Pratchett, Terry - Night Watch
Tue, Feb. 3rd, 2009 01:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterI skipped the other Watch books between Feet of Clay (partially read) and this one, largely because the Watch kind of annoys me. Don't get me wrong; I love Vimes. But Carrot doesn't interest me much, and Pratchett seems to use the Watch books to get in messages about sexism and racism that are well-meaning but do not take power differentials and institutional oppression into account.
Night Watch is more about rebellions, revolutions, and Les Miserables, only with time travel, cynicism, and a central tragedy that may or may not reoccur. And that tragedy is all the more effective because the men who die are not idealistic students. But mostly, it's got Vimes being Vimes, and I especially loved all the scenes in which he's trying to do the right thing by his younger self.
Also, getting glimpses of a younger, non-Patrician Vetinari is priceless.
I'm not entirely sure what to think about this; I like it a lot, and it affected me emotionally. But on the other hand, I'm not entirely sure if I agree with what Pratchett is saying, as is the case with some of his other books. In the end, his overarching humanism wins me over, even as I can't help but feel that there are some missing pieces of the puzzle.
Night Watch is more about rebellions, revolutions, and Les Miserables, only with time travel, cynicism, and a central tragedy that may or may not reoccur. And that tragedy is all the more effective because the men who die are not idealistic students. But mostly, it's got Vimes being Vimes, and I especially loved all the scenes in which he's trying to do the right thing by his younger self.
Also, getting glimpses of a younger, non-Patrician Vetinari is priceless.
I'm not entirely sure what to think about this; I like it a lot, and it affected me emotionally. But on the other hand, I'm not entirely sure if I agree with what Pratchett is saying, as is the case with some of his other books. In the end, his overarching humanism wins me over, even as I can't help but feel that there are some missing pieces of the puzzle.
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Tue, Feb. 3rd, 2009 01:00 pm (UTC)Going Postal is much more amusing when you know it was written by someone who'd just been feted by vulgar libertarians.
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Sun, Feb. 8th, 2009 07:35 am (UTC)I should reply to comments faster! I have now completely forgotten what this might refer to.
But as I was working out in prior comments, I think a lot of my problems with the books is that Pratchett doesn't much buy into institutional oppression (overturn the bad Patrician, and stuff is mostly fixed and life goes on as usual), whereas I very much do. And as such, I don't have his benign tolerance of people's foibles or of rulers like Vetinari; it works fine in Discworld, but in the real world, I think things like people's foibles and etc. often help keep social injustice in place.