The Fifth Elephant/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

* What was the point of the title ''The Fifth Elephant''? I know it was a reference to the dwarf fat mines that were possibly made by a long lost fifth elephant, but what did that have to do with the plot? It was more about bread and werewolves than anything. Was Pratchett just a big fan of ''[[The Fifth Element]]'' or what?

** The allusion to the obscenely profitable film probably didn't help matters, but in Uberwald "The Fifth Elephant" is also slang for "Something that is not what it seems", which pretty much references the entirety of the evil plot, as well as The Scone...

** Early on in the book, it's mentioned that the Fifth Elephant is a metaphor for "something that is not what it seems" and "something that, while unseen, controls events". Later, while going on his diplomatic missions, Vimes muses on how diplomacy is just "lying to a better class of people", and how people who only seem to hand out cucumber sandwiches have a lot of power. Near the end, when Albrecht confirms that the Scone is real and Sybil gets the fat from the king for a low price, Vimes realizes that this is the real diplomacy - "the whole thing was the Fifth Elephant". The Elephant is actually a metaphor for diplomacy, which is one of the more important themes of the book.

 

* Angua's father is repeatedly called (even once in this novel) Guye von Uberwald, but here, after one mention of his old name, he's called Ruston for the rest of the story. Is there some obscure nickname I'm missing here?

** Possibly nobles in Uberwald have a "coronation name" that they adopt when they inherit a title, that's separate from the personal name used in daily life by their families. Or it could be that "Guye" was his father's name too, so growing up he got into the habit of using his middle name (Ruston) to distinguish himself from his dad.

 

[[Category:Literature/Headscratchers]]

[[Category:Discworld]]