[Sir Kohran]

Pullman is the Noel Gallagher of literature, constantly criticising pretty much everyone else in the business.

As to the 'Republic Of Heaven'...it's his dream; Pullman's idea of a perfect world - an atheist republic without a single ruler - a world without God. Personally I find the idea and his portrayal of Christianity revolting but then free speech must be maintained.

As for the movie versions of HDM...I don't expect much. It'll be like the Potter or Narnia movies, with plenty of special effects and 'drama' with no real reason to watch again after the initial view. I might be dragged along by my family at Christmas or something but I think that's as far as it'll go.


Tolkien's view on 'God' is interesting in that it is not what you'd expect of a Christian writer. He was a devout Catholic and indeed, the characters in his book show very Christian outlooks and themes (temptation, pity, etc.). However I've always found it interesting that Eru, regardless of his boundless power and influence, is, to the people in the story, almost non-existent. None of the characters ever pray to him; in fact he is not even mentioned once in all of LOTR. As it is the only 'faith in a higher power' is in the Valar (angels, not God). Eru does little or nothing to stop the spread of evil in his perfect world, stepping in only once to remove Morgoth from Arda - and only once much of the world has been ruined and corrupted (also note that Eru does nothing to help the world after this). Some might argue that he caused Gollum to slip - but this is never confirmed by the text (there is in fact the slightly chilling possibility that it was literally just a random slip - that Middle-Earth was saved by accident). Tolkien's portrayal of God is surprising - Eru is not loving, or even present. Eru doesn't seem to care for his world.