The Golden Compass
The first instalment of Philip Pullman's hugely successful trilogy of fantasy books, His Dark Materials, has had a troubled transition to the screen. The adaptation has managed to upset both Christians and atheists, the former because of the book's anti-religious themes and the latter because those very themes have been watered down and virtually excised from the film, writes John Hiscock of the Telegraph, adding that the film "lacks the impact or charm of The Chronicles of Narnia, the special effects are extraordinary and the film is sure to be a success with young audiences."
And here's a side of controversy.
I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I've read Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy...four, I think, (including one summer aloud to my sons when they were about 10 and again last winter on cd during long family car trips.)
While I also love Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkien's trilogy, the richness of the alternative world that Pullman creates is vastly more interesting for a person interested in all aspects of religion, the journey of becoming an adult, the strange and complex power of human relationships, and the emerging physics that non-scientists can barely begin to understand. It's a rich world, and add to it the brilliance of a human having a daemon - part of your soul that lives as an animal companion outside your body - and it is irresistible.
When the movie was announced, I suspected that there would be a fuss by the Christian right (and it's worth noting that the link Jim's posted above is from the newspaper in Springfield, MO, where the national Assemblies of God is headquartered). It tickles me that the people complaining and talking boycott also love the Narnia books. Have they forgotten (or never read) that Lewis balked when his stories were called allegory. He said, and I paraphrase, that his books describe a particular world that is not our world. Rather, he said what's true in one world is likely true in another.
In Pullman's world, or rather in Lyra's world because Pullman writes about our world in the second two books of the trilogy, the Church he writes about is not the Church in our world. It's a Church in which John Calvin removed the papacy to Geneva, for heaven's sake. Nor is the Authority...God... he talks about in the later books, necessarily OUR God.
Does anyone remember The New Yorker profile on Pullman written a couple of years ago? I remember reading it and thinking that Pullman is one of the most thoughtful considerers of organized religion out there. We need people like Pullman to write books that challenge us and challenge our children. The conversations his books have generated around our family table have enriched each of us.
For those who are whining and complaining, I'm reminded of the end of an Edgar Lee Masters poem titled "Seth Compton" from Spoon River Anthology: (Compton had founded the public library Spoon River and was criticized for the folly.)
"So choose your own good and call it good
For I could never make you see
That no one knows what is good
Who knows not what is evil
And no one knows what is true
Who knows not what is false."
We can't wait for The Golden Compass to open.
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November 24, 2007 4:24 PM