Notes on Terry Pratchett’s ‘Equal Rites’

[x_los]

- Actually a newborn baby wouldn’t dream yet, as newborns can’t. Occasionally Pratchett does say something that makes me think, ‘somehow despite being a dad you missed out on some of the labour and information associated with early childcare.’ Possibly this is a generational gender issue.
- Even though it’s Early Discworld, I had a good time with ‘Equal Rites’. This runs quite contrary to my lacklustre memories of the early Wizards books.
- This is written differently than a lot of the later titles. You lose a lot of Discworldiness and the whole referential resource of the ensemble cast and prior events, but gain a kind of—precision? There are different affordances. Weatherwax isn’t a badass yet here, but then the witches as a whole aren’t yet quite what they will be. Fundamentally, the world doesn’t yet work like it does in mid career books. Even this early, Pratchett does have trouble holding characterisation elements consistently in his brain for multiple scenes in the same book. But despite that frustrating editorial sloppiness, this prose is fairly tight and careful. The PoV and pacing are close, slow and absorbing. The way he’s working here feels less Pratchett, but very competent?
- We do the wizards duel from T.H. White (which he perhaps picks up from Tam Lin). This is a misstep. Weatherwax’s power should be fundamentally different: she should be able to compete on this level, but not by simply throwing aside her own way of doing things and disciplinary tendencies and performing identically to a wizard.
- Pratchett: hey, have a joke about Peake, because I don’t yet care about that not existing in this world. We haven’t put up that fourth wall yet.
- Why is there a fake Ridcully? He’s very Into Weatherwax, which I thought was Ridcully’s brand, but evidently she suits the popular taste. Granny as romantic lead is wild, but okay.
- I don’t know that this book actually had much to say about gender, for all it seems organised around that theme.