Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett -- as relevant today as it was over 25 years ago

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Can you hone currently relevant wisdom from a silly little novel about dragons and impotent guards set in a medieval fantasy world and written nearly thirty years ago? Why yes. Yes you can. Take, for example, this passage from Terry Pratchett's arguably most popular DiscWorld novel Guards! Guards!

Excerpt from Guards! Guards!

 by Terry Pratchett

1989 

I try not to get too political when I write reviews, but this passage struck me as ironic while reading this in 2026 during the Trumpocolypse -- and writing about it on the day of the dude's birthday, no less (and no, I will not be watching the 250th anniversary UFC fight on the White House stage/lawn. I've seen the movie Idiocracy, and I don't need to see it play out in real life, thank you very much). The arts, it seems, is full of prophets.

Guards! Guards! is the 8th book in the long ago popular DiscWorld series. I have been told that you don't need to read the series in order, but I'm an orderly philistine who likes to approach things with some linear semblance (This also applies to Star Wars. A New Hope will always be the first to me). They're right. You probably don't need to read books 1-7 first, but side characters and world building from some of the previous novels might make the read more of a pleasure. It prepares you for the appearance of DEATH and the Librarian, after all. So let's summarize for the potential new generation of readers who (gasp!) might not be at all familiar with Pratchett and his work.

The story takes place in the cesspool of a big city called Ankh-Morpork, where crime runs legally rampant due to various shady guilds who control everything due to shady government deals, and where the understaffed policing department, The Watch led by Captain Vimes, serves its community best by turning a blind eye and staying out of harm's way. There is no "king" here; there is a government appointed Patrician named Vetinari, who is hardly a saint as far as government leaders go. But it's better than a king, right?

Well, some citizens of Ankh-Morpork disagree. A cult-like cabal sets out to change things by summoning a dragon with a restricted access book stolen from the city's magical library. If they summon the dragon, they can rely on some fool with a magic sword to come slay it and, by default, that brave young knight with heretofore unknown royal lineage, is crowned king. That's the plan. And, for some reason, it works.

Until it doesn't. Until the summoned dragon gets his own ideas and decides that it could just as well be king too. This is literally a play with fire and get burned scenario. Captain Vimes and his mismatched crew of watchmen (including too old to be working Nobby, out-of-shape Colon, and by-the-book dwarf Carrot--who is way too tall to be a dwarf and named Carrot because of his top heavy build, not his hair color) embark on a quest to save the city from its own lack of courage. They engage the help of Lady Ramkin, a socialite with a keen interest and knowledge of the lesser swamp dragons whom she cares for and raises like pets.

It sounds a bit like a circus, much like our current state of affairs on this day in America with this current administration (do not --at-- me with your opinions. This book is nearing 30 years old!). But the outrageous fantasy element makes it fun and absurd and, by default, maybe easier to manage. What it tells me is that, from the perspective of Terry Pratchett, we've been through this before. And it's more than likely that we'll make it through to the end. Even if the odds are a million to one. Coincidentally, a quote from both Star Wars and Guards! Guards!
 

If you haven't read it yet, why not? Get on it! Find it here, or at your library, or wherever books are sold. 

The Haunting of Hill House -- by Shirley Jackson -- The book that sets the stage for modern day Gothic Horror

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It took me way too long to tick this one off my TBR list, having weened my horror teeth on Stephen King and maybe Anne Rice instead. My earliest introduction to Jackson was in high school, with her short story The Lottery, and that one stuck with me enough to know I would have to get to her greater work. So... here we are.

Shirley Jackson's genre defining work sets the stage for most Gothic horror novels to come after it, so if haunted house stories are your go to read, this one is a must in terms of foundational classics. It's that simple, without laying out the details of the story. It’s a short and easy read, and no—you can’t watch the Mike Flanagan series on Netflix and say you've "read it." The series isn’t an adaptation. It's more like a sequel. This book is more like the backstory.

I also believe that the title is a bit of a play on words. Hill House might not necessarily be a haunted house in as much as it is a house searching for a lonely spirit to haunt it. And that’s where our main character Eleanor steps in. I'm not going to explain the plot. You might generally say it's about a group of the first paranormal investigators, sans infrared cameras and detection meters, but it's also about more. It's about the young woman Eleanor looking for where she fits in life. The story can feel a bit meandering at times, but it makes sense by the end because we are not supposed to focus on the house as much as we are on Eleanor.

Anyway, it's a renowned read for a reason, so if you haven’t read it, go check it out. Or refresh. Then go enjoy the Netflix series, because Flanagan did a great job with broadening the scope of the book's tone and ideas. 

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse — Starting the New Year with an Old Classic

 And what a year it’s been so far. Less than one month in, and we’re battling devastating wildfires here in California, uncommonly freezing temperatures throughout the rest of the country, a shaky ceasefire agreement and a new political future in the United States that has a big segment of the population more than worried.

But I’m not going to get into politics. You can probably figure out where I stand on that front, and that’s all I have to say. Or if I really need to give you a hint, stop banning books and give to your local libraries.

I believe Hermann Hesse would have agreed with me. Steppenwolf takes place in Germany at a time of political turmoil, and while he doesn’t place specific focus on it, it is a time that's leading to war and fascism, and he’s not too happy about it—which may be partly why his main character Harry Haller is so depressed and planning his own suicide. And that’s the whole gist of the story. Harry Haller is depressed. He questions the meaning of his life, and life in general, and he has decided that at 50 years old, it’s time to kill himself. But then something happens—a mysterious sign over the doorway of a mysterious theater, and a mysterious woman who makes him rethink things.

This might be a good book to revisit at the Dawn of 2025… Anyway, a coworker suggested I check this book out. So, here's the extended review:

My coworker suggested I read this piece of classic literature before he finally broke down and gave it to me as a Christmas gift. Fun fact: that same Christmas, I gifted him a book too—Existentialism—A Very Short History. After reading Steppenwolf, I feel like I chose wisely.

The novel is about a man nearing fifty who ponders the meaning of life and of his own existence as an outlier/observer, and thus makes plans for his own suicide as he comes to the conclusion that people are destined to die anyway, and there is no joy to be had once you realize it. Then he comes upon a man with a sign, and a closed door to a theater that's "for madmen only." He meets an intriguing woman, Hermine—who reminds our protagonist Harry of a long ago friend named Herman, and she lures Harry into a quest to find all the possibilities of life, death, happiness and longing by living a more decadent and carefree life beyond the bourgeois lifestyle he leads and at the same time despises.

The bulk of the story is Harry resisting this path, until he doesn’t, then learning the lessons of possibilities once he gives himself over to the whims of chaos and unpredictability. Written in 1929 and set in Germany, the story suffers from some of the prejudices of its time, but I found it admirable to see it touch on current topics just the same. For instance, Herman partly falls in love with Hermine because of her resemblance to his boyhood friend Herman. And at one point, Hermine dresses like a man for the purpose of being mistaken for a Herman. So that touch of playing with gender norms is a great example of its existence—without condemnation—a hundred years ago.

If existentialism is a subject that intrigues you, then Hesse's Steppenwolf is a must for your literary shelves. It's a classic that should be available anywhere you look—even your local library.