Philip Pullman Takes the Fantasy Genre to the Next Level

A film based on a novel by British author Philip Pullman opened this month in theaters throughout the world. It is titled The Golden Compass, which is also the North American title of the first volume of Pullman’s fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials.

According to interviews with Pullman, the author’s stated intention is to reverse the traditional Biblical account of the war between heaven and hell. In his introduction, Pullman says that he "is of the Devil's party and does know it" (a line adapted from a poem by William Blake).

Institutional religion is portrayed in the series as the oppressor of mankind. For example, Ruta Skadi, a witch and friend of Lyra’s (one of the two main characters) calls for war against the Magisterium in Lyra’s world, and says that "For all of (the Church’s) history … it has tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. And when it can’t control them, it cuts them out."

Skadi later extends her criticism to all organized religion: "That's what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling." By this part of the book, the witches have made reference to how they are treated criminally by the church in their worlds. Mary Malone, one of Pullman’s main characters, states that "the Christian religion … is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that’s all." She was formerly a Catholic nun, but gave up her vows when the experience of being in love caused her to doubt her faith.

Pullman portrays the Christian heaven to be a lie. In the third book, the afterlife is depicted as a bleak place where people are tormented by harpies until Lyra and Will (the other central character) descend into the land of the dead. Through their intercession, the harpies agree to stop tormenting the dead souls, and instead receive the true stories of the dead in exchange for leading them again to the upper world. When the dead souls emerge, they dissolve as they become one with the universe.

Pullman’s "Authority" is worshipped on Lyra’s earth as God, but he turns out to be the "first angel" instead. It is explicitly stated that the Authority was in fact not the creator of worlds. Pullman’s trilogy does not speculate on who or what might have created worlds. Members of the Church are typically displayed as zealots. Two characters who once belonged to the Church, Mary Malone and Marisa Coulter, are both displayed in a positive light only insofar as they have rebelled against the Church.

Cynthia Grenier, in the journal Catholic Culture, has said: "In the world of Pullman, God Himself (the Authority) is a merciless tyrant, His Church is an instrument of oppression, and true heroism consists of overthrowing both."

Pullman’s text states that the Authority is the "first angel," which, as he is presented in the novels, appears to be a malevolent angelic power. The overwhelming message, implanted in the minds of young readers, is that the Judeo-Christian God is in fact absolutely evil, Christianity is diabolic, and the Church is Satanic.

Pullman has, however, found support from some Christians, most notably Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who argues that Pullman’s attacks are focused on the constraints and dangers of dogmatism and the use of religion to oppress, not on Christianity itself. The cultural office of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has also given its approval to The Golden Compass (much to the horror of a number of American bishops), as has this same office approved the Harry Potter series and the homosexual film Brokeback Mountain. Yet Pullman’s trilogy shows the downfall of the Kingdom of Heaven, a hierarchy under the control of the Authority and his regent. In its place is the task to build the "Republic of Heaven."

In terms of popularity and themes, the Pullman trilogy is often compared with the Harry Potter series, written by J.K. Rowling. The latter comparison is interesting, because I have recently come across a shift in evaluation of the Potter series offered by a few reviewers, orthodox Christian thinkers who are somewhat more thoughtful, and usually more discerning about neopaganism than is Rowan Williams. They now maintain that Pullman’s novels are so obviously a corrupt mythology and so overtly anti-Christian that by comparison the Potter books, which are not openly or aggressively hostile to Christianity, fall within acceptable parameters of healthy fantasy literature. This is an easy conclusion to jump to, but a superficial one.

It is one of Satan’s most effective and time-tested strategies in his war against mankind to afflict us with a blatant evil (for example, the dark imagination of authors like Pullman), and then to offer an apparently lesser evil (the murky imagination of authors like J.K. Rowling) as an alternative, even as an antidote to the more blatant evil. Then, we jump hastily for the quick solution, the lesser evil, forgetting that it may be the lesser evil with which Satan wishes to infest the world.

Well-intentioned adults are always asking themselves: "What cultural material can I give to my children, my students, my young parishioners that contains some positive values, will get them reading and make them literate and avoid the worst evils of our times?" A good motive, but a flawed solution. The ancient enemy of mankind knows us very, very well. He knows that "lesser evils" are far more productive for his cosmic agenda than are blatant ones. He knows that only a small minority of people can be directly seduced into overt evil. Yet a majority, it now seems, have been led to just that, in the sense of deriving much pleasure from, and giving tacit approval to, what in real life is overtly evil. They have been charmed and dazzled by gradually increasing mixtures of good and evil, and by the underlying presumption that we shall decide what is good and evil and how the "good" is to overcome the "evil."

The success of Satan’s strategies depends upon the weaknesses of human nature (which are operative regardless of how simple or how brilliant one may be), especially our ignorance of spiritual warfare and our vulnerability to impressions. Human beings tend to choose the "balanced" approach, the middle zone or point between two opposing poles, the poles of absolute good and an apparent absolute evil. Thus, when we are confused by powerful cultural impressions we can perceive these poles as something other than what they are. Planetary poles shift. Cultural poles also shift, mutate, slide. And the poles in men’s minds are more unstable than these.

The true center is never the exact midpoint between these poles, because when a Pullman appears in the cultural matrix, pushing the poles, a Rowling suddenly will seem (by comparison) to be sane and wise. She will appear to be situated at the reasonable and moderate center, and that is precisely, of course, where reasonable and moderate people want to be. Who among us desires to be the "lunatic fringe" (as Rowling has categorized her Christian critics)? Who among us desires to be a book-burning fundamentalist (as we have been endlessly caricatured by pro-Potter critics)? These warps in the psychology of perception have their source in an abiding problem in the people of God, during both Old and New Testament eras: We keep forgetting. We keep forgetting that culture forms consciousness, and hence conscience, and hence actions. We keep forgetting that we are at war until the end of time. We keep forgetting that the seducer of mankind is the "subtlest of creatures." We keep forgetting that he is a master impressionist, a smoke-and-mirrors fallen angel who, through dark materials used with the appearance of light, little by little eases us into a mentality where we find ourselves calling good that which is evil, and evil that which is good. And not really knowing how we got there.

And what further distortions, along with negative consequences, will we see in the years to come as a generation enthralled by Rowling and Pullman becomes more and more dominant? During her recent tour of North America, J.K. Rowling has said several times in interviews, "Christians hate Harry," and "Christians hate me." The subliminal message here for the hundreds of millions of young people who identify with Harry and idolize Rowling is: Christians hate you! What will be the long-term effects of this kind of propaganda?

Pullman has his tens of millions of young readers. Rowling has her hundreds of millions. But Rowling has played a major role in paving the way for Pullman. Both have pushed and warped the poles in men’s minds. Both exercise complementary functions in the corruption of the contemporary imagination, and their differences are in degree not in kind.

Lev Grossman, in the July 23, 2007, issue of Time magazine, writes, "If you want to know who dies in Harry Potter, the answer is easy: God." In this he has expressed the core problem with the Potter series. There is much that could be written, and has been written, about the specific problems in the books. Without neglecting the valid point that good fiction need not be overtly Christian, need not be religious at all, we might ponder a little the fact that the central metaphor and plot engines of the series are activities (witchcraft and sorcery) absolutely prohibited by God. The saturation of a generation of young readers in the ethics and ethos of darkness, cosmeticized as playful fiction, will have its long-range effects. Not least of these effects will be the further promulgation of moral relativism, which in cultural forms tends to become not only the dictatorship of moral relativism but the addiction of moral relativism. As with all addictions, it is difficult for the addict to conceive of life without his addiction; indeed the substance that enslaves him has become life for him.

The promethean nature of magic, the fire stolen from the gods, confirms at a fundamental level of identity and appetite the psychological perception in the young of our times that they can "be as gods," complete with moral boundaries defined by the self and with reward mechanisms accountable to no higher authority than their own will. With the Potter series, many Christians have accepted this because the central character embodies the perennial seduction in an apparently sanitized form, that is: "You shall be as nice gods." However, if you read the stories with some attention to what is being communicated at levels deeper than the charming plots and characters, you will find that Harry is not all that nice. He ends as a nice enough fellow at the climax of volume seven, but only after leaving a trail of mayhem, lies, and hatred throughout the preceding six. We never really learn how Harry matures from this condition into his sterling final form — the good sorcerer who saves the world. 

This brings me to a point which I think we should ponder and pray about with some attention: If Harry Potter represents a loveable sorcerer who saves the world, and is also the primary cultural presence who prefigures the overtly anti-Christian heroes of Pullman’s fantasy, is there not a paradigm here, uncannily similar to two figures in the Book of Revelation? St. John’s vision tells us that the Antichrist will be preceded by a False Prophet. I do not believe that the two authors are the ones prophesied by Sacred Scripture, but I do ponder the possibility that the extraordinarily powerful fictional role-models they have created, and which are now enthralling the imagination and thinking of a generation, are preparing the ground for later developments. When an actual man, performing "signs and wonders," appears on the world scene, and then leads mankind to another seemingly benign figure who is the embodiment of the spirit and ideas of Antichrist, will this present generation (and perhaps those that are to follow) be able to discern the evil at work in the illusion of light?

No one would deny the civil rights of Pullman and Rowling to write and publish what they write and publish. My point here is Christians should not be promoting either of them. Why are some Christian commentators promoting them, especially the Potter series? What is missing in these opinion-shapers’ understanding? What goes wrong when a part of human discernment (the purely rational) is inflated to an absolute, overwhelming all other faculties of discernment, including the spiritual? Why, moreover, have we become so desperate to find the bits of good floating in a soup of evil? Is it because we are starving for real nourishment?

If we hope to shake off the illusions of corrupt culture, and if we hope to develop an authentic integration of faith and culture, we must first seek the true center, which is above.

O Mary, Mother of the New Evangelization, confound and defeat all the malice and illusions of the deceiver, the ancient enemy of mankind! Pray for us, O Mother, that we may awaken and feed our children good food — food that will nourish unto eternal life!

Michael O’Brien, father of six, is a painter and writer. He is the author of several books, notably the best-selling novel Father Elijah and his examination of the paganization of contemporary children's culture, A Landscape With Dragons: the Battle for Your Child's Mind. You may visit him at his Web site, http://studiobrien.com.