Subject: RE: BS: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
From:
harpmolly
Date: 30 Jun 07 - 07:08 PM
McGrath et al,
I was going to answer this in a PM, but then realized this discussion doesn't necessarily veer that far off the Harry Potter subject, after all.
I should have clarified my statement further. What HDM, as far as I can tell, warns against is the idea of dogma as an unquestionable authoritative force. Beliefs in and of themselves aren't the problem; it's the tyrannical control of (and suppression of dissenting) beliefs that cause a lot of the misery in the world. Pullman's admitted atheism is not his agenda; if it was, I doubt we would find beautiful passages such as this in the books:
"At the summit of the slope she looked for the last time at the Dust stream, with the clouds and the wind blowing across it and the moon standing firm in the middle.
And then she saw what they were doing, at last; she saw what that great urgent purpose was.
They were trying to hold back the Dust flood. They were striving to put some barriers up against the terrible stream: wind, moon, clouds, leaves, grass, all those lovely things were crying out and hurling themselves into the struggle to keep the shadow particles in this universe, which they so enriched.
Matter loved Dusty. It didn't want to see it go. That was the meaning of this night, and it was Mary's meaning, too.
Had she thought there was no meaning in life, no purpose, when God had gone? Yes, she had thought that.
'Well, there is now,' she said aloud, and again, louder. 'There is now!'"
--The Amber Spyglass, page 452
(Sorry for the long quote...couldn't help myself).
(For those not familiar with HDM, the shadow particles, or Dust, are particles of consciousness and awareness that make up Pullman's living universe.)
I promised I'd keep Harry involved, and here it is (and please God, I hope this doesn't innocently hijack the thread into a "Harry Potter is/isn't evil" topic). So many people who have objected to Harry Potter have claimed that it leads children away from Christianity and into witchcraft, because they *want passionately* to see this agenda in it. But Rowling's wizarding world is, if anything, totally secularized...the magic they practice doesn't call upon any spirits or deities, and Rowling never addresses exactly where the source of the magic is coming from. Hell, it could be Dust for all we know! LOL! (I might add that Ron Weasley gets a lumpy jumper for Christmas every year like many of his Muggle counterparts). ;) The people who claim a pagan agenda are objecting not to an actual agenda, but to the books' failure to conform to their own ecclesiastical authority (or should we say Authority? ;))
OK, I didn't mean to write nearly this much...blathering on as usual. ;) I do see where you and others differ from Pullman's approach, though. I mean, there's no question that he's pretty in-your-face about it. He's sort of the Michael Moore of the British intellectual young-adult-literary set. *grin*
Yours in cheerful disagreement,
Molly
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sj
