Philip Pullman (3 replies)

[gulplum]

silveroak_us wrote:

<snip> 

> I am reading John Granger's "The Hidden Key to Harry Potter" and he 
> hypothesizes that JKR based Gilderoy Lockhart on Pullman. He also 
> goes on to offer some sharp contrasts between JKR's approach to
> good and evil over against Pullman's. In Granger's view, JKR's is 
> *better*.

I've heard of that book (being online, it's difficult not to have 
done) but that's a major recommendation against buying it, if the 
above statements are true.

I simply cannot see how Lockhart could have been based on Pullman. 
Pullman may be somewhat curmugeonly and have a low pain threshold for 
stupidity, but he's not vain, and from everything I've ever read or 
seen or of about him, is quite self-deprecating about his literary 
success and achievements. 

It was quite clear from the interview that of all his oevre, the 
single item of which he is most proud was a stage production he wrote 
when he was a teacher (I don't recall the title, but it had something 
to do with elephants and the Middle East).

I'm really curious what attributes Granger could find in common 
between them...

I find the notion of considering either JKR's or Pullman's view of 
evil to be "better just a little bit silly. They're very different, 
for starters. 

I have a vague idea of what Granger's religious views are, but if he 
holds stock in any kind of Christianity, Pullman's identification of 
all organised religious authority as inherently "evil" (well, not 
good, at least) would be enough to turn him off.

Note that in this respect, Pullman's vision of religious "authority" 
isn't only of the temporal kind (e.g. Catholicism) but of the 
heavenly kind as well. Pullman's solution of the establishment of 
a "republic of heaven" is anathema to any self-respecting Christian 
with an intellectual appreciation of what they believe in. 

Pullman's depiction of religious authority as the ultimate in harming 
human development (either as an individual or society) is more than 
enough to divide opinions, literary critics/analysts among them. 

JKR doesn't even approach the topic of religious authority. Political 
and social authority, yes, but there is nothing ecclesiastical about 
it. Making any kind of comparison between the two is therefore more 
than a little pointless and unworthy of any valid literary analysis.

lisa amphoteric wrote (last point first):

> 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

And hello to you, too! If you get any more articulate than that post, 
I for one will have to find a rock to hide, so please feel free not 
to wait for "more articulate modds". :-)

> 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.

I agree entirely with your assessment, Lisa. Where Harry is sarcastic 
in his replies to figures of authority (one of my major problems with 
Movie!Harry is the watering down of that aspect of his personality to 
the point of non-existence), Lyra and Will are dour and serious. 
Where Harry and friends have "adventures" (until GoF, at least), Lyra 
and Will are on a righteous *mission*. And I'm not quite so sure that 
it's just the casual readers for whom the humour of HP is a major 
attraction. Speaking for myself, when opening the books for 
involvemnt in some intense discussion or other, it's usually 
something funny which sends me off reading much more than I had 
intended. :-)

It's not just humour. I think (perhaps very personal opinion) that 
JKR does emotion better than Pullman does, as well. The penultimate 
chapter of GoF left me quite literally sobbing when I first read it 
(although a grown bloke willing to admit to possessing emotions, I 
don't break into floods of tears *that* easily) and it leaves me 
bleary-eyed every time I've read any of it since. The sheer bloody 
*INJUSTICE* of it all gets to me every time. 

The end of HDM, the culmination of well over 1,000 pages of turmoil, 
left me satisfied rather than heartbroken. It was the only possible 
ending, and although sad for Will and Lyra, it was justice on a 
cosmic scale (quite literally, in some respects). Even Will's dad's 
death, although a shot out of the blue, comes as something of an 
emotional anti-climax. As for Lyra's parents, well they sort of peter 
out rather than go out with a bang, considering their relationship 
and their differing attitudes towards The Authority underpin the 
entire narrative.

Although I'm sure that Potter Book Seven will end on a note of cosmic 
justice, there will be more than sadness underpinning it, and I 
expect to be wailing once THE END shows up.

As it happens, I've also read Pullman's attempt at mysteries 
(featuring Sally Lockhart) and although the sense of place (Victorian 
London) was very real, I felt the plotting a bit lacking, and far too 
much relied on coincidences and stupid villains. Again, there's 
absolutely no humour.

I've noticed that since I started on the above, Amy made similar 
points more succinctly, but Pilate-like, I shall leave what I wrote.
She also asked for more info on the pronuciation of "Pantalaimon".  

The audiobooks are no real guide to what the author wanted (which 
doesn't necessarily mean that the author's opinion is "correct"). 
I've spent most of the day trying to think of an English word which 
includes the necessary pronunciation of the "lai" syllable, and the 
only example I can think of is "kayak". Turn the first k into an l, 
drop the "ak" and the way you'd pronounce the resulting "lay" is what 
we're looking for.

-- 
GulPlum AKA Richard, who's just noticed that he started writing this 
almost four hours ago...