November 5, 2007

QUOTE: "Atheism suggests a degree of certainty that I'm not quite willing to accede. I suppose, technically, you'd have to put me down as an agnostic. But if there is a God, and he is as the Christians describe him, then he deserves to be put down and rebelled against. As you look back over the history of the Christian church, it's a record of terrible infamy and cruelty and persecution and tyranny. How they have the bloody nerve to go on Thought for the Day and tell us all to be good when, given the slightest chance, they'd be hanging the rest of us and flogging the homosexuals and persecuting the witches." —Philip Pullman, author of the fantasy series His Dark Materials (the first installment of which, The Golden Compass, hits the big screen on Dec. 7). On his writing desk, Pullman has a note he wrote that says, "So: There is a God, but he is a liar and he's mortal," a sentence which does an excellent job of summarizing the spiritual message of his series. Pullman has not been reticent about whom he's targeting with that message: kids. "I wanted to reach everyone," he said, "and the best way I could do that was to write for children." [telegraph.co.uk, 1/29/02]

His Dark Materials is actually a loose—turned-on-its-head—retelling of John Milton's Paradise Lost. One of the central themes of that epic poem is the fall of humankind in Genesis, about which Pullman says, "[It was] a fall into grace, towards wisdom, not something that leads to sin, death, misery, hell—and Christianity." And about Eve, he said, "Eve is my great heroine: She wondered what it would be like if she did as the serpent suggested and ate the fruit. Good for her. What a pompous little prig she would have been if she had said, 'No, I mustn't.'" [telegraph.co.uk, 1/29/02; thirdway.org.uk, 2000]

QUOTE: "I was raised Catholic. The Catholic Church is part of my essence. I wouldn't be able to do [The Golden Compass] if I thought it were at all anti-Catholic." —actress Nicole Kidman, commenting on the fact that negative references to Catholicism and the Church have purportedly been trimmed in the film adaptation of The Golden Compass. Instead of referring directly to Catholicism and/or the Church, the malevolent organization that tortures children (yes, that's in the book) is simply called the Magisterium. While Kidman might think that solves the problem, anyone familiar with that term's usage in the Catholic Church will know better. Magisterium is a technical ecclesiological word used broadly in Catholicism to denote the church's authority to dispense truth, as well as the collection of bishops and the pope who communicate theological truth. [Entertainment Weekly, 8/24/07; catholic.net; disciplesnow.com; columbia.edu]

QUOTE: "'My books are about killing God.' So said Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass, the movie version of which is soon to be released. One expects that religious parents will keep their children away from the film. 'But why?' the question arises from liberals. 'What are you afraid of?' My children losing God, especially before they have a firm hold on Him, that's what. At some point they will question the existence of God. I did. It's normal to do so. I want more than anything else I want for my children, even their own happiness in this life, for them to believe in God, who is their salvation. If you believe in God, and that the loss of God is the worst thing that can happen to a person, then you would sooner give your child a rattlesnake to play with than expose him or her at an early age to the work of a man who openly says he wishes to destroy God in the minds of his audience." —beliefnet.com contributor Rod Dreher [beliefnet.com, 11/2/07]

Here we ago again: Despite the much-ballyhooed report that Take Two Interactive trimmed enough violent imagery from its game Manhunt 2 to achieve an M rating instead of an Adults Only tag, it only took hackers about a week after the edited game was published to unlock some of that censored content. The software company intentionally blurred some scenes to earn the less restrictive rating, but hackers have managed to remove those blurring effects for Sony's handheld PlayStation Portable system. (A similar controversy rocked the publisher two years ago when sexually explicit content was unlocked by third-party hackers in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.) [AP, 11/1/07]

QUOTE: "Video games today are a race to the bottom. They are pure, unadulterated trash, and I'm sad for that." —Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, who's sometimes referred to as the "father of electronic games" [biz.gamedaily.com, 10/22/2007]

Britain's Sky News TV recently reported on a pedophile "playground" dubbed Wonderland found tucked away in the virtual world Second Life. Among other things, avatars who look like 10-year-old girls offer a variety of sex acts to anyone visiting their area. Second Life's San Francisco-based creator, Linden Lab, is currently testing a system that would verify users' ages but doesn't plan to take any action for now against this playground. [AP, 11/1/2007]

QUOTE: "I hope there are concerns about it, I really do. We're going to push the envelope with that show." —CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler, on CBS' upcoming mid-season series Swingtown, which TV Guide calls "a period piece set in the 1970s that deals with open marriage." The magazine reports that a clip shown to advertisers opens with a visual gag that makes it look like a flight attendant is performing oral sex on a pilot. [TV Guide, 8/20-26/07]

As had been widely expected, Hollywood writers failed to reach an agreement with the studios and went on strike at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 5. The core issue in the strike is whether or not writers deserve greater residual compensation from DVD sales and Internet downloads of television shows and movies. Writers are currently paid about 3 cents per $20 DVD sold. Daytime television and late-night talk shows will be the first to feel the effects of the strike, as they typically only have about a week's worth of shows taped ahead of time. Movie and television studios will likely not begin to be affected until early next year. [AP, 11/5/07]

According to a Johns Hopkins University analysis of U.S. Department of Education data, more than 1 in 10 high schools in the U.S. (about 1,700 schools) graduate fewer than 60% of students who start there as freshmen. These "Dropout Factories" are spread throughout the country and are found in every state except Utah. When all other regular or vocational high schools are added to the mix, the national graduation rate rises to 70%. [usatoday.com, 10/31/2007 stats]

Rapper Nas is stirring the controversy pot again with the title of his upcoming album, which he now says will be called N-gger [hyphenation ours]. Jay-Z, president and CEO of Nas' label, Island Def Jam, stands behind the rapper. "I know he's intelligent, and there a reason behind what he's doing. Of course we're going to support his art." Fellow rapper LL Cool J said, "He wants to make the anti-snakebite venom. He's giving [people] a vaccination, he wants to desensitize them. Why not?" [mtv.com, 11/1/07]

QUOTE: "Hip-hop as a culture is getting a lot of backlash right now for its lyrics, for its public image, and the people are crying out for more responsibility. ... Let's get this movement together, that tells families in the United States, we never intended for your child to go to jail ... the social ills of society, we never intended to highlight them." —rapper KRS-One, encouraging his peers to join him on a re-recording of his message song "Self Destruction." [AP, 10/8/07]