Philip Pullman has posted his New Year Message 2006 on his website. In it he again ruminates on the problems of global warming, vowing that from now on he will never travel by plane at all. He promises that the next two years will see a concerted effort on writing The Book of Dust now that he has reached the end of the many talks he has given this past year. Read the message. addendum: There's an interesting debate on the boards about whether you could give up flying.
Pullman's New Year Message
January 4, 2006
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OMG! The Book of Dust *faints*
I\'m glad Pullman talks about global warming again – it is a serious problem after all, and world leaders need to get off their backsides and take action. And he\'s even setting an example. Oh, and the Book of Dust. Glad he\'s getting on with it. 🙂
"Enough of that. I want to think about Lyra and her new story, so I'd appreciate it if everybody would just stop destroying the world so I can stop fretting about it and get on with my proper work."
I actually "aw"-ed when I read that 🙂 I CANNOT BLOODY WAIT FOR TBOD!
*makes the point*
Pullman said that last time. And the time before….etc etc
I recently discovered and finished The HDM Trilogy and so I don't know much about The Book of Dust, but I thought it wasn't going to be about Lyra? Did Philip Pullman change his mind and decide to write about her? Sorry if I'm uninformed, but I'm new to HDM.
The plan was originally for it to be various short stories about side characters in the story – Lee, Iorek, Serafina, etc. etc. Then the Lyra story that Pullman had written into it got yanked out and made into Lyra\'s Oxford, which was supposed to stop her story overshadowing the others in TBOD. Now he\'s going to write about her in it again! It seems Pullman can\'t let go of her just yet. Hopefully the other short stories will actually be in there too.
That was a very blunt message. I suppose you have to be somebody to dictate what other people can do. I hope he doesn\'t decide to thump humanity around the room with a stick if things get bad, I\'ve considered that option – it doesn\'t work. Now how is it, exactly, that TBOD is going to be different from other works of fantasy? I know Pullman keeps complaining about Rowling and Tolkien and their works, so what\'s so beneficial about TBoD, hmm? Just some more fantasy for HDM fans to gobble up. I can appreciate good writing as much as the next guy, but I hope there\'s no double standarding involved.
loved the global warming comments…I can't even read about it, I just feel so helpless, exactly as Pullman says. I liked the analogy of now being like the 1930s…spot on
Though I appreciate Pullman's plight of Global warming, it seems too conviently coincidental to me that he decides to stop plane rides only after he has taken so many this year. Another thing, if we were to halt 99% of air travel, it would severely limit families, friends, food banks, charity, and medical supplies from being delivered…I have nothing against Mr. Pullman, but I find his opinion shockingly lacking consideration for the thousand other factors in the world. Disappointing.
Pretty pathetic to see an obviously intelligent individual be so taken in by the green scare as to join the crowd crying for man to return to the stone age. The benefits of air travel – primarily the saving of the scarcest natural resources, namely, human time and ability – along with all the other human activities which contribute to the slow warming of the Earth far outweigh even the worst case scenario costs of global warming (The Day After Tomorrow's fantasies aside, that is). Pullman and his brethren would have us walk barefoot and slave away technology-less from dawn to dusk to avoid possibly evacuating an island or seeing some beach submerged sometime in the unknown future.
^ Yeah, but there are other ways of intercontinental travel other than plane. Although Im incredibly concerned by global warming, there seems little we can do now to prevent it.
:tongue: i think he hit the nail on the head with all the global warming talk and i agree … OMG! The Book of Dust *faints* :tongue: