Narnia is Evil!
Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials Trilogy, does not like the Chronicles of Narnia one little bit. Narnia, according to Mr. Pullman:
- Is “propaganda in the cause of the religion.”
- Advances views such as, “death is better than life; boys are better than girls; light-colored people are better than dark-colored people; and so on.”
- Is “one of the most ugly and poisonous things I’ve ever read,” “propaganda in the service of a life-hating ideology,” “blatantly racist,” “monumentally disparaging of girls and women,” and marked by a “sadomasochistic relish for violence.”
Michael Nelson, writing in this week’s Chronicle, deftly refutes these silly charges.
I’ve read Pullman’s books. Whilst they are skillfully written and narrate an original and entertaining fantasy, they are also atheistic propaganda full of hatred for organized religion and for God. The Amber Spyglass is particularly nasty, leaving its readers (target: children) with an unnecessarily bleak and sadistic ending.
I for one think that his harping is becoming increasingly tiresome.
Yes, Pullman’s criticism is silly. His trilogy was a reasonably good read, though, even if his fixation on demolishing Christianity leads him to re-create every jot of Christian mythology, including the Harrowing of Hell. And authors with a fixation on anything are annoying.
Still, based on the released trailers of the Narnia movie, my prediction is: this movie is going to stink.
Comment by Jonathan Green — December 1, 2005 @ 4:00 pm
Nelson writes: “Many children seem to have read The Chronicles as Lauren Winner, in Slate, remembers herself and her friends doing, as simply ‘a riveting tale.’”
Like Winner, when I read the Chronicles as a child in grade school, I completely missed the Christian imagery in the stories.
Comment by Justin Butterfield — December 1, 2005 @ 4:03 pm
I missed it, too. Kids are pretty dumb.
Comment by ed — December 1, 2005 @ 4:23 pm
Pullman is totally off base. Good grief. The Chronicles of Narnia are a children’s fantasy work of FICTION. Racist? He has obviously not read the Horse and His Boy and the other claims are stupid too. Why can’t people just take something at face value and take it as is. I read them as a child and as an adult.
Comment by Mary Siever — December 1, 2005 @ 5:33 pm
Ed,
Actually kids aren’t done. They just don’t read into things like adults do, and imagine things that aren’t there, or aren’t as important as people seem to think. Sure Christian imagery is there, but only because C.S. Lewis drew on them to help write his story.
Comment by Mary Siever — December 1, 2005 @ 5:34 pm
sorry that was “dumb”, not “done”
Comment by Mary Siever — December 1, 2005 @ 5:35 pm
If you are looking for racism you’ll find it. The white witch in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” is, well, white. That would seem to punch a whole in the theory.
Comment by Orson — December 2, 2005 @ 2:21 pm
Pullman’s biggest problem is that his storyline falls apart at the end.
Comment by Stephen M (Ethesis) — December 5, 2005 @ 11:44 pm
I am familiar with Pullman’s rants against C.S. Lewis. Interestingly, John Granger, in his book The Hidden Key to Harry Potter, suggests that Pullman was provided J. K. Rowling with the model for the fraudulent Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Comment by Terry — December 19, 2005 @ 6:25 pm
New article on Pullman in the New Yoker may interest you:
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/051226fa_fact
Comment by Bill — December 20, 2005 @ 4:05 pm
Sometimes you just get so tired of people whining about being “offended.” Lighten up, gosh.
“propaganda in the cause of the religion”
What movie isn’t propaganda for some cause or another? At least the cause in this case is a good one. It reminds me of the South Park episode where the town attempts to have a Christmas pageant which will not offend anybody at all thus reducing it to a show of absolutely nothing at all. People need to understand that somebody saying something which at most implies a descriminatory attitude toward you is not the same thing as descrimination itself. This is one of the best paper’s I’ve ever read.
BTW, speaking of Narnia check this out.
Comment by Jeffrey Giliam — December 20, 2005 @ 5:21 pm