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dukeofmars 's review for:
Men at Arms
by Terry Pratchett
The genius of Terry Pratchett comes down to one concept: suspension of belief. To be more succinct, the man is a no good cheater. He cheats. Let me explain. Normally a writer needs to retain some level of believability to his narrative and setting, to keep his audience immersed in the story by eliminating as many "hey wait a minute!" moments as possible. But Pratchett throws plausibility out the window. His world is a disc held up by four elephants standing on the back of turtle. He doesn't give a shit.
This approach enables him to pour pure awesome into his stories. It's as if he takes all of the energy normally spent on conventional plot logic and diverts it into characterization, witticisms, and profound insights.
In every Discworld book, Pratchett injects real world concepts into his nonsensical plane of existence to shed some satirical light on the issue. For the Nightwatch books, it's law and order, political corruption, and police movie and crime thriller tropes. For Men at Arms specifically, it's guns and racism. He also has a lot to say about dogs, leadership, and how the poor spend more money on cheap boots than the rich spend on expensive ones.
Honestly, though, Sir Terry's real genius is his insight. Essentially he digs deep into the dirt of the human soul and keeps digging. He finds a lot of rubber chickens, a whoopee cushion, lots of preowned cassettes and vhses, and empty cans of beer. By the end, he strikes gold.
This approach enables him to pour pure awesome into his stories. It's as if he takes all of the energy normally spent on conventional plot logic and diverts it into characterization, witticisms, and profound insights.
In every Discworld book, Pratchett injects real world concepts into his nonsensical plane of existence to shed some satirical light on the issue. For the Nightwatch books, it's law and order, political corruption, and police movie and crime thriller tropes. For Men at Arms specifically, it's guns and racism. He also has a lot to say about dogs, leadership, and how the poor spend more money on cheap boots than the rich spend on expensive ones.
Honestly, though, Sir Terry's real genius is his insight. Essentially he digs deep into the dirt of the human soul and keeps digging. He finds a lot of rubber chickens, a whoopee cushion, lots of preowned cassettes and vhses, and empty cans of beer. By the end, he strikes gold.