The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret - 125: Going Postal Pt. 2 (Redemption Addict)

Episode Date: September 17, 2023

The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret is a podcast in which your hosts, Joanna Hagan and Francine Carrel, read and recap every book from Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series in chronological order. This week, Part 2 of our recap of “Going Postal”. Stamps! Letters! Partially-Digested Pigeons! Find us on the internet:Join the Discord Twitter: @MakeYeFretPodInstagram: @TheTruthShallMakeYeFretFacebook: @TheTruthShallMakeYeFretEmail: [e-mail]: www.patreon.com/thetruthshallmakeyefretWant to follow your hosts and their internet doings? Follow Joanna on twitter @joannahagan and follow Francine @francibambi Things we blathered on about:Discworld Monthly/Better Than a Poke in the Eye announcement - Tumblr  Tim Curry is Escaping - YoutubeLadislav Pelc - Discworld Wiki Thomas Parke D’Invilliers - WikiThe Destruction of Sennacherib - Poetry FoundationGenizah - Britannica 60 years since the start of the modern postcode - The Postal Museum Fake news of Napoleon's death cited in guidance to help traders - Reuters Stock-market fraud, steganography and cyberattacks…in 1834!- Andrea Fortuna Music: Chris Collins, indiemusicbox.com

If I could just shape shift, it would be much easier. Wouldn't it? For so many things. On Sunday, it was so hot, and I was trying to say, which makes for breakfast, and then I said, fuck it, can we go to the beach? It's cooler there. So we went to Southwalt, sat in the beach, read a book, had a lovely day.

Half-acted, I love Southwalt. I forgot how nice that we were like right on the sort of harbor bit where it's like, you were almost in Warbur's work, and I forgot how nice that bit of beaches and they were dogs everywhere and yeah over a little paddle it was very fun. I just yeah. So do you ever like you're doing a new thing and it's like the first time you're trying to do this thing and so you kind of just blindly forge your head with it rather than thinking the task out step by step and then end up

with damp feet? More often than I'd like to put it, yes, what did you do? So I finished knitting the fish jumper. Something's going to be about the beach. No, this is nothing's doing the beach. There's a thing in nesting when you block your work or you soak the piece in water and then you have to ring out all the water because obviously it's wool. Of course, you pin it out nicely on mats and it makes it hold it's like nice shape afterwards and it comes together. So like if you drink something you can make it wet and kind of

reach it like that kind of, okay, okay, okay, okay. You're supposed to do it with new pieces and I never bothered blocking any of my work before but I finished this jumper and I thought I should do it properly, I should block it and I bought blocking mats and the pins that go with them and everything and then obviously I got to the bit where I soaked it in water and realized I needed to ring it out. And the thing I'd read recommended you roll it up in a towel and then you'd like, ring it out as much as you can over the sink and then roll it up in a towel. So it just like kind of washing generally.

Yeah, yeah. But no, ringer, yeah. And then step on it to kind of squish as much of the water out as possible. And I was just blindly going along and I did that. And I didn't think to take my socks off. And then suddenly realized I was just stood there on a towel, would jump her up to an towel with damp socks. Hmm. Hmm.

And I question my life choices a little bit in that moment. I understand that because why would you think that, well, actually probably most people probably just wouldn't know, I think, the socks off at that situation. So, I'm in that situation. So, Discord monthly, is that news we should talk about in the podcast? Yeah, I think we should be. We're in, it's industry news.

So, Discord monthly turned a profile picture in Banner Black, causing much speculation overnight. Yeah. And then announced that there would no longer be Discord monthly, but instead, what was it? Better than a poke in the eye. better than a poke in the eye, better than a poke in the eye referencing something that toe-pratch it once said about the organization,

which was Dysguelve Monthly better than a poke in the eye with a little unstick. Yeah, which I agree I would use the tagline forever, but I don't even want to talk about me. But anyway, they're now going to be a more broadly fantasy fiction. Yeah, comedy kind of things. We got, they're going to expand their scope to cover Robert Rankin and Jasper Ford and

those lot. Yeah, those lot. Those are all of the pictures of this world. I haven't got any more nerdy or disc-well-de-news, so how about you? I read some new books over the last couple of weeks. I gave up on my whole big re-read thing. So what have you been reading instead? I read a closed-in common orbit, which is the follow-up to a long way to a small-langory planet by Becky Chambers. It's been out for ages. I just never got around to picking it up.

Okay. There's a third one now as well, which I'll have to go and get at some point. But it was really lovely. I loved it. I love Becky Chambers. Good. Did you read a long way to a small-language planner? I did, and I will at some point.

You'll enjoy it, I think, very well. I'm close and common all, but it's really lovely. She manages to make, I don't want to spoil what the book's about because it would spoil a long way to a small-language planner, but she manages to take an experience that literally no one reading the book could have experienced in any way and make it seem incredibly familiar and relatable. It's really cleverly done. You can do that. Yeah. And I just finished this morning, the prior of the orange tree, by, I can't remember the author's name now. Yeah, you tell me you were reading this. Yeah, I've forgotten this one, it's cool.

There's a big fancy one, I've been seeing it all over Booktalk, but unlike fourth-wing, I've been seeing nothing but positive things about it on Booktalk, and it's really great, huge, epic high fantasy that's dragging this, the sapphic romance, courting, treague. Yeah, really, I've no ended up on Booktalk very much. On the podcast account, I obviously get on look talk very much on the podcast account.

I obviously get quite a lot of that on the algorithm but on why not? I like it. Much book talk. Did you say there was another one that seems to be controversial? That was the one our friend red recently, the fourth wing, which is like some people really love some people have kind of written off as incredibly Tropy. I will say prior to the ornestry, like the opening felt super super tropey, like, you know, oh no, I am from this land and this person is clearly from this land and the customs and ways of difference and it's the night before the choosing. I don't think tropes are always bad thing. No, I don't at all. It's fun. Like it made me laugh, it didn't put me off reading it and it's fun.

I think decommens the instrument. Yeah, it's fun how it goes into tropes and it plays with them. And women don't get casually sexually assaulted every other page, which... And we're for a high-pancy work for me is a big thumbs up. Ah, yes. One of the many reasons I do prefer sci-fi'd fans to usually, I mean, it not like it's non-existent but there is significantly less of it in sci-fi. There's also significantly less women overall in sci-fi, I think that's why there's so much less sexual assault.

It's partly that yeah, no. No, no. So you know they're reading a fantasy book that also doesn't have sexual assault and does have more than one woman. Do they talk to each other about something other than a man? Fuck. I never thought they're looking at the best L test thing in these, be honest.

Yeah, I mean, I love Discworld, but I mean, the monstrous regiment definitely passed the best L test. Mm-hmm. Oh, gosh. It has been quite a long week, but I'm feeling significantly more awake than I thought I would. I expected about 10 o'clock I will stop things a good about life at which point I will remember

I haven't had dinner. Yes, quite possibly. I've got leftover curry and chips to have for dinner. No, you're very excited about that. Left over chips. Can you reheat chips and how do they go? I have oven chips and then I have leftover curry. Good, good, good. Yeah, I don't think chips really reheat well. Hmm. I think you've got to accept chips as they come or not at all. And I think there's a real truth in that. Fuck me. Do you want to make a book?

Yeah, let's make a book. Hello and welcome to the true show, Make Me a P, a podcast in which we are reading and recapping every book from Toe Branch's Discworld series, one of the time in chronological order, I'm Joanna Hagen. And I'm Francie and Carol. And this is part two of our discussion of going postal. It's going! It's gone!

The post it went! The post it went places! It went places! Ah! This section covers chapters 5 through 9, inclusive of the book. Note on spoilers before we crack on, we are a spoiler light podcast. Obviously heavy spoilers are bound for the going postal. However, we will avoid spoiling any major future events in the

disc world series and with saving any and all discussion of the Shepherds Crown until we get there. So you dear listener can come on the journey with us. I'd have paid so irresponsible you'll need a nice bath at the end. Some follow-up bits. Some follow-up. I'm going to start with mine. From the discord PD. From the show, from the pod, regular correspondent. Her is correctly reminded us as somebody probably he did during feed-to-clay. it's golem, not golem. Yep, yeah, I'll try. Same. He also however said that he was looking forward to us pointing out that now we're going full

jeeps, especially when he said one must always consider the psychology of the individual, which is the base of most of jeeps plans, which I see to a point, however, I would like to say I feel like Mr. Pump went full jeaves with much more of plum in this part, when he said, I did in fact try to clean your suit with spot remover, sir, but since it was effectively just one large spot it removed the whole suit. And I'm sorry, sir, I assumed that dusters had been saved for your suit. That felt right, but you felt a lot more jeezy and tinier. A couple of other bits of follow up. We were talking about where Glom of Knitter turned up before there's a conversation

between Karen and Vimes about the post office in men at arms. Thank you, Martin on Twitter. Excellent. On the demands not dead while his name still spoken, locks air on discord, whose nickname we've been pronouncing wrong, I have got it right now. Pointed out the one of the best examples of that is Aynasir. Excuse me. The guy who sold bad copper. Oh yes! Yay! Which I love because he doesn't love a bit of A. And I don't know if I'm saying his name right,

but did I say something about that the other day? Did I? Did someone made it out of shortbread? Oh, that's true. The tablet with the complaints. Excellent. I kind of used you as an external filing cabinet for some of this stuff.

Like I just like, that's very things and to do I not forget. Yeah. That's fair. I'll be a spare tech talk file and cabinet. That's all you want from me. Acronym, some acronym submissions from Discord. Luxeer suggested for Clatch, Kiss, lick and touch a homey for that.

You do have to spell Chia with a CH, but I'll allow it. A few submissions for Lanker from PD, Lava near Carnal romantic experiences. Yeah, I love good. I've written one of these down wrong, something about later after naughty accesses, but I've clearly missed out a couple of letters there. That was main opera listener. Melo and suggested, love across nations, counties, rivers,

everlasting, which is very sweet. Oh, well that's sweet. There we go. Well, that's that one. Scum'd, we've got swiftly kicked up and down again. You've got a spell. Beautiful. Romantic.

And with, and, but we'll allow it because I didn't come up with any. Francine, would you like to tell us what happened previously on going postal? Stanley. Previously on going postal. Albert Spangler dies. Moist von Litvig lives much to his surprise.

The career criminal is given a second chance. He is to take the post-off postmaster, a role with a fatality right nearly as high as that of the gallows and with a much longer drop. His new colleagues don't fill him with confidence, old coot, grote and unsettling Stanley keep the lanterns lit but can't manage much else. Moist sets about winning them, and the rest of the city over. Meanwhile, the grand trunks reprehensible representatives, anoy, vetnari, more than even moist could manage,

and the patrician is left with a smoking canoe on the table. So what happened this time in this very long section? Yeah, quite a lot because it's not just a long section, but it's a long section with a lot of events, and I'll talk about the pace of this section a bit later. But yeah, so in this section, in chapter five, Stanley polishes his pins while grope musters. Meanwhile, Crispin knocks at reaches.

He's being spied on and he's fearing an audit after their abuse of the grand trunk. Crispin gives guilt to the ledger, and Eagle gets horse-fri home before sending a pigeon to Gryll. Moisting gives guilt to the ledger, and Eagle gets horse-fry home before sending a pigeon to Gryll. Moist makes a visit to the coach yard and spots a clax tower on the post office roof. He tries to get up there, but letters begin to fall.

A male slide takes him and he hallucinates the past post office and works out what happened to the last postmaster. The letters speak until pump pulls him out. Smalled men come to see Moist and send him on his walk. He delivers the letter and passes the ultimate test to become postmaster, complete with golden hat. The old men fight over the relevance of the post, but it's Moist dons the hat, letters begin to fall,

and the writings on the wall. In chapter six, Moist remembers last night, the old man he hired and the promises he made, and his new gold soup to he addresses the postman, Gropes shows Moist the sorting engine, the downfall of the old post office. As the post starts to move, Moist has an idea about stamps and sends pump for supplies. The postman struggle on their rounds and most calls at the Golem Trust for assistance, and Gammerad walks the walk and shares his history in the Golem's walk out.

In Chapter 7, Moist visits Timer and Spools, an invents perforation and postage stamps. The Meldole of Rees of Courses of Rampus, and there's a lady in the office for Moist visits Timur and Spool's and invents perforation and postage stamps. The Maldives have a call to Rampus and there's a lady in the office for Moist. In an interview for the Aunt More Pork Times, Moist shows Sackarissa's stamps and she suggests a history lesson. Moist is off to see the wizard. After being strapped into a contraption and experiencing thlaba, he meets Professor Pellke, learns he's an avatar and chats to the posthumous professor. Early in the morning, Moist stands in front of the patrician who's enjoying the newspaper. Horth fry, meanwhile, is apparently dead. Moist

offers a male run to Stolat, and as the post bustles, he mounts Boris without a saddle, asks the door around and rides for the planes. In chapter 7a, I love that, Moist makes it to Stolat, delivers the male, has above and meets the male. He returns to the city to see queues new posts, new hires and Miss McAlarriot. Headline screams Stanley gets promoted, moist forges at dinner reservation and gets a gnot from the gnoo. Meanwhile, sorry, I'm really proud of that. Meanwhile, Gryl Knox at Guilt's door, he'll be dealing with the problem at the dry old post office. In chapter 9, Moist tells the coachman a story and gets ready for a date. He meets the door at the drum and learns of her history with the trunk. old post office. In chapter 9, Moist tells the coachman a story and gets ready for a date. He meets a door at the

drum and learns of her history with the trunk. The post office Stanley looks at stamp, something screams, a pigeon drops, flames blossom and Stanley has a moment. Moist and a door enjoyed dinner at the happy liver. And when Richard Guilton does, Moist meets a kindred spirit. But suddenly he smells burning. Yeah, sorry, that was a bit long. No, no, it's good. It's a, it's a, there's a lot.

There's a lot to join us. The seamstress said to the bishop. Yes. So quick up to the noncloth watch. I feel like a fig leaf with wings on could actually do double duty there. Absolutely. That is what we need to talk about fig leaves and wings at some point by the way. I suppose we'll save that for next week because there's too much in this one but

yes we'll just support you. Yeah. Forch that wings for next week. Did you look at the same bit of research that I did about that? I expect so. Yeah, I think so. But I feel like an honourable helicopter mentioned also goes to slabber. The moment when everything went back to not being stretched, I feel like that's a bit of a metaphysical helicopter. Yep, nope love that That's some whirling letters too. Yeah, love it that love of that But yeah, fig leaf with wings on double g2 Elastricated For your comfort

Also just on other bits we keep track of the librarian is not explained. Yeah. We're not interested actually, because quite a lot is explained. Yeah, but no, that one's just left to it. Quotes. Quotes, I believe you're first. Yeah, mine is first. The words came like a gale,

whirling the envelopes in the sparkling light, shaking the building to its foundations. Deliver us. Which I feel like is a very deep punal play on words which you don't get very often to deliver. Deliver. Deliver. Not onto temptation, sorry.

But from evil. And if possible, to dolly sisters, thank you. Yes, lovely. How about yours? As I went long last week, I thought I'd go a bit shorter. Snook not cocked. What's the ever-rebetter sentence in the English language? I don't actually know where cocking a snooke comes from. Etymologically.

I didn't get time to look it up. I've always thought of cocking a snoozer, because somehow being somewhat nasal, I think, snooze sounds like it could be like a beak or something. Yeah, sort of like turning your nose away or thumbing your nose. Which, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I like that. All right. Explain it to us listeners. Please. If you're aware of how snooks are cocked, how one cock wants to stook? Answers in a headline.

Thank you. It's a cousin to just bite thy thorn, I guess. Yeah. My brain's gone on tangent already, this by as well. Right, let's do my characters. Moist. Everyone's favourite von Litvig. Certainly mine. He gets his golden suit and his golden hat.

Finally, he has his costume. The golden hat, by the way. I may have missed it, but did the pigeon wings get reinforced because I was a bit concerned about that? I'm not entirely sure, but I do hope so. Possibly, but you know, that you have avatar purposes, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's probably fine. But I like this idea of the hat the suit and the hat allowing him to like hide in plain sight. Yes because no one's going to be looking at his face and going oh he hang on you. It is the natural conclusion to hide his in a clipboard.

Yes a gold suit and a hat. But if you compare it to reach a guilt's method of hiding in plain sight there's the cousins to them like they're opposite sides and a hat. But if you compare it to Richard Gilt's method of hiding in plain sight, there's the cousins do them like they're opposite sides of a coin. Yes, and of course interesting because Gilt meaning covered in gold. Yes, absolutely. The gold hat thing as well reminded me of it's a little snippet of a fake poem. It's the epigraph on the like plate front page of the great Gatsby. Okay. There's a little bit of a poem.

Then where the gold hat, if that will move her, if you can bounce high, bounce for her to, till she cry, love a gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you. Oh. Which is attributed to Thomas Bark, D'Invilliers, who, which was another of Fitzgerald pen names, he actually, he wrote the thing. Cool. And obviously you can see how it works for the great Gatsby, but I feel like there's something of it in here in the Gold Tats and the Bouncing High.

Definitely. Except it's not just one person, none of that works on a door or he's doing that, so everyone else loves him. Yes. And it gives you another side of the, two sides of the coin thing with Richard Gild, doesn't it as well? Because obviously Richard Gilt's famous party is very, I'd say Gatsby coded at

least. Yeah, there's definitely a Gatsby flavour to those. The troplifer and the troll. Were you there? I was, but I can't tell you about it, I'm sorry. But I'm really enjoying the way in most is like, he's slowly getting redeemed without being even slightly willing to accept that he's going through a redemption arc. It's very like, I can quit anytime I want, but then there's moments like, he has the idea about the stamp, so he sends someone out to get Mr Robinson's box for the sake of the post office,

and he doesn't have a second thought about it, he grabs it, and he starts doing it. Yeah. Redemption addict is an excellent something name. Yeah. Coming back to that. But yeah, no, he's just putting his skills to good use, but at the same time, I don't know, it's kind of a half redemption arc, isn't it? Because he's doing good things, but all the while, very much keeping in mind that it's profitable. Yeah, he can make something out of this. He literally manages to create a new form of currency without really meaning to,

but immediately he starts thinking about the extent of it. Absolutely. He's becoming good, but his motivation hasn't become good yet. Yes. And waiting to see if they line up. But I love when he starts creating all the bustle in the post office, the pace of the book skyrockets, like suddenly everything in the book is like steaming a head right up to Boris taking off for the planes. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And it's

said, you know, from from the moment the hat goes on his head, which is always wonderful, isn't it? We do like hats, don't we? on this podcast, we like a symbolic hat. Speaking of two hats, yes, I'm a big fan of a symbolic hat. You wear the hats for both of us, but we both like them. But yeah, we talk so many times, aren't we, that how a hat can make a character in these books. Absolutely.

And this one, it definitely has the same, you know, fate-changing power as the wizard hats that Rincewin did not want to have. It wants the wizard's hat, except at one point everyone does. Yes. This hat is a little cursed as well as Wingid, I suppose, isn't it? With an extra ed. What else can we add ed on to, by the way? Well, try as we go along, let's see if we can do that

because Cursed Winged and something Ed. Fanoshed. Hmm nice, love that. It's a word that's on the page in front of me. And he's he's thinking back on his condoms there's a great bit when he gets into Stola and he's thinking about the you know the time he spent there before passing tricks. Not so much for money as out of a permanent fascination with human deviousness and gullibility. Yes. There's a sense in everything he does. There's no like retirement plan. There's no one last big score and I'll stop forever. It's all about, I'm going to keep

poking stuff to see what happens. Yeah, each day is a new story. This isn't a yeah, a long term arc. We do learn a bit more about his background than I'd remembered actually. The fact that his parents died, got sent to school, got bullied. Yeah, it's literally like, right away. Three sentence back story, and that's it. Yeah.

We never see it from his perspective. No, but you can kind of, you can vaguely fill in the gaps currently, like learning how to do all this witch at boarding school? Very yeah. Yeah. Discovering, like, how to not get bullied by being this sort of person instead. Yeah. Or wanting never to be bullied again and so putting the mask on every day. Yeah. Getting deep, getting too deep.

I love when he meets the Joe Campbells, the current mayor of Stola, and who says to him, you know, oh, you're a man who wants to be up and doing a manful of Vim, I'm not of any use to the word Vim. Vim and Vigga. Vim and Vigga, you're a man after my own heart you are,

and he's decided to completely see himself in moist, who is not totally wrong, but they definitely come up, wants to be up and doing from very different angles. Yeah he wants to be moving out of some kind of internal drive mechanism that isn't entirely comfortable it's not like a yeah and and and it's not so he doesn't get caught. Yes it's not this wholesome thing that the mayor has going for him but if you sort of compare like the way he's seeing himself but it's not quite himself in Moist and then Moist seeing a bit of himself in

Reacher when he finally meets him. Yeah, I enjoyed his little parallel in the forgery when he was talking about forging Reacher Gilt's signature just saying that here it is, there was something in people's heads that spotted some little detail, wasn't quite right, but at the same time, would fill in details that have been merely suggested by a few careful strokes, attitude, expectation and presentation were everything. It's beautiful, that whole scene where he's hoarding it and this is what it probably is like, but this is what a layperson would think it is like

the hand-brushing. Yeah, absolutely. It gets a bit 3D chest with it. So quickly Boris, a hero to all of us. Oh yeah, yep, yep, absolutely. A trampler, a snaffler, a scraper and he'll hall lock if he can get away with it. He wanted to bite the horizon. I want that on a poster. I do. It's beautiful. Seize the day, bite the horizon. I think that might be the only thing that finally gives me ambition. Bite the horizon, Frank.

Bite the horizon. Frank, alright. Fuck me, I'm going to have to get a cross stitch and do that one, aren't I? And trample and eat people of it. Thank you, Ella, for our cross stitches, by the way, I love you less than this. Oh, yeah, amazing. Did we say that? We must have said that. If not, very sorry, and thank you. Sorry, as I was thinking of cross stitch. Anyway, love again, kindred spirit with moist, though.

Moist is a bite, the horizon, kind of guys, no? He does want to run. He does want to run. He does want to run. He's not quite so into the trampling and eating people. As far as I remember at no point in this book does Moist trample or eat anyone. But you know we don't see everything. No, no, yeah. Listen, it's feel free to tell us where we went wrong there. Stanley's having a day, isn't he? Yeah, yeah. Right at the opening of this section, there's just a really beautiful line when he's looking through his pins. He might smell faintly of cheese and have athletes foot extending to the

knee, but right now Stanley's sword through glittering skies on wings of silver. Yeah, it's lovely. That's a useful moment. And such a poetic and you know, such a involving way of describing this hobby that he then sheds very quickly. A bit like that. That's amazing. I also love his mug. Be mad, it helps. Yeah, I would like that. I do like when Hobson of the delivery stable delivers Boris and says, oh, so he didn't want this, did he? And his repeating was worse than verbatim. I am assuming that is because Stanley went to Hobson and said exactly what Moist said,

words, words very literally in deadpan. I think absolutely that's what happened, yeah. And I just quite enjoy imagining that little scene. Hopson by the way, friend of the pod, again, can't remember which upside, but has definitely come up before and possibly in some kind of obscure reference. The truth, it was quite recent, was it? Okay. Those are my- Well, those livery stable gets introduced in the truth because it sort of implied it's like a more story car park as the deep thing. That's that one. Yeah, there we go. But yeah, Stanley's immediate adoration of the stamps when he says to Moise it's like being there when they

invented the first pin. Yeah, he knows good thing when he sees it. And apparently that's quite accurate. Apparently stamp collectors came very quickly after the first stamps. Is there something about them? It's something compulsive and there's all this uniqueness and I guess this idea of something having been somewhere. Yeah, I don't know what evolutionary drivers behind us collecting things. I know we're not directly descended from magpies, but it's a bit of a magpire shirt, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. And I like the little line about putting away childish pins. Yes.

Haha. Haha. Uh, and then Groves. Good old Groat, gosh. Now he, he has had some, if not character, then certainly career development in this section. Yeah. Got to act as postmaster. Had a little aneurysm while he accepted that.

And got to where the hat. I'd got to where the hat probably not a great idea as it turns out, but. Well, no, not entirely. I love that same opening bit when Stanis is looking at his pins and Grope is doing his extended and named muttering. Like it's quite expositional for the reader, it works really well. But at the same time, like you can imagine it's just a really

comforting background hum for Stanley. Yeah. Yeah. I've got this app called My Noise, I think it is, and it has like a bunch of different white noises, you can pick, you can like walk in the rain, aeroplane noises, one of them. And I think, yeah, old man muttered exposition would be a really good addition to it. I wonder if I could like record a extended old man

muttering exposition. A guided meditation. You are sitting in a smelly cellar. You've got a brand new sack of pins. There's a great bit. When he's trying to explain why he doesn't understand geometry and he says, I was raised in the post office, born in the sourcing room, weighed on the official scales.

And I like to think that's part of the context for him caring for Stanley so much, because to him it is completely normal to be raised in the post office. I don't think he thinks of him as a son. Nobody says it takes a village to raise kind of thing. And he's family. Personally, we've been looking after him for a while. Yeah. I think there's a nice connection there. Yeah. I'd completely forgotten that that's what new pie meant. This one was kind of like, is that a reference and it might still be, it might still be a reference

to something. I was like, oh, that's tip of the brain type. It's like, oh, right, yeah, fuck it. It sounds like it was some big political move. It sounds like a labor slogan. It does. But the new pie just being maths so bad it broke the universe. It's a lovely twist there. It is a beautiful twist. And great reaction when he realizesises that moist can hear the letters too. And he's crying, he's so glad, he's so sure that moist is this this prophecyed postmaster. He says, there are lives, there are live, not like people, but like ships are alive. Yeah, that was beautiful. And it comes after this buildup where he's been kind of not historically but fervently with religious zeal kind of guiding him through this process to become the facemaster

and he's sure of it. But underneath that surety there is obviously got to be this layer of doubt, hasn't that. And so this, when he's crying now, is the relief. Yeah, not only am I not imagining all this because, you know, Stanley being the only other witness isn't ideal, but we've got somebody to lead this ship. So Rich Gill.

Rich Gill. Oh, I'm not. cartoon villain. Yeah. Spectacular villain. See, okay, so remember way back when we talked about the TV adaptation I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that.

I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that.

I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that.

I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying the going post a lot of patient. I can't remember who plays reacher in it They are fantastic But it's such a Tim Curry character very Tim Curry Especially because there's so much long john silver about it and Tim Curry played long john silver and mothatriger island And His greatest role his greatest role is that one clip from the old video game where he says, I'm going to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism. Space.

Which I will link to in the show notes, because I was familiar with it. I can't remember the name of the game. Now I'm sure someone's going to tweet me as they're listening. Yeah, absolutely. The bit where Moist meets reacher. I've such a good moment. It's beautiful, isn't it? He realized he was, it was the firm handshake of an honest man.

Yeah. He was in the presence of a master. If moist was any judge at all, the man in front of him was the biggest fraud he'd ever met and he advertised it. One thing I noticed actually as well is that he's this big cartoonish villainous presence in the book. We don't actually spend much time with them at all. There's like in the first section it was one scene in this sectionous presence in the book, we don't actually spend much time with them at all. There's like in the first section it was one scene in this section, I think it's only three scenes total. That's the case with almost all of Prytid's fill in, isn't it? Sometimes we get a bit more from their point of view, thinking of like same men and arms, we spend quite a lot of time in the Earth's head. Well that's true actually, because yes, a big part of that was how mad he was, wasn't it? Yeah, I think often in Pratchett in

Discworld books, when we're not spending a lot of time in the villain's point of view, it's because there's mystery built around the villain here, but like, Rachel gets the back guy. Yeah. You kind of don't need to see it from his perspective. No, you know, as as moist realises, he's just wearing it on his sleeve. Absolutely. I like Crispin being shot so that Gil's got an ego or an guilt having an ego is like another handy shorthand for the reader. Like, this must not be a good guy. He's got an ego. Yes, but from Crispin, horse-friars point of view, it just means he's rich.

Yeah, I don't see, like, you know, hashtag not all eagles because there's eagles working in the watch and at the Lady's Sible Free Hospital. But if an eagle is doing Butler-ish-type duties, you can be sure whoever they're working for is probably not. Accentric. They're eccentric in a, you know,

and how do you say evil way? Yeah. Possibly not morally soundled chap. Oh, so. And of course, 12 and a half percent parrot. Yes, which I was very pleased I worked out that joke before I read an annotation about sitting fat and wiki. A piece of eight, anyway. Yes.

It's an eighth of a hundred. The whole, he told them what he was and they laughed and loved him for it. It's very, I mean obviously there have been villains like this through history, but I feel is uncomfortably representative of modern politics as well, Johnson and Trump being two obvious examples. Well especially as, and this is remarkably preseum, but the fact that guilt is working out of the Tump Tower. Yeah, yeah. I expect this is the time where Donald Trump was in his big golden trumpet, or this is pre-presidency. Different flavor of villain, just bad capitalism then.

Yeah. Does Trump mean like Castle or Hills? I think Trump means Hill as well, doesn't it? Yes, it's a level one. Yeah. Love that. I also love the little paragraph about Gilts' parties. And was it true about the chip-trop liver were you there? And how like... Yeah. But it how it kind of works with great spit,

the quinger in the last week. You should have seen it. You should have seen it. And another vaguely related bit that's just in this area of wisdom, when most realising all of this, it says, all of this came in an instant more bold of understanding in the glint of an eye. But something ran in front of it as fast as a little fish ahead of a shark.

And it's just another beautiful bit of practice just describing thoughts so well. Yeah. And there's a couple of other bits in the book about like seconds thoughts quickly stopping in stuff like that. But it's kind of a, you know, building on the stuff he started in the last few books.

Or not building it. Yeah. And continuing it, because obviously Tiffany's probably the apex of these thoughts, but yeah, but using it in different contexts other than just the witchy context. Yeah, it's really great. Very cool. Let's go to Horseroy. Horseroy at five.

F five in the chat to pay respects in the way he lived. Panicked. Yes, absolutely. May I take your highly noticeable long hooded cloak, sir? Tying ego under horse fry together. Which I just thought was a wonderful last hurrah for Chris Binn, horse fries. Complete not a inability to be a good criminal.

I also like when he shut himself into the room full of shadows and candlelight and the door closed behind him into its felt frame. Was a wonderful little bit of atmosphere building there and provided me again of managed arms and the shadowy rooms full of people and everything is just yeah it's lots lots of coolbacks here I feel a lot of coolbacks so mr. pump mr. pump mr. pump friend our friend gets in a that angry moment when moist says you've got added mumbo jumbo and pumps the red fire rose behind Pumps eyes as he turned to stare at moist. Which ties in sort of I think quite neatly with Adora explaining the days off thing to moist later on and she says part of it is it's a way to show their not so hammer.

Yes. I was just like it was quite interesting that He he reacted not not badly exactly, but certainly sharply at say for a golem to Moist saying something like it's just words. It's just letters and words And it doesn't need to be spelled out for us. So to be but But I go, I go, and of course, is clay with words, the words on paper and in fact, that's what he is. Yeah. The words in the head and the words in the heart.

Yeah. Or something like that. Something like that. I wish I had, I wish I'd had time to reread feet of clay before reading this. Yeah. I think I'm not going to be rereading any of this discreet as we go along.

It's going to get too much. Yeah, no, my brain can't actually take all the pain. And we meet Angamarat. This is all, he's much older friend. Much older friend's incredible description. His eyes, unlike the furnace glow of those other golems burned a deep ruby red, he looked old, well, not he felt old, the chill of time radiated off him. I know.

Like a deep ruby red I love as well because it's like a red giant, it's like a dying star. Yeah, they're full, yeah. That's very cool. What I love as well is the book is like rushing through the plot and bustle at this point and when I'm getting my ads introduced it takes, it stops and has a calm moment. It feels like there's this calm softness around that bit before the bus will start again. Yeah, everyone like stops and takes in his history and the message he's carrying and how long he's been a postman. Yeah. The way that Lanson have realised it would be an honour to work with him. Yeah, absolutely. Obviously we do have to mention the much older

the Lomovnich. Yes. Neither delusional ice storm nor the black silence of the Never Hills shall stay these messengers about their secret business and then scrolled in chalk on the world, I assume. Do not ask us about seabed tooth tigers, tarpets, big green things with teeth or the goddess gzol. Well now I want to see the goddess gzol meat Mrs. cake. Do not ask. This is literally the next note in here and I've got I've mentioned it the bloody cohorts all gleaming in Asia and got very old.

I have that anywhere. I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah. Adora says that when the golems go out, golems go out and they're painted in their brown goldine forms. Yeah, yeah. It's from Lord George Gordon Byron. Also, for months of his regiment.

It is also for months of his regiment, but the original quote is from Lord George Gordon Byron. His poem, The Destruction of Fuck I've Never Tried To Say This Out Loud. Not one of his better poems. Destruction of Senatirib. Senatirib? Senatirib? I know the poem. Senatirib sounds, right? Not one of his better poems. Distraction of Sinatraib. Sinatraib? I know the poem. Sinatra, it sounds right?

Yeah. I've just not tried to say the title out there before. The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold and his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold. There's a beautiful, very bleak little poem. I'll link to it in the show notes. It was a monster's arrangement, wasn't it? I didn't make that up.

There is... Yeah, because they're trying to remember an ex-tomptie term. I'm 97 sure it was monster arrangement. And then yeah, Adora thought he said that, and that leads us on nicely too. Adora who explains to Moison at the end of this section about Anger Maraud that he's waiting for the whole universe to come around so we can deliver this message he's carrying, which is its own little beautiful thing. And when she brings in the gollums, Moise notice, she's different when she speaks to them. There was actual tenderness in her voice. Yeah, this is what she gives a fuck about. Yeah. I like on the same page as well. She also is explaining a bit more of the watch to Moise and Onvines, the most cynical bastard that walks under the sun. Yes, quite a fair thing to say from a raw, raw, raw, hard.

An expert on the matter, one might say. Exactly, we get a bit more backstory on Adora as well, of course. And her family, Robert Deerhart, who father, who created the Grand Trunk and the Clacks before having it ripped out from under him by Dickheads. Yeah, and you realize quite how recent all of this is as well. Like, her brother only died three months ago and it wasn't that, it wasn't that long ago, till a sense they were, you know, wealthy and she had a pony that she used to watch run around. I think it was only a month ago, the prologue where the brother dies is one month before the event start. Okay. So yeah, it's also recent, it's so close, it's so fresh,

have visceral rage. And I love that before that Moist hasn't really thought about the Grand Trunk, like he doesn't know Reacher, he's obviously vaguely aware of him because he stole the note paper and stuff, but he clearly hasn't thought about them as a player in this game. Not more than just a, this is, you know, another huge enterprise within the city that I'm just going to bother in the same way that I'm bothering everybody else here. Yeah, he thinks it's all just part of the silliness until Adora points out that they're not going to be happy with them.

I like it. They get all murdery. They don't care which knife they use. I also think it's very sweet how much all the golems care about Adora and Mr. Pumps sort of explains, you know, we'd like to see her happy. And Gamera had said she reminded him of Laila the volcano goddess who smokes all the time because the god of rain has rained on her lava. It is a, what are the few gender tropes I do enjoy actually is large strong beings being overly protective of their keeper who is generally a much smaller woman. Often an old woman.

It is a very sweet little trope. I also know it's during the day that because so much the book is from a voice point of view, like we only see Adora through his eyes really and sometimes in certain books, you know, that would get me on my feminist high horse that would bug me, but I really don't mind it here because he is so unprosuptive about her. Yeah, he's describing her. Yeah, like obviously Fancy's the pants off her. Yeah. But also is fully aware that there's nothing he can do to really trick or charm her.

Yeah. And he knows as well as Fancy's the pants off her, he's thinking stuff like, I wanna see her take on life with the enthusiasm she's smoky and cigarette. Yeah. Bloody stupid Johnson and his sorting engine. Bloody stupid.

He is bloody stupid. He began life at the engine, began life as an organ before becoming a male sorter. So in his defense, it wasn't meant to fuck up the post office, just a church. Well, no, I don't think he is a malevolent entity, just a chaos entity. True, true. Chaos like neutral. Yeah. But it's hard to describe anyone as neutral. He has this much effect on everything, but yes, you're quite right. Well, we could go into a whole thing about morality and whether intent or outcome matters more, but we've got a whole podcast to get through.

Yes. I do like this idea, though, of this enforcement of speed and efficiency from the postmaster of creating the downfall. I think that's not a unique thing for, it kind of comes on from your corporate grid thing last week as well, it's not a unique thing for Bradget to have a point of view on. Absolutely. Yeah. And then my other girlfriend, Sakura's a cryptslock. Oh, yes, good old Sakura. That she is. That's actually married now, congrats to her, but still miss Cryptslock. Of course.

I am very grateful that the description stayed away from her chest. Yes well done. Well done Mr. Bradford. I'm terribly proud to it. I love the the callback to Fracker versus Rumpus. Can we have a settle on that? I know but I don't care that's fine. I don't know how to tell you. And I like how you will. I'd like how much of a character grace we've seen here from just she was learning how to be a reporter to she is terrifyingly dangerous with her pen. Yes.

Fettnau is a little description later about how it's very unfair that she just writes down exactly what he says and it seems like cheating somehow. And then we meet Ladislav Palk, pre-humus professor of morbid biblia mancy. We love him. Oh, he love him. His office made of books and his false beard. What a man. Named after a real person. Oh, is he? Yeah. In 2002, a flood destroyed a theatre and Prague, which had played dramatizations of practice, nobs in the past. He practiced a suggested benefit auction for the reconstruction, and Ladd is love Pellk was the highest donor. And so he was more alive in there. Yes.

What a great character to be. Yeah. With the machine and your thalaba. Enthusiastically dangerous. We like that and are with it. I hope that the posthumous professor Goiter was not named after a real person because if so I'm sorry for that person for being named Goiter. Yes, but I like this introduction of the idea of wizards taking early death. Yeah, and just having a lunch. Which

helps me debating, do they have some kind of deal with death? Or have they just found a pocket universe to fuck off into? I'm guessing the latter. And some kind of very stuffy vowel, howler, it sounds like, doesn't it? Yeah, I mean, honestly, I quite happily go there. Oh, yeah, me too, but I'm kind of peck it at the moment. That's probably it. The eternity is an endless cheese course. Tighten up my autobiography. That one sounds a bit modified and I love it.

We meet Miss Macaulariat. I'm refusing to translate her name so well done. Thank you. I practiced from a long line of Macaulariats who keep their maiden name for professional purposes. Of course. I love that she's in droid like it's almost like this slow motion horror style, his eyes travel up and see all the things you remember about these terrifying

teachers. The cardigan. I also love that Pratchett seems to have a very specific issue and I understand the issue with people putting tissues in their cardigan sleeve or hanky chiefs. Because this is not the first time it's come up. Yeah. The cheerful fairy was one. Oh yeah. Yeah. Who hurt you? One of our listeners put down the discord and I completely agree with them that the line, I hope you're not funny with me, Mr. Lipvig, lives rent free in my head. Yes, I would never. I never fun. I never would fun, I never would fun, if I did fun, I would not fun with you, something like that. Not dream of it.

And she brings up this golem, the golem gender issue. Yeah. Which is resolved by one of the golems agreeing to go by Gladys and wear something sense-blinking him. Yeah, yeah. Therefore, diffusing the culture was argument of 20 years in the future. Yeah. I stand by. Obviously not, by the way, as I said.

Yeah. I stand by. And I'm wearing a golem wearing something in Gingham. Is adorable. It's a pleasant image, and I am a big fan of the name Gladys. Yeah. It's a good name. It's a good name. It's a good name. It's a pleasant image and I am a big fan of the name Gladys. Yeah. It's a good name. It's a good name.

Gladys in the world. No, more Gladys. Gladys is. It's a Creek or a... No, we're not doing suffixes again today. Grile. Grile. No room for a suffix in that name.

No, I love the description. There was nothing spare amount in. You couldn't imagine him throwing up after a particularly bad pork pie. Something came in, especially because he does suffer from an unfortunate pigeon. Unfortunate pigeon habit. No, we've all been there. And interesting how his physical forms contrasted with Richard Giltz as well, who's described the bear of a man. Yeah, this huge guy and then this very slight.

And we don't know exactly what Gryly is in this section, we just know we, apart from not a vampire. Not a vampire. Yes, a pigeoneater, and some kind of hanging on rafters, Chaffee. Yeah. Excellent little bit of horror. I love the dialogue between him and Richard Gelt as well, actually. This is the one person who is not going to be fucked with by this guy. I do not trust the summer for anymore. I do not trust the summer for it.

Thank you. Yeah, the absolute lack of trust and the absolute, there is no need to respect you. You will do my job. You will pay me that's it. This is an agon fuck about my match. Yeah. I've always wanted to say someone I do not give a fuck about your right patch. Yeah, it seems like in real life, there's no way to do that without just being a prick.

Yeah. Tell you what, Joanna, I'll wear an eye fat for Halloween costume one day, so you can fill the lettering. Excellent, marvelous. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. And then a quick little location tour. We go to the pass post office.

The pass post office. We do. I love this line. It was a scene made up of a hundred purpose for activities that fused happily into a great anarchy. I love it. You can see it, and I don't know why I can see it so clearly, because I've never been to a huge post office for a bottle, but I can see it as if I have.

I imagine it, I feel like it's very grand central station, which is not somewhere I've been, but obviously I've seen a lot. It feels like that. Well, King's cross-alice, doesn't it? Yeah. But something about the all-nateness of it and the balconies with that I'm like, lace. Yeah. And it's inspiring to moist, moist to, you know, spends a good chunk until it gets onto, gets to stowl out, can't keep still after this happens. Yeah, yeah, see what it should be. Yeah, and he starts rebuilding that bustle.

That has sold the bustle. Thankfully, only a padded bum roll for sacrilycer. That has all the bustle. Thankfully only a padded bum roll for Sakura-san. Sorry, I've been trying to get a bustle, bustle joke in for a while. I'm really happy with that. I'm glad he can relax now. I see the tension melt away. Thank you very much for listening to this episode of The Trish and me. Fuck, we're still halfway up there.

This entire 125 episode round has been for this time. 125 episodes by the way. That's a nice little, not quite round number, but... Yeah, congrats to us, well done us. That's 12.5%. Aiii! Right, um, I'm in 8th of the way to a thousand. And we're half of the way to Stolatt in a little under 20 minutes.

Marvelous. Thank you for getting me back on track there. I like the whole, wanting their own stamps and, you for getting me back on track there. I like the whole one-ing their own stamps. And you know, we've got Queen. She's very pretty, which I'm assuming is still Queen Kelly. Oh, yeah. From Port. I loved the bit about it being out in the stalks, by the way, if you're in Brassica,

country. Yeah. That does make me chuckle. And yeah, Kelly on a stamp. She deserves it. She had a. Yeah. Out of nightmare of a coronation.

I know. We're going to have to look at the timeline to work our hold. She's going to be. She might be on a stamp, she deserves it, she had a out of nightmare of a coronation. I know, we're going to have to look at the timeline to our car hold, she's going to be. She might be on a stamp already and the year to Speldenpourin. Well, if you think about, so Moist gets his hourglass, not Moist, Moist gets his hourglass flipped at the end of, so to speak, at the end of board, which allows him to live up to the events of soul music where season's a teenager. So I would put Kelly as if she was a vanage with more she's basically old enough to be Susan's parents so yeah in her 40s yeah yeah cool yeah she had a good range she's having a good reign and the mended drum is still

mended at this point in time. Good, get tonight. I really love the scene where they're all stood outside the drum, planning their brawl. They've got WWF. They have. There's gone full wrestling. But with little details, like make sure you've got your name tattooed on your various body parts, so we go and compete you back together properly. This is what two-flower thought it was a little years ago.

His dream has finally come true. I hope he has another little holiday to Wankmore book at some point. I think we can just assume he does. Yeah, let us imagine him in there now for this particularly good brawl. We didn't need to see him. We've got other things to think about, but two-flour in the corner. Having a lot of postcard. Which he'll be able to send. Which he will be able to send. How exciting.

Head cannons. They don't need to be proper. So we light the brawl planning. There's lots of other little bits we like in this bit. We like all kinds of things. What do you do? I love the Secret Society of Postman. I've seen the Society of Postman.

I've seen the un-franced. Not such a thing. Mysticism for tradesmen. Most has come across it before, obviously. Be you the un-franced man. Which un-franced is another term for a stamp that hasn't been used yet, hasn't been franked, hasn't been stamped to show it's gone through the post. Yeah, I did have to look at that. Not been marched by the post office yet.

Yes. For once, I didn't have to look up at saying like that because we have a franking machine at work. If you send a lot of episodes, if you send a lot of letters, you have a little machine that puts ink stamps on things instead of having to stick them on. Marvelous. Yeah. I love, they say, don the boots and moist things. Amazing how you can hear the capital letters. Clutching, right? It's just a purchasing thing.

And then we get our cursored with an extra edge a few pages later. And I love, you know, they're arguing about whether this means moist can be postmaster and what this all means for the post office. And one of them says, you know, veterinarians are doing around five minutes who's he to say who's postmaster and this perspective from people so entrenched in their own nonsense that the tyrant of the city is this guy who's been around for five

and in the fox and fat and r.y. gives a fuck by the placement. Yeah. What about you, what did you like? What about you? What did you like? Well, I rather liked continued pineapple references. Yeah, it was a real restaurant name. I'm starting to feel that not only was a departure of a bad experience with a woman with hangtiffs of her sleeves, but how about experience with the pineapple? Whom stemangus? Whom stemangus is Stem Angus is not. Adora Bell is described as pineapple prickly, pineapple prickly, but with maybe peaches underneath. Yeah, harking back, of course, to the fruit basket of all the, by of all the mean of last episode. And then the ride on Boris wasn't so bad, once you got past the pineapple.

So yeah. Well, the fuck happened with Pratchett and pineapples. I don't know, I'm starting to think that's the senior Wrangler's experience for this aunt, wasn't as abstract as we first thought. Maybe not. And then the next one I got written down is the vertigo. The vertigo, the bit where moist is exploring the post office

is trying to get up to the top floor, which you then forget about, handle the plot after all this happens. And the Zilz is description about the various male slides and things bursting open and tides of letters coming out and sweeping them all over the place. And then the bit where the stairs disappear from underneath him. And the stairs had gone with great care. Moist brought his feet up until he could feel the edge of the new corridor. And it's quite long, so I won't read the whole thing.

But, well, A, it kind of reminded me of the pyramids that the very nice description of when Tepeck was about fold was death during his... Oh, yeah. ... his disaster skills exam. And the whole thing gave me like really like sympathetic verse ago, like the same feeling you get when you watch a video and somebody's like on the top of the building holding the camera over, you know? Yeah, that was really well written. It gave me that disorientating feeling that you know, I don't know where's up, where's down, where's left, where's right. Yeah. And then that moment of no, don't step forward, many does.

Yeah. Oh, I have no. I was such a nervous and seen. Yeah. And yeah, and just the light, the, the each step realizing how one of the postmasters died as well, kind of thing. Yeah. And then getting that final explanation of the, uh,

of the head all of it. Yes, I can see all the little chalk outlines. Thank you. Oh, no, no, no. Uh, I think you have lots of little things. Sorry. That was a disgusting segue. I think thank you.

Thank you. Uh, this invention of this invention of perforation. It's such a great moment. He's gone to Team Run spools. They want to make the the stamps terrible. He's had this idea of with Stanley's pin paper, all these little holes make it tear really neatly and he holds up and shows them very dramatically and he says, I don't got nothing if I don't got a hole, which is not the first time we had that joking discop that that's been reused from soul music, although in a very different context. And there's a dramatic pause in the writing and then you get this three hours went past, four minutes sent four serious men and overalls turned things on lades, other men sold

at things together, tried them out, changed this, reamed that and then dismantled a small hand press in a different way. And you get to this moment where they figured it out and moist, holds up the paper and tears off a perfect corner, which is Bollock's stamps and never torn as neatly as that. It's always like that. That one is. How many of yours, accounts were made by several talented craftsmen, Joanna? Very true. And this is what happens afterwards. The windows snapped outwards. People breathed again. There wasn't a chair and these weren't meant to cheer and weep at a job all done. They said they lit their pipes and nodded to one another. I love that. Well, I talked before about how cinematics, some of these moments are, and this is so consciously movie-like, you see this as a montage thing, he says that

really dramatically, it goes to the montage, says the music, someone who rips the sheet off and everyone cheats. So the thought of they quietly look at that, like their pipes and nod each other is land so perfectly. I really love it. The gentle release of tension again, like we've talked about with some of like Granny and Nanny's arguments and things. Yeah, it's just done. It's a great scene. And then yeah, just a stupid joke bit I like is the statues of the virtues in the library. Patience, which is considered a virtue, chastity, silence is a virtue, but here it's actually one of the virtues with a capital V, charity, hope, tub, soap, bisonomy and fortitude. And who's ever heard of fortitude? Right? But bisonomy in the past nip makes perfect sense to me. I personally, I am not affected by the hustle and bustle of every day.

I can practice bisonomy every day in winter and past nip is run season. Of course, we wouldn't want to be, yeah, increasingly old with our flesh, carpentry and friend probably, for in probably our virtuous. There is some, I think, not like what's it called, appendacy, side matter stuff that goes a little bit more into what those extra ones are, but we never find out exactly, I don't think, do we? No, I think it's funny that we don't, especially with the past nips, are a very funny

vegetable. Just inherently, as William DeWard found out. As William DeWard found out, not as funny as turnips, Black Hat has made turnips the funniest vegetable, but close. Well, you know, Tony Robinson can't be. Can't be trifled with, or turnip with, certainly. Any other little bits you liked, Francine? Oh, and Stanley is realising that he really liked stamps. They might be better than pins. And he's thinking about how in the past, you know, he'd heard about,

heard about people liking girls and having families, not things like that. And then, well, at some pin meet, someone would just suddenly throw all their pins in the air and run out shouting, ah, they're just pins! Which I just thought was wonderful. I love it so much. Especially because obviously I've never been at Stanley's level in Never World, but I am actually quite particular about my pins. Are you? Well because I so when I have different pins, I like easy and for different tasks and I have a little hand pin holder that has rainbow pins. I care about my pins. It's suddenly become very important to me that you never see inside my sewing box.

That's why. Yeah, let's do that and we can stay friends. So, it certainly works in the post office. There's a lot of history and trivia there isn't there for us. Oh, there is. Fuck, we there already. Yeah.

So I just there was loads of cool stuff about post office and Royal Mail and everything like that that I just picked out a couple bits that are kind of relevant to this. And so often I do with the podcast. First I should point out, I think I was going on about the post-office being privatised in the last episode. It's actually the Royal Mail that was privatised, that's a separate, that's a thing. But the Royal Mail was established in 1516, which meant really unfun fact, it was fully privatised a year before it's 500th birthday. Was it? Yeah, that's disappointing. Disappointing

and surely very deliberate because the idea of it reaching 500 and then being immediately sold off, I imagine the coalition government wanted it to be a wimper, yeah, rather than a bang. But the general post office was the state postal system in the UK from the 17th century until 1969. And there's a lot of history of all the various ways the post office and the departments and this and that have been one that I'm not going to go into because it's boring and I can't be bothered to understand it. I respect that. It did have a monopoly on all dispatch of items from a specific sender to a specific receiver, which when it's just letters is fine, when new communications

technology start being introduced starts causing a few problems. And so eventually telecoms ended up with BT after a couple of switches and changes, which I think must have provided some of the inspiration for the Grand Trunk BT, because it was quite vicious and I'll believe quite some time. And since this book has been written that some of its metaphorical pushing people off of Clax Tower has been calm down forcibly. Just to be very clear, metaphorical, featy did not push anybody off a tower as far as I go. I'm saying nothing. Oh God. But I mentioned this, particularly because I had fun fact, but B, because the GPO was headed by a postmaster general.

Was it? It was. And the predecessor to the GPO was as well, but it was a cabinet position. And as far as I can tell, a little bit is trivia, there's only been one female postmaster general, and please do correct me, listen as if I'm wrong, because I was going through quite a long list, and I may just have missed another. But can you guess which year the first female post, first and only I think female postmaster general took the role and just to give you an idea the role was abolished in 1969. Right. Was it the 20th century? No. 1876. 1664. But wait, I don't know. She inherited the title from her husband. Of course. Yeah, yeah, that was. But she was quite powerful in her own right. It seems like she and her husband

sided with King Charles the second. Ah, drawing the, you know, that unpleasantness, the unpleasantness, that's barely. And she was postmaster general of England, and here's another bit I couldn't really be bothered to understand. I think there were a few postmaster generals at the time, like for a while it was of England and Wales, and then there might be another one in Scotland at the same time. Again, I will link to some resources for anybody who feels like getting into this. So they also have like listeners don't explain it to me. I could learn about it if I chose to. We'll put this in with cricket and astrophysics. They had a weird cabinet we've got. Little postmaster general lesson, the country. Oh dear. But the last facemaster general before the post was

vol. 969 was John Stonehouse and the name might be familiar to you because he was infamous for faking his death. Oh no I don't know the name. He's similar to Moist only and that he was very into his fraud. But he was, after 1970, Stonehouse started setting up various companies and in an attempt to secure a regulating income, I think. He was not very successful politician after this, certainly. And by 1974, this was starting to crumble down around him, and he'd resorted to deceptive creative accounting, as my source says. He was aware that he was being investigated and so he fled. He left his clothes off the beach in Miami. Incredible. Pretended to have drowned. I don't know how long it lasted, not very long I think and I'm not sure people believed him. He was later found in Australia with a false passport.

What I thought was quite interesting was he spent months rehearsing his new identity of Joseph Markham, who was the deceased husband of a constituent, but apparently he really enjoyed rehearsing, he ran off with his mistress by the way, and he really enjoyed rehearsing his character because he was meant to be this quiet, honest man, and he started hating his real personality of Stonehouse. And it's all a little bit odd. That sounds like a man who might have needed medication. Yeah, anyway, it was like a psychological support. Yeah, and I was surprised.

Yeah, he did get like, some of this is from a psychological report, so yeah. I hope he got some medication. He's also alleged to have been a spy for Czechoslovakia. Oh, that's a dude. And it looks like Margaret Thatcher decided to keep that quiet when it turned out they didn't have enough evidence to indict him. Right. And so it didn't want that becoming a thing if it wasn't going to lead to anything.

But yeah, interesting guy. I'll link to an article about him. A couple of other very small bits. The first stamps, of course. The hand struck stamps have been a thing since 1680, but the penne black everyone in Britain probably not abroad because why would you? Well, no, was 1840. It was the first adhesive stamp. Wow. Yeah. And it was the first adhesive stamp. Wow. Yep.

But basically it standardised the price. Yes. As sending letters before then it was all done on weight and distance and was very cumbersome to calculate and afford. At a lot of the time it was the recipient who you should have to pay as well. Ah, so you'd have to pay when you got a letter? Yeah. But I mean, there must have been some instances of people

just pranking or, like, screw over other people. Like how people did it with pizzas before, and you're like, became a thing? Yeah, like you'd have a pizza sent to someone but then they'd have to pay the cash. Yeah. Anyway, sorry.

Now people just send each other bowls of peas and weather swings. Exactly. Anyway, sorry. Now people just send each other bowls of peas and weather swings. Exactly. We are the little bit, I love stories about letters being sent a long time after,

or delivered a long time after they were sent. Obviously there's a lot of those in this book and there's a lot of stories about that in real life, as well as all sorts of these. There's one from this year that I particularly liked and I came across randomly before we started this. I've looked like it. Let it lost in 1916 delivered in London more than a hundred years later. Amazing.

Stand first. Royal Mail uncertain what happened to delay Latter from far which arrived in Crystal Palace in 2021. Alice in 2021. It was addressed to Katie Marsh, who was married to the stamp dealer, Oswald Marsh, and was sent by her friend, Christabel Menel, who was a holidaying in Bath. And it begins, my dear Katie, will you lend me your aid? I'm feeling quite ashamed of myself after saying what I did at the circle. And everybody knows what happens in this. Yeah, yeah. So love this stuff. But anyway, it's the rich people gossip. Fantastic.

Love it. Another little special mention along these lines. I know we haven't really gone into it in the podcast, in the book so far, but whatever. I really love the idea of all the instances where very vague addresses get put on a post and it ends up in the right place anyway. And then British and Irish post postmen are very good at this, like, have a reputation for it. And called Addressed Detective, some of them.

I don't know if that's something that's survived the cut, but I... There are, again, myriad examples of the... I just picked one I particularly liked. Lives across from the spa. Bizarly labeled, Leopter finds its way to UK address. The full description on the envelope reads, Lives across the raid from the spa. His mar and dyer used to own it.

His mother was Mary and dard Joseph. Moved to Waterfoot after he got married. Pl plays guitar and used to run discos in the breakyle hall and the hotel in the 80s, friends with the fella who runs the butchers in Waterfoot too. Excellent, and that got through it and it was so specific and so vague, I think it was a wonderful example of both. And I'm sorry, I've got one it though as well. No, no, this is more than I thought. So intelligent letter sorting machines isn't yeah, interesting for a given value of the word interesting subject. And in that current-ish iteration, I mean obviously the text improved, they came in the mid-80s and early 90s, so I feel like Fracture probably had a little bit of

inspiration here. But an earlier iteration, the Postmaster General Ernest Marple's went to knowledge in 1959 to officially launch the post code experiment and front of national media. And on the day, Norwich's head postmaster, John Freyer, learnt that one of the conveyor belts linking their smart post sorting machine had broken. And this was the thing that was going to sort all the new post code stuff and it's going to make everything very smart and quick and this and the other. But it's too late to call off the demonstration.

So they managed to pull off kind of a illusion. There was time to run 100 letters through the keyboard and dot print unit and take them out of the machine. For the demonstration, the front conveyor was operating normally, so they were printed, went into the smart sorting machine, and at this point, two postmen cunningly positioned behind the machine removed these and replaced them with pre-dotted letters for the working saucer. The audience had no idea that letters going into the destination boxes were not the same

as the one so witness starting the process. The machine's quietness was noted and put down to it being so cutting edge. How mechanical can you get? That's a multiple lip pick me over the last one. Absolutely, yes. If only it had the opportunity instead of being given a universe breaking organ. No, terrible, sorry. And then to segue profil, because I've got a one nice little segue thing. The idea of moving the male, the phrase, keep moving the male, came up a few times, so that was reading through various forums and news stories

and Reddit posts about the post office. And it really has the show must go on vibes. I can't find any official stuff anywhere. A lot of posties seem to use that, yeah, the term move the male, keep moving the male, this are the other, when they're on strike, there's a lot of quotes that say, look, we want to be there moving the mail but yeah and I love it there's just some kind of little yeah a little magic there

yeah I love that I mean this book is this book is magical and not just it's a really good fucking book so I talked a little bit last week about this book as a not a rehab follow up this book kind of has the truth as a bit of its foundation and none of this is to say like this is better than the truth. I'm really fascinated in how like more port grows between these two books. The truth kind of so this book is considered as part of the ang more port, the the Industrial Revolution arc. Stuff starts happening. And I think the truth is really what begins that. It's what happens when thing happens, as we've said, but with machinery, but with machinery

and kind of without magic, it's not about the magic. It's not so music and it's come from somewhere else. It's not moving pictures and giant things coming through screens. It's stuff working. Yeah. Yeah's not moving pictures and giant things coming through screens. It's stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Because the truth kind of begins that, it's a little bit of almost a refresh. It comes at that 25th book point, which is really great.

But in doing so, the book shied quite far away from magic, almost just to make a joke out of it. You had that running joke about, there's nothing mystical going on in this shed. Because we all remember what happened to Mr. Hongs III Johnnie Lackt Takeaway Fish Bar and Jagger Street. Obviously it doesn't entirely show away from magic, you have the eels and an Otto and you have the ominous press, but it's far away from it, especially compared to other right and more book books. Whereas going postal has the confidence to embrace this this fabric of magic in Discworld, while telling a new shape of story in rank more book, you know, there's no trying to ask Fettinari plot, there is barely any watch in it, they're referenced

because obviously they're there, they're part of the fabric, but they're not characters. Unlike the truth, which is not a watch book, is set in Modern Nightmore Park, but then uses the veterinary plot and has the watch there as almost an unofficial watch book. But in doing that, and going post all, embracing that fabric and telling this new story, it highlights that absolutely human things that are happening, this idea of chasing efficiency, destroying the post office, the financial crimes, the way the easy way moist makes people believe in him except it's not easy because he is actually doing all of the shit. He just thinks of it as a cotton. But so you have these ideas running through it and it starts using magic in these really clever ways. You have this ephemeral way that

guilt thinks about money in the ephemeral way that both guilt and moist kind of play with guilt thinks about money in the ephemeral way that both guilt and moist kind of play with with the world with people. When guilt says money's not a thing, it's not even a process, it's a shed, it's a shed dream for delusion. And so there's all this, this magic just there in the book and it's not disagreed with, it's just as much of a fabric of it as anything else. You have grope being so certain about the prophecy, especially when the hat comes on, and it's kind of treated as silly, but then the miss call writing comes and moist starts to believe. And the letters are very frank about it. Yes, we are mystical letters talking to you, but look, you're not prophecy anyone will do. You're there. And then you have that gap, you know, that happens and then he wakes up the next morning and you

have this off screen as it were, a bit when he gets calls up in it, it makes plans and highest placement. Yeah. Which, something he says in that, by the way, that Mr. Palm quits back to him the next day is about Angel being a word for messenger, which it comes from Angelos from Ancient Greek, which means messenger, but what I was not sure is that the word for messenger, which it comes from Angelos from Ancient Greek, which means messenger, but what I was not sure is that the word for angel in Hebrew also has the same mesimology, that's messenger as well.

Oh, nice. I just really love that as a detail. The bit about moist kind of going off on this like off screen. Yeah. I'm going to have a now thing as well. I feel is such a pratchett putting that into the character, especially the competent man that he loves to write. This, just the scene where they're like,

now we're doing this, that, the other, this, this, you do this, you do that. We've had it with vines to, you know, we've had it with William DeWord, obviously. And yeah, Moe seems to be the really best at this, just. But there's something about not seeing it, seeing it the morning up. It's something about seeing it in the cold light of day. Yeah, yeah. Oh God, the hangover of it. Yeah. And you get moist things about not doing magic, which is this whole key thing that has run through the disc world, you know, the magic would present its

bill, which was somehow more than you can afford. Just as magic stays a really inherent part of the book, everyone is willing to reject it on every level because when they tried magic, they got his head all over the floor. Yeah. I like the wall too, Anna. Very different.

Sorry. Oh, I'm assuming some was on the floor. Oh, no, you're quite right. In gravity. Yes. And you get this great stuff, like the absolute silliness with the wizards, which I think is a very confident thing to have that in there, along with this incredible story being told, is moments like a bucket of clockwork,

pastry lobsters and a box set of novelty glass eyes. I cannot stop thinking about clockwork pastry lobsters. We should probably also mention the very far callback for the stuffed crocodile and the skull of the candle, shouldn't we? That goes right back to the beginning. That is a well-established fact. The established crocodile. I thought as well, Adora Bals' little mention of mysticism,

whether I'm a moistist, like, oh, so they give me a bit of extra clay for the tongue. It's like, she gave me a look. It's a bit more mystical than that. She said so many, which again, we don't need to explain the magic, it's just, it's more magical than that. Don't worry about it. There's also a sense of, she's very confident about it. She doesn't fucking know. Of course she's fucking us know. She very confidently doesn't know. And then you have this specific magic inherent in the letters, in the power of letters, and this is such a pratchett thing, this power of stories, belief,

all coming together. Mr. Pump calls the post office a tomb of unheard words. And you could hear that like thudding in his clay voice when it's written down. Moist explains about the lessons, their unfinished stories, every underlivered message is a piece of space time that lacks another end, a bundle of effort and emotion floating freely, which is such a beautiful idea.

It's like, oh God, it's like, it's like L space if they didn't have like very in-sorting stuff out, isn't it? It's like, all's like, it's like, it's like, L space if they didn't have librarians sawing stuff out, isn't it? It's like, yeah, all of the time distorting. Um, Professor Pellke refers to the library as a Javesa, a tomb of living words, which I think is a reference to Janisa. And I'm probably not saying that it's a Hebrew word. Um, it literally means hiding place, but it's,

it's a repository for these like time-worn sacred manuscripts and ritual objects because they didn't wanna just throw away things that had holy words written on them. Also like when he said it's in Clad. Yeah, there are these specific places. I'll link to a Britannica Rascal that's got a lot more context for that.

Yeah, nice. And there's also just, there's a lot of fun other little bits that kind of reference the truth specifically in this. That, you know, Harry King is, is present in the background. I feel like Harry King's the real start to the Angmore book, industrial revolution. Like that. I talked about it in the truth. I like a fancy book that answers the question, where does the shit go?

Yeah. Yeah. Because we've got a couple of Harry King coded people running the coaches as well does the ship go? Yeah, yeah. Because that's like, We've got a couple of Harry King coded people running the coaches as well, don't we? Yeah, the two side of Alay Dorman, who will happily deal with a outward grister. Yeah. And they all speaks as they find and call spade spades

when necessary and brew very thick cups of tea. Yeah. And then hit one over the head with the spade when when necessary. Things goes out here. And obviously, like, Sakuraarissa being here, the newspaper, just being a part of like more pork now compared to when it was the shiny new thing. Yeah. And so now like we saw the power of the press in Monsters Regiment, but it was very like defamiliarised. We were seeing it from the point of view of people who didn't know what news papers are. Whereas for here, we're seeing it

from the point of view of people who were used to a newspapers are. Whereas for here we're seeing it from the point of view of people who are used to a newspaper which was brand fucking new like 15 books ago. I was like, there are multiple references to the prawn market figures from Genua and that was a thing in the truth. Vestinari has a conversation with Ridd. I'm pretty sure it's the truth and I didn't have time to go check. But because I think this is one of the reasons, you know, Rid Cully says, yeah, there's weird conversation with me about sending prawns by

Semifor. Yeah. And and Vestinari is talking about knowing how much a pint of prawns were cost in January the next day. Oh, cool. Yes, yeah. Semifor. That is that. So I like that now the prawn market figures have come up multiple times in this book. Looks very important. That's an already got what he wanted. Most of the time we can find out the cost of a pint of prawns in January. And I think possibly earlier than that we've also been worried about the... maybe a night watch the carts full of seafood going. Yeah, no, we've considered the price of prawns for all. And not a call

back to the truth, but find a prawn. Sorry. Not a call back to the truth, but call back to Monstrous Regiment. Vestinary arsemoist, if he's aware of the etymology of sticking up your jumper, because there's a lively debate going on about it in the times. And stick it up, your jumper is a thing in once just regimen. And at one point, one of them says it, and I'm pretty sure William DeWord is present. And Blouse explains, yes, no, which I believe was named after. So I like to think that's just stuck in stuck into his mind. And now he's they're arguing about it in the letters pages of the time. That's definitely what's happened. I love that. Then obviously I already

mentioned we have Hobbson's Leverie stable that first cropped up in the truth as well. And it's just he, in the truth, he built out Angmore Paul, Colotmore. He used the same story he told before to build a lot more of the city. This book then gets to play in it. Yeah, I love that so much. And I love how magical it gets to become again. It's almost like, oh, maybe if it's that, it shouldn't be too magical.

No, no, no, fuck it. It's all in there. Everything's in there. Clockwork pastry lobsters up the wazee. I was gonna say, I really like the way that you in this book have kind of bundled in some real world magic, like the delusion of money with all the rest of the magic and how, you know, because in this book, they are bundled in together.

Yeah, except in this book, if you get delusion without something enough, it comes true. But the bits of that in the real world, though, we are all, you know, money is that slightly weird ephemeral thing that we've all agreed on? That is. It absolutely is. I mean, this is why the more I learn about economics, the crosser I get about economics, just because the point is that it's nothing. Yeah, it's all nothing. This does, don't explain economics to us that's in the box with the cricket and postmasters.

I think it's a slightly separate box, which is I get it. We probably should go on. So yeah, I think that's part of what makes this such a wonderful book. It builds on everything that's come before, but it will particularly builds on a favorite. And it's really wonderful to see the confidence almost come back in magic. It's not the magic of the wizards, it's not the magic of the witches, it is the magic of the city.

And it's yeah, the belief, the belief making things real in this, but in this, but it's happening in the spiritual way, yeah, the structural way Making the post office happen. Everybody in the post office have it. And they want to join in with the fun. That's what he said, isn't it? They want to join in with the fun. So they go and buy the stamps and they're making it real.

Exactly. And moist as well. Like, he doesn't believe in himself. He thinks he's calling everyone, but he's calling everyone by just doing the fucking thing. So, like, if they're leaving him. I don't know where to come from. And if I just do what I'm not the con man.

Anyway, I got unhinged there and I'm not sure any of it made sense. France ain't have you got enough ski reference for Neil for me. Yeah, it's for you prawns. Speaking of semifor and prawn markets kind of sent me up on this because, and I think now you've said it, I was like, ah, prawn markets, that sounds familiar, which is what sent me down this, but it was from, I've done this before, it was from another discworld book, but it's fine because I found an actual good one. Basically, I was like, there have got to have been a couple of times where people used the semifulls or telegraphs or

something in the same way that the criminal does in this one, pretends it's broken, runs ahead, gets the... Oh, yeah, that one. Corners the prod market. Yeah. And there's been a couple of them that don't quite fit, that's it, enough that I like it. In 1814, the great stock exchange fraud was,

and this one came from a news story in 2018, so it stayed very relevant weirdly. Fake news that Napoleon had died, is cited in a new analysis aimed at helping commodity bond and forex traitors to stop fraud and industry body, set on Friday. In 1814 Charles de Berrenger disguised himself as a Bourbon officer and appeared in Dover to announce that Napoleon had been killed by the Prussians. He sent a semi-four telegraph to the Admiralty in London, knowing it would find its way into the press. The price of British government bonds rose on the news, prompting Debaranja and Co-Conspirators to sell guilt they'd already bought. Guilt, by the way.

That's a good, I thought. And then the other little one was a bit more, I wasn't sure if to put this in next week, when we're going to be talking a bit more about the technology and the facts and all that stuff, but I thought it fair. So this is an 1834 cyber attack, basically, or hacking, whatever. So in France, as I think we have mentioned before, had its own national semaphore network in the late 1700s, so much earlier than a lot of people. And it was, it was towers quite a long way apart, so about 10 kilometers apart, rotating arms, they could signal, and it was only for government business. This wasn't like the Grand Trunk type thing.

However, Francois and Joseph Blanc, two bankers working on the Bordeaux Stock Exchange, hired a colleague in Paris to keep watch on the Paris Stock Exchange and pass information on the most significant trends to a telegraph operator in tour on the Parastock Exchange and pass information on the most significant trends to a Telegraph operator in tour on the line that transmitted data to board Doe. And they found a way to nest their messages inside the authorized messages using the symbols used to indicate transmission errors. And we talked a little bit here about them putting their own personal messages inside the messages somehow on the thing.

Eventually, they did get caught, but they made a lot of money in the meantime, I think, by just knowing that. I was just asking. By knowing all the stock markets, I have two years, they managed to go there. Yeah. Love that. However, the authorities realized there were no actual laws that prohibited the injection of private messages into the optical telegraph networks. They didn't get jailed. Amazing. Because veterinary wasn't in charge. I feel like when this would point it out to veterinary, he'd be gone.

He'd be going, well, that's no law prohibiting me, specifically from dropping you into the scorpion pit. So yeah, I'm lucky. Sometimes it's handy to have a tyrant. No, let's not drop people. The true show-making threat is not to have the gate dropping most people into scorpion pits. Yes.

However, anyway, I think that's nothing to do with the price of prawns so I'm going to make this a saying somehow. Yeah, no, that's where what's like I'll just do with the price of prawns. I think that's everything that we could possibly say about part two of going past all as not true at all, but Francine's hungry and so am I. We will be back with you next week for the final part of going past all, which begins in chapter 10 and goes right to the end of it. That sounded more like a threat than a promise than I'm living for that vibe. We are coming back whether you like it or not. It's going to happen with the fire, Joanna. I don't, I know.

Things are going to be on fire. Anyway, right, sorry. Until next week, dear listener, if you like this episode, please do the right and review thing. It helps other people find us because of the cursed algorithms that is cursed with multiple heads. And if we are review ed, it helps us review it. I got that right at the end.

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