Not the Book of Dust

AFTER angering the Vatican with the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman, the children’s author, is to launch an assault on Christianity in a story that denies Jesus was the son of God.

Pullman will claim that Christ emerged from the “fervid imagination” of St Paul, the apostle, and spawned a religion that has inspired some to “fanatical bigotry”.

Although full details of the plot are being kept under wraps, the book’s title, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, gives a strong indication of Pullman’s views.

From Philip Pullman writes off Christ ‘the scoundrel’ at Times Online

Press release from the publisher with more information here.

What’s Mr. Pullman Doing These Days?

Pullman has thought of one more hobby he could take up. Should Hollywood decide against making movie versions of the second and third parts of His Dark Materials, he has a plan. “If the studios don’t make the next two films, I might do them myself with puppets in the garden shed, like Noggin the Nog.”

There is a beat, before Pullman breaks into a broad grin: “Wouldn’t cost very much.”

Philip Pullman interviewed in The Scotsman

Pullman reads Paradise Lost

Video: Philip Pullman reads Paradise Lost | Culture | guardian.co.uk

Thinking Dust?

I don’t know about you, but this image coupled with news about dark matter, has me wondering what Philip Pullman has in store for us in The Book of Dust.

A concatenation of puzzling results from an alphabet soup of satellites and experiments has led a growing number of astronomers and physicists to suspect that they are getting signals from a shadow universe of dark matter that makes up a quarter of creation but has eluded direct detection until now.

Maybe.

From ” A Whisper, Perhaps, From the Universe’s Dark Side” at the New York Times.

Philip Pullman On Censorship

When I heard that my novel The Golden Compass (the name in the USA of Northern Lights) appeared in the top five of the American Library Association’s list of 2007’s most challenged books, my immediate and ignoble response was glee. Firstly, I had obviously annoyed a lot of censorious people, and secondly, any ban would provoke interested readers to move from the library, where they couldn’t get hold of my novel, to the bookshops, where they could. That, after all, was exactly what happened when a group called the Catholic League decided to object to the film of The Golden Compass when it was released at the end of last year. The box office suffered, but the book sales went up – a long way up, to my gratification.

Because they never learn. The inevitable result of trying to ban something – book, film, play, pop song, whatever – is that far more people want to get hold of it than would ever have done if it were left alone. Why don’t the censors realise this?

Philip Pullman on the pointless menace of censorship | Books | guardian.co.uk

Pullman’s List

At the invitation of the British bookstore Waterstone’s, Philip Pullman has put together a list of “essential books.”  You can view the list here and read about how he made his selections here.  There are some titles I’m looking forward to exploring some day and others that I was just glad to see.

Eoin Colfer’s Last Night in the US

So I went to see Eoin Colfer’s “Fairies, Fiends and Flatulence” this past Saturday and have to say that it was great fun. It is an enormously entertaining one-man show complete with video, slides, stories, and stand-up schtick. The bus loomed outside on 112th Street (and Beth Puffer, the Bank Street Book Store manager, told me that if they hadn’t been able to find a spot there she suggested they park it in front of the nearby Cathedral of St. John the Divine). I was really impressed with Colfer’s command of the audience (mostly kids and parents), making it funny for all ages. For the Q & A Mo Willems and Jon Scieszka ran about the auditorium bringing mikes to the questioners and providing commentary. Great questions from serious fans. The kid questioner behind me had a handmade name tag identifying him as “LEP Official” with the code below. The only one I managed to write down:

Q: How do you plan out the Artemis Fowl books?

A: I go down to Philip Pullman’s house and go through his trash.

If you get a chance to see this show go! And if you can’t, do go to the website as they vlogged the whole tour. The August 1 video includes the standing ovation we were asked to give before the show started; according to Eoin the cameraman was leaving for a date so wouldn’t be there to do it at the end. Fortunately there was a more legit one at the actual end!

Unsettling No-News Re Another HDM Film

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials film trilogy in doubt after Golden Compass sequel in limbo – Telegraph

Biometric Daemons

Pantalaimon, avert your eyes.

According to this article, a couple of professors have come up with a new device “inspired by the Philip Pullman fantasy novels – recently turned into the hit film The Golden Compass – which include animal daemons which are physical representations of character’s souls.”  They have in mind “… biometric daemons [that] could carry people’s personal details and replace pin numbers and passwords for everyday transactions, reacting to different levels of risk and becoming stressed and eventually dying if they are apart from their owner.”

According to one of the professors, Dr. Clark,  “The idea of the daemon is that it is a living credit card,” he said. “It would recognise it is with you, and if you put it in your pocket, it can recognise your walk and your voice.”

And would it also know what is in my heart?

A New Pullman Profile in the Independent

Philip Pullman: His dark materials – People, News – The Independent

The death and absence of his father has informed so much of the fiction written by this highly acclaimed authorover the years, but he has never known – or wanted to know – the truth about what really happened. Until now… Cole Moreton meets Philip Pullman