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Mario the lone bookwolf's Reviews > Reaper Man
Reaper Man (Discworld, #11; Death, #2)
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The second DEATH is as hilarious as the first one, this time positioning the friendly reaper in a perfect setting for having philosophical and deep thoughts about human nature and life in general.
The auditors are a mixture of bureaucracy, monotony, surveillance, and total order, each reader might find a subjective real life example for higher, creativity and life hating entities mostly interested in controlling everything, not even trusting each other, and hating generally anything different, new, or progressive. The way the are used in the DEATH novels is a good alternative theory for the real foundations of the physical laws, the universe, and anything, so string theory, behold and be aware!
As I always say, I do know far too little about philosophy and mythology to get all the innuendos, inspirations, and connotations Pratchett is certainly using and many readers may find far more subtle, hidden, easter eggs than just the superficial humor I am able to identify.
Shopping centers and consumerism, or in this case interdimensional city parasite malls, went a far way and evolution, similar to mallmargeddons in real life that became the last stage of an uncertain development since Pratchett wrote this one and it would be interesting to know how he would have satirized the big malls and megastores first eating away the rest of the food chain to finally be cannibalized by online trade.
(view spoiler) I will highly subjectively and subliminally interpret is as out of control predator neoliberal capitalism randomly detected by ivory towers humanities who are unable to deal with a creature some of them helped constructing. And buy my stuff mostly online, because it´s so cheap, of course, hypocritical as I am, but organic at least. But it could also be seen as the warning of natural disaster or environmental destruction by scientists with not enough data, the impending doom of the manipulation of the laws of physics by science detected by science itself, etc. As always in Pratchett´s works, there are manifold ways to widen one´s horizon with the mind penetrating subtility he offers.
Prepare for an example why the causality and paths of the universe shouldn´t be manipulated and what happens if DEATH doesn´t do his job anymore, such as zombie (view spoiler)
I guess I should watch the movie Repo man, or read the script, to get more of the hidden humor related to the pun, although I don´t know if there are really elements of it in the novel, as I haven´t seen it. Tricky.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
This one is added to all Pratchettian reviews:
The idea of the dissected motifs rocks, highlighting the main real world inspirational elements of fiction and satire is something usually done with so called higher literature, but a much more interesting field in readable literature, as it offers the joy of reading, subtle criticism, and feeling smart all together
The auditors are a mixture of bureaucracy, monotony, surveillance, and total order, each reader might find a subjective real life example for higher, creativity and life hating entities mostly interested in controlling everything, not even trusting each other, and hating generally anything different, new, or progressive. The way the are used in the DEATH novels is a good alternative theory for the real foundations of the physical laws, the universe, and anything, so string theory, behold and be aware!
As I always say, I do know far too little about philosophy and mythology to get all the innuendos, inspirations, and connotations Pratchett is certainly using and many readers may find far more subtle, hidden, easter eggs than just the superficial humor I am able to identify.
Shopping centers and consumerism, or in this case interdimensional city parasite malls, went a far way and evolution, similar to mallmargeddons in real life that became the last stage of an uncertain development since Pratchett wrote this one and it would be interesting to know how he would have satirized the big malls and megastores first eating away the rest of the food chain to finally be cannibalized by online trade.
(view spoiler) I will highly subjectively and subliminally interpret is as out of control predator neoliberal capitalism randomly detected by ivory towers humanities who are unable to deal with a creature some of them helped constructing. And buy my stuff mostly online, because it´s so cheap, of course, hypocritical as I am, but organic at least. But it could also be seen as the warning of natural disaster or environmental destruction by scientists with not enough data, the impending doom of the manipulation of the laws of physics by science detected by science itself, etc. As always in Pratchett´s works, there are manifold ways to widen one´s horizon with the mind penetrating subtility he offers.
Prepare for an example why the causality and paths of the universe shouldn´t be manipulated and what happens if DEATH doesn´t do his job anymore, such as zombie (view spoiler)
I guess I should watch the movie Repo man, or read the script, to get more of the hidden humor related to the pun, although I don´t know if there are really elements of it in the novel, as I haven´t seen it. Tricky.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
This one is added to all Pratchettian reviews:
The idea of the dissected motifs rocks, highlighting the main real world inspirational elements of fiction and satire is something usually done with so called higher literature, but a much more interesting field in readable literature, as it offers the joy of reading, subtle criticism, and feeling smart all together
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Reaper Man.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
March 7, 2018
– Shelved
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Marta
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rated it 4 stars
Jul 10, 2020 08:14PM
Love Death. He is awesome. He is handy with the scythe...
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Marta wrote: "Love Death. He is awesome. He is handy with the scythe..."And his existential crises, fueled by cosmic nihilism, could keep soul doctors busy.
Greta wrote: "A wonderful review Mario 😊 The philosophical context really makes me think that it might be something for me"Thank you, there are other funny authors such as Matt Ruff, Wodehouse, Tom Sharpe, Tom Robbins,... but nobody close to Pratchett´s ingenuity. I´m rereading it now with special focus on the meta and metaphor level and it´s insane how densely packed it is.
