WARNING: Many spoilers ahead
After recently re-reading A Hatuful of Sky, it occurred to me that in many of Pterry's later books he began to incorporate far more "darker" and disturbing narratives of the death of innocent characters. In most of the earlier books, when a character dies, he (it's almost always a he) exists with a humorous scene with Death. Generally, the character deserves to die, with the occasional exception of likeable characters like Cuddy in Men at Arms.
Point is in the earlier books few of the actual deaths of characters have strongly emotional resonances. They're not all the "upsetting." Even in Jingo, where skirmishes between Ankh Morporkians and Klatchians result in the deaths of many AM soldiers, there's little emotional impact of these deaths. Indeed, we really don't see how the Klatchian War affected a DW character until The Truth, when we learn how the death of William De Worde's brother in the Klatchian war helped to shape his outlook.
But, I will argue Pterry begins to make death far more real in his later books. Even though Pterry doesn't shy away from the harrowing deaths of the coppers-turned-rebels in Night Watch, we already know their fates before the story began. And, technically, none of them are "innocent victims." Instead, I would peg the genuine beginning of this kind of "emotional death" to Thud! . In particular, the scene where an enraged Vimes berates the city dwarfs for not stopping the grags and one of them tells Vimes that his son was killed by the grags, is one of the most powerful in the book, and one of the best scenes of any DW book. When this is followed shortly afterward by the self-inflicted death of Helmclever in the prison cell, it's really a one-two narrative punch we haven't really seen that much of in past books.
From that point on, we begin to see at least one scene of "DEATH-less innocent deaths" in most of the books that follow. And most of these victims are female. In A Hatful of Sky, Tiffany (via the influence of the Hiver) kills one of the Miss Levels. In Snuff! the grotesque butchering of the innocent goblin girl (and, by the extension, the extermination via exportation of hundreds of other goblins) is the key motivator of Vimes' actions. In Raising Steam the brutal murder of the mixed human/dwarf couple by dwarven reactionaries becomes a rallying call for those opposing the deposing of the low king. In I Shall Wear Midnight[/i,] a pregnant teen girl suffers a miscarriage after nearly being beaten to death by her father and at least one witch--real or suspected--is killed by villagers. in The Shepherd's Crown, the Queen of the Elves is mercilessly murdered by a fellow elf.
What almost all of these death have in common is that (except for the deaths of Helmclever and the Elf Queen) they take place "off screen." They're anonymous, impersonal deaths, None of them get the "traveling along the desert" scene with DEATH. They're just dead. And nearly all are killed out of cruelty grounded in hatred, xenophobia and bigotry, whether inherent in the DNA of the killers (Snuff, Raising Steam), or caused by occult forces that liberate the destructive forces suppressed by characters (Hatful, ISWM).
The increasingly dark deaths that permeate many of the latter books point to how Pterry's narrative priorities changed late in life. His last books were far more serious explorations and condemnations of bigotry, xenophobia, "speciesm" and fear and the DEATH-less deaths resulting from the expression of these behaviors are far more emotional than the deaths of characters that came before them.
After recently re-reading A Hatuful of Sky, it occurred to me that in many of Pterry's later books he began to incorporate far more "darker" and disturbing narratives of the death of innocent characters. In most of the earlier books, when a character dies, he (it's almost always a he) exists with a humorous scene with Death. Generally, the character deserves to die, with the occasional exception of likeable characters like Cuddy in Men at Arms.
Point is in the earlier books few of the actual deaths of characters have strongly emotional resonances. They're not all the "upsetting." Even in Jingo, where skirmishes between Ankh Morporkians and Klatchians result in the deaths of many AM soldiers, there's little emotional impact of these deaths. Indeed, we really don't see how the Klatchian War affected a DW character until The Truth, when we learn how the death of William De Worde's brother in the Klatchian war helped to shape his outlook.
But, I will argue Pterry begins to make death far more real in his later books. Even though Pterry doesn't shy away from the harrowing deaths of the coppers-turned-rebels in Night Watch, we already know their fates before the story began. And, technically, none of them are "innocent victims." Instead, I would peg the genuine beginning of this kind of "emotional death" to Thud! . In particular, the scene where an enraged Vimes berates the city dwarfs for not stopping the grags and one of them tells Vimes that his son was killed by the grags, is one of the most powerful in the book, and one of the best scenes of any DW book. When this is followed shortly afterward by the self-inflicted death of Helmclever in the prison cell, it's really a one-two narrative punch we haven't really seen that much of in past books.
From that point on, we begin to see at least one scene of "DEATH-less innocent deaths" in most of the books that follow. And most of these victims are female. In A Hatful of Sky, Tiffany (via the influence of the Hiver) kills one of the Miss Levels. In Snuff! the grotesque butchering of the innocent goblin girl (and, by the extension, the extermination via exportation of hundreds of other goblins) is the key motivator of Vimes' actions. In Raising Steam the brutal murder of the mixed human/dwarf couple by dwarven reactionaries becomes a rallying call for those opposing the deposing of the low king. In I Shall Wear Midnight[/i,] a pregnant teen girl suffers a miscarriage after nearly being beaten to death by her father and at least one witch--real or suspected--is killed by villagers. in The Shepherd's Crown, the Queen of the Elves is mercilessly murdered by a fellow elf.
What almost all of these death have in common is that (except for the deaths of Helmclever and the Elf Queen) they take place "off screen." They're anonymous, impersonal deaths, None of them get the "traveling along the desert" scene with DEATH. They're just dead. And nearly all are killed out of cruelty grounded in hatred, xenophobia and bigotry, whether inherent in the DNA of the killers (Snuff, Raising Steam), or caused by occult forces that liberate the destructive forces suppressed by characters (Hatful, ISWM).
The increasingly dark deaths that permeate many of the latter books point to how Pterry's narrative priorities changed late in life. His last books were far more serious explorations and condemnations of bigotry, xenophobia, "speciesm" and fear and the DEATH-less deaths resulting from the expression of these behaviors are far more emotional than the deaths of characters that came before them.
