The Golden Compass By Philip Pullman

As a youth leader, and avid fantasy reader, The Golden Compass is a novel I have been meaning to read for years. I remember when the movie came out, I took the youth group to seen the movie. For me the main reason that I wanted to read it was because of the belief that Pullman wrote this series as a response to C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia. In Essence Pullman wanted to show that religion is bad. Or at least that is what I had heard.
As I novel I very much enjoyed it. It has all of the characteristics of a good if not great fantasy novel. There was Lyra, a small girl facing immense odds trying to stop the large evil group: the Gobblers. There was magic, there was good vs. evil, there was deceit and there was hope. It was a novel that had me cheering for Lyra. I wanted her to succeed, I wanted her to find her friend Roger, and save her father. She was the epitome of the traditional heroine. She was a young virtuous girl who fought for what was good and right no matter what the cost. She had charisma to get the people she met to help her, and the fortitude to fight through any obstacle. Lyra also had a special ability. She could read the alethiometer (a magical device that told the reader the truth) instinctively which few people could read even the books explaining it. The fantasy characteristics do not end there though. There is also the knowledge that the novel takes place in a parallel universe that is connected though the Auroras, or Nothern Lights. This universe is similar to our world in many ways, many of the places in our world share a name and a look as the places in the other universe. On top of these there is also the idea that the spirits of the people on this universe take the form of an animal that follows them and talks to them. In the end the fantastical is neverending in the book.
I did not just read this because of the fantasy aspects though. I also did want to see what it said about faith and religion. In all honesty, I feel that Pullman did not do a very good job explaining what was what. It is as though he so much hate for the church that he could not create a coherent parallel between the book and religion. It is hard to tell who stands for what. I think part of the issue lies that he does not do a good job explaining what dust, is or what it is used for, and this was the crux of his argument. Throughout the novel, and especially at the end for the novel Pullman makes sure to point out that the Church and Priests are the powerful people that are financing the Gobblers. He then goes into a long dissertation of the fall of Adam and Eve, and how the dust is the result of that. He seems to base his sole argument on one aspect of Christianity that he does not explain that well, and one that is even argued even among Christian leaders today.
With that said though I thought it was a novel that had something for everyone. Fantasy seems to be a genre that can draw all different types of people, and all different types of readers. Fantastical things allow the reader to get out of the realm of reality and dream about new and exciting things. Pullman does this. He creates a fantasy world that students can relate to one that is already similar to the real world. He also creates characters that are easy to relate to. All of the evil people are adults, and all of the children are good and innocent people, which is actually the premise of the idea of cutting the daemons from the children.
This is a novel that has constantly been under the microscope from religious leaders. It is a text that many churches have on their list of books to not read to children. I feel that this is not a fair assessment of the book. While there are some ideas that Pullman is trying to prove with this novel, that try to contradict the church, there is still a great novel lying underneath the political context. As a teacher I know that many students in through early high school do not have the ability for deeper level reading without the help of a teacher or parent. And this novel is so much more than a political/religious text. It is a text that is full of fantastical situations that allows students and children to step out of the dullness of life and see life in a new way. In terms of it being a religious text, I ask, “what is blocking a text from a student going to do”? If anything the church could use it to show where they disagree with the message, and use it as a learning tool.