Let’s get Faustian. (Literally.) It’s time to meet Eric…
Summary
Death is tending to his bees when there’s a breeze in his realm and the sound of feet running and someone going on about how they don’t want to die. The Unseen University also detects this, but the Archchancellor falls asleep before getting anything done about it, so the Bursar tries to figure out what to do and settles on the Rite of AshkEnte. They summon Death, who explains that Rincewind is the reason this is happening, as he’s trying to get back from the Dungeon Dimensions (see: the end of Sourcery). But he also tells him that the chances of that happening are exactly a million to one. That chance has, in fact, happened. Rincewind is summoned to a young demonologist’s house, and the young man—named Eric Thursley—demands that Rincewind grant him three wishes: mastery of the kingdoms of the world, to meet the most beautiful woman who ever lived, and to live forever. He does not believe that Rincewind isn’t a demon. The wizard can’t put his finger on what’s off about Eric until he realizes that he’s just thirteen years old.
Buy the Book
Defekt
Eric heads downstairs for breakfast, and Rincewind realizes that the bird he’d assumed was stuffed is in fact a live parrot. It tells him that Eric’s grandfather manages to summon actual demons, but Eric is spoiled by his parents and they let him mess with grandpa’s old stuff. Down in the Disc’s version of Hell, Lord Astfgl is irate because he’d been waiting for Eric who get through to Pandemonium, and had already selected the demon Vassenego to go tempt the kid, but the demon didn’t make it. Eric decides he should just let Rincewind go, but right as he’s made the decision, the Luggage drops in. Eric reasserts his demands, and Rincewind balks, claiming he can’t just snap his fingers and makes things happen—except then he snaps his fingers and things just start happening. He and the Luggage and Eric and the parrot are suddenly suspended above the Disc, looking over the world. Eric says if he’s master of the world as he asked, he wants tribute. So Rincewind snaps again, and they arrive in the jungles of Klatch, near the Tezuman Empire.
They meet some of the people of the Tezuman Empire and Rincewind manages to communicate to them that Eric wants tribute, so they are taken to the city where there is a feast and celebration and a ton of treasure. Rincewind has a feeling it can’t all go this right, and has a look around. He comes across a statue of their god Quezovercoatl (who is actually a proper demon), and behind it a prisoner named Ponce da Quirm, who is there to be sacrificed. Quirm happens to know that the Tezuman also have special sacrificial plans for the Ruler of the World, and the fellow who shows up with him. As they’re about to be sacrificed the next morning, Quezovercoatl shows up (he’s been advised by Lord Astfgl to change the religion to something less bloody and depressing), revealing himself to be only six inches high. The Luggage shows up at the same time, runs to Rincewind, and squashes the demon “god” flat. The Tezuman let the three prisoners go, Rincewind gives the parrot over to da Quirm, and the Tezuman decide that the Luggage is their new god.
Rincewind snaps his fingers and they arrive somewhere else that is not Eric’s home. They exit the space and turn out to have climbed from a large wooden horse’s ass. They are assumed to be Ephebians, as they are in Tsort and there’s the war going on. The Tsortians are very confused as to why there were only two people in the horse when they were expecting a hundred. Eric realizes that they’ve been sent back in time to the Tsortean Wars where Elenor was kidnapped from the Ephebians. An attack begins outside and Rincewind suggests that their guard leave to see what’s up, telling Eric they should get away from here fast as possible.
Commentary
I definitely have not read this one before. So this should be interesting.
Okay, so this book is a straight up parody of a lot of classical literature and myth, sort of similar to all the parodies Rincewind goes through in The Colour of Magic. The overarching parody here is obviously Faust, to the point where his name is scratched out in the title. Which… kind of feel like that doesn’t work? Maybe if Eric’s name was closer phonetically to Faust instead, but obviously that’s not as funny as him having a super typical name like Eric. I dunno.
Maybe this is a weird thing for me to say, but there’s some part of me that wonders if writing the Good Omens version of Death didn’t clarify some things for Pratchett about the Discworld version. Because his very first appearance in The Colour of Magic is notably not quite there yet, and obviously we get a lot of him in Mort, and he continues to coalesce with every additional appearance. But there’s something about this particular bit with the Rite of AshkEnte that feels just exactly correct, like the Discworld’s Death has finally distilled down or aged appropriately like a fine wine—his being on the wrong side of the octogram, the “expression of polite interest,” the expectant curiosity whilst being very to-the-point. (Picking invisible particles off the scythe, I could die.) When I think of the character, this is how I’m usually thinking of him.
I dare say (did I just type those words? I don’t think I’ve ever done that before) there’s a lot of Good Omens influence in this book, particularly in the explanation of Discworld’s Hell, and Lord Astfgl’s mission to make the whole thing function better. (Plus his petty grievances with the old guard of demons.) It’s there in the talk of how Astfgl wants Eric because Hell is missing out of human imagination, giving Pratchett a spot to really drill down on that concept. There’s the mention that the difference between gods and demons on the Disc is basically the same as the difference between “terrorists and freedom fighters,” which immediately puts me in mind of Crowley and Aziraphale’s conversation about guns and moral arguments. Then there’s the “bell, book and candle job” line, which has that air of echoes in the brain working their way out, and I have to say, it’s comforting? Obviously writers don’t usually mean to repeat themselves, but if someone like Pratchett can do it, we can all feel a little less awkward when we do it.
But I feel like the real crux here is the moment when Rincewind is looking at Eric looking out over the world and he wonders if he was like him at that age, and then thinks “I wonder how I survived?” The original conceit of Faust is about an adult man who’s pretty fed up with how his life has gone, and I find it interesting that Pratchett doesn’t bother with that at all. Obviously, it would be less interesting to pair Rincewind—himself a bitter-ish fellow who’s seen a lot—with someone of the same temperament, but it also feels as though this is part of the point in retelling this story. The idea that it makes more sense when the person making these mistakes in summoning a demon and asking for outrageous things is a kid who hasn’t got a clue.
Of course, the Tezuman Empire has a lot of similarities to the Aztec Empire, and while Pratchett does some of this rendering well, it’s got similar issues to how he handled Egyptian-based culture in Pyramids. There’s the jokes around glyph languages, the ribbing about using stone instead of paper, calling his own version of Quetzalcoatl a “feather boa,” and Ponce da Quirm who is clearly a stand-in for Juan Ponce de León. Not sure if he’s going to show up later in the book, but the way he’s rendered in this section is just as some guy who is looking for the fountain of youth. Which is not what we should remember de León for—not when he did his best to subjugate native peoples just like Tezuman.
On the other hand, I appreciate the fact that Eric’s wish to be ruler of the world almost gets him killed by the Tezuman because these people mean to do the opposite of worshipping anyone who claims that title. It reminds me a little bit of how it works out in The Road to El Dorado, where it’s made very clear that Chief Tannabok knows Miguel and Tulio are just two guys and definitely not gods, but he plays along because their presence might help him oust their high priest who is big on sacrifice. You can tell it’s a story written by white people, though, in both cases.
Then we get promptly thrust into a parody of the Trojan War, so we’ll see how that plays out next week. But I do so very much appreciate their exit from the wooden horse.
Asides and little thoughts:
- Look, sometimes the footnotes are on, and then sometimes they’re on, like the one about the Unseen University’s erotic books, and how they’re just erotic, not kinky, which is “the difference between using a feather and using a chicken.” The longer you sit with that one the funnier it gets; it just creeps on you.
- The initials of the book Eric uses to summon Rincewind—the book of absolute control—come out to MS DOS, a joke that does not play at all today, and makes me love it more?
- The weapon that Rincewind thinks would likely be described as a “primitive sword,” but he finds far more deadly indeed is the macuahuitl, a devastating weapon that easily rendered opponents incredibly injured or dead. It has similarities to a broadsword, sure, but there’s nothing primitive about how effective that weapon is at maiming people, and it was invented before the broadsword.
Pratchettisms:
Like all beekeepers, Death wore a veil. It wasn’t that he had anything to sting, but sometimes a bee would get inside his skull and buzz around and give him a headache.
His nose, feeling that it was being left out of things, hastened to report a whiff of brimstone.
But it wasn’t all that strange, because any wizard bright enough to survive for five minutes was also bright enough to realise that if there was any power in demonology, then it lay with the demons. Using it for your own purposes would be like trying to beat mice to death with a rattlesnake.
There was a sound behind them, like the universe clearing its throat.
Rincewind gave his fingers a long shocked stare, as one might regard a gun that has been hanging on the wall for decades and has suddenly gone off and perforated the cat.
Next week we finish the book! It’s a fast one. See you then!
[Death] looked as though if he wrote a diet book, it would be a bestseller. *snort* No, Death is not the Horseman who (in another world) writes a popular diet book. Given the publishing dates, I don’t know if this is coincidental.
“But we haven’t asked the question yet.” NEVERTHELESS, THE ANSWER IS RINCEWIND. That applies to pretty much anything happening in any Rincewind-centric book. Things happen because Rincewind.
The parrot talks like an unused Mad Libs game with “wossname”s instead of blanks.
I dislike the joke about the “neuralger” demon that “has a headache at you” instead of sex. But I enjoy the parrot referring to sex as “mad passionate wossname,” and I’ve used the phrase accordingly.
I’ve never understood how Rincewind went from the Dungeon Dimensions though a portal to the entirely separate Pandemonium. Though since he was previously running through Death’s domain, things are currently being especially weird.
Astfgl’s name amuses me because any sleepy mumble by a Discworld character is usually spelled out as “Wstfgl.” I like to joke that Wstfgl and Astfgl are demon siblings, with siblings for all the letters between them — Bstfgl, Cstfgl, etc.
“It’ll last you a lifetime, a world like that, used carefully.” Yeaah, about that. My world has not been used carefully, and may not remain functional through my lifetime.
A round world layered “like an old-fashioned gobstopper”…yummy. If you’re into devouring planets.
The Luggage has a Granny Weatherwax approach to obstacles. Except that Granny generally doesn’t eat things which get in her way.
Rincewind’s puzzlement at da Quirm seeking the Fountain of Youth since he was young is one of those nice understated pokes at human foolishness.
Call-forwards:
Rincewind’s trail of weirdness turns a fortune teller’s crystal ball into a snow globe.
“Wizards just don’t haunt places.”
(he’s been advised by Lord Astfgl to change the religion to something less bloody and depressing)
AFAICR the “advice” is mandatory — hardly surprising considering how far down the hierarchy Q is.
The feather/chicken line was at least a dozen years old when Pratchett used it; nice to know it hasn’t gone stale. The line about the difference between terrorists and freedom fighters would have been fresher right after a decade of malfeasance by Reagan, “nothing happened in El Mozote” Meese, Thatcher, etc., but it’s had no chance to go stale.
I suspect a number of today’s readers will have heard of MS DOS; some things are so horrible that their memory hangs around (or keeps getting revived) as a warning. OTOH, I hadn’t spotted that match. Pratchett might have been especially fed-up with the OS after the fun of trading pieces of Good Omens back and forth with Gaiman by very slow modem, but I don’t know whether that was the OS he was using at the time; to hear Langford tell it, there were some especially strange UK-only OSes at that time.
I hadn’t thought about Eric being specifically an age counterpoint to Faust; I wonder whether Pratchett was thinking about the standard useless older consolation-to-younger “Someday you’ll look back on all this and laugh”, or just thought a spotty adolescent was easier to be funny about. I would love to know whether “Eric” was considered a particularly funny (or at least geeky) name at the time in the UK; there was “Eric the half a bee” in a Monty Python sketch, but that was half a generation before — the perceptions of names can change quickly.
Other good lines:
Whatever sins it had committed in life, it hadn’t deserved what the taxidermist had done to it.
Then it turns out that it isn’t nailed to the perch; I wonder whether Pratchett was also exposed in school to “The Owl Critic“.
… he thought: Feet. Door. Stairs. What a great combination.
and
I run, therefore I am; more correctly, I run, therefore with any luck I’ll still be.
Always thinking about the fundamentals.
@1: wrt how Rincewind wound up in Pandemonium: it’s possible that the misguided missal(*) was even more misguided than anyone realizes; I have this picture of it boring a tunnel through an assortment of places. Or he may have been running so long and hard that he churned a bridge between them….
(*) from Poul Anderson
I’ve never read this book or the next one Moving Pictures before probably because I didn’t read the Disc books chronologically. I read the Witches books and the Death ones and usually skipped the others . Eric is very strange but I did enjoy the Trojan war bits. The rest I’ll save for next time.
In case anyone (like me, for a while) didn’t know this, Eric was originally published in a larger format with a lot of interior illustrations by Josh Kirby. The story was designed to provide abundant material for dramatic pictures. I’ve never seen the first edition, and never liked Kirby’s Discworld cover art, but that helps explain its peculiarities to me. It’s definitely a throwbacl to the earliest books in plot-style and prose-tone.
The pictures really make it work, much more than The Last Hero which feel more like illustration s Eric’s pictures interact more with the text.I can’t find my copy but can picture some of them, particularly the Tezumen temple
Yeah came to say the illustrated Eric is a far better book. And has some fantastic illustrations – the two page spread as they orbit the Disc is especially spectacular.
And speaking of the Horse, theoffended expression on the Horse as they exit is brilliant.
I always felt this one was Pratchett feeling out his way towards a more approachable YA Discworld book, which probably also explains the teenage Eric in some ways. Mind you he was also writing the Bromeliad children’s trilogy at the same time, and Moving Pictures, and Good Omens. So I guess we can forgive him for dashing off a vehicle for Kirby.
But along with Good Omens, another thing it is influenced by is Pratchett’s first story – The Hades Business, which is about the commercialisation of Hell.
This was when I think it had sunk in the Discworld was getting popular: it was a damned picture book! I remember buying this on a Friday evening when I was out with a mate and then sitting in a pub giggling stupidly at stuff that wasn’t influenced by alcohol. It’s a lightweight story but in its original form exists as a vehicle for Kirby’s art which, when he isn’t doing parodic covers is quite wonderful (I know a lot of people dislike Kirby’s covers but I find it interesting in a good way that his parodies of fantasy cover art are generating as much ire as the covers he was sending up)
No doubt you should really obtain the illustrated version to be properly offended on behalf of Aztecs, Conquistadors, Greeks, Trojans, etc. (I did not. It was expensive.)
I think you glitched on “Hell is missing out of human imagination” (also “Eric who get through” should be “Eric to”). I think what you’re addressing is Astfgl’s (short for Asdfghjkl I suppose) belief, shown in sarcastic detail later, that Hell as planned by cruel demons is less awful than things that humans have decided to do to other humans, and being awful is what Hell is for, so Hell must do better, or rather, worse. So you might say “Hell’s cruelty is surpassed by human cruelty”. But you may have not meant that at all.
Wikipedia says that Faust is broadly an ancient fairy story of Christian sin and salvation, with notable literary expansions by Christopher Marlowe (as a play, long ago) and Wolfgang von Goethe (a play in two parts). Both may have drawn on a book version of 1587; I say so because Marlowe did, and because both plays – and Eric – include Helen of Troy. I don’t imagine that she was in the original legend; Wikipedia presents a Victorian painting of Faust with Adam’s other wife, Lilith; otherwise Lilith apparently is not mentioned in the article, but is presumably an alternative candidate for best woman ever (from a certain point of view, such as this picture), painted because she lived before clothes were invented. Faust may be wearing a dress to show her how it’s done.
What I’m getting to is that Eric’s experiences may not have much to do with previous versions of Faust, except that the audience may know that Helen of Troy is involved (and nothing else about Marlowe or Goethe) so she is expected to show up. Or that Terry Pratchett only knew that much, but, he did do his research. Or maybe his “Faust” is based on a Bugs Bunny cartoon version or something. Actually, the Lilith bit suggests time travel (so does Helen), which occurs in Eric but should be rather advanced for Marlowe etc. – though if Shakespeare can bring Julius Caesar to Elizabethan London, by doing a play there, it’s time-travel-ish.
So instead the parodies are of the Aztecs, the Greeks and Trojans, and of Hell and its maliciously compliant devils, I suppose.
Eric also is someone whose role is to get Rincewind into trouble like Twoflower did in the first couple of books. It might be possible to write this story with Twoflower, but then we wouldn’t have Eric’s adolescentness. And Twoflower doesn’t want power or money. He has money. And he’s learned. And he’s gone home.
I’m really enjoying this book. For those without the illustrated edition, is there a place online where the pictures can be found?
Re Good Omens and Discworld – I see Death in Good Omens as based on Death from Discworld (here and in previous books) while Good Omens gave form to the Dungeon Dimensions.
Re the ‘white’ perspective – Terry, through Rincewind, condemns the labeling of the Tezuman as primitive. He does question some things that neither the current West nor the existing indigenous people understand like the non use of wheels (which the ancient indigenous people used on children’s toys buy nothing else) or the lack of evidence of any paper like writing material in ancient Mesoamerican culture.
Re Ponce de Leon and subjugation – he is known for the Fountain of Youth (which was an Arawak legend) because he was basically unmemorable otherwise. Yes, he fought and subjugated native tribes but so did the Aztec and Maya (and Tezuman). I doubt the subjugated cared about the skin color of their conquerors. Conquest and subjugation is a human trait not tied to time or culture.
Other thoughts.
My dirty mind makes me think of the one use for stone disks with a hole as hot passionate wossname.
The nailed to the perch comment is definitely from Python’s Dead Parrot sketch.
Given its description, the Parrot’s fear for his feathers is absurd, in a good way.
Terry’s comments on living your life rather than seeking the Fountain of Youth are part of his world view and variations are seen Good Omens and Discworld books.
Pratchettism – My favorite of all the books is one word:
osh*!osh*tosh*t.
@10 davep1 –
Pre-contact Mesoamericans did use a form of bark paper, quite a bit, actually, and for a long time, but not a lot has survived – theDresden Codex was written on it.
@11: You are absolutely right and I apologize for my (and Rincewind’s) ignorance. I promise I’ll do better when we get to Greece.
@6: So I guess we can forgive him for dashing off a vehicle for Kirby. I remember a UK autograph line with Pratchett and Kirby; I suspect a lot of people in the line didn’t know who Kirby was, but Pratchett made sure everyone with a Kirby-covered book got his autograph as well.
@@.-@: Kirby’s covers seem a little overstuffed and/or distorted to me — but IMO his version is much better than Sweet’s cover for the US edition, which appears to show Rincewind as a Disney’s-Aladdin Arab — the hat isn’t even pointed. I would like to see what the interiors look like at the original size as the work for The Last Hero is striking; abebooks says the illustrated version was printed in paperback in 2017, but it looks like those will be shrunken
I enjoyed Eric a lot (never been able to find the illustrated version), though it seems to be one of the more divisive Discworld novels. One reason is that I’ve been fascinated with the Faust legend and deal-with-the-devil stories (I even wrote my third-year paper on them), and this novel was no small part of creating that obsession. Also, while Eric isn’t the deepest Discworld character ever, I like his nerdy, hormonal teenagerdom, and he and Rincewind play well off each other. The scene where Rincewind is summoned and figures out his new boss is a teenager is comedy of the highest order. I’ve never thought of this before, but since this book came on the heels of Good Omens, I realise that Eric is more than a bit like a younger Newt.
I always found the way Rincewind ended up back in the physical realm a bit of a handwave. Presumably, Eric aimed for Pandemonium, and he really is that bad at daemonology, but it still feels a bit weak to me. It brings Rincewind back, which is what matters for me (I’m one of Rincewind’s fans).
Today I learned about the macuahuitl.
I don’t have an issue with satirising ancient Aztec culture, since it’s so far in the past, but I always have a slight pause at the reveal that Quezovercoatl (whom I find hilarious, by the way) is a demon posing as a god. I’m sure Pratchett didn’t intend this, but it is a bit close to the old “all those Other People’s gods are actually demons, look how grotesque/immoral they are,” which is something you don’t find anywhere else in Discworld books (where the proper gods usually manage to be weird and/or nasty enough). It just feels a little out of place.
I have a love-hate relationship with Josh Kirby’s art. On the one hand, it has obvious flaws (such as depicting Twoflower with literally four eyes), and I really don’t like how it always shows Rincewind as old, when The Colour of Magic seems to point to him being in his early thirties. On the other hand, it’s colourful, action-packed, and undoubtedly iconic: it’s the Discworld I grew up with, and much as I find Paul Kidby’s art better from a technical standpoint, it’s also less distinctive.
@8: The only story I know of Faust meeting Lilith is in Goethe’s Faust (the first part) where he sees her at the Witches’ Sabbat during Walpurgisnacht and is suitably impressed, though Mephistopheles warns him off her, and as far as I recall that’s the end of it. If anyone knows of any versions of the Faust story where he and Lilith have more substantial interactions, I’ll always be happy to learn more.
Translation fun: Quezovercoatl’s name was translated “Quezduffelcoatl” in the French translation, and “Queztrenchcoatl” in the Swedish one. Good thing those languages have at least some English loanwords with “coat” in them.
Another good fantasy comedy take on the Faust story is Tom Holt’s Faust Among Equals (yes, he went there). It’s not perfect, but a lot of fun to read.
It sounds like Eric would have successfully summoned a demon from Pandemonium (a demon of the demons’ choice, not his) if there hadn’t been precisely a million-to-one chance of Rincewind somehow slipping into that portal at the right moment — though it turns out this wasn’t coincidental.
Eric is so entitled and whiny. I’m not sure how often his being a teenager, not an adult, makes this more palatable to readers.
@15: I think Eric’s entitled and whiny is a perfect contrast to Rincewind’s unentitled (approaching anti-entitled) and whiny. The age difference allows more comedy about teenager versus mature viewpoints but the theme would have worked if Eric was Faust’s age.
I wonder how much his teenage (at this point) daughter Rhianna’s experience with boys (or Terry’s fears of it) factored into Eric’s mindset.
I have a soft spot for Eric, because it was the second Discworld book I read, and the one that convinced that the first one wasn’t a fluke and I should definitely go back to the store and buy some more. (I had a good run with British humorous SF in that one Steimetzky’s, meeting Pratchett and Tom Holt for the first time, and almost Douglas Adams, too).
Not sure about that. A lot of people went around subjugating the neighbours. Ahuitzotl, Akbar the Great, Suleiman the Magnificent, everyone worth mentioning. So that was nothing very memorable at all. On the other hand, not many people went around looking for the Fountain of Youth.
@18: Good point.
ad @18: subjugating one’s neighbors is a bit different from going thousands of miles to find someone who’s easy to subjugate. OTOH, from what I see Ponce de Leon is mostly remembered as a clown, which is better than the heroic way some of the conquistadors used to be remembered.
@15: a teen whiner may be funnier than an adult whiner, if only for the cruel reason that any reader past teenhood knows how small some of the concerns the teen is angsting over will turn out to be. (There are adult whiners who are supposed to be funny — A Confederacy of Dunces comes to mind — but ISTM that’s even more a matter of which buttons the story pushes; I finished that book just to see whether there was any justification for the lead’s behavior and didn’t find it.) There’s also the contrast between his grandiose dreams and his mundane reality; Galaxy Quest was several years in the future when I first read Eric, but on this reread I flashed on Brandon having to interrupt guiding the ship in so he can take out the trash. Yes, Brandon is actually doing something worthwhile instead of selfish. OTOH, Eric has an ancestor to dream of matching. And if Eric weren’t something of a twerp, laughing as his dreams turn on him would be even crueler than much humor is already; as he’s drawn, ISTM we have permission to laugh at every banana peel he steps on, just as we laugh at Stanley trying too-simple ways to connect with Margaret in the original Bedazzled.
All of this is probably over-analysis — but your comment made me think about the various kinds of funny in Pratchett, and a few of the many definitions of humor.
@22: Very good analysis.
Typically, someone like Eric would be the villain of the story: he’s trying to rule the world and win the most beautiful woman (regardless of her feelings on the subject), and treats Rincewind like a servant at best (plus, he practices demonology). The fact that he’s 1) a teenager and 2) clearly incompetent is what makes him, if not necessarily likable, at least not a threat to the public.
@22: The Aztec Empire spanned over 1000 miles as did the Inca Empire. While they cannot compete with the huge Asian, Middle Eastern, and European empires, the Western belief that they were small collections of local city states is as much propaganda as the belief that they were primitive.
@22 @23:
Beyond Eric’s teenage dreams, we also get to laugh at his naivete. This ‘somebody (but not me) needs to explain it to them’ is a recurring Terry trope.
This is one of the books where the true villain is bureaucracy and the named villains are just agents.
As far as living upto an ancestor, it makes me think of Sourcery. Cohen’s daughter, Conina, who views it as a curse, and Nijel who views Cohen’s book as a goal.
One quibble: You refer to Rincewind as a “Wizard.” As he himself would tell you, he is a “Wizzard”[sic].
If memory serves, the Spanish were inclined to think that the Aztec gods were demons of some description, on the grounds they were the only supernatural entities Christians were supposed to believe in who might plausibly want human sacrifices. I wonder if Sir Terry was thinking of that.
It’s not necessary to phrase your thoughts in an aggressive, argumentative way to get your points across, nor is it conducive to further discussion. This seems like a good time to agree to disagree and move on to a different topic. As always, our community guidelines can be found here.
It just struck me that Eric also makes for an interesting contrast with Coin of Sourcery (or I guess Adam Young of Good Omens): an example of what happens when you have an ultra-powerful adolescent who isn’t a failure, and gets close to taking over the world. A bit of symmetry: Coin is set up as the main antagonist of Sourcery (at least until it is revealed that his father-incarnated-in-his-staff is the true power behind him) but never comes off as evil; Eric is a protagonist, but power-mad and rather unlikable.
Adam versus Coin is an interesting is an interesting contrast but I don’t see Coin (prior to the big reveal) as you do. Adam uses his power benevolently, or tries to, whereas Coin uses his power malevolently.
Eric, on the other hand, is not really ultra powerful. Instead he has the genie and three wishes kind of power. His use of these wishes is absolutely in line with traditional adolescent boys’ desires. At this point I don’t find him unlikable, just amusing.
One other thought on power. The person who has demonstrated the greatest power in Discworld is the one who doesn’t want it – Rincewind. When he read the spells he created new worlds. Even the gods only got one to play with. Perhaps running away from power is the solution.