Sakura of DOOM

So there's a lot of teasing of the magick tradition as it exists in the US and UK, and the pomposity you get with some of the neo-Blavatsky sort, contrasted with the intense pragmatism of Granny and Nanny (and Magrat and Agnes torn both ways, tempted to become New Agey Goth-Lite witches because it seems "cooler" than sensible-shoes & headology). They also get contrasted with the macho academia and not-always-practical-mindedness of the University Wizards, another band of recurring characters, who are getting gradually reformed out of their Oxbridge sexism (and disdain for all change) but not without great humour (the UU bits are ROFL funny to anyone with any academic background.) The Watch books (my personal favorites) are spoofs of the noir and cop genres, carried to their logical fantasy conclusions; the Death books start out from the beloved old premise of "Death Takes A Holiday" and carry on with abandon from there; and then there are sub-spoofs within the grand spoofery as with Moving Pictures, which is basically an Unseen University book, but it's also a surrealist take on Old Hollywood which manages to capture both the flavor of those crazy years (I read a great deal of early moviemaking stuff in hs) and also the deranged process as it still exists, q.v. Terry Gillam's experiences...

The snark-at-everybody, banana peels for all! tone, including the heroes, is a bit jarring at first, but it keeps it from getting too saccharine and moralizing - and too intense. There are a lot less banana peels and snark in Night Watch as compared to the in-principle-equally-dark Guards!Guards and it's almost *too* dark for Discworld, altho' contrarily it's one of my favorite books around...