I don’t get this one at all, the author of His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass Philip Pullman, which is the first movie in the Materials trilogy to come to the screen, has openly attacked the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for being anti-Christian.
Eh? Okay I haven’t read his book but doesn’t he talk of a rise against God and Christianity? Isn’t his the book that’s being radically altered to come to the big screen so as not to offend Christian groups? According to the BBC:
Author Philip Pullman has attacked plans to turn The Chronicles of Narnia into a movie series, calling CS Lewis’ books “racist” and “misogynistic”…said the 1950s stories were “reactionary”…
…Evangelical Christian groups in the US have backed the movie, seeing parallels between CS Lewis’ tales and Bible stories. “We believe that God will speak the gospel of Jesus Christ through this film,” Lon Allison, director of Illinois’ Billy Graham Centre, told the newspaper.
But Pullman said the Narnia books contained “a peevish blend of racist, misogynistic and reactionary prejudice” and “not a trace” of Christian charity. “It’s not the presence of Christian doctrine I object to so much as the absence of Christian virtue,”…”The highest virtue – we have on the authority of the New Testament itself – is love, and yet you find not a trace of that in the books.
Woah! I’d love some people who’ve read the books on both sides to come to this discussion and talk about the sets of books and what they feel is right. Is Pullman showing a case of “pot calling the kettle black”? Is it another case of religion over blowing feelings and misinterpreting art? What are your thoughts on this one?
