Saturday Controvesy

[Tina a.k.a.SusanSto.Helit]

I've had a think about my most & least favourite books, & they seem to be a fairly even mixture. So that's me out of a potentially interesting bun fight then!

HEY Trish, shall we work on a trebuchet to try and fling buns? hmm, could be a bad idea, in order to get there, they would have to go very high and freeze or become meteors on re-entry. Could be fun tho.

[swreader]

Pooh- your teacher must have been writing this thread. Discuss Indeed!!

I find that while I like (most of) the "pure escape" books where Pratchett puns, alludes, footnotes and the like--I only like them once. And I think in some ways they are the least interesting because unless you happen to be, for example, a rock music fan--Soul Music gets awfully odd for reasons I didn't understand (until Tony explained the allusions).

There are a second level of books which I find I like somewhat better, although they are really pure escapism. These are the ones with interesting characters or funny ideas--Reaper Man-- would fit in this category. They're the kind you come back to because of the warm, fuzzy feeling. I'd even include Thief of Time in this category.

The books that I really appreciate and find myself coming back to more often, though, tend to be those with ideas or satiric comments on human activity or the human condition--the ones that make me think. And because they have humor, pathos, struggle, success, failure and all the other elements of the human condition, I like them far more than the running gag type books (Lost Continent, Pyramids, Soul Music).


But as Tony wisely pointed out -- what's to discuss really? We like books for different reasons. In fact, reading Pratchett is like reaching into a well-stocked spice cupboard. Sometimes you want a nice warm cinnamoney taste, or a lusty garlic, or a complex curry.

Edited to change the paragraphing and to add the following teacher's note on the first post of the thread.


*** Pooh, write on the blackboard 100 times, "I will not post threads merely to "wind up" members."

[poohbcarrot]

"I will not post threads merely to "wind up" members."
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[NightOwl]

ah! I think we have an Unreal Argument !

comedy is about the human condition - it succeeds on the basis that in every ridiculous incident somebody like us makes a tw-t of themselves!

when George Orwell (Coming up for air) wrote about the water running up you rarm when you shave - it was observational humour - when he wrote about following a large-arsed woman down the street then realising she had been the sylph-like object of his teenage affections, it had pathos. he was writing about the human condition and writing comedy.

Evelyn Waugh - (Snoop) - in which a casual contributor to a newspaper gets mistaken for somebody who wants to report on a war-zone and then has to adjust to journalism in the field - is both highly amusing and worryingly ironic.

all truly great comedy is based on us recognising part of ourselves and the human condition in unusual circumstances - Vimes and Carrot reflect that a lot.

"Nation" has the expected mix of observation/insight and comedy - there is no need to pigeon-hole any author - or indeed their work - look at Joseph Heller's "Catch 22" for example.

[Dotsie]

Evelyn Waugh - (Snoop)

Is that the sequel to Scoop? Interesting slip considering that the subject matter is journos

[Tonyblack]

Evelyn Waugh - (Snoop)

Is that the sequel to Scoop? Interesting slip considering that the subject matter is journos

I didn't know otherwise and assumed it was an amusing title for a book about jouralism.

[Jan Van Quirm]

"I will not post threads merely to "wind up" members."

[multiplied by 99]

You flamin' tease Pooh!

I wonder..... never, never change Pooh!

[Bouncy Castle]

What I want to know is.......................

.... what is it with Pratchett and cabbages, and Rankin with sprouts?

Vegetable mad, the both of 'em.






Sorry. Finished Making Movies this weekend, and re-read The AntiPope.

[Dotsie]

Men like farts. Simple.

[Bouncy Castle]

[Tonyblack]

What I want to know is.......................

.... what is it with Pratchett and cabbages, and Rankin with sprouts?

Vegetable mad, the both of 'em.






Sorry. Finished Making Movies this weekend, and re-read The AntiPope.

Vegetables are funny - it's as simple as that.

[Who's Wee Dug]

What I want to know is.......................

.... what is it with Pratchett and cabbages, and Rankin with sprouts?

Vegetable mad, the both of 'em.






Sorry. Finished Making Movies this weekend, and re-read The AntiPope.

How would you like something in you ear like Barry the talking sprout , and the Robster is no fan of sprouts we were just extracting the urine when the fansite was set-up and Sproutlore was born alas it is now deceased being succeeded by the Order of the Golden Sprout with a new sproutmaster at the helm.

[poohbcarrot]

The trouble with doing lines as a punishment now is that with cut and paste it takes less that 1 minute.

puts on best Yorkshire accent
When I went t' school we 'ad none of this new-fangled technology gubbins. We 'ad it tough. We 'ad to write on slates.
It were OK, but we kept falling off t' roof!

("wind-up members". Is that before battery operated ones?)

[GrayGriffin]

Pooh, that was insanely funny to me. I always like "back in my day" jokes.

And as for the TP books...I like them all! They all have something charming about them, in my opinion. Shall I count the ways?

Color of Magic: Got me into the series in the first place.
The Light Fantastic: The baby world-turtles. :3
Equal Rites: The shapeshifting battle. And also Granny first showing how awesome she is.
Mort: The Mort vs. Death scene.
(etc.)

Er, yeah. So basically, I like both light, gag-filled ones, and the more somber ones. Discworld has a good balance of them, I feel.

[Trish]

HEY Trish, shall we work on a trebuchet to try and fling buns? hmm, could be a bad idea, in order to get there, they would have to go very high and freeze or become meteors on re-entry. Could be fun tho.

Why don't we fling cabbages? By the time they re-enter the atmosphere frozen, we will have created a "green" and environmentally-friendly ballistic missile that we can then sell to the Pentagon for untold riches.