But um yeah, I just told you the plot. But besides the mystery, there's also speciesim, a bit of romance, nobility and Vimes. The more books I read that star Sir Vimes, the more I like him as a character. He's the grumpy-guy with a soft heart deep deep deep down.
There is a lot I can say about this book, but for now, I'll just talk about Gender Equality and Nobility.
About the Gender Equality thing, well you see, Dwarfs don't officially acknowledge the female gender. It exists, but it's kept secret. Instead, the girls look exactly like guys and do the same work like guys. I suppose it was how Terry Pratchett decided to portray a society/class/group of people without any gender differences. Yet Cheery/Cheri Littlebottom, and many female dwarfs like her, want to be more girly. I'm still trying to figure out what this means, but I think it's going to be significant.
The second thing is about mankind's inexplicable fasicnation with nobbility. Vime's ancestor is unpopular because he lopped of the head of a King who was a tyrant. In fact, people will want to dress up as the king, but no one wants to be a good guy. And when Nobby, who has to prove he's human, is 'found' to be an Earl, he's suddenly loved by the upper crust of society. We're talking about Nobby. (And I saw the note that proved he was human).
It really just shows that people can get blinded by a title, and use that to judge. I'm really not sure whether I'm very susceptible to this, but it's something for everyone to think about. Why do we think people who have the words "Lord", "Lady", "Datuk", "Datina" or the same sort of titles to be somehow superior to normal people?
Interestingly, in feudal Japan, the people with the least money (not including the nobility), were the highest class Samurai. The lowest class Merchants were, ironically, the richest.
Read. This. Book.
No comments :
Post a Comment
I really do appreciate all comments, and I'll try my best to reply within 24 hours!
^_^