Daemons

Posted: May 1, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: Entertainment | Tags: , | 6 comments »


While reading Philip Pullman‘s His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass, I’d wondered what kind of daemon I’d have if they so existed. In the book, a daemon is an outward, physical manifestation of a person’s soul. It appears as an animal that reflects a person’s true nature.

A friend who introduced me to the His Dark Materials trilogy told me about this quiz on The Golden Compass movie Web site. After answering a series of 20 questions, I found out my daemon’s a fox.

I am “modest, spontaneous, sociable, inquisitive, and dependable.” Sound like me? On a previous run-through, I’d scored a crow daemon. As much as I love crows, I have to admit the fox traits more accurately describe me.

Anyway, I highly recommend the trilogy, which though marketed as a young adult fantasy, is actually a very smart, philosophical inquiry into religion and the meaning of life. The Golden Compass (which incidentally co-stars Daniel Craig and Eva Green, who were in Casino Royale together) comes out this Dec. 7, so there’s still time to devour the books before then.

6 Comments on “Daemons”

  1. 1 Slayve said at 7:05 am on May 12th, 2007:

    My first try was a mouse, but my second was a lion. Wtf does that mean?

  2. 2 mlliu said at 2:33 pm on May 15th, 2007:

    Maybe it means you are the mouse who pulls the thorn out of the lion’s paw because you see a shared humanity irrespective of your differences in size/food preference??

  3. 3 Slayve said at 4:29 pm on May 16th, 2007:

    Since mice are basically hors d’oeuvres for lions, I was thinking more along the lines that in some way I want to devour myself. But that seems too facile, too armchair psychology. Maybe the lion is like Aslan, the Christ-lion in The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe, in which case this could be more of a “lion lays down with the lamb” situation. So, um, I guess I’m both messiah and meek disciple, both savior and saved. Hmm, that doesn’t make it any more clear than it was before. Damn you, Pullman!

  4. 4 mlliu said at 1:56 pm on May 17th, 2007:

    On my third try, I got an ocelot. Mostly the same traits, except I scored as being “competitive.” Try to psychoanalyze that!

  5. 5 Slayve said at 7:02 pm on May 23rd, 2007:

    Well that one’s pretty easy: You were trying too hard to get a different daemon, so you came off as competitive. Although in this case you were actually competing with yourself. Silly ocelot!

  6. 6 Shellac Fanatic said at 7:47 pm on June 28th, 2007:

    I find it quite sad that they’re going to do to the books what the Japanese did to Pearl Harbor 67 years prior.