Rachel Robison

Greene, Richard V., and Rachel Robinson, editors. The Golden Compass and Philosophy: God Bites the Dust. Open Court, 2009.
If you are interested in the theological controversy around Philip Pullman and the His Dark Materials trilogy, this is a tolerably useful collection of essays. Note that the essays do talk about the entire trilogy, not just The Golden Compass, as the title suggests. Max Auxier does a good job of detailing some of Pullman’s uses and misuses of Milton and Nietzsche. I show more would have liked to hear more about Pullman’s specific criticisms of Tolkien and Lewis. That HDM builds a world in which characters discover that the afterlife is not something to which we should aspire and that religious institutions suck at guiding our ethical decisions is without doubt. Other than that, it is hard to see what the fuss was about. Almost every coming-of-age story teaches its heroes and heroines to think for themselves. Do we really need a lot of Milton to do it? show less

A lovely book that was very engaging on the philosophical ideas and concepts found in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. It is a philosophy book, so it can cause a bit of a headache at times, but the insight into the possible and actual philosophy in the trilogy is worth the potential headache here there.