Edited by Scott Westerfeld - Teen Libris

The Dangerous Worlds of Pullman’s His Dark Materials 25
of genres targeted at specific audiences: so-called “women’s fiction,” for
example. The success of a romance requires active participation by the
reader-stereotypically a woman. It’s likely that the different audiences
that have read the Pullman trilogy are what account for much of the controversy
that surrounds it.
In HDM, whenever the subtle knife is used to cut between worlds, it
makes Specters, horrible creatures that feed on the souls of the living.
Not only that, Dust, a kind of conscious dark matter, leaks out if these
holes are left open.
In our world, books that cut holes into alternate worlds of science and
faith have often been banned by political and religious authorities, as if
such books might result in either a leaking out of grace or the leaking in
of harmful ideas.
In an article in The Catholic Herald, Stratford Caldecott (what a great
name!) takes Pullman to task for “shoddy thinking and anti-Christian
fanaticism that spoils these admittedly fascinating tales.”
Rupert Kaye, Chief Executive of Britain’s Association of Christian
Teachers, says, “As a Christian teacher I find it particularly odious that
Pullman’s bitter and twisted trilogy has been marketed and sold as children’s
literature and desperately sad that so few Christians have taken the
time to see Pullman’s work for what it is-anti-Christian propaganda.”
The Harry Potter books have also come under fire for containing references
to witchcraft and wizardry. But The Catholic Herald defended
Rowling’s books-by comparing them to Pullman’s more insidious work.
Pullman himself expresses amazement that Rowling’s books have been
vilified by some religious authorities because of their magical content, while
his own more subversive books have received less notoriety. (One has the
sense he’s disappointed.) But conservative columnist Peter Hitchens went so
far as to call Pullman “the most dangerous author in Britain.”
It seems that, just as the religious enforcers in Lyra’s world consider it
blasphemous to posit the existence of multiple worlds, there are those in
our own world who view it as heresy to delve into Pullman’s universe.
Not everyone shares this opinion. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, has suggested that works like HDM can play a useful role in
discussions about faith and the nature of God. In his book Dark Matter:
A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Philip Pullman, Christian writer and commentator
Tony Watkins admits to being a fan of the books while taking issue