I’m in a great mood this morning, and I’m doing #FantasyIndiesJune on Twitter (I did okay-ish in May), and I’ve probably already shared this quote before, but I’m doing it again.
My view on these lines from Howl’s Moving Castle are steeped in an overall feminist reading (sorry, not sorry, can’t help it). This could just be about aging in general, sure, and I’d hope that anyone reading the book could take away something positive from this, but as a woman I find that many of the behaviors I exhibited when I was younger (and still plenty today) were weighed down heavily by gendered expectations. Sophie and Howl’s relationship isn’t ideally egalitarian, but the book’s a fantasy, and we often have to put aside our real-life experiences to enjoy escapism, right?
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, I appreciate and love Jones so fucking much, and I just love how she gets humor, smart observations, and the grace of simplistic words all mixed together into the perfect potion, and is like, “Here, drink this, it’ll make you feel better,” and it fucking does.
Throne in the Dark and the other books in this trilogy are heavily influenced by Howl’s Moving Castle. Damien’s nowhere near as…can I use the word “bitchy” in the same blog I talk about having a feminist reading of this book? Why not–Damien’s not as bitchy as Howl, and Amma’s not as take-charge and stubborn as Sophie, but they’re, like, my heart’s spirit animals for these characters. Also Kaz is almost definitely Calcifer, so there’s that.
A.K. Caggiano 