It was as if her whole future, and her whole past too, fell away and left just herself--a small girl with untidy hair ... She seemed to have founded on them everything which made her into Hildrida and not one of her cousins ... And it was all unreal. It had not even gone; it had just never been.Diana Wynne Jones, Drowned Ammet
Tag: diana wynne jones
Favorite Quote – Abandoned Dreams
Diana Wynne Jones 1934-2011
iimage © 2011 mleiv
Medium: PhotoShop
Size: 6X10"
Diana Wynne Jones, one of my favorite authors, and undoubtedly the greatest influence on my creative self, died last night. She inspired elements of every story I have ever written, and a huge pile of my childhood fan art. My current character Kernan is based on her Master of the Hunt from Dogsbody.
I started this picture fifteen-some years ago and never finished it. Distractions. Dissatisfaction. It is from one of my favorites of her books: Charmed Life, and shows Cat and Janet Chant, who have just accidentally changed the maid Euphemia into a frog. In the background are the box of letters from Cat's parents, his matchbook, and his cat, Fiddle.
I started this picture fifteen-some years ago and never finished it. Distractions. Dissatisfaction. It is from one of my favorites of her books: Charmed Life, and shows Cat and Janet Chant, who have just accidentally changed the maid Euphemia into a frog. In the background are the box of letters from Cat's parents, his matchbook, and his cat, Fiddle.
Brainwashed By Romance
I am currently reading Diana Wynne Jones' "The Game." And I know that she writes children's books, but I've gotta say that she is the *master* at creating male characters that you completely fall in love with. There are millions of anime fans out there in love with "Howl's Moving Castle" who know exactly what I mean here. Myself, I'm a Chrestomanci junkie. He was the stuff of my teenage fantasies. In "The Game," she creates this man with a few paragraphs. Less than one page, a tiny description and a bit of witty banter, and I completely adore Flute.
Howl Jenkins - Loved by Millions
But I gotta say, it makes me feel played. Like there is this stereotype of the man I would totally fall for, and she is exploiting it. Exploiting it to a tee.
I read some really embarassingly bad romance novels in my younger years. My sisters were big Harlequin readers, so I tried a few out. I think my favorite (at the time) were the Regency Romances, which were like tarted-up Jane Austen. But they were all terribly formulaic (like Jane Austen): girl meets boy, girl hates boy, girl and boy torment each other, girl realizes boy's Tortured Soul, boy discovers girl's True Worth, they pine away thinking the other hates him/her, then on the last page reveal their love and all is perfect. It got very tiresome, and thank god there was plenty of good Barbara Hambly out there to save me from it.
But I think a lot of people still hold to this stereotypical ideal of a man. I see it in film all the time, and people still *adore* Jane Austen. And although I am largely immune to their beloved Angry Misogynist With Troubled Past, I wonder when I watch Doctor Who if I am not just part of a different group of brainwashed women, seeking out the Lonely Jester. Yup, all around the world are hordes of women swooning over David Tennant. And that makes me feel... really damn stupid.
I've been completely brainwashed. This is not a real person with bad breath in the morning and a constant need to fondle your breasts at inconvenient moments. The Lonely Jester doth not need a fourth slice of pizza and a quick jaunt to the loo after. He doesn't even have annoying siblings and bossy parents. He is missing whole parts of a real human being, with the rest just sketched in by an artful and manipulative hand. But I still fall for it. *sigh* Adorable Flute with his white hair and ready grin. Damn you, Jones, you are perpetuating my unrealistic fantasies. And please don't stop... ;)
Howl Jenkins - Loved by Millions
I read some really embarassingly bad romance novels in my younger years. My sisters were big Harlequin readers, so I tried a few out. I think my favorite (at the time) were the Regency Romances, which were like tarted-up Jane Austen. But they were all terribly formulaic (like Jane Austen): girl meets boy, girl hates boy, girl and boy torment each other, girl realizes boy's Tortured Soul, boy discovers girl's True Worth, they pine away thinking the other hates him/her, then on the last page reveal their love and all is perfect. It got very tiresome, and thank god there was plenty of good Barbara Hambly out there to save me from it.
But I think a lot of people still hold to this stereotypical ideal of a man. I see it in film all the time, and people still *adore* Jane Austen. And although I am largely immune to their beloved Angry Misogynist With Troubled Past, I wonder when I watch Doctor Who if I am not just part of a different group of brainwashed women, seeking out the Lonely Jester. Yup, all around the world are hordes of women swooning over David Tennant. And that makes me feel... really damn stupid.
I've been completely brainwashed. This is not a real person with bad breath in the morning and a constant need to fondle your breasts at inconvenient moments. The Lonely Jester doth not need a fourth slice of pizza and a quick jaunt to the loo after. He doesn't even have annoying siblings and bossy parents. He is missing whole parts of a real human being, with the rest just sketched in by an artful and manipulative hand. But I still fall for it. *sigh* Adorable Flute with his white hair and ready grin. Damn you, Jones, you are perpetuating my unrealistic fantasies. And please don't stop... ;)
Favorite Books
Fiction
- Elizabeth Marie Pope - The Perilous Gard
- Barbara Hambly - Mother of Winter
- R.A. MacAvoy - The Grey Horse
- Patricia Mckillip - The Changeling Sea, Something Rich And Strange, The Moon and the Face
- Peter S. Beagle - The Last Unicorn
- Matt Ruff - Bad Monkeys
- Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere
- CJ Cherryh - The Dreaming Tree
Children's Authors
- Marjorie Fischer - Red Feather (nearly impossible to find and worth a small fortune)
- E. Nesbit - The Book of Dragons, Melisande
- Edward Eager - Half Magic
- Diana Wynne Jones - Howl's Moving Castle, Charmed Life
Nonfiction
- Georgess McHargue - The Impossible People
- Douglas Adams - Last Chance To See
- Annie Dillard - Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
- Richard Conniff - The Ape in the Corner Office: Understanding the Office Beast in All of Us
Comics
- Mike Mignola - Hellboy
- Brian K. Vaughan - Y: The Last Man
- Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba - The Umbrella Academy
- Bill Willingham - Fables, Volume 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers
Charmed Life
image © 1999 mleiv
Medium: Pencil
Size: 8X11"
This is from my favorite book by Diana Wynne Jones.
Cat Chant's Cat
image © 1999 mleiv
Medium: Pencil/Photoshop
Size: 8X11"
One of my favorite books ever--Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones. The cat was made from Cat Chant's violin. This is a detail.
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