Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Week 6- The Hero's Journey- Equal Rites

Terry Pratchet's Equal Rites was my first introduction to both his writing and to Discworld. I have to say I was pretty reluctant to read it at first, although honestly after reading it I can't figure out why. I found it to be inventive, interesting, and funny. As far as following the hero's journey, Eskarina is an interesting protagonist. The rules and differences surrounding the magic of witches vs. the magic of wizards was interesting in that it didn't matter the sex of the individual (although all wizards are men and all witches are women) but the way the person accessed their powers and also the way they went about learning magic. Also- Granny Weatherwax is awesome and I wish she was my grandma.

The hero's journey trope is very present in Equal Rites, Esk's call to adventure comes when her powers become unmanageable and Granny Weatherwax takes her to the Unseen University.
Her supernatural aide is clearly Granny Weatherwax as the only way she is allowed at the university is as a servant. This could be seen as her initial breakthrough and crossing the first threshold into the world of wizards.
Her attempt to help Simon and ending up in the other dimension could be seen as the belly of the beast. And her return to the University and continuation to discover a new kind of magic is her victorious return. Pratchett's Discworld gave me an entirely new universe to explore and allowed for me to dive right in without having to have read his many other books in this universe.

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