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Dec. 5th, 2011 11:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsOkay, so we all know that Guards, Guards is really wonderful, classic Discworld, astoundingly good. This is not news to anyone and it was not news to me when I reread it! Here are some things that did surprise me:
1. I always remember Carrot as being at least 50% the protagonist of Guards, Guards, but . . . he really isn't at all! After maybe the first third, Vimes takes over the book with such a vengeance that Carrot gets basically sent back to form a Comedy Trio with Colon and Nobby. But Carrot is so important in the later books that it's easy to forget, I think, that he's not actually all that important to this particular introductory story.
2. Relatedly, I sort of forgot that Carrot is only fifteen when he comes to Ankh-Morpork. All of a sudden the way that Carrot goes fairly quickly from being genuinely naive, idealistic, and completely unaware of his own charisma to being a kind of cheery grinning Machiavelli over the course of the novels makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE. (Have I mentioned that my last memory of Carrot is of him terrifying me? I will see how I feel when I reread the later books, but . . . just putting that out there.) Also -- is this the last time we get Carrot POV of any kind? Because I think it may well be.
3. This is not just the first book to establish the Guards -- it's also really the first book where Ankh-Morpork comes into her own, including class issues up the wazoo. I would like to formulate a theory that the Guards/Ankh-Morpork books are usually about class in the same way that the Witches books are usually about stories, but I'm willing to have that theory challenged.
4. Okay, this did not actually surprise me per se, but *removes critic hat* VIMES/SYBIL OTP AWW YEAH.
PS. But -- I can already tell this is going to be a theme through several later books -- man, guys, this book also reminded me how much I love Lady Sybil, and I miss her. I miss the lady who was out in the action, taming dragons with rolled-up newspaper, riding to the rescue in a fancy carriage, and generally being proactive and awesome. I love that Sybil and Vimes are adorably married, but I really wish that did not mean that almost all of Sybil's page time is spent being Mrs. Vimes. I want a Sybil book where Vimes' time is spent being Mr. Ramkin!
1. I always remember Carrot as being at least 50% the protagonist of Guards, Guards, but . . . he really isn't at all! After maybe the first third, Vimes takes over the book with such a vengeance that Carrot gets basically sent back to form a Comedy Trio with Colon and Nobby. But Carrot is so important in the later books that it's easy to forget, I think, that he's not actually all that important to this particular introductory story.
2. Relatedly, I sort of forgot that Carrot is only fifteen when he comes to Ankh-Morpork. All of a sudden the way that Carrot goes fairly quickly from being genuinely naive, idealistic, and completely unaware of his own charisma to being a kind of cheery grinning Machiavelli over the course of the novels makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE. (Have I mentioned that my last memory of Carrot is of him terrifying me? I will see how I feel when I reread the later books, but . . . just putting that out there.) Also -- is this the last time we get Carrot POV of any kind? Because I think it may well be.
3. This is not just the first book to establish the Guards -- it's also really the first book where Ankh-Morpork comes into her own, including class issues up the wazoo. I would like to formulate a theory that the Guards/Ankh-Morpork books are usually about class in the same way that the Witches books are usually about stories, but I'm willing to have that theory challenged.
4. Okay, this did not actually surprise me per se, but *removes critic hat* VIMES/SYBIL OTP AWW YEAH.
PS. But -- I can already tell this is going to be a theme through several later books -- man, guys, this book also reminded me how much I love Lady Sybil, and I miss her. I miss the lady who was out in the action, taming dragons with rolled-up newspaper, riding to the rescue in a fancy carriage, and generally being proactive and awesome. I love that Sybil and Vimes are adorably married, but I really wish that did not mean that almost all of Sybil's page time is spent being Mrs. Vimes. I want a Sybil book where Vimes' time is spent being Mr. Ramkin!
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Date: 2011-12-05 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 04:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 06:46 pm (UTC)Men at Arms: Divine Right of Kings
Feet of Clay: Slavery, ownership
Jingo: War, racial stereotypes
The Fifth Elephant: Aristocracy, "Old Guard"
Night Watch: Revolution
Thud!: Immigration, assimilation
Snuff: ...I don't know if you've read it yet, so.
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Date: 2011-12-05 07:07 pm (UTC)I would say class is not just involved in the Guards books, though -- or at least, I'm very interested to see whether it comes up as strongly in the non-Guards Ankh-Morpork books as well, because I know for sure it does in Unseen Academicals.
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Date: 2011-12-05 07:08 pm (UTC)But to take the most recent clear example, there is definitely some, ahem, class consciousness in the Moist von Lipwig books.
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Date: 2011-12-05 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-12-05 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 03:35 am (UTC)(My reaction was pretty much just to want to blitz through the rest of the Guards books in a gleeful spree. No, self! You love Moving Pictures and Witches Abroad and Small Gods TOO!)
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Date: 2011-12-06 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 03:20 pm (UTC)Except for Vetinari. I am increasingly anti-Vetinari, which I feel is sacrilege.
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Date: 2011-12-06 03:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 08:08 pm (UTC)I am still on the Vetinari train, but I am curious about your anti-Vetinari thoughts, if you wish to elaborate!
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Date: 2011-12-07 02:17 am (UTC)I just, recently, I just can't escape the fact that he is a tyrant. I know he's a tyrant who is good for the city and in lots of ways he's wonderful and also it's fiction, but just... he's intrinsically very opposed to my values and the way that I see people. Also, death penalty, I am anti-death penalty (just rereading Going Postal at the moment). Aaaand I am starting to feel a whiff of paternalism from the whole Vetinari set-up and some of his pronouncements, which previously has never bothered me because he's Vetinari and he's wonderful, but is now starting to rub me the wrong way.
TL;DR: REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY FOR ANKH-MORPORK.