The Golden Compass Page by Page
Chapter 7 - John Faa



As I said before, I appreciate the way days and weeks of Lyra’s experience on the Costa’s narrow-boat is illustrated very quickly without going into excessive detail and slowing down the action.

I have to wonder though, judging by what is said it would seem as though all the kids in Bolvangar being taken are from the UK. How many kids are we talking about here? Even if you are the Church and have control over the authorities, I don’t see how they could stage a mass kidnapping of children from just one country while maintaining any illusion that the Gobblers aren’t themselves working with the authorities.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to go into some remote, undeveloped country where nobody outside would give a darn, rather than kidnapping urban children in the UK and deliberately starting “Gobbler” rumors to explain the disappearances.

No matter how much the story takes itself seriously, I can’t help but feel a sense of overblown cartoony mustash-curling villainy about this whole scheme of a single woman kidnapping hundreds of children without resistance by offering them hot chocolate.

I’m also kind of confused, the narration makes it sound as though Great Britain and Holland are almost interconnected geographically. Is this just an alternate universe quirk or do I just suck at following Pullman’s narration and applying it to the globe.

There’s really only so much I can say about this chapter without just summarizing it, which is pretty pointless and not my intention in writing this feature.



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