Always Advent

I wrote recently about Helen Fielding’s novel Bridget Jones’s Diary (”Juxtaposition Review: Bridget Jones’s Diary and Children of Men“) and after reading the book I didn’t think I would enjoy the movie adaptation of Bridget Jones at all, so I put off watching it, with no real plans to do so.

However, I was at the library the other day and it was there, so I checked it out and watched it.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Don’t get me wrong: the movie is definitely not for children or even for teens. Like the book, it’s very very funny (especially if you enjoy British humor) but it’s vulgar, loaded with profanity, contains somewhat explicit sexual references and images and, on its surface, presents a view of human sexuality that is opposed to the Catholic understanding of it. For these reasons I probably wouldn’t recommend it for most adults, frankly.

Except for the fact that it is a pretty good fictional explication of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.

“Huh?” you say.

As I was watching it, I kept thinking of Christopher West’s image of the dumpster versus the banquet. JP II says in Theology of the Body that men and women long for communion–true communion with one another and especially and ultimately with God. We are wired to long for that communion–the hope of Heaven. We are starving for love and connectedness.

Christopher West says that the modern world presents to love-starved men and women a vision of human sexuality that is equivalent to leading a food-starved person to a dumpster and telling him that’s as good as it gets. Modern sex–hooking up, shacking up, and so on–is dumpster diving. It is rubbish fed to people so desperate for love that they’ll settle for anything.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, presents love-starved men and women with a banquet of true love and connectedness in the practice of chaste married love and the understanding that all human love is a mere glimpse into the perfect communion of Heaven.

Bridget Jones is a stand-in for all men and women: she doesn’t want to be alone. She longs for connection. Daniel Cleaver is the dumpster. Mark Darcy is the banquet. Early in the movie, Bridget dives head first into the dumpster, gorges herself on garbage, and thinks she’s happy this way. The banquet is always there, in view. At first she can’t see it for what it truly is (the “sin makes you stupid” concept. Hat tip to Mark Shea.) but eventually she comes to see that the banquet is what she was really longing for.

To perceive this TOTB angle in a movie like Bridget Jones, you must be able to forgive quite a lot of vulgarity and crudity, but TOTB is there, and I’m glad for it–this was an extremely popular movie, so apparently a lot of people were exposed to the positive message that the dumpster does not satisfy and they should keep looking for “something extraordinary.”

The performances were excellent. I’ve seen the movie several times now and the principal actors are “something extraordinary,” especially Colin Firth, who plays Mark Darcy–the banquet. A subtle and fascinating performance.

Definitely not saying you should all go rent it and watch it. It might be offensive. The happy ending to the story is that instead of fornicating with the insufferable prat Daniel Cleaver, Bridget will now proceed to fornicate with the good man Mark Darcy. Oh well. That’s the way modern stories portray it. Perhaps the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, upon which Fielding based her novel, would be a better choice because it ends with the heroine marrying the right guy. (Firth plays Darcy in that one, too–LOL!)

Anyone read any of the books by Tom Grace?

National Catholic Register reviewed The Secret Cardinal recently:

The Secret Cardinal is a deft blend of fact and fiction, but the author is careful to separate both at the book’s end. For example, a key character — Cardinal Malachy Donoher — heads something called the Vatican Intelligence Service. Grace makes clear that no such entity exists.

Although Grace is an excellent storyteller, The Secret Cardinal exceeds its entertainment value by raising awareness of China’s persecuted underground Catholic Church, which has been illegal for more than a half century.

The book also scores points for recognizing Church teaching on human life in its account of why Kilkenny and his late wife postponed treatment of her cancer until after their child could be safely born. Grace weighs Kilkenny’s fidelity to his faith against the loss he suffers by letting it play out in a conversation between Cardinal Yin and Kilkenny.

Here, readers are given a compassionate picture of the Church as Yin, no stranger to suffering for doing the right thing, is able to offer manly comfort and counsel to Kilkenny: “You and your wife made a decision based on faith and hope, yet still suffered a great tragedy. I believe God is aware of this tragedy. …” This is refreshing stuff in a novel from a secular publisher.

Grace’s latest work is representative of his previous novels, in which sex and profanity are used sparingly in comparison to other books in this genre. Even so, some of the descriptions of torture are somewhat graphic, and may be too much for sensitive readers. Overall, however, this is a fine read that lends a Catholic presence to popular literature in the secular culture.

full review here:
review of The Secret Cardinal by National Catholic Register (review by Judy Roberts)
http://ncregister.com/site/article/7282

Published by Vanguard Press

I posted recently about Thomas Cahill’s Hinges of History series, in particular the book called Sailing the Wine Dark Sea:

http://claresiobhan.stblogs.com/2008/03/04/thomas-cahill-the -hinges-of-history/

Just a heads up: this book is definitely not suitable for children or teenagers. Cahill seems to know his history, he writes his own translations of some of the poetry, but he’s very irreverent, fairly graphic in his description of a certain sexual behavior for which the ancient Greeks are notorious, and he uses the f-word. Hm. I’m still reading it, but I’m not sure I can recommend it.

I just picked up from the library a book called Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter. It’s part of a series by Thomas Cahill titled The Hinges of History. The first book in the series is How the Irish Saved Civilization. The other books in the series are The Gifts of the Jews and Desire of the Everlasting Hills.

Anyone out there read any of these books? I remember being intrigued by the first one when it first came out (How the Irish Saved Civilization) but never got around to reading it. This one about the Greeks looks really good.

Links

Thomas Cahill – Random House, Wikipedia

Books – Google book search, Amazon

I came across this excellent book at my local public library, on the “new books” shelf:

The Catholicism Answer Book by Rev. John Trigilio Jr., PhD and Rev. Kenneth Brighenti, PhD (2007, Sourcebooks Inc.)

Straight-up, no-nonsense, get in/get out question & answer format. I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but it passes all the tests for good, Catholic books: orthodox, faithful answers to the hot button questions about sexual morality (contraception, homosexuality, fornication), life issues (abortion, capital punishment, cloning, embryonic stem cell research), clergy (male priesthood, priestly celibacy), history (the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Da Vinci Code) and the Bible (questions of creation, reading the Bible correctly). And so on.

Best place for this book? On your coffee table, bedside, or the reading rack in your bathroom. Highly recommended.

The authors also wrote Catholicism for Dummies.

CHILDREN OF BRIDGET JONES

I went to my mom’s house unannounced, as I am wont to do, and found that she was out, as she is wont to be.

No matter. Being English, like my mom, I put the kettle on for a cup of tea and went in search of a book to read while I waited.

I picked up Helen Fielding’s 1996 novel, Bridget Jones’s Diary. Not the sort of thing I’d normally be interested in, but at the time I figured it was better than nothing.

I enjoyed Bridget’s New Year’s Resolutions and Chapter One enough to bring the book home and add it to my stack o’ books, teetering alongside the other book I was reading at the time, P.D. James’s Children of Men (1992).

As I read on, it occurred to me that these two books, even though they differ widely in genre, style, and intended audience, actually have quite a lot in common.

Each book chronicles about one year of elapsed time: Bridget’s fictional diary begins on January 1 and ends the day after Christmas, and P.D. James also begins her book with a January 1st journal entry by the main character, Theo Faron. Both contain first person point-of-view elements (Bridget Jones more than Children of Men) Both are intensely personal, providing the reader with access to the innermost and secret thoughts of the main character.

Some major differences, of course: Fielding’s main character, Bridget, is feckless, stupid and hilariously funny. James’s main character, Theo, is thoughtful, intelligent and serious.

Bridget Jones’s Diary ends with Bridget in bed with a good man instead of the insufferable twit she’d been after for the past 11 months, which our freely fornicating world considers a “happy” ending. James’s book is about the end of humanity…and its new beginning…amid murder, mayhem, mass euthanasia, betrayal, and hopelessness.

Bridget Jones’s Diary was a much more enjoyable read than Children of Men, yet, the book that made me sad was Bridget Jones’s. Even though I laughed out loud at Bridget’s antics and at Fielding’s inimitable turn of phrase, I couldn’t help thinking that there are actual, real life people in the world who live the kind of pathetic, meaningless life Bridget describes in her “diary”. She drinks too much, smokes too much, and eats too much, and constantly obsesses about how much she drinks, smokes, and eats, continually makes resolutions to improve herself, but never, ever does. She berates herself for sleeping with her boss, vows not to do it again, but does it again many times over. She vows to stop being late for work, but that very morning doesn’t get out of the house until 10:30. She is so lacking in self-knowledge that she turns a sensible meal of shepherd’s pie for a few friends into a gourmet meal for 16 that was to have concluded with grand marnier soufflés, but ten minutes before her guests were due to arrive she had stepped in the dinner and she still hadn’t dried her hair.

Details may vary, but is this not a description of just about everyone’s life? The struggle with vice, bad habits, laziness, inconstancy, habitual sin. The waffling back and forth from an exalted view of ourselves that bites off more than anyone could possibly chew to wallowing in self pity as we watch stupid YouTube videos.

Those who profess, by God’s grace, faith in Christ, have something to live for, at least. Bridget has nothing to live for, except those few dropped pounds on the scale, that evening at the pub with her friends, the momentary excitement and comfort of sex with someone new.

Bridget is fictional, but how could the Gospel of Jesus Christ reach someone like her in the real world? She knows that her life is meaningless and pathetic, yet I have a feeling that if she ever met a real Christian who tried to share the Gospel with her – rare in England these days – she would smile politely while trying to extricate herself from the encounter as quickly as possible.

In Children of Men, the entire human race has become sterile. No babies have been born for 25 years. The people of this world know that they are the last of their kind and they believe that without the future promised by the presence of children in the world, life is meaningless. P.D. James constructs a terrifying dystopia around this idea and answers the question of how a society without God would contemplate its own demise. Life in such a society is nasty, brutish, and short. The aged demonstrate their hopelessness by mass suicide. The young demonstrate theirs by acting out in anger, in reckless and indiscriminate violence.

If the fertility crisis James creates in her fictional future were ever to come true in the real world, I have no doubt that secular human society would deteriorate in much the way it does in her book, because in some ways her dystopia is already here. Euthanasia of the aged is practiced regularly in the Netherlands and they are contemplating it in rapidly aging Japan. In some countries the number of abortions exceeds the number of live births. The terminally-ill and severely brain-damaged are put to death every day in this country, although mostly without the furor surrounding the cruel death-by-starvation of Terry Schiavo. In many parts of the world, violent lawlessness is commonplace.

I think—I hope–people of faith would handle news of the end of the world differently, just as I hope people of faith are able to find meaning in everyday life the way Bridget Jones is not.

One of the reasons I’m profoundly un-interested in “endtimes” predictions, doomsdays, reported appearances of the anti-Christ, and so on, is because in the end it doesn’t matter: each one of us is hurtling toward our own personal apocalypse. We can take nothing with us, yet “what we do in life echoes in eternity.” (Gladiator) We each make the choice, every moment, to live meaningfully, for the good of others and for the good of our eternal souls, or to live a meaningless life that is only for the moment and is heedless of other people or our own eternal destiny. As my pastor is fond of saying, “Live every day as if it were your last, because one of these days you’re going to be right.”

May this year be a year full of meaning within a lifetime full of meaning for you, for the people dear to you, and for every person you meet. (copyright 2008 by Clare Siobhan)

Links

http://www.georgiabulletin.org/local/1979/01/25/a/
Georgians Hear U.S. Congressman Henry Hyde Speak On Abortion
Archbishop Donnellan noted that in many U.S. cities the number of abortions far exceeds the number of live births.

http://www.ijgo.org/issues/contents?issue_key=S0020-7292(00) X0046-X
Trends and causes of maternal mortality in Kazakhstan
N. Kaupovaa, S. Nukushevaa, H. Biktashevaa, N. Goyauxb and P. Thonneaub
International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics
Volume 63, Issue 2, 1 November 1998, Pages 175-181
the number of abortions far exceeds the number of live births in the independent states of the former Soviet Union.

http://books.google.com/books?id=aaklGZAID08C&pg=PA17&lpg=PA 17&dq=number+of+abortions+exceeds+the+number+of+live+births& source=web&ots=ML93IMS_Wr&sig=7NyC45KTwEcaluv_knvp0dLlDEo#PP P1,M1
Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics: A Compilation of Jewish … – Google Books Result
by Avraham Steinberg – 2003 – Religion – 1191 pages
In countries where abortion on demand is totally legal, the number of abortions often exceeds the number of live births.

All I have to say about this is “Bad writer! No biscuit!” Authors cannot, once their work is published, edit the story and add things they neglected to include before. If she wants to make Dumbledore “gay,” JKR will have to write a prequel, because I don’t buy it. Never in a million years would anyone read HP 1-7 and conclude that Dumbledore was homosexual. An adage used in screenwriting and playwriting goes like this: “If it’s not on the page, it’s not on the stage.”

It’s important to keep in mind, however, that being homosexual is a lot different from acting out homosexually. The former is a state of being that is considered disordered yet morally neutral, and one in which it is arguably more difficult to live the virtue of chastity. The latter is a mortal sin.

Fine. JKR wants to write about a character who is homosexual and basically sees the one homosexual episode in his life as a huge mistake. The courage of the chaste homosexual is always admirable. However, I’m not sure such a theme is appropriate for a story marketed as children’s literature.

The best thing I’ve seen on this topic comes from D.G.D. Davidson at SciFiCatholic, who understands both Catholicism and genre fiction. To read his highly intelligent, reasonable, and compassionate analysis, read on. I was going to post the link, but for some reason when I move the pointy finger icon over anything on Davidson’s blog, it disappears and I’m unable to link to it. So, in the spirit of “it’s better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission,” I just cut and paste the whole entry below. (I don’t think he’ll mind…) More links on this topic appear after Davidson’s article:

Saturday, October 27, 2007

The Sci Fi Catholic’s Statement on J. K. Rowling’s Recent Comment Regarding Dumbledore:

In light of the ridiculous controversy this has engendered, and in protestation against the Massachusetts Catholic school that recently banned the Harry Potter books, I decided it was time to make a statement. Snuffles was supposed to do it, but he says he finds the subject “too boring.” I know we’re late on this, but The Sci Fi Catholic is late on this sort of thing by design. This isn’t a news agency. We like to get our bearings and think a while before shooting our mouths off.

In case you’re not up on your inexplicably world-rocking literature news, J. K. Rowling mentioned at Carnegie Hall that she regarded the character Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, as a homosexual. Kind readers have provided me with links, so for the complete story, see this article at The Leaky Cauldron. Catholic blog The Blue Boar has an interesting statement and link. For a level-headed Catholic essay on the subject, Mark Shea’s post is a good place to go. For a good example of Catholics Behaving Badly, you might try enduring the lengthy and vitriolic arguments in the comments on that post, which at the time of this writing number 310, thereby making me insanely jealous.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Rowling’s statement has no effect on the actual novels, which contain no references to homosexuality or even hints.

Comments on Shea’s blog make it painfully obvious that many Catholics are in need of a reiteration of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality. Homosexuality is a “disorder” in the sense that a person in that condition has his passions ordered to an object other than that to which they properly belong. This is not a sin. When a person acts out in response to the disorder, that is a sin. We have no evidence whatsoever that Dumbledore has ever been an active homosexual. His merely being homosexual is not the terrible thing some Christian readers are making it out to be.

It is not a sin to use homosexual characters in a work of fiction or to depict them as intelligent and likable people, contra one of the commenters on Shea’s blog. As I know from experience, some homosexuals are in fact intelligent and likable people.

The media nonsense is going to die down in a few weeks. The novels will remain unaffected in content.

An encyclopedia of the Potterverse is slated for release sometime in the future and may contain this detail on Dumbledore even though the novels do not. Parents will want to consider that before buying the encyclopedia for their children.

I have three great fears regarding what will happen as a result of Rowling’s comment. The first is that members of the homosexual subculture will see this as some kind of triumph, even though the books contain not the faintest hint of homosexuality. My other fear is that conservative Catholics will overreact and end up looking like a bunch of homophobic bigots. Both these fears have already become reality.

My third fear is that the Christian boosters of Harry Potter will unjustly feel betrayed even though Rowling made them no promises in the first place. The books use Christian themes, but they have never given us reason to believe Rowling was writing them as an orthodox Christian. Nor should that be a matter of concern; a great many good books, for children or otherwise, are not explicitly orthodox Christian. Nonetheless, because so many feel disillusioned, I fear they will end up in the camp of Michael O’Brien and his ilk, who long to strap iron chains over Christians’ imaginations and subject them to arbitrary and contradictory rules that would reduce fantasy writing to mindless, artistically inferior rehashings of The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia. Rowling’s comment does not bode well for the future of Christian fantasy, which has already earned a reputation for producing soft-soaping knock-offs of its betters. It also does not bode well for the future of fantasy readers who are Christian, who as a result of this will become more cynical regarding fantasy literature. I predict Rowling’s statement will widen the rift of the Culture Wars, produce a further atrophying of the Christian imagination, and increase the exodus from the Church of young people who will not tolerate the oppression of their imaginations by the likes of O’Brien.

Davidson provides some good links, so until I can get the pointy finger working properly and give you a link directly to the article, just go to the SciFiCatholic October 2007 archives page:

http://www.scificatholic.com/2007_10_01_archive.html

…and scroll down a bit.

Other links on the Dumbledore is gay brouhaha:

This blogger seems to post on this subject quite a lot:
Cacciaguida
http://cacciaguida.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html#9220 899456316358412

Harry Potter posts from Mark Shea:
http://markshea.blogspot.com/search/label/Harry%20Potter

The “Outing of Dumbledore: A Catholic Response by Bill Donaghy, 10/28/07
http://www.catholicexchange.com/node/66886

In Defense of Dumbledore by Regina Doman, 12/21/07
http://www.catholicexchange.com/node/68303

Transcripts from the “Dumbledore is gay” talk:
http://eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com/175955.html
http://the-leaky-cauldron.org/2007/10/20/j-k-rowling-at-carn egie-hall-reveals-dumbledore-is-gay-neville-marries-hannah-a bbott-and-scores-more

The Rule of St. Benedict
edited by Timothy Fry, O.S.B.
Published by the Order of St. Benedict, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville MN, 1982

This is a readable translation of St. Benedict’s “little rule for beginners,” (Ch. 73) written presumably by Benedict himself sometime before his death in 547 AD. This is the second time I’ve read it and once again it overflows with practical wisdom not just for monastic abbots, but for leaders in general, especially parents, and for anyone who wants to live a more deliberate and fruitful Christian life.

Photograph copyright 2007 Clare Siobhan

The Prologue always consoles me. Benedict manages to soften one of the harshest and most unpleasant verses of scripture, Psalm 137:9, by offering an interpretation that I had never encountered before. He views it as an exhortation to deal proactively with temptations as soon as we become aware of them, by “dashing them against Christ.” (Prologue) He also reminds his readers of the gentleness of God: that, in his kindness, he keeps us alive in order to give us as much time as possible to repent, turn to him, and live. Benedict, too, is a tender father in the way he encourages his readers to arise from sleep and respond to God’s invitation to holiness. “What, dear brothers,” he asks, “is more delightful than this voice of the Lord calling to us?” (Prologue, line 19)

photograph copyright 2007 by Clare Siobhan

Once you get into the meat of the Rule itself, especially Chapter 2, Qualities of the Abbot, and any other section or chapter dealing with the way the abbot is to treat the monks, simply substitute the words parent, mother, or father for “abbot” and the word child or children for “monk”/”monks”, and you have an excellent parenting manual. He understood many basic parenting principles, some of which only dawned on me recently:

• It’s okay to treat each child differently. In fact, you must train, exhort, and discipline each child differently, according to his or her individual temperament and unique combination of gifts and defects. It would be more convenient if every child could be stamped out with a cookie cutter, but the reality is that parenting is not a “one size fits all” endeavor.

• Obedience only “counts” if “compliance with what is commanded is not cringing or sluggish or half-hearted, but free from any grumbling or any reaction of unwillingness.” (Ch. 5, line 14) Obedience also must be immediate, even leaving a task unfinished. I have a friend in California who read that when the monks heard the monastic bell, they were not even to finish forming a letter on a page. They were to drop their quill immediately and answer the bell.

• It probably doesn’t benefit children to allow them to talk too much. Nor does it benefit them to have parents talk too much at them. Some children are, in fact, immune to words and will only respond to good example and consequences.

• If people make use of the family’s things (tools and so on) they should treat them well and put them back when they are done. My children never put anything back. Perhaps I’ll make them lie prostrate before me until they make amends.

• Benedict warned abbots not to arrange life in their monasteries in such a way as to cause unnecessary difficulty that might lead to “justifiable grumbling.” So even though Benedict would tolerate no grumbling at all, he understood that sometimes a monk’s recalcitrance was the abbot’s fault for being too harsh. This is good for parents to remember. They, too, “must arrange everything that the strong have something to yearn for and the weak nothing to run from.” (Ch. 64, line 19)

After reading Benedict’s Rule, parents can also be confident that requiring the children to clean up the kitchen after meals is desirable and beneficial (Ch. 35), that it’s okay for the family to slow way down when someone is sick (Ch. 36), and that little children should receive plenty of leeway (Ch. 37). It’s also okay to send complaining children to bed without their dinner (Ch. 43, line 19). Scheduling time during the day for prayer, work, rest, and study is important (Ch. 48). Benedict also had a good idea for Lent: everyone should receive a book that he or she must read all the way through. Mom, Dad, or an older sibling can check on the younger ones to make sure they’re actually reading during reading time and not goofing off. (Ch. 48, lines 15-19)

One of my favorite chapters of the Rule is Chapter 4: The Tools for Good Works. Benedict flings open the door of his workshop and shows us all the tools that should be in it. As workmen for the Lord, we should use these tools well and “return them on judgment day.” (Ch. 4, line 76) This chapter deserves reading and frequent re-reading, as well as careful dissection, perhaps practicing one thing at a time for several weeks or months (years?) until it becomes habitual. Another good set of habits to work on one by one is found in Chapter 7: Humility.

If Benedict’s Rule is for beginners, one wonders what are the “loftier summits” he envisions: this Rule alone is such a complete treatise on holiness of life that if any Christian, young or old, studied and followed this little book alone, he or she would be well on the way to sainthood. (Copyright 2007 by Clare Siobhan)

Updated 12/17/07

The less said about these books and movies the better. My impression has been that the Catholic press, perhaps in a prudent effort to avoid giving Pullman’s stuff too much free publicity, has been less hysterical about The Golden Compass et al than it was about Harry Potter, Da Vinci Code, The Last Temptation of Christ, and so on. These types of books and movies are wonderful opportunities for Christendom to either do something useful or make an ass of itself, so it doesn’t pay to be too shrill, since any controversy surrounding a piece of entertainment tends to fuel sales.

Note that the box office numbers (so far) and critical reviews of the movie are not what Hollywood was hoping for.

That said, here’s a stack o’ links for y’all. Have fun!

Box office performance of The Golden Compass motion picture

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071209/ap_en_ot/box_office;_ylt =AnUxKqOt.J.NGAQMfXoVLGys0NUE
“Compass opesn to modest $26.1 million” 12/9/07

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071208/film_nm/boxoffice_dc;_yl t=Asm9zYnu_gsNHd42xUSXtXJxFb8C
“Golden Compass disappoints at box office”

http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/12/08/box-office-golden-compas s-disaster-juno-a-record-breaker/
“Box Office: Golden Compass disaster! Juno a record-breaker!”
(One of the comments—the 4th or 5th one down, so you don’t have to scroll too far—made me laugh. The commenter said “don’t mess with Catholics.” LOL!)

http://frmartinfox.blogspot.com/2007/12/golden-compass-sinki ng-like-stone.html
Fr. Martin Fox provides some info comparing box office returns: The Golden Compass versus Harry Potter versus Lord of the Rings, and so on.

From The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

http://www.catholicleague.org/images/upload/image_2007100533 49.pdf
e-Booklet: The Golden Compass: Agenda Unmasked, 2007

http://catholicleague.org/videos/
Catholic League president Bill Donahue warns Catholics about Phillip Pullman’s books and the movie based on the first of the books. Oct. 2007

http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1342
Article: “The Golden Compass Sparks Protest” 10/9/07

http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1365
Article: “Golden Compass Fans Want Red Meat” 12/5/07

Reviews of the His Dark Materials books

http://www.ignatius.com/atheismforchildren/index.asp
Pied Piper of Atheism: Phillip Pullman and Children’s Fantasy
by Pete Vere and Sandra Miesel, Ignatius Press, 2007

http://lookingcloser.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/the-golden-com pass-questions-ive-been-asked-answers-ive-given/
Jeffrey Overstreet on The Golden Compass and His Dark Materials, 11/20/07

http://www.zenit.org/article-21008?l=english
“What Every Parent Should Know About The Golden Compass”. A ZENIT interview with Peter Vere and Sandra Miesel. 11/14/07

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=913
“The Devil’s Party” by Alan Jacobs 12/3/07 First Things

http://www.amywelborn.com/reviews/pullman.html
Article: Amy Welbon’s analysis of the His Dark Materials series originally appeared in OSV, date unknown, but the author indicates it was “a few years ago.” After I read this article, I “disappeared” a copy of The Golden Compass that someone had given my daughter but which, thankfully, she hadn’t read yet.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/26/051226fa_fact
“Far From Narnia: Phillip Pullman’s Secular Fantasy for Children”, The New Yorker, 12/26/05

Reviews of The Golden Compass motion picture (released 12/7/07)

http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2007/12/archbishop-char .html
Archbishop Chaput’s take on the movie

http://www.decentfilms.com/sections/reviews/goldencompass.ht ml
Steven Greydanus’s review. He provides some other good links to commentary on TGC and Pullman.

http://www.catholic.org/ae/movies/review.php?id=26062
Catholic News Service review

http://www.scificatholic.com/2007/12/movie-review-golden-com pass.html
“Zzzzzzzzzzzz”. D.G.D. Davidson at SciFiCatholic reviews The Golden Compass, 12/9/07

http://www.usccb.org/movies/g/thegoldencompass.shtml
USCCB review
Update: As of 12/10/07, this link is no longer active. A reader pointed out to me that the USCCB pulled their review. Go to this link for more: http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2007/12/breaking-usccb. html

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/dec/07120304.html
“US Bishops asked to Fire Chief Film Critic over Glowing Reviews for “Brokeback” and “Compass”, 12/3/07, LifeSiteNews.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20 071206/REVIEWS/712060302
Roger Ebert’s review

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/film/the_golden_compas s_weitz
review by Bruce Diones of The New Yorker

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12062007/entertainment/movies/br oken_compass_280816.htm
“Broken Compass“, review by Kyle Smith of the New York Post

http://www.catholicexchange.com/node/67472
Article: “Pullman vs. the Magisterium” by Terry Mattingly 11/23/07. Mattingly already did the snopes.com research and reports that, according to Snopes, Phillip Pullman really does say that his books are about killing God.

http://www.catholicexchange.com/node/67850
Article: “The Golden Compass Brings Nietzsche to Narnia: The Philosophical Underpinnings of His Dark Materials” by Marc T. Newman, Ph.D., 12/04/07

http://www.catholicexchange.com/node/67309
Article: “The Golden Compass, Phillip Pullman, and The God-Killing Books for Kids” by Marc T. Newman, Ph.D., 11/16/07

Blog posts

http://jimmyakin.typepad.com/defensor_fidei/2007/11/philip-p ullman.html
“Philip Pullman is a Liar” by Jimmy Akin, 11/29/07. LOTS of reader comments here!

http://www.scificatholic.com/2007/12/your-one-stop-catholic- shop-for-all.html
“Your One-Stop Catholic Shop for All Things “The Golden Compass”, 12/3/07
D.G.D. Davidson at SciFiCatholic has a bunch of links, too…

http://aeternus.stblogs.com/2007/12/05/golden-compass-points -our-children-towards-aetheism-and-hate/#comments
“Golden Compass-points our children towards atheism and hate” by Aeternus, 12/5/07. Aeternus goes head to head with some aggressive commenters. Bravo, Aeternus!

http://romancatholicbychoice.stblogs.com/2007/12/03/golden-c ompass-bishops-like-it-catholic-league-doesnt/
from Roman Catholic by Choice, 12/03/07

http://filmchatblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/philip-pullman-exte nded-e-mail.html
Interview: Peter Chattaway interviews Phillip Pullman 11/28/07

http://www.thirdway.org.uk/past/showpage.asp?page=3949
Interview: Huw Spanner of Third Way interviews Phillip Pullman

http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2007/12/pullman-fans-ta .html
Article: “Pullman fans talk trash and pull back the curtain”
By Carl Olson at Insight Scoop (The Ignatius Press blog) 12/7/07

http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2007/12/la-times-christ .html
Article: “L.A. Times: Christians, not filmmakers, ruined “The Golden Compass”
By Carl Olson at Insight Scoop (The Ignatius Press blog) 12/9/07

http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&id=8 2739EBC-3048-887F-8F94C2C651AF3ADF
Fr. James Martin, S.J. at America: The National Catholic Weekly
“The Golden Compass and Catholic ‘nitwits’” (note: “nitwits” is Phillip Pullman’s word, not Fr. Martin’s.)

http://amywelborn.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/we-interrupt-this -immersion/
from Amy Welborn’s “Charlotte Was Both” blog, 11/30/07

http://amywelborn.wordpress.com/2007/12/04/happy/
another one from Amy Welborn’s “Charlotte Was Both” blog, 12/4/07 with LOTS of reader comments.

Website

www.AtheismForChildren.com
This website does not promote atheism. It serves as a companion to Vere and Miesel’s book, Pied Piper of Atheism.

Podcasts

http://catholicipod.stblogs.com/2007/12/10/golden-compass-pi ed-piper-of-atheism-podcast/
Golden Compass and Pied Piper of Atheism podcast on Catholic iPod.

www.missionmoment.org
Bill Donaghy interview with Sandra Miesel. According to Donaghy the podcast was available at iTunes on 11/30/07, but when I followed the link it wasn’t among the available podcasts there. Check back if you don’t find it.

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5 Word Review: The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger

Moral: don’t become a fisherman.