Yes I’m Reading The Golden Compass…And It’s Painful Ok.

December 24, 2007 @ 11:14 am by Pressed

Painfully slow that is. In order to see what all the fuss is about I’ve started reading The Golden Compass. I found it at Wal-mart for really cheap so I thought I would give it a read. I’m going to attempt to read the book before I see the movie which means I’ll probably see the movie when it comes out on DVD. I’ll rent it at the Redbox for $1, that way I’ll only have about $6 total tied up in the works. I’m about half way through the book and I can tell you already that the first three or four chapters were really hard for me to get through. Not because the book was controversial and not because the writer is an atheist and not because it is going to be the next book to completely subvert the Gospel of Christ, but simply because it starts off terribly slow.

I’ve already begun to notice several themes that seem pulled directly from C.S. Lewis and his Narnia series. We’ve already been introduced to a wardrobe, in which a little girl hides, and a long fur coat that she finds in there. The teenagers in the book do experiment with alcohol and the lead characters seems to have a lack of respect for any authority whatsoever, mainly because she is a little hoodlum. There are some rather intriguing themes in the book including this idea of each person having a daemon that seems to represent the persons personality. As a child a persons daemon changes constantly, but when that child becomes an adult the daemon changes for the last time and becomes what that person will be the rest of their lives. Since I’m only half way through the book this mystery behind the daemons has not yet been fully revealed, but it is intriguing.

As of right now I’m going to go ahead and make the point that there has been a whole lot of fuss over nothing. While the writer of the series may have an atheistic worldview and while that may very well bleed into his storytelling, at the end of the day we come to the conclusion that this is what it is, a story. These movies and these books are not going to subvert the cause of Christ. A large majority of people who watch the movie will not even notice the atheistic theme until people start pointing it out to them and making a big deal about it. In fact, so far it is a *yawner*. If the movie isn’t a little more interesting than the book I might end up spending a $1 at the RedBox in order to take a nice nap.

Early conclusion… This isn’t what it is cracked up to be. It ain’t nothin but a thang!

**UPDATE** As I’ve made it farther in the book I’ve decided that its getting a little better. The story is picking up now. Unfortunately I had to read well over half of the book before that happened. I’m still intrigued with the idea of the humans having daemons and their representation of the human soul. It’s fairly interesting.

Permalink  |    |  Filed under: Books & Movies