I have another literary confession to make. It's interesting what I am willing to believe when all the laws of reality have been suspended and I don't know any better. Those of you who have read my entry from June 2nd may remember my confusion at The Wind in the Willows. This story is very similar.
When I first read The Golden Compass, I was very young. The book, for those who don't know, is set in an alternate universe with magic and demons and other such things. It is a dark, dangerous world, but well developed and eerily plausible.
Early in the book, the ragtag group of protagonists go to speak to an armored bear in a desolate northern European town. Armored bears—or panserbjørne—are a highly intelligent species of polar bear. They are powerful and they have opposable thumbs, making them excellent metalworkers (hence their name). This bear had his armor stolen from him and he is being held captive by the people of the village. He works in the town's blacksmiths in exchange for alcohol.
But the book never mentions alcohol—it is referred to strictly as "spirits." I, being a pretty young kid at the time, had never heard that word before. In any other context I might have made the connection and assumed the term "spirits" was euphemistic, but in this world of magic and demons and armored bears, it seemed equally likely for it to be literal. It was not a far leap for me to believe that the bear was really drinking literal spirits. As far as I knew, there were no rules against such a thing.
And besides, it added to the ambiance of the world. In such a dark fantasy-scape it seemed appropriate that such a thing would be possible. It made perfect sense that spirits could be caught and consumed by such a powerful being as an armored bear. It connected the story to a kind of wild magic that I quite enjoyed. It gave me a sense of the raw, uncontrollable energies that existed in that world. Even though I know differently now, I still like to think that the bear really does drink spirits That's the nice thing about literature; Because there is no direct reference to alcohol specifically, no one can tell me otherwise.
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Counting Down the Days
PoetryIt is the summer before I leave for college, and I am staring into the empty abyss before me, wondering what to do with my life. In this collection, I am challenging myself to write something every day (now adjusted to every 2-3 days). I may write p...
