Philip Pullman thinks it's all a bit silly

He's inconsistent about Nesbit: 'It always struck me as blasphemous on the part of the children's writers of the so-called golden age, this sickly nostalgia that you see in AA Milne, E Nesbit [The Railway Children, 1906] Kenneth Grahame [Wind in the Willows, 1908], that squad' (Mail 2017)
But elsewhere he cites her as a major influence...

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime thank you for those amusing anecdotes!

As for Pullman, that's hardly a unique reaction to women's rights issues amongst men, especially men that age. My dad's view was that we were all being hysterical rather than silly. Given my public activism, meetings with politicians etc he did reconsider at some point, and I did manage to eventually explain the negative impact of transgender ideology and legislation on women's rights to him (using the Scottish law designed to ensure equal representation on public boards), but then he went and forgot it all again. So, honestly, I'm not even going to bother explaining it again. Because he's not the problem. At least not in my view.

Now Pullman does have reach my father doesn't, but he's still not the problem in my view. He has a much right to his opinion as I do, and anyone who thinks we're being silly is much more likely to underestimate us and let us get on with it than those trying to stop us discussing the issue.

So while I understand why his remarks may annoy others, I just don't care enough about him to get annoyed, too.

I mistyped there. Meant to say ‘Maybe’ he’s too careerist or scared. I don’t know the motivation but in any case his response was very disappointing.

I misread it initially and thought it was talking about him sitting in his ‘smug, book-lined study’

A bit shit for someone of his stature to not care about any of this. Philip Pullman would have been well aware of JK Rowling getting death and rape threats. Yet he thinks we’re all being ‘silly’? Because he’s all right jack.

I find his attitude odd considering he wrote The Golden Compass which has politically-based experiments on children as a central plot line.. so he knows perfectly well. He’s too careerist or scared to say anything.

Nesbit does sometimes go in for a pot of message though: remember the wonderful future world one of her groups of children gets into, with the child who has been "expelled" from school for the day because he tore up a piece of paper and threw the bits around in the playground, and little rhymes for kiddies ("I must not litter the beautiful street/with bits of paper and things to eat/I must not pick the public flowers/They are not mine, for they are ours" still haunts me) and general preachiness.

Tolkien was perhaps a better tutor in written form.

His notes on Beowulf (collected and published by his estate post-humously) are absolutely marvellous and made me feel something of his passion for it, and I'm saying that as someone who regarded GCSE English literature as literal torture.

I'd have thought he'd be quite a fan of E Nesbitt - she was one of the founders of the Fabian Society which Pullman would no doubt have liked to be.

Like the man, disagree with him profoundly and at length (which is always fun) about many of the opinions.

I think the Lewis/Tolkien thing may be because he is an Oxford man himself, and old enough to have had them both shoved down his craw as wonderful. Which maybe they were in some respects, but not all, and neither was a good lecturer by all accounts. I have heard a vivid description of Tolkien "talking very quietly to the blackboard and hoping that enough people would stop coming to his lectures for him not to have to give them any more that term" -- I think it was fewer than ten and you were allowed to call the lecture off. My friend was one of the ones who insisted on continuing to go to them because what he said was worth hearing if you could hear it: she used to creep closer and closer trying to follow his arguments. Lewis used to pace, closer and closer to the entrance as the end of the lecture approached so that he could dive out through the door and get into the lunch queue before the students, according to the same splendid woman. (There was rationing at the time.)

One of the themes in His Dark Materials is that going through puberty is an important part of life, and that interfering with that process is evil.

What did Pullman say about Nesbitt? Don't remember The Railway Children or The Phoenix and the Carpet being overly religious or preachy.

I read him as an adult and thought Northern Lights was amazing. It's a book which I can remember exactly where and when I read it (the where and when may well confirm your suspicions about the target market) My son loved it too.

The Subtle Knife is equally good- particularly the spectres and the witches. The Amber Spyglass got a bit silly.

Pullman's writing is heavily influenced by both Tolkien and CS Lewis. I've never understood the fuss about Pullman - I don't know if I was too old or my family weren't middle class enough but he wasn't on my radar until I was an adult and I think I missed the childhood associations he seems to have for many people.

I gave up on The Secret Commonwealth.

The bit in Prague with the burning man was ridiculous and the rest was so obviously just going to be Pan and Lyra not reuniting.

but I'm as hard line an atheist as you'll find , even as a child, and I adored the Narnia books

Same...i once walked 2 miles in the snow in (what turned out to be too tight) boots to talk to the priest about the fact that i had no faith

( he had to ring my mum so i could get a lift home cos i couldnt walk any more)

But i do love those books

He cares about his daughter and his grand daughters and his trans woman friend

So many silly comments from him.

I couldn’t understand why two groups of people whom I like and admire, namely feminists and trans people

What all of them? I suppose at a stretch one could admire feminists as expressing a political view point but it's still a bit like say he admires , say , members of the Labour Party or members of the Tory Party.

As for admiring trans people- that's just silly. Trans people collectively are no more or less admirable than any other group.

His comments about C.S Lewis and Tolkien are ridiculous. I know Lewis gets criticised for sneaking in religion but I'm as hard line an atheist as you'll find , even as a child, and I adored the Narnia books.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a short book packed full of magical imagery. The penny didn't drop for me about the religious metaphor until I was an adult. And so what if it is Aslan is a metaphor for Christ? It doesn't detract from the beauty of book.

Damn, I keep feeling "you're all being silly" would have been a great response to men wanting to play in women's sports etc.

Those who think gender identity is more important than sex are extremely silly.

The women pointing out all the damaging implications of this nonsense are extremely sensible.

I found the ‘His Dark Materials’ series well written but so bloody bleak. And as for him wanting to dig up CS Lewis and throw rocks at him - what?! I know that a lot of people, Pullman included, don’t like the religion aspect of the Narnia books but I think that’s a slight over reaction.

And yes Empress the phrase ‘hoo-ha’ pissed me off as well. But then, I am but a silly woman with silly thoughts.....

Hooks, not 'books'

He's an odd one. I enjoy his writing, but I fundamentally disagree with many of his ideas.
I recently listened to his Sally Lockhart novels on Audible, and was surprised to find how much I had forgotten about them - a positive blast of feminism! His female characters are all actual characters, not books to hang romantic hankering upon, and I salute him for that.
As for his opinions on Lewis, Tolkien and Nesbit - how very dare he!

I think the phrasing of that bit - ‘refreshing’ and ‘hoo-ha’ says as much about journalist Nicholas Tucker as it does about Pullman.

Sorry wrong thread!

Love his writing, but what a fatuous thing to say 🙄

How nice to have the luxury of finding it all a bit silly.

@justanotherneighinparadise. He doesn't have to have an opinion - you're absolutely right. But if he doesn't have to have an opinion he also doesn't have to vomit out his lack of opinion on Twitter and over newspapers.

There is an option not to say anything at all, but funnily enough he never seems to think about that.

Bless him he comes across as quite disconnected from the world despite his Twitter presence. Feeling a sense of nostalgia and optimism during lockdown? I think he was the only one.

I’ve no idea what Drakeford is playing at. As lockdowns rely on goodwill he has quickly drained it from the population by forbidding us from getting cheap supermarket replacements for things like school shoes and kettles. He’s a patronising leader who obviously doesn’t trust his population in the cushion aisle. The feeling is mutual!