alt.books.pratchett Google Group

Beautiful Pakistan Karachi city guest houses+3-5star hotels

resourt...@gmail.com (gffg) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:59:13 UT

Beautiful Pakistan Karachi city guest houses+3-5star hotels
[link]

Re: Review: Maskerade

brightly_coloured_b...@yahoo.co.uk (Lesley Weston) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:56:15 UT

<snip>
They're both necessary, to show the different aspects of the various old
women who could be considered to be witches by an ignorant populace. And
Magrat is needed to show the modern interpretation of the word in the
minds of the equally ignorant.

Re: Mustrum Ridcully (still is Re: {Fwd: a short SPOILER note about UA})

brightly_coloured_b...@yahoo.co.uk (Lesley Weston) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:52:32 UT

Yes, it could be his maternal grandfather. Or the History Monks could
have been at it again.
I prefer the idea that his father was a butcher in the same way that
Cardinal Wolsey's father was.
This also ties in with Harold Pinter's description of his own father as
"A little East-end Jewish tailor". Pinter was quite short, so his father

Re: Mustrum Ridcully (still is Re: {Fwd: a short SPOILER note about UA})

brightly_coloured_b...@yahoo.co.uk (Lesley Weston) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:43:17 UT

Doesn't it work the other way round as well? If you're a wizard (or a
wizzard), then you must be the eighth son of an eighth son. Or possibly
the eighth daughter of an eighth son.

Re: Review: Maskerade

dmor...@gmail.com (Daniel Orner) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:26:17 UT

Granny's power is often quite *unsubtle*, in fact. She isn't like the
wizards, obviously, and she prefers not to use magic when she doesn't
have to, but she is something of a show-off, like the bit where captures
a unicorn in _Lords and Ladies_ with one of her hairs.

Re: Review: Maskerade

daibhidchened...@aol.com (Daibhid Ceanaideach) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:16:19 UT

I'll reread the book and get back to you; it was just a vague impression
I had.
But I don't mean powerful in the sense of throwing high energy magic
around, because witches just don't do that. I mean powerful in the subtle
way Granny is usually portrayed as powerful.

Re: Mustrum Ridcully (still is Re: {Fwd: a short SPOILER note about UA})

donti...@gmail.com (Chris Zakes) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:35:51 UT

On 7 Jan 2010 17:33:33 GMT, an orbital mind-control laser caused
A darker interpretation is that Ridcully Sr. was actually some kind of
military leader, and what he butchered was enemies, not food animals.
-Chris Zakes
Texas
Creationists make it sound as though a "theory" is something you dreamt up after

Re: Review: Maskerade

dmor...@gmail.com (Daniel Orner) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 23:05:53 UT

Hmm... nothing immediately springs to mind, unless you count her
cooking. Which parts were you thinking of?

Re: Review: Maskerade

daibhidchened...@aol.com (Daibhid Ceanaideach) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:51:09 UT

One interesting thing Pterry has said is that Nanny is probably more
powerful than Granny, but takes steps to avoid anyone realising this.
While most of what Nanny does in Maskerade is done through being a
friendly but embarrassing old lady, I think there are a couple of points
where we actually get to see her as a powerful witch (albeit one who is

Re: Review: Maskerade

dmor...@gmail.com (Daniel Orner) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:52:58 UT

Yes, in _Maskerade_ it's a very large part of her characterization -
"great personality and good hair", indeed. She starts getting a bit of a
backbone in _Carpe Jugulum_ along with her more advanced split personality.
Granny is certainly more thought-provoking, but I see the arguments
that have been advanced that once CJ was done, she had nowhere else to

Re: Review: Maskerade

emma_a...@mac.com (Emma Anne) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:10:44 UT

It's unusual to write a book about a really fat woman (not just plump).
And to do it in a way that treats her as a person rather than an object
of pity. Obviously crappy stuff does happen to her in part because she
is fat, but I don't sense that it is the defining feature of her life or
a continual source of misery. This is much more clear in Carpe Jugulum

Re: Mustrum Ridcully (still is Re: {Fwd: a short SPOILER note about UA})

daibhidchened...@aol.com (Daibhid Ceanaideach) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:35:28 UT

The eighth son of an eighth son is a wizard. The eighth son of an eighth
son of an eighth son (ie the son of a wizard) is a sourcerer.
I'm not sure it's ever been specified you *need* to be the eighth son of
an eighth son to be a wizard, though. I mean, they accepted Rincewind,
who knows nothing of his own family background at all, and I've always

Re: Mustrum Ridcully (still is Re: {Fwd: a short SPOILER note about UA})

daibhidchened...@aol.com (Daibhid Ceanaideach) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:33:33 UT

On 07 Jan 2010, Lesley Weston <brightly_coloured_b...@yahoo. co.uk>
wrote:
That's where we came in ... In MP, Ridcully has been running the family
estates, but in UA, his father was a butcher (although I was confused
when I thought there was a reference to him going to foot-the-ball
outside the false memory bit), and his grandfather (we aren't told which

Re: Mustrum Ridcully (still is Re: {Fwd: a short SPOILER note about UA})

l...@sff.net (Lawrence Watt-Evans) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:30:50 UT

On Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:06:45 -0800, Lesley Weston
That would make him a sourcerer, not a wizard, wouldn't it?

Re: Mustrum Ridcully (still is Re: {Fwd: a short SPOILER note about UA})

brightly_coloured_b...@yahoo.co.uk (Lesley Weston) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:06:45 UT

I hope your difficulties get resolved soon.
Yes of course. But I get the impression that the Ridcully family are
landed gentry, so that wouldn't apply. ICBW, of course.
Shirley he had to be the eighth son of an eighth son?
It's traditional for such families to send their younger sons into the
professions, such as the Church or either of the Universities. There