The Golden Compass
There has been a lot of hoopla in the media lately over the recent movie "The Golden Compass." As you might expect, it has great special effects and is action packed. It is based on a book by the same name, the first in a trilogy written by Phillip Pullman. The waters are muddied by the fact that the producers intentionally chose to remove some of the more explicit religious content in this first movie in the hopes of making it more attractive to a wider audience. Some atheists are declaring that the producers "Chickened Out", while some Christian groups are claiming the first movie was made to appear harmless thus acting as a lure to draw people into reading the books or the subsequent movies (which producers claim will be more explicit). So, what should Christian parents think ? Pullman is a very articulate, intelligent man who writes great fantasy, but it is clear he has a very explicit religious agenda, and that agenda is intentionally woven into this trilogy. It seems best to consider what the author himself had to say PRIOR to the recent spin for the movie. Consider the following quotes:
“I’m trying to
undermine the basis of Christian belief”
(Wartofsky, Alona: ‘The Last Word’ in The Washington Post, 19 February
2001)
"I am all for the death
of God."
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,773058,00.html
Q: Did you write [this trilogy]
as "fantasy"?
A: No. I
think of it as stark realism. . .
(http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pullman/author/qa.html)
“In [the third book of your
trilogy], The Amber Spyglass, Mary Malone tells Lyra and Will that the Christian
religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake. Is that your opinion?
[Pullman]
(http://www.thirdway.org.uk/past/showpage.asp?page=3949)
Towards the end of the third
book, the children come to realize they must kill God. But who is this
God? It is strange that in a work of "fantasy" Pullman puts the following
answer into his character's mouth:
“The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King,
the Father, the Almighty— those were all names he gave himself. He was
never the creator... He told those who came after him that he created them, but
it was a lie.”
(Philip Pullman. The Amber Spyglass, p. 28)
I have tried not so much to take these quotes out of context, but rather to show that these quotes form the context for interpreting the Golden Compass from the author's point of view. To dig deeper for yourself, I recommend the full Washington Post article listed above. It is available on-line for a cost of about $4.00, and gives a balanced view of the trilogy at http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/search.html. You can also get additional free information from the secular source, "Urban Legend Reference Pages" at http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp
Got an opinion of your own you want to share? Email me at Langdon@fpcAmbler.org