gdp's Comments

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Lords and Ladies'- Part 9

Fri, 30 Oct 2015 14:44:15 +0000

I think you've caught the melancholy in that idea perfectly. (That by itself isn't a spoiler, I shouldn't think.)

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Lords and Ladies'- Part 9

Fri, 30 Oct 2015 14:39:06 +0000

Auditors, ice giants, and eldritch wossnames are omnihomicidal and must be stopped, but they’re still not “bad.” Why elves? I guess because they’re uniformly sadistic, with enough intelligence to be self-aware and free willed, and thus held responsible for their actions. That, and that, and they treat people as things. Playthings, but ultimately, things. What's the greatest sin---maybe the only sin---in Granny Weatherwax's book? What did Om learn not to do with respect to his believers (and also taught the other gods not to do, by means of some arm-twisting), in Small Gods?

Mark Reads : Mark Reads \'Lords and Ladies\'- Part 8

Wed, 28 Oct 2015 18:31:56 +0000

So, so very useful site, although it's very off-topic: http://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.html Though it accepts common trade names in the US, you can also search with the active ingredient/generic name of pretty much everything, and can also look for interactions with food and alcohol too.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Lords and Ladies'- Part 7

Mon, 26 Oct 2015 15:31:52 +0000

I maybe wouldn't go so far as to call them assholes, but they are powerful, and know their power, and not necessarily good for the sake of being good (with a few, late exceptions), and can be arrogant. Oh my Eru can they ever be arrogant. (See also: Fëanor. And sons.) I had always found it significant that Galadriel's response to Frodo offering her the Ring was to perceive it as a test ("I pass the test. I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel."), because it implied to me that she found it possible, within herself, that she could have "failed" and gone the other way. Later, when I read the Silmarillion, I realized that she had been much more warlike in earlier days, and only later had turned all of her steel will into opposing Morgoth and later, Sauron.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Lords and Ladies': Part 2

Tue, 13 Oct 2015 18:00:06 +0000

Good observation, and it makes sense narratively. Granny and Nanny can be shown overcoming new obstacles, but character arcs... at their time of life, well. (And Granny probably can't be having with them anyway.) So if you're going to write a character arc---and if you write a good novel, you should write a character arc---it'll be Magrat's.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Small Gods': Part 17

Tue, 6 Oct 2015 18:41:29 +0000

OK, BRB having nightmares about that Simonetti cover forever. The alternate US cover is the hardcover I have, and I like it quite a bit---I used to use the turtle as an icon on LJ, with the notation "De chelonian mobile." (Guess?) I think my favorite in this batch is the Adult UK Cover, with the Woodcut cover coming a close second. Kirby, could you spoil anything else? You've got this one corner empty there?!

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Small Gods': Part 17

Tue, 6 Oct 2015 18:32:37 +0000

Oh, Mark: V qba’g guvax ur’f na ngurvfg ol nal zrnaf; oryvrs cynlf gbb urnivyl vagb uvf obql bs jbex. And now I really can't wait for a number of future books. Ubtsngure, Srrg bs Pynl in particular. I mean, look, seriously (book destroying spoilers for one of the Watch books):

...naq abj gur tbyrz jnf nzbat gur havirefr. Vg pbhyq srry vg nyy nebhaq, gur chee bs vg, gur ohflarff, gur fcvaavat pbzcyrkvgl bs vg, gur ebne... Gurer jrer ab Jbeqf orgjrra lbh naq vg. Lbh orybatrq gb Vg, Vg orybatrq gb Lbh. Lbh pbhyqa'g ghea lbhe onpx ba Vg orpnhfr gurer Vg jnf, va sebag bs lbh. Qbesy jnf erfcbafvoyr sbe rirel gvpx naq fjreir bs vg. [...] Abg Gubh Funyg Abg. Fnl V Jvyy Abg.

Bs pbhefr Znex vf evtug gung oryvrs vf n znwbe, znwbe gurzr va Qvfpjbeyq. Ohg gurer'f n qvfgvapgvba orgjrra "oryvrs znxrf guvatf erny"---gung'f gur Qvfpjbeyq gurfvf---naq "V oryvrir va [vafreg guvat urer], zrnavat V guvax vg'f erny." Qvqnpglybf' cbvag nobhg gurer orvat ab cbvag va crbcyr oryvrivat va gur Terng Ghegyr be abg cynlf qverpgyl vagb gung, gbb. Ubtsngure va cnegvphyne vf tbvat gb fpernz nobhg gur sbezre. Srrg bs Pynl ynlf gur "Cengpurgg: uhznavfg be abg?" dhrfgvba gb erfg, naq gura znxrf n tbyrz jnyx onpx naq sbegu npebff gur qvfgheorq rnegu gb fgbzc vg shyyl qbja sbe tbbq zrnfher.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Small Gods': Part 8

Thu, 10 Sep 2015 20:33:15 +0000

Yes, this. I'm not entirely sure that it was the Ephebians' stoning that killed Brother Murduck, let's say.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Small Gods': Part 6

Fri, 4 Sep 2015 19:11:31 +0000

Yes, (almost) all of this. Small Gods is a turning points of sorts, and exactly because of what you said (and you put it excellently, so I'm going to quote it again): "It is one of those books where you sometimes struggle for things to say about the story -- because the text already says so much. " Yup. That's exactly how I feel about this book, and I had struggled to put that to words before. Maybe the closest I came to was when I mentioned that about certain themes brought to the fore in Reaper Man, some things weren't in the subtext or appearing as satirized mirror-images any more, but incorporated into the tale right there in the open ("We must care. For if we don't care, we don't exist."). In this book, that happens every three pages at the least.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Small Gods': Part 4

Mon, 31 Aug 2015 15:42:45 +0000

That applies to me too, but I don't view that as a problem since there was approximately negative percent chance that I wouldn't reread and re-reread Small Gods.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Small Gods': Part 4

Mon, 31 Aug 2015 15:40:14 +0000

(Very strong spoilers about Vorbis, so I want to put a plaintext warning before the rot-13 text...) Bu, Ibeovf oryvrirf, rira Oryvrirf, nyy evtug---vg'f whfg gung nyy ur oryvrirf va ner guvatf jvguva uvf bja fxhyy. Bz abgvprf gung evtug njnl ("zvaq yvxr n fgrry onyy" be "fgrry genc," pna'g rknpgyl erzrzore abj). Guvf vf znqr rkcyvpvg jura ur zrrgf byr' Ovyy Qbbe. Ur bayl urnef gur fbhaq bs uvf bja ibvpr vafvqr uvf urnq, naq oryvrirf gung jung ur xabjf vf gehr. I wish I could say I didn't recognize that kind of a mind, that I'd never met anyone like that, but. Um. So yeah. (Also, about the "locked rooms", includes one future book spoiler: V nterr jvgu rirelbar nobir---vg gbgnyyl rfpncrq zr sbe gur svefg srj erernqf, ohg sbe n juvyr abj V'ir ernq Oehgun'f "ybpxrq ebbzf" nf zrzbevrf bs genhzn, cebonoyl eryngvat gb uvf cneragf. Fbzrguvat irel fvzvyne jvyy fhesnpr ntnva va Ze. Ghyvc, va Gur Gehgu.)

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Small Gods': Part 3

Thu, 27 Aug 2015 20:00:28 +0000

..isn't quite a lot, like a lot of the point of Jesus' very existence, said to be that he came down and lived as a human?

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Small Gods': Part 3

Thu, 27 Aug 2015 19:57:18 +0000

I am incredibly lucky in having found a community in a church after coming into it as an atheist. I sing in an ELCA Lutheran congregation. It started with "they need me, because there was only one other soprano," but now, ten years later, it's "...oh, right, you're not officially a member of the church [[shrug]]" when someone forgets and asks me why I'm not in the church directory. There is a group of people there that I care about and like to spend time with, and they are incredibly welcoming and have shown that they care about me too. And in the meantime, I came to that church at a stage of my life where I was 90% done with my journey to atheism... and that having started from, um, somewhere that wasn't Christianity [1]. After the second week no one ever asked again if I was going to take communion. After the second month no one ever asked again if I would consider conversion. The church has changed pastors three times since I've been there, and none of them have batted an eyelash, and I didn't have to say anything to any of them---I think the cantor or someone briefs them when they first come in. And I know how ludicrously, incredibly lucky I am, that church community being how they are. (Besides, Lutherans have the best music {grin}.) [1] V'z abg orvat rkcyvpvg urer, orpnhfr "ncbfgngr" vf n jbeq gung zrnaf guvatf, fgvyy.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Small Gods': Part 3

Thu, 27 Aug 2015 19:49:38 +0000

Ur qbrfa'g Oryvrir, ohg ur Oryvrirf ur qbrf. V nz abg chaavat, gur fnzr jnl "Gurer vf ab whfgvpr. Gurer vf whfg hf." jnfa'g n cha, abg ernyyl.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Small Gods': Part 3

Thu, 27 Aug 2015 19:42:48 +0000

All of this, and there's another factor: When Om is cursing people, Om is cursing people, because they are offending (or, in these cases, actually ignoring) him. What Om sees in the dungeon are things being done in his name... which he knows for a fact that he has never asked for or demanded or thought necessary or even desirable. It gives him a glimpse of what humans come up with, and it starts him ba gur cngu bs guvaxvat gung znlor ur fubhyq or n ovg zber pnershy nobhg jung pbzznaqzragf ur tvirf gb uvf arkg cebcurg, orpnhfr gryy inthr zrnavatyrff guvatf gb n furrcureqre naq gung qhatrba vf jung lbh trg n gubhfnaq lrnef yngre. That's a thread that's going to culminate later.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads \'Small Gods\': Part 2

Tue, 25 Aug 2015 22:29:28 +0000

Lbh jva n cevmr! Gung, vaqrrq, vf Ibeovf gb n I.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads \'Small Gods\': Part 2

Tue, 25 Aug 2015 22:28:19 +0000

I appreciate the PSA kind of a lot. Thank you.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads \'Small Gods\': Part 2

Tue, 25 Aug 2015 22:17:20 +0000

Naq rira gur Tbq ernyvmvat pregnva... shyyarffrf... nobhg uvzfrys gbb. (Yvxr, ur arire hfrq gb guvax nobhg snvearff, be jurgure uvf oryvriref jrer jbegu fbzrguvat...)

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Small Gods': Part 1

Fri, 21 Aug 2015 19:48:33 +0000

The section in this opening about how gods are created and how belief makes them grow was so close to my own ideas about how metaphysics works. That section, and gur rkcnafvbaf bs gur fnzr gurzr yngre va gur obbx, are what gave me the beginnings of my own ideas about how metaphysics works. I've said elsewhere that Pratchett made scales fall from my eyes. These weren't the only book and the only scale I was thinking of. But they are definitely among the number.

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Small Gods': Part 1

Fri, 21 Aug 2015 17:40:46 +0000

The only two non-ROT13 things I can say: I could not wait for Mark to get here, because this was one of my first Discworld books and way, way up there in my personal ranking, and oh my Om, Mark, you're so unprepared that the unpreparedness is unprepared. As for the rot13 part: Thlf, V pna'g rira ortva gb pbhag gur guvatf Znex tbg pbzcyrgryl hcfvqr qbja, urer. Guvf vf jbefr guna gur "Irgvanev fhzzbarq gur qentba" fvghngvba. V'z unys-jbeevrq naq unys qnapvat jvgu ahaf. Yrg'f frr jurer jr tb.