#klatchians

[pratchettquotes]

"A splendid people with much to recommend them," said Leonard. "I always thought it was the presence of the desert. It leads to an urgency of thought. It makes you aware of the briefness of life."

The Patrician glanced at another page. Between a sketch of a bird's wing and a careful drawing of a ball-joint was a little doodle of something with spiked wheels and spinning blades. And then there was the device for moving mountains aside...

"The desert is not required," he said.

Terry Pratchett, Jingo

[cakesandfail]

The scrabble game and then translating Klatchian while 100% Definitely Not Speaking Any Klatchian... gaslight gatekeep girlboss...

[aeshnacyanea2000]

‘Looks like we’re going to be in a fight, sarge,’ said Nobby, as the painter very carefully started on the final ‘k’.   ‘Won’t last long. Lots of cowards, the Klatchians,’ said Colon. ‘The moment they taste a bit of cold steel they’re legging it away over the sand.’      ...      ‘And of course they’re all mad for fighting,’ said Colon. ‘Vicious buggers with all those curvy swords of theirs.’ ‘You mean, like . . . they viciously attack you while cowardly running away after tasting cold steel?’ said Nobby, who sometimes had a treacherously good memory for detail.

Terry Pratchett - Jingo

[rainymeadows-art]

My character for @far-side-skies' April challenge! Dr Amber is a technician who works in weapons development and designing/manufacturing prosthetic limbs, specialising in combining the two.

Don't drink their nutrient salve. It's a different colour every time they mix it up. You don't know what's in it, but when this person drinks it, they stay awake for days.

[burnsopale]

I know this is probably something you're aware of, and we are our own greatest critics, yaddayadda, but can I just say that you have written the absolute best kinky!Sam in the entire fandom and your humour is SO great and you have singlehandedly made the ship Sybil/Sam/Havelock take over my entire brain soooo - just so you know, you have fantastic storytelling instincts and you can and should absolutely trust them /end pep talk xxx

I have been so blessed and so pepped!

I don't even know how to respond. What a fantastic message to get! What an incredible boost!

As for the continuation of Putting the Commander to Bed, chapter 14 is through the beta stage and just needs editing, and chapter 15 is almost ready to go to the beta. The story is at a crucial stage where both plot details and the emotional narrative needs to be carefully handled, so I want to be at least one chapter ahead of posting in case I need to go back and change something. So it's going slow, but I ain't done.

While you wait, I'd like to direct your attention to the parts that form him by Detainyou, which inspired me very much.

[approximateknowledge]

“Be generous, Sir Samuel. TRULY treat all men equally. Allow Klatchians the right to be scheming bastards, hmm?”

^one of my favourite quotes in general, and never out of date

(from Discworld: Jingo, by Terry Pratchett)

prejudice can go both ways, neither of which does any good

many people'd do good keeping it in mind

[sainamoonshine]

So I’m reading through the Watch Discworld books for the first time and I’ve only just started Night Watch.

Some misc. thoughts that occurred to me so far, in no particular order:

- Vimes being all shocked pikachu face about Vetinari employing spies in The Fifth Elephant is a lot less funny when you know about the unmentionables. That is his primary formative experience about spies. No wonder he doesn’t like them.

- We talk a lot about how the character of Vetinari wasn’t entirely settled yet in Guards! Guards!, especially the scene where he’s like « they’re laughing at me! I can tell! » which is a bit frazzled behaviour for this particular guy. But on the other hand, imagine being the only person who actually cares about the city and is trying to keep it together and functional. He must have been under a lot of stress until he realized he had Samuel « shut the fuck up sir I’m trying to arrest someone » Vimes and Carrot « do you know the origin of the word watchman? » Ironfundersson on his side, or at least sharing a similar goal.

- Speaking of Vetinari, I can’t help but wonder if he put Colon and Nobby in charge of traffic because he knew they’d fuck it up a little bit. Vimes, and by extension the watch, were now known to be extremely competent to the point where the Klatchian prince knew how to manipulate Vimes as part of his conspiracy plans. But if the very public facing and very memorable task of traffic control was taken over by a bunch of incompetents, then maybe people would think less of the watch, or at least their true capability would be obfuscated for a bit longer. It always pay for people to underestimate you…

[alexfireon]

"Sir Samuel, the Klatchian language does not even have a word for lawyer," said Mr Slant.

"Doesn't it?" Said Vimes. "Good for them."

"It is our view," said Slant, turning his chair slightly so he did not have to look at Vimes,

~ Jingo, Terry Pratchett

The funniest thing Slant has ever done

[quasi-normalcy]

I think that what I find kind of jarring about "Jingo" is that it's a fantasy novel about war and racism that doesn't really bother with the usual fantasy affectations when talking about racism. Like, the Klatchians are Arabs, full stop, in the same way that, say, the Calormenes from Narnia are Arabs (or the way that the people of the Nameless Continent are Western Europeans); and even though it is very much taking an antiracist stance, it's deeply uncomfortable to see real-world ethnic slurs and actual verbatim instances of historical British racism being used in a fantasy setting.

[la-niolue]

"Why are our people going out there," said Mr. Boggis of the Thieves' Guild.

"Because they are showing a brisk pioneering spirit and seeking wealth and… additional wealth in a new land," said Lord Vetinari.

"What's in it for the Klatchians?" said Lord Downey.

"Oh, they've gone out there because they are a bunch of unprincipled opportunists always ready to grab something for nothing," said Lord Vetinari.

"A mastery summation, if I may say so, my lord," said Mr. Burleigh, who felt he had some ground to make up.

The Patrician looked down again at his notes. "Oh, I do beg your pardon," he said, "I seem to have read those last two sentences in the wrong order…"

Jingo

[copperbadge]

Young Sam was very, VERY smart about compost piles and adults. Have seen those suckers go. 🔥 A lot of “highly strung” consists of being in the unfortunate position of observing the world as it ACTUALLY IS, without the helpful pink brain filters most people carry around. What did Sir Pterry call it? Knurd? One Klatchian coffee too many, as it were.

Knurd is one of the best ways I've seen to describe it, I definitely vibed with the time Vimes got Knurd and just started screaming :D

There have been some studies done that indicate depressed people actually have a more accurate view of the world in general, just not necessarily their place in it. My first thought was "Could be that's why they're depressed." Which is a bit of a dark joke, but every so often I look at other people and wonder.

Truly, a lot of my childhood fears were either baseless or would have gone away with context. Perhaps that's true of some of my adult fears too, but for the most part if I'm genuinely afraid of something I tend to research it, which usually resolves the issue. But also a lot of the concerns I have, which a lot of people dismiss as baseless anxiety, are rooted in looking at the world around me and noticing that shit rarely goes to plan. I know some people who just go through life constantly dealing with the consequences of their own lack of concern, but they seem also like people who...enjoy complaining about problems of their own causing. Which I do not, so.

Hilariously, I am perpetually a little bit knurd, and now I also basically live in involuntary sobriety. If I'm socializing, I need the meds to counteract the social anxiety, and if you have an edible or a couple of drinks they stop working and then you're just wasting the meds. And doing intoxicants alone can be fine, fun even, but isn’t really all that entertaining and in the long run gets problematic. 

So my options are to unwind a bit and enjoy myself at the time but spend the next few days miserable, or stay straight-edge and medicated but enjoy myself without consequences later. For me, the medicated option is much more worth it long-term, but it is kind of a bummer on occasion.  

Anyway, Knurd it is, but on the other hand, my house is clean, I'm usually on time, and work doesn't suck. Plus I go to a lot more parties and events, so there's that. :D

[pratchettquotes]

Suffer-Not-Injustice Vimes wasn't a pillar of the community. He killed a king with his own hands. It needed doing but the community, whatever that was, didn't always like the people who did what needed to be done or said what had to be said. He put some other people to death as well, that was true, but the city had been lousy, there'd been a lot of stupid wars. We were practically part of the Klatchian empire. Sometimes you needed a bastard. History had wanted surgery. Sometimes Dr. Chopper is the only surgeon to hand. There's something final about an axe. But kill one wretched king and everyone calls you a regicide. It wasn't as if it was a habit or anything...

Vimes had found Old Stoneface's journal in the Unseen University library. The man had been hard no doubt about that. But they were hard times. He'd written: "In the Fyres of Struggle let us bake New Men, who Will Notte heed the Old Lies." But the old lies had won out in the end.

He said to people: you're free. And they said hooray, and then he showed them what freedom costs and they called him a tyrant and, as soon as he'd been betrayed, they milled around a bit like barn-bred chickens who've seen the big world outside for the first time, and then they went back into the warm and shut the door--

Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay

[black-magic-osha]

Do some people actually want to be cursed?

As the old Klatchian saying goes, a blessing is just an upside-down curse. We seek to control curses rather than eradicate them, and this is especially true for curses involving transformation.

[helenvader]

Quote for today. Havelock discovers pizza.

--

‘What’s this?’

‘A Klatchian Hots without anchovies,’ said Vimes, lifting the cover. ‘We got it from Ron’s Pizza Hovel round the corner. The way I see it, no one can poison all the food in the city. And the cutlery’s from my place.’

‘You have the mind of a true policeman, Vimes.’

‘Thank you, sir.’

‘Really? Was it a compliment?’ The Patrician prodded at the plate with the air of an explorer in a strange country. ‘Has someone already eaten this, Vimes?’

‘No, sir. That’s just how they chop up the food.’

‘Oh, I see. I thought perhaps the food-tasters were getting over-enthusiastic,’ said the Patrician. ‘My word. What a treat I have to look forward to.’

‘I can see you’re feeling better, sir,’ said Vimes stiffly.

‘Thank you, Vimes.’

When Vimes had gone Lord Vetinari ate the pizza, or at least those parts of it he thought he could recognize.

[sourb0i]

Finally finished Jingo!! Took me way longer than expected due to Grad school consuming every waking moment, but now it's died back a little so here are my thoughts:

I really liked Vimes' characterisation in this one; I think maybe because he was trying very hard to Stand For Something while at the same time navigating his own complex feelings and biases

The Klatchian characters were a lot of fun, especially 71-Hour Ahmed (and I loved the backstory for his name)

Mr. Goriff reminded me so much of the guy who ran the Indian take-away near my apartment in Uni; he had my order memorized (probably bc it was basic af lol) and always called me 'Dear' but in the nice-old-man way

We love to see men (Captain Carrot) unconditionally supporting their werewolf girlfriends (Angua)

Also if Angua ever gets tired of Carrot she can 100% call me

Leonard of Quirm was a very fun discount Leo da Vinci, and I liked his dynamic with Ventari

Colon and Nobby were a lot more tolerable in this book, I think bc they were being actively managed by Ventari

On that note: Nobby's brief foray into crossdressing was p funny and well-written

The whole juggling thing was 100% a deus-ex-machina, but it's also 100% believable bc it's Ventari-- of course he can juggle

While I think the climax was a little anti-climact, that was the point so I can live with it.

Take me down to Squid City (Leshp) where the grass is seaweed and the girls are squids

Not sure I'm a huge fan of Vimes being promoted (?) to Duke, but as long as he still gets to run the Watch that's alright

While the novel does show its age a bit, I think Pratchett on the whole navigated the racial aspect quite well- he's clearly coming from an anti-racist perspective and that's made abundantly clear by Vimes' dressing down of Colon following Colon's racist remarks. This isn't the first time I've been reminded of other, similar works like Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles, where something like this certainly wouldn't be made now but for the time it was made in its very good

On the whole, definitely one of the stronger books in Discworld imo. While the plot felt a little stretched at times, the book clearly had something to say and made sure it got shouted from the top of a minaret.

I will be reading Mort next (and hopefully much quicker) so stay tuned!

[smalltownfae]

Books read in 2024: Jingo by Terry Pratchett Rating: 3.5/5

The City Watch books of the Discworld in general tackle different kinds of prejudice and this entry is no different. The main plot of this book involves the investigation of the attempt murder of a Klatchian prince. This starts a war between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch. There is clever commentary about how people see others from a country that is seemingly very different from one's own and why wars happen. At first I was a bit worried about Pratchett writing about Klatchians, that are basically Arabs, but the author addressed the topics carefully as far as I noticed.

“It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.”

As usual, I missed some of the references that I then looked up on wiki. This book made me finally love Sam Vimes. I already liked him well enough before, but now I get the hype. I really liked that Lord Vetinari appeared quite a bit in this book and his interactions with Nobby and Colon were hilarious. A lot of the Watch members got a bit of time dedicated to them, which pleases me. I liked having a little peek into Carrot and Angua's relationship, especially.

Overall, Jingo is not a favourite book in the series to me, but it was pretty good and I will probably reread it in the future.