Pratchett, Pratchett, Pratchett

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Terry Pratchett is terrific. I’m currently rereading The Hogfather in honor of the season.

I have a specific question here, but if you don’t have anthing to contribute on that front, feel free to talk about the books. Favorite characters, favorite lines, favorite books, standard fan stuff.

The real question: Most fans probably recall Unseen University’s cargo-cult pseudocomputer, Hex. Hex is slapped together from symbolic representations of things a real computer might need, and because of the damage magic has done to reality at UU, it works.

I’ve been able to catch the following items Hex uses and their real-computer equivalents:

Sheep skulls::ram
Mouse::Mouse
Ants/AntHill Inside sticker::Intel
Kick it if it breaks down::reboot
small religious figures::icons
hourglass::hourglass

Those are gleaned from a quick reread of that section in *The Hogfather.*What else is there, both that I missed and in other books?

Also,has anyone read The Truth? I love Otto,and Mr. Pin’s afterlife made me laugh outloud.

–John
My Spacebar is broken.

2

Nothing to add in terms of Hex, but I just wanted to state that my fannish devotion to Pratchett is such that my hermit crab is named Angua. [sub]I’m odd. Shut up.[/sub]

I don’t care for his early work as much, though. I just read Strata and I could barely finish it. I’m glad he got better. :wink: Men at Arms and Reaper Man are my favorites, but I haven’t read all of the Disc series just yet. (Most of 'em… damn out of print books.)

3

They should keep him in print at all times, yes.

You named your CRAB Angua? I could picture naming a dog Angua, but a crab?

I, too, love pratchett, but I can’t remember anything else from Hex.

4

Most of my pratchett is currently packed for my move, but…

Well, there is…

Big Red Lever : Old IBM computers power switch.
The Fish tank : A screen saver.
Bees : Memory Cells.
Unreal Time Clock : Real Time Clock.
Phase of the Moon Generator : From an old computer culture joke, programs work because of the phase of the moon.

5

I think it must be Interesting Times that has more computer Hex stuff, and as I loaned my copy out and it was never returned sigh I can’t read up on it. Well, it was my least fave book anyways.

Find the Discworld Companion. It has the details entertainingly related in there.

6

Always on the lookout for new good books to read, I ask you all this: Who’s Terry Pratchett and what kinds of books does she write?

And the Disk series, is that the Discworld series? I heard that was good…

7

Oooh! I have that!

Excerpts:

Hex was built. Part of it is clockwork. A lot of it is a giant ant far (the interface, where the ants ride up and down on a litter paternoster that turns a significant cogwheel, is a little masterpiece). The intricately controlled rushing of the ants through their maze of glass tubing is the most important part of the whole thing. There is a sticky note on the board which reads “Anthill inside”. Hee.

Features mentioned include the Unreal Time Clock, a device a bit like a wind-speed measurer, blocks with occult symbols that dropped into a hopper (replaced by a quill pen in the middle of a network of pulleys and levers, which Hex uses to communicate in handwriting), a clothes wringer, a thing like a broken umbrella with herrings on it, some small religious pictures, a large hourglass on a spring, a thing that goes ‘parp’, a phase of the moon generator, an aquarium, some wind chimes, a mouse, beehives, a ram’s skull, a keyboard, a great big lever…

And, of course, a Fluffy Teddy Bear.

As for my hermit crab… hey, I think it’s a noble name. Besides, she can wave her claw menacingly.

8

She’s a he (Terry Pratchett) and is (argueably) the single funniest, yet still profound author alive.

He’s got a 25 (so far) book “series” going about life on the Discworld, a flat world that’s supported by four giant elephants who are standing on the back of a turtle.

He’s managed to keep the series fresh by not making it a series, but simply by telling stories on the same world. With one or two exceptions, all the books can stand alone.

That said, he’s got four main sub-series, that involve returning characters. (This is off the top of my head, but this should be close.)
Rincewind, the incompetent/cowardly wizard:
Colour of Magic
Light Fantastic
Sourcery
Faust/Eric
Interesting Times
(The Australia pastiche that I can’t remember the name of)

The Witches
Equal Rites
Wyrd Sisters
Witches Abroad
Lords and Ladies
Masquerade
Carpe Jugulum

The City Watch{
Guards! Guards!
Men at arms
Feet of Clay
Jingo

DEATH
Mort
Reaper-Man
Soul Music
Hogfather

Standalones:
Pyramids
Small Gods
Moving Pictures
The Truth

While it doesn’t matter (mostly) what order you read them in, you’ll enjoy them more if you read each sub-series in it’s internal order, or just read the series in publication order, which’ll break up the sub series (I prefer to read the series this way, but…)

If you ask “Well, where do I start?” this’ll end up getting moved to great debates. But…any of the standalones would probably give you a feel for what the Discworld books are like. If you try Small Gods or Moving Pictures and hate them, you probably won’t enjoy the rest of the series.

The thing that makes Pratchett so interesting is that he has what he calls “Tragic Relief”. The books arefunny, but there are moments of seriousness, and occasional tragedy.

I can’t recommend them enough.

9

The two you missed were Rincewind’s Australian “Last Continent”, and a City Watch book, “The Fifth Elephant”.

10

Fenris:

Thanks for the recommendation (and the correction). I’ll add one of the books to my que, which consists of Jules Verne’s “The Mysterious Island” and “From the Earth to the Moon,” Brian Jacques’ “Lord Brocktree” (I love Redwall), and John Gribbin’s “Schrödinger’s Kittens and the Search for Reality” floating somewhere around in there. Yes, I know I’m ecclectic.

11

For years, many of the early books were not generally available (but you could get some in hardcover by special order). Luckily, these are being re-relased in paperback. Earlier this year, these three were released:

Color of Magic
Light Fantastic
Equal Rites

In addition, another three (including Wyrd Sisters and Pyramids, I think) are supposed to be released this month. They are probably already be out, but I forgot to look when I was at the bookstore yesterday. I can be such a :wally sometimes.

12

…although i’m not particularly inclined to comb through all the books that mention Hex (which is a nifty little double-pun in itself) to figure out what all the bits are referring to…

13

Terry Pratchett is my favorite philosopher. :slight_smile:

What kills me is that recommendation quote from, of all people, Piers Anthony printed on the cover of so many of the Discworld books. As if Pratchett needs praise from Anthony. Piers Anthony probably dreams about being 1/10 the writer Pratchett is.

14

Something is skimming around my consciousness… there’s a computer thing this should be but I can’t put my finger on it… damn, damn, damn.

I’ll repeat this part-- Has anyone read The Truth? What do you think about his first sympathetic vampire character? Or the Pulp Fiction riffs?

“Do you know what they call a sausage in a bun in Quirm, Mr. Turnip?”

–John

15

I was a bit disappointed with The Truth I was hopeing for a Small Gods and I felt what I got was an Equal Rites or Wyrd Sisters.

It is still extremely entertaining, and I love Otto, though he is the second sympathetic vampire character, the first being Count Notfaroutto in Reaper Man.

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S
.
.
.

Completely new characters should have let him more freedom to explore, but he still bound himself to older characters a bit much. Also his reason for letting the press work was unimaginative, it would have been better if someone had managed to create a photolinotype press, which avoids the complaints of the mages, and still lets things get up the engravers guilds noses. Am also surprised that Mr. Slant hasn’t been taken careof by now…Vetenari is slipping. As for the Pulp Fiction refs, that is another thing I kind of disliked, the injokes were to obvious, for me half the fun of diskworld is the more subtle references. One or two Pulp Fiction jokes would have fit, but half the friggin book feels like a Pulp Fiction reference.

16

Yes, read the “Truth”, liked it- very good read.

I am still missing 2 jokes (I think) from the 1st books- what are the Jokes behind the names “Rincewind” & “twoflower”?

17

Everything you ever wanted to know about Pterry’s books.

It’s got just about every reference I’ve ever noticed in any of the books, and a whole lot I would never have caught. Unfortunately, it’s not been updated in a long while.

18

There are no jokes in the names Rincewind and Twoflower.

Rincewind is just Rincewind. In one book an ancestor of his is referred to as a Rinser of Winds.

Twoflower is meant to be a kind of semi-parody on Japanese names, as he represents a Japanese Tourist. He’s from the Counterweight Continent, which is basically the China / Japan parts of Asia