Overidentification with fictional characters part 83

[neveralarch]

But first, I filled all the not!fic prompts a little while ago, so here are the links to the two new ones:

BBC Sherlock: Moran/Moriarty kidfic (warnings for blood and death)

RDJ!Holmes movies: secretly a virgin Moran/Moriarty (featuring demisexual/greyA!Moriarty)

And now, here are a bunch of feelings about Commander Sam Vimes:

Comments

[justice_turtle]

This is very thinky and interesting and I don't have much coherent to say about it! But re: COPS - I agree with your reading of Vimes's changing status, and (I have my own issues about the judicial system okay) I think there's really the potential for an amazing analysis of the eternal balancing act between law and justice, to be done there. Sir Pterry hasn't done that analysis, because *augh, damn you Alzheimer's(?)* he's beginning to repeat himself... but it needs to be done. IMO. Because the law is made by the upper class, usually for the upper class, whereas justice is for all, especially the powerless. And there is no fictional character in history better poised to be the center of an analysis of that dichotomy than Sam Vimes.

[neveralarch]

Yeah, I think the point about balancing between law (which is coded as upper-class) and justice (which is often coded as lower-class) is really good. I do think Pratchett has addressed that from time to time, though he's never made it the focus of a book - certainly he's addressed the tension in Vimes' mind between The Law and Justice, with Justice generally being his guiding motivation, and The Law as a kind of tempering force? It's an especially interesting distinction in Ankh-Morpork, where the state of the law is in flux as Vimes and Vetinari shape the city more and more, while Vimes' sense of justice is also shifting to incorporate a lot more about equality along different dimensions.

I do think if Pratchett devoted a real book to that discussion it would be AWESOME and might help me sort out my mind wrt COPS and Vimes.

[neveralarch]

Ah, I'm glad this post was interesting/made any sense at all. I'm also finding your comment really interesting - I'm already applying my American experience of class to a character written by an English author, so I'm not worried about bringing in Korea too. (Although obvs different history etc - it's just interesting to think about how the inter-generational class differences which I'm thinking about here are almost the norm in Korea, if I'm reading your comment right, whereas in the US it's obviously something that does happen, but doesn't happen as often as the 'American Dream' or whatever would have you expect

[neveralarch]

I see, I see. You may have gathered that I know very little about Korea - the chaebol are probably the only thing I know much at all about, because they were a major part of a political economy class I took. But this is super fascinating, thanks for bringing it up and filling me in!

I'm thinking of Feet of Clay just because there are some scenes with the emerging middle class and the established upper class where I felt like Vimes was going "but I'm not the police for you," which I thought was interesting because that's basically the opposite of what the police usually do. But I've reread Night Watch more recently than Feet of Clay, so I may be misremembering