{"id":793,"date":"2008-01-06T01:23:15","date_gmt":"2008-01-06T06:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=793"},"modified":"2018-08-15T13:35:36","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T17:35:36","slug":"15469-%c2%a0%c2%a0-2-philip-pullman-the-golden-compass%c2%a0-his-dark-materials-book-1%c2%a0-15470-%c2%a0%c2%a0-philip-pullman-the-subtle-knife-his-dark-materials-book-2%c2%a0-15471","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=793","title":{"rendered":"15469. [2] (Philip Pullman) The Golden Compass [His Dark Materials, Book 1] 15470. (Philip Pullman) The Subtle Knife [His Dark Materials, Book 2] 15471. (Philip Pullman) The Amber Spyglass [His Dark Materials, Book 3]"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, while stay\u00ading in Prague, my friend Fil\u00adip Marek hand\u00aded me a copy of Philip Pullman\u2019s North\u00adern Lights<\/em> (the orig\u00adi\u00adnal British title, which was changed to The Gold\u00aden Com\u00adpass<\/em> in North Amer\u00adica). He asked if it was good enough to trans\u00adlate into Czech. I was delight\u00aded with it. It was fresh in its approach and imagery, ele\u00adgantly writ\u00adten, and would fas\u00adci\u00adnate both chil\u00addren and adults. How\u00adever, I fool\u00adishly put off read\u00ading the two oth\u00ader books in the tril\u00adogy until see\u00ading the recent film <\/a><\/u><\/span>remind\u00aded me to.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The books are good. They may or may not last as lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adture, but they are intel\u00adli\u00adgent and emo\u00adtion\u00adally pow\u00ader\u00adful. They are also sat\u00adu\u00adrated with 17th and 18th cen\u00adtury ref\u00ader\u00adences, influ\u00adences, and images, manip\u00adu\u00adlated with great panache. The Dig\u00adgers, John Mil\u00adton, William Blake, the Eng\u00adlish Rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion, are all there. So are the influ\u00adences of Medieval here\u00adsies and peas\u00adant revolts, such the Albi\u00adgen\u00adsians and Hus\u00adsites. The books are a feast for any\u00adone with a knowl\u00adedge of his\u00adtory and the\u00adol\u00adogy. For chil\u00addren, the les\u00adson that one must ques\u00adtion author\u00adity, and look to one\u2019s own con\u00adscience is intend\u00aded, and well-explored. In con\u00adtrast to the \u201cKing\u00addom of Heav\u00aden\u201d pro\u00admoted by fig\u00adures of author\u00adity, its heroes find them\u00adselves, by the end of the last vol\u00adume, vow\u00ading to con\u00adstruct the \u201cRepub\u00adlic of Heav\u00aden\u201d. It\u2019s a sort of \u201cPilgrim\u2019s Progress\u201d of the unfet\u00adtered mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

For those who are all in a stew about the book being \u201canti-reli\u00adgious\u201d, I would offer one piece of advice: remem\u00adber that \u201cChurch\u201d is not the same thing as \u201creli\u00adgion\u201d, and that the polit\u00adi\u00adcal orga\u00adni\u00adza\u00adtions that call them\u00adselves \u201cChris\u00adt\u00adian\u201d do not prac\u00adtice or teach any\u00adthing even remote\u00adly resem\u00adbling the teach\u00adings of Jesus of Nazareth \u2014 in fact, they gen\u00ader\u00adally hate, vio\u00adlate, and repress those teach\u00adings. How many \u201cChris\u00adtians\u201d have you ever met? I\u2019ve met a few, but the team\u00ading mil\u00adlions of rant\u00ading poseurs that fill the church\u00ades are not among them. Pull\u00adman has described him\u00adself as an agnos\u00adtic, but the Chris\u00adt\u00adian feel\u00ading in these books is plain to see. They are all about sal\u00adva\u00adtion and con\u00adscience, and the meta\u00adphys\u00adi\u00adcal puz\u00adzles of Cre\u00adation. An actu\u00adal athe\u00adist would not be inter\u00adested in these issues. The books are every bit as reli\u00adgious in their incep\u00adtion and exe\u00adcu\u00adtion as the works of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, but from anoth\u00ader angle.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, while stay\u00ading in Prague, my friend Fil\u00adip Marek hand\u00aded me a copy of Philip Pullman\u2019s North\u00adern Lights (the orig\u00adi\u00adnal British title, which was changed to The Gold\u00aden Com\u00adpass in North Amer\u00adica). He asked if it was \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bs-reading-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=793"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8727,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions\/8727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}