SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
It has been more than 25 years since the world was introduced to Lyra Belacqua. Lyra is the heroine of the "His Dark Materials" series, where she answers big questions with a seemingly magical golden compass, travels between parallel worlds, visits witches and warrior polar bears and battles an oppressive theocracy. Her story unfolds over two trilogies, and now, with Lyra fully grown and going by Lyra Silvertongue, it is coming to an end. In Philip Pullman's new book, "The Rose Field," we find Lyra as a young adult, still chasing the mystery she began unraveling as a child about dust, the shadowy Magisterium and the thin, sliceable barriers between universes. Author Philip Pullman joins us now. Welcome back to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
PHILIP PULLMAN: Thank you.
DETROW: I want to start with the idea of dust, which is central to all of these books. And I read that you said that one reason you wrote the second trilogy is that you wanted to explore it more yourself. For those not as familiar with the two series, remind us what dust is, why it matters so much.
PULLMAN: It came to me as I was writing the very first chapter. I needed something to say to this group of scholars who are sitting around after their dinner, drinking their port, and they're being spied on, overlooked by Lyra, who's about 11 years old. And she's crept into their common room without permission. She's not supposed to be there. So she's listening to this and overhearing it. And somebody mentions dust, and immediately silence falls over the whole group. This is not something they're supposed to talk about, Lyra feels. This is a secret, something she shouldn't be hearing. So naturally, she listens even more carefully.
Dust is a mystery to them as well as everybody else because it seems to be connected in some way with matters of religion, with matters of faith, matters of perception, matters of understanding. So she's left with this mystery. And at the beginning of the second trilogy, the one I've just finished, which is called "The Book Of Dust," she examines it more thoroughly and more personally, indeed, because she finds that in some way, she herself is bound up with this mysterious dust.
DETROW: It's interesting that you created in these books this sprawling, complicated world that started as so many good stories do with this one narrow scene - this girl hiding in a room, listening in on a conversation. It seems like you're saying you thought of dust in that first moment, and it built out from there. You didn't come in with this grand idea and kind of craft a story around it.
PULLMAN: Those things came to me as I was writing the story. I started the story in a very simple way. I wanted to know what dust was. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Lyra. Was she caught? Did they catch her there? Did they find out what she was doing? What happens next? That's the motive behind a lot of reading, to find out what happened next. It's certainly the motive behind my writing because I don't make a plan in advance. I discover as I write work through. The time for making a plan is when you've finished the book and then you can look back over it and decide what's important or what isn't important and whether everything is in the best order or whether it needs to be moved around. So when I was teaching writing, I used to warn my pupils and students, don't make a plan. Don't make a plan. It'll kill the book before you start. Just write. You need to be surprised.
DETROW: Was it hard for you to reimagine Lyra as an adult, or did that come naturally? And how did Lyra change as she aged?
PULLMAN: Well, she went through a period of adolescence, like all of us do, and - when it was difficult for her and troublesome for her teachers and troublesome for everyone around her because she was a major nuisance and a pest. But she's now past that, growing up and becoming older and gaining a sort of responsibility as she gets older. I used to teach children of her age, and it was fascinating to watch them go through this stage of leaving innocence behind. And so it was a natural thing for me to write about.
DETROW: You're an atheist, but you're fascinated by religion. You know, among other things, the name Lyra came from words you saw on an Easter hymn. Has your view of organized religion or the concepts behind religion been changed by writing these six books in any way?
PULLMAN: No because what I was writing about was always the politics of religion and not the content, the faith, the theology, so much as the politics. When politics gets hold of religion or when religion gets hold of politics, it becomes very, very dangerous. And by religion, I mean anything that is spoken from as it were on high, the authority of a great voice that can't brook any interruption, any denial.
DETROW: You set a high bar for yourself with the ending of the first trilogy. I think it was this powerful, sad, iconic ending that really affected readers. And I'm wondering how much that intimidated you as you sought to wind down this one - how much you thought about Lyra and Will sitting on the benches in the parallel universes and that construct, and whether that was in your head at all as you figured out what the ending of this book was.
PULLMAN: Well, of course, I was aware of that. It's a very good ending.
DETROW: It is.
PULLMAN: (Laughter) I was very pleased with it. But I couldn't do it again.
DETROW: Yeah.
PULLMAN: And one of the great advantages of writing a long book with a large cast is that you can always, when you need them, go back and find someone to fit a particular role at a particular time. And so that's what happened with this one. And I'm pleased with this ending. I think it's - I think it works.
DETROW: Author Philip Pullman - his book, "The Rose Field," is out now. Thank you so much for talking to us.
PULLMAN: It's been a pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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