I rant about Diana Wynne Jones and how her books are like Chocolate
Alright, children, today I'm going to talk to you about Diana Wynne Jones and how she seems to always friggin' BLOW MY MIND WITH HER AWESOMENESS.
I need this rant, so I apologize.
Ok ok so: It all started with a little movie some Japanese guy called Miyazaki made called Howl's Moving Castle or something. I watched it and loved it and, of course, seriously fangirled over Howl and blah blah blah.
One friend of mine who, as far as I can tell/remember her telling me, has been a huge fan of Jones for a long time, established unto me that she most definitely had to make me read the book, and that she absolutely did not want to see the movie because of what she heard had been changed (I eventually forced her to watch it anyways, but I had to watch Advent Children first. We'll call it even.)
But yes, I, being an idiot, already knew the plot differences between movie and book and had a general idea what was going to happen, but I read it anyways.
AND IT BLEW MY MIND AWAY.
Diana Wynne Jones is like an entity of awesome and joy and candy that makes books. It's like, if Willy Wonka wrote young adult fantasy novels. Only even more awesome.
The way everything in Howl somehow fit together into one huge puzzle at the end, and the way the characters interacted and everything, and just ALKDFJLASKD.
And then I read Castle in the Air (not sky. That's another one that Miyazaki guy made. Which was super awesome.) Further mind blowing commenced, although not on the scale that Howl's did.
She managed to blow it with House of Many Ways, though. OH MY GOD I cannot ever describe just the way my mind rolls about in glee just to read what this woman has written.
And then last semester I read The Game, my first of her books not from the Howl's Moving Castle series. MY GOD that book was just one big huge surprise of AWESOME HOLY CRAP, she just hit me with a punch of something I totally did not see coming.
Winter vacation was devoted to "The Time of the Ghost", which screwed with my brain even more: just who the hell was the main character? The fact that even the "ghost" did not know that herself just added to the mystery, as the story somewhat became a tale of the discovery of self-worth, as seeing her past life from the third person perspective helped her reevaluate what she was doing with her life, before going to battle against THE FORCES OF EEEEEVIL. MAN. GOD. SO AWESOME.
And now I just yesterday finished Charmed Life, and today started on The Lives of Christopher Chant.
OH. MY. GOD.
I just want to quote one thing to clarify just why I love this woman, the books she writes, how she writes them, and just everything ever aldkjfalsdjlajl.
First, allow me to establish that the character known as "Chrestomanci" seems to be improbably tall. *ahem*
"Chrestomanci smiled and swept out of the room like a very long procession of one person."
HOW THE HELL DO YOU COME UP WITH STUFF LIKE THAT? "A LONG PROCESSION OF ONE PERSON"? IT MAKES SO LITTLE SENSE THAT IT MAKES SENSE! That is just too awesome a line for words! I burst out laughing! That line is just going to stick with me for the rest of eternity, eventually giving me an comedy inferiority complex so huge that I'll never try to be funny again and end up an economist. D:
Oh, god. Gah. God. Gah. Wah. Uuugh.
I don't know what provoked me to go on this rant. I guess I'll just say that I've finally given in an, out of complete curiosity, read the first 5 chapters of a certain other book of a series that is very popular right now, and, I guess..... It burned my brain like the dickens and I needed to wash away the fail with some excellent literature.
Diana Wynne Jones, I love you.
I need this rant, so I apologize.
Ok ok so: It all started with a little movie some Japanese guy called Miyazaki made called Howl's Moving Castle or something. I watched it and loved it and, of course, seriously fangirled over Howl and blah blah blah.
One friend of mine who, as far as I can tell/remember her telling me, has been a huge fan of Jones for a long time, established unto me that she most definitely had to make me read the book, and that she absolutely did not want to see the movie because of what she heard had been changed (I eventually forced her to watch it anyways, but I had to watch Advent Children first. We'll call it even.)
But yes, I, being an idiot, already knew the plot differences between movie and book and had a general idea what was going to happen, but I read it anyways.
AND IT BLEW MY MIND AWAY.
Diana Wynne Jones is like an entity of awesome and joy and candy that makes books. It's like, if Willy Wonka wrote young adult fantasy novels. Only even more awesome.
The way everything in Howl somehow fit together into one huge puzzle at the end, and the way the characters interacted and everything, and just ALKDFJLASKD.
And then I read Castle in the Air (not sky. That's another one that Miyazaki guy made. Which was super awesome.) Further mind blowing commenced, although not on the scale that Howl's did.
She managed to blow it with House of Many Ways, though. OH MY GOD I cannot ever describe just the way my mind rolls about in glee just to read what this woman has written.
And then last semester I read The Game, my first of her books not from the Howl's Moving Castle series. MY GOD that book was just one big huge surprise of AWESOME HOLY CRAP, she just hit me with a punch of something I totally did not see coming.
Winter vacation was devoted to "The Time of the Ghost", which screwed with my brain even more: just who the hell was the main character? The fact that even the "ghost" did not know that herself just added to the mystery, as the story somewhat became a tale of the discovery of self-worth, as seeing her past life from the third person perspective helped her reevaluate what she was doing with her life, before going to battle against THE FORCES OF EEEEEVIL. MAN. GOD. SO AWESOME.
And now I just yesterday finished Charmed Life, and today started on The Lives of Christopher Chant.
OH. MY. GOD.
I just want to quote one thing to clarify just why I love this woman, the books she writes, how she writes them, and just everything ever aldkjfalsdjlajl.
First, allow me to establish that the character known as "Chrestomanci" seems to be improbably tall. *ahem*
"Chrestomanci smiled and swept out of the room like a very long procession of one person."
HOW THE HELL DO YOU COME UP WITH STUFF LIKE THAT? "A LONG PROCESSION OF ONE PERSON"? IT MAKES SO LITTLE SENSE THAT IT MAKES SENSE! That is just too awesome a line for words! I burst out laughing! That line is just going to stick with me for the rest of eternity, eventually giving me an comedy inferiority complex so huge that I'll never try to be funny again and end up an economist. D:
Oh, god. Gah. God. Gah. Wah. Uuugh.
I don't know what provoked me to go on this rant. I guess I'll just say that I've finally given in an, out of complete curiosity, read the first 5 chapters of a certain other book of a series that is very popular right now, and, I guess..... It burned my brain like the dickens and I needed to wash away the fail with some excellent literature.
Diana Wynne Jones, I love you.