Because you can't!" Lawn's training in Klatch meant that of all the doctors in Ankh-Morpork, his patients tended to get better rather than die. There, Bellow gives him three low-standard jobs: a prison guard, a sewer worker, and a wildlife relocator. The role also has similarities to Neo in the movie The Matrix as well as the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in which Obi-Wan Kenobi uses the force to deceive soldiers saying: "These aren't the droids you're looking for." Moist and Adora employ a disused Clack tower to intercept and successfully change the message from a biography to the content of Gilt's ledgers, providing evidence of the hired murders, which is witnessed in Ankh-Morpork. Lipwig learns that within the last couple of months, while he was waiting to die in his prison cell, a whole string of newly-appointed Postmasters have met their own deaths in the Post Office building. The irony is that the dogs are cross breeds so it is luck not some innate skill that stops them. Incredibly, Saunders made a full and complete recovery from Alzheimer's shortly after his court appearance, perhaps the only man in medical history to ever reverse the progress of this disease. He tries to weasel his way into Heaven by detailing his story to St. Peter, but is rejected, and sent to hell for his crimes. The real meaning of the word "gnu" refers to a species of large antelope. Miss Maccalariat's concern regarding dwarfs not identifying their sex and potentially using the "wrong privy" resonates with the debates happening in the Bible Belt of the USA in regard to transgender people using the "wrong bathroom". Only two staff remain: Tolliver Groat, an aged "Junior" Post Officer, and his assistant Stanley Howler. The Dude creates a cardboard beggar sign and must deal with much rudeness and snide remarks from the citizens of Edensin whilst begging for a job. To prove himself worthy of leadership, they additionally set several Lipwigzer dogs on him, but Moist knows how to control them, as he hails from the town of Lipwig where the dogs also originate and his grandfather breeds such dogs. The line was also referenced in Men at Arms. "Moist kept thinking of all the bad things that could happen without the semaphore" - This is the ultimate dilemma for hackers in both the Roundworld and Discworld. 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". During the Apocalypse, there is a sudden outbreak of violence and all people in Paradise are armed, fighting each other, and will immediately attack the Dude even if he isn't carrying a weapon. As Pratchett points out by using the natural compound containing arsenic, even poisons occur naturally but that doesn't mean they are necessarily good for the body. However it also refers to the 'infinite monkey theorem' which holds that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare. With nothing more than a bathrobe, his dog, and $50, the Dude decides that he needs a job to earn some money if he wishes to move forward. The Postal Dude riding a Thegway in Postal III. Pratchett is likely punning on Weimaraners or Rottweilers which are German breeds of dog that take their name from the Grand Duke of Weimar from the city of that name or the town of Rottweil respectively. Getting past the pineapple is explained earlier. The line has connotations of a more sinister nature though. When Moist visits the pin shop he walks into a world very reminiscent of any of the seedier establishments of an earlier Roundworld era, like an old style pornography store (before they vanished with the rise of pornography on the internet) with its rows of magazines which would be placed in a plain wrapper before leaving the store, the behind the counter products, age restrictions "not for children", the backroom peep shows and extra services for special guests, etc. If you place your forearms in front of your face one laid on top of the other and very slowly open them so that only your eyes are visible between them and then swivel your eyes from side to side you are demonstrating the mating call of the giant clam. The lines about the "ghosts of dead signallers haut(ing) the Trunk may be a reference to a short story by Charles Dickens called "The Signal-Man" which deals with a ghost trying to warn the signal man of impending death and disaster. Revelations Chapter 19:12 in the Bible also refers to the fiery eyes of god, "and his eyes were as a flame of fire" and in Egyptian mythology the sun god Ra has an eye of fire. The idea of a someone appearing to give the condemned man or woman a last minute reprieve has been done in many forms; the old folk song, The Maid Freed from the Gallows, which is recreated in various forms including Gallows Pole (done by Leadbelly and made famous by Led Zeppelin) and the fairy tale, The Golden Ball to name two. Moist von Lipwig is a con artist and a fraud and a man faced with a life choice: be hanged, or put Ankh-Morpork's ailing postal serviceback on its feet. Postal Service (and many other similarly affected organizations) re-evaluating employee work conditions and decreasing stress in the work place. Dashiell Hammett used it in his 1934 novel, The Thin Man. Now, I know what you're thinking: you're thinking, "Could she press it all the way through to the floor?" The Dude must find a way to get out of the factory via alternative ways. Read 3,154 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Mr. Pony says to the Board of the Grand Trunk, "you made me sack a lot of the craftsmen". Gilt, however, ends up walking through the door to his death. 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. After completing all the errands of Friday, the Paradise Times releases a special edition that announces the beginning of Apocalypse. [1], It is the third in a series of adaptations, following Terry Pratchett's Hogfather and Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic. Pratchett is probably simply using the common British expression. Moist begins by rehiring some of the old postmen, who initiate him by forcing him to do a treacherous blindfolded Postman's Walk. The Dude appears as calm and easy-going, but can be sociopathic and cynical when pushed to the edge. Lord Vetinari, who had arranged for Lipwig to only be hanged "to within half an inch" of his life, offers Moist a job as the new Postmaster General, or he can walk out the door and "never hear from me again". As well as making a clever stand-alone joke, the concept of the modesty-saving fig-leaf also having wings neatly pokes fun at the reason why fig-leaves went on public statuary in the first place. Just as the Postal Dude is cashing his check, a group of bank robbers arrives to commit a stick-up. When you split the word up into its components it is 'Von' (from) 'Alles' (everything) 'Vollkommen' (completely) 'unverständlich' (incomprehensible) 'das das' (the the {like a stammer of the article 'the'}) and 'keit' (an ending meaning 'ness') which roughly translates as "the state or condition of incomprehensibility of everything" This also presages the extensive employment of cod-German philosophy which defines Mr Nutt's character in Unseen Academicals. This and a video game-protest mob by the Parents for Decency began his second reign of terror. "You'd better come into the parlour" says Adora to Moist. The defending side comprises twelve soldiers and a king, who start the game in a cross formation in the center of the board. GOING POSTAL, Terry Pratchett's 33rd Discworld novel, is also the British Sky network's third screen adaptation and easily the most accessible of the three. Due to the events of Paradise Lost, the events of Postal III (regardless of the ending) have been retconned out of existence as nothing more than a dream of the Postal Dude's, with this version of the Postal Dude becoming a separate entity, known in the credits as "Alternate Postal Dude". 'Is it any good?' At that point he can choose to help the cops or the ecologists and the story progresses as you continue from there to a good, bad, or pacifist ending. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices, The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch, The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Going_Postal&oldid=968521174, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 19 July 2020, at 22:10. He's then given a call from Bellow, who's left Edensin, but has given the Dude more jobs through his associate across the border in Mexico. After that, the Postal Dude must get eight signatures for a petition to "make whiny congressmen play violent video games", which makes him deal with lots of rude civilians and prompts him to threaten them if they refuse to sign. In the Harper paperback: Miss Dearheart says, "You know how to pray, don't you? Postal Service employees who went on shooting spree at post offices, killing employees and bystanders. It was first broadcast on Sky One and Sky 1 HD, in two parts over the 30th and 31st of May 2010.