I have read the first two books of the triology and am reading the third one now. Pullman is a good writer and his trilogy, at least the first two books, are a fun read. But as you get near the end of the first book, the anti-Christianity themes get stronger. He finally attacks the whole concept of original sin and he certainly hates the church. The third book of the series, The Amerber Spyglass, is so laden with hatred for the church that the writing gets bogged down from the beginning. If the producers want to bring all three books to screen, then they will not be able to avoid the implications. He also hates C. S. Lewis. You could call these the anti-Narnia books. He begins his story in a wardrobe, although the difference is vast from the very beginning.
I was considering reading those books, but maybe I won’t now (one important factor is I don’t have easy access to them). I really generally don’t mind attacks on Christianity in fantasy books, because due to the medieval-style setting of most of them they attack the medieval church, which was royally messed up (no pun intended). The same can be said for the Halo games - the leaders of the bad aliens are religious zealots called ‘Prophets’, but when you look at the social structure of the Covenant as a whole, it almost perfectly reflects medieval society.
Anyways, I see a lot of Harry-Potter-style hype about the series’ anti-Christianity themes happening, people reading way too much into stuff, etc.
I believe the Catholic League fears that the first movie, which is very mild, will encourage parents to buy the finished set of movies or, more likely, even buy the book trilogy (as I did with the Lord of the Rings trilogy). Then, the “beast is in the household” so to speak.
F
Born and raised Catholic but it was the concept of original sin that turned me away from Christianity and then reading Rand that turned me into an atheist.
Original sin is a hard selling point for atheists...I’m not evil and I wasn’t born evil. And what do you say about a god who puts you on his s*** list as soon as you pop out?
Maybe that was too harsh :) But it does show there are a lot of strong feelings involved on both sides. I very much enjoyed Narnia but I hated Harry Potter. I even liked the Passion of the Christ (Hey, Jesus probably did exist and he probably was crucified for whatever reason).
Anyway, I’m looking forward to this movie. Hope it lives up to the hype.