Okay, I’m currently making my first foray into Discworld, and I happen to be starting in chronological order (“The Color of Magic”).
(And a thanks to Atreyu for getting me interested in Pratchett with his recommendation for “Good Omens” a year or two ago).
And before anybody suggests it, yes I do know about the sites with the Annotated Terry Pratchett pages – and I’ve looked at the annotations for this volume.
So, in the first section of the book, the whole reason that Rincewind gets involved with Twoflower is his facility with languages – he’s acting as translator, having found a language that they can both speak. But Twoflower’s knowledge of the local language (Circle Sea area) is pretty much limited to his phrasebook, it seems.
So, now that I’m in the third section (“Lure of the Wyrm”), I’ve noticed that Hrun and Twoflower are having just a normal conversation, with Rincewind not even around. It suddenly appears that Twoflower now speaks the same language as everybody else.
I didn’t see this addressed anywhere in the annotations for this book, but I’m sure somebody else must have questioned this before. Is this just the author playing fast and free with the details? Or what?
Where’d you get your Bel-Shamharoth figurine, Monstre? I bought mine at the gift shop of the YMRCIGBSA (Young Men’s Reformed Cultists of the Ichor God Bel-Shamharoth Association) hotel I stayed at!
So, while I figured that this was just the author being lazy with the details – what I’m really wondering is… did anybody ever call him on it? The annotation site I read makes reference to Pratchett being asked about certain details, like his naming of Ankh-Morpork and where it came from, along with what the author had to say about his original intents.
So, does anybody know if there’s an online reference to somebody asking him about this detail, along with perhaps word of his response?
[with a lazy flick of the wrist, banishes Bwana to the Hall of Overused Board Cliches]
Pterry has never shown much concern for internal consistency. The story is what’s important. Im to lazy to dig up the quote, but when called on a gaffe, he just said the DW, being magical, has alternate pasts.
Okay, Bwana, you can come out from time-out now. I hope you learned your lesson. Just don’t do it again, or I’ll send Og in there with you next time!
Ahhhh – I guess this also explains why at the start of the second section (The Sending of Eight) they were traveling to Chirm, but when they finished that adventure, they resumed their journey to Quirm. Or it could have been dimensionally shifted editors.
Judging from some of the comments on the Annotated Pratchett file, the author sounds like the type who can and will just make up a fun excuse/reason when called on something like this – so I was just curious if he had made up a good one for this case. Guess the above is a catch-all, huh?
In any event, it appears I have at least 20+ fun books ahead of me. Life is good.
BTW, I have seen previous discussions of what order to read the Discworld books in, but being a StubbornMonstre, I have firmly resolved (at least for now) to read them in chronological order, or die trying.
