For years now I’ve been known to laughingly comment on the fact that you hear all these wacko religious groups opposing Harry Potter, but you never hear anything about groups opposing Pullman‘s His Dark Materials–a series that is also marketed as YA, and that sells if not Rowlingesque numbers, at least very impressive numbers. This is an especially amusing discrepancy when you consider that it would be easy to make the case that Pullman’s books (in a very reductive summary) feature a church that tortures children, and has the young heroes kill God
Me, I really liked the books. (I should note that I felt that the third volume didn’t live up to the promise of the first two, descending from fiction to jeremiad in a rush to the finish, but I’d still recommend the books.) The anti-dogmatic stance is only one reason I dug them, and definitely not the biggest.
Well, apparently the upcoming movie version of the books–which I hear has been pretty heavily adulterated to produce something less offensive to the hard core religious types–has ended the twelve years of magic “flying under the radar”. (Go figure that the kind of ignoramuses who protest books being the sort that would need a Hollywood adaptation to get their attention. God forbid–heh–that they actually would read a book.)
What’s really sad about this is that I’m about to link to stories from urban Ontario, not from some Deep South inbreeder community of snake-handlers. I really enjoy playing “less crazy than you” with the Americans, but stuff like this just drives home the point that there are ridiculous, self-righteous, whack jobs everywhere.
The first story comes from Toronto:
Halton’s Catholic board has pulled The Golden Compass fantasy book – soon to be a Hollywood blockbuster starring Nicole Kidman – off school library shelves because of a complaint.
Two other books in the trilogy by British author Philip Pullman have also been removed as a precaution, and principals have been ordered not to distribute December Scholastic book flyers because The Golden Compass is available to order.
…
Following a recent Star story about the series, an internal memo was sent to elementary principals that said “the book is apparently written by an atheist where the characters and text are anti-God, anti-Catholic and anti-religion.”
Later in the story they talk about how the review is an automatic process that happens for any complaint, and that there’s no record of who made the complaint. I find that at odds with the mention of an “internal memo”.
I especially like that the objection is that the author is an atheist. Oh noes!
Or, as Paul Myers puts it:
A Canadian school board has decided to remove Philip Pullman’s books from its schools’ shelves because people complained that the author is an atheist. This is a remarkable objection, obviously. I mean, we don’t see school boards screaming to remove Chuck Colson’s books from the shelves because the author is a convicted felon, which seems to me to be a much more serious indicator of moral turpitude than atheism, nor do we see a call to eject books by Ann Coulter because she is incredibly stupid, and is therefore a poor role model for students. It’s just atheism that spurs this objection.
I expect this kind of stuff in Jesusland, but not here. Just another argument for getting rid of the Separate School board, I’d say.
Oh, and this should be embarrassing for the teachers in that board:
Richard Brock, who heads the Halton elementary branch of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, said he’s had no complaints from teachers about the books being pulled.
I was pleased to see, in the CBC story, that the TPL adovcate is on the case:
Ken Setterington, the Toronto Public Library’s children and youth advocate, dismissed the complaint and said that since the book isn’t part of the curriculum it should be allowed to stay on the library shelf.
“Like any adventure story, there’s a dark side,” Setterington said in an interview with CBC Radio’s Ontario Today. “I certainly hope they [the committee] will come to the defence of the reader.”
And I was amused to read this bit:
The school superintendent, who will be part of the review committee, said he’s read the first three chapters of The Golden Compass and described Pullman as a “very engaging author who has certainly captured my attention and imagination.
“I’m enjoying it so far,” MacDonald said.
Of course, one of the worst things about this kind of ridiculous “protect the children for God” hysteria is that it spreads.
It spread pretty immediately in the neighbouring boards:
Two other Toronto-area Catholic boards of education are studying copies of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy after the Halton District Catholic School Board removed the children’s books from its library shelves.
Both the Durham and Dufferin-Peel Catholic boards have said they will also review the popular children’s fantasy series.
That’s not the end of it, though. Look at this story from the Peterborough Examiner:
The Catholic school board has pulled “The Golden Compass” fantasy book from schools.
…
All three books in the trilogy were taken from school libraries this month after two parents complained and the board’s religion and family life committee agreed the book should be pulled for review, said Ron McNamara, superintendent with the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board.
“The concerns were around the way organized religions are portrayed,” McNamara said. “There was nothing specific about the Catholic religion. It’s about how religions are portrayed.”
I’m saving my most vicious mockery of this since my lovely wife is an alumna of the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board, and I’m sure she will be more than adequately scathing about it herself.
Nice to see the librarians sticking up for the books there too:
Meanwhile, at the Peterborough Public Library, the book can hardly be kept on the shelves, said librarian Marisa Giuliani.
“It was very popular when it came out and has continued to be popular,” she said. “He is a very good author. The book was popular before they made it into a movie.”
I love those librarians.
The complainants, though? I’m with George at BookNinja on them:
Nothing like a bit of movie publicity to get people looking at the books as possibilities for bannin’. But now Peterborough Ontario, with its pretty downtown and encircling hub-burb of vaguely concrete bunker-like Conservative voter storage units, is throwing it’s tuque in the ring for the title of most ignorant town in Canada. Way to go, Peterborough! Yer just toolin’ along, ain’t yuh? Maybe youse guys can set up a good ol’ fashioned burnin’ down by Belleville way, eh? Yuh-huh.
This stuff has got to stop–I don’t want to read in British articles things like this:
Mr Donohue’s call for a boycott has already been taken up by some Catholic leaders in the US and Canada, but not so far in Britain.
A school board in Ontario has ordered Northern Lights, the book on which the film is based, to be removed from library shelves in the run-up to the film’s launch. Several other Canadian school boards are reported to be considering taking the same action.
Anything that makes my country look backwards makes me look backwards by extension, so it has to stop.That’s before I even get onto my high horse about rationality, and dogmatism. I think getting rid of publicly-funded religious schools would be a good start.
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