A couple of weeks ago, I checked out an audiobook of The Shepherd’s Crown, Terry Pratchett’s last book before his death in 2015. Fourteen or so CDs, and at the end of each CD, a pleasant female voice said “The disk is finished.” A poignant little message, especially at the end of the last disk, when I was unavoidably reminded that the Disk is, indeed, finished.
I’m not usually affected by celebrity deaths, even if I admire or enjoy the celebrity’s work; so I was surprised when hearing of Sir Terry’s not-unexpected death in 2015 threw me into a funk for several days. Wisdom is where you find it, and since discovering Pterry’s work in 1996 - via Good Omens, and a Neil-Gaiman-fangirl friend - my own view of the world, humanity, and the way it all works was in large part shaped by Pratchett’s compassionate but clear-eyed humanism. I’d heard, too, that he was religious about reading fan mail, and I’d always meant to write to thank him for all the pleasure his work brought me; an ambition now beyond realizing.
Nothing big or important about all this, and indeed this might be more appropriate for MPSIMS, but it was a small reminder that Terry is no longer with us, and the world is a lesser place thereby.
I’m sad I never got to tell him I use his “Sam Vimes Theory of Economic Unfairness” in my high school Economics classes. I treasure the words I got to swap with him over the years. Way too few and way too insubstantial, as it turns out.
Always glad I got to tell him in person how I wooed my wife, in part, by reading Good Omens out loud while stuck in the desert on a Uni field trip, and the 3-minute conversation about Geology that followed (him being a big Geology nut, us having met in Geology class). He was as warm and funny in person as his writing suggested.
Sir Terry’s death woke me to the reality that I really need to go out there and try to meet as many of my heroes as I can, or at least reach out to them and show them my appreciation.
I think I’ll pass. One of the things I loved about Pratchett is seeing how he grew as a writer. I would never recommend anyone read them in anything but publication order. The books went from amusing but slight parodies of the fantasy genre to amusing stories that would unexpectedly poleaxe me in the brain with its brilliance.
