Pratchett Monday*

[tealin]

Small Gods is airing on 7 – Episode One and Episode Two are up now; more will follow.** You know, it's a lot more bearable when your memory of the book isn't quite as fresh ... Why do I always come back to this story in the spring? I'm always way too busy in the spring!

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents is also available, till Saturday ... it's by far the best dramatization of a Pratchett book that I've heard, a prime example of the "radio movie," and stars David Tennant as a rat, if that piques your interest.

*because Wednesday is too late
**providing the snow doesn't gum up the BBC's internet works

Comments

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Small Gods was my first Pratchett book -- is still possibly my all-time fave :D

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

It was second or third for me, and read in the heat of summer in Utah, which made it absolutely perfect. I really wish more fans of His Dark Materials would read it ... that is how a statement on religion is done! It really is one of a kind, for better or worse ...

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I still laugh about how startled I was that His Dark Materials was supposed to be a statement on anything. What a mess of a trilogy.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU. I thought I was the only one.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

It was horrible. If you don't know it's based on something, you just keep going "What? WHAT?"

I love retellings of old stories, but they have to make sense without prior knowledge or your reader base will hate you.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Was it really a retelling? That completely went over my head ... what was it? Paradise Lost? Would any of its intended demographic have read that?

Preach it, brother! Symbolism and allegory and all those fancy literary things are great, but you have to have a good narrative foundation first, otherwise your readers* won't stay interested long enough to comprehend your brilliance. Why is this so difficult?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

It was supposed to be Paradise Lost, which I personally have never read -- I'm familiar with it but not enough that I recognised it when I was reading the book. I just thought random shit kept happening for no apparent reason, like her father suddenly being a good guy despite having run a sekrit polar installation where he ripped the souls out of children. That kind of thing.

And yeah, I can't imagine a lot of the tweenies it's supposedly aimed at have read PARADISE LOST.

And you were doing soooo well . . .

[pureteenlard.livejournal.com]

It's always a pleasure to find someone from far away who has a similar Radio4 obsession. I found this blog by Googling an image of Ptraci (lovely artwork, by the way . . .) and then sort of wandered around to here where I have read your blog and nodded sagely in agreement.

Until now. His Dark Materials is one of the best trilogies I've ever read. I've never read Milton - in fact according to She Who Must Be Obeyed, I've never read anything - yet I found the plot to be utterly engrossing. Mysterious? Yes. Baffling, even, but all is revealed. It all, eventually, makes sense. Well it did to me.

Alas! Small Gods is my least favourite of Pratchett's books if you count the ones I've read all the way through. I've never managed to complete 'Thief of Time' or 'Hogfather' although I've never had any trouble with any of his other books . . .

Anyway, I shall now disappear back inot the depths of the web from whence I came . . .

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

THUD! is still my favorite, mostly because of the entertainment value. Small Gods is in my top three however.

[trutitipudlian.livejournal.com]

The Truth myself. It worries me how influential that book has been on me.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I kind of wish it would be an influence on more people, really ...

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I'm very partial to Night Watch, but mainly because I feel like there's a major injoke I'm missing in Thud (like in The Thief of Time, which apparently had a ton of Reservoir Dogs references and I've never seen the film....)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I think Thud is supposed to be a play on The DaVinci Code (deep dark secret, clues in paintings, fundamentalist assassins, the 'Koom Valley Codex'...) but I don't know if anything references it specifically. I haven't read the book but I did see the movie and, more importantly, listened to 'The DeNiro Code,' which has generally enabled me to pick up on most references, and there wasn't anything that really stood out.

I always thought Thief of Time was referencing The Matrix. Shows how in touch I am! :)

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Oh, that makes sense. I know nearly nothing about Da Vinci Code (I saw bits of the movie, omg so stupid) and I wondered if the symbol wasn't some kind of subway sign or something...

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

omg so stupid

omg yes. :) That's why I like 'The DeNiro Code' better. While America was freaking out about religion the BBC was poking fun at what an awful book it was. [moment of silence for BBC love]

The symbol totally is the Underground sign! I'm waiting for the 'Ankh-Morpork gets a subway' book. The end of Thud! made it fairly evident that's on the way, what with the convenient network of tunnels with rails already laid in them, and the mysterious device that just keeps going regardless of resistance ...

*

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

By 'referencing The Matrix' I mean 'using its unique brand of special effects,' not in any plot/character sort of way. Though I guess the Auditors are a little like the Agents ... maybe?

Re: *

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I've never seen it, wouldn't know :D There's also some old kung-fu movie references, of course, and I don't get any of those either, except to recognise that they're there.

**

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I should add that at the time I read it, most of the references I picked up on were just out of the general zeitgeist as The DaVinci Code had more or less permeated popular culture, to the point that even I noticed. In my opinion Thud! works just as well if not better as a satire of immigrant fundamentalism and the multicultural society. The DaVinci Code stuff is just toys to play with.

[anathelen.livejournal.com]

I remembering listening to the Small Gods radio play my freshman year of college because you linked it from the BBC, just after reading my first Pratchett book. Wow, time flies.

I just read Night Watch (excellent read - Young Vimesey and Young Vetinari were wonderful) and darned if the entire book was drawn in your art style in my head. Since I found your Discworld drawings before Mr Kidby's Discworld will always look like your artwork to me.

[buttfacemakani.livejournal.com]

REPOST; logged in now lol

eee I am in the middle of Night Watch at the moment.. WHEN DOES YOUNG VETINARI HAPPEN

also I would like to see a Tealin young Vimes plz. I'm guessing he's like.. 14 or something? I was kind of confused at how young you could join the watch.. he dosen't seem like he's any older than 17 or so.

[anathelen.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia says Vimesey is 16 when he joins.

Young Vetinari is delightful in the way that it's always delightful to see how badass characters behaved when they were younger and less badass, though his appearances are so obliquely referred to the first few times that it took me a while to realize that it was Vetinari. Didn't help that I forgot his first name was Havelock. Also, major lolcakes to Vetinari and Vimes in the graveyard at the end of the book - I love how Vetinari knows everything.

Tealin's Young Vetinari. (http://www.nocturnalsoldier.org/Tealin/xhp/disc/purplevet-c.jpg)