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Why Believers shouldn’t be Troubled by Pullman’s Golden Compass

Posted by John on December 4th, 2007 at 12:49 pm · 4 Comments

Or, at the very least, an argument that most anti-Pullman activists probably haven’t even looked at the book:

The trilogy has the Church as the antagonist. Not religious belief in general. If any “message” may be derived, it’s that powerful religious organisation who is above the law and morally degraded (murder is no problem for them) is bad. By being against these books for only religious reasons, you’re basically saying that the Church in the series is acceptable and it’s wrong to condemn such a thing.

God isn’t even in the books. It’s the first angel falsely claiming that he created everything. False gods are bad, right? So shouldn’t it be a good thing that they took him down? Pullman left the question of if there’s a Creator wide open. I don’t think any of the people squawking about the trilogy even bothered to read it.

This is another case of running into someone on the Internet who articulated my feelings better than I could (curse you, Internet! *shakes fist*): 1) it’s not thatPullman is making the case that all religious institutions are corrupt, but that the Magesterium in particular is (Lyra’s beloved Oxford University, after all, is also a religious institution), and 2) I never equated Metatron with God–in fact, he seems remarkably similar to Marcion’s Demiurge.

Point #2 requires a bit of explanation.  Marcion was an early Christian Bishop who couldn’t figure out why the God of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament was always so grumpy and bloodthirsty and why the God of the New Testament seemed so much better behaved.  He decided that there must be an evil creator God to whom the real Christian God delegated all that messy creation work.  Borrowing a term from Plato, he called this evil god-like being Metat, er, the Demiurge.  Not conventional theology, I know, but certainly no less extreme than portraying your God as a furry, fanged creature who likes getting scratched behind the ears.

Tags: Book Reviews · Christianity · Movie Reviews · Science Fiction and Fantasy

4 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Brian // Dec 4, 2007 at 3:08 pm

    Having read the books a few weeks ago, I found a number of disturbing elements. In address of the first point made, I would have to disagree. In the very first book, a character says “Every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling.” And in the final book, an ex nun, whom the books identify as coming from our own world, not a fantasy variant, says “The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that’s all.” Several such quotes as these have the feeling of the author giving his own soliloquy, but I may be reading too much into it.

    The second point is, in a way, quite valid. The Authority in the books (or the Metatron, who has become the real power) is clearly not the same being who Christians think of when we address God. Nonetheless, Pullman identifies this Authority as the Christian God, saying his names include the Lord of Hosts, the Father, YHWH, etc. (And why not. To the author, his Authority and the Christian God do share one vital detail: they are both fictional.) I also found myself thinking that it was more a Gnostic God than a Christian God, in keeping with some other gnostic elements to the spirituality.

    Nonetheless, while, as I say, I find this troubling, I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that it MUST be avoided. I don’t think any material should have to be off limits to a youth with a good grounding in their faith and basic critical thinking faculties. (Tune in in about 10 years when my son and daughter are in or near their teens to see if I’ve changed my mind. “Turn down that noise!”) I, personally, was more turned off by the characters. From the petulant, compulsively lying protagonist and her mother, to her adulterous, murdering father, the only main character I got into was Will. Iorek was kind of cool too. The less said about the climax (no pun intended) the better. I would never go so far as to call it a Deus Ex Machina, though, as it was masterfully foreshadowed through all three of the books. I found the in book explanation of the event lacking. It’s not really my brand of fantasy (I like the sci fi and the fantasy on my plate not to touch, like peas and potatoes). Other than that, the books were alright. I wouldn’t be too hard on them, as they’re meant for a younger audience.

  • 2 John // Dec 4, 2007 at 9:48 pm

    Brian: good points, both, though I didn’t necessarily read them as Pullman’s voice (though they may well be). The witch queen Ruta Skadi, who makes the first point, is not a primary character, and I wasn’t entirely sympathetic to her. It would be different to have the speech come from, say, Lee Scorseby or even Serafina Pekala.

    I have to admit that I tuned out through much of the 3rd book, which has the main conflict with Metatron. I was angry by the end of the second at how the author mistreated (betrayed!) Will, and the third did seem to have its didactic moments. No one wants to be lectured in a fantasy, even when the preaching is to the choir.

    I still have a sweet spot for Lyra–I find her (and her father, to some extent) compelling.

  • 3 xJane // Dec 6, 2007 at 8:26 am

    to combine a few topics, Beliefnet has an article about the Top Ten Spiritual Messages to be found in the Golden Compass

  • 4 John // Dec 6, 2007 at 10:11 pm

    Nice pick, xJane. I wish I had come up with that. :P

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