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Dec. 20th, 2013 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nnyBelated December posts the first: Discworld!
It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.
The above quote is from Good Omens, you know this, but I think that is the heart and soul of what I love about the Discworld.
I was utterly confused by fantasy when I was a child. I knew I belonged to it - I remember very carefully colouring in the balloon bubbles of exclamation marks, when I was probably about seven, when the princess was rescuing herself from the dragon and shouting at the prince. I knew that was the kind of world I wanted to live in, since the one I was in was somewhat deficient and all the boys knew which girl in our class they were supposed to be in love with and she had to wear the pretty pink dressing-up-box dress. (And I was supposed to want to).
But the books I remember looking at were full of people who spoke strangely and had odd motivations that I didn't understand. I didn't get most of the jokes, and there was no one I could really relate to. (How I wanted a Sarah from Labyrinth in written form!) I didn't like how distant it all was; finding Diana Wynne Jones was an absolute pivotal moment and I disappeared into the school library and her back-catalogue with utter delight. (Listen: there's a hell of a good universe next door; let's go).
Josh Kirby's cover images put me off Discworld for a while because they looked like the types of books that hadn't spoken to me before, and there didn't seem to be enough clothes for the women, but eventually I read Mort and suddenly things made sense.
People are people are people, no matter what colour, shape or species they are. Terry Pratchett doesn't always get it right when he's commenting on people - Interesting Times is a little bit painful, for one. But he gives people motivations that are based on humanity, petty and selfish and accidentally noble and bigoted and misanthropic, and those people are allowed to be the heroes. I think the important thing about the Discworld is that it's not about your personality traits or which attributes you rolled. The Discworld is all about the choices people make and the consequences of those choices. (Even Rincewind makes them occasionally!)
Plus the characters are amazing and constantly evolving, the world is real and fascinating and smelly, and the writing is lively and engaging and funny as hell. And the way that stories are used and played with and commented on is gorgeous.
Um,quarter_to_five that ended up a bit rambly and nonsensical, sorry. :D
If you guys want to know favourite books, characters, anything like that, hit me up in the comments!
The above quote is from Good Omens, you know this, but I think that is the heart and soul of what I love about the Discworld.
I was utterly confused by fantasy when I was a child. I knew I belonged to it - I remember very carefully colouring in the balloon bubbles of exclamation marks, when I was probably about seven, when the princess was rescuing herself from the dragon and shouting at the prince. I knew that was the kind of world I wanted to live in, since the one I was in was somewhat deficient and all the boys knew which girl in our class they were supposed to be in love with and she had to wear the pretty pink dressing-up-box dress. (And I was supposed to want to).
But the books I remember looking at were full of people who spoke strangely and had odd motivations that I didn't understand. I didn't get most of the jokes, and there was no one I could really relate to. (How I wanted a Sarah from Labyrinth in written form!) I didn't like how distant it all was; finding Diana Wynne Jones was an absolute pivotal moment and I disappeared into the school library and her back-catalogue with utter delight. (Listen: there's a hell of a good universe next door; let's go).
Josh Kirby's cover images put me off Discworld for a while because they looked like the types of books that hadn't spoken to me before, and there didn't seem to be enough clothes for the women, but eventually I read Mort and suddenly things made sense.
People are people are people, no matter what colour, shape or species they are. Terry Pratchett doesn't always get it right when he's commenting on people - Interesting Times is a little bit painful, for one. But he gives people motivations that are based on humanity, petty and selfish and accidentally noble and bigoted and misanthropic, and those people are allowed to be the heroes. I think the important thing about the Discworld is that it's not about your personality traits or which attributes you rolled. The Discworld is all about the choices people make and the consequences of those choices. (Even Rincewind makes them occasionally!)
Plus the characters are amazing and constantly evolving, the world is real and fascinating and smelly, and the writing is lively and engaging and funny as hell. And the way that stories are used and played with and commented on is gorgeous.
Um,
quarter_to_five that ended up a bit rambly and nonsensical, sorry. :DIf you guys want to know favourite books, characters, anything like that, hit me up in the comments!
