Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett

(Book Review)

This is the third book I’ve read in the discworld series so far after “Going Postal” and “Monstrous Regiment”. And I do plan to vary my reading selection someday I promise. But when I found out this book was a satire of the communist revolution in China, I wanted to read it.

My interests in history run from social movements generally to revolutionary movements in particular, but one of the most fascinating courses I ever took at Calvin was “Modern East Asian History”. Because all of Western thought came flooding into China at about roughly the same time, the Chinese didn’t have the luxury of gradually evolving political radicalism like in Europe. Instead ideas like Christianity, democracy, communism, and anarchism all arrived at the same time, and the resulting political and social turmoil in the May 4th movement is an interesting time to read about. Probably wouldn’t have been to fun to live through, but an interesting time to read about.

Terry Pratchett sets this all in his discworld series by having a continent half way around the world, the Counterweigh Continent, which acts as his fantasy world substitute for Asia. The Agatean people represent the Chinese.

Pratchett satirizes with a hammer instead of a needle, so he doesn’t get all the intricacies of turn of early 20th century Chinese radicalism. But he does write about the culture clash between Western philosophies of rebellion, and traditional Asian culture of submissiveness to authority:

“The Red Army met in secret session. They opened their meeting by singing revolutionary songs and, since disobedience to authority did not come easily to the Agatean character, these had titles like ‘Stead Progress and Limited Disobedience While Retaining Well-Formulated Good Manners’”.

Pratchett apparently has anarchist leanings (according to the cover jacket) and he delivers an excellent anarchist satire of communist arrogance:

“Look,” [Rincewind] said, rubbing his forehead. “All those people out in the fields, the water buffalo people…If you have a revolution it’ll all be better for them, will it?”
“Of course,” said Butterfly. “They will no longer be subject to the cruel and capricious whims of the Forbidden City.”
“Oh, that’s good,” said Rincewind. “So they’ll sort of be in charge of themselves, will they?”
“Indeed,” said Lotus Blossom.
“By means of the People’s Committee,” said Butterfly.
Rincewind pressed both hands to his head.
“My word,” he said. “I don’t know why, but I had this predictive flash!”
They looked impressed.
“I had this sudden feeling,” he went on, “that there won’t be all that many water buffalo string holders on the People’s Committee. In fact…I get this kind of…voice telling me that a lot of the People’s Committee, correct me if I’m wrong, are standing in front of me right now?”
“Initially, of course,” said Butterfly. “The Peasants can’t even read and write.”
“I expect they don’t even know how to farm properly,” said Rincewind gloomily. “Not after doing it for three or four thousand years.”

The book is also a satire on all things Asian. The author mixes Chinese and Japanese culture together (either intentionally or unintentionally) into one big lump. Obviously I’m a lot more attuned to the Japanese elements than I am the Chinese with five years in Japan compared to six days, almost all tourist spots, in China. I’d be interested in the perspective of someone who spent time in China, but many things satirized in the book like Noh drama, Origami, tea ceremony, and kimonos actually come from Japan.

Many of the jokes are harmless, like cheap throwaway puns about Noh Drama:

“We are a traveling theatre,” she said. “It is convenient. Noh actors are allowed to move around.”
“Aren’t they?” said Rincewind.
“You do not understand. We are Noh actors.”
“Oh, you weren’t too bad.”

Other parts of the book cut a little deeper into satires of the Asian character. I suppose this is the kind of thing some people might be offended by.

This gets into a discussion about the nature of satire, the difference between satirizing an ethnic group, and satirizing a nation composed of that ethnic group, and the difference between satirizing stereotypes and perpetuating stereotypes.

I’m going to stay clear of all of that for now. If you want a discussion on these issues, Phil and Matt have both recently written posts touching on some of these issues.

It has been said that the longer a person stays in Asia, the more they loose their sensitivity. That’s true for me. After 5 years living in Japan, my only thought as I read this book was, “Man, that is so true. You tell ‘em!”

Link of the Day
Not exactly uplifting viewing, but every American should probably watch The New Abu Ghraib photos here.

Watching this, I can't help but be reminded of George Orwell's words in 1948: "If you want a picture of the future, picture a boot stamping down on a human face. Forever."

Video Version