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zenosanalytic · 7 years

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Discworld: The Fifth Elephant

This one’s another theme title, like Jingo, and the theme THIS time is unstated/invisible/minor/ephemeral/unknown/dead/nonexistent things that, regardless, happen to VERY important, and to influence events and behavior deeply.

Though, tbf, what Uberwaldians might call a “fifth elephant”, seems somewhat like what we readers might call “the elephant in the room”. There’s a nice irony in that, though, since “the elephant in the room” is a huge and obvious problem no one wants to deal with or acknowledge, whereas a “fifth elephant” is an invisible or unknowable influences everyone acknowledges. I’m basically just going to list and discuss the “Fifth Elephants” that jumped out at me while reading.

The Fifth Elephant itself. It’s mentioned as a dwarven myth near the start of the book and not really mentioned after, yet it is the source of Uberwald’s mining wealth, thus the draw of of the outside world’s attentions, thus the impetus for the weres’ plot, the dwarves’ civil strife, and the main action of the text. It also rears up again at the end as the true reason for the visit, during Sybil’s negotiations with the Low King. As an aside, I just want to say how much I LOVE the idea of fat, treacle, and other such “organic” mines, as a Fantasy Worldbuilding decision :] Particularly given the geological approach Dwarves take to bread and other confections :] :]

Candlefat. Fat is sort of looked down on by most of the characters in the book when put next to Uberwald’s gold, iron, and other mineral wealth, but it’s what A-M, and A-M’s “progressive” society, run on. And it is, literally, running under the surface of the whole place, erupting at point like Yellowstone geysers. As the setting for Vimes’ final fight with Wolfgang’s ...wolf gang(well, were gang)... it enacts a quite direct and literal influence over the plot. And, returning to the above para, it’s the final prize for Vimes’ efforts, and reward for A-M’s diplomatic victory in the region.

Silver. This is a lesser and more subtle example, but I think that actually makes the fit better. It’s very rarely mentioned -once to say that it’s banned under the Diet of Bugs, once again at the end- but its value is keenly felt by the reader through its lack and all the fighting against werewolves. Which is pretty cool from a meta standpoint, too, as it turns a necessity of the story -not having any silver around so that the werewolves provide a serious threat to the protags- into a tool for increasing the reader’s emotional engagement, and does it with a plausible in-universe justification. More prosaically the absence of its use and the license that gives the weres emphasizes it’s importance. The reader is shown, directly, how the prohibition on silver mining allows the current power-structure to exist and keeps the peace, and by closing the books with the Dwarves reopening their silver mines in response to the weres’ violation of the Diet, declares the collapse of that order and the rising of a new one, more in-line with A-M’s industrial, commercial, “civilized” worldview.

Vampires. We only see ONE vampire, and she’s sworn off blood, but we know from the Diet, and Uberwaldean architecture, and the decisive role Lady Margolotta repeatedly plays in the story, and her patronage of the Igors(and how we’re introduced to them through her) how powerful, influential, and important to Uberwaldean society vampires are. And, through the unnamed and unseen members of her Recovery Group, we know not only that there are more vampires, but that there are also unreconstructed ones. Which leads to a sort of second-tier Fifth Elephant re: Lady Margolotta’s power: there are other vamps but they don’t interfere in Vimes’ mission, despite the importance of it to Uberwald’s future, suggesting that crossing Margolotta, despite her non-traditional choices which MUST annoy some of this, is not something other vamps feel willing or able to do.

Wolfgang’s plot. Its fullness is not revealed til the end though it, and thwarting it, forms the main-action of the book.

Angua’s past, and particularly her family politics. Wolfgang’s motivations are not entirely political but also personal(a nice riff on Carrot’s “Personal isn’t the same as Important”); Angua was the only one who could stand up to and defeat him, and he resents this, and that she left, and that she is romantically involved with a particularly tall dwarf. Serafine’s shared anger over this, which she sees as an abandonment and repudiation, is how she justifies giving Wolfgang his head. One can also take this into more pretentious territory :p Angua, through her place in the A-M City Watch, represents and is creating a world in direct opposition to the one Wolfgang represents and want to bring into being. So, in both a familial and philosophical sense, the font of Wolfgang’s actions, the plots which drove the main-action, are founded in his antagonism with Angua.

Dee, Dwarf Gender, and Cheri. This is another one, like Silver, that flies low under the radar but ends up having played a huge part in the story. Dee went along with Wolfgang’s plan, and destroyed the Scone, primarily in an attempt to halt the changes in Dwarven society Cheri had, by having the courage to be herself, set in motion. Dee wanted to stop these changes out of projected self-loathing and frustration over her own inability, as a deep dwarf, to express her feminine identity. So, without Dee’s envious anger at Cheri’s freedom of identity, Wolfgang’s plan would have come to nothing.

Carrot’s feelings for Angua. Until now, we’ve always only seen Angua and Carrot’s relationship from her perspective, and even here Carrot’s feelings, in true Fifth Elephant style, go unspoken. However we do see them, quite explicitly, put into action. Angua always feared Carrot cared more for the city and the Watch than for her. Carrot resigns his commission and abandons the city to the tender mercies of a fright-mad Fred Colon to pursue her. He chases her through winter cold, hunger, and exhaustion without once mentioning any of it. In fact, in a rather excellently explicative literary move, Pratchett leaves all of this to be mentioned by Gaspode, and described by Angua, after she had saved him from his own poor decisions. We also get to see more hints at Carrot’s hidden depths in general; not only through the immediate leap to resigning his commission(suggesting a guilty jump to self-blame, via his love for the City and the Watch and the alienation and insecurity it caused her, in Angua’s departure), but also through hints at his perception, his capacity for cruelty, deception, and manipulation, and even, through his frightening smile, the brittleness of his usual “civilized” behavior.

The lives and world of wolves. Through the Howl, Gavin, and Angua/Carrot/Gaspode’s travels, we see how complex and influential the lives of wolves on the Disc can be.

Gaspode. This is a rather direct one. Gaspode convinces humans to do what he wants them to by exploiting the fact that they, knowing “dogs can’t talk” will rationalize away his arguments and demands as their own thoughts. He’s a literal, doggy embodiment of the entire Fifth Elephant concept.

Sybil’s pregnancy. It is the unspoken, but rather obvious from even the beginning, motor of her actions in the book; a situation not mentioned til the end, but constantly important both for why she was there and, more metawise, for making the dangers Vimes’ faces more suspenseful for those readers who realize what she’s trying to tell Sam for most of the book. Without the pregnancy she might not have insisted on coming, and those wouldn’t have been there to seal the deal, either.

History. Much of the behaviors of the Uberwaldians towards the characters is influenced by the history of Dwarf/Troll/Human/Undead violence there. Detritus alludes to this once when confronted with the troll head in the embassy, it is referenced a second time in the clear absence of mounted(presumably human and dwarf) heads from the von Uberwald’s wall, and there is a constant reminder of it in the treatment of Detritus by the Uberwaldians Vimes’ group encounters. I AM kind of disappointed that Cuddy, maybe via the helmet he gave Detritus, didn’t turn out to be a Chekov’s Gun for this book though, at it would have fit really well thematically for his friendship to Detritus to pop up again and be important in this book.

Vetinari’s past. There’s barely any discussion of it, but what there is assures us that it is one major reason why Margolotta is interested in Vimes in the first place. She acts, to help or hinder, in response to her past with Vetinari, and her relationship to him, whatever that is.

Related to the above, Margolotta’s interests, which are never directly mentioned or addressed, but which we know also motivate her actions, and thus influence how the book plays out.

The Beast. This is a great, though direct, example of a “Fifth Elephant”. It’s what Vimes calls his desire to do violence, to act reflexively on hate, to just burn the whole stinking rotten world down if he can. He describes it directly as an internal motivation that is always there, always threatening to get out, always trying to influence his actions, but which he keeps contained, controlled, and never mentions. It is, literally, an unmentioned influence he is always having to deal with and work his way around.

The Igors. They are a background to Uberwaldian, and particularly Noble-Uberwaldian, life, taken as a given and rarely mentioned, but always there, managing the health of the people in the region through their mysterious medical expertise. Where they come from and what, exactly, they do isn’t precisely known, and yet they are incredibly important to the Uberwald.

Networks and Communications, both of which are invisible, non-corporeal, yet very real, things. The Howl, the Clacks, Dwarf Rumor, the Igor Organ Donation service, Margolotta’s informants, the Black Ribboners, Copperness; as themes, Networks and Communications come up again and again and again.

Unspoken Rules. The Lore, Hot Pursuit, the 12 Steps, Wolf social cues, Dwarven law, the nuances of Command and Rulership implied through Colon and Vetinari’s parts in the story, probably lots of stuff I’m forgetting.

Wallace Sonky, referenced directly as an unsung, little recognized hero for his prophylactics and how they’ve slowed A-M’s population growth.

Knockermen. Unseen, considered dead by their families, working in the dark of new delvings, covered head to toe in armor which obliterates their private identities, and the absolute heart of dwarven identity, mythology, belief, and politics since their leaders are almost exclusively chosen from this class. And of course, knockermen also form the core of the “Deep Dwarves”, essentially a priest-caste who deliberately eschew sunlight and the surface, making them an “invisible”, underground, influence.

Natural Gas. It’s invisible and without scent, but it will most certainly “influence” anyone who comes into close contact with it in a whole host of ways.

The Scone of Stone. Most Dwarves, even underground ones, will never see it, yet who sits upon and protects it arbitrates their entire world. Its power and influence comes not from itself, but from the place it holds in their culture and mythology through B’rian(sp?) Bloodaxe and the opera/stories/myths revolving around him.

Ideas. The current Scone is not THE original Scone in a physical sense. And yet, in a very real and practical sense, it carries the concept of the Scone with it, and so all the believe and functionality the original Scone carried, and so it IS “The Thing and the whole of the Thing”. This idea comes up in one other major way through Rhys Rhysson’s explanation of “Family Tools” in the dwarven mindset. Tools get old and worn and they break, and when they do the broken piece is replaced or repaired. After a certain point the tool is no longer, physically, the same tool that it once was, and yet it remains “the Family Axe”, or whathaveyou, because it continues to carry the idea and identity of the original. Basically Ideas, which are formless and metaphysical and exist only within the brains of living creatures, persist beyond the death of those who hold them and even the destruction of those objects they were invested in. They exist and influence without any real existence. Ideas are “the Thing and the Whole of the Thing”.

Culture. The Fifth Elephant is a story of cultures in conflict. A-M, and it’s culture of innovation, “progress”, and openness, is drastically changing the Disc, and other cultures, whether that of the Dwarves, the wolves, or the Uberwaldeans, are forced to respond to it. The influence of culture is shown not only through the actions self-conception brings out in others(Dee’s destruction of the Scone, Wolfgang’s plot to keep A-M out of the Uberwald, the peculiar individuation within the corporate identity Igors share), but also through this direct clash of cultures, most visibly displayed through Vimes’ interactions with Uberwaldean figures.

Choice. Albrecht(and any number of Dwarves before him) chooses to keep the secret of the Scone’s true nature. Dee chooses to destroy the Scone. Vimes chooses, again and again, to be civilized and rule-bond. Skimmer chooses to stay at the tower, and to check the door. The Igors choose their calling, and the good it can do for others, over their own lives. The Dwarves choose to believe in “Dwarfishness”, even when they live on the surface, in the light, in A-M. Choice, that ephemeral, invisible, here-and-gone thing, again and again shifts the story, and makes the world it takes place in.

Discipline. Margolotta and the Black Ribboners. Vimes. Angua. Gavin. Cheri. These characters stick to their choices, no matter what it costs them, and live authentically, and in doing that they, without really meaning to, drive the story and change the Disc.

Belief. This is probably the biggest and most central Fifth Elephant of the book. Through Wolfgang’s philosophy and Dee’s internalized self-hate, it drives the main-action of the plot. Through Vimes’ dedication to Civilization it informs all his choices in the book. Through Dwarfishness, the Low King(basically a Dwarf Pope), and the Scone of Stone, it is the motivation and central suspense(the possibility of civil war in Vimes’ fails) of the book.

Ok I think that’s everything. I know some of these are more cursory than they deserve, but I was kinda getting tired of writing there at the end -__- Also: for IRL reasons I wrote this over the course of about a week, and read the book two weeks ago, and I was much clearer on the book when I started writing it than when I finished it just now -__- -___-

All in all I really liked this book and its focus on politics. I also thought it did a great job of showing how the personal IS the political and vice versa, and how pretty much everything is “political”. Comments and questions welcome, though it may take me awhile to respond. If you read all of this Good on You :p

#Discworld #Terry Pratchett #The Fifth Elephant #Themes #Critical Analysis #Book Reviews

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