HisDarkMaterials.org

Pullman In New York: Fan Report, Photos and Video

November 7, 2007 08:38 by Sachith Nilaweera

Tagged with Philip Pullman 7 comments

Philip Pullman visited the Barnes & Noble Union Square in New York City, which HDM.org staff member JParry was lucky enough to attend. His write-up of the event, including photos, follows below. The event was filmed by Barnes & Noble, and is available for viewing at Barnes & Noble media.

JParry's report

The talk and signing took place at the very large Barnes & Noble at Union Square, on the fourth floor in the events area. Although Mr. Pullman did not arrive until 7:00, fans were already taking their seats at 5:00. The audience sat in rows of seats in a cordoned-off area, while those who had come too late to get seats stood behind the rope. Barnes & Noble photographers and film crews were present in force, as were numerous security guards. At the front of the room was a podium: in the center was a desk and chair, and on the right a lectern. I sat in the front row on the right, directly in front of the lectern where Mr. Pullman gave his talk.

At 7:00, after we were enjoined sternly not to take any flash pictures, which would aggravate Mr. Pullman’s eyes, the author himself appeared and took his seat at the desk. Brenda Marsh, vice president of author relations for Barnes & Noble introduced Mr. Pullman, who then took the lectern to enthusiastic applause. He spoke for about 45 minutes. He talked about the process of beginning to write Northern Lights/The Golden Compass, about the purpose of daemons and the importance of daemon settling, about the recording of the audio books, about the adaptation at the National Theatre, about the casting and filming of the movie version - Dakota Blue Richards and set design, among other topics. He also talked about the democracy of reading, the morality of Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter, and the famed squirrel-threatening letter, with an ending that I hadn’t heard. He read aloud from the section of Northern Lights/The Golden Compass in which Lyra and Iorek search through the village in the North, looking for Tony Makarios, in chapter 12: The Lost Boy, which he said he had never read in public before. The selection begins with “Finally Iorek Byrnison stopped and said, ‘There is the village,’” and ends with “That was intercision, and this was a severed child.”

Mr. Pullman’s talk was extremely smooth, fluid, warm, witty, charming, and spellbinding. As you can see in the video and pictures, he was wearing a beige jacket, a blue shirt, and a red handkerchief. You may not have noticed his rather gaudy red shoelaces, which particularly impressed me. After his talk, Mr. Pullman answered a few questions: one about his identification with the voiceless and with the natural world, one about how he feels standing in front of an audience, about how it felt to end the books, and about his attitude toward fan fiction. After the talk, Mr. Pullman took a brief break, and we in the audience were lined up by row for the book signing. Mr. Pullman signed up to three books per person, one of which had to have been purchased that night, and personalized one per person. Photographing in line was forbidden. He signed the books with the pen with which he wrote His Dark Materials, and signed very efficiently, but chatted pleasantly with his fans as he did so. The couple ahead of me requested that one of their books be personalized to Lyra, the name of their baby niece. It was an intensely emotional experience for me. The line stretched on as I left Mr. Pullman intrepidly scribbling, still bent over His Dark Materials. He was addressing and signing, one by one, the gift he had given to each person there.

7 comments - Add yours

Add your comment

You have to login to comment.