this is stuff you like and the truth is the 25th Discworld book featuring: a
wordsmith, posh people, parents, and the power of words. Terry Pratchett started
working as a journalist at the age of 17 and The Truth is among other things
something of an ode to local journalism because no matter where in the
multiverse you go there's always a man who grew humorously shaped vegetables in
his greenhouse, and the truth is always much much stranger than you ever thought.
one of the things that Pratchett said about journalism stuck with me recently
"it worried me that in the nature of journalism you had to chop the world up
into little lumps of 150 words you could never tell the whole story" I made a
video for my patrons in which I discussed among other things why I quit
Twitter but the main reasons were first that it wasn't really fun anymore and
second that it really wasn't useful: few people's views of the world are notably
changed after arguing on social media, especially social media with such a
strict character limit. the world is too complex and nuanced and interesting to
be chopped up into 150 words let alone two hundred and eighty characters you
can fit catchphrases into that many characters; slogans, sure, but actual
factual concepts? Still, at least with 150 words you can make a start. the plot of
the truth goeth thusly: William de Worde younger brother of a more beloved and now
deceased older brother has fallen out with his father and made his way to
Ankh Morpork where he makes his living as a writer William de Worde:
things written down. Once a month he writes a letter of news for various
important people and he uses an engraver to make copies but then some dwarves
arrive with the printing press and all heck breaks loose. the wizards are upset
the engravers are upset Lord Vetinari is mildly suspicious. but the dwarves Dwarfs?
Dwarves? and William and Sacharissa Crisplock, daughter of the now unemployed
engraver set up a newspaper where they print the news every day and sell it to
anyone who wants to read it there's a plot to supplant the patrician the city
watch feature quite heavily as do gasped the wonder dog and Foul Ole Ron and
we're also introduced to mr. tulip and mr. pin of the new firm who are not very
nice people it comes to a head as these things do and it turns out that Lord
de Words, William's father, was behind the plot to supplant Vetinari and it also
turns out that William is not so unlike his father as he
they imagine. but they're enough unlike that all ends well.
"you will know the truth and the truth will make you free" Jesus said to which
Gloria Steinem added "but first it might piss you off." As I said The Truth, as
Discworld books tend to be, is about a lot of things but there is a theme here
that Pratchett keeps returning to and that is accountability especially
accountability when there might not be anyone to provide it. "who watches the
Watchmen?" is first said as Quis custodiat custard in Guards Guards and
Pratchett returns to it more fully with Vimes in Thud! And of course the witches
are constantly watching each other for signs that someone is going dark but
William de Worde and his newspaper have no accountability in fact the de Wordes in
general don't have much in the way of accountability that's what privilege
means they say: privi lege: private law. but of course people really need
accountability because no one thinks they're evil do they? if we couldn't
justify the things we did to ourselves at least a little then we probably
wouldn't do them so much when William and Vimes clash Vimes hits the nail
squarely on the head as is his won't. "I don't trust you Mr. de Worde and I've
just realized why. it's not that you're going to cause trouble, dealing with
trouble is my job it's what I'm paid for that's why they give me an armour
allowance, but who are you responsible to? I have to answer for what I do - though
right now I'm damned if I know who - but you it seems to me you can do what the
hell you like!" "I suppose I'm answerable to the truth sir" "Oh really? How exactly?"
"sorry?" "If you tell lies does the truth come and
smack you in the face? I'm impressed, ordinary everyday people like me are
responsible to other people, even Vetinari always had - has - one eye on the
Guilds. But you you are answerable to the truth? Amazing."
Of course that's the
thing about journalism if it's accountable to no one then you end up
with things like the Ankh Morpork Enquirer where they talk about rains of
frogs or people being taken away by silver dishes or women giving birth to
what was it snakes? in Lancre. Fake news in other words. But William de Worde the
discs first-ever newspaper editor holds himself accountable to the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth, at least most of the time. That's a bit of a
family trait though isn't it?Lord de Worde doesn't consider himself accountable to
anything but his own ideals Responsible to other people?Tch!
William is also a high-handed supercilious twerp on occasion because
it is often true that we are more like our parents than we would care to admit
but the difference is he doesn't want to be and the other difference is that
William is not just accountable to his own ideals he is accountable to other
people who share those ideals. because like I said high ideals are all well and
good but no one on their own ever really thinks they're evil I do they and so you
need other people to keep you on the straight and narrow. And William has all
of these people the dwarves and Otto and Sacharissa, but when it comes to the end
and he confronts his father he tells him to leave. he doesn't print his father's
name in the newspaper he doesn't hand his father over to the watch he doesn't
tell the whole truth. I mean he doesn't lie but he doesn't tell the whole truth.
but still every day in every way we are getting better and better
William Worde does show up briefly in later books: Monstrous Regiment, Going
Postal, Making Money, Unseen Academicals, but this is his book and I love it.
"A lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on" is an
oft-repeated refrain in this book and that's truer now than it was then
given the internet and social media and fake news and monetizing the filter
bubble and all of those things but there are I hope many people in the world like
William and Sacharissa and Sir Terry Pratchett: people who by way of
journalism or fantasy novels or whatever else comes to hand give the truth a way
to kick.
thank you as always to my patrons you are wonderful