Recently I decided to do something I haven’t done for quite some time - read a book because I wanted to. I know this may not sound like a big deal but when you review books all the time, there isn’t much time for reading for pleasure.
I had, for several months, been craving — if you can crave reading a book — to read something by Terry Pratchett, so that is what I picked up. A couple of days after I began reading my chosen novel – Going Postal in this case (Terry Pratchett is the author of more than forty books so choosing one can be fairly time consuming) – I was at the coffee shop, book in tow, having a coffee with friends.
When asked what I was reading – when you’re a critic everyone wants to know either what you’re listening to or what you’re reading – and I told my friend, she got a look on her face rather like she had been eating a lemon and said simply “I’m not into fantasy.”
“Neither am I” I thought to myself. It was then that I wondered how many, intelligent, well-humoured, highly literate people are missing out on one of the wittiest, most talented, and engaging authors currently living, simply because some publishing house dickhead had decided that, writing stories about a place where magic is real and that take place on a flat world, riding on the backs of four giant elephants, who are standing on the shell of a giant turtle named A'Tuin, as it slowly swims through space, is fantasy.
OK, in retrospect it can sound a bit fantasy-esque, but his stories aren’t. Well no more than any stories filled with wizards, witches, small gods, gnomes, golems, elves, the undead, werewolves, vampires and even death. And by death I mean DEATH the man, the anthropomorphic personification of death. You know the fella’, the Grim Reaper, The Angel Of Death, the guy with the long black cloak and scythe who will come for you when you die.
In Pratchett’s novels DEATH rides a giant white steed with a mane of blue flame named Binky (And what would you name your horse if you were DEATH?). Terry Pratchett’s DEATH is a rather sweet, kindly old-gentleman type man…person…whatever, who is rather curious about people and has a real love of
humanity. And he is probably the most intelligent, multi-faceted and charming character in Pratchett’s entire arsenal of unforgettable and engaging characters; an array that is truly mind boggling.
The fact that Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series are only actually a series because they all happen on the same world seems to have escaped many. But by this definition anything written by John Grisham or Stephen King would be a series because they all happen on Earth.
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels are as much fantasy as Monty Python’s Life of Brian is a biblical epic. Yes, a few are about regular, recurring characters but they aren’t ALL about the same set of characters. And although they can swim through novels in which they are not the primary character this just serves to demonstrate what a rich, complex universe Pratchett has created.
One example would be the city of Ankh-Morpork, a city-state that is as corrupt as its river is polluted. The river Ankh is so polluted you can walk on it and even slice it into sections; it’s a river that oozes rather than flows. Ankh-Morpork is the largest city and spiritual and economic capital of the Discworld as well as being the home of the Unseen University, the only magical university on the Disc. Ankh-Morpork has the feel of a working medieval city with flavours of the Flintstones, or Gilligan’s Island. With ingenious gadgets galore, frequently aided by magic of course, to make life that much sweeter.
It is also the scene of much, rather comedic violence as it is also one of the few cities on the Disc that is multi-cultural. And in this instance multi-cultural means Dwarf and Troll, Vampire and Werewolf living side by side, all natural mortal enemies of course – think cats and dogs with battle axes, clubs, blood-sucking fangs and nasty claws.
Luckily for the city they have the City Watch, local coppers led by Commander Vimes. A working-class born, man-of-the-people, with policing in his blood who has through marriage become, very reluctantly – not reluctant about the marriage just the titles — His Grace, The Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes and most recently His Excellency, Ambassador for Ankh-Morpork. Vimes is Dirty Harry with more dirty and less harry, feeling the city in his feet, under his boots, Vimes seems to believe that the city lives and breathes and he can tell when it’s holding its breath.
Helping Vimes is a rag-tag group who truly represent the multi-culturalness of the city 
and includes watchmen from all ethnic groups including dwarfs, trolls, werewolves and the undead. Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson is the muscle bound, six-foot-six, always-cheerful, unfailing honest dwarf – adopted by dwarves when he was a baby – who is possibly the lost heir to the throne of Ankh-Morpork. Carrot helps keep peace along with his girlfriend Sergeant Angua von Überwald – werewolf.
And if that isn’t character enough there is always Cecil Wormsborough St. John "Nobby" Nobbs. The only human in the city of Ankh-Morpork to carry a certificate signed by the Patrician himself, verifying that Nobby is indeed a human, and probably the only person to need it. Nobby is the kind of man who steals from the dead, in fact he makes a habit of it. And he possesses the wisdom of every flat-foot through the ages which equals nil, particularly by mouth.
And keeping all this barely contained anarchy running smoothly is the Patrician, Lord Havelock Vetinari. With an interesting array of by-hook-or-by-crook tactics — usually by crook as they work harder when the other option is death – which includes letting Guilds run certain aspects of city life, i.e. The Assassins Guild, The Thieves Guild and most importantly The Seamstresses Guild – the kind of seamstresses who walk the streets and charge less if you use protection, if you get my point.
This is only one of the beautifully diverse places on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. His Discworld is as diverse as our round world, mirroring our societies with sarcasm and irony like only a Brit can; making fun of everything from the nature of belief, to the character of human nature using colourful characters and whimsical story telling as his props. He expertly and viciously points out all the ridiculousness that we cling to everyday, in a way that is intelligent, charming and inoffensive. Terry Pratchett is a man among gods. Small gods yes but gods notwithstanding.
All graphic art by Paul Kidby.
[…] A. L. Harper hat sich entschlossen “Going Postal” von Terry Pratchett zu lesen. Obwohl er gar keine Fantasy-Literatur mag. Moment! Was heisst hier “obwohl”? […]
christian schorn » Blog Archive » Terry Pratchett: Nicht Fantasy
August 29th, 2007
Caught this at Blog Critics and was instantly reminded of Pratchett’s response to J.K. Rowling’s “Didn’t realize I was writing a fantasy novel” comment: “I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, hidden worlds… would have given her a clue.”
Your entire article was written under the assumption that fantasy is an unworthy genre, that “fantasy” and “good” are mutually exclusive, and–with the aforementioned in mind–that Pratchett’s work can’t possibly be fantasy.
“Fantasy” does not mean, “Multi-part meandering sagas”, nor does it mean “Humorless plotless pulp”; and fortunately, many intelligent, good humored, highly literate people realize this and are enjoying Terry Pratchett, Gene Wolfe, Neil Gaiman, Tad Williams, and lots of other brilliant fantasy writers. Thus, their books continue to sell and sellers continue to stock them.
Joseph Bartlett
August 30th, 2007
You obviously didn’t read the entire article just the attention grabbing title and the first paragraph.
Next time read it all before you leave a comment like this.
A.L. Harper
August 30th, 2007
Oi! I object to that! I did read your entire article! Honest! Part of my comment was even a play on the second sentence of your fourth paragraph!
Joseph Bartlett
August 30th, 2007
*laugh* So it is! I don’t think all fantasy is crap… just the bulk of it. But then the bulk of most fiction writing of any genre is crap. I did however want to try and interest people who would normally be put off by Pratchett’s fantasy tag.
And lets face it he is more satire than fantasy anyway.
A.L. Harper
August 30th, 2007
Last night, I tried to describe Pratchett to a speculative-fiction-fan friend who’d never read him. And I found myself saying, “Well, Terry Pratchett is not High Fantasy…” And my friend went quiet, probably realizing I’m insane: how can an imaginary world of dragons, barbarians, wizards, witches, elves, goblins, vampires, zombies, werewolves, anthropomorphic personifications, etc., etc. NOT be “high fantasy”?
At that moment, a pebble got squeezed too hard, went *ping* as it flew out my ear, and my brain-cogs finally began to grind; and I realized that this is what you were saying in your article. You’re not a fantasy fan and you’ve probably never heard the term, so I’ll elaborate:
High fantasy is fantasy set in imaginary worlds with all the above elements; sword and sorcery, good versus evil, supernatural sagas, RPGs, and all that.
Low fantasy, such as Discworld, is best described in contrast: it can take itself less seriously (although, under its comic surface, Discworld is rich with wisdom and morality); protagonists can be every-day, ordinary folk (as you explained quite well); it can be told as stories, not epic sagas (again, as you explained); “good” and “evil” are not character descriptions; the narrator’s voice is plain, not elevated (one of my favorite things about Pratchett is his wonderfully and deceptively simple voice, playful but down-to-earth).
Lots of people will probably take exception to my conclusion, and maybe Discworld straddles the subgenres, but if this article were titled “Terry Pratchett Is Not High Fantasy”, I probably would’ve been nodding along throughout and would never have left three rambling comments on your otherwise probably quite wonderful weblog. Also, you’d probably have lost your intended audience.
Labels are funny things, eh?
Joseph Bartlett
August 31st, 2007
Joseph - I think I love you! *smile* Thank you.
A.L. Harper
August 31st, 2007
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Pratchett is not fantasy. | A.L. Harper, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
Daniel
September 11th, 2007
Pratchett is GOD!!!! Blessim my thoughts are with him…………thing is when he finally makes it off of the planet he’ll make a lot of medium’s lives a lot more fun!!!!!
Suzi
February 17th, 2008
I’m not really sure how to phrase what I want to say. I really enjoy reading fantasy books. There are some really amazing ones out there, but mainly there are bad ones. The problem with fantasy is that the genre seems to be defined through Tolkien’s LOTR trilogy so much so that the genre is riddled with unimaginative books filled with clichés and bad characters and plots. There is such a stigma surrounding the genre that authors don’t like to be associated with it. Phillip Pullman for instance said his Dark Materials trilogy was not fantasy. Fantasy is fiction where the rules of our world do not necessarily apply and new ones are put in their place. Goblins, wizards and magic are just the paraphernalia that have come about because of the change of rules (If that makes sense). Pullman’s DM are fantasy whether he likes it or not, and Pratchett’s Discworld books are fantasy too. Comic fantasy to be exact; there are so many subgenres.
I’m not really sure where I’m going here, only that the way you talk about the Discworld books seems at odds with your opinion of fantasy. Not that you must like other genres of fantasy. Personally I’m not that into Discworld as I find the books all a bit samey. It’s just that I find your dismissal of fantasy other than the few books you happen to like a little hypocritical. That’s a bit harsher than I intend, but I can’t think of another way to express it.
Milly
March 3rd, 2008
To quote Neil Gaiman:
“Mostly what it makes me think of is the poem in Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest’s NEW MAPS OF HELL, which went, from memory,
“SF’s no good!” they bellow till we’re deaf.
“But this is good.” “Well, then it’s not SF.”
And it’s an odd double-standard that applies to all genre work as much as to SF. It’s always been easier for journalists to go for the black and white simplicities of beginning with the assumption that the entire body of SF (or Fantasy, or Comics, or Horror, or whatever the area is under discussion) is and always has been fundamentally without merit — which means that if you like someone’s work, whether it’s J.G. Ballard or Bill Gibson or Peter Straub or Alan Moore or Susanna Clarke or J.K. Rowling — or Terry Pratchett — it’s easier simply to depict them as not being part of that subset. I’m not sure that writing letters to the Times will ever fix that, though.”
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2005/07/storms-and-teacups.asp
Charlotte
April 3rd, 2009