#mortreadalong

[rhetoricandlogic]

"In fact it really was amazing what could be done with several ounces of heavy metal, some irritated molluscs, a few dead rodents and a lot of thread wound out of insect's bottoms. The dress wasn't so much worn as occupied; if the outlying flounces weren't supported on whels, then Keli was stronger than he'd given her credit for."

Terry Pratchett - Mort

Fascinating facts of the day. If you deconstruct a dress and find the most reduced descriptions to portray its components, it makes the complete thing seem even more complicated and ridiculous than a visual would.

Serves nicely as a criticism, too.

There's so much in this book, even in small sidelines like this one: "I certainly don't need your help, my lad! I've been sacrificing man and boy - and, mm, women and animals ..." At every turn Pratchett's misgivings on several topics shines through. Admittedly, in later books he adheres to One Misgiving Written Large. The early ones dole that out more sparingly and on a wide range of topics.

[readingrobin]

Mort Readalong

Hello everyone!

For everyone who was interested in doing a buddy read of Mort by Terry Pratchett, it's going to start...well... now.

This is going to be a very casual readalong, I'm not going to set any dates or assign chapters to certain weeks. Just go at your own pace and make posts at your leisure. Use the tags #mortreadalong and #mortreadalongspoilers if you wanna share your thoughts!

Happy reading everyone!

[rhetoricandlogic]

The only thing known to go faster than ordinary light is monarchy, according to the philosopher Ly Tin Wheedle. He reasoned like this: you can't have more than one king, and tradition demands that there is no gap between kings, so when a king dies the succession must therefore pass to the heir instantaneously. Presumably, he said, there must be some elementary particles -- kingons, or possibly queons -- that do this job, but of course succession sometimes fails if, in mid-flight, they strike an anti-particle, or republicon. His ambitious plans to use his discovery to send messages, involving the careful torturing of a small king in order to modulate the signal, were never fully expanded because, at that point, the bar closed.” ― Terry Pratchett, Mort

You know, this book has been copyrighted in 1987 and it never fails to amaze me, that Sir Terry would openly call Elizabeth II a queon.

[rhetoricandlogic]

REALITY IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT IT SEEMS, said Death. ANYWAY, IF THEY DON’T WANT TO SEE ME, THEY CERTAINLY DON’T WANT TO SEE YOU. THESE ARE ARISTOCRATS, BOY. THEY’RE GOOD AT NOT SEEING THINGS. WHY IS THERE A CHERRY ON A STICK IN THIS DRINK?” ― Terry Pratchett, Mort

Whelp, he certainly didn't like like aristocrats either.

[readingrobin]

Yes I've finally started with the Mort read along. I just haven't talked much about it because somehow this whole month has felt like that week period between Christmas and New Years.

My favorite thing so far is Mort frantically going in and out of walls without even noticing, much to the horror of others. Peak comedy.

[agardenandlibrary]

I finished Mort! I love me a good anthropomorphic personification of Death. And a Death who is so lonely that he adopts a baby, gets an apprentice because he thinks that's how you marry your daughter off, lets a wizard stay and be his servant, leaves his responsibilities behind to figure out "fun", ends up happily working as a line cook, feeding cats with leftovers --

You sort of forget, along the course of the story, that Death is, well, Death. He's realler than anything else. There's no justice, there's just him. He'll be there until the universe ends, and he'll be the one to put the chairs up and turn the lights out.

He's powerful! and at the end, he rewrites reality so his daughter and apprentice can have a life that he'll never (as far as he knows) get to experience.

[agardenandlibrary]

When they have to figure out which people Death must collect in person, while Death is gone missing:

"It's all Klatchian to me," said Mort. "I don't even know whether it should be read upside down or sideways."

"Spiralling from the center outwards," sniffed Ysabell from her seat in the corner.

Their heads collided as they both peered at the center of the page. They stared at her. She shrugged.

"Father taught me how to read the node chart," she said, "when I used to do my sewing in here. He used to read bits out."

"You can help?" said Mort.

"No," said Ysabell. She blew her nose.

"What do you mean, no?" growled Albert. "This is too important for any flighty-"

"I mean," said Ysabell, in razor tones, "that I can do them and you can help."

Mort by Terry Pratchett

[agardenandlibrary]

"Have you any idea how boring it is living [in Death’s country]?"

"Probably not," said Mort, adding with genuine longing, "I've heard about boredom but I've never had a chance to try it."

"It's dreadful."

"If it comes to that, excitement isn't all it's cracked up to be."

Mort by Terry Pratchett