The Golden Compass is coming!

[elfs]

Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass is going to be in theaters soon, and already the Catholic League and other mouthbreathing organs of Christianity are frothing. Pullman's novel, which has as one of its principles the notion that eating from the tree of knowledge was the start of something good (a sentiment with which I heartily agree), has them panty-waisted morons claiming that civilization will die a horrible death if too many impressionable young hearts go see it.

To which Mark Morford writes:

If your ancient, authoritarian, immutable belief system is threatened by a handful of popular novels, if your ostensibly all-powerful, unyielding creed is rendered meek and defenseless when faced with the story of a fiery, rebellious young girl who effortlessly rejects your stiff misogynistic religiosity in favor of adventure, love, sex, the ability to discover and define her soul on her own terms, well, it might be time for you to roll it all up and shut it all down and crawl back home, and let the divine breathe and move and dance as she sees fit.

Mark Morford, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways!

Comments

[amythis.livejournal.com]

Well, preteen Lyra has a big snog at the end of the trilogy, rather than sex, but generally this is dead-on. The trailers (I've seen two) look magnificent and I'm really looking forward to seeing the movie, even if they tone down the religious themes.

[kenshardik]

Apparently there's a lot of debate as to whether Will and Lyra had sex towards the end of "The Amber Spyglass". When I read it I thought they had sex. They were only 13, which is young, but it's possible. I also got that impression because Lyra lost her ability to use the golden compass, that she was no longer "innocent". I read them a year or so ago, so YMMV.

[amythis.livejournal.com]

I first read the trilogy about 5 years ago, and recently reread Golden Compass and the first half of

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<subtle knife</i>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

I first read the trilogy about 5 years ago, and recently reread <I>Golden Compass</I> and the first half of <Subtle Knife</I>. So you may be right about <I>Amber Spyglass</I>. All I remember is the kiss.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I've only read the first book. For some reason, I bounced off The Subtle Knife; it was too slow in the beginning, took too long to get moving, and I was bored too soon.

That said, I didn't take Morford's comment about sex literally; it's being marketed as a kid's film, and I don't recall anything salacious about The Golden Compass anyway.

Innocence lost

[omahas.livejournal.com]

I have, in fact, not read The Golden Compass (Yamarrashi-chan is reading it right now, trying to finish it in time to watch the movie, so I suppose I will read her book when she is done). But honestly, you don't need a snog to lose your innocence. I think that once the kiss goes from being the innocent kiss of friendship to the deeper kiss of intimacy, that's when the innocence has been lost.

Quote

[(Anonymous)]

This is one of the most wonderful quotes I've seen in a long, long time. Thank you so much for putting it up -- I've already sent a copy to most of the people I know. Really, it's about perfect, and a nice antidote to the grumpy mood I've been in since I ventured into a big-box bookstore on Saturday.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

Wonderful quote, much along the lines of things i've been wondering for some time, and i really, REALLY want to see it answered by the other side.

You've either got an armored tower of faith against which all waves of doubt will break, or an unstable house of cards that relies on nobody actually going and prodding the ones at the bottom. Which is it, because only one of those sees stories like "the golden compass" as a threat.

[tagryn]

* When someone starts out labeling another as having an "ancient, authoritarian, immutable belief system," its a red flag that their mind is already closed off to new info on that topic, so why bother bashing one's head against that wall by trying to debate with them? That also would be trying to defend a strawman, which is just as much a waste of time.

So, while its an exciting quote for those who already are True Believers, not much there for everybody else. Just another case of the extremes sniping at one another.

* Pullman's quotes in the Atlantic Monthly article about GC indicate he's OK with toning down the religious-confrontational theme in the first movie in order for it to be a commercial success, in which case the studios would be more amenable to turning the other books in the series into movies (where presumably Pullman's views could be make more explicit). Canny move, actually, though I was a little surprised to hear him admit it outright.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

Oh, i agree that as a point of debate, it's a lost cause. I'm just interested in what kind of mental hoops the other side would jump through to answer it. I find it fascinating. When any group (or extremely vocal fringe of a group) gets *that* frothed up about a given topic, there are some interesting mental gymnastics going on, no matter if it's religion, politics, fandom, or something else.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

So is it your opinion that no one belongs to an "ancient, authoritarian, immutable belief system," and that therefore labelling someone as such is always wrong?

Morford's simply calling it like it is: the people dissing The Golden Compass because it is a threat to their tissue paper collection of lies do belong to a belief system that is ancient, authoritarian, and for at least the stretch of a generation so inflexible as to seem immutable.

[intrepid-reason.livejournal.com]

Bounce! Bounce!! I don't want to wait....

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard anything from the Catholics but some of the moms on my moms list were wringing their hands over it weeks ago.

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

It opens on Friday, right? Wanna get a group to go see it on Saturday? I'm assuming the crowds will be a bit less then. Or maybe Sunday before or after Tabbifli's tea party?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I don't think we'll be able. Omaha and I have a family event (Kouryou-chan's dance group is doing their Christmas performance) that evening until 6:45 or so, after which I suspect we're all going to want to just go home.

Sunday looks freer.