Serious Entertainment
Jun. 26th, 2007 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtvesselApr 2007
Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett - Corgi, 2006
* * * *
The presence of Samuel Vimes (albeit in a cameo) indicates that this is another of Pratchett’s “serious” novels, and it is more so than most. The theme - wars and why people fight them - is clearly something that he cares deeply about, which explains the unusual length (500 pages) and the greater focus on the main characters. The result is as close to a great satirical novel as Pratchett has ever got, so it is a shame that the plot hinges almost entirely upon a comedy cliché taken to a ridiculous extreme.
Polly Perks is a capable young woman who lives in an unfortunate country. The Ruritanian-style kingdom of Borogravia is nominally ruled by the Duchess, but she went into mourning thirty years ago after the death of her husband and has not been seen since. The power vacuum has been filled by the priests of the national deity Nuggan, a nasty piece of work whose holy book has an appendix that is a ring binder so that new Abominations can be added daily. Borogravia is permanently at war with its neighbours and has attracted the attention of the mighty Ankh-Morpork by destroying some of its clacks towers, hence the presence of Vimes.
None of this is of interest to Polly, who wants to find her simple-minded brother Paul so that under his nominal aegis she can continue to run the inn bequeathed by her parents (needless to say, Victorian strictures regarding women and property apply in Borogravia). Accordingly she disguises herself as a man and signs up. Because the war has been going on for so long, her fellow recruits are an odd lot, including an Igor, a vampire with a lust for coffee called Maladict, a troll, a weird religious nutcase and others. Presiding over them are the corpulent and wily sergeant Jackrum and Lieutenant Blouse, an upper class officer who is as wet - though not as stupid - as his name implies. The story follows this Dad’s Army of a squad as it heads for the battlefield and a date with destiny.
The military aspects are superbly handled, with some fine invented slang and nicknames (Jackrum refers to the officer class as “ruperts” and Polly’s fellow recruits include Tonker, Shufti, Wazzer and Lofty). There are nice satirical swipes at the conduct of modern warfare, with the media taking an interest in the form of reporter William de Worde and his vampiric photographer Von Criek, and Maladict going all Rambo when his caffeine cravings catch up with him. As always Pratchett’s people are (mostly) intelligent, and he has a nice way of undermining the lazy stereotypical assumptions that the reader makes. By the end of the book all the main characters have acquired at least a modicum of depth and humanity.
As usual with the ”serious” novels, however, his philosophical examination of the theme that underlies the comedy doesn’t quite stand up to scrutiny. The deranged religious nationalism of the Borogravians is well delineated and clearly has relevance to Iraq and other wars around the world today (my Quote of the Book is Vimes’ description: “You take a bunch of people who don’t seem any different from you and me, but when you add them all together you get this sort of huge raving maniac with national borders and an anthem”). The conventions of a comic novel, however, prevent Pratchett from coming up with a serious solution. The denouement is more than usually problematic as it is based on a running joke taken to extremes (though to be fair, done very well) which undermines the plausibility of the world-building that precedes it.
In a sense, however, this is a good thing. Although Pratchett is a good and wise man, his jokes are better than his philosophy and I would not want to see him get more serious. With the exception of the Death sequence, which I think are his master works (Reaper Man made me both laugh like a loon and shed a tear at the beautiful and moving image at the end), I prefer the books where the themes are lighter in tone. Which is why I am so pleased to see that his next one, Making Money, features the return of the charming conman Moist Van Lipwig and will (I hope) give a well-deserved kicking to the City of London. Hurrah!
Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett - Corgi, 2006
* * * *
The presence of Samuel Vimes (albeit in a cameo) indicates that this is another of Pratchett’s “serious” novels, and it is more so than most. The theme - wars and why people fight them - is clearly something that he cares deeply about, which explains the unusual length (500 pages) and the greater focus on the main characters. The result is as close to a great satirical novel as Pratchett has ever got, so it is a shame that the plot hinges almost entirely upon a comedy cliché taken to a ridiculous extreme.
Polly Perks is a capable young woman who lives in an unfortunate country. The Ruritanian-style kingdom of Borogravia is nominally ruled by the Duchess, but she went into mourning thirty years ago after the death of her husband and has not been seen since. The power vacuum has been filled by the priests of the national deity Nuggan, a nasty piece of work whose holy book has an appendix that is a ring binder so that new Abominations can be added daily. Borogravia is permanently at war with its neighbours and has attracted the attention of the mighty Ankh-Morpork by destroying some of its clacks towers, hence the presence of Vimes.
None of this is of interest to Polly, who wants to find her simple-minded brother Paul so that under his nominal aegis she can continue to run the inn bequeathed by her parents (needless to say, Victorian strictures regarding women and property apply in Borogravia). Accordingly she disguises herself as a man and signs up. Because the war has been going on for so long, her fellow recruits are an odd lot, including an Igor, a vampire with a lust for coffee called Maladict, a troll, a weird religious nutcase and others. Presiding over them are the corpulent and wily sergeant Jackrum and Lieutenant Blouse, an upper class officer who is as wet - though not as stupid - as his name implies. The story follows this Dad’s Army of a squad as it heads for the battlefield and a date with destiny.
The military aspects are superbly handled, with some fine invented slang and nicknames (Jackrum refers to the officer class as “ruperts” and Polly’s fellow recruits include Tonker, Shufti, Wazzer and Lofty). There are nice satirical swipes at the conduct of modern warfare, with the media taking an interest in the form of reporter William de Worde and his vampiric photographer Von Criek, and Maladict going all Rambo when his caffeine cravings catch up with him. As always Pratchett’s people are (mostly) intelligent, and he has a nice way of undermining the lazy stereotypical assumptions that the reader makes. By the end of the book all the main characters have acquired at least a modicum of depth and humanity.
As usual with the ”serious” novels, however, his philosophical examination of the theme that underlies the comedy doesn’t quite stand up to scrutiny. The deranged religious nationalism of the Borogravians is well delineated and clearly has relevance to Iraq and other wars around the world today (my Quote of the Book is Vimes’ description: “You take a bunch of people who don’t seem any different from you and me, but when you add them all together you get this sort of huge raving maniac with national borders and an anthem”). The conventions of a comic novel, however, prevent Pratchett from coming up with a serious solution. The denouement is more than usually problematic as it is based on a running joke taken to extremes (though to be fair, done very well) which undermines the plausibility of the world-building that precedes it.
In a sense, however, this is a good thing. Although Pratchett is a good and wise man, his jokes are better than his philosophy and I would not want to see him get more serious. With the exception of the Death sequence, which I think are his master works (Reaper Man made me both laugh like a loon and shed a tear at the beautiful and moving image at the end), I prefer the books where the themes are lighter in tone. Which is why I am so pleased to see that his next one, Making Money, features the return of the charming conman Moist Van Lipwig and will (I hope) give a well-deserved kicking to the City of London. Hurrah!