Soul Music
September 17, 2023 6:04 PM - Subscribe
Who's ready for MUSIC WITH ROCKS IN?!?!? The Band with Rocks In has arrived in Ankh-Morpork and turned the disc upside-down. Now every teenager with a carriage house to play in has picked up a guitar, the Wizards of Unseen University are wearing denim and leather, and CMOT Dibbler has a way to merchandize all of it. But The Band have a tough road ahead of them, being chased by screaming fans, vengeful enforcers from the Musicians' Guild, and Death himself. Well, not himself himself, but his granddaughter Susan, anyway... (Death #3, Discworld # 16) By Terry Pratchett
Well hey, I didn't see you there! We're back in the swing of things with the Discworld Book Club! You can find all previous entries here, but since returning earlier this week we've covered Reaper Man, Witches Abroad and Lords and Ladies. The next book in publication order that we haven't covered yet, and thus the next one for us to tackle, will be Maskerade.
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Death is in mourning. Ysabell and Mort, a.k.a. the Duchess and Duke of Sto-Helit, a.k.a. Death's daughter and son-in-law, have died in a coach crash, and Death would like a little time off to learn how to forget. Perhaps in the Klatchian Foreign Legion...
Imp Y Celyn is Ankh-Morpork, away from his homeland of Llamedos, and ready to dazzle the world with music from the world's greatest brand-new Harp. Until his new friend and bandmate Lias the Troll almost immediately sits on it. Imp, Lias, and Glod (a Dwarf hornblower) walk into a mysterious music shop that's somehow always been there since yesterday and find Imp a guitar which feels suspiciously easy to play...
CMOT Dibbler is in luck, as he's got a chance to be in on the ground floor of Music with Rocks In as it takes the disc by storm. Not that he understands the appeal, of course, but he knows how to make a dollar off of any dumb thing, and this dumb thing might be the dumbest of all...
Mustrum Ridcully is in disbelief at how all of the Wizards at Unseen University (save for him) are absolutely under the spell of this new fad, which defies their ability to study it or even confirm it as being magic or not...
And Susan Sto-Helit is in trouble at the Quirm School for Girls, where she's gotten a bit too good at being inconspicuous when she wants to be. WIth Death having gone AWOL, she's suddenly got a lot on her plate, and a date to make with one Imp Y Celyn, though other forces seem to have other plans for him...
Well hey, I didn't see you there! We're back in the swing of things with the Discworld Book Club! You can find all previous entries here, but since returning earlier this week we've covered Reaper Man, Witches Abroad and Lords and Ladies. The next book in publication order that we haven't covered yet, and thus the next one for us to tackle, will be Maskerade.
-----------
Death is in mourning. Ysabell and Mort, a.k.a. the Duchess and Duke of Sto-Helit, a.k.a. Death's daughter and son-in-law, have died in a coach crash, and Death would like a little time off to learn how to forget. Perhaps in the Klatchian Foreign Legion...
Imp Y Celyn is Ankh-Morpork, away from his homeland of Llamedos, and ready to dazzle the world with music from the world's greatest brand-new Harp. Until his new friend and bandmate Lias the Troll almost immediately sits on it. Imp, Lias, and Glod (a Dwarf hornblower) walk into a mysterious music shop that's somehow always been there since yesterday and find Imp a guitar which feels suspiciously easy to play...
CMOT Dibbler is in luck, as he's got a chance to be in on the ground floor of Music with Rocks In as it takes the disc by storm. Not that he understands the appeal, of course, but he knows how to make a dollar off of any dumb thing, and this dumb thing might be the dumbest of all...
Mustrum Ridcully is in disbelief at how all of the Wizards at Unseen University (save for him) are absolutely under the spell of this new fad, which defies their ability to study it or even confirm it as being magic or not...
And Susan Sto-Helit is in trouble at the Quirm School for Girls, where she's gotten a bit too good at being inconspicuous when she wants to be. WIth Death having gone AWOL, she's suddenly got a lot on her plate, and a date to make with one Imp Y Celyn, though other forces seem to have other plans for him...
"Somewhat leopardy, yes" is a phrase that is difficult to use in common vernacular, with few who spot it, and yet here I am, decades after I first read Soul Music, wedging it in wherever I can.
posted by Jilder at 6:29 PM on September 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Jilder at 6:29 PM on September 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
This one is also kind of a companion piece to Moving Pictures, even if that one is technically in the Industrial Revolution subseries and this one in the Death subseries. Both deal with a 20th Century Mass Media artform coming to the Disk and bringing a form of magic with it that is awe-inspiring and fun and ultimately too destructive to remain on the disc afterwards. Both heavily feature CMOT Dibbler as the crass money-man who doesn't understand the art but knows how to sell it, and both feature likable leading men who will never be seen nor heard from again. Plus the Wizards gettin' all silly about the Big New Thing they're not supposed to care about.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:45 PM on September 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Navelgazer at 7:45 PM on September 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
This one is also kind of a companion piece to Moving Pictures
I was really worried when it became apparent that the whole Moist series was going to be essentially MP and SM over and over, because (despite my love of Susan) I never liked them. Especially from the vantage of the Discworld series being really good literarily and as commentary.
posted by Etrigan at 8:52 PM on September 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
I was really worried when it became apparent that the whole Moist series was going to be essentially MP and SM over and over, because (despite my love of Susan) I never liked them. Especially from the vantage of the Discworld series being really good literarily and as commentary.
posted by Etrigan at 8:52 PM on September 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm not going to say how many times I read this before I realized that Buddy Holly was referenced in this book, but I definitely read this before I really knew how Buddy Holly was.
posted by Carillon at 11:37 PM on September 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Carillon at 11:37 PM on September 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
I was really worried when it became apparent that the whole Moist series was going to be essentially MP and SM over and over, because (despite my love of Susan) I never liked them. Especially from the vantage of the Discworld series being really good literarily and as commentary.
Interesting. To me, the Moist books are a very separate thing from Moving Pictures and Soul Music. For one thing because the Moist books (at least Going Postal and Making Money - I still haven't read Raising Steam yet) are about new things that will stick around in the Discworld afterwards, while MP and SM both make a point to reset things after movies and rock music have had their moment on the stage. But also the Moist books (and The Truth, which is an honorary Moist book in my headcanon) have their own sort of galloping narrative drive and structure which is different from these two, where the story is basically "Big new media entrances the world because it has its own brand of magic that is different from either witch magic or wizard magic, but comes from some very very old eldritch source, it's all fun until it comes to a head, and then it's gone."
I'm also realizing that, aside from Mort, the Death books are basically "here's a story idea, and also let's involve Death." Reaper Man is the Snowglobes evolving into the Shopping Center, but Death is on holiday so that's causing additional chaos. Soul Music is Music with Rocks In, plus Death is mourning Ysabell (and to a lesser extent Mort) so Susan has to step in and deal with things. Hogfather is Christmas on the Disc, plus Death and Susan. Thief of Time is a wuxia take on time shenanigans with the History Monks, plus Death and Susan.
This is part of why I love Susan as a character. Not just that, as Terry said, she "ended up, via that unconscious evolution that dogs characters, a kind of Goth Mary Poppins." That alone is delightful, but also the big interesting thing that Death can do in a story is to not do his job, which is why that comes up as often as it does in these books, whereas Susan can step in to do that job reluctantly, and also is the sort of Granny Weatherwax-style competent pragmatist that will grit her teeth and rise to whatever wild-ass circumstances arise, but she's a different character from Granny, proudly educated, prim-but-not-proper, and with a youthful energy that is still wise beyond her years. Interestingly, both Susan and Granny are skilled at being noticed when they want to be and inconspicuous when they don't, but Granny leans more into being the center of attention and Susan more into disappearing.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:52 AM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Interesting. To me, the Moist books are a very separate thing from Moving Pictures and Soul Music. For one thing because the Moist books (at least Going Postal and Making Money - I still haven't read Raising Steam yet) are about new things that will stick around in the Discworld afterwards, while MP and SM both make a point to reset things after movies and rock music have had their moment on the stage. But also the Moist books (and The Truth, which is an honorary Moist book in my headcanon) have their own sort of galloping narrative drive and structure which is different from these two, where the story is basically "Big new media entrances the world because it has its own brand of magic that is different from either witch magic or wizard magic, but comes from some very very old eldritch source, it's all fun until it comes to a head, and then it's gone."
I'm also realizing that, aside from Mort, the Death books are basically "here's a story idea, and also let's involve Death." Reaper Man is the Snowglobes evolving into the Shopping Center, but Death is on holiday so that's causing additional chaos. Soul Music is Music with Rocks In, plus Death is mourning Ysabell (and to a lesser extent Mort) so Susan has to step in and deal with things. Hogfather is Christmas on the Disc, plus Death and Susan. Thief of Time is a wuxia take on time shenanigans with the History Monks, plus Death and Susan.
This is part of why I love Susan as a character. Not just that, as Terry said, she "ended up, via that unconscious evolution that dogs characters, a kind of Goth Mary Poppins." That alone is delightful, but also the big interesting thing that Death can do in a story is to not do his job, which is why that comes up as often as it does in these books, whereas Susan can step in to do that job reluctantly, and also is the sort of Granny Weatherwax-style competent pragmatist that will grit her teeth and rise to whatever wild-ass circumstances arise, but she's a different character from Granny, proudly educated, prim-but-not-proper, and with a youthful energy that is still wise beyond her years. Interestingly, both Susan and Granny are skilled at being noticed when they want to be and inconspicuous when they don't, but Granny leans more into being the center of attention and Susan more into disappearing.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:52 AM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
there's a lot of fun to be had in this one even if the constant parade of band-name jokes don't do it for you.
This is definitely overdue for a re-read by me, especially since a bunch of the jokes went over my head (I think that I may have read this during The Drinking Years); I had to be told by the internet that We're Certainly Dwarfs was a play on They Might Be Giants.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:30 AM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
This is definitely overdue for a re-read by me, especially since a bunch of the jokes went over my head (I think that I may have read this during The Drinking Years); I had to be told by the internet that We're Certainly Dwarfs was a play on They Might Be Giants.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:30 AM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Navelgazer: I remember being so struck by the structural differences in the Moist books that I thought they may have been co-written, and the more I learn about the Enbuggerance the more I can see a supportive and loving editorial hand in them. This makes them refreshing, and no less a Discworld novel, and is not meant as a dismissal.
I also feel like Susan is kind of a growing-up-weird (or -wyrd) series, like dealing with family garbage and finding your place in the world when you are, by definition, not ever going to be like other people. I'm a queer person raised in a conservative environment and Susan resonated hard with me. Even the bit where I missed a lot of the name puns in both MP and SM really emphasises that - I didn't get any exposure to rock music until I left home.
I do feel the need to note that Death going on holiday - and the resulting buildup of stray vitality - is what causes the snowglobe-trolley-mall situation. He's not an "and then" b story, he causes it by taking a sabbatical.
posted by Jilder at 5:32 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
I also feel like Susan is kind of a growing-up-weird (or -wyrd) series, like dealing with family garbage and finding your place in the world when you are, by definition, not ever going to be like other people. I'm a queer person raised in a conservative environment and Susan resonated hard with me. Even the bit where I missed a lot of the name puns in both MP and SM really emphasises that - I didn't get any exposure to rock music until I left home.
I do feel the need to note that Death going on holiday - and the resulting buildup of stray vitality - is what causes the snowglobe-trolley-mall situation. He's not an "and then" b story, he causes it by taking a sabbatical.
posted by Jilder at 5:32 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
I was really worried when it became apparent that the whole Moist series was going to be essentially MP and SM over and over
This was a startling comparison to me, even though I see what you mean and you're not wrong! I'm not a big fan of MP or SM because I find the "what if a thing, but Discworld" concept a little one-note and the puns and references a little wearying—although it's still Terry Pratchett, obviously, so they both have a lot of good stuff in there as well. But that never bothered me with the Moist series and I hadn't thought about why until I read this comment. I think to me, the Moist books are about breaking down the institutions they relate to through defamiliarization; you're supposed to come to a new understanding of how the post office works and why it's important, what money is and what value means, basically the whole clockwork of infrastructure and capitalism. Whereas the sendups of rock music and Hollywood, to me, aren't about what makes those things tick (because on the Discworld they tick because... magic). The Discworld versions don't illuminate or analyze the Roundworld versions, they just echo them. I'm sure some people will disagree but I did appreciate the opportunity to think about why I like one of these things so much better than the other!
posted by babelfish at 6:13 PM on September 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
This was a startling comparison to me, even though I see what you mean and you're not wrong! I'm not a big fan of MP or SM because I find the "what if a thing, but Discworld" concept a little one-note and the puns and references a little wearying—although it's still Terry Pratchett, obviously, so they both have a lot of good stuff in there as well. But that never bothered me with the Moist series and I hadn't thought about why until I read this comment. I think to me, the Moist books are about breaking down the institutions they relate to through defamiliarization; you're supposed to come to a new understanding of how the post office works and why it's important, what money is and what value means, basically the whole clockwork of infrastructure and capitalism. Whereas the sendups of rock music and Hollywood, to me, aren't about what makes those things tick (because on the Discworld they tick because... magic). The Discworld versions don't illuminate or analyze the Roundworld versions, they just echo them. I'm sure some people will disagree but I did appreciate the opportunity to think about why I like one of these things so much better than the other!
posted by babelfish at 6:13 PM on September 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
I enjoy this book tremendously, as I do all the books where Susan is a protagonist. (Plus I then get to picture in my head the gorgeous Michelle Dockery [who admittedly was perhaps a bit too beautiful to play Susan in the Hogfather movie]).
I love that Vetinari is well-aware that CMOT Dibbler's reaction to any new phenomenon is a very good bellwether as to how serious a threat it will eventually be. Vetinari's reaction to Mrs. Whitlow's actions in the club ("Were there any injuries?") had me in stitches.
Ridcully is also one of my favorite discworld characters, and his interaction with Susan is charming.
A felonious monk stealing music from the gods is a great pune. Keith Death is pretty good, too.
posted by maxwelton at 1:06 PM on September 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
I love that Vetinari is well-aware that CMOT Dibbler's reaction to any new phenomenon is a very good bellwether as to how serious a threat it will eventually be. Vetinari's reaction to Mrs. Whitlow's actions in the club ("Were there any injuries?") had me in stitches.
Ridcully is also one of my favorite discworld characters, and his interaction with Susan is charming.
A felonious monk stealing music from the gods is a great pune. Keith Death is pretty good, too.
posted by maxwelton at 1:06 PM on September 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
Susan is my second-favorite character after Granny.
I'm not going to say how many times I read this before I realized that Buddy Holly was referenced in this book
Only when reading this very post did it occur to me to look up the translation of "Y Celyn", which is Welsh (as I suspected) for "the Holly". Ahhh, of course...
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:51 PM on September 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm not going to say how many times I read this before I realized that Buddy Holly was referenced in this book
Only when reading this very post did it occur to me to look up the translation of "Y Celyn", which is Welsh (as I suspected) for "the Holly". Ahhh, of course...
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:51 PM on September 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
This book probably has the most puns/references/wordplay of all the Discworld panoply, and I've just twigged one more:
Imp y Celyn's homeland, Llamedos, is considerably ruder read backwards-- much like Dylan Thomas's town of Llaregub in Under Milk Wood.
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:02 PM on September 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
Imp y Celyn's homeland, Llamedos, is considerably ruder read backwards-- much like Dylan Thomas's town of Llaregub in Under Milk Wood.
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:02 PM on September 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
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posted by Navelgazer at 6:11 PM on September 17, 2023 [2 favorites]