Chapter 17 Diana Wayne Jones Interview

1.Wizard Howl captivated readers all over the world.What's your opinion? The wonderful and shocking fact about Hal is that almost every young girl who reads about him wants to marry him.They were willing to do so even before the book was published, and they were quite explicit about it.I was doing an interview in a London theater yesterday, and a girl raised her hand and said - without shame - that she had wanted to marry Hal for a long time, and asked if I would mind.I'd like to ask her if she minds when Hal's hair doesn't feel right and the green goo oozes everywhere; A complete coward; or he would always fall in love with another woman; or... But I could see that she took it all as a challenge.So I sat there with my mouth open for a moment, then told her that she had joined the long procession that circled the globe at least once.

This didn't seem to worry her particularly. My thoughts on Hal are that I like him a lot but never want to marry him.If nothing else, at least I have to go to the bathroom sometimes.See what you think when you read this book. 2.You said on the dedication page that a little boy gave you the inspiration for the moving castle, did it take shape all at once, or did it develop slowly? When that boy gave me the idea for Moving Castles, I knew right away that I wanted to write about it, but it took me a long time to figure out how to do it.First I needed to conceive Hal and Sophie.And it took three years, and by then I had completely forgotten where I put the little boy's name and address.

3.Why do Hal, Sophie, and Calcifer form a strong cast of characters? Howl, Sophie, and Calcifer make a great team (barring the occasional heated argument) because they all possess powerful magic.Hal is driven and creative - vain and self-willed, of course - and Sophie is realistic and good at covering up mistakes made by Hal's recklessness.Calcifer loves Sophie because she freed him from his pact with Howl, and also gave him a thousand years of life (as a shooting star he would have died long ago).So he will do his best to help Sophie.However, Calcifer and Hal have been almost one body in recent years, with double skills, and they have done a lot of beautiful things together.Together they can cast almost any spell.

4.The characters in "The Castle in the Sky" and "The House in the Labyrinth" all need to say their wishes and spells carefully.Isn't it important that magic can't be too simple? Magic isn't easy, although it doesn't look like it should be.You have to think twice about what you do with magic, or a small spell can have disastrous results.For example, if you were to make two and two equal three instead of four, you would change the way the universe works, and probably everyone would die.So you must ensure the accuracy of your magic.Howl knew it, and so did Calcifer, but Sophie wasn't always careful.

5.Doors leading to different places are especially notable in Howl's world.Why is the door so powerful and mysterious? Doors are very powerful things.The two worlds are completely different.And this doesn't just refer to magical passages - when you open the door, you might discover a new world, or a realm of the dead, or even heaven or hell; there are quite everyday doors too.Your front door leads to the street (hopefully!) and your back door to the garden, and inside you open the door to another room.But there was always the possibility that the street was a never-before-seen street, that the garden belonged to Bluebeard or someone else, and that the house belonged to another house that had nothing to do with it.In Howl's world, because it is a magical world, these possibilities often come true.But that's by no means to say it couldn't happen in our world.In my own home I usually leave the door open in case a completely different place pops up.

6.Did Hayao Miyazaki's interpretation of the castle and characters in the movie surprise you? Hayao Miyazaki's Moving Castle surprised me because I didn't expect the castle to have feet.In the book I wrote, the castle was more like a hovercraft, floating an inch or so off the ground.But I really like Hayao Miyazaki's castle.I have several models of it at home.As for Hal and Sophie, both of them are gentler and nobler than my book portrays them.But I'm not surprised.Movies are always going to be a little bit different.I also have a few models of Hal and Sophie in my house, and quite a few of Calcifer, including one of him sitting in the fireplace.

7.Hal doesn't appear in his usual neat and perfect image in "Kastle in the Sky" or "House in the Labyrinth".Was it designed when you wrote those two books, or was it a follow-up inspiration? It's no surprise that Hal is a little different than usual in Sky Castle and Labyrinth House.The original intentions of the two books are somewhat consistent on one point. I imagine that Hal may appear in another form, but let his character reflect it.The actual situation is that his form has changed, but his personality remains the same, he is still conceited and impulsive, and he may often do things that are completely contrary to your expectations.

8.The protagonists in these books are not conventional; they all have serious flaws.Is an imperfect protagonist more compelling? I think people who never make mistakes are boring.Your mistakes are an important part of who you are as a person.My goal is always to write something interesting.If I'm not interested in people who don't make mistakes, neither are you.Charmain is interesting to me because she's both aggressive and pedantic—an odd combination, you have to admit.Peter is interesting to me because he believes so deeply in himself.Of course Hal is interesting because you never know what his next move will be.

9.Why do you think Hal would lie to himself about courage?Or why are so many other characters almost begrudgingly—or unconsciously—courageous? Everyone has to deceive himself when encountering things that are contrary to his own nature.Think of the many times you have promised yourself a reward for completing a task you hated.This is the most common form of self-deception.But how many times have you wandered over to a cookie box and told yourself you weren't going to actually eat it?This is another way to deceive yourself.Hal is an extreme example because he forces himself to believe that he is a complete coward.In fact he is quite brave in some respects, and is only afraid when confronted by those with his magical powers.So he had to deceive himself to deal with them.

10.Ingrid, Upper Norland, Strandia, and the Rashput Sultanate are quite diverse.When you write, do you know how big the world is? When I wrote it, I knew that in the real fairy tale world, Ingrid would not be an independent country.There are many such stories and they are all different.But then I wanted to show Hal more, and only set out to explore some of it.Of course, there are more countries that can be expanded. 11.Howl and Sophie's life is seen in "Kastle in the Sky" and "The House in the Labyrinth," but what does a typical day in their happy life look like?

A typical day in the life of Hal and Sophie?At least two bickering, one nasty fight, and an explosion of strange magic.They are not a quiet couple. 12.How did you get the inspiration to write House of the Labyrinth? What inspired me to write House in a Labyrinth was something silly: I had a friend who never did laundry.This way the dirty laundry in the laundry bag multiplies surprisingly.In the book, laundry is a small plot, but it is also the source of inspiration for the entire book.Dirty laundry is multiplying every day if you pay attention. 13.Will we still be able to read new stories about Hal in the future? I wish there were more stories about Hal.There's one already, and I'm writing it, but it's not there yet.But I hope I can finish it in the end.