Pullman puts in a 'god-like' performance!
I note from the BBC website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8026312.stm ) that Phillip Pullman appeared in the stage production of His Dark Materials - the play based on his best-selling trilogy. He appeared uncredited as an Oxford academic, and seemingly had great fun, and put in a worthy performance.
Is it only me, or is that not a little ironic? Here is a series of books that purport to decry theism and do away with the idea of 'god', and depict 'god' as a helpless old angel, an ultimate deceiver, who vanishes in a gentle puff of wind when his crystal 'sarcophagus' is shattered - his atoms returning the grand scheme of all things. This is a series of books that says that the universe has no author.
And yet as the play is staged (and, I don't know, but presume that the play and the books speak with a similar voice) here appears the author, subtly transcending the medium and taking the nature of one of the characters! This sounds awfully familiar!
In another story I know, the Author appears as just another Character, indistinguishable from the surroundings, quietly working out his plan as He continues to write the story of History. He appears in a quiet and obscure part of the world, in a not so famous family, born into poverty, and without much pomp and circumstance. He plays His part humbly and in some degree of obscurity. He dies a martyr's death, and were it not for the small matter of a resurrection, he may well have gone the same way as Pullman's 'god'.
So perhaps, though Mr Pullman didn't intend it, he attests to the possibility of the Bible actually being true. He, the author, has stepped into his own story. He has become a part in the action. He has demonstrated that the creator has drawn alongside his creation, he has joined us in the banality of our existence, as pawns in the game, parts in the story.
How ironic, that he, of all people, should say this, of all things, cannot happen!
Is it only me, or is that not a little ironic? Here is a series of books that purport to decry theism and do away with the idea of 'god', and depict 'god' as a helpless old angel, an ultimate deceiver, who vanishes in a gentle puff of wind when his crystal 'sarcophagus' is shattered - his atoms returning the grand scheme of all things. This is a series of books that says that the universe has no author.
And yet as the play is staged (and, I don't know, but presume that the play and the books speak with a similar voice) here appears the author, subtly transcending the medium and taking the nature of one of the characters! This sounds awfully familiar!
In another story I know, the Author appears as just another Character, indistinguishable from the surroundings, quietly working out his plan as He continues to write the story of History. He appears in a quiet and obscure part of the world, in a not so famous family, born into poverty, and without much pomp and circumstance. He plays His part humbly and in some degree of obscurity. He dies a martyr's death, and were it not for the small matter of a resurrection, he may well have gone the same way as Pullman's 'god'.
So perhaps, though Mr Pullman didn't intend it, he attests to the possibility of the Bible actually being true. He, the author, has stepped into his own story. He has become a part in the action. He has demonstrated that the creator has drawn alongside his creation, he has joined us in the banality of our existence, as pawns in the game, parts in the story.
How ironic, that he, of all people, should say this, of all things, cannot happen!
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