I, thought the footnote. about the head; of the Guild of Greengrocer’s was hilarious the, rest of the book wa’snt bad either?
Carthorse: ‘shaken players’ = anagram of orchestra. I don’t see any meta-joke though.
Bit of random speculation I had at one point in the novel, about the dog:
[spoiler]Three things I noticed about it. It seemed awfully smart. It actually said, “Woof,” in quotes, just like that. And it was born after its pure-bred dam got out of the house one night and had it on with a bunch of mutts in the ally.
Anyone else thinking that Gaspode the Wonder Dog might have been the sire?[/spoiler]
Nice observation, Miller. That’s exactly the sort of subtle detail Pratchett would put in for the alert reader. I think you’re right.
I’m just irritated that I didn’t catch it.
I just finished it, and opened my Times paper to read an article about Bank of England gold bullion cracking up - it may be not gold standard after all :smack:
And just after the run on Northern Rock (a UK bank). Life really imitates art - or maybe Terry has a Glooper tucked away…
Si
:smack: Yep, when you think about it, it’s pretty clear. The fact he had a pure-breed mother yet only one father and his breed is ‘all of them’ should be enough of a hint to look for the mongreliest mongrel in Ankh.
Jikan no Muda is Japanese for “waste of time.”
Now could someone explain the usury/ursery joke? I’m not sure I understood.
in Latin, a bear is ursa. As in Ursa Major, the constellation? So ursery, in dog latin, would be abuse of bears, or at least “doing something to bears”.
Usury is the word he was looking for.
And thank you for the Japanese translation.
Boy, were you spot on or what?
Just finished it, thoroughly enjoyed it, and will now return to the rest of the thread, but I had to comment on this.
Anyone else think that the Discworld is at its core a very moral world (in its engagingly amoral way)? Evil is defeated, good (however grungy around the edges) is rewarded, that sort of thing. Pratchett’s world is a fundamentally decent world, no matter how indecent it gets itself up as.
The development of Vetinari’s character over the series is fascinating. Who’d ever expect a cynical all-powerful tyrant could be so devoted to the welfare of his subjects? Whether they like it or not.
So I went to the book signing in NYC at Anaamika’s suggestion.
I’m not a huge fan, I’ve only read one Diskworld book (Equal Rites) and Good Omens.
He told an amusing story about traveling to Austraila after Hogfather was made into a film. Austraila is very strict about what you can bring into the country and he was bringing in some stuff from the film. One case looked suspicious. It was filled with prop teeth from the Tooth Fairy. Apparently he gave away a tooth at the book signing tour he was on them. After checking it out he then asked the security woman, 'You’re not worried about that other box? The one labled ‘DEATH’?" “Oh no, that one is fine.” She said.
I was a little annoyed with the questions people asked. He said at the outset that he has no idea what the next book will be and yet, nearly everyone asked “Are you going to bring “character X” back?” To each he basically said, I don’t know. Or sometimes he would say I don’t think I can make that fit in with everything. He did say that he did not want to do any book set in the past because it is so difficult to make it all fit with what he has already written.
He wasnt’ feeling well so he was only signing a few books and he wasn’t personalizing them. (bummer) Apparently this was the end of the tour and he was pretty tired.
He was wearing one leather glove on his left hand. Very Luke Skywalker-ish. When asked about that he gave a very vague and obviously non-turthful reply about testing the glove. He also came in wearing a very broad brimmed fedora. It looked like the “Producer” hat from The Producers.
Filming is underway on the The Color of Magic and, (now I’m blanking on the second book title) and to make sure it gets distrubuted in the US they put in some US actors. Sean Astin is wonderful in it, according to Terry. They also like to use fans as extras. During filming they visited a convention that was going on and the film makers ended up talking to a lot of fans for a very long time and they invited some to come down and be extras. Then the fan extras were better than the hired ones so they decided to keep the fans and continue to recruite the fans to be extras.
Is it just me or does he look like Sigmund Freud?
I need plot point help on 2 items:
[spoiler]1. Explain please what went on with the magic words that made Moist the leader of the golem army and how Vetinari’s “treasonous” message solved the war threat problem. Didn’t Moist ask the dead necromancer for the translation of “you will only obey me” and doesn’t this effectively mean that there is now no way for any other party to counteract the golems?? So was the “treasonous” message just a sham? Are we happy morally to bury the golems when not in use? Shouldn’t Adora be insisting that research be ongoing as to how to emancipate them?
- At the very end, all the other bank owners meet with Vetinari to protest what Moist is doing. Is there some kind of monopoly on printing money? Can’t these other banks do it too, as banks did in the US revolutionary period? Won’t Vetinari have to impose a monoply on printing notes?[/spoiler]
On the first plot item:
Moist’s orders work because he is wearing the golden suit. It isn’t how they are given the orders; it’s who gives them. The golems mistake him for an Umnian priest.
As for the second question: No, Yes, Probably, but maybe not.
Yeah, but that’s precisely what I don’t get:I thought the “treasonous” secret Vetinari leaked which permits the other nations of the disc to neutralize the golem threat is that they can counteract orders to the golems by dressing up in priest clothes and giving orders in Umnian. But does this work if Moist has also ordered them to obey only him? Wasn’t that why Moist disembodied the necromancer in the strip joint? Would Vetinari accept this state of affairs? What happens if Moist dies without counteracting this order? This seems so muddled to me that I am thinking I am missing something, no?
Considering that Pterry made some rather bold forays into basic questions of economics (so typically ignored in fantasy fiction) in this novel, I was rather disappointed that he never confronted the problem of Money Supply. I was very strongly expecting that, at some point, Moist and/or the Patrician (and we know the Patrician, at least, would both comprehend it and take it seriously) would be faced with fact that there is a practical limit to how much paper money can be printed and put in circulation without causing inflation (which is bad for creditors, good for debtors, and who knows what for the State).
I’m afraid I thought this book was rather weak, especially at the beginning. There were even a few infelicities of expression tht made me think “What?? Is theis PTERRY??” 
It did get better toward the end, though.
Do you mean swear words, or just bad writing?
Bad writing and clunky phrases. Not what I’m used to in these books.
I have to admit I wasn’t overwhelmed either:
The first half of the book dragged. Various subplots went nowhere: The Glooper was pointless; Mr Cribbins fizzled out and then conveniently had his teeth kill him at just the right moment, for no observable reason; Mr Fusspot should have been the victim of at least one serious attempt on his life, but instead we had not one but two false alarms and nothing else; the villian was laughably inept. The general sense I got was of good ideas left undeveloped.