My Studios

Wolf, there are a lot of things I want to say in response to your response of my post, but I won't. I agree that this has turned futile and juvenile, so I will follow suit in raising a white flag. Live and let die.

Becs, I am glad to here you read the book. In everything you wrote, you didn't actually answer the big question...Did you enjoy it? I hope you did, because I absolutely love the series.

No worries Wolfman Jack.

I've got free tickets to go see Compass on opening day.

Wanna come wolf? I think it's time you got to see an offensive movie in the vein of Epic Movie. Come with me, I urge you. I guarantee it will be ultra-offensive.

P.S. You can keep the mirror.

first of all, Wolf, i'm not telling you that if you kill Kazakhstani babies, your soul will earn a place in heaven.... i.e, i don't have any ulterior motive....and secondly, i'm offering advice, not a religious decree....and i'm just emphasizing my point of view....

but anyways, i've tried my best to keep it civil and grown up, but i could go for some white-flagging....

Exactly. I will concur with everything ashkul just posted.

mooreland wrote:

Becs, I am glad to here you read the book. In everything you wrote, you didn't actually answer the big question...Did you enjoy it? I hope you did, because I absolutely love the series.

Yes, I did! I bought a bunch of books to read when I got The Golden Compass, and evenso I had a hard time not going back to get the 2nd book! like I said, its been a long time since i've come across such a richly constructed world. I read the book in a day and a half, it was just such an exceptional story you have to keep turning the page!

oh and edit: Wolf I'm sorry you got the wrong idea! My "points" weren't an argument towards you, sorry you've borne the brunt of people's unobjective arguments here. All I was trying to achieve was just looping back, having thrown some of my opinions into the ring prior to reading the book, now that I have read the book and my findings therein.

I read this book "Shadowland" not long ago (there is a film made of it) which is about the period in CS Lewis's life when he fell in love, married and lost his wife to cancer. It is very good.

Now, we all know CS Lewis was a devout Christian and he wrote many books with a Christian theme including one of my favorite books, The Screw Tape Letters, so his credentials are impeccable. Yet, after he lost his wife, he went through an intense period of doubt about the existence of God. In fact, for many, many months he refused to believe God existed because a kind, loving God would never allow the misery we have on this planet. He would reward the faithful. CS Lewis entertained the thought that God might not exist.

In effect CS Lewis had a period when he was an athieist in his life.

At the end of this internal debate, Lewis came back with a greater understanding on the nature of God and how God works in our lives.

My point is that it is quite possible that Pullman is going through a similar philosophical debate and as a result wrote these 3 fine books. He was raised in a devout Christian family--he was not raised as an athiest.

The unexamined life is not worth living. ~ Socrates.

Best comments of this thread, Lovely, Excellent response. Its very what I was trying to get across in my early posts.
Facing contrary opinions is not something that I personally believe should be avoided, as it is the absolute *best* way of strengthening our beliefs and helping us to understand why our beliefs are what they are in the first place. Christ himself quite literally lived in *the filth* of reality, avoiding that, or shielding yourself from that is what has led to the stereotype of Christian ignorance. Everything in the bible tells the religious that our mission is to live *in* reality as a beacon of rock solid belief to those around us who don't have that. Without challenging and testing our beliefs through debate, we never achieve that.
Thats why the concept of refining fire, and being tried and texsted is so prevalent through the Bible.

Thanks becs. It was your and some other responses that got me thinking in that direction. And I completely agree with your last post.

I have to say, this has become a very thought provoking thread with alot of good, intelligent responses. Very interesting.

But I still don't know if Golden Compass is going to make the big bucks...lol.

Lovely wrote:

In effect CS Lewis had a period when he was an athieist in his life.

At the end of this internal debate, Lewis came back with a greater understanding on the nature of God and how God works in our lives.

This reiterates something I said in an earlier post. When I wrote:

mooreland wrote:

Don't let people tell you what to believe. Question your faith, and find out what your own personal beliefs are. Organized religion tells you what to believe from the day you are born. Find your own beliefs, so you can have an even closer connection with your faith.

I was not directing this at any one person. That is why I said "people." I just meant the cycle of your parents and your church telling you that "this is what your religion is" at an early age and I think people should question that and finds out what they truly believe, so that they can have a deeper connection, just like C. S. Lewis. I am sorry if I was unclear and you thought that was directed at you Wolf, because I meant it in a much more general term. I just think that by doing this, a person can be more like Lewis and form a truer, deeper understanding of your faith. And thank you Lovely for that really cool anecdote.

On a different note, I am totally stoked right now, because I just found out that I am going to see an advance screening of The Golden Compass in about three hours. YAY. I am going to be very critical of it being a huge fan of the book, but if you guys (and gals) want, I can tell you my impression of it when I get back?

well, on the bright side, some deep insights emerged from that heated debate....and lovely, that WAS a cool story....never knew CS Lewis went through an 'atheist phase'!!!!

Like mooreland I've had the good fortune of procuring tickets to an advance screening this evening, and just got back from seeing it.

Ultimately, All our debate was for naught, because the movie is pretty much taboo-free. No mention at all of The Church, the Magisterium which is the political power is the great villain and isn't shown to have any ties to religion as far as i could tell.
As a movie it was beautifully crafted, quite literally an artistic masterpiece. The vehicles and cities alone are mind blowing, the cgi was *far* more impressive than what I saw in Beowulf (the daemons changing forms brilliant).

That being said, if you have read the book, brace yourself. I have never been so utterly disappointed with a book's conversion to movie as much as this. It was an exceptional movie, the book was just so much better its unbelievable to me that they dumbed/watered it down as much as they did.

becs, that is pretty much my exact same reaction. The movie was made as a movie, and not a book, and the book reeaaaalllly suffered. The magesterium was played so idiotically, as just this shadowy organization who tells people what to do. No motive, no reason why they have power. They dumbed it down so much. And they tried to cram so much into the first third. It is like they threw in all the nouns in the book and left out all the adjectives. But they had to make a three hundred page book fit into a 2 hour movie, so I guess they were just trying to get to the meat and potatoes. Stepping back and looking at it as a film, it is a very well done film. The way the daemons turned to dust when their master's died was really cool. and the bear fight...AWESOME! But there was nothing offensice in this movie at all. The dodn't even say that the magesterium is connected to religion. Completely PG'ed.

sounds really cool, esp. the bearfight....but i'll probably have to catch it 2-3 weeks later, coz i have exams starting on the 6th....

I'm sorry, but I was just on the Golden Compass message board on IMDB and it's starting to sound ALOT like the Isamic Jihad on Salmon Rushdie over there by some people. Give me break! Way to support free-speech, people.

Needed to get that off my chest.

I'm not gonna bother myself with reading all the above posts.
But I would just like to say this.
I watched the movie last night and although I'm not a constant bible reader I'm pretty familiar with it. And I think I can safely say this movie in no way comes right out and condems religion and/or God in any way. If anything the only thing I caught was some antiGovernment crap. My manager was trying to find things to relate it to the bible like Narnia did. But thats just retarted in my book.
I thought it was a great movie. With maybe a few hints toward anitReligion/Heracy/Atheism/etc./blah blah blah.
Personally. Anybody whos worried about their tiny siblings going to see it.(No offense but I think at twelve they're old enough to make up their own mind on their beliefs. Just my opinion though) I think the main thing to worry about for the little ones would be the violence. Cause it gets pretty hardcore in some scenes. Especially the polar bear fight. Think Child Stabbing Lion killing Narnia times 5.
I thought the MPAA was supposed to be cracking down on ratings. But after seeing Narnia, Beowulf, and Compass I seriously have my doubts on just how strict they are getting.

As for the retards blasting it on the Net and or News. It doesn't matter what movie you make, what speech you give, or how you spend your money and/or time. Theres always gonna be some retards protesting it. Especially when it comes to movie making. And its not just the religious ones either.
If you don't believe me look at Tuan. If there was anymore people as ignorant as him there never be another spoof movie made again. If him and his anti-spoof army had anything to do with it.

My Studios

ADVICE & ANALYSIS: