The Golden Compass, Good Analysis and Slander

Just a quick follow-up. If you haven't read this, you probably should. Hanna Rosin at The Atlantic does a great job of analyzing the process of making the film, including real interviews with a real Philip Pullman.

Unlike this story, sent to me by Simon at bloggasm.com, which just goes to show that proponents of the Truth will go to any length to ensure their version of the Truth wins. (And what's with the capital "T"?) Seems Christians are making up quotes by Pullman to justify their desire to censor whatever messages don't measure up. I just can't believe it. Christians lying. They're either too credulous or too stupid or too dishonest to care about checking on these quotes. Nope. They just hit forward and say a prayer. Because, you know, stopping The Golden Compass is just like stopping child rape...

Comments

[cheek]

"The Golden Compass should not offend, or be controversial at all, Weitz swears. It will certainly not, heaven forbid, offer any critique of religion."

I'm starting to think about boycotting the damn thing myself. What a waste of time if this is true. There has never been a decent story that didn't offend the reader.

[Leighton]

Credulous has my vote. In a lot of areas of the subculture, accusing another member of carelessness or fabrication is considered worse than the act of fabrication itself would be, so there's very little incentive to fact-check.

Capital-T Truth is a nifty rhetorical trick to focus the debate onto the hundredth of a percent of sloppy pomo writers and away from the actual things people affirm as true. There's absolutely no purpose in talking abstractly about epistemology when you won't first talk abstractly about communication and how you expect conversations to go. It just winds up with everyone frustrated and nothing accomplished. (Unless trolling counts as an accomplishment, which in some areas of the net it does.)

[Derek Thompson]

Hello, instead of The Book of Cynics, why not try The Little Book of Cynics. Now available on amazon.co.uk and a host of other (largely) reputable retailers.

Regards, Derek Thompson (co-author)