case: ([ Zell; Whoaaa. ])
Case ([personal profile] case) wrote in [community profile] fandomsecrets2008-03-06 05:43 am

[ SECRET POST #426 ]


⌈ Secret Post #426 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 67 secrets from Secret Submission Post #061.
Secrets Not Posted: 0 broken links, [ 1 ] not!secrets, 0 not!fandom, [ 1 2 3 ] too big.
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Re: #53 OP

[identity profile] agnes-perdita.livejournal.com 2008-03-07 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
Sorry if that flippant sacred cow thing came off like I was dismissing your points as reactionary, I didn't mean it to come off that way and was only trying to end my post on a light note. If you'll allow me to clarify what I meant: I do think that people concentrate on the words he uses in his interviews rather than the meaning behind them and that I attribute to our idea of religion as being this pre-established, preconfigured institution. We see the words religion, atheist, belief etc. and automatically jump to our own, heavily personalised understandings of these concepts and then proceed to discuss them without ever clarifying exactly what they mean or which aspects we're focusing on. Theology is just so complicated and weird and headsplodey that I understand why this is necessary to stave off hours of debate foreplay, but it gets even more mired when people are using words like 'attack on religion' and 'atheist propaganda' to mean completely different, morally variable things especially in the context of a story which is trying to deconstruct (not particularly originally) and play with Christian mythology. We're fine with talking about religion within its existing context as a global power/unifier/diaspora but when faced with a possibility of its defeat like what Pullman writes, it's suddenly simply a case of authorial bashing? (and I'm talking here about the books, not his interviews, which are interesting to understanding the creative process that lead to the books, but not necessarily crucial to discussing the multiple thematic threads within the stories themselves IMO. I think we may differ on this point.)

But to address those interviews anyway. There seems to be some prevalent idea, caused by snippets of conversation presented by the media or from hearsay, that he's some raving fundamentalist atheist and well he may be. However, most of the time, I think he's just a belligerent academic who's more used to people talking back to him, rather than speaking into a void like the media and coming across as an authority, and therefore is used to announcing more dramatic comments to spark conversation. He has mellowed over the years, it seems, as he learns more about presenting himself as a public figure. Except when it comes to CS Lewis. *sigh* I think that this whole idea that he's attacking religion and deriding the believers has been blown way out of proportion, partially because of those confusing factors I described above, and his comments so often go by unquestioned and are instead taken as superficial bashing.

And I might not agree with him, but I do think that for a book published at the cusp of the New Millenium 2000, the idea of dismantling obstructive preconceptions is an interesting idea. And as I said before, it's not like everything within the HDM multiverse is wiped away since there's a clear spiritual structure happening with the cycle of dust, creativity and human legacy.

Re: #53 OP

[identity profile] blinkidybah.livejournal.com 2008-03-07 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
Oh man I love when people get all academic in fandom. <3 That was pretty awesome.

Re: #53 OP

[identity profile] agnes-perdita.livejournal.com 2008-03-07 03:14 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you muchly! :) Ahaha, I have to sheepishly admit that whenever I come across opinions I disagree with in fandom though, my conversation starts sliding into the world of wanky academia since it seems to largely consist of people writing theories of great lengths on various texts without ever actually expressing an opinion and that's easier to deal with than sitting woobie faced while people repeatedly deflate my little bubble of fannish devotion with their pricks of insight.