The Carpet People
Ratings16
Average rating3.4
15
Ratings16
Average rating3.4
The Carpet is home to different tribes: there's Fray, who sweeps a trail of destruction, and two Munrung brothers, who set out on an adventure when their village is flattened. The story will come to a terrible end if someone doesn't do something about it.
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The Carpet People is the first story Terry Pratchett published, and he was only seventeen years old. Some years ago, after he had written a lot more books, he took another look at this book and revised it. I read the revised edition.
The Carpet People is the story of a group of tiny people live in the carpet and who have had their village destroyed by the mysterious natural force of Fray (also known as sweeping). They wander quite a bit and have a number of battles and meet another group of people who are able to know the future and wander some more. Along the way, in classic Terry Pratchett style, the people have clever and silly philosophical discussions. The book is great fun.
If any book is going to make you feel rather conflicted about hoovering, this is it!
Terry Pratchett's first novel is indeed entirely novel. There are complete civilisations existing and warring between the carpet hairs. Unexpected heroes, strange creatures and some almost unpronounceable names.
I'm willing to cut my favourite author some slack as this was his first published book, and it came out more than 50 years ago.
That being said, here's a fairly objective breakdown of the pros and cons.
Cons:
-Have a suspicion that this borrows a little too much inspiration from indigenous people stereotypes to be viewed uncritically in the 21st century.
-Weirdly enough, considering the amount of reprints, it feels like it still needs one more run through with spellcheck (which I guess is a computer feature that didn't exist when it was first published...)
-Pacing drags a little
On the one hand congratulations on the imagination, on the other hand, thinking about everything that might be deposited or living in a carpet makes me really glad to be in a bare floored apartment 😝
Pros:
-Similar to Tiffany Aching books in the Discworld series, Pratchett obviously started out early with an affinity for introducing heavier topics, harsher truths in a quiet, matter of fact way to a younger audience.
-Short termagant interlude so quietly, achingly sad.
-Pones are my new favourite fantasy creature.
-Illustrations a black-and-white Roald Dahl/Shel Silverstein vibes
Themes:
-Ideas of destiny, of choice, of telling stories and taking action so they become truth
-What you choose to fight for, contrasted with the nonsensical nature of most conflicts between peoples
-Fairly sophisticated evil bureaucratic machinations, (playing on leaders' fears and superstition, conquering from within to obtain materials and labour source and food, to harvest further resources), given the probable reading demographic
