C.S. Lewis can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis
The Chronicles of Narnia sold more than 100 million copies in 41 languages. Imagine being an author that sells *that* many books. A seven book series written for children but also beloved by adults. To be sure all of those words, chapters, and books were a powerful testament to Lewis's ability to dazzle an audience while offering literary imagery that speaks to Christian ideals.
Narnia is a world of stardust where animals talk, magic is everywhere, and children are heroes. King Aslan rules with a firm but gentle hand. Good and evil collide. Adventure can be found right on the other side of the wardrobe ... or in today's language, closet.
It is an incredible time to be alive. All of Lewis's characters impact the world and become legend. Years later people speak in hushed voices of "those legendary days" long ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials
You may be the giver or receiver of an earful if Philip Pullman's three book series, His Dark Materials, has been mentioned around the water cooler. This chatter may be due to befriending a Lewis enthusiast or because "The Golden Compass" can now be viewed at a theater near you.
Pullman has won many prestigious awards for his masterful story telling skill. He is a talented writer that will take readers on an incredible journey where they commit to amazing feats. The adventurer in any of us will find his books appealing. Some of the awards he's won: the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Book Award, and (for The Amber Spyglass) the Whitbread Book of the Year Award - the first time in the history this award has been given to a children's book writer.
You can learn more about Pullman here:
http://www.philip-pullman.com/about_the_author.asp
What makes this book so hard for some to digest? Remember Milton's, Paradise Lost? Pullman borrows a passage and places it at his series entrance. "His Dark Materials" is defined here:
…Into this wilde Abyss,
The Womb of nature
and perhaps her Grave,
Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mix't
Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more Worlds,
Into this wilde Abyss the warie fiend
Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while,
Pondering his Voyage… (2.910-919)
Learn more about Paradise Lost here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost
Pullman wrote these books with the intention of inverting Milton's war between heaven and hell. In Paradise Lost (a poem where much of our imagery of heaven and hell has come) God wins. Pullman's intention is that Satan wins.
His book is also very much about gnostic thought. A belief that all material reality is evil. For spirits to be free to be with God ... they must be freed from their matter. God was also trapped in this matter and had to be freed. The idea is somewhat complex.
One website on Gnosticism describes it as this:
"In gnostic thought, a divine seed was imprisoned in every person. The purpose of salvation was to deliver this divine seed from the matter in which it was lost. Gnostics classified people according to three categories: (1) gnostics, or those certain of salvation, because they were under the influence of the spirit (pneumatikoi); (2) those not fully gnostics, but capable of salvation through knowledge (psychikoi); and (3) those so dominated by matter that they were beyond salvation (hylikoi). Gnostics often practiced excessive asceticism, because they believed that they were thus liberated by the spirit."
More can be found here. http://www.mb-soft.com/believe/txn/gnostici.htm
Quotes from his books:
Mary Malone: "the Christian religion… is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all."
"For all of [the Church's] history… it's tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. And when it can't control them, it cuts them out." (Cuts them refers to intercession which is a very emotionally painful abuse that occurs in the book.)
From Pullman's lips:
"I've been surprised by how little criticism I've got. Harry Potter's been taking all the flak… Meanwhile, I've been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God."
Another insult to Christians: their heaven is a lie ....
At least according to the series.
The Chronicles of Narnia sold more than 100 million copies in 41 languages. Imagine being an author that sells *that* many books. A seven book series written for children but also beloved by adults. To be sure all of those words, chapters, and books were a powerful testament to Lewis's ability to dazzle an audience while offering literary imagery that speaks to Christian ideals.
Narnia is a world of stardust where animals talk, magic is everywhere, and children are heroes. King Aslan rules with a firm but gentle hand. Good and evil collide. Adventure can be found right on the other side of the wardrobe ... or in today's language, closet.
It is an incredible time to be alive. All of Lewis's characters impact the world and become legend. Years later people speak in hushed voices of "those legendary days" long ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials
You may be the giver or receiver of an earful if Philip Pullman's three book series, His Dark Materials, has been mentioned around the water cooler. This chatter may be due to befriending a Lewis enthusiast or because "The Golden Compass" can now be viewed at a theater near you.
Pullman has won many prestigious awards for his masterful story telling skill. He is a talented writer that will take readers on an incredible journey where they commit to amazing feats. The adventurer in any of us will find his books appealing. Some of the awards he's won: the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Book Award, and (for The Amber Spyglass) the Whitbread Book of the Year Award - the first time in the history this award has been given to a children's book writer.
You can learn more about Pullman here:
http://www.philip-pullman.com/about_the_author.asp
What makes this book so hard for some to digest? Remember Milton's, Paradise Lost? Pullman borrows a passage and places it at his series entrance. "His Dark Materials" is defined here:
…Into this wilde Abyss,
The Womb of nature
and perhaps her Grave,
Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mix't
Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more Worlds,
Into this wilde Abyss the warie fiend
Stood on the brink of Hell and look'd a while,
Pondering his Voyage… (2.910-919)
Learn more about Paradise Lost here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost
Pullman wrote these books with the intention of inverting Milton's war between heaven and hell. In Paradise Lost (a poem where much of our imagery of heaven and hell has come) God wins. Pullman's intention is that Satan wins.
His book is also very much about gnostic thought. A belief that all material reality is evil. For spirits to be free to be with God ... they must be freed from their matter. God was also trapped in this matter and had to be freed. The idea is somewhat complex.
One website on Gnosticism describes it as this:
"In gnostic thought, a divine seed was imprisoned in every person. The purpose of salvation was to deliver this divine seed from the matter in which it was lost. Gnostics classified people according to three categories: (1) gnostics, or those certain of salvation, because they were under the influence of the spirit (pneumatikoi); (2) those not fully gnostics, but capable of salvation through knowledge (psychikoi); and (3) those so dominated by matter that they were beyond salvation (hylikoi). Gnostics often practiced excessive asceticism, because they believed that they were thus liberated by the spirit."
More can be found here. http://www.mb-soft.com/believe/txn/gnostici.htm
Quotes from his books:
Mary Malone: "the Christian religion… is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all."
"For all of [the Church's] history… it's tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. And when it can't control them, it cuts them out." (Cuts them refers to intercession which is a very emotionally painful abuse that occurs in the book.)
From Pullman's lips:
"I've been surprised by how little criticism I've got. Harry Potter's been taking all the flak… Meanwhile, I've been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God."
Another insult to Christians: their heaven is a lie ....
At least according to the series.
A source of contention for parents may be ... he wrote the books for young adults with the hope that it would also speak to adults.
Important topics also ensue. Historical facts that are not so pretty. Naming just a few: slavery, witch hunting, inquisitions, and crusades. Ugly pieces of truth to be sure ... but it seems most religions have some ugliness rooted in their history.
Important topics also ensue. Historical facts that are not so pretty. Naming just a few: slavery, witch hunting, inquisitions, and crusades. Ugly pieces of truth to be sure ... but it seems most religions have some ugliness rooted in their history.
But is Pullman an atheist? Not according to a quote on http://www.pluggedinonline.com/thisweekonly/a0003516.cfm
"Atheism suggests a degree of certainty that I'm not quite willing to accede. I suppose technically, you'd have to put me down as an agnostic. But if there is a God, and he is as the Christians describe him, then he deserves to be put down and rebelled against. As you look back over the history of the Christian church, it's a record of terrible infamy and cruelty and persecution and tyranny."
Considering the perspectives of these two expressive and imaginative authors ... Should Pullman's book be burned? I think not. His books cause us to stop and think. We may not agree with what he's saying but it does provoke us to think hard on matters of soul ... be they dark matter or not.
Post a comment. Add your thoughts. Just click on comments. If you are not a blogspot user ... just sign in as anonymous and sign your name. This is a heavy topic filled with much food for thought.
Also, check out my personal blogspot at: thehousehaslanded.blogspot.com
Post a comment. Add your thoughts. Just click on comments. If you are not a blogspot user ... just sign in as anonymous and sign your name. This is a heavy topic filled with much food for thought.
Also, check out my personal blogspot at: thehousehaslanded.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment