Some Icons

Exhibit A: A penguin.



The problem with this is, when am I ever going to need a Picard/Riker icon? I suppose it could be my book icon if I ever read some Star Trek novels. (It was drawn by the guy who does Pictures For Sad Children)

(no subject)

Elaine gave Mum a smile. It put two matching creases on either side of her mouth, but it was not what I would call a real smile. Funny, because she was quite pretty really. 'You've gathered that she needs dressing, undressing, washing and her cooking done,' she said. 'The three of you can probably bath her, can't you? Good. And when you want to take her for some air, I'll bring the wheelchair round. It lives at my house because there's more room. And do be careful she doesn't fall over. I expect you'll manage. We'll all be dropping in to see how you're getting on, anyway. So…' She looked round again. 'I'll love you and leave you,' she said. She shot Chris, for some reason, another of her strange smiles and marched off again, calling over her shoulder,'Don't forget the electricity.'

'She gives her orders!' Chris said. 'Mum, did you know what we were in for? If you didn't we've been got on false pretences.'

'I know, but Aunt Maria does need help,' Mum said helplessly.

--Elaine, the neighbour, gives the family their instructions for Aunt Maria in Black Maria by Diana Wynne Jones

What the quote leaves out is what Elaine mentions often at different points, which is never leave Aunt Maria alone. I'm not too far yet in, just halfway, so I haven't seen what happens when she gets left alone, but things are Up. Clone-like orphans, zombie men, old ladies running around like bees around their queen, Aunt Maria. There's also a ghost, a conspiracy, and animal transformation.

All packaged up in the Little Town What Is Not What It Seems and Old British Ladies, Amirite? story settings.

I'm sort of wondering. Now, it's obvious Aunt Maria's a bad sort in this. She's an elderly woman who's controlling a lot more than she lets on. A similar villain exists in another DWJ book, The Pinhoe Egg. DWJ was around 57 when she wrote Black Maria, which is not too old. But for the Pinhoe Egg, DWJ was seventy two. Why did she revisit the topic?

Is she trying to tell us something? Is she, in fact, an evil witch?

I hope so, she might be able to boil someone up in a cauldron to get healthy again.