# A little twinge in the feels: on being reminded that Terry Pratchett is gone. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 15, 2019, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-twinge-in-the-feels-on-being-reminded-that-terry-pratchett-is-gone/840293 "2019-09-15T23:00:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-twinge-in-the-feels-on-being-reminded-that-terry-pratchett-is-gone/840293/1 "2019-09-15T23:00:19Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-twinge-in-the-feels-on-being-reminded-that-terry-pratchett-is-gone/840293/2 "2019-09-15T23:27:11Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > 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. Aw. ☹ Does it help to think that Discworld still goes on—it’s just that we won’t be hearing any more of what goes on there? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-twinge-in-the-feels-on-being-reminded-that-terry-pratchett-is-gone/840293/3 "2019-09-15T23:29:17Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-twinge-in-the-feels-on-being-reminded-that-terry-pratchett-is-gone/840293/4 "2019-09-16T10:01:08Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![DerNils](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerNils](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerNils)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-twinge-in-the-feels-on-being-reminded-that-terry-pratchett-is-gone/840293/5 "2019-09-16T10:06:08Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2019, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-twinge-in-the-feels-on-being-reminded-that-terry-pratchett-is-gone/840293/6 "2019-09-16T11:11:44Z")
Singed my beatmaker. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2023, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-twinge-in-the-feels-on-being-reminded-that-terry-pratchett-is-gone/840293/7 "2023-10-11T12:03:46Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > 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. A new book out: > **[A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Pratchett review – newly discovered early stories](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/11/a-stroke-of-the-pen-by-terry-pratchett-review-newly-discovered-early-stories)** > > A collection of comic tales published pseudonymously in the 1970s and 80s is slight, but shows sparks of the brilliance to come ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2023, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-twinge-in-the-feels-on-being-reminded-that-terry-pratchett-is-gone/840293/8 "2023-10-12T00:37:26Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > > [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > > > 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. > > A new book out: > > [A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Pratchett review – newly discovered early stories | Terry Pratchett | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/11/a-stroke-of-the-pen-by-terry-pratchett-review-newly-discovered-early-stories) 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.