History WMG / Snuff

* At the L-Space Wiki, in the pre-publication speculation concerning what the novel was going to be about, we turned up a potential ''third'' meaning of "snuff", in the context of a novel about the making of a certain sort of porn movie. (No, not one involving torture and murder, but descriptive of a sexual practice known by the Japanese word "bukakke" which the author pointed out is degrading to ''everyone'' involved. Our minds duly boggled...)

* A more metaphorical comparison occurs with Billy Slicks, the lone goblin assimilated into AnhkMorpork work culture but completely disinterested in superstitions; Angua ponders the fate of goblins losing their culture and "vanishing" into just another kind of "little human."
* In a way, the unggue pots are actually relics of each goblin's self, like how various parts of saints, and even Jesus' foreskin are preserved as relics.
* Stinky may be a self-actualized goblin, one who has collected enough self-belief to turn into a small god himself.

It's a sort of tricky legal situation, or, rather, moral situation of the legal code, having to say "well, if the law says they're animals, then I'll entertain that for the sake of legalities," but it would get the job done.

** Jossed, in part, owing to AuthorExistenceFailure. But Terry's amanuensis Rob Wilkins let it slip that when Terry died, there was an unfinished outline novel about Howondaland called ''The Dark Incontinent''. Some of that material may have surfaced in the ''Complete Discworld Atlas'', which expands a little on the continent. Snippets include more on Balgrog hunter "Howondaland Smith", who is visually depicted as a Great White hunter type in safari garb. There is also a country where the nearest thing to a capital city is called ''Smithville''. White Howondaland?

Ankh-Morpork's legal system is ...well, more shrouded in mystery than the city itself. Likely because PTerry preferred to not have something set in stone so that he could write what he wanted until he had established a precedent.//
However, if we assume UK law is a rough basis, as the legal system PTerry would have been most familiar with, we can see a couple things. First, what Vetinari asserts, namely that laws cannot be applied retroactively, is more his personal philosophy than a fact of AM law. In the UK, such laws, known as ex post facto laws, are doable (though likely actually enacted rarely), because of how their government works. Vetinari as a tyrannical ruler, would presumably be just as capable of enacting such a law if he wanted. So one is left to assume that he is personally not a fan of the idea, and that is understandable for practical reasons. Vetinari retains power in large part because the AM ''with'' him is just slightly less inconvenient than an AM ''without'' him, and he likely recognizes that if he started making ex post facto laws, the balance might swing due to a public perception that he just does whatever he wants. (Which he does, sort of, as a tyrant, but perception is important).//
That said, and setting aside the fact that it's debateable as to whether Vimes had any true jurisdiction as an officer of the law in the Shire, the Shire is his land. And if goblins are regarded as animals... Well that means that to kill a goblin in the Shire without Vimes' permission is an act of ''poaching.'' Which in the UK, back when the government was (just) kings and nobles, carried a penalty of death.//
Now, it would anger Vimes to no end to have to prosecute Stratford for the crime of poaching, rather than murder, but presumably that is a law on the books, whereas the murder laws are written such that they do not apply to goblins (which does make me wonder how those laws are written, precisely).//

Ankh-Morpork's legal system is ...well, more shrouded in mystery than the city itself. Likely because PTerry preferred to not have something set in stone so that he could write what he wanted until he had established a precedent.
However, if we assume UK law is a rough basis, as the legal system PTerry would have been most familiar with, we can see a couple things. First, what Vetinari asserts, namely that laws cannot be applied retroactively, is more his personal philosophy than a fact of AM law. In the UK, such laws, known as ex post facto laws, are doable (though likely actually enacted rarely), because of how their government works. Vetinari as a tyrannical ruler, would presumably be just as capable of enacting such a law if he wanted. So one is left to assume that he is personally not a fan of the idea, and that is understandable for practical reasons. Vetinari retains power in large part because the AM ''with'' him is just slightly less inconvenient than an AM ''without'' him, and he likely recognizes that if he started making ex post facto laws, the balance might swing due to a public perception that he just does whatever he wants. (Which he does, sort of, as a tyrant, but perception is important).
That said, and setting aside the fact that it's debateable as to whether Vimes had any true jurisdiction as an officer of the law in the Shire, the Shire is his land. And if goblins are regarded as animals... Well that means that to kill a goblin in the Shire without Vimes' permission is an act of ''poaching.'' Which in the UK, back when the government was (just) kings and nobles, carried a penalty of death.
Now, it would anger Vimes to no end to have to prosecute Stratford for the crime of poaching, rather than murder, but presumably that is a law on the books, whereas the murder laws are written such that they do not apply to goblins (which does make me wonder how those laws are written, precisely).

After showing such an interest in animal droppings and the biological functions that create them, Young Sam might well move on to studying the animals themselves. There would be a nice symmetry to this, as Vimes himself is - in his own way - something of a Vetinarian.

* Or perhaps it's about Vimes' aging... not longer feeling "up to snuff" as it were. Or perhaps it refers to Angua's method of snuffing out clues. Or [[Discworld/FeetOfClay Snuffing out a candle.]]

* Perhaps this book will follow up on the "extreme sneezing" Vetinari mentioned in ''[[Discworld/MakingMoney Making Money]]''?

As we saw in ''Discworld/SmallGods'' there is a hermit, St. '''Ungulant''', who worships the small gods and gets illusions of great food, drink, and other pleasures in return for belief. In ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'' the Discworld equivalent of Saint Elmo's Fire appears, called St. Ungulant's Fire: a storm full of magic or possibly raw belief, raining down fish or other things strange things since people think that that is what a "magic" storm would do. Clearly the word ''Unggue'', referring to the goblins' magic pots, is from a similar root, about belief: Goblins are meta-aware that their belief in the value of all their bodily secretions imbues those substances with ''belief'' and make ''Unggue'' pots to hold what is essentially raw belief given physical form. ''Unggue'' pots are made to prevent the leakage or loss of any belief, without which goblins might fade away and cease to exist.

[[WMG: [[Discworld/{{Thud}} Methodia Rascal's chicken]] will return.]]

* I think his deal may actually be that the better he gets at his job, the more he can afford to relax and behave like a person. He used to be occasionally prone to making mistakes (''Discworld/{{Sourcery}}'', ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'', ''Discworld/MenAtArms''), and tended to get removed from office and/or nearly killed a lot. He was probably trying to avoid coming across as at all vulnerable, but since he hasn't screwed up and/or nearly been killed recently, he feels confident enough to act human.

* [[PoisonOakEpilepticTrees Pterry knows he doesn't have all that much time left as a writer. Perhaps this is going to be Vimes's swansong, designed to wrap up the subseries for good.]]

* I think his deal may actually be that the better he gets at his job, the more he can afford to relax and behave like a person. He used to be occasionally prone to making mistakes (''Discworld/{{Sourcery}}'', ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'', ''Discworld/MenAtArms''), and tended to get removed from office and/or nearly killed a lot. He was probably trying to avoid coming across as at all vulnerable, since everything was difficult enough already. Since he hasn't screwed up and/or nearly gotten killed recently, he lets himself relax a bit.

The city could certainly benefit from having one, and Young Sam's intellectual curiosity and deep appreciation for the written word are well-established (albeit a bit mucky) in this book.