December Talking Meme, Day 1: Christopher Chant
December 1: Christopher Chant (for hungrytiger11) [Tumblr crosspost]
As I've said before, I did not discover Diana Wynne Jones until I was in middle school -- so, twelve or thirteen years old. This is because my local public library didn't own any of her books, and they didn't finish computerizing their catalogue and thus making interlibrary loan useful to me -- you can't ask for what you don't know exists, after all -- until around the same time. (Yes, I am old enough to have used an actual card catalogue. I kind of miss them, horrifically limited and unwieldy though they were.) But my middle school had at least two of her books, and around that time I discovered that the county library also had a few.
I believe the first two of Jones's books I ever read were A Tale of Time City, which I only vaguely remember, having not reread it for over fifteen years, and The Lives of Christopher Chant. So Christopher and I go back a ways. I didn't get hold of Charmed Life until much later, which created an interesting situation where I read Witch Week and The Magicians of Caprona without being aware that the Chrestomanci in those stories was, in fact, Christopher as an adult.
I highly recommend reading The Lives of Christopher Chant before reading Charmed Life, since the latter gives away some significant things about the former. I don't think knowing Christopher as an adult would ruin the story of his early life, but it's more fun to discover things along with him rather than to anticipate certain set-piece scenes you know are coming, or to know in advance more or less what must become of a major secondary character. But Jones is pretty good at constructing a plot that has no bearing on Cat's later adventures, so all the stuff with Tacroy and the Anywheres should work regardless, though I do think the ending with the Dright and the Wraith and the Arm of Asheth is a bit rushed.
But enough background. Let me talk about Christopher Chant.
Christopher is, to be blunt, kind of a jerk. *wry* He is very certain that he knows what's best and that he should get his way, and has little compunction about sweeping into other people's lives and bossing them around... though as an adult he does try to be more subtle about that -- more maneuvering people into fixing their own problems than shoving them aside and fixing things for them. He somehow manages to make that habit equally annoying, though, which is not helped by his carefully cultivated vague expression, ridiculously gaudy clothing, and general air of "I know better than you and you are taking far too long to catch up."
Some of that, I think, just comes naturally to him. But other parts are clearly the product of his childhood. Christopher is, in many ways, the classic 'poor little rich boy,' who had every material thing he could possibly want but no friends and hardly any familial love. It's not remotely surprising he was such a sucker for his Uncle Ralph's schemes -- readers can tell from quite early on that Ralph is up to no good, but while I sometimes wanted to scream at Christopher to open his eyes, I could see exactly why he stuck to his allegiances. I am honestly more surprised that he could see genuine affection underneath his parents' arguments and repeated separations, and that his attempt to get them back together was successful (at least temporarily, since we never hear from them again). His interactions with people are based on authority, bribes, and the casual entitlement he picked up from dealing with servants and the affection of people in the Anywheres. He does realize that he needs to fix that, but the surface doesn't change much even if the motives underneath get better.
As an adult, he has a high opinion of children's competence, based on the things he managed to pull off and hide from the adults around him. (This is probably part of why he mishandles the situation with Cat -- he expects Cat to be a more proactive person. The other part, of course, is that he remembers the pain of being disillusioned in a favorite relative and wants to spare Cat from that at least for a while.) He treats his position as Chrestomanci seriously, because he's seen the things that happen if somebody isn't keeping order among the magical community and policing trade between worlds. (I think the thing with the mermaids stuck with him a lot more than he would ever admit out loud.)
It's been three and a half years since I read Conrad's Fate, but I seem to recall it striking a pretty good balance between Christopher's personality and actions as a child and his personality and actions as an adult. He sweeps Conrad into his schemes, bosses him around, and gets him into all kinds of trouble, but he does simultaneously help Conrad deal with his own problems, he's trying to help Millie, and he seems to be on better terms with Gabriel, though they still disagree on how to approach complicated problems.
I would have loved a book about Christopher and Millie set shortly after Christopher officially took over as Chrestomanci, because I think their early marriage would be fascinating to read about and could have made a hilarious B-plot to some nefarious magical scheme -- but alas, that is never to be. :-(
-----
December Talking Meme: All Days
(I still have several days open if anyone wants to suggest a topic!)
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)
As I've said before, I did not discover Diana Wynne Jones until I was in middle school -- so, twelve or thirteen years old. This is because my local public library didn't own any of her books, and they didn't finish computerizing their catalogue and thus making interlibrary loan useful to me -- you can't ask for what you don't know exists, after all -- until around the same time. (Yes, I am old enough to have used an actual card catalogue. I kind of miss them, horrifically limited and unwieldy though they were.) But my middle school had at least two of her books, and around that time I discovered that the county library also had a few.
I believe the first two of Jones's books I ever read were A Tale of Time City, which I only vaguely remember, having not reread it for over fifteen years, and The Lives of Christopher Chant. So Christopher and I go back a ways. I didn't get hold of Charmed Life until much later, which created an interesting situation where I read Witch Week and The Magicians of Caprona without being aware that the Chrestomanci in those stories was, in fact, Christopher as an adult.
I highly recommend reading The Lives of Christopher Chant before reading Charmed Life, since the latter gives away some significant things about the former. I don't think knowing Christopher as an adult would ruin the story of his early life, but it's more fun to discover things along with him rather than to anticipate certain set-piece scenes you know are coming, or to know in advance more or less what must become of a major secondary character. But Jones is pretty good at constructing a plot that has no bearing on Cat's later adventures, so all the stuff with Tacroy and the Anywheres should work regardless, though I do think the ending with the Dright and the Wraith and the Arm of Asheth is a bit rushed.
But enough background. Let me talk about Christopher Chant.
Christopher is, to be blunt, kind of a jerk. *wry* He is very certain that he knows what's best and that he should get his way, and has little compunction about sweeping into other people's lives and bossing them around... though as an adult he does try to be more subtle about that -- more maneuvering people into fixing their own problems than shoving them aside and fixing things for them. He somehow manages to make that habit equally annoying, though, which is not helped by his carefully cultivated vague expression, ridiculously gaudy clothing, and general air of "I know better than you and you are taking far too long to catch up."
Some of that, I think, just comes naturally to him. But other parts are clearly the product of his childhood. Christopher is, in many ways, the classic 'poor little rich boy,' who had every material thing he could possibly want but no friends and hardly any familial love. It's not remotely surprising he was such a sucker for his Uncle Ralph's schemes -- readers can tell from quite early on that Ralph is up to no good, but while I sometimes wanted to scream at Christopher to open his eyes, I could see exactly why he stuck to his allegiances. I am honestly more surprised that he could see genuine affection underneath his parents' arguments and repeated separations, and that his attempt to get them back together was successful (at least temporarily, since we never hear from them again). His interactions with people are based on authority, bribes, and the casual entitlement he picked up from dealing with servants and the affection of people in the Anywheres. He does realize that he needs to fix that, but the surface doesn't change much even if the motives underneath get better.
As an adult, he has a high opinion of children's competence, based on the things he managed to pull off and hide from the adults around him. (This is probably part of why he mishandles the situation with Cat -- he expects Cat to be a more proactive person. The other part, of course, is that he remembers the pain of being disillusioned in a favorite relative and wants to spare Cat from that at least for a while.) He treats his position as Chrestomanci seriously, because he's seen the things that happen if somebody isn't keeping order among the magical community and policing trade between worlds. (I think the thing with the mermaids stuck with him a lot more than he would ever admit out loud.)
It's been three and a half years since I read Conrad's Fate, but I seem to recall it striking a pretty good balance between Christopher's personality and actions as a child and his personality and actions as an adult. He sweeps Conrad into his schemes, bosses him around, and gets him into all kinds of trouble, but he does simultaneously help Conrad deal with his own problems, he's trying to help Millie, and he seems to be on better terms with Gabriel, though they still disagree on how to approach complicated problems.
I would have loved a book about Christopher and Millie set shortly after Christopher officially took over as Chrestomanci, because I think their early marriage would be fascinating to read about and could have made a hilarious B-plot to some nefarious magical scheme -- but alas, that is never to be. :-(
-----
December Talking Meme: All Days
(I still have several days open if anyone wants to suggest a topic!)
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)