#golden monkey

Lord Asriel and Stelmaria

Mrs. Coulter and the golden monkey

Golden monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis kandti) in a bamboo forest in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda, Africa

We just don't get to hear him!

Sometimes it's described with monkey sound words sometimes like chitter, but we see that with Pan and other daemons too. But he is talking to her.

Northern Lights, after saving Lyra from intercision.

In the cave at the beginning of the Amber Spyglass

Directing her as she flies the Intention Craft to the Clouded Mountain.

There is only one moment in the entire trilogy when we are allowed inside, to hear what he says.

When they are alone at the Adamant Tower,at one of their lowest moments, when they are confused why Asriel would show them the craft. A singular moment when their guard against the reader is lowered, just for a moment.

But adaptations keep taking it and turning it into a failure to communicate BETWEEN them. A sign of internal strife and conflict, but it fundamentally mischaracterises their relationship.

They communicate just fine. But they have only had each other to rely on for so long, they allow nobody in. They are entirely closed ranks, because Marisa has seen what happens when she lets people in. She does not trust anyone, because she knows how easily trust turns to betrayal. She knows that her role as a beautiful woman in a society that restricts, dismisses and reviles women is constantly at risk. She has lost everything once before, and it has taught her to hide everything about herself that is not useful. She uses her beauty like a blade, she is as deeply decietful as her daughter, and her willingness to be cruel makes her useful to the Magisterium as long as it is wrapped neatly in a bow of experimentation or interrogation. She plays the role of femininity precisely as far as is desirable: being attractive, fashionable and desirable, yes, but never soft. Never domestic.

Everything about Marisa is held tight, upright. Contained. Everything is calculated, her plans, her appearence, her behaviours. The monkey is the only thing that gives her away. He is her hot anger, where she must only be cool and detached. He screams, attacks and pins and almost pulls Pan's ear off while she calmly arranges flowers and tells Lyra to kiss her cheek. He slowly pulls apart a bat, limb from limb, so very like she watched behind laboratory glass as childrens souls were cut from them.

They are each other's confidant, so agressively private that even we, the readers, are only allowed in once. They are perfectly in step, aligned, the only source of trust that each of them has. The wall around them is a fortress.

While I see the value of it as a narrative exploration, as characterisation, I truly believe that every time the Monkey's silence is used to show a wedge between them is a fundamental misunderstanding of their character. His silence is not a sign of division: it is how tightly they are entwined that not even the reader or the viewer is allowed inside.

If he was just silent then there would be nothing to know. Instead, the narrative repeatedly shows that they are talking. Dangerous, secret things that you, dear reader, are never allowed to know.

Golden Monkey

HIS DARK MATERIALS 3.06 The Abyss | 3.08 The Botanic Garden

+ bonus:

Auto! My Panpour! I thought of old tech when I think of him, since he is named after my childhood panpour that I adore dearly :3

🌊🐒🌊, 🐒 x 🐒, 🌊🐒🌊 ☆