This looked like an amusing meme

[shinytoaster]

But I don't know what a Golden Compass is. It sounds like someone trying to explain an alethiometer...

Comments

[littlealex.livejournal.com]

The Golden Compass is a book... some fantasy thing, I tried to read it years ago but never got past the first one (there are... three, maybe, the second one is the Subtle Knife, which I got hasty and bought as well but never read)...

You totally should have done the visual DNA meme instead.

[nmg.livejournal.com]

*boggles*

Have you met my friend Irony?

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

So, I found out today that it's called Golden Compass in the States not because of some Philosopher's Stone style trickery, but because PP was considering the title The Golden Compasses - as in the compasses you draw with - as a title for the arc instead of His Dark Materials. The US publisher saw the proofs and the cover art and unilaterally decided that title must refer to the alethiometer, which looks a bit like a directional compass (as we know). By the time the confusion was explained, and PP had come up with His Dark Materials, the US publishers had got so attached to the title that he decided it would be churlish to make them change it.

You probably knew all this, of course, but it vaguely amused me. And I just know someone's going to post a comment explaining that and then I can point up the page at this and go 'hem hem.'

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Actually, I hadn't known specifically about PP and Golden Compasses, although I knew that HDM was a latecomer title for the series. Thanks for that.