New Philip Pullman Interview!

If anyone perusing this blog is unaware, Philip Pullman was on Vimeo this past week. He was interviewed by another writer, Charles Rosen, and the talk is well worth your time. As always, Pullman proves a wonderful storyteller, whether he is actually telling stories or simply recounting memories from his childhood, expounding on writing, or musing on literature. 

Tragically, we came very close to hearing a reading from the third volume in The Book of Dust series, but alas, Pullman forgot to bring it with him for the interview. He does talk about the final book a little however, and I found it intriguing that he classifies The Book of Dust trilogy as a "Romance" rather than an "Epic," like His Dark Materials (a Romance in the style of something like "The Faerie Queene"). 

As he has alluded to during other interviews, his composition schedule is down to writing a single page a day as opposed to the three he once was able to produce. So we still have a wait ahead of us, though he was happily confident the quality of his writing hasn't substantially decreased, which is of course the most important thing in the long run. 

The interview is about 90 minutes long, and features questions from a select group of students at the end as well. One quote in particular that stuck with me was regarding his issue with writers who feel that they have to denigrate men and boys in their stories to elevate women and girls. He rightfully calls them writers with "more dogma than inspiration" in their pens. Indeed. In these increasingly toxic, politically-drenched times, that was good to hear. 

Of course, he has given us one of the most wonderful, fearless, inventive, brave, and loyal girl protagonists of all time in Lyra Silvertongue, but let us not forget he did the same with her male counterpart, Will Parry, the boy protagonist who is by equal turns loving, caring, gentle, courteous, but also strong and dangerous and capable. 

Any young boy could do far worse than model himself on such an amazing character, and that is something that is becoming something of a rarity these days. 

Anyway, you should be able to watch the whole event here for free even if you don't have a Vimeo account. 

Thanks to the Centre for Language, Culture, and Learning for hosting the event! 

And as Always 

Stay Dusty My Friends

#HisDarkMaterials #TheBookOfDust  #PhilipPullman 

#BuildingTheRepublic  #PullmanStudies  #JordanScholarship

#InDustWeTrust  #DownAndDusty   #TheGreatProject

The Subtle Knife: Illustrated Edition

While I really and truly don't spend much time on social media (I actually had a thought while rereading The Amber Spyglass that it bears a striking resemblance to the Land of the Dead, cold and disembodied with digital harpies shrieking at all the horrible things you've ever said or thought), I nonetheless started following Christopher Wormell on Instagram. 

In case you didn't know, this is the gentleman who did such an excellent job on the Illustrated Edition of The Golden Compass, complimenting Philip Pullman's poetic prose with poetic images. I suppose this was inspired by the likes of Harry Potter and such, though much like with the later books in that series, wow The Amber Spyglass is going to be one thick and formidable book. 

At any rate, I hope no one objects if I post a few great drawings and prints of the illustrated Subtle Knife from his Instagram page. They are quite tantalizing, and I would certainly advise any Dust-lovers to order their own copy whenever it becomes available. I for one am thrilled that they are continuing the whole of His Dark Materials. Who knows, we might even get The Book of Dust trilogy one day! 

Incidentally, the US version of the illustrated Golden Compass is debuting next month, and here is a link to the Amazon page. In the meantime, check out these awesome images from TSK. 

A very familiar cat checking out some very familiar hornbeam trees. 

Our new hero Will Parry taking his first tentative steps into that window in the air. 

Will discovering the world of Cittagazze, complete with surf, sun, and of course, Spectres. 

Will has his legendary first encounter with Lyra and Pantalamion, and thus begins their inexorable trek toward that bench in the Botanic Gardens. 

An airborne Serafina Pekkala flying toward the captured witch with her goose-daemon Kaisa. 

There are more on Christopher Wormell's page, so go follow him on Instagram! 

And if any of you want to check out the very loosely edited video of me opening up my own copy of the Northern Lights Illustrated Edition, a few people on YouTube have actually watched, so enjoy here. Hey, at least I'm enthusiastic.

And as Always 

Stay Dusty My Friends

#HisDarkMaterials #TheSubtleKnife  #PhilipPullman 

#BuildingTheRepublic  #PullmanStudies  #JordanScholarship

#InDustWeTrust  #DownAndDusty   #TheGreatProject