The Working Class Fantasy, A Year on Discworld: Book 14 — Lords and Ladies
In a quest to escape the reality of 2020 and recapture my youth, I’ve set myself the goal of reading all 41 Discworld novels in one year. Join me on this voyage of discovery which definitely isn’t a complete waste of time. Mild spoilers, probably.
Lords and Ladies does what I’ve been waiting from since Equal Rites. It stars the great Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick (I warmed to her much more in this book) without suffering from the structural problems of Wyrd Sisters or Witches Abroad. You can really feel Pratchett understands these characters fully and he is probably aware of development cul-de-sac he has driven them down. Namely, Magrat never has agency but wishes she had and Granny Weatherwax is perpetually certain. Well, those character assumptions get challenged and it is really satisfying, particularly because the plot largely avoids the flabbiness of the previous outings.
Having returned from their travels, Magrat is all set, or rather, set-up, for her marriage to King Verence II, the fool (as in Jester, not an idiot. Although…) who inherited the throne to Lancre way back in Wyrd Sisters. At the same time, a bunch of young goths have taken up witching during the elders, near enough ancients, absence and have started to invite Elves back into the world.
“Give me dwarves any day.”
What’s nice about the Elves is that they are utterly horrible. The Witches seem to be Pratchett’s weapon for poking fairy tales and fantasy and my making elves cruel but good looking; he is actually returning them to a more folklorist background (I think) and turning the Tolkien idea of Elves on its head. Which I love.
Don’t get me wrong, I respect Tolkien but I’m not sure I like his work. It seems to me people enjoy it for it vastness above anything else. And I’ve long hated high fantasy elves. Even playing D&D as a teenager I felt playing an elf was a bit like cheating. There is a certain pretension to their endless skill and beauty which rubs me up the wrong way. Give me dwarves any day.
“Holy crap, we were poor.”
Sadly, once again, while trying to get lost in fantasy my brain snuck up on me and attacked with the bludgeon of political thoughts! In case you have never read any of my journalism (no really, I’m technically a journalist) I’m working class and like, no, like isn’t the right word, I’m compelled to write and think about class issues. I grew up economically challenged, that is to say when I met new people at university I looked back at my childhood and said, “Holy crap, we were poor.”
As I’m prone to pop psycho-self analysis, maybe my long-standing distaste of fantasy elves was a sub-conscious recognition of class division in England. You see mostly, elves are portrayed as higher, nobler, more beautiful, without wants and highly skilled by nature. They are better than you. Pratchett certainly reiterates that idea in the telepathic shame humans face when challenging elves who want to torture them for fun.
Don’t get me wrong, dwarves can be skilled too. They’re often master blacksmiths and miners but here is the difference. A dwarf toils. Elves don’t toil, they pursue perfection. It’s not quite they have everything given to them, it more that, they have every advantage and don’t have to work hard.
Whereas dwarves, these guys eh? Hairy, stocky, labourers, enjoy a beer and a song, graceless, stubborn, occasionally obsessed with acquiring wealth but decent in their hearts. These are people I grew up around, although acquiring wealth in this case probably means acquiring rent money and a few quid for a pint on Friday.
“A dwarf toils. Elves don’t toil, they pursue perfection.”
I try not to say, “well this race represents these people” when I’m reading fantasy because you can become unstuck when the metaphor is inconsistent or, conclude the author is a horrible racist/classist/sexist and even if it’s true, it’s still a downer to realise that.
It’s odd. When I started the entry for Lords and Ladies I didn’t think I had much to say. I didn’t even think the book was trying to say much beyond developing the witches ( which it does beautifully, by the way). But now, as I’ve rambled a bit, I’m convinced it’s about class. Or, I am just projecting onto the book? Maybe I’m late to the party and everyone is aware dwarves and elves have always representations of class division? Maybe it’s just a fun way of looking at fairy tales? Hmm.
Either way, elves suck and dwarves rule!
