{"id":29,"date":"2001-09-07T15:56:22","date_gmt":"2001-09-07T19:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog-test\/?p=29"},"modified":"2001-09-07T15:56:22","modified_gmt":"2001-09-07T19:56:22","slug":"jones_diana_wyn_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/2001\/09\/jones_diana_wyn_1\/","title":{"rendered":"Jones, Diana Wynne: Howl’s Moving Castle"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> <\/a> <\/p>\n

I wanted to like Howl’s Moving Castle<\/cite>, by Diana Wynne Jones<\/strong>. A friend recommended it to me, the bit of the beginning I read in the bookstore had charm and felt a bit like John Barnes’ wonderful One for the Morning Glory<\/cite>, and having the protagonist turned into an old woman by an evil witch seemed like a promising start for a fantasy novel.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there’s too much about this book that I just don’t believe. The first example came just a few hours after Sophie is enchanted:<\/p>\n

\n

A countryman came whistling down the lane toward her. A shepherd, Sophie thought, going home after seeing to his sheep. He was a well-set-up young fellow of forty or so. “Gracious!” Sophie said to herself. “This morning I’d have seen him as an old man. How one’s point of view does alter!”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I don’t know about anyone else, but if I were magically transformed into an elderly woman by an evil witch, I don’t think I’d be already thinking like an old woman on the very same day<\/cite>. I’d be much more likely to be surprised and offended when the shepherd called me “Mother”; even if my joints creak now, I’ve still got the same mind and experiences—twenty-odd years worth—as ever.<\/p>\n

But that’s a small point, and I’m sure that I could have enjoyed the book as a whole if that were the only thing. It’s the ending that’s the real problem for me: I just don’t believe it. As those characters were written, the ending simply refuses to ring true for me. Which is a pity.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I’ll re-read Spindle’s End<\/cite> next. McKinley’s working in something of the same area in that book, only in a way that I find much more satisfying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wanted to like Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones. A friend recommended it to me, the bit of the beginning I read in the bookstore had charm and felt a bit like John Barnes’ wonderful One for the Morning Glory, and having the protagonist turned into an old woman by an evil witch … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Jones, Diana Wynne: Howl’s Moving Castle”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,15],"tags":[258],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-sf-and-fantasy","tag-jones-diana-wynne"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}