It is time for Terry Pratchet's First Book of Gender... or so Our Woke King tells us in a very rare author intro to Equal Rites. Esk, the thaumaturgy-exempt girl from the remote village of Bad Ass, is assigned wizard at birth, and she grows into a child bursting with magical potential. We are introduced to the fan-favorite Discworld's witches, and the first actual character Sir Terry wrote, as Granny Weatherwax tries to teach "woman magic" and eventually has to surrender to the reality that Esk is a wizard and becomes the Disk's most dedicated ally.  

We brace for a "wizard school book", only to find out not that much of it is about wizard school, or for that matter, gender. The trio argues about how much it is actually about class structure and conflict, how magic at some point becomes about academia and theoretical physics departments. Somehow Le Guin keeps being brought up, we explore the proper way to acknowledge the Endless Witch, and we find out the answer to the most important question: 

Our Woke King Terry Pratchett *IS* just the same type of communist as you are, listener.

Every month Anemone (xe/xem), Lhuzie (she/her) and Quinn (they/them) ask, "Was Terry Pratchett the same type of communist I am?". Every month a new book, every month wondering about its footprint in the culture and literature, how it holds up today, and just how many elephants it can hold on its back. 

Intro is Spacewolf by Matt Oakle, licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

Outro is Adventure, Darling by Gillicuddy licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International License.

Show art and assets by our very own Anemone, look for more of xem at AnemoneArt.