The Terry Pratchett Thread

[3point14]

And funnily enough it was those books that put me off being an avid reader. After I read Equal Rites - which I loved - I gathered every book I could as they appeared, and I think it scunnered me. I do still read the occasional book and enjoy it, but I didn't feel that his very busy period produced invariably great work. Having said that, some of his books are amongst my very favourites, and I do enjoy reading 'em. Favourite: Good Omens, I think. Clever, funny stuff. Reaper Man stands out for me. I also enjoyed Truckers/Diggers/Wings. But Moving Pictures et al left me cold.



Mostly, it seems.

I've never read beyond Truckers, must get around to it one day.

The central concept of 'Strata' is superb, if you haven't read it, do. It'll only take you a day or so.

 

[SusanB-M1]

Well here's lots of things that it could be, maybe, parhaps, is or is not.

Thank you for the details. Great A'Tuin is an interesting one too. I used to try making anagrams from it and looked for extra meanings ... but gave up years ago.

You have a slight doubt that it was him, or a slight doubt that he's an atheist?

Neither - I just did not want to mis-quote him. Thank you for the item. Actually, now I think of it, he is a distinguished supporter of the BHA and I've just checked.

Mostly, it seems.

Thank you for link.

I have of course ordered the 'Making Money'. Reading them on the CCTV makes me read them slowly, which is a good thing as I enjoy them more.

 

[Lothian]

I have read all the (paperback) discworld books & some of the kids ones.
Also read a serious book; Strata (?) but didn’t like it.

 

[bjornart]

Well, I read through this thread, didn't I? And half my speech when I was best-man was from Nanny Ogg's Cookbook.

And I've read these.

 

[Meri]

Well, I'm a little late arriving at this thread (that's what I get for not checking in at the forum for the past few days), but I just wanted to say that I'm a huge Discworld fan. Not only are they great, funny, entertaining books, but I'm always amazed by how real and complex the Discworld feels. My favorite characters are Moist von Lipwig (New Moist book next month!), Havelock Vetinari, Angua, and Mightily Oats. Carpe Jungulum(sp?) was my favorite witches book because of Oats. Going Postal is my favorite book overall, and other favorites are Night Watch, Small Gods, and Interesting Times.

In fact, I'm re-reading Going Postal right now, for what has to be the fifth or sixth time, at least.

 

[Hawk one]

Meri, if you're female, I'd like to propose to you for such a marvellous display of good Pratchett taste.

Edited to add: Actually, I'm also rereading Going Postal for the 5th or 6th time...

 

[Meri]

Meri, if you're female, I'd like to propose to you for such a marvellous display of good Pratchett taste.

Edited to add: Actually, I'm also rereading Going Postal for the 5th or 6th time...

As a matter of fact, I am female (You'd think the pink cartoon cat avatar would give it away, but apparently not )

Also, now that I've taken the time to read through the thread, I have a few more things to add:

The first Discworld book I read was Reaper Man, followed by Witches Abroad. I had heard about Discworlds books on the Internet and bought those two at random. This was right before Night Watch came out (the books had a preview in the back, is how I remember), and it took me about a year to catch up and have every book read (except for Science of Discworld, which took longer because I had trouble finding them in the US).

I know a lot of people don't like the newer books as much, but personally I think that, as a whole, the books have been getting better the longer Pratchett writes them. I just wish Oats would show up again.

And finally, someone said they thought Carrot might die soon. I wouldn't mind at all, as for some reason I have never liked Carrot. There might even be a hint of what could happen to Carrot in one of the books. I'm pretty sure it's in The Fifth Elephant towards the end (All of my books except Going Postal are packed right now, so I can't check this). Vimes, who as we all know hates kings, is looking at Carrot and thinking about how powerful his charisma is and the quote is something like "he wondered, for the first time consciously, if he might one day have to stand in it's way".

 

[Pipirr]

Thanks to whoever it was that mentioned the Hogfather TV adaptation. Just watched it, very nice

Excellent Susan. Like a sophisticated, intelligent and skeptical Kiera Knightly. With a poker!

 

[Hawk one]

As a matter of fact, I am female (You'd think the pink cartoon cat avatar would give it away, but apparently not )

Experience has taught me not to judge a book by its cover...

And I don't like this modernisation of Ankh-Morpork, and the fact that VIRTUALLY NO ONE has names that couldn't pass as real names in the real world. They are all Mr. Jones and Mrs. Henderson and so on. At most, we get a Mr. Pin, but that's not as fanciful as the names used to be.

Well, I was wondering a bit about this one, and as I started re-reading Going Postal, I think that this claim is pretty much wrong. Here, let's go through a list of the new characters in that book, big and small (restricted to human characters living in the modern era, mostly appearing in the order they are presented throughout the book.):

Moist von Lipwig (Also known as Albert Spangler, Edwin Streep, Mundo Smith, Mr. Robinson)
Mr. Wilkinson
Daniel "one drop" Trooper
Tolliver Groat
Stanley
Adora Belle Dearheart
John Dearheart
Chief Postal Inspector Rumbelow
Antimony Parker
Agnathea
Dave (pin shop owner)
J. Lanugo Owlsbury
Mrs. Goodbody
Mad Al Carlton, Sane Alex Winton, and Undecided Adrian Emery
Mr. Greenyham
Mr. Nutmeg
Crispin Horsefry
Mr. Stowley
Reacher Gilt (also known as Randolph Stippler)
Clerk Brian
Mr. Whobblebury
Mr. Mutable
Mr. Ignavia
Hugo
Sadie
Frederick
Princess/Alice
Roger
Granddad
Sir Davie Thrills (of the manor Mixed Blessings)
C. Clarke and Mrs. Clarke
George Aggy
Postman Thompson
Postman Bates
Jimmy Tropes
Postmaster Cowerby
Teemer and Spools
Professor Ladislav Pelc
F.G. Smallfinger
Professor Goitre
Mayor Joe Camels
Miss Maccalariat
Jim "Still Standing" Upwright
Harold "the Hog" Boots
Little Jim "Leadpipe" Upwright
Harry "Slugger" Upwright
Bob
Oyster Dave
Gravy
Mucky Mick
Crispo
Robert Dearheart
Humphrey the harmonica player
Deacon Jones
Mrs. Edith Leakall
Miss Extremelia Mume
George Pony
Devious "Dragonbreath" Collabone, student, doctor, and professor
Mrs. Glowbury
Nosher Harry
Skullbreaker Tash
Grievous Bodily Harmsworth
Joe "No Nose" Tozer
Mr. Cheeseborough? (I think I've seen the name before, but I'm not entirely sure where...)
Big Steve-Oh


I think that should cover most of the new names in Going Postal. And as far as I can tell, there's a pretty neat mix of real names, unreal names, and names that might be real, but may be not, and names that are real, but still quite colourful, and not the least names you'd certainly hate to learn find out were real, if only out of pity for the poor child stuck with it (such as Whobblebury). If you can't find anything fanciful here, I suggest you haven't really looked.

 

[Kotatsu]

And finally, someone said they thought Carrot might die soon. I wouldn't mind at all, as for some reason I have never liked Carrot. There might even be a hint of what could happen to Carrot in one of the books. I'm pretty sure it's in The Fifth Elephant towards the end (All of my books except Going Postal are packed right now, so I can't check this). Vimes, who as we all know hates kings, is looking at Carrot and thinking about how powerful his charisma is and the quote is something like "he wondered, for the first time consciously, if he might one day have to stand in it's way".

Having Vimes fighting Carrot to prevent him being crowned king of Ankh-Morpork or something would be a very interesting development. The best outcome, to me, would be if Vimes died in that struggle (somehow; perhaps killed by an outraged mob wanting a king?) whereupon Carrot would somehow be denied the throne anyway (I am thinking Vetinari would have something to do with this), and things return to normal, but a street or a square or something is named after Vimes.

I really think Vimes has reached a place where he should just be allowed to end and see what happens with the Watch and everything without him.

I think that should cover most of the new names in Going Postal. And as far as I can tell, there's a pretty neat mix of real names, unreal names, and names that might be real, but may be not, and names that are real, but still quite colourful, and not the least names you'd certainly hate to learn find out were real, if only out of pity for the poor child stuck with it (such as Whobblebury). If you can't find anything fanciful here, I suggest you haven't really looked.

Clobber me with facts, will you? Well, I will admit that I haven't actually kept count on who is called what, but that my statement was more of a generalisation based on a general impression that these days, most people on the Discworld --- or at least in Ankh-Morpork --- seem to have both a first name and a surname, and that a lot of those are names like Dave and Anne and so on. It seems to me that the percentage of genuine fantasy names is different now from what it was before.

But mainly I jut whine because I just haven't fallen for any of the newer books (except Night Watch which was brilliant).

 

[Hawk one]

Clobber me with facts, will you?

What, you want me to clobber you with a club instead?

 

[Kotatsu]

What, you want me to clobber you with a club instead?

[derail]
I was suddenly uncertain (English isn't my first language) if I had used the correct word and checked "clobber" in the built-in dictionary of my MacBook, and it seems that one meaning is:

clobber 2 |ˌklɒbə| verb [ trans. ] add enameled decoration to (porcelain).

I had no idea!
[/derail]

To answer your question:
I would prefer to have a clobber-free week this week, if it's all the same to you. Get back to me next week and I may have some need for clobbering. Though I do believe that even next week, I would prefer clobbering with facts.

 

[Hawk one]

[derail]
I was suddenly uncertain (English isn't my first language) if I had used the correct word and checked "clobber" in the built-in dictionary of my MacBook, and it seems that one meaning is:

clobber 2 |ˌklɒbə| verb [ trans. ] add enameled decoration to (porcelain).

I had no idea!
[/derail]

To answer your question:
I would prefer to have a clobber-free week this week, if it's all the same to you. Get back to me next week and I may have some need for clobbering. Though I do believe that even next week, I would prefer clobbering with facts.

Well, that's certainly interesting. I'll see if I can clobber some of your porcelain next week, then.

Seriously, though, I'll try not to act like someone obsessed with all the facts about Pratchett. At least not as much as this time.

 

[Meri]

Having Vimes fighting Carrot to prevent him being crowned king of Ankh-Morpork or something would be a very interesting development. The best outcome, to me, would be if Vimes died in that struggle (somehow; perhaps killed by an outraged mob wanting a king?) whereupon Carrot would somehow be denied the throne anyway (I am thinking Vetinari would have something to do with this), and things return to normal, but a street or a square or something is named after Vimes.

I really think Vimes has reached a place where he should just be allowed to end and see what happens with the Watch and everything without him.

No, no, no, Carrot has to die in our hypothetical Carrot/Vimes battle. The reasons are many:

1. I like Vimes better than I like Carrot. If Vimes dies, Carrot becomes Commander, and I don't want that much Carrot in my Discworld books.

2. If Vimes dies, there will be no more Vimes/Vetinari scenes, which are always wonderful.

3. It would be interesting to see what Angua does if Carrot dies, since he's the main reason she stays in Ankh-Morpork.

4. And finally, I really doubt Vetinari would allow Carrot to live if he became powerful enough to threaten Vetinari. If Carrot actually wanted to be king, odds are good that Vetinari would decide he was no longer useful enough to keep around.

 

[NobbyNobbs]

Actually, I think my favorite character is one you never meet....B.S. Johnson. I can't wait to see what new and idiotically revolutionary inventions he's going to come up with!

 

[Hawk one]

B.S. Johnson is certainly one of the better running gags. I love his "new Pie".

So Meri, when are we going to get married?

 

[Meri]

Actually, I think my favorite character is one you never meet....B.S. Johnson. I can't wait to see what new and idiotically revolutionary inventions he's going to come up with!

I like seeing B.S Johnson's inventions in the books, but I always wondering how long ago he lived. Sybil's grandfather shot him, he was in Uberwald building organs for vampires who knows how ago, he designed the gardens of the palace as well as a few things in the University and it looks like he was in the post office no more than 50 years or so ago. As you can see, I've thought about this a bit too much.

So Meri, when are we going to get married?

Well, in honor of this thread, I say we went until Vimes has defeated Carrot.

 

[Kotatsu]

Well, that's certainly interesting. I'll see if I can clobber some of your porcelain next week, then.

Sorry, I believe I'm washing my hair next week. I'll get back to you when I have some free time in which to watch my porcelain get clobbered.

Seriously, though, I'll try not to act like someone obsessed with all the facts about Pratchett. At least not as much as this time.

It's good you did, though. Maybe it'll make me re-evaluate the newer books. Apart from Night Watch, I haven't actually reread many of the books after Carpe Jugulum, and maybe I will now. Perhaps I'll even like one or two.

No, no, no, Carrot has to die in our hypothetical Carrot/Vimes battle. The reasons are many:

1. I like Vimes better than I like Carrot. If Vimes dies, Carrot becomes Commander, and I don't want that much Carrot in my Discworld books.

2. If Vimes dies, there will be no more Vimes/Vetinari scenes, which are always wonderful.

3. It would be interesting to see what Angua does if Carrot dies, since he's the main reason she stays in Ankh-Morpork.

4. And finally, I really doubt Vetinari would allow Carrot to live if he became powerful enough to threaten Vetinari. If Carrot actually wanted to be king, odds are good that Vetinari would decide he was no longer useful enough to keep around.

I believe I could go with them both dying, or at least Vimes dying and Carrot disappearing somehow (which could give rise to all manners of CT goodness, if Pratchett plays his cards well...). As I said before, there's nothing much more to do with Vimes. He can't rise much higher in society, and I believe he's sort of run his course.

While I agree that it would be very interesting to see what happens to, e.g., Angua with Carrot gone --- indeed, what would happen to the whole Watch --- I contend that an equally interesting continuation of the Watch series would be what would happen with Vimes gone, too. I feel that Vimes has a greater impact on the city in later books, while Carrot has been sinking into the background a bit (at least compared to how prominent he was both in the Watch and in the city in earlier books).

Vimes' disappearance, I believe, would, while depriving us from his discussions with Vetinari (which I admit are often fun), give a whole new political situation for many groups in Ankh-Morpork, in ways that the disappearance of Carrot would not. Would someone else be able to fill Vimes' shoes as Commander, or would the Watch become dominated by, say, the Guilds or something?

However, I will agree that I would dislike Carrot as Commander. Maybe a new character? This would, however, more or less require that both Carrot and Vimes die.

 

[Kotatsu]

I like seeing B.S Johnson's inventions in the books, but I always wondering how long ago he lived. Sybil's grandfather shot him, he was in Uberwald building organs for vampires who knows how ago, he designed the gardens of the palace as well as a few things in the University and it looks like he was in the post office no more than 50 years or so ago. As you can see, I've thought about this a bit too much.

I don't remember where, but isn't there a timeline project somewhere? Maybe this could clear it up or, failing that, at least give you some perspective on exactly how obsessed people can get with a series of books.

But your thinking is interesting. I've never thought about that before.

EDIT:
Here it is:
http://www.lspace.org/books/timeline/dw-timeline-intro.html
Using the "Find on this page" function, it seems B. S. Johnson isn't mentioned, though.

 

[Yllanes]

As I said before, there's nothing much more to do with Vimes. He can't rise much higher in society, and I believe he's sort of run his course.

I disagree. Vetinari can't rise much higher either and I haven't seen anyone who doesn't find him interesting. I concede that it seems difficult to think of new stories with him as the protagonist, but that's the job of the author. In any case, Vimes now works perfectly as a background character.

The main thing I would like to see is for Ankh Morpork to get to the technological point of the Industrial Revolution (i.e. steam engine). In particular, I want to see a railroad. Pratchett has said that he believes a railroad in a fantasy world is possible, but difficult, because it has so many repercussions. But if anyone can pull it off, he can. Spoiler for Thud!:

Of course, by now Ankh Morpork probably has an underground system, but that's not the same thing (for one, it's magical).