For many children, certain toys are "faithful partners" that soothe the soul and are almost irreplaceable. J.K. Rowling created the story of "Peaceful Piglet" after seeing her son David's attachment to the doll Piglet, which is also her first children's novel since Harry Potter. Boy Jack, accompanied by The Piggy of Peace, goes on to find an old toy piggy toot that carries more of his memories, and also completes the self-growth of the soul during the adventure.
"Little Pig of Peace", by J.K. Rowling, Illustration: Jim Field, Translator: Wang Mengda
Edition: Love Tree | Nova Press, December 2021
Teenagers with broken families "know everything in their hearts"
"Peace Piggy" is much longer than I thought, and the narrative is very different from "Harry Potter", and I am not pulled into the story anytime soon. It wasn't until Chinese edition was published that I had the opportunity to continue reading into the story and completing a journey of wonder and hope that Rowling had arranged for us.
"Peaceful Piggy" is literally translated from the English "Christmas Pig", that is, "Christmas Piglet", and it is also appropriate to call it "Peaceful Piggy" as a toy hero who adventures with the little protagonist boy Jack on Christmas Eve. In particular, the nickname he later acquired, "CP", which is an acronym in English and translated as "peace" in Chinese, is a very clever treatment. And Jack's original favorite doll Piggy Beep, the original English name "Dur Pig", nickname "DP" is also translated as "Beep Toot" is also very appropriate. The reason why the English nickname is repeatedly emphasized is to draw attention to such a word game: "CP" is the younger brother of "DP" in the book, and harry potter's English acronym happens to be "HP" - see? From "HP" to "DP" to "CP", it should not be purely coincidental.
Rowling certainly wants her readers to have similar associations, but she does it more through word games. Translated into Chinese some games can't be fully reproduced, but I've found that Chinese version often starts to play new games. The most wonderful translation is "Lost Land Demon", which is the great demon head in the Lost land, who specializes in devouring what is judged to be "burdensome" there, leaving only hard things for his own use. The English name of this terrifying monster is "Loser", which means "loser, person who can't afford to lose", and it is also the word Jack used to scold Holly in the story. Come to think of it, it is really difficult to translate in this story, and the translation of "Lost Earth" makes Chinese readers think of "Voldemort" at once - to be honest, these two guys are quite similar in temperament! Another translation, Mislaid, is also very creative, not only apt, but also reminiscent of the Sorting Hat at Hogwarts School!
But for friends who haven't read the book, I would like to remind you that "The Pig of Peace" and "Harry Potter" are completely different stories. In the first 12 chapters of the first part (45 pages long), there is even no element of fantasy at all, which may be one of the reasons why I was not pulled into the story for the first time. In this long "prologue", Rowling tells the story of two broken marriages and families in a delicate way that may be better for female writers: Jack, who has just started school, has to face the divorce of his parents, his mother and his mother move to a new place, transfer to a new school, etc. He is a little overwhelmed, fortunately, there is a senior sister Holly in the new school who pays special attention to him, but when his mother falls in love and reorganizes the family again, Jack finds that the troubled Holly is about to become his step sister! To make matters worse, Holly, who was originally an angel, thought that Jack was going to snatch her father, and the angel turned evil in the blink of an eye!
The complex relationship structure of this "prologue" seems to be enough to write a realistic juvenile growth novel, which touches on the thorny problems that many children and families may face today. Frankly speaking, Rowling's ability to control this topic is also very strong, the psychology of the seven- and eight-year-old boy and the teenage girl are well grasped, and the doll piglet is the "attachment object" of the toddler psychology, and Jack's emotions for toot are also described as real and credible, especially when Holly first interacted with Jack, Jack once felt, "Maybe he is like Holly's toot, although he doesn't talk much, he understands it in his heart." From this part of the novel, Rowling is perfectly capable of becoming a first-class realistic children's fiction writer.
But readers may be more expecting her fantasy story. For example, as far as I am concerned, I almost "survived" until chapter 13 to feel that I saw the original "J.K. Rowling" again, and in the fantasy world, she is a genius! Although I have to admit that she is also a good performer in the realistic world, only when she comes to the fantasy world, she is like a real dream master, and she seems to be able to easily make the fantasy story real and make the reader more willing to believe. While the fantasy elements, structures, and narrative methods that Rowling invokes may not be new, they are just right when combined. She is not an innovator of the fantasy world, but she can be said to be a master.
J.K. Rowling is a British author and author of the Harry Potter series.
From fantasy to reality, continuity of wonder and hope
Christmas Eve (Christmas Eve) is a night of wonder and hope, the theme of countless Christmas stories, the most widely known Christmas story in the West is Dickens's "Christmas Carol". The experience of the miserly Skrutsch encountering three ghosts of the past, present and future on Christmas Eve has completely transformed him into a philanthropist – such an old-fashioned ethical story with almost no fantasy narrative skills that has deeply touched readers for more than a hundred years, and some even think that Dickens invented Christmas!
But Dickens was one of the key initiators of the tradition of creating stories for children at Christmas. Back in the first half of the nineteenth century, when the annual peak season for children's book sales was Christmas, children's books were usually used as Christmas gifts for children. Dickens was under financial pressure to produce a book that would sell well at Christmas, but the inadvertent success also led to a momentary trend, and in the Victorian era, almost every great writer would write at least one book for children. And "Christmas Carol" is basically set in how to understand and celebrate the holiday.
Rowling can be said to be continuing this tradition and tone, also discussing the concept of family, self-change, getting out of trouble, staying with love, holding out hope, etc., but she is more successful in creating a fantasy world from a child's perspective. As the top master of the fantasy world, it is very necessary to establish a meticulous logical system. The first is how to get in and out of the fantasy world, where the Kingdom of Narnia was first entered from the Wardrobe and took the train to Hogwarts to platform 93/4. Jack is going to the Land of the Lost to find his beloved Toot, how to get there, how to get back? Since the story takes place on Christmas Eve, the Christmas tree is obviously the key, but what is the entrance or password? I don't want too many spoilers so as not to spoil the reader's Yaxing, but because the Chinese version cannot be restored, I can reveal a small detail of a language game, "lost" in English, which means both "lost" and "lost". As for the specific way to get in and out, you may also refer to the details in Alice in Wonderland.
To come to the fantasy world, it is also necessary to establish a strange but reasonable space-time system. Spatially, for example, the Kingdom of Narnia and Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings have clear territory. The Lost and Found In "Little Pig of Peace" also has a rough map: the abandoned town, the need town, and the miss town are three towns connected by roads and tracks, and the beloved island needs to fly over, and there are vast dusty wastelands on or between the three towns, and the home of the lost land demon is in a volcanic crater in the wasteland. In terms of time, no matter how many years it takes to enter the Kingdom of Narnia, the parallel real-world time seems to be frozen; but after Jack enters the Lost and Found, the time in the Land of Life (the real world) still continues, but the proportion is "one hour in the Land of Life, equivalent to a whole day in the Lost and Found". In this way, Jack and the Peace Piglet can have both three days to explore the Lost and Found, and have a deadline, and must return before the midnight bell rings on Christmas Eve, or they will be destroyed in it.
When the framework of the entire fantasy world is established, it is the deeper logic that drives the development of the plot, such as: Why do some objects talk and some cannot? Why do lost items go to different towns? When they appear in the Lost and Found, what form will they take in the Land of Life? What conditions do they need to meet if they are to return to the land of life? Under what circumstances can they become a liability and be eaten by the Lost Earth? Where did the Demon of the Lost Land come from? How does it manage lost and found places? Where does its power come from? Why are there so many lost items following it? What is the magic weapon to defeat it? ...... If you can read these logics (or rules), you can understand why Rowling wrote this story. So, if you're reading with your child, you might want to talk to your child about these issues or more.
Illustration of "Peaceful Piggy".
Rowling herself said that the inspiration for "The Piglet of Peace" came directly from the experience of her son David, who had a doll piglet like Toot Toot, which was very old and worn and smelly, and one eye had fallen off, and he was still very attached. She was worried that her son would be in trouble if he accidentally lost the piglet, so she bought a replacement piglet for him. David actually owned the two piglets at the same time. And she herself had a crush on the doll bunny when she was a child, and when she grew up, she also lost her beloved bag and has always been grumpy. So she imagined such a lost place, where a group of lost objects that people still remember lived, staying in different towns according to different levels of concern.
Indeed, it's a fantastic idea. However, it is not completely original, for example, in Chen Zhiyong's picture book "Lost and Found", there is also a place where lost property is concentrated. However, in Rowling's fantasy story, the Lost land is a fully structured territory - the lost land is a dictator who kills and seizes power, but it will also set certain rules and adopt a totalitarian legal system; its accomplices and servants obey its harsh laws in exchange for their own power not to be eaten and the power to bully the weaker; there are also careerists who want to gain more power in the hope of fighting against the lost demons... In other words, the dark side of the Lost and Found also stems from the negativity of human nature, and such a complex human nature can also be read about in "Little Pig of Peace."
However, compared with Harry Potter, Rowling prefers to make the readable age of "Peaceful Piggy" compatible downwards to young children, after all, she is still writing a festive Christmas story. This is a book that is very suitable for children to read, and children who are about five or six years old can ask their parents to read it to themselves. The language of the novel is relatively childlike, and the core topics start from attachment objects that are close to the psychology of young children, but gradually lead to more in-depth themes, about possession and loss, about transposition and empathy, about growth, change and reconciliation...
After a persistent pursuit and a thrilling adventure, the boy Jack chose to let go and reconcile, as if he suddenly grew up and the whole person was renewed. Even for adults, it's hard to really do that, isn't it? This journey of wonder and hope in the fantasy world is also a process of psychological healing, which is effective for children and adults.
However, children have another magical power that can continue even after the "Night of Miracles and Hopes". How to continue? Spoilers aside, find out in "Little Pig of Peace".
Written by | Ajia
Editor| Shen Chan
Proofreading | Xue Jingning