This is one of the Harry Potter books. This bewitching, child-friendly, sorceror's-guide-cum-gripping yarn is a bestselling page-turner, corrupting our children's minds and making our little ones into ouija board playing, spell-casting occult-dabblers...with wands! Shred it!
This book, The Golden Compass, is giving scandal to children, infecting their poor, fragile minds with atheistic propaganda, designed to put them off Holy Mother Church and the Magisterium, with subtle mind-controlling ecclesiastical language that paints the Church as a dark, sinister, monolithic, unforgiving, Orwellian, all-seeing, all pervasive, boa constrictor of human freedom that makes the wicked Ice Queen from the Narnia stories seem like Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Shred it! Then once its shredded, burn it! Then once its burned, jump and down on the ashes! Then gather up the ashes and throw them off Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol on a windy day, that no trace of this heretical filth may be found...ever! Shred it!
and you don't think you are being mind-controlling, dark, sinister, monolithic, unforgiving, Orwellian, all-seeing, all pervasive, and a boa constrictor of human freedom but seriously restricting your children's right to free will and to read these (in the case of Phillip Pullman) very intelligent pieces of literature?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous
ReplyDeleteSense of humour? We're not into book-burning anymore.
Anon
ReplyDeleteI read His Dark Materials. It begins with a good idea about the little girl who lives in the college attic in an alternative fantasy Oxford.
The first few chapters are engaging, then the thing goes to pieces with a contrived thing about a group of evil people in Geneva. Then it just ends up in a confusion somewhere in what I assume is a fantasy Lapland, though how they actually get there isn't clear as it isn't on the back of a goose nor is it by Magic - the usual ways of travelling long distances in fairy stories.
It seems to be a more a vehicle for Pullman's obsessional anti-religious sentiments than an attempt to tell an exciting and gripping story.
The Narnia books, by contrast, have a coherence and consistency about them, with the stories taking place in a believable fantasy world.
Harry Potter I have not read. I would not recommend the Pullman books.
Children are impressionable. It is not a good idea to impress them with ideas that are contrary to how the world actually is. They can burn their fingers.
Come to think of it, you could write better children's books. Pray for inspiration.
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