intertext

What's wrong with this guy? I've come somewhat late to this article about Philip Pullman's latest ill tempered attack on the Narnia works, this time on the film adaptation. It can't be sour grapes. He's made millions himself, from his own books and a very successful stage production, and, apparently, an upcoming film version. I just don't really understand the persistent and somewhat... I can only describe it as "bitchy" attacks by Pullman on what is, in effect, an easy target. Yes, the Narnia books are simplistic and transparently Christian and a little over-the-top and probably rascist and elitist and sexist and yada yada yada... But consider the time when they were written and published. And when was it an artistic crime to be Christian? Where is Pullman when a new Harry Potter book is published? Or what about that god awful Da Vinci Code rag? I won't claim that the Narnia books have the literary merit of, say, Le Guin, or Tolkien, or Tove Jansson, but they have stood the test of time, and legitimately won the love of generations of children (including me), which has to count for something. And in any case, I have yet to be convinced that Philip Pullman himself is the greatest author since Dante, which he seems to believe of himself. Humph.