Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Death, Self-Help, and Witches Abroad
22 Plays7 days ago
Explore with us a witch's outlook on death and facing down one's enemies as we begin our read of Sir Terry Pratchett's Witches Abroad! How do you know if someone has sold their soul? Find out in this episode!
If you like lost gods and ancient enemies, go get the free short story and fun "visitors guide" to the fantasy world of Mary's upcoming book go to maryckehoe.com
If you would like the blog version of this episode it will be at maryckehoe.com/mythic-mirror
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Mythic Mirror'
00:00:00
Speaker
How do you find yourself? How does a witch die? And do you have a firm grasp on your headology?
00:00:19
Speaker
to Mythic Mirror, the podcast for fans of myth and fantasy who want to live a magical and fulfilling life. I'm your host, Mary C. Kehoe. And I'm your co-host, Carolina
Introduction to 'Witches Abroad'
00:00:30
Speaker
Carter.
00:00:30
Speaker
Today, we are talking about witches abroad. Carolina, do you want to tell us a little bit about this book? Yes, in Witches Abroad, we follow Magrat, Garlic, Nanny Og, and Granny Weatherwax as they travel across the Discworld to fight a villain who uses fairy tales and mirrors.
00:00:51
Speaker
We're switching over to this book because the last book, In the Dark is Rising, takes place at the summer solstice. We thought that would be a fun book to read then. And this one goes perfectly with what we've been talking about with story and belief. And of course, who doesn't want to hear about another Terry Pratchett book?
00:01:11
Speaker
We'll be covering the beginning of
Humor and Brilliance in Pratchett's Storytelling
00:01:13
Speaker
this book. So if you want to read along and be with us for the next episode, you can read Witches Abroad. Carolina, so far, what are some of your favorite things about this book?
00:01:23
Speaker
My favorite things about reading this book, I've laughed out loud several times. It's almost like watching the blooper reel of all your favorite fairy tales. I love it weaves them in So there's a sense of familiarity and you think you know what's going to happen. But ultimately, it' it doesn't because the absolute chaos of the three witches coming through these towns is subverting all these fairy tales as you know them. And it just can't help but be funny. Yeah, that's the brilliance of Terry where he harry he, it looks like it's just such complete chaos. I feel like this with every book where things just go so oddball and yet they're tied together so beautifully. It's really amazing. i don't know how he does it.
00:02:15
Speaker
Did it? I didn't know you were a first name basis with Sir Terry Pratchett. Sir Terry Pratchett. I know. i felt weird saying Did you just get off the phone with him? Yeah. You know, i like the way Terry writes. Yeah. It was it felt wrong.
00:02:28
Speaker
And it won't be happening again.
A Witch Meets Death
00:02:32
Speaker
I love how this book starts out with a witch dying. I just, if only we could all meet death the same way she does.
00:02:42
Speaker
And imagine how you'd live your life if you knew at the end, you'd know what was happening. Death would show up and you'd chat with him and make him wait while you have your last cup of tea.
00:02:56
Speaker
And then she walked over and laid down in her own grave and he swishes his scythe and she gets up and says, well, that was easy. What happens now? and I love that phrase for the rest of my life. that's That's what I will say after I die. Well, that was easy. What happens now?
00:03:16
Speaker
I can't wait to hear you say it.
00:03:21
Speaker
I don't know how to take that. I can't hear you. I can wait. Oh, good. I hope so. I didn't know you just had such plans. Well, now I do.
How Stories Shape Beliefs
00:03:35
Speaker
All right, Carolina, do you have a favorite quote? Yes, I love this quote right here. People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it is the other way around.
00:03:47
Speaker
And how this ties into what we've been talking about all along, which is that we are shaped by our beliefs. But where do our beliefs come from? The stories we tell.
00:03:58
Speaker
Mostly the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. And to be aware of the script that's running, you know, Magrat is in a state of trying to find herself at the beginning of this book, taking classes, reading books, just trying to figure out who she is and And she's doing her best.
Magrat's Journey to Self-Discovery
00:04:19
Speaker
it's It's hilarious and also not enlightening, but, well, yeah, self-enlightening, I suppose, um to see a Discworld witch who usually you think of as very aware of themselves and what their role is and, you know, they're taking on...
00:04:42
Speaker
evil in all its different forms and helping the community and to see Magrat who is supposed to be feeling that way and instead she just wants one moment away from her own self.
00:04:57
Speaker
what's like Do you have the book there where it says the quote about her name where it's just, she could have been different if she'd been named something else? There wasn't much you could do with a mag rat. It sounded like something that lived in a hole in a riverbank and was always getting flooded out. Well, since I've got the book out, I will go to my favorite line in the beginning of this book.
Granny Weatherwax's Friendship Dynamics
00:05:21
Speaker
Which to me, it exemplifies a perfect friendship that has withstood the test of time and between two very strong personalities who perfectly understand each other.
00:05:38
Speaker
So this is right after Granny has seen a face in the mirror and she's broken the mirror. You've gone all pale. Never seen you go all pale like that before.
00:05:49
Speaker
Granny slowly removed a fragment of glass from her hat. Well, bit of a turn, the glass breaking like that, she mumbled. Nanny looked at Granny Weatherwax's hand.
00:06:00
Speaker
It was bleeding. Then she looked at Granny Weatherwax's face and decided that she'd never admit that she looked at Granny Weatherwax's hand.
00:06:12
Speaker
May we all have that sort of friend. Yeah. Yeah. There to and fro throughout the book is, I mean, it just had me laughing the whole time.
00:06:25
Speaker
Yeah. When you first meet the witches and they are on the mountaintop having their meeting and it's going through granny's head of how she thinks about all these other witches and she can't even be having with Nanny Og, who is her best friend. Yeah. Yeah.
00:06:42
Speaker
Yeah, so it's just after that that Magrat comes in and she opens the door and it says something like, perhaps it was something in the creek, but there was some mat only Magrat could open a door and make it sound apologetic. ay relate to Magrat on a deep and spiritual level.
00:07:03
Speaker
ah also feel like a muskrat who just doesn't want to bother anybody. Hello? Hello? I know. i was proud of her standing up to Granny when she's demanding that she hand over the... Oh, I would hand it over. Here you go. Here you Okay, you want it? You can't have it. It have hard to say no.
00:07:26
Speaker
Nanny Og in between the two going, no, that's not wonton. Wonton is when you walk around with no clothes on. Yes, yes, yes. Oh,
Humor with Deeper Meanings in Pratchett's Work
00:07:38
Speaker
man. See, the problem with doing a Terry Pratchett book is we enjoy the book so much that we could just sit here and trade lines back and forth. I know. Because who wants to talk about our own thoughts when we could trade lines from sir Terry Pratchett? Especially... Especially if we don't have any.
00:07:55
Speaker
Oh, you have many thoughts. Little Magrat. is Yeah, Magrat. Especially with the reading of the self-help books. I shouldn't even say this, but I swear, i don't think I've ever been more miserable than when I'm neck deep in reading self-help books.
00:08:12
Speaker
Now, which one causes, is it do you feel terrible and then get neck deep or you get neck deep and that makes you feel terrible? Or was I feeling terrible and that's why i started reading them? Isn't that what I just said? Do you ever think about that? Maybe you're reading the wrong self-help books.
00:08:32
Speaker
Or maybe I should finish them. Nah. Nah. No, you need to go to the seamstress in Aunt Morpork and have her shout at you. Obviously that's what I need to do. That's the wisdom to search for.
00:08:46
Speaker
Yes. I love how he sets up the ending in the very beginning and you have just so many tie-ins and setups throughout the book. For instance, there's Desderada the witch and she's you're learning you're learning about what she her mom had said to her as a kid.
00:09:08
Speaker
Some of them are hilarious, but one of them is don't stand between two mirrors. And then the very next scene, you meet the villain of the piece and she's standing between two mirrors. You you learn throughout the book why standing between two mirrors is a bad, bad idea. And he says it in the beginning, which it's one of those jokes that makes you think where he's talking about...
00:09:32
Speaker
the tribes that are considered less sophisticated thinking, you know, being afraid of anything that takes your picture or a mirror or something like that, because it's stealing a part of your soul.
00:09:44
Speaker
And he says, which of course is just simple superstition. Although it is true that those who make a living, having their images taking taken in some form or another always seem to fade.
00:09:58
Speaker
Yeah. You laugh and then you're like, it's true. Images are stealing our soul. Which brings me to my favorite conspiracy theory. I'm so glad you brought this up.
00:10:09
Speaker
This is that people who have sold their soul can't look in mirrors. Oh. So we could just hold up the mirror anytime we meet someone? Mm-hmm. And if they won't look, then you know.
00:10:20
Speaker
What about narcissists who have sold their soul? I've got a mirror right here. But you're not looking at it. Okay, good. Could you see me in the mirror, though? Oh, there we go. I couldn't see. Ow!
00:10:34
Speaker
Anyway, this is all podcast gold.
00:10:39
Speaker
First off for our Discworld delight, TikTok, you were correct. It is Jingo. Yay. An absolutely amazing book, which we will have to cover at some point.
00:10:51
Speaker
And for this week's I have one that will hopefully be a little harder for you to guess. but I know. My Pratchett experts.
00:11:03
Speaker
We call them prexperts. Sorry. Say that again. Come prexperts. We don't. All right. Finished, she said. Seen everything?
00:11:14
Speaker
Sorry. Have you seen an old man dressed a bit like me with one of these on his back? No. Now it's my turn. Have you got rhythm?
00:11:26
Speaker
I love it. What book is that from? don't know.
00:11:34
Speaker
Do you know what I think is so hard about it is because you're so caught up in how funny it is, but there's something scritching at your brain the whole time where you're like, I know this is important and I know there's something more i should be understanding at this time. But then you read on and you laugh, but then it's like...
00:11:50
Speaker
there's like almost like warning bells like this is really important you should be taking more of this in like the mirror thing or the fairy tale thing like there's something like always kind of scritching at my brain while reading it like you should be taking this more seriously and I'm like how can I when I'm laughing so hard ah I think that's how he makes us all better people I feel like every time I finish reading a Terry Pratchett book, I've learned something, but I'm not quite sure when it happened.
Cyclical Nature of Personal Stories
00:12:22
Speaker
One point made in the first part of this book is that stories always repeat themselves. So what stories are you repeating in your head over and over? um In therapy, we call them cycles. In this, we call them stories. And what you need to break the cycle is a pattern interrupter, such as the maiden, the mother, and the The other one.
00:12:49
Speaker
I think we all need Nanny Og and Granny Weatherwax to stumble into our lives. Yeah, maybe that's it. We imagine what they would do if if if they were talking to you're if they were talking to me instead of Magrat. What would they say?
00:13:04
Speaker
One other thing.
Desderada's Model for Inner Peace
00:13:05
Speaker
it's it A lot of my points have to do with Deserata, which she's only in this... No, I mean, she's woven through the whole book. That's true. This is all her setup. She did the whole thing. yeah She's the godmother of this story.
00:13:20
Speaker
Oh, my God. Mary. When the villain is talking to her through the mirror and and telling her how she's lost and she's dying, trying to get that moment of victory.
00:13:37
Speaker
And Desderada just, so it seems. Yes, some people think so. It just stays so calm and hilariously...
00:13:48
Speaker
Like she is not giving this woman an ounce of of respect or grief or she's not getting anything. Or anger Yeah. Nothing. And I was imagining if we all could, when when we're dealing with someone at work or wherever where we have to deal with people and they're losing it, and if we could just all be Desderada. Yes, so it would seem.
00:14:16
Speaker
and just not take any of it in and you know what life would be like if we were Desderada not afraid of death and never taking anyone seriously that'd be nice the inner peace would be something else Carolina do we have any listener feedback?
Listener Feedback and Book Recommendations
00:14:36
Speaker
one very exciting piece of listener feedback is that somebody has bought the entire Dark is Rising series and will be reading it along with us now Yay. know.
00:14:47
Speaker
That's fun. And they also asked if we could have a compilation of all book recommendations that have been either ours or listener feedback. And so I think we are working on that. Is that right, Mary? Yes, that is right. I am setting up lists on bookshop.org so that everyone can see the books that we talk about and all of our listeners' recommendations. And if you buy a book from one of these lists, it supports us a little bit, but also it supports independent bookstores, which I'm very excited about.
00:15:23
Speaker
So that should be up shortly. I'm waiting for bookshop.org to approve, authenticate, whatever the, it's an A word. we We're waiting for them to alligator.
00:15:37
Speaker
yes That's what we're doing. I knew it. What is your spark for this
Personal Moments of Joy
00:15:43
Speaker
week? My spark this week was you texted me that nori soup recipe that's quickly become one of my favorites and also helps with the common head cold.
00:15:53
Speaker
My spark this week was one night we had a very calm, clear night and I went outside and looked at the stars. And Jupiter is very bright right now, or at least it was that night.
00:16:08
Speaker
It's like a peaceful and a reality check of looking at something that is so much bigger than you are and so much bigger than your planet is.
00:16:19
Speaker
To me, that gives me peace. You see the stars, Mr. Frodo? They're untouched by any darkness down here. Truth. Tolkien, you said it best. I said it second best.
00:16:34
Speaker
Well, you both said it better than me. No. Find your copy of Witches Abroad and read along with us for next week.
Closing Remarks and Next Episode Invite
00:16:42
Speaker
Thank you for visiting with us. Please give a thumbs up or five stars wherever you are listening or watching. If you would like the first taste of my fantasy world, go to maryckeyhoe.com for my free story.
00:16:57
Speaker
We are so grateful to be spiraling through the universe with all of you. It's not always easy, but no good story ever is.