Storyhangers

[MongoGutman]

OK, so we all see how in many of the discworld books TP takes some (usually absurd) aspect of our modern life here on roundworld and looks at it through the lens of Discworld. Opera, Football, the Postal service, Australia, Christmass, Hollywood, newspapers etc.

Nothing wrong with it, it's a device that works well and don't need messing with.

But what aspect of our world would YOU like to see employed as the storyhanger for a future DW book?

For myself I might suggest the Fashion Industry - although fashion is just so patently ridiculous it might prove difficult to parody - it's already a parody of itself...

Maybe it's time the Railroads came to DW, or at least to Ankh Morpork - a few books ago the Dwarfs were talking about an underground system...

The Publishing industry... Fandom?

Any ideas?

 

[Tonyblack]

I've always been curious about the penal system in A-M. We know 'The Tanty' exists, but very little about what goes on there.

 

[Beautiful Dirt]

My preference is on a par with Tony's only slightly different. I'd like a law based book, involving our learned friend Mr Slant the zombie lawyer. I like any books and films involving trials. I'm just sat watching Rumpole of the Bailey now with a glass of plonk

 

[polythenegirl]

OK, so we all see how in many of the discworld books TP takes some (usually absurd) aspect of our modern life here on roundworld and looks at it through the lens of Discworld. Opera, Football, the Postal service, Australia, Christmass, Hollywood, newspapers etc.

Nothing wrong with it, it's a device that works well and don't need messing with.

But what aspect of our world would YOU like to see employed as the storyhanger for a future DW book?

For myself I might suggest the Fashion Industry - although fashion is just so patently ridiculous it might prove difficult to parody - it's already a parody of itself...

Maybe it's time the Railroads came to DW, or at least to Ankh Morpork - a few books ago the Dwarfs were talking about an underground system...

The Publishing industry... Fandom?

Any ideas?

Surely Fashion has been looked at in Unseen Academicals with Jewels and that aspect of the story?

everything I think about has been done...

Politics
War
Military
Music Industry

Oooo... not quite along the same lines, but what about inter-racial breeding?

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Been done Carrot and Anguia.

 

[swreader]

How about the missionary work done by Pastor Oats in Uberwald?

 

[Verns]

How about the missionary work done by Pastor Oats in Uberwald?

Yes, I'd second that. PTerry's fascination with religion runs throughout the books - and it's not surprising, given our preoccupation with the subject on Roundworld.

For me, as much as I've loved the satires based on particular aspects of our world, I've got a deeper satisfaction from the character-based books where we've seen people develop - the Watch books and Sam Vimes is the best example, I guess. They still have their storyhangers, but these are, I think, secondary to character development.

There has been much speculation about the plot of the forthcoming Snuff, and I would dearly love it to be a follow-up to UA with a trip into MMBU* with Nutt, Glenda and Pastor Oats, with a whole new species to learn about - orcs. Of course, as has been suggested, 'Snuff' might be the name of a new troll drug (they all begin with the letter 'S', don't they?).

The end of Making Money rather promises more of the same, but with Moist turning his management skills to the tax system. Not my cup of tea, really. But, then again, PTerry has hinted at other roads his books could travel - if you think about the cube at the end of Thud! which could power the city - could that not develop into an Industrial Revolution type plot?







* Miles and Miles of Bloody Uberwald

 

[raisindot]

I agree with you there, Verns.

I find the "cultural parody" books like Moving Pictures, Soul Music, and Unseen Academicals far less satsifying than the Guards and Witches series. Even the Moist books, while one might say they parody the tension between old money/old order and new money/innovation, are still preferable to me.

J-I-B

 

[BatrickPatrick]

Art? There's loads of characters from art history that would fit right in in Discword...We've already got Leonard of Quirm...Maybe he needs a younger rival...

 

[MongoGutman]

Oh yeah. Jewels. Hmmph. *sniff* I guesss I kinda discounted UA in my general dissappointment over that book...

 

[chris.ph]

terry could have an artist and genius called michelle angel to out genius leonard of quirm 8)

 

[deldaisy]

I was thinking he could do one on the paparazzi but then it WOULD be a one shot wonder wouldn't it.... then you would have someone like Jewels daintily stepping over the little mounds of ashes while an Igor stood to one side patiently waiting with a watering can in one hand.

I wouldn't dare suggest something to TP.... I like the way his mind works and love to hang out for the next suprise (book).

 

[Verns]

I'm re-reading Making Money at the moment (in the fond hope that repeated readings will improve my feelings for the book). I'd forgotten that Moist refers in this book to the dwarves' Device that appears at the end of Thud! and also refers to Vetinari's Undertaking - a subterranean network of roads, sewers, etc.

Given that there is a (sort of) correlation between DW and Victorian times on RW, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to develop an underground railway system under Ankh-Morpork, would it?

I don't know if that's enough to hang a whole book on, but it could be a setting for something else.


.

 

[deldaisy]

I'm re-reading Making Money at the moment (in the fond hope that repeated readings will improve my feelings for the book). I'd forgotten that Moist refers in this book to the dwarves' Device that appears at the end of Thud! and also refers to Vetinari's Undertaking - a subterranean network of roads, sewers, etc.

Given that there is a (sort of) correlation between DW and Victorian times on RW, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to develop an underground railway system under Ankh-Morpork, would it?

I don't know if that's enough to hang a whole book on, but it could be a setting for something else.


.

Or sewerage... I have always thought the decription of the Ankh-Morpork river was akin to the Thames before one of the greatest engineering feats ever was undertaken... the sewerage system in London.

I don't think they have a system in A-M (was thinking about the very civil conversation Vimes had with the trainee assassin who landed in his cess pit)

I could see a book being done on sewerage in A-M.

Although cleaning up the AM river would be a shame in alot of ways. I think it has developed a personality all its own.

 

[Penfold]

I'm re-reading Making Money at the moment (in the fond hope that repeated readings will improve my feelings for the book). I'd forgotten that Moist refers in this book to the dwarves' Device that appears at the end of Thud! and also refers to Vetinari's Undertaking - a subterranean network of roads, sewers, etc.

Given that there is a (sort of) correlation between DW and Victorian times on RW, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to develop an underground railway system under Ankh-Morpork, would it?

I don't know if that's enough to hang a whole book on, but it could be a setting for something else.


.

Or sewerage... I have always thought the decription of the Ankh-Morpork river was akin to the Thames before one of the greatest engineering feats ever was undertaken... the sewerage system in London.

I don't think they have a system in A-M (was thinking about the very civil conversation Vimes had with the trainee assassin who landed in his cess pit)

I could see a book being done on sewerage in A-M.

Although cleaning up the AM river would be a shame in alot of ways. I think it has developed a personality all its own.

For anyone unaware of London's history of sewerage treatment, here's the link to a brief history of its beginnings.

THE GREAT STINK

 

[Bouncy Castle]

OK, so we all see how in many of the discworld books TP takes some (usually absurd)


Australia

 

[deldaisy]

OK, so we all see how in many of the discworld books TP takes some (usually absurd)


Australia

 

[MongoGutman]

haha. I wondered if anyone would catch that

 

[MongoGutman]

The whole idea of Human (or People) Rights could stand the treatment. I know tolerance and understanding of other cultures is a theme thoughout many of the DW books, (all so bloody Star Trek) but a tighter focus on the idea of rights in general might be possible.

First stumbling block of course is that rights only apply to democracies - in a Tyranny/Dictatorship/Theocracy no one has any "rights" (except the man in charge)... maybe it could be side-stepped with a declaration starting - "Lord Vetinari has decreed that all citizens of Ankh Morpork are endowed with the following rights..."

 

[james.a.vivian]

I know TP has just done a sports story with unseen academicals, but being a pom and as England is about to hold the Olympics, why not a DW Olympics with athletes from all over the disc competing in crazy events. With Vimes on the case of assassins that are trying to kill different members of state, while nobby inadvertently gets hold of steroid potions thinking it's alcohol and become as big a carrot. :