(no subject)

[skygiants]

kate_nepveu beat me to the punch this week! Here's her combo post on Equal Rites and Mort.

I am going to be a bit more effusive than her, though! It's interesting, because I just spent the past few weeks talking about how the early Pratchetts are really quite decent and so on, and then reading Mort was like being hit over the head with how much I really love many of Pratchett's books, as opposed to cheerfully appreciating them. But it's so wonderful! Death feels like Death! Ankh-Morpork feels like Ankh-Morpork! (The snozzberries taste like snozzberries!) Etc.

The thing about Mort is that it's the book that definitively establishes the Discworld's Death as an endearingly bemused sort of anthropomorphic personification whom you just want to provide with a kitten and a hug - or at least a friendly pat on the shoulder, if you're too worried about bony elbows. He just tries so hard! At everything! (A special shout-out to his HILARIOUSLY AWKWARD wink-wink-nudge-nudge matchmaking, which made me shriek with laughter every time.)

The thing is, though, I want to talk about it as 'the humanization of Death' so I can point out the parallel character development with Mort, whose arc as Death's apprentice is about growing out of his utter teenaged gawkiness and naivete and into a full-fledged human being, but the word feels wrong, because although Death may be trying to become human he is never written as human; there is always that sense of otherness to him, and that is a line that Pratchett, I think, walks really well throughout the Death sub-series of Discworld. (If I'm remembering right, I actually think that for all his consistent efforts at vacationing, the short-order cook job is the closest Death will ever actually come to achieving humanity throughout the books, and . . . it's not all that close. But I could be wrong, and it's something else to keep an eye on.)

I also appreciate the bait-and-switch he pulls with Princess Keli and Ysabell, where it looks like he's setting up a fairly (and unfortunately) standard dichotomy between the spoiled, overweight girly-girl and the hardcore, unconventionally attractive Strong Female Character, and then, hey, wait! It turns out they're both awesome! WHO KNEW.

(As a sidenote, the saddest thing about reading this book is remembering that Mort and Ysabell will, in the future, pretty much completely discourage Death from ever visiting their family or having a relationship with Susan. THE SADDEST THING.)

Comments

[scifantasy]

1) Don't forget Bill Door, from Reaper Man. Come to think of it--"Death takes a holiday"/"Death becomes human" does kind of show up a lot, doesn't it? I kind of like how Pratchett eventually shifted from "Death says bugger all this" to a "Death needs an understudy while he does something else" (or else, "Death needs a cat's-paw," as in Hogfather and Thief of Time).

I was never quite clear on why Mort and Ysabell objected to Susan having contact with Death. Especially since they knew what would happen to them long-term.

[skygiants]

What I'm trying to remember is whether Bill Door ever loses his ALLCAPS, which is what really shocked me this time around! Maaaybe he does towards the end.

I don't think it even had that much to Susan, really; I see it as Mort and Ysabell trying their hardest to settle back into human life and pretty much erase their own not-quite-human experiences from their minds. It makes me very sad, since it feels like reverse character development, but it's reverse character development I find believable all the same.

[scifantasy]

I...hm. I suppose I can see that, but I think it's a bit...irresponsible? They know it's not going to be so easy, and Mort knows he's living on borrowed time, and Susan ended up suffering for it.

*shrug* It's...for parents who instilled a no-nonsense attitude in their daughter to the point that she first had trouble with the metaphysical, and then went about it very no-nonsense, it seems very out of character.

[skygiants]

I think mostly it just feels to me - hmm. Less optimistic, I guess, than Pratchett usually goes with his characterization.

[scifantasy]

That, too. Denial of self is almost the anti-Pratchett message.

[kate_nepveu]

SPOILERS

What is extremely sad is that I knew Susan was Sto something, but I couldn't remember what and couldn't be bothered to look it up, so I was actually in some doubt about how the "romance" would resolve. (Scare quotes because my opinion of that is on record.)

I can sorta handwave Mort & Ysabell's reaction; Mort knows firsthand how easy it is to get lost in the role, and also there was that wacky bit where Death freaked out on Mort and dueled him, which (though I do not understand it at all) does not exactly demonstrate the kind of stability you want to expose a grandchild to, you know? But it does feel like a step back from the end of this book where they seem to be basically okay with each other.

[skygiants]

I actually don't mind the freaking-out-and-duelling because I sort of read it as the characterization bridge between the scarier(-and feels-OOC-to-us-because-of-the-later-books) Death that you get in Color of Magic. It's like that's the last bit of scariness he has to get out of his system before he settles fully into the much more laissez-faire, long-suffering version we know and love!

[kate_nepveu]

I'd've found it more convincing if he hadn't been short-order-cooking just beforehand. =>

[skygiants]

Alternately, being tragically pulled away from the kitchen right in the middle of half a dozen entrees might make anyone extra-cranky. >.>

[jedit.livejournal.com]

Death doesn't freak out on Mort for no good reason. He's pissed off because Mort is changing history. It's not just the lifetimers that are affected by Mort saving Keli; as Mort discovers, the biographies in the library also contain future histories. If Keli had died then the reign of the evil Duke of Sto Helit would have led to a long period of peace and stability between the city-states of the plains. Now, if Mort had just been willing to let the reality bubble collapse then history would have corrected itself automatically, but he didn't - he used the abilities Death had given him to try and sneak Keli out of the bubble. Basically, Mort's hormones came close to damaging the fabric of the universe and possibly causing a number of wars to boot.

As to why Mort and Death are OK with each other at the end: as a creature who is outside time, Death knows there are two ways for history to be put back on track. One is the original plan - Keli dies, Sto Helit rules. The other is if someone steps into Sto Helit's place and unifies the states anyway despite Keli being alive. Hence Death inviting Mort to challenge him; both of them know that Mort can't win, but by challenging Death Mort shows that he is ready to give his life to keep Keli alive. That lets Death know Mort is willing to spend his remaining days working to repair the damage he's done - something Death cannot know during the duel because as his apprentice Mort, too, exists outside of time.

However, at the wedding Death is slightly cold to Mort because now Mort and Ysabell are within time again, Death knows that the price of letting Keli live is to see his adopted daughter die. Death is ready to accept that because his whole plan in hiring Mort was to marry her off and let her live, but Mort's mistake has also doomed them both to die comparatively young.

[surexit]

I AM SO SAD ABOUT THE LACK OF RELATIONSHIP IN MORT AND YSABELL'S LATER YEARS. :( Just, I get why on Susan's behalf, sort of - I think it's a weird decision - but Death is Ysabell's dad. :(((((

[skygiants]

RIGHT? And as of the end of Mort there is every indication that she still thinks of him as a dad. Man, I kind of want fix-it fic now.

[surexit]

I KNOOOOOOW. And they do visit him a couple of times, Susan has memories of it! I just... :(