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I read the Golden Compass and its sequels because my then 14-year old daughter and husband strongly recommended them. Turns out that I actively dislike all the books I’ve read by Philip Pullman. There’s a strong undercurrent of child abuse in all of them and it grosses me out.Lord of the Rings doesn’t bother me as much as Pullman but it’s not a favorite either.
The Golden Compass is about a series of disappearances (and mutilations that result in the deaths) of youngsters of a species that is similar to but not human. I found the book very, very disturbing.
I am a huge fan of fairy tales and don’t have a problem with bad/creepy things happening in stories if I feel that there’s a purpose behind the bad things happening. (Click here for my defense of fairy tales…)
So, for example, I’m ok with the destruction of the planet Alderaan at the beginning of Star Wars, because I feel that it is \”necessary\” for the plot AND because the quality of the movie was such that (I felt) it \”justified\” the virtual destruction. On the other hand, there was a TV series called Battlestar Gallactica that began with the destruction of the earth. I thought the characters and plots and events and writing of that show were dreadful and so they did not \”justify\” the destruction of earth and all its inhabitants.
In the case of the Golden Compass, I find the writing pedestrian and the thing that made me think it was creepy was the plot, NOT the writing. For the entire book, it’s basically a mystery about why these children are being abducted and mutilated. So, they keep having to be abducted and mutilated.
Worse, unlike in a fairy tale, there is no resolution in this book. (Resolution occurs in the third book of the series. Not soon enough, in my opinion.)
One skill I would like my children to learn is to discriminate between books. In my mind, I distinguish between Animorphs and Narnia, at least when they are being read by a 12 year old. Animorphs are mind-candy. When she was at that stage, I didn’t prohibit my daughter from reading Animorphs, but I was not willing to buy the whole series (couldn’t afford it anyway). I MIGHT have been willing to buy the whole Narnia series.
I have discussed why I think this book is repulsive with my daughter. Her \”defense\” of the book was that, \”But Pantalaion is so cute!\” Sigh. It’s fine with me that she enjoyed reading the book. But the fact that the concept of daemons is intriguing and that one of them was cute does not make the book great. So, if we are going to allow our children to read, uncensored, it puts a burden on us to read those books too (no matter how distasteful that might be) so that we can help them work through issues that might arise when they read them. (And, no, you don’t have to read ALL the Animorphs books. But you do have to know enough about them to discuss them intelligently with the child.)
Another skill I think these children need to acquire is the ability to defend their reading (and other) choices. I am a major fan of science fiction and we went as a family to see the movie The Matrix (the first one). Which I really enjoyed. Yes, it’s violent, sloppy, yadda, yadda, yadda. I REALLY enjoyed watching it. And I can tell you why sometime off-line if you are interested. And I do not regret taking my 12 yr. old daughter with me to watch it. When I told an overly politically-correct acquaintance (who was outraged that her 15 yr. old son had gone to see The Matrix and loved it) that our whole family had gone to see it, she screamed at me about how inappropriate it was of me to allow this. But when I asked her why it was inappropriate, my friend said she had never seen it and never would. To keep up with these kids, you need credibility. It’s fine to take a position, but you have to be able to make an intellectual argument because otherwise these kids discount what you’re saying AND they don’t learn to construct the intellectual arguments themselves.
So, again, in this particular case, I urge parents who are contemplating recommending The Golden Compass to their children to read it before they do. (But I think the same about The Giver and Ender’s Game and Feynman and …, all of which I feel more positively about.)
To buy The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
–Emily Berk