It seems that I keep needing to rant about these books. The thing is, I've never even read them.
Weird, huh?
My in-laws keep tossing about emails about whether or not the movie based on the book released in the United States under the title "The Golden Compass" is a pernicious movie or not. (I just said pernicious...heehee) This would not be problematic to me, as I see no problem with evaluating the media that you choose to bring into your home to make sure that it's in line with what you want to teach your children.
However, at least two of these family members have offered the opinion that the series in all likelihood (This is a quote from the email I just read) "persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God," and because it does those things, it's of the devil. My problem with this lies in the fact that neither of the two, including this person who sent the scriptural quote, has read the books. If she had, I wouldn't be nearly as up in arms about the fact that she held strong views against them. I just have trouble with people who condemn literature (or film, which I think the argument can be made is a literary genre) without having read it. Like the folks who are convinced that Harry Potter will teach your children to worship Satan and sell him their souls. (That must be why I like them so much....we all know I'm one of Satan's little rebellious minions)
So. I guess this rant is really about not returning to upholding the mentality that led to the Inquisition's list of banned books (Did you know Lazarillo was on that list for a while? I only recently learned this....) or anything like it. Freedom of information is very much worth READING the books before you try to convince people that they're "of the devil."
Okay. I'm done. Until the next chapter of this rant. Once I read the books, I'll offer an opinion.
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4 comments:
I hate it when people pick one book or one movie as the scapegoat for all that's evil in the world. They probably let their kids watch stuff like "The Little Mermaid" that's just as morally suspect in it's message. Blah. I don't care if people dislike or disagree with the books as long as they've read them first. Also, people don't realize that by making a big fuss they're only giving the books more publicity. The best way to get a book out of print is to ignore it and not buy any more copies.
Well said.
I got that same email from someone I know about the Golden Compass. I checked it out (because it seemed suspicious) and what I found is this: http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp
It is true that the author is an atheist and that according to his own words "my books are about killing God." I'm not making any sort of push for or against seeing the movie or reading the book. I just thought you'd be interested. :)
That's been what I've read about him too. My question about the books is if he actually says "this is God and we've killed him, because really there's no God" or if the kids just kill some sort of being in high power that's posing as a god-like figure. So I'm gonna read it. And see.
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