海角大神

Philip Pullman鈥檚 most avid fans probably know him from 鈥淗is Dark Materials,鈥� a masterful trilogy of fantasy novels. They might guess from his writing that he鈥檚 also formidably well-read, opinionated on topics from religion to realism.

We get all facets of the author and scholar in聽Daemon Voices, a collection of essays and speeches gathered under the umbrella of 鈥渟tories and storytelling.鈥� Some pieces illuminate Pullman鈥檚 path to his own finished books, but the range is much broader, a kaleidoscope of topics viewed through Pullman鈥檚 particular lens.

Speaking at venues as diverse as a science fiction convention and a study day at Oxford College, Pullman explores his own atheism, the scientific metaphor of phase space, the artistry of Art Spiegelman鈥檚 graphic novel 鈥淢aus,鈥� and his distaste for C.S. Lewis鈥檚 Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien鈥檚 Middle Earth, among many other subjects. Always, he finds a greater truth in smaller observations, as when he draws readers through a new look at Edouard Manet鈥檚 classic painting 鈥淎 Bar at the Folies-Bergere鈥�:

鈥淎rt does not progress by improving what came before, by doing to it what chemistry did to alchemy: art does not progress in that sense at all. Great art has always had this double character, this ability to look at the world and to look at itself at the same time, and the greatest art is perhaps where we see the two things in perfect balance.鈥�

Pullman, a former middle school teacher and former college professor, doesn鈥檛 like to slap age recommendations on books 鈥� he led a 2008 campaign against it 鈥� but adults were the original audience for most of these meditations, and it鈥檚 hard to imagine most younger fans plowing through them. His description of discovering William Blake鈥檚 poems, though (Pullman is president of the William Blake Society), would inspire anyone who is 16, as he was, or who remembers that age:

鈥淚 knew they were true in the way I knew that I was alive. I had stumbled into a country in which I was not a stranger, whose language I spoke by instinct, whose habits and customs fitted me like my own skin.鈥�

The book鈥檚 not a beach read (I tried!), but Pullman can unwind certain dense topics as lyrically as a poet. We鈥檙e informed by his ruminations on favorites like John Milton (鈥淧aradise Lost鈥� was a major influence on His Dark Materials, as was Blake 鈥� as also, he discusses here, was an 1810 essay by German writer Henrich von Kleist.) He allies himself with readers, saying that 鈥渨e all, if we鈥檙e honest鈥� have experienced the ferocity of an intense read 鈥� an 鈥渙bsessive, merciless, solitary, amoral, almost savage devouring of a text.鈥� And he sees through the eyes of writers, talking not just about his own books, but imagining, for instance, Charles Dickens working on Oliver Twist. 鈥淭here are few excitements comparable to that of sensing, not quite visible yet but nearby, very close, only an arm鈥檚 length away, a new kind of story to tell. The 24-year-old Dickens must have sensed the whole of his nature leaping to the idea like a magnet to a steel rod.鈥� Diehard Dark Materials fans will also hear about the deeper meaning of 鈥渢he mysterious entity I call Dust鈥� in the books,聽 the relationship of Pullman鈥檚 imaginary Oxford to the real one (鈥減erhaps a great deal of Oxford is imaginary anyway鈥�), and other items of interest.

Some of the topics in "Daemon Voices" are so specifically linked to events, publications, or particular audiences that they feel a little out of place collected back-to-back. (鈥淭hank you very much for inviting me here,鈥� begins one. Another starts out 鈥淚 am very honoured to have been asked to give the Patrick Hardy lecture.鈥�) More frustrating 鈥� and hard to avoid in this format 鈥� 聽are the repetitions. Naturally, an author speaking before different groups of people will tell some of the same stories or points.

For this, among other reasons, it鈥檚 not a book to read in one sitting. Dipping in and out of it, though, the restatements seem to build a case, serving as reminders rather than frustrations.聽 It鈥檚 particularly worth returning to Pullman鈥檚 thoughts on one of the topics he鈥檚 questioned about most: whether authors can or should weigh in on the meanings of their own work.

Pullman believes an author鈥檚 view is only slightly more authoritative than the reader鈥檚, granting authors that extra edge only because of their greater familiarity with the text.

Different readers, Pullman reminds us, approach any work with their own different expectations, intellectual abilities, experiences, and predictions.

鈥淲e have to bring something to the text, and put something into it, in order to get anything out,鈥� he wrote.

鈥淭his is the great democracy of reading and writing 鈥� it makes the reader a true partner in the making of meaning.鈥�