7 ms·
Pullman is another one for the Christians, I suppose. If you are not religious, it seems unlikely to me that you would enjoy it (I didn't).
by facepalm 10y ago
Pullman is another one for the Christians, I suppose. If you are not religious, it seems unlikely to me that you would enjoy it (I didn't).
- sn9 10y agoPullman wrote His Dark Materials as the atheist counter to C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia IIRC. You might want to reread them if you came away thinking they were pro-Christian.
- facepalm 10y agoIt's been a long time since I read it, but wasn't it all kind of about souls and soul mates and stuff like that?
- Fraterkes 10y agoYeah, and an important plotpoint is that a church is trying to get rid of the soulmates because they are part of the original sin. So you should prob turn you view around 180 degrees.
- e12e 10y agoI'm an atheist and a big fan of both His Dark Materials and Narnia. Why wouldn't an atheist enjoy religious art? That's millennia of human creativity you're throwing on the fire.
- facepalm 10y agoI enjoyed Narnia, but found His Dark Materials unbearable. It's been a while since I read it, though, don't remember the specifics. The soul mate with animal spirit thing just seemed Christian to me - stunned that it is supposed to be an atheist book, as another comment mentioned. So I am not opposed to religious art. A bit tired of the "chosen one" theme in fantasy, but other than that, I tend to just view it as an expression of human yearning.
- e12e 10y agoOne thing is what the author puts into things, another thing is what the reader gets out of it. Animism and spirits is hardly limited to Christian mythology. I personally thought it was kind of clever and vivid imagery, especially with the mad scientists fuelling their doomsday device by ripping children apart from their souls, much like splitting the atom lead to horrific suffering when used as an engine of war - or much as certain dogma in education seems engineered to squash the imagination of children. At any rate, I can absolutely accept that the work didn't appeal to some as much as it did me - but I just thought it strange that the reason should be that it was somehow particularly "Christian". Strikes me a bit like ignoring the parallels with the story of Christ and eg. that of Horus/Osiris. I'm not convinced people didn't come up with the stories about virgin birth, magical manipulation of water and so forth without having to hear another version first: the point is more that if you have a character that's born from a virgin, that doesn't have to mean you're trying to invoke an image of Jesus Christ. Although, often, it does mean just that. Then there's the issue of universality of myth (sacrifice, kindness etc) - and from a certain set of religious views one could probably argue that any "atheist" myth is simply anther way for a deity/deities to make his/her/their will known...
- DanBC 10y agoIt's pretty clearly atheist, and has been criticised by religious groups for that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Pullman#Perspective_on_religion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Pullman#Perspective_on_...
- 10y ago