Journalism class: Day one, lesson one
When you interview John Cusack, don’t confuse him with Kevin Spacey.
Email @ireland.com
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Glen Hansard conjures up some anger
In last Saturday’s Irish Times Magazine Glen Hansard made a few comments about Ireland. What is happening, he said, “breaks his heart”.
It feels to me like Ireland is going through this teenage phase. It always had an old soul but now Dublin is like the teenage niece of London, who is this glamourous and beautiful and flamboyant aunt. Ireland is the teenager wearing too much make-up and high heels and she doesn’t need it because she is so beautiful naturally. The whole nation doesn’t feel comfortable in its skin at the moment.
‘Less is More’ should be the Irish motto these days. [We are] like pigs at the trough, with everyone so obsessed with the prices of houses and cars and what they are worth. It’s like everyone has to show how rich they are because it’s almost like they can’t fucking believe it … it’s like we are taking the piss out of each other at the moment.
It’s always interesting to see just how much the complaints about post-boom Ireland reflect a nostalgia there is about how it used to be. Has Ireland ever felt comfortable in its skin? It was, for a long time, a repressed, backward, poverty-ridden, bleak, violent, cruel backwater. Artists should know this most of all, because other artists wrote and sang about it for long enough. Is vulgarity really too high a price to pay for wealth, which has arrived well at the same time as a social liberty that must be more comfortable to wear than what went before.
He goes on to mention a phenomenon of being “Irished”:
The Frames fill rooms all over the world, you could be in the middle of an intense part of a set, playing in Belgium to 1,000 people and an Irish fella will shout out “go on ya fuckin’ eejit, ya” - we call it being “Irished”. It’s as though people feel a national duty to throw spears at anybody who is getting too much into their own myth or up their own arse. That’s why artistic people have always had to leave Ireland. As an artist you sometimes need to go into the dark and maybe even disappear up your own arse on occassion to get somewhere. The Irish will always try and stop you. They want you to be an everyman instead.
The Frames shows that I remember used to have an in-built self-effacement, in which Hansard would recognise that there was a pomposity to what he was doing, and that a bit of humour was no bad thing. Maybe he’s changed his mind on that, I don’t know. But I do wonder how many artists leave Ireland now for the reason he suggests. We do, as a nation, have a problem with high art. Public art has a terrible record of being vandalised. And he’s right in the “everyman” line. But this is a small country, and that’s a byproduct. And it has, I would argue, helped keep him connected with his audiences for so long.
On which point:
I don’t want to be all ‘poor me’, and I have to say Irish audiences have been incredibly supportive, the only patrons of our music for the past 17 years, but there is this sense of ownership where people feel they can come up and tell you their opinion . . . tell you how to do your job . . . and it can get irritating when someone calls you a prick for no reason.
He’s spent considerable time giving us his opinion of how we’re living, so he shouldn’t be so touchy. But being called a “prick” in the street would be pretty horrible.
But then there was this:
He remembers having a conversation with “a bonafide Irish rock star” about this issue. “His take on it was that the Shamen never mixes with his people, he stays on the outskirts of the village. The way the Shamen works is he operates under a sense of fear and respect. You never see him eat or wash his clothes . . . he has this gravity, there is a respect, but that doesn’t exist in Ireland, in Ireland everyone is a Shamen.”
Yikes.
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Merry Christmas everyone
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you who have read, commented and lurked in recent months.
I’ll be nipping in and out of the blog over the next week and a half, but normal service will resume when we all reach that glorious, hopeful, wallet-chastening month of January.
I’ve learned many things in my first few months as a blogger, but chief among them is this: Typing while you’re holding a sandwich leads to typos. So, I’ll try and go without lunch next year.
Anyway, have fun. Hope Santa brings you all something nice.
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Christmas spotter’s guide
- Exciting toy you bought so that you would fill your child with wonder needs to have its batteries removed, because it has started to really irritate you (Time spotted: __.__)
- While watching Willy Wonka for the 73rd time, you remember again what a complete bastard he is: __.__
- Before you’ve even unwrapped a gift, someone says, “If you don’t like it you can bring it back”: __.__
- RTÉ news presented by work experience student: __.__
- Apparently minor comment about some aspect of the Christmas dinner results in cook crying in kitchen: __.__
- Dad puts on glasses and inspects gift of a wind-up radio as if it were an ancient Mayan artifact: __.__
- Watching Eastenders Christmas special becomes uncomfortable as Slater’s exaggerated problems begin to mirror your family’s: __.__
- Movie you’ve seen eight time on Sky Movies is introduced by RTÉ woman as a “network television premiere”: __.__
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Selection box
The questions that Slate’s ‘Explainer’ didn’t answer this year.
Shock news: some, but not all, people Google themselves, and other people
The Onion cuts to the chase on the whole Harry Potter nonsense.
P Diddy’s perfume is called Unforgivable Woman. Rejected alternatives: “Fallen Woman” and “Harlot”.
Time may be running out. Literally.
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have had enough of the writers’ strike and are going back on air.
Will Smith’s next movie is I Am Legend (read the book, it’s brilliant). Then it’s a “homeless superhero” flick that’s likely to be pretty terrible.
Dublin looks very well today and this makes it look positively funky (I posted it in July, but I can show it now, so up it goes).
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Errors of 2007
Not mine, although we all make mishtakes. Not the newspaper’s, although we do have the odd glitch. But the errors of the world’s media, as compiled into one compelling (and for hacks, very scary) list by the excellent Regret The Error. Which itself has four corrections appended to the list of hilarious corrections.* Oh, the irony.
It’s Correction of the Year comes from the Independent (UK version):
Following the portrait of Tony and Cherie Blair published on 21 April in the Independent Saturday magazine, Ms Blair’s representatives have told us that she was friendly with but never had a relationship with Carole Caplin of the type suggested in the article. They want to make it clear, which we are happy to do, that Ms Blair “has never shared a shower with Ms Caplin, was not introduced to spirit guides or primal wrestling by Ms Caplin (or anyone else), and did not have her diary masterminded by Ms Caplin.”
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The glitz. The glamour. The grime.
Another thing that occured to me while watching the news last night was just how crappy O’Connell St is as a place to hold a star-studded movie premiere. The buses going by; the red carpet stretching across the chewing gum-filled pavement; the street lit up by the front of Dr Quirkey’s.
I could have sworn that Hilary Swank was trying to kick the Big Mac wrappers away from her legs while she was being interviewed. Although, she loves Ireland and loves Guinness. How refreshing for a foreign star to come here and speak so candidly of us, and with so few clichés too.
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Hunting the hunters
Watching the news last night, some things struck me during the report on the Ward Union stag hunt.
1. The Union’s spokesperson sounded awfully familiar. Such a deep rich, honey-toned voice. And then it dawned: he’s Brian Munn, one of the maybe three voiceover guys in Ireland who does every ad. You can hear him here, and what’s notable is that the second ad featured on his audioreel is for cod. My God, hasn’t that man already terrorised the creatures of the land without targetting those in the sea too?
2. Gormley’s decision is the closest you will ever come the kind of thing found in an episode of Yes, Minister.
3. As an extra precondition, each hunter should first be released into the wild and hunted down by a pack of dogs. To add to the experience.
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Irish TV moments of 2007
- The Late Late Show gave us McSavage . Have I ever mentioned that before?
- It also gave us the interview with Frances Cahill, which was reminder of just how good it can be. Once every several thousand episodes.
- Vincent Browne’s verbal assault on Bertie was something to behold.
- The fight on Ireland AM was grubby but gripping.
- There was Vincent Browne presenting Ireland AM. Genius, of sorts. But it’s not on YouTube, so we only have the memories. Such sweet, confusing memories.
- The Clinic had the most outrageously brutal ending in the history of Irish drama, in which several disasters befell Dr-Whatever-Her-Name-Is in the space of mere minutes. If you missed it, it was a bit like this.
- But winner this (and, let’s face it, every) year was The Late Late Toy Show, which gave us the sight of Pat Kenny kicking a doll, Santa handing him nuclear waste, a child-goth singing opera, and Kenny getting Seinfeld’s name wrong. Twice.
Again, it’s not on YouTube, but we replay it in our heads every day.
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Faggots and sluts saved for Christmas
Purely due to the pressure put on the BBC by this blog, Radio 1 has backed down on its original decision to censor Fairytale of New York.
Such power. What shall we change next?
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BBC censors Fairytale of New York
Latest news from the world of dumb censorship: BBC Radio 1 is going to edit out the word “faggot” every time it plays Fairytale of New York. It’s also censoring “old slut on junk”. But, good news for filth fans, “scumbag” stays.
According to the BBC’s own report:
The BBC said: “We are playing an edited version because some members of the audience might find it offensive.”
A Radio 1 spokeswoman said the station’s management had met on Tuesday morning to discuss the issue.
She said they “had made their decision” and would not be going back on it.
But the ban does not apply across the BBC. Radio 2 said it would be playing the full version of the track.
For starters, Kirsty McColl is NOT calling Shane McGowan “gay”, so this is utter nonsense.
Secondly, anyone offended by it deserves to be offended, so the BBC should turn up the volume specifically for those words.
Thirdly, Ronan Keating started all this when his attempt to destroy the song forever included chaning the line to “you’re cheap and your haggard”. Now that was offensive. In fact, they should bleep all the offensive elements of songs by people like Ronan Keating, so that in future his lyrics would be as follows:
We ***** ***
** **** **** **
**** ** * ***********
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Sketch of 2007
Armstrong and Miller’s slang-speaking RAF men. And shit.
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The Simpsons: still beautiful
OK, so it’ll never be as great as it used to be, but the episode aired in the US this week proved that it can still have its great moments. Here, it parodies the “picture a day” guy.
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RTÉ’s internal report into High Society
RTÉ has completed its internal report into the High Society controversy. The findings in a nutshell: “We’re not afraid of the truth. The truth in this case being that it was a one-off. OK, maybe we shouldn’t have had an entire programme that featured actors and anonymous sources, but generally we’re pretty brilliant. Other people think so too. From now on, we’ll draw up some new guidelines and have more workshops. More workshops! What more do you people want? By the way, did we mention that we’re pretty great.” (more…)
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Bruce, Belfast and a bridge
Like Jim, I was at Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band in Belfast on Saturday night. Afterwards, I met a couple of locals who were a bit let down by the show. “They’ll probably never do Belfast again, so he should have played a few of the older hits.”
You can’t please everyone, I suppose. Springsteen is not a heritage act, churning out 30 year old hits as a reminder of how good he was several decades ago (I’m looking at you, Rolling Stones). The new songs fit neatly into a varied set, while songs from The Rising are reminders of how newer songs have already become minor classics. Only one song, the 35-year-old Kitty’s Back, fell flat for me. But the final run in - Born To Run, Dancing in the Dark, American Land and Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town - made you glad to be alive.
As for the venue, it reminded you that an arena doesn’t have to a big shed. When Springsteen played the Point during the Devils and Dust tour you could actually hear the rain bouncing off the roof during one song.
Plus, staff handed out tickets as souvenirs, which was a nice touch - even if it’s not been quite so good for the collection since Ticketmaster made all tickets look the same. My tip for anyone travelling to a gig at the Odyssey, though, is to make sure to book a restaurant in advance to avoid the queues. The Indian Ocean looked good.
By the way, the ferris wheel looks good on the skyline. So what if it’s aping the London Eye - a good idea is a good idea (although there have been complaints that it’s in the wrong spot).
We got lost looking for the Odyssey, of course, and as a barman was showing us the way a car full of frazzled Limerick folk arrived having got lost too. It took no time to get there and back, though, thanks to the wonders of Southern engineering. Thank you EU structural fund.
On which note, is there a more beautiful man-made structure in the State than the Boyne Bridge at night? It’s a glorious sight on the M1 at 1am, bathed in soft blues, greens and reds. The Spire, with its 20-watt bulbs, is nothing in comparison.
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Books of 2007
A few books I enjoyed this year:
FICTION
I thought that Lloyd Jones’s Mister Pip was the best thing on the Booker list, although I enjoyed Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach too. But the first novel I read this year, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, was the one that really stuck with me. Mixing tenderness with stark horror, it had my stomach in a knot from page one.FUNNY
If you don’t laugh at Rob Long’s tale of a year in the US sitcom industry, Set Up, Joke. Set Up, Joke, then you are joyless.BRAINY
AC Grayling’s Toward the Light: The Story of the Struggles for Liberty and Rights That Made the Modern West does what it says on the tin, but it does it with clarity and obvious enjoyment of the topic.JOURNALISM
I enjoyed David Remnick’s collection Reporting, in which the New Yorker editor compiles some fine interviews including an excellent piece on Al Gore from when his pre-Nobel wilderness years.(While I’m mentioning the New Yorker, anyone looking for a gift for themselves or someone who likes Anthony Lane’s Nobody’s Perfect is a brilliant collection of his New Yorker writing - many of them film reviews, but also a lot of profiles.
For something different, Clive James’s most recent volume of his ‘Unreliable Memoirs’, North Face of Soho is often very funny, and is a snapshot from a time when journalists were very different to how they are now. Plus, there are great anecdotes from his early TV years and his pot-smoking days.
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The Pope and climate change
Looking at the remarks Pope Benedict made last week, I focussed on the following line:
It is important for assessments in this regard to be carried out prudently, in dialogue with experts and people of wisdom, uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions, and above all with the aim of reaching agreement on a model of sustainable development capable of ensuring the well-being of all while respecting environmental balances.
So I mentioned them in my Saturday column as an indication that he was playing up to climate change sceptics, of whom there are a tiny, but vocal, minority within the church (the current issue of Alive! leads with that opinion). I had been directed to them by other reporting. Worse, that original report came from the Daily Mail, which had called it an “attack” on climate change activists, before it was picked up widely. Reading the Pope’s in greater detail over the weekend, I’ll admit that it was far more measured than that. Yes, he says research should be “uninhibited by ideological pressure to draw hasty conclusions”, but is that enough to damn him as playing up the sceptics? In the wider context of what he has said, it doesn’t. Which, in conclusion, means that I was wrong on that point.
You can read the full text here.
You can read Ben Goldacre on the reporting here.
And you can read Associate Notes’s view of it (and, as a by-product, my column) here.
Niall at Associate Notes calls it crap reporting. Do I think he’s right? On this occassion, I could hardly argue otherwise.
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Yawning in the face of apocalypse
Climate change is the “defining issue of our time”, as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon put it in Bali this week. He is right, this is the greatest story of our time.
Which is why it seems a little churlish to ask this question: why isn’t it the most exciting story to listen to?
It is not that the threat of global chaos and mass extinction is boring. Hollywood would be extinct by now if it were. But the snappily-titled 13th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change proved that this looming Armageddon is too often presented as if it is some type of bureaucratic conundrum. (more…)
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My most played tracks in 2007
Because technology doesn’t lie, here are my most listened to tracks this year according to my iPod.
1. No Need - The Chemical Brothers
2. Jupiter Room (Erol Alkan Edit) - Digitalism
3. North American Scum (Dunproofin’s Not From England Either Mix) - LCD Soundsystem
4. GDMFSOB (UNKLE remix feat. Roots Manuva) - DJ Shadow
5. Ankle injuries - Fujiya & Miyagi
6. Bodysnatchers - Radiohead
7. Total Terror Mix - Reverse Engineering
8. You and I - Graham Coxon
9. Atlas - Battles
10. Wham City - Dan Deacon
11. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi - Radiohead
12. All I Need - Radiohead
13. Overpowered - Róisín Murphy
14. Black Mirror - Arcade Fire
15. Pives and Flarinet - Podington Bear
16. Black Wave - Arcade Fire
17. Who Is It (Vitalic Mix) - Bjork
18. Electronic Battle Weapon 8 - The Chemical Brothers
19. Radio Protector - 65 Days of Static
20. Airliner - Podington BearWhich goes to show that, like the blog says, I prefer the obscure remix.
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Tom Waits: start buying now
This blog endorses Adam Maguire’s campaign to make Tom Waits Ireland’s number one this Christmas.
Sales are registered from today. Go the site for the list of where you can buy Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis online. Buy early. Buy often.
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This Christmas’s most disturbing toy
I’ve seen an ad for Baby Wee Wee on the children’s channels, but it turns out to be an edited version that does not reveal the full horror of a toy that is a big seller this Christmas. Set your faces to stunned.
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Your one-stop shop for Irish media facts and figures
It’s not the funkiest, or most user-friendly site, but Medialive.ie is a handy one that seems to go under the radar a bit. It’s useful for up-to-date Irish television ratings, JNLR figures and newspaper and magazine circulation details and advertising rates for everything from cinemas to billboards.
So, for the fact fans:
.. The Santa Clause 2 (part 2) was the most watched programme among children in 2006 (111,000 of the little blighters tuned in - 10,000 more than watched the first half. Strange.) (more…)
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Public service announcememt
From tomorrow, thousands of Southerners will travel to the new Ikea in Belfast. Here is some travel and consumer advice.
Getting there:
1. When the road gets bad, you’ve arrived in the North.
2. The road signs are in miles - it is not that Northern kilometres seem to take longer (more…)
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Emily O’Reilly and the “21st century bloodsport”
Emily O’Reilly’s last couple of years have been marked by occassional headline grabbing speeches about the state of modern Ireland that could - were you so minded - be construed as part of an early run for the Presidency.
Yesterday, launching new journalism courses in Limerick, she took a swipe at the media. And she had a point. (more…)
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Cocaine
Jim’s jaw reacted in pretty much the same way as mine yesterday morning when Bill Cullen’s appearance on Marian Finucane’s show brought pearls of wisdom grabbed straight from the open gob of some mouthy taxi driver. But it was one of those weekends during which a lot was said about cocaine. Some of it was educational (such as the A&E doctor on Finucane’s show), some of it allowed Prime Time get a plug for tonight’s programme, but little of it was constructive. Only Kevin Myers on the Sunday Supplement offered anything when he suggested - as he, and others, have done many times before - that we should at least legalise drugs to take them out of the hands of criminal gangs. (more…)
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Saturday column: The coming “War on Christmas”
This week, an Irish chain of creches decided not to put on nativity plays for fear of offending non-Christian parents. Later in the week, there was the controversy over the removal of the word “crib” from the Veritas shops’ radio ads. These were diverting tales of our times, tailor-made for those who can’t say the words “political correctness” without adding “gone mad”. But more ominously, they were the first signs that the War on Christmas has reached our shores. If you tolerate this, your Easter will be next. (more…)
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Morrissey, the NME and turning the tables
The current Morrissey row with the NME is obviously focussed on the “racism” issue. But, as it’s gone on it has revealed a journalist’s great fears: that the interviewee will turn the tables.
When you interview someone, you are in the powerful position of relaying not only what a person said, but also how they acted, their mannerisms, their reactions, and something of the personality that you met you during the interview. In an age when many interviews are conducted in hotel rooms over the course of, if lucky, an hour (if unlucky, in as little as 15 minutes) you’d want to be pretty sure you’re reflecting the reality of the meeting and being fair to a person you have spent only a sliver of time with. If, with all that taken into consideration, you still feel it’s fair to criticise them, then you need to be confident that it’s warranted. (more…)
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Selection box
- Conor Pope’s moment of fame has arrived. He’s been “done” on Gift Grub.
- China’s moon probe a fake? No, just touched up
- Charlie Brooker’s column this week was, amongst other things, on what happens when you write nasty things about someone, and then bump into them on the street
- Christian movie site MovieGuide.org reviews the Dylan biopic I’m Not There: “Strong mixed pagan worldview with strong humanist, politically correct elements…”
- Shouldn’t we read more sci-fi?
- That British canoeist who “disappeared” for six years only to emerge in dubious circumstances this week, could have done with help of this site: How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found.
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Not so super Heroes
I was watching Heroes on BBC2 - and it finished its first season last night with a dollop of predictability. Then again, season finales are often a bit of a let down. But because I’d been avoiding all information about the second season, I’d missed the fact that the show’s creator Tim Kring had apologised for the fact that it’s a bit rubbish. It’s lost 15 per cent of the audience, and has now been clobbered by the writers’ strike - which this week forced it into a makeshift mid-season finale. I won’t link to any pieces on that, because they contain major spoilers, but the big, ominous news is that it brings the plot to Ireland. Diddly-super-aye.
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“If you can make it there…” etc
Irish playwright Abbie Spallen’s Pumpgirl has just received a strong review from the New York Times. It is the tale of a female petrol pump attendant, a racing car driver and a lonely wife:
With three alternating monologues (varying a form familiar from works by Brian Friel and Conor McPherson) and its story of bitterly circumscribed lives, “Pumpgirl” is hardly the most original play to arrive from Ireland lately. But Ms. Spallen’s penetrating language and unsentimental view place it among the most powerful; no bog of plummy prose or nostalgia for her. Adding a fresh, female voice to the boys’ club of Irish playwrights, she infuses her monologues with slightly dated pop culture references that make her characters contemporary while revealing the tacky limits of their horizons. (Glen Campbell, Homer Simpson, Mel Gibson and The Matrix all become touchstones.)
Pumpgirl is Spallen’s fourth play and has already been well reviewed at the Edinburgh Fringe and during its London premiere. But that this off-Broadway run was also given a big preview in the New York Times suggests that the Newry-born writer has stepped up a few gears.
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The rise, but not fall, of Steve Martin
Slate’s intro to its review of Steve Martin’s new autobiography Born Standing Up is both factual and cutting: “Steve Martin Explains Why He Used To Be Funny”.
A few weeks ago, the Guardian ran an interview with Martin, in which it somehow failed to deal with the obvious question of What the Hell Went Wrong? He was a great stand-up. His first movie was The Jerk.
Now, like others of that generation - Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase - he ended up sliding towards dodgy remakes and schmaltzy dad roles, despite various attempts at grown up movies. Thank God for Bill Murray, otherwise it might have been a write-off.
While his book is being described as a very good account of how he became funny, what would be really interesting would be one that explains just how he stopped being a comedy genius. Martin made some classic films, played to 20,000 people at a time, was a bona fide megastar in the 80s. So how the hell did he end up making Cheaper By The Dozen 2?
Because Will Ferrell (who owes a lot to Martin) would be advised to learn some lessons before it’s too late.
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Find out if your family were idiots. Or lunatics.
The results of the 1911 census are up on the National Archives’ website, with the Dublin results first and the rest to follow. Notable features include WB “Yeates” being in the company of Lady Gregory on the night, Eamon de Valera putting himself down as “Edward”, and a question asking if people were “deaf and dumb; dumb only; blind; imbecile or idiot; or lunatic”. So, not only can you look up your relatives, but you can see if they were idiots.
UPDATE: Having played with it for a while, this really is a fantastic resource for anyone who can trace their family through it. Fascinating detail.
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Scorsese does Hitchcock
Yes, this is a big ad from start to finish, and I’m selling out by even featuring it, but the short film at the centre of it really is worth watching. So, here’s Scorsese doing Hitchcock. (Film buffs can enjoy spotting the visual references.) And here is Scorsese talking about Scorsese doing Hitchcock.
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Doonesbury goes dark
Doonesbury readers will know that it abandoned the punchlines for the storyline in which BD lost a leg in Iraq. Since then, the character of Ray has acted as the window into the minds of some of those serving in Iraq - much of it based on Garry Trudeau’s correspondence with serving soldiers and vets.
Judging by today’s strip today’s strip, though, things may be about to get very bleak indeed.
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Cecelia Ahern: “Tubridy, but not Tonight”
Cecelia Ahern was on Tubridy Tonight on Saturday. The audience clapped when she was introduced, and again when she was finished. But they didn’t get to see her. Instead, she had pre-recorded her interview and the floor manager had asked the crowd to put on a show so as not to ruin the illusion for those at home.
Pre-records aren’t a bad thing of themselves, although it’s always a bit odd when spliced into a live show. But they can sometimes be necessary, and the Late Late used to (and may still) record bands in the afternoon and edit it them in later.
The argument could be made that all chat shows should be pre-recorded and edited, although it would probably reduce the Late Late to 10 minutes and we wouldn’t have anything to talk about on a Monday morning (Pat Kenny called Seinfeld Sein-”feild”, by the way. Twice.)
But the really odd thing about Ahern’s appearance was that she was in the Green Room after the show on Saturday night, so was actually in the RTÉ building during the time that the audience was watching her on the monitors. Which suggests that she could have done it live, but decided against it. Strange.
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Saturday column: Beware the faulty moral compass
Should you be looking for film reviews, you should try MovieGuide.org. It’s a hoot. The Christian website views movies on a scale from “Wholesome” to “Abhorrent”, and summarises plots through their supposed theological standpoints (Beowulf: “light, undeveloped Christian worldview with strong pagan elements”.)
Right now, its chief concern is with The Golden Compass, a movie based on the first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy written by Philip Pullman. Or “an avowed atheist”, as MovieGuide.org clarifies. It concludes that: “A society shaped by the materialist and godless ethic promoted by films like The Golden Compass is a society without hope.”
The site’s founder, Ted Baehr, has explained that when the trilogy ends, “All [ the central character] Lyra wants to do in her life at the end of the trilogy is sexually pleasure herself with her friend”. Readers of the book will recognise that as a statement that proves only that there is nothing filthier than the mind of a religious puritan.
Pullman’s reaction? “Oh, it causes me to shake my head with sorrow that such nitwits could be loose in the world,” he told Newsweek. (more…)
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