[Note: This article was first published on Hubpages in 2008. It has been deemed idle and de-indexed, so I am republishing it here.]
Younger children rely on older children: Bow takes Sword’s hand so they can explore together
My daughter received a copy of The Golden Compass for Christmas from old family friends. I would probably not have purchased it myself, because I’d heard that Philip Pullman’s series was a poor imitation of the Narnia books. However, we decided to give it a try, since we had the book, and we needed something to read before bedtime.
At our house, we have dinner at 5:00 p.m. sharp, in the pens with Bow. I insist on family meals, otherwise we might never get any time with all of us together. After dinner, Sword feeds her bird Summer, and then she comes back into the pens with the book we are currently reading.
Because I have to accomodate the joint attention spans of a six year old male chimpanzee and a nine year old female human, I have chosen to read only two pages per night. Anything more than that, and I’d lose my audience. At that rate of speed, it took us a little over seven months to finish the book.
After we read our two pages, I would ask Sword and Bow, each in turn, what had happened in the story. Though we read the book in English, we discussed it in Hebrew. Sword would give meticulously detailed answers about each event. Bow was given to sweeping conclusory generalizations, like: “Mrs. Coulter is bad!”
Sword would roll her eyes and insist: “But it didn’t say that!”
During the period when we were reading the book, the movie version of The Golden Compass came out. Sword wanted to see it, and Bow said I should take her. They fight like brother and sister, but sometimes he can be be generous. He is not allowed to go to the movies himself, but he let me take his sister.
The movie was smooth and well put together, but frankly I didn’t get much out of it. Too much action, not enough slow scenes, which is my complaint about almost all current cinema. I get dizzy if there are too many fight and chase scenes and not enough dialogue.
Even though we had only just begun reading the book when we saw the movie, I noticed what seemed like some important discrepancies in plot points. In the book, it was the Master of Jordan College who tried to poison Lord Asriel. In the movie, it was the representative of the Magisterium. This seemed rather important, since the Master was the kindly gentleman who gave Lyra the Alethiometer that allowed her to tell truth from lies.
The ending of the book, when we finally got to it, was rather a shocker. It was nothing like the movie. Sword does not want to read the next installment. Bow is convinced the book is true to life.
We have mostly stopped talking about the book and put it behind us, but Bow sometimes brings it up. He uses it as a sort of analogy to other things that we encounter.
Recently, I joined StumbleUpon, and when I mentioned I was interested in Science, I was referred to the NOVA program “The Elegant Universe”. (See the link to the below.) Bow and I watched the first episode, and he was particularly interested when they showed someone trying to explain String Theory to a black labrador retriever. The dog looked puzzled, and the narrator explained that the mind of a dog is not designed to understand string theory. Humans, on the other hand, can. Bow let me know that he wanted to say something. “What?” I asked. “Chimps can understand,” he spelled out.
I laughed. “Really? Do you understand string theory?”
“Yes.”
Bow is not always truthful. I did not give much credence to his claim. I don’t understand string theory myself. “Okay, you know what string theory is?”
“Yes,” he insisted.
“What is it?” I asked.
He spelled out: “Dust.”
I had to pause for a second, while I got my bearings. “You mean Dust, like in The Golden Compass?”
“Yes.”
From the mouthes of apes! Bow may not understand string theory, but he certainly does have a good handle on The Golden Compass.
(c) 2008 Aya Katz
Related Links
Nova’s The Elegant Universe
- NOVA | The Elegant Universe | Watch the Program (full-screen) | PBS
Following the broadcast of the NOVA mini-series The Elegant Universe, watch all three episodes here, divided into chapters, available in the QuickTime or RealPlayer plug-ins.
- Philip Pullman
The official site of Philip Pullman, author of the award winning ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy, including Northern Lights, Charles Latrom, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. The site contains exclusive content and information about Philip Pullm
- The Golden Compass Movie Reviews, Pictures – Rotten Tomatoes
The Golden Compass movie reviews, trailers – Check out Rotten Tomatoes The Golden Compass clips, pictures, critic and user reviews, forums and the Tomatometer!
I never watched the movie or read the book, but I remember when it was popular. I also prefer movies with more dialogue, and I lose interest if there are constantly chase scenes. I think that is one reason I never liked the movie Speed, which my sister watches again and again.
Yes, I feel the same way. This book was recommended to me, and someone even said it was an atheist version of the Narnia Chronicles, but I just didn’t see it. The movie had potential, as some of the acting was excellent, but it was somehow botched.
I think the idle thing on HP is a bit ridiculous and may post some of my idled hubs here. Anyway, onto the review.
You have such a unique way of presenting things. This was a fun read even though you didn’t get much from the book or movie. I can’t say I was impressed with the previews for the film so I never went to see it. But I may just read the book to see if I agree with Bow. I wish I understood string theory. 😉
This is off topic but, I was having a hard time placing the Amazon widgets side by side. Is there a trick?
Thanks, PJ. If you do read the book, come back and tell me what you thought — or better yet, post a pub reviewing it.
Any “idle” hubs you’d like to publish here will be very welcome.
Here is the trick to putting the Amazon widgets side by side: add an extra space between the widget codes. If you just insert one widget right next to the other, there will not be enough space between them, and the second widget will be misinterpreted in the HTML code.
Great, thanks for the tip.