Y’know, I could have sworn on a stack of bibles that Lords and Ladies was before Witches Abroad. Huh. Funny tricks the mind can play (prob. because I read them in that order).
Seemlessly segue into: mind tricks are big in this book. I really, really like the presentation of Granny Weatherwax’s powers here- not just her winning the poker game (which still makes me laugh every time I read it: “I thought I had rather a lot of the little pointy ones.”), but also when she uses Mrs. Gogol’s own magic against her. Plus, of course, the trick in the mirror.
I agree that I found the transition from humourousness to seriousnessnessness (It’s like bananananana, you just can’t stop spelling it) to be a little jarring. On the other hand, you could argue this is intentional: what has been a series of fantasy pastiches becomes, suddenly and viciously, an examination of the way that fantasy doesn’t work in the real world- with the fall of the headsman’s axe.
I find it interesting how the Witches novels are used to explore what might be called more “serious” issues-or as serious as you can get in the Discworld, anyway- much like the Watch novels, whereas Rincewind and Wizards (and most of the one-offs, like Reaper Man) are pretty much played straight for laughs. I would say that this is fundamentally because the two best characters that Pratchett has created (IMO) are Vimes and Weatherwax, and they are interesting for the same reason- because they both grapple with a darkness in their souls, an urge to pick up the axe/wield a little bit of magic because people are so stupid and they can make the world such a better place.
I find it interesting to contrast Lily and Granny, because this is essentially what Lily is- she is Granny’s dark side, her mirror, if you will. Lily is Granny without a moral centre, and she seems to be having so much fun. Note, also, how a lifetime of evil deeds has left Lily rich, powerful and beautiful, whereas a lifetime of good deeds has merely made Granny old. I think we can all sympathise a little with Lily’s ambition to “hold a mirror up to life, and cut of the parts that don’t fit.”
Why, I wonder, is Lily never mentioned after this book? Her place as a reminder of what could be is more or less taken by Black Aliss (also introduced in this book, IIRC), just as Vimes’ example is Old Stoneface. Admittedly, Lily is a little one-dimensional (“I’m bad Weatherwax and you’re bad Weatherwax, and you’re a little goody-two-shoes.”), but the familial link seems as though it deserves a subsequent mention, at least.
