The Latest(ish)
The His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman IT was, some said, the moment that literature for the young finally came of age. On January 22, Philip Pullman, a children’s writer (although he objects to that label), was awarded Britain’s prestigious Whitbread prize for the final installment of his best-selling His Dark Materials trilogy. In the opinion of the judges, The Amber Spyglass was Britain’s book of the year. It was an unprecedented honor for a work aimed at younger readers, but Pullman is a man who must be getting used to praise, and not just in Britain. His writing [...]
Sunday School for Atheists
March 25, 2002
"The Golden Compass," 'The Subtle Knife," and "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman; published originally in National Review
"Now. Hear. This." Bellowed onto a bare stage in New York’s West Village, the words are an order, an incantation, and a greeting. They are a shout across time, an introduction to a story that has been told for almost 3,000 years, the story of the anger of Achilles and the prelude to Troy’s fall. Homer’s Iliad is a primeval tale that never seems to grow old, a source of ancient legend and contemporary truth. It is one of the monuments of our culture, a core text, venerable and venerated, and yet, despite the passing of millennia, it is a [...]
Ode to Troy
March 21, 2002
War Music by Christopher Logue; published originally in National Review Online
If you want to see yet another unexpected consequence of our new, more disturbing era, take a look at The American Embassy, which premieres on Fox tonight. As a result of 9/11, this fledgling show already faces a once unimaginable identity crisis and a number of difficult decisions about what it wants to do when it grows up. Back in the more frivolous times when it was first imagined (the initial episode was filmed a year ago) everything was all so straightforward. The new series (then planned to be called Emma Brody) was clearly intended as a replacement, or at [...]
Embassy Sweet
March 11, 2002
THe American Embassy; published originally in National Review Online
On Good Friday, when others were in church, I visited an atheists’ convention. Choosing to hold the gathering—the 28th National Convention of the American Atheists—over the Easter weekend was, their president explained, not much more than a matter of favorable hotel rates. Ellen Johnson smiled as she said this: It was not a claim that a skeptic would expect anyone to believe. So America’s infidels gathered in their doubters’ redoubt, a nondescript Hyatt on the grounds of Boston’s Logan airport, transformed for a few days into a heretic Vatican. Around 250 souls (maybe that’s not the word) had turned up [...]
A Fundamentalism of Their Own: With the Atheists in Boston
March 6, 2002