Monday, December 03, 2007

Golden Compass resources

Further to the last post about the Golden Compass film, and Philip Pullmans ideas, another handy resource. If you go to st.jonny.com he has as series of Pullman articles, as well as a downloadable insert for church magazines, newsletters etc. We've printed out some copies of Mark Greene's article, linked in the other post, for folk in church.

Also, and very helpfully, Oxfam in Sherborne had 'The Subtle Knife' for a quid, so I'm half way through that. The more I read the more I wonder whether Pullmans issue is with God, or with authority and hierarchy. Obviously, being fantasy books, there's plenty of fantasy and supernatural stuff, but the fascinating ideas (dark matter = consciousness = angels, the reality of the human soul, parallel universes etc.) are all deeply spiritual. But the other thing they are is democratic - the enemies are 'The Authority' and the Magisterium, both centres of power and control - and Pullman writes for a French Revolution in the spiritual realm, deposing the monarch and installing a republic. The universe is still there, and it's still intensely spiritual and soulful, it just doesn't have a Lord.

It needs someone else to write book 4 of the trilogy to explore what happens in that kind of a world. No, wait, it's already been done, it's called human history.

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