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Study 023 - The Sea and Little Fishes - Part 2 (Patreon)

Published:
2022-12-22 15:00:03
Imported:
2026-06
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We're back with the conclusion of The Sea and Little Fishes by Terry Pratchett!

Special thanks to reader Rachel Lackey of Rachel Watches Star Trek!

Next up: more Pratchett with Troll Bridge!

Comments

Adequately Excellent Entertainment

I would say that “la-tea-ss” (the way you pronounced it at first). Is how Madame Earwigg TELLS people it’s pronounced. But considering this is a world where there was a King named “Richard Yee-Gods-But-He’s-A-Heavy-One”… Her name absolutely IS “Lettuce”.

Adequately Excellent Entertainment

On the subject of Granny, Chris is right. Her master revenge plan couldn’t ever be anything other than EXACTLY what was asked of her. As the description of how witches in general treat people, described the undeserving as getting “more than they bargained for”. Another thing Dysk World witches go on about using, instead of magic, is “headology”. That is, they use psychology quite a lot.

DreamingofRoses

You absolutely have to read the Tiffany Aching stories now (not for the pod, just for fun) it will give you a better understanding for how witches work, and “Hat Full of Sky” has some very similar themes on wishes and getting what you ask for.

Derrick Mcmullin

Pterry is my favorite author bar none. While we disagree on certain things the heart of his writing is that helping everyone you can, in the way you help best, is the thing everyone can strive for and I wholeheartedly stand by that. In this story granny shows that doing things her way is really best for everyone even if it doesn't seem so at the time.

Saint Fu

The phrase you guys are looking for is “malicious compliance.”

Avlin Starfall

Chad, do you write down these little scenarios, like the one you said about the little boy who wanted a soldier, before hand or do you just come up with them on the fly?

HRPrice

Oh it was definitely a plan from the word “go”. Granny just gave Lettice the rope she needed to hang herself. Lettice didn’t want Granny to be nice, she wanted Granny to oppose her so that she could gain social power by opposing back “for everyone’s sake”. That’s what the “you know you could have done it easily” admitted. Too bad for Lettice, Granny’s reputation isn’t an accident of personality. It’s a tool in her witchcraft toolkit, and she knows when it works against her.

Joshua Weiss

My reading of the title of this story is as an inversion of "a big fish in a small pond." Lettice imagines herself as the top witch, but fails to appreciate the sheer scale of Granny's reputation and skill.

Pagurus

Terry Pratchett. Okay. I hardly know where to start. Maybe my problem is that I loved Discworld as a teenager but sort of grew out of it. Maybe I was just overfed at some point and never recovered. At any rate, I think it is fair to say that TP did not so much write 40+ discworld novels as repeat 2-3 novels over and over again with only slight variations. That is not to say that the story covered here as such is bad, it is just super run of the mill in terms of Pratchett-ness. Familiar setting, recurring characters, and the inevitable be-careful-what-you-wish-for moral. The villain is the embodiment of a very specific everyday pet peeve everyone can relate to and the heroes are given more "depth" by assigning them supposed faults (that are in fact also super relatable). Add to that a bit of reverse psychology, wacky side characters a heavy dose of idiosyncratic (but at its base commonplace) narrator comment. As I said - not bad as such, but given the sheer amount of the stuff TP mass produced during his lifetime, an AI could probably take over at this point and yank out another discworld story just as good.

Peter Mellett

A prime example of Headology. Granny didn't need any magic to make everyone crack under the pressure. Overall it's a fun little story, it follows a good number of novels featuring the witches so Granny being nice is definitely suspicious. And leads into a closer look at what it is to be a young witch. On why witches in Discworld tend to be rural: Most of what they do isn't actually magic it's knowledge of practical things like medicine and psychology and being a respected (if vaguely feared) member of the community. So for a tiny mountain village having a witch can mean surviving the winter. Wizards on the other hand are academics and end up in universities which are inevitably in the cities. A wizard who is outdoorsy is notable. I enjoyed these episodes immensely. Rachel's reading really brought it to life for me.

Darth Pseudonym

One of the books has more stuff about Letice Earwig -- I don't recall if it's one of the Tiffany Aching books or one of the later Witches books. Anyway, she insists that her name should be pronounced "leh-TEES AR-waj", which is a reference to Hyacinth Bucket ("boo-KAY") from the british sitcom "Keeping Up Appearances". She's a thinly veiled reference to Silver Ravenwolf, a real world author who claims to be wiccan but wrote a bunch of books that are often seen as pandering to teenagers who want the mystique of witchcraft but aren't interested in actually trying to practice wicca.

Jim Cannon

Well that was a lot of fun! I think Chad called it in the first episode though, this could easily have been an episode of The Golden Girls. The fantasy elements were just set dressing, this could have been about musicians, or fencers, or quilters, or bakers, and the beats would have all been the same. Which is not a knock by any means, it speaks to the universality of the experience. I am completely tickled by the notion of teetotaling bees, however.

It's a Ghost.

Thanks for delving into Terry Pratchett! I had always stayed away from his books, I think because I didn’t think I liked comic fantasy. However, a few years ago I really enjoyed the TV adaptation of his book “Hogfather,” and now I really liked this story, too, so I guess I do like both Pratchett and comic fantasy!

Jerome Arnold

Currently reading "The Screwtape Letters" by C. S. Lewis. Might be worth a strange study. Could be a little too theological (I have no horse in the race), but I wouldn't think it any more problematic than Washinton Irving's "The Money-Diggers" in that field.

Andrew Brown

It’s sad to realize Pratchett would be canceled in this day and age…

Chris Vinny

Was the Kicks/kisses line a reference to hard knock life from Annie? Or are they both referencing some known saying involving that juxtaposition? Any musical theatre people know?