I had posted earlier on the Times report about Hollywood removing the anti-religiosity from the movie adaptations of Pullman‘s “His Dark Materials” books, implying that the changes upset me, but trying to be reasonable about it.
Well, Jessa over at the irreplacable Bookslut notes today that Pullman has something to say about that article, and it makes me feel somewhat better about the whole thing. And he takes a few nice shots at journalistic ethics while he’s at it.
Here’s a particularly nice snippet:
And that is why those who are intent on mischief will do what fundamentalists of every stripe always do: insist on a literal interpretation of every single word, a point-by-point identification of this with that, a ‘correct’ reading that’s authorised and approved and certified by the authorities they submit to. People like that don’t understand irony or implication or subtlety of any kind. There were even some early critics of the books who, because of the bone-headed literalist way they read, accused me of turning morality upside down, and of telling readers that evil was good and good was evil. What people of that sort are really afraid of is the power of the human imagination, precisely because it can take up so many shapes. They don’t like metaphor, they don’t understand it, they don’t trust it. Deep down, they don’t like stories at all.
