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Beer_Suitcase posted:Rincewind sounds like The Monarch from Venture brothers but toned down Well poo poo now i'll never be able to unhear that in my head. Wonder if my 5yo is old enough to enjoy some of Pterry's children books like the Bromeliad trilogy.
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Jun 22, 2021 02:16
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CommonShore posted:I'm reading Discworld from the start in publishing order and I just read Lords and Ladies. That may have been my favourite one yet. "Greebo went off like a claymore mine" is easily one of my favorite lines ever.
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Jul 10, 2021 15:45
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Kesper North posted:To me everything after the first encounter with the Summoning Dark is Vimes dissociating and depersonalizing trauma to get himself through stuff. He's talking to his Inner Watchman, the part of him that stretched and grew as a person during his encounter with the Summoning Dark and which has detached itself from his core identity in order to serve as a sort of internal check, to ensure that he himself does not become a monster. It shows back up in Snuff - he interviews the darkness at a crime scene. I can't think of it in any other books, with things like the Vimes Elbow taking out werewolves being mostly a dirty street fighter catching over confident assholes unaware because they're just used to prey not fighting back. Even in Raising Steam he's just described as an older dude with Pratchett's usual take on tough old guys, like the grocerer from Going Postal. Him having excellent night vision goes back to The Fifth Elephant as well i think.
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Jul 15, 2021 01:36
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I'm legit trying to think up of some of Pratchett's politics or philosophy that I'd find uncomfortable/disappointing and I'm coming up blessedly short. And arseholes trying to pressgang him in death to their side getting called is great.
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Aug 1, 2021 15:35
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Xander77 posted:Gun control in Night Watch? I don't recall that being a thing unless it's a metaphor that I missed. There's the Gunn in Feet of Clay but even that was "wtf why didn't you let the loving people trained in guarding guard this loving thing?" Followed by "holy poo poo this is a terrible thing!" And ending with Carrot breaking it and burying it.
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Aug 1, 2021 17:23
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Feliday Melody posted:There's also the part where Lord Vetinari wins pretty much.... Every single conflict ever? I mean, he walks with a bad limp ever since Feet of Clay because he went "yeah let's just let the assasains look after this thing" and Mr. Pin did manage to take him down in The Truth. But i do get what you mean.
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Aug 1, 2021 19:20
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bunnyofdoom posted:Wasn't he shot in Men at Arms? Yeah i hosed up which book was which - that's the one i've been meaning. He's poisoned in Feet of Clay but figures it out. I also always read him coming out on top throughout the books as just being really good at rolling with the punches such as in Making Money or even Jingo. He was ready to go to war (and lose!) in the latter until Leonard made an off-handed comment to him. It's in the later books (Unseen Academicals coming to mind along with Snuff and Thud!) where he's at the point that Feliday said. Basically once Morpork has "modernized".
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Aug 1, 2021 22:54
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Lancre's basically the ideal version of that I think. There's the King and they're okay with that as long as he doesn't really bother them. There's also the Tyrant in Small Gods that gets elected and ignored for the most part.
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Aug 5, 2021 13:50
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There's 71-Hour Ahmed and the other Klatchans as well. Although Klatch kind of feels like it gets ignored post-Jingo but most of that could be how focused the different books are in either Lancre or AM. Witches Abroad as well. It seems like Terry leaned more in to the fantasy races as the various model minorities.
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Aug 18, 2021 20:26
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I always read Rincewind's misadventures being less about poking fun at fantasy tropes (which is certainly there) and more about using a very inempt wizzard who also happens to be a very skilled runner to give broad strokes for some new setting that would get touched on later. You don't get much from him latter because there's no real new places left untouched on the map (and because "rincewind runs very fast away from danger into more danger" can only be written so many times). He even lampshades this in the last hero when he volunteers to be launched with Leonard and Carrot. "Oh some dangerous unknown unexplored place yeah no i'll end up going here anyway."
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Aug 19, 2021 00:37
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ulmont posted:This may be true from books 3 on, but The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are both straight fantasy parody. Oh absolutely with you there. I was talking more about Interesting Times, Sourcerer, The Lost Continent, etc.
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Aug 19, 2021 12:59
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Imagined posted:I'm reading Interesting Times for the first time right now and by Pratchett standards it feels like there is some pretty cringy stuff in there. Some of it is the orientalism you'd expect, but surprising things that jumped out at me were the centrist boomer stuff about how it's pointless to try to change the system and anyone trying to lead a revolution is just out for their own glory, etc. It felt like Terry was more taking the piss out of revolutionary vanguardism and the sort of mindset where you kill off all the sparrows you can find only to be surprised that the next year you're up to your knees in locusts.
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Aug 24, 2021 13:49
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The Octavio keeps him from dying from falling over the edge of the Disc but he doesn't *know* that he'd survive. It does not keep him from being hit over the head with a kosh or otherwise being made to go through some very uncomfortable situations. Rincewind got very good at running away from things as much from the latter as the former due to having to make do in AM back when the Broken Drum's bar fights weren't about scoring points.
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Aug 24, 2021 16:09
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Imagined posted:Which means that how much you rate particular ones says more about you than it does about the series. I think both Reaper Man and Hogfather have had the most emotional impact on me to this day. Feet of Clay's up there as well. I'll also cop to tearing up to one of the pages in The Last Hero. Has anyone here seen the Troll Bridge movie? I keep meaning to try and watch it but like gently caress can I figure out how.
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Oct 25, 2021 16:00
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Feliday Melody posted:I'm amazed. You took my choice and you were the first response. Going Postal is the one that comes to mind with the Golem Trust. And it's Feet of Clay that introduces that character. I'd love to see Men At Arms as well if only for the scene with Detritus in the pork futures warehouse. I think that one stuck with me so much because until it was figured out what sort of learning environment to stick me in as a kid I was just seen as stupid.
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Nov 2, 2021 01:05
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I mean we got The Hogfather.
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Nov 2, 2021 21:29
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I vaguely recall enjoying the Soul Music cartoon when I stumbled on it, if only due to how they handled the "we're bigger than cheeses" line. Really do wish that we had more cartoons than that and Wyrd Sisters.
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Dec 1, 2021 16:08
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Vimes and his reforms in the Watch are also modeled less off of modern policing and more what Robert Peel did - it's why there's the reference to Sammies in The Fifth Elephant. It's a romanticized view of that sort of Victorian policing. They're still underfunded and undermanned and even in The Night Watch you have Vimes bemoaning how recruits still go on patrol with the old street monsters. He's just smart enough to realize that making people behave like a copper would - basically everyone sitting very quietly in a dark room with their hands on the table - doesn't really work. And he's still frantically trying to make a tiny raft on a roiling sea of evil like Vetinari called out in Guards!, Guards!. People are people, and all people have a design flaw where they bend at the knees too easily.
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Dec 9, 2021 00:02
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Complete with agents provocateur to use it as an excuse for further crackdowns from the state.
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Dec 11, 2021 01:17
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He absolutely doesn't care. He says as much about his views on what is True verses true when Brutha asks him what really happened to the person they sent to Ephebia in the first place.
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Dec 14, 2021 20:53
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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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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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Levar Burton reading Troll Bridge on his most recent podcast was an unexpected but welcomed surprise.
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Feb 17, 2022 20:39
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I appreciate Magrat just assuming that if Nanny was telling the story that it was more than likely sexual.
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Mar 28, 2022 18:53
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Old Kentucky Shark posted:Lofty and Tonker. They're the ones that spring immediately to mind, yeah. Based off Carpe Jugulum I think most vampire's orientation can be listed as "yes". And that one wizard introduced in Unseen Academics is likewise just a "yes', since there's a line about him sleeping with another woman's husband or something similar. Nanny Ogg might have mentioned others as well but none come immediately to mind. thetoughestbean posted:Iirc the Dwarf King is in a (mostly hidden) hetero relationship The King is pregnant in Raising Steam and I think gives birth towards the end? I can't recall if the major issue most ultra-dox dwarves would have is due to it "outing" the King as female or them generally being more liberal. citybeatnik fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Jun 6, 2022 |
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Jun 6, 2022 02:00
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Terry said before that having folks towards the end of their lives sending him letters saying they hope Death was like he had written him were the ones that made him have to stop and think.
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Jun 19, 2022 00:03
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DACK FAYDEN posted:Eric has the demon in charge of hell that's really into middle management and bureaucracy It also has Rincewind telling his ancestor not-Odysseus that yeah he'll make it home safe and sound. Only to then run into him later in hell where he's shouted at about how he left out all the poo poo he'd have to go through to get home.
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Jun 30, 2022 22:16
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Alhazred posted:I find it kinda weird how his YA stuff is more nuanced about things like that. There's no way Tiffany Aching would have delivered that verdict. Tbf Granny Aching's approach to teaching the king's dog to never kill sheep again involved having a ewe repeatedly beat the poo poo out of it.
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Jul 2, 2022 00:09
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I need to pick Nation back up - I got fairly far into it on a flight but my dad-duties on the vacation kept me from continuing on. Also had a realization while telling our dog she couldn't have any of the meatloaf we made because it has onions and other stuff in it. The chef in Making Money having a violent reaction whenever he hears a certain word was initially just funny to me (dogs wouldn't like spicy food after all). But it makes sense because dogs can't eat garlic, per- Nom d'une bouilloire! Bugger.
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Jul 15, 2022 17:28
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tsob posted:I barely see them mentioned, but I think the "Science of Discword" books are probably some of my favorite Pratchett stuff, just because I enjoy both halves and I'm not honestly sure if I prefer Pratchett's side about the Unseen University wizards being a gaggle of barely functioning idiots who pull through or Cohen and Stewarts half musing about related science topics in a very easy to digest pop-science way more. I definitely prefer the approach later Wizard stuff took to focusing on the misadventures of a dozen or so UU head men over Rincewind, with Rincewind more the put upon schmuck they drag behind them than focusing solely on Rincewind as the earlier Wizarding books did. The wizard's stunned awe at how a bunch of idiot, violent apes managed to survive in the face of a magic-free, uncaring universe sums up everything you need to know about Terry's philosophy.
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Aug 6, 2022 06:53
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I think the only people in the book you're meant to identify with are Not Thomas Aquinus, Not Diogenes, the Not Man In
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Aug 17, 2022 13:06
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Moist's adventures with Vimes in Raising Steam was mildly entertaining at least, and Snuff has the bit where one song by a goblin brought the Pateician basically close to tears. Aa for the Crown i agree with the spoiled part as well. Still read it all because by god i owed it to him to see it through.
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Oct 10, 2022 15:47
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I'm picturing a literal Wolfman Jack with a werewolf refugee from Überwald accidentally broadcasting Imp y Celyn's harp performance.
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Oct 11, 2022 12:58
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The bit in (i think?) The Fifth Elephant where both Sam and Sybil both have a tacit agreement not to bring up how much the other snores hits me different now that I'm married. That and her trying her best to make him socks and him wearing them because she made them. Terry can't do meet/cute but he can do romance like that.
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Dec 25, 2022 00:34
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BigglesSWE posted:About to finish up The Last Continent. Ridcully is such a gift of a character. Immensely likeable in spite of all of him being what he is. I think part of Ridcully's strength (as it is with all characters like him in the books) is that not only does the book recognize him for what he is but so does the character. Self-awareness (or the lack thereof) seems to be one of the flags that makes a Discworld character a protagonist or antagonist. Moist v Reacher, de Worde v the wealthy, Vimes v everybody.
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Feb 20, 2023 18:09
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thetoughestbean posted:I don’t think so. It’s much more about the institution of the newspaper being set up dervival posted:A large portion of The Truth is Mr. Carney and the Engravers' Guild being pissy at William de Worde and the dwarves, isn't it? De Worde hired on his first reporter because she stormed into his office and called him out on how much they needed the money her dad made carving his letters. And the Wizards were super worried about the dangers of using the same printing press on multiple books with magic seeping in. The "guilds enforcing their own laws" fell out of being brought up as often when The Watch stopped being a joke.
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May 16, 2023 00:32
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The talk of dwarf bread reminded me of the Scone of Stone and the Low King's ax from The Fifth Elephant, both of which have colored my view of the Ship of Theseus problem to the point that I can't grok the opposing view.
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Feb 4, 2024 17:16
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Jedit posted:If you go back to Mort you might like it less for how it ties in to the later books. i always read that less of him being cold and more "that was the best I could do". Mort was going to die, his sand had run out, and the only option was to flip it. They had 16 years to bring about the 'correct' history that Mort originally prevented. Him hammering home to Susan that he took them the instant they crashed to make sure they didn't suffer was similar. She was also talking with Death from 16 years ago, moments after the fight with Mort. Post-Reaper Man Death was the one willing to bluff Fame or whatever that force was by playing the Final Chord and going "BRING THEM BACK". Mad Hamish posted:I was referring to Death's decision in Mort to let Ysabelle leave even though he knew it meant he'd lose her forever. Death's hatred of whomever it was that harmed those kittens in Mort struck me even as a kid as a major change. Plus the bit in Small Gods where he doesn't let himself feel enjoyment about reaping some people but does allow for satisfaction. He also didn't lose her forever - Susan had vague memories about swinging near the wheat field and bouncing on her grandfather's knee. Or, rather, a pillow tied to his knee. Mort and Ysbella just freaked out and stopped the visits as she got older and they realized that death was hereditary. Mad Hamish posted:It's such good book. It is. And at the risk of oversharing the reason i'm posting about it today is that i reread it during a dark time.
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Mar 25, 2024 13:03
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I'm still not sure that it's fair to weigh some of the earlier books against the latter, stronger ones. Except for Pyramids. I think that's the only one i've not found the desire to revisit.
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Mar 25, 2024 14:01
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Undead Hippo posted:Last Hero is basically Kidby's Eric. There's a few pictures towards the end of the book that devastated me in the best way. When the nameless bard performs his song following the heroic sacrifice of the Silver Horde with tears streaming down his face. And when Cohen realizes that Carrot's the Hero because he's willing to stand up to the Horde on his own.
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Mar 31, 2024 19:56
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