Pullman vs. Lewis DEATHMATCH!!!111one!!!

[rj_anderson]

There's been a lot of Lewis links and commentary on my f-list lately (including a very nice referral to my own essay on Susan in a recommendation of Andrew Rilstone's recent blog post about the same thing, for which I thank you, kalquessa). Most recently (and thanks to kalquessa yet again) there's this kinda cool article from The Chronicle addressing Pullman's charges against Lewis's Narnia, including sexism, racism, a pernicious belief in heavenly bliss, and lack of love.*

Which reminds me, the other day I found a quite hilarious book-a-minute-style summary of the Dark Materials trilogy by Abigail Nussbaum. Thanks yet again to kalquessa for reminding me where it was.

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* Given the actual content of both series, the only thing I can imagine Pullman means by the latter is that in Lewis's universe twelve-year-olds do not have sex. I am sorry that we are not all as cool and enlightened as you are, Mr. Pullman. Some of us still think this is a little early.

Comments

[sreya.livejournal.com]

Oh, very awesome article, I'm going to have to bookmark this one. It wraps up some very good points about the Chronicles, and brings in some interesting commentary on Christian allegory in general.

I have to say, Pullman's been on my "to read" list for a while, but lately he's been slipping further and further down that list in priority. It drives me nuts when authors bash other authors like that.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I really, really enjoyed the first book of the trilogy, because Pullman has a lot of writing talent and he pulls off some very entertaining things in it. The second one posed more problems for me (primarily a bleakness that I felt would get worse, not better, and which I wasn't interested in reading) and I never bothered to read the third. Despite being a very lapsed Catholic, faith still has a role to play in my life (although I'm never sure from day to day just what that role is) and I felt very uncomfortable by the way things were heading.