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Apr. 23rd, 2012 04:31 pmSo as I was rereading Soul Music, I kept thinking about how glad I was that I was doing this epic reread project and talking everything over with you guys. Because, man! Soul Music is great for many reasons, but -- I mean, Susan is a protagonist of this book, and Buddy & Co. are protagonists of this book (well, sort of, I mean, Buddy only kind of has a personality to begin with, but we'll forgive him that), but the real protagonist of the book is Death.
I think someone at some point in the comments was talking about whether all the 'Death takes a holiday' plotlines were going to get repetitive. And in some bits, they do. I mean, every time Death walks into a bar, the scene goes basically the same way. But at the same time, there's continuity, and there's change. Death has changed enormously since the Death we saw in Mort. Death's learned that he has to cope with grief. Death's learned to accept other people's choices. And Soul Music reminds us of that, and it's just -- it's really satisfying to follow, as a slow and tremendously earned arc. I barely remember what Death is like in Hogfather, because I barely remember Hogfather as a book, but I'm looking forward to seeing that now, so very much.
(Death's house has a field of golden wheat growing in the back. And Susan is like ???? and I'm like \o/ YEAH IT DOES.)
. . . there are other great things in Soul Music! Buddy is not one of them. Buddy is kind of boring and I'm totally okay with the fact that he's hilariously built up as Susan's Destined Love Interest all through this book and then disappears forever. Glod and Cliff are way more interesting, which is yet another example of irritating human-centricness in the series. But then: Susan! Who I totally identified with as a kid, and it's funny to look back on that, because now I read sixteen-year-old Susan and I'm just like OH KIDDO. PLEASE NOBODY LET YOU DECIDE THE FATES OF ACTUAL HUMAN BEINGS, that would be a TERRIBLE PLAN.
Also, this is totally embarrassing, but I only just caught on this read that the reason the Dean is the one who's super affected by the Soul Music is because of James Dean. Um. Can we just pretend I knew that all along . . .?
I think someone at some point in the comments was talking about whether all the 'Death takes a holiday' plotlines were going to get repetitive. And in some bits, they do. I mean, every time Death walks into a bar, the scene goes basically the same way. But at the same time, there's continuity, and there's change. Death has changed enormously since the Death we saw in Mort. Death's learned that he has to cope with grief. Death's learned to accept other people's choices. And Soul Music reminds us of that, and it's just -- it's really satisfying to follow, as a slow and tremendously earned arc. I barely remember what Death is like in Hogfather, because I barely remember Hogfather as a book, but I'm looking forward to seeing that now, so very much.
(Death's house has a field of golden wheat growing in the back. And Susan is like ???? and I'm like \o/ YEAH IT DOES.)
. . . there are other great things in Soul Music! Buddy is not one of them. Buddy is kind of boring and I'm totally okay with the fact that he's hilariously built up as Susan's Destined Love Interest all through this book and then disappears forever. Glod and Cliff are way more interesting, which is yet another example of irritating human-centricness in the series. But then: Susan! Who I totally identified with as a kid, and it's funny to look back on that, because now I read sixteen-year-old Susan and I'm just like OH KIDDO. PLEASE NOBODY LET YOU DECIDE THE FATES OF ACTUAL HUMAN BEINGS, that would be a TERRIBLE PLAN.
Also, this is totally embarrassing, but I only just caught on this read that the reason the Dean is the one who's super affected by the Soul Music is because of James Dean. Um. Can we just pretend I knew that all along . . .?
