Mort: A Novel of Discworld (Discworld, 4)

Totally R(e)ad Book Club June 25, 2023 The Totally R(e)ad Book Club meeting for June 2023 was held on the 25th, being a bit late in deference to Father’s Day the previous Sunday. Win graciously hosted (and provided coverage of the LSU/Florida CWS game), preparing spaghetti and meat sauce, which the members complemented with chips and g’luck dip, wine, and bread. In attendance were Paul, Laura, Win, Alex, Bob, and the Judge, with the latter two arriving late, due to not getting the schedule change email. In Mark’s absence, Win banged the gavel at 4:25 pm, and opened the discussion of Mort, by Terry Pratchett. Mort is the fourth book in Pratchett’s Discworld series. It is the story of a gangly, teenage boy named Mort, whose father takes him to a trade fair, hoping to get his son an apprenticeship, at the urging of the boy’s Uncle Hamish. As the fair draws to a close, Mort has not been selected by any master, and it appears his uncertain future will continue to be exactly that. However, at the last minute a cloak-clad figure comes forward and takes Mort under his wing. It does not take long to realize the master is the Grim Reaper, and that Mort (not so coincidentally named after the word for death in seemingly all languages except English) will be assisting those at the end of their life to “pass over.” Time is a fluid concept in Mort, as Mort’s formative years are spent in a time of kings, queens, castles and villages, but there are references to six lane motorways in the author’s descriptions of places. Likewise, time is suspended in the home of “Death” (the Grim Reaper). Isabella, who lives in Death’s household, has been 16 years old for over 30 years, and will not age. Upon Mort’s arrival, Isabella senses the chance to marry, as she has not seen another human since her arrival. Also living in Death’s house is Albert, who runs the house. Albert is a former wizard, who mysteriously disappeared from the human world some time back. Death’s estate is very interesting as it has a room full of hour glasses which track the time remaining for all of the living. It also has a library where everyone’s life story is recorded on an on-going, live basis, by invisible finger inscribing the pages. For the sake of setting it should be pointed out that “the world” is a flat disc sitting on a turtle’s back, with the turtle being supported by an elephant under each foot. Mort’s new job requires that he assist Death in trips to the Discworld to help people transition to the next world. This becomes a problem when Mort’s humanity gets in the way of “simply doing his job” of letting people die. He finds out that even young people and people who don’t “deserve” to die, must die. One of his “clients” on his first solo job is a young, attractive princess, who is going to be assassinated. Mort cannot watch it happen and saves Kelly from her fate. This interruption of fate sets off a race between Mort and his fellow Death householders and “time” which is approaching like a weather front to correct the error. At the same time, Death decides to take an actual day off, and turn it all over to Mort. He takes a job as a bartender, and interacts with living humans, in some interesting encounters. Mort’s attraction to the doomed Kelly, Isabella’s attraction to Mort, and Death’s dealing with the consequences of Mort’s misdoings form the basis of the plot of this fantasy novel. Finally, Death makes a deal with the Gods, and reality is changed such that Kelly lives, and marries Mort. Death then gives Mort and Kelly a special pearl as a wedding present that sounds amazingly like a tiny globe of the world (earth) that we know. In Mark’s stead, Win began the meeting with the statement, “I am glad I read this, so I can tell people I read it.” Alex has read the book multiple times and cleared up the time portion of the setting saying, “It has its own calendar, and it is a social satire about England, but is written for our day.” He also pointed out Death’s attraction to cats (he even plays with one on his day off), which is a Halloween-ish, death-like attraction. Laura had read two other books from the series, so had a little more context for this one. She said would not be reading all 39, but is not opposed to reading more. She said she enjoyed the book, but it was not the best ever. Paul pointed out that characters in the book often called Mort “boy,” and he corrected them by saying “Mort,” each time. Essentially, he was declaring himself Death, in Death’s absence. Keane said he was distracted by the extra “f” in all of the words spoken by the door knocker, as he could not find a way to pronounce these words. He also struggled with the odd names and places. Paul, Laura, and Keane all liked the imagery created by the hour glasses and the books writing themselves. Keane also liked the altered reality created by Mort letting Kelly live, and trying to figure out how that was going to be resolved. He also wondered if the pearl that Death gave Kelly and Mort as a wedding present was actually the new reality, in which Kelly lived. Paul commented that the image of the disc sitting on the back of a turtle supported by four elephants sounded familiar. Laura confirmed via Wikipedia that this belief is/was part of Hindu, Greek, and Indigenous North American people’s beliefs. Paul found it interesting that three unique cultures would come up with something this similar. Laura then pointed out that many world religions also have a massive world flood story. Despite the book being fantasy, there were recognizable human relationships and struggles that were well explored: Isabella is stuck in an existence Mort carries on an interesting relationship with Death Kelly wants to be coronated as queen, despite being dead Etc. Alex made a poignant comment stating that he believed the theme of the book to be not allowing your job to define you. Although your job will attempt to do that, you can stand up against it. Paul said that observation changed his whole outlook on the book. Identifying a Count Mippipopolous in the book proved to be a challenge for the second month in a row. This month was difficult due to the fact that there are not many characters in the book, so very few minor characters. Finally Win nominated Uncle Hamish, which was a position supported by Alex, and the group agreed. Faithfully submitted, Paul Hippman

I likes.

Gosh I enjoyed this. Exactly what reading should be... transports you to a totally different world where you’re immersed with great characters and an interesting yarn. First Pratchett and I’m not sure why I’ve delayed so long. Very easy, fun read.