(no subject)

[skygiants]

I enjoyed Jingo! It's certainly not a bad book. It is absolutely a much better book about racism than Men at Arms was; I mean, it is certainly not a perfect book about racism, but it's trying hard in a much better direction than Men at Arms was. It's also just about as subtle as a pile of bricks to the head.

Here is a brief summary of the experience of reading Jingo:

NATIONALISM IS STUPID

NATIONALISM IS STUPID

*pause for some wacky comedy Nobby and Colon*

BREAKING NEWS BULLETIN: NATIONALISM, STILL STUPID

*pause for Carrot to do something ambiguously too-perfect-to-be-true in a way that is terrifying*

NATIONALISM IS STUPID AND LEADS TO WAR, WHICH IS ALSO STUPID, NOT TO MENTION SCARY

*pause for some more wacky comedy with Nobby and Colon and Leonard of Quirm*

HEY GUYS SO ABOUT WAR: IT INVOLVES PEOPLE DYING

IN CASE YOU MISSED THIS MESSAGE, HERE IS A SPECIAL ALERT: WAR IS THE BIGGEST CRIME OF ALL

SO HOW ABOUT WE AVOID IT BY NOT BEING STUPID ABOUT NATIONALISM

GUYS?

GUYS . . .?

*time for Vimes to come home and make out with Lady Sybil onscreen*

*this is a big enough deal to merit its own line because this is the first time since Guards, Guards that Sybil has gotten even a glimmering more of a chance to do anything than fill the wife-shaped box in Vimes' story*

PS NATIONALISM IS DUMB

So at this point I feel a little bit like I have a "Nationalism Is Stupid"-shaped bruise on my head from having been hit with it so much over the course of the novel. But, I mean, that's okay! There are certainly much worse messages to have written on your head in bruises. And I enjoyed the process . . . of getting hit in the head . . .? . . . okay this metaphor may be breaking down. But you know what I mean!

(Also I had forgotten that there's a bit in this book where Vimes just flat-out pulls a Granny Weatherwax. "Here is the hot coal I am holding, because I am more badass than you." "Obviously that coal is not ho--OW!" "Yeah. It's hot. HEADOLOGIED. VIMES OUT." And now I want the book where they meet more than ever!)

Comments

[campkilkare]

I like Sybil's moment in Jingo after Vimes runs off to Klatch, because it acknowledges and retroactively gives somewhat of a narrative function to her absence elsewhere. When she stops and considers the long family tradition of lunatics who run off to go die on the hill of their choice for the Glory of the City, and the corresponding tradition of wives who stay home and make themselves useful rather than fret, and how Vimes is a pretty classic installment in that sense. Which is something that would BLOW VIMES' MIND if he could ever even accept it as a fact. But you know--he can raise a regiment, if he feels like it.

He really IS a noble, in the truly old-fashioned sense, with all the flaws and baggage that comes with it. Just not in the decadent, repulsive Ankh-Morpork sense of nobility, that has all of the baggage and none of the virtues. The major difference between Vimes and Rust, in this book, is that Vimes has picked the right hill to die on and Rust hasn't. It's only Vetinari at his most pull-the-rabbit-out-of-the-hat who keeps him from leaving Sybil a widow.

(And it is kind of the first hint or foreshadowing of the major reboot of priorities that will be forced on him in the next few books.)

[ceitfianna]

I love this interpretation of Vimes and Jingo showcases it.

[skygiants]

Yes! It is like, this is the point at which Pratchett finally remembers that Sybil is a character and a real person, and not just a Vimes-ennobling MacGuffin, and also that Sybil and Vimes actually like each other, and there are reasons for that! I really love the bit where Sybil is like "honey, you're using your 'henpecked' voice again, stop that." Because it retroactively allows a lot of the Long-Suffering Henpecked Vimes stuff from the last two books to be read as a part of a dynamic between two people, and a dynamic that Vimes plays into with affection, and not a set of 1950s married-people stereotypes in which Vimes would rather be elsewhere. And it's setting up for her to be more of a presence in Fifth Elephant, which I am super looking forward to.

I mean, you can also read it as Vimes growing into his marriage as he is growing into his nobility -- which he totally is, as of this book -- and that's valid too. But I like it better if they're actually a functional couple all along. >.>

[opusculasedfera]

Enjoying the process of getting hit on the head is a pretty good metaphor for this kind of book where you're happy to hear the message in question because damn, does it ever need to be said, and yet, one thinks, perhaps not quite that many times? But I do appreciate hearing someone say NATIONALISM IS STUPID and Pratchett says it entertainingly, though never with enough Sybil.

And I do love Leonard, even if he is a bit of a one-note joke.

[skygiants]

NEVER ENOUGH SYBIL! But yeah, that's pretty much exactly it. It would be nice to have it said without the overpowering beatdowns! But I will settle for having it said at all.

Leonard is also always great, indeed. Although I gotta say, it's a bit weird to see the Patrician . . . out and doing things! I'm not used to that! Not necessarily bad, exactly, but WEIRD.

[batyatoon]

There is one moment in Jingo that kind of wrenches at my heartstrings in a way that was perhaps not quite what Sir Terry intended, and that's the bit with the Klatchian kid who says something (angrily) to the effect of "I don't want to go live in Klatch! I live here!"

Yeah.

[skygiants]

Yeeeeeah.

. . . and then that kid ends up staying in Klatch voluntarily, which I'm not quite sure how to feel about that. But I do like the way he uses kids in Jingo in general, which is generally to point out when adults are being irrational and scary.