Having just opened the new Terry Pratchett book for the first time, I can only say...
Arrrrrggghhh!! WTF???? Chapters? What the f**k is he playing at, using actual chapters??? Wrong, wrong, wrong.
I'm confused.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I know! I was also shocked. It may be the beginning of the end.
I think this would be the first time he's used chapters in one of the "main" Discworld books, but most of his other ones (all the children's ones at least) do.
Anyway, what's the difference between having a new page with "Chapter (N + 1)" and having a row of stars? It's still a narrative break, and makes not the slightest difference to the flow of the story - there have always been notional chapters in there anyway, this just applies the conventional labelling system to them.
I think in terms of overall narrative it probably makes little difference.
Stylistically, it's a big difference.
This is probably going to turn into a pointless argument, but I'm bored.
Stylistically, all he's done is press Ctrl + Enter a few times where he used to put a few asterisks! I would not call this a major difference.
I guess this is to do with how I read compared to how you do - to me the book is a collection of text, and with the exception of punctuation (and having the letters going from left to right across the page!) I really don't think I notice anything else going on with formatting.
It's a little more than that... There are chapter titles and descriptions (Tove Jansson Moomin style) of what's coming up - ie
A Lost ArgumentIn which Chip realises he has lost an argument, and that Mr Pratchett really has made something of a stylistic change
Hmmm.. how have you got tags into a comment? It won't let me do that.
A Continuing ArgumentIn which Chip continues to argue that that's hardly a major change in writing style. "Major" would be something I'd class as Iain Banks vs Iain M Banks. Having chapters and a one-line plot summary are still not major.
Um Tags. I just type them. You clearly seem to have worked it out too!
Not read it yet, but it's on my shelf, awaiting me. Like my bed is awaiting me now. But that's on the floor, not a shelf. I don't think I have any shelves big enough to support a bed and me at once.
Post a Comment