this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
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You're right about moderation, but I think it's actually not an easy feat for someone to have really well-tuned common sense when it comes to tone over text. I know a lot of people in real life who text like total dismissive assholes, and if I didn't actually know them I'd think they were being dickwads because they speak in real life completely different to how they type online.
Since ebooks have taken over my casual text consumption, would you say Discworld is accessible enough to just go from the beginning? There's a lot of books in there, but I wouldn't mind having all that to cruise through over a long term.
Dismissive dickwad behavior is good, actually - if you're dismissing Nazis. Or anyone else who deserves a blunt rejection. It is fine and valid to deny people civility, when their rhetoric is inherently abusive. Respect and patience have limits.
Swearing at people absofuckinglutely has its place in online discourse. If not for the assholes themselves - then for the people they're trying to fool.
Anyway.
Discworld has a few parallel threads. Release order starts with The Colour Of Magic, which is fun and short, but not exactly top-notch material. See explanatory flowchart. Those first few novels have a real Season One vibe.
The traditional introduction seems to be whichever book catches your eye. Or whichever you happened to find first, if you'd heard good things about the series. That's how I wound up reading Ringworld by Larry Niven, because cultivating your interests in the 90s was a much fuzzier experience.