Just to add to this thread as I solved a niggling itch in the back of my mind…
The Glooper plotline works a bit better (for me, anyhow) when you realise that there really was such a thing … the MONIAC.
Something like Hex works (plotwise) when you recognise something familiar and PTerry parodies and extends it in ways you don’t expect - sideways, usually. You know, like a clock (we know clocks) made of glass (a bit odd, but) measuring the tick of the Universe (atomic clocks) that jams time :smack: .
He tries the same thing with the Glooper, but because the thing is already a bit odd - who would believe an economic model made of jars, valves and tubes of water - we just accept it as a Discworld oddity. Then the transition to economic control device is not as odd as it would be if we understood the reality of the device in the first place.
Also, the transition of the Glooper as a model to the Glooper as a controller is handled badly. Moist should have been playing with it, and then triggering odd effects in the Anhk-Morpork economy, so that the reader gets a foreshadowing of the changes happening in the Glooper before the truth is revealed.
Overall (IMHO), Making Money is a bit weak - not as bad as Monstrous Regiment, but not up there with best.
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.
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I missed this before. This drives me crazy about fans. Everybody of course wants their authors to write MORE! about what they want and I am no exception. But I think the people who actually go and ask the author to do so have never ever written even a short story. It’s not that wasy to make your characters do something you want. I recommend everyone who nags authors to do this go out and try to write just a three-part short story with recurring chars and then have someone else look at it and see if it’s any good, then come back and nag your author.
The Glooper plotline works a bit better (for me, anyhow) when you realise that there really was such a thing … the MONIAC.
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By happy chance, I went to the London Science Museum a few months ago to see the working Babbage Differential Engine (which may work, but disappointingly wasn’t working at the time) and saw their working Glooper (same problem). So I already knew about reality and was *even more * annoyed when it didn’t do anything useful in the novel. I got the feeling that Mr Pratchett had found out about them; thought, like all right-thinking people, “Way cool!”; and crowbarred it into the novel whether it needed it or not.
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
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).
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I’ve got a feeling that he has left that can of worms unopened for now, on purpose.
After all, the Ankh-Morpork Times innocently printed on its front page front and back of the new dollar. I loved Vetinari’s reaction to that but it looks like everyone still has to adapt to the new economic reality.
I also get the feeling
that Moist is being groomed to become Vetinari’s successor at some future point. It’s either that or in a couple of books PTerry will have painted himself into a corner, forcing a showdown between those two.
[QUOTE=Zetetic]
So, my question is: Is this an well known cliché?
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Sure, plenty well known, although it’s usually children who want to run away and join the circus, not accountants.
Although there is a Mike Doughty song that has the lyric,
“I’m sick of elephants and clowns.
I want to run away and join the office.”
But I think he was being metaphorical.
It’s a reversal of the usual cliche, but I don’t think there’s anything more to it past that.
I have to admit, though, that I was a little annoyed by how his transformation was handled, in that the book clearly portrays it as a good thing that he’s discovered his true calling and joined the clown’s guild. Previously, being a member of the clown’s guild was about the most depressing, soul-crushing fate imaginable. It’s not so much the inconsistency that bothers me (which is probably just due to something quantum again, anyway) as the fact that I found the idea of the life of a clown being unrelentingly awful to be far more amusing.
I thought the whole sub-plot was quite well handled. I was convinced that Bent was a vampire right up until the end. The whole “soul-crushing” idea is for those who aren’t “natural-born” clowns. Like any other profession, some are just born to it.
[QUOTE=silenus]
I thought the whole sub-plot was quite well handled. I was convinced that Bent was a vampire right up until the end.
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I figured he wasn’t going to be a vampire, simply because it seemed too obvious. I didn’t expect a clown, though.
Gotta disagree with you there. The entire profession has been portrayed that way. Not just for people in the guild, but for anyone else who has to interact with them, as well. The reaction to a clown in the Discworld ranges from mild pity to creeping horror, but it’s never been seen as a good thing in any way, until this book.
So I went to the book signing in NYC at Anaamika’s suggestion.
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My husband got his copy off the shelf at Borders last weekend. When he came home he was practically bouncing with excitement because he managed to snag an autographed copy. I really didn’t mean to burst his bubble, but I managed to none-the-less, when I pointed out that what that meant was that he missed actually getting to meet him when he was obviously here doing the signing. But now, based on what you said about how it went in NY, perhaps he didn’t miss much after all. I’ll have to let him know. Whew!
But now, based on what you said about how it went in NY, perhaps he didn’t miss much after all. I’ll have to let him know. Whew!