{"id":7959,"date":"2013-09-17T13:46:23","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T17:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=7959"},"modified":"2013-09-17T13:46:23","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T17:46:23","slug":"the-strain-of-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2013\/09\/the-strain-of-pride.html","title":{"rendered":"The Strain of Pride"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read most of Terry Pratchett\u2019s\u00a0Discworld<\/em> novels, but I\u2019d never gotten around to his Tiffany Aching series<\/a> til this month. \u00a0These books are pitched as more for children than the main Discworld sequence (which doesn\u2019t explain why my local library stored them, in order, in YA Fiction, Adult SF, YA Fiction again, and finally the Children\u2019s section).<\/p>\n

I\u2019d say they\u2019re enjoyable, but not as much so as the main books (try Witches<\/a><\/em> Abroad<\/em><\/a>, instead, which I\u2019ve just gotten onto my gentleman caller\u2019s queue). \u00a0And I don\u2019t find the ribald pixies that assist Tiffany entertaining in proportion to their page time. \u00a0But one thing that was fun is getting to see my favorite Discworld character, Granny Weatherwax<\/a>, as a peripheral player in someone else\u2019s story.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0A Hat Full of Sky<\/a><\/em>, Tiffany delivers the following rebuke (not to Granny\u2019s face).<\/p>\n

\u201cYou test people all the time, test, test, test, but you really want them to be clever enough to beat you. Because it must be hard, being the best. You\u2019re not allowed to stop. You can only be beaten, and you\u2019re too proud to ever lose. Pride! You\u2019ve turned it into terrible strength, but it eats away at you. Are you afraid to laugh in case you hear an early cackle?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It seems like one of the best possible rejoinders to the arrogant Ghost\u2019s arguments<\/a> in C.S. Lewis\u2019s The Great Divorce<\/a><\/em>. Tiffany\u2019s portrait of pride reveals it as fundamentally fearful and covetous. To jump magic novels, it puts me in mind of this passage from Max Gladstone\u2019s Three Parts Dead<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

She was levitating two inches above the ground and would have reprimanded herself had she noticed. Levitation was a reflex of immature Craftsmen. Students floated in the air to feel in tune with the universe, but, like any unnatural posture, hovering caused more tension than it relieved.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sin is exhausting because it\u2019s unnatural. \u00a0It contorts our feeling and our hearts into postures that feel strained. \u00a0Though, even when we notice the pain, we\u2019re prone to misinterpret that ache as a feeling of power expressed, instead of wasted.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve read most of Terry Pratchett\u2019s\u00a0Discworld novels, but I\u2019d never gotten around to his Tiffany Aching series til this month. \u00a0These books are pitched as more for children than the main Discworld sequence (which doesn\u2019t explain why my local library stored them, in order, in YA Fiction, Adult SF, YA Fiction again, and finally the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":7965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[132],"class_list":["post-7959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviewsrecommendations","tag-pride"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Strain of Pride<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've read most of Terry Pratchett's\u00a0Discworld novels, but I'd never gotten around to his Tiffany Aching series til this month. \u00a0These books are pitched as\" \/>\n<meta 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