A Director Confronts Some Dark Material

When I read the books I could see they would make great movies. What I can not understand is why, other than being a trilogy, they are compared to "Lord of the Rings". Pullman has great creativity but not the quality Tolkien in any way. I've been so amused by the catholic church, assuming that the the savage theocracy in the books refers to them, I don't remember the church in the book being named at all. Perhaps I missed that.

Reading some of the other posts I don't recall Donohue being so hard on the "Lord of The Rings".J.R.R. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic. I think many who criticize the "R.C.C." are upset that it still exists and will for centuries to come. Find the matches? I'll bring the bandaids.

Oxford Proffesor Alister McGrath makes brief mention of Pullman's trilogy in his book"The Twilight of Athieism", comparing it to a version of Orwell's "Animal Farm" that ends where the animals run off the humans. I think that you can give a story special effects, and million dollar promotion but it still putting lipstick on a corpse. It will eventualy be forgotten because the athieism that it promotes is intellectualy spent. The children who do read the books will often be put off by the ahiteism in the story.

I have to wonder if Philip Pullman isn't being somewhat hypocritical. While some of his Chronicles of Narnia criticisms are understandable, he's mentioned that C.S. Lewis was "up to propaganda in the cause of the religion he believed in". Despite a few things Mr. Pullman has said, it's hard for me to believe that there is none of that in his books given the ending and the events leading up to it.

I have read all three of Philip Pull;mans books, and it is quite clear that Pullman's fascinating agenda is based on the 3rd century AD Gnostic theology and philosophy, which sees the man as well as the world as a battle-field of two co-existing divine forces, one bad: 'material' and one good: 'spiritual'. The God as creator of the material world is, of course the "bad" one, while the good force is totally of the spirit.. The two farces make war first of all in every person's soul and the person participates 'nolens-volens in this eternal fight and strengthens one or the other of the Powers. The Christian God in Pullman's novels is the 'bad' one according to the Gnostic theology, but the "good" one is a bit vaporous and uncertain. The outcome of Pullman's trilogy leaves the world free of one 'tyranny" but open to another, so the Gnostic motive is somwhat obscured at the end. Obviously we are not dealing with a philosophical treatise here. Still, I enjoyed the books.
Josefhor @ 12/3/2007 7:37:00 PM

How can anyone say Pullman's books are about killing god? Obviously, djonesss has better insight than the author himself.

I personally think that everyone is paranoid about this movie... it isn't even about the church, it has a completely different group and iss meant as a fantasy movie... Do you really think that there is a "golden compass" that is in this movie? Stop being so paranoid.

"He didn't go after the Politburo, he went after the Catholic Church."

Nice red-bating, Bill. Do you have "a document in your hands" that proves that Pull man is known "comsymp?" The Politburo is long gone. The RCC still exists. Why should it be immune from critque?

"He didn't go after the Politburo, he went after the Catholic Church."

Nice red-baiting, Bill. Do you have a document in your hand that lists Pullman as a "comsymp?"

The Golden Compass is not anti-Christian, but His Dark Materials is. I read the first two books and was vaguely uneasy with where Pullman was going. In the final 200 pages of The Amber Spyglass he says that people who teach about heaven are lying; that Mary learned Christianity was a mistake; that instead of an afterlife your atoms just float in the air; that in the history-long battle between wisdom and stupidity the church has always stood on the side of ignorance; and the "Authority" (read: God) was just the first-created Angel and ends up dying a weak and helpless being. For Pullman or his readers to claim his books are not anti-Christian is not just disingenuous, but an outright lie. People can look at "The Golden Compass" and say he is just anti-authoritarian in religious aspects, but taken as a whole, the trilogy assaults Christian beliefs specifically and promotes an aetheistic philosophy. The fact that this is not clear until the last half of the last book is what is particularly insidious, and why Christian parents should not take their young, impressionable children to this movie.

Time to burn the Catholic League. Where are the matches?

It's the same bullcrap, different day. People like Donohue have no purpose in life other than to get their panties in a twist over something, anything. First it was LoTR, then it was Harry Potter, now it's His Dark Materials, tomorrow it will be something else. There always has to be something for them to rant about or boycott or petition. When tomorrow comes around and the movie comes out and the apocalypse hasn't happened... he's going to again realize that he's impotent and ignorant in the face of an ever changing world and then will need find something new to condone as heresy to make himself feel important and self righteous again. Getting kids to read books again is a GOOD THING, not the end of the world. Did any of them become devil worshippers after reading Harry Potter? NO! Are any of them going to do so after reading His Dark Materials? NO! Give it up Donohue.

What is brilliant about this trilogy is that the main characters are so realistic. Lyra, as the hero, is not simply a sweet young girl who is always good and wholesome. She sometimes acts in a way that is not beneficial to herself or those around her, questions authority and -- like most of us-- takes time making important and difficult decisions. Lyra's parents have behaved in ways that are confusing to a child, like many parents and also are not simply 'evil' or cruel, but also captivating, charming and perhaps working for the good of all. These questions are the ones I raised with my 7th grade students the years that I taught this novel with them. Educators are not permitted to push an agenda, The Golden Compass was an excellent novel to get students engaged in questioning, contemplating and understanding that life is not a simple matter of right and wrong. It is also a brilliantly told tale that had my students inspired, moved and reading more.

The issue is that Donohue is simply not capable of understanding that some of us are NOT overzealous fundamentalists. Unlike him, we are unable to separate intimate and deeply personal beliefs from the tangible contributions we make to society. Since every single time he opens his mouth he does so to impose his Savonarola-like agenda, Donohue automatically assumes everyone else does the same. He may want to look up the term "projection" in a Psych 101 textbook.