At 6/14/06 11:44 AM, Coop83 wrote:
That is most surprising, as it's the one Pratchett book with lots of material on werewolves (yes, even more than the watch with Angua)
That's just why I haven't read it, actually. Portrayals of both wolves and werewolves in literature tend to be clichéd and uninformed, and unfortunately, even Terry is no exception. Stuff like the classification of werewolves as undead (a silly mistake that should be obvious when you think about it) or tieing shape change to the phases of the moon is just distracting, or maybe slightly annoying, but it always makes me cringe when an author describes wolf behaviour, putting an emphasis on how it's not what everything thinks it's like and how people's stereotypes are simply wrong, and then simply gets it wrong.
I'm not sure where this comes from, either - shouldn't a good author research the topics he's writing about before he starts writing about them? There's dozens of books on wolf behaviour, and although not all of them are good, well, most are.
It's similar as far as werewolves are concerned, too, as most authors seem to base their werewolf behaviour on a mixture of wolf behaviour and real-world werewolf folklore (or at least what most people, those who haven't actually looked into these things, think is werewolf folklore these days). And of course, how can you get werewolf behaviour right when you're not getting wolf behaviour right? Not to mention that folklore is just that, not necessarily something to be taken seriously, and that misconceptions about folklore are even worse.
Terry Pratchett is not quite as bad as other authors, but he's not good in this regard, either, and that's why I simply haven't read "the fifth elephant" at all yet. Maybe I'm taking it all too serious (the books, I mean, not therianthropy), but I don't think I really could enjoy it when I constantly think "this is all totally wrong". (And while I can't be sure that that's what'd happen until I actually read the book, I'm certain enough to not read it.)
Repeat my last sentence, but with the word 'power sander' instead of sandpaper. I'll try to find something more abrasive
*chuckle* That's not what I meant, silly.