Golden Compass Rumpus

Of all the sure ways to promote a film, one of the surest is to get it criticized by the religious right.  On that basis Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass,  out in the US (in time for er, um, Christmas), is on a winner. 

Pullman has responded. Newsweek reports on the row; the Catholic League is incandescent.  Parents are being warned not to let their children see the film as it is  "spiritual poison"  Catholic author Pete Vere  (no, I didn't either)  calls Pullman the  "Pied Piper of Atheism" who "corrupts the imagery of Lewis and Tolkien" (christian apologists both)  to "undermine children's faith in God and the Church".

The clue is in that last word.  Pullman's target may overtly be "God", but it is more the power-structures which humans conduct in the name of God.  The Director Chris Weitz says  it " attempts to rescue the religious spirit from its perversion into political power."   And you can't accuse him of not being into spirituality - daemons everywhere, golden monkeys, magical worlds...we're not in Dawkins country here, not by a long chalk.   Pullman himself is robust.  "Why don't we trust readers? Why don't we trust filmgoers?...Oh, it causes me to shake my head with sorrow that such nitwits could be loose in the world."
      His difficulties with humility  and taking criticism may, of course, be due to blogs like this one,  by a writer who met him and virtually fell down and worshipped.. .
       At the end of the day, he just writes terrific page-turners.   And anything which pokes a sharp stick into some of the power-crazy religious types who turn up in this blog has to have merit in it.