I was looking on Wikipedia the other day (it's something I do for fun... I'm not even kidding) and I couldn't help but notice the startling similarities between the Other Place and other proposed planes of existence: one being heaven, and another being the universe before the Big Bang. The thing was that, in theory, these two places had no time. Although in heaven's case that is debated, with the pre-Bang universe (or whatever it was... it was something like that), the theory was that since there were no events occuring, that there was no time.

Also, people who experienced out-of-body experiences (mostly after dying and then being clinically reviving) have reported time not really existing, in a sense, as Bartimaeus explains many times. It got me wondering...

Where exactly did you come up with the Other Place? It bears so many similarities to so many proposed places yet in itself is unique - how on earth did you come up with it?

(Of course, you could have just thought, "Oh, well, what would a swirling ball of chaos be like?" On second thought, this seems likely. Darn.)

http://bartiforums.com/index.php?showtopic=87

This topic has a load of questions about the subject. Frankly we have difficulty in imagining the thing. What is it supposed to be; exactly?

All I can say is do not trust Wikipedia, ever.

Sure, sometimes there are inaccuracies on wikipedia, but never trusting it is far too extreme. It's a brilliant resource as long as you don't take every word as truth. Check with other sources or whatever, but normally it's fine.

Hi Bowles,

Hmm, the Other Place was always a tricky one for me, as illustrated by the fact that Bart is VERY evasive about it in the first couple of books. It wasn't until book III that I had to show it, and I was a little anxious about it going in. I'm sorry to say that I wasn't consciously making any commentary about pre-Big Bang existence or any heavenly realm; your other intuition was closer - ie. I followed the logic of Bart's character and behaviour backwards. When he's on Earth he's always cursing about the restrictions he endures re. his form. He tells us that he's close to the elements of air and fire, and can't abide the solid earth. This suggested that his world had to be fundamentally opposite to ours: a place without rules, essentially chaotic and ever-changing. This gives rise to problems of perception - timeless, without stationary points etc - it's going to be hard to conceptualise both for writer and reader. And for Kitty too. In fact, it wasn't until I hit on the idea of Kitty attempting to make a 'body' while she's over there (ie. a mirror reflection of what Bart does every time he comes to earth) that I knew how to guide the chapters through the chaos. We can focus on what she does within the chaos, and on the 'stationary' building that Bart temporarily creates, to give us some sense of normality. It's not something that Kitty (or we) can endure for long - it's alien territory, and we have to return to our world.

Hope that helps!

Jonathan