Daemon Voices Read online

  SELECTED WORKS BY PHILIP PULLMAN

  The Book of Dust trilogy

  La Belle Sauvage

  His Dark Materials trilogy

  The Golden Compass

  The Subtle Knife

  The Amber Spyglass

  His Dark Materials companion books

  Lyra’s Oxford

  Once Upon a Time in the North

  The Sally Lockhart quartet

  The Ruby in the Smoke

  The Shadow in the North

  The Tiger in the Well

  The Tin Princess

  Other books

  The Haunted Storm

  Galatea

  Count Karlstein

  How to Be Cool

  Spring-Heeled Jack

  The Broken Bridge

  The Wonderful Story of Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp

  Clockwork, or, All Wound Up

  The Firework-Maker’s Daughter

  Mossycoat

  The Butterfly Tattoo

  I Was a Rat! or The Scarlet Slippers

  Puss in Boots: The Adventures of That Most Enterprising Feline

  The Scarecrow and His Servant

  The Adventures of the New Cut Gang

  The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

  Grimm Tales: For Young and Old

  Graphic Novels

  Count Karlstein

  The Adventures of John Blake

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  Copyright © 2017 by Philip Pullman

  Introduction © 2017 by Simon Mason

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in Great Britain by David Fickling Books, Oxford, in 2017.

  www.aaknopf.com

  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Permissions to reprint extracts and art can be found following the index.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Pullman, Philip, [date] author.

  Title: Daemon voices : on stories and storytelling / by Philip Pullman.

  Description: First American edition. | New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017049677 (print) | LCCN 2017053211 (ebook) | ISBN 9780525521174 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780525521181 (ebook)

  Subjects: LCSH: Storytelling in literature. | Literature—Appreciation. | Pullman, Philip, [date]—Books and reading. |Books and reading—Psychological aspects. | Authors, English—Books and reading. | Authorship.

  Classification: LCC PN56.S7357 P85 2018 (print) | LCC PN56.S7357 (ebook) | DDC 809/.93353—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2017049677

  Ebook ISBN 9780525521181

  Cover illustration by John Lawrence

  Cover based on an initial concept by Ness Wood

  v5.3.2

  ep

  Contents

  Cover

  Also by Philip Pullman

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Topic Finder

  Introduction by Simon Mason

  Magic Carpets

  The Writer’s Responsibilities

  The Writing of Stories

  Making It Up and Writing It Down

  Heinrich von Kleist: “On the Marionette Theatre”

  Grace Lost and Regained

  Paradise Lost

  An Introduction

  The Origin of the Universe

  The Storytelling of Science and Religion: A Response to a Lecture by Stephen Hawking

  The Path Through the Wood

  How Stories Work

  Dreaming of Spires

  Oxfords, Real and Imaginary

  Intention

  What Do You Mean?

  Children’s Literature Without Borders

  Stories Shouldn’t Need Passports

  Let’s Write It in Red

  The Practice of Writing

  Epics

  Big Stories About Big Things

  Folk Tales of Britain

  Streams of Stories Down Through the Years

  As Clear as Water

  Making a New Version of the Brothers Grimm

  A Bar at the Folies-Bergère

  Modernism and Storytelling

  Poco a Poco

  The Fundamental Particles of Narrative

  The Classical Tone

  Narrative Tact and Other Classical Virtues

  Reading in the Borderland

  Reading, Books and Pictures

  Oliver Twist

  An Introduction

  Let’s Pretend

  Novels, Films and the Theatre

  The Firework-Maker’s Daughter on Stage

  The Story of a Story

  Imaginary Friends

  Are Stories Anti-Scientific?

  Maus

  Behind the Masks

  Balloon Debate

  Why Fiction Is Valuable

  The Anatomy of Melancholy

  An Introduction to an Indispensable Book

  Soft Beulah’s Night

  William Blake and Vision

  Writing Fantasy Realistically

  Fantasy, Realism and Faith

  The Story of The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

  A Response to Puzzled Readers

  The Cat, the Chisel and the Grave

  Do We Need a Theory of Human Nature to Tell Us How to Write Stories?

  “I Must Create a System…”

  A Moth’s-eye View of William Blake

  Talents and Virtues

  Another Visit to Miss Goddard’s Grave

  God and Dust

  Notes for a Study Day with the Bishop of Oxford

  The Republic of Heaven

  God Is Dead, Long Live the Republic!

  Acknowledgements

  Permissions

  A Note About the Author & Editor

  Illustrations

  Topic Finder

  Certain themes recur in more than one essay. The lists below identify some of those themes and group together the essays in which they are discussed.

  ON CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

  Imaginary Friends

  Intention

  Children’s Literature Without Borders

  ON EDUCATION AND STORY

  Let’s Write It in Red

  Talents and Virtues

  Paradise Lost

  ON FOLK TALES, FAIRY TALES AND EPICS

  Epics

  Folk Tales of Britain

  As Clear as Water

  Imaginary Friends

  Magic Carpets

  The Classical Tone

  ON HIS DARK MATERIALS

  Dreaming of Spires
>
  God and Dust

  Heinrich von Kleist: “On the Marionette Theatre”

  Reading in the Borderland

  The Path Through the Wood

  The Writing of Stories

  ON MY OTHER BOOKS

  As Clear as Water

  Intention (The Scarecrow and His Servant)

  Poco a Poco (Clockwork and I Was a Rat!)

  The Firework-Maker’s Daughter on Stage

  The Path Through the Wood (I Was a Rat!)

  The Story of The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

  ON OTHER MEDIA: FILM, TV AND THE THEATRE

  Let’s Pretend

  Let’s Write It in Red

  Magic Carpets

  Oliver Twist

  The Writing of Stories

  The Firework-Maker’s Daughter on Stage

  ON PICTURES

  A Bar at the Folies-Bergère

  Maus

  Oliver Twist

  Poco a Poco

  Reading in the Borderland

  ON READING

  Balloon Debate

  God and Dust

  Talents and Virtues

  Reading in the Borderland

  The Anatomy of Melancholy

  Children’s Literature Without Borders

  ON RELIGION AND STORY

  God and Dust

  “I Must Create a System…”

  Talents and Virtues

  Paradise Lost

  The Origin of the Universe

  The Republic of Heaven

  The Story of The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

  The Writing of Stories

  ON SCIENCE AND STORY

  “I Must Create a System…”

  Let’s Write It in Red

  Poco a Poco

  The Origin of the Universe

  The Path Through the Wood

  The Writing of Stories

  ON STORY IN CULTURE

  Balloon Debate

  Imaginary Friends

  Magic Carpets

  Talents and Virtues

  The Republic of Heaven

  ON OTHER WRITERS’ STORIES

  As Clear as Water

  Heinrich von Kleist: “On the Marionette Theatre”

  “I Must Create a System…”

  Maus

  Oliver Twist

  Paradise Lost

  The Anatomy of Melancholy

  The Classical Tone

  Soft Beulah’s Night

  ON THE WRITER

  “I Must Create a System…”

  Let’s Write It in Red

  Magic Carpets

  Talents and Virtues

  Poco a Poco

  The Cat, the Chisel and the Grave

  Writing Fantasy Realistically

  ON THE PRACTICE OF WRITING

  God and Dust

  “I Must Create a System…”

  Intention

  Let’s Write It in Red

  Magic Carpets

  Oliver Twist

  Poco a Poco

  The Cat, the Chisel and the Grave

  The Classical Tone

  The Path Through the Wood

  The Writing of Stories

  Introduction

  As the author of some of the most popular stories of our time, Philip Pullman requires very little introduction; his books have been read by millions of eager readers the world over, not only the trilogy of His Dark Materials, but also the Sally Lockhart novels, his fairy tales, his retelling of Grimm’s folk tales, the fable The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, and many others. He is recognised as one of the world’s great storytellers.

  During my work on his essays, we met several times, usually at his home. In person he is a striking presence, physically imposing but quiet in his manner. He typically dresses in casual, practical clothes with plenty of pockets that give him the air of a craftsman, an electrician perhaps, or a carpenter—which, in fact, he is. When we began our meetings he still had his famous ponytail, which he had vowed to keep until finishing the first volume of The Book of Dust. He reported that The Bookseller had said it made him look like a retired roadie. The ponytail came off a few months later, and he showed it to me in a transparent bag. “I’m thinking of donating it to the Bodleian Library,” he said.

  Humorous, formidably knowledgeable, sharply intelligent and firm in his opinions, he has absolutely no airs and graces, instinctively putting people at their ease. Each time I met him I was struck by his relaxed courtesy. (I was struck in a different way by his pair of hyperactive cockapoo puppies—Mixie and Coco—who flew at me from all angles, even, somehow, from above, while Philip calmly made coffee in the kitchen.) The low-ceilinged, open-fired room where we talked was filled with objects—musical instruments, pictures, books and wooden constructions that he had made himself. The pleasure he takes in the well-made is evident, and I was often shown things he liked: a Doves Press edition of Paradise Lost printed with the famous Doves type; a woodcut by John Lawrence; a life-size alethiometer made for him by an admiring reader. He nearly always had a story to tell about these objects. The Doves type, he told me, was once destroyed by their co-owner T. J. Cobden-Sanderson after a dispute with his business partner Emery Walker, by casting it, bit by bit, into the Thames from Hammersmith Bridge, a process which he undertook only on dark nights, and which took him five months to complete, beginning at the end of August 1916 and finishing in January 1917. (Nearly a hundred years later, it was retrieved by the Port of London Authority’s Salvage diving team employed by a designer wishing to digitise the type.)

  This instinct to tell stories is deep in Philip. For sheer storytelling excitement, his own are hard to beat. But their popularity is due also, I think, to their thoughtfulness, the way in which, with great curiosity and energy, they engage ideas and issues and ask interesting questions. Is the world conscious? What is our place and purpose here? What is evil? Where does religious belief come from? Can innocence be regained? His stories dramatise such questions in thrilling ways. And so do his essays.

  The 32 here, selected from more than 120, were written over many years. The oldest is “Let’s Write It in Red,” a fascinating—and fascinated—meditation on story writing considered as a game, dating from June 1997. The most recent is “Soft Beulah’s Night,” from November 2014, an impassioned personal testament to the wisdom and originality of the poet William Blake who, arguably, has influenced Philip the most.

  The essays are also very varied. Partly, this is because they were written in different circumstances, for different purposes: many were talks, delivered at conferences or symposia; others were articles in newspapers; yet others were commissioned pieces in journals, chapters in books, programme notes and promotional pieces. Mainly, though, it is because Philip’s interests range so widely. Not for nothing is his personal dæmon the raven, that picker-up of bits and pieces here and there. Like most great writers, he is a great reader, and thinks about what he has picked up during a lifetime of passionate, engaged reading of the work of physicists, literary theorists, historians, film-makers, theologians, art historians, novelists and poets.