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Entry: The Broken Compass Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_broken_compass#11508 Post contents: I've read all three books, and I can attest to the accuracy of Piatak's comment on the film. I am not a Catholic so I am completely unbiased here (although I know a lot about Catholic theology). This book is typical of the kinds of attacks against the Catholic Church that are currently popular at the University of Oxford, where I believe Pullman teaches part-time (In any case, he lives in Oxfordshire and he attended Oxford). The fact that Pullman had no qualms about doing this despite the fact that the English governments have persecuted Catholics from the late 16th century well into the late 19th century is what gets me about this book. The book is basically a rehashing of all the English conspiracy theories, in children book form, about the Catholic Church controlling the world. The most interesting aspect of the books is that they follow the plot of Milton's Paradise Lost. People call Pullman an atheist but I think he writes more out of the perspective of the good old English anti-Catholic bigot. To this extent, I think, had Milton been able to read this, Milton, a devout Puritan who also hated Catholics but who was to put it mildly a considerably superior writer to Pullman, would have recognized it as his own 17th century perspective on the Catholic Church. Sent at: 2008 10 12