The Republic of Heaven

My impression is that The Book of Dust was intended to be a book of assorted stories filling in some of the gaps in the mythology. A kind of Silmarillion, in other words, and no doubt almost as tedious (it's not possible to be as tedious as The Silmarillion!) But then, I suspect that the nebulous nature of TBoD is probably more as a result of PP's lack of enthusiasm for the project. He's not as obsessive as Professor Tolkien was, for a start, and no doubt he's anxious to move on to develop the new ideas which are brimming in his head.

But I fear that PP is a prisoner of the success of HDM. No doubt he's under pressure for more Lyriana to tie in with the film, and no doubt he can't produce Lyriana fast enough to meet the needs of the marketing tykes, so the product has to be released in dribs and drabs at regular intervals.

I'm a fan of Lyra's Oxford, by the way. If you think there's no more to it than a short story and a map, then you've missed an awful lot. It's full of puzzles and teases. Have those who found it disappointing tried, for example, tracking down all the authors in the book catalogue?

Enitharmon wrote:But I fear that PP is a prisoner of the success of HDM. No doubt he's under pressure for more Lyriana to tie in with the film, and no doubt he can't produce Lyriana fast enough to meet the needs of the marketing tykes, so the product has to be released in dribs and drabs at regular intervals.

I disagree with you here, Rosie. It's entirely possible that Lyra and the whole universe he's created have grabbed him by the throat and will not let go until he tells their story. Sometimes it happens. Characters invade their creator's mind, until he or she *must* write about them, *must* find out what happens to them.

Remember he took *ages* (or so it seemed to me) to write TAS? He probably just doesn't know how to finish TBoD. Or at least, that's what I'd like to believe.

That's very true... writing a book takes a ~pinapples~ load of time. I've found out how long it takes me to write a page in the novel I'm writing right now.

Oh and I agree with Rosie... Lyra's Oxford is one that you can keep looking back and finding little winks and puzzles in it. Tis great fun!

Enitharmon wrote:I'm a fan of Lyra's Oxford, by the way. If you think there's no more to it than a short story and a map, then you've missed an awful lot. It's full of puzzles and teases. Have those who found it disappointing tried, for example, tracking down all the authors in the book catalogue?

I feel that the only disappointing part about the novel was that it was so short. I really did like the story itself and found a lot to like about the rest of it as well.[/i]

i believe when the movie comes out he will be pressured into writing a sequel......

Roronoa Zoro wrote:
I feel that the only disappointing part about the novel was that it was so short. I really did like the story itself and found a lot to like about the rest of it as well.[/i]

Haha! That's what I loved about it. I loved being able to pick it up, read it and be finished with it in a day. It didn't over complicate things or anything. It was just a nice little episode.

Enitharmon wrote:My impression is that The Book of Dust was intended to be a book of assorted stories filling in some of the gaps in the mythology.

Not sure if this has been pointed out yet, but apparently when PP said that he was lying...

Israeli Interview wrote:I asked him what is going to be in the book and he laughed and replied: "you would want to know, eh?" we asked him if The Book of Dust is going to be written from stories about different characters and for our surprise we discover that is not the case. Pullman said that when people asked him what is going to be in it, he just made that up, because he claims that he doesn’t like when people ask him all the time and made that story to get people to stop asking him those questions. When I asked what is going to be in the book he said that there is going to be a story about Lyra 4 years after His Dark Materials and when I asked him if this Information is a lie to, he smiled and replied: "might be."

That leaves me somewhat confuzzled.

I don't think he's saying he's not writing the book if that's what you're suggesting, but I can see why he'd get annoyed, but I can also see why everyone is eager to know... so, yeah

I've rather gotten the impression that when he started tBoD, it was going to be all little vignettes and stories about HDM characters, and but then he realized that all the little stories he wanted to tell were actually background info for one big new story. So we'll have LO, and Once Upon a Time, and the Green Will book, and they'll set up the scene for tBoD. But it won't be obvious what that scene is until tBoD is published, and that's the way he wants it. Hence the dodgy answers when asked about the project.

Then again, I could have entirely invented this theory, and it is completely ungrounded.

Riali wrote:I've rather gotten the impression that when he started tBoD, it was going to be all little vignettes and stories about HDM characters, and but then he realized that all the little stories he wanted to tell were actually background info for one big new story. So we'll have LO, and Once Upon a Time, and the Green Will book, and they'll set up the scene for tBoD. But it won't be obvious what that scene is until tBoD is published, and that's the way he wants it. Hence the dodgy answers when asked about the project.

Then again, I could have entirely invented this theory, and it is completely ungrounded.

mm... it makes sense, but any more volumes and we might as well call it the Holy book of dust you know, alternative to the bible? as i recall that had far too many pages, chapters, books and whatnot. if you need an index and a full catalogue of each sentence, you have officially written too much.

i kind of think he's not sure where some of the story is going yet, which would explain wanting to do a bit at a time as far as he knows what will happen. or i could be daft and he's separating them for the money...