scene means yet, but Lyra finds a passage in the crypt that is lined with the skulls of Scholars. Inside the skulls, she finds coins that represent that Scholar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s d\u00c3\u00a6mon. She comes back at a later point in time to play a joke and switch out a bunch of the coins with the wrong ones, only to be visited by a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153night-ghast,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which is some form of ghost? So ghosts are real in this world? Either way, the three figures, meant to represent the Scholars she played her \u00e2\u20ac\u0153joke\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on, scare her into returning the d\u00c3\u00a6mon coins to the right place. Again, this is all guesswork at this point, but maybe this will help convince her to start respecting these things she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand and treats as a joke. MAYBE. Look, I have no idea. THERE ARE GHOSTS FOR REAL IN THIS WORLD.<\/p>\n
But perhaps I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just reading too much into this, especially since the scene that follows with the Intercessor sort of spells out what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve just said here. When the Intercessor catches Roger and Lyra leaving the crypt one day, he questions the two of them in a non-accusatory manner, more fascinated than anything else. When he dismisses Roger, the line of questioning he uses with Lyra makes it pretty obvious that more than just Asriel wishes Lyra was far more interested in what the school has to offer her. He wonders if Lyra is lonely, based on the company she keeps, and I kind of dig the fact that she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel the desire to have the company of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153nobly born children,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as the Intercessor puts it. Again, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all that likable of a character yet,<\/em> but that certainly doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing to like about her so far.<\/p>\n
We return back to the gyptians, who are the first to lose a young child in Oxford. In particular, showing that even some of the smaller details are already<\/em> important, the same family who Lyra was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153at war\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with at the beginning of the chapter is the first to lose a son. Ma Costa, a powerful, gigantic woman who has shown Lyra both violent anger and caring affection, interrupts that year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s horse fair when she discovers that her son has disappeared while working for a local horse trader, seemingly in an incredibly short period of time. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tense situation and for a moment, I thought Lyra was going to get in a fight with the local gyptian children:<\/p>\n
Everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s d\u00c3\u00a6mon instantly became warlike: each child was accompanied by fangs, or claws, or bristling fur, and Pantalaimon, contemptuous of the limited imaginations of these gyptian d\u00c3\u00a6mons, became a dragon the size of a deer hound.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I love the idea that Pantalaimon is offended<\/em> that other d\u00c3\u00a6mons are so boring. Brilliant.<\/p>\n
Always the one to seek out an adventure, Lyra becomes involved with trying to find Billy, Ma Costa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s son, by seeking out the Gobblers with all of the local gyptian kids. This is the first example, however, of how Lyra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quest for adventure actually disappoints her. Since the Gobblers are mere legend (and no one knows it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually one single woman), they of course fail at their mission, and, as Pullman writes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the fun faded away.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I actually think that this is going to be a huge shifting point for Lyra, who has now become disappointed with what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s become of her desire. She learns that another child, one of the market children, has also gone missing, and her desire for adventure seems to become a desire to help. (Is this a first for her? As far as I know, it is, since it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not about being mischievous at all.)<\/p>\n
This hits home for her, though, when she disobeys the Porter to investigate the market child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disappearance, too. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s there that she realizes she hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen Roger since the morning. Back at Jordan College, the Porter confirms that Roger hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been seen all day either, and the worst sense of dread and futility fills her body. Lyra, never content to stay still and accept her fate, ignores the Porter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s demands again<\/em>, choosing to confront the pastry cook about Roger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disappearance. As expected, the cook doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe the Gobblers are real, let alone the reason Roger isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t around, and the frustration of it all consumes Lyra so wholly that she simply breaks<\/em>. She heads back to her room and climbs up to her roof, that place of familiarity, and simply screams out to the world below her. Pullman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s description of that specific evening is chilling in its beauty:<\/p>\n
The evening sky was awash with peach, apricot, cream: tender little ice-cream clouds in a wide orange sky. The spires and towers of Oxford stood around them, level but no higher; the green woods of Chateau-Vert and White Ham rose on either side to the east and west. Rooks were cawing somewhere, and bells were ringing, and from the oxpens the steady beat of a gas engine announced the ascent of the evening Royal Mail zeppelin for London.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
On that roof, the Oxford sky before them, Lyra and Pantalaimon talk openly about something I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d not realized myself: when Lord Asriel presented his photos to the Master and the Scholars, one of them remarked that the Dust child was an entire<\/em> child, as another had asked if that was a severed<\/em> child beside Dr. Grumman. Lyra posits a horrifying theory: the children being kidnapped are SAWED IN HALF<\/em> and being USED AS SLAVES.<\/em><\/p>\n
Can Lyra just be wrong about this? THANKS, THAT IS TOO HORRIFYING A THOUGHT TO THINK OF.<\/p>\n
We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re then introduced to Mrs. Lonsdale, the Housekeeper, and very much in-character, Lyra is kind of a raging asshole to her, unwilling to stay clean or obey her or give her the slightest bit of respect. Even her d\u00c3\u00a6mon purposely<\/em> tries to irritate Mrs. Lonsdale\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s d\u00c3\u00a6mon, which confuses me even further as to their purpose. Ok, I must admit that made me laugh, but, again, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not easy to like someone who is so outright rude to people who really aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t justification for it. Which is fine, because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a different experience for me, and I want a different experience when I read books for this site.<\/p>\n
We learn that Lyra has been requested by the Master for some sort of dinner with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153guests.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Given the last conversation that the Master had with the librarian, I begam to hope that the Master would be telling Lyra about the Dust. Because I am selfish and suddenly unable to be patient.<\/p>\n
However, Pullman is not at all interested in keeping my train of thought on the Dust, because then he introduces us to one of the guests at this dinner:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mrs. Coulter,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153this is our Lyra. Lyra, come and say hello to Mrs. Coulter.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hello, Lyra,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Mrs. Coulter.<\/p>\n
She was beautiful and young. Her sleek black hair framed her cheeks, and her d\u00c3\u00a6mon was a golden monkey.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
OH YOU ARE SHITTING ME<\/em>. What the hell is she doing there????<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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