For the longest time I doubted that any book series would ever be as important to me as Tolkien’s legendarium. Then I discovered the Discworld in my high school library. At first I didn’t love it. Rincewind’s and Twoflower’s adventures in The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic were funny and entertaining but didn’t threaten to overthrow any of my established favourites. I liked them enough to keep reading though and after a few more books I was addicted, picking up gaps in my collection at charity shops and market stalls and Waterstones whenever I could.
The humour is great, yes. Pratchett’s puns and his dry wit are exactly my cup of tea. But there’s so much more to them than that. They’re wonderfully written. I have never once been bored or found myself wanting to skip pages when reading a Discworld book. His characters are some of the most complex and memorable I’ve come across. And, as a lot of other people have pointed out (including Neil Gaiman), there’s this very constructive sense of anger throughout that I’ve not seen anywhere see. It’s not hectoring or nihilistic at all, however. Through Discworld Pratchett looks at and calls out the ugliness in our own world but says that we, as human beings, are capable of doing better. It’s hopeful without being naïve.
Night Watch (which is where the glorious 25th of May comes from, in case anyone reading this isn’t aware) is one of the darker Discworld novels. It’s set earlier in the timeline than most of them, in an Ankh-Morpork under the rule of a sadistic tyrant, and while there are points of familiarity to me it felt like a very different place to the city I’d come to love. There’s a rebellion, which fails. There’s a group of men who aren’t heroes but they try to do the right thing, no matter how pointless it seems. And that’s important, the trying. The narrative values innocence and kindness and camaraderie, and that will always be meaningful to me than any ‘realistic’ or edgy, grimdark piece of fiction.
I don’t know, none of this is very original and other people have said the same things a lot more eloquently, but today I just felt compelled to try and say and something about what these books mean to me. GNU Terry Pratchett.
Category: terry pratchett
“Beekeepers are careful to tell their bees everything important that concerns the family and…”
“Beekeepers are careful to tell their bees everything important that concerns the family and household – births, marriages, deaths, a new set of curtains, and suchlike. But that’s not superstition, just the practical observation that if you don’t tell them, they will fly indoors to find out for themselves.”
- Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson, The Folklore of Discworld.
- Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson, The Folklore of Discworld.
“The Amazing Maurice is a fantasy book. Of course, everyone knows that fantasy is ‘all about’…”
“
- Terry Pratchett, as part of his Carnegie Medal acceptance speech for The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents.
The Amazing Maurice is a fantasy book. Of course, everyone knows that fantasy is ‘all about’ wizards, but by now, I hope, everyone with any intelligence knows that, er, what everyone knows…is wrong.
Fantasy is more than wizards. For instance, this book is about rats that are intelligent. But it also about the even more fantastic idea that humans are capable of intelligence as well. Far more beguiling than the idea that evil can be destroyed by throwing a piece of expensive jewellery into a volcano is the possibility that evil can be defused by talking. The fantasy of justice is more interesting that the fantasy of fairies, and more truly fantastic. In the book the rats go to war, which is, I hope, gripping. But then they make peace, which is astonishing.
In any case, genre is just a flavouring. It’s not the whole meal. Don’t get confused by the scenery.
”- Terry Pratchett, as part of his Carnegie Medal acceptance speech for The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents.
“If complete and utter chaos was lightning, then he’d be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a…”
“If complete and utter chaos was lightning, then he’d be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting: “all gods are bastards!””
- Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic.
- Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic.
“The UU Library is theoretically the largest in the universe or, indeed, any conceivable universe; it…”
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- Terry Pratchett & Stephen Briggs, The Ankh-Morpork Archives.
The UU Library is theoretically the largest in the universe or, indeed, any conceivable universe; it has a diameter of about one hundred yards but, as far as we can determine, an infinite radius. The presence of so much stored magic does to time and space what a hot iron does to a pound of butter, so that you may well encounter places where the floor is now the wall, the books have turned into small clay models of hedgehogs and you yourself appear to be a device for coring apples. Students will therefore find it convenient to stick to the routes marked with chalk and the occasional banana skin.
We must warn you that many students have cleverly worked out that since the Library does, somewhere, contain any book that will ever or could ever be written, their own doctoral thesis must be in there on some distant shelf. This is true. Setting out to find it is, however, an extremely unwise move. We can assure you that, however long it takes, staying here and writing the damn thing is a lot easier in the end.
”- Terry Pratchett & Stephen Briggs, The Ankh-Morpork Archives.
“‘Of course it’s a trick. Building a canoe is a trick. Throwing a spear is a trick. Life is a trick,…”
“‘Of course it’s a trick. Building a canoe is a trick. Throwing a spear is a trick. Life is a trick, and you get one chance to learn it.’”
- Terry Pratchett, Nation.
- Terry Pratchett, Nation.
boffo-novelty-and-joke-shop: noirandchocolate: Things Terry Pratchett Did Made fun of…
Things Terry Pratchett Did
Made fun of the “unnecessarily naked/scantily clad woman,” “sacrificial virgin,” and “sexy heroine” tropes in his first two novels. The first was described as being the most powerful of her clan of dragon-riders and the nakedness was properly treated as unnecessary in a clear parody. The second turned out to be one of the more level-headed (while not well-educated) members of the party after her initial introduction, and also had a spine and knew (and got) what she wanted. The third was described as wearing sensible clothes, was pretty but not sexualized at all, and was practical and smart.
Wrote an entire novel to critique the unequal treatment of “men’s magic” versus “women’s magic” in the fantasy genre. Portrayed witches as just as if not more capable than wizards (when it comes to actually helping people, in particular), and also generally having more common sense than them. Nevertheless created a little girl character with wizard powers, and had her decide neither wizard nor witch magic was sufficient and develop a new kind of magic all her own.
Included sex workers in his worldbuilding. Made jokes about them the same way he did every other kind of person of any profession, but was also highly respectful and never critical of these jobs. Described the head of the ‘Seamstresses’ Guild as one of the most influential people in the biggest city in the world. Never showed or described in detail any sexual violence, including against these workers. In fact, made sure to say that anyone in the city who harmed a sex worker would be dealt with painfully, embarrassingly, and/or lethally by two fearsome elderly ladies. Even his more ditzy stripper character quickly smartened up and learned some true self-respect–not by quitting her job but by realizing she didn’t have to take any shit from men.
Included strong female friendships aplenty. Included female enemies who were enemies over things other than men. In general constantly passed the Bechdel Test and not only that, left it in the dust and had way more meaningful and realistic representation.
Five words: Dwarf Women Are All Trans. More words: And there’s no way to know if some of them were trans in the way we Earth humans would understand it, too, and he clearly didn’t think that sort of genitalia-based gender labeling mattered. Did not turn his trans dwarfs into a joke, but treated them simply as people–including a scientist/forensics officer in a police department, a prominent fashion designer, and the literal King of all dwarfs (who subsequently came out as Queen). Portrayed transmisogynists as unequivocally wrong, and had protagonist characters stand up for and protect their trans colleagues and friends. See also: had genderfluid characters in two of his books and at least one trans man, as well as confirming canonically that there are gay wizards, one of whom is really good at football.
One of his mainest of main characters was a blunt, bad-tempered, prideful old woman who is also good to her core. Didn’t gloss over her unfriendliness or excuse it, but made her complex and interesting and overall likeable despite all that. Also had a very amiable old lady character who also had a temper and would throw hands with anyone who’d mess with her family or best friend. In general, steel-souled old ladies, wow. Also steel-souled young girls.
Said he was incapable of writing a weak, wilting female character, and honestly I can’t think of a single one in any of his books.
Please feel free to add to this list with other Things Terry Pratchett Did because I definitely didn’t say them all!
I will forever be grateful for the sentence “Lady Ramkin’s bosom rose and fell like an empire.“
“There have been times, lately, when I dearly wished that I could change the past. Well, I can’t, but…”
“There have been times, lately, when I dearly wished that I could change the past. Well, I can’t, but I can change the present, so that when it becomes the past it will turn out to be a past worth having.”
- Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight.
- Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight.
“What [the teachers] did sell was invisible things. And after they’d sold what they had, they still…”
“What [the teachers] did sell was invisible things. And after they’d sold what they had, they still had it. They sold what everyone needed but often didn’t want. They sold the key to the universe to people who didn’t even know it was locked.”
- Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men.
- Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men.
“Fear is a strange soil. Mainly it grows obedience like corn, which grows in rows and makes weeding…”
“Fear is a strange soil. Mainly it grows obedience like corn, which grows in rows and makes weeding easy. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground.”
- Terry Pratchett, Small Gods.
- Terry Pratchett, Small Gods.