jimcewind

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The Husband is reading Feet of Clay to nq (our eldest) and me. I last read it over a decade ago. What's hitting me this time is how Pratchett likes hammering his point home through multiple channels.

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This is a book about respectability politics, discrimination, and privilege. The golems are the A-plot, loosely standing in for trafficked people/undocumented immigrants. (They also share some similarities to disabled experiences.)

But the book has SO MANY subplots, all sending the same message!

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Cheri is constantly kicking down - trying to figure out how to survive as a dwarf in a human-centric city, while badmouthing the undead. It has echoes both of assimilated immigrants turning on newer, less acceptable ones AND 'normal' gays trying to distance themselves from the 'weird' queers.

The key to Vetinari's poisoning is recognizing the classist forces acting on the palace servants/the residents of Cockbill Street. How their desire to stay respectable holds them down, keeps them hungry and meek. How a healthy powerful man can survive, but a poor baby and old woman are vulnerable. And we see how they kick down as well - tormenting William Scuggins, who seems to have been either mentally disabled or mentally ill, for entertainment.

And the royal plot is contrasted with Vimes' mutterings about how the common people suffered under royalty but are still attracted to it. How they seem to WANT someone above them. Sure, some people might suffer, but nobody thinks it will be THEM, so it's fine.

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Reading it again makes it almost unbelievable that people were trying to suggest Pratchett would be anti-trans. Right after Cheri comes out, Angua takes her to an undead bar, where it's repeatedly mentioned that people who "can't pass" can "be themself." When she chooses her new name, Angua thinks about how most people wouldn't have associated that name with someone with a full beard, but now they're going to have to. It's not subtle.

(There's also a woman with dementia there, in one of the books examples of how NOT to kick down. Pratchett doesn't DIRECTLY focus on disability this book, but there are a lot of little moments. (All the golems use AAC!))

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I don't know. I'm just struck by how intersectionalist Pratchett's politics were. How this story can have 4 very different plots going on at the same time, but all of them have the same message.

He was a really great writer.

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ominous flask I found at a Goodwill in Phoenix AZ

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Skin of Skunk Anansie in The Righteous Babes: Feminism and Rock Music in the 1990’s (1998, dir. Pratibha Parmar)

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He knew about concerned citizens.  Whoever they were, they all spoke the same private language where ‘traditional values’ mean 'hang someone.’

Terry Pratchett, “The Truth”

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Sausage is so massive and lorge

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my watch doesn't quite communicate notifications right, so any time I get a note on Tumblr, this is what I see :/

it's not even on that post

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This is evil genius (complimentary) shit.

Youtuber RTgame put out a video titled "The Minecraft Movie Looks Bad: Is Minecraft Story Mode Worse?" and then used A/B testing to change the thumbnail to say either Yes or No, and just watched the comments tear each other to bits.

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in trouble for referring to a friend's polycule as a "ship of theseus type situation"

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🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

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this picture is so beautiful to me, the colours brothers

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Am I the only person who really likes video game bestiaries?

They make it so that all the enemies you fight have at least tiny shreds of lore associated with them; they turn the endless procession of fodder mobs from basic-gameplay-loop contrivances into notional parts of a world where stuff is going on, and they provide springboards for imagination and daydreaming. A couple of sentences can turn a collection of palette-swapped pixels with an annoying attack pattern into something that sticks in your thoughts.

I miss bestiaries.

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Intro to the 1989 reprint of The Color of Magic the first Discworld book by Terry Pratchett.

“At least ten.” Lmao

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yeah bro it's a character study. the 2 thousand words of blowjob is vital to the study of the character

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I'd love to say that this is the dumbest thing I've ever made, but we both know that's a lie