{"id":8310,"date":"2023-02-08T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T08:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/?p=8310"},"modified":"2023-01-03T19:41:21","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T19:41:21","slug":"hogfather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/hogfather\/","title":{"rendered":"Staff Picks: Terry Pratchett\u2019s Hogfather"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8321 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/12\/Hogfather-187x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"232\" height=\"372\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/12\/Hogfather-187x300.jpeg 187w, https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/12\/Hogfather.jpeg 312w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 232px) 100vw, 232px\" \/>How did you see the world when you were a kid? Did you paint pictures where the sky was bluer than blue and didn\u2019t meet the ground at the horizon? Did you believe in the Bogeyman, the Tooth Fairy, or Santa Claus? In Terry Pratchett\u2019s Discworld series, not only are these things real, but belief is, for them, a literal matter of life or death. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.terrypratchettbooks.com\/books\/the-hogfather\/\"><em>Hogfather<\/em><\/a>, the 20th book in the series (out of 41!) is all about this belief\u2013what it can do, and what happens when it goes away.<\/p>\n<p>The Hogfather is the Discworld\u2019s version of Santa Claus, a red-robed, jolly figure who travels around in a sleigh (pulled by pigs, not reindeer) and climbs down chimneys to deliver presents. He\u2019s a beloved holiday icon, believed by children all across the Discworld, and yet someone\u2013or rather, a group of powerful someones\u2013wants him dead. They hire the services of the Assassins\u2019 Guild, represented by the terrifying Mr. Teatime, to dispose of the Hogfather.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out that when you get rid of someone believed in so strongly by so many people, you upset the balance of belief in the world and odd things start to happen. Now that the Hogfather is gone, there is a bunch of extra belief floating around, and new entities take advantage of this surplus to take physical form. We meet the god of hangovers, a creature that eats pencils, and one that steals socks, among others. Then there are the old gods who must learn new tricks. It\u2019s Hogswatchnight, and someone needs to deliver the gifts. That someone is Death himself, and he has his own ideas about how the job should be done.<\/p>\n<p>Pratchett\u2019s characters and settings are delightfully fun, but the real magic of his work is in his sense of humor. In <em>Hogfather<\/em>, he pokes fun at aspects of the holiday season, and seems to be having fun doing so. The reader is treated to plenty of jabs at the commercialization of Hogswatch, a clear analogy for the consumerism of Christmas in our world. Some of Pratchett\u2019s commentary goes beyond comedy and is, in fact, rather poignant. He has Death, in the guise of the Hogfather, rescue <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Little_Match_Girl\">the Little Match Girl<\/a> from the sad fate prescribed for her in <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3vEYics\">Hans Christian Andersen\u2019s fairy tale<\/a>. THERE\u2019S NO BETTER PRESENT THAN A FUTURE, Death says (in his signature all-caps dialogue), when asked why he changed the narrative. As the temporary Hogfather, he is supposed to uphold the holiday\u2019s traditions, yet he never lets tradition get in the way of doing the right thing.<\/p>\n<p>Underpinning the whole of <em>Hogfather<\/em> is the importance of belief. In the Discworld, belief is a tangible force, as real and physically-felt as gravity. When something tampers with the balance of belief, the whole universe feels it. It\u2019s what makes the sun come up, after all. There is a scene towards the end of the book that spells this out beautifully. I won\u2019t spoil it, but I will say that, for an anthropomorphic personification of a natural force, Death has an excellent grasp of what it means to be human.<\/p>\n<p>According to the fan-made <a href=\"https:\/\/discworld.fandom.com\/wiki\/Main_Page\">Discworld Wiki,<\/a> Hogswatchnight falls on December 32. If you\u2019re looking for a festive read, now is the time to pick up <em>Hogfather<\/em>. You can also check out some of Pratchett\u2019s other novels <a href=\"https:\/\/rutgers.primo.exlibrisgroup.com\/discovery\/search?query=creator,contains,pratchett,%20terry,AND&amp;tab=Everything_except_research&amp;search_scope=MyInst_and_CI_2&amp;sortby=rank&amp;vid=01RUT_INST:01RUT&amp;lang=en&amp;mode=advanced&amp;offset=0\">at the Rutgers Libraries.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How did you see the world when you were a kid? Did you paint pictures where the sky was bluer than blue and didn\u2019t meet the ground at the horizon? &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/hogfather\/\" class=\"\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,32,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-little-free-library","category-rugrat","category-staff-picks"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Staff Picks: Terry Pratchett\u2019s Hogfather - Books We Read<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/hogfather\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Staff Picks: Terry Pratchett\u2019s Hogfather - Books We Read\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How did you see the world when you were a kid? Did you paint pictures where the sky was bluer than blue and didn\u2019t meet the ground at the horizon? &hellip; Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/hogfather\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Books We Read\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-08T08:00:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-03T19:41:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/12\/Hogfather-187x300.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kaitlyn Greenberg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kaitlyn Greenberg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/hogfather\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/hogfather\/\",\"name\":\"Staff Picks: Terry Pratchett\u2019s Hogfather - Books We Read\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/hogfather\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/hogfather\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/12\/Hogfather-187x300.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-08T08:00:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-03T19:41:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/#\/schema\/person\/cc3c3abd5918337bc2306c4637258038\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/hogfather\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/hogfather\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/hogfather\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/12\/Hogfather.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/248\/2022\/12\/Hogfather.jpeg\",\"width\":312,\"height\":500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/hogfather\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Staff Picks: Terry Pratchett\u2019s Hogfather\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/\",\"name\":\"Books We Read\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/#\/schema\/person\/cc3c3abd5918337bc2306c4637258038\",\"name\":\"Kaitlyn Greenberg\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ebe5aae4a52fa3cb213c5dac12f0c77d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ebe5aae4a52fa3cb213c5dac12f0c77d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kaitlyn Greenberg\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/author\/kg498\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Staff Picks: Terry Pratchett\u2019s Hogfather - Books We Read","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/books-we-read\/hogfather\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Staff Picks: Terry Pratchett\u2019s Hogfather - Books We Read","og_description":"How did you see the world when you were a kid? 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