Philip Pullman

[gulplum]

As I said in the .sig in my last message, tonight's South Bank Show 
(apologies to non-UK residents) was all about Philip Pullman, and 
specifically the His Dark Materials trilogy. The main element was a 
lengthy interview with Pullman, filmed "now" (i.e. fairly recently).

As per usual with the SBS, there was a commercial reason for 
scheduling the programme - the National Theatre are doing pre-advance 
publicity for their stage version of the trilogy, which is rumoured 
to be opening the new season (i.e. this autumn). No details have yet 
been announced.

A few observations.

I was susprised that a ~40 mins interview about these books didn't 
contain a single mention of the words "Rowling" or "Potter". :-)

Especially considering the tone and range of subjects covered, which 
included some erudite (and apposite) comments on writing for a mixed 
audience (i.e. kids and adults), the importance of third person 
limited narration (which I must admit I'd never really thought about 
before), what to do with the parents and other adults when children 
are the heroes of the story, etc., etc.

Except for one or two specifics about the plots of the books, the 
interview could well have been with JKR. I could imagine her 
answering the vast majority of the questions using exactly the same 
words.

Permeating the entire interview was Pullman's belief that the loss of 
innocence is a required route to the acquisition of wisdom. If we 
remain innocent, we close ourselves to the *possibility* of becoming 
wise. Although "innocence" was mainly used in the context of a 
child's development, he also underlined that he also meant it in a 
more adult sense...

Something I found particularly interesting was the very end of the 
interview (or at least the edited version as transmitted), in which 
Pullman mentioned an issue I think is relevant to discussions of the 
HP canon, and which I don't think I've ever seen on the main HPFGU 
list or elsewhere. 

I honestly regret that I didn't record the show, because this could 
do with being transcribed verbatim, but I'll do my best...

When asked about whether he sees His Dark Materials as a battle 
between good and evil, Pullman replied that battles between good and 
evil are ultimately uninspiring, as a self-conscious "evil" is 
inherently boring. 

What's *far* more interesting, he said, is a battle between two 
visions of what is "good" (also in the sense of "what is good for 
us"). 

He then went on to categorise the values of each vision of "good" and 
On the one hand, courage, selflessness, openness, loyalty and 
tolerance; on the other, bigotry, selfishness and slavery. And very 
importantly, the freedom to make mistakes on the one hand, and 
intransigence on the other.

I smiled, because the list is one that JKR has used several times 
before, but I found it interesting that what we see as the "evil" 
attributes really are positive, from the perspective of the holder of 
those views. I don't know, perhaps I just don't have the imagination 
to go that far outside of myself, but that was a minor (if ultimately 
obvious) revelation.

That's probably all I have to say on the issue. Perhaps other people 
sawe the programme as well?

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, who is now going to have to put off dealing with 
the slew of replies in the Marauders thread on the main list until 
tomorrow... :-(

(BTW Catlady: "plumski" was already gone when I signed up to Yahoo, 
hence the extra E in the middle) :-)