| The Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett |
| Written by bomaus | |
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The Unseen Academicals This is the 37th book from the Discworld and I have read every single one of them, most of them more than once. I was not sure what to expect, because the one before (Nation) left me quite bewildered. But with Unseen Academicals Terry Pratchett is back to his usual perspicacious analysis of the human nature. It is a book about football, not! It is a book about belonging. About where you belong to because of who you are, where you are and what you are. And on the other side about how you behave because of where you would like to belong to. And because of others people expectations towards your belonging. Are we really free to decide who we are? How much is inherited, how much shaped by our social environment? 'A leopard doesn't change its spots' is used quite often in the book. This idiom means that people cannot change basic aspects of their character, especially negative ones. Terry Pratchett lets his main characters struggle in this fast paced story on their way to find out where they belong. He does this with his unique coruscating wit and humor and he manages to never be malicious or to denounce them and their actions. I love this book, I really do. I will read it again and I am already looking forward to it! Even if I still did not learn a thing about the rules and regulations concerning football at the Roundworld (I just hope they are different from the Discworld ones ;), I learned that '... the thing about football – the important thing about football – is that it is not just about football.' Have fun reading it!
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