美国国家公共电台 NPR Philip Pullman Returns To The Dark Materials Universe In A New Prequel — Er, 'Equel'

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The world Philip Pullman created is back, in his hands and now ours. "His Dark Materials" trilogy, which began more than 20 years ago with a book called "The Golden Compass" is set in a world ruled by a theocratic¹ overlords called The Magisterium and in which children often disappear into the hands of people they call the Gobblers. However, human souls, especially those of children, take shape outside of their bodies as demons², talking animal spirits who give humans aid, comfort and companionship.

That world has been called the last great fantasy masterpiece of the 20th century and has been honored with the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread book of the year and many other awards. "His Dark Materials" have returned now with the first book of a new trilogy to come, The Book Of Dust: La Belle³ Sauvage," with a first printing of half a million copies and global publicity⁴ campaign unseen since - what's his name? - Harry⁵ Potter. Philip Pullman joins us now from Oxford⁶ BBC studios there. Thanks so much for being with us, Mr. Pullman.

PHILIP PULLMAN: I'm glad to talk to you.

SIMON: Call this book an equel (ph). not a sequel or prequel. Why?

PULLMAN: Well, this is going to be a three-volume story like "His Dark "Materials." And the first part of it, the "La Belle Sauvage," is set 10 years before the action of "His Dark Materials." So in some sense, you could say it was a prequel, except I don't like that word very much. And the second book and the third book, which are partly written, will be set 10 years after "His Dark Materials." So you could say that in some sense, they're a sequel. But it isn't really a prequel. And it isn't really a sequel. So I've called it an equel.

SIMON: Aside from what must be a terrific incentive⁷ for sales, what made you take a look at what you had already had in the "Dark Materials," what must be thousands of pages, and decide another trilogy was called for?

PULLMAN: Because I could see the shadow of another story waiting to be told. At the end of "His Dark Materials," the heroine Lyra is about 12 years old. Now, she's at the very beginning of her adolescence⁸. She's going to become a teenager. She's going to grow up. She's going to be a young woman. She's going to have a life and a profession. All that was very interesting to me. And I wondered how she would get on, how she would cope with it and what would happen around her because the world isn't going to be remain fixed⁹, either. Things are dynamic, and they're going to change. So I thought about that off and on for a while. And then some other ideas began to form in the shadows around the first one. And before I knew where I was, I was writing another novel (laughter).

SIMON: And Lyra's an infant in this book, of course.

PULLMAN: In this book, she's very, very young. She's about 6 months old, so she's not able to do very much. But she certainly forms the center of all the activity that goes on. She is the - she's the McGuffin in the words - the famous word that Alfred Hitchcock invented to describe the thing in a film that needs to set the action going, whether it's the secret plans or the letters of transit¹⁰, as in the film Casablanca - whatever it is. The important thing that everybody wants - the McGuffin. Well, in this book, Lyra is the McGuffin.

SIMON: You once taught middle school.

PULLMAN: That's correct. Yes, here in Oxford where I live.

SIMON: And, well, what was that like, and what did you learn from your students?

PULLMAN: That was over 20 years ago - over 30 years ago. What am I talking about? I'm getting old. It was a time in our country before there was such a thing as a national sort of framework for education. So I had a kind of freedom to tell stories that I wanted to tell and stories that I thought the students would enjoy and even stories I thought they might remember years later.

And I learned a great deal from it about myself as a storyteller and things like timing¹¹. You know, if you know the lesson's going to come to an end, or there's going to be a bell ringing in four minutes, you've got exactly four minutes to get to that point in the story with maximum suspense¹², so they'll want to come back next time and hear what's going to happen next. So I learned all that kind of stuff. And it was extremely enjoyable and very useful to me. Very good apprenticeship¹³.

SIMON: I have to ask because you were teaching middle school in Oxford - there must be professional writers today who feel that they were schooled in the literary process by being in your class.

PULLMAN: I can think of three - one writer of nonfiction best-sellers, another writer of very successful cookbooks.

(LAUGHTER)

PULLMAN: And so it goes on. So, yeah, that happened. But I guess they'd have done what they're doing anyway, whether or not I taught them.

SIMON: Yeah. You slammed Winnie the Pooh this week in a previous interview.

PULLMAN: Yeah.

SIMON: I want to - I happen to adore Winnie the Pooh. But I want to give you the chance to, you know, to kick his fuzziness again, if you like...

PULLMAN: (Laughter).

SIMON: ...Verbally.

PULLMAN: Yeah, I was asking for trouble with that one. It's really his creator whom I was criticizing. And it wasn't even so much "Winnie the Pooh" as his work as editor of the magazine Punch, the comic - English comic magazine Punch.

SIMON: I never knew that about A.A. Milne.

PULLMAN: Yeah, well, Milne as editor of Punch printed a number of cartoons of a sort that we feel pretty dodgy about now - little children often with no clothes on in the bath or something, making sweet, cute remarks with their beautiful mothers looking on with a fond smile on their face. It's all a bit peculiar¹⁴. And I didn't like the atmosphere of a sort of unremitting nostalgia¹⁵ for childhood. Adults want to go back to their childhood. Milne clearly did. But children don't want to be children all their lives. They want to grow up. They want to have adult concerns. They want to get out in the world and do big things.

SIMON: Do you think that's why young readers may respond as powerfully as they do to "His Dark Materials?"

PULLMAN: I don't know. If I knew exactly what they were responding, I'd have done it much earlier (laughter). Fortunately, I think one reason quite young readers are willing to follow a big, complicated story like this is that because they follow Lyra. They're with Lyra. Lyra doesn't understand these big concerns - philosophical¹⁶ and scientific and theological concerns that go through the story. But she's determined¹⁷ to find out because they are the source of the trouble that she's in and her friends are in. And she's determined to find out what they mean. And I think young readers are happy to follow Lyra because they know that when she finds out, they will, too.

SIMON: You've been outspoken¹⁸ against publishers and booksellers labeling books by age and gender¹⁹.

PULLMAN: Indeed.

SIMON: Why?

SIMON: Yeah. I do behave a bit like a dictator when I'm writing. I have absolute power of life and death over every word, every punctuation²⁰ mark, every character in the story. But when the book is finished and edited and out there in the world in the book stores and the libraries, that dictatorship stops, and a democratic process begins, which is the interaction between the book and the reader. I don't like to tell my readers how to read my books. That's entirely²¹ up to them. Nor do I like to decide who my audience is going to be.

PULLMAN: In any case, you can say this book is for 12-year-olds. But they might not like it. It might turn out to be an ideal book for kids who are younger or older than that. So I really criticized some publishers - not all of them - but the publishers who were trying to limit my readers to those between this age and that age. I thought, this is a very silly thing to do. I'm trying to tell a story here. Anybody who wants to stop and listen is welcome. And I don't want anybody at the door turning people away, thank you very much.

SIMON: Philip Pullman, The Book Of Dust: La Belle Sauvage," the first in a new trilogy about the world he created in "The Golden Compass" and other books. It has been published around the world this week. Thanks so much for being with us.

PULLMAN: Thank you very much. I enjoyed talking to you.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALEXANDRE DESPLAT'S "SKY FERRY")

1 theocratic   

adj.神权的，神权政治的

参考例句：

• The priest caste wields considerable power in this rigidly theocratic society. 祭司阶层(priestcaste)在这个严格的神权社会中掌握着相当大的权力。 来自互联网
• The heartland of Islam, by contrast, is theocratic. 相反，伊斯兰教的核心地带则是神权政治。 来自互联网

2 demons   

n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念

参考例句：

• demons torturing the sinners in Hell 地狱里折磨罪人的魔鬼
• He is plagued by demons which go back to his traumatic childhood. 他为心魔所困扰，那可追溯至他饱受创伤的童年。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 belle   

n.靓女

参考例句：

• She was the belle of her Sunday School class.在主日学校她是她们班的班花。
• She was the belle of the ball.她是那个舞会中的美女。

4 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

5 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

6 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

7 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

8 adolescence   

n.青春期，青少年

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。

9 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

10 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。

11 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

12 suspense   

n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑

参考例句：

• The suspense was unbearable.这样提心吊胆的状况实在叫人受不了。
• The director used ingenious devices to keep the audience in suspense.导演用巧妙手法引起观众的悬念。

13 apprenticeship   

n.学徒身份；学徒期

参考例句：

• She was in the second year of her apprenticeship as a carpenter. 她当木工学徒已是第二年了。
• He served his apprenticeship with Bob. 他跟鲍勃当学徒。

14 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

15 nostalgia   

n.怀乡病，留恋过去，怀旧

参考例句：

• He might be influenced by nostalgia for his happy youth.也许是对年轻时幸福时光的怀恋影响了他。
• I was filled with nostalgia by hearing my favourite old song.我听到这首喜爱的旧歌，心中充满了怀旧之情。

16 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

17 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

18 outspoken   

adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的

参考例句：

• He was outspoken in his criticism.他在批评中直言不讳。
• She is an outspoken critic of the school system in this city.她是这座城市里学校制度的坦率的批评者。

19 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

20 punctuation   

n.标点符号，标点法

参考例句：

• My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
• A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。

21 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。