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Spent Thursday having to go to the bathroom every couple hours at work due to reading posts about him and getting choked up. Felt a little strange for a guy I've never met, but I guess in a way he's been my constant companion over the past twenty years.Irisi posted:I was born around the same time too. I turned up at a signing when I was 21 or so and with cheerful tactlessness informed him of that fact, which he said made him feel quite incredibly ancient. God that's awesome. Going Postal is my favorite. Speaking of, do y'all reckon Going Postal is an okay place to jump in? I want to send some Discworld out to friends, and I think Guards Guards might not resonate with some people as a one-off. My other option is Small Gods, which is how I got started and another one of my favorites. Plus probably Wee Free Men for some of my buddies with kids. I wonder how old they'd need to be to appreciate it. I'd love to help get the next generation started.
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Mar 14, 2015 04:34
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Why is Terry Pratchett dead but GRR Martin still alive? The world doesn't make sense.
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Mar 14, 2015 06:03
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NoNotTheMindProbe posted:Why is Terry Pratchett dead but FTFM.
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Mar 14, 2015 06:15
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PJOmega posted:FTFM. You misspelled "Brooks".
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Mar 14, 2015 06:17
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Tunicate posted:You misspelled "Brooks". drat. Brooks is a hack, but he's not
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Mar 14, 2015 06:57
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Now, now, let's keep it classy. It's what Terry would have wanted.
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Mar 14, 2015 07:04
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 I met the man briefly at a signing in South Africa in 98, thereabouts. Such a gentleman. He had a joke for every single person in the (very long) queue. I'll never forget that day. I don't think I've ever been as sad as I was when I learned about his illness. Edit: phone-posting 
Phaeoacremonium fucked around with this message at 07:56 on Mar 14, 2015 |
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Mar 14, 2015 07:47
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Lprsti99 posted:I was operating off of a quote I'd heard that he had already started preparations for his assisted He'd planned to if it ever reached the point, but it's been confirmed this wasn't the case and this was natural. And I think he'd intended to have it made it public if it did come to that, as a way of bringing attention to the cause.
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Mar 14, 2015 08:44
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). Thank you for pointing out my mistake.
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Well, drat and blast. I only just heard about this. I got a copy of The Last Continent signed by him at a Whitcoulls in Auckland when it came out.
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Mar 14, 2015 08:57
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I'm not sure if that would be doing him any favour.
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Mar 14, 2015 09:49
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I got annoyed at David Cameron "paying tribute" to him with the bland, meaningless statement that he "fired the imagination". Blech. He is the kind of person Pratchett was warning us about.  And on that vaguely political note, I've always been kind of surprised that Pratchett didn't turn down his knighthood, given the views on monarchy expressed by Vimes and the like. Has he ever commented on that?
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Mar 14, 2015 10:21
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There's politics and there's being a fantasy person and getting a knighthood and a sword. e: that was, in fact, his comment on it quote:"You can't ask a fantasy writer not to want a knighthood. You know, for two pins I'd get myself a horse and a sword." e2: possibly the best picture I've ever seen of the man: 
My Lovely Horse fucked around with this message at 10:40 on Mar 14, 2015 |
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Mar 14, 2015 10:36
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And don't forget, he did get himself a sword. It is even made of star metal. I kind of hope he is buried with it. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/when-terry-pratchett-was-knighted-he-forged-his-own-sword-out-of-meteorite-10104321.html
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Mar 14, 2015 12:14
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If you have some time to spare, you should watch Neil Gaiman talk at length about Terry and their relationship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeyjn3EaHAM And if you don't have the time to spare, at least listen to the anecdote that starts around 30 minutes in.
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Mar 14, 2015 13:08
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thespaceinvader posted:And don't forget, he did get himself a sword. It is even made of star metal. I kind of hope he is buried with it. Everyone should have a good burial weapon. Just in case...
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Mar 14, 2015 13:32
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My Lovely Horse posted:If you have some time to spare, you should watch Neil Gaiman talk at length about Terry and their relationship: Thank you for this; just so happened that I've been thinking about how the comedy genre and how Pratchett basically pulled it out of an "intellectual ghetto", for the lack of a better word. The bit about comedy and seriousness not being polar opposites fit it perfectly.
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Mar 14, 2015 14:38
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My Lovely Horse posted:That was in Germany, but it was the publisher's doing (and Terry actually changed publishers over it) and not as such "in the middle of the text", more like an extra page inserted somewhere that had the ad, although they did make clumsy attempts at integrating it with the current scene ("couldn't our heroes go for a bowl of soup right now"). Here is a more comprehensive account of the whole business, but sadly it seems to have lost its example image.   Pesmerga posted:I met Terry Pratchett once when I was about 13. He was at a book signing, and I was running late to get there. He was packing up as I arrived, but he still took the time to sign a copy of a book for me, and asked which was my favourite. I was so awestruck I could barely speak. He just smiled, and wrote 'Boo!' next to his signature. 
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Mar 14, 2015 18:37
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Your name is Louvain? After the city?
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Mar 14, 2015 18:55
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just picked up Men At Arms to continue my Watch reading
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Mar 14, 2015 18:56
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It's even worse than I remembered. But enough about the translation, the same goes for the ad: as if interrupting mid-sentence wasn't bad enough, it flat out suggests you take a break from reading. Do they know their audience or what. For reference: quote:Where Teppic is right now isn't suitable for a leisurely picnic - so he rides on.
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Mar 14, 2015 19:26
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If I were an author I would be furious with such an ad embedded in the book
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Mar 14, 2015 19:59
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kanonvandekempen posted:Your name is Louvain? After the city? No, that book was a gift to me and it was bought second-hand. Four of my Terry Pratchett books are autographed, but I never personally met him. That's the only one with a dedication (and a rubber stamp), the rest are just signed.
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Mar 14, 2015 20:00
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I haven't read any Discworld books since going off the series around about the time Hogfather came out, but I'd like to join the chorus of people who said reading them was a big part of their childhood and left such a long-lasting impression. I remember English teachers getting angry with me because Discworld novels were all I ever read for book reports, and I still have a few well-read and dog-eared books I 'retained' from the libraries of various schools I attended. My Colour of Magic copy is more sellotape than paper and has a poo poo-ton of stamps in it going right back to '85. It is a treasure. As for the man himself, I never met him personally, though he was on the same flight as me once and I was standing near him at arrivals. He looked tired and a bit grumpy (it was a long flight), so in my infinite teenage wisdom, I decided not to bother him. I gaped at him idiotically, though. Thanks for all the great reads, Terry!
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Mar 15, 2015 01:16
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The finnish translations are mostly fantastic, but Pratchett is like 90% responsible for me learning English. They just didn't translate fast enough Sometimes there were translators notes in the vein of 'Oh god i give up. The dwarf is originally called Glod and Imp says they are on a mission from Glod and just go watch Blues Brothers already' I'm pretty sure Terry approved
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Mar 15, 2015 10:14
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Illegal Username posted:The finnish translations are mostly fantastic, but Pratchett is like 90% responsible for me learning English. They just didn't translate fast enough The French translator let funny translators notes too. Mostly about Death's gender, since La Mort is feminine in French, so to explain why he used male pronouns to refer to the character he wrote funny footnotes like "La mort est un male nécessaire" (Death is a necessary male, it's a pun on the fact that mal (evil) and male are pronounced the same in French. One of the late book had something like "oh you know the drill" as a translator's note, etc... Honestly I like having both the books in English and French around, I could see myself rereading those and compare them more closely. Patrick Couton got a prize for his translations of the Discworld novels. Kurtofan fucked around with this message at 13:19 on Mar 15, 2015 |
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Mar 15, 2015 13:12
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I once tried to translate Going Postal, just for kicks, and it's almost impossible. I think there's a good reason only about five of the books has ever been translated into Danish.
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Mar 15, 2015 13:59
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Iacen posted:I once tried to translate Going Postal, just for kicks, and it's almost impossible. I think there's a good reason only about five of the books has ever been translated into Danish. That has more to do with Danish. There are a lot of books that have been translated to Swedish.
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Mar 15, 2015 15:19
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Kurtofan posted:The French translator let funny translators notes too. Did he translate all of them, or does he just come in later on when they realized the books were selling well? edit: did the obvious thing and looked it up on amazon, he at least translated color of magic, so I'd guess he did them all. Cool, gonna start with that and see how I go. Dirty Frank fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Mar 15, 2015 |
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Mar 15, 2015 15:31
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The new German translations by Gerald Jung are really good. At least from what I can see in amazon previews. Dialogue now sounds like actual people talking to each other, if you can imagine. Everyone sounded the same as everyone else and as the narrative voice in the old ones. That being said, there's new cover art as well.  I know the idiom about judging books as well as anybody, and I'd rather have the good translation if it comes down to that, but...
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Mar 15, 2015 17:02
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Reminds me sort of Discworld Noir. There has been much worse covers for Discworld now. The worse in my opinion was the one with the basket ball. For Unseen Academicals. Also, my Jackrum avatar is more grotesque.
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Mar 15, 2015 17:28
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I've seen two covers for Unseen Academicals, neither have basketballs on them. They have old leather footballs like these.
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Mar 15, 2015 17:46
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Trust me, it is a thing. Posted in this very thread.
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Mar 15, 2015 17:57
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SeanBeansShako posted:Reminds me sort of Discworld Noir. It's just so undynamic. Here's a man smoking a cigar while steering a boat through rough waters at great speed like a badass, and everything's completely rigid with a plastic sheen, water droplets hanging in the air, there seems to be a floodlight suspended inches from his head and he looks like it's his morning commute and he's sick of the rat race and wants to buy a Harley. Granted, I haven't read Snuff
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Mar 15, 2015 18:09
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Has anyone ever read a dutch translation of a discworld book? I 've always read them in English, so I have no point of comparison and I'd like to give them to a few friends whose English skills aren't quite up to par.
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Mar 15, 2015 18:36
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double nine posted:Has anyone ever read a dutch translation of a discworld book? I 've always read them in English, so I have no point of comparison and I'd like to give them to a few friends whose English skills aren't quite up to par. My first discworld book I read while I was taking a bus to France to see the full solar eclipse in 1999. I was 15, and my friend brought the dutch translation of The light fantastic ('Het wonderlijke licht' I think). He must have been pretty annoyed, because I spent all day reading the book and not talking to him much. Luckily we're still friends. It was really long ago so I can't comment much on the translation quality, I remember Rincewind became Rinzwind and Twoflower became Tweebloesem. It must have been pretty good though because I also remember reading every Discworld book in the local library shortly after that. And 20 years later, after reading my first Pratchet on a solar eclipse day I'll go see another solar eclipse next week, which feels kinda poetic.
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Mar 16, 2015 00:37
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kanonvandekempen posted:And 20 years later, after reading my first Pratchet on a solar eclipse day I'll go see another solar eclipse next week, which feels kinda poetic. That's awesome. I, too, am going to see that eclipse, as are many other goons, because the internet spaceships convention got moved to this weekend so we could all see the eclipse.
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Mar 16, 2015 00:55
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My Lovely Horse posted:There's politics and there's being a fantasy person and getting a knighthood and a sword. There is a superior photo which is almost the same, but he's holding the bottle with his right hand and patting the pig with his left.
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Mar 16, 2015 01:27
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A quarter of the way through Monstrous Regiment so far and I'm loving it! But it doesn't feel like a Discworld book. Feels like I'm reading something else entirely until the occasional Igor/troll joke pops up and I'm reminded it's a fantasy book.
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Mar 16, 2015 01:31
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My Lovely Horse posted:It's just so undynamic. Here's a man smoking a cigar while steering a boat through rough waters at great speed like a badass, and everything's completely rigid with a plastic sheen, water droplets hanging in the air, there seems to be a floodlight suspended inches from his head and he looks like it's his morning commute and he's sick of the rat race and wants to buy a Harley. The boat looks like a box a little larger than a rowboat with benches around, and a wheel that connects to nothing. I would love to see an image of just that boat, I bet it would sink in a puddle.
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Mar 16, 2015 02:02
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freebooter posted:There is a superior photo which is almost the same, but he's holding the bottle with his right hand and patting the pig with his left. EDIT:  This one?
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Mar 16, 2015 02:50
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