Always remember to fill your boots with soup
Friday, March 25, 2011 at 9:42PM 
A lot of people know of Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, even if they haven’t read them. Though they should! Pratchett’s novels take place in an anachronistic and inventive fantasy world, the Disc is a flat circular continent perched on the backs of four elephants standing on top of a gigantic, space faring turtle that is peopled with flawed and interesting characters, and deal with topics of society of politics. They are also very, very funny. I would honestly argue that the man has become one of the best satirists around. Anyway, this blog is going to be a little different; I’ll give a brief introduction on a specific “arc” of his books before focusing mostly on Monstrous Regiment the most recent one I’ve read.
I’ll make no secret of the fact that my readings of the series have been sporadic and, invariably focused on the city of Ankh Morpork. I don’t know, it just happened. The overarching theme of this section of the stories is of progress. Unlike a lot of other fantasy works, the world residing in Terry Pratchett’s mind is not a static one and Ankh Morpork (described by the author as a mish mash of Tallinn, London and New York) is at the forefront of the development. Throughout the series, the mercantile city has seen the overthrow of a king (they were given the option for democracy but they voted against), the formation an efficient and eclectic police force and the invention of the “clacks”, basically semaphore towers which function as telegraphs. With the technological progress comes the social and many of the novels deal with gender equality and multiculturalism.
Anyway, on to Monstrous Regiment which, incidentally, has only the barest involvement of Ankh Morpork. Instead it the book concerns the tiny and destitute nation of Borogravia which, despite being tiny and destitute, has made it its business to declare war on just about every other country around, thereby making itself tiny and destitute. As one character asks, “Do you think it’s possible for an entire nation to be insane?”
The book explains three major themes: war, religion and gender roles. First, the novel comes to the conclusion that war is a right stupid thing to be getting up to isn’t it? The characters in the novel are all new army recruits who form the squad called the Ins-and-Outs and as the story goes on it is revealed that they are also the last and that, despite what the army command claims, they are actually on the losing side. Religion is explored through the worship of Nuggan and the Duchess. Nuggan, the official god of Borogravia, has gone insane, listing everything from chocolate to the colour blue to babies as Abominations in his continuously updated Living Testament. Instead, many citizens have made their missing Duchess into a spiritual figure, praying to her picture for absolution. Finally, gender roles are explored because the entire squad is female. Well, not their Lieutenant, Blouse. Of course as Borogravia is a very sexist nation, they have all disguised themselves as boys in order to sign up but, as the story continues, it becomes clear that they are not the first…
It is interesting to see how much the series has changed and grown. The first book, which I actually read fairly recently for the first time, paints the Discworld with broad strokes, being more of a pastiche on the Robert E. Howard style of fantasy. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a fun read and the hint of something great is still there, but Pratchett has really fleshed out his creation over the course thirty-some years. He really is one of the finest writers of a generation and he writes for the best of reasons: “I just rearrange words into a pleasing order for money.”
Reader Comments (1)
All hail Sir Prachett, for he is the funniest of funny. Get blog -- but is prachett really worth the hipster cred, really? He's pretty well known. But did you think that the end reveal, with the council of soldiers was Too Much? Just going from "believable" to "total farce"?