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| Hearsay: |
Philip Pullman writes on how much he enjoys the experience of having every fundamentalist Christian in the world gunning for you.
When I heard that my novel The Golden Compass (the name in the USA of Northern Lights) appeared in the top five of the American Library Association’s list of 2007’s most challenged books, my immediate and ignoble response was glee. Firstly, I had obviously annoyed a lot of censorious people, and secondly, any ban would provoke interested readers to move from the library, where they couldn’t get hold of my novel, to the bookshops, where they could. That, after all, was exactly what happened when a group called the Catholic League decided to object to the film of The Golden Compass when it was released at the end of last year. The box office suffered, but the book sales went up – a long way up, to my gratification.
Because they never learn. The inevitable result of trying to ban something – book, film, play, pop song, whatever – is that far more people want to get hold of it than would ever have done if it were left alone. Why don’t the censors realise this?
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September 29th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I think Pullman’s right about banning books increasing interest therein.
However, his idea about the film is wrong. The film bombed at the box office because it straight up sucked.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:41 am
I didn’t think the movie sucked, but the director wasn’t suitable to the material.
And how, HOW do I get my novel banned? I could probably retire on the controversy.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Corey, maybe i’ve been doing the wrong thing for you. Here i’ve been talking it up, maybe i should talk about all the reasons it should be burned.
My offspring, who are in grade 12 at a CATHOLIC high school are currently reading a book with sex scenes, a gay rape scene, and other sinful stuff like that. I think its pretty cool that their english teacher seems to have passed this book under the wire, and i’m so looking forward to finding out how she did it. This same
teacher has their class so pumped about Can Lit.
September 30th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I think the movie was very poorly edited. If they jumped from scene to scene any faster, people would have had seizures in aisles. If they allowed the film to pause for breath now and then, and let it be about 20 to 30 minutes longer, it would have been much better, but they hacked it all to hell worrying about kids’ attention spans.