#msninjacrab

[msninjacrab-blog]

Adaptations

There have been several adaptations of Discworld novels.  They are:

Soul Music (1997), an animated TV series (64% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes):

This is from the Death series of novels and is about the birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll on the Discworld (or, as it is called in the novel, “Music with Rocks In”).  It stars Christopher Lee as Death, which is pretty much the best voice to play the role.

Wyrd Sisters (1997), an animated TV series (71% audience score):

This one doesn’t star anyone I recognize, but Christopher Lee reprises his role as Death in a bit part (as I mentioned before, Death is present in almost every book).  The three witches in the picture above represent the Triple Goddess (a common figure in a lot of ancient mythology and neopagan beliefs): the maiden, the mother, and the crone.

Hogfather (2006), a live action Christmas TV movie (84% audience score):

In this movie, Death becomes Santa (or, as he is known on the Discworld, the Hogfather).  There’s a lot of other stuff, but that’s what most people remember.  It actually stars Michelle Dockery, who is more well-known as Mary Crawley in Downton Abbey.

The Colour of Magic (2008), a live action TV film (68% audience score):

This movie is about the Discworld’s first tourist, who’s stuck traveling around with a failed wizard.  It stars Sean Astin (who plays Sam in Lord of the Rings) and Tim Curry (who is great in pretty much everything he’s in).

and Going Postal (2010), a live action TV film (83% audience score):

I recognize a few of these people, but I’m mainly interested in David Suchet, who played Poirot in a lot of Agatha Christie adaptations.

(I’m just really fascinated at all the actors I like that have all appeared in Discworld movies).

These movies were received fairly well by audiences but mostly ignored outside of Britain.  I had only heard of the Hogfather movie beforehand, mostly because of that wonderful image of a skeleton in a Santa outfit.  Other than that, they haven’t really gotten outside of the UK, and even the better ones have some issues.

Something about Discworld novels resists adaptation.  I think it’s largely because of the writing style.  It’s like how Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has yet to receive a great adaptation--so much of the enjoyment comes from reading the narration itself that can’t be adapted fully to the screen.

So much of the humor in Discworld comes from puns and plays on the English language that I’m not fully convinced it can be adapted into a fully faithful adaptation.  In other words, even though I think it is definitely possible to create an adaptation true to the events of the story itself, it is impossible to squeeze a book so dense with references to world history and mythology, inversions and subversions of typical fantasy literature tropes, and, just, so many puns into only a few hours.

That being said, the live action TV specials are still pretty good and generally well-liked by fans of the series (which is definitely more than can be said for other adaptations of beloved book series like Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Eragon, both of which received generally good reviews as books but were panned at the box office by critics and fans alike).

In terms of recommendations, I personally prefer Hogfather, which I think works for both longtime fans of the series and people who haven’t had any experience with Discworld at all as an entrance to the storyworld.  It’s pretty self-contained, without a lot of references to other places and characters (despite being third in the Death series of novels, although it is probably my favorite one out of the four).

[msninjacrab-blog]

Closing Thoughts

Well, here are my closing thoughts on the Discworld story...world.  Hmm.

The main thing that I’ve taken away from this is that Discworld is a story about stories.  Elements are taken from the mythological and literary storyworlds of many different cultures, from early Hindu beliefs about the geography of the Earth itself to retelling storylines of famous novels/musicals like Les Miserables. Characters are written as archetypes that often consciously act against their archetypal representations.  This in turn allows for some really interesting analysis on the vanilla archetypes themselves, because we’re better able to see the differences between the two.  For example, Death is the stereotypical representation of the grim reaper in traditional folklore.  He dresses in black robes, uses a scythe, etc., etc.  But, he is so much more than that as a character because he wants to understand humanity, and he is so much more than that as a literary device because of the differences between the character and the traditional representation of the character.

If that got confusing, I apologize.

This is an archetype.

This is an archetypical character, with a personality and motivations.

This is an archetype.

These are archetypical characters, who play the archetypal role in the story while still playing around with how they are different from the archetype in terms of execution.  Hopefully that explains it better.

I think a lot of the staying power of the series also comes from the fact that it’s a) funny and b) a work of satire.  Humor has a real effect on people, and it’s easier to remember a funny bit from a book or a movie than a dry academic paper.  I think my favorite example of this is the Boot theory from Men at Arms:

“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

It’s framed as a joke, with a setup and a punchline at the end, and it completely cuts away from the action of the scene (if I remember correctly, I think Vimes is about to give chase to a criminal) so that the main character can give a long-winded speech about footwear.  But it’s rooted in actual economic principles and the widening of the gap between rich and poor.  Entire papers have been written about this subject, and here it is succinctly put in three paragraphs in a conversation about boots, of all things.  This bit actually does play a role in the story, since Vimes is later blindfolded and taken to another part of the city, but is able to work out where he is by how the cobblestones are shaped.

In other words, a comedic bit rooted in real-world socioeconomic inequality actually plays a plot-related role in a story, which comments on our own real-world society in the process.  All in three paragraphs.

Another reason why these books are fundamentally stories about stories is the constant commentary about narrative form and purpose, and, as I’ve mentioned before, the constant critique and subversion of classic fantasy literature tropes.  A physical substance called “Narrativium” works as the laws of physics do on Earth--essentially, things work a certain way because they’re supposed to work that way.  An explanation from the L-space wiki, since it explains it better than I can:

The most common element on the disc, although not included in the list of the standard five: earth, fire, air, water and surprise. It ensures that everything runs properly as a story. For example, if a boy has two older brothers, chances are they will go on a quest. The first will be strong, and fail because of his stupidity, the second will be smart, and fail because of his frailty and the youngest brother will then have no choice but to go out, succeed and bring fame and fortune to his poor family. This phenomenon is also known as Narrative Causality. Dragons breathe fire not because they have asbestos lungs, but because that is what dragons do. Heroes only win when outnumbered, and things which have a one-in-a-million chance of succeeding often do so. The application of this phenomenon appears to be governed by some loosely formulated laws.

So, the presence of Narrativium as a physical element of the storyworld both handwaves and explains the presence of cliches and tropes that are common to most, if not all, fantasy literature, while simultaneously commenting on the use of these tropes in both the Discworld’s storyworld AND other fantasy literature.

This carries over to every series arc within the Discworld series.  The City Watch series is a fantasy police crime drama, the Tiffany Aching series is a young adult commentary on fairy tales, etc.  Because of this the tones vary significantly from series to series, usually about how serious or “gritty” the story gets, which is actually explained by a natural phenomenon within the storyworld itself.  Because of that, we can compare the deconstruction of the story type with actual story types we recognize in real life.

There’s a ton more to talk about--specifics of individual books and series in terms of specific trope deconstructions and references to mythology and pop culture, and I do regret not being able to get into the humor/pun aspect as much as I initially wanted to do, but I think as an overview of the Discworld as a whole (aka a collection of stories and narratives), I think it does what I set out to do.  Thanks for reading!

[msninjacrab-blog]

The Fandom

I think the fandom of a TV show, or a movie, or a book, can tell you a lot about the storyworld itself.  It lets you see how fans engage with and interpret the material of the stories themselves.  It also lets you see the approximate demographic of the original work, since those are the fans that are most likely to participate in fandom.  You can also see what kind of people the work in question appeals to in terms of personality.  So, it’s pretty useful.

I’ve never really participated in fandom all that much, for anything, really.  I’ve read some fanfiction, drawn some fanart, and I do run another personal blog on Tumblr that’s mostly fanart of shows and movies I like.  So, while I do have experience with fandom in general, I’ve mostly kind of observed from the sidelines without really fully participating.

That being said, Discworld boasts a rather small but very active fandom.  It has about 2000 works on both Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own, which are two of the biggest fanfiction-sharing websites that I’ve heard of, at least.  While that number pales in comparison to, say, Harry Potter (779,000 and 160,000 works, respectively), the Harry Potter fandom is probably several orders of magnitude more popular than the Discworld fandom, which explains why there’s just so darn much of it.

Back to Discworld.  The lovely people over at the L-space wiki have compiled a list of the best/most popular fics.  I have no idea how they picked these specific ones, but it saves me time from having to troll through 4,000 pieces of fanfiction looking for ones that aren’t awful.  SO.

1. The Civilian Assistant by A.A. Pessimal (61,554 words)

Set just after "Thud!" with Vetinari torn between rewarding the Watch for averting war and punishing it for poaching A.E. Pessimal from his Palace staff. The Patrican, a man known for elegant economy, finds a way of doing both - simultaneously.

2. Policing Middle Earth by aotearoan (31,458 words)

Vimes is Ankh Morpork's Ambassador to Middle Earth. As might be expected from the man who hates kings and Destiny, Middle Earth makes Vimes angry. Will he punch Aragorn in the nose? Will he learn a few things? Tune in for the latest!

3. Reinstall Love and Reboot by Grey L. Bloom (881 words)

I'm sorry. It had to be done. I couldn't resist. Hex and A Mystery Woman... R&R, OR you can just laugh your head off in scorn.

4. How to Assassinate Ridcully by AndrewSalt (digital art)

A while ago Discworld Monthly hosted a contest in honor of the release of the Hogfather movie. The contest was a sort of search for the next Jonathan Teatime, and gave the participants the challenge to explain how they would assassinate the nigh-unkillable Achchancellor Mustrum Ridcully. I was fortunate enough to win this contest, and am quite proud of what I came up with. What we have here is a sort of short story that I wrote. Aside from the story it contains a fair amount of image manipulation, from the cover art to the images throughout the text. I did not draw any of the images you see in it, but I did spend a lot of time Photshopping it together from found images. I hope you enjoy this, I received quite a lot of positive feedback about it, so I think you will.

I’m sure there are others, but these were the ones on the list that actually related to Discworld and not another one of Terry Pratchett’s works.  Of these four, two of them focus on Sam Vimes (a fan and personal favorite), one is a one-shot involving the fantasy AI falling in love, and one involves the wizards and the assassin’s guild (another personal favorite part of these books).  An interesting thing I’ve noticed about most of the fanfiction present is that most of it is either simply putting characters into a novel situation and seeing what they do (I say “simple” in terms to the idea itself, since these things require an extraordinary amount of talent and understanding of character to pull off well).  The other common type I’ve noticed is crossover, where the characters (again, usually Vimes) enters into another fantasy storyworld and interacts with the fantasy tropes and cliches of that universe (as in the Lord of the Rings crossover above).

The Discworld novels also generate a lot of fanart. I’ve reblogged some of my favorites to this blog, but I won’t include the images here because I want the artists to get full credit for their hard work.