Absolute Green Lantern: Why gold matters before the hierarchy is explained

Absolute Green Lantern: Why gold matters before the hierarchy is explained One of the details worth going back to in the early Absolute Green Lantern issues is John's experiment with the barrier. The book starts showing us the importance of gold before it sits everybody down and gives us the color terminology. John finds a cheap gold-colored ring that got through where the person wearing it couldn't. He doesn't just assume the material is valuable or special. He starts testing the idea. A gold-colored plastic Blue Devil toy produces a reaction too, which makes the problem a lot stranger. If cheap plastic can affect it, then this isn't behaving like a normal wall with a simple chemical weakness. That's where he brings up the philosopher's stone and alchemy. He's talking about transformation and enlightenment: base material becoming gold through knowledge. He thinks the appearance of gold is a clue. Then actual gold opens a hole in the barrier, briefly, and he starts questioning whether physically breaking out is even the lesson they're supposed to be learning. I like that sequence as an explanation of how this version is asking us to read its powers. John is trying to figure out what the objects MEAN within the system, instead of only asking what they're made of. The toy is ridiculous, but the experiment is useful. When gold is later identified as Aur, total understanding or enlightenment, that earlier scene has a clearer place in the story. It wasn't just a random weakness somebody happened to discover. The symbolism had already been sitting in front of us. That still doesn't make every conclusion John draws unquestionable. He's interpreting something alien, and the hierarchy is presented from a particular perspective. But if you're trying to understand why this series keeps returning to knowledge, gold, and command of the flame, that little experiment is a good place to start.