Meeting Philip Pullman: A Magical Experience
Wednesday October 31, 2007
I am a bit star struck. Well, more than a little bit. Philip Pullman, author of "His Dark Materials", the subject of a growing controversy from the religious right, and a man who is about to see his extraordinary novel,...
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OK, this makes a lot more sense now. You are a "Catholic scholar". In your other post, you refer to yourself as a "Christian scholar".
Heres your tip for the day. Christianity is NOT about religion...it is about RELATIONSHIP. By the way, Jesus THE Christ, made it so that we need no intermediate to pray to God...so, feel free to pray directly to Him and not to the saints or the Holy Mother.
Not only are you defending Pullman, you actively promote his thoughts and writings that openly attack God, Christians and Christ.
You claim that there is no merit or substance to the controversy that is known as Philip Pullman. Lets examine some of his quotes:
"Every single religion that has a monotheistic god ends up by persecuting other people and killing them because they don’t accept him. Wherever you look in history, you find that. It’s still going on."
Q: But why is there no light and shade? It’s striking that you don’t portray the rebels as particularly good – Lord Asriel is as wicked as Mrs Coulter, I would say – and yet the followers of the Authority are monolithically odious, even though you admit that in real life there are decent people among the servants of God.
A: OK, that’s an artistic flaw.
Q: A flaw in the artistry or a flaw in the argument?
A: I’m not making an argument, or preaching a sermon or setting out a political tract: I’m telling a story. And I accept that if I’d had more time to think about it, no doubt I would have put in a good priest here or there, just to show they’re not all horrible.
But there we are. If you’re writing a novel, especially a long story of thirteen hundred pages, there are always going to be things you wish you’d done differently. Artistic perfection is not achievable in anything much over the length of a sonnet.
Q: And amongst the host of parallel worlds that you envisage can you imagine that there are some in which the Church has done more good than harm?
I certainly can. I might well write about such a place in the next book.
Q: But this world we live in isn’t one?
A: No, not yet.
Q: In The Amber Spyglass, Mary Malone tells Lyra and Will that the Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake. Is that your opinion?
A: I think I’d agree with her, yes.
So according to Pullman, Christianity is a mistake and has done virtually nothing of good consequence in the history of the world.
And you wonder, why in the world people are villanizing him?
OK, so Philip Pullman doesn't believe in Christianity. That is no reason to vilify him, or to boycott his books and movies. People don't agree with Tom Cruise's or Madonna's religious beliefs, but they still go to his films and buy her music. An artist who has different beliefs than our own is still capable of producing amazing art.
We need to separate our own beliefs, which we have a right to profess, from what other people believe, which they also have a right to profess. Just because someone isn't a Christian doesn't make them a bad person, deserving of chastisement. My mother always said, "Sometimes you have to let other people be wrong."
It is unfortunate that the attitude expressed by Bret and many, many others only confirms Pullman's observation, that harmful, mean, and even horrifying things have been done over the course of human history, all in the name of religion. Turning your passionate beliefs into hatred and persecution isn't what being a Christian, or a Catholic either, is all about.
Ms. Freitas,
You're anything but a Catholic scholar. You're all over the place. What you ARE is a syncretist.
How do you pronounce Lyra?
Maury:
Ummm Tom Cruise, to my knowledge, hasnt admitted that his movies are "about killing God", not that I am defending Tom Crusie.
Further, what specifically did I write that was full of hatred and persecution? I am quoting the author, who Donna is trying to not only defend, but promote.
Pullman has every "right" to profess his beliefs, I have the same right to dismantle his relativsim and this writers promotion of his direct attack on Christ and God the Father.
What I've been able to gather from my reading this morning is that Pullman's attacking not TRUE CHRISTIANITY, but a false, untrue, sick and evil dominated version of it. K?
This Freitas writer has a conflict of interest. She is self-serving since she written a book herself about Pullman's book. She needs to read Pullman's own words, and stop being a Pullman apologist. She is in denial that he wrote the books purposely against the Catholic church.
Ms. Freitas adores Pullman. I enjoyed reading her article because it can be torn down so many times logically! Hehe. Anyway, as to people judging each other and not being Christian, my only response is: have you not heard of "upper level critical thinking skills"???? This is a forum to discuss varying opinions, complete extremes of the spectrum, really, and what a dreadful world we would be in if there were no critical thinkers. I, for one, won't be smoking the opiate of the masses. Use your brain, think for yourself, and examine the pros and cons to Pullman's controversies. Maybe you'll determine, as I have, that his works do much more harm than good, and on a global scale, than probably any other children's literature in history. If you disagree, so be it. But allow people with divergent points of view to voice them without being called "judgemental" and "closed-minded" PLEASE!
Yes, Ms. Freitas' article lacks on several points, the most blatant one being what was mentioned earlier, that he has been villianized for promoting controversial issues (when there has been no controversy from him)...of course the controversy came from extreme right-wingers, right Ms. Freitas??? Thanks to the poster who reminded the author that Pullman himself invited the controversy with 1/his works' content and 2/his repetitive comments in interviews throughout the world that his books were about killing God, that he wanted to save children from religion and their parents before they could be polluted by them, etc. etc.
Not the best pro-Pullman apologist article, but what can you expect from someone who is star struck?
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