These books are a retelling of Milton's Paradise Lost.
It is kind of like Wicked in response to the Wizard of Oz.
Every now and then, a paragraph will illuminate the situation. This is from The Subtle Knife:
"There are two great powers," the man said, "and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit." (p. 320)
I just got back from seeing the movie, and I thought it was excellent. If the books have a strong anti-religion stance like you suggest, they really were very blurred in the movie. I barely caught onto them at all.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Pullman's triology, Paradise Lost, or Wicked, so I can't say a whole lot hear.
What I did pick up from the movie is that Pullman was trying to portray Oxford as a dull, uninspiring place while illuminating the Magisterium. Of course in the real Oxford of today, the Church and University are manifestly not at odds. Religion definitely does not poison everything in our modern society. So I don't really see what all the controversy is about.
I like the quote you posted. What powers do you think Pullman is suggesting? I would argue that if it were not for the rise of Chritianity, Modern Science as we know it would have never came into being.