Let's Talk Tyrants and Manipulators...
Finished book #2 of the 50bookchallenge! "Making Money" by Terry Pratchett, done and dusted!
So, anyone want to talk Vetinari with me...?
I've just finished "Making Money" and want to talk about Vetinari's morality, or lack of, because a tactic I usually apply to Geoffrey Rush's Walsingham (and I mean the Walsingham in Elizabeth, not the older, bumbling one in The Golden Age) seems to equally apply to Havelock.
The more recent Discworld books seem to paint Vetinari as uber-urbane, uber-polite, and yet with that typically menacing undercurrent he has always had - and I can't help but feel that he flirts with everything (not just everyone, everything). And I don't mean in-your-face stuff - this is Vetinari, after all - but just a very gentle flirtation, constantly. A walk on a tightrope whereby he makes sure his opponent doesn't fall off but succumb to his will.
There have long been theories of his sexuality, stretching back to the Vimes' "Vetinari's terrier" days, and running through his "relationship" with Margolotta, and even more so his relationship with the ever-present and obedient Drumknott, but this is the theory I believe suits, and I feel it works for Havelock as much as for Rush's Walsingham. Regardless of what Vetinari's true sexuality is, or what his true feelings are, he's willing to use sexuality as a weapon in order to get what he wants out of people. He plays people beautifully. He's not quite as...ahem... proactive as Rush's Walsingham, who will indeed take people to bed if needs must, but Vetinari appears to have this ability to alter himself in order to alter other people, to bend them to his will. He's not necessarily flirting *nicely* all the time, and he can be downright terrifying of course, but there's always that little smile, those piercing eyes, his attested handsomeness, and his ability to flatter people out of the blue.
In fact, he's very much like Queen Elizabeth I in that he seems to be content to remain "married to his city" rather than court any woman (or man, if he leans that way. Or both ways), but he constantly plays the people within it. In both "Making Money" and "Unseen Academicals", he "plays" both Moist and Glenda, and just about comes out with what he wanted from both. He plays Moist off against himself and other banks, whilst playing Glenda off, rather sneakily and yet successfully, with the tall beauty, Margolotta. And with both of them there's this undercurrent, this slight feeling that he's coming on to them... It's curious and compelling. :D And is it just me, or is this something which wasn't so much in evidence in, say, "Guards! Guards!", "Sourcery", even as recent as "Night Watch".
Of course, this flirtation is just another of his tactics for staying in power, where he continues to just about please everyone by giving in to most of their demands. He rarely takes radical action unless absolutely necessary, and when his temper gets up, you know about it. Like Elizabeth, he's also feared, so people do their utmost to please him and not upset him, whilst still muttering under their breaths behind his back all the time. but this can be lived with.
So yes, overall, he's a nice blend of Elizabeth and Rush's Walsingham, if not the real one. He's a proper manipulator and shameless flirt, and he manages to steal the show all the bloody time.
So, anyone want to talk Vetinari with me...?
I've just finished "Making Money" and want to talk about Vetinari's morality, or lack of, because a tactic I usually apply to Geoffrey Rush's Walsingham (and I mean the Walsingham in Elizabeth, not the older, bumbling one in The Golden Age) seems to equally apply to Havelock.
The more recent Discworld books seem to paint Vetinari as uber-urbane, uber-polite, and yet with that typically menacing undercurrent he has always had - and I can't help but feel that he flirts with everything (not just everyone, everything). And I don't mean in-your-face stuff - this is Vetinari, after all - but just a very gentle flirtation, constantly. A walk on a tightrope whereby he makes sure his opponent doesn't fall off but succumb to his will.
There have long been theories of his sexuality, stretching back to the Vimes' "Vetinari's terrier" days, and running through his "relationship" with Margolotta, and even more so his relationship with the ever-present and obedient Drumknott, but this is the theory I believe suits, and I feel it works for Havelock as much as for Rush's Walsingham. Regardless of what Vetinari's true sexuality is, or what his true feelings are, he's willing to use sexuality as a weapon in order to get what he wants out of people. He plays people beautifully. He's not quite as...ahem... proactive as Rush's Walsingham, who will indeed take people to bed if needs must, but Vetinari appears to have this ability to alter himself in order to alter other people, to bend them to his will. He's not necessarily flirting *nicely* all the time, and he can be downright terrifying of course, but there's always that little smile, those piercing eyes, his attested handsomeness, and his ability to flatter people out of the blue.
In fact, he's very much like Queen Elizabeth I in that he seems to be content to remain "married to his city" rather than court any woman (or man, if he leans that way. Or both ways), but he constantly plays the people within it. In both "Making Money" and "Unseen Academicals", he "plays" both Moist and Glenda, and just about comes out with what he wanted from both. He plays Moist off against himself and other banks, whilst playing Glenda off, rather sneakily and yet successfully, with the tall beauty, Margolotta. And with both of them there's this undercurrent, this slight feeling that he's coming on to them... It's curious and compelling. :D And is it just me, or is this something which wasn't so much in evidence in, say, "Guards! Guards!", "Sourcery", even as recent as "Night Watch".
Of course, this flirtation is just another of his tactics for staying in power, where he continues to just about please everyone by giving in to most of their demands. He rarely takes radical action unless absolutely necessary, and when his temper gets up, you know about it. Like Elizabeth, he's also feared, so people do their utmost to please him and not upset him, whilst still muttering under their breaths behind his back all the time. but this can be lived with.
So yes, overall, he's a nice blend of Elizabeth and Rush's Walsingham, if not the real one. He's a proper manipulator and shameless flirt, and he manages to steal the show all the bloody time.