Are You a Slitherer-outer?

Diana Wynne Jones has been my favorite author for as far back as I can remember. As with many good things in my life, it was my sister who first introduced me to Diana's books. I think the first one I read was Dogsbody (my sister's favorite) and I was hooked.

Imagine that the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, and every stellar body in the sky are alive and conscious, possessed by great spirit beings known as "illuminaries." This is the story about one of the greatest of such entities, Sirius - the Dogstar. - Caesar M. Warrington

You know when you find an author whose books feel like home to you? That is what Diana's books are to me. I open her pages and instantly feel like I am with old friends, whether I am reading her book for the first or the fifteenth time.

Diana pre-dates Harry Potter and even wrote a book about a school of magicians called Witch Week FAR before JK Rowling was sitting in her favorite cafe scribbling about a school full o'wizards. The good thing about Harry Potter's success is that it has brought more attention to authors like Diana. JK even gives her props. So I guess that little whiny, predictable Potter stinker brain is good for something!

Diana's books are hard to encapsulate. They expertly weave the normal everyday with the fantastic and the unreal. In her world(s), there are many alternate realities and average kids stumble upon them, usually by accident in situations of great duress.

Within these worlds, there are all sorts of haphazard characters: distracted magicians, bitchy witches, nasty mothers, vain wizards, fireplace bullies and magic cats. Her characters are not cookie cutter dull, each one has distinct motivations that set him/her/it apart.

Reading her books always makes me hungry because her descriptions of steaming hot tea and thick slices of bread drizzled with butter and honey make me salivate. She feeds all five of your senses with her rich descriptions. Her books give me sensory overload.

Thankfully, the first film adapted from her book, Howl's Moving Castle, was Japanese anime made by Hayao Miyazaki and his amazingly talented Studio Ghibli. It is unlikely that this book could have amounted to anything worthwhile in another director's hands.

Miyazaki took a faint imprint of Diana's book and took off soaring in one of his flying machines with it. He added his own impressions and style to her solid story thread and created a beautiful collaboration.

Sitting in the darkened theater, watching that movie for the first time, I wept. It was so good and I never thought I would be lucky enough to watch one of Diana's books made into a touching film.

Afterwards, I ambled up Church St and couldn't get the theme song out of my head. Church St is not unlike Market Chipping in Howl's Moving Castle. In fact, it is quite similar to many of Diana's small towns full of ancient cobblestone streets and heavy with fate.

I felt like I was enshrouded in a magical gloss and around any corner I might stumble upon a rip in the fabric of this dimension and, if I tripped, I might fall through to another world. And that would only be the beginning of my adventure...

Ultimately, Diana's books have to be read to be enjoyed. I could never do them justice with my measly descriptions. But this here QUIZ is a great way to get a feel for her work. It helps you decide which Diana Wynne Jones character you are.

I turned out to be Howl (the grandest slithererouter of them all) from Howl's Moving Castle. No big surprise there! Here are some of the quiz's questions which are damn brilliant. Questions we should all ask ourselves at one time or another:

Are you lost (or travelling)

• in time?
• in space?
• in one or more alternative world?
• in a dream?
• in a nightmare?
• in no way - it's everyone else who's lost?
• in confusion?
  
  Are you:
• fully human?
• mostly human?
• slightly human?
• superhuman?
• not human at all?
  
  Is your idea of "a happy ending:"
• to find or be reunited with your family?
• to marry the person you are in love with?
• to know that you have saved the world (or some equivalent)?
• to solve your immediate problems (and incidentally save the whole situation)?
• to achieve your proper position or job in life?
• to start proper training or to learn what you have always wanted to learn?
• to come to terms with the life that has been forced on you?
• to make the life that has been forced upon you come to terms with you?
• a bit of peace and quiet for a change?

PS And did I mention that these books are supposedly for "kids?" Pfft.