BS: crab bucket (Terry Pratchett)

Subject: BS: crab bucket (Terry Pratchett)
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Oct 19 - 03:46 PM

Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett,
I don't have access to a copy right now,
and my attempts to find the proper quote are meeting with failure.

So this thread appeals to the Mudcat for help.
Can't even pull it up online,
Google Books has the book but
it won't go to the proper page.

Can someone please reproduce the exact Pratchett quote
from Pepe to Glenda Sugarbean about the crab bucket?

Thanks, Mudcatters, I am in your debt.

Subject: RE: BS: crab bucket (Terry Pratchett)
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Oct 19 - 05:29 PM

Guess who responded --
Eliza / Senoufou.

However,
I'm going to let Mudcat members
go ahead and post the quote to this thread.

Thanks Senoufou!

Subject: RE: BS: crab bucket (Terry Pratchett)
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Oct 19 - 11:08 AM

Here goes:

"Oh, that's crabs for you ... thick as planks, the lot of them.
That's why you can keep them in a bucket without a lid.
Any that tries to get out gets pulled back."
[The speaker is Verity Pushpram,
and she is reiterating what Pepe said to Glenda Sugarbean
about the "crab bucket."]

Crab bucket, thought Glenda as they hurried towards the Night Kitchen.
People from the [neighbourhood] disapproving when a girl takes the trolley bus. That's crab bucket.
Practically everything my mum ever told me, that's crab bucket.
... The worst of it is, the crab that mostly keeps you down is you ...

-- page 298, Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett. London: Transworld Publishers.
Copyright Terry and Lyn Pratchett 2009.

Subject: RE: BS: crab bucket (Terry Pratchett)
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Oct 19 - 03:52 PM

Here is a webpage that spells it all out very diligently.

Are you in a bucket of crabs?

Subject: RE: BS: crab bucket (Terry Pratchett)
From: Helen
Date: 28 Oct 19 - 03:53 PM

Hi keberoxu, it's very sad when you have to answer your own question.

We have most of Pratchett's novels but I haven't read them all so I wouldn't have known where to start looking for the crab bucket quote without reading the whole book. I did look at the book (at 2 am this morning when I couldn't sleep) but it would have been a hard, sleepy slog trying to find those little words in a 400 page book.

However, having now read the quote it reminds me of what is known in Australia as Tall poppy syndrome
".

After a quick scan of that article I also found this:

"Usage in Britain

"Prior to becoming British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher explained her philosophy to an American audience as "let your poppies grow tall." [16][clarification needed]

"The quote was made in the United States for political purposes and any assertion that the United Kingdom itself has a culture of tall poppy syndrome in the crab mentality sense like Australia and New Zealand[17] has been disputed.[18]"

Subject: RE: BS: crab bucket (Terry Pratchett)
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Oct 19 - 04:03 PM

Yes, Helen, that particular Discworld book is one of the longest ones!
The plot has a lot of moving parts
and Terry Pratchett has quite a time juggling all of them in the air.

Maybe the page numbers are different in your edition ...

Subject: RE: BS: crab bucket (Terry Pratchett)
From: Helen
Date: 28 Oct 19 - 04:24 PM

Mine is a hardback edition with a largish print so more pages than the paperback I think.

Subject: RE: BS: crab bucket (Terry Pratchett)
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Oct 19 - 11:49 AM

It occurred to me,
when starting the thread on this subject,
that "crab bucket" is a good nutshell
in which to encapsulate
the behaviors and actions
which lead numerous Mudcatters, members and mods alike,
to despair,
especially when demonstrated
in posts in the B. S. section "below the line."

No need to name names, it's the behavior.
It's "crab bucket" behavior
to drag a thread down with a bad-smelling post.

Subject: RE: BS: crab bucket (Terry Pratchett)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 29 Oct 19 - 11:52 AM

Crab people crab people...

Subject: RE: BS: crab bucket (Terry Pratchett)
From: keberoxu
Date: 31 Oct 19 - 04:35 PM

... so when a BS thread gets one of those drag-down posts
we could holler
Crab Bucket
Crab Bucket ...