SpM, you may have a point there too, and maybe I'm indeed overreacting, but 'literary lectures' analogy is also taking it a bit too far. Besides, I do not think that Mr.Pullman is paid for his 'critique' as any honest lecturer would, now is he?
But I do believe that
davem here may have a point too (We have points all round, it seems. Let us join them and we'll have a line...). I would be mighty curious to witness PP's reaction to one of his own lectures with HDM in it instead of LoTR (provided that the lecture is relatively old so he would not recognize it
)