It looks like the regular discussions on the Discworld books isn’t continuing so I thought I would jump in and move things forward. So this week it’s the second book in the Discworld series, The Light Fantastic.
This book is more like it. The Colour of Magic was rough, disjointed, and lacked a lot of the Discworld style. TLF has a lot more refined writing and the jokes are sharper and come from more than just rough parodies.
Unfortunately I think Pratchett relied on the same style of climax from TLF for the majority of the early novels. It seemed like the creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions were always just on the verge of breaking through. On the other hand, I can’t think of the last time they’ve been mentioned in the series (maybe Moving Pictures?).
Is it me or did the Wizards change between TCoM and TLF? In TCoM the rules of magic that are set up would seem to make the magic performed (particularly in the magic poor environment later in the novel) impossible. I don’t get the impression that magic isn’t more trouble than its worth which is the point that seemed to be made initially, but the difficulty seems less than it was mentioned.
One more thing, does anyone have an idea where the water on the discworld comes from. Yes, magic is a perfectly acceptable answer, but with the quantities of water pouring off the disc I’m left wondering where it goes and where it comes from. I can’t envision a system that would bring the water back to the disc…
The next book: Equal Rites. I think we should plan for two weeks between books since that gives plenty of time to continue.
A guess: The god of beer realizes the place is about to run out of water, so he conjures up more water into the sea, to replace that which has been run out of.
Since anyone reading this thread has presumably made it through TLF I think we can drop the spoiler tags.
I think that the photo didn’t show anything. The realm of death is a realm of concepts and the photo imp paints what is visible. I don’t think it shows what is spiritual.
Maus, my problem with that is I wouldn’t expect the water to move toward the center of the disk. I could see this working for lands close to the edge but locations like the Ramtops wouldn’t get water.
Maybe it condenses on the underside of the disc, flows to the middle, and then goes up and out through a hole there…
I did say that we should stick to bi-weekly, and I was gonna sit down and write the OP for this on tonight. Seeing that I was laid up for surgery last week (which I knew in advance), I planned it so I’d get out of the hospital and have the weekend to write it (I re-read it about three weeks ago), but I was more feeble during the weekend than I thought I’d be, so I’m glad someone else started the thread.
TLF is the first clear sign of things to come. There are very big inconsistencies with later books, concerning troll mythology and facts. The way UU works can easily be explained away, as can many other things. The trolls - well no. But apart from that, TLF is moving away from being a parody of Fantasy and starting to be a parody of human weaknesses. There are hints in how the younger wízards want to run the University, echoing of the management consultants of the 80’s. The humor and delivery in the spoken lines is much more skilled. One of my favorite passages is when Rincewind and Twoflower are escaping on the broomstick and wake up on the druid rock. Twoflower says (paraphrasing): “You remember when I asked you if there wasn’ty anything we could hit in the clouds and you said only if we’d come across a flying rock.”
“Well?”
“How did you know?”
The narration flows much better and Pterry gets in quite a few good shots against the romantic views on druids, pixies and barbarian. The debut of Genghis Cohen was pure genius, of course.
But there are also some nice comments about how people’s minds work, mob mentality and why you should avoid someone staring at your left ear when they are trying to tell you about their religion.
All in all. It’s enjoyable, if not very memorable.
I disagree with The Gaspode on the last part – The Light Fantastic is very memorable, moreso than The Color of Magic. In many ways, it’s the first “true” introduction to the Discworld, having gotten away from the disjoint nature of TCOM.
If nothing else, the introduction of Cohen the Barbarian (and his nefangled dint-chewers) is a major watermark of the series. And the whole bit with Weems and the Luggage establishes (IMO) just how totally badass the Luggage is.
Having wallowed in Pratchettness for so long, going back and reading all about the “backstabbing wizards” bit is a bit disconcerning. I like the wizards better in the later novels, as a bunch of doofs with Ridcully riding herd on them, since it’s more comedic. Having them as a gang of wanna-be executives (in sequined gowns, admittedly) just doesn’t work for me.
Oh, and the best bit of writing has to be the entire wizards-vs-warriors sequence…
If we’re going to be talking killer puns, then it would be totally wrong to omit this one (when the wizards were searching in the forest with the talking trees):
Oh dear! I must reread this book tonight. I will write what I thought about it tomorrow. Not that anyone cares, but I just wanted you to know that you still have a living breathing book club member. More tomorrow.
Oh, they get mentioned a lot, they just don’t feature.In Thief of Time there are all the little statues of the dlhang , and in The Truth the Patrician goes on at length about the occult risks of new enterprises in A.M.
I loved the whole megalith computer thing, a natural extension of some crackpot theories. Also, this is the Discworld book where Pterry really starts playing around with metatext, I think.
I haven’t read this book in a while, but I like most of his Rincewind stuff. Um…isn’t this the one with Lady Luck? I really liked her, and the whole frog bit.
Pratchett claims that the references to the fish and chips stand on Dagon street which come up several times throughout the series are to the Philistine god rather than the Lovecraftian one. Personally, I don’t see how he could not be aware of the connection, but he’s the author.
Just Some Guy: He is doubghtly aware of the existance of the god, as well as Lovecraft, and simply choose to use a ref to Babylon here. He can do that, he’s the author. He has lovecraft references in other places, such as the other Dimentions, and the Necrotelicomnicom.
Also, I am taking your advice.
As I recall, when Twoflower looks at the picture he has taken, it reveals
things to horrible to say. It is my personal theory that either the four horsemen are Lovecraftian things too horrible to see, or the picture was of a blank cavern.
Any ideas on this?
Oh, I wasn’t refering to that. The Patrician also makes specific reference to Moving Pictures & mentions the Dungeon Dimensions by name.
And I knew Dagon as the fish-clad god long befor I read Lovecraft, and I suspect it’s possible Pterry learned it the same way I did - it was in one of those Reader’s Digest Amazing Facts & Strange Stories books about the Dogon of Mali and their knowledge of the binary stars in Alph Centauri.
