Going Postal: Difference between revisions

Going Postal
	First edition
Author	Terry Pratchett
Cover artist	Paul Kidby
Language	English
Series	Discworld; 33rd novel – 1st Moist von Lipwig story;
Subject	Fantasy, redemption, post office, finance/speculation; Characters:; Moist von Lipwig; Locations:; Ankh-Morpork;
Genre	Fantasy
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	25 September 2004
Awards	2005 Finalist nominee for Nebula Award for Best Novel
ISBN	0-385-60342-8
Preceded by	A Hat Full of Sky
Followed by	Thud!

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Going Postal is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the 33rd book in his Discworld series, released in the United Kingdom on 25 September 2004. Unlike most of Pratchett's Discworld novels, Going Postal is divided into chapters, a feature previously seen only in Pratchett's children's books and the Science of Discworld series. These chapters begin with a synopsis of philosophical themes, in a similar manner to some Victorian novels and, notably, to Jules Verne stories. The title refers to both the contents of the novel, as well as to the term 'going postal'.

The book was on the shortlist for both the Nebula and Locus Awards for Best (Fantasy) Novel.^[1] It would also have been shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, except that Pratchett withdrew it, as he felt stress over the award would mar his enjoyment of the Worldcon.^[2]^[3] This was the first time Pratchett had been shortlisted for either award.

Plot

The story takes place in Ankh-Morpork, a powerful city-state on Discworld. The protagonist of the story is Moist von Lipwig, a skilled con artist who was to be hanged for his crimes, but saved at the last moment by the cunning and manipulative Patrician Havelock Vetinari, who has Moist's death on the scaffold faked.

In his office, Vetinari presents Moist with two options: he may accept a job offer to become Postmaster of the city's rundown Postal Service or he may choose to walk out of the door and never hear from Vetinari again. As exiting through the door in question would lead to a fatal drop, Moist decides to accept the job.

After a thwarted attempt at escape, Moist is brought to the Post Office by his parole officer Mr Pump, a golem. Moist learns that the Post Office has not functioned for decades, and the building is full of undelivered mail, concealed under a layer of pigeon dung. Only two employees remain: the aged Junior Postman Tolliver Groat and his assistant Stanley Howler.

Meanwhile, Vetinari is holding a meeting with the board executives of the Grand Trunk Company, a company that owns and operates a system of visual telegraph towers known as "clacks". He notes that since they have taken full control, the quality of service had gone down considerably. Despite unnerving most of the board, Vetinari fails to make headway, especially with its chairman, Reacher Gilt. It is rumored that Reacher Gilt plans to usurp Vetinari as Patrician.

As Moist attempts to revitalise the postal service, he discovers that over the few months before taking the job, a number of his predecessors have predeceased in the building within weeks of each other in unusual circumstances. He also discovers that the mail inside the building has taken on a life of its own, and is nearly suffocated in a "letterslide".

Moist introduces postage stamps to Ankh-Morpork, hires golems to deliver the mail, and finds himself competing against the Grand Trunk Clacks line. He meets and falls in love with the chain-smoking golem-rights activist Adora Belle Dearheart, and the two begin a relationship by the end of the book. Dearheart is the daughter of the Clacks founder Robert Dearheart, though the company was taken away from her father and the other founders by tricky financial manoeuvring. She still has useful contacts amongst the clacks operators.

Reacher Gilt sets a banshee assassin (Mr Gryle) on the Postmaster, but only manages to burn down much of the Post Office building. The banshee dies when he is flipped onto the space-warping sorting machine. Lipwig makes an outrageous wager with Gilt that he can deliver a message to Genua, 2000 miles from Ankh-Morpork, faster than the Grand Trunk can. "The Smoking Gnu", a group of clacks-crackers, sets up a plan to send 'the woodpecker' (a Discworld equivalent to a killer poke) into the clacks system that will destroy the machinery, halting the message that Lipwig will race against. Lipwig talks the Gnu out of it, wanting to leave the semaphore towers standing. Instead, Lipwig and the Gnu, using Trunk documents in Adora Belle's possession, intercept the message and replace it with a fake message from the dead which reveals the crimes of Gilt and the Grand Trunk board of directors. This plan succeeds.

Gilt is eventually arrested and finds himself in front of the Patrician, who offers a similar choice to the one Moist faced in the beginning of the book: run the mint or exit the room. Gilt, however, chooses to walk through the door to his death.

TV adaptation

Sky One produced a two-part television film, Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, which aired on 30–31 May 2010.

Legacy

Based on a plot idea in this novel, after Terry Pratchett's death some websites remember him via a special HTML header line.^[4]

References

^ "2005 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 28 September 2009.
^ Dave Langford (5 September 2005). "Ansible 218".
^ The 2005 Hugo Nominees (fiction)
^ Kessler, Emanuel (2 April 2024). "GNU Terry Pratchett: Eine Hommage für Eingeweihte an den Scheibenwelt-Erfinder - Golem.de". golem.de (in German). Retrieved 20 August 2023.

External links

Going Postal title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Information from L-Space.org
Going Postal at Worlds Without End
Going Postal at IMDb

Reading order guide
Preceded by A Hat Full of Sky	33rd Discworld Novel	Succeeded by Thud!
Preceded by None	1st Moist von Lipwig story Published in 2004	Succeeded by Making Money

[WWE-2005-1] "2005 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 28 September 2009.

[2] Dave Langford (5 September 2005). "Ansible 218".

[3] The 2005 Hugo Nominees (fiction)

[4] Kessler, Emanuel (2 April 2024). "GNU Terry Pratchett: Eine Hommage für Eingeweihte an den Scheibenwelt-Erfinder - Golem.de". golem.de (in German). Retrieved 20 August 2023.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Short description|2004 Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett}}
 {{Other uses}}
 {{EngvarB|date=September 2017}}
@@ Line 5: / Line 6: @@
 | name         = Going Postal
 | image        = Discworld Postal.jpg
-| image_size    = 185px
+| image_size    =
-| caption=
+| caption= First edition
 | author       = [[Terry Pratchett]]
 | illustrator  =
-| cover_artist =
+| cover_artist = [[Paul Kidby]]
 | language     = English
-| series       = ''[[Discworld]]''<br />33rd novel  &ndash; 1st Moist von Lipwig story
+| series       = {{ubl|''[[Discworld]]''|33rd novel  &ndash; 1st Moist von Lipwig story}}
-| subject      = [[Fantasy]], Redemption, Post office, Finance/Speculation
+| subject      = {{ubl|[[Fantasy]], redemption, post office, finance/speculation|'''Characters:'''|[[Moist von Lipwig]]|'''Locations:'''|[[Ankh-Morpork]]}}
-;Characters
-: [[Moist von Lipwig]]
-;Locations
-: [[Ankh-Morpork]]
 | genre        = [[Fantasy]]
 | publisher    = [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]]
-| pub_date     = 2004
+| pub_date     = {{start date|2004|09|25|df=y}}
 | awards       = 2005 Finalist nominee for [[Nebula Award for Best Novel]]
 | isbn         = 0-385-60342-8
-| preceded_by  =
+| preceded_by  = [[A Hat Full of Sky]]
-| followed_by  = [[Making Money]]
+| followed_by  = [[Thud!]]
 }}
-'''''Going Postal''''' is a [[fantasy novel]] by British writer [[Terry Pratchett]], the 33rd book in his ''[[Discworld]]'' series, released in the United Kingdom on 25 September 2004. Unlike most of Pratchett's Discworld novels,  ''Going Postal'' is divided into [[chapter (books)|chapters]], a feature previously seen only in Pratchett's children's books and the [[Science of Discworld]] series. These chapters begin with a synopsis of philosophical themes, in a similar manner to some [[Victorian literature|Victorian]] novels and, notably, to [[Jules Verne]] stories. The title refers to both the contents of the novel, as well as to the term '[[going postal]]'.
+'''''Going Postal''''' is a [[fantasy novel]] by British writer [[Terry Pratchett]], the 33rd book in his ''[[Discworld]]'' series, released in the United Kingdom on 25 September 2004. Unlike most of Pratchett's Discworld novels, ''Going Postal'' is divided into [[chapter (books)|chapters]], a feature previously seen only in Pratchett's children's books and the [[Science of Discworld]] series. These chapters begin with a synopsis of philosophical themes, in a similar manner to some [[Victorian literature|Victorian]] novels and, notably, to [[Jules Verne]] stories. The title refers to both the contents of the novel, as well as to the term '[[going postal]]'.
 The book was on the shortlist for both the [[Nebula Award for Best Novel|Nebula]] and [[Locus Award|Locus]] Awards for Best (Fantasy) Novel.<ref name="WWE-2005">{{cite web
@@ Line 31: / Line 28: @@
 | title      = 2005 Award Winners & Nominees
 | work       = Worlds Without End
-| accessdate = 28 September 2009
+| access-date = 28 September 2009
 }}</ref> It would also have been shortlisted for the [[Hugo Award for Best Novel]], except that Pratchett withdrew it, as he felt stress over the award would mar his enjoyment of the [[Worldcon]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.ansible.co.uk/a218.html|title=Ansible 218|date=5 September 2005|author=Dave Langford}}</ref><ref>[http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/sf/Hugo2005.htm The 2005 Hugo Nominees (fiction)]</ref> This was the first time Pratchett had been shortlisted for either award.
 ==Plot==
+The story takes place in [[Ankh-Morpork]], a powerful city-state on Discworld. The protagonist of the story is [[Moist von Lipwig]], a skilled [[Confidence trick|con artist]] who was to be [[capital punishment|hanged]] for his crimes, but saved at the last moment by the cunning and manipulative Patrician [[Havelock Vetinari]], who has Moist's death on the scaffold faked.
+In his office, Vetinari presents Moist with two options: he may accept a job offer to become Postmaster of the city's rundown Postal Service or he may choose to walk out of the door and never hear from Vetinari again. As exiting through the door in question would lead to a fatal drop, Moist decides to accept the job.
-As with many of the Discworld novels, the story takes place in [[Ankh-Morpork]], a powerful city-state based on the historical and modern settings of various metropolises like London or New York City. The protagonist of the story is [[Moist von Lipwig]], a skilled [[Confidence trick|con artist]] who was to be [[capital punishment|hanged]] for his crimes, but saved at the very last moment by the cunning and manipulative Patrician [[Havelock Vetinari]], who has Moist's death on the scaffold faked.
+After a thwarted attempt at escape, Moist is brought to the Post Office by his parole officer Mr Pump, a golem. Moist learns that the Post Office has not functioned for decades, and the building is full of undelivered mail, concealed under a layer of pigeon dung. Only two employees remain: the aged Junior Postman [[Discworld characters#Tolliver Groat|Tolliver Groat]] and his assistant [[Discworld characters#Stanley Howler|Stanley Howler]].
-In his office, Vetinari then presents Moist with two options: he may accept a job offer to become Postmaster of the city's rundown Postal Service or he may choose to walk out of the door and never hear from Vetinari again. As exiting through the door in question would lead to a fatal drop, Moist decides to accept the job.
+Meanwhile, Vetinari is holding a meeting with the board executives of the Grand Trunk Company, a company that owns and operates a system of [[semaphore line|visual telegraph]] towers known as "clacks". He notes that since they have taken full control, the quality of service had gone down considerably. Despite unnerving most of the board, Vetinari fails to make headway, especially with its chairman, [[Discworld characters#Reacher Gilt|Reacher Gilt]]. It is rumored that Reacher Gilt plans to usurp Vetinari as Patrician.
-After a thwarted attempt at escape, Moist is brought to the Post Office by his parole officer Mr Pump, a golem. It turns out that the Post Office has not functioned for decades, and the building is full of undelivered mail, concealed under a layer of pigeon dung. Only two employees remain: the aged Junior Postman [[Discworld characters#Tolliver Groat|Tolliver Groat]] and his assistant [[Discworld characters#Stanley Howler|Stanley Howler]].
+As Moist attempts to revitalise the postal service, he discovers that over the few months before taking the job, a number of his predecessors have [[Death (Discworld)|predeceased]] in the building within weeks of each other in unusual circumstances. He also discovers that the mail inside the building has taken on a life of its own, and is nearly suffocated in a "letterslide".
-Meanwhile, Vetinari is holding a meeting with the board executives of the Grand Trunk Company, a company that owns and operates a system of [[semaphore line|visual telegraph]] towers known as "[[Technology of the Discworld#The clacks|clacks]]". He notes that since they have taken full control, the quality of service had gone down considerably. Despite unnerving most of the board, Vetinari fails to make headway, especially with its chairman, [[Discworld characters#Reacher Gilt|Reacher Gilt]]. It's rumored that, from his penthouse office in Tump Tower, Reacher Gilt plans to usurp Vetinari as Patrician.
+Moist introduces postage stamps to Ankh-Morpork, hires golems to deliver the mail, and finds himself competing against the Grand Trunk Clacks line. He meets and falls in love with the chain-smoking golem-rights activist [[Discworld characters#Adora Belle Dearheart|Adora Belle Dearheart]], and the two begin a relationship by the end of the book. Dearheart is the daughter of the Clacks founder Robert Dearheart, though the company was taken away from her father and the other founders by tricky financial manoeuvring. She still has useful contacts amongst the clacks operators.
-As Moist attempts to revitalise the service, he discovers that a few months before taking the job, a number of his predecessors have [[Death (Discworld)|predeceased]] in the building within weeks of each other in unusual circumstances. He also discovers that the mail inside the building has taken on a life of its own, and is nearly suffocated as a result.
+[[Discworld characters#Reacher Gilt|Reacher Gilt]] sets a banshee assassin (Mr Gryle) on the Postmaster, but only manages to burn down much of the Post Office building. The banshee dies when he is flipped onto the space-warping sorting machine. Lipwig makes an outrageous wager with Gilt that he can deliver a message to [[Discworld geography#Genua|Genua]], 2000 miles from Ankh-Morpork, faster than the Grand Trunk can. "The Smoking Gnu", a group of clacks-crackers, sets up a plan to send 'the woodpecker' (a Discworld equivalent to a [[killer poke]]) into the clacks system that will destroy the machinery, halting the message that Lipwig will race against. Lipwig talks the Gnu out of it, wanting to leave the semaphore towers standing. Instead, Lipwig and the Gnu, using Trunk documents in Adora Belle's possession, intercept the message and replace it with a fake message from the dead which reveals the crimes of Gilt and the Grand Trunk board of directors. This plan succeeds.
-Moist introduces postage stamps to Ankh-Morpork, hires golems to deliver the mail, and finds himself competing against the Grand Trunk [[Technology of the Discworld#The clacks|Clacks]] line. He meets and falls in love with the chain-smoking, golem-rights activist, [[Discworld characters#Adora Belle Dearheart|Adora Belle Dearheart]], and the two begin a relationship by the end of the book. Dearheart is the daughter of the Clacks founder Robert Dearheart, though the company was taken away from her father and the other founders by tricky financial manoeuvring. Because of this, she still has useful contacts amongst the clacks operators.
+Gilt is eventually arrested and finds himself in front of the Patrician, who offers a similar choice to the one Moist faced in the beginning of the book: run the mint or exit the room. Gilt, however, chooses to walk through the door to his death.
-The unscrupulous Clacks chairman, [[Discworld characters#Reacher Gilt|Reacher Gilt]], sets a banshee assassin (Mr Gryle) on the Postmaster, but only manages to burn down much of the Post Office building. The banshee dies when he gets flipped onto the space-warping sorting machine. Lipwig makes an outrageous wager that he can deliver a message to [[Discworld geography#Genua|Genua]], 2000 miles from Ankh-Morpork, faster than the Grand Trunk can. "The Smoking Gnu", a group of clacks-crackers, sets up a plan to send a Discworld equivalent to a [[killer poke]] into the clacks system that will destroy the machinery, halting the message that Lipwig will race against. Lipwig talks the Gnu out of it, and opts for a more psychological attack on the Grand Trunk, leaving the semaphore towers standing. This plan succeeds.
-Gilt is soon arrested and finds himself in front of the Patrician, offered a similar choice to the one Moist faced in the beginning of the book: run the mint or exit the room. Gilt, however, ends up walking through the door to his death.
-'''<big>Characters</big>'''
-* Moist von Lipwig
-* Mr. Pump
-* Adora Belle Dearheart
-* Robert Dearheart
-* John Dearheart
-* Lord Vetinari
-* Tolliver Groat
-* Stanley Howler
-* Reacher Gilt
-==Themes==
-* Postal services
-* Government services
-* Corporate takeovers
-* Human rights activists
-* Collectors
-* Hackers
-* Currency valuation
-* Public relations (PR)
-* Redemption
-* Hope
-The post office building is modelled on New York's monumental [[James Farley Post Office]] Building, which carries the inscription from [[Herodotus]] "[[United States Postal Service creed|''Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.'']]"—in the novel this becomes "''NEITHER RAIN NOR SNOW NOR GLOM OF NIT CAN STAY THESE MESENGERS ABOT THEIR DUTY''" (some letters having been stolen).
 ==TV adaptation==
+[[Sky One]] produced a two-part television film, ''[[Terry Pratchett's Going Postal]]'', which aired on 30–31 May 2010.
+== Legacy ==
-[[Sky One]] produced a two-part television film, ''[[Terry Pratchett's Going Postal]]'', which aired on 30–31 May 2010.
+Based on a plot idea in this novel, after [[Terry Pratchett]]'s death some websites remember him via a special [[HTML]] header line.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.golem.de/news/gnu-terry-pratchett-eine-hommage-fuer-eingeweihte-an-den-scheibenwelt-erfinder-2308-176188.html|title=GNU Terry Pratchett: Eine Hommage für Eingeweihte an den Scheibenwelt-Erfinder - Golem.de|last=Kessler |first=Emanuel |language=de|access-date=2023-08-20|website=golem.de|date=2 April 2024}}</ref>
 ==References==
@@ Line 99: / Line 62: @@
 * [http://www.lspace.org/books/reviews/going-postal.html Information from L-Space.org]
 * [http://www.worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?ID=675 Going Postal] at Worlds Without End
-*{{IMDb title|id=1219817|title=Going Postal}}
+*{{IMDb title|qid=Q2447613|title=Going Postal}}
 {{s-start}}
 {{s-other|[[Discworld reading order|Reading order guide]]}}
 {{succession box | before = [[A Hat Full of Sky]] | title = 33rd [[Discworld#Novels|Discworld Novel]]  | years=  | after = [[Thud!]]}}
-{{succession box | before = ''None'' | title = 1st [[Discworld reading order#Moist von Lipwig Series|Moist von Lipwig story]]|years  = Published in 2004 | after = [[Making Money]]}}
+{{succession box | before = ''None'' | title = 1st [[Discworld reading order#Moist von Lipwig|Moist von Lipwig story]]|years  = Published in 2004 | after = [[Making Money]]}}
 {{s-end}}
 {{Discworld books}}
 {{Terry Pratchett}}
+{{Authority control}}
 [[Category:Discworld books]]
@@ Line 115: / Line 79: @@
 [[Category:British novels adapted into films]]
 [[Category:Doubleday (publisher) books]]
-[[Category:Works about postal system]]
+[[Category:Novels about con artists]]
+[[Category:Novels about postal systems]]
 [[Category:British comedy novels]]
-[[Category:Novels adapted into television programs]]
+[[Category:British novels adapted into television shows]]

v t e Terry Pratchett's Discworld
Novels	The Colour of Magic The Light Fantastic Equal Rites Mort Sourcery Wyrd Sisters Pyramids Guards! Guards! Eric Moving Pictures Reaper Man Witches Abroad Small Gods Lords and Ladies Men at Arms Soul Music Interesting Times Maskerade Feet of Clay Hogfather Jingo The Last Continent Carpe Jugulum The Fifth Elephant The Truth Thief of Time The Last Hero The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents Night Watch The Wee Free Men Monstrous Regiment A Hat Full of Sky Going Postal Thud! Wintersmith Making Money Unseen Academicals I Shall Wear Midnight Snuff Raising Steam The Shepherd's Crown
Short stories	"Troll Bridge" "Theatre of Cruelty" "The Sea and Little Fishes" "Death and What Comes Next" "A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices" A Blink of the Screen
Other books	The Discworld Companion The Science of Discworld The Science of Discworld II: The Globe The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day The Pratchett Portfolio The Art of Discworld The Unseen University Challenge The Wyrdest Link The Streets of Ankh-Morpork The Discworld Mapp A Tourist Guide to Lancre Death's Domain Nanny Ogg's Cookbook The Discworld Almanak Where's My Cow? The Unseen University Cut Out Book The Discworld Diaries Once More* with Footnotes The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld The Folklore of Discworld The World of Poo Tiffany Aching's Guide to Being a Witch
Games	The Colour of Magic Discworld MUD Discworld Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!? GURPS Discworld Discworld Noir Discworld: Ankh-Morpork
Films and TV series	Soul Music Wyrd Sisters Hogfather The Colour of Magic Going Postal The Watch The Amazing Maurice
Characters	Tiffany Aching Death Hex Moist von Lipwig Nanny Ogg Rincewind Susan Sto Helit Lord Vetinari Sam Vimes Granny Weatherwax
Races and creatures	Dwarfs Nac Mac Feegle
Locations	Discworld Ankh-Morpork
Organisations	City Watch Unseen University The Witches
Other	Boots theory Games of the Discworld Lie-to-children