Something Wicked Didn't Come

Wyrd Systers isn't one of Pratchett's greatest feats, but it might have been. It seems all the ingredients are there. The story tries taking in the world of theater and political influence, Shakespearian drama en large and Macbeth in detail – materials that should have been quite enough for Pratchett's talent for parody. He even lays out the foundations drawing from Macbeth – politics are a play, specifically a play the conclusion of which should be legitimacy. And yet, the symbolic web Pratchett so successfully weaves in later Discworld novels (Interesting Times, Small Gods, The Truth, Going Postal) and the deep parody that shines in his best are not really there. The Shakespearian drama is swept aside with a few "Diverse Alarums" and Exeunts , the fight for political power remains much too theatrical and many plotlines just tumble off the table. It might be that the attempt at writing a parody for a specific corpus, instead of focusing on more general narratives and institutions as in The Asian Monastery, The Press, Who Done It Story or the narrative of the Lost King – does not play to Pratchett's strengths. This is also evident in Maskerade. When Pratchett focuses on stylistics the larger scope is lost. The plus side - now I have all of Shakespeare's plays on my Sony Reader.

Poor Dad, Mormon Dad

My aversion of self-help books was abated more and more as I read the first few chapters of 7 Habits. Covey has indeed written a self-help book, but he has done so more as a Mormon preacher and less as a BS professor. While I have very little patience for the latter, the first succeeds at least in capturing my interest.

The banality, verbosity, and utter seriousness which would have made me throw away a tread-of-the-mill self-help book actually fit into place quite nicely once the book is viewed as a sermon. Other features – the complex-graphics-no-data-added (couldn't help the notion that something was wrong with the perspective) and the recurring references to Covey's extensive range of merchandise are a sharp reminder of what this book is, and that as a self-help book it probably worked best for Covey himself.

The principles described in 7 Habits, while very much universal – a good equivalent would be the Chinese Da Xue – are a perfect fit for Mormonism. You have here a blend of good old fashioned values, importance of family, Memento Mori and self-determinsm. It should be noted that the outcome is much more sobre and in touch with actual real world situations than can be expected.

After the preliminary chapters the book settles into three phases, alternating between them quite freely. Classic Self-Help chapters that have the copyright sign written all over them if not in letter at least in spirit ("I suggest that in an interdependent situation, every P problem is a PC opportunity – a chance to build the Emotional Bank Accounts that significantly affect interdependent production") are followed by sermon bits, and these are sometimes replaced with quite penetrating bits summarizing in a rigorous fashion large amounts of BS texts and Success Books.

Page 296 and the preceding few pages contain a few of the book's more lucid parts: 1. If you want to be effective don't watch too much TV; 2. If you want to keep an open mind (mental fitness) read great books. However, Covey ends up saying that you should try to keep physically, mentally, socially and spiritually fit, on a daily basis - spending an hour a day. Given that the Great Spaghetti Monster appreciates short prayers (spiritual fitness), and even neglecting to hit the showers after a workout (physical fitness) that leaves about ten minutes for reading (mental fitness), and Covey wants us to aspire to one book a week. Unless he makes Dr. Seuss a part of his Pantheon of "quality literature" that is not likely. The discrepancy might be explained by his examples of "quality literature" – "Great books, the Harvard Classics, autobiographies, National Geographic".

On the upside, as with almost every self-help book, 7 Habits, by way of bringing up the subject, can help the reader spend a little time thinking about his long term goals and strategies. Up until now, for me, it came down to putting a few cardboxes in the storage room. It also reminded me what a nice ornament "The Book of Mormon" will make in my library. An afterthought: I think Lock's character in Lost might be based on Covey.