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Interesting Times
Hm well. I may try another Rincewind Pratchett some time-- indeed, I may already have another Rincewind in the pile-- but I can see people's lack of enthusiasm for him. Not an anti-hero, just unheroic: who thus suffers extremely badly by comparison with morally heroic characters like Vimes, morally complex characters like Angua, and even the Carrots and Vetinaris who are... mh, stereotypes morphed into something else. Fascinatingly so in the latter case. I need a Discworld concordance to find all known appearances of Vetinari's assistant so I can slash the two of them.
The Oriental mishmash got a bit on my nerves. I'm assuming it's a riff on general western inability to tell the difference between China and Japan, but he's skewered western insularity better elsewhere. For one thing, satire shouldn't leave one a tad uncertain as to whether Pratchett himself knows any other countries besides China and Japan. Torontonian me says Where's the kim chee references? and other people might wonder at the absence of Thais or Vietnamese, or even anything remotely resembling the other three little dragons. I have to blink at an English person who associates the Chinese more with imperial exams than with, frankly, *stores*. Great big stores with red and gold signs for choice, but small narrow ones will do as well, and both kinds so packed with Stuff To Buy it's hard to even turn around in them. (Especially if you're an over-grown gaijin.) Unless all the Hong Kongese came to Toronto and not to London.
The tones thing is still funny.
The Oriental mishmash got a bit on my nerves. I'm assuming it's a riff on general western inability to tell the difference between China and Japan, but he's skewered western insularity better elsewhere. For one thing, satire shouldn't leave one a tad uncertain as to whether Pratchett himself knows any other countries besides China and Japan. Torontonian me says Where's the kim chee references? and other people might wonder at the absence of Thais or Vietnamese, or even anything remotely resembling the other three little dragons. I have to blink at an English person who associates the Chinese more with imperial exams than with, frankly, *stores*. Great big stores with red and gold signs for choice, but small narrow ones will do as well, and both kinds so packed with Stuff To Buy it's hard to even turn around in them. (Especially if you're an over-grown gaijin.) Unless all the Hong Kongese came to Toronto and not to London.
The tones thing is still funny.
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