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RIP Pratchett

3/13/2015

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“It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.”

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I'm trying to work on resumes and such today, but keep getting distracted by thoughts of Pratchett. I think he's the first author whose death has really sadden-en-ated me.

My first Pratchett was so long ago I'd forgotten it. A YA novel taken from the library when I was trying out Fantasy novels: Only You Can Save Mankind. When I was out in in BC in 2012 I finally took another Pratchett from the library: A Monstrous Regiment. It was the thunderbolt. Love at first laugh.

It's hard to describe to someone what makes Pratchett funny, cause it's layered.

1. There's the great Wodehouseian writing--the similes and metaphors and witty images:

“There was this about vampires : they could never look scruffy. Instead, they were... what was the word... deshabille. It meant untidy, but with bags and bags of style.”

“There have been better attempts at marching, and they have been made by penguins.”

2. The Connie Willis style satire--that ability to make fun, to critique, but without being didactic (shakes fist at Kevin Smith).

"And if you couldn't trust the government, who could you trust? Very nearly everyone, come to think of it..."

“The four lesser apocalyptical horsemen of Panic, Bewilderment, Ignorance, and Shouting took control of the room,”

3. Then the silliness Pratchett couldn't resist--the endless playing on language, or on tropes, or on cultural references. The title alone refers both to the "monsters" in the regiment, as well as the feminist theme.

"
You've got coffee, haven't you? C'mon, everyone's got coffee! Spill the beans!”

“This was not a fairy-tale castle and there was no such thing as a fairy-tale ending, but sometimes you could threaten to kick the handsome prince in the ham-and-eggs.”



All this in one book, my first Pratchett. There was also humor just in the plot, in the twists, but I can't spoiler those. But it was this interesting book about war, nationalism, and feminism, and it wasn't annoying. Amazing! As a writer I was so impressed. So I took out another book: The Truth.

_____

The Truth is a standalone, but really part of the industrial revolution series: printing press/journalism; post office and communication; monetary system; railroads. It's hard to describe why these books are so funny and interesting. "Satires about the Industrial Revolution!" Oh yes, riveting [yawn.] And yet they are. And thoughtful, and philosophical.

“A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on.”

“William: "I'm sure we can all pull together, sir."
Vetinari: "Oh, I do hope not. Pulling together is the aim of despotism and tyranny. Free men pull in all kinds of directions.”


And I started to get a good look at Pratchett's fantastic world-building. He would take classic figures from fantasy, and take them to their logical conclusion. Or take classic elements of the fantasy, and make them logical. Like this description of the vampire homeland:

“Veil, you see, if I vas to say something portentous like "zer dark eyes of zer mind" back home in Uberwald, zer would be a sudden crash of thunder,' said Otto. 'And if I vas to point at a castle on a towering crag and say "Yonder is . . . zer castle" a volf would be bound to howl mournfully.' He sighed. 'In zer old country, zer scenery is psychotropic and knows vot is expected of it. Here, alas, people just look at you in a funny vay.”

And through it all, like with Connie Willis, you sense the heart. Pratchett is criticizing, but it's because he cares; he's empathetic, and he understands people. Loves them even with their flaws.

“...William wondered why he always disliked people who said 'no offense meant.' Maybe it was because they found it easier to to say 'no offense meant' than actually to refrain from giving offense.”


_____

Then I read Guards! Guards!--the first book about the city watch. It's not even the best book in that series, but a necessary one because it's the origin of Sam Vimes. The self-loathing alcoholic, who somehow finds some meaning in life, and turns the city watch into something to be proud of.

Vimes is an old, grizzled, tired everyman. He's got prejudices, and he's cynical--but he believes in justice, and that trumps everything else. Things have to be put to right. And that's why I love the Watch series. Because they're generally about prejudice in the guise of specie-ism. About the ancient hatred of the trolls and dwarves, not dissimilar to the Israelis and Palestinians. The class differences between the vampires and the igors and the werewolves. And the last book is about a species that everyone thinks is subhumanoid, and is basically about ethnic cleansing. I read it twice.

But Vimes puts it to right--about as much as he can. And that's another wonder of Pratchett's books. They're cynical and true to life--the poor stay poor, the rich stay assholes--but the protagonists always manage to make some sort of meaningful change for the better. Sometimes it mirrors real life, sometimes it's just fantasy. But Pratchett pulled it off.

While still doing all the Funny Stuff I mentioned. And the Worldbuilding. And the Logical Conclusions.

_____

So when I heard Pratchett was dead, I really did feel--as the Brits would say--gutted.

We all knew he would die soon, because of his illness. And it wasn't sad in the way Robin Williams' death was sad. But it really did feel like a star being extinguished. He was so talented, so funny, so moving, and more imagination in his pinky finger than is found in the average brain.

"
A stellar explosion that briefly outshines an entire galaxy, radiating as much energy as the Sun or any ordinary star is expected to emit over its entire life span, before fading from view." (wiki definition of a supernova)

Of course, he's not gone--I've got The Last Continent tucked away in my purse. And lucky me I've only read a fraction of his works. But it still feels like... show's over, send in the clowns.

Hapoo.  :-(



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Balancing Ideal and Real

3/7/2015

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So... it's still hard for people of color to get "regular"/starring roles in Hollywood. And one of the things I like about the sketch comedy show Key & Peele is how they kind of address this.

Key and Peele do a lot of movie satires, and they get to cast themselves in all these mainstream roles. One of the show's fortes is the fantastic production values when they spoof movies--the costumes, music, lighting, is all spot on. So you really get a chance to imagine what a mainstream movie would Look Like with black actors in the main roles.

If that's all there was to the show, then I'd agree K&P are guilty of the critique that they're ignoring race, etc. But they do their share of skits that play on racial themes as well, à la Chappelle-Pryor. And I just don't like to underestimate what they're doing in their non-race based movie skits, cause I think they're helping create a space where we can imagine people of color in "white roles."

Below are three slightly different examples. In the first, we see Peele as a Nazi--obviously you can't cast a black Nazi in a serious historical movie, but I like how you come to "ignore" his race as you get drawn into the actual joke of the skit. The second is straight forward example of a black guy in regular role--the post-apocalyptic survivor. And the third is another of their well-made Hollywood spoofs, only this time the main joke is race based.


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Drawing the Humor Line

3/5/2015

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When I'm in between writing, I think a lot about humor. I'm a humor writer--I think that's the best description--but still thinking about what kind of humor, where the draw the line between Silly and Serious.

Jane Austen was firmly within the realm of Real Life. Her writing is witty, but there's no farce, no silliness. The big set pieces involve romance, not humor (Eg. Darcy's horrible proposal.) That's not me. When I re-read my stuff from the past, it is DEFINITELY silly.

Georgette Heyer pulled us closer along the silliness spectrum. I'd call her a humor write first, before romance, and I wish more men would read her (these days. In her day lots of men read her.) She has great comic set pieces, and her books tend to end like a Thin Man movie--full of characters bashing up against each other. I love that stuff.

PG Wodehouse was very silly. Nothing tragic happens in the World of Wodehouse. In Heyer bad things can still happen to people; in Wodehouse, the biggest threat is being forced into a marriage with a terrifying woman.

I've been reading Terry Pratchett whose books have become more serious over time. He now believes you need the serious stuff to offset the humor, to make the humor funnier, more noticeable. And of course, a lot of times it's just characters using humor to deal with life.

So... am I a Wodehouse? Should I eschew all seriosity? It occurred to me tonight that most of Wodehouse's humor is in the actual writing--the narration, the dialogue. He wrote incredibly funny lines. He was the absolute MASTER of similes. But if you take away that writing what do you get? There are funny characters, funny situations, but I think Heyer did a better job wih the situations.

I can't write as overwhelming-hilarious as Wodehouse. Pratchett can do it, John Mortimer can do it, but not me. I'm funny but... those freaking similes. How did he do it? How do any of them do it?? However I do think I'm good at set pieces.

I think my humor has to be pulled back a bit into the realm of reality. And romance works better that way too, as Jennifer Crusie found. (She had to remind herself to stop being cynical and be willing to write romance stories with heart and vulnerability.)

I'm still not sure How Serious to get. Pratchett's Snuff goes into slavery and ethnic cleansing--it's dark stuff.

Well, anyway... so time to experiment. I have an idea for a novella, and we'll see where my writing naturally draws the line. But I think I have to attempt some seriousness... give myself permission to kill someone off, or deal with ugly-humanity stuff.

...I'll leave you with some Pratchett from Snuff:

" They were crude weapons, to be sure, but a flint axe hitting your head does not need a degree in physics."

"Whatever you thought about goblins, their cave had the kind of atmosphere about which people say, 'I should wait two minutes before going in there, if I was you.'"

"Vimes woke in damp and utter darkness with sand under his cheek. Some parts of his body reported for duty, others protested that they had a note from their mother."

"Lady Sibyl leaned back with her secateurs poised, and regarded the rose bushes like a bloody-handed revolutionary looking for his next aristocrat."

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