|
Sylphosaurus posted:More Lovecraft references: The Patrician also refers to an "incident" that involved Dagon street and a sushi eatery during a full moon. (Damned shame about what happened to Mr. Hong. "Crack-crack-gristle-ARRRRGH!" is no way for a man to go.) I'm wondering if he's setting up for an upcoming book with that, or whether it's just a running joke. Oddly enough, it'd be a parfect venue for a Wizards/Rincewind book if he's ever planning another one, as the Dungeon Dimensions type of story tended to feature them a lot. And I'm surprised by all the hate for the Fourecks book; it had one of the highest WPP* ratios in all of the Discworld, thus making it objectively good. I liked Moving Pictures a lot too, mostly because it had CMOT doing his thing, and the protagonist was likeable enough. Certainly better than Monstrous Regiment or the weaker Witch books, at any rate. And yes, I'm eagerly awaiting the new Lipvig book. *Wizards Per Page, which is the closest one can come to a standardized measurement of non-Vimesian Discworld book quality. Though a rough measurement at best, it does involve numbers, and thus is lent verifiable objective validity. This follows from the finest traditions of econometricians, who have never let sheer ludicrousness get in the way of a good bit of algebra. Nomenklatura fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Sep 23, 2007 |
#
¿
Sep 23, 2007 18:39
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 6, 2024 04:21 |
|
|
Ok, reading Making Money right now... is it just me, or is Pratchett introducing Keynes to the masses?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2007 17:52
|
|
|
Doh-Doh posted:Bah, sucks living in a non-english speaking country. I preordered Making Money from amazon.de, the shipping date was the 24th. But now it has been pushed back to the first week of october 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. (If only for his interactions with Vetinari, which are arguably even better than the Vimes/Vetinari relationship. Only Moist could actually snow Vetinari, and only ol' Havelock could discern when Moist is snowing him. Reading them both do it is one of the highlights of the entire series for me.) Nomenklatura fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Sep 25, 2007 |
|
#
¿
Sep 25, 2007 20:38
|
|
|
Grum posted:The darkness of Thud! made it amazing when Vimes started shouting WHERES MY COW? It's a pity that we haven't seen Moist "from the outside" from the perspective of someone like Vimes, by the way. That's one of my favorite parts of Discworld, and after Making Money, I'm anxious to see what others actually think of the man.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 26, 2007 21:39
|
|
|
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!" I think the thing that might annoy Vimes the most about Lipwig is that (at least in Going Postal) Lipwig is about the only person on the Disc would can keep up with Vetinari, which is why (speculation based on Making Money here) The Lipwig series is really about Vetinari grooming his replacement: not another tyrant, but a popular politician with a gift for bullshit that knows how to take people's money and make them happy he did it. Which may just make Lipwig himself the most important person on the Disc, and considering how much I LIKE the character, that makes me a happy reader indeed. And yes, Carrot is Carrot. Who knows what he's really thinking? Lipwig can read Vetinari, and yet still can't read Carrot. I'd LOVE to see more Lipwig/Carrot scenes, though, based on that speculation above. Their abilities with people compliment each other amazingly; were Carrot ever to become King, he'd need the fully-trained-up Lipwig desperately to add flare and humanity to his somewhat overwhelming ability to dominate and command. Carrot would make a TERRIBLE politician, but he'd need them regardless, and I can't think of a more natural politician than Moist von Lipwig. In any case, now that I've finished it, I can say that Making Money isn't as good as Going Postal, but it is exactly what the series needed after Thud! and I'm really glad that the "industrial revolution" books have a consistent protagonist. Funny how the once heavily anti-establishment Discworld books have been doing so much institution-building, though. He's fixing all his old jokes. Nomenklatura fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Sep 28, 2007 |
|
#
¿
Sep 28, 2007 19:27
|
|
|
Calenth posted:I don't know. I didn't feel that Making Money matched up with Going Postal. It was good, but the plot just wasn't compelling in the way that Postal's was -- it lacked tension, on a lot of levels. I felt like it had been written more to be another Moist book than because he had another compelling Moist story to tell. It didn't have as much tension, but that was mostly because it didn't have a villian anywhere near as compelling as Reacher Gilt. I mean, who doesn't love making fun of self-serving objectivists and hardcore libertarians? Sure, I liked how Making Money was the most thorough fictional reaming-out the gold standard and its slavish followers have ever received, but watching a government functionary and The Best Tyrant Ever drive John Galt to ruin brought a tear to my eye. Nomenklatura fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Sep 29, 2007 |
|
#
¿
Sep 29, 2007 21:12
|
|
|
Calenth posted:Where on earth are you getting the idea that Reacher Gilt was an objectivist/libertarian? Honestly, it's not one of Pratchett's subtler jokes. (Which is what makes this even funnier.) Oh, and the "productive theory of labour"? Yeah, that's Marx. No, sorry, Marx. Maybe Smith earlier, but 9 out of 10 economists agree: if you're into LtoV, you're probably a Marxist. They'd also note that Pratchett stepped squarely into the lump-of-labour fallacy, but that's besides the point. It's the Discworld, not Samuelson's Economics. Edit: holy poo poo, wait, you think Discworld isn't political? The politics are barely concealed! Did you even read Interesting Times, for example, or did you miss that half the damned book was Rincewind going on and on about how tyranny and dictatorship works? Nomenklatura fucked around with this message at 09:03 on Sep 30, 2007 |
|
#
¿
Sep 30, 2007 08:55
|
|
|
Calenth posted:No, he spends the whole book being a pirate. It's excruciatingly obvious who the parallels are too -- the Enron/Worldcom folks also blathered about private enterprise. Not everyone who says the words "private enterprise" is a libertarian or objectivist. GILT. GILT!!! G*LT!!! Ring a bell, perhaps? Maybe a guy named John G*lt? Made a free energy machine in that rather long book by that unfortunately unattractive Russian woman? Might ring a bell. Take your time. As for being an objectivist: first, he was a banker. Second: A passage. Terry Pratchett as Reacher G*lt posted:"Don't patronize me, my lord", said Gilt. "We own the Trunk. It is our property. You understand that? Property is the foundation of freedom. Oh, customers complain about the service and the cost, but customers always complain about such things. We have no shortage of customers at whatever cost. Before the semaphore, news from Genua took months to get here, now it takes less than a day. It is affordable magic. We are answerable to our shareholders, my lord. Not, with respect, to you. It is not your business. It is our business and we will run it according to the market. I hope there are no tyrannies here. This is, with respect, a free city." Third: Another Passage. Terry Pratchett as Reacher G*lt posted:Reacher Gilt chuckled. "Sorry, my lord? Did I understand you correctly? You really intend to continue with this follow, in the face of everything? The Post Office? When we all know that it was a lumbering, smug, overstaffed, overweight monster of a place? It barely earned its keep! It was the very essence and exemplar of public enterprise!... A classic example of a corroded government organization dragging on the public purse." "Property is the foundation of freedom"? "The very essence of a public enterprise"? "We will run it according to the market"? "a lumbering, smug, overstaffed, overweight monster... a classic example of a corroded government organization?" The man is the living, breathing, Discworld version of a Randroid. If he turned out to be a liar, a cheat, and a pirate, and was soundly beaten and humiliated by (what amounts to) a politician, that is because Terry Pratchett is serving notice of how he feels about their ilk, and if it drives them to this level of denial, so much the better. quote:The politics are generally very conventional and mainstream; he doesn't get controversial, and he doesn't get into political theory. He'll pick issues here and there, like women in the military or gun control, but he isn't a theorist and he doesn't address political theory in his writing the way that someone like, say, China Mieville or Heinlein does. Or, for that matter, Ayn Rand. Yes, the books get political, but they aren't Bioshock. Well, almost everybody. Nomenklatura fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Oct 1, 2007 |
|
#
¿
Oct 1, 2007 05:28
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 6, 2024 04:21 |
|
|
Hentaikid posted:Jeffrey Jones (As well as Alan Rickman) was Terry's casting choice for Vetinari, at least some years ago Rickman, on the other hand, seems ideal. The only problem is that people might start thinking "Lord Snape", and we haven't seen him do a good eyebrow arch.
|
|
#
¿
May 5, 2008 14:58
|
|