Not because he’s an atheist, but because he completely misreads Tolkien: “No-one is in any doubt about what’s good or bad; everyone knows where the good is, and what to do about the bad. Enormous as it is, TLOTR is consequently trivial.”
Lots of really interesting stuff in the interview, which is on one of my favourite blogsites.
And for the record, I really enjoyed ‘His Dark Materials’, I’d be quite happy for my children to read them in due course, and I have a quotation from Pullman stuck on the side of my computer box so that I can ponder it every day. I just think he’s got rather a significant blind spot.
You are right. The man has a major chip on his shoulder about other, dare I say it, more popular British fantasy writers. I can hardly bear to read the whole interview, as I have already read his contemptuous remarks about C.S. Lewis and Enid Blyton. (I notice he worships JK Rowling, however, whom I personally find a lot more trivial than Tolkien!) Pullman is foolish. He attacks writers for the very things he does himself (he loathes Lewis for being ‘sexist’, but what is more unliberated than the skanky Mrs Coulter?). But my main issue is that it makes him sound jealous and a little off-balance. His criticisms of Blyton are so vicious it’s hard to credit. He is a good writer and I liked his trilogy before I realized what a twerp the man is.