The story of my repressed Catholic background and also: Wizards!

Panel from the comic Dark Dungeons

Just like the kids in Dark Dungeons, I had a very strict upbringing growing up. There were many things I wasn't allowed to read or watch because my parents deemed them "satanic." This ranged from things like Harry Potter to The Powerpuff Girls and especially The Golden Compass. Philip Pullman's fantasy series His Dark Materials was always a huge no-no in my house. 

"It rejects the faith," is what my parents said "everything you read or watch has to accept the faith." Even as a little kid, I thought that was stupid. 

I had so many questions about religion but was too afraid to ask my parents about them. How come I didn't feel anything towards Jesus? How can someone be born a religion? Why is everyone in my religion so mean to people of other religions? I didn't get it then but I do now, I'm just not a religious person. And that's okay! It's also okay to be a religious person. My parents struggle to understand this, but at least they don't force me to sit through an hour and a half of mass every Sunday (they think I don't want to go because I'm queer but the truth is I really don't give a shit). 

But what was I gonna' do? Read books in secret? I wasn't that cool. I was also homeschooled, so it was hard to go out on my own until I was older. But by some power of the universe, I wound up watching Harry Potter at my uncle's house. My cousins, who similarly do not give a shit, couldn't believe I hadn't seen Harry Potter when I was about to go into high school.

So they put on Sorcerer's Stone and I was hooked immediately. My cousins wound up convincing my parents that, uh, hey, Harry isn't the antichrist, so suddenly my parents were okay with Harry Potter. Now they love the movies and the books, and they like to "forget" that they banned it in our house. But Philip Pullman's work was still something never to be brought up.

So when I saw The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights as it's known in the UK) on the reading list for this week, the rebellious teenager that still rages deep inside me just had to read it.

I was shocked at how not-that-bad it was? I mean, I expected it to be good writing, but I didn't expect it to be so... not heretical? Maybe it's because now I have my own opinions and feelings towards religion that align with most of what Pullman writes, so I'm desensitized to it. But I can't help but think what would have happened if I read this as a kid? I probably would have related to Lyra a lot, and would've loved the idea of daemons, and would have probably realized my feelings were valid much sooner.

On the book, I liked being pulled along with the story and not having an info-dump at any point. Like, at the end of the book I still don't really know what dust is or what it's capable of. But the fantasy world that Pullman writes into ours was really fantastic. I got very steampunk industrial vibes from it, like a fantasy version of The Grand Budapest Hotel. So I'm glad I finally read The Golden Compass, and I'm excited to read the next two books in the series to stick it to my childhood trauma.