CourtnieMarie Posted December 31, 2016 Report Share Posted December 31, 2016 4 hours ago, sarakingdom said: Yeah, it's great stuff, and they're a great double-act. Fantastic POVs on both of them, and I sort of love how they have these POVs that disagree quite strongly, but neither one is actually wrong. And that speech is a great one. "Down there," he said, "are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any iniquity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathsomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don’t say no." it actually reminded of one of my favorite lyrics from into the woods: "You're so nice. You're not good, you're not bad, you're just nice." i think the character there is implying the same idea. also loved the couple dirty harry references in there! 1 Quote Instagram | pinterest read harder challenge | Battle Log | NROLFW Challenges: 13-1 | 13-2 | 13-3 | 13-3.5 | 14-1 | 14-2 | 15-1 | 15-2 | 15-3 | 15-4 | 15-5 | 16-1 | 16-2 | 16-3 | 16-4 | 16-5 | 16-6 | 16-7 | 16-8 | 17-1 | 17-2 | 17-3 | 17-4 | 17-5 | 17-6 | 17-7 | 17-8 | 17-9 | 17-10 | 18-1 | 18-2 | 18-3 | 18-4 | 18-5 | 18-6 | 18-7 | 18-8 | 18-9 | 18-10 | 19-1 | 19-2 | 19-3 | 19-4 | 19-5 | 19-6 | 19-7 | current Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted January 2, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2017 Guys, feel free to discuss the book here as long as you like - I know there are people still reading, and we're just hitting the no-spoilers phase, so consider this thread open to Guards! Guards! discussion as long as we have some. (And future people reading the book two years from now, the same thing holds. Please feel free to use this thread.) (I still don't know if we've quite hit on the right way to balance spoilers and discussion so that both happen in a way that works for people, maybe I should try to be more organized? Let me know if you have suggestions on how we should mix things up in the next couple of challenges.) The thread for next month's book is up here, and I hope you'll all come back and join us: Bring victims. I mean friends. 1 Quote I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
ICB Posted January 6, 2017 Report Share Posted January 6, 2017 Quote Not the really high, creative loathsomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Guards, Guards was my first Pratchett book. I was in the corner of a public library in my hometown, sitting on the floor, reading it in one sitting because I didn't want to stop reading long enough to check out the book and walk home. I was young—10 or 12 maybe?—and bookish, just diving into the intellectual world of ethics and good and evil and right and wrong. I don't remember if it was this line in particular, because there are so many great lines, but I remember the bleak, stark, shades-of-shades-of-shades-of-gray political reality the Patrician described absolutely stopped me cold. It blew my mind, and I fell in love with Pratchett. Enough prattle. Let's dive into some lit crit, yes? One of my favorite things about Guards Guards is wee Errol, the wee stupid dragon. Besides being funny, I think Errol is such clever writing by Pratchett because of how dragons and the Night Watch are parallels. There's something insidious in Pratchett's mind about Ankh-Morpork. It's a place that grinds people down into stereotypes and charicatures of their former selves. I don't know if this is how Pratchett felt about London, but in Discworld there's a recurring theme that anyone Out There turns into a weirder, lamer, shittier version of themselves when they move to Ankh-Morpork and have to start making compromises to stay alive in the unrelenting Reality. For example, the dragons of lore are massive, fearsome, domineering geniuses, but the cruel grind of reality and troublesome physical limitations have slowly reduced the mighty dragon to, well... Errol. We see how magic and conspiracy can introduce an original dragon—an unadulterated dragon—from outside Ankh-Morpork and it can shake the entire city, remind everyone of what authentic power looked like before it became adapted to urban life. In the same way, there's an archetype of the City Watch Officer that is a brave, noble, hero in the pursuit of justice. Shining armor, bulging muscles, shrewd detective-work. To Protect And Serve. But the thankless work, the terrible pay, the official formation of criminal guilds, have slowly reduced the heroic watchmen to, well....Nobby Nobbs. We see how prophecy and happenstance can introduce an original hero—an unadulterated hero—from outside Ankh-Morpork, and it can shake the entire city, remind everyone of what authentic heroism looked like before it became adapted to urban life. The species of fat, swamp-gas fermenting little fart monsters, and the pathetic group of powerless layabouts follow exactly the same basic paths. *kisses fingers* Genius. 3 Quote Link to comment
ICB Posted January 12, 2017 Report Share Posted January 12, 2017 I, uh, did not mean to kill this thread. Too much? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted January 12, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2017 3 minutes ago, ICB said: I, uh, did not mean to kill this thread. Too much? No, not at all! I think it's just the whole new-challenge-gearing-up thing. Your post is on my list to get to. Life is not letting me think much. (Yay, holiday weekend.) Quote I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
Carpinus Posted January 24, 2017 Report Share Posted January 24, 2017 I'm late to this party, but I'm here! Hit the local libraries, and have found Guards! Guards! and Mort. No Wyrd Sisters anywhere though. Wyrd. So, I'm going to read Guards! Guards! first, then hopefully it'll be February and I can catch up with everyone on Mort. I read Good Omens when it came out, and loved it, but stupidly avoided Discworld because I really disliked the covers. Someone should come up with a saying for that sort of thing... 3 Quote Level 0 Human Adventurer STR - 1; DEX - 1; STA - 0; CON - 0; WIS - 1; CHA - 1 Link to comment
CourtnieMarie Posted January 24, 2017 Report Share Posted January 24, 2017 2 hours ago, Carpinus said: I read Good Omens when it came out, and loved it, but stupidly avoided Discworld because I really disliked the covers. Someone should come up with a saying for that sort of thing... ME TOO! i wanted to hide the cover from my coworkers when i was reading guards i guess "you can't take the cover of a book very seriously." that'll catch on, right? 2 Quote Instagram | pinterest read harder challenge | Battle Log | NROLFW Challenges: 13-1 | 13-2 | 13-3 | 13-3.5 | 14-1 | 14-2 | 15-1 | 15-2 | 15-3 | 15-4 | 15-5 | 16-1 | 16-2 | 16-3 | 16-4 | 16-5 | 16-6 | 16-7 | 16-8 | 17-1 | 17-2 | 17-3 | 17-4 | 17-5 | 17-6 | 17-7 | 17-8 | 17-9 | 17-10 | 18-1 | 18-2 | 18-3 | 18-4 | 18-5 | 18-6 | 18-7 | 18-8 | 18-9 | 18-10 | 19-1 | 19-2 | 19-3 | 19-4 | 19-5 | 19-6 | 19-7 | current Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted January 28, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2017 On 1/6/2017 at 4:40 PM, ICB said: Guards, Guards was my first Pratchett book. I was in the corner of a public library in my hometown, sitting on the floor, reading it in one sitting because I didn't want to stop reading long enough to check out the book and walk home. I was young—10 or 12 maybe?—and bookish, just diving into the intellectual world of ethics and good and evil and right and wrong. I don't remember if it was this line in particular, because there are so many great lines, but I remember the bleak, stark, shades-of-shades-of-shades-of-gray political reality the Patrician described absolutely stopped me cold. It blew my mind, and I fell in love with Pratchett. The Patrician is still something to wrap your head around. What a strange set of paradoxes he is, especially when you start seeing all the things he does with that bleak political realism. And I love that he and Vimes, while both cynics, have totally irreconcilable world views, and neither one of them is wrong. That takes some doing to pull off. I think a lot of people find these books around 12-13. I kind of wish I had found them then. On 1/6/2017 at 4:40 PM, ICB said: I don't know if this is how Pratchett felt about London, but in Discworld there's a recurring theme that anyone Out There turns into a weirder, lamer, shittier version of themselves when they move to Ankh-Morpork and have to start making compromises to stay alive in the unrelenting Reality. For example, the dragons of lore are massive, fearsome, domineering geniuses, but the cruel grind of reality and troublesome physical limitations have slowly reduced the mighty dragon to, well... Errol. It may not be London, or a place, but, like you say, the cruel grind of reality. I mean, maybe we're all weirder, lamer, shittier versions of ourselves because of the compromises we make to deal with reality. We're not the narratives of our ideal selves that we have in our heads, because those narratives don't survive real pressures. And those narratives rarely survive Ankh-Morpork. Above all, Ankh-Morpork is the center of skewering all the narrative conventions that don't get subverted elsewhere, under pressures of life that are more real than fantasy. Uh, with extra assassins and clowns. Hopefully. 2 Quote I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
Carpinus Posted February 12, 2017 Report Share Posted February 12, 2017 On 24/01/2017 at 8:33 PM, CourtnieMarie said: ME TOO! i wanted to hide the cover from my coworkers when i was reading guards i guess "you can't take the cover of a book very seriously." that'll catch on, right? Perfect. "...the words on the inside may not match up, really, and you might enjoy them more." 1 Quote Level 0 Human Adventurer STR - 1; DEX - 1; STA - 0; CON - 0; WIS - 1; CHA - 1 Link to comment
Carpinus Posted February 12, 2017 Report Share Posted February 12, 2017 I have LOVED this. Thank you so much for inspiring me to get started on books I should have read when I was twelve! Whipped through Guards! Guards! and Mort. Off to find Wyrd Sisters at the library in the morning. And look forward to the March challenge... 1 Quote Level 0 Human Adventurer STR - 1; DEX - 1; STA - 0; CON - 0; WIS - 1; CHA - 1 Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted February 13, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2017 6 hours ago, Carpinus said: I have LOVED this. Thank you so much for inspiring me to get started on books I should have read when I was twelve! Whipped through Guards! Guards! and Mort. Off to find Wyrd Sisters at the library in the morning. And look forward to the March challenge... Are they not excellent books? I'm glad you got into them. We'll have to think about the March book. I'm not sure which one to do. Quote I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted February 22, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2017 BTW, for those of you ragging on the covers, I totally agree. The first cover artist was seriously annoying, and IMO not a good fit to what the books were. (A good fit to the first book or two, perhaps, but not what they became soon after that.) Some of the later cover artists got a lot closer. Also, for those of you who were giving January a miss, we're starting Mort in the February reading club thread. You're not behind, we're a little slow off the mark this time around. It's a short book and a fast read, and it's about a seven-foot-tall skeleton who has a horse named Binky. Just saying. 1 Quote I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
sarakingdom Posted March 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2017 The current book is Reaper Man. This one is so metal, guys. It's amazeballs. Mort's a fine book, but I'll be honest, doesn't excite me like Reaper Man does. On the one hand there's wizards and zombies and the grim reaper and all sorts of cool shit, and on the other there's a lot of introspection on humanity and mortality. This book is so Death. This is one of the most Death books there is. You don't need any other books to read this one, so feel free to jump back in here, if you took a break. (Bring new victims. We didn't really hit a critical mass on Mort, so fresh souls for the faith would be nice.) 2 Quote I felt like I could run forever, like I could smell the wind and feel the grass under my feet, and just run forever. Current Challenge: #24 - Mrs. Cosmopolite Challenge Past: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11a & #11b, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23 Link to comment
CourtnieMarie Posted March 22, 2017 Report Share Posted March 22, 2017 On 3/20/2017 at 11:43 PM, sarakingdom said: The current book is Reaper Man. This one is so metal, guys. It's amazeballs. Mort's a fine book, but I'll be honest, doesn't excite me like Reaper Man does. On the one hand there's wizards and zombies and the grim reaper and all sorts of cool shit, and on the other there's a lot of introspection on humanity and mortality. This book is so Death. This is one of the most Death books there is. You don't need any other books to read this one, so feel free to jump back in here, if you took a break. (Bring new victims. We didn't really hit a critical mass on Mort, so fresh souls for the faith would be nice.) nice! about 3/4 done with Mort actually. will grab Reaper Man next! Quote Instagram | pinterest read harder challenge | Battle Log | NROLFW Challenges: 13-1 | 13-2 | 13-3 | 13-3.5 | 14-1 | 14-2 | 15-1 | 15-2 | 15-3 | 15-4 | 15-5 | 16-1 | 16-2 | 16-3 | 16-4 | 16-5 | 16-6 | 16-7 | 16-8 | 17-1 | 17-2 | 17-3 | 17-4 | 17-5 | 17-6 | 17-7 | 17-8 | 17-9 | 17-10 | 18-1 | 18-2 | 18-3 | 18-4 | 18-5 | 18-6 | 18-7 | 18-8 | 18-9 | 18-10 | 19-1 | 19-2 | 19-3 | 19-4 | 19-5 | 19-6 | 19-7 | current Link to comment
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