Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman – Introduction and Essay 1
Philip Pullman and I go way back. For years, I have been his self-proclaimed Number One fan. In fact, my first Booktube video is on The Amber Spyglass, the last book of His Dark Materials trilogy.
Daemon Voices is Philip Pullman’s foray into nonfiction. The book consists of thirty-two essays on storytelling and writing.
There is a lot to digest in this book. Although I’m not in Pullman’s league (not by a long shot), I am the #4 US book reviewer and #6 book reviewer in the world according to GoodReads. Reading about 200 books per year, I have my own ideas on storytelling. So instead of my traditional book blog post, this is going to be more of a conversation on each of the essays. If Philip Pullman is reading this, tea anytime, anywhere and you can set me straight.
Introduction
I learned that Pullman’s daemon is a raven, a picker-up of bits and pieces here and there. Now, the raven makes sense. It is also in The Imagination Chamber, and a raven is featured prominently on the cover of Daemon Voices.
Essay One: Magic Carpets – The Writer’s Responsibilities
Pullmans suggests to write as profitably as possible as money is security, comfort, and time. With this, I absolutely agree. One of my biggest pet peeves is that an author that I have never met before asks me to review his or her 500+ page book about magical hippos or mermaids for free. This is a person who has never supported my content, and yet I should invest 40 hours of my time reading their material.
Secondly, Pullman suggests that we have a responsibility to the language, to get it right. This is the first instance that I disagree with Pullman. We do that on occasion. Although I do believe writers should try to get it right, one should worry more about getting the work on the paper. Personally, when I try to get my thoughts onto the page, I become tongue-tied (yes even typing). The words come out robotically. They don’t flow like a regular conversation. I get into my own head, and I become paralyzed with fear. Am I going to make a mistake? I need to worry less about getting it right more about actually getting words on paper.
Pullman mentions how people don’t know the difference between may and might. The editor should worry about may versus might. Which brings me to a quote by Pullman. “My stories have always been lucky in their editors.” That’s because Pullman wrote this essay before The Secret Commonwealth which needed a different editor, an editor who would not be afraid to give some negative feedback. I would love to understand if Pullman still feels the same after The Secret Commonwealth.
Pullman suggests having a variety of reference materials. What reference materials do you use, Pullman? For me, I have my dictionary, but I also live next to James Mustich’s 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die. The book should have a different name because it is a reference book of books. It has a one page background on each of the books including the time period, author, and other similar books.
Third, Pullman mentioned that writers should aim for clarity. Authors don’t get points for being vague.
Fourth, Pullman encouraged emotional honesty. He recalls a story that he was reading where the author brought up the Holocaust. Pullman said, “Stories should earn their tears and not pilfer them from elsewhere.”
I will give Pullman half a point for this because I partly agree. Short stories have to rely on some gimmicks for their characters to be almost instantly likeable. For example, a character gives money to a poor child. Likewise, Jack London used instances of animal cruelty to have readers instantly dislike the main character in To Build a Fire. Moreover, Pullman himself writes stories where the main characters are orphans. This makes the reader feel sympathy and roots for the main characters. The reader is outraged and indignant when something horrible befalls their beloved character.
Fifth, “A storyteller should be invisible, as far as I’m concerned; and the best way to make sure of that is to make the story so interesting that the teller just…disappears.” I absolutely agree with this thought. When I reviewed The Light of Days and What Would Frida Do, I tired to make this argument (although less eloquently). Unless the author is some type of celebrity, the reader usually has no interest in the author. For example, the reader does not really care if the author dressed up as Frida Kahlo for Halloween.
Don’t miss out on the other commentary of Daemon Voices! Check out Lisa of Troy’s homepage! And pick up your own copy of Daemon Voices here.