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Jedit posted:Yes, but the closest Disc analogue to the Met is the Watch when Vimes first joined. Which, in turn, is like the London police before the Met was founded on the Peelian principles. Vimes isn't what a copper is; he's what a copper should be. There is also a bit in Jingo (I think) where Vimes thinks about how he is only ever supposed to solve 'little' crimes.
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Dec 14, 2021 23:47
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I mean, it's okay to think all cops are bastards and cop-centered media is copaganda, and ALSO enjoy the Watch books or sit down for a Law and Order rerun now and then. The damage they do is in getting society to view "police=hardworking goodguys" as the default, and you can certainly read the books while being aware that that they're about an idealized version of what people wish the cops were really like. I wonder if people in the 13th century or whatever were sitting there talking about how there are some really great King Arthur stories but it really whitewashes how brutal the knights are to us.
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Dec 15, 2021 02:17
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It also doesn't hurt that the Watch, in Anhk-Morpork, is a relatively small gang. This is a city where the Thieves have effectively unionized and Vetinari is black-heartedly pragmatic enough that rather than try to stop them and face an attempt to overthrow them he sets limits and taxes them, and hiring assassins is considered classy.
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Dec 15, 2021 07:18
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Liquid Communism posted:It also doesn't hurt that the Watch, in Anhk-Morpork, is a relatively small gang. You also learn a lot about the Assassins Guild in Pyramids. First, even the most famous Assassins complete at most 30 contracts in their entire career. Second, very few new Assassins graduate each year. If you work it out, the Guild only kills about 40 people a year. But to maintain its exclusivity and its high prices it has to make sure that other people don't go round murdering for money either. Which probably turns out to be most of the work it does. Like the Thieves Guild, they're just another part of the law enforcement of Ankh-Morpork - if anything, less wittingly than the Thieves.
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Dec 15, 2021 11:02
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Phenotype posted:I mean, it's okay to think all cops are bastards and cop-centered media is copaganda, and ALSO enjoy the Watch books or sit down for a Law and Order rerun now and then. The damage they do is in getting society to view "police=hardworking goodguys" as the default, and you can certainly read the books while being aware that that they're about an idealized version of what people wish the cops were really like. AKAB All Knights Are Bastards
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Dec 15, 2021 11:29
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thetoughestbean posted:AKAB William is, at least
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Dec 16, 2021 22:45
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I got a hardback copy of Nanny Ogg’s cookbook for Christmas. I’m super excited. This is one of very few Discworld things I’ve never read through before
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Dec 25, 2021 02:54
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ConfusedUs posted:I got a hardback copy of Nanny Ogg’s cookbook for Christmas. I’m super excited. This is one of very few Discworld things I’ve never read through before I remember trying the curry recipe in college and ending up with it being more of a soup.
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Dec 25, 2021 03:43
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citybeatnik posted:I remember trying the curry recipe in college and ending up with it being more of a soup. I'm trying to figure out how this is a double entendre and failing
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Dec 25, 2021 04:07
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SirSamVimes posted:Death having a cameo in every book is one of my favourite Discworld traditions. "YOU HAVE PERHAPS HEARD THE SAYING THAT HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE." "...Yes?" "IN TIME, YOU WILL FIND OUT THAT IS NOT TRUE."
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Dec 26, 2021 00:52
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Covid cancelled my plans and my SO is working over xmas so in the empty house I read Hogfather on the 24th and 25th because by sheer coincidence it was the next one in my sequential reading of discworld. It's one of the best ones in the series, isn't it?
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Dec 26, 2021 17:46
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Hogfather absolutely is one of the best ones. In my opinion this is because of the part when Death points out to Susan that it was necessary to save the Hogfather to ensure the Sun rose again after the winter solstice, because the Sun rising and a flaming ball of gas coming up over the horizon are not the same.
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Dec 26, 2021 18:23
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Anyone watch The Abominable Snow Baby yet?
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Dec 26, 2021 18:40
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Mad Hamish posted:Hogfather absolutely is one of the best ones. In my opinion this is because of the part when Death points out to Susan that it was necessary to save the Hogfather to ensure the Sun rose again after the winter solstice, because the Sun rising and a flaming ball of gas coming up over the horizon are not the same. That and Death asking what the harvest can hope for save for the care of the reaper man in that book hit me *hard* and as silly as it is to admit informs me to this day. That and "there is no justice, there's just us".
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Dec 26, 2021 18:49
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citybeatnik posted:That and Death asking what the harvest can hope for save for the care of the reaper man in that book hit me *hard* and as silly as it is to admit informs me to this day. That and "there is no justice, there's just us". That's the other amazing bit from the Death novels. Reaper Man also had a spectacular impact on folk dancers. Many Morris dancing sides do a Dark Morris, although we have trouble getting the octiron bells.
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Dec 26, 2021 18:56
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CommonShore posted:Covid cancelled my plans and my SO is working over xmas so in the empty house I read Hogfather on the 24th and 25th because by sheer coincidence it was the next one in my sequential reading of discworld. It’s one of the best just because it’s got all glitter on the cover. I got it for Christmas in [whatever year it came out] and it remains one of the few things guaranteed to make me feel Christmassy.
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Dec 28, 2021 14:05
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citybeatnik posted:That and Death asking what the harvest can hope for save for the care of the reaper man in that book hit me *hard* and as silly as it is to admit informs me to this day. That and "there is no justice, there's just us". Reaper Man was my first Discworld book. I read it as a teen after spotting it on the library new arrivals shelf, thinking it had a cool cover and looked interesting. I've since re-read it numerous times, with my latest re-read finishing last night. I have to say the book's themes and central messages are hitting a lot harder now at 40+ than they were at 16 or whatever. It really is a magnificent meditation on the meaning of life and somehow manages to convey the classic message of "life is only worth living because it's limited" superbly well despite only being a silly fantasy comedy. It's also kind of comforting to be reminded of how the big questions are something most people think of at times, rather than something only I'm grappling with. Reaper Man posted:Was that what it was really like to be alive? The feeling of darkness dragging you forward? How could they live with it? And yet they did, and even seemed to find enjoyment in it, when surely the only sensible course would be to despair. Amazing. To feel you were a tiny living thing, sandwiched between two cliffs of darkness. How could they stand to be alive? Let's see how I feel about Reaper Man in 20 years after several more re-reads!
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Dec 28, 2021 16:04
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Canuckistan posted:Anyone watch The Abominable Snow Baby yet? We just finished it! It's really cute.
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Dec 29, 2021 04:52
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The old version of Hogfather vanished from the US Audible site about a month ago without being replaced by the new one, which is starting to get a little silly.
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Jan 4, 2022 10:55
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Mad Hamish posted:That's the other amazing bit from the Death novels. How'd the stick and bucket dance work out for you though
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Jan 5, 2022 01:02
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I've reading back through all the discworld books in order as some I read only once many many years ago. I'm on Sourcery now which definitely isn't a favourite, and I'm really looking forward to finally getting to the witches. I think I'm just not the biggest fan of the wizards compared to the watch or the witches. Maybe it's also because they feature so heavily in Death books and I always want more Death and less wizard buffoonery. Mad Hamish posted:Hogfather absolutely is one of the best ones. In my opinion this is because of the part when Death points out to Susan that it was necessary to save the Hogfather to ensure the Sun rose again after the winter solstice, because the Sun rising and a flaming ball of gas coming up over the horizon are not the same. I recently did my festive Christmas reread of Hogfather and still remember how hard this passage hit me the first time I read it and how suddenly it brought it from a fantasy novel into my understanding of the real world.
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Jan 5, 2022 12:52
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Enfys posted:
For me its the death books I struggle the most with - apart from Hogfather.
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Jan 5, 2022 13:58
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Phy posted:How'd the stick and bucket dance work out for you though Years before I joined there was a Stick and Bucket Dance that they wouldn't talk about - apparently it led to too many injured knuckles or something. The year before covid hit we did borrow and re-work a dance from a border side in the UK and changed it to involve buckets, but I don't recall precisely how it went at this point aside from being very elaborate.
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Jan 5, 2022 14:45
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Just finished Nation, one of the last Pratchett books I hadn’t read. It took me a while to get to it, I think partly because I’ll be sad when there are no new Pratchett works left for me to discover. Not a lot to say about it, started it Friday night and finished it today, so I definitely found it both compelling and enjoyable. A more modern Robinson Crusoe story, basically, with all the wit and charm and optimistic hopefulness (married with a dash of cynicism) that you’d expect from Pratchett. I also really liked how he foretold elements of the third act, both explicitly in text with the framing that this was a recollection, and also through the Chekhov’s gun type scenarios he set up. Big recommendation.
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Jan 16, 2022 20:33
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Nation is pretty great. That scene on the beach where Mau disassociates... 
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Jan 16, 2022 21:38
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Nation may be my favorite of all his books.
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Jan 17, 2022 05:21
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:Nation is pretty great. That scene on the beach where Mau disassociates... Nation posted:"She saved my life. Twice." No book holds the power to make me cry more than Nation.
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Jan 17, 2022 09:31
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https://www.hbook.com/story/terry-pratchetts-2009-boston-globe-horn-book-fiction-award-speech-for-nationquote:All authors must occasionally wonder where the magic comes from, and sometimes I wonder where the strength of Daphne came from, and about the source of Mau’s almost incoherent rage. Wherever their origins, I believe that Nation is the best book I have ever written or will write.
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Jan 17, 2022 17:59
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Confirming: Nation is good.
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Jan 17, 2022 18:01
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:Nation is pretty great. That scene on the beach where Mau disassociates... 
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Jan 19, 2022 16:30
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What really got me about that scene were the later references to what Daphne saw as he was clearing the beach, and his remembering the bodies towards the end of the book.
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Jan 19, 2022 17:03
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ConfusedUs posted:Nation may be my favorite of all his books. Nation is most of the best bits from all his other books thrown together coherently with lots of other good bits unique to that text. It really doesn't put a foot wrong.
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Jan 19, 2022 19:44
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It actually was the first Pratchett book that I ever read - it was for sale one day on Kindle and I was vaguely aware that Pratchett was supposed to be a popular writer. I actually just decided to reread it, and although I am only at the beginning, it still is fantastic. Not sure why it took me several months afterwards to check out his other works. It was only by coincidence that I finally decided to give Discworld a go because I kept seeing one or two Great A'tuin avatars around SA and was curious about what they were referencing.
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Jan 20, 2022 15:42
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been rereading the Long Earth series here lately. seeing how Pratchett works with a co-author is pretty interesting. most of the book is pretty tonally different than Discworld, which is probably down to Stephen Baxter, but every now and then a joke that's just utter purestrain Pratchett pops up and it's immediately obvious. also these books are pretty drat good.
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Jan 20, 2022 18:47
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Trin Tragula posted:https://www.hbook.com/story/terry-pratchetts-2009-boston-globe-horn-book-fiction-award-speech-for-nation This was a good interview.
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Jan 20, 2022 19:06
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This talk about Nation is making me want to finally crack open my copy of it. Haven't read Pratchett in quite a while, but I decided to reread Guards! Guards! over the last week (this would be the third time I've read it at least) because it was an old favorite. It definitely held up, though it was much more cynical than I remembered, even if that cynicism served the story well. If nothing else, it made Vimes and the Patrician's last conversation about the nature of people really interesting because it put you in Vimes' shoes as the person who's seen the worst in people but wants to believe in them anyway. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to get into it to the extent I was previously due to my current feelings about cops, but that really wasn't much of an issue, partially because Pratchett spends so much of the early book building up the Watch as three pathetic sadsacks and one naïve fool who just doesn't understand the way this whole thing works before building up their "heroic" qualities. It's clear that the Watch, specifically and especially Vimes, is a blatant idealization of what the police should be, which could easily come across as a whitewashing, but the thing that makes it really interesting is the way the Watch has been forced into complete irrelevance by the policing of the Guilds, which feels oddly prescient considering modern police abolitionist proposals. I guess what I'm saying is that the book does kind of fit the definition of "copaganda," but I could still see someone more eloquent than me making a case that the book is about forging a new, better system from the ashes of the old one (even if the Ankh-Morpork status quo is, as always, ludicrous for the sake of comedy). Though I'm honestly thinking way harder about it than I should be, it fundamentally works just because Vimes is a truly incredible character. Anyway, it was a great read, made me immediately want to pick Men at Arms up and read that one again. I want to get back into Discworld after spending years away so I've got a list of the ones I want to reread: the other Watch novels, Reaper Man, and Small Gods.
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Jan 20, 2022 22:41
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Kudos! I'm digging Guards! Guards!, and I've been reading it (mostly not reading it) for a couple months. Got sidetracked with 80s X-Men comics you see. I'm also not the fastest reader. I too want to get more into Discworld, it's one of my goals this year. I have listened to a bunch of Terry interviews, always great.
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Jan 21, 2022 06:53
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Chloe Jessica posted:been rereading the Long Earth series here lately. seeing how Pratchett works with a co-author is pretty interesting. most of the book is pretty tonally different than Discworld, which is probably down to Stephen Baxter, but every now and then a joke that's just utter purestrain Pratchett pops up and it's immediately obvious. Baxter did the bulk of the writing and Pterry added input and polish. The series gets less funny as it progresses and they basically become Baxter books with a co-creator credit. Still worth reading, though.
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Jan 21, 2022 11:50
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https://twitter.com/PaulKidby/status/1484497496017625090?s=20
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Jan 21, 2022 13:13
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Oh, no, is Kidby an anti-vaxxer?
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Jan 21, 2022 22:28
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