Monstrous Regiment --why don't I love it?

[FatRat]

Add that to the fact that the Captain of the regiment insisted that he was the only one who could pull off Acting as a washerwoman because he and his schoolmates used to have to do it in school plays. I adored his cluelessness.

OOh yea i LOVED Blouse he was just such a sweet guy i just wanted to hug him, i loved it when Polly told him they were both women and he was Happy about it that was hillerious (and my spelling is terrible)

[swreader]

I thought you did an excellent comment, Trish--whatever happened to your computer. And Jan added extra good points.

What makes Terry Pratchett's work so significant and so readable, I think, is that he is an incredible storyteller--and he creates a "fantasy world" to allow him more freedom to explore and comment on human nature--with some extremely pointed (if often funny) discussions of quite serious subjects--war, organized religion, fanaticism, the difference between truth and reality and society's tendency to look and and react to what they "know" is true instead of opening their "other eyes" and seeing reality.

For all these reasons, I understand and approve of some of the better critics (US ones) who have compared his work to Chaucer, Dickens, and Mark Twain.

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

This may be a personal issue, or misperception on my part. I am getting my books from online second hand shoppy type places and now have at least 10 that come from libraries which have Withdrawn them from circulation.

It scares me to think that they may be weeding him out. America is really not as "Free" as we like to believe we are. Or, I could just be being a silly Git by allowing my ... you are not paranoid if they are really out to get you side play with my psyche

I can Truly see where TP is just as wonderful for escape from mundane life as Anne McCaffery, J. R. R. Tolkien, Piers Anthony, Mercedes Lackey, Elizabeth Moon, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Esther Friesner, and oh too many to remember, or list in one go.

[Who's Wee Dug]

If no one has taken the book out in a long time the libraries put them up for sale at a nominal price in the UK.

[Jan Van Quirm]

I am getting my books from online second hand shoppy type places and now have at least 10 that come from libraries which have Withdrawn them from circulation.

It scares me to think that they may be weeding him out. America is really not as "Free" as we like to believe we are. Or, I could just be being a silly Git by allowing my ... you are not paranoid if they are really out to get you side play with my psyche

I think where our noble, self-denying, wise and totally honest politicians are concerned a healthy dose of paranoia is not only desirable, but positively vital. This reminds me of the old joke - lady to shopkeeper: When are you going to restock some more potatoes? (or whatever) shopkeeper to lady: D'you know you're the tenth person to ask me that this morning! There's no call for 'em madam - we sold the last of them a week ago.

I may have paraphrased a little there but you know what I mean. As WWD says it's common practice for libraries to weed out unpopular or very bashed about books but how easy to not replace the tatty ones - I wonder how often that happens...? I must ask my Librarian friend. Another cliche springs to mind too - You can fool some of the people all of the time and you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time - strikes me that's been too easy to prove wrong time after time in some places down the years.

BUT these days it's getting harder to fudge or ignore the issues and blur the truth and it's authors like Pterry who help spread that unpopular and unpalatable 'virus'. He knows what we're like and tells us so and people 'like us' on this forum who do 'get it' recognise the value of his insights. The pity of it is that the people we are given to vote in and keep us 'free', healthy and relatively wealthy (please don't whine about the credit crunch/recession when people die of starvation all over this beknighted planet every minute of every day) still appear not to get the fact that they serve us not themselves...

Pterry for prime minister, president, despot or Patirician anyone? Or at least set book reading in all state-run schools (local community schools can pass if they like but the kids will still get hold of them somehow sometime ).

Which Pratchetts do you think would be good to have in the curriculum?

[poohbcarrot]

I agree that MR is my least favourite Discworld book. It depresses me coz everytime I think about it I think of grey skies and rain. It's just not a "sunny" book.

[kakaze]

I agree that MR is my least favourite Discworld book. It depresses me coz everytime I think about it I think of grey skies and rain. It's just not a "sunny" book.

Unlike Feet of Clay, where the fog's so thick you can cut it with a knife.

Come to think of it, I can't remember a case of pleasant weather in any of the discworld books.

I guess you could count the beginning of Interesting Times:

This is a story that starts somewhere else, where a man is lying on a raft in a blue lagoon under a sunny sky. His head is resting on his arms. He is happy - in his case, a mental state so rare as to be almost unprecedented. He is whistling an amiable little tune, and dangling his feet in the crystal clear water.

But I don't feel that it really counts, it only lasts for a few paragraphs. :p

[Jan Van Quirm]

The weather?

Well does Small Gods count? Or Jingo!? Nearly always sunny out in the Desert

Or the Last Continent? The price of having a Fourecks?

[poohbcarrot]

...or Witches Abroad? Or Pyramids? Or Eric? Or Moving Pictures?

Anyhows, I actually meant it's dark and depressing like a rainy day.

[mspanners]

I have this book on audio and I must admit it has grown on me.

The first time I listened to it I was not overly impressed as I twigged on to the fact they were women quite early on ( it was obvious what was going on after the first revelation ).... but it has its merits, the point of view that the book was following the war mongers/bad guys was a twist I enjoyed.

They were portrayed has Human ( well mostly Human, if you understand my meaning ! ) and not as rampaging mass murders......

[poohbcarrot]

I wasn't that impressed with Nightwatch and Thud on first reading, but on subsequent readings they grew massively on me. I've read MR 3 or 4 times and it still hasn't grown on me.

[swreader]

I think MR has far fewer "funny" bits than Jingo, Pratchett's other major "stupidity-of-war" book. So it's a harder book to go back to in many respects. But the feminist element (though perhaps a bit overdone) is important--and suggests that perhaps there would be fewer wars if women (not women pretending to be men) were in charge.

[poohbcarrot]

--and suggests that perhaps there would be fewer wars if women (not women pretending to be men) were in charge.

Not being awkward or anything, but could you give me a few quotes from the book to back up your suggestion?

As far as I remember, the women ARE in charge, Polly WANTS to join the army to fight and she STAYS in the army at the end of the book.

If anything, the book suggests that women are just as bloodthirsty and good at fighting as men, if not better.

[swreader]

The problem with Borogravia (as far as I can tell from the book) is that (I can't give you a cite at the moment--and it's late) the country had no real ruler since the death of the husband of the Duchess years ago. Like Queen Victoria, she has gone into seclusion and left things in the hands of the men of Borogravia. It is not at all clear that even had she not chosen to do so, her word would have carried any weight in terms of the management of the country.

The women in Borogravia are in a terribly subservient position -- they have no right of inheritance. If they misbehave they can be sent to institutions like that where Wazzer, Lofty and Tonker were held. They must wear head coverings, they have no real say in the way things are done.

So the Women of this group, with the aid of socks, go off for their own various reason, as soldiers pretending to be men. But they (like the commanding officers at the fort) find that they are in great danger of beginning to think like men--all full of testosterone, which appears to inhibit brain function.

When Polly goes back into the army (when her country needs to defend itself later) she goes back as a woman, not as a man.

It's quite late, and I'm tired, but this gives you some idea of what I'm talking about. And think about some of the women who have been Presidents or Prime Ministers of various countries (Israel, India, for example). They have, on the whole, shown a great deal of intelligence and capability in dealing with the problems of their countries.

[poohbcarrot]

And think about some of the women who have been Presidents or Prime Ministers of various countries (Israel, India, for example). They have, on the whole, shown a great deal of intelligence and capability in dealing with the problems of their countries.

I notice you tactfully stayed clear of Thatcher (spit!)

I will ponder your comments and possibly get back to you at a later time.