Meme theme again

[khaosworks]

Haven't done this for nearly 3 years, so it's about time.

Go through my interests list and pick one that 1) you know nothing about but sounds intriguing, or 2) you know something about but can't fathom why yours truly would be interested in it, or 3) you know a lot about and love and want to natter on with a kindred spirit and request an explanation (or natter away:-). Could be fun, could just be a new way to start a conversation.

Comments

[nighthellcat.livejournal.com]

I just read my first Terry Pratchett book recently, "Going Postal." I really liked it. He's got such a good style. Natter away!

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Ah, Prachett. I really need to pick up his stuff again. The last Discworld I read was Monstrous Regiment and that was quite a few years ago.

It may surprise some people to know that despite being a big Lord of the Rings geek and a hopelessly addicted World of Warcraft player, I'm not really fond of fantasy fiction. A part of me just can't get into it, and I think it's for two main reasons.

One is that most mainstream fantasy fiction feels like it's trying to reinvent or repeat Tolkien. The other reason is that I'm such a sci-fi geek that I keep looking for scientific explanations for magic. When I once tried to create a fantasy background for a story in middle school, I couldn't leave the magic alone, but sat down and wrote out psuedo-scientific rationales for how exactly it worked, complete with energy exchange equations powering telekinesis.

So why am I drawn to Pratchett? Because he knows the ludicrousness of most fantasy literary conventions, mocks them, and turns them on their ears. I've loved seeing the High Energy Magic Lab of Unseen University, the slow introduction of steampunk technology into the Disc, and the City Watch stories.

A friend of mine recommended Pratchett to me, but I didn't pick up my first Discworld novel until my last year of University. Just before finals. Bad timing. After I read Reaper Man I went back and bought up every single Discworld novel to that date and read it over a binge of two weeks. I'm damned lucky I still found time to study.

My favourite novel is still Guards! Guards. For those not in the know, in it, the eighth novel in the cycle, Pratchett introduces the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork.

(It is said that all roads lead to Ankh-Morpork. This is incorrect. All roads lead away from Ankh-Morpork, but people sometimes go the wrong way.)

The City Watch are led by the redoubtable Samuel Vimes, who is a wreck, cut down by years of unappreciated service by the city he serves, worse for drink and consumed with cynicism. Then he is faced with the Watch's latest recruit, the incredibly clean and unbelievably naive (or is he?) Corporal Carrot.

While trying to teach the new kid that fighting crime in Ankh-Morpork isn't actually the role of the Watch, Vimes realises more sinister things are afoot. A secret society wants to bring back the age of Kings, and what more Kingly deed is there but killing a dragon? But real dragons don't exist anymore, do they? Tell that to the severly sunburned citizens who have become dark smears on the alley walls to the accompanying smell of sulphur. But has the King already returned? Carrot, you see, has a sword which is definitely not magical, and in the Discworld, that may be the most significant thing of all...

As Pratchett puts it in the dedication, the traditional role of the City Guard in fantasy seems to be always the same: to attack the hero one by one in Chapter Three and get slaughtered. In the novel, however, Pratchett explores what their actual role in a city would be, and in doing so, he manages to create the genre of the fantasy police procedural. Vimes is a grizzled old sot, but working with the too-good-to-be-true Carrot, he may be able to rediscover what made him a policeman to begin with, and perhaps redeem himself and regain his dignity and self-respect - and maybe the Watch's as well.

There is an exchange of complex passwords between secret society members which is straight out of Monty Python. There's a cute swamp dragon called Earl that can only fly backwards by jet propulsion. Events and puns unfold with an absurdity and an inevitability that almost makes it all make sense - if you follow Discworld logic... which is really the key here, and makes the whole exercise strangely moving, as the Watch, Vimes and Carrot triumph over the forces arrayed against them at last.

I love the City Watch to death - not just because I'm also a fan of the police procedural, but also because I have a soft spot for stories about ordinary grunts fighting extraordinary odds (and creatures - see UNIT).

Welcome to the Discworld. Put you feet up, and enjoy.

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

Will Corporal Carrot eventually make Captain? If so, a cross-ref to comic books may be necessary.

[syphilis.livejournal.com]

I really enjoy having sex.

PS

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

That is so WRONG it will haunt my nightmares... :-)

[syphilis.livejournal.com]

I didn't have the slightest interest in Tiny Tim until I saw that performance! My god!

call of cthulthu / cthulthu

[susanscookietin.livejournal.com]

what's that?

Re: call of cthulthu / cthulthu

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." -- H.P. LOVECRAFT, The Call Of Cthulhu

Cthulhu is the name of a extra-dimensional god-like monster that is mentioned and appears in the fiction of early 20th century horror writer H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). "Call of Cthulhu" is the role-playing game by Chaosium, Inc. that is based on Lovecraft's stories and concepts, named after the short story "The Call of Cthulhu" which introduced said god-like monster. Lovecraft is possibly my favourite horror writer, ever.

Lovecraft (and the writers in his circle) used to write horror stories with a common backdrop, and over the course of writing and referring to each other's works developed into what's known today as the Cthulhu Mythos. Although Cthulhu is not really the central entity that the mythos revolves around, it is certainly the most famous, and that's why the mythos is named for it.

The mythos is generally built around the concept that, millions of years ago, Earth was ruled by these inconceivable, god-like, cosmic creatures that could roam the dimensions freely. At some point, however, for reasons unclear, they were banished from our world, but their worshippers remain as dark cults performing blasphemous rituals, preparing for the day when the stars are in their correct alignment, and then these Great Old Ones will rise again and destroy the world and consume everyone in it.

Most of Lovecraft's protagonists go insane when they discover the truth about the universe, as the beginning quote to this post implies. The truth being that mankind is but cosmic spittle, that creatures beyond comprehension exist to which we are less than gnats, and that the universe - inconceivably large and inconceivably hostile - doesn't give a crap about us.

It's great stuff, with a dark, terrifyingly nihilistic view, and still gives me the chills when I read it, even through Lovecraft's archaic and sometimes purple prose. His influence on modern horror fiction is undeniable, and has inspired people like Clive Barker, Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, and others.

I'm best known in filk circles for writing songs about the mythos.

Re: call of cthulthu / cthulthu

[susanscookietin.livejournal.com]

Insightful. Have you any recommendation for a beginner?

Re: call of cthulthu / cthulthu

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

First try the Penguin Books edition of The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft. That has some nice annotations which are helpful to place the text in context. The other Penguin Books collection is The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories.

[snowishness.livejournal.com]

"suppressed transmission"

I know nothing about it, but it sounds interesting...

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Suppressed Transmission is the title of a column written by game designer Kenneth Hite (princeofcairo) for Pyramid magazine, published by Steve Jackson Games.

Suppressed Transmission doesn't talk about game mechanics, but makes use of Hite's unparalleled knowledge of esoterica, conspiracies, fortean phenomena and general weirdness to suggest milieus and backdrops for role-playing campaigns. Alternate universes, black helicopters, missing history, fairy kidnappings, UFOs, crop circles, and others all get treatment in the column, sometimes all at once. The great thing about Suppressed Transmission is that even if you don't role-play, you can still read the column - if, like me, you're into reading about high weirdness.

The columns have been collected into two volumes, available from the Steve Jackson Games website.

[snowishness.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Sounds cool.

I'm going to investigate this much more thoroughly now.