Terry Pratchett's Discworld - Equal Rites (Witches 1)

Little bit of time travel it’s 1987 for this novel - Mrs Thatcher was in her supremacy (dark times); the yuppies were just waving their Filofaxes and the Cold War that dominated the last forty years begins to thaw. Personally though I’m turning 11 in a dreadful junior school; have just rediscovered by love of Doctor Who in Sylvester McCoy and want to be a librarian. I however read my copy still in 1996 starting university soon and enjoying 90’s indie and proper music you young whippersnappers! Ahem

my edition

Corgi paperback

Price - £4.99 (1996)

The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did before Death laud a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his staff of power to the eighth son of an eight son. Unfortunately for his colleagues in the chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic, he failed to check on the new-norm baby’s sex….

We have had an interesting debate in the twitters on Equal Rites and how it should be measured in terms of best work. I think it’s hard to not say it’s a very important book in the series but I don’t think it’s entirely successful in hitting the targets it’s aiming at. In the 1980s a successful fantasy book was generally thought to be leading to one obvious answer - behold assorted Belgariads, Wheels and various other never ending sagas. By 1987 The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic have been popular hits so when you to that third books what would you expect? I think the direction Pratchett takes in this third novel is hugely important for the development of the wider series but it still carries some of the earlier novel’s flaws.

In this tale we meet probably my favourite Discworld character - Granny Weatherwax in a very early adventure. She delivers to a local family a baby named Esk. Esk has been provided with the powers of a wizard who knew he was going to shortly die but didn’t check too closely what sex Esk was. The Disc’s first female wizard has been born. Granny Weatherwax has to start Esk on the road to magic but also deal with Esk’s desire to leave the Ramptop Mountains enter the mysterious Unseen University and get her rightful role as a wizard.

I have to applaud Pratchett for not going down the path of yet another Rincewind and Twoflower adventure. It would not have been hard to give us more of the same. But by purposely making the next Discworld a story with very different new characters and locations I think Pratchett made this story hugely important - the breadth of stories that the Disc can provide is from now onwards limited only by the author’s imagination not by the format of any particular book. As we will see in the readalongs to come that gives us an awful lot of world to see.

Also importantly Pratchett is aiming targets at sexism in 1987 - a time we tend to think of as male dominated often sexist fantasy. One of my favourite parts of the book is when we see young intelligent Esk being mocked and tormented by the male wizards. Pratchett gets the reader to actually feel that pain of complete unfairness when you’re excluded unfairly. Esk is just as capable (and reality more capable) as any wizard but she is shut out purely on gender. It’s a very inventive world and it’s interesting to see Pratchett showing us that behind the posh wizards is a whole lower class of servants all keeping the place going. These again I think are all themes we see Pratchett return to several times in future novels. It’s not a storyline you’d tend to expect in 1980s fantasy particularly written by a man but here is something very different and it’s hard to match the two prior books to those kind of deeper themes. Equal Rites begins the journey of becoming fantasy novels combining with modern social commentary. I’d love to have seen the reaction from readers at the time!

I also think the writing and character development is showing further signs of improvement. Pratchett was prior to Discworld a writer of children’s tales and I suspect these days this could easily have been classed as YA but for me regardless of that he writes Granny and Esk really well. Esk sounds just like any smart eight year old - trying to understand the world and sometimes bang on target and sometimes very off. Granny Weatherwax here is a little less formidable as I tend to think of her but we still see her love of nature; her reliance on common sense rather than magic (here headology arrives) and that willpower to see things to the end all come across. I love the scenes of her showing Borrowing and the later idea of being able to take on the mind of a building is unqiue again. I also can’t help but think that the fortune teller Hilta we meet with her attitude and hat with fruit on is definitely an early draft of the amazing Nanny Ogg.

I love the first 180 pages as we see Esk learn who she is and discussions on what magic is and is not. But in this 280 page novel that doesn’t allow for much else. We don’t really get to Unseen University until very late in the novel and while I think Pratchett nails how it can feel to be discriminated against nit much else happens on that subject. Instead the latter section with wizards and threats from Dungeon Dimensions for me falls apart quickly and feels very much bolted on to give us an action sequence. Very little gets fleshed out at this stage and I can’t help thinking a few years later Pratchett would have made this story sing and be a lot more nimble in exploring the whole subject of sexism. While it has a feminist outlook I don’t think enough is being made of it. But Granny and Esk are probably the first active female leads that start a template for many more to come

Many years later it is interesting to see that Pratchett chose in the Tiffany Aching YA series to get Granny and a grown up version of Esk working with another bright apprentice. I think that cycle is one of the best miniseries in whole books but I also think it shows one of the biggest disappointments in Equal Rites. The situation at the end of the book is never gone back to - forever more wizards stay male; Esk is never mentioned by Granny and for a series that as we will see lived on developing itself after each novel to know this story ends here feels a lot opportunity. You can see this as an experience that shapes Granny into the person we meet a few books later but I tend to think that like TCOM it feels more like a sketch that later on we get made much more solid and deeper in themes. Many years later Tiffany Aching probably shows how Equal Rites could have better handled the subject and tone.

Overall I really respect what Pratchett is trying to do here but it doesn’t land very well. Pacing falls down and other characters feel purely there for support and the last third of the book is weak. but it’s still a good read and I enjoyed revisiting it. You can feel Pratchett exploring what he can do with this format. The Discworld is evolving but much more sharpening of the approach is required.

helpfully next week though is Mort!