Philip Pullman thinks it's all a bit silly

[Igneococcus]

"I just wanted to say, ‘Look, stop it. You’re all being silly.’ He says, from his lofty heights of cluelessness:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/335e06ce-1466-11eb-bca5-e85774a5f3b9?shareToken=3d2b297c40a1bcf4a765dd31286885a0

It just makes him sound like a clueless old fart

Good to see Fratercula artica and Jo March’s responses in the comments. Both nail it.

So dismissive. He didn’t bother to listen, he doesn’t care. Why ask the question if you have no genuine interest in the answer?

He appears as a an old school patriarch. “What are the silly women bleating about now? Oh just ignore them they are being irrational as usual”

So a man who freely admits that he doesn't understand what all this 'hoo ha' is about has decided that we're 'all being a bit silly'.

I don't tend to use the expression 'mansplaining', as I find it overused and quite offensive a lot of the time. However, in this situation I think it's appropriate.

And yes, Jo March is right. Pullman is yet another smug skeptic who is too coy to have an opinion on this issue.

There is already a deleted comment now. Didn't see it before it was deleted.

He’s 74. He doesn’t have to care. I like his work and I smiled at his interview.

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!

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.

@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.

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

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

Sorry wrong thread!

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

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!

Hooks, not 'books'

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.....

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.

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.

@justanotherneighinparadise

He’s 74. He doesn’t have to care. I like his work and I smiled at his interview.

My dads 75

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

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.)

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.