The Anti-Lewis

Pop quiz: what contemporary author called C.S. Lewis's Narnia stories "morally loathsome," and in a 1998 essay for the Guardian, "The Dark Side of Narnia," derided "the misognyny, the racism, the sado-masochistic relish for violence that permeates the whole cycle"? Hint 1: the author was the subject of a Peter Hitchens essay entitled, "This Is the Most Dangerous Author in Britain." Hint 2: the author also said, "'The Lord of the Rings' is fundamentally an infantile work. Tolkien is not interested in the way grownup, adult human beings interact with each other. He's interested in maps and plans and languages and codes." Give up? Go sit under a cold shower for ten minutes if you answered J.K. Rowling, because the author in question is Philip Pullman, author of (among other things) the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. Laura Miller in The New Yorker (Dec. 26, 2005 & Jan. 2, 2006) has a wonderful piece on Pullman, which you can read online here. Miller provides a three-dimensional glimpse of Pullman and his work. Her article is one of the best literary focus pieces I've read in a very long time. Okay, time to get to work on dinner. D.