#the glorious revolution of the people's republic of treacle mine road

[dimity-lawn]

A prediction.

#discworld #gnu terry pratchett #discworld meme #created by yours truly #the watch #night watch #all the little angels #how do they rise up? #the glorious 25th of may #the glorious revolution of the people's republic of treacle mine road #this hasn't happend... yet

[beardedmrbean]

#the glorious 25th of may #The People's Revolution of the Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May #terry pratchett #discworld #People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road

[anna-neko]

I need to fully commit to becoming an old lady, and get into jigsaw puzzles

#gnu terry pratchett #discworld #puzzles #wishlist

[witchy-rook]

Okay I’m a few days late but I keep seeing posts about the Glorious 25th of May and I need to go on a ramble about it and Night Watch as a whole, because I only recently read it and I’m a historian of revolutionary politics and this kind of shit is my jam so hard. So! Major spoilers for Night Watch  (and some of the other Guards’ Discworld books) under the cut  - be warned...!

I love love love the Glorious 25th of May and the events of the Revolution in Night Watch. My area of expertise in my real life is late-eighteenth century and nineteenth century Revolutionary European politics, so everything from the French Revolution up to and beyond the Springtime of the Peoples and the Revolutions of 1848. I loved what was written of revolutionary politics in previous Guards books, like what we hear of Stoneface Vimes in the anti-monarchial Revolution in Feet of Clay. Night Watch is especially exicting to me as it captures exquisitely how revolutions actually progress, and I love that about it.

Because all historical revolutions are, well, historical, we have a tendency to view them with a certain fixed course - after all, they did go a certain way. However, it’s important to remember that, for the people on the ground, they didn’t know where they were going, and so often it was just ad hoc reaction and improvisation. I don’t think many of the people who stormed the Bastille in 1789 would have known that in 1793 they’d execute the King. And that’s the thing: we tend to look at Revolutions like single instances of radical expression, but they’re usually long term, continuous events. They change and shift, becoming more or less extreme as events unfold.

And that’s why I love the Glorious 25th of May and the Treacle Mine Road Republic. The time travel aspect is especially poignant here because Vimes knows how things went because he was there once, but this is a new timeline, and he’s constantly aware that things could go differently if he’s not careful. Through his narration, we are also constantly reminded that no one really intended for things to turn out how they did - most of the events that led to the big revolution in the Shades were only accidentally influential. Everything from the Particulars to the Morpork Street Conspiracy even to the barricades was just people reacting to chance and circumstances. Sure, people like Reg Shoe, Rosie Palm, Madame and the various conspirators dreamed of a better city, a city without Lord Winder, but most of the people manning the barricades on the Glorious 25th were just people who lived there, people who were swept up in the fervour - people who, when the armistice is announced, go back to being normal people, taking their furniture home.

The expansion of the barricades really captures this. It often seems to me that Revolutions are a kind of living social organism that spread. In Europe, the French Revolution (both the one in 1789 and the other one in 1848) inspired other Revolutions. They spread. In Ankh-Morpork, the barricades were just meant to protect Treacle Mine Road, but they get physically pushed out by enthusiastic revolutionaries, caught up in the tide - people who are suddenly energised to push the Revolution further than it was ever originally intended. And, of course, in the real world as in Ankh-Morpork, sometimes this pushing has bad outcomes: people die, revolutionary hopes are betrayed, battles are fought and maybe things don’t change as much as was desired.

I said to my girlfriend once that, I think if magic is real, there’s a kind of magic in the Crowd or the Mob. There’s a way that, when lots and lots of people get together for a common cause, the Crowd becomes its own, emergent entity. If you’ve made it through my ramble this far and would like to read more, I’d highly recommend looking for scholarly articles about the Crowd or the Mob in the 18th or 19th century. ‘Hibernian Sans-Culottes? Dublin's Artisans and Radical Politics, 1790-1798‘ by Timothy Murtagh in La Révolution française might not be a bad place to start, if I may be so bold.

But anyway, that’s besides the point. The point is, the Glorious 25th of May might be a fake revolution in a fake city, but it’s the perfect analogue for real revolutions that happened in real cities. If you were ever wondering why X Revolution went the way it did, maybe you can look to the things Vimes sees, thinks and does in Night Watch, and maybe it will help make it a little clearer.

And if you’ve made it this far, congrats! Please do send me asks about my thoughts on this as a historian if you want, I’d love the opportunity to ramble some more.

#discworld #night watch #the glorious 25th of may #treacle mine road republic #I hope this is in any way coherent

[ankh-morpork-times]

The Discworld Emporium has a brand new 1000 piece Glorious Revolution jigsaw puzzle, illustrated by David Wyatt!

#the glorious 25th of may #discworld emporium #david wyatt #discworld fandom news #gnu terry pratchett

[ao3tageverything]

Night Watch - AO3 tagged

Rating Teen And Up Audiences Warnings Minor Character Death Fandoms Discworld Categories General

Characters Samuel Vimes, Fred Colon, Nobby Nobbs, Carrot Ironfoundersson, Carcer, Rosie Palm, Dr. John “Mossy” Lawn, Lu-Tze, Samuel Vimes (young version), Findthee Swing, Lady Roberta Meserole, Havelock Vetinari, Qu, Ned Coates

Additional Tags lilac, cop killer, commemoration day, visiting graves, mad murderer, storm, magical accident, time travel, Monks of History, mulitverse theory, wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff, impersonation, curfew, meeting your former self, secret police, craniometry, fledgling revolution, riots, booby traps, bamf!Vimes, the art of deescalation, build-up to big events, Sam Vimes whump, barricades, item connecting you with reality, changing history, torture chambers, torture victims, coup de grâce/mercy kill, arson, improvised weapon, The People’s Republic of Treacle Mine Road, hero worship, soldiers’ song, civil war, malicious use of ginger in body orifices, assassination, terror-induced heart attack, coup d'état, death by grapnel, violating amnesty, surprise attack, police-confiscated vehicle, improvised plumes, delayed major injury reaction, mêlée, berserk moment, the Glorious 25th of May, back to the future, disregarding one’s nudeness, difficult childbirth, beyond exhaustion, ... (spoilers after the jump)

not changing history (much) after all, resisting the beast inside, by-the-book arrest

#Discworld #AO3 tags #Night Watch #Glorious 25th of May

[aeshnacyanea2000]

Don’t put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That’s why they’re called revolutions. People die, and nothing changes.

Terry Pratchett - Night Watch

#Terry Pratchett #discworld quotes #GNU Terry Pratchett #Night Watch #revolutions #The Glorious 25th Of May #The People's Revolution of the Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May #The People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road

[kfkfljdkclfmmdl]

#Terry Pratchett #the glorious revolution #fight for your rights #nights watch #the peoples republic of treacle mine road #25th of may #wearing lilac #discworld #thank you for all the great things you did #people miss you #fighting alzheimer together #make your own choices in life #continue living #speak his name

[wherekizzialives]

Truth, Justice, Freedom ...

Truth, Justice, Freedom …

… reasonably priced love, and a hard boiled egg; those were the stated aims of The People’s Republic of Treacle Mine Road on May 25th when the Glorious Revolution was at hand. Given the nature of revolutions they didn’t actually get any of them. Not even the egg. If you understood those sentences then you’ve already read Night Watch by Terry Pratchett at least once. As such you don’t need any…

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#GNU Terry Pratchett #How Do They Rise Up #Night Watch #Terry Pratchett #The Glorious 25th May #Truth Justice Freedom Reasonable Price Love and a Boiled Egg #Wear the Lilac

[theradioghost]

Okay so I no very little about discworld... What is today? Why is it special? Feel free to rant Bobbie, I'm willing to listen ^_^

Today is the Glorious 25th of May!

Honestly, everybody’s got their own favorite set of Discworld characters, and mine has always been the City Watch and Sam Vimes -- to the point that I feel like Vimes has a lot to do with who I’ve become as a person as I got older. And the sixth book in the Watch series, Night Watch, is I think something really special for a few reasons. It’s really the culmination of Sam’s personal character arc, for one thing, and as fits a character who I think is so excellently written, and who grows in such a fascinating way, it’s an incredibly powerful place to arrive to having followed Sam all along that journey.

His introductory scene in Guards! Guards! is of him passing out drunk in a gutter, a bitter alcoholic with a meaningless job whose philosophy is always to walk towards cries for help, not run, because running might mean you’d get there in time for a fight. By Night Watch, Sam Vimes is a person who has ground the drive to help others into the fabric of himself so thoroughly that it’s not even a choice for him anymore -- the choice has already been made. It’s a fundamental part of who he is, that even knowing he will lose everything he loves, even knowing he cannot succeed, even not wanting to, it is impossible for him not to try to do the right thing. And he wasn’t that person when you first met him. He became who he is, hard-won inch by inch, through deliberate and difficult work to be better, to understand others, to help. That’s a choice you can make, this book says. It’s a choice you can make.

And Night Watch stands out in other ways in the context of its fellow Discworld books, too. It’s the least comedic book in a comedy series. It’s about failed revolutions, about profound suffering on both an individual and communal level, about injustice and death and loss and survivor’s trauma and sacrifice. It’s about the way that government and that police forces enable and benefit from people who enjoy the suffering of others. It’s about Sam Vimes, happy soon-to-be father, with his hard-won sobriety and equally hard-won confidence in his own ability to make a difference if he’s just bullheadedly fucking stubborn enough, being yanked back in time thirty years to the events of the totalitarian government and failed revolution that made him Sam Vimes the embittered pessimistic drunk, and asked what he thinks he’s going to do about it. There are still jokes, to be sure, but there are fewer of them, and they hit differently.

It’s dark, without question. It’s Terry’s very clear take on Les Miserables, another story that’s had a huge effect on me as a person, and in particular I think on the popular culture idea of Les Mis -- the glorious failed revolution, with its young idealists and hopeful conclusion that does not clarify where the presumed better future is going to come from, or how it comes out of the suffering that’s just been shown. It’s even bitter, at times. But it’s never hopeless. It’s never gritty or pessimistic or hateful.

I saw someone say once that Terry Pratchett was a very angry man, and I think that shines through every Discworld book but is clearest in Night Watch -- it’s an anger at suffering, at injustice, at those who profit from the suffering of others, and it’s anger expressed in a kind of bright furious love, and a refusal that suffuses every bit of those books -- a refusal to just stand there and say that nothing can be done. A refusal to do anything, ever, except stand up and say no, this is not right, simply because it is the only thing to be done, the only thing that can be done. Night Watch is very, very clear on the fact that there is nothing glamorous or heroic about this, nothing to be adulated or mythologized. It’s something that hurts to do. It’s something that comes with a profound cost. You do it anyway.

It’s an incredibly powerful book, I think, especially with the context of its fellows. (Night Watch is one of the few Discworld books I caution people against starting with, just because I think it gains so, so much from the specific place it occupies and from how different it is once you’ve grown used to other books in the series.) The power of its central character and his fellows, the power of the ideas at the heart of it, the simple effectiveness of the images it chooses to center around -- the blooming lilacs, a little soldier’s ditty about angels, a barricade, an egg.

In one scene a few of those youthful idealist revolutionaries sit around and discuss what they want from the bright new world they plan to make -- Truth, Justice, Freedom, and Reasonably Priced Love, is what they settle on (reasonably priced, as opposed to free love, because several of those fighting and working on their barricade are sex workers, and they had opinions on that). When they ask Sam Vimes what he wants from the future, he says he’d like a hard-boiled egg, because unlike everything else on the list, he’s pretty sure he’ll be able to get it, no problem.

So, every year, we break out our egg cups and wear our sprigs of lilac and commemmorate the short life of the People’s Republic of Treacle Mine Road, of the revolution of the Glorious 25th of May. We honor Terry Pratchett, whose books gave us all so much, and raise awareness for Alzheimer’s. I think about people I’ve lost. I think about what there is out there that I can do. I think about rereading the Watch books yet again.

It’s a good thing to celebrate, I think.

#i don't have a clever discworld tag #we-are-all-lost-boys #asks #my posts

[dimity-lawn]

#discworld #gnu terry pratchett #discworld meme #created by yours truly #the watch #night watch #all the little angels #how do they rise up? #the glorious 25th of may #the glorious revolution of the people's republic of treacle mine road #the office #the office us

[loxare]

A Fragile Sort of Peace

Hey, my first Discworld fanfic. Neat. Read on AO3. Takes place near the end of Night Watch.

Sybil was tired. Well, if she were to be blunt, she was exhausted and in no small amount of pain. But it was more than worth it for the wrinkled, pink face peeking out of her shawl. Her son. He'd cried a bit when he had finally breathed his first breath, but he was settled now. Doctor Lawn sent for her Sam, but Sybil couldn't take her eyes away. He was breathtaking.

She heard the door open and out of the corner of her eye saw the familiar tarnished glint of sunlight on breastplate. “He's called Sam, Sam.” It had been a tradition, several generations back, for the Ramkins to name children after their parents. It had fallen out of practice when Sir Saul the Eighth had named all his sons Saul, who had named all their sons Saul. There had been eleven different Sauls to keep track of, and the numbering system had gotten very confused. Sybil, possessing more sense than her ancestor, was confident that this wouldn't be a problem and was happy to resurrect the tradition. “And no arguments.”

She had expected one, regardless. Maybe several. But Sam only said, “I'll teach him to walk!” His voice was joyful but hoarse. For the first time since Doctor Lawn had placed him in her arms, Sybil looked away from her son. “I'm good at teaching people to walk!”

Sybil had barely taken in her husband – long cut over his eye, dark shadows under both eyes, a kind of sunken gauntness to his cheeks, hadn't gotten any kind of decent sleep in at least two days if past experience was guide – before he collapsed onto the carpet. “Sam!”

“Stay put, my lady,” Doctor Lawn commanded, even as he dropped to his knees beside Sam. “You're in no condition. And if memory serves, he's just exhausted.”

“But I saw him this morning,” Sybil protested, trying to get up anyways. To her frustration, her legs refused to listen to her. She flopped back onto the pillows. Baby Sam started fussing, sensing his mother's distress. She rocked him. “He was fine!”

Someone knocked on the door frame. It was Captain Carrot. “I heard a shout,” he explained, then saw Sam and Doctor Lawn. “Oh dear. The time travel must have taken more out of him than I thought.”

There was a moment of silence. Then, Sybil and Doctor Lawn said in unison, “Time travel?!”

Carrot nodded, helping Doctor Lawn lift Sam from the floor. “A small mishap at the Unseen Library.” Sybil nodded. She'd been in there a few times and even as non-magical as she was, she could feel the magic humming in the place. And of course, the Librarian had been turned into an orang-utan by some magical accident there. “He was only gone half an hour.” Sam was gently placed next to Sybil on the bed. She ran a hand over his face, careful not to touch the cut over his eye.

“Four days,” Doctor Lawn corrected. He leaned in to inspect the cut. “My stitches are gone. You, tall fellow, could you grab my bag? This split open when he fell.” He leaned back a bit when Carrot grabbed the bag from the other side of the room and handed it to him. Pulling out a needle and a length of thread, he dipped both into a still steaming pot of hot water. “It isn't every day that a doctor stitches the same cut twice thirty years apart.”

“Thirty years?” Sybil looked at her Sam, hand still tangled in his hair.

“Almost to the day,” said Doctor Lawn, carefully inserting the needle into skin. Sybil, used to blood as both the daughter of a proud military family and a breeder of highly volatile dragons, shuddered. But she didn't turn away. “I'm not surprised. I was told he didn't sleep much at all once the revolution got going.”

“You don't mean-” Sybil broke off when she saw the look on the doctor's face. He did mean. She had heard of course. Sam had told her, a few years ago, when she'd asked him what the lilac meant. Stroking her husband's temple, she sighed. “Oh Sam.”

“What revolution,” Carrot asked, pulling off Sam's boots and putting them beside the bed. He thought for a moment, then said, “The Glorious People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road? That was thirty years ago.”

Sybil nodded. She wasn't sure which history book Carrot had read to know that, but it had to be an obscure one. “Sam was involved when he was young. On the barricades.”

“And when he was older too,” said Doctor Lawn, tying off his stitches and covering the area with a bandage. “As Sergeant-at-arms John Keel.”

Sybil gasped. John Keel's name had taken even longer for Sam to tell her about. Just last year actually, when he had been quite tired from a long chase and an emotionally taxing day. He had been his hero.

Doctor Lawn pulled up Sam's pant leg, putting a bit of towel under it. Another cut streaked across Sam's calf, bleeding heavily. “Aha. I knew I remembered correctly. Honestly, what did he expect, running halfway across the city with no stitches?” After sterilizing another needle and thread, Doctor Lawn got to work.

Carrot sat in the chair next to Sybil. “John Keel?”

“A sergeant who died in the revolution,” Sybil answered. Baby Sam fussed again. “Shh, my boy. Your dad is perfectly safe.” When Sam settled, she sighed. “Sam looked up to John Keel. He said he laid the foundations of everything Sam knows about being a Watchman.”

“I see,” said Carrot. “And Mister Vimes taught the rest of us.”

“All done,” said Doctor Lawn. “I don't think there were any more injuries. He doesn't seem to be bleeding any more at any rate.” The doctor tucked his needles and bandages into his bag, which he closed with a snap. “No more running across the city. And keep these very clean. There's two sets of stitching holes now, which means twice the chance of infection. And don't touch the eye for a few more days. As long as it doesn't get infected, he should retain his vision.”

Sybil nodded. “Thank you. And now, both of you, I don't want either of you to tell anyone about this.” She brushed a bit of short-cropped hair back from her husband's face. “Knowing Sam, he won't want to take away from the accomplishments of Sergeant Keel.”

“Understood!” Carrot snapped off a salute, even though Sybil wasn't a copper and definitely wasn't a superior officer.

Doctor Lawn nodded. “Not many people I could tell. Not many who would believe me. Give me a hand?” Together, he and Carrot unbuckled Sam's breastplate and put it to the side. Then they pulled the blanket out from under him and tucked him in. Sybil immediately snuggled in closer, putting Baby Sam in between them. “Good, get as much rest as you can. Your boy will wake you when he's hungry. Mrs. Content should be able to handle the after birthing procedures, but if you need anything you know where to find me.” And with that, he left.

Carrot snapped off a salute. “Sleep well ma'am. The Watch will be standing guard.”

Sybil nodded, yawning. “Thank you Captain. Dismissed.” He saluted again and closed the door behind him. Sybil maneuvered her arm so it was slung over both her son and her husband. Everything hurt, particularly everything below the waist. Even so, she could feel sleep steal over her. “Goodnight my Sam.” And, with a smile, “Both of my Sams.” And darkness stole over her like a blanket.

#Sam Vimes #Sybil Ramkin #Discworld #Carrot Ironfoundersson #Mossy Lawn #Important question: #if everything that didn't come with Vimes when he went to the past #stayed in the past #doesn't that mean his stitches stayed there too? #Loxie's fics #Night Watch

[jcsflo]

In remembrance of The People’s Revolution of the Glorious Twenty Fifth of May, here’s a vaguely motivational poster with the rallying cry of the People’s Republic of Treacle Mine Road. (Quote from #nightwatch a #discworld novel by #terrypratchett ) #digitalart #fanart #procreate #art #artph #poster #quotes #25thofmay #thepeoplesrevolutionoftheglorious25thofmay #thepeoplesrepublicoftreaclemineroad #jcsflo #artistsoninstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CAl4nTWBXOf/?igshid=zvvv1sd72uu7

#nightwatch #discworld #terrypratchett #digitalart #fanart #procreate #art #artph #poster #quotes #25thofmay #thepeoplesrevolutionoftheglorious25thofmay #thepeoplesrepublicoftreaclemineroad #jcsflo #artistsoninstagram

[eldritchwyrm]

the thing about the glorious people’s republic of treacle mine road is that havelock vetinari was a kid.

he’s cunning and clever and self-possessed even at that young age, but still, he must have been so excited! they were planning a revolution. they were going to change the future of the city. and he was going to be the assassin that delivered the final blow. at the time, he was not the kind of person to think cynically, “well, revolutions, they always come back ‘round again.”

except when snapcase became in change, the first thing he did was… well, you know the story.

i wonder how much of vetinari’s political philosophy was formed right then and there?

in the fifth elephant, it’s hinted that vetinari first met lady margolotta just after graduating from the assassin’s guild. so imagine some other 25th of may, several years after the first one, a while into the rule of lord snapcase — imagine a young vetinari sitting at a dinner table in uberwald with lady margolotta, telling her about john keel and the barricades and how he leapt into battle with a sprig of lilac held between his teeth.

imagine margolotta asking, “have you considered what would have happened if the revolution had put someone else in charge? chosen a different figurehead?”

imagine him saying no, no more figureheads, no more hidden centers of power, because that’s how they got into this mess in the first place. imagine him pausing to think, and then saying, “they say if you want a job done right…”

…you have to do it yourself.

remember that vetinari has never been much for dramatically flaunting his power in the open. he might have been quite happy to let someone else hold the title of patrician while he used his influence quietly behind the scenes.

but i think the glorious people’s republic of treacle mine road is the reason vetinari is patrician.

#discworld #gnu terry pratchett #night watch #the glorious 25th of may #havelock vetinari #small scream

[shipburner]

Last time the Glorious 25th rolled around, I talked about the Discworld fandom, and how important Terry Pratchett and his books were. Today? All I can see are little angels rising up high.

Last time the Glorious 25th rolled around, my country had - well, not Lord Vetinari, there is no Lord Vetinari and never will be - but at least Verence of Lancre. There was corruption, there was prejudice, there was misery, but we faced towards their end. This time? We have Mad Lord Snapcase, and a hell of a lot of Findthee Swings. (I listened to Thud! again recently and the extent to which Ardent sounds like Trump and his team is terrifying. He talks about traditional values and the advancement of nondwarfs equaling the diminishment of dwarfkind and, hell, he even brings up fake news, for the willful fool is eternal and will say that this is just a trick.)

When I think about the Glorious People’s Republic of Treacle Mine Road as I live under the Snapcase Administration, I think about the people that formed it, not the heroes of the story. Who participated in the Glorious Revolution? Low-class tradespeople. Sex workers. Reg Shoe. (Gods, Reg Shoe. If he were around on Roundworld today, he’d probably get into terrible discourse on Tumblr, but ... that terrible discourse comes from the knowledge that the world is wrong, and the desire to make it right, and I bet a lot of users would, on the barricades, in a more forgiving universe, get killed and get up.)

They weren’t heroes. They weren’t watchmen with loving families and friends and power and backstories who’d been flung through one leg of the Trousers of Time, straight as an arrow, never took a bribe, can’t be turned .... They were small, and flawed, and scared, and that’s relevant right now and I hate that. I hate that we need those barricades. I hate that we need to fight for Truth, Justice, Freedom, Reasonably-Priced Love, and Hard-Boiled Eggs.

But I’m gonna do it. Right now, I don’t wear the lilac in remembrance of those who fell. I wear the lilac so I’ll be remembered if I fall. We need a symbol, and the lilac is mine.

“Were you there?” “Where’s ‘there’, sir?” “If you don’t know where 'there' is, you don’t have the right to wear the lilac.”

We are there. Now is there. The revolution will not be glorious - no revolution is - but we will be there, and, years later, I hope that we can wear the lilac in remembrance instead of the thing we’re being remembered for.

See the little angels, rise up high, rise up high ...

#discworld #the glorious 25th of may #gnu terry pratchett

[southernspiritnorthernheart]

The Glorious People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road

Remember the Glorious Revolution of the Glorious People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road. On this day in history, we gloriously remember.

"Truth, Justice, Freedom, Reasonably-Priced Love and a Hard-Boiled Egg!"

#terry pratchett #discworld #ankh morpork #people's republic of treacle mine road #treacle mine road