The Discworld Mapp’d: Constructing Competing Narratives of Inequality in Science-Fiction Fandom

Abstract

Terry Pratchett’s authorial lens has focussed ever more on the human condition. In 2021, the books known by fans as the City Watch Trilogy, were adapted for television and have been attacked by fans for betraying Pratchett’s vision. In this paper, we explore how fans have attacked this BBC adaptation in public spaces online as part of their communicative leisure performativity. For some, changes in the internal motivations of key characters, plot changes, and the strange re-building of the city of Ankh-Morpork (guarded by Sam Vimes and the City Watch) is enough for them to reject it. For others, though, it is changing characters genders and ethnicities that has driven their refusal to endorse the programme. We show that this criticism is not justified: even though early Pratchett found humor in racial and sexual stereotypes, his later work is driven by a commitment to inclusion and a rejection of hegemony.

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