Philip Pullman Interview
By Therese Walsh | August 4, 2007 |
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.
Therese Walsh (she/her) co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006 and is the site’s editorial director. She was the editor of WU’s only book, Author in Progress, and runs the Writer Unboxed UnConference.
Her second novel, The Moon Sisters, received starred reviews and was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and Book Riot.
Learn more about Therese on her website, and sign up for her newsletter to be among the first to hear about any new projects.
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.