OK - finished both Snuff and then UA and the argument for Pepe having an elvish bloodline (not being an elf or even half a one) certainly has more evidence to substantiate it than Buddy (Imp y Celin) has in Soul Music. Which does not mean that he's definitely of the elvish persuasion, but he demonstrably has many elvish traits, not least his propensity to violence, extreme cynicism and need for alcohol to blur the more offensive effects of the social mores he's obliged to live by, even in his chosen profession (as an armourer as it's not a good idea to be p*ssed in charge of a forge).
However, he's chosen to
live as a dwarf and his skill in metallurgy (so the
nature of metal rather than it's shaping necessarily) is the keystone factor to his existence. So he's dwarvish by choice with the 'frillier' side of his character manifesting in the fashionista angle of micromail and of course in the sexual ambiguity that is inherent in both lifestyles so far as design for female fashion is concerned. In fact we have this almost as soon as he's introduced with Madame Sharn saying he's simply Pepe and not confined to any gender definition or accepted behaviour. Then we learn that he's certainly not dwarf shaped and has probably grown up in AM and so is obviously human and perfectly at home with the more thuggish behaviour in the Shove and more than capable of taking Andy Shank down at the end with a particularly acid sting in the vindictive tail.
Which last is of course sadistic in the extreme so we're back with Elves again... :twisted: So he's indeed neither one thing nor t'other but an amalgam of racial traits that mostly mark him out as a survivor wherever he goes, with his alcoholism (or abuse as he's certainly functional still) as the human price to pay for his lifestyle choices.
Whether or not he's gay is another matter depending on whether you want to believe Sharn (of the
deep, dark chocolately voice) is a female or not, but there's certainly inter-species nookie in some form going on whatever, as they do share a bed
There's also a distinction between goblins and orcs going on in UA (not in Snuff). Goblins are merely pariahs and despised accordingly (rather like the Untouchables in India and for the same reasons) whereas Orcs are creations of the Dark Lord's Igors and may have started off as goblins but definitely had men in their breeding programme at some stage as Vetinari points out to Lady Margalotta, because that's how they got to be so pathologically horrible. On the subject of Nutt's worthlessness, this is instilled in him from birth in effect and well before Oates' Forgiveness rescues him from the anvil and passes him on to Lady Margalotta to begin his rehabilitation.
Margalotta does not tell him he's worthless, she simply confirms his own distorted self-image and then supplies the means for him to acquire worth by giving him the run of her house and, most importantly, her library. The fundamental core of Nutt's personality lies in obsession and compulsion - the means by which the orcs were degraded into living battle machines in the first place. He has to strive to acquire worth to appease his own demons and so he learns obsessively, becoming an adept in everything he finds including candle dribbling of course and finally with football which he turns into an allegory for the human condition. He is literally Superman with OCD in other words. :twisted: A paladin of a paragon that reprogrammes the inherent abilities of his manufactured race so he transcends his genetic and behavioural programming and as a consequence his 'evil' nature.
So far as Nutt is concerned in the story (and Pepe too
) it's a tale of an experiment to demonstrate that it's nurture over nature that determines someone's 'shape', whether of personality or inclination. Other examples are Trev, Jools, Glenda and even Andy as an example of the bully in society. They're all in their own crab bucket and in some way find a way out (except Andy). While Nutt still thinks he's a goblin he can work away complusively at attaining 'worth' without demonstrating any of the aggression he's programmed with. It's only when he manifests his retractable claws (rather like Wolverine's in X-Men?
) that he flips out for a while when he can no longer deny his true genetic heritage and for a time forgets all the accumulated talents he's got at his command and how they have changed him for the better. From there he has to realise, with the help of his friends, that he doesn't have to choose the natural path of his race any more - he has changed himself so he doesn't have to be the old Orc. He can be his own Orc, re-write the book on how they should be and pass on the rehabilitative solution in a manner of his own devising, perhaps with the help of Mightily Oates and clout of Lady Margalotta, but he needed to come to AM and analyse the 'beautiful game' and how to play it 'properly',to find out how to do that.
