Book Review: Night Watch

My life recently has been one big Terry Pratchett fest: read Hogfather, watched Hogfather [1], and finished Night Watch. [2]

Night Watch is about time travel (shout out to quantums!), semi- to entirely-corrupt government officials, and Les Mis. The last one maybe not on purpose (but then again, since it's Pratchett, maybe very much on purpose; the man never met an allusion or a pun he wouldn't include), but when you write about police and revolutions and barricades, there's bound to be Les Mis overtones. And overtures. And solos. Honestly, in the latter part of Night Watch, I was just warbling, "Do You Hear the People Sing?" while reading about the Peoples' Republic of Treacle Mine Road. The French Revolution may have given us Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, but Treacle Mine Road is all for Truth, Justice, Freedom, Reasonably-Priced Love, and a Hard-Boiled Egg. 

This slogan encapsulates the spirit of Night Watch, and maybe the entire ethos of Discworld.  Things are hard and dire, belief must be saved, justice and honor must struggle to prevail - but the world is also sometimes just daffy. Sir Terry gets into a lot of heavy stuff in this series: mortality, religion, belief, the afterlife, government brutality, the nature of God(s), and so on, and all are treated with intelligence and nuance. But the Discworld is also - thank goodness - full of humor and slightly snarky send-ups of humanity's foibles, follies, and conceits. 

Abrupt transition! Because it's not school and I can change paragraphs with no segues if I want! Here, have a random picture of a flower, because I have lots.

Wouldn't it be nice if every topic shift in an academic paper was preceded by a flower picture?

I love when Pratchett, or any author, for that matter, makes me think about words - I love a good story, don't get me wrong, but I also love it when a writer loves the words on the page for themselves, uses the medium as part and parcel of the message, not just as a vehicle. I love the many layers of language, and I love it when a new layer [3] is revealed. Think Lyra from The Golden Compass, she being able to operate the eponymous compass because of her understanding of the many permutations and meanings of a symbol. And language is, after all, no more than a set of symbols. 

Anyway. I've rambled down a somewhat lengthy digression, but the point is this quote, spoken by Vimes, the time-travelling (it was accidental, due to lighting and magic and quantums) policeman: "Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions. People die and nothing changes."

Yeah. Sometimes Discworld novels are depressing.

But not to fret! They're also amusing and wry. [4] Pratchett knows the value of acting - that sometimes pretending is near enough to the real thing to get the job done. That sometimes, we must assume a virtue we have not, must act as though we know what we're doing in order to continue on. When Vimes is thrown into his own past and tasked with teaching his younger self how to be an honorable and effective copper, we (and he) are reminded that "The key to winning, as always, was looking as if you had every right, nay, duty, to be where you were. It helped if you could also suggest in every line of your body that no one else had any rights to be doing anything, anywhere, whatsoever."

As always, give it a read. Night Watch, like all Discworld novels, provides two things the world needs more of: laughter and deep thinks. 

**Also, bonus book review of Freakonomics, which I did indeed read but was slightly sick during, so I don't really have much to say . The short of it is: It's good, but I liked Think Like a Freak better. Two gems that I wrote down in my sick stupor: "Information is a beacon, a cudgel, an olive branch, a deterrent, depending on who wields it and how." and "...emotion is the enemy of rational argument." My SO, the psych major, says that emotion is in fact a very important decision-making tool, and had a bit of a harrumph when I read this second quote. And as Forrest Gump would say, that is all I have to say about that.**

xo,
Devo

[1] Starring Michelle Dockery, of Downton Abbey fame. And yes, it was just as weird as you'd expect to see Lady Mary as a governess.

[2] I should figure out how to put a counter on this blog, so I can count up to 1000-book party.

[3] "Cakes! Cakes have layers!" "Ogres. Are not. Like cakes."

[4] This duality being rather like life, really.