fahye | (no subject)

Is it just me, or has the amount of spam-comments on LJ increased enormously as of late? I screen anon comments, so it's not as though they're causing an eyesore to anyone but me, but it's getting to the point where I'm so sick of seeing them in my inbox that I'm considering turning off the anon commenting feature -- both here and on

mercurial_wit -- entirely.

Dear spambots, I don't read Russian, cut it the fuck out.

More cheerfully: I have had a brief stint of rereading the more recent Vimes-centric Discworld books, from Jingo onwards (is there anyone for whom Night Watch ISN'T the best Discworld novel of all?*) and trying for the first time ever to think a bit critically about why I keep returning to these ones in particular again and again.

Reading Samuel Vimes fume and sarcasme (I choose to believe that this is the verb form) and stomp his way through the world is a bit like listening to David Mitchell rant earnestly, or reading Ben Goldacre's latest posts. Someone is angry about the right things. It's a kind of anger that I suppose, from my examples, that I think of as being largely British; it's full of swear words, it's got a certain amount of erudition behind it (although in the case of Vimes, it has Pratchett's erudition behind it) and there's a sense of steely open-mindedness and no-bullshittery that makes you sit up and want to be picked to play on that side.

I certainly don't believe that all fiction should be moral fiction, sorry John Gardner, but I do think that one of the main reasons why the Discworld books in general are so satisfying, whether your chosen voice of reason is Sam Vimes or Granny Weatherwax or Susan Sto Helit or Tiffany Aching, is because even though bad things do happen to good people, there is always some kind of steadfast and bloodyminded morality driving the plot. Truth wins. Tolerance wins. The greater social good wins. Shades of grey are all over the place, but never to the extent that your moral compass becomes helplessly confused.

Sam Vimes is angry at stupidity and small-mindedness, and WE ARE TOO.

*Although, it must be said, Jingo features the unbeatable wonder that is Vetinari in a submarine.

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Is it just me, or has the amount of spam-comments on LJ increased enormously as of late?

Not just you; I've had half a dozen this week alone. It's gotten to the point where when I see Russian characters I just delete immediately.

For me he's also the most human of Pratchett's characters. He is angry - and angry about the right things - but he's always undergoing an immense struggle with himself to be a good person, to do the right thing, and to not give in to what the world could make him.

I think Pratchett once described Vimes and Granny Weatherwax as people who are naturally destined to be very dark, or even evil - the villain characters - and spend all their lives fighting destiny and creating moral frameworks for themselves. I really like that. They both have a very unusual style, and ways of living well, and it's very compelling.

Yes! A lot of his characterisation revolves around the darkness within, and the day-by-day decisions he makes to Not Be That Person. And to fight past the petty prejudices to the things that really matter.

Although, it must be said, Jingo features the unbeatable wonder that is Vetinari in a submarine.

Jingo is one of my favourite Discworld books, for just that reason. :)

I think Pratchett fans are pretty equally divided between those who like it when he takes on Big Issues (like religion and war and the Debt Crisis), and those who wishes he would go back to less morally outraged comedy-fantasy.

Myself, I love his later books; I love him when he is at his most urgent, and angry, and courageously optimistic.

I'm trying valiantly to recall a NON morally outraged book that I like. Maybe Thief of Time? It's more hijinks with chocolates. Well. To the extent that anything can be non-morally-outraged when it stars Susan.

Me! I don't like Night Watch much. For me, Thud is the crowning glory of Vimes novels.

whether your chosen voice of reason is Sam Vimes or Granny Weatherwax or Susan Sto Helit or Tiffany Aching, is because even though bad things do happen to good people, there is always some kind of steadfast and bloodyminded morality driving the plot.

This is possibly why I deeply dislike the Rincewind POV. I'm willing to accept Ridcully as my voice of reason, but Rincewind HAS no reason.

Personally I LOVE Ridcully's idea of reason. It is predominantly: food and pragmatism.

Ridcully is fabulous. Can he run our university, please please? Also the Bursar would be preferable to... many administrative officials I have met.

a.) It is not just you.

b.) YES, and now I am fighting the urge to embark on an epic Discworld reread, THANKS. (I also love the characters to whom morality does not come easily, and who fight viciously for it, and as

dimestore_romeo said Vimes is one of the best of these.)

I love your icon. :)

Thank you! :D

Oh, wow, blindingly strong desire to reread the Watch books yet again.

DO IT :D

Oh my god, Russian spambots. I get them here, I get them on the season projects, I even get them, albeit much less frequently, on my dreamwidth hangouts. DIE RUSSIAN SPAMBOTS.

Re: Discworld, I think you're absolutely right. It's why I love Granny Weatherwax (and particularly both Witches Abroad and Lords and Ladies) so; it's why Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, and Thud are in a precarious three-way tie for favorite Watch book. I think the closest I get to having a particularly favorite Discworld book that isn't about moral outrage is Hogfather, and, well, that's about Susan and the power of stories.

If you'll excuse me, I urgently have to go reread the Watch books now.

Russian reads YOU! It knows your secrets.

Night Watch comes to closest to being grim... which I think is what makes it the most comforting. It's the only Discworld book that I think of as having a little bit of despair in it, which brings out the goodness more in contrast...

Mm, yes, I think Night Watch goes places (especially as regards Carcer) that none of the other books will.