--- Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
> For once I have to agree with Chuck. I was raised
> on books (my mother was a
> librarian), very little TV, went to a catholic
> school - and turned anarchist
> by the age of 18. Not bad, huh? Anarchism lost
> most of its intellectual
> appeal to me throughout the years - I find its
> knee-jerk populism
> intellectually naïve - but the defiance of the
> status quo, authority, and
> public pieties is still there, alive and kicking.
> In fact, ridiculing
> public pieties is my favorite pastime.
Yes, I'm interested in the fact that most left radical-types I know really enjoy fantasy books, most of which are fairly reactionary, many with thinly veiled judeo-christian ideologies. I think it has more to do with the ability to envision other worlds. And if we're going to dismiss the Narnia books for these traits, we might as well dismiss just about every western children's story. Disney's Bambi, Harry Potter and countless other stories about orphaned youths who somehow make things right can easily be read as Moses allegories, for example. Plus the more general guilt-inducing topics of judeo-christianity, which are in most everything. The whole thing is so ingrained that I don't honestly think it makes that much of a difference. It's like owning an air purifier but living in Los Angeles. Not to say that we should just throw our hands up in the air.
Roy wrote: "You can always balance out the politics by also gifting Philip Pulman's _His Dark Materials_ trilogy in which children are on a quest to heaven to kill God. Apparently the Catholic Church really hates it."
I love these books. Apparently they're trying to turn these into movies as well, and you can imagine the difficulties they're having. I mean, gay angels on the side of the protagonists, phew! It'll be by New Line Cinema, AOL Time Warner affiliate. http://www.bridgetothestars.net/index.php?d=movie
Gar wrote: "Definitely propaganda for a fairly reactionary, anti-worker, anti-woman brand of Christiantity - arguably racist/anti-semitic as well though this is not quite as clear."
Definitely racist. In the 2nd book I think, _Prince Caspian_, the good guys fight a war with the enemies, whom they refer to as "darkies". The illustrations (alas by a wonderful illustrator!) depict them as vaguely Middle Eastern (?).
best, --adx
"Mary Poppins is alive and well in Argentina, she sends her regards." - Rod McKuen, The Mud Kids
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