Before HBOs His Dark Materials the Series Was Banned Heres Why

Before HBO’s His Dark Materials, the Series Was Banned – Here’s Why

Given His Dark Materials rails against God, the Catholic Church and organized religion in general, it’s shocking it hasn’t been more controversial.

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Before HBOs His Dark Materials the Series Was Banned Heres Why

After around 25 years of existence, the story told in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series of novels has gone truly mainstream due to HBO and the BBC’s TV adaptation. The road to the show has been wrought with many perils, however, including the failed 2007 movie adaptation of the first book, The Golden Compass. Even before that failed franchise vehicle, however, the series garnered its fair share of scorn.

This stemmed from the story’s very premise, which is atheistic in nature. It’s shocking His Dark Materials wasn’t more controversial given it rails against God, the Catholic Church and organized religion in general. Still, the series was a bane to many religious groups, and the novels became a regular member of several banned book lists.

Before HBOs His Dark Materials the Series Was Banned Heres Why

The premise of the books centers on two children who, along with allies such as talking polar bears and animals called daemons, attempt to circumvent the control of the church-like entity, the Magisterium. Meanwhile, the Magisterium seeks to maintain its stranglehold on the world by virtue of “dust,” which is a stand-in for the concept of original sin. In many ways, the series is meant to be a retelling of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, albeit one in which the tragedy of the Fall is rendered as a triumph. God himself doesn’t come out of the story unscathed either, as he is rendered as a cold, controlling tyrant.

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This anti-religious, particularly anti-Christian rhetoric soon garnered the series an unsavory reputation among the faithful. British journalist Peter Hitchens dubbed Pullman the most dangerous author in Britain, stating he was the antithesis to C.S. Lewis that atheists had been metaphorically praying for. The American Library Association’s 2008 banned book list identified the title as the second most requested book to be banned across the country.

Pullman himself only egged on the controversy, as he publicly stated that he aimed to undermine Christian beliefs with his books. He also said in the past that he saw Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia as “propaganda in the service of a life-hating ideology,” and that he despised the series’ view of childhood a safe haven before the essentially sexual adulthood that comes after it. Given Pullman’s books are so blatantly and openly about “killing God,” it’s no wonder that those with religious conviction sought to combat their growing popularity.

Ironically, the controversy and threat of being banned was always far less severe for His Dark Materials than it logically should have been. Always eclipsing it in popularity, and thus in controversy, was the venerable Harry Potter series. Many religious individuals saw that series’ use of magic and spells as being anti-Christian, if not outright Satanic. Ironically, author J.K. Rowling identified as a Christian and never publicly rebuffed the Religious Right or attempted to stoke the flames of the dissension around her books.

Philip Pullman, on the other hand, did just that, making it plain that his works were completely antithetical to Christian belief. This ramped up the heat around the 2007 movie, as the franchise was now truly stepping into the spotlight of mainstream exposure. This led to the book being pulled from several school libraries across the U.S., especially in Southern states such as Kentucky. However, this was still fairly tame in comparison to the treatment that the boy wizard received, leaving even Pullman confused over the lack of flak he’s received for saying and doing far more inflammatory things in his books. And most recently the HBO series, despite being far more successful than the movie years earlier, has been much less controversial. Fortunately or unfortunately, His Dark Materials seems to always be second to Rowling’s series in some capacity, be it notoriety or infamy.

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Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/why-golden-compass-his-dark-materials-banned/

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