The Terry Pratchett Thread: For the sake of prisoners and the flight of birds

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The Terry Pratchett Thread: For the sake of prisoners and the flight of birds

Grum: May 7, 2007

Making Money just came in the post and I'll probably drop all other books to read it, but this topic makes me really want to go back and read others and buy any I've missed, which woudld take a while and cant be good financially.

~~I also have Small Gods but could never get past the first 30 pages or so years ago, I'll have to see if I can read it now~~
nevermind that bollocks i was thinking of Eric, don't know how I made that mistake

# ¿ Sep 22, 2007 12:40

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# ¿ May 6, 2024 11:11

Grum: May 7, 2007

Nomenklatura posted:

Unfortunately, I haven't seen anything as unquestionably awesome as the pleas of the unwritten letters from Going Postal, but it's DEFINITELY a nice switch from how dark Thud! was, and Moist has turned into one of the best of the running Discworld protagonists.

The darkness of Thud! made it amazing when Vimes started shouting WHERES MY COW?

which I loved, so, so much

# ¿ Sep 25, 2007 23:52

Grum: May 7, 2007

Keshik posted:

I think it's pretty clear at least from Going Postal (I haven't read Making Money yet, motherfucking Amazon.com gently caress) that Vimes hates everything Moist stands for and would love nothing more than to drag him back in front of the Patrician for something, going "HA! You can't change a con-man's spots!"

Angua seems to like Moist, which makes sense, because Moist is good with the ladies and is good with canines.

Carrot is, of course, Carrot.

Shorts, you can't change a conmans shorts

I don't know, I just recall Vetinari saying 'cant change a leopards shorts' and going :psyduck:

but no one noticed in the book

also I'm hoping that Moist will actually growl under his breath infront of Angua sometime

Grum fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Sep 27, 2007

# ¿ Sep 27, 2007 00:15

Grum: May 7, 2007

Calenth posted:

Admittedly that's more political than Pratchett usually gets (the only other real example I can think of is the Gonne) but none of his books are Bioshock and you're forcing your own reading onto the text if you think they are.

But thats what analysing literature is all about!

# ¿ Sep 30, 2007 00:31

Grum: May 7, 2007

Calenth posted:

Yeah. Pratchett's kinda stuck right now because his best characters (Granny Weatherwax, Vimes, Carrot) have pretty much completed their character arcs. You can tell he's trying to start new "franchises" with Moist and Tiffany Aching.

With Weatherwax, Vimes, Carrot and Moist I felt they were really part of the 'overall' Discworld story but Tiffany Aching felt like it just took place there. Like when an author writes a story set in another's fantasy world.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2007 17:49

Grum: May 7, 2007

Copernic posted:

. The Golem Standard was clearly written in to introduce the Labor Value of money, which is essentially what we use today. But the element it introduces -- AM suddenly has an unstoppable army able to CONQUER THE WORLD -- overshadows its use as a mere monetary basis. It's hard to get excited about, you know, fiscal backing when the entire city is fighting over a superweapon.

And for a book primarily about classical economics, the treatment of the Golem Army takes an unexpected turn. Pratchett seemed to be arguing for a Nobility of Work theory, where the city and people gain worth simply by working. And also that turning the Golem Army loose would shock the social order of the City to its core. The second part is definitely true. But the first? The Golems are the equivalent of fairly impressive machines that improve productive capacity. Aren't a lot of AM residents still starving & underhoused, thanks mostly to the limitations of local technology? You could feed a lot of people with those Golems. And they're going to be underused simply to run telegraphs? I don't know.

It's covered in the book, using them would supply all the labour so the people who are starving and underhoused would now be starving, underhoused and unemployed and that'll just make things worse. Really, all the bases are covered by Moist's and Vetanari's conversation, trying to go deeper is, well, going too deep -- it's a Discworld novel for god's sake.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2007 19:56

Grum: May 7, 2007

PresterJohn posted:

Maybe. People's. Tastes. Differ.

Yeah but what's wrong with Eric?

# ¿ Oct 15, 2007 19:07

Grum: May 7, 2007

PresterJohn posted:

I didn't like it. I liked Moving Pictures more. I liked Monstrous Regiment much more than either.

I could come up with a bunch of elaborate justifications but either your tastes match mine and you don't care or your tastes diverge and you'll take issue with whatever I come up with so what's the point?

Sorry I just wanted to repeat the question because of your response to it, I never managed to finish Eric and I love Monstrous Regiment.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2007 02:14

Grum: May 7, 2007

Calenth posted:

What did you like about Monstrous Regiment? I just found it extremely predictable -- I wasn't a quarter of the way through the book before I guessed what the big "surprise" at the end was going to be.

I read it ages ago and to be honest I can't remember anything about it other than Igor, I just recall enjoying it.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2007 20:04

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# ¿ May 6, 2024 11:11

Grum: May 7, 2007

magimix posted:

Which leads to a question that I've asked before, but for which I've never had an answer: why is the cover-art for US editions of Pratchett's books so god-awfully poo poo compared to the UK versions?

The illustrator and Pratchett talk a lot about it, if I remember correctly. His initial character sketches were pretty close to how Pratchett had invisioned the characters, too.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2007 00:19

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