Candy's dad

[malingomango]

hey guys i read in an interview that candy's dad becomes all power mad in the 3rd book because he finds the hats of the little midget that was trapped in teh house guarded by cats on that island. What do u think of that? were u expecting that?

[THE LADY OF MIDNIGHT]

that would be really interesting!

[inkstitchling]

So he goes from being just a lousy near-brainless father to a villain? I like this!

[Abaratian]

Supposedly some fan approached him and said something along the lines of "I'll give you five bucks if you kill off Candy's dad". I don't know if this is true or not, but he supposedly said yeah. So I figured since her dad didn't die in the last book, where there was a good place for him to die, he must be doing something important later. I don't know if that's true or if it's just a rumor, but I hope it's true. I hate her dad.

[Deleted]

But... the hats? Really? Weren't they destroyed..?

[THE LADY OF MIDNIGHT]

Yeah I think they were destroyed actually.. hmm

[Deleted]

Maybe Clive Barker was fooling us, putting up some false clues to make us guess. I can easily see Candy's dad become a powerhungry maniac. He's halfway there already.

[bleu]

Spoilers?

I don't know how you guys missed this (though I suppose it's fairly easy to do so, since it's not as if Abarat makes headlines like a certain bespectacled wizard we knew), but at the Los Angeles Festival of Books in 2004, Clive talked about it.

Just a couple of teasers: Bill Quackenbush finding Wolfswinkel’s hats… where the water recedes from Chickentown there’s a load of stuff which has been washed into the town and when the waters recede, dumped there, left there like the stuff you would find at a high water mark and a lot of that stuff is related to Abarat.
"There are forces within the town which arise pretty much out of nowhere just to make sure this stuff is burned. Whereas Mister Quackenbush, Daddy Quackenbush, who you know has always been a little sad character sitting in a smoke-filled world drinking beer, finds Wolfswinkel’s hats, finds them washed up and left as garbage and he puts them on and he feels this flow of power he has never felt before.

So that’s sort of fun. What does a man as unpleasant as Bill Quackenbush do with the power he now has, now taken from a dead wizard? - not that he knows it’s a dead wizard’s; he knows nothing about these hats, it’s just that when he puts them on, man, he feels amazing and because they are old felt hats he has them made up into a check shirt - he doesn’t wear hats, but can wear this patchwork shirt - and carrying the power around with him.
"He is not a man by any manner of means who is one-dimensional, though so far I’ve written him, I think, in a fairly one-dimensional way, the third book is going to give me the chance to enrich his character immensely. The shirt of Wolfswinkel’s hats and the power that is bestowed on him and what he does with it, that power is, I hope, going to be interesting because there's a bunch of very, very frightened townspeople - and they’re right where he wants them: they’re looking for a messianic voice that will tell them everything’s gonna be OK and so here comes Bill with his very peculiar shirt talking in a way that they’ve never heard Bill talk before and sounding decidedly confident that, if needs be - this is his phrase: ‘We will take the war to them...’ He says, 'If anybody wants to get in my way, there will be trouble' and what’s fun about that is I had not seen how important Bill was going to be."

Daddy Quackenbush is going to try to lead a war against Abarat?

[Deleted]

Feb 5, 2009 17:11:43 GMT -5 bleu said:

Spoilers?

I don't know how you guys missed this (though I suppose it's fairly easy to do so, since it's not as if Abarat makes headlines like a certain bespectacled wizard we knew), but at the Los Angeles Festival of Books in 2004, Clive talked about it.

Just a couple of teasers: Bill Quackenbush finding Wolfswinkel’s hats… where the water recedes from Chickentown there’s a load of stuff which has been washed into the town and when the waters recede, dumped there, left there like the stuff you would find at a high water mark and a lot of that stuff is related to Abarat.
"There are forces within the town which arise pretty much out of nowhere just to make sure this stuff is burned. Whereas Mister Quackenbush, Daddy Quackenbush, who you know has always been a little sad character sitting in a smoke-filled world drinking beer, finds Wolfswinkel’s hats, finds them washed up and left as garbage and he puts them on and he feels this flow of power he has never felt before.

So that’s sort of fun. What does a man as unpleasant as Bill Quackenbush do with the power he now has, now taken from a dead wizard? - not that he knows it’s a dead wizard’s; he knows nothing about these hats, it’s just that when he puts them on, man, he feels amazing and because they are old felt hats he has them made up into a check shirt - he doesn’t wear hats, but can wear this patchwork shirt - and carrying the power around with him.
"He is not a man by any manner of means who is one-dimensional, though so far I’ve written him, I think, in a fairly one-dimensional way, the third book is going to give me the chance to enrich his character immensely. The shirt of Wolfswinkel’s hats and the power that is bestowed on him and what he does with it, that power is, I hope, going to be interesting because there's a bunch of very, very frightened townspeople - and they’re right where he wants them: they’re looking for a messianic voice that will tell them everything’s gonna be OK and so here comes Bill with his very peculiar shirt talking in a way that they’ve never heard Bill talk before and sounding decidedly confident that, if needs be - this is his phrase: ‘We will take the war to them...’ He says, 'If anybody wants to get in my way, there will be trouble' and what’s fun about that is I had not seen how important Bill was going to be."

Daddy Quackenbush is going to try to lead a war against Abarat?

Hmmm... if this was said in 2004 (and book 2 was released in 2006) I wonder if Clive Barker hasn't changed that part of the plot. The hats were torn to shreds after all. If Daddy Quackenbush doesn't develop a fantastic ability to sew I can't really see the hat thing happening. Maybe they repaired themselves? Time will tell, I suppose.

But that would be fun, him leading a war against Abarat. Exactly how would he manage that? Just reaching Abarat would be quite a challenge. (Poor, poor Carrion if he is alive and stuck in Hereafter... :

[bleu]

Feb 6, 2009 2:06:09 GMT -5 @munanna said:

Hmmm... if this was said in 2004 (and book 2 was released in 2006) I wonder if Clive Barker hasn't changed that part of the plot. The hats were torn to shreds after all. If Daddy Quackenbush doesn't develop a fantastic ability to sew I can't really see the hat thing happening. Maybe they repaired themselves? Time will tell, I suppose.

But that would be fun, him leading a war against Abarat. Exactly how would he manage that? Just reaching Abarat would be quite a challenge. (Poor, poor Carrion if he is alive and stuck in Hereafter... :

Actually, Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War was indeed published in September 2004. Or according to wikipedia, amazon, The Beautiful Moment, and clivebarker.com, it was. Can you believe it's been almost five years since then?

The hats were torn to shreds and scattered, yeah. But hey--stranger things've happened in these books, eh? I do believe this is going to remain as a future plot line. I have no firm basis for that, no. Just that interview. There was another one (which I sadly cannot find atm) were he talks about how originally the part wherein Bill finds Woflswinkel's hats was only six pages long; not that significant a part of the novel. But then it grew into something larger and surprised him by joining the meat of the story. I wonder how Melissa will factor into that. I feel very bad for her. She's got a terrible lump of a husband and her daughter's been swept away into something much larger (and more dangerous) than anything she's ever known.

[Deleted]

Feb 6, 2009 3:03:03 GMT -5 bleu said:

Feb 6, 2009 2:06:09 GMT -5 @munanna said:

Hmmm... if this was said in 2004 (and book 2 was released in 2006) I wonder if Clive Barker hasn't changed that part of the plot. The hats were torn to shreds after all. If Daddy Quackenbush doesn't develop a fantastic ability to sew I can't really see the hat thing happening. Maybe they repaired themselves? Time will tell, I suppose.

But that would be fun, him leading a war against Abarat. Exactly how would he manage that? Just reaching Abarat would be quite a challenge. (Poor, poor Carrion if he is alive and stuck in Hereafter... :

Actually, Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War was indeed published in September 2004. Or according to wikipedia, amazon, The Beautiful Moment, and clivebarker.com, it was. Can you believe it's been almost five years since then?

The hats were torn to shreds and scattered, yeah. But hey--stranger things've happened in these books, eh? I do believe this is going to remain as a future plot line. I have no firm basis for that, no. Just that interview. There was another one (which I sadly cannot find atm) were he talks about how originally the part wherein Bill finds Woflswinkel's hats was only six pages long; not that significant a part of the novel. But then it grew into something larger and surprised him by joining the meat of the story. I wonder how Melissa will factor into that. I feel very bad for her. She's got a terrible lump of a husband and her daughter's been swept away into something much larger (and more dangerous) than anything she's ever known.

Doh! I looked at the publishing date at Bokia.se, it said 2006 and I didn't bother to look closer. Haha, I only read the book a few weeks ago, so I've been spared the long wait so far. Perhaps the father will find the hats after all, then. Well, it'll certainly be interesting. Regarding Melissa I'm sort of hoping that she'll find another man to love in Abarat. (I know, I know, I'm such a sap. : Someone who appreciates her. Losing Candy again must have been horrible for her, and I really think she'd be much happier in Abarat. And standing by her husband proves a bigger mistake for every stupid thing he does... the woman needs an intervention. But yes, I feel really bad for her too.

Five years..! It just sunk in. Five years! You poor, poor fans! *grouphug* I feel lucky I didn't discover it until just recently.

[malingomango]

hmn imo it does sound a bit unfeasible. He's too lazy to sew . He'd rather stumble to the fridge and pop open another beer and then go sit in his lazyboy to watch reruns of Charmed

[lis77]

Jul 29, 2007 11:59:56 GMT -5 malingomango said:

hey guys i read in an interview that candy's dad becomes all power mad in the 3rd book because he finds the hats of the little midget that was trapped in teh house guarded by cats on that island. What do u think of that? were u expecting that?

Actually I think it befits Candy's Dad very well.
He's addicted to alcohol so it's not a far step that he would get those hats and become addicted to that kind of power as well, in order to hide his hurt and pained self that is deep inside.

Not only will it be interesting but I fully expect to see alot of things about addiction revealed. If it's not one thing you're addicted to you transfer it over to another.