Philip Pullman Interview
August 4th, 2007 by Therese Walsh
We interrupt your regularly scheduled weekend break to tell you there’s an interview up with Philip Pullman at the Literary Review site. Pullman, best known for his epic His Dark Materials trilogy, is currently hard at work on a sequel, called The Book of Dust.
The interview delves into a lot of theological questions, but there are a few good craft pulls. I like this:
(The question:) In the new edition of ‘His Dark Materials’ you have added a series of what you call Lantern Slides at the end of each volume, glimpses of the characters in different but possible situations. Aren’t these an invitation to others to write stories about your created worlds?(The answer:) It already happens on the Internet. It’s called fan fiction: there are six hundred or so already doing it, maybe more now. Bloody nerve, isn’t it?
Read the whole interview HERE.
Interesting! I’ve just written an essay on His Dark Materials for a collection that’s coming out to coincide with the release of The Golden Compass movie, and when reading Pullman’s trilogy again I had the same love/hate response as I did the first time around.
How scathing Pullman is about the fantasy genre in this interview - makes me wonder what fantasy he’s actually read since Tolkien. Sure, there’s rubbish out there, but there’s a wealth of high quality writing too.
an excellent interview.
He sounds like an old grump to me.
Two weeks ago I’d never heard of Pullman or His Dark Materials. Since then, the names keeping popping up all over the place. Coincidence? Thx for the link, looks like it’s time for me to learn more about this author and his work.