Philip Pullman

[lisa amphoteric]

GulPlum wrote:

[much snippage]

> 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.

I was really impressed that neither of them brought up Harry Potter. 
While I agree that some responses sounded like JKR, I found it 
particularly interesting to hear him say that he'd realised he didn't 
do funny very well, and so didn't. The comparisons between His Dark 
Materials and HP seem dreadfully misleading to me because of this - 
there's no glimmer of humour in HDM, and I think many casual HP 
readers are probably attracted to the books by the humour above all 
else. Just my opinion, anyway, but I think the HDM audience overlaps 
with that of HP, rather than being the same.


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

I'm in Ireland, and happened to record it as well as watching it - if
anyone's interested in transcripts of specific parts, I'll give it a 
go, but it's too long for me to do the whole thing.

Having only read His Dark Materials for the first time in the last two
weeks, I've had limited exposure to Pullman interviews, and was 
surprised to hear how he spoke about certain children's authors (C.S. 
Lewis, Tolkien, etc) with respect to religion. JKR is so vague in the 
interviews I've read, but Pullman was extremely open, blunt and 
specific in his answers. His feelings on organised religion are very, 
very clear, and I was surprised to hear him almost speaking with 
anger, as I'd assumed he'd have worked them out through the books.

Hearing the characters' names was great - I'd wondered too about 
Pantalaimon (and liked the final 'n' pronounced as if French) and 
also Asriel.

I should probably have waited for a more articulate mood before 
making my first post (after about six months of lurking on this and 
the main list), but have been thinking about the interview all day 
and couldn't resist responding. So, um, hello. :D


lisa / amphoteric