Going Postal
Again I sticked my nose into one of those ingenious discworld novels of Terry Pratechett.
This one covers a conflict between the “clacks” and the postoffice which can easily seen as the conflict between modern technologies (like the Internet) and the more traditional ways (like snail mail).
A few words should be dropped about the Discworld in gerneral because I suspect that not all the readers know it yet (if there are any readers anyway). Pratchett has set up a fantasy satire on a wired world which basically looks like the picture of the world mankind had hundrets of years ago.
The world is a disc, with a dome of glas above it. This disc has been placed on four giant elephants which find their place on an ancient space turtle, swimming through the universe. This “crazy” setting is the stage for a lot of stories Pratchett is telling in his books. On this world magic is as normal as DEAD which is not meant litteraly, but as this cool skeleton guy who is always talking in CAPITALS. The author manages to write in that special way, fitting in little hints to the “real world” by just mentioning names or discribing a fictitous technique or event, which can be easily compared to something currently in our news. There is even a book (“Wired Sisters”) which is a satire to Shakespears “Mac Beth”.
Even more fun if the internet is your domicile
The protagonist oft this story is Moist von Lipwig a criminal and con artist, who should be hanged at the beginning of the book. Luckily Lord Vetinari, despot and ruler of Ankh-Morpork, capital of the Discworld, offers him a job instead of DEATH. Moist could get postmaster general of the Post Office. A job you can not refuse with a clear conscience, considering that the alternative would be dieing by the string.
In the beginning of his new career Moist is just thinking how to get away without being catched by that giant golem, Vetinari has hired as his “guard”, but throughout the book the new postmaster get’s exited about his company and really trys to get it work again after 20 years of liying idle. This is a though job as the “clacks” an Internet-like communication system has filled the gap. This system uses high towers which “morse” messages from one to another making news floating around the continents in hours not weeks.
I have to admit that the description of the “clacks” system is even more fun if you have some knowledge of the Internet. Than words like “overhead” or “uplink” mean something to you and enjoying the funny descrition in this fantasy world is even MORE fun. But it is not nessesary to be a geek here.
Moist as an trickster is the perfect man to handle the corrupt company which is operating the clacks towers. As he gets more and more hooked into the competition against the clacks he gets the Post Office going again. In the end it is not only a race, delievering a message faster by mail then by clacks, but also the question if modern and expensive technologies can build a gap between rich an poor people and who to change that.
Buy the English original at Amazon
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