53, WG30, E46, / NG23, D7, C1, Frz0, B1, NA0

Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

Ja, in einer perfekten Welt hätte ich den Band zuerst lesen müssen. Oder vielleicht noch mit 'Wyrd Sisters' angefangen. Seis drum, den Band hab ich noch länger ruhen lassen als andere Witches-Bände, aber konnte mich noch gut erinnern, wie ungeheuer viele Märchen und Sagen darin erwähnt oder verarbeitet wurde, gefühlt in jeder zweiten Zeile. Und das alles vor dem Hintergrund der Discworldversion von New Orleans, das ist einfach nur genial.
.
People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.
.
He hadn't been a kind ruler. But he'd fitted. And when he'd been arbitrary or arrogant or just plain wrong, he'd never suggested that this was justified by anything other than the fact that he was bigger and stronger and occasionally nastier than other people. He'd never suggested that it was because he was better. And he'd never told people ought to be happy, and imposed a kind of happiness on them. The invisible people knew that happiness is not the natural state of mankind, and is never achieved from the outside in.
.
'Then you're nothing but a daft godmother,' snapped Granny, still fiddling with the lock. 'You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage. Besides, you don't build a better world by choppin' heads off and giving decent girls away to frogs.'
'But progress-' Magrat began.
'Don't you talk to me about progress. Progress just means bad things happen faster.'
.
Cats are like witches. They don't fight to kill, but to win. There is a difference. There's no point in killing an opponent. That way, they won't know they've lost, and to be a real winner you have to have an opponent who is beaten and knows it. There's no triumph over a corpse, but a beaten opponent, who will remain beaten every day of the remainder of their sad and wretched life, is something to treasure.
.
(Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad, 1991)