[lbo-talk] His Dark Materials (was Narnia)

andie nachgeborenen andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com
Fri Mar 11 10:49:15 PST 2005


Pullman's stuff is absolutely marvelous. I have read it through about three times. It's definitely an anti-Narnia based on Milton and Blake. In vol. III the child protagonists actually if accidentally kill God -- it's a favor to the old guy. I am certain this will not be depicted in the movie.

Pullman's also sex-positive, as much as it is possible to be in a children's book and not gross out the audience. As opposed to squeamish parents -- he obviously doesn't care about those. But 11 and 12 year olds (in my experience) still don't like mushy stuff. My 11 year old son judges movies and books more highly the higher the killing/kissing ratio. (Just now he's happily reading Robert Graves' I, Claudius -- lots of killing, very little if any kissing.)


> 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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