bugrit
I’ll add myself to the huge pile of fans who are really sad. My heart goes out to his family. I don’t know him, but if his work reflects himself at all–and I have to imagine he pours himself into it–he’s a good man, and I’ll miss him. I can understand why he doesn’t want an outpouring of sympathy. If I just found out something like this, I’d want to be with my family and come to terms with it, not receive an outpouring of thousands of sad letters, no matter how kindly they’re meant.
I never understood why there were always groups of mourners for famous people. My reaction was along the lines of, “C’mon…I can see the human tragedy, but you don’t really know the person…let the family mourn and give them some privacy.” Now I understand why. I found his books as a teenager and I grew up reading his work. Something this man created directly and profoundly affected my life. It’s nothing compared to what he’s dealing with, and if *he and his family * can be practical and cheerful in the face of this, the least I can do is try to do the same.
Damn it.
Can someone please explain this to the uninitiated? Holds off what?
Nasty, cruel disease! No one deserves this horrific affliction, but the loss feels even greater when it’s someone who has given so much to the world.
D’oh! I haven’t read the Mort series yet, but I assume you’re referring to the grim reaper.
Not Og. The Death of Discworld speaks in CAPITALS. I was wishing that Death would hold off long enough for Pterry to give us at least a few more stories of the Disc.
The big D-fellow with the robe and the scythe in the Discworld TALKS LIKE THIS.
Good grief, fate can be cruel. Bad enough that he’s so young – he’s my father’s age and it twists my stomach to think of that, especially considering Dad’s mother died from Alzheimer’s just a year ago – but he’s contracted something that will attack his greatest asset. My heart aches for his family and I feel guilty about wanting him to hang on long enough to give us another thirty or so books.
He’s got a damned fine attitude and an excellent outlook. I know he doesn’t believe in prayers; still, mine are with him.
“…and asketh you in your infinite compassion to see your way clear to possibly intervening here…” 
Damnation. He’s got such a diamond like mind. So unfair.
Mister Shine, he Diamond! 
They’re taking the wrong Terry, damnit.
All selfish wishes for more books aside, it’d suck if I don’t get another chance to talk to him - such a nice man, warm and friendly.
Damn, damn, damn. Stupid disease - I hope he can stay with us as long as possible.
What a nasty disease to strike such a genuinely nice guy. I hope he gives it a good run for it’s money, and that he stays on top of it for a very, very long time.
At the Aussie Discworld Convention earlier this year, he (apparently) poo-poo’d the JK Rowling thing as something the press made up and ran with. I wasn’t there yet and didn’t witness it personally, but it was mentioned by many people there.
It’s a million to one chance
oook
Si
but it just might work.
Yeah, this sucks.
Well now. This is less than ideal.
It’s interesting that I’ve had weird thoughts just in the past few days about Pratchett’s mortality. Hope I’m not psychic.
This is just terrible. I only started reading his books about a year and a half ago, but he’s just…excellent.
And, I have a good friend who’s a huge Pratchett fan, and who recently lost her dad. This will be just one more kick in the teeth for her, as though she needed one.
This is not good. But as he says, he aten’t dead yet, and we should all be positive about it. I do feel terribly for his wife and daughter though, as they’ll have to witness the slow decline first hand and I can only imagine how terrible it’ll be for them. They have my every sympathy.
Well, as a mate of mine says, PTerry can always claim he’s joined the Klatchian Foreign Legion. 
Well, he is in Great Britain, are they as squicked out about the idea of stem cell research as some countries we will not name?
I really don’t want to turn this into a political debate. My mother has Alz (not early onset) and I know one thing she feared the most was this disease because you lose yourself. In the beginning you know what’s happening, later on your don’t realize it anymore but those early days and the fear of what you will become are frightening. I think she gave up early when she got her diagnosis and just let her mind slip away because once she was diagnosed she didn’t have a lot of episodes of lucidity. So anyway I see what happened to my mom, I see what has happened to other people with this disease and how it affects their families. Go read the statistics on this disease and it will probably scare the piss out of you, too. I fear that it will one day happen to me because my mother had it and my paternal grandmother had some form of senile dementia (not sure if it was Alz) and I get angry. I get angry that we have wasted 8 years of research time into a possible cure because we have to bow down to a political leaders personal and ill-informed bias.
steps off soapbox
And now something about Terry. Several years ago I got to meet him at a sci-fi con. I was so excited but I was so nervous that I really couldn’t bring myself to converse with him when he signed my book. I wanted to say something witty but I think I just babbled at how much I loved his books. Then it turned out that we had rooms on the same floor so I was bumping into him all the time and rode in the elevator with him a couple times and all I could do was grin at him like an idiot but every time he smiled back with a big genuine grin and nodded to me. I also ran into him in the dealer’s room where he was purchasing a Darwin fish (the kind you put on your car) which then increased the sales of that item at that Dealer’s booth as he happily left the dealer’s room carrying his fish. The experience I had at that con is still my best memory of a con and of meeting someone famous. The man always looked genuinely happy and so that is how he will always stay in my mind.
I saw the news on the CNN site this morning after I hit my desk.
Wow. Talk about a bummer.
At least he’s got enough titles out that we can spend a nice long time re-reading the various series.
Wow. Suck.
I’m going to wait until this thread falls off the front page before posting the next installment of The Discworld Reading Club. Doing so now just wouldn’t seem…right. Although I suppose we’d be better served celebrating his life and works than anticipating, however sadly, his (insert prayers to appropriate deities here. Would this be Io? Offler? The Lady?) hopefully not-so-imminent passing.
The Lady ain’t interested in prayers, and neither Io nor Offler tend to give two hoots about an individual human’s wellbeing. Meanwhile, I guess (and hope) Pterry’s got a while to go yet.