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Gnu Terry Pratchett - Blog Posts
GNU Terry Pratchett
GNU Terry Prachett
GNU Terry Pratchett
GNU Terry Pratchett
GNU Terry Prachett
GNU Terry Pratchett
The way slurs are censored in Disco Elysium reminds me of this gem from Mort.
The Shepherd's Crown, Lords and Ladies, and Don't Be Afraid, Just Start The Tape.
I have been trying to remember what Armand's death monologue was reminding me of and it's the elves in the Discworld.
I was in the mood for tomfoolery...
GNU Sir Terry Pratchett
28 April 1948 - 12 March 2015
G: Send the message on to the next Clacks Tower.
N: Do not log the message.
U: At the end of the line, return the message.
“A man’s not dead while his name is still spoken.” ~ Going Postal
Ponytail Vetinari. Is that a thing?
So back in the day on my old blog I made this sci-fi Discworld witches AU, here's Witches Abroad in the same setting
Honestly, same.
reading terry prattchet is so crazy, cause you'll be reading about a character called something like plinko plonko and their zany exploits, and then he'll just drop a paragraph that goes so insanely hard like -
and then I just have to stare at the wall for a bit.
Reading a Terry Pratchett book is literally just: Here's a funny little joke Here's something that you can tell is a joke but don't get and will only figure out five years later Here's a surprisingly cool fantasy concept Here's a unique and well written simile Here's a lil guy Here's something that has aged depressingly well into the modern day Here's something that has aged remarkably queer into the modern day Here's a character that you can barely understand what he's saying Here is the most terrifying and deeply disturbing concept you have ever heard, casually mentioned Here is the dumbest fucking pun you've ever heard but in the best way Here is a quote so profound that it makes you view morality and the world in a different way Here is a plot twist that you can't tell if it's genius or stupid Congratulations! You've finished the book! It has fundamentally changed you as a person and you will never be the same!
For evidence that Terry Pratchett understood humanity on a deep and fundamental level, look no further than the breed history of Dalmatians, because that shit is straight out of Discworld.
Esmerelda Weatherwax is literature's greatest Witch. And it is not even a little close.
What other Witch could so shrewdly bend the very story she was in to her will? To take the tropes and clichés and to weaponize them against those who were wrong in defense of those who could not defend themselves?
What other Witch, when faced with the Good Fairy Godmother, would rip the story from her very fingers and set things to right?
What other Witch, under vampiric assault, could turn the famous bite around and, instead of becoming a vampire herself, through force of sheer will Weatherwax the vampire? What does that even mean?
What other Witch could give a child a gift so powerful it would override narrative convention and let the long lost prince refuse to take his rightful crown in favor of pursuing his dreams?
Indeed, what other Witch would resist the crown when it fell into her lap?
There have been untold millions of Witches in literature, but not a one of them could sit demurely at a social gathering, doing absolutely nothing, and drive everyone around her to near insanity through sheer nervousness?
No one else could be so proficient at both Magic and People that she would barely need or want to use the former because of how effective and predictable the latter could be.
And all of this, ALL of this, while going against her own narrative nature as 'The Bad Witch'. To resist your own role in the story so completely that you transcend expectations and settle into legend as one of the ultimate forces of righteousness on the Disc? That requires more power, more cunning, and more skill than any, every other Witch. Combined.
And she did it by knowing people. By watching them and knowing things and by understanding, better than their own mothers, how to talk to everyone and precisely pass along knowledge. How to command respect, even if they don't like you very much. How to be indispensable, while dispensing with the pleasantries.
She didn't do it alone, but she wouldn't admit that within earshot of Gytha or any of her numerous brood (So, she would never admit it). She benefitted by her associations with Nanny Ogg, with Magrat, with Agnes, with Tiffany, with Ridcully (allegedly), and even with Death.
Who else would earn time for her candle to flicker in the wind, and a warning by the Grim Reaper himself, for the right she had done in the world.
Right. Not good. Not nice. Right.
She was the vessel Pratchett poured his every indignant thought at the inherent injustice in the world into, and she brandished those white hot notions against every part of the stories that tried to make her into something she did not want to be.
Esmerelda Weatherwax is literature's greatest Witch. What more could possibly be said?
Today would have been his 77th birthday, so
Hogfather A’tuin Pyramids Ponder Ynci’s helmet
Brutha Igor Rincewind Thud! Hex Death Ankh-Morpork Yeti
Terry Pratchett!
Do you guys ever think about how Vetinari believes that all people are inherently evil, but then he does things like:
Giving people others would deem irredeemable second chances (Lipwig, the other thief too, he even regretted the death of Lupine Wonse, the guy who summoned a dragon and tried to kill him); spends time with ppl who see only the good in everything (Carrot, Leonard); treats and values ppl like individuals and actually cares about them (that scene in Jingo where he tells Vimes that it’s good that people didn’t get killed in the war).
So I thought,
What if he doesn’t want to believe that everyone is evil. What if he had arrived to that conclusion just from his actual life experience with the assassins and guild leaders, because that’s all he had seen other people do. But he tries to spend time with good people and give criminals second chances because he wants to be proven wrong. To be proven that his philosophy is actually wrong and “there is some good in the world and it’s worth fighting for.”
Damn, I love Death’s facial expressions here… Even he didn’t want it to happen…
My very delayed response to Terry Pratchett’s death a few weeks back. Not going to lie, it wrecked me. I wanted to make something right away but had no idea what would be appropriate, and kept running out of free time.
I feel like everything I have to say about him and his work and world has already been said a million times over, I don’t have a lot to add to it. I’ve yet to read all of Discworld, and at this point I’m probably going to purposely drag my feet just to delay the end as long as possible. GNU Terry Pratchett
10 years on...
This photo is so him. He was my author. He was my friend. Like all of you, I miss him everyday. Thank you for keeping the ripples going.
Pros and cons of being in the Discworld fandom
Pros:
Discworld is amazing
It’s like Tolkien but modern
You will chuckle so hard you’ll have to have to have little breaks to breathe
Small fandom so it’s easy to make friends & discuss things
Really awesome if you like series because there are 40 books
But there are actually 5+ series within that & several stand alone books so you don’t have to read all of them (although by the time you finish one series you might want to read all the rest)
The world is flat & sits on four elephants who are for some reason standing on a giant turtle and I don’t think anyone is really sure why
Easy to find a cool Discworld-related url
Range of female characters (so you know the Joss Whedon Marvel/Steven Moffat syndrome of all the main females being kickass, skinny, kickass, perfect in everyway, kickass & pretty much the same character? that syndrome is stomped into the ground, cut up into tiny pieces & mocked)
Canon lesbian characters
Some super cute tv adaptions with cameos from sir pterry himself
Deep shit reflecting on life the universe and everything, the rise and fall of political systems, the power of words, the prevalence of evil, the nature of humankind, human relationships and beliefs, and so, so much more
Super silly bits where you’re like ye gods pratchett did you really just make that pun
Ships ranging from teenage fluff to middle-aged fluff to damn hot af
Characters who oppose their society’s gender binary & nice friendly badass werewolf woman lends them dresses
Badass moments which make your insides do hoola hoops
The fucking puns
Really awesome large characters who either just don’t give a flying fuck or have to deal with fat shaming and prove that they are infinitely better, kinder, cleverer people than the fat shamers and often use their size to help them as they save lives/fight evil etc.
There’s this book called Monstrous Regiment and it’s basically 400 pages of fucking up sexism, xenophobia and gender binary
There’s a character named Adora Belle Dearheart and her partner (to clarify: she’s not his wife, he’s her husband) is called Moist what more do you want
A Christmas/winter festival book which will leave you warm and happy and philosophically questioning
Do you like funny footnotes?? So many funny footnotes
Characters getting over & challenging internalised prejudices & beliefs
Destruction of racial stereotypes
Characters call even the protagonist out on their assumption of roles which fit a white supremic system
Really good model of police/civilian relationship where the commander of police force fundamentally does not agree with the police/civilian model because “what was a policeman, if not a civilian with a uniform and a badge? once policemen stopped being civilians, the only other thing they could be was soldiers.” - or put more simply “a watchman is a civilian, you inbred streak of piss”
young teenage witches coming to terms with their own strength & power, middle-aged witches who write cooking sex books and are as kind as can be, old witches who are canonically ace/aro spectrum and never regret that for a moment and just so fucking smart
so many witches
and there are wizards, and female wizards too
Death is a character and he’s adorable and he really really likes cats and he has a granddaughter who looks after children and hits monsters with pokers and has amazing hair
Super talented fandom who do art and fics which break your heart
Very good realistic characters and protagonists which are far from perfect aka recovering alcoholic picked up out the gutter by a (6 foot) dwarf and a woman who is large and kind but perfectly capable of looking after herself and the recovering alcoholic and a garden full of swamp dragons - and the old witch? she is only a goodie because everyone else is too busy being bad - and there’s an ex con artist who spent his life ruining others’ bc he found it fun and is only now a ‘goodie’ because he’s being blackmailed - and the person in charge is a tyrant but he’s really a very reasonable one - and there’s a guy who literally just runs away from things the entire time I’m not even exaggerating that’s like the entire plot of his books he just runs away from things
Have I mentioned the puns
Cons:
There are no cons
Discworld is amazing
I will lend you the books
I like how in Night Watch Vimes has to face his younger self and has the universal experience of cringing at his younger self but realizes you need to start somewhere. You start out naive and ignorant then life bites you in the ass and you learn, unless you're Vetinari then you've always been cool.
The Auditors: We just need everyone to stop moving so we can get on with the paperwork! How are we meant to get the filing done when humans are running around all the time causing fresh chaos?
Rufus Drumknott: Skill issue.
— Theatre
— Rainbows
— Cool scientific experiments
— Butterflies
— Bees
— Tricks and illusions
— Photography
— Musical instruments
— Corvids
— Artistic makeup
— Dogs
— Friendship
"magic doesn't stop being magic just because you know how it works."
-Dreams
-Shooting stars
-music
-stories
-poetry
-Salmon runs
-waterfalls
-house cats
-Aurora borealis
-oil paintings
Conclusion: someone at the UU ships toxic yaoi. Probably the Senior Wrangler.
(From what we know about wizards, any possible couple that might find themselves under mistletoe will inevitably be toxic)
"Tell me, Senior Wrangler, we never invited any women to the Hogswatchnight Feast, did we?"
"Of course not, Archchancellor," said the Senior Wrangler. He looked up in the dust-covered rafters, wondering what had caught Ridcully's eye. "Good heavens, no, they'd spoil everything, I've always said so."
"So why, every year, do we hang a damn great bunch of mistletoe up there?"
"well, er... it's... well, it's... it's symbolic, Archchancellor."
(scenes from Hogfather feat. the Senior Wrangler NOT beating the allegations)
This is exactly why I keep telling people:
Read. Terry. Pratchett. Books.
And if you already have… well, reread them after a good while to have a new understanding of them.
Reading a Terry Pratchett book is literally just: Here's a funny little joke Here's something that you can tell is a joke but don't get and will only figure out five years later Here's a surprisingly cool fantasy concept Here's a unique and well written simile Here's a lil guy Here's something that has aged depressingly well into the modern day Here's something that has aged remarkably queer into the modern day Here's a character that you can barely understand what he's saying Here is the most terrifying and deeply disturbing concept you have ever heard, casually mentioned Here is the dumbest fucking pun you've ever heard but in the best way Here is a quote so profound that it makes you view morality and the world in a different way Here is a plot twist that you can't tell if it's genius or stupid Congratulations! You've finished the book! It has fundamentally changed you as a person and you will never be the same!
the only reason I remember the formula for the volume of a cone is that Susan Sto Helit used it to count baby teeth in a big pile in Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather