Ah hah. So that's how you do it. Thanks Kapten. Will go back and sort the other one out.
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Originally Posted by KaptenKaries
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Originally Posted by Wintersmith and Harry Potter Order and of the Phoenix Spoilers!
Did anyone else think that that lady called Umbridge in Wintersmith, who was very friendly to witches, was a reference to Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, who is not very friendly to witches?
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Originally Posted by Wintersmith and Harry Potter Order and of the Phoenix Spoilers!
Ooh its frustrating not having my books to hand. I can't remember if Dolores was married although I think there was a reference to rings on podgy fingers. The idea of Pterry giving sanctuary to refugees of the HP series appeals to me but at the cost of reading too much into an author's writing I would suggest the colloquial phrase - to take umbrage (offense) - meaning its a bit of irony that someone called Umbridge does not take umbrage at sheltering witches (Long lateral stretch is the umbrage caused by the media quoting the TP comments out of context too). There is the older meaning of umbrage which refers to shade or shadow under the branches of a tree. The reference I am twitching about is the names of the two aunts. My mythology memory needs refreshing aren't Araminta and Danuta more than just day-lily plant names. It's annoying me
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Originally Posted by Rincewind
I don’t really disagree with any of your points. I understand why Tiffany is less inclined to think of her Granny as she grows up. But I don't think it makes for a better book. The 'Granny Aching' sections gave the books heart and warmth. The stories were embued with love and a saddness for something that was gone. I felt the absence of that in this book.
Again, I understand that the book was about how the wintersmith was going to challenage her, but again, I think the lack of challenages for her to overcome didn't make for a great read. Also, it build up the ending too much as well. In the end Wintersmith *didn't* really challenge her that much. The winstersmith was too vulerable a villain to do that. I aslo felt this was true of the hiver. Both of these people didn't really want to harm Tiffany, so we never really felt she was in danger. The Queen was a much your interesting villian in that respect.
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Pedant alert. Skip this unless you have an interest in philosophy, analogous sociology, and character development in writing.
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Originally Posted by Wintersmith, Wee Free Men, Hat Full of Sky, Hogfather and Thief of Time Spoilers!
Sorry, there is no easy way to make my points clearer without going into detail.
The first two Aching books did have that poignancy and sense of loss - the curse of a childhood lost, that you only realise has hit you when you look back with hindsight. There's only so many archetypes in the world, and the other witches - being the already formed adults - are sprung on us with the assumption that we have come across someone just like that.
This may be the first developing female character I actually have some respect for in Discworld. Susan has always seemed half baked and I'm waiting for the glaze to crack because I know that while she attended boarding school and lost her parents young, there isn't much more that you can know to explain how she knows the way to kill off the various monsters of the fertile imagination with such mercenary precision. OK she is Death's granddaughter and therefore it must be accepted as associated osmosis, but that logical indifference has always been a slight failing of her in my mind, in spite of her not so subtle battles to maintain her humanity.
Tiffany by contrast has changed from a self absorbed child with a knack for making cheeses but little else except hand-me-downs and a pain-in-the-neck brother to be proud of, into an almost ready for independence, highly observant, young person who is starting to deal with the afflictions of hormones. That isn't an easy transition to describe for any author. (It's harder for women writers to elucidate on because most of us have buried or modified those memories too deeply - along with the horror of the brats we were as we learned to become more human).
I'm going to take the villains on in reverse now. In Wintersmith we have reached a branching of paths and the point that many parents often fail to deal with when teaching the realities of life. What makes a man (or woman)? Is it just the physical chemicals as listed in the rhyme or is it the final stanza - the social interaction that really make us human. The Wintersmith represents the idea of an infatuation, purely the response to someone paying you attention (Which can prove such a danger to attention starved youngsters blithely using hex). Recognizing the difference between purely physical components and that more important mental compatibility is what causes so many relationships (friend/colleague/family/business/marriage) to fail. Your need for a certain type of companionship changes and you move on. Tiffany is observing the difference made by social grace in both the villagers and other witches without being able to realize fully how to apply it herself. The witch Tiffany starts with is called on by her people to judge. But what do we learn - the people really judge you by your use of boffo. And if you don't have someone supporting you the whole facade can collapse and bury you.
The hiver represented a different danger. If you just go around collecting other people's experiences and memories but don't know who you are, what do you really become. A collection of other people's memories and that achieves very little. It could have been taken as a representation of schizophrenia in it's worst form. Look at the witch she was with there - a split person who, thanks to Granny W not letting Tiffany comment on it, eventually proves that you don't truly know what you can achieve until you actually try. More concisely, knowledge without practical application is nothing more than theory. That is why Nanny Ogg was approached so many times before being the midwife in Thief of Time.
Then we get back to the Queen. The first Aching adventure. The first tale to read to your kids. (that was really Maurice) Of course it was an action adventure. There had to be a primal, well defined, baddie to appeal to the 7-9 year old in all of us. Good is good, and always defeats bad.
By the end of book three you should understand that in society there is no such thing as black and white, only dealing justly with the facts set before you the best way you know how. You can't deal with those facts if you have no experience. And bad and good are not the same as wrong and right. If this was an action hero they would have been books in one of the cities or the Feegles terms. Instead he is finally developing a far better third witch than Agnes and Magrat with their resentment to being inferior could ever be. I for one look forward to Tiffany developing further as the third multifaceted part to the ultimate coven. She has finally proved equal to the task of balancing things or Granny would not have allowed her the 'reckoning'.
The question that is waving from far out to sea is 'What socially deficient reprobate is going to rise to the challenge of taking on Granny, Nanny and Tiffany?' But that can only be answered after T learns that the people you know are the one's who can most easily turn you into a tyrant or a doormat. There will be a new balancing and it will be on her home ground methinks. The Baron's pain has already been dropped as a hint to where the story is turning.
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And. What. Happens. To. Horace?