![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
30 Day Book Challenge: 14
Feb. 26th, 2012 01:03 pmDay 14 – Favourite book of your favourite writer
Well, I’ve talked about Wizards at War before this, so I’m going to go with my other favorite author, Dianna Wynne Jones, and my favorite book by her is Howl’s Moving Castle. I knew about the book long before the movie was ever on my radar ... it seems that I am the only one. And while the movie is weird and wonderful in its own way, I really wish that more people would give the book a chance, rather than just say 'well, the movie is based off of the book, therefore I do not need to read the book.' Because the book is absolutely fantastic. I wanted to be Sophie so badly when I read it: as an unambitious, very shy elder child, I could sympathize. And then she gets turned into an old woman, and suddenly, all of this personality comes out. Sophie is such a strong character in several ways: strong-minded, even if she doesn't know it; she has a strong personality; and she's a tough old biddy/young woman. She's also hilarious.
Howl's Moving Castle is also a great example of my favorite two things about Diana Wynne Jones' books: the way she foreshadows, and the disconnect between how the main character perceives things and how things actually are. There are three times in the book that she does this.
1. Sophie's magic. The montage where she is making hats, talking to the hats, and then Jones describes the fortunes of the people who bought those hats. I enjoy her writing regardless, so I thought it was amusing; then the Witch came in, and started ranting at Sophie for the hats, and I was fairly confused. And so on, and so forth: the scarecrow, for instance. Little things, fairly easy (for me, anyway) to overlook, so that the reveal of Sophie's magic was surprising, but it made sense. It makes for a delightful reread, because then you can point out those passages and say, 'A-ha! There it is!'
2. Howl actually being a decent person. Throughout the novel, Sophie is so completely convinced that he's an evil, selfish man, until there comes a point when she realizes that he's never actually done anything evil. Weird, yes, bratty, yes, but not mean. To diverge for a moment, the opposite occurs in The Lives of Christopher Chant, where the main character realizes that the reason no one likes him isn't because they're all awful people, it's because he's a snobby, condescending jerk. Up until that point, he thinks of himself as a nice boy, and the reader gets to see what goes on in his head, so they think of him as being sympathetic as well, but once you stop to consider the way his behavior looks to outsiders, that expectation gets turned on its head.
3. The contract between Howl and Calcifer. The foreshadowing for the eventual reveal is clever for that part, too.
I think that the relationship between Sophie and Howl is also worth commenting on because it remains, to date, one of the best romantic plots/subplots that I've read. It's never shoved down your throat; there are no 'fluttery feelings' or whatnot, and neither of them loses any of their personality to the other, they gain instead: Sophie is still strident and intelligent and doesn't take Howl's crap, but she adds self-esteem to the mix, and Howl is still flamboyant and cheerfully obnoxious, but adds a note of maturity. It is delightful and the first romantic relationship that I remember being happy about besides Ella Enchanted.
Well, I’ve talked about Wizards at War before this, so I’m going to go with my other favorite author, Dianna Wynne Jones, and my favorite book by her is Howl’s Moving Castle. I knew about the book long before the movie was ever on my radar ... it seems that I am the only one. And while the movie is weird and wonderful in its own way, I really wish that more people would give the book a chance, rather than just say 'well, the movie is based off of the book, therefore I do not need to read the book.' Because the book is absolutely fantastic. I wanted to be Sophie so badly when I read it: as an unambitious, very shy elder child, I could sympathize. And then she gets turned into an old woman, and suddenly, all of this personality comes out. Sophie is such a strong character in several ways: strong-minded, even if she doesn't know it; she has a strong personality; and she's a tough old biddy/young woman. She's also hilarious.
Howl's Moving Castle is also a great example of my favorite two things about Diana Wynne Jones' books: the way she foreshadows, and the disconnect between how the main character perceives things and how things actually are. There are three times in the book that she does this.
1. Sophie's magic. The montage where she is making hats, talking to the hats, and then Jones describes the fortunes of the people who bought those hats. I enjoy her writing regardless, so I thought it was amusing; then the Witch came in, and started ranting at Sophie for the hats, and I was fairly confused. And so on, and so forth: the scarecrow, for instance. Little things, fairly easy (for me, anyway) to overlook, so that the reveal of Sophie's magic was surprising, but it made sense. It makes for a delightful reread, because then you can point out those passages and say, 'A-ha! There it is!'
2. Howl actually being a decent person. Throughout the novel, Sophie is so completely convinced that he's an evil, selfish man, until there comes a point when she realizes that he's never actually done anything evil. Weird, yes, bratty, yes, but not mean. To diverge for a moment, the opposite occurs in The Lives of Christopher Chant, where the main character realizes that the reason no one likes him isn't because they're all awful people, it's because he's a snobby, condescending jerk. Up until that point, he thinks of himself as a nice boy, and the reader gets to see what goes on in his head, so they think of him as being sympathetic as well, but once you stop to consider the way his behavior looks to outsiders, that expectation gets turned on its head.
3. The contract between Howl and Calcifer. The foreshadowing for the eventual reveal is clever for that part, too.
I think that the relationship between Sophie and Howl is also worth commenting on because it remains, to date, one of the best romantic plots/subplots that I've read. It's never shoved down your throat; there are no 'fluttery feelings' or whatnot, and neither of them loses any of their personality to the other, they gain instead: Sophie is still strident and intelligent and doesn't take Howl's crap, but she adds self-esteem to the mix, and Howl is still flamboyant and cheerfully obnoxious, but adds a note of maturity. It is delightful and the first romantic relationship that I remember being happy about besides Ella Enchanted.
