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Unrealistic advice about The Golden Compass
given by a nun to parochial school parents
A nun serving as an Ohio parochial school principal believes
that her school should not render a verdict on the His
Dark Materials trilogy. Instead, she suggests that Catholic
parents should read the trilogy and make their own decision
for their children. Given the time-starved hectic pace of
today's parents, suggesting that mom and dad read 1,104 pages
of Pullman's trilogy before making a decision about a holiday
movie and books seems very unrealistic.
Furthermore, it is unimaginable that a nun cannot soundly
condemn Pullman's depiction of Mary Malone, a nun, in The
Amber Spyglass (volume three, page 393):
"I used to be a nun … till I saw there wasn't any God at all. The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake that's all.
"When did you stop being a nun?" "I remember it exactly (page 393)."
"I was so innocent - I'd been such a good little girl, I'd gone to Mass regularly, I'd thought I had a vocation for the spiritual life … until half past nine August 10, seven years ago (page 394)."
She started flirting with a man she met at a conference. She felt her body aching for this man (page 396). She thought to herself, "will anyone be better off if I go back to the hotel and say my prayers and confess to the priest and promise never to fall into temptation again (page 397)?"
Not wanting to be a miserable nun, she said to herself, "There's no one to condemn, no one to bless me, no one to punish me for being wicked. Heaven was empty. And I took the crucifix from around my neck and I threw it in the sea. That was it. All over. Gone. That was how I stopped being a nun (page 397)."
When Mary Malone, the former nun, left the church she felt "loose and free and light." After she broke her vows, Pullman's former nun began cohabitating with a man (page 398).
Finally, Pullman has this former nun functioning as a temptress of the young girl Lyra, as she says to her, "all my body was aching for him". In turn Lyra "felt something strange happen to her body. She felt as if she had been handed the key to a great house she hadn't known was there" (page 396).
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