wyrdshipper

[wyrdshipper]

like the thing is some of terry pratchett's later books are sort of direct appeals to young people for example to have integrity and care for others and it's difficult to look at any of the books about vampires or fairies and not see that pratchett wanted to discuss the grist mill of neoliberalism

but like the truth is that granny weatherwax + tiffany aching both despaired of installing that integrity and care of others into their communities and only saw partial success with their methods. frequently no success. it was embittering, and that's part of why weatherwax is Like That

bc these fictional women couldn't understand, because pratchett himself didn't understand, that you don't need to Make People Better People to encourage them to care for every member of their communities, you just need to make taking care of everybody integral to the process of people living their lives. like we may never have total population compassion saturation or whatever but that doesn't matter bc it IS possible to arrange the world such that our processes for living support each other. you know

[wyrdshipper]

Finished Lords and Ladies just now. Needed Magrat to get in a few more punches at the end she deserved it.

[wyrdshipper]

witches !!

[wyrdshipper]

Have some Granny Weatherwax wit and wisdom and Bad Ass-ery. It's amazing how fully-formed her character was right from (practically) the very beginning of Discworld, in Equal Rites.

"If you can't learn to ride an elephant, you can at least learn to ride a horse." "What's an elephant?" "A kind of badger," said Granny. She hadn't maintained forest-credibility for forty years by ever admitting ignorance. -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

"That's one form of magic, of course." "What, just knowing things?" "Knowing things that other people don't know," said Granny. -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

"You're a bit young for this," she said, "but as you grow older you'll find most people don't set foot outside their own heads much. You too," she added gnomically. -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

"That's the biggest part of doct'rin, really. Most people'll get over most things if they put their minds to it, you just have to give them an interest." -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

She had got "diuerse" out of the Almanack, which she read every night. It was always predicting "diuerse plagues" and "diuerse ill-fortune." Granny wasn't entirely sure what it meant, but it was a damn good word all the same. -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

But Granny had spent a lifetime bending recalcitrant creatures to her bidding and, while Esk was a surprisingly strong opponent, it was obvious that she would give in before the end of the paragraph. -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

Granny, meanwhile, was two streets away. She was also, by the standards of normal people, lost. She would not see it like that. She knew where she was, it was just that everywhere else didn't. -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

"Yes," lied Granny, whose grasp of geography was slightly worse than her knowledge of subatomic physics. -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

"No, I could tell he was telling the truth. You know, Granny, you can tell how--" "Foolish child. All you could tell was that he thought he was telling the truth. The world isn't always as people see it." -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

"Um, women aren't allowed in," said Esk. Granny stopped in the doorway. Her shoulders rose. She turned around very slowly. "What did you say?" she said. "Did these old ears deceive me, and don't say they did because they didn't." "Sorry," said Esk. "Force of habit." "I can see you've been getting ideas below your station," said Granny coldly. -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

Granny smiled grimly. It was the sort of smile that wolves ran away from. -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

"Anyway, you walk wrong for rain." "I beg your pardon?" "You go all hunched up, you fight it, that's not the way. You should--well, move between the drops." And, indeed, Granny seemed to be merely damp. -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

Granny adjusted her hat and straighted up purposefully. "Right," she said. Cutangle swayed. The tone of voice cut through him like a diamond saw. He could dimly remember being scolded by his mother when he was small; well, this was that voice, only refined and concentrated and edged with little bits of carborundum, a tone of command that would have a corpse standing to attention and could probably have marched it halfway across its cemetery before it remembered it was dead. -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

"Yes, but is it safe?" Granny gave him a withering look. "Do you mean in the absolute sense?" she asked. "Or, say, compared with staying behind on a melting ice floe?" -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

"Right," she said, in a tone of voice that suggested the whole universe had just better watch out. -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

"I know. The building told me." "Yes, I was meaning to ask about that," said Cutangle, "because you see it's never said anything to me and I've lived here for years." "Have you ever listened to it?" "Not exactly listened, no," Cutangle conceded. "Not as such." -- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

[wyrdshipper]

The discworld witch books are just 10% fantasy adventure plot and 90% just three autistic women hanging out

[wyrdshipper]

I wish I was better at drawing, because I want to draw Granny Weatherwax as the 'dad who didn't want the cat' meme with her and You.

You being her cat who sits on her neck like a scarf.

[wyrdshipper]

SPACE COVEN SPACE COVEN

[wyrdshipper]

A recent commission piece of Esme Weatherwax

[wyrdshipper]

I am re-reading I Shall Wear Midnight, and it is pointed out that Tiffany wasn’t born a witch, she chose and worked for it. Just like Granny Weatherwax wasn’t chosen, she chose for herself, and worked for it.

I love that message of choice. It speaks to me a lot more than the “chosen one” narratives. The chosen one narratives, the destiny narratives, make me feel like there is no point, everything is decided from birth anyway.

Terry Pratchett is all about choice, and I love him for that too.

[wyrdshipper]

I want to be granny weatherwax when I grow up!

[wyrdshipper]

'She could do it all right,' said Granny. 'But you can't go round messin' with cause and effect. That's what sent her mad, come the finish. She thought she could put herself outside of things like cause and effect. Well, you can't. You grab a sharp sword by the blade, you get hurt. World'd be a terrible place if people forgot that.'

-- Terry Pratchett - Maskerade

[wyrdshipper]

I think rincewind would have made a fine witch

[wyrdshipper]

I think that the Tiffany Aching books, for all of the crazy Nac Mac Feegle antics, have at least as much that hits hard and makes you think as the main Discworld series. It's crazy that these are children's books, except really it's wonderful that there are children's books like this.

"Ye ken how to be strong, do ye?" "Yes, I think so." "Good. D'ye ken how to be weak? Can ye bow to the gale, can ye bend to the storm?" -- Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

"We dinna mourn like ye do, ye ken. We mourn for them that has tae stay behind." -- Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men (Actually in large part that's what we mourn for too)

"Ye'll find the way if ye tak' yer time. Just don't stamp yer foot and expect the world to do yer biddin'." -- Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

"Them as can do has to do for them as can't. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices." -- Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

She wasn't being brave or noble or kind. She was doing this because it had to be done, because there was no way that she could not do it. -- Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

I've been given something for a while, and the price of it is that I have to give it back. -- Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

He just looked like someone who'd been frightened for so long, it had become part of his life, like freckles. -- Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

But you had to start small, like oak trees. -- Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

[wyrdshipper]

[wyrdshipper]

I want to reread Lords and Ladies, but it's just gone spring in the Northern Hemisphere and that book really must be read in the summer.

[wyrdshipper]

granny weatherwax and nanny ogg i want to grow up to be you

[wyrdshipper]

"Anyway, it'll be int'resting to see if it works."

"Yes, but it's wrong," said Granny.

"Not for these parts, it seems," said Nanny.

"Besides," said Magrat virtuously, "it can't be bad if we're doing it. We're the good ones."

"Oh yes, so we is," said Granny, "and there was me forgetting it for a minute there."

Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad