See No Evil

See No Evil

The Husband is reading Feet of Clay to nq (our eldest) and me. I last read it over a decade ago. What's hitting me this time is how Pratchett likes hammering his point home through multiple channels.

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This is a book about respectability politics, discrimination, and privilege. The golems are the A-plot, loosely standing in for trafficked people/undocumented immigrants. (They also share some similarities to disabled experiences.)

But the book has SO MANY subplots, all sending the same message!

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Cheri is constantly kicking down - trying to figure out how to survive as a dwarf in a human-centric city, while badmouthing the undead. It has echoes both of assimilated immigrants turning on newer, less acceptable ones AND 'normal' gays trying to distance themselves from the 'weird' queers.

The key to Vetinari's poisoning is recognizing the classist forces acting on the palace servants/the residents of Cockbill Street. How their desire to stay respectable holds them down, keeps them hungry and meek. How a healthy powerful man can survive, but a poor baby and old woman are vulnerable. And we see how they kick down as well - tormenting William Scuggins, who seems to have been either mentally disabled or mentally ill, for entertainment.

And the royal plot is contrasted with Vimes' mutterings about how the common people suffered under royalty but are still attracted to it. How they seem to WANT someone above them. Sure, some people might suffer, but nobody thinks it will be THEM, so it's fine.

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Reading it again makes it almost unbelievable that people were trying to suggest Pratchett would be anti-trans. Right after Cheri comes out, Angua takes her to an undead bar, where it's repeatedly mentioned that people who "can't pass" can "be themself." When she chooses her new name, Angua thinks about how most people wouldn't have associated that name with someone with a full beard, but now they're going to have to. It's not subtle.

(There's also a woman with dementia there, in one of the books examples of how NOT to kick down. Pratchett doesn't DIRECTLY focus on disability this book, but there are a lot of little moments. (All the golems use AAC!))

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I don't know. I'm just struck by how intersectionalist Pratchett's politics were. How this story can have 4 very different plots going on at the same time, but all of them have the same message.

He was a really great writer.

"this shitty person's art is bad anyway" "of course the person who threw one million puppies down a well looks like THIS" stop it stop it stop it stop it youu are CONFLATING stop CONFLATING im foing sick in the HEAD

hello anyone into podcasts, mistborn or discworld is going to be on Ryucon in Kraków?

if you do come to say hi! would be cool to talk even if for a sec (and i maay have some stuff for ya but im not promising anything)

also, przyjaciele (tzn @gemsbokk @daffytheimp ) beda mieli stoisko z merchem z dun meshi, mass effecta, wiedzmina i po trochu z różnych innych rzeczy wiec wpadajcie (stoisko nr 89 gems.bokk's gems) i tam pewnie mozna mnie bedzie znaleźć

follow your dreams at a sustainable pace

YOU KNOW WHATS EVEN BETTER

almost all of the witches books are like that just satirisation of alll of classics

wyrd sisters? macbeth

mascarade? phantop of the opera

carpe jugulum? dracula

witches abroad? fairy tails so i would count that too

I am very aware of Terry Pratchett's art of taking the piss (AKA the discworld series) and while I have read a few of Rincewind's adventures and Lipwigs misshaps I hadn't yet dived into the witches series which is a surprise considering my sensibilities. I couldn't find myself a copy of Equal Rites so I've dived into Wyrd Sisters instead, though I hope to listen to the audiobook of equal rites when I get the chance. The name Wyrd sisters is funny to me as a Dracula fan but also having done GCSE English literature and I've realised something very quickly

Wyrd Sisters is a satirisation of Macbeth

And that is very funny to me