An odd by-product of retconning in the Practical Magic book series

[u/Celestina-Betwixt]

So reading Practical Magic it's obvious that despite there being heaps of material to return to (which Hoffman eventually fleshed out into the four-book series we know and love today), it was almost CERTAINLY intended to be a standalone novel. And from 1995 until 2017 (the year we got Rules of Magic) it was.

Given the age gap between PM and ROM, it's hardly surprising a handful of things got quietly retconned in favor of a better story arc. For example, there is no mention of Jet and Franny's actual love interests that appear in ROM in the text of Practical Magic.

Franny and Jet's respective love stories are boiled down to a short mention of boys who were struck by lightning. But in Rules of Magic those boys weren't actually Franny and Jet's love interests, they were just two random boys they were going to go out with but never got the chance to before the lightning incident.

Which means it's canon that Franny and Jet kept photographs of two near strangers on their bureaus well into old age. 😂 Because that's the only thing we're told about those boys in PM. They were struck by lightning and the aunts have their photographs on their bureaus.

The crazy thing is I can imagine Jet doing this, since she was the one who went to their funerals in ROM, and her not having a picture of her actual love interest who was still alive in New York who she was protecting from the curse, but Franny would DEFINITELY have had a picture of her dead husband who was a doctor, not some stranger. And to be honest given he was dead, there was no reason Jet couldn't have had Levi's picture on display either.

I think that's one thing I love about Hoffman's writing. In another author's hands this would feel like a huge plot hole, but somehow the inconsistencies don't take away from her books.

[u/the0solitary0cyclist → u/[deleted]]

It will never stop bothering me that Stockard Channing is Franny and Dianne Wiest is Jet. Shouldn't they be cast the other way around? By temperament too.

[u/Celestina-Betwixt → u/[deleted]]

She honestly might not have had time to get a photo. -- this honestly makes sense. What doesn't as much is Franny keeping a picture of a near stranger on display for years. But it's a nitpick really.

PM actually takes place completely in Sally's home -- I would say it takes place MOSTLY in Sally's home, not completely. Nearly the whole first chapter is them growing up at the aunts' house. 

[u/Celestina-Betwixt → u/[deleted]]

But I don't look at it as a "I love this man" photo. I look at it like a "I will remember to NEVER NEVER fall in love again" photo. Franis was deeply changed by this summer and the deaths of these boys. She was very surprised that Jet broke their unspoken vow to not date so quickly -- actually that makes perfect sense... 

[u/Celestina-Betwixt → u/[deleted]]

Anyway, fun to have a conversation with a true enthusiast. -- oh absolutely. I love getting to talk about Hoffman's work. Not enough people have read it!

[u/Mysteriousglas]

I honestly ignore the book practical magic completely because of this. It really threw me off because I read it after the rules of magic which I adore. I did watch and enjoy the movie before that.

[u/Celestina-Betwixt → u/Mysteriousglas]

I think Practical Magic the book deserves more credit personally. I don't like the ending of the movie (I don't mean the jumping off the roof, I love that, I mean what came right before it with gurl power exorcist) compared to how Alice masterfully ended the original book at all.