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.
