Dining Table Discworld

If you are in/around/can get to Cardiff in early April don't miss Peculiar Productions performing Carpe Jugulum. The show runs 8 - 11th April at the Gate Theatre.

thegate.gigantic.com/terry-pratch...

Carpe Jugulum
It's witches vs vampires in this book about tradition and modernising. Various characters are in 2 minds and sometimes that's helpful. It's a backdoor sequel to Small Gods and the final Weatherwax ending. With Feegles, phoenix & fascism.
diningtablediscworld.podbean.com/e/dining-tab...

Indeed. In fact I think in a few of our episodes when Bloody Stupid Johnson is mentioned I've specifically stated "not a former UK Prime Minister".

@pratchatpodcast.com listening to your Carpe Jugulum episode is very vindicating, especially comparing Feegles to Smurfs, stated there's an essay to be written about fire in the book, as we said both in ours. Also, since it was 2020 yours came out, it's good to hear disgust about Boris Johnson

Ah, a time when the stars (possibly small, boring ones) align and the QOTD is from the book we most recently covered, and we spotted it. There's a lot about Granny in this episode, she don't thrive on nice & she ain't afraid anymore. Still proud tho.
diningtablediscworld.podbean.com/e/dining-tab...

This is the timeline where nerd tech company founders got weird ideas from The Lord of the Rings, but I want to live in the timeline where the nerds all read the Discworld series & launched a green energy company called The Fifth Elephant.

For the weekend crowd, our Carpe Jugulum episode is here
It's witches vs vampires, in a book that's a low-key sequel to Small Gods, and features the final Weatherwax ending. Including genre-savvy vampires and the varied roles of witches.
diningtablediscworld.podbean.com/e/dining-tab...

diningtablediscworld.podbean.com/e/dining-tab...

We do discuss towards the end of the episode how it works as an ending. Weren't looking ahead to Tiffany much then, but certainly something to consider when we get to Wee Free Men.

We have certainly not underappreciated Fifth Elephant, it may well be our first 2-parter (pending editing). You're right, some of the lower key bits about community in Carpe Jugulum will follow nicely into Tiffany Aching books, though we'd read them less, and it'll be a bit before we get to it.

Witches vs vampires in Lancre, and Granny is having trouble fitting 4 into 3. Omnian priest Mightily Oates is in 2 minds about most things, but does the decent thing. There's vampiric fascism & an examination of who makes necessary but unpopular choices in a community
www.podbean.com/ew/pb-mb6w4-...

Our upcoming Carpe Jugulum episode is the longest one we have released so far. Now that we are recording The Fifth Elephant, it's clear Carpe Jugulum isn't holding that record for long.
There just a lot going on in these books, even apart from them being a kind of Uberwald duology.

This was no doubt relevant when it was written in the 90s, it felt relevant when I read it in the 00s. We commented that it feels relevant now in the 20s.

Now feeling fairly vindicated that Smurfs are mentioned in our upcoming Carpe Jugulum episode. I think it's cos they're mentioned as wearing caps in their first appearance.

Yeah, luckily there wasn't as much Rolf Harris stuff as there could have been, given his popularity at the time. He just doesn't come to mind anymore unless there's a specific prompt. Some people deserve to be forgotten except as a warning

Oh yeah, good point, hadn't even thought of that as it was common to say by the time I went to uni.
Do remember meeting an American on study tour who very self-consciously said "uni" instead of "college" because he'd been studying in the UK for a bit too.

Our Last Continent episode references:
-Dune
-Hilda
-Priscilla Queen of the Desert (of course), plus briefly Mad Max & Crocodile Dundee
-We mention that the book doesn't reference Neighbours or Muriel's Wedding
-How "no worries" is just a normal phrase in the UK nowadays

Hadn't realised we were, must have been on a list we joined.
Thanks for the heads up, unfollowed and blocked.

The Last Continent
Rincewind travels across a dry continent, aided & pursued by a shape-shifting kangaroo. Ponder Stibbons despairs of the older wizards on a mysterious island. We discuss our limited knowledge of Australia & how we prefer the wizards more diluted.
www.podbean.com/ew/pb-7myzk-...

Rincewind travels across a dry continent, aided & pursued by a shape-shifting kangaroo. Ponder Stibbons despairs of the older wizards when they're stuck on a mysterious island. We discuss our limited knowledge of Australia & how we prefer the wizards more diluted.
www.podbean.com/ew/pb-7myzk-...

Seems plausible, though the former pair have a more familial relationship and the latter have had to work through some things to get where they are.

Is there space in here for Albert and Death? Which I think of mostly because we kept saying Alfred instead of Albert when first talking about Mort.

Our Terry Pratchett quote of this particular day, because I really can't be having with all this

#gnuterrypratchett #discworld #grannyweatherwax #booksky

(Credit to the artist: talayse.livejournal.com/20920.html)

@effjayem.bsky.social I think this was the observation and post we talked about a bit at FantasyCon. Though I *think* it was also quoted in that article about Mrs Palm.

Screenshot: serialephemera Thematically speaking, the most important thing Terry Pratchett taught me was the concept of militant decency. The idea that you can look at the world and its flaws and its injustices and its cruelties and get deeply, intensely angry, and that you can turn that into energy for doing the right thing and making the world a better place. He taught me that the anger itself is not the part! should be fighting. Nobody in my life ever said that before.

This is a good lesson, no matter how you come to learn it

Podcast update:
-Hogfather TV special episode - out now
www.podbean.com/ew/pb-vst6y-...
-The Last Continent - being edited, due soon
-Carpe Jugulum - read, to be recorded

The best time to have read Discworld is twenty years ago, the second best time is right now

Cover of The Art of Discworld book (published 2004) by Paul Kidby and Terry Pratchett. Using the Mona Lisa as a template there's a picture of a young woman with shoulder-length, brown hair, wearing an off-the-shoulder top that shows a hint of cleavage. She's got a big, broad grin and a winsome look in her brown eyes, one eyebrow slightly raised. On the table in front of her is a tankard, distantly behind her a mountainous landscape with a bridge over a gorge.

A framed picture using the Mona Lisa as a template, there's a picture of a thin, young woman with shoulder-length, brown hair, wearing an off-the-shoulder top. She's got a big, broad grin and a winsome look in her brown eyes, one eyebrow slightly quirked. Behind her is a balustrade, beyond which a young, blonde woman can just about be seen, looking on disapprovingly. In the distance a mountainous landscape with a bridge over a gorge. Below the picture is a note from the artist which is unreadable (my phone camera isn't great) but does date this version of the picture to 2020.

Interesting looking at both versions of the Mona Ogg (detail in alt text). My pic doesn't show the notes, but I do remember Kidby stated in the exhibition that he made her "more comely" in the new version. Having had the book for 20 years (won it at uni) the new one just looked kinda off to me.

To Liz's question about Leonard of Quirm & Gytha Ogg, Paul Kidby confirms that they did have a youthful dalliance in Lancre and has drawn them together. The info is in the notes for some of the pictures in the Designing the Discworld exhibition, will search out pics later, I only took some.

Having seen the Elderly Couple Attacked by Werewolf pic in person at the Paul Kidby exhibit, I agree with Liz that they don't seem that perturbed and aren't especially elderly, from my recollection.

Mr Harris of the Blue Cat Club is mentioned in a footnote in Jingo. There was controversy about a man joining the Guild of Seamstresses, but Mrs Palm approved saying (something like) "unnatural acts are perfectly natural". It's v much an aside, poss related to Nobby being Beti or some Guild stuff.