Last updated on 2014-09-08
As I mentioned in a previous post, I should have read Going Postal book before reading Making Money, because it gives some interesting background on the characters that appear in both of the stories, and reading Making Money before Going Postal does spoil some of the fun. But nonetheless, this is another EXCELLENT book by Terry Pratchett.
Both Making Money and Going Postal are an impressive parody about the monetary world and how most people are gullible and will transform lies given by others to truths in their head if they think the lie is to their advantage. And also of how people will pay lots of money to have something that only they have… do you collect stamps? why? what is their real value, other than that they can be used to send and receive mail? but still, you can see stamps bought and sold for thousands of dollars… and let’s not mention the amount of money paid for Elvis’ underwear and stuff like that. People are definitely not rational.
And now that I am reading in my kindle I am also highlighting the book! (I have never highlighted a real book because I think it damages it… and now I see that I have missed some fun, but well, I am also a non-rational human being just like everyone else). One great quote on a subject I wrote about previously:
In my experience, the best way to get something done is to give it to someone who is busy – Vetinari
But one of the end quotes summarizes it all (this can be a SPOIL so if you have not read the book, this may spoil a bit of the fun… but I think not much). After almost a full crash of the financial system of Ankh-Morpork:
It wasn’t until almost dawn that the somber men arrived. They were older and fatter and better – but not showily – dressed, and moved with the gravity of serious money. They were financiers too, richer than kings (who are often quite poor), but hardly anyone in the city outside their circle knew them or would notice them in the street. They spoke quietly to Cheeseborough as to one who’d suffered a bereavement, and then talked about themselves, and used little gold propelling pencils in neat little notebooks to make figures dance and jump through hoops. Then quiet agreement was reached and hands were shaken, which in this circle carried infinitely more weight than any written contract. The first domino had been steadied. The pillars of the world ceased to tremble. The credit bank would open in the morning, and when it did so bills would be honoured, wages would be paid, the city would be fed. They’d saved the city with gold more easily, at that point, than any hero could have managed with steel. But in truth it had not exactly been gold, or even the promise of gold, but more like the fantasy of gold, the fairy dream that the gold is there, at the end of the rainbow, and will continue to be there for ever provided, naturally, that you don’t go and look. This is known as Finance“
And as one who followed what happened in markets in 2007-2009, and continue to follow how the world’s economy is managed, Pratchett know how things are done in the real world.
So if you want to read this book, go ahead and buy it (thought this link) from amazon
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