Democratic Reading: Or How to Think for Yourself

30Nov07

The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman, is the newest edition to the ever-growing stack of controversial children’s books. This is the first book of Pullman’s series “His Dark Materials.” This fantasy is quickly becoming one of most talked about books of the year. A quick search on google will yield thousands of sites based around the world of the main character, Lyra. She, along with the rest of her friends, are as beloved to some as Frodo and his fellowship circle. Making the book even more popular is the soon to be adaptation starring Nicole Kidman, coming out in mid December. Now, with any good story involving magic, and especially one aimed towards children, this book has raised a large amount of controversy. As the release date for the movie draws closer, the debates and condemnations surrounding the story are quickly rising to meet that of the infamous lightning scarred wizard. One of the most popular emails and message board posts circulating around the web clearly shows the supposed intent of the author:

“There will be a new Children’s movie out in December called THE GOLDEN COMPASS. It is written by Phillip Pullman, a proud atheist who belongs to secular humanist societies. He hates C. S. Lewis’s Chronical’s of Narnia and has written a trilogy to show the other side. The movie has been dumbed down to fool kids and their parents in the hope that they will buy his trilogy where in the end the children kill God and everyone can do as they please. Nicole Kidman stars in the movie so it will probably be advertised a lot. This is just a friendly warning that you sure won’t hear on the regular TV.”

Pullman has been interviewed numerous times in the last few months, and the question on the top of everyone’s list is “Are you really trying turn children into atheists?” Pullman’s answer, (which coincidentally never directly answers the question) is one of the reasons why I love what I do, and why I have buried myself in books since I was a little girl. Pullman passionately explains his beliefs in what he calls the Democracy of Reading. He discusses how his intentions for the book have little, or no significance on what the book actually means. Instead, “the meaning of a story emerges in the meeting between the words on the page and the thoughts in the reader’s mind.” In other words, think for yourself, make your own judgements, and let the reader (thats you and me!) decide.

When it comes to what children are reading, so many times we, as adults, halt the process of imagination. Instead of letting children walk away with their own meanings, we enforce our meanings on them. This is not cool.

I am currently reading the second book of this trilogy, The Subtle Knife, and so far have not thought the book to be overly anti-religious. There are some themes depicting the “evil” that can come from organized religion. Specifically focusing on religion when it has complete reign over every aspect of life. We know this idea is true (Taliban) so I am not quite understanding where exactly the anti-religion/Christianity ideas are coming from. Does that whole “fear what we don’t understand” theory apply to this book?

Overall, the themes in this series are original, the writing is clean, imaginative, and mature, and the storyline is fun and adventurous. My advice, do some democratic reading (aka think for yourself) and dream up your own symbolism, themes, and meanings. Go ahead and decide the story is nothing more than a nonsense children’s story, or even a crazy man’s Freudian dream. Its what the author (and me) encourages.

Filed under: Book Review, By: Hip Shhusher   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: childrens lit, controversy, democratic reading, fantasy, golden compass