{"id":386,"date":"2007-12-26T11:11:36","date_gmt":"2007-12-26T17:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2007\/12\/26\/dial-a-compass\/"},"modified":"2008-09-27T23:42:33","modified_gmt":"2008-09-28T04:42:33","slug":"dial-a-compass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/12\/dial-a-compass\/","title":{"rendered":"Dial a Compass"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years ago I read a profile of Philip Pullman<\/a> in The New Yorker<\/em> (I don’t get this magazine for the articles but to look at the pictures, except sometimes) that inspired me to get the audio editions of the three volumes of the British children’s author’s His Dark Materials<\/em>, a phrase from the Protestant poet John Milton. They were extraordinary so I eagerly awaited the movie version of the first book, The Golden Compass<\/em>.<\/p>\n

My Beloved (who has not read or heard the original) and I enjoyed the film adaptation<\/a> and recommend it. It’s a computer-generated-imagery, derring-do, fairy tale, so avoid it if you insist on higher fare. The story true to many fantasies has a prophetic device, the compass. It also makes literal the conversation between Mind and Soul, with Pullman’s prankishly named daemons. The dire warnings of the movie’s Religious Implications are best ignored. Pullman says he is an atheist, but his learned thoughts on this subject are nowhere in this story. Neither God nor religion (not the same thing) is in Ratatouille<\/em> or Toy Story<\/em>, either.<\/p>\n

A few times a year, and probably since the Civil War, some socio-cultural event becomes the subject of a holy campaign. In considering The Golden Compass<\/em>, it’s finally become obvious that this sort of book-burning mindset shows more the insecurity of the higher ground authority than any real threat to the minds of children.<\/p>\n

Of course one would have to read the books or see the movie to determine its non-relevance in terms of belief in God. Doing so cancels out the boycott so it won’t do. You have to take our word for it. No polar bears or other animals were harmed in the making of this movie, and neither was the Lord of Hosts. Does Pullman spear authority that holds power by limiting freedom? Yes, it’s the trilogy’s theme, and the authority in the story could be religious or political. Even the fervent would oppose those who created the Crusades and Nazi Germany. Pullman also condemns evil authority of the smallest, personal scale.<\/p>\n

We saw the movie on opening weekend, nearly three weeks ago. I’ve checked the news and there’ve been no reports children seeing the Saturday matinee then waking up Sunday refusing to go to church because of it.<\/p>\n

This is because children are smarter than that and so are most of their parents. I am a good example of this. Throughout my childhood and adolescence (the story’s heroine is about 12), I was bombarded with The Greatest Story Ever Told<\/strong>. In every fashion — direct and indirect, with horrible images and gentle tones, and from straight-from-the-Book Christian sagas and present-day tales of people who through crisis find triumph in Jesus’ one way and frequent in-my-face appeals — I received this message. My home was Fort Smith, Arkansas, where evangelism is put in the tap water instead of fluoride.<\/p>\n

None of the pitches ever took. I’m still a Jew, and not even a Messy (messianic) Jew<\/a>. If you’re not a Christian — and you grow up in the U.S. outside of the biggest cities, which is most of us, you will get recruited. Only a very few of us get baptized: Jew, Muslim and none-of-the-above develop into adults with faiths often intact.<\/p>\n

So, parents, don’t worry about this movie; the majority kids will enjoy the characters, plot and special effects. All The Golden Compass<\/em> might do is teach children to think for themselves, and isn’t it about time?<\/p>\n

There is, though, Pullman’s questioning of authority even on a small, personal scale. The movie and books (available at Wal-Mart<\/a>) stomp on the Fifth Commandment, about honoring one’s parents. Not much has been written about that. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years ago I read a profile of Philip Pullman in The New Yorker (I don’t get this magazine for the articles but to look at the pictures, except sometimes) that inspired me to get the audio editions of the three volumes of the British children’s author’s His Dark Materials, a phrase from the Protestant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mr-boo-klist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":417,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/04\/judge-date-by-her-cover\/","url_meta":{"origin":386,"position":0},"title":"Judge Date by Her Cover","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"April 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are three articles claiming with scant evidence that women are fiction and men non-fiction. The earliest comes from the March 24, 2008, edition of The New Yorker, which started out as possibly a look at where the two literatures overlap in either memoir or false memoir. But near the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/01\/decisions\/","url_meta":{"origin":386,"position":1},"title":"Decisions","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 13, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2004. The old chestnut of a philosophical construct: If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today? Ideally, you'd spend lots of time in the park, barefoot (the sun would be warm and shining of course), using\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Life Lessons","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/life-lessons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3502,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2012\/02\/whodve-thunks\/","url_meta":{"origin":386,"position":2},"title":"Who’d’ve-Thunks","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2012 Ben S. Pollock I knew what to expect of The Artist, a \"silent\" film, meaning no talking, though it did have sound effects and music (and beforehand, ironically, the loudest-volume trailers since those running with Avatar). Still, the teenage box office cashier warned My Beloved and me, while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2389,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/11\/begetting-books\/","url_meta":{"origin":386,"position":3},"title":"Begetting Books","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been some three decades since I last watched them do it, and I can't quite replicate it. I wish I could multitask like my parents, who excelled at the feat before it had a name. There's one round of activities of theirs that I envy. They could read mysteries\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Life Lessons","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/life-lessons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":364,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/10\/state-of-the-buggy-whip\/","url_meta":{"origin":386,"position":4},"title":"State of the Buggy Whip","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Nobel folks awarded its 2007 literature prize Thursday to Doris Lessing. The wire service story was the usual. It began with the summary lede. Then it had a sliver of who she is -- elderly and English but with first-hand knowledge of the Near East and southern Africa, prolifically\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2059,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/07\/finally-a-book-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":386,"position":5},"title":"Finally, a Book List","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a list, a record, an accounting. Dull in some lights, if not pretentious, condescending and childish: Look at what I've been reading, Mommy!\u00a0But in recent years, I've heard of more people keeping lists of books they've read. I've enjoyed looking at them. Nick Hornby's is a feature in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":683,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions\/683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}