Snowflake Challenge: Day Eight
Jan. 17th, 2018 01:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiki_engIn your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
For the past five years or so I've been rereading Terry Pratchett's Night Watch every May, finishing before the end of the 25th. The lilacs have always been in bloom, and sometimes I can smell them when I read. They've been reminding me to reread it, and I've kept doing it, because there are so many themes and elements in it that interest me.
There's the revolution and the naivety and cynicism of it; historical narrative and the power of stories; the power men seek and how they wield it; cowardice and bravery and human nature and choices; time and the relationship between past, present, and future; the intersection of the man before the fall and the man after, after the rise; a man doggedly pursuing a criminal to the ends of the earth while desperately longing for home; a man that does the job before him as best he can; symbols; and perfect moments. There are perfect lines, too, as tends to be a thing with Pratchett, some that are funny and some that cut through to some fundamental truth and some that do both. There are shenanigans and incredible bit characters.
It's also the first main Discworld novel to be illustrated after the death of Josh Kirby, who created vibrant canvas illustrations for 26 covers. After Pratchett's death that's something that I think more on, that transition.
I do love the cover and I love the Vimes of this novel; he is who Vimes is to me. Night Watch is so tangled up in the history of Vimes and the Watch and the City that I haven't been able to make myself rec it to anyone new to the Discworld; I think it's a treasure better appreciated after you've read some of the earlier stuff and have fallen in love with the characters and can be excited about finding out about someone's first day at work or what they were like as a child. You can read it first - it's a solid novel - but I think it's more magic if you don't. (Maybe read Jingo first instead.)
For the past five years or so I've been rereading Terry Pratchett's Night Watch every May, finishing before the end of the 25th. The lilacs have always been in bloom, and sometimes I can smell them when I read. They've been reminding me to reread it, and I've kept doing it, because there are so many themes and elements in it that interest me.
There's the revolution and the naivety and cynicism of it; historical narrative and the power of stories; the power men seek and how they wield it; cowardice and bravery and human nature and choices; time and the relationship between past, present, and future; the intersection of the man before the fall and the man after, after the rise; a man doggedly pursuing a criminal to the ends of the earth while desperately longing for home; a man that does the job before him as best he can; symbols; and perfect moments. There are perfect lines, too, as tends to be a thing with Pratchett, some that are funny and some that cut through to some fundamental truth and some that do both. There are shenanigans and incredible bit characters.
It's also the first main Discworld novel to be illustrated after the death of Josh Kirby, who created vibrant canvas illustrations for 26 covers. After Pratchett's death that's something that I think more on, that transition.
I do love the cover and I love the Vimes of this novel; he is who Vimes is to me. Night Watch is so tangled up in the history of Vimes and the Watch and the City that I haven't been able to make myself rec it to anyone new to the Discworld; I think it's a treasure better appreciated after you've read some of the earlier stuff and have fallen in love with the characters and can be excited about finding out about someone's first day at work or what they were like as a child. You can read it first - it's a solid novel - but I think it's more magic if you don't. (Maybe read Jingo first instead.)