When, the day before yesterday, I blogged a post about my chosen 'daemon' from the world of The Golden Compass (or, rather, the world wide web version of it), it was called Aleone and was in the form of a RAVEN: it was, honest!
And, see, I can prove it because they sent me a picture of Aleone in an e-mail...
But, if you take a look NOW, you'll; see that Aleone has shape-shifted into some simian creature! Or, at least, it had the last time I looked...
Forgive my mentioning it, but when I invited blog-friends to help get my daemon into shape, I hadn't quite expected them to make a monkey out of me!
[Actually, I just checked and, apparently, it's a marmoset - but that doesn't make quite as good a joke as a monkey!]
In Philip Pullman's books, people's daemons start out as flexible beings - able to take on a variety of forms when a person is a child and only settling into a permanent shape on reaching adulthood. In the case of The Golden Compass website, however, that youthful state of flux only lasts for twelve days.
So, we'll just have to keep an eye on what's going on and hope I don't end up as a slug...
Meanwhile, as is the all-pervasive way with movie franchises, it seems that daemons can sometimes take on the form of... er... stuffed toys!
Here's Mrs Coulter's Golden Monkey daemon...
...and Lord Asriel's Snow Leopard, Stelmaria...
...as marketed ($35 each) by F A O Schwarz.
And no doubt collectors of character dolls will be pleased to know that Mrs C and Lord A are also available - at $200 and $160 respectively...
Wow! I bet Barbie and Ken don't have daemons ---- yet!
10 comments:
In Philip Pullman's books, people's daemons start out as flexible beings - able to take on a variety of forms when a person is a child and only settling into a permanent shape on reaching adulthood.
Does adulthood mean "growing up"? Maybe that's the answer for your daemon still taking different forms.
Maybe you haven't... In which case, I congratulate you heartily.
As Peter Pan observed: "No one's ever going to make ME grow up; I want always to be a boy and have fun!"
GILL (whose daemon, I understand is a TIGER!) comments...
Whatever makes you think Ken and Barbie don't have daemons? Barbie's is a bright pink 'My Little Pony' and Ken's is a 'Smurf'!
Of course!! Brilliant!
Well I'm very disappointed. My daemon has changed from a dog to a mouse of all creatures! I would have loved to have a big cuddly bear or a Siberian tiger!
It irked me when the title of the first Harry Potter booked was changed to The Sorcerer's Stone for the US market. I think if I were from that country, I would probably have found it insulting, much as I am irked by the perceived need to add a phonetic spelling to posters of the film Ratatouille.
However, with The Golden Compass, I much prefer the modified titles. It makes it consistent with the other two books, besides which, the alethiometer featured throughout the book rather than just towards the end.
I wonder whether the daemon generator is restricted to animals that appear in the books.
Oh goodness- here I just sent you an email about how I hadn't realized that you loved and had written about all the same books and people that I loved, and now I come to find this extends to His Dark Materials as well!!!! I read them when I was 13 (which was only 5 years ago), and they took a place on the shelf with the Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland and my dearly beloved Pooh.
I really do hope that somehow you get my email!
SUZANNE - Bad luck! A mouse is even worse than a marmoset!
QENNY - TGC web-site shows a ladybird among the daemons, which I don't recall in the books...
THERESE - Thank you, yes, I received your e-mail and will get around to answering it as soon as I can. Nice to hear from a fan of Middle-earth, Narnia, Wonderland and the 100 Aker Wood.
yes, and thank you for replying!
as for ms. coulter's daemon, i confess i find him to be a bit less frightening as a stuffed monkey than he was in the books.
and to qenny, yes the ratatouille thing is pretty annoying, and even though i wouldn't go so far as to say i was insulted, i do wish they had just kept the book title as it was actually named- although i always think of it that way and not the way they modified it for us americans (who apparently can't be expected to process the word "philosopher")
I hadn't read this part of your blog when I used the same comment on discovering that my daemon was a marmoset.
So starting from the position of monkey, I dread to think where the daemons will take me and what I wil end up with.....
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