IntenseDebate - lady

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'The Shephe... · 0 replies · +31 points

Gather, all ye nuns, to mourn.

When this book came out, Terry's death was much more recent. I don't get teary at a lot of celebrity deaths, but I did at his, even though everyone who had been paying attention knew it was coming. (I also lost one of my grandmothers to Altzheimers. Altzheimers is the worst. The person you knew and loved is gone well before their body stops moving.)

I don't get teary at a lot of character deaths either. The realization of what was about to happen hit for me at about the same point it hit for Mark. I had to put the book down for a while after this chapter.

The Shepherd's Crown and this chapter in particular is, in many ways, Sir Terry's own epitaph. The passing of Granny marked the end of an era for the Disc and for literature. (And is why I always tell people getting into Discworld that you can play loose with the reading order but no mater what, you read this book last.

"No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away."

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Snuff': Pa... · 0 replies · +3 points

Given the ongoing jokes about direct democracy in Ephebe (such as the people voting not to pay any taxes), I'd be skeptical of that conclusion. Pratchett's work may be brilliantly portraying the capacity of people to claim power, but it is equally suspicious about the intelligence of "the masses",

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Snuff': Pa... · 0 replies · +11 points

I remember a fic being passed around sometime after Pratchett's death that was about Vimes writing out his will. In designating his successor in the Watch, he chose Angua over Carrot, on the basis that Angua had the cynicism Carrot lacks and Vimes considered that a necessary quality for the job.

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Snuff': Pa... · 0 replies · +4 points

By virtue of the Disc's rules of belief and narritivium, if enough people believe in devils, then they exist somewhere. Probably in one or more of the possible afterlifes at the other side of the desert.

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Snuff': Pa... · 0 replies · +6 points

"Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many."

While I can't say I agree with The Doctor, I think Vimes would.

That said, the Pratchetian default is "people are neither fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, they are fundamentally people." I think he'd go with the idea that good rules can make a better person.

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Snuff': Pa... · 0 replies · +2 points

>Are there any laws protecting the goblins? What about anti-slavery laws?

Veternari is very empathetic about "No slaves in Ankh-Morpork" but as has been pointed out already, Vimes is out of Ankh-Morpork's jurisdiction. The only law and ruler that appears to be in force here is aristocratic privilege. Vimes, as a Duke, has standing on his own land but nowhere else.

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'I Shall We... · 1 reply · +5 points

Actually, you don't really need to grind complex lenses for goggles unless you want magnification, which you wouldn't for flying goggles. They're protective wear to keep wind and debris out of ones eyes. Flat panes of glass will do, but they have to be as clear as possible and free of warping. Glass has existed for thousands of years but the ability to make flawless clear glass is relatively recent. (Credit where it's due: the Corning Museum of Glass is a really cool place.)

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'I Shall We... · 3 replies · +11 points

Goggles need good glass and quality leatherwork and those those things won't come cheap in a world at the Discworld's just-inching-into-the-Industrial-Revolution tech level. Unless one can find a good secondhand pair off a craftsman (who would be easier to find in the city than the country), I suspect they're out of the budget for the average witch.

The same things for a gnome or a Feegle will cost much less in materials and it's been established in the Watch books that the diminutive species of the Disc can make a watchman's salary stretch much further because their food and housing costs are proportionate to their size.

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'I Shall We... · 0 replies · +5 points

I am picky about romantic subplots in stories and lean toward disliking them, but I think it fits fine here. The book opened at the Scouring Fair with Tiffany meditating on the the _aloneness_ of being a Witch on the Chalk and how her experience and authority isolate her from people she was once friendly with. Whether or not it ends romantically, she's now met someone she can _relate_ with. Such is the basis of a friendship at least, and I subscribe to the Spice Girls line on this: If you wanna be my lover, you've gotta get with my friends.

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'I Shall We... · 1 reply · +10 points

Characters from non-Watch books only ever seem to meet Vimes when they are at the center of some sort of trouble. This is arguably the worst time to meet Vimes, both in terms of making friends and seeing his better qualities. (Future Discworld: Gur bayl rkprcgvba V pna guvax bs vf Ivzrf qrnyvat jvgu Zbvfg va Envfvat Fgrnz.)

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