I am the ball

Instead of the thoughtful, considered, and probably somewhat scatological piece I was going to write today, I'm writing shameless fangirly squeeing. This is because Unseen Academicals, PTerry's latest novel, was in my mailbox today. Dragon's Ring was there too, but... Sorry Dave. One book a night is the limit if I want to be able to function the next day, and PTerry won. I'll have to do the fangirl squee over Dragon's Ring later.

As usual, I emerge from a Pratchett book caught between awe and despair. Awe should be self-evident. Despair because I will never, ever be able to write a measurable fraction of that well. In what appears on the surface to be a book about the wizards of the Unseen University having to play a game of football (soccer to those of us who think of football as involving an elliptical ball and a lot of legitimate physical contact) there's a tour through a human nature and how effectively and securely we make our own hells - as well as how every single one of us can escape them.

There's a lot more than that, of course. This is PTerry.

The title? That's a direct quote from the book - and it sums up something we tend to forget. In a game of football (any sort of football) the ball is the most important part, and it becomes in a sense the spirit of the game. That spirit becomes part of our culture and our souls, whether the ball is a ball or something else, and whether the game is football, soccer, cricket, baseball, basketball... Keep your eye on the ball. Out of left field. Outfielders. Goals. Sports are, as Pratchett says, about everything except the sport.

I'm going to leave off with two things, a quote from the book, and a question.

"Forgiveness is the name of Pastor Oats's double-headed battle-axe."

What else - books, movies, whatever - absolutely nails some part of human nature without preaching a sermon? My first (non-PTerry) vote goes to Dave's Rats Bats & Vats and the sequels for reasons that ought to be obvious.