The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. The ending is just chefs kiss and made me think about my Dark Tower
Ghost in the Shell. It really changed how I seen my body, not as something that I am, but as something I control. Now I can start and stop peeing whenever I want.
Masters of the Universe.
Fisto really gave me a lot to think about when it comes to cultivating useful skills.
Dogma helped me see how absurd religion, specifically Catholicism, was and helped be begin to untangle what it all meant for me, a hyper-religious teenager at the time.
Anything Monty Python. Also, Gravity’s Rainbow.
the truth machine made me realize that i never have to lie again
tales of symphonia taught me that trusting everyone you meet is not as stupid a decision as it looks
and simulacra and simulation taught me that no one needs to lie in order to fool you
lots of learning about what it means to tell the truth
Autopilot, is the reason that I don’t immediately assume the worst of parents whose kids die in hot cars
It didn’t change my thoughts on the whole world, but the way demons are depicted in the anime Frieren changed the way I think about entities that use language for manipulation rather than communication: Their words are weapons. And assuming sincereness in any of them is dangerous. Immediate blocking is more appropriate than wasting time with them.
In his Discworld novels, Sir Terry Pratchett gave me a love for humanity. He’s so good at writing, but especially at characterization. The people he writes are just so human, and for me, it increased my empathy for people overall.
Also, even though I’m an atheist, after having grown up fundie Southern Baptist, I’d like to think that if the spiritual and supernatural exist, that it works somewhat along Discworldian lines. Certainly there are two Deaths that I wouldn’t mind meeting: The Discworld Death, and the Sandman Death (Neil Gaiman).
But it was with Pratchett’s help that I’ve come to believe that there are no good people and no bad people. Just people, and all the choices they make. Which in some ways makes “evil people” more terrifying, because I believe they make those choices. But it’s also heartening: People can choose to be better.
The principles expressed in the novels helped me change my views on what’s important: I think the most important thing you can do is to make others’ lives a little better, if you can. Huge projects like social safety nets, but even making a stranger laugh for a moment and brightening their day.
This life is all we get, and anything that makes it better is the main thing that’s worth anything at all.
Fahrenheit 451. I started noticing increasing censorship and the growing intentional denial of knowledge and learning more and more. It’s terrifying.
Idiocracy shattered my delusional optimism for the future.
People have already mentioned Foundation, Stranger in a Strange Land, Discworld, Gurren Lagann, and Hitchhiker’s Guide, so I’ll add The Illuminatus Trilogy. It taught me a lot about how organizations tend to shake out, among other things.
Cloud Atlas (I feel like every book post I make is about Cloud Atlas) It taught me two important lessons.
- We’re not kind enough to each other and
- Even if a goal seems hopeless it’s worth making the attempt if you see something wrong in the world.
There’s plenty I could list, but when it comes to seeing the world through a new lens it’s all about Discworld. Just keep reading and it’ll change you. Sir Pratchett’s understanding of people, society, and philosophy is phenomenal.
Small Gods is probably one of the greatest books I’ve ever read. I fucking love it so much.
I’ve wanted to read the series for a while, but getting into it seems so intimidating because of just how much Sir Terry wrote. Do you have a good starting recommendation?
Not that I’m an expert, but I did create /r/Discworld, so I got to see a lot of opinions.
There’s a couple of main philosophies. The one I agree with less is reading “subseries”. First of all, many books really imho cross thos lines anyway, so you’re going to miss stuff… but… that’s one option.
The thing is, Sir Pratchett himself wasn’t so happy with his first coupld of books. The Colour of Magic is a bit different - he was writing as a parody of fantasy. But as he went along, things kinda took off and it became a thing.
Frankly, my advice: Just suck it up. Colour of Magic isn’t bad. Commit to at least reading through Mort, which is IIRC the 4th novel.
If that makes you nervous, then choose one or more of the traditional starting ones: Mort, Small Gods, Guards! Guards!. If you read all three of those and like it, just go back to Colour of Magic and read in publication order. The world evolves as he writes and it’s a better experience.
But if you get enthralled with the night watch over the witches or whatever, the google “Discworld reading guide” and you’ll find it and can see the “subseries” and do as you please.
If you’re anything like me, though, starting at around Mort and from then on… I always read a novel when it came out and it was pretty good, but when I re-read it almost immediately, I noticed so many more things. That’s how I fell in love with the books. They are not one-time reads.
I’m on around my eighth or so full readthrough of the entire series - on Making Money right now. I don’t think everyone will do that many, but for me, almost all the books are old friends, and I still notice new little details.
His writing is so… compact. So many scenes with more than one subtext going on. He often writes scenes with dialogue happening that’s critical to the story, but something in the background that just adds to the world might be happening at the same time.
I think specifically where a couple of bumbling night watch are talking about something, but as they’re sitting there, they’re watching a man slowly paint the name of his boat on his boat, but instead of painting “PRIDE OF ANKH-MORPORK” he’s painted “PRID”, so they’re talking back and forth, anticipating the painter noticing… and at the end of the scene, he does. And it’s just so… so human, so delightful. The novels truly taught me the beauty of humanity.
There is, however, probably no real wrong way to read them. Someone on r/discworld claimed to be reading them in literally reverse publication order and enjoying them. So that’s probably valid. But I would say: publication order hands down. Or whatever way you’ll actually go out and get started. :)
choose one or more of the traditional starting ones: Mort, Small Gods, Guards! Guards!. If you read all three of those and like it, just go back to Colour of Magic and read in publication order. The world evolves as he writes and it’s a better experience.
This here. This is what I recommend to everyone I introduce to Discworld.
I haven’t kept count of how many readthroughs I’ve done, but every few years I do one too. I had my copy of Guards Guards rebound recently because it was literally falling to pieces.
While there are recurring characters, locations, themes and ideas, each book is an independent, self contained story. As the other commenter mentioned, it doesn’t really matter where you start.
Also, there may be a large number of books, but they are all really short and easy/quick to read. I went from being intimidated by the number of books in the series when I picked up The Colour of Magic to crying during the epilogue in The Sheppard’s Crown in an eye blink.
It’s doesn’t really matter where you start but realize that it’s a bunch of stories that are told of the same place. So there’s stories about set characters and some of just one story of the characters. The wizards are something that runs through all the stories so it really does make sense to start with The Color of Magic. It will introduce you to the style of story that will fill out the whole thing.
There’s the witches, the wizards, Death, the watch, and books about the other guild’s. The witches are a lot of fun. If you don’t really care for the specific group, you you can jump around in order. Mostly once you understand the groups, you can read anything in whatever order
Discworld as a collection is intimidating. The real secret is that it’s not a series, but a kind of pile. You can really start almost anywhere and read whatever.
That said, there’s kind of short sets with the same characters in groups throughout the books. I’d point people to these ones as reasonable starting points:
- Equal Rites
- Guards! Guards!
- Mort
I’m sure other people will have various other suggestions or opinions and we’re all likely correct for our own reasons. There’s very little in Discord that isn’t top tier writing.
Those are the first 3 I read (first was GG, second Mort, third ER) because they all seemed recommended starting places. They are all origins of different sets of characters, so there isn’t much back lore for any of those 3, so it gives you a very broad look at life on the Disc.
After finishing those, I knew I’d want to read them all, so then I went and started from the beginning and the rest of the books made much more sense than I think they would skipping about and you’d get light spoilers, seeing maybe some characters being good guys when they weren’t in earlier stories or different groups gaining acceptance due to conflicts being resolved (or not).
When in doubt, start with the Watch: Guards! Guards!. Can’t go wrong.
There’s no bad onramp to that world. Very few of the books require you to have read the others, and there isn’t much of a strict chronology. Apparently Pratchett recommended that people start with Sourcery, but that’s not set in stone.
On r/discworld, Mort, Guards! Guards!, and Small Gods were the three most recommended ones to start, besides those like me who argue for publication order (with the disclaimer about the first 2-3 or so)
Near the end of my first read through, and it’s been hard for me to believe one guy wrote so many different points of view so well. I’ve been given both a lot of new perspectives to consider, and I’ve gotten good reminders of things that I already believed, but had gotten a little bit forgotten as things happen and I’ve become a little jaded toward some things.
Lately, having just finished Making Money, I’ve been thinking again about what type of ruler Lord Vetinari is. He’s got a lot of aspects that I feel I wouldn’t like to him and his leadership style, but I also feel no one comes close to being a better choice for Ankh-Morepork. Plot armor certainly helps, but whenever he puts plots in motion, it’s hard to argue with results,
I also like how the Nights Watch doesn’t get rid of its derelicts, it finds ways for them to be successful. I have been around some very difficult people, but very few that are totally useless, and once you can narrow down what their strengths are, you can find a lot of value and often a decent person in most everyone.
Also a big fan of Death! Some of the best moments of justice and sweetest of rewards have come from him.
I’ve been thinking again about what type of ruler Lord Vetinari is.
He’s basically a benevolent dictator. He adopts the role of a tyrant for pragmatic reasons, but he seems to sincerely care about the well-being of Ankh-Morporkians.
It makes me wonder if that’s ever truly possible. And I’m not as sure it’s the citizens he protects so much as the city itself. He’s either at least been partially responsible for some killings and will let people die when it benefits not so much himself, but the proper functioning of the city.
Someone like him seems crucial to ensuring a great society, but how do you find someone like that, what would keep them from crossing the line into a less altruistic authority, and what does that society do when that person is inevitably gone?
Him and House from Fallout have been two people I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about. Both are capable of bringing order out of chaos, but it’s a very fine line they seem to walk.
I like Vetinari in fiction, but I’m unsure how I’d feel in real life. To most people he is still scary and seemingly a threat. Only a select few know most of it is just reputation and show.
And I’m not as sure it’s the citizens he protects so much as the city itself
I think he’d consider that a distinction without difference. The city is the citizens.
He’s either at least been partially responsible for some killings and will let people die when it benefits not so much himself, but the proper functioning of the city.
The “proper functioning of the city” is a state of relative harmony and peace between the citizens. Most of those that found their end at his direction were rather opposed to the “proper functioning of the city”.
what does that society do when that person is inevitably gone?
I surmise that much of his efforts in building the integrity of the city, and its institutions, might be said to constitute an inoculation of sorts against any “greedy and clumsy” successors.
I’d say benevolent dictators are absolutely possible, but they are impossible to plan for. If there is room for any dictator, there is no good way to filter that to only benevolent ones. I think the best practical political systems tend to assume people will not be benevolent, so try and set things up so that people are incentivized to act benevolently as much as possible.
when I say 1984 it is going to be very cleche but hear me out
so I grow up in China and only moves out around 12 when I was 10 they suddenly banned a book that the name is just a year I get super confused and pleed the local Liberian to read it before they destory it. holy shit that is some messed up shit for my age at the time, but it made be see the environment around me a lot more clearlyHow ironic to ban 1984 lol
