Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass"

I'm not going to lie, I'm excited! The Lord of the Rings fans have had their day, the Star Wars kids have definitely had their time, and most recently the Harry Potter fanatics have seen their favorite characters fleshed out on the silver screen. Perhaps, the group of kids that grew up idolizing Lyra and Pantalaimon and wishing that they could inhabit the worlds of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is smaller, but I hope that today, as the movie celebrates its national U.S. release, they will prove to be dedicated.

I know that the last thing this movie needs is more press. New Line Cinema (a division of the monstrous conglomerate Time Warner) has carried out an international marketing campaign that has made it nearly impossible to hop on the Internet or turn on your television set without seeing some sort of ad or trailer for its upcoming release. You can't even watch a YouTube video without an animated ad for the movie popping up at the bottom of your screen. The astounding list of New Line's promotional partners include Coca-Cola, Sega, Burger King, Borders, Scholastic, GAP, Barnes & Noble, FAO Schwartz, Marie Claire and the omnipotent Wal-Mart. Time Warner reports that "collectively, the promotional partnerships will result in approximately $50 million worth of advertising support, one billion consumer impressions, and $120 million of media value worldwide" and that "there is already tremendous excitement for the release of this film all over the world, and the unprecedented reach of this campaign will continue to fuel that anticipation."

What's even more, some Christian groups and, most notably, The Catholic League (the organization who also spearheaded the outcry against the sorcery of Harry Potter and the "sacreligous" suggestions of The Da Vinci Code), who are calling on parents to help boycot the movie seem to have inadvertently given The Golden Compass more publicity by adding temptation and curiosity to the list of reasons to see the movie. The stated purpose for their publication of a pamphlet encouraging the boycotting of the movie as well as an online video of Bill Donohue discussing the issue is to warn

Christians to stay away from this movie precisely because it knows that
the film is bait for the books: unsuspecting parents who take their children to
see the movie may be impelled to buy the three books as a Christmas present. And
no parent who wants to bring their children up in the faith will want any part
of these books.

And, what exactly is so objectionable about these books? Well, The Golden Compass is a story that follows Lyra and her daemon, Pantalaimon, (as the official movie site explains: daemons [pronounced demon] are manifestations of a "person's soul" that "live on the outside of their body" and assume some animal form. Children's daemons may change to "assume all the forms that a child's potential inspires" until settling on one adult form) on a search for the meaning behind a mysterious substance, Dust, and its relationship to daemons as well as the multiple universes that overlay and exist in close communion with each other. And, what is Lyra fighting against but a religious institution, the General Oblation Board, that uncannily resembles the Catholic Church. What the Oblation Board seeks to do is suppress all knowledge pertaining to Dust, except when it serves the Oblation Board's purpose, of course. And, there it is. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what the Catholic League is in such a fit about.

Despite all their campaigning, though, it seems that the Catholic League's efforts may have had the opposite effect on parents and children, alike. Random House is reporting that "more than ten years after its original publication, The Golden Compass has hit USA Today's Top 50 Best Sellers list, having seen a 500% increase in sales over the last three months" Despite success on the best sellers list, however, Entertainment Weekly is still engaged in speculation over whether or not the $180 million dollar movie will pull its weight at the box office this weekend and in the weeks leading to Christmas. While there already seem to be plans for a second movie installment of the series (part of The Gap's promotional deal with New Line is a competition for a role in what would be the next movie, The Subtle Knife), EW doesn't fail to highlight the fact that "the defining struggle in trying to convert Compass into a blockbuster franchise has been in figuring out just how smart -- and provocative -- a film can be in today's religiously touchy culture."

The controversy surrounding the film has made Nicole Kidman rather mum about her possible involvement in the sequel, saying in an interview last week that she'll "wait to see how this does." She does state, however, that she "hopes" to be involved in a sequel. The actress, who was the author's first choice for the glamorous but diabolical Mrs. Coulter, has received her share of criticism for her role in movie. But the extent of this criticism does not come close to surpassing the kinds of things that are being said about Philip Pullman these days. And, unlike Kidman, he's engaging a dialogue with his attackers.

So, while Bill Donohue, The Catholic League's President, is calling Pullman a "militant atheist," Pullman is talking back about his supposed "agenda" and defending his views on religion and theology, which he also talks about in an interview on his official site:

I don't know whether there's a God or not. Nobody does, no matter what they say.
I think it's perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without
bringing God into it, but I don't know everything, and there may well be a God
somewhere, hiding away.
Actually, if he is keeping out of sight, it's
because he's ashamed of his followers and all the cruelty and ignorance they're
responsible for promoting in his name. If I were him, I'd want nothing to do
with them.

Donohue might want to check up on his definition of "atheist" and his definition of "militant," while he's at it. Through all the research that I've conducted on the author, I've come to the conclusion that we are simply talking about a writer who's main concern is to tell a story that will excite and spark the imaginations of his readers. And, while his religious beliefs don't seem to coincide with the beliefs of some Christians, he makes it clear that his beliefs and doubts are his own. And, what is imagination and critical thinking if not the exploration of one's doubts and the knowledge that one gleans from such questioning? Why must we all ascribe to the same beliefs, doctrines and ways of life? Why does it seem that one cannot be spiritual without an affiliation with a church or some form of organized religion? When was such a division created? And, why can't we stand alone in our beliefs anymore? The most controversial thing about these books seems to be that Pullman encourages readers to ask these critical questions. But, I suppose that in itself is enough of a threat for Christian leaders to stage vehement opposition against the books.

In truth, the only thing that Pullman seems militant about is his dislike of fellow English writer C.S. Lewis's Narnia series. In an article published in The Guardian some ten years ago, Pullman called the beloved Chronicles of Narnia series one of the "ugliest and most poisonous things" he'd ever read. And, while this sounds a bit harsh at first, recollecting the scenes that he specifically talks about really makes you wonder about C.S. Lewis's agenda.

I'm not alone in my support of Pullman's His Dark Materials, though. Donna Freitas, along with Jason King, has defended the books in Killing the Imposter God: Philip Pullman's Spiritual Imagination in His Dark Materials. In the wake of all the controversy surrounding the movie, Freitas has also put together a very good list of "top ten spiritual lessons" found within The Golden Compass as a way of responding to all the accusations that the books and movie have received for being "overtly anti-Christian" with intensions of "selling atheism to children."

Because it is quite obvious that I am a dorkishly obsessed supporter of His Dark Materials and have quite a fond place for Philip Pullman in my heart, I suggest reading this relatively neutral New Yorker article by Laura Miller, published in 2005 before all this hubbub began. I just hate when writers are misquoted and misunderstood by the skimmers and the lemmings of the world.

This blog was initially intended to be a review of The Golden Compass, the first book in the trilogy, but as you can see I've become quite carrried away with other related and pertinent matters. I doubt that I could do the book justice, anyway. So, if you still don't know what this Golden Compass thing is about and you'll forgive me, I'll direct you to another blogger who I think does as good a job as any.

Whew, that was long-winded! Now, who's coming to the movies with me this weekend?

Francesca Lia Block's The Rose and The Beast

Since publishing the classic Weetzie Bat in 1989, Francesca Lia Block has become one of the most widely read Young Adult authors around. Her appeal among the pre-teen and teen reading population stems largely from her ability to infuse a sense of magic and wonder into even the most grim and realistic of situations and settings. And, this is no small feat, considering her most beloved setting of all happens to be the city that, for many, only brings to mind images of a sprawling landscape of skyscrapers, smog and crime: Los Angeles.

Under Block's gaze and through her pen, however, Los Angeles becomes, again, the land of angels and dreams, where one feels that beauty and magic are still possible if one just knows how and where to look. What a treat it is, then, to have a magician of Block's breathtaking skill turn her attention to the familiar fairy tales of childhood in The Rose and The Beast: Fairy Tales Retold. In Block's revisioned tales, which include new renditions of the classic Snow White, Cinderella, Thumbelina, and Beauty and the Beast stories, latent themes emerge while modernized insertions and intricate, sensual details thrust you into a world where the grit of modern life is able to exist side by side with the fragile stuff of fairy tale and make believe.

Block makes an art of creating the most lavish images with the simplest combinations of words and sentences. While the prose may seem simple, and it is easy to assume that this makes the literature most suitable for younger readers, the ideas that are so lovingly threaded through Block’s words are neither immature or watered down. Yes, Block’s themes and subject matter are often veiled by such a magnificence of words that sometimes one does not notice the sexual undertones or the explicit nature of what Block is describing until it leaps out at the end of a paragraph or page, or hours after you’ve finished the story. And, there is gravity to be found in each of the nine tales found in this slight (at 229 large-print pages) book.

Block has successfully attempted to make fairy tales for the modern world, able to be believed, even if just for a moment, by the modern reader. Pioneering the revolution in Young Adult literature in portraying the real issues and dilemmas that America’s youth are facing, Block creates tales that do not ignore the stories of abandonment, violence, exploitation and violation that are the experience of so many of the young adults that the older generations would like to still consider innocents. So, while Block’s book pays homage to the imagined world of childhood innocence, she also uses her revisionings as therapeutic reminders that innocence has never existed without experience and that true magic lies in exploring, as William Blake once did, the ways in which these forces rub up against each other to create the wondrous spark that is life.