I feel like an original fan. I swear, until recently when the hype for Golden Compass movie has reached the airwave, television, etc, etc, it wasn't popular at all here in the Philippines. I read the book like five or six years years ago, and I was astounded as to why oh why Harry Potter remained more talked about than Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, which includes The Golden Compass or Northern Lights as its first book. At school for instance, there were only 3 or 5 people who knew the series. Now, it's like everyone knows what's coming up in theaters this December seven. And people are actually reading the books! Not that it's a bad thing really, it's actually good now that I can talk to people about the books. I just feel like like all of them became fans only after New Line Cinema's successful marketing. I became a fan because I looked for the books years ago. I should be given an award or something.
Oh, and I'm a big fan of the books because they narrate this awesome story about growing up, how we approach life and how God figures in all of these. Here's an excerpt from an interview with Philip Pullman by Claudia FitzHerbert which so describes a major theme in the books:
FitzHerbert: "The Authority in 'His Dark Materials' is a force for repression throughout. What do you say to critics who ask where is the good that is done by religion?"
Pulman: "...The interesting - the curious - question is, if people can be helped by something that is palpably not true, is this better than denying the thing that is not true and not being helped? When I say palpably not true I am speaking from my perspective as an atheist. This perspective thing is important: if I compare the tiny amount of things that I know to all the things I don't know, then of course out there in the darkness there may be God. So from that perspective I'm an agnostic. But then, if we imagine being inside a camera coming closer and closer to this tiny pinprick of light - to the things that we do know - then as we come closer the pinprick gets bigger, as things do, until finally it reaches from horizon to horizon and we are standing inside the light. From this perspective - which is all the things I know - we can see quite clearly there is no God, so in that respect I'm an atheist..."
- Source: http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/pullman_08_07.html
2 comments:
It's like claiming to have owned a pair of Havaianas(sp?) long before everyone else started buying their own, only less mainstream and therefore more dignified. Hee... but I know what you mean. I feel the same way (thanks for lending me your His Dark Materials books years ago, by the way, hehe).
I hope acknowledgment is reward enough for now. In the meantime, I think I know what you should do. If ever you feel strongly about anything ever again, tell everyone. Doesn't matter if they think you're crazy or what you like turns out to be crap in the end. If you fine another goldmine like the Pullman books, they'll come to think you're just... ahead of your time. :)
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