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Some good news about the Watch, I'd be happy to wait if they did a TV movie adaption of Guards! Guards and (my personal favourite, despite nuking anything musket related) Men At Arms!
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Aug 30, 2016 15:20
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Dirty Frank posted:Because you like Baxterley you probably like big ideas, so I'd say Small Gods. it's one of prattchet's best and it's totally stand alone. If u like it, look to some reading guides after that and start one of the arcs. He wrote a huge amount of great books you've got tons to look forward to! Nice, I'll check it out, thanks!
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Aug 30, 2016 16:39
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My Lovely Horse posted:It seems unwise to attend that. You'd be amazed to hear that TV production companies don't generally massacre their extras.
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Aug 30, 2016 17:13
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Dirty Frank posted:Because you like Baxterley you probably like big ideas, so I'd say Small Gods. it's one of prattchet's best and it's totally stand alone. If u like it, look to some reading guides after that and start one of the arcs. He wrote a huge amount of great books you've got tons to look forward to! Good Omens.
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Aug 30, 2016 18:16
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Jedit posted:You'd be amazed to hear that TV production companies don't generally massacre their extras. Only because TV budgets are so low. Movie extras are massacred more often than not.
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Aug 30, 2016 20:22
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FreudianSlippers posted:Only because TV budgets are so low. Movie extras are massacred more often than not. indeed
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Aug 30, 2016 22:15
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Jedit posted:The last, uncompleted Discworld novel was Twilight Canyons. Jacob Little, the Disc's angriest pacifist, is co-opted by Vetinari in the same way as Moist von Lipwig to solve a mystery in a retirement home for non-humans. And that's all I'm going to tell you. I wouldn't have said that much if Rob hadn't loving shredded it. Ah man, that sounds like it would have been pretty good. e: The title sounds like kind of a play on Twin Peaks, especially with the murder mystery angle
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Sep 2, 2016 00:20
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chiasaur11 posted:Thud has a reference to the London Underground's logo towards the end. Gets less common, and more subtle, but it's too ingrained in the Discworld to go away entirely. oh, you motherfucker
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Sep 3, 2016 18:43
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Reading the books in rapid succession has revealed to me how much Pratchett loving loved the phrase "bullet head". It's his fruit cart.
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Sep 5, 2016 07:44
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Jerry Cotton posted:Reading the books in rapid succession has revealed to me how much Pratchett loving loved the phrase "bullet head". It's his fruit cart. He mainly uses it to describe dwarfs. It's part of a long running joke that they make their helmets to fit the shape of their heads.
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Sep 5, 2016 08:43
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Jedit posted:He mainly uses it to describe dwarfs. It's part of a long running joke that they make their helmets to fit the shape of their heads. It's used for beasts and humans as well, at least once per book (so far).
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Sep 5, 2016 08:48
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Jerry Cotton posted:Reading the books in rapid succession has revealed to me how much Pratchett loving loved the phrase "bullet head". It's his fruit cart. I've also noticed that he consistently describes heaving bosoms, and there's usually something in there about a darkness that is darker than dark.
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Sep 5, 2016 18:14
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He generally likes opposites of common things that are something more than just the absence of that thing, as evidenced by all the stuff about becoming knurd.
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Sep 5, 2016 19:35
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My Lovely Horse posted:He generally likes opposites of common things that are something more than just the absence of that thing, as evidenced by all the stuff about becoming knurd. I just read about the anti crimes in reaper man, such as whitemailing. Another fun part is the language in reaper man about there being a brief transitional period until a new death has formed, with minor sideeffects is phrased very very similarly to some of the stuff that was being said about the UK's economy shortly after the brexit vote.
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Sep 6, 2016 12:26
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In the last few Disc books he uses the phrase "at speed" so often it drove me mad, especially in Raising Steam.
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Sep 6, 2016 20:25
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precision posted:In the last few Disc books he uses the phrase "at speed" so often it drove me mad, especially in Raising Steam. 
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Sep 7, 2016 22:20
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precision posted:In the last few Disc books he uses the phrase "at speed" so often it drove me mad, especially in Raising Steam. It's only once every 30 pages or so (12 times, counting "at top speed", "at terrible speed", and the like, over 364 pages, or so Kindle tells me).
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Sep 9, 2016 17:31
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ulmont posted:It's only once every 30 pages or so (12 times, counting "at top speed", "at terrible speed", and the like, over 364 pages, or so Kindle tells me). I find that incredibly hard to believe, I listened to the audiobook and I could swear I heard it dozens of times.
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Sep 11, 2016 04:29
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precision posted:I find that incredibly hard to believe, I listened to the audiobook and I could swear I heard it dozens of times. There's a well-known psychological phenomenon involved in reading/listening where you overestimate the presence of phrases or words that stick out to you. It's related to the process where you see words everywhere for a while after you learn them.
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Sep 11, 2016 04:32
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Fact: Cheery Littlebottom is the most adorable character in the entire series and ties with Cuddy (RIP) and Glod Glodson as Best Dwarf. Sorry Rhys, but you were kind of a dick to Vimes during the whole Koom Valley incident and that detracts from your score. And I really wish Brick had shown up more often after Thud!; his being adopted by Detritus brought a tear to my eye.
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Sep 11, 2016 04:34
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Screaming Idiot posted:Fact: Cheery Littlebottom is the most adorable character in the entire series and ties with Cuddy (RIP) and Glod Glodson as Best Dwarf. They're great but surely Carrot is the best dwarf?
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Sep 11, 2016 05:11
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I just love Cheery Littlebottom so much. I'm pretty sure she's half of why Feet of Clay and the Fifth Elephant rate so highly in my internal Discworld Rating system. e: Carrot's pretty good but for all that he's described as 'simple' and 'straightforward' honestly I have a lot of trouble getting a proper bead on him. We don't get inside his head much, he's basically always seen from someone else's perspective. Dude spooks me a little? On the other hand Cheery is a forensic investigator and a sweetheart and singlehandedly triggered a dwarf feminist revolution. But she still appreciates pink drinks with little umbrellas. I'd hang out with Cheery any day. YggiDee fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Sep 11, 2016 |
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Sep 11, 2016 05:16
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Brainiac Five posted:There's a well-known psychological phenomenon involved in reading/listening where you overestimate the presence of phrases or words that stick out to you. It's related to the process where you see words everywhere for a while after you learn them. 
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Sep 11, 2016 05:57
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DACK FAYDEN posted:Which is called the "Baader-Meinhof phenomenon" or the frequency illusion, depending on who you ask I thought the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon was when you overestimate the presence of the phrase "kill rich people" in the 99% of Das Kapital that you haven't read. Now, can everyone please stop talking about how they could see the Alzheimer's catching up with Pterry in his work, because it didn't and you couldn't. The problem was always that he was losing his sight and ability to read, which meant he couldn't review his work as well as he had and later on was dependent on Rob to type it up for him as well. The Alzheimer's came on only in the last few months of his life, and the progress was so rapid that he was writing one day in December 2014, hospitalised the next, and when his family took him home he wasn't there any more. And if you want to know the real Pterry's last recorded words before the disease took him away, here they are: "That was a load of absolute bollocks." Oh, and I finally finished The Long Cosmos last week. It's of a piece with the others, which suggests the collaboration all along was a barnstorming where Baxter was the main writer while Pterry would inject plot points and short sections. The book itself doesn't resolve anything, but then that was never the point of a series about an infinite universe.
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Sep 11, 2016 10:19
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Jedit posted:I thought the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon was when you overestimate the presence of the phrase "kill rich people" in the 99% of Das Kapital that you haven't read. because of the Alzheimer's.
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Sep 11, 2016 11:10
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Disgusting Coward posted:because of the Alzheimer's. Yeah I think you're confusing dementia, one of the symptoms of Alzheimer's, with all the other symptoms of Alzheimer's that he had been increasingly plagued with for several years.
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Sep 11, 2016 11:37
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Brainiac Five posted:There's a well-known psychological phenomenon involved in reading/listening where you overestimate the presence of phrases or words that stick out to you. It's related to the process where you see words everywhere for a while after you learn them. Oh I know, and even being aware of this phenomenon I still feel absolutely certain I heard it more than 12 times.
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Sep 11, 2016 21:20
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YggiDee posted:e: Carrot's pretty good but for all that he's described as 'simple' and 'straightforward' honestly I have a lot of trouble getting a proper bead on him. We don't get inside his head much, he's basically always seen from someone else's perspective. Dude spooks me a little?
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Sep 11, 2016 23:08
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Fat Samurai posted:That's the point of Carrot and every other (observant) character in the books is also a little wary of him. I was never sure! The books always talk about how everyone knows Carrot and everyone trusts Carrot and how much everyone in Ankh Morpork loves Carrot so I figured maybe I was missing something.
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Sep 11, 2016 23:14
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YggiDee posted:I was never sure! The books always talk about how everyone knows Carrot and everyone trusts Carrot and how much everyone in Ankh Morpork loves Carrot so I figured maybe I was missing something. Sam Vimes spends a lot of time noticing how much people love and trust Carrot. You don't get the idea he's thrilled with that fact.
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Sep 12, 2016 00:58
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Carrot is literally Discworld Superman. Except he doesn't bother ever being Clark Kent.
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Sep 12, 2016 02:07
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YggiDee posted:e: Carrot's pretty good but for all that he's described as 'simple' and 'straightforward' honestly I have a lot of trouble getting a proper bead on him. We don't get inside his head much, he's basically always seen from someone else's perspective. Dude spooks me a little?
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Sep 12, 2016 02:20
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Anyway long story short, Carrot weirds me out, Cheery is great, we could hang out and talk about margaritas and chemistry and shoes together.
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Sep 12, 2016 02:28
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Beefeater1980 posted:They're great but surely Carrot is the best dwarf? No, Carrot is just The Worst Dwarf. He's tall and handsome and a genius but so very simple and likeable and lovable and it's totally not weird at all that Angua thinks of herself as his dog and everyone loves him and on and on and on. He's a parody that accidentally turned into an example of what Pratchett was parodying. I let out a little cheer when Wolfgang went Goku on his rear end. I really liked Carrot in Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms, but he got a little insufferable after that. In mitigation I do love how he is literally the only person on the Disc with the idea to ask Death about a murder. It's an obvious idea in hindsight.
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Sep 12, 2016 04:39
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chiasaur11 posted:Sam Vimes spends a lot of time noticing how much people love and trust Carrot. Let's be fair. Since he quit drinking, the sole and only thing Sam Vimes has been thrilled with is his wife and kid, and those rare occasions when he gets to chase someone or frustrate Vetinari momentarily.
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Sep 12, 2016 04:50
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Liquid Communism posted:Let's be fair. Since he quit drinking, the sole and only thing Sam Vimes has been thrilled with is his wife and kid, and those rare occasions when he gets to chase someone or frustrate Vetinari momentarily. That sounds like a pretty good life. "Frustrate Vetinari momentarily" probably deserves a medal for bravery if you do it once, let alone as a matter of professional course.
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Sep 12, 2016 05:43
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Screaming Idiot posted:No, Carrot is just The Worst Dwarf. He's tall and handsome and a genius but so very simple and likeable and lovable and it's totally not weird at all that Angua thinks of herself as his dog and everyone loves him and on and on and on. He's a parody that accidentally turned into an example of what Pratchett was parodying. I let out a little cheer when Wolfgang went Goku on his rear end. I really liked Carrot in Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms, but he got a little insufferable after that. Uh, no. It's hosed up. It's something Angua constantly has issues with because it's weird and kind of hosed up, and part of the problem is, because Carrot is Carrot, it's hard to tell how much of that is on him, and it's something that can't be addressed like you could with anyone else, because Carrot's whole charismatic hard to argue with thing is so intrinsically tied into his nature. Like, the central problem with their relationship is that it's nearly impossible to tell how much of liking Carrot is that you like Carrot, and how much is that Carrot is not-exactly-supernaturally likable. Someone like Vimes or Vetinari can more or less get through, because they have the absurd levels of cynicism and personal distrust that mean they don't let their thought go free anyway, so Carrot just adds one more reason they shouldn't trust themselves. Someone like Colon or Nobby is fine, because they don't much bother with that kind of question. But Angua is at ground zero, and she's at the exact wrong level of awareness, because it only tangles her in deeper.
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Sep 12, 2016 10:10
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YggiDee posted:and everyone trusts Carrot No, everyone likes Carrot. Surprisingly few people trust him. There's a difference. Even Carrot doesn't completely trust Carrot, that's why he's just a Watchman. Because he knows drat well that people will obey him just because he's Carrot and he doesn't trust himself with that kind of power outside of using it to enforce the law. Stroth fucked around with this message at 12:34 on Sep 13, 2016 |
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Sep 13, 2016 12:30
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Screaming Idiot posted:He's a parody that accidentally turned into an example of what Pratchett was parodying. Yeah, I agree. Carrot is one of the few things in Discworld that absolutely do not work for me. I think I get what Prachett was trying to do with him, but it just doesn't work for me, he is incredible bland an uninteresting character. I also have the feeling, and I think Prachett confirmed that somewhere in an interview, that his view an Carrot changed pretty significantly as time went on. He is basically the main character in Guards Guards, but each subsequent book reduces his screen time (pagetime?) significantly, until he basically just another watchmen. On the one hand, that is an absolute plus in my eyes, but on the other, that is obviously of the reasons I find him boring. Because at least in my eyes, being the potential heir to the throne is in itself not an interesting character trait. Also, the fact that it is always left ambiguous whether or not his behavior is an act or not does bug me a lot, since it is kind of the main difference between being a genuinely nice person or a manipulative psychopath. e X fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Sep 13, 2016 |
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Sep 13, 2016 15:25
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e X posted:Carrot is one of the few things in Discworld that absolutely do not work for me. I think I get what Prachett was trying to do with him, but it just doesn't work for me, he is incredible bland an uninteresting character. I also have the feeling, and I think Prachett confirmed that somewhere in an interview, that his view an Carrot changed pretty significantly as time went on. He is basically the main character in Guards Guards, but each subsequent book reduces his screen time (pagetime?) and in my eyes, that is an absolute plus on the one hand, but on the other one of the reasons I find him boring. we are told a lot about Carrot, but we rarely see him do stuff. Carrot's kind of interesting because he IS a much deeper character with a storied history and supposedly a prophesied destiny. He just chose to reject all that and be a Good Copper instead. He's far from my favourite but I do like the little ways that people perceive him. Like Vimes really doesn't trust that anybody could be that genuinely nice. Angua thinks of him as being incredibly intelligent, because only a really smart person could be that simple and plain without being a gullible fool.
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Sep 13, 2016 15:31
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