I think one of Pratchett’s great skills in writing was being able to make silly things serious, in different ways.
Like, there’s a fairy godmother forcing everyone into fairystales, how fun! Except in the process, she has stopped seeing them as people. She’s forcing people to live lives they don’t want to because she decides that’s how it has to be. Sometimes she goes so far as to violate her victim’s minds and deform and puppet their bodies so they’ll play their part right, and anyone who doesn’t do their job gets mercilessly killed.
And there’s a zombie activist named Reg Shoe who buries himself every year out of solidarity for the dead, how funny! Except he is filled with a genuine passion for justice and improvement in the world, and that’s why he literally refuses to die. And he buries himself on a holiday that happens to be the anniversery of his own death, and he does it next to the bodies of the friends and strangers he fought alongside, the ones who didn’t get to come back, so he spends one day with them.
There is still a lot of silliness in discworld, a lot that’s wacky and funny, but a lot of it, when you think about it, is oddly beautiful or touching or disturbing or something else entirely.
Like Mand’alor Din Djarin who is completely politically incompetent is very funny and good but what about Mand’alor Din Djarin who just comes out of nowhere and absolutely slaughters (metaphorical) these career politicians across the negotiating table bc he has 20 years of experience cutting contracts with the worst and most unbearable people in the galaxy. And he had to figure out ways to say I Am Not Fucking Doing That without ever technically breaking his code of honor by violating his contract or whatever.
Snow White is the only Disney remake that has managed to offend EVERYONE
It offends the anti-woke crowd because of Rachel Zegler’s ethnicity and political opinions
It offends progressive people because of Gal Gadot’s political opinions and participation in the IDF
It offends animation enjoyers because of its very existence and Zegler seemingly bashing the original Snow White
It offends fashion/hair/makeup enjoyers because of the ugly dress and Farquaad-esque haircut
It offends little people because roles were taken away from them in favor of CGI dwarves
It offends kids because said CGI dwarves are horrifying and will probably give them nightmares
It offends adults because it’s just another shameless cash grab from Hollywood and Gadot’s horrible acting (and the CGI dwarves are horrifying even as an adult)
Hopefully this will be Disney’s wake up call to stop doing remakes, but we all know that Lilo and Stitch is gonna make a billion dollars. Anyways go watch the day the earth blew up or something
Well…to be pretty fair, the Mulan remake did a decent job at offending everyone too.
I’m watching Splash (1984) which is a romcom about a guy who falls in love with a mermaid, and when she chooses a human name she chooses Madison and guy says “that’s not a real name, but alright” which seems to imply that Madison was not a name until at least the 80’s and all girls named Madison are actually named after the mermaid. thought you should know
I think…you might be right
what the fuck
much like the way “Gary” owes much of its popularity to actor Gary Cooper, born Frank James Cooper, who took the name on the advice of his agent who got it from the town of Gary, Indiana, which was named after American industrialist Elbert Henry Gary, who also gave his named to Gary, West Virginia.
In the 1700s, writer James McPherson discovered a work of ancient Scottish epic poetry by a bard named Ossian. Ossian’s work became incredibly popular across Europe; he was hailed as an equal to Homer. In particular, Napoleon was major admirer of Ossian’s, and named his godson Oscar after a character from the poem. This Oscar eventually became King Oscar I of Sweden, which popularized the name Oscar overnight. It remains a common name to this day in many countries, despite the fact that it is now broadly known Ossian was a hoax and that James McPherson wrote the supposed ancient epics himself.
cruelty is so easy. youre not special for choosing it
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist; a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.”
-Ursula K. LeGuin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
“Evil is boring. Right? I kinda believe in the banality and mundaneness of evil. Evil is just selfish impulses, which at the end of the day are really easy to understand. It’s easy to understand why people do bad things. It’s like “yeah, ok, you’re selfish and scared and cruel, I get it”. Being good is complex and beautiful and hard.” - Brennan Lee Mulligan
“How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.” –C.S. Lewis
there aren’t enough posts going around about the swedish cryptid known as the skvader which is a rabbit with pheasant wings and also a very good boy.
like this one dude just made a fake taxidermy and spread it around as a hoax for a good ass while and it lead to this really cool fantasy creature and i am genuinely dissapointed that it never gets used in anything
THE BOY
Rabbirds, by the amazing @tkingfisher/Ursula Vernon (source).
The lack of skvaders is particularly frustrating when you realize it forms the third point of a wonderful cryptid trifecta.
You got the jackalopes, which are rabbits with antlers.
And you got the wolpertingers, which are rabbits with antlers and wings.
And then… what? Do you escalate? That’s unbalanced, those two rabbit cryptids don’t have the same number of extra things, the wolpertinger is clearly the jackalope But More.
BUT with the skvader on the other side, balance is restored. Antler rabbit, winged rabbit, winged antler rabbit. It’s a classic Venn diagram of imaginary lapine beasts, and it’s only complete if you acknowledge the fucking skvader.
Good thing Ursula’s got our back, at least.
This is a really excellent point and I applaud your advancements in Cryptid Theory.
