Troll Bridge (1 points)

 

I’ve waited far too long to read Terry Pratchett. I’d meant to for a while, but there’s a lot of stuff I’ve been meaning to read, or watch, or play, or listen to. I guess I’d just been intimidated; I knew Pratchett’s Discworld series was legendary and big, so I just didn’t quite know where to start. I don’t know if Troll Bridge is part of that universe, but nonetheless it was a great taste of Pratchett’s work. In just seven pages, Pratchett was able to pack loads of charm and humor alongside a tinge of melancholy. The feeling of yearning for how things used to be is palpable in this story, and not just because it’s explicitly stated by the characters. It’s the way they talk about how things are that remind me of my own feelings of nostalgia for a time long gone. But really, it’s just how we perceive things, isn’t it? Cohen and Mica long for the world they went to war for, a feeling that real veterans express when they see the world today (both the left-leaning and right-leaning veterans). They’re disappointed with how the people and systems in charge have changed things for the worse. They were supposed to be heroes that changed the world, but now they’re just people clinging to dead ideas. The world’s moved on without them and they’re struggling with that, internally and externally.

 

There are little bits of dialogue that do so much worldbuilding, like, “You can’t sell Custshade Forest. It doesn’t belong to anyone.’ ‘Yeah. He says that’s why you can sell it.” That exchange does so much to relate Pratchett’s fantasy world to our own, which is a big part of why this short story resonated with me. It does such a clean job at incorporating real world elements in a fantasy world. The combination of fantasy names with real life occupations and names, combined with the naturalistic dialogue, make it feel so real. This juxtaposition also makes Troll Bridge really funny. That exchange I brought up is kind of depressing, but also hilarious to me. It’s that absurdity that makes this story work so well as a satire of the modern world.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bloodchild (2 Points)

1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?  That was…a lot. There’s a lot to unpack with the relationship between the Tlic and the Terrans. It’s disgusting in a literal sense, but it also mirrors a lot of things going on in the real world. Their parasitic relationship, which the Tlic make out to seem mutually beneficial, reminds me of how some white people view Black people. In America, the whites are the ruling race, like the Tlic in the Preserve. They make it seems like Black people are just part of the “mutually beneficial” system of capitalism, but really, they are an oppressed class, being used to further the wealth of those in charge. This parallels how the Tlic use the Terrans as host bodies for their young, but make it seem like they’re doing the Terrans a favor by “protecting” them, when in reality they are putting them in harm’s way.  2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss what elements of the story with which you were able to connect?  I was able t
Read more

Metropolis (2 Points)

A lot of Metropolis barely feels like fiction at this point, at least when it comes to its commentary on society. As a matter of fact, it weirdly feels like a predecessor to Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite. Both visually portray class in similar ways; the working class literally live under the upper-class, who don’t really care about those beneath them. Sure, you can argue it’s a bit of an obvious visual metaphor, but I don’t think it takes away from how effective it is. I’d argue that some of the most powerful imagery seems obvious. It speaks to the core of what it’s representing, in this case how the working class is seen as below the upper class. It’s kind of hard to analyze it beyond that, because the film sums it up better than I could with its final card: “The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart.”
Read more

Future Tense (2 Points)

The year is 2220. Humanity has, in essence, created immortality. When the body dies, an AI copy of the consciousness can be created and can live on through virtual reality. Some people use this to continue to interact with dead loved ones, and others meet AI versions of their idols. There has been a lot of debate over how legitimate these AI copies are considering they are created by humans. No matter how hard they try, the people who create these do have biases. This is especially true when the family is involved in crafting the AI version of their dead relative; is this a truly authentic version of the person, or an idealized version? How does this affect their legacy? In the end, does it really matter as long as the family is happy? The morality of turning this into an industry would be questioned, but capitalism was abolished after The Millennium War in 2100, so it’s no issue. VR has blown up in popularity after scientists figured out how to simulate the sens
Read more