Book #179 - Thud! By Terry Pratchett

Book #179 - Thud! by Terry Pratchett

(I'm dizzy. If I think too long about it I start bawling.)

This is one of the best takedowns of war, millenia-spanning cross-cultural conflicts, the weaponization of religion for authoritarian or jingoistic purposes, historical revisionism, cultural isolation, the entire concept of intercultural historical grudge-keeping, war.... that I think I've ever seen.

"... and fools made fools of us all as we fought to stop a war, until the disgusted sky washed us away. And yet we say this. Here in this cave at the end of the world peace is made between dwarf and troll and we will march beyond the hand of Death together. For the enemy is not Troll, nor is it Dwarf, but it is the baleful, the malign, the cowardly, the vessels of hatred, those who do a bad thing and call it good."

The enemy is not people. The enemy is in the heads, it is the thing feared yet venerated as it worms its way into minds, seeths and spits and whispers evil into the hearts of men, snarls its hatred until people become things, and things become violent. It warps the light around reality until all that is left is a funhouse mirror filled with monsters, and its symbols, glowing red with wrath and blood- The enemy is the Summoning Dark, and it is always near, just one speech of hate, one call to arms away.

And because that is very heavy, here some sweet little things from this book that I absolutely adored:

- Colon's and Nobby's conversation about Tawnee and her profession. It is both hilarious, and unironically the most wholesome and least offensive conversation about sex work I have read maybe ever.

- Vimes, just, as a whole. Because I love how Vimes, with his unhealthy, workaholic, probably insomniac life, is so dogged about being a good dad. We all have seen the "And if you did it for a good reason, you'd do it for a bad one" quote, and it's very good, but I feel that I have to remind you that in the original context, the "it" he is referring to is missing bedtime storytime with his son. 'nuff said.

- Speaking of bedtime storytime, I adored the scene where they're on an evening walk to the inn at Koom Valley and it's storytime and the entire Watch squad joins in on the animal noises. I am legit tearing up thinking about it, it is so adorable.

- Everything about the girls' night out. Hilarity of the century.

- The fact that "casual DID rep" is an accurate description of one scene in this book.

- Brick, somehow? Like, I did not expect to get the not-very-bright-kid-becomes-incompetent-goon pipeline presented to me with actual heart and a heartfelt acknowledgement and effort to get him clean from his drug use, and give him a future? Like, Brick's subplot is so touching?? And how dare it?? I wasn't ready for this, what the hell!

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250 likes!

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I like to tell my brother what's going on in Aurora and after these last couple pages he said "when you have this much hubris and hate yourself this much I can only say not everything is about you"

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1 month ago

So you know the rumour about a Margot Robbie PotC film...p

she's everything

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Fan art I painted of the Witch King of Angmar from Lord of the Rings

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I feel like I'm doing Tumblr and other social mediums wrong.

My most used account is a gimmick account on Discord, my Tumblr is half-crazed rambling that only friends should be subject to and the person who channels the dead for me is now reduced to an artefact that I can use directly.

The only thing I feel like I'm doing right is the private stuff and the postal service, and the latter only because I don't.

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m-p-lebrush

4 months ago

He also gave his kids a goblin themed (the North Polar Bear comes up with it based on goblin cave art) writing system to decipher, it's legitimately good.

If you can get a copy of the book, I seriously recommend you do. It's such a good read.

I know everyone talks about how Tolkien infused his war ptsd into LOTR but did you know he wrote letters to his kids from 'santa' and they include a full on war with goblins to save Christmas?? And polar bears and elves (the shelf kind) getting injured and starving like this man could never be chill he had to have a battle and I love that for him

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m-p-lebrush

3 months ago

We've all been here, or will be soon enough. You'll get your answers if you haven't yet, some earlier than others. Some maybe not at all.

Who the fuck is that narrator???

Soooo after playing a bit more i think i'm starting to get a grasp who the princess is - she is a reflection of me. She will always react according to my actions (and grow some more personality in the meantime) But who is the narrator - he sometimes has power over us (especially in the first chapter) and sometimes not. He clearly can't be trusted. Is he one or many?? He loses power the more power the princess gets...and he seems to be disgusted almost jealous whenever our realationship to the princess gets better. SOOO who is he? Is he our self preservation? Our pride? Why isn't he able to see the mirror (something i believe he isn't lying about)

At one time he let slip that we were MADE to slay the princess - so what are we? Are we a clone? What is this world which is completly under his control? Will I ever get answers. I fucked around a little bit but havent found any satisfying answers yet... So my question is - what can i do to really piss him of so he makes a mistake and reveals to much. I will ponder this.

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m-p-lebrush

1 month ago

But would they be sworn to carry my burdens?

New H3 idea:

When you go to the base (or whatever it is called in the future), you can choose one of the other characters there to come with you as you travel the overworld, like a partner in crime (or a meat shield)

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