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Hogfather, Winter Solstice and Quantum Physics
29 Plays1 month ago
What does quantum physics have to with Sir Terry Pratchett's Christmas classic? What do we learn from Death pretending to be the Hogfather? Travel with us to the Discworld to explore the power of belief and celebrate Winter Solstice!
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Transcript
Introduction and Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Who is the Hogfather? Is death just about the best character ever? And did Sir Terry Pratchett know the secrets of the quantum field all along? We may or may not answer these questions in this episode.
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome to Mythic Mirror, a podcast for fans of myth and fantasy who want to live a magical, fulfilling life. I'm your host and fantasy author, Mary Sikiho. And I'm your co-host, Carolina Carter, co-founder of The Sleepless Elite and reader extraordinaire. Ooh, very nice.
The Hogfather - Themes and Analysis
00:00:43
Speaker
All right. First off, we are recording at Winter Solstice. Why is this important? It's important because our first book is all about solstice festivals, hog watch, and blood.
00:00:57
Speaker
And magic. And magic. And blood and death magic. All right. So our first book is... that da da da done The Hogfather. This is by Sir Terry Pratchett, who if you have not introduced yourself to the Discworld, do so immediately. This book is all about a force that thinks life is messy and not logical and trying to get rid of it by getting rid of what makes us human, our beliefs. Killing the Hogfather by controlling belief and thus...
00:01:35
Speaker
ah Killing Humanity by Killing Belief. So it's a really great book. You should definitely read it. We picked this one just because it is exactly what this podcast is about. We're exploring belief and how belief affects our world and can we purposefully shape it.
00:01:52
Speaker
So Carolina, what was your favorite part of this book? Two favorite parts. And I'm, are we going spoiler light? Yeah, let's go spoiler light. Okay. Three favorite parts.
00:02:04
Speaker
I don't know why that turned it into three. When death tries the ho, ho, ho. When death saves the little match girl as the hog father. he might save the little match girl. We don't know.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yes, we don't know. he Maybe he saves the little match girl. Who can say? Not me. I guess the constant Albert trying to correct him while he is playing the part of the Hogfather and him just being like, I can do whatever I want.
00:02:32
Speaker
Yeah. So for those who haven't read the book, ah the character Death is trying to save Hogswatch and save humanity by pretending to be the Hogfather while the Hogfather is...
00:02:45
Speaker
somewhere else. What I loved about this book is so many characters show how so many adults are in life of, you know, a little bitter, a little looking at Christmas or looking at hogs watches. Well, this is just, you know, something for kids. This is a silly thing. Why do we even care about the fat man who brings presents? You know what? let's Let's just move on with our lives. And through the whole thing, if you follow Death's character arc and what he his process thought processes shows you why this is important and what this is and and what really matters. It's an exploration of why humans create these little beliefs. At one point, the head wizard says we're a mythopoetic people.
Belief Systems and Literature
00:03:32
Speaker
We're always coming up with stories for why things are. One of my favorite things, which is a footnote, so it's not in the movie, is He's making a joke about you know the tribal people who are so ignorant. you know And then it it goes, the footnote is about you know the ignorant people who know things. They believe in a worldview that is only also seen by the most brilliant physicists or something like that. it so it's showing that the further you go into science, the more magical it seems, ah which I was also reading at the same time as reading The Hogfather.
00:04:09
Speaker
I've been reading Joe Dispenza. So that will be my ding moment of off topic ah recommendation is Joe Dispenza. So I was reading his Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, where he goes into what the quantum field actually is. and how what we think and feel every day creates our, you know, creates our foreseeable future. And if we're expecting and we're acting the same way, we're going to get the same results over and over again.
00:04:41
Speaker
So the idea that, um you know, at one point death is asking a thinking machine, you know, what will save the hog father. And he says, regular and constant belief is what's going to save the hog father. That's exactly what the quantum field is all about. Your regular constant belief, what your subconscious is telling yourself every single day, that's how you're creating your world.
00:05:06
Speaker
So I was thinking about that along with everything that death is learning and teaching during this book. And the final, of course, one of my favorite parts is the final scene with him and Susan. Well, the final, you know, a couple scenes with him and Susan where Susan, who has been trying to solve this problem, she is death's granddaughter. You'll have to read the book to find out how that works or multiple books to find out how that works. Um,
00:05:37
Speaker
She has been trying to figure this out. And, you know, at the end, she's questioning what the whole thing was about. You know, why? Why did it matter? And his answer is so good.
00:05:49
Speaker
She says, thank you. Now tell me. Death. What would happen if you hadn't saved him? Yes, the sun would have risen just the same, yes?
00:05:59
Speaker
No. Oh, come on. You can't expect me to believe that. It's an astronomical fact. The sun would not have risen. She turned to him. It's been a long night, grandfather. I'm tired. I need a bath. I don't need silliness.
00:06:15
Speaker
The sun would not have risen. Really? Then what would have happened, pray? a mere ball of flaming gas would have illuminated the world. Rude.
00:06:28
Speaker
They walked in silence for a moment. Ah, said Susan dully. Trickery with words. I would have thought you'd have been more literal-minded than that. I am nothing if not literal-minded. Trickery with words is where humans live. All right, said Susan. I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need fantasies to make life bearable.
00:06:49
Speaker
Really? As if it was some kind of pink pill? No. Humans need fantasy to be human. I kind of want to go back to what Hex said about what would save the Hogfather. Was it regular and consistent belief? Yeah. To break apart that sentence into the two parts that i makes me love it so much is the regular inconsistency. Because I
Rituals, Beliefs, and Personal Growth
00:07:13
Speaker
think that brings to my mind ritual and routine. Ritual being the thing you do specifically during a special time and routine being the daily activities.
00:07:23
Speaker
But those two things kind of being like the keystone or the touch points where you can bring magic into your life. You know, during solstice, we light candles. You know we celebrate light in the darkest time of the year. In your daily routine, like what little things could you be doing that would bring a little bit of that magic in? And which brings me to the second part of that sentence, which is belief.
00:07:44
Speaker
And I think the most important thing about belief is not, it's not seeking truth. It's not about figuring out what's real. It's about what your beliefs create within you, how your beliefs shape you as a person.
00:07:58
Speaker
And that's what I love about this book so much is that, you know, that sums it up when he says a flaming ball of gas would have illuminated the world or however he says it, but it's like,
00:08:10
Speaker
So it's that nothing changes and everything changes. And what like daily routines could just put a little magic back in your life? I don't know how personal you want to get, but just in times of my life, you know I was struggling with depression and depression.
00:08:29
Speaker
just feeling really tired and not getting a Christmas tree and not decorating for the holidays and all that really, and I thought, you know, like I'm just saving my energy to just get through, but all it really accomplished was it drained my energy more. It made me more tired. It made me more sad. It made me, and just like, as we lose these little rituals, And when you think about how it ties you back to your ancestors where it's like I was putting up a Christmas tree with my grandmother and she put up a Christmas tree with her grandmother and her grandmother. And it's just that these things where I think we gain and garner strength from those who came before us when we engage in the rituals that they set before us.
00:09:11
Speaker
And I was thinking about that too, in terms of belief and you and i come from a kind of Celtic heritage. So I was thinking about, you know, our ancestors would have been putting out little gifts for the, for the fae folk, all the stories of the,
00:09:28
Speaker
the people of the house, you know, and i I know Russia has a real strong mythic tradition of, or folkloric tradition of the house spirits and the, and the little beings, you know, who help out in the farmyard and, and thinking about the people who exactly what you're saying about routine and ritual, like these daily little rituals that connected to them, to the belief that they're not alone.
00:09:49
Speaker
Could our belief create those thin places where something other can come through I think there's so many different, if you look at folklore from all over the world and religion from all over the world, there's so many things that, and this is something ah Joseph Campbell talks about, you know, like all of his study with the hero's journey and folklore myth from all over the world, there are these strands that come into play in all of them.
00:10:14
Speaker
And the question is, did you know what in us, what part of our humanity or human consciousness creates that? Or are we keying into something? i And that regular and consistent belief, does that bring that closer, open it up? Yeah, and to bring in a pop culture reference to sort of like...
00:10:34
Speaker
So that you're not like, yeah, this is too woo-woo for me. But like Marie Kondo wrote the book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. And one of the first things she does is she talks to the house. She sits on the floor and taps it and talks to the house. And it's in it's it's important. I don't know how to say it any other way. This reminds me, yeah, one of my other favorite things lines in this book that isn't in the movie is when he's talking to Hex. And so Hex is, ah once he asks Hex to believe in the Hogfather, and there's a great moment of death talking to this thinking machine saying, do you believe? And he's like, do you believe? The next line is so great because then the hex starts to write out a a letter to Santa Claus or to the Hogfather.
00:11:27
Speaker
and And Death is saying, what? you But you can't write a letter. And then he's realizing, oh, a hex answers, I'm entitled. And and he says, but you're not, you know, you're not alive. You're not a living being. And, and ah you know, and he's equating him to a ah rock or this or that.
00:11:45
Speaker
and And Hex answers, all things strive. And I loved that because, I don't know, it just rang so true to me in that, you know, humans, we joke about, you know, naming our our little robot vacuums, of you know, and pack bonding to inanimate objects. And this idea that all things strive, you know, even though it's not human, it whether or not it has a soul, that's a different topic. But, know,
00:12:15
Speaker
that That all of matter is is striving in some way. So when Marie Kondo talks about talking to the house, you're acknowledging that. You're acknowledging the striving of the home to be a home.
00:12:28
Speaker
And when she gets rid of things, she thanks them for serving their purpose. Because they are striving. Yeah, they're just trying so hard, just like us. just like us It makes the world a friendlier place thinking that way. And something death says at the end, if we are not believing in these things, you know, we believe in them for them to be.
00:12:52
Speaker
and And all of these characters of death and and the Hogfather and all of these things are created by human belief and we give them shape. So, you know, in the Discworld, in Terry Pratchett's made-up world, that's how it works. But i think he I think it's a really interesting thing to examine of what are our beliefs shaping in our
Reflections and Personal Joys
00:13:15
Speaker
own world. Yeah.
00:13:16
Speaker
In conclusion, I would say it's important to read this book because it will reawaken that sense of childhood whimsy that opens the door to belief and magic.
00:13:28
Speaker
Yeah. And it's also, I will say, It is not the usual cozy Christmas read. We were going to watch it last night to so I could be all refreshed for today. And we couldn't because we were like, I kind need to watch it with the whole family because it it's a little scary. It's a little, it's funny. It's like just a tiny bit spooky, like the scary ghost stories of Christmases long, long ago.
00:13:56
Speaker
Yes, it is a wonderful, funny, heartwarming story. It has a bad guy. We've got assassins. We've got thieves. We've got a world that the characters enter that is ruled by childhood beliefs and children are not merciful. That was actually, that is all we'll end with this last quote.
00:14:18
Speaker
ah It talks about the world of the of childhood and how it isn't just a smaller world of adulthood. It's more. It's everything is accentuated and more. Things are more scary, more alive, more thrilling. In adulthood, we're scared of, what did it say? We're scared of debt, debt,
00:14:40
Speaker
going hungry and showing our true selves or something like that. Yeah. Where, a you know, children are scared of something completely unbelievable coming out of the dark.
00:14:51
Speaker
So you will see completely unbelievable things coming out of the dark in this book. Or if you're lucky, as an adult, you'll be scared of debt, going hungry, showing your true self, and scary things coming out of the dark.
00:15:02
Speaker
That may be true for all of us. and All right. The dark is our friend, not our foe. It's the thing. It's what's in the dark.
00:15:15
Speaker
All right. As this is our very first episode, we do not have any listener feedback. So we can't ah tell you anything.
00:15:25
Speaker
Carolina, no tell us what a Spark recommendation is and what yours is for this week. Okay, a spark recommendation is ah something that gave you a little spark of joy this week. um So for me, this week, my little spark of joy came from making Christmas cookies or holiday cookies, whatever you want to make. And I got together with some family and made cookies together. And it's one of those things where as an adult, you're like, oh, going so much work. it's goingnna be so much mess.
00:15:56
Speaker
But if you just enter in, you'll find that little spark and then you have cookies to eat. Very nice. All right. That's a very good spark recommendation. Thank you. What's yours?
00:16:07
Speaker
Well, I already talked about the Joe Dispenza book, which would be my spark recommendation. Although I will say for this week, so I've already talked about that. So I'll pick a new one.
00:16:20
Speaker
sitting down in the living room. So sitting in a cozy spot in your house and i read some poetry. Oh, yeah. Classy.
00:16:31
Speaker
I'd been on my computer all day. So I went off screen, picked up a book in a lovely little cozy living room and yeah, read poetry. was very lovely. I like that yours is like better yourself and mine's like,
00:16:44
Speaker
Stuff your face with sugar. No. Both of us was wonderful. Equal but different. Mine wasn't better. No. It felt better. it felt better you spark shaming me?
00:16:57
Speaker
No, you're spark shaming yourself. I'm sitting here going, well, I wasn't invited to Christmas cookie baking. Oh, I know. As I said that, I wanted to be like, it was my mother-in-law and father-in-law came over and made cookies with myself and my husband. So not your sister.
00:17:13
Speaker
But she could come over ah now and make cookies. so Now I'm spark shaming you. made cookies all by my lonesome. Nobody had cookies this week.
00:17:23
Speaker
Nobody ah actually, i don't even know if I've ever had a cookie. What are they? Well, that is our spark recommendations for this
Closing Thoughts and Listener Interaction
00:17:31
Speaker
week. And we would love to hear yours until next week. Thank you for listening to or watching mythic mirror. You can find our show notes for this episode, including links to everything we talked about at Mary C. Kehoe.com.
00:17:45
Speaker
And if you'd like to tell us about a book you would love to hear us talk about, let us know at marycq.com forward slash mythic connect.
00:17:57
Speaker
Thank you so much. 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.