Aunt Maria, Diana Wynne Jones

Witches are bitches. So we know, for an American audience, witches aren’t really ever on the good side. They are either trying to steal children’s souls out of vanity or are trying to bring forth the devil. Hallelujah, praise Jesus that he may smite this witch.

But let’s go across the Atlantic to where it started, Britain, which is the location in the novel Aunt Maria. Where as we know from Harry Potter not all witches are bad and not all of them are good. Across the Atlantic witches have a longer history and although in old renditions are depicted as evil, because it is a woman with power. They tend to land in a gray area. So does Aunt Maria, Dianna Wynne Jones plays with the idea of the basis of the witches, the fight for power between the sexes. That is the whole theme of the book is that balance of power and how when the balance is tipped to one side bad things start to happen. And things only become balanced when Mig and Chris finally communicate. Now in the story the power is to the women with this manipulative selfish queen bee, Aunt Maria. Things in the town aren’t quite right, the men seem like zombies and the women are stuck under Aunt Maria’s thumb, some enjoy how she uses her power but mostly they fear it. This is interesting since as we have seen in history when someone is tyrannical a minority becomes quit and those in the tyrants favor live meekly under them. They hope not to upset them. Amazingly Diana Wynne Jones puts this historical knowledge into a young adult novel and makes it understandable. She doesn’t make you feel as though she is patronizing you. This is due to the character Mig retelling the story.

Diana Wynne Jones puts forth that there needs to be a balance between genders and that putting restrictive rolls upon a gender is unfair. Hence why Aunt Maria fears Anthony Greene he simply wants to share the power with everyone. It’s socialism versus fascism. Aunt Maria wants a society like a dollhouse where she controls everything, women do women like things, men do men like things. Both Mig and Chris hate this because they become restricted in who they actually are. Mig is not just a girl, she is a writer. Chris isn’t just a boy, he is a mathematician. But Aunt Maria sees in a gender specific view, you have certain roles as a girl and certain roles as a boy that’s it. Anthony Green in some ways, he doesn’t acknowledge Mig at first till her mother forces her way in, does not see just through your gender, he see through your attributes. This is what can destroy people with to much power; once you see you can stretch out of their restrictions you can think for yourself. This is what Mig learns, she learns she can stretch beyond what is restricted and help Chris, this also happens to Chris. That is how they learn they can save the town, it is also what Anthony Greene also learns. Because he learns to trust them. This at the end of the novel brings the balance of power.

Now I know I just threw up a slew of ideas, but I’m not sure how to neatly tie it up. Dianna Wynne Jones even in her tiniest of novels seems to always have a way of packing a punch.

Kraken, China Mieville

The new weird, the new crossover of fantasy and horror, something that has actually been around for a while; you just have to think of X-Files and you get the picture. Kraken is part of that weird; it has some very horrific moments with the notable Goss and Subby. And some very fantastical with the use of knacks (powers) used by the characters, that require certain habits in order for them to be used, thank you Collingswood. It is a book immersed in its location, London, and feels as though this could be real. This is due to the main character, Billy, and how Mieville writes him and the people surrounding him. Often times, and Mieville plays with this, you got your average Joe a person with nothing special that in the story actually has some sort of special juice. But that’s just it, Billy doesn’t really have anything special about him other than that he knows a lot about mollusks. That’s what makes the story feel real, is that you do have an everyday character who gets thrown into something horrible, due to a series of misunderstandings. But because of these misunderstandings and what people believe of Billy, he actually becomes quite powerful in that, because he understands that to destroy his enemy he has to destroy belief. Belief is what made Billy special, even if it was a misunderstanding, like Brian in The Life of Brian. Belief is what makes a person powerful or special. That’s something that really impressed me with Mieville, is that I didn’t feel distant from the character or out of touch. We all can achieve something like that. Parents I think can attest to this oddity in someone believing you are so powerful and special. That what was impossible is possible because it’s for them, it is for yourself.

Mieville took the typical character that goes from zero to hero and he made him one of us. He made him something humanly achievable in a magical and real world. That is what I think the new weird and novels like Kraken are all about, the combination of genres tends to pull out more about humanity and how life really is. Life isn’t just fantastical, scary, strange, serious, plain, and adventurous. It’s a combination of these things, life is weird and strange and can have moments where you get pulled into a hail of a storm because a giant squid disappears and you’re know your shit about mollusks, and everyone once a piece of what you got.

A Wild Sheep Chase

I really enjoyed reading A Wild Sheep Chase by Haurki Murakami. I found the slow pacing a good way to build up the tension and curiosity at the end of the book. Murakami is really good at building a story with what would seem daily life events with a bit of the weird. He is I would say eastern in that sense, using the day to day to build up a very slow build to the climax that really isn’t as epic as most western literature. But he is western in a sense with his characters. His main character is relatable and we get to get inside his head, he is kind like an everyday Joe. His characters have something and I can’t really put my finger on it that makes them feel American. They aren’t really uptight there isn’t a feel of reservation. I’m not really sure but his characters, I guess they just don’t feel Japanese. 

Now there were some points in the reading and this is just an opinion where I at times got confused with some of the dialogue. I felt that at times his characters didn’t have a distinctive voice. It wasn’t bad it was good dialogue it just if you held up a piece of the dialogue I probably wouldn’t be able to tell you who was talking. But in my head I compare everyone’s dialogue to Elmore Leonard, which isn’t fair really. But I would say that was my only technical hang up. I get pretty picky when it comes to dialogue. I really did like the overall pacing of the book, I think some people would find it slow and not really getting to the point. But I don’t think he was looking for an all encompassing point or answer. I think the whole point is to enjoy the mystery; it really makes you think. I think it is also one of those books you just have to reread. There are points in the book where I didn’t catch a clue or a string that lead to an answer, not all the dots got connected. I really look forward to rereading this book again, its like a cold case file. You always find something new.  

Vampires, Interview with a Vampire, Anne Rice.

I’m not entirely sure where to start with this one. Vampires. An interesting subject that has lasted centuries, from folklore to literature. The vampire was part of horror and now has become more than just a scare. Interview with a Vampire is partly to thank for this burst in the new vampire. Anne Rice set the stage for what vampires are supposed to be. They were sexy, intelligent, rich, moody, and the biggest kicker, human. Rice gave vampires humanity. Something not really seen or popularized up to that point. That is what I love most about Interview with a Vampire is that you get to understand the monster. Now after reading Frankenstein I can see where Rice got the idea of a monster with humanity. So let’s discuss Lestat and Frankenstein’s monster.

Now Lestat plays and interesting role, he his Louis enticer, he wants Louis to never leave him and discard his humanity. But Lestat does still have his humanity he doesn’t want to be alone he wants a companion, he still has the need to experience love. Now Frankenstein’s monster is no different, he leads Frankenstein horrible paths and hates humanity. But the monster cannot stand being alone and also has a need for companionship. In this Rice took from Frankenstein and applied it to the vampire, so that as readers we feel conflicted about the characters. As we should, because they still have their humanity. At times I got annoyed with Louis cause he couldn’t really stand up for himself, he was so dependent on someone being the stronger one. But Lestat was annoying at times for his control over everything; he couldn’t simply love something just to love. But that’s due to his past. And that’s what’s interesting about these vampires, their pasts really do affect them, they shape their character. They aren’t just a rich dude who somehow became a vampire. They were human once, and how they decided their past to shape them is what made them interesting immortals.  That’s what Rice brought to the table, not just sensuality, but a story driven by what ties us to humanity.

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

For me Frankenstein was a new look on what the book means to me now than what it meant to my ten year old self.  When I was ten I didn’t understand all the references to authors and philosophers of old. So to me they were just added flare, at the time. I didn’t have the capacity to connect what they meant to the characters themselves.  But I did learn from the raw emotions of the monster and of Frankenstein. And I did cry when both died, because I had felt both died unaccomplished in their tasks and misunderstood.

Now, although I still feel bad for both characters in their deaths, I did not cry. I felt both had met their fitful end. I know that is cruel to say but both characters were not purely good. I didn’t see them as black and white like my younger self, I saw that both of their arguments were valid, but that Frankenstein had truly committed the wrong.  He brought something to life and abandoned it, gave it no name, nothing and thus the monster learned of the world without the protection of anything. This made the monsters actions extreme, there was no one to keep his emotions in check he had the attitude of a toddler, in a sense. Even though he knew what death was and what killing was and in a way knew it was wrong he used it to quell his tantrums against humanity. But he also enjoyed the purely simple things in life that he saw people ignore, so he was an emotionally split creature.  

Whereas Frankenstein was fearful of what he created and didn’t seek to do anything about it till the death of his brother, when he knew the monster did it. If he had either killed the monster or tended to it earlier, this may not have happened. That is the frustrating part of Frankenstein, is his selfishness.  He becomes an annoying character at times because he is so indulged with in himself that he can’t even muster to admit his wrong. Why? He was paranoid as being seen mad, and afraid no one would truly listen. He came up with his excuses, and used them so he wouldn’t have to step up to the plate. And because of this his dearest Elizabeth, because he thought the monster would want to kill his master. When the monster had already shown he would make his creator equally miserable as he.  And for this Frankenstein made the excuse he was tricked, he still was wary of admitting his selfishness, because he knew it would bring forth more guilt. Whereas the monster was ready to admit everything he had done and explained why, even though it was wrong.

            In the end I found the book to really absorb you into the story. And that the moral to me was really that not all monsters start out evil and it is often time humanity that creates the monster, and that it is better to treat that stranger kindly before judging thusly.