I have been meaning to write this essay for a few years now, and I have the notes, but my pregnant brain is stupid and I doubt I'll get round to writing the essay once I have a baby to look after, so I thought I'd post the notes. They're probably easier to read and provide more to discuss anyway. I notice looking over them that I haven't said much about MR or GP among many others, so if you can think of examples from books I haven't mentioned, you should give yourself a shiny. Boffo, the Badge and the nature of Belief in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. Boffo: What is Boffo? Can be social reality or metaphysical reality. (Dwarfs, witches vs gods etc.) Creating a picture for people to believe in and thus drawing power from that picture. The history of Boffo in the books./ Demonstrations of rule. Starts as headology. Becomes Boffo with Tiffany. (Evidence that Tiffany is following previous failed patterns of Granny’s pupils. Evidence that she is replacement Granny – understands it instinctively on her own.) Twoflower’s dragon, Druid’s flying rocks. Small Gods – Om. Can’t see Death – people see what they believe. Belief brings Vimes home in NW? Picture for people to believe in – the peaceful watch house, Vimes’ discussion of what people are looking for – counteracting the image they already believe in. Dwarfs’ belief in Truth in T5E – grain so small, but belief in it makes it powerful. Hogfather – assassination through destroying belief. Nightwatch – assassination through creating belief of inevitability?? Or is it only fear? MM – belief in money gives it its power. The Badge: Symbols in Boffo. Focuses for belief. Vimes’ badge and truncheon, cigar case. Pointy hats, esp. for witches. Boffo skulls etc in Tiffany books. (Maskerade – Christine herself??) Oats’ axe? Gold in MM. Whatshisname’s ring in MM – the stygian one. And other Vetinari symbols. The nature of Belief: Does self-belief work?/ Key characters and pointy hats./ Implications. Vimes’s sense of identity – loses his force without badge? Granny’s self-belief is source of her true power? Carpe Jugulum. – Contrast with Oats’ lack of self belief. Once his belief is no longer external but internal, he becomes powerful. A book about the movement of power into the self? (Vampires get Weatherwaxed.) Drawing power from others’ belief – is this a form of vampirism? Is Discworld witchcraft immoral? Are the gods immoral? At least the witches act for good, not selfishly. Carrot as king – is Carrot’s kingship inevitable? Even if he wasn’t actually the heir, would it matter, due to people’s belief in the myth? And his own apparent belief. Does Vimes believe Carrot is king? Does a Vimes have to believe in a king to behead him? Is the power of belief inVimes enough to overcome the power of belief in a king? – Is this a separate essay? Does Vimes’ belief in the force of law make him the personification thereof? Is Vimes becoming an anthropomorphic personification? How do entities such as gods exist? Are they created by belief or sustained by it? Is this the main force on Discworld? Narrativium – story force. Is this powered by belief in stories, or is it self-powered? Belief is the defining force of the Discworld – fiat money. The human mind on DW may be capable of raw creative force, but can also be deceived/overcome by the power of its own belief. So is belief the ultimate force, or is it the magic or the human mind that it relies on?
I like the subject of the essay. You should mention the golems, Grace. The golems essentially believe/believed in humans - their creators and slavers, but they are incapable of moving toward any of their goals on their own due to their rigid life system - "the words in their head". So, in turn, the golems created a king - a focus for all their wants and dreams, an emulation Great Human to resolve their issues. He is the symbol for them - they didn't have one, so they created it. The symbol failed, and the golems began destroying themselves in their inability to handle what their dreams had become. The process only ended when Carrot gave Dorfl freedom - the ability to own himself, which gave Dorfl the option of self-belief rather than remaining focused on Meshuggah the Golem King. Incidentally, Meshuggah means Insane in Hebrew, a further reflection on how the Golem King was in the end, merely another golem driven insane by becoming the focus of all the wants and dreams of the golems. Dorfl destroyed Meshuggah when he began believing in himself. Until then, he was entirely powerless.
Excellent point, Roman. And it's interesting the way the golems develop individuality only once they believe in themselves. Would it be fair to say that Meshuggah went mad because too much belief was focused on him? Although that raises the question of why too much belief doesn't send the gods mad. Or perhaps it does.
Moving this to Boardania because I think it's applicable to all discworld novels, and pratchett's writing in general. Plus more people might be inclined to comment on it in the main forum. also, by way of my usual tangental crash into any topic - i'm sure there's a name for it, but i haven't a clue what it is; the philosophical thesis that our perception of the world around us is filtered through our belief in what we see. eg, how do we know that the colour i see as 'red' is the same colour you see as 'red'? as long as we're both consistently seeing the same shade independently of each other, we're still referring to it as 'red' if that's what we think 'red' is. also, we know that memory is failable. eye witness testimony can be radically alterted through suggestion and misdirection, resulting in very clear concrete beliefs of a given witnessed situation that do not bear strong resemblance to each other. i guess what i'm getting at is just how 'real' and dependable is 'belief', or faith or whatever. i used to be crippled by occasional moments of ontological catastrophy where i would suddenly be unsure if i actually knew anything. i still get this from time to time, but thankfully not nearly so often, but let me illustrate from a school days example. my mother would drive to school to collect me in a compact silver honda civic. now, i know the colour of the car, the make and model, and the appearance of the driver, and i understand all this quite well. however, i also didn't trust my memory and my perceptions, and i knew even at a young age that i couldn't recognize faces that well. and so, standing there by the car pool area, i would time and time again be struck with the terror and potential humiliation that i might go up to the wrong silver car, or think i'd seen mom and approach the wrong person. this fear would ultimately cause me to question my perception and recognitions even further, resulting in a complete breakdown of any certitude about any knowledge whatsoever. flash forward nearly 20 years and i'm driving home one night when i realize the car in front of me has taken every turn i would have taken, and we're now off all main roads and into some side streets that really only lead to my neighbourhood... or, you know, the shortcut access to another main road... suddenly the panic hits me, what if i don't really live there? what if it's actually 2025 and i've just had some sort of flashback relapse to a time when i lived in this neighborhoud twenty years ago and i'm about to blithely pull up to someone else's driveway and try my key in a lock that doesn't work and i'll have to explain that of COURSE i live here... don't i? and i won't have any memory of where i really do belong or live and... at about this time the car in front of me turns onto that main road that i've forgotten about and i get something of a grip on myself. but it's still there... i still have this fundamental crack in my understanding of what belief and memory can provide us. i am a flawed mind, living in a flawed world. how do i *know* anything? ... so yeah, nice essay, honey. if anyone needs me I'm going to be hiding under the bed and trying not to choke to death on dust bunnies.
I have to process this a bit and put some thought in it, but I thought it would look good right next to the "Romance in Discworld" - discussion. I'll think I want to take a closer look at Boffo and Small Gods. I haven't looked at my old Discworld novels in ages, it seems - there was so much to read I felt guilty rereading things, even though someone once said that only re-reading is good reading...
