Pratchett, Terry: (23) Carpe Jugulum (re-read)

I am seeing how many airport-drafted Discworld re-read entries I can put up before my panel on Discworld and gender in twenty-five minutes!

I picked up the Discworld re-read with Carpe Jugulum, which is actually skipping two books. I feel a little bad about skipping Jingo, but I did re-read it relatively recently and I just couldn’t face it being anvilicious about nationalism. Also it seemed to be less relevant to the gender panel.

(I also skipped The Last Continent, but I feel no guilt about that.)

So, Carpe Jugulum. This time around I think I might actually like it better than Lords and Ladies, which feels like heresy, but the subject matter is of more interest to me than the Shakespeare subplot in L&L, and I really love the way the witches refuse to be shoehorned into roles and Oats and all the Crowning Moments of Awesome. I’ve tended to think of this as the weaker shadow of L&L, and maybe objectively that is the case, but I just enjoyed it more.

(However, unless you have seen it done, I would not recommend following Magrat’s example and carrying a 14-day-old baby on your back. I am sure there are cultures where this is commonplace and that have devised ways to do it safely, but me, I’d want that young a baby on my front where I can see what their floppy little neck and great big head are doing.)

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