Concerning the supposed "anti-religion" aspect of the books...I must confess I am having a hard time seeing what all the hubub (sp?) is about...I just re-read the first book and fail to see how "Lyra is on a mission to kill God" as has been stated in some of the criticisms I've seen of the movie...eh, mebbe I'm just enjoying the story-telling aspects and not seeing it, or (my current rationale) is that there are some aspects that you can squint your eyes at and turn your head sideways and fabricate an anti-religion bias.
Whatever, it was an awesome trilogy. I will read the next two books again and see if there is something I missed, but right now I think that some people are being a little too sensitive
Oh, and pet peeve is that they've made the aletheometer the "compass" instead of the "golden compasses" from Paradise Lost (tools used to create circles and chart courses) that was originally being referenced...boo Hollywood for dumbing that down! [/peeve]
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Philip Pullman: "The trilogy known as HIS DARK MATERIALS didn't have that name in my mind from the start. In fact it didn't have a name at all; it was just 'the big book'. When I'd finished the first volume and was talking about it with David Fickling, my British publisher, we tried various names and couldn't find one that worked. I knew that the trilogy needed a name, and that each of the books needed its own separate name too (I don't like numbers in titles: THE GODFATHER PART TWO, and so on. Just a fad. But it's my fad). So: what should they be called?
My first discovery was the phrase THE GOLDEN COMPASSES (plural, note). This comes in Milton's Paradise Lost, a poem which inspired me a great deal. The line refers to the Son of God taking 'the golden compasses, prepared / In God's eternal store, to circumscribe / The universe, and all created things."
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