Philip Pullman

2009-01-08T04:22:50Z

Hankpin: Godless heathen Pullman's books' content

'''Philip Pullman''' is the [[atheist]] author of many novels for children and young adults, including the ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' and ''Sally Lockhart'' series. His works have come under criticism for their subversively anti-religious nature. His books portray God as an evil being who ruled the world through the Magisterium, an Inquisition-like institution, that castrate boys to prevent sins.

==Pullman's Life==
Philip Pullman was born in Norwich, [[England]], in 1946, to Audrey and Alfred Pullman. The early years of Pullman's life were spent traveling because his father was a member of [[United Kingdom|Britain]]'s [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF). His father died when he was age 7, and his family then traveled to [[London]] to find work. A year later, Pullman's mother remarried to another man working for the RAF. His family lived in [[Australia]] for much of those next two years. When Pullman was ten years old, his stepfather quit his job at the RAF to help his growing family. In 1965, Pullman won a scholarship to attend [[Exeter College]] in [[Oxford]]. He did so for four years.<ref>http://www.hisdarkmaterials.org/information/philip-pullman/biography</ref> At the age of 25, Pullman became a teacher at a middle school also in Oxford. From 1986 to 1994, he taught at Westminister College. Pullman wrote his first book ''[[Count Karlstein]]'' in 1982. <ref>http://www.philip-pullman.com</ref> Today, Pullman lives in Oxford with his wife Jude. Pullman is a father to two grown children and has two grandchildren. <ref>http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pullman/author/author.html</ref>

==Pullman's Works==
Philip Pullman has written almost 20 books. These include:
*''Count Karlstein''
*''I Was a Rat!''
*''The Scarecrow and His Servant''
*''The Firework-Maker's Daughter''
*''Clockwork/All Wound Up''
*The ''Sally Lockhart'' series
**''The Ruby in the Smoke''
**''The Shadow in the North''
**''The Tiger in the Well''
**''The Tin Princess''
*The ''His Dark Materials'' series
**''The Golden Compass'' (''Northern Lights'' in the UK)
**''The Subtle Knife''
**''The Amber Spyglass''

==Awards==
Philip Pullman has been the recipient of many awards:<ref>http://www.philip-pullman.com/about_the_author.asp</ref>
*The Carnegie Medal (for the ''His Dark Materials'' series)
*The Guardian Children's Book Award (for the ''His Dark Materials'' series)
*The Whitebread Book of the Year Award (for the third book of the ''His Dark Materials'' series, the first time it was ever awarded to a children's book)
*The Eleanor Farjeon Award for children's literature

==Criticism of Pullman==

Frank Furedi wrote:
<blockquote>
... He is adept at public moralising. He has denounced [[Narnia]] as "morally loathsome," describing [[C.S. Lewis]]’s series of books as amongst the "most ugly and poisonous things" he has read. Indeed, Pullman directly counterpoises his "non-Christian" trilogy to the "Christian" Narnia. <ref>Phillip Pullman said this to the Washington Post in 2001, in an interview about his trilogy, His Dark Materials [http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/4169/]</ref>
</blockquote>

Blogger Joe Levi charged:

<blockquote>
Pullman is a [[militant]] [[atheist]] and [[secular humanist]] (who describes himself as both an [[agnostic]] and an atheist). He has said, "I don’t profess any [[religion]]; I don’t think it’s possible that there is a [[God]]; I have the greatest difficulty in understanding what is meant by the words 'spiritual' or '[[spirituality]]'" and despises [[C. S. Lewis]] and the [[Chronicles of Narnia]]. His motivation for writing this trilogy was specifically to counteract Lewis's symbolism of [[Christ]] that are portrayed in the Narnia series. <ref>http://www.joelevi.com/blog/index.php/2007/12/04/the-golden-compass-an-attack-on-god/</ref>
</blockquote>

Most of Pullman's criticism is based solely on the controversial ''His Dark Materials'' series, the series for which he became famous and is most well known, in particular the killing of [[Yahweh]], the Judeo-Christian God as the climax of the novels.

==Pullman's Motives==

Pullman is quoted as saying:
* "I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief."<ref>http://www.thinkingchristian.net/C1983916159/E20071118075122/index.html</ref>

==Odd quote about the Chronicles of Narnia==

"The highest virtue, we have on the authority of the New Testament itself, is love, and yet you find not a trace of that in the books," he said.

Considering the entire set of books is an allegory of Jesus' love, this statement is especially odd. There is a great deal of love among family members, love of country, and sacrificing to do the right thing. Indeed, it would be hard to read more than a few pages without coming across a strong concept of love. The comment has little to do with the works he is discussing.

==External Links==
[http://www.philip-pullman.com/|Philip Pullman's home page.]<br/>
[http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pullman/author/author.html|A website about Philip Pullman and his writing.] <br/>
[http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1359866 http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1359866|A negative review of the author.]

==References==

<References/>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pullman, Philip}}

[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Atheists]]

Vladimir Putin

2008-09-14T03:34:25Z

Hankpin:

[[Image:Vladtheimpaler.jpg|right|thumb|Vladimir Putin]]
'''Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin''' (''Russian'': Владимир Владимирович Путин) (born October 7, 1952) is the [[prime minister]] of the [[Russian Federation]] (since May 8, 2008). He previously was [[president]] of Russia, assuming that office as acting president on December 31, 1999, the day [[Boris Yeltsin]] resigned from the presidency. Putin was later elected president by approximately 52.94 percent of the Russian electorate on March 26, 2000. He is mainly backed by the [[United Russia]] (''Единая Россия'') party, which currently holds a majority in the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, known as the ''Duma''. The party usually reflects the political views of Putin, which are that of moderate conservatism and nationalism. On March 14, 2004, he was elected to a second term as president with 71 percent of the vote. Barred from a third term by the Russian constitution, Putin ceded the presidency to [[Dmitry Medvedev]] on May 7, 2008.

Putin was born in [[Leningrad]] on [[October]] 7, 1952 and was baptized as an Orthodox Christian and continue to be a member to this day. He was educated in law and economics at Leningrad State University before being assigned to work in the [[KGB]]. After five years in [[East Germany]], he took up various political positions before becoming [[prime minister]] in 1999.

Putin is seen as an antagonist to the West; his presidency has become increasingly authoritarian and opponents are murdered. It is certain that his military alliance with China, his rigged election system, nationalized oil, weapons sales to Iran Venezuala and the invasion of Georgia, are a real threat to a new Cold War. KGB Putin has complete control of Russia's future, as a [[dictator]] would. For example, on April 14, 2007, Russian riot police beat a number of protesters and journalists at an anti-Putin rally at Pushkin Square in [[Moscow]], <ref>''The Economist'', April 21, 2007</ref> and Putin rigged national elections for his party <ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSL03585550._CH_.2400</ref> Despite these political trends, Putin remains popular in Russia<ref>http://www.levada.ru/prezident.html Putin's Approval Ratings</ref>. Since coming to power, Putin has expanded Russia's economy and reduced inflation. <ref>''Time Magazine'', February 26, 2007</ref> The majority of Russians are relatively uninterested in politics outside of issues affecting their personal prosperity. <ref>''The Economist'', April 21, 2007</ref> and journalist [[Anna Politkovskaya]] argued that the Russian people, as a whole, have been willing to tolerate violence in the name of "comfort and peace and quiet". <ref>Politkovskaya, Anna. Putin's Russia. London: Harvill Press, 2004</ref> (Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of Putin, was assassinated in 2006 <ref>http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1819666.ece</ref>, and it is widely believed that the Russian government had some involvement in this death.)

He is married to Lyudmila Putina since July 28, 1983 (former airline stewardess). They have two daughters.

== See also ==

*[[Communism]]
*[[New Economic Policy]]
*[[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]]

==References==
<references/>

==Links==
[http://www.kremlin.ru/articles/V_Putin.shtml Official Putin Biography]
{{DEFAULTSORT: Putin, Vladimir}}

[[Category:Heads of State]]
[[Category:Russian People]]

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Philip Pullman

Vladimir Putin