I am disappointed in this, not because I am all for anti-Christian sentiment, but I was anxious to see if audiences could even discern the philosophy in the films or if it might be absorbed at a more subconscious level. And though I believe in God much more concretely than Pullman does, I certainly long for Christianity to be severed from “the establishment” which, in my view has nearly blasmphemed it anyway. So in that regard at least, perhaps I share some of Pullman’s sensibilities. Though I have to say, I completely disagree with some of the things he has to say in his trilogy about power. But maybe I’m getting ahead discussing books that few of us have read.

Any examination about the quality of religious themes found in HP would most certainly involve spoilers. Ned, are you prepared to for that?

I wholeheartedly agree. For religious themes, Pullman is the way to go. Doesn’t it seem unlikely that the second and third parts will be made into a movies? The plot of His Dark Materials depends on a whole host of blasphemies.

Haven’t the Hollow Men always relentlessly attacked one another’s “untruths”? I think we see each other quite clearly because we are equally introspective, though sometimes debilitatingly and disfunctionally so. We employ our introspective instruments, honed by our personal vivisection, on the group with relish. But perhaps this is just the narrative we would like to believe and is itself yet another untruth.

Jeeze Ned, you can sure pack a lot into one post.