DWJ on Howl
- Question: The Wizard Howl has charmed many readers across the world. What do you make of that?
- Diana Wynne Jones: The one big, strange fact about Howl is that almost every young woman who reads about him wants to marry him. They began wanting to before the book was even published and they all confessed their wish quite openly. Yesterday I was doing a question-and-answer session in a London theatre and a teenage girl put her hand up and said -- without any embarrassment at all -- that she had long wanted to marry Howl and would I mind. I wondered whether to ask her if /she/ would mind everywhere being covered with green slime when Howl's hair went wrong; or if she minded coping with a man who had head colds like a drama queen; or being twisted round Howl's little finger; or would it worry her that the man was a terrible coward; or always falling in love with other women; or.... But I could see she regarded these facts as a challenge. So I sat with my mouth open for a second and then told her that she had now joined the end of a very long line that stretches at least once around the world.
- This didn't appear to trouble her unduly.
- My opinion of Howl is that, as much as I love him, he is the last person I would want to marry. Apart from anything else, I would want to get into he bathroom sometimes. See what you think when you read this book.
Reblogged from Sarah Rees Brennan
