Days of Shades

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.

My feet go pad-pad-pad on the grass and slappity-slappity on the sidewalk.

When I was downtown for breakfast I saw a mama-mallard chillin' with the people outside of starbucks. She talked a bit then waddled across the street to sylvester park. I watched for traffic, but she picked a good time to cross. About 15 minutes later she apparently remembered she could fly, and took off towards the lake.

On the walk home, I met a very friendly orange kitty who climbed into my lap and used his paws like hands to grab my hand and pull it close enough to lick. The cuteness overwhelms.

Now I must learn some new contra tunes, because I'm playing for a dance this evening, with people I've never met/played with before. It should be entertaining, at least!


Also, saw pirates last night. Mmmmm...psychotic Johnny Depp. I would jump Jack Sparrow, but only if I was armed with breath mints.

Lots of them.