kananda...@aol.com wrote:
OK Max, you are going to chuckle, guess what one of the other 2
Pratchetts I downloaded was?
Already a good chunk of the way through Thief of Time, not as good
as Night Watch to me, but it is good enough to pass some flight time.
Like I said, I got a huge kick out of both of those books, but I also
went into them knowing many of the cameo characters and recurring
jokes/themes. Plus, I had read enough "canon haggling" in Discworld to
know at least a few of the quirks that those two books hang a lampshade on.
I was just warning you that the rest of the series is a little less
meta-/quantum and possibly funnier.
Whenever I read Bear and Gibson, I have to prepare myself for the
possibility of a major culture immersion, something where I have to
work at to get a cultural anchor (but also can create a
connection/commitment to the story *belief* for a time afterwards if
it is successful). I don't know anything about literary stuff like
that, but examples are reading Queen of Angels/Slant, etc. In
Pratchett the story seem to ease you into thinking you know the
culture and then makes you do a double take that is kinda fun. You
are right, the tongue in cheek is helpful strategy/stories
are good and the "time monks" are a wild card (and from a literary
perspective I could see that would allow some incongruencies in
story lines).
Okay, I can see that: lighter with respect to the Anathem "wrap your
head in this culture fast, now let me deluge you" sort. I can definitely
see Pratchett in that space. He is good at disarming the reader. I'm a
"later books" fan and that makes perfect sense to me. (The first few
books actually attempted to build something of a Discworld-mythology, as
a satire of traditional Fantasy novels. Unlike some of the "earlier
books" fans, I love that Pratchett's Discworld books are best when
Discworld is but a thin veneer to keep satire of the contemporary world
labeled as "fantasy".)
I guess it is like reading Heinlein, I found the older stuff first
and got hooked as a young adult, saving things like the Puppet
Masters for later. If I had started with the Cat who walked through
walls, I am not sure I would have had the same perspectives on
Heinlein.
That's a good comparison. Thief of Time/Night Watch do parallel Cat in
terms of some crazy people like me love them and just as many hate them,
particularly for being very "meta". (I'm a weird person myself... I
started into Heinlein with Stranger and Cat and then worked my way
through nearly everything and then back to Cat. Possibly appropriate,
given the ouroborian focus of those last four books. But it does give me
an interesting view on Heinlein, I guess.)
If you are curious, I basically followed the HarperCollins American
re-release schedule for Pratchett, which means that I started late into
the series as well with Masquerade and Interesting Times, and was
reading many of the earlier books alongside of new releases.
(Speaking of new releases, Unseen Academicals is in stores on the 6th...)
--
--Max Battcher--
http://worldmaker.net
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