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Sax Solo posted:This is what makes Pratchett so strange. I have read a couple books, including Guards Guards, and not really been impressed at all, yet some people are SUCH FANS and I can't figure out why. Is this how people who hate MST3K feel? He covers a *lot* of ground in his work, and the way he writes evolves significantly from beginning to end. There's probably something he's done over the course of 50-odd novels that taps into something you really care about; if we could find it, you'd then understand why people get so passionate about it. I'm not at all surprised by the "readable but I don't get the hype" reactions; for me, over half of his stuff (including Guards! Guards!) is "sure it's fine but it's not anything I need to read again". And then there's stuff like Jingo, and Monstrous Regiment, and Nation, that are absolutely among my favourite books and things I do go back to again and again. But I'd never expect anyone to react to those the same way I do; the best entry point depends entirely on the reader. MST3K is actually a really good comparison point: it's such a wide-ranging omnibus that there's always going to be dull ones, and ones everyone else loves and you don't see the point of, and then there's ones (which for me are the likes of Double 007 and The Starfighters and Space Mutiny) which are so good you want to go around quoting them everywhere and they keep you watching the next one, in case that one makes you feel like the others did.
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Apr 14, 2024 12:42
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Gleisdreieck posted:Guards! Guards! was okay. Has Pratchett ever written non-genre fiction? If you remove all the fart jokes and references, there's decent writing underneath the layer of crap. 1/5 The thing he wrote with the least overt fantasy trappings is probably Nation, but he would absolutely have taken serious issue with the question. quote:TP: A friend of mine said: It would be impossible for you to win the Booker; all the stars would go out. The world is not constructed for that to happen. quote:Pratchett tells me that the six children's books he's written -- all published by Doubleday and Corgi -- were done to gain legitimacy as a writer. "I wanted to be invited to the best class of writer's functions," he explains seriously though it should be understood that Terry Pratchett is seldom more than half serious. "It pisses me off that fantasy is unregarded as a literary form. When you think about it, fantasy is the oldest form of fiction. What were the storytellers of old doing when they talked about the beginnings of the world? They were weaving fantasies."
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Apr 30, 2024 12:02
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