#discworld wizards

[vectorofsins]

Ponder-ing my Hex - Ooktober Day 9!

[aquitainequeen]

Which Discworld storyline have you never really been able to get into?

Rincewind

Death and Susan

Witches

City Watch

Wizards

Tiffany Aching

Moist von Lipwig

Stand-alones i.e. Pyramids, Small Gods, Monstrous Regiment etc

What are you talking about, they're all brilliant

Voting ended onMar 13

Because everyone has their own advice about which storyline to start the series with, but I find there's less talk about the storylines we're not so hot on...

[archerygun]

I love wizard protagonists in Discworld because they are literally THE post-exams mood. Every time the apocalypse happens they’re like “Ah. I memorised this for a test once 😔” and then still have no idea what to do because the university doesn’t teach them to apply that knowledge.

Victor and Rincewind are going through life with the same “Duh, I learned it from a source in a Year 6 practice reading comprehension SATs paper, keep up.” knowledge as us and I think it’s brilliant.

[pettiarts]

Eskarina Smith. The Disc's only female wizard.

[miroimirage]

I made some luggage stickers!!!!!!!! I loved revisiting this old sketch - did you know somebody even got one of my luggage sketches tattooed on them???? :0 wild!!!!

I took some of these stickers to a local con but.... nobody got them..... I hoped it at least looked like a D&D mimic if people weren't recognizing the character from the books...

[hagstoned]

I’ve been reading the discworld books very out of order and have just finished Moving Pictures. Ridcully has arrived. The Bursar is still sane. I have a question:

Does Ridcully break the bursar??

[unchronology]

Interesting Times: a little review

Er, the best Rincewind book, right?

Well, that's a complicated arena at any rate. But if The Colour Of Magic and The Light Fantastic are more prototypical, you've got Sourcery (retreading old ground), Eric (a bit of a mess) and The Last Continent (lacking in plot), this one kinda wins by default.

The story gives Rincewind more room to shine. The problem with writing a character as a coward and a cynic is that the natural reaction to a call to adventure is to run the other way, and most of Rincewind's stories have had to work very hard to keep him from just doing this. Interesting Times leans right into this. We see him at his happiest (idle, safe, bored), and when he's thrown out of this situation we see him do his level best to get back to it. On multiple occasions he literally tries to escape his adventure, and yet Pratchett deftly threads the needle of letting the character involved without it seeming out of character.

The chief of these methods is that Rincewind does have some strong personal motivation for once, beyond that of 'try to not die'. A powerful theme running throughout is that of his identity as a wizard, something that has been core to his character from the start, despite lack of ability. All the way through Interesting Times Rincewind is up against threats to that identity, from the University faculty, through Pretty Butterfly, Lord Hong and his own hat, all challenging his right to be both the 'Great Wizzard' and a wizard at all. By the end, Rincewind has managed to earn his identity as a wizard in a quintessentially Rincewind way - not through magic or bravery, but arguably still acting like a wizard.

It can't be avoided that this is also a pretty heavy satire about real world cultures by a white man who isn't a party of said cultures. This is pretty awkward, as some of the jokes do occasionally have the potential to be unkind (what exactly did Pratchett have against sumo?). But weirdly enough, I think this is actually less of a problem today than it was when the book was written.

In the early 90s China (which provides the largest amount of inspiration for the Agatean Empire) was still just emerging onto the world stage. A heavy criticism for the culture being endemically repressive all the way to the root, told by a European author, might have been seen as punching down somewhat. But today China is a global superpower, and quite frankly is able to take a few lumps here and there.

I often imagine Discworld books existing on a pair of scales, weighted either towards parody and satire. Interesting Times is practically entirely satire, which makes it easy to remark on the difference between it and the earliest books, which were entirely parody. But while Pratchett's style, and indeed his purpose, might have changed it's remarkable just how well this book links the old and the new. It's the same Rincewind, the same Twoflower as before, but the richer world gives them more room to be themselves.

I like it, is what I mean.

(I still can't tell how much of a connection the Quantum Weather Butterflies have with Pretty Butterfly though)

[sarah-ankh]

The Bursar rarely ate, he just lived on his nerves. He was certain he was anorexic because every time he looked in the mirror he saw a fat man, it was Ridcully standing behind him and shouting at him.

- the Bursar, Reaper man.