Philip Pullman
Imagine this:
God is dead. He was killed by an archangel. No one mourns this loss, though, because when God was alive, he was a petty tyrant, the dictator of all dictators. The fallen angels were really the good guys. They subverted God’s reign of terror and gave consciousness to humans as an act of revenge.
Now imagine this as the premise for a children’s story.
Imagine that it is a children’s story coming very soon to a theater near you.
What are you waiting for, parents? Go read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series before your kids do.
I read the whole series last summer. They’re captivating. They’re as intriguing as anything you’ll ever come across. I was so engrossed I read them straight through barely stopping to eat or sleep. By the end of the series, I was more disturbed than I think I’ve ever been by a book. And I read Amityville Horror when I was only twelve.
I’m the last person to call for censorship of any book. Magic and mystery don’t offend me in the least. In fact, I am Harry Potter’s #1 fan. But I’m convinced the only reason the fundamentalists are bothering to pick on Harry Potter is because they don’t know about Pullman’s Lyra and Will. Yet. They will. Soon.
If this were just an obscure book somewhere sitting on a library shelf, I’d be prone to advise simply that it is not for young children, though it is marketed as children’s literature. Even for older children, I wouldn’t let a kid in my family read it without lots of adult discussion.
There is a motion picture in the works, however, and that means kids everywhere are going to want to read these books soon…if they haven’t already. In light of this, I feel like I should go a little bit farther out on my limb of warnings.
First, let me just say that The Golden Compass, the first book in the series, comes across as a whole lot more innocent than The Amber Spyglass, the last book. You don’t really understand the message of any of the books until you get to the end. And even I, with what I’d like to think is a very broad-minded view of literature, don’t know how to explain the message of the His Dark Materials series as anything other than anti-Christian. It is certainly anti-established-historical-institutionalized-Christian-church.
Second, let me say that before you know it, it’s going to be almost impossible to ignore these books. My advice then to parents would be to go ahead and read them now to give yourself time to decide what you think about them and how to approach them once the movie does come out. That’s really all I can say.
*Edit*
The first movie in the His Dark Materials trilogy has a 2007 release date.
God is dead. He was killed by an archangel. No one mourns this loss, though, because when God was alive, he was a petty tyrant, the dictator of all dictators. The fallen angels were really the good guys. They subverted God’s reign of terror and gave consciousness to humans as an act of revenge.
Now imagine this as the premise for a children’s story.
Imagine that it is a children’s story coming very soon to a theater near you.
What are you waiting for, parents? Go read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series before your kids do.
I read the whole series last summer. They’re captivating. They’re as intriguing as anything you’ll ever come across. I was so engrossed I read them straight through barely stopping to eat or sleep. By the end of the series, I was more disturbed than I think I’ve ever been by a book. And I read Amityville Horror when I was only twelve.
I’m the last person to call for censorship of any book. Magic and mystery don’t offend me in the least. In fact, I am Harry Potter’s #1 fan. But I’m convinced the only reason the fundamentalists are bothering to pick on Harry Potter is because they don’t know about Pullman’s Lyra and Will. Yet. They will. Soon.
If this were just an obscure book somewhere sitting on a library shelf, I’d be prone to advise simply that it is not for young children, though it is marketed as children’s literature. Even for older children, I wouldn’t let a kid in my family read it without lots of adult discussion.
There is a motion picture in the works, however, and that means kids everywhere are going to want to read these books soon…if they haven’t already. In light of this, I feel like I should go a little bit farther out on my limb of warnings.
First, let me just say that The Golden Compass, the first book in the series, comes across as a whole lot more innocent than The Amber Spyglass, the last book. You don’t really understand the message of any of the books until you get to the end. And even I, with what I’d like to think is a very broad-minded view of literature, don’t know how to explain the message of the His Dark Materials series as anything other than anti-Christian. It is certainly anti-established-historical-institutionalized-Christian-church.
Second, let me say that before you know it, it’s going to be almost impossible to ignore these books. My advice then to parents would be to go ahead and read them now to give yourself time to decide what you think about them and how to approach them once the movie does come out. That’s really all I can say.
*Edit*
The first movie in the His Dark Materials trilogy has a 2007 release date.
posted by Sharon Gerald | 3:38 PM
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