So my brother spotted something odd in TvTropes’ entry on Going Postal.
Now, both my brother and I had taken it for granted that Reacher was not aware of said bottomless pit. It was kinda stupid of him to take Vetinari at his word, true, but if he were as clever as he thought he was, he wouldn’t have been taken down in the first place. Anyway, I can see him being confused and fed up and not thinking clearly, and walking out the door. I can’t see him committing suicide. Pretending to agree so he can take time to weasel out of it, as Moist initially did, yes. Dying to get away, no. That’s just not him.
Does that make sense to you? Who’s totally off base here, me and Bro, or the Troper? Or is it supposed to be ambiguous? What’s your $0.02?
Yeah, I think that’s off base. It’s been a while since I read this one, but as I remember it the point was that Reacher wasn’t nearly as intelligent or perceptive as Moist. Whereas Moist understood the trap, Reacher wasn’t perceptive enough and too self-absorbed to realize the subtext in Vetinari dismissing him.
Reacher Gilt was so dedicated to “free market” principles – particularly to the idea that people in business should never be held liable for their business dealings – that he stuck by it, even beyond the point where it became completely unreasonable.
Maybe he didn’t know about the pit, but it wouldn’t have made any difference if he did – he valued the principle more than he did his personal safety, or even his own life. Basically, he was insane. And that was the big difference between him and Moist Von Lipwig.
Bugger – got caught by the five minute window for editing. Let me put it in a slightly different way.
Reacher Gilt was so completed fixated on the idea of “free” that he reflexively chose freedom over public service, even though it was an obvious trap. And he was too insane to even care that he was choosing death over life.
I’d say that at least nine tenths of him was completely surprised by the sudden drop. Whether the last tenth was not paying attention or was busy keeping the other nine from noticing is left unsaid.
I’m more uncertain about what happened with Moist’s second chance at the end.
Even though Reacher wasn’t as sharp as Moist, he still was far from oblivious, and it’s hard not to notice something like that. Maybe he didn’t catch Vetinari’s meaning before he opened the door, but he surely did after, and then thought about the offer for a moment before accepting.
And as a minor point, I didn’t understand it to be a pit, but rather that the office was in a tower, and that it was simply a door to the outside. Doesn’t make much difference, though.
I read it as Gilt deliberately choosing suicide (and his own twisted principles) over subservience. I’m not sure where this idea that Gilt was “stupid” is coming from - throughout the book, he’s portrayed as cunning, ruthless, and a gifted liar. The only reason he loses to Moist is that Moist is better at all those things. And even then, just barely. Reacher Gilt was Moist von Lipwig plus 20 years and minus that hidden spark of decency. He was not a fool.
I go with the insane maniac theory: he knew what he was doing, but didn’t care because he’d gotten so into his own con that he’d forgotten it was a con at all and became a True Believer. As a True Believer he felt like if he followed the One True Path it would work out.
Wellll- as I said in the OP, three days of being golemhandled isn’t a recipe for thinking clearly. I don’t think he get time to eat or drink either. (Is it just me, or did anyone else wonder if he got let down to use the bathroom, or had to go on the go? Just me?) I get cranky and fuzzy-minded if I’m an hour or two late for dinner. Heck, I can see Vetinari himself making stupid decisions in those circumstances.
I’ll have to read the book again (I’ve been meaning to anyway since the Sky One adaptation came out), but while Reacher and Moist were of comparable levels of intelligence, the sense I got was that Moist is always thinking outwardly. He’s always thinking about other people and thinking about how other people think. He takes an interest, even if it’s only to serve his own goals.
Reacher, on the other hand, thinks inwardly. He’s a lot more self-absorbed than Moist. It’s like Pratchett describes another character in Making Money: he’s the type who, while you are talking, is not listening to what you’re saying but rather thinking of what to say next. One of the constants in the Discworld books is that people who think outwardly can keep up with Vetinari, but those who think inwardly (like most of the nobles) get played like harps no matter how generally intelligent they are.
I could be wrong, as it’s been so very long that I barely remember anything about Reacher other than that last scene, but as I remember it Reacher simply missed the trap in Vetinari’s words and strode out the door thinking he was home free, because he was more occupied with himself than Vetinari.
But given the apparent intended allusions to John Galt, it’s entirely possible he did kill himself as Manda JO suggests, and Pratchett is playing on how reality can interfere with ideology.
I think more like an elevator shaft. Had it been to the outside, Moist himself would have seen daylight when he opened the door, and been able to judge the drop visually, rather than by wasting his spoon.
It never occurred to me to suppose that Gilt did anything other than bolt out the door immediately upon being offered the opportunity.
The other person to analyze here is Vetinari. It seems to me that Vetinari would not intend for the door to be a trick: He wants his visitor to stand there, look at the drop, and think about the choices that he really has. Likewise, Vetinari is honest enough, in his own way, that he wouldn’t say he admired the man’s adherence to his principles if he didn’t genuinely believe that it was a conscious decision motivated by principles.
Another vote for he knew it was certain death. There was of course, a third option. Do neither. Then he would have had a date with Daniel “One Drop” Trooper. Gilt would have seen it as more suitable of a man of his class to off himself than do the hemp dance.
This is one distinction between Spangler/Moist. Somewhere inside Moist there was a little subconscious thought that said he might actually make a go of the Patrician’s offer. Gilt would be 100% rotten to the core and knew he would do Something Bad running the mint (or running from the mint) and end up signing one of Mr. Trooper’s ropes.
One more vote for killing himself. I think that Moist was counting on Vetinari being an honorable tyrant and was giving Moist the choice between being useful or dying immediately. Reacher on the other hand, considered the Patrician to be as dishonest as he was and never considered the possibility that Vetinari would keep him alive. He saw it as a choice between dying now or dying when he was no longer useful. Moist saw is as dying now or being useful enough to live long enough to escape.
I’d say it’s more than likely a bit of the destruction left over from when the dragon took over Ankh-Morpork, and hollowed out the Patrician’s palace to use as its lair (Guards! Guards!).
Just re-read the passage in question. It’s definitely ambiguous. It appears that whether Gilt committed suicide intentionally or not is dependent on whether he understood Vetinari’s speech about angels, but the only sentence we get on that is “Reacher Gilt […] listened in mounting puzzlement to the angelic theories of Lord Vetinari.”
There’s no clue whether he’s puzzled only because he doesn’t know where Vetinari is going with the angels thing (in which case, once he understood that Vetinari was offering him a job, he chose death over the angel), or because he doesn’t comprehend what Vetinari’s talking about at all, and the only thing he does understand is that Vetinari is offering him a job, which he doesn’t trust, as well as offering him the option to walk through the door and never hear from Vetinari again, which he immediately takes, not understanding that the choices Vetinari was offering were cake or death.
Given the (albeit parsimonious) descriptions of Gilt’s reactions to Vetinari’s speech, I tend to believe it was the latter option. The former is possible, but I think requires reading a lot deeper between the lines than is expected. I wouldn’t necessarily put it past Pratchett, though.