The Not-So-Pointy Hatted Queen
For this week, I picked up Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne Jones*. I don't want to say that I was "pleasantly surprised". Pleasantly is not a strong enough word. And surprised isn't quite right either, because I already knew somewhere deep down that DWJ books were good, I just had never really seized an opportunity to read one.
Aunt Maria is a story told through our main character, Mig, writing in her journal. It's an interesting way to read the story, because just when you start to forget that you're reading someone else's account of what happened and not as it happened, she pulls you back out, switching to a new scene or event that was relevant to Mig's day. It's a technique that I haven't seen very often, and I think it works well for this character. It lets us see her inner thoughts and emotions while she's in situations where she's constantly being made to repress her true feelings.
There's a lot of mystery in the story, little bits and pieces being strung out that I know will be important later, but I'm not sure why yet. The humor is dry and quirky. The good characters are all honest, flawed, and relatable. The bad characters are awful in a just as realistic and gritty way. It's almost like a Dolores Umbridge effect. The antagonist isn't dark and evil; she doesn't have fangs or kill people (at least so far). Outwardly, she's the last person you'd expect to hate. But if I ever met Aunt Maria in real life, I'd be bald within five minutes. The thing is, though, I've met people like Aunt Maria. Manipulative, selectively deaf, a black belt in the art of passive-aggressive guilt-tripping.
Mig says, "I think Aunt Maria is secretly Queen of Cranbury--not exactly 'Uncrowned Queen', more like 'Hatted Queen'."Majority of who we see from the town (apart from the gossiping shop lady and the Phelps) seem to revolve themselves around Aunt Maria. Her opinions are their decisions. The only men are silent and obedient. Aunt Maria seems to be perfectly sound of health, yet she pretends to be utterly incapable of doing a single thing for herself, a widespread case of Munchausen's that has the whole town fooled.
If she is the witch in this story, she definitely doesn't dress or look like the stereotypes. She wears furs and purple hats, keeps her hair in pigtails at night, and refuses to eat store-bought cake. She forces Mig and her mom to wear skirts and to plait their hair. She's the type of person who will find the finest detail to change just so she can continue to exert some sort of power over you. It's effectively the same as when she pretends not to hear things she doesn't agree with, or when she calls them by the wrong names. It's a very intriguing dynamic that I don't see a lot in stories, especially ones about witches meant for kids.
I'm also hoping to read the other text by DWJ, "The Tough Guide to Fantasyland" and see how I can apply it to this novel.
*I haven't finished reading the book yet, and I'll update my post once I have.
Aunt Maria is a story told through our main character, Mig, writing in her journal. It's an interesting way to read the story, because just when you start to forget that you're reading someone else's account of what happened and not as it happened, she pulls you back out, switching to a new scene or event that was relevant to Mig's day. It's a technique that I haven't seen very often, and I think it works well for this character. It lets us see her inner thoughts and emotions while she's in situations where she's constantly being made to repress her true feelings.
There's a lot of mystery in the story, little bits and pieces being strung out that I know will be important later, but I'm not sure why yet. The humor is dry and quirky. The good characters are all honest, flawed, and relatable. The bad characters are awful in a just as realistic and gritty way. It's almost like a Dolores Umbridge effect. The antagonist isn't dark and evil; she doesn't have fangs or kill people (at least so far). Outwardly, she's the last person you'd expect to hate. But if I ever met Aunt Maria in real life, I'd be bald within five minutes. The thing is, though, I've met people like Aunt Maria. Manipulative, selectively deaf, a black belt in the art of passive-aggressive guilt-tripping.
Mig says, "I think Aunt Maria is secretly Queen of Cranbury--not exactly 'Uncrowned Queen', more like 'Hatted Queen'."Majority of who we see from the town (apart from the gossiping shop lady and the Phelps) seem to revolve themselves around Aunt Maria. Her opinions are their decisions. The only men are silent and obedient. Aunt Maria seems to be perfectly sound of health, yet she pretends to be utterly incapable of doing a single thing for herself, a widespread case of Munchausen's that has the whole town fooled.
If she is the witch in this story, she definitely doesn't dress or look like the stereotypes. She wears furs and purple hats, keeps her hair in pigtails at night, and refuses to eat store-bought cake. She forces Mig and her mom to wear skirts and to plait their hair. She's the type of person who will find the finest detail to change just so she can continue to exert some sort of power over you. It's effectively the same as when she pretends not to hear things she doesn't agree with, or when she calls them by the wrong names. It's a very intriguing dynamic that I don't see a lot in stories, especially ones about witches meant for kids.
I'm also hoping to read the other text by DWJ, "The Tough Guide to Fantasyland" and see how I can apply it to this novel.
*I haven't finished reading the book yet, and I'll update my post once I have.
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