#agnes nitt

[alda-rana]

After litteral months of dithering, I finally bought myself a new graphic tablet. Alas, it hasn't miraculously made me better at drawing. Still, here's a picture. It's Agnes Nitt; a character I used to relate to a lot when I was younger. (Even though she had better hair and was much braver than me.)

[emory-west-art]

I am in the habit of picking up and reading whatever random Discworld books I can find at my local library, because I want them to get more of them.

I just finished Maskarade, and damn if Agnes's story doesn't resonate. Apparently people complain about how casually cruel everyone is to her, but that's just... What trying to perform while fat is like. I've lived that experience. It sucks.

Anyways, I would die for Agnes "Perdita X Dream" Nitt, and while she did very much deserve better from the Opera House, I'm glad she isn't staying with people who don't appreciate her.

[ansatsu-sha]

Agnes relaxed. The creature didn't seem about to attack.

'Oh,' she said. 'Well...I suppose it's natural, because sometimes barrel-organ men came to our village and they often had a dear little mon---'

There was a crashing chord. The orangutan raised its other hand and waved a finger politely in front of Agnes' face.

'He doesn't like being called a monkey,' said Andre. 'And he likes you.'

'How can you tell?'

'He doesn't usually go in for warnings.'

Terry Pratchett / Maskerade

[hadescavedish]

It's a pity that Agnes and Vetinari didn't meet. Given how unmovable Agnes towards all types of drama queen, I just can't imagine what she's got to say about Vetinari's charade.

[tir-far-thoinn]

it’s just occurred to me that the name Agnes Nitt could very possibly be a play on “Christine Daaé” (from Phantom of the Opera)

[gcballet]

The more I think about it the more I think Maskerade might be one of the most mean-spirited Discworld books?? And yet it's still a favourite??

What Granny does to Andre for no reason other than he's aware of her bullshit - she's leaving town anyway - wildly evil. Horrible. In the grand scheme of things, we also know in doing that she's probably wrecked some of Sam Vimes's plans and work without even meaning to. The Cable Street Particulars only come back in their Night Watch form as a kind of Stasi, and Vimes never gets the chance to do anything with them. He does all his own espionage in later books. Bothers me.

I'm very ambivalent on Granny Weatherwax in general, and when I feel like this about female characters, it's generally because I have a lot in common with them or resent their freedom to be unlikeable. I'm in therapy dw. Her plot armour does start to grate honestly. At least this gets corrected a bit in Carpe Jugulum and she gets kicked around a bit before a win.

The way Agnes is constantly condescended to and never catches a break, and then Granny has the gall to imply that she was an interloper in someone else's story and at fault for that? No, she just didn't want to be like Granny?? Because Granny can be kind of annoying and unlikeable and also she takes that completely personally.

Yes, that is how the Discworld works, Agnes had to push out Christine a bit to get her shot, but honestly, fair e-fucking-nough. In the original Phantom of the Opera, Christine Daae starts out as a ballet dancer. That would have been a great subversion for tonedeaf Christine!

And Doctor Undershaft! Why?? Why give us literally one and only one person who believes Agnes has worth and punish him for that? And why is that ratcatcher reincarnated as a rat? It feels like an idea that's better elaborated on in The Amazing Maurice, but here it's never asserted properly that he's cruel or anything. He's just a guy trying to manage a vermin population.

I think I take issue with Pratchett's treatment of Agnes in particular because it's so squarely opposed to how he treats male characters who similarly have a go to Ankh-Morpork to seek their fortune story.

When it's a male character with an interesting vocation or unique skill, Pratchett lets them express it and benefit by it. William de Worde gets to invent the newspaper. Moist von Lipwig gets a new life. Imp y Celyn becomes the first rockstar. Victor Tugelbend becomes a movie star. Both the latter industries implode but they definitely achieve something and there's no implication that they have to return to a life they don't want - Imp doesn't have to go back to work with his dad in Llamedos. Rincewind especially isn't even good at his vocation, and he still ends up literally a university professor.

But Agnes? Agnes with a supernaturally imbued singing voice who wants to use that skill to live by and not fulfill the social role expected of her as a smart young woman who isn't sexually appealing to men by becoming a witch? Yeah fuck you actually, back to Lancre you go, you have to serve a community which will never fully appreciate you.

Agnes isn't given the opportunity to really enjoy opera and be creative with it, the same way that the male protagonists above get to feel they're making huge creative strides in their field, and yet it would be an obvious way to follow a standard Discworld narrative.

I kind of hate that. And that's not even touching all the stuff about her size and fatness. I just do not know where I stand on that even one bit, and I'm under qualified to give an opinion on it honestly. But it feels kind of weird. I think it would have felt weird in the 90s. Pratchett does find humour in bodies in lots of other instances, she's far from the only one, but it's always made weird when it's Agnes. I'm sure there's a good essay out there.

There's also the scene in the barn which is widely celebrated, but I'm not sure why it's there except to make Granny look like less of a dick and demonstrate that witches serve a necessary societal function. It's not meaningfully connected to the plot and would have served as a short story. The preceding Death scene with the swan has a similar purpose - to introduce Death and demonstrate that what he does isn't that bad - but it's not strictly necessary to move the plot. We also spend a lot of time in Lancre for some reason. I just don't know why.

The presence of Nobby and Detritus feel like kind of a fuck you actually. It feels like there was demand for proper crossover between the Witches and the Watch, and he gives us this. I get it - the two series are so generically opposed that putting them together just turns into full on fanwank. But it's annoying to do this kind of halfway, and the Watch is in a weird post-Men at Arms era where the lineup is a little odd. I don't understand why Detritus instead of Colon. I think Nobby and Colon are the classic little and large combo if you're playing the Watch for comedy.

To be clear, the structural stuff is stuff I find in every Discworld book, and it's generally just Pratchett showing his working out. It's not inherently bad, it just tells us something about his editing style and how quickly he worked.

But the actual narrative choices especially with Agnes are... troubling. I know they're played off as a kind of narrative irony but they just kind of reinscribe status quo.

I haven't yet read through to her last appearance in the Tiffany Aching series, so maybe she's changed a little and got some control over her life by then, but I'm not optimistic for her.

Pratchett does great female characters, but Agnes Nitt reveals something that I find rather depressing. In that way she's fascinating, and honestly these little details of imperfection and nastiness actually make me enjoy the book all the more.

[pratchettquotes]

"Esme didn't thrive on nice," said Nanny Ogg. "Take her an apple pie and she'll complain about the pastry."

"But people don't often thank her. And she does do a lot."

"She's not set up for thanks, neither. Ment'ly. To tell you the honest truth, there's always been a bit of the dark in the Weatherwaxes, and that's where the trouble is. Look at old Allison Weatherwax."

"Who was she?"

"Her own granny. Went to the bad, they say, just packed up one day and headed for Uberwald. And as for Esme's sister..." Nanny stopped, and restarted. "Anyway, that's why she's always standin' behind herself and criticizin' what she's doing. Sometimes I reckon she's terrified she'll go bad without noticin'."

"Granny? But she's a moral as--"

"Oh, yes, she is. But that's because she's got Granny Weatherwax glarin' over her shoulder the whole time."

Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum

[reluctanttree]

I love all the witches but Nanny Ogg might be my favourite