I’m leaning towards yes, because despite their inclusivity and the general feel-good vibes of the stories, the characters themselves flirt with police brutality quite a bit, and who knows exactly what they get up to in their lives outside the novels.

Any more nuanced views from my fellow hexbearians (and lemmings)? I’m slightly less articulate than Detritus on a hot day, and I wonder how much the politics and views of Terry Pratchett comes up in leftist discourse.

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    10·
    1 year ago

    I must regrettably say yes. They’re still cops, even if they’re unrealistically well meaning cops.

    As a parody of a bunch of different police tropes I don’t find them that concerning. Disposing of unwanted Monarchs and shaming dwarves by asking them what their parents would think of their behavior doesn’t have many real world parallels.

    Also if you explained ACAB to Vimes he would nod along and immediately agree with you, and I think despite marrying in to the Nobility he’s joined at least one revolutionary movement and deposed I think two monarchs.

    Pterry comes up a lot and is usually viewed fondly. Idk what his politics were but his books are deeply humanistic. He’s got strong feminist cred and as the second most popular British author behind Rowling I wish he was still around bc he absolutely would have challenged her terf bullshit.

    Unfortunately he seems to have also had mild western liberal views on Leftist movements. Some google searching hasn’t turned up much, but the best I can figure is he was a liberal critical of neoliberalism and sympathetic to some anarchist thought. Much of his writing is about skewering the hypocrisy and failure of authority, and a common thread is little people doing the right thing.

    I’m making as many excuses as I can bc I love the man’s writing. He was right on many important things. But he also accepted a British knighthood, which is a pretty loathsome thing to do. I think at the end of the day he was a liberal, towards the left-liberatarian/anarchist side of the liberal perspective, but if he had strong view on political economy I can’t find much about it.

    • KobaCumTribute [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      Unfortunately he seems to have also had mild western liberal views on Leftist movements

      Interesting Times was such a cringe book with its core plot of “actually revolutionaries fighting a literal empire are silly and pointless in their aims, here’s a western hero to come in and actually fix things and make a good empire!”. Honestly most/all of the Rincewind books were sort of uncomfortable reads. The other arcs were generally better, though.

  • ChaosMaterialist [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    9·
    1 year ago

    In their more lucid moments Vimes et. al. might admit ACAB themselves.

    In Discworld/Pratchett’s case, I have found that Pratchett is subtly subversive. Within the parody are landmines of satire and criticism framed as characters (and reader) coming to natural conclusions. I think he would identify with Blazing Saddles, Hot Fuzz, and Super Troopers as a similar category. In each of those examples, the protagonists eventually have to fight social institutions (Governer, HOAs, and other cops, respectively) while making satirical digs at all the institutions involved. We aren’t meant to uncritically support them or what they do, but we can use them as a vehicle to more interesting ideas.

    fwiw, I’m just starting Moving Pictures this weekend.

  • Zoift [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    8·
    1 year ago

    ACAB still applies. Vimes would absolutely fuck with you if he thought you were up to something, and hes a raging paranoid. Nobby & Colin would accuse you of something so they could steal your halfpack of cigs and put the boot in after. Carrot is probably your best bet, but he’d still arrest you over a technicality and try to shake your hand after.

    Uphold MoistvonLipwiggist-thought.