Nov 06 2007
Pullman, Golden Compass is Not Promoting Atheism
The Golden Compass has been a best seller book in the ten years since it was first published, but with the upcoming release of the movie the Golden Compass the Catholic League released a statement to call the book, “atheism for children.” They also claim, “the trilogy, His Dark Materials, [of which Golden Compass is the first book] was written to promote atheism and denigrate Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism.”
In a Nov. 2 Today interview, Pullman responded,
“I always mistrust people who tell us how we should understand something. They know better than we do what the book means, or what this means, and how we should read it and whether we should read it or not. I don’t think that’s democratic, I prefer to trust the reader.”
What is the main concern of the Catholic League, in Bill Donohue’s words?
If unsuspecting Christian parents take their children to see the movie, they may very well find it engaging and then buy Pullman’s books for Christmas. That’s the problem.
Clearly the problem is with the book, but to stop sales of the book (for Christmas in particular) Donohue wants the movie boycotted. As if censoring one thing would eliminate the existence of the other.
The difference between the two men’s statements is that Donohue wants censorship and Pullman believes in the freedom to read and interpret information as one wishes. Donohue implies parents aren’t able to discern, that boycotting the movies is the right way to stop parents from buying their children the book. Pullman on the other hand trusts that the readers will draw from the book their own learnings. And that’s the difference between censorship and freedom–the former assumes a one-size-fits-all impact of information, plus inability of the audience to self-discern and prescribes formulaic elimination of such information, whereas the latter allows the ability for all to discern on their own accord how, when and why they consume the information.
As for the claims the book is anti-Catholic, Donohue broadcasts his paranoid interpretations once more. The Golden Compass describes a world lead by a a highly politicized church, that has accrued enormous power, which is being used to less than positive ends. Which makes one wonder why “big bad church” rings a bell with Donohue.
However, Pullman distances his book from religious debate and touches on the core ideas in his writing, such as democracy and freedom, as opposed to tyranny.
The qualities that the books celebrate are those such as kindness, love, courage and courtesy too. And intellectual curiosity. All these good things. And the qualities that the books attack are cold-heartedness, tyranny, close-mindedness, cruelty, the things that we all agree are bad things. (…) It doesn’t matter to me whether people believe in God or not, so I’m not promoting anything of that sort. What I do care about is whether people are cruel or whether they’re kind, whether they act for democracy or for tyranny, whether they believe in open-minded enquiry or in shutting the freedom of thought and expression.
8 responses so far
It does seem that those who raise their voice the loudest in these issues are basically revealing that in their view religion’s hold on a person’s mind is so tenuous that a single breath of wind (in the form of an entertaining movie) is enough to start to unravel it.
If only this were the case.
Yes, I agree, and I find it interesting that the perception of threat from the movie is higher than the perception of threat from the book alone. The book was published 10 years ago, but the current controversy arose with the release of the movie. So while I think Donohue is taking advantage of the publicity of the movie to promote his organization, he also unknowingly sheds light on the fact that movie consumption is higher than book consumption. Thus books in themselves are not as much of a threat.
Up until recently books were seen as the bigger threat, if we think back to Bolshevik book burnings in 1917, or the Nazi burning of books written by Jews in the 1930s and 1940s, etc. So while you can’t burn movies, they get boycotted, but the end recipient of the boycott is still the book…
One of the inventions of Christianity is the idea of heresy — wrong thought. I have known Christians (and christianists, fundamentalists, dominionists etc.) who are terrified of the possibility of a new idea.
I don’t know if this is okay, but I currently have a guest post on Atheist Revolution which has my take on Christianity’s fear of an idea. (http://atheistrevolution.blogspot.com/). If this is not cool, please delete.
There are some who are so desperately afraid of screwing up their ride to eternal bliss that they will not consider any idea which is not 100 per cent in agreement with what their minister/preacher has told them to believe. Scary.
Billy, I agree, many of us are needing of acceptance, and will reject reason from fear of falling from grace. Religious people as well as non-religious people. I’ve seen my friends struggle with the concept of god as father, and the fear of disappointing this father figure. Same with the concept of eternal bliss. Loosing eternal bliss, loosing one’s spot in the fold of god is the ultimate rejection. But I believe these concepts are taught, and the earlier the age at which they’re taught the more effective they are. That’s why Dawkins and others have discussed the idea that continually threatening children with the concept of hell, or with the punishing experience of falling from grace can be abusive.
I think Christians’ main concern is not whether or not people see the movie or read the book, but that the movie is quite different from the book. So parents that would wish to protect their children from a book that portrays the church as tyranny incarnate are going to see the movie and be unaware of what the book actually contains. They just want parents to be able to make an informed decision.
Personally, i dont think reading or not reading a book is of supreme importance. There are more important things to worry about for our children, the more subtle things. Like self-esteem and body issues.
I just picked up this book a week ago and I’m on chapter six right now (Sorry but for the last few years I’ve been totally encompassed by the Harry Potter Septology). Yes, I’m a big atheist who LOVES fantasy books and movies… the only thing is, I am one who can differentiate between what is fantasy and what is reality. Fantasy if fun… reality is real. The Bible is fantasy… reality is … REAL!
Anywho, I’m really loving this new book and I was very worried that nothing would pull me away from Harry Potter but this book certainly has (of course Harry Potter still is my favourite series of all time).
Anyways, fantastic site!
-Ryan Green-
The Crazy Christian Blog
I read this book when it first came out, and I never saw any of this in it. I just saw a very good fantasy book that would one day make an even more excellent movie. But I wonder why now all the controversy because it was made into a movie and it tells of a corrupt, all-powerful church that holds control over people? I agree. We must keep in mind of all the banning and burning of books that have gone on in the past–it should NEVER be done by any society at any time. Freedom of expression is paramount! As I reminded myself only moments ago, if this man is trying to promote atheism in his books and the movie, then I am not going to be afraid at all to read them again or go see the movie. You see, I am not an atheist and no one will ever convince me otherwise a God does not exist. And for those of you who are crying about the Catholic Church being maligned, no one is going to convince me of joining that church either. So, here is one person who will not be persuaded or dissuaded either way with what I have read or seen on the big screen. I’m going to go and enjoy the movie–as I have planned to ever since I knew Hollywood was making one.
Nothing wrong with asking questions and opening your eyes to things we are yet to understand. I watched it last night with my family and found the themes interesting. All religion is based on ancient stories of astronomy and the movement of the sun, stars and planets. I highly recommend the internet movie Zietgeist for some very interesting facts.