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i didnt even realize typing that but for gently caress's sake that's how Carrot started the book innit, his dad forces him into guard service. i wonder if Pratchett was considering the idea of kinging him and just dropped it later on, rendering Carrot pretty inert imo
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Apr 12, 2024 22:48
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great name btw, Carrot.
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Apr 12, 2024 22:49
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cumpantry posted:i didnt even realize typing that but for gently caress's sake that's how Carrot started the book innit, his dad forces him into guard service. i wonder if Pratchett was considering the idea of kinging him and just dropped it later on, rendering Carrot pretty inert imo He is a recurring character and it is a thing.
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Apr 12, 2024 23:34
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i guess this is my problem with series versus self contained narratives. i don't really feel compelled to read another Pratchett anytime soon but entire arcs could have been realized over the 400something pages that sadly werent
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Apr 12, 2024 23:45
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Sax Solo posted:This is what makes Pratchett so strange. I have read a couple books, including Guards Guards, and not really been impressed at all, yet some people are SUCH FANS and I can't figure out why. Is this how people who hate MST3K feel? He covers a *lot* of ground in his work, and the way he writes evolves significantly from beginning to end. There's probably something he's done over the course of 50-odd novels that taps into something you really care about; if we could find it, you'd then understand why people get so passionate about it. I'm not at all surprised by the "readable but I don't get the hype" reactions; for me, over half of his stuff (including Guards! Guards!) is "sure it's fine but it's not anything I need to read again". And then there's stuff like Jingo, and Monstrous Regiment, and Nation, that are absolutely among my favourite books and things I do go back to again and again. But I'd never expect anyone to react to those the same way I do; the best entry point depends entirely on the reader. MST3K is actually a really good comparison point: it's such a wide-ranging omnibus that there's always going to be dull ones, and ones everyone else loves and you don't see the point of, and then there's ones (which for me are the likes of Double 007 and The Starfighters and Space Mutiny) which are so good you want to go around quoting them everywhere and they keep you watching the next one, in case that one makes you feel like the others did.
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Apr 14, 2024 12:42
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Phrased that way it's like the inverse of the common criticism of people like Malcom Gladwell. Perhaps Pratchett seems simplistic in areas you don't care about, but then skilled and artful in areas you do. I like that description, that sounds like a good author. Hieronymous Alloy posted:Pratchett has been imitated a lot but he's also extremely British in a way that may not always vibe with American readers. If you look at the annotations linked above a great deal of the stuff he writes isn't just "generic British joke", he's referencing very specific British cultural touchstones that American readers are unlikely to pick up on. I don't have any trouble enjoying Wodehouse or Jerome K Jerome or Sarah Caudwell or POB or Jasper Fforde or stuff like Sandbaggers or Tolkien for that matter etc etc etc. I mean, I don't know if HHGtG is any less British or any less comic, or that far away from fantasy, but it succeeds in a way Discworld doesn't for me. I think it's more likely to come down that for my tastes Pratchett is in the end too reserved and too inert. I was drawn in with stuff like oo luggage, oo orangutan librarian, but in the end I find the writing and the ideas and the humor underwhelming. I have a friend who REAALLY REALLY loves them -- I think generally I like people who like Pratchett -- but for me they got no pizazz. Hieronymous Alloy posted:The other thing with Pratchett is that lots of people had tried to write comic fantasy and the only remote prior successes were parts of Robert Asprin's Myth series and national lampoon's Bored of the Rings. (Of "dildo and frito bugger" fame). You forgot
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Apr 14, 2024 19:23
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Sax Solo posted:You forgot *sucks in breath* Careful thread! Don't make me reset the sign to zero again
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Apr 14, 2024 19:41
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thought it'd be longer since i'd go for another pratchett but when i dropped off guards! guards! i left the library with wyrd sisters. maybe 150 pages later and im enjoying it much more. i like the macbeth regicide ghost deal and the three sisters themselves a lot more than the poor police procedural and limp end from guaguards. humor seems more subdued which is scary since it came before ggguuuaarrddss
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Apr 23, 2024 17:28
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