Golden Fracas

[shadesofmauve]

Here we go...

A little belatedly, it seems, the religious right has realized that The Golden Compass, the film production of which is coming out in December, might have some anti-church elements.

No, really?

Apparently the masses aren't sure whether the books are anti-religious, and it's far, far too dangerous to read and find out, so they had it checked out by Snopes! Who else do you turn to when you fail reading comprehension?

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

I can't believe they were debating whether or not the story has any bias against capital C Church. Of course it does. The almost all-powerful Church THE antagonist of the story, the killer of free will and creativity (and, y'know, stealer of children's souls). It is a lesson in the dangers of an institution with too much power and too assured a feeling of righteousness. It's not anti-christian any more than it's anti- any other large religion, excepting that in the locale in which the stories primarily take place, we assume that the Church is Christianity (and the word Church rather than Mosque or Synagogue or Temple is used).

The values portrayed in the books, of course, are lovely - friendship, persistence, love...I don't think there's even a closet-gay school-teacher!

I knew this was coming. Shouldn't let it bug me. Still, His Dark Materials is one of my all-time favorite stories ever, and Dust is the spiritual concept that comes closest to believable, for me. I'm irked and disappointed that people debate whether the content exists or not, and also that anyone would feel they needed to hide the real content. In an interview from Pullman he stated that it wasn't anti-religion, just anti-institution...and I'm fairly certain he's said differently in the past. Why do we need to hide?

Jumping Jesus on a pogo-stick, people, if your faith is so week it can be threatened by a film, perhaps you need to find something else to believe in.

Comments

[westrider.livejournal.com]

I took it as being more generally anti-institutional than specifically anti-religious. I never got around to re-reading it, because Lyra annoys the hell out of me, but from what I recall, there was some pretty substantial denunciation of blind nationalism and overly powerful governments as well.

Your last sentence pretty much nails it, though.

[bluwyngz.livejournal.com]

I followed the link and was chatting to Kate about what I read. It's funny how you end up your post because that's essentially what I said to Kate. Kids are not going to be swayed by one book or movie if they have any real faith at all in their religion. Give them more credit than that people!

It's one of my favorite books too (although I ended up liking "The Amber Spyglass" slightly more). One of the reasons I like it so much is that it handles very complicated and interesting ideas. Pullman seems to actually think kids can think in more complex ways than they are usually asked too. Yay for that! One of the things these people are missing is that Lyra is pulled by large political/religious/instituational forces and part of her journey is to figure out what the hell she actually thinks about the world. Kids thinking for themselves? Weighing evidence? What next!?

This bit particularly annoyed me as it showed that they hadn't actually read the book or taken points in context:
"As I skimmed it, I couldn't believe that in a children's book part of the story is about castration and female circumcision".

Even if what this person means were actually true, why not? Kids play gory, bloody video games. How is discussing castration and female circumcision any worse?

I'll be done now, but I hear you Saj. :: sigh ::

[shadesofmauve]

Yeah...underestimating kids seems to be a big part in these battles, and this trilogy IS a coming-of-age story - Lyra learns to trust herself after being pulled every-which-way by adult conflicting forces. You put that very well.

Maybe if you skim faster you get parts of the story that we don't get...like playing records backwards.