Corporal Nobby Nobbs With The Klatchian Fire Engine

Corporal Nobby Nobbs with the klatchian fire engine

The thing that scares me the most about BBC America’s adaptation of The Watch is the possibility that Pratchett’s stance on police brutality will be diluted or distorted or even omitted entirely from the show. And I want to make it clear that this post isn’t specific to the current situation in America, it has applications in every single country.

This time, I’m not even going to talk about all those quotes from Night Watch, Thud! and Snuff on police brutality that always get trotted out; although they are profound and breathtaking, I actually don’t need to; because Pratchett’s views run much deeper than those quotes, and they are at the heart of every City Watch book.

I’m going to talk about Commander Vimes’s horror at being described as a “military man” during the war council in Jingo. He’s not a “military man”, he’s a policeman. He keeps the peace. I’m going to talk about the fact that despite fighting for his life with Carcer, a serial killer who has murdered policemen in cold blood, Vimes does everything in his power to bring him in alive and to see that he gets a fair, public trial, and that justice is done. And that coppers trained by Vimes are head-hunted by Watches in the other cities on the Sto Plains, and are prized for their principles and their integrity.

I’m going to talk about the fact that Lord Vetinari defunded the police. There is a clear Discworld precedent for defunding a police force that has gone wrong. Perhaps that was pure, cold, logical pragmatism, because the Thieves’ Guild was a cheaper solution, but I don’t think this is Vetinari’s only motivation. In Night Watch, we see a young Havelock Vetinari, with the weight of the world already on his shoulders, living under Lord Winder’s brutal, violent regime. He then lived under Mad Lord Snapcase, who would have kept the Particulars on if their headquarters hadn’t been destroyed. Vetinari was different, he decided not to keep on a corrupt organisation that wasn’t fit for purpose, and he only built it up again when he found the right man to command the Watch and was certain that it wouldn’t go back to the way it was before.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

That message is so clear in the books. And I just hope that they don’t use Sir Terry’s name to spread a different message, because that would be absolutely heartbreaking.

Resources For Writing Deaf, Mute, or Blind Characters

Despite the fact that I am not deaf, mute, or blind myself, one of the most common questions I receive is how to portray characters with these disabilities in fiction.

As such, I’ve compiled the resources I’ve accumulated (from real life deaf, mute, or blind people) into a handy masterlist.

Deaf Characters:

Deaf characters masterpost

Deaf dialogue thread

Dialogue with signing characters (also applies to mute characters.)

A deaf author’s advice on deaf characters

Dialogue between deaf characters

Mute Characters

Life as a Mute

My Silent Summer:  Life as a Mute

What It’s Like Being Mute

21 People Reveal What It’s Really Like To Be Mute

I am a 20 year old Mute, ask me anything at all!

Blind Characters:

The 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make About Blind Characters.

@referenceforwriters masterpost of resources for writing/playing blind characters.

The youtube channel of the wonderful Tommy Edison, a man blind from birth with great insight into the depiction of blind people and their lives.

An Absolute Write thread on the depiction of blind characters, with lots of different viewpoints and some great tips.

And finally, this short, handy masterpost of resources for writing blind characters.

Characters Who Are Blind in One Eye

4 Ways Life Looks Shockingly Different With One Eye

Learning to Live With One Eye

Adapting to the Loss of an Eye

Adapting to Eye Loss and Monocular Vision

Monocular Depth Perception

Deaf-Blind Characters

What Is It Like To Be Deafblind?

Going Deaf and Blind in a City of Noise and Lights

Deaf and Blind by 30

Sarita is Blind, Deaf, and Employed (video)

Born Deaf and Blind, This Eritrean American Graduated Harvard Law School (video)

A Day of a Deaf Blind Person

Lesser Known Things About Being Deafblind

How the Deaf-Blind Communicate

Early Interactions With Children Who Are Deaf-Blind

Raising a DeafBlind Baby

If you have any more resources to add, let me know!  I’ll be adding to this post as I find more resources.

I hope this helps, and happy writing!  <3

I just posted a new long spooky-ish (??) sci-fi-ish (???) comic to Patreon! I collaborated with the super talented @jdebbiel to do the backgrounds and she absolutely KILLED IT!!!! You can read the whole thing on Patreon for as little as $1, and you’ll get access to lots of other fun stuff. If you’re already a patron, please don’t spoil the ending!!!!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/44945718

TRUTH. What you need is imagination, and you don’t need to go anywhere to use it.

This popped up again on reddit today, and I realized I’d never posted it here. Possibly Sir Terry’s best interview response, ever.