Having watched The Golden Compass (which is better than the critics would have you believe, although they did some bloody stupid things to the ending and it all became a bit Lord of the Compasses in the second half), I have been thinking about dæmons, which are still pretty much my favourite literary invention ever. IF ANY OF YOU ARE SECRETLY PHILIP PULLMAN, FEEL FREE TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS. Even if you're not Philip Pullman, feel free to share your thoughts or give examples of your own thinking too much about fictional universes.
- Do you think it would be awkward if your dæmon settled as a human? Would the people of Lyra's universe be hesitant about shaking hands for fear of touching someone else's dæmon, or would they somehow be able to sense dæmon-ness? (Possibly an ability to sense whether something is a dæmon or not is addressed in the books; it's been quite a few years since I last read them.)
(EDIT: Actually, according to the Wikipedia page on dæmons, the reference to the Master with a woman as his dæmon was removed in later editions of Northern Lights, so presumably Pullman decided he didn't want dæmons to settle in human form. Which is a pity, because I thought that was really interesting.)
- If a dæmon dies, the human connected to it dies. Does this mean that you'd have cause to be fairly nervous if your dæmon settled as something rather fragile, or are all dæmons capable of taking about the same amount of damage, regardless of form? If your dæmon settled as a moth, could you be killed by someone accidentally sitting on it? I imagine that the residents of Lyra's universe would probably be very cautious indeed around animals; imagine living in a world in which you could kill someone by absent-mindedly treading on a snail. Will an ordinary cat go after a mouse-dæmon?
- What are the taboos about sex with one's dæmon? Would it be considered completely unacceptable or just gigantically narcissistic? Is the generally-felt level of acceptability different depending on the form one's dæmon has taken? How acceptable is it that I'm even thinking about this?
I think the Golden Compass team made a very poor marketing decision when they failed to state anywhere in the British advertising that the film is an adaptation of Northern Lights. Some fans of the book will only know it by that name!
In other 'thinking too much about things' news, I've been wondering for quite some time how one could possibly ride six white horses at once, and only now have I realised that the lyrics to 'She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain' actually say she'll be driving six white horses. The mystery is solved! My next question, then, is 'isn't it a bit suspicious that all those green bottles should "accidentally" fall, one after the other?' Seriously. And if one green bottle should accidentally fall... - there's clearly something fishy going on there.
Go on; try applying excessive logic to song lyrics. It's fun!
- Do you think it would be awkward if your dæmon settled as a human? Would the people of Lyra's universe be hesitant about shaking hands for fear of touching someone else's dæmon, or would they somehow be able to sense dæmon-ness? (Possibly an ability to sense whether something is a dæmon or not is addressed in the books; it's been quite a few years since I last read them.)
(EDIT: Actually, according to the Wikipedia page on dæmons, the reference to the Master with a woman as his dæmon was removed in later editions of Northern Lights, so presumably Pullman decided he didn't want dæmons to settle in human form. Which is a pity, because I thought that was really interesting.)
- If a dæmon dies, the human connected to it dies. Does this mean that you'd have cause to be fairly nervous if your dæmon settled as something rather fragile, or are all dæmons capable of taking about the same amount of damage, regardless of form? If your dæmon settled as a moth, could you be killed by someone accidentally sitting on it? I imagine that the residents of Lyra's universe would probably be very cautious indeed around animals; imagine living in a world in which you could kill someone by absent-mindedly treading on a snail. Will an ordinary cat go after a mouse-dæmon?
- What are the taboos about sex with one's dæmon? Would it be considered completely unacceptable or just gigantically narcissistic? Is the generally-felt level of acceptability different depending on the form one's dæmon has taken? How acceptable is it that I'm even thinking about this?
I think the Golden Compass team made a very poor marketing decision when they failed to state anywhere in the British advertising that the film is an adaptation of Northern Lights. Some fans of the book will only know it by that name!
In other 'thinking too much about things' news, I've been wondering for quite some time how one could possibly ride six white horses at once, and only now have I realised that the lyrics to 'She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain' actually say she'll be driving six white horses. The mystery is solved! My next question, then, is 'isn't it a bit suspicious that all those green bottles should "accidentally" fall, one after the other?' Seriously. And if one green bottle should accidentally fall... - there's clearly something fishy going on there.
Go on; try applying excessive logic to song lyrics. It's fun!
