So, Heart-Shaped Box was in general a good book, and I liked the way it ended (more or less), but I've got to say the thing I liked best was Jude's dogs. It sounds weird that my favorite part of the book would be these two animals...who weren't exactly focused on in the text...and yet, here we are.
I think part of why I liked Jude's dogs is the fact that they're represented as these sort of familiar spirits. Familiar spirits were associated with English witchcraft from a long time back - I'm sure the idea pops up a ton of places, but the idea that Joe Hill's using seems to come down from the English idea. They were usually described as being small animals - like cats, ferrets, mice (I know - what good is a mouse protector?) or dogs. Their job was to be a servant and protector to the witch they served.
Jude's not a witch, obviously. But the idea of familiar spirits, especially of some kind of familiar spirit in Jude's dogs protecting him against Craddock, falls pretty nicely in line with the conception of familiars in English witchcraft. I thought the idea of "good" spirits protecting Jude - and animal spirits, at that - was a pretty cool one.
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I too liked the dogs in the story. They were wonderful protectors and I hate that they were killed off.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea the dogs were going to be such important characters in the novel. I also thought it was cool they were named after Angus Young and Bon Scott from AC/DC and Jimmy Page and Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize the dogs were going to be such a large part of the story either, but was actually very glad to see the typical "grim" association with dogs not played on here. It reminded me a lot of all the ghost stories you here where dogs and children are more sensitive to "spirits," and seem to sense them first.
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