XPost: rec.arts.books, alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books.childrens   
   XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: bbwebpage+usenet@gmail.com   
      
   Catawumpus (kimmerian@fastmail.fm) wrote:   
      
   >      I agree both Lewis and Pullman do some moralizing, but the   
   > angels seen in _His Dark Materials_ aren't describing the   
   > gnostic perspective.  You've got the idea that in Pullman, "the   
   > deity Christians worship is the demiurge."  Trouble is   
   > Pullman's angels say the opposite, explaining that the demiurge   
   > isn't the Christian god:   
   >   
   >           "Tell me, then," said Will. "Tell me about   
   >      Metatron, and what this secret is. Why did that   
   >      angel call him Regent? And what is the Authority? Is   
   >      he God?"   
   >           He sat down, and the two angels, their   
   >      forms clearer in the moonlight than he had ever   
   >      seen them before, sat with him.   
   >           Balthamos said quietly, "The Authority, God, the   
   >      Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the   
   >      Father, the Almighty, those were all names he gave   
   >      himself. He was never the creator."   
   >   
   >      Got that?  Yahweh "was never the creator" according to the   
   > angel Balthamos (_The Amber Spyglass_ 15).  Gnosticism --   
   > Christian and otherwise -- criticizes the creator of this world.   
   > Pullman, by contrast, _exempts_ the creator from his   
   > objections, putting the _Dark Materials_ books in conflict with   
   > the gnostic outlook.   
      
      
   It's been years since I read the Nag Hammadi Library. But I recall   
   enough to say that there isn't such a thing as "the gnostic outlook".   
   Pullman's moralizing angels ring in some variations on standard   
   gnostic themes and fit comfortably within the gnostic conversation.   
      
   --   
   Bill Baldwin   
   http://bettercovenant.wordpress.com/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)