Before talking about the Disc, this week I took a few minutes to talk about the Black Swan event we are all experiencing. It’s a time of reckoning, and we have to acknowledge that. I couldn’t ignore it this week, anyway, and so I devoted a few minutes to it. Btw, my wife and I were talking about the astonishing benefits to the environment the pandemic is bringing about, and she said, “Yeah, the planet is fixing itself.” It is indeed, and there’s a profound poetic justice there.
As for our trip through the Portal, we consider the grags, and especially Ardent, and their impassioned attempts to throw a spanner into the gears of progress in the name of preserving “true dwarfishness,” which of course they get to define.
Moreover, we look at the fact that the latter books in the series were the culmination of Sir Terry’s skill as a social critic (and not just a satirist, let alone a “humorous fantasy writer.”) He takes on governmental institutions, banks and financing, racism and slavery, terrorism, and technological “progress,” with a skill that makes the books as entertaining as ever, but which also makes the thoughtful reader say wow, did he nail that.
You may find details about this season’s contest at https://mindkindle.net/season-five-contest-get-home/, or on the show’s Discord server, Friends of the Discworld Portal, at https://discord.gg/SXp5K9r.
The show’s bonus episodes are now available for the ridiculously low price of $5 apiece. You can find the back catalog at https://mindkindle.net/back-catalog-of-bonus-episodes/ or on the Discord server.
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As always no cats, turtles, or other superior beings were harmed in the making of this episode.
The Turtle Moves