> It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone’s fault. If it was Us, what did that make Me? After all, I’m one of Us. I must be. I’ve certainly never thought of myself as one of Them.

> No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We’re always one of Us. It’s Them that do the bad things.

It's a far greater commentary on racism and xenophobia than Witches Abroad could ever be.

I've gone 3000 words without saying it: I will fucking suplex you if you think this thread smacks of anything that suggests we need to """""CANCEL""""" #Discworld.

No writer comes out of the womb aged 55, poised with the worldwise knowhow to write bestseller after bestseller. They grow. They change.

New Discworld readers are told not to start with Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic for a good reason: parody ages fast, and spoils faster. They've never been Pratchett at his best.

Few, if any of us, no matter how pious, get it right the first time. So we grow; so we change.

Pratchett missed a lot in Witches Abroad that is to the story's detriment. Left to the author's trust in the reader to pick up what they're putting down, the nuance missing in that story will always be problematic.

And, at the same time, there's evidence in the books that followed to argue that Pratchett, himself, knew of these problems, and strived to explore them with more nuance. He grew; he changed.

> "If I'd written 25 versions of The Light Fantastic by now, I'd be ready to slit my wrists."

https://www.lspace.org/about-terry/interviews/amazon2.html

"𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺--"

Millennium hand and shrimp with a side of rat onna stick, cease your vulgar non-sequitur*. He would be no different (OK, ten years wiser, at least).