Mark Reads Discworld
- Thread starter DaveC
- Start date
The Mad Collector said:
DaveC said:
when you say hahahahahahaha when laughing at something Mark says, in rot13 it comes out as nunununununun....!
Its been a running joke for a few years.
Its been a running joke for a few years.
=Tamar
Can you believe the nonsense thread about some hothouse flower getting all worked up over the princess getting a prick line? Good grief... I thought it was a wind up at first but apparantly not. I was tempted to actually join the site just so i could post telling him/her/it to "grow a pair", but no, they'd just take it the wrong way...
I have to say that I don't tend to follow the chat too much now. Having to decode stuff is a pain and some of the folks there are a bit weird. A lot of them are not Pratchett fans and don't "get" Terry's sense of humour. Some of them are real touchy about deciding writers are sexist, racist or homophobic. The princess prick joke is perfectly innocent or not, depending on how one takes it. But that's Terry for you.
A lot of them are not Pratchett fans and don't "get" Terry's sense of humour. Some of them are real touchy about deciding writers are sexist, racist or homophobic. The princess prick joke is perfectly innocent or not, depending on how one takes it. But that's Terry for you. I have carefully avoided that thread. I figure, it's Mark's site, his rules, and I learned several months ago not to get involved in those trainwreck threads. As the saying goes, "Not my circus, not my monkeys."
The rest of the chat is fairly reasonable, with an occasional gem, like the description of Sir Terry's writing as like a Bach motet/concerto, with multiple lines working together. But someone said GG was an example of the "unreliable narrator".
I don't understand that. It's a detective story, so there are things we aren't told, but the narrative voice doesn't lie to us.
The rest of the chat is fairly reasonable, with an occasional gem, like the description of Sir Terry's writing as like a Bach motet/concerto, with multiple lines working together. But someone said GG was an example of the "unreliable narrator".
I don't understand that. It's a detective story, so there are things we aren't told, but the narrative voice doesn't lie to us.
It took a while to get used to the way the site works and it has changed my thinking a lot. Sometimes I've put my foot in it and also learned when to not say anything. I enjoyed the varied people there, though, even if it can seem very strict and PC at times in terms of language use.
I made one comment in the mega thread this week that was just my interpretation in reply to someone else and didn't manage to say anything derogatory but instead offered my own angle which others might not have thought of.
I made one comment in the mega thread this week that was just my interpretation in reply to someone else and didn't manage to say anything derogatory but instead offered my own angle which others might not have thought of.
I wrote:
Well, I've now found out that some people use 'unreliable narrator' to describe a first-person point of view where the person doesn't know everything, from naivete or ignorance of the world they're in, and the reader knows more than they do.
Sheesh. I think that's a distortion of the obvious meaning, a narrator who deliberately lies to you. How many books don't involve someone who doesn't know just about everything about the setting already? Even in books set in roundworld in the culture of the reader (e.g., for me, a book set in the Northeastern USA), there will be things the main character needs to learn or it'll be an awfully boring book. Imagine an entire novel of "Of course I already knew" and "As I had expected", with no surprises at all, just a bored character walking through a series of expected events.
And now what do we call novels where the narrator lies to us? Without giving spoilery examples, I can say that there are novels which depend for their effect on the revelation at the end that the narrator is insane, or the murderer, or is someone or something we couldn't have easily guessed from previously given information. Those are unreliable narrators.
In short (too late!), I disagree with the idea that GG in particular is an example of a truly unreliable narrator.
It's a detective story.Of course he doesn't know everything right away!
Sheesh. I think that's a distortion of the obvious meaning, a narrator who deliberately lies to you. How many books don't involve someone who doesn't know just about everything about the setting already? Even in books set in roundworld in the culture of the reader (e.g., for me, a book set in the Northeastern USA), there will be things the main character needs to learn or it'll be an awfully boring book. Imagine an entire novel of "Of course I already knew" and "As I had expected", with no surprises at all, just a bored character walking through a series of expected events.
And now what do we call novels where the narrator lies to us? Without giving spoilery examples, I can say that there are novels which depend for their effect on the revelation at the end that the narrator is insane, or the murderer, or is someone or something we couldn't have easily guessed from previously given information. Those are unreliable narrators.
In short (too late!), I disagree with the idea that GG in particular is an example of a truly unreliable narrator.
It's a detective story.Of course he doesn't know everything right away!
Really enjoyed that rendition of Guards! Guards!. He very almost makes me feel like I'm reading the books for the first time again as I watch his reactions to the plot twists, jokes, and social commentary. 
I think 'Eric' is the next one up which shouldn't take him too long to get through and then it's 'Moving Pictures'! :dance: (I wonder if someone should tell him to buff up on his movie trivia beforehand. )
I think 'Eric' is the next one up which shouldn't take him too long to get through and then it's 'Moving Pictures'! :dance: (I wonder if someone should tell him to buff up on his movie trivia beforehand.
)
Well he's finished G!G! - and, quelle surprise he says it's his favorite DW book so far (getting used to hearing that)He musta worked out the villains identity in the end... I think Eric is fun but a bit lightweight compared to G!G!... still, he seems to like Rincewind so he'll probably be pleased with his return
Tonyblack said:
I am laughing my head off. Mark was reading The Light Fantastic and walked into a Terry Pun that literally brought tears to his eyes. (been there, done that, bought the singlet).
WARNING - Bad language in this video.
I love Mark's reaction to the Terry Puns.
By the way, I thought that "Trymon" was pronounced roughly as "Truman" or "Trumin"?
Even by the next one (i.e. this), Mark admits that he's still not over horse d'oeuvres.
That's the one I'm on now. I never really got into audiobooks, but adore listening to Mark in the background simply because of his reactions. It's so much more fun knowing what's going to come next and anticipating how he's going to react! It's like handing the book to a friend and waiting to see how they act when they get to the best bits.
It's also a great feeling of camaraderie listening to someone actively read the books rather than reciting it for a recording. I only have a couple of friends in the real world who have read Discworld, (Mr. Wizzard hasn't been one for reading since Lemony Snicket hurt him). And I often find myself grinning at the screen knowing what Marks about to walk into.
I wasn't sure myself, but I'm pretty sure it's pronounced how Mark says it in the CoM movie.
It's like handing the book to a friend and waiting to see how they act when they get to the best bits.It's also a great feeling of camaraderie listening to someone actively read the books rather than reciting it for a recording. I only have a couple of friends in the real world who have read Discworld, (Mr. Wizzard hasn't been one for reading since Lemony Snicket hurt him
). And I often find myself grinning at the screen knowing what Marks about to walk into. I wasn't sure myself, but I'm pretty sure it's pronounced how Mark says it in the CoM movie.