Sunday, March 06, 2011

Philip Pullman: a life in writing

To celebrate the launch of the Guardian children's books website, we invited the author's young fans to ask the questions


guardian.co.uk, Thursday 3 March
 Philip Pullman. Photograph: Sam Frost

Gemma, 16
Why did you decide to write The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ?

I've always been fascinated by the difference between the man Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, who I think almost certainly existed, and the idea of Christ, the son of God. The vast bulk of what people say about Christ seems to me nonsense, impossible, absurd. About Jesus, on the other hand, we can say many interesting things.

Were you surprised that people considered the book so shocking?

I wasn't surprised that people found the title shocking. Plenty of people wrote to me and told me I would go to hell for writing it. That was before it was even published, though. I think that if they actually read the book rather than squawking about the title, they might find it less appalling than they thought it would be.

You've been declared "the world's most outspoken atheist" in the past. Do you think that's true?

I don't think I'm anything like the world's most outspoken atheist. People who deserve that title much more are Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett . . .

Are you ever worried about offending people?

I think there's a difference between (a) offending people for its own sake, which I don't necessarily want to do, because some people are good and decent and it would be unkind to upset them simply to indulge my own self-importance, and (b) challenging their prejudices, their preconceptions, or their comfortable assumptions. I'm very happy to do that. But we need to be on our guard when people say they're offended. No one actually has the right to go through life without being offended. Some people think they can say "such-and-such offends me" and that will stop the "offensive" words or behaviour and force the "offender" to apologise. I'm very much against that tactic. No one should be able to shut down discussion by making their feelings more important than the search for truth. If such people are offended, they should put up with it.

Sophie, 11
Was there something that you read, or a painting that you saw, or a particular incident in your life that led you to write the His Dark Materials trilogy?

Well, one of the places it came from was John Milton's poem Paradise Lost. I don't think you'll be doing it in school for a year or two yet. I did it in the sixth form, and I loved it at once, mainly for the wonderful sound the words made when we read them aloud. I didn't understand them till much later. You don't have to "understand" poetry to enjoy it. Many adults think you do, and they go through it all explaining the "difficult" bits (or worse still, making you explain them), which aren't difficult at all if you don't fuss about it.

Last year, we studied Ovid's Metamorphoses at school and your book I Was a Rat! was recommended in our textbook as an excellent book to read afterwards. Was your book in any way inspired by Metamorphoses?

That's interesting. I didn't know I featured in a classics textbook! At the risk of being chucked out of it, I have to say that Ovid didn't really feature at all in the origin of "I Was A Rat!" (and the exclamation mark, and the quotation marks, are an important part of the title). The most immediate source for the story was "Cinderella".

Joanna, 14
Does the animal form that someone's dæmon finally takes in His Dark Materials reflect their personality, or is it the opposite to their personality? How does it work?

It symbolises an aspect of their personality. But our personalities have many aspects, and it might be a surprising one. (I have to confess that I don't know all there is to know about dæmons. There's a lot more I have to find out.)

How long did it take you to write all of His Dark Materials?

Altogether, seven years. But I'd been thinking about the ideas for a long time before that, without having a story to bring them to life.

How do you come up with names for your characters? Do you make up the name first and base the character around it or the other way around?

It varies. But it's rare for a really important character to turn up in my mind without already having a name.

Oliver, 17

You received praise for His Dark Materials from Christopher Hitchens, who is quite infamous for his views on religion, and you also opposed the pope's state visit. Are your views on religion, Christianity in particular, always put across in your novels?

Not always. The theme of His Dark Materials was the struggle against religious tyranny, so it made sense to feature religion in the story. But it doesn't come into the Sally Lockhart books at all, except incidentally.

You've finished writing His Dark Materials and you've also planned The Book of Dust [a companion novel to the trilogy]. Once you've finished it, is that the end of the franchise?

It isn't a franchise, first of all – it's a story. A franchise is a different sort of thing. I can't tell whether it'll be the end of the story, because I haven't got there yet. I do have a lot of other stories to tell, though, so I hope I'll have time to write those before I kick the bucket.

Do you have any plans in the pipeline?

I've got lots of plans in the pipeline. I'm writing a film script based on my comic "John Blake", for example, in between adding bits to The Book of Dust.

Luke, 13
Why do you think it's so important that young people read?

For the same reason that I think it's important that they breathe, eat, drink, sleep, run about, fool around, and have people who love and look after them. It's part of what makes us fully human. Some people manage to get through life without reading; but I know that if I'd had to do that, an enormous part of my mind, or my soul if you like, would be missing. No one should be without the chance to let their soul grow.

More at The Guardian online.

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