ROTTEN TOMATOES: Golden Compass Author Doesn't Care for Narnia, Lord of the Rings Comments

Golden Compass Author Doesn't Care for Narnia, Lord of the Rings

by Jeff Giles | November 05, 2007

Summary

It won't reach theaters until December 7, but The Golden Compass -- which adapts the first installment in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy -- already has some people up in arms, and the author doesn't seem to mind one bit. Back to Article

(41-60 of 141 posts) | Reply

Jaimon writes:
on Nov 05 2007 11:52 AM

can we please keep religion out of middle earth?

yeesh

(Reply to this)

Paul_Is_Drunk writes:
on Nov 05 2007 12:35 PM

You'd think if Christianity truly believed that they were right, they wouldn't mind someone creating material of an opposing nature, because surely if they are right then people would be more inclined to believe them over what is 'surely' wrong.

Oh... wait...

Christianity uses scare tactics and does it's best to censor anything that isn't Christian because they only have a tentative belief that's easily shaken, hence why they often revert to "if you're not with us, you're going to be punished in the afterlife FOREVER."

(Cue Sandlot)

Fore-ev-er...

Fore-ev-er...

Feel free to respond with how your convictions are different because you choose to see things in a different light, further representing the fact that religion can be 'perceived' differently by individuals who never-the-less remain adamant their point of view is right, which only shows that if everyone has their own 'rules of the universe,' then none of them can actually be right.

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Floor Man writes:
on Nov 05 2007 12:35 PM

I laud Pullman for his courage to speak about his opinion honestly...I don't necessarily agree or disagree with his statement(s), but I like the books from all three of the aforementioned series/trilogies.

(Reply to this)

jaqu7 writes:
on Nov 05 2007 12:44 PM

Not even Toilken wanted to keep religion out of Middle Earth. Why should we?

(Reply to this)

Ruckas356 writes:
on Nov 05 2007 01:22 PM

a good movie is a good movie. who cares about what the church thinks! they paid 600 million dollars for touching little boys, case closed.

(Reply to this)

lateralus2 writes:
on Nov 05 2007 01:32 PM

Agreed Ruckas356! But this film does look pretty ordinary. I mean Nicole Kidman is so overated. A DVD movie me thinks!!! hang on, i'll wait for the tv release!

(Reply to this)

Young Turk writes:
on Nov 05 2007 01:33 PM

I love that this has sparked such a heated debate...

(Reply to this)

RottenRob writes:
on Nov 05 2007 01:50 PM

In reply to this comment (#1252542)
What?

(Reply to this)

RottenRob writes:
on Nov 05 2007 01:53 PM

In reply to this comment (#1253216)
That was seriously funny.

(Reply to this)

Merlin235 writes:
on Nov 05 2007 02:16 PM

highdough -

I imagine that you're right, that when most people think about Christianity they perceive the sins of it's followers. Which is quite ironic, considering that Christian principles teach that we're all jerks, so Christians should/would be the first to admit that they are anything than perfect. All I can say is try not to judge the veracity of Christianity based on the sinners who practice it. Gosh, that'd be like saying all women are stupid because Jessica Simpson doesn't know what the Secretary of the Interior is.

(Reply to this)

PFCMAN writes:
on Nov 05 2007 02:31 PM

In reply to this comment (#1252434)
Why write books to prove God doesn't exist I mean thats not insulting to only Catholics but
weren't the people in the red mosque angry about the same thing. They were Islamic

(Reply to this)

supersean1984 writes:
on Nov 05 2007 02:53 PM

In reply to this comment (#1253797)
I'm not sure I follow what you're talking about on that last part. It sounds like you "perceive" your argument as infallible and anything I say digs a bigger hole for my faith, but I admit that might be wrong.
Contrary to your opinion, I was not scared into my faith and I have scared no one into my faith. Truth be told, I was pushed into Catholocism (family thing), but I was not afraid to step away from it, nor was I attacked for it. The only attacks I've recieved for being a Christian come from those who don't believe. Do I get this to my face? Not that much. But on the internet, where people say whatever they want from the safety of their keyboard? Lots. I realize that ferverent folks get on and spout off to others too. That's their stupidity.
Personally, the books didn't bother me when they came out and the movies won't when they come out; from the looks of things, most of us writing in feel less attacked by the movie than we do by people pointing fingers. Have you seen one person on here say they'd see you at the picket lines yet? Contrary to media assumptions, most Christians understand that this is a fictional movie, plain and simple. Are they going to see it? Probably not. Are they going to discuss the messages of the books? Most likely. Will words and assumptions and actions be put into their mouths for the foolish actions of a few? Definitely.
I'm not a Catholic, and I will not be boycotting this movie. I'm not sending out any "be careful" e-mails or hosting any "let's do this instead" parties. I don't feel threatened by pullman's watered-down fantasy series, and I'm well aware that there will always be those out there that belittle my faith and spread lies about it. You can make assumptions about my faith all you want; it will be there long after this movie passes from the radar.

(Reply to this)

rizzleg writes:
on Nov 05 2007 02:58 PM

Here's some elaboration on Pullman's stance on Lewis and Tolkein from an article in the New Yorker two years ago [Spoilers for book in 3rd paragraph]:

//Pullman loves Oxford, but he%u2019s far from donnish. His books have been likened to those of J. R. R. Tolkien, another alumnus, but he scoffs at the notion of any resemblance. %u201C %u2018The Lord of the Rings%u2019 is fundamentally an infantile work,%u201D he said. %u201CTolkien is not interested in the way grownup, adult human beings interact with each other. He%u2019s interested in maps and plans and languages and codes.%u201D When it comes to %u201CThe Chronicles of Narnia,%u201D by C. S. Lewis, Pullman%u2019s antipathy is even more pronounced. Although he likes Lewis%u2019s criticism and quotes it surprisingly often, he considers the fantasy series %u201Cmorally loathsome.%u201D In a 1998 essay for the Guardian, entitled %u201CThe Dark Side of Narnia,%u201D he condemned %u201Cthe misogyny, the racism, the sado-masochistic relish for violence that permeates the whole cycle.%u201D He reviled Lewis for depicting the character Susan Pevensie%u2019s sexual coming of age%u2014suggested by her interest in %u201Cnylons and lipstick and invitations%u201D%u2014as grounds for exclusion from paradise. In Pullman%u2019s view, the %u201CChronicles,%u201D which end with the rest of the family%u2019s ascension to a neo-Platonic version of Narnia after they die in a railway accident, teach that %u201Cdeath is better than life; boys are better than girls . . . and so on. There is no shortage of such nauseating drivel in Narnia, if you can face it.%u201D

Pullman also makes the argument that Lewis really isn%u2019t all that Christian. The fate of Susan Pevensie, he told me, indicates %u201Csome sort of crazed, deranged Manichaeism. Here%u2019s a simple test: What is the greatest Christian virtue? Well, it%u2019s charity, isn%u2019t it? It%u2019s love. If somebody who knew nothing about Christian doctrine, and who had been told that Lewis was a great Christian teacher, read all the way through those books, would he get that message? No.%u201D

Sexual love, regarded with apprehension in Lewis%u2019s fiction and largely ignored in Tolkien%u2019s, saves the world in %u201CHis Dark Materials,%u201D when Lyra%u2019s coming of age and falling in love mystically bring about the mending of a perilous cosmological rift. %u201CThe idea of keeping childhood alive forever and ever and regretting the passage into adulthood%u2014whether it%u2019s a gentle, rose-tinged regret or a passionate, full-blooded hatred, as it is in Lewis%u2014is simply wrong,%u201D Pullman told me. As a child, Lyra is able to read a complicated divination device, called an alethiometer, with an instinctual ease. As she grows up, she becomes self-conscious and loses that grace, but she%u2019s told that she can regain the skill with years of practice, and eventually become even better at it. %u201CThat%u2019s a truer picture of what it%u2019s like to be a human being,%u201D Pullman said. %u201CAnd a more hopeful one. . . . We are bound to grow up.%u201D//

Source:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/26/051226fa_fact?currentPage=1

Pullman on Narnia:
http://www.crlamppost.org/darkside.htm

(Reply to this)

rizzleg writes:
on Nov 05 2007 03:00 PM

In reply to this comment (#1254366)
apologies for the --%u201D-- stuff, it wouldnt recognize the apostrophes and the quotation marks for some weird reason

(Reply to this)

BrianInSD writes:
on Nov 05 2007 03:14 PM

This movie may finally be the straw that breaks the camel's back of religion and condemns the entire world to an atheistic eternity in the fiery depths of hell. I mean, it has domesticated polar bears, people! When the polar bears become mankind's friends, what 2000-year-old religion could survive?

(Reply to this)

highdough writes:
on Nov 05 2007 03:15 PM

Merlin235,

I judge people on who they are, not what they are. That said, I don't believe that the religion of Christianity is really anything remotely what Jesus would have practiced. There aren't any 1st hand accounts of what he said (at least not ones that are less than decades after the fact), so it's really impossible to know WHAT real Christianity should be. Certainly not what it's become.

(Reply to this)

jsearls writes:
on Nov 05 2007 03:19 PM

You know, Pullman is a wonderful writer...and I love the controversy that's been stirred up, because controversy makes peopke think (oooh, scary idea). If people are secure enough with their own beliefs, than why does his oppinion matter? It's always the insecure threatened types that freak out over stuff like this.

(Reply to this)

Alterran writes:
on Nov 05 2007 03:24 PM

Whatever. All I had to do was see the trailer to know that LOTR was better than this movie. (Narnia too, for that matter.)

(Reply to this)

vaodsi writes:
on Nov 05 2007 04:21 PM

i don't know. i'm not catholic, but i think it's stupid to try to undermind people's beliefs. i mean seriously... what ever happened to live and let live? Maybe it never even existed.... too bad. and that goes for the protesters too. this is a free country. we christians have the right to believe what we want, which means other people have the right to make fun of us. it's only fair. why can't any other people seem to get this. christ said there would be persacution, and this isn't even the type he was talking about! He was talking about what people like NERO did to us. not some silly movie based on a pullman novel! get over it christians. Don't watch the movie if it really hurts you that much. i don't know... i guess i think that if i really believe my god is so powerfull.... i think he can take care of himself. just calm down. but yeah... pullman is kinda lame for being such a hater. i mean, come on. live and let live.

(Reply to this)

vaodsi writes:
on Nov 05 2007 04:34 PM

In reply to this comment (#1254477)
to brian in sd

you are so awesome bro! you took the words out of my head. i agree. do christians really have so little faith in their own religion that they think a movie with talking animals is gonna bring it all down! come on christians (i'm a christian, too) have some FAITH in your RELIGION! otherwise it's just religion.

(Reply to this)

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