As nonsensical as Pratchett’s Discworld books may seem, they often make a great deal of sense. Hogfather pokes fun at old gods, evolving gods, power, and belief systems. There’s even an “oh god,” as in “oh god I’m gonna be sick.”
The Hogfather is Discworld’s version of Santa Claus, and things go very, very far astray forcing Death to step in and try to put things right, while his granddaughter tries to behave like a normal person.
And I always enjoy reading Death trying to understand humans, and trying to behave as though he’s human when needed. Usually with very confusing results for the humans he encounters. Think Nightmare Before Christmas when Jack Skellington tries to introduce Christmas joy to Halloween Town.
Title: The Epic of Gilgamesh
Author: Translated by N. K. Sandars
Published: 1972
ISBN-13: 978140441000
Publisher: Penguin Classics
I found SparkNotes helpful.
This is the grandmama of all written epic stories, the progenitor of familiar quest stories and tropes through the ages. It’s also based on the historical Mesopotamian king Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh is 2/3 god, 1/3 human and has no equal. As such, his arrogance and hubris get the better of him while he literally rapes and pillages his way through his own land, Uruk.
The gods create Enkidu from clay (completely mortal) as a balance to Gilgamesh’s excesses. When they meet, they fight each other but once they discover they are equals, they become great friends.
Because Gilgamesh is restless, he and Enkidu go on a quest which includes stealing cedars from a forest forbidden to mortals. After they kill the demon Humbaba, Ishtar tries to entice Gilgamesh into a love affair with her. He flatly turns her down, which enrages her and she calls down the Bull of Heaven to kill him.
Enkidu dies from a protracted illness because the gods must punish one of them for killing the Bull of Heaven. Gilgamesh is bereft and leaves Uruk in search of Utnapishtim, the man who survived the Great Deluge and was given eternal life.
In his travels to the end of the world and back, he finally accepts that life is not eternal, but the impact on those he comes in contact can be.
I first read Gilgamesh for a class about ethics towards animals (Enkidu was raised among the animals).Reading it is the start of many familiar stories, like the Great Deluge, considered to be the genesis of the Flood story and Noah in the Bible.
For more about the genesis of myths which have become common knowledge around the world, read my review of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
William deWorde has a newsletter he sends to rich people who pay him to write about the gossip in Ankh-Morpork. The dwarves move in with a mechanical printer and make a deal with deWorde to publish more frequently. Soon, Ankh-Moorpark has two papers, one which publishes the truth as deWorde has been able to ferret out, and the truth people want to believe. DeWorde gets wind of a story which is politically dangerous, and find himself in danger.
It may be heresy to say, but I think Pratchett is funnier than Douglas Adams. And Pratchett’s silliness in my kind of silliness. And while they’re silly, Pratchett’s books are also social commentary. The Truth is about facts, truth, justice and what people want to believe is true. It also features mayhem, but then all of Terry Pratchett’s books feature mayhem of one sort or another.
To my wife Anne, without whose silence this book would never have been written. Dedication
Japan and Germany have won World War II and have taken over the world. Hitler is dying from syphilitic incapacitation in an insane asylum, while his henchmen maneuver for power.
The US, as we know it, has been divided into three regions: the Eastern US controlled by the Nazis, Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere (the Pacific states) controlled by Japan, and a buffer zone called the Rocky Mountain States.
This should have been a gripping story, given the premise. But overall, I found the characters bland, and the dependence upon the I Ching an overused plot device.
