BIO

A graduate of Oxford University with a degree in English, Philip Pullman spent part of his youth living in Australia, where he loved listening to serials on the radio and reading SUPERMAN and BATMAN comic books. Pullman has been telling stories since he discovered them as a child and is the author of many acclaimed novels, plays, and picture books for readers of all ages. He now lives in Oxford, England, with his wife and two children, and spends his time writing in a shed in the garden behind his home. A recent recipient of the highest award given for children's literature in England, he was awarded the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Fiction Award for THE GOLDEN COMPASS, the first book of the “His Dark Materials” trilogy.

INTERVIEW

December 12, 2001
A master of many genres, Philip Pullman is at the forefront of fiction. His latest book THE AMBER SPYGLASS, the third and most thrilling part of the HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy.

For those who are uninitiated, in the first book, THE GOLDEN COMPASS, Lyra, a little girl in a world a lot like our own,  journeys to the far North to save her best friend Roger. She also must aid other kidnapped children --- evil scientists are conducting terrible experiments on them. The second book, THE SUBTLE KNIFE,  takes Lyra to Cittàgazze, where she meets Will Parry, a fugitive boy from our own universe. Lyra and Will become good friends ---and uncover a deadly secret! And finally, in THE AMBER SPYGLASS, Lyra and Will travel between many worlds, in the end  setting out to make their most haunting discovery yet.

Kidsreads.com writer Jennifer Abbots recently had her ultimate dreams come true when got a chance to talk with Philip Pullman about the big themes that run through his works.

KRC: Right, wrong, good, and evil. These four words are the foundation of most fantasy and adventure stories. But the concepts seem to be absent/muddied in the HIS DARK MATERIALS series. Is this intentional? What do you want the reader to come away with after finishing the trilogy in regard to good guys vs. bad guys?

PP: The concepts aren't muddied --- they're depicted realistically. What I was trying to do was very much get away from the "He's called the Dark Lord so he must be evil" idea. What I would like sensible readers to come away with is something that reminds them of real life, where no-one is purely good or purely evil, and where thinking of people like that is unhelpful anyway. I would much rather we thought in terms of good actions, bad actions. Firstly, it's truer to life, and secondly, it's just more interesting when someone we think is trustworthy turns out to have feet of clay, or when someone who has been cruel turns out to be moved by love and self-sacrifice. A moral story is not one where the good guys do good things and the bad ones do bad things; it's one in which people like ourselves do things, or are tempted, and then have to deal with the consequences.

KRC: Where did the character of Lyra come from? Do you have a Lyra in your life? Why did you make your hero a female --- and a little girl at that? Sally Lockhart, the hero of your popular THE RUBY IN THE SMOKE series is also a girl. Are you more drawn to female characters?

PP: I have written about a number of female characters, it's true. But never for some particular purpose; it just happened that the stories came to me with female protagonists. I think (to be fanciful for a moment) that any unwritten-about-yet female characters floating about in the air might be attracted to my pen because they know I'm not going to impersonate them, so to say; I always write in the third person, as if seeing them from the outside; they trust me not to try and get inside their skin. Maybe.

KRC: Why are all witches are female? Why are dæmons usually the opposite gender of their human counterparts? Is the fact that Lyra is a girl-child relevant to the themes HIS DARK MATERIALS?

PP: Daemons are usually the opposite sex because we each have a bit of the opposite in our make-up, and it was one way of making that visible. Witches are female because they are --- that's the way it is. Some of their powers can be acquired by men, though, as Will inadvertently discovers, but only at the cost of suffering as witches themselves have to. As for Lyra, as soon as I thought of her I knew she had to meet Will. The two of them go through it all together, and it's vital that they come to realise their love together. The theme of the whole thing, after all, is the ending of innocence and the beginning of wisdom; and that is summed up in the third chapter of the Book of Genesis, which is the origin of this and PARADISE LOST and many other stories, in the story of Adam and Eve. Lyra is Eve; Mary Malone is the serpent, who teaches her how to fall in love, and Will is Adam.

KRC: There are many millions of different worlds in HIS DARK MATERIALS. How did you think them all up? Do you think your interest in differing but related worlds has anything to do with your childhood travels?

PP:The travels of my childhood taught me how large our world is, rather than that there are lots of different ones somewhere else! Thinking up new worlds is actually the easiest part of the whole thing. The hardest thing is to stick to recognisable human truth --- and that's the most important.

KRC: I am a big fan of Serafina Pekkala and the witches, as well as the Gallivespians. Will you write any more about these characters and the different worlds you touched on in HIS DARK MATERIALS?

PP: I'm sure I will. I want to find out a lot more about the witches in particular.

KRC: Did you have a particular favorite author when you were a young adult? Did any teacher encourage and inspire you to write?

PP: I liked pretty well every story I read --- I was very uncritical. I did really enjoy Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories in particular. As for teachers, Miss Enid Jones encouraged me a great deal. She was my teacher when I was 13 till when I left secondary school (high school) at about the age of 17. I am still in touch with her---I send her all my books.

KRC: What do you find more demanding/rewarding --- writing or teaching?

PP: Well, I haven't taught for several years. I half enjoyed it and half resented the time it took up; but I had to earn a living. Writing is very demanding, but as someone said very truthfully, the only thing worse than writing is not writing.

For more information on Philip Pullman and his many works check here: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/pullman/

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PAST INTERVIEW

March 17, 2000

The author of "His Dark Materials" trilogy and other series books, Philip Pullman is as quirky and intriguing as his many characters. Answering questions with questions, reading anything he can get his hands on (including cereal boxes and ticket stubs when necessary), Pullman is as avid a reader as he is a writer. Discover Pullman for the first time or learn even more about him, including why he tried his hand at fantasy, how comic books changed his life and other trivia in this author interview by writer Tammy Currier.

KRC: Best known for writing historical fiction, like your Sally Lockhart Victorian mystery series, and ghost stories, like CLOCKWORK and COUNT KARLSTEIN; writing your “His Dark Materials” trilogy (THE GOLDEN COMPASS, THE SUBTLE KNIFE, and THE AMBER SPYGLASS) was quite a departure for you. What made you decide to try your hand at fantasy?

PP: Why did I write a fantasy? I don’t know, really, except that I had certain ideas and pictures in my head, and when I wrote them down in a story they seemed to be the sort of thing people call fantasy. I didn't start with the idea of writing a fantasy; that's just what I turned out to be writing.

KRC: How is writing fantasy different from writing realistic fiction? What do you enjoy about it?

PP: How is it different from realism? What do I enjoy about it? Principally the freedom. If I need something I just make it up. Of course, I'm very lazy as well; it's much easier, for instance, to sit and invent the Ministry of Fantastic Solutions than actually make an appointment and get on the train to London and talk to a civil servant. Or whatever. When I've actually done that --- asked people about their work, for instance --- they've always been very interested and helpful. It's not that they're uncooperative. It's just that I'm lazy.

KRC: THE AMBER SPYGLASS, the third and final volume in your famed fantasy trilogy "His Dark Materials", is due out sometime this year. Can you give us a sneak preview?

PP: Can I give you a preview of THE AMBER SPYGLASS? What? You mean before my Knopfs have even seen it? What is my life worth?

KRC: Based on the success of your foray into fantasy, do you think you'll continue telling stories in this genre?

PP: Will I continue telling fantasy stories? I expect so. But not a big one for a while.

KRC: THE GOLDEN COMPASS and THE SUBTLE KNIFE were big hits not only with teens, but adults as well. Truth be told, your work is sophisticated enough in subject matter and plot structure to entertain even the most skeptical/reticent/reluctant/jaded of adults. What made you decide to write for young adults?

PP: What made me decide to write for young adults? I didn't. I can't tell who my audience is going to be. I just write a book that's going to keep me entertained for the time it takes to do it. It's a continual mystery to me that anyone reads me at all, but I'm glad they do.

KRC: Multilayered, your “His Dark Materials” trilogy is quite theological in nature. Are you interested in theology? What other issues interest you?

PP: Theology --- yes, this is an interesting question. The most important questions of all are the big religious ones: Is there a God? What is our purpose? And so on. Another reason for finding fantasy so accommodating is that it provides a very good set of images and tools for tackling these questions. But I think that if it's going to be any good, fantasy and real life have got to connect. If there are lessons to be learned in the fantasy world, we have to see how to put them to use in our real lives. While we're on religion; the theme, if you like, of "His Dark Materials" is the search for a way of looking at these big religious questions which might be called republican. My own belief is that God is dead, but that we need heaven nonetheless; and since it's no longer possible to believe in a Kingdom of Heaven, we shall have to create a republic.

KRC: You grew up in Australia, listening to serials on the radio and reading comic books, like SUPERMAN and BATMAN; and have said that reading comic books, quote: “Changed your life.” How?

PP: Comic books changed my life because I saw for the first time an entirely new way of telling stories. The combination of words and pictures, of effortlessly vivid storytelling, made me want to tell stories more than anything else.

KRC: The sound component of your work, especially in your ghost stories, is very effective. Do you think the time you spent listening to the radio during your youth helped you to both recognize the importance of and develop your ear for sound?

PP: Radio and sound: interesting point. Superman on the radio is much more involving than Superman in a movie or on TV. The difficulty is persuading a modern audience that that's true, but it is. I'd love to write for radio, but I have to earn a living. I do try and hear what I'm writing, though, which is why I can't write when there's any music playing. Other sounds don't interfere with the rhythm of the words, but music is a killer.

KRC: Other than SUPERMAN and BATMAN, what else did you like to read growing up?

PP: What else did I like to read when I was young? The Moomin books of Tove Jansson, the novels of Arthur Ransome and Erich Kästner, Sherlock Holmes, any and every ghost story I could find, the backs of cornflake packets, labels on cans of drink, bus tickets…

KRC: You’ve stated that you started telling stories as soon as you learned what they were, and were sure you would write stories when you grew up. Your declaration came true, but did you ever dream of being anything other than a writer?

PP: Did I ever dream of being anything other than a writer? Being a writer is nothing, writing a book is a lot. I wanted to do, not to be. Other things I wanted to do: nothing.

KRC: For the people out there hoping to be writers someday, what advice would you give them?

PP: Advice to anyone hoping to be a writer: stop it at once. Don't hope to be. Intend to do instead. And the best advice as to how to do that is, of course, to read incessantly. Mind you, if someone doesn't already read voraciously, there's no hope. More advice: be patient. A book is a marathon, not a sprint. Settle in. Pace yourself. Be prepared for the dull bits. Be ready for the time that comes about a third of the way through when you lose your faith in it. That always happens --- it's a good sign that you're on the right track. Just keep going. And if no one likes your first book, that only proves how much better your judgment is than theirs. Keep the manuscript, because it'll be worth a great deal of money one day, and get on with the next. You see: pigheaded self-belief, undamaged by the facts, that's what you need.

KRC: You think of yourself as a storyteller rather than a writer, why is that distinction important? What's the most important thing about being a storyteller?

PP: Storyteller versus writer. Hmmm. I'm very interested in language and words and how they're put together and I get very cross when people can't make grammar work, or use comma splices without my permission, and so forth. Similarly I am overcome with admiration when someone comes up with a vivid image or a graceful sentence. So writing is important to me. But even more important is the matter of story, which consists of thinking up some interesting incidents, finding out what connects them together, and relating them as clearly as you can from the best angle you can find. That's where my real love is.

KRC: You think of yourself as “a servant to the story.” What do you mean by that? Where do the ideas for your stories come from?

PP: I'm a servant of the story for the reasons implied above: my job is not to put my own personality or my technique or my talent in front of the reader. In so far as I have any of those things (and I'm not sure about any of them, including the first) they are there for one purpose only, which is to make sure the story arrives on the page as clearly and vividly as possible. I would like to do so without any of myself or my stuff being visible at all. For those reasons I am bemused by some people, writers of books, who make a great thing of parading their personalities, their childhood, their problems, their neuroses, their bad behaviour in front of the world and then expect to be admired for it. And worse still: saying “I'm a writer and therefore I have the right to behave badly, take drugs, steal money, get drunk, be unfaithful to my wife or husband, and what's more you have to praise me for it, because I am that most wonderful of beings, a WRITER.” That sort of attitude earns nothing from me but contempt.

KRC: We hear about writer's block so often in relation to writing; it seems to be one of the biggest obstacles in a writer's life. You have an interesting take on the concept and, in fact, throw conventional beliefs about it out on their ear. Could you tell our readers your thoughts on this ubiquitous problem?

PP: Writer's block…a lot of howling nonsense would be avoided if, in every sentence containing the word WRITER, that word was taken out and the word PLUMBER substituted; and the result examined for the sense it makes. Do plumbers get plumber's block? What would you think of a plumber who used that as an excuse not to do any work that day?

The fact is that writing is hard work, and sometimes you don't want to do it, and you can't think of what to write next, and you're fed up with the whole damn business. Do you think plumbers don't feel like that about their work from time to time? Of course there will be days when the stuff is not flowing freely. What you do then is MAKE IT UP. I like the reply of the composer Shostakovich to a student who complained that he couldn't find a theme for his second movement. “Never mind the theme! Just write the movement!” he said.

Writer's block is a condition that affects amateurs and people who aren't serious about writing. So is the opposite, namely inspiration, which amateurs are also very fond of. Putting it another way: a professional writer is someone who writes just as well when they're not inspired as when they are.

KRC: You obviously spend a great deal of time developing, researching, and writing your stories, but how do you spend your free time? Do you have any hobbies?

PP: Hobbies and free time: at the moment I spend what non-writing time I have fast asleep. I wish I had the time to do something for the fun of it. When I do, I visit art galleries and draw and generally do things with my hands. I'm very fond of carpentry. I suppose it uses another part of the mind.

KRC: What is a typical workday like for you?

PP: A typical workday: after breakfast I’ll go down to my shed and take my ball-point pen and read the three pages I wrote the day before (always by hand). I always end my day's work by writing the first sentence on the next page, so it's not blank when I start. Once I've read yesterday's three pages (about 1100 words on average) I’ll start writing today's. That can take me anything from one hour to ten. I have a break midmorning for coffee, which I make in the same ritual manner every time; and for lunch, after which I watch an Australian TV soap opera called “Neighbors” which I'm very fond of. Then I usually sleep for half an hour. Then I go back to work. If I've finished my three pages already, I’ll do something else. The dogs always need walking. In the evening I drink whisky and read books and watch TV and then go to bed.

At some point in the process the handwritten stuff has to be transferred to the computer so I can work on it. My wife was a great help with THE AMBER SPYGLASS: she typed it in for me. I am old enough to remember typewriters; editing is actually fun these days.

KRC: And finally, are you working on anything now? If so, can you give us a preview?

PP: What am I working on now? The final section of the final book in "His Dark Materials". The first draft was about 745 pages long and I've been busy rewriting and cutting it down and so on since last August. It's nearly finished now, and you may not have a preview! I hope it'll be published towards the end of this year.

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FROM PHILIP PULLMAN...

I started telling stories as soon as I knew what stories were. I was fascinated by them - that something could happen and be connected to another thing, and that someone could put the two things together and show how the first thing caused the second thing, which then caused a third thing. I loved it. I love it still.

My early experience with stories came from the radio, which is a wonderful medium. I remember listening to gangster serials, and cowboy serials, and best of all -- Superman! When I first saw a Superman comic, it changed my life. Soon afterward I discovered Batman, too, whom I loved even more. I had to argue with my parents about them, though, because they weren't "proper" reading. I suppose what persuaded them to let me carry on reading comics was the fact that I was also reading books just as greedily. I was good at spelling, so obviously the comics weren't harming me too much.

For a long time, my favorite stories were ghost stories. I used to enjoy frightening my friends and myself with the tales I read. I also liked making up stories about the tree in the woods we used to call the Hanging Tree. My friends and I would creep past it in the dark and shiver as we looked at the bare, sinister outline against the sky. I still enjoy ghost stories, even though I don't think I believe in ghosts anymore.

I was sure that I was going to write stories myself when I grew up. It's important to put it like that -- not "I am a writer," but rather "I write stories." If you put the emphasis on yourself rather than your work, you're in danger of thinking that you're the most important thing. But you're not. The story is what matters, and you're only the servant, and your job is to get it out on time and in good order. I live in Oxford now, and I do my writing in a shed at the bottom of the garden. If the young boy I used to be could have looked ahead in time and seen the man I am today, writing stories in his shed, would he have been pleased? I wonder. Would that child who loved Batman comics and ghost stories approve of the novels I earn my living with now? I hope so. I hope he's still with me. I'm writing them for him.

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