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Wossname - January 2021 - main issue
Jan. 30th, 2021 08:47 pmWossname
Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion
January 2021 (Volume 24, Issue 1, Post 1)
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WOSSNAME is a free publication offering news, reviews, and all the other stuff-that-fits pertaining to the works of Sir Terry Pratchett. Originally founded by the late, great Joe Schaumburger for members of the worldwide Klatchian Foreign Legion and its affiliates, including the North American Discworld Society and other continental groups, Wossname is now for Discworld and Pratchett fans everywhere in Roundworld.
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Editor in Chief: Annie Mac
News Editor: Vera P
Newshounds: Mogg, Sir J of Croydon Below, the Shadow, Mss C, Alison not Aliss
Staff Writers: Asti, Pitt the Elder, Evil Steven Dread, Mrs Wynn-Jones
Staff Technomancer: Jason Parlevliet
Book Reviews: Annie Mac, Drusilla D'Afanguin, Your Name Here
Puzzle Editor: Tiff (still out there somewhere)
Bard in Residence: Weird Alice Lancrevic
Emergency Staff: Steven D'Aprano, Jason Parlevliet
World Membership Director: Steven D'Aprano (in his copious spare time)
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INDEX:
01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH
02) EDITOR'S LETTER
03) THE (*&^%^$#@!@#%^!) WATCH REVIEWS
04) ODDS AND SODS
05) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS
06) DISCWORLD MEETING GROUPS NEWS
07) AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE
08) IMAGES OF THE MONTH
09) CLOSE
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01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH
"If you adapt them badly, people will come along and think: 'well that was a pile of old shite, if that was Terry Pratchett, he can stick it up his arse'."
– Stephen Briggs, relating the wisdom of Pratchett re adaptations of his work
"You've chosen to adapt the author's work because, presumably, you admire their writing. If you think you can improve on their humour/drama/characterisation you should really be writing your own plots, and not torturing theirs."
– Mr Briggs again
"It wants to be grim and gritty with dark secret magics, and epic world-changing events. But that is not what Discworld is about really. It feels like in an effort to make yet another 'serious' fantasy show, the showrunners stripped away everything that makes Discworld entertaining."
– webjournalist Emily O'Donnell
"I recently likened Simon Allen's Watch series to a candidate going into an exam and pulling all the stops out to write the best essay they could, leaving the exam hall really pleased with how well they did, and getting no marks, because however good it was, they didn't read the actual question."
– Nick Caulfield, commenting on a review of The Watch
"My problem is that they took an already inclusive, thoughtful material and tried to update it to hit every check mark. And they did it carelessly, without fully understanding the original source material and the social commentary it had…which means they erased what made it inclusive in the first place."
– Romanian journalist Ana Dascalescu hits the nail on the head
"To his bones, Vimes is a policeman. In Jingo, he walks between two opposing armies and tries to arrest them for breach of the peace. He is the perfect man to wield power because he is so suspicious of how power can be abused, often by those who are convinced of their own righteousness. Underneath Pratchett's endlessly funny writing, Vimes is an iron core of principle. Even Antifa would like him."
– journalist Helen Lewis, on the *real* Vimes
"I don't drink but I have a feeling this would be a great place to start."
– blogger Riders of Skaith encounters "The Watch" and is rather strongly affected, not in a good way
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02) LETTER FROM YOUR EDITOR
One of my favourite novels down through the decades is "Shogun", by James Clavell. It's fiction, but was inspired by the life of William Adams, a Tudor-era English navigator who became Japan's first non-Japanese samurai and advisor to the shogun Tokugawa. In the novel, when John Blackthorne (the character based on Adams) is brought before the shogun Toranaga and interrogated as a precursor to inevitable execution, Toranaga queries the rebellion of the Dutch against their Spanish masters. He says – angrily – that there are no mitigating circumstances when it comes to rebellion against one's sovereign lord. Blackthorne replies, "Unless you win," thereby taking his interrogator by surprise and winning his relative freedom. "'Yes, Mister Foreigner, you have named the one mitigating factor.'" I was so struck by this that ever since first reading "Shogun" I've referred to anything that bends or breaks the rules, but wins beyond question, as having invoked the Blackthorne Defence.
There are a number of famous and less famous television series and films that in my opinion have successfully invoked the Blackthorne Defence.
"The Watch" is not one of them.
In adapting text for stage or screen, components can be – often as not, need to be – altered, truncated, or even, and this is the tricky part, left out altogether in order to tell the story effectively within the target medium. However, it needs to be done *well enough*, or with sufficient respect for the source material that the original meaning shines through, to justify those changes or exclusions; taking the source material's extant world-building and character descriptions and motivations, and then changing them beyond recognition while still presenting them as the same, is *not* the way to do it. And as for using the term "inspired by"... well, now. If "The Watch" was inspired by the Discworld series in general and the Ankh-Morpork City Watch in particular, as it's claimed to be (not to mention that BBC America, having contracted the rights, deliberately played the Discworld card from the get-go in order to confer an air of legitimacy on Simon Allen's product), surely *some* of the look, feel, character backstories, heart and, yes, spirit of Terry Pratchett's creation would have shone through. Instead, what we've been given is the lifting of names, places and partial plotlines from the work of the writer who did all the heavy lifting in the first place and the inexpert application of a thin-to-invisible coat of "inspired by" paint to characters and plotlines that have barely a nodding acquaintance with their progenitors.
For a textbook demonstration of how to do "inspired by" correctly, look no further than 2004's Battlestar Galactica, a series that took a television icon, reimagined it, made some basic character changes, shook it, stirred it, and gave the world a gripping work of genius that somehow paid loving respect to its "parent". Even cast members of the 1970s Glen Larson creation, who were at first angered by what they presumed was a mockery of their much-beloved original, were won over and rightly so (most notably Richard Hatch, the original "Apollo", who ended up giving a career performance as a completely different character in later seasons of "new" Galactica). Or consider "Elementary", which stars a mystery-solving pair – a character called Sherlock Holmes who shares only a few traits with Conan Doyle's original but is a fascinating character nonetheless, and a character called Doctor Watson, who shares pretty much nothing with Conan Doyle's original but again is a fascinating character – and stands tall on it own merits. And how about "Warm Bodies", a brilliantly witty zombie rom-com inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet that pays respect to its source material even to the point of including a recognisable version of Juliet's nurse and, yes, the famous balcony scene. And there are adaptations that depart significantly from their source while still telling the story with mastery and grace; the television adaptation of Stephen King's "The Dead Zone" is one, Team Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy is another. But "The Watch" is none of these things.
Furthermore, there's the widespread assertion by many press reviewers and pop-culture or fan-site pundits that only sad Pratchett fans will be up in arms about what's been done to "The Watch" – a contemptuous assertion at that (knocking on 100 million book sales, a knighthood for their author, several successful telefilms, and they're *still* playing the Kevin card?!), given that one doesn't have to be a fully engaged "Terry Pratchett is my deity" zealot to recognise when source material has been shoddily treated.
Rhianna Pratchett said that "The Watch series "shares no DNA" with Discworld. I believe that if her father were alive today, he would have stomped into the script conferences with Nanny Ogg-worthy hobnailed boots and made it very plain that he couldn't be having with the treatment showrunner-writer Simon Allen was giving his wonderful world.
And neither can I.
*
And now, on with the show...
– Annie Mac, Editor
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03) "THE WATCH" REVIEWS
3.1 THE WOSSNAME REVIEW
By Steven D'Aprano
(This review is based on the first four episodes of the series and contains spoilers.)
It would be unfair to describe the BBC America's new series, "The Watch", as a total disaster of a show. I have certainly seen worse shows. But "The Watch" is not a faithful adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Discworld stories and the most positive description I can give is that it is an indifferent police procedural fantasy that appropriates names, characters and story elements from the Discworld. Viewed as nothing more than a fantasy police procedural with no connection to Pratchett's work, "The Watch" is not entirely unwatchable, enough to be moderately engaging for a slow Sunday afternoon, around the same level of quality you might expect from a "mockbluster" or direct-to-DVD film. Showrunner/writer Simon Allen and BBC America have a legal licence to use the characters and story elements of the Discworld, so we can't describe it as outright theft, but it surely is a hijacking. Without Pratchett's name behind it, "The Watch" as it stands almost certainly would not have been made, and this comes across as an attempt to ride Pratchett's coat-tails with a B-grade fantasy, hoping to attract an audience by Pratchett's name alone.
If "The Watch" is merely a mediocrity on its own, as a Discworld adaptation it is a travesty. The contrast between this and 2019's excellent adaptation of "Good Omens" could not be greater, and the viewing figures bear that out: less than a third of the audience of "Good Omens" are tuning in to "The Watch". It is disrespectful to the source, a grab-bag of what seems to be the entire Discworld canon incompetently mashed together, like a cook who reasons that because people like lemon meringue, and they like chicken soup, it would be a brilliant idea to put the lemon meringue pie in the chicken soup. Only the chicken has been replaced by tofu and the lemon with bitter herbs. In that regard, "The Watch" does great harm to the memory of Sir Terry Pratchett, and to the Discworld brand. Anyone watching this show who doesn't know the books is likely to come away from it with the impression that Pratchett was an unfunny hack. Looking at the positive side, that puts Pratchett in exalted company with other writers such as Stephen King and Douglas Adams, whose works have also been butchered.
Marama Corlett as Corporal Angua, one of the most interesting characters in the original Watch novels, is flat and wooden. The interpersonal drama between characters ranges from weak to incompetent. And while the show tries very hard to be funny, it rarely succeeds. It manages to take the rich, clever and funny source material and make it fall flat. Jokes from the book are misused, such as the attempt by the city authorities to cover up dragon footprints by claiming the were left by a large wading bird. In the show, there are no dragon footprints, but the "angry wading bird" line is still used. What was funny in the book becomes nonsensical in the show.
But as bad as that it, the new material is even worse. To give you just a flavour of the level of humour in the new material, one running gag is that the head of the Thieves Guild is a virgin. Another example of the amateurish attempts at humour: the talking sword Gawain reveals that this is just its "stage name" (swords work in the theatre?) and its real name is Wayne. Oh how I laughed and laughed, not.
A few, a very few, of the cast have managed to impress me. Lara Rossi plays a character named after Discworld's Lady Sybil Ramkin. This Sybil is a young, slim, fierce vigilante whose parents were assassinated for reasons unstated in the show. Although the Sybil of the mini-series shares almost nothing with the Sybil of the books in either personality or looks, Rossi puts in an excellent performance. (I note that BBC America's diversity and inclusivity policy clearly does not extend to giving a leading role to an older lady of the full-figured disposition. Only hotties need apply.) Richard Dormer's performance as Captain Sam Vimes has slowly grown on me from a disastrous start. The early attempts to make Vimes funny, especially in the first episode, simply failed. Vimes was portrayed as Popeye crossed with Captain Jack Sparrow, which didn't really work. But I feel that Dormer is doing, perhaps not a great job, but a better than adequate one. He is playing a character who is not the Vimes of the books, but perhaps is *a* Vimes, in the same way that Jonny Lee Miller's Sherlock is not the Holmes of the books but is *a* Holmes. And Adam Hugill puts in a solid, workman-like performance as the fresh-faced, naive Constable Carrot of "Guards Guards". Out of all the members of the Watch, Carrot is perhaps the only one that might be considered a more or less authentic adaptation of their book counter-part.
The visuals for the character of Death are well done, Death's lines less so (too whiny and sorry for himself). And the police procedural elements are handled more or less competently, enough to be moderately engaging for a slow Sunday afternoon. The best parts of the show are those that are played as straight crime drama with a slight fantasy twist. If that sounds like damning with faint praise, it is. The production has too many clangers, things that just fall flat and give the impression that the production team are unskilled amateurs making the worst kind of fan-fiction rather than professionals. For example, when Carrot and Angua first meet, Angua is surprised that the 6ft tall Carrot identifies himself as a Dwarf. But then we are later shown that Angua is friends with Cheery the Dwarf, who is possibly even taller and burlier than Carrot, a fact that nobody has commented on. So why was Angua so surprised about Carrot's height? This is incompetent script writing.
In one scene, two extras standing in plain view appear to be dressed in contemporary 21st century jeans and tops.
https://imgur.com/a/CukbXHr
Detritus the troll looks like a cross between Groot from Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" and the elephant man John Merrick. Visually, the show tries to be moody but ends up just being murky instead. I didn't expect the dragon of a TV mini-series to be as expensively made as Smaug from the "The Hobbit", but surely they could have made it an actual dragon rather than a fire-breathing cloud.
https://imgur.com/a/yLnJpNM
Perhaps Simon Allen has forgotten how badly "Galactus is a cloud" worked for the 2007 "Fantastic Four" sequel, but surely he should have known that following "The Hobbit" and "Game Of Thrones", audiences will expect their dragons to look like actual dragons? I'm sure the smoke effects were incredibly technically difficult to pull off, and by the looks of it the few seconds it was on screen probably took half the budget of the show, but narratively it fails. It just makes bad television.
The drama in "The Watch" is at best mediocre, edging well into cliched melodrama. Pratchett's rich satire of humanity's foibles is reduced to having some goblins make unsubtle references to communism. Detritus' death is just silly. And the big bad antagonist, Carcer Dun, is as intimidating as a puppy and rather ineffectual. In one scene, he runs after one of his subordinates with a plaintive "Don't go!".
The show is plagued by inconsistency. On the one hand, they managed to work in a lovely little reference to Sybil needing to wear wigs because she breeds fire-breathing dragons. On the other hand they cast an actor to play Young Sam Vimes who looks nothing like the actor playing Sam Vimes years later. Think about the way Ewan MacGregor as young Obi-Wan Kenobi *looks* like he could have aged to become Alec Guinness, but in "The Watch", it feels like the casting department said, "He's a guy with a beard. Close enough."
https://imgur.com/a/OwsoOaS
Ultimately, "The Watch" simply isn't very good, and a handful of decent performances cannot save it. And if "The Watch" is merely mediocre taken on its own merits, as a Discworld adaptation it is unspeakably worse. It mashes together elements and characters of Guards Guards, Soul Music, The Colour Of Magic, Moving Pictures, Night Watch and more, with no finesse or understanding, and certainly no sign of respect for the source material. Characters from the books, both major and minor, are changed beyond recognition, both physically and in their personality. Just a few examples:
* The villain of Night Watch, Carcer Dunn, is the leader of a street gang who is recruited by some mysterious group (possibly the Auditors?) to tear down all of civilisation and physically destroy the city of Ankh-Morpork.
* The tired old unimaginative cliche that gives the protagonist Vimes a long-ago close friendship with the antagonist Carcer. Why would the head of police want to arrest or capture a criminal unless they were once close friends? Yes, that is meant to be sarcasm from me.
* Cheery the Dwarf is both beardless and seemingly the tallest Watch member, at least as tall as Carrot if not taller. This of course fatally undermines the joke that Carrot is a Dwarf (by adoption).
* Totally unironically, and rather misogynistically, Cheery's struggles with female erasure (the tendency for society to ignore, marginalise and erase women from history and culture) has been erased from the story. The lack of self-awareness by BBC America and the show runner regarding this matter is astonishing.
* Corporal Angua is a boyish, miserable bundle of hostility and despondency who has spent three quarters of the series with her face covered in grime for no apparent reason other that it looks edgy.
* Lupine Wonse, secretary to Lord Vetinari, is now just Wonse, former street urchin and criminal, working as a cleaner in Unseen University while secretly teaching herself magic.
* Constable Cuddy, the first ever Dwarf watchman, is now just some random constable whose entire role is to tell young Sybil that she did not in fact see her parents brutally assassinated, that is to say, *completely legally inhumed*, because the Assassin's Guild does not leave witnesses. Why perfectly legal assassins would need made-up supervillain names and to leave no witnesses is not explained.
* Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler is now just "Throat", a wheel-chair bound master criminal.
None of these changes improve on the originals. The show has simply appropriated the names of Discworld characters and dropped them on their own creations, and displays a great poverty of imagination. With the exception of Carrot, and perhaps Vimes, none of the major characters come close to their physical descriptions in the books. Furthermore, "The Watch" plays fast and loose with the sex and colour of Discworld characters. Pratchett's Watch novels are full of strong, powerful women who are first and foremost women, not just proxy men in skirts. Angua, of course. And Sybil proves that one does not need to be an axe-wielding vigilante to be a strong woman. Sally von Humpeding the vampire and Rosie (later Mrs) Palm are both interesting female characters and I would have loved to have seen their stories told. (The actor playing Angua would have been as physically a good a match for Sally as she is a terrible match for Angua.) Instead, "The Watch" takes the easy way out by just giving a few characters an instant sex change. Don't bother telling stories about *women being women*, just have woman actors step into male character's shoes without changing anything else about them. It is patronising and lazy. As imagined by Terry Pratchett, Ankh-Morpork was based heavily on Anglo-European fantasy fiction, which mostly means white people. But despite that, Pratchett made the Disc a true multicultural world with many cultures and races, including analogues of our middle east, Africa and far east Asia, and yet the Discworld was remarkably free of skin-colour racism. As Pratchett put it:
“Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because – what with trolls and dwarfs and so on – speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green.” (Witches Abroad)
So I feel that turning Ankh-Morpork of the TV series into a multiracial city works well, and I like to think that it would probably have met with Sir Terry's approval. Casting black actors to play (for example) Sybil Ramkin and Carcer Dunn does no disrespect to their characters. It's just **everything else** about the characters that is a mutilation.
My conclusion after watching four episodes is that "The Watch" fails as an adaptation of the Discworld source and as a comedy. As a fantasy police procedural, it scrapes in as somewhat watchable but no better than a mediocre mini-series. But perhaps the worst failure of the show is what might have been. Both "Guards, Guards" and "Men At Arms" have excellent stage adaptations which could have been further adapted to the screen. Either would have been great introductions to the City Watch stories, and Men At Arms could have been adapted to include Cheery's struggle to be accepted as openly a woman in a Dwarf society that tries to erase all sex differences between men and women. But this would have required respect for the original character, and something a little more sophisticated than a lazy and insincere "diversity check-box" approach to women. And there is no sign of either of those in "The Watch".
When I was five or six, I put on a play for my mother. Every toy I owned had to have a scene, and my mum eventually bailed about the time I started setting up the enormous battle scene with my toy soldiers. This reminds me of "The Watch", where the show runner and writer Simon Allen seems to have attempted to work in a reference to every Discworld character and concept even vaguely connected to the City Watch books, and some that aren't, and even some concepts that never made it into Discworld canon due to the untimely death of Pratchett, such as "Twilight Canyons". But Allen's reach has greatly exceeded his grasp and the end result is an incompetent mashup that doesn't work as tribute to the Discworld novels and could only be put in by somebody who has little understanding of them. There is a scene in the first episode where Gaspode the talking dog marks his territory by urinating on Vimes' leg. I cannot help but feel that this is exactly what Simon Allen and BBC America did to Pratchett's work: "The Watch" is all about them marking his material as theirs.
3.2 OTHER REVIEWS
By culture commentator Helen Lewis aka The Bluestocking:
"If you love the Discworld books, may I offer you some free advice? Stay well away from The Watch, a new series “inspired by the characters created by Sir Terry Pratchett.” It may well be enjoyable to viewers with no preconceptions, but if you know what “knurd” means, or who the true king of Ankh-Morpork is – in other words, if you're a great big Discworld geek like me – don't watch it. It's not for you. This might be a rare adaptation that's more comprehensible if you aren't familiar with the source material... I tried to approach The Watch with an open mind. Transposing novels to television involves big, structural changes, the ruthless removal of minor characters and subplots, and the inevitable loss of an authorial voice. Don't turn into Comic-Book Guy, I told myself. “Fantitlement” is a terrible thing. That lasted about eight minutes into the first episode. As Rhianna Pratchett put it, these are not her father's characters. Colon and Nobbs are gone entirely; Angua is a hardbitten veteran with no obvious personality; and rather than being a female dwarf with a beard and lipstick, Cherry is male, non-binary and of average height. Vimes, that hater of fuss and fanciness, is wearing eyeliner... what the hell has happened to Lady Sybil? In the books, she is a well-upholstered middle-aged aristocrat, briskly kind in a very English labradors-and-galoshes way. Think opera singer in tweeds, with “a bosom that rose and fell like an empire”. To millions of Pratchett's female readers, Lady Sybil proved that being polite and big-boned can also be a superpower. The Watch has turned her into a kickass armed vigilante in a belted trench coat – yes, that hoariest of tropes, a “strong female character”. Worse, she's thin. Changes like these are what takes this past being an adaptation and onto something else entirely...
https://helenlewis.substack.com/p/the-bluestocking-terry-pratchett
By Cynthia Vinney, who has no investment in the source material, on pop-culture site CBR:
"I suspect for Discworld fans this will all come across like big-budget City Watch fan fiction. As someone unfamiliar with the books, I can't claim any personal attachment to any specific part of that story, but even the little research I did made it clear that the show doesn't bear an especially strong resemblance to its supposed source material. The bigger disappointment, however, is despite all those changes, the show hasn't managed to do anything compelling with them. The plot mechanics of the story are on full display, which makes the Watch's pursuit of MacGuffin after MacGuffin feel like forced labor instead of organically motivated action. Furthermore, the reasons for Carcer's activities are turned into a mystery that never comes across as worth solving. It's difficult to care about the characters too. The actors do what they can with the material they're given, each committing to their characters' specific traits and backgrounds. I especially enjoyed Eaton-Kent's Cheery, whose smart sensitivity is a nice counterpoint to her cynical or naive colleagues. Still, the show is so caught up in maintaining its punk-rock aesthetic and devil-may-care attitude, it never makes anything onscreen feel worth investing in..."
https://www.cbr.com/watch-discworld-tv-review/
On fansite The Mary Sue, Chelsea Steiner gives a round-up of some early reviews: https://bit.ly/2LWws8J
A review by Kiko Martinez for Variety: https://bit.ly/3oiym0g
By "JG" on Tornado Post. [Editor's note: coherent English is not this reviewer's strong suit, but I'm including this review because it's interesting to see what a non-Discworld reader makes of the show.]: https://bit.ly/2LY41qW
By Craig Mathieson for the Sydney Morning Herald: https://bit.ly/3cakdzZ
A long, detailed review by William Hughes, who tries to be as fair as possible, for the AV Club: https://bit.ly/2YfZXoo
An apparent rave review on fansite Flickering Myth by something called Martin Carr, an entity that doesn't seem to occupy the same planet as most other reviewers and also fails to understand that respecting source material is not by any means the sole purview of sad superfans: https://bit.ly/3a3x0BA
...while on the less "what the -ing" Den of Geek, Juliette Harrisson asks some very pertinent questions about the treatment of a particular character. No extracts here because there's major spoilage; in fact, I can't even give the URL openly for that reason. But if you want to read it, and accept that there's a spoiler and a brain-melting one at that, go to https://bit.ly/3nbnMYB
...and then we have an oddly loving review in the Los Angeles Times by Robert Lloyd, who despite claiming to be familiar with and fond of the source material, seems to think that savaging *everyone's* source material is a good thing [Editor's note: no it -ing isn't, Robert]: https://lat.ms/3iJnpDW
By Emily O'Donnell on Comic Years, trying her best to be positive: https://bit.ly/39ZCE7I
By Adi Tantimedh on Bleeding Cool News: https://bit.ly/3c83FbP
By Ana Dascalescu on TechTheLead: https://bit.ly/3iOJ9OU
A mostly positive review by Alana Joli Abbott on Den of Geek: https://bit.ly/2YbT8Ep
...but further viewing made her rethink: https://bit.ly/3qSmXpL
And finally, telly writer Martin Jameson reflects on BBC America's take on Terry Pratchett's Ankh-Morpork City Watch through the prism of his own experience of adapting Discworld for the small screen. He ends with "And thank you to the producers of The Watch for finally enabling Discworld to find its own beating heart on our telly boxes." All I can say is that Mr J must have been standing behind the door when the "Just Say No" message was being passed around: https://bit.ly/3caX7Jn
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04) ODDS AND SODS
4.1 THIS OLD HOUSE...
...is a beautiful place that used to be Sir Pterry's home for many years and is now up for sale. For what it's worth, your Editor once lived in a house very much like Gaze Cottage (although barely one-third of the size) and yes, it did inspire a lot of creativity! From Somerset Live, including extensive iconographs and a video tour of the interior:
"Sir Terry lived in the four bed Somerset cottage between 1970 and 1994. In this time the first novel from his popular series Discworld, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983. Sir Terry sold the house to the current owners, who have said they still regularly received letters from ardent fans addressed to The Hogfather, another of his novels, which was later made into a film..."
https://bit.ly/3c8nWOx
From the BBC:
"Ruth Treasure-Smith, from Robin King Estate Agent, said: 'He wrote most of his most famous novels in that house in the 80s. The house must have been inspiring..."
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-55739271
4.2 UPDATES: THE TERRY PRATCHETT BOOK CLUB
On the website of publishers Tor, Emmet Asher-Perrin continues a Discworld discussion page. This month's instalment is a wrap-up of Wyrd Sisters:
"I find myself fascinated by the difference with which the duke and duchess meet their ends, even more for how it relates to the ending of Macbeth; pointedly, Duke Felmet gets a rather comical ending, and that could be put down to the fact that we're dealing with an overall comical book, but it reads more like a direct commentary on how Pratchett views Lord and Lady Macbeth – specifically that the lord is a nothing muffin of an antagonist, and the lady should have been permitted the full breadth of her villainy. Because let's be honest, the idea that Lady Mac loses her mind over guilt at her misdeeds is one of Shakespeare's weakest writing choices. I'm sorry, but it's true – it's one of those ideas that's fun to play as an actor, but doesn't bear out in the characterization we've seen. So instead, Pratchett has the duke lose touch with reality over his guilt (which he's built upon the entire book), and goes a different route for the duchess. People who walk around advocating for callous murder are unlikely to make a turnaround so severe, so we get a far more chilling end at the hands (and hooves and antlers and hoppy feet) of the land..."
https://bit.ly/3a55UtJ
...that moves on to the first part of Pyramids:
"The fact that there are several parallels between Djelibeybi and the fictional Gormenghast kingdom created by Mervyn Peake forces us to sit with that mismatch. Fans love to point out the similarities here – dad who died because he thought he was a bird, mom obsessed with cats, the adherence to ancient ritual over looking forward – but it really only serves to point a finger at how insular the fantasy genre has been for such a long time. When this book was written in the late 80s, there was no super popular fantasy kingdom based on Egypt (or written by an Egyptian author, for that matter) for an English-speaking author like Pratchett to find and draw from. That said, the assassin's test is truly fun to read, and was apparently unusual for Pterry in its writing; he was not one of those authors who admitted to being carried away by his characters or surprised by their actions, but he did state this test as the one place where the narrative got away from him..."
https://bit.ly/2KSnh8G
...and the next:
"There are a number of jokes like this that aren't really working for me... The jokes are coming from a specific viewpoint, centered entirely on the cultural biases of the writer, and in this case, they're just not playing out as fun as the rest of his material. Some of the jokes still work out, but some of them emphatically do not. Part of the trouble is that it seems as though Pratchett is working from the assumption that most people aren't going to know enough about Egypt and its culture for the jokes to land, and I suppose that's fair to a point. (There's a footnote where he explains how an outfit doesn't work by suggesting what a foreign ambassador to the Court of St. James might wear that would be similarly out of step, and it's admittedly hilarious.) But it doesn't work as an excuse across the board, particularly not when you take into account how obsessive Britain has been about ancient Egypt through its history..."
https://bit.ly/3tc03vi
4.3 A MAGIC LITTLE PLUG...
...for Marc Burrows' biography The Magic of Terry Pratchett! By Colin Steele in the Canberra Times:
"When Boris Johnson interviewed Terry Pratchett in 1996 for the British Daily Telegraph, he wrote that he was 'baffled by the scale of his (Pratchett's ) success'. Pratchett's Discworld series was often ignored by the 'literati', but Pratchett simply responded, 'Well, I get paid shitloads of cash, which is good'. A knighthood, and four honorary doctorates also helped Pratchett's self-esteem. Mark Burrows' The Magic of Terry Pratchett (White Owl, $45), which is marketed as 'the first full biography' of Sir Terry, documents in detail Pratchett's path to success. Burrows, however, never met Pratchett, so this is an account based on published accounts and interviews and a detailed analysis of his books..."
https://bit.ly/3qTk204
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05) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS
* GUARDS! GUARDS! IN VICTORIA, FOURECKS
Discworld returns to Victoria! The Red Cliffs Players will present their production of Guards! Guards! next month.
When: 19th–27th February 2021
Venue: Cardross Hall, 399 Dairtnunk Ave, Cardross, Victoria 3496
Time: 7,30pm all sessions except Sunday 21st matinee at 2pm
Tickets: $20 all sessions, available online via https://bit.ly/39jEAZD
* MURDER IN ANKH-MORPORK IN ABINGDON... EVENTUALLY... (2021)
"We wanted to stage a play involving the Ankh-Morpork Night Watch. But we'd already staged all of Stephen Briggs' dramatisations featuring this noble group of guardians of justice. Stephen got special permission to put together an affectionate mash-up incorporating bits of Guards! Guards! and Feet of Clay, woven respectfully into the core plot of Men at Arms. All Terry. The city is protected by the multiverse's most diverse police force. But a new threat is emerging – the Discworld's first and only firearm. The Gonne. And we planned to stage it in November 2020. HOWEVER – the coronavirus then landed on us and scuppered our plans. A socially distanced (and thus much reduced) audience wouldn't enable us to stage the show and cover our costs – so we have had to park this until things get back closer to 'normal'. We have our fingers crossed for November 2021. News here as it happens!"
https://www.studiotheatreclub.com/murder-in-ankh-morpork
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06) DISCWORLD MEETING GROUPS NEWS
Remember, one day, possibly in the not too distant future, Discworld fans will be able to meet in the real Roundworld again. So keep this information handy! Also note there are a few updates below.
The Broken Drummers, "London's Premier Unofficially Official Discworld Group"
BrokenDrummers@gmail.com or nicholls.helen@yahoo.co.uk or join their Facebook group at https://bit.ly/2YrPGW7
NOTE: the Drummers are still meeting occasionally via Zoom. Check out the above link for updates!
*
Drumknott's Irregulars
Facebook https://bit.ly/31FlSrq or Google Groups https:groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/drumknotts-irregulars or join us at our next event."
*
The Victorian Discworld Klatch
https://www.facebook.com/groups/VictorianDiscworldKlatch
*
"The Gathering of the Loonies (Wincanton chapter)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/373578522834654/
*
The Pratchett Partisans
https://www.facebook.com/groups/pratchettpartisans/ or contact Ula directly at uwilmott@yahoo.com.au
*
The City of Small Gods
www.cityofsmallgods.org.au
"What are we doing while we're stuck at home due to COVID-19? Given that our normal social gatherings can't happen while everyone's under lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are instead trying to host regular activities and discussions online. Most of these will be done via our Discord Server – https://discord.gg/3RVzsyJ – which has several text chat channels and a few voice chat channels as well. We will still use our Facebook group – https://facebook.com/groups/cityofsmallgods – to coordinate scheduled events. When things get back to normal... (semi-) regular social meetings are generally held on the last Thursday of the month at a pub or restaurant in Adelaide. We have dinner at 6.30pm followed by games until 9pm.
"We'll try to keep this page up to date (no promises!) but always check emails on the mailing list or our Facebook Group for further details of these events."
*
The Broken Vectis Drummers
broken_vectis_drummers@yahoo.co.uk
*
The Wincanton Omnian Temperance Society (WOTS) meets at Wincanton's famous Bear Inn when social gatherings are possible.
*
The Northern Institute of the Ankh-Morpork and District Society of Flatalists normally meet at The Narrowboat Pub in Victoria Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire, Details of future meetings are posted on the Events section of the Discworld Stamps forum: http://www.discworldstamps.co.uk/forum/
*
Sydney Drummers (formerly Drummers Downunder)
Contact Sue (aka Granny Weatherwax): kenworthys@yahoo.co.uk
*
The Treacle Mining Corporation, formerly known as Perth Drummers https://bit.ly/2EKSCqu – or message Alexandra Ware directly at <alexandra.ware@gmail.com>
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07) AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE
Nothing to see here this month, since this month's issue centres mainly on "The Watch" and to my surprise there were almost no blog reviews of it! – Ed.
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08) IMAGES OF THE MONTH
A librarian helping a librarian-helper in Borneo:
https://i.redd.it/e405hm7pcd861.png
Some of the cast of Red Cliffs Players' forthcoming production of Guards! Guards!:
https://bit.ly/36cTCOJ
Sir Pterry's former home, Gaze Cottage:
https://bit.ly/39iBHZ9
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09) CLOSE
Just an amusing note to end. Journalist Tom Chivers interviewed Sir Pterry in 2013: “I noted to him that in his later stories he had rehabilitated every 'evil' species – orcs, trolls, vampires, werewolves; made them people. Except, at that stage, elves. And I remember he wagged his finger at me and said: 'You bugger.' I never mentioned it in the piece, but then when The Shepherd's Crown came out – posthumously, his last book – he had, indeed, done the same for the elves." To read the original piece, go to https://bit.ly/39xEI7X
Right then, that's it for now. Mind how you go, and we hope to see you next month!
– Annie Mac
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
The End. If you have any questions or requests, write: wossname-owner (at) pearwood (dot) info
Copyright (c) 2021 by Wossname for the Klatchian Foreign Legion
Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion
January 2021 (Volume 24, Issue 1, Post 1)
********************************************************************
WOSSNAME is a free publication offering news, reviews, and all the other stuff-that-fits pertaining to the works of Sir Terry Pratchett. Originally founded by the late, great Joe Schaumburger for members of the worldwide Klatchian Foreign Legion and its affiliates, including the North American Discworld Society and other continental groups, Wossname is now for Discworld and Pratchett fans everywhere in Roundworld.
********************************************************************
Editor in Chief: Annie Mac
News Editor: Vera P
Newshounds: Mogg, Sir J of Croydon Below, the Shadow, Mss C, Alison not Aliss
Staff Writers: Asti, Pitt the Elder, Evil Steven Dread, Mrs Wynn-Jones
Staff Technomancer: Jason Parlevliet
Book Reviews: Annie Mac, Drusilla D'Afanguin, Your Name Here
Puzzle Editor: Tiff (still out there somewhere)
Bard in Residence: Weird Alice Lancrevic
Emergency Staff: Steven D'Aprano, Jason Parlevliet
World Membership Director: Steven D'Aprano (in his copious spare time)
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
INDEX:
01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH
02) EDITOR'S LETTER
03) THE (*&^%^$#@!@#%^!) WATCH REVIEWS
04) ODDS AND SODS
05) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS
06) DISCWORLD MEETING GROUPS NEWS
07) AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE
08) IMAGES OF THE MONTH
09) CLOSE
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH
"If you adapt them badly, people will come along and think: 'well that was a pile of old shite, if that was Terry Pratchett, he can stick it up his arse'."
– Stephen Briggs, relating the wisdom of Pratchett re adaptations of his work
"You've chosen to adapt the author's work because, presumably, you admire their writing. If you think you can improve on their humour/drama/characterisation you should really be writing your own plots, and not torturing theirs."
– Mr Briggs again
"It wants to be grim and gritty with dark secret magics, and epic world-changing events. But that is not what Discworld is about really. It feels like in an effort to make yet another 'serious' fantasy show, the showrunners stripped away everything that makes Discworld entertaining."
– webjournalist Emily O'Donnell
"I recently likened Simon Allen's Watch series to a candidate going into an exam and pulling all the stops out to write the best essay they could, leaving the exam hall really pleased with how well they did, and getting no marks, because however good it was, they didn't read the actual question."
– Nick Caulfield, commenting on a review of The Watch
"My problem is that they took an already inclusive, thoughtful material and tried to update it to hit every check mark. And they did it carelessly, without fully understanding the original source material and the social commentary it had…which means they erased what made it inclusive in the first place."
– Romanian journalist Ana Dascalescu hits the nail on the head
"To his bones, Vimes is a policeman. In Jingo, he walks between two opposing armies and tries to arrest them for breach of the peace. He is the perfect man to wield power because he is so suspicious of how power can be abused, often by those who are convinced of their own righteousness. Underneath Pratchett's endlessly funny writing, Vimes is an iron core of principle. Even Antifa would like him."
– journalist Helen Lewis, on the *real* Vimes
"I don't drink but I have a feeling this would be a great place to start."
– blogger Riders of Skaith encounters "The Watch" and is rather strongly affected, not in a good way
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02) LETTER FROM YOUR EDITOR
One of my favourite novels down through the decades is "Shogun", by James Clavell. It's fiction, but was inspired by the life of William Adams, a Tudor-era English navigator who became Japan's first non-Japanese samurai and advisor to the shogun Tokugawa. In the novel, when John Blackthorne (the character based on Adams) is brought before the shogun Toranaga and interrogated as a precursor to inevitable execution, Toranaga queries the rebellion of the Dutch against their Spanish masters. He says – angrily – that there are no mitigating circumstances when it comes to rebellion against one's sovereign lord. Blackthorne replies, "Unless you win," thereby taking his interrogator by surprise and winning his relative freedom. "'Yes, Mister Foreigner, you have named the one mitigating factor.'" I was so struck by this that ever since first reading "Shogun" I've referred to anything that bends or breaks the rules, but wins beyond question, as having invoked the Blackthorne Defence.
There are a number of famous and less famous television series and films that in my opinion have successfully invoked the Blackthorne Defence.
"The Watch" is not one of them.
In adapting text for stage or screen, components can be – often as not, need to be – altered, truncated, or even, and this is the tricky part, left out altogether in order to tell the story effectively within the target medium. However, it needs to be done *well enough*, or with sufficient respect for the source material that the original meaning shines through, to justify those changes or exclusions; taking the source material's extant world-building and character descriptions and motivations, and then changing them beyond recognition while still presenting them as the same, is *not* the way to do it. And as for using the term "inspired by"... well, now. If "The Watch" was inspired by the Discworld series in general and the Ankh-Morpork City Watch in particular, as it's claimed to be (not to mention that BBC America, having contracted the rights, deliberately played the Discworld card from the get-go in order to confer an air of legitimacy on Simon Allen's product), surely *some* of the look, feel, character backstories, heart and, yes, spirit of Terry Pratchett's creation would have shone through. Instead, what we've been given is the lifting of names, places and partial plotlines from the work of the writer who did all the heavy lifting in the first place and the inexpert application of a thin-to-invisible coat of "inspired by" paint to characters and plotlines that have barely a nodding acquaintance with their progenitors.
For a textbook demonstration of how to do "inspired by" correctly, look no further than 2004's Battlestar Galactica, a series that took a television icon, reimagined it, made some basic character changes, shook it, stirred it, and gave the world a gripping work of genius that somehow paid loving respect to its "parent". Even cast members of the 1970s Glen Larson creation, who were at first angered by what they presumed was a mockery of their much-beloved original, were won over and rightly so (most notably Richard Hatch, the original "Apollo", who ended up giving a career performance as a completely different character in later seasons of "new" Galactica). Or consider "Elementary", which stars a mystery-solving pair – a character called Sherlock Holmes who shares only a few traits with Conan Doyle's original but is a fascinating character nonetheless, and a character called Doctor Watson, who shares pretty much nothing with Conan Doyle's original but again is a fascinating character – and stands tall on it own merits. And how about "Warm Bodies", a brilliantly witty zombie rom-com inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet that pays respect to its source material even to the point of including a recognisable version of Juliet's nurse and, yes, the famous balcony scene. And there are adaptations that depart significantly from their source while still telling the story with mastery and grace; the television adaptation of Stephen King's "The Dead Zone" is one, Team Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy is another. But "The Watch" is none of these things.
Furthermore, there's the widespread assertion by many press reviewers and pop-culture or fan-site pundits that only sad Pratchett fans will be up in arms about what's been done to "The Watch" – a contemptuous assertion at that (knocking on 100 million book sales, a knighthood for their author, several successful telefilms, and they're *still* playing the Kevin card?!), given that one doesn't have to be a fully engaged "Terry Pratchett is my deity" zealot to recognise when source material has been shoddily treated.
Rhianna Pratchett said that "The Watch series "shares no DNA" with Discworld. I believe that if her father were alive today, he would have stomped into the script conferences with Nanny Ogg-worthy hobnailed boots and made it very plain that he couldn't be having with the treatment showrunner-writer Simon Allen was giving his wonderful world.
And neither can I.
*
And now, on with the show...
– Annie Mac, Editor
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03) "THE WATCH" REVIEWS
3.1 THE WOSSNAME REVIEW
By Steven D'Aprano
(This review is based on the first four episodes of the series and contains spoilers.)
It would be unfair to describe the BBC America's new series, "The Watch", as a total disaster of a show. I have certainly seen worse shows. But "The Watch" is not a faithful adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Discworld stories and the most positive description I can give is that it is an indifferent police procedural fantasy that appropriates names, characters and story elements from the Discworld. Viewed as nothing more than a fantasy police procedural with no connection to Pratchett's work, "The Watch" is not entirely unwatchable, enough to be moderately engaging for a slow Sunday afternoon, around the same level of quality you might expect from a "mockbluster" or direct-to-DVD film. Showrunner/writer Simon Allen and BBC America have a legal licence to use the characters and story elements of the Discworld, so we can't describe it as outright theft, but it surely is a hijacking. Without Pratchett's name behind it, "The Watch" as it stands almost certainly would not have been made, and this comes across as an attempt to ride Pratchett's coat-tails with a B-grade fantasy, hoping to attract an audience by Pratchett's name alone.
If "The Watch" is merely a mediocrity on its own, as a Discworld adaptation it is a travesty. The contrast between this and 2019's excellent adaptation of "Good Omens" could not be greater, and the viewing figures bear that out: less than a third of the audience of "Good Omens" are tuning in to "The Watch". It is disrespectful to the source, a grab-bag of what seems to be the entire Discworld canon incompetently mashed together, like a cook who reasons that because people like lemon meringue, and they like chicken soup, it would be a brilliant idea to put the lemon meringue pie in the chicken soup. Only the chicken has been replaced by tofu and the lemon with bitter herbs. In that regard, "The Watch" does great harm to the memory of Sir Terry Pratchett, and to the Discworld brand. Anyone watching this show who doesn't know the books is likely to come away from it with the impression that Pratchett was an unfunny hack. Looking at the positive side, that puts Pratchett in exalted company with other writers such as Stephen King and Douglas Adams, whose works have also been butchered.
Marama Corlett as Corporal Angua, one of the most interesting characters in the original Watch novels, is flat and wooden. The interpersonal drama between characters ranges from weak to incompetent. And while the show tries very hard to be funny, it rarely succeeds. It manages to take the rich, clever and funny source material and make it fall flat. Jokes from the book are misused, such as the attempt by the city authorities to cover up dragon footprints by claiming the were left by a large wading bird. In the show, there are no dragon footprints, but the "angry wading bird" line is still used. What was funny in the book becomes nonsensical in the show.
But as bad as that it, the new material is even worse. To give you just a flavour of the level of humour in the new material, one running gag is that the head of the Thieves Guild is a virgin. Another example of the amateurish attempts at humour: the talking sword Gawain reveals that this is just its "stage name" (swords work in the theatre?) and its real name is Wayne. Oh how I laughed and laughed, not.
A few, a very few, of the cast have managed to impress me. Lara Rossi plays a character named after Discworld's Lady Sybil Ramkin. This Sybil is a young, slim, fierce vigilante whose parents were assassinated for reasons unstated in the show. Although the Sybil of the mini-series shares almost nothing with the Sybil of the books in either personality or looks, Rossi puts in an excellent performance. (I note that BBC America's diversity and inclusivity policy clearly does not extend to giving a leading role to an older lady of the full-figured disposition. Only hotties need apply.) Richard Dormer's performance as Captain Sam Vimes has slowly grown on me from a disastrous start. The early attempts to make Vimes funny, especially in the first episode, simply failed. Vimes was portrayed as Popeye crossed with Captain Jack Sparrow, which didn't really work. But I feel that Dormer is doing, perhaps not a great job, but a better than adequate one. He is playing a character who is not the Vimes of the books, but perhaps is *a* Vimes, in the same way that Jonny Lee Miller's Sherlock is not the Holmes of the books but is *a* Holmes. And Adam Hugill puts in a solid, workman-like performance as the fresh-faced, naive Constable Carrot of "Guards Guards". Out of all the members of the Watch, Carrot is perhaps the only one that might be considered a more or less authentic adaptation of their book counter-part.
The visuals for the character of Death are well done, Death's lines less so (too whiny and sorry for himself). And the police procedural elements are handled more or less competently, enough to be moderately engaging for a slow Sunday afternoon. The best parts of the show are those that are played as straight crime drama with a slight fantasy twist. If that sounds like damning with faint praise, it is. The production has too many clangers, things that just fall flat and give the impression that the production team are unskilled amateurs making the worst kind of fan-fiction rather than professionals. For example, when Carrot and Angua first meet, Angua is surprised that the 6ft tall Carrot identifies himself as a Dwarf. But then we are later shown that Angua is friends with Cheery the Dwarf, who is possibly even taller and burlier than Carrot, a fact that nobody has commented on. So why was Angua so surprised about Carrot's height? This is incompetent script writing.
In one scene, two extras standing in plain view appear to be dressed in contemporary 21st century jeans and tops.
https://imgur.com/a/CukbXHr
Detritus the troll looks like a cross between Groot from Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" and the elephant man John Merrick. Visually, the show tries to be moody but ends up just being murky instead. I didn't expect the dragon of a TV mini-series to be as expensively made as Smaug from the "The Hobbit", but surely they could have made it an actual dragon rather than a fire-breathing cloud.
https://imgur.com/a/yLnJpNM
Perhaps Simon Allen has forgotten how badly "Galactus is a cloud" worked for the 2007 "Fantastic Four" sequel, but surely he should have known that following "The Hobbit" and "Game Of Thrones", audiences will expect their dragons to look like actual dragons? I'm sure the smoke effects were incredibly technically difficult to pull off, and by the looks of it the few seconds it was on screen probably took half the budget of the show, but narratively it fails. It just makes bad television.
The drama in "The Watch" is at best mediocre, edging well into cliched melodrama. Pratchett's rich satire of humanity's foibles is reduced to having some goblins make unsubtle references to communism. Detritus' death is just silly. And the big bad antagonist, Carcer Dun, is as intimidating as a puppy and rather ineffectual. In one scene, he runs after one of his subordinates with a plaintive "Don't go!".
The show is plagued by inconsistency. On the one hand, they managed to work in a lovely little reference to Sybil needing to wear wigs because she breeds fire-breathing dragons. On the other hand they cast an actor to play Young Sam Vimes who looks nothing like the actor playing Sam Vimes years later. Think about the way Ewan MacGregor as young Obi-Wan Kenobi *looks* like he could have aged to become Alec Guinness, but in "The Watch", it feels like the casting department said, "He's a guy with a beard. Close enough."
https://imgur.com/a/OwsoOaS
Ultimately, "The Watch" simply isn't very good, and a handful of decent performances cannot save it. And if "The Watch" is merely mediocre taken on its own merits, as a Discworld adaptation it is unspeakably worse. It mashes together elements and characters of Guards Guards, Soul Music, The Colour Of Magic, Moving Pictures, Night Watch and more, with no finesse or understanding, and certainly no sign of respect for the source material. Characters from the books, both major and minor, are changed beyond recognition, both physically and in their personality. Just a few examples:
* The villain of Night Watch, Carcer Dunn, is the leader of a street gang who is recruited by some mysterious group (possibly the Auditors?) to tear down all of civilisation and physically destroy the city of Ankh-Morpork.
* The tired old unimaginative cliche that gives the protagonist Vimes a long-ago close friendship with the antagonist Carcer. Why would the head of police want to arrest or capture a criminal unless they were once close friends? Yes, that is meant to be sarcasm from me.
* Cheery the Dwarf is both beardless and seemingly the tallest Watch member, at least as tall as Carrot if not taller. This of course fatally undermines the joke that Carrot is a Dwarf (by adoption).
* Totally unironically, and rather misogynistically, Cheery's struggles with female erasure (the tendency for society to ignore, marginalise and erase women from history and culture) has been erased from the story. The lack of self-awareness by BBC America and the show runner regarding this matter is astonishing.
* Corporal Angua is a boyish, miserable bundle of hostility and despondency who has spent three quarters of the series with her face covered in grime for no apparent reason other that it looks edgy.
* Lupine Wonse, secretary to Lord Vetinari, is now just Wonse, former street urchin and criminal, working as a cleaner in Unseen University while secretly teaching herself magic.
* Constable Cuddy, the first ever Dwarf watchman, is now just some random constable whose entire role is to tell young Sybil that she did not in fact see her parents brutally assassinated, that is to say, *completely legally inhumed*, because the Assassin's Guild does not leave witnesses. Why perfectly legal assassins would need made-up supervillain names and to leave no witnesses is not explained.
* Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler is now just "Throat", a wheel-chair bound master criminal.
None of these changes improve on the originals. The show has simply appropriated the names of Discworld characters and dropped them on their own creations, and displays a great poverty of imagination. With the exception of Carrot, and perhaps Vimes, none of the major characters come close to their physical descriptions in the books. Furthermore, "The Watch" plays fast and loose with the sex and colour of Discworld characters. Pratchett's Watch novels are full of strong, powerful women who are first and foremost women, not just proxy men in skirts. Angua, of course. And Sybil proves that one does not need to be an axe-wielding vigilante to be a strong woman. Sally von Humpeding the vampire and Rosie (later Mrs) Palm are both interesting female characters and I would have loved to have seen their stories told. (The actor playing Angua would have been as physically a good a match for Sally as she is a terrible match for Angua.) Instead, "The Watch" takes the easy way out by just giving a few characters an instant sex change. Don't bother telling stories about *women being women*, just have woman actors step into male character's shoes without changing anything else about them. It is patronising and lazy. As imagined by Terry Pratchett, Ankh-Morpork was based heavily on Anglo-European fantasy fiction, which mostly means white people. But despite that, Pratchett made the Disc a true multicultural world with many cultures and races, including analogues of our middle east, Africa and far east Asia, and yet the Discworld was remarkably free of skin-colour racism. As Pratchett put it:
“Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because – what with trolls and dwarfs and so on – speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green.” (Witches Abroad)
So I feel that turning Ankh-Morpork of the TV series into a multiracial city works well, and I like to think that it would probably have met with Sir Terry's approval. Casting black actors to play (for example) Sybil Ramkin and Carcer Dunn does no disrespect to their characters. It's just **everything else** about the characters that is a mutilation.
My conclusion after watching four episodes is that "The Watch" fails as an adaptation of the Discworld source and as a comedy. As a fantasy police procedural, it scrapes in as somewhat watchable but no better than a mediocre mini-series. But perhaps the worst failure of the show is what might have been. Both "Guards, Guards" and "Men At Arms" have excellent stage adaptations which could have been further adapted to the screen. Either would have been great introductions to the City Watch stories, and Men At Arms could have been adapted to include Cheery's struggle to be accepted as openly a woman in a Dwarf society that tries to erase all sex differences between men and women. But this would have required respect for the original character, and something a little more sophisticated than a lazy and insincere "diversity check-box" approach to women. And there is no sign of either of those in "The Watch".
When I was five or six, I put on a play for my mother. Every toy I owned had to have a scene, and my mum eventually bailed about the time I started setting up the enormous battle scene with my toy soldiers. This reminds me of "The Watch", where the show runner and writer Simon Allen seems to have attempted to work in a reference to every Discworld character and concept even vaguely connected to the City Watch books, and some that aren't, and even some concepts that never made it into Discworld canon due to the untimely death of Pratchett, such as "Twilight Canyons". But Allen's reach has greatly exceeded his grasp and the end result is an incompetent mashup that doesn't work as tribute to the Discworld novels and could only be put in by somebody who has little understanding of them. There is a scene in the first episode where Gaspode the talking dog marks his territory by urinating on Vimes' leg. I cannot help but feel that this is exactly what Simon Allen and BBC America did to Pratchett's work: "The Watch" is all about them marking his material as theirs.
3.2 OTHER REVIEWS
By culture commentator Helen Lewis aka The Bluestocking:
"If you love the Discworld books, may I offer you some free advice? Stay well away from The Watch, a new series “inspired by the characters created by Sir Terry Pratchett.” It may well be enjoyable to viewers with no preconceptions, but if you know what “knurd” means, or who the true king of Ankh-Morpork is – in other words, if you're a great big Discworld geek like me – don't watch it. It's not for you. This might be a rare adaptation that's more comprehensible if you aren't familiar with the source material... I tried to approach The Watch with an open mind. Transposing novels to television involves big, structural changes, the ruthless removal of minor characters and subplots, and the inevitable loss of an authorial voice. Don't turn into Comic-Book Guy, I told myself. “Fantitlement” is a terrible thing. That lasted about eight minutes into the first episode. As Rhianna Pratchett put it, these are not her father's characters. Colon and Nobbs are gone entirely; Angua is a hardbitten veteran with no obvious personality; and rather than being a female dwarf with a beard and lipstick, Cherry is male, non-binary and of average height. Vimes, that hater of fuss and fanciness, is wearing eyeliner... what the hell has happened to Lady Sybil? In the books, she is a well-upholstered middle-aged aristocrat, briskly kind in a very English labradors-and-galoshes way. Think opera singer in tweeds, with “a bosom that rose and fell like an empire”. To millions of Pratchett's female readers, Lady Sybil proved that being polite and big-boned can also be a superpower. The Watch has turned her into a kickass armed vigilante in a belted trench coat – yes, that hoariest of tropes, a “strong female character”. Worse, she's thin. Changes like these are what takes this past being an adaptation and onto something else entirely...
https://helenlewis.substack.com/p/the-bluestocking-terry-pratchett
By Cynthia Vinney, who has no investment in the source material, on pop-culture site CBR:
"I suspect for Discworld fans this will all come across like big-budget City Watch fan fiction. As someone unfamiliar with the books, I can't claim any personal attachment to any specific part of that story, but even the little research I did made it clear that the show doesn't bear an especially strong resemblance to its supposed source material. The bigger disappointment, however, is despite all those changes, the show hasn't managed to do anything compelling with them. The plot mechanics of the story are on full display, which makes the Watch's pursuit of MacGuffin after MacGuffin feel like forced labor instead of organically motivated action. Furthermore, the reasons for Carcer's activities are turned into a mystery that never comes across as worth solving. It's difficult to care about the characters too. The actors do what they can with the material they're given, each committing to their characters' specific traits and backgrounds. I especially enjoyed Eaton-Kent's Cheery, whose smart sensitivity is a nice counterpoint to her cynical or naive colleagues. Still, the show is so caught up in maintaining its punk-rock aesthetic and devil-may-care attitude, it never makes anything onscreen feel worth investing in..."
https://www.cbr.com/watch-discworld-tv-review/
On fansite The Mary Sue, Chelsea Steiner gives a round-up of some early reviews: https://bit.ly/2LWws8J
A review by Kiko Martinez for Variety: https://bit.ly/3oiym0g
By "JG" on Tornado Post. [Editor's note: coherent English is not this reviewer's strong suit, but I'm including this review because it's interesting to see what a non-Discworld reader makes of the show.]: https://bit.ly/2LY41qW
By Craig Mathieson for the Sydney Morning Herald: https://bit.ly/3cakdzZ
A long, detailed review by William Hughes, who tries to be as fair as possible, for the AV Club: https://bit.ly/2YfZXoo
An apparent rave review on fansite Flickering Myth by something called Martin Carr, an entity that doesn't seem to occupy the same planet as most other reviewers and also fails to understand that respecting source material is not by any means the sole purview of sad superfans: https://bit.ly/3a3x0BA
...while on the less "what the -ing" Den of Geek, Juliette Harrisson asks some very pertinent questions about the treatment of a particular character. No extracts here because there's major spoilage; in fact, I can't even give the URL openly for that reason. But if you want to read it, and accept that there's a spoiler and a brain-melting one at that, go to https://bit.ly/3nbnMYB
...and then we have an oddly loving review in the Los Angeles Times by Robert Lloyd, who despite claiming to be familiar with and fond of the source material, seems to think that savaging *everyone's* source material is a good thing [Editor's note: no it -ing isn't, Robert]: https://lat.ms/3iJnpDW
By Emily O'Donnell on Comic Years, trying her best to be positive: https://bit.ly/39ZCE7I
By Adi Tantimedh on Bleeding Cool News: https://bit.ly/3c83FbP
By Ana Dascalescu on TechTheLead: https://bit.ly/3iOJ9OU
A mostly positive review by Alana Joli Abbott on Den of Geek: https://bit.ly/2YbT8Ep
...but further viewing made her rethink: https://bit.ly/3qSmXpL
And finally, telly writer Martin Jameson reflects on BBC America's take on Terry Pratchett's Ankh-Morpork City Watch through the prism of his own experience of adapting Discworld for the small screen. He ends with "And thank you to the producers of The Watch for finally enabling Discworld to find its own beating heart on our telly boxes." All I can say is that Mr J must have been standing behind the door when the "Just Say No" message was being passed around: https://bit.ly/3caX7Jn
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04) ODDS AND SODS
4.1 THIS OLD HOUSE...
...is a beautiful place that used to be Sir Pterry's home for many years and is now up for sale. For what it's worth, your Editor once lived in a house very much like Gaze Cottage (although barely one-third of the size) and yes, it did inspire a lot of creativity! From Somerset Live, including extensive iconographs and a video tour of the interior:
"Sir Terry lived in the four bed Somerset cottage between 1970 and 1994. In this time the first novel from his popular series Discworld, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983. Sir Terry sold the house to the current owners, who have said they still regularly received letters from ardent fans addressed to The Hogfather, another of his novels, which was later made into a film..."
https://bit.ly/3c8nWOx
From the BBC:
"Ruth Treasure-Smith, from Robin King Estate Agent, said: 'He wrote most of his most famous novels in that house in the 80s. The house must have been inspiring..."
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-55739271
4.2 UPDATES: THE TERRY PRATCHETT BOOK CLUB
On the website of publishers Tor, Emmet Asher-Perrin continues a Discworld discussion page. This month's instalment is a wrap-up of Wyrd Sisters:
"I find myself fascinated by the difference with which the duke and duchess meet their ends, even more for how it relates to the ending of Macbeth; pointedly, Duke Felmet gets a rather comical ending, and that could be put down to the fact that we're dealing with an overall comical book, but it reads more like a direct commentary on how Pratchett views Lord and Lady Macbeth – specifically that the lord is a nothing muffin of an antagonist, and the lady should have been permitted the full breadth of her villainy. Because let's be honest, the idea that Lady Mac loses her mind over guilt at her misdeeds is one of Shakespeare's weakest writing choices. I'm sorry, but it's true – it's one of those ideas that's fun to play as an actor, but doesn't bear out in the characterization we've seen. So instead, Pratchett has the duke lose touch with reality over his guilt (which he's built upon the entire book), and goes a different route for the duchess. People who walk around advocating for callous murder are unlikely to make a turnaround so severe, so we get a far more chilling end at the hands (and hooves and antlers and hoppy feet) of the land..."
https://bit.ly/3a55UtJ
...that moves on to the first part of Pyramids:
"The fact that there are several parallels between Djelibeybi and the fictional Gormenghast kingdom created by Mervyn Peake forces us to sit with that mismatch. Fans love to point out the similarities here – dad who died because he thought he was a bird, mom obsessed with cats, the adherence to ancient ritual over looking forward – but it really only serves to point a finger at how insular the fantasy genre has been for such a long time. When this book was written in the late 80s, there was no super popular fantasy kingdom based on Egypt (or written by an Egyptian author, for that matter) for an English-speaking author like Pratchett to find and draw from. That said, the assassin's test is truly fun to read, and was apparently unusual for Pterry in its writing; he was not one of those authors who admitted to being carried away by his characters or surprised by their actions, but he did state this test as the one place where the narrative got away from him..."
https://bit.ly/2KSnh8G
...and the next:
"There are a number of jokes like this that aren't really working for me... The jokes are coming from a specific viewpoint, centered entirely on the cultural biases of the writer, and in this case, they're just not playing out as fun as the rest of his material. Some of the jokes still work out, but some of them emphatically do not. Part of the trouble is that it seems as though Pratchett is working from the assumption that most people aren't going to know enough about Egypt and its culture for the jokes to land, and I suppose that's fair to a point. (There's a footnote where he explains how an outfit doesn't work by suggesting what a foreign ambassador to the Court of St. James might wear that would be similarly out of step, and it's admittedly hilarious.) But it doesn't work as an excuse across the board, particularly not when you take into account how obsessive Britain has been about ancient Egypt through its history..."
https://bit.ly/3tc03vi
4.3 A MAGIC LITTLE PLUG...
...for Marc Burrows' biography The Magic of Terry Pratchett! By Colin Steele in the Canberra Times:
"When Boris Johnson interviewed Terry Pratchett in 1996 for the British Daily Telegraph, he wrote that he was 'baffled by the scale of his (Pratchett's ) success'. Pratchett's Discworld series was often ignored by the 'literati', but Pratchett simply responded, 'Well, I get paid shitloads of cash, which is good'. A knighthood, and four honorary doctorates also helped Pratchett's self-esteem. Mark Burrows' The Magic of Terry Pratchett (White Owl, $45), which is marketed as 'the first full biography' of Sir Terry, documents in detail Pratchett's path to success. Burrows, however, never met Pratchett, so this is an account based on published accounts and interviews and a detailed analysis of his books..."
https://bit.ly/3qTk204
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05) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS
* GUARDS! GUARDS! IN VICTORIA, FOURECKS
Discworld returns to Victoria! The Red Cliffs Players will present their production of Guards! Guards! next month.
When: 19th–27th February 2021
Venue: Cardross Hall, 399 Dairtnunk Ave, Cardross, Victoria 3496
Time: 7,30pm all sessions except Sunday 21st matinee at 2pm
Tickets: $20 all sessions, available online via https://bit.ly/39jEAZD
* MURDER IN ANKH-MORPORK IN ABINGDON... EVENTUALLY... (2021)
"We wanted to stage a play involving the Ankh-Morpork Night Watch. But we'd already staged all of Stephen Briggs' dramatisations featuring this noble group of guardians of justice. Stephen got special permission to put together an affectionate mash-up incorporating bits of Guards! Guards! and Feet of Clay, woven respectfully into the core plot of Men at Arms. All Terry. The city is protected by the multiverse's most diverse police force. But a new threat is emerging – the Discworld's first and only firearm. The Gonne. And we planned to stage it in November 2020. HOWEVER – the coronavirus then landed on us and scuppered our plans. A socially distanced (and thus much reduced) audience wouldn't enable us to stage the show and cover our costs – so we have had to park this until things get back closer to 'normal'. We have our fingers crossed for November 2021. News here as it happens!"
https://www.studiotheatreclub.com/murder-in-ankh-morpork
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06) DISCWORLD MEETING GROUPS NEWS
Remember, one day, possibly in the not too distant future, Discworld fans will be able to meet in the real Roundworld again. So keep this information handy! Also note there are a few updates below.
The Broken Drummers, "London's Premier Unofficially Official Discworld Group"
BrokenDrummers@gmail.com or nicholls.helen@yahoo.co.uk or join their Facebook group at https://bit.ly/2YrPGW7
NOTE: the Drummers are still meeting occasionally via Zoom. Check out the above link for updates!
*
Drumknott's Irregulars
Facebook https://bit.ly/31FlSrq or Google Groups https:groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/drumknotts-irregulars or join us at our next event."
*
The Victorian Discworld Klatch
https://www.facebook.com/groups/VictorianDiscworldKlatch
*
"The Gathering of the Loonies (Wincanton chapter)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/373578522834654/
*
The Pratchett Partisans
https://www.facebook.com/groups/pratchettpartisans/ or contact Ula directly at uwilmott@yahoo.com.au
*
The City of Small Gods
www.cityofsmallgods.org.au
"What are we doing while we're stuck at home due to COVID-19? Given that our normal social gatherings can't happen while everyone's under lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are instead trying to host regular activities and discussions online. Most of these will be done via our Discord Server – https://discord.gg/3RVzsyJ – which has several text chat channels and a few voice chat channels as well. We will still use our Facebook group – https://facebook.com/groups/cityofsmallgods – to coordinate scheduled events. When things get back to normal... (semi-) regular social meetings are generally held on the last Thursday of the month at a pub or restaurant in Adelaide. We have dinner at 6.30pm followed by games until 9pm.
"We'll try to keep this page up to date (no promises!) but always check emails on the mailing list or our Facebook Group for further details of these events."
*
The Broken Vectis Drummers
broken_vectis_drummers@yahoo.co.uk
*
The Wincanton Omnian Temperance Society (WOTS) meets at Wincanton's famous Bear Inn when social gatherings are possible.
*
The Northern Institute of the Ankh-Morpork and District Society of Flatalists normally meet at The Narrowboat Pub in Victoria Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire, Details of future meetings are posted on the Events section of the Discworld Stamps forum: http://www.discworldstamps.co.uk/forum/
*
Sydney Drummers (formerly Drummers Downunder)
Contact Sue (aka Granny Weatherwax): kenworthys@yahoo.co.uk
*
The Treacle Mining Corporation, formerly known as Perth Drummers https://bit.ly/2EKSCqu – or message Alexandra Ware directly at <alexandra.ware@gmail.com>
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07) AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE
Nothing to see here this month, since this month's issue centres mainly on "The Watch" and to my surprise there were almost no blog reviews of it! – Ed.
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08) IMAGES OF THE MONTH
A librarian helping a librarian-helper in Borneo:
https://i.redd.it/e405hm7pcd861.png
Some of the cast of Red Cliffs Players' forthcoming production of Guards! Guards!:
https://bit.ly/36cTCOJ
Sir Pterry's former home, Gaze Cottage:
https://bit.ly/39iBHZ9
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09) CLOSE
Just an amusing note to end. Journalist Tom Chivers interviewed Sir Pterry in 2013: “I noted to him that in his later stories he had rehabilitated every 'evil' species – orcs, trolls, vampires, werewolves; made them people. Except, at that stage, elves. And I remember he wagged his finger at me and said: 'You bugger.' I never mentioned it in the piece, but then when The Shepherd's Crown came out – posthumously, his last book – he had, indeed, done the same for the elves." To read the original piece, go to https://bit.ly/39xEI7X
Right then, that's it for now. Mind how you go, and we hope to see you next month!
– Annie Mac
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The End. If you have any questions or requests, write: wossname-owner (at) pearwood (dot) info
Copyright (c) 2021 by Wossname for the Klatchian Foreign Legion
