Yatterings

Kai Meyer’s great new series which Egmont are translating into English features pirates, the fantastic and quite a few mysteries. Egmont were kind enough to arrange interview with him for me.

You place Munk in a strange ethical position at the end of the book. Should children’s fiction explore themes such as morality and consequences of actions? Was this the intention?

Of course it should! And why not? There’s not much of a chance that I will ever influence an adult reader on issues like morality or consequences of action. But teenagers and children are still learning about those issues. And they are much more willing to make a fictional character´s dilemma their own. At that age there is still a lot of identification with invented characters and their problems. But I don’t see my novels as message books. That’s not why I write them. I tell my stories to excite. But action, suspense and a sense of wonder are not enough to draw readers into a fictional world. The imagery might be as gorgeous as it gets, but you won’t feel any awe if you cannot experience all the other emotions the characters have to handle. Why should a reader connect with a character who is horrified by – let’s say – a giant sea creature, if they don’t believe in the emotional 3-dimensionality of the character?

I can see the hand of Tolkien in your work but which authors have influenced you? What interests you about fantasy as a genre?

Tolkien is actually only a minor influence – if at all. Much more important are filmmakers like Hayao Miyazaki and George Lucas, authors like Diana Wynne Jones, Michael Moorcock and Leigh Brackett. I could mention quite a few more. But I’m not writing in the Tolkien tradition. I love “The Lord of the Rings” and still mention it as one of my favourite books, but that’s mostly because it made me want to be a writer when I was eleven.

Do you try to push the boundaries of genre, as in your other trilogy you have an alternative history and in this one you balance fantasy and pirate fiction?

I have written nearly 50 books, most of them for adults - and with two or three exceptions they are all a mix of fantasy and history. I have never invented a whole world, and I probably never will. Why should I call the Middle Ages Middle-Earth if I can have my dragons in London or Prague or China?

Given the current positions of writers such as Philip Pullman and GP Taylor on the purpose of children’s fiction, what is your view on the purpose of it? Should it be only for entertainment or is it a vehicle for a point of view?

I think I partly answered that in your first question. I know Pullman’s position and would agree with parts of the theory of it. But it bothered me no end when he tried to put it into practice in “The Amber Spyglass”. That’s - maybe just in my opinion, I´m not sure - a book where the theory got out of hand and overwhelmed the storytelling.

Wave Runners reviewed