SPOILERS Making Money Discussion *Spoilers*

[raisindot]

It occurred to me that gold, being fairly rare, it probably gets used and reused more than most metals. So your gold wedding ring may once have been Spanish doubloons or Aztec treasure. The same goes for gold fillings.

When Igor and Hubert decide to put the gold back, it must have (presumably) been used for other things - at least some of it. So, how many people found their rings missing and their teeth empty of fillings?

Uh oh, Tony...now you're getting into a conservation of mass argument.

It would be interesting to know exactly how much gold is really reused. Keep in mind that after awhile gold will get contaminated with impurities (such as soot or dirt when used in construction, or even sweat or salt on jewelry). So one wonder whether one can truly "boil away" these impurities when used gold is melted down.

Gold itself isn't particularly rare in terms of finding supply. It's simply a matter of the economics of mining and cartels controlling its access, like diamonds. The gold in Fort Knox would be enough to supply all the world's jewelers for the next fifty years. They hold on to it because of some silly nostalgia for the gold standard.

 

[raisindot]

...Professor Flead could have been omitted entirely since Moist appears to solve the problem of controlling the golems without his assistance

Moist needed Flead to provide him with the ancient Umnian phrases required to control the golems.

 

[Anonymous]

...Professor Flead could have been omitted entirely since Moist appears to solve the problem of controlling the golems without his assistance

Moist needed Flead to provide him with the ancient Umnian phrases required to control the golems.

Nothing that couldn't have been solved with the L-Space, Hex, or without a new character in general

 

[deldaisy]

It would be interesting to know exactly how much gold is really reused. Keep in mind that after awhile gold will get contaminated with impurities (such as soot or dirt when used in construction, or even sweat or salt on jewelry). So one wonder whether one can truly "boil away" these impurities when used gold is melted down

Actually gold is very easy to seperate from impurities. They use (or used to use) cyanide. I was married to a gold miner (who later after a horrific mining accident became a recording engineer). I now live two blocks from an infamous site. Suburbia. 20 years ago when black stuff kept oozing out of the ground causing rashes and sores, my then hubby muttered while watching the news... thats an old gold mining site... thats cyanide. Took them two years to figure it out and they took away ten blocks down to 20 feet to get rid of it.

You mix this stuff with the mud that gold is in and magically the gold seperates and is easy to collect....the process his family used when he was a child.... by a strange so-incidence he and his father both died of cancer at a young age. Hmmmmm.

 

[Penfold]

It would be interesting to know exactly how much gold is really reused. Keep in mind that after awhile gold will get contaminated with impurities (such as soot or dirt when used in construction, or even sweat or salt on jewelry). So one wonder whether one can truly "boil away" these impurities when used gold is melted down.

Gold itself isn't particularly rare in terms of finding supply. It's simply a matter of the economics of mining and cartels controlling its access, like diamonds. The gold in Fort Knox would be enough to supply all the world's jewelers for the next fifty years. They hold on to it because of some silly nostalgia for the gold standard.

According to the program QI (at about 1 minute, 20 secs into the clip), the amount of gold that has actually been mined wouldn't fill two olympic sized swimming pools. I don't know that this actually contributes anything to the discussion, but I did find the whole clip both quite interesting and quite amusing.

 

[Archaeologist]

According to the program QI (at about 1 minute, 20 secs into the clip), the amount of gold that has actually been mined wouldn't fill two olympic sized swimming pools. I don't know that this actually contributes anything to the discussion, but I did find the whole clip both quite interesting and quite amusing.

I remember that. Scared the Hell outta me. But I have nothing to contribute to the discussion on gold, so I'm just going to jump right into it, if you don't mind...


IreallylovedMakingMoneyitwasmyfirstDiscworldnovelandgotmeintotheseriesI'mabouttoreaditagain!

*ducks*

Perhaps, if I had read GP first, I wouldn't have liked it - but I have read GP now (three times) and I still like MM. I can see that MM is the weaker story, however - hopefully, if Pratchett is writing Raising Taxes, he deviates from the pattern GP and MM follow for something different. I think MM's main attraction is the humour, however - if it had been written 'seriously', then it would have been quite terrible, IMO. But since some of you didn't think it was funny anyway, then...er. It must have been a terrible read for you, then! In any case, I remember it being on the bestseller list in this country, so it did Make Money.

Terrible pun. Terrible.

I did enjoy Cosmo Lavish. I like him more than Gilt, in fact, not so much as a 'villain' but as an obstacle in the narrative. His obsession with Vetinari, or being him, I found disturbing. I think that's the crux of his role - if he were just greedy, he'd be pretty boring, but it's that element of something being really out-of-kilter somewhere in his psychology which makes him an interesting 'obstacle'.

 

[The Mad Collector]

Welcome to the forum Archaeologist

OK so you like Making Money, hate Pyramids and live in Australia. I can see you and Pooh getting on like a house on fire (literally)

 

[meerkat]

I quite like MM. Arch, it is a good read and the bit with Mr Fusspot and the 'toy' isw just a hoot! I like the speed it travels too. The story not Mr Fusspot (although that bit in the book at the inquiry is very funny). Maybe not as good as GP but still a good book.

 

[ShadowNinjaCat]

Welcome, Archaeologist.

 

[Archaeologist]

(Thank you! )

 

[Tonyblack]

Something I meant to bring up in this discussion that I was reminded of today was the whole thing about Vetinari's ring. It seems very odd to me that Vetinari would be interested in such a ring that has to be worn under a glove.

One thing that has always struck me about Vetinari is the fact that he is so logical and not at all interested in anything elaborate. The idea of such a ring just seems out of character to me.

 

[Penfold]

Pure hypothesis; As an assassin, would he maybe have worn a poison ('pillbox') ring from his school days that he became attached too but might be deemed inappropriate to be openly worn as Patrician?

 

[Anonymous]

To me that seems like another one on the list of -things in the story that stop making sense once you think about it- (Like Glenda's teddybear or the blackpowder-ignited chandelier in UA)
It feels a bit as if the ring is just there for the scene with cosmo's finger, while serving no other purpose. But instead of throwing the scene out entirely and coming up with something else an excuse for the ring was thought of.
It's truly weird to read such a thing in a Discworld book, not to mention in two in a row, as that is one of the things I have learned (from earlier Discworld books as well) to avoid when writing.

 

[ChristianBecker]

Isn't it Vetinari's sealing ring?

Edit: Does it somewhere in the book actually say that the real Vetinari indeed wears that ring.
It could also be a rumour that he has such a device and people like Cosmo would be likely to fall for it.

 

[Willem]

Edit: Does it somewhere in the book actually say that the real Vetinari indeed wears that ring.
It could also be a rumour that he has such a device and people like Cosmo would be likely to fall for it.

That's kind of how I remember it too.

 

[Anonymous]

Edit: Does it somewhere in the book actually say that the real Vetinari indeed wears that ring.
It could also be a rumour that he has such a device and people like Cosmo would be likely to fall for it.

That's kind of how I remember it too.

The ring does exist IIRC. and it is his sealing ring... but it still feels as if the ring as it is is there for that one scene soley, not for anything else.

 

[ChristianBecker]

Well, yeah, in the end it is only this one scene.
But the pain Cosmo endures and the how he deals with it by telling himself that the colour, pain, fever etc. are all good signs that mark the progress of his metamorphosis to the REAL Vetinari are a brilliant way to show how mad Cosmo actually is. Wearing your underwear on your head and spittle in the corner of the mouse are way overused topoi.

 

[Mikkym]

I felt the same as many of the other crytics of Terrys "Making Money", in that, it did not fullfil me in any way whatsoever. But saying that, I have only read the first few chapters before getting bored. I returned to the book at a later date, only to get to the same spot over and over again. I,ve given up now, but hope to try "Snuff" when it comes out.
As I have read ALL Terry Discworld novels, some of them twice,and have enjoyed them immensely, I feel justified in making this small crytisism.[/b]

 

[author3]

Welcome to the forums Mikkym

 

[raisindot]

I felt the same as many of the other crytics of Terrys "Making Money", in that, it did not fullfil me in any way whatsoever. But saying that, I have only read the first few chapters before getting bored.[/b]

There are definitely a lot of dull parts to MM, but you should try to finish it if you can because the last third is very good and the climactic scene is one of the best in all of the DW books.