Going Arc-y
Sep. 20th, 2007 08:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinRealization of the day:
No matter how good Making Money is, I cannot expect it to best or even equal Going Postal because a big part of what makes Going Postal so awesome is the brilliantly executed character arc. You don't even notice it until the end, when it sort of comes and hits you in the face, but it doesn't feel like it was just thrown in at the end artificially* because when you do get smacked in the face you realize that it's been there all along,** and while it's vastly significant, character-wise, it's subtle enough to be believable. How could Making Money surpass that? DON'T ANSWER THAT, LUCKY YANKS.
I was thinking, yesterday, of making a list of all the things that make Going Postal so awesome. This resulted in a smirky grin being plastered on my face for a couple of hours. I think this is when someone calls professional help.
*"And then he was good! The End."
**And then you get ridiculously giddy, if you're me.
No matter how good Making Money is, I cannot expect it to best or even equal Going Postal because a big part of what makes Going Postal so awesome is the brilliantly executed character arc. You don't even notice it until the end, when it sort of comes and hits you in the face, but it doesn't feel like it was just thrown in at the end artificially* because when you do get smacked in the face you realize that it's been there all along,** and while it's vastly significant, character-wise, it's subtle enough to be believable. How could Making Money surpass that? DON'T ANSWER THAT, LUCKY YANKS.
I was thinking, yesterday, of making a list of all the things that make Going Postal so awesome. This resulted in a smirky grin being plastered on my face for a couple of hours. I think this is when someone calls professional help.
*"And then he was good! The End."
**And then you get ridiculously giddy, if you're me.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-21 05:18 pm (UTC)I like reading everyone's lists here as well. So many points are ones I second.
If I had to summarize why I liked Going Postal so much it would be for the following reasons:
1. Very libertarian points of view- more so than Pratchett's other books. Vetinari's views on freedom of choice are priceless.
2. Moist von Lipwig- GREAT character! He seems like he somehow jumped over to the Discworld from a Robert Heinlein novel- kind of like a flawed Lazarus Long who winds up on the odd side of good. His philosophies and observations on life are hilarious. I like also that he uses his mind and personality rather than violence and threats for his schemes.
3. The whole concept of the Golem Trust and golem culture
4. The book came out at a good time in the USA with the Enron problems and corporate corruption. Gilt's pirate persona and the corporate spin PR are so spot on. It was so therapeutic to see a world where the underdog can take on a corporate giant like that.
5. Nice relationship between Moist and Adora Belle. She is really an interesting character - she has a lot of depth to her and you like her in spite of yourself.
6. That whole "Anything You Can Do I Can do Better" thing going between Moist and Reacher Gilt.
7. Some other Discworld books have spoofed American culture, but this book to me comes closest to capturing US history- so much of it rings true for the age of the Robber Barons, the Gilded Age, the 1920s labor movements with a bit of the frontier Wild West thrown in.
8. I finally got to see a book where the Pony Express beats out the telegraph system (a secret fantasy of many Americans).
9. Details about the every day workings of the clacks and the post office and the
lend the book a lot of realism
I should stop here before it becomes a waaay too long!