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Mar. 11th, 2013 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Huh. Going Postal is a Pratchett I sort of remember not being super impressed by when I first read it; this time around I really liked it quite well, and I'm not totally sure why the switch.
I mean, I think part of it is probably just having recently read a history of telegraphy, because Going Postal is a SUPER TELEGRAPH BOOK . . and like the history of telegraphy I read, it is also a telegraphy-is-a metaphor-for-the-Internet book. Actually I am at least 60% convinced Terry Pratchett read The Victorian Internet somewhere in the middle of writing Going Postal, which is when the focus switches from CREEPY ELDRITCH POST OFFICE HORROR and GOLEM METAPHYSICS to, you know, telegraphy. And Business For The Public Good.
I am interested in CREEPY ELDRITCH POST OFFICE HORROR and I am interested in golem metaphysics and those things did sort of just fizzle off into the middle of this book somewhere, not really to return, so I guess it's possible that before I also was interested in telegraphy I became cranky when the things I liked went away, and that's why I didn't like it? Anyway, I'm fine with it now! I even have discovered a degree of caring about Moist, whom I never really cared about before, so that's nice.
(It is sort of interesting, though, how the CREEPY ELDRITCH POST OFFICE HORROR plot -- which starts out sort of reminiscent of Moving Pictures, another Eldritch Progress Rises From The Past narrative -- has to basically fizzle away, because Discworld is okay with technological progress now and there's nowhere for the eldritch to go. Sorry, creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions, Discworld has outpaced you and your Lovecraftian playdates have been cancelled.)
Relatedly on the progress track, I also don't know exactly why Ankh-Morpork in this book is suddenly proper steampunk -- it's very important that we know that bustles are back in and Sacharissa Crisplock is running around in bum-rolls and a fascinator, and Terry Pratchett has decided to get in on the feel of the thing by throwing in lengthy Victorian-pastiche chapter titles and descriptions, because why not -- but everyone seems to be enjoying themselves so who am I to complain?
I mean, I think part of it is probably just having recently read a history of telegraphy, because Going Postal is a SUPER TELEGRAPH BOOK . . and like the history of telegraphy I read, it is also a telegraphy-is-a metaphor-for-the-Internet book. Actually I am at least 60% convinced Terry Pratchett read The Victorian Internet somewhere in the middle of writing Going Postal, which is when the focus switches from CREEPY ELDRITCH POST OFFICE HORROR and GOLEM METAPHYSICS to, you know, telegraphy. And Business For The Public Good.
I am interested in CREEPY ELDRITCH POST OFFICE HORROR and I am interested in golem metaphysics and those things did sort of just fizzle off into the middle of this book somewhere, not really to return, so I guess it's possible that before I also was interested in telegraphy I became cranky when the things I liked went away, and that's why I didn't like it? Anyway, I'm fine with it now! I even have discovered a degree of caring about Moist, whom I never really cared about before, so that's nice.
(It is sort of interesting, though, how the CREEPY ELDRITCH POST OFFICE HORROR plot -- which starts out sort of reminiscent of Moving Pictures, another Eldritch Progress Rises From The Past narrative -- has to basically fizzle away, because Discworld is okay with technological progress now and there's nowhere for the eldritch to go. Sorry, creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions, Discworld has outpaced you and your Lovecraftian playdates have been cancelled.)
Relatedly on the progress track, I also don't know exactly why Ankh-Morpork in this book is suddenly proper steampunk -- it's very important that we know that bustles are back in and Sacharissa Crisplock is running around in bum-rolls and a fascinator, and Terry Pratchett has decided to get in on the feel of the thing by throwing in lengthy Victorian-pastiche chapter titles and descriptions, because why not -- but everyone seems to be enjoying themselves so who am I to complain?
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Date: 2013-03-12 12:01 am (UTC)It took me a reread to go, wait, Moist is an interesting character and I like this look at the world. Its not one of my favorites that I reread a lot but Moist moved into my head though I'm putting off putting him through canon. One reason is I think the romance feels a bit contrived and too romantic comedy or action movie to it that he needs to get a girl. I think Spike is a great character and wonderful foil for him and on her own but the two of them together just makes me go, for a little while not marriage.
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Date: 2013-03-12 12:23 am (UTC)BTW, "Lovecraftian playdate" is an excellent phrase.
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Date: 2013-03-12 12:42 am (UTC)Apparently it took me a reread too! Though I totally see what you mean about the romance -- I mean, I like it and I like Spike too, but it's very much a subplot. Part of this is that we never get to see inside Spike's head, which I feel is sort of unusual for Pratchett romances (such as they are); usually he makes them more two-sided, because both halves are protagonists, at least to a certain degree. And Spike is great but it's very clear that she's Not A Protagonist.
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Date: 2013-03-12 12:45 am (UTC)I love the looks at these weird cultures that appear and find Moist's brain a fascinating place but I wish he interacted more with the rest of Discworld. And this is why I play him, he seems full of possibilities and ways to play with the Disc.
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Date: 2013-03-12 01:38 am (UTC)I liked Making Money rather less than Going Postal, though -- and I've never reread it. I'm wondering now if I SHOULD reread it, and whether my opinions of it would be any different!
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Date: 2013-03-12 01:50 am (UTC)I did not have a super high opinion of Making Money when I read it either, but then, I had not-caring-particularly-about-Moist feelings carrying over from earlier. So now that I do care about him, maybe my feelings will be different there too!
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Date: 2013-03-13 02:55 am (UTC)All the clacks-myths are really fantastic. And the clacks culture -- the little kids who go for love of it, thirteen-year-old Princess who doesn't know about dead man's names, Grandpa who is twenty-six years old -- all that rang incredibly true for me, this time around.
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Date: 2013-03-12 05:16 pm (UTC)I kind of wish there had been more golem metaphysics, but I love the telegraph stuff so much that I don't really care. Also, I love Moist making completely ridiculous claims and then somehow managing to carry through and the whole flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants aspect.
Didn't like Making Money half as much, I suspect partly because the Moist-as-underdog bit is not nearly as strong.
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Date: 2013-03-13 02:58 am (UTC). . . but I still love Feet of Clay's golem metaphysics unconditionally! So I always want more golem metaphysics, but telegraph metaphysics are pretty awesome too.
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Date: 2013-03-17 11:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-03-12 06:09 pm (UTC)I also wonder about the fashion shift thing. Isn't Guards! Guards! supposed to be late medieval? And then… well… in Thud! there's a mention of it being 1999...
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Date: 2013-03-13 03:03 am (UTC)It's true, Moist isn't really like a lot of Pratchett protagonists. I mean, there have been other semi-con artists and/or criminal elements thrown accidentally into high positions before -- Victor Tugelbend and Pteppic are the ones that come first to mind, although possibly only Victor because all the creepy post office horror stuff reminds me so much of Moving Pictures - but Moist, I think, gets more complex characterization than either of these.
I mean, on the one hand, it's hard to argue about fashion in Discworld when a Victorian opera house exists opposite the equivalent of the Globe theater . . . but on the other hand, bum-rolls? SINCE WHEN? (I mean, and this is also one of the only times I can think of where Pratchett actually TALKS about fashion-as-fashion, as opposed to just "and it is incumbent on this character archetype to wear dented armor/shiny gold armor/nifty assassin black.")