Well, here we are again, whining away about things we think just might be important. You can find Shane all alone, which in his opinion is best, at fakerepublic.com. Sit down and rest awhile as we wax ineloquently about anything from The Golden Compass to Willow Creek.
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Interesting discussion -
Totally agree about the ‘punching above their weight’ problem with the current spate of ‘popular’ atheists and junk writers, as well as the ‘Hollywood’ treatment of Pullman, but you don’t need to wade through Pullman’s trilogy to get a useful insight into institutionalism vs genuine spirituality – just pick up the excellent ‘The Dragon in the Sea’ by Dune author Frank Herbert or ‘The Moon is a Harsh Mistress’ by Robert Heinlien – great works from the Golden Age of Science Fiction literature.
Have a good Christmas!
PS -
Quite a useful (refreshingly candid and fair) review of Pullman’s series can be found here:
http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2181
Are we forgetting that The Golden Compass is a kids book? With an agenda aimed at kids?
Fred,
To define it so would be to miss the point of the novels (as Pullman argues himself). The trilogy as essentially a use of fiction employed to express ‘stark realism’ (his words). Most of the conversations I’ve sat in about these books certainly have not been with children.
I was under the impression that children were certainly the target audience of the author. They are being marketed to children…
Love the way you guys coordinate your wardrobe. What happened to the couch in the background? Did the set dresser have the day off? *totally random and unprofound thoughts just because I CAN*
Good discussion. I agree that healthy questioning and discussion, as may arise from an atheist themed book, is good. However, from what I have read, the Golden Compass is most certainly aimed at children as a recruiting tool. Most kids are not going to be aware of an agenda and are not going to have the knowledge to discern, so I think it is a problem in that way. It is especially a problem for an impressionable type of child. Our youngest is very impressionable. He has gotten into wiccan from Harry Potter books, although if someone had told me that before he read them, I would have thought it was ridiculous. He is just highly impressionable. He wants to read The Golden Compass, but he is 16 now. We certainly are not trying to control what he reads and didn’t suggest he not read it, but we did make it clear to him that they were written with an agenda. He researched it himself online, so he will be going into it knowing that.
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas there:)