Hexwood question

[jack]

Hexwood is one of the Diana Wynne Jonesiest Diana Wynne Jones books. I couldn't really choose a favourite, but it's very good. Edit: It's wonderfully intricate.

You might say it -- literally -- raises people turning out to be other people to an art form :) I think she can overdo the "people turn out to be other people" thing sometimes. But in a book unashamedly about that it works well. I'm particularly impressed by the names. It's so easy to have fantasy-ised names of people sound obvious and fake, but everyone's both names sound completely natural, and you never notice the link the *first* time, but whenever you lose track it's obvious. It's slightly confusing, but only because there are so many people.

Would you guess Bors, Fors, Ambitas and Morgana le Trey mapped to Borasus, Four, Two and Three?

Q. However, how come Martin is Sinfjötli Fitela Wolf and Hume is Martellian aka Merlin. It seems unfair to have such similar names not linked. Is it misdirection? Did I miss something? Do you think she switched directions in midstream?

Q. And I re-read "Ogre Downstairs" too. You get a lot more of the jokes when you understand classical languages a bit more. The "Dens. Drac." powder makes warriors grow from the ground, isn't that cool? And the hellish language they speak in greek letters is actually *phonetically* English, isn't that cool?

Comments

[atreic.livejournal.com]

is actually *phonetically* English, isn't that cool

That's how I thought foreign alphabets worked, when I was little. I was very upset when I realised that even though I'd worked out all the letters carefully, I _still_ had something in foreign

[atreic.livejournal.com]

It -- literally -- raises people turning out to be other people to an art form :)

Funnilly, I think this is the biggest spoiler you could give for that book, yet it's the only thing you don't put behind the spoiler cut. Odd

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh, um, you think I should? I thought it was obvious early on people *were* other people, just not who?

[atreic.livejournal.com]

Maybe I am just not as clever as you :-)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe, but I doubt you're any less penetrating of literature :)

Possibly I have a looser idea of early? I can't remember entirely when I first read this, I remember I was confused. But Mordion walks into the wood wearing a Camel coloured coat, and then shows up in the wood coming out a stass box and wearing a camel coloured coat -- it seems clear he was someone-or-other before-hand, right? And lots of balance people go into the wood, it seems unsurprising they're still in there in some form.

That Ann and her family and Hume turn out to be other people is likely more surprising, but I didn't say that :)

I guess maybe saying that does maybe make you think that.

I guess I assume having some idea is likely to help you enjoy as much as possible, but some people may differ.

I try to be conservative with spoilers, but I wanted to give some indication of why someone might want to read it. What do you think?

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I suppose I liked being completely shocked that Ann etc were different people the first time round (it's a great subversion of the whole "normal people have exciting adventures" kids genre) and if I were told "the cool thing about this book is that there is really stunning people turning out to be other people" I'd be more on the lookout for it. So it would be less stunning.

You can always enjoy it as fully as possible on a second read, but you can't ever get the surprise back.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Well, I think *I* probably wouldn't guess that any earlier from that comment (what that says about my perspicacity or my self-perspicacity-analysis I don't know :)). I removed to to be safe.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

LOL. Aw. So logical, but it didn't work *hugs* :)

(I remember having the opposite experience at some point, the teacher asking us to invent a language, which turned out to mean invent a code :))