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Watched the Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. And honestly? It's the most successful adaption of the Discworld books yet. It works both as a stand alone story and as an adaption. Even the addition of the Pied Piper sequence seems like something Pratchett could've written.
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Jan 14, 2024 17:24
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I have been reading Terry Pratchett for over 25 years and it was just now pointed out to me that dwarf bread is supposed to be a parallel of Tolkien's elf bread, which can also keep you going for days but which can't be used to beat a troll to death.
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Feb 4, 2024 00:44
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Also the dwarf bread generally isn't actually eaten and just reminds you of how much you'd rather be eating literally anything else.
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Feb 4, 2024 01:50
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Doctor_Fruitbat posted:Also the dwarf bread generally isn't actually eaten and just reminds you of how much you'd rather be eating literally anything else. Memories of going to dinner at my uncle's house
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Feb 4, 2024 02:23
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The talk of dwarf bread reminded me of the Scone of Stone and the Low King's ax from The Fifth Elephant, both of which have colored my view of the Ship of Theseus problem to the point that I can't grok the opposing view.
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Feb 4, 2024 17:16
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Doctor_Fruitbat posted:Also the dwarf bread generally isn't actually eaten and just reminds you of how much you'd rather be eating literally anything else. It's worse than that. The baker over in Genua puts fruit in it.
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Feb 4, 2024 17:22
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Read the biography and, yeah...things get grim at the ending. One thing that surprised me though is how late Pratchett started writing. There's a pretty big chance that history could've gone in the other leg of the trousers of time where he tended his goats and never wrote anything.
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Feb 4, 2024 20:05
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Doctor_Fruitbat posted:Also the dwarf bread generally isn't actually eaten and just reminds you of how much you'd rather be eating literally anything else. We froze for a week recently and it reminded me that I need to get more of what I call Dwarf Bread Soup for the pantry. Stuff that's edible and everything but I dislike it enough that it'll still be there when I NEED it. For me it's Campbell's chicken soup. Tastes fine when actually heated up but it's so greasy and smells so gross (to me) when cold that I'm not going to eat it when I have other supplies.
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Feb 5, 2024 17:13
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Haven't read a Pratchett book in years and years but he was, ultimately, pretty integral to who I am as a person. I'm fairly sure a lot of my moral instincts come from his books. I wept so so much the day he died, I remember just sitting at my desk in my job at the time and I was shattered. He was diagnosed near the end of my adolescence and he died just before I transitioned and started to unfuck my life a bit. I miss him. I guess this is my way of saying - what should I reread? I've reread my favourites so much over the years I don't quite know what the revisit, and I'm terrified they won't hold up to my memories.
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Feb 6, 2024 06:30
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You should reread Carpe Jugulum because I Love Agnes Nitt.
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Feb 6, 2024 06:38
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Small Gods is the best of the Discworld books so why not start with a bang (of a turtle hitting something from a great height)?
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Feb 6, 2024 07:30
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lines posted:Haven't read a Pratchett book in years and years but he was, ultimately, pretty integral to who I am as a person. I'm fairly sure a lot of my moral instincts come from his books. I wept so so much the day he died, I remember just sitting at my desk in my job at the time and I was shattered. He was diagnosed near the end of my adolescence and he died just before I transitioned and started to unfuck my life a bit. I miss him. They will hold up, don't worry about that.
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Feb 6, 2024 11:55
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lines posted:Haven't read a Pratchett book in years and years but he was, ultimately, pretty integral to who I am as a person. I'm fairly sure a lot of my moral instincts come from his books. I wept so so much the day he died, I remember just sitting at my desk in my job at the time and I was shattered. He was diagnosed near the end of my adolescence and he died just before I transitioned and started to unfuck my life a bit. I miss him. The biography will make you cry a lot but in an extremely good way, it's excellent.
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Feb 6, 2024 22:45
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Jedit posted:They will hold up, don't worry about that. And yeah, until the fuckening starts to bite he's still really really good and you will certainly pick up puns you missed last time
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Feb 6, 2024 22:46
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I recently reread Going Postal and it's about 10-20% off from peak Pratchett, and Making Money definitely feels more off. Too much dialogue from Vetinari, for one. And then I've started to reread Interesting Times concurrently, and it's so much tighter and, just, better.
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Feb 6, 2024 23:39
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I only really felt the quality dip in Raising Steam, right at the very end.
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Feb 7, 2024 00:35
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I had a vague memory of buying a copy of a Discworld novel that was signed and I looked around and it is a copy of Making Money. Not my favorite book in the series but it's definitely a hold on to since it's got Terry's squiggle inside.
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Feb 7, 2024 00:49
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I got Hat Full of Sky actually signed by him in person and then bought first run or whatever copies of Making Money and Shepherds Crown signed from the official website.
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Feb 7, 2024 00:52
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I queued up in Blackwell's in Cardiff in 1993 (or possibly 1994) to get a paperback of Soul Music signed. Still got it.
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Feb 7, 2024 01:45
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sebmojo posted:The biography will make you cry a lot but in an extremely good way, it's excellent. It's heart breaking reading about how Rob realizes that Pratchett's stories doesn't make sense but at the same time It's the only thing that gives him purpose.
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Feb 7, 2024 08:08
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Alhazred posted:It's heart breaking reading about how Rob realizes that Pratchett's stories doesn't make sense but at the same time It's the only thing that gives him purpose. Reading the book it definitely made me wonder just how much of the last ten Discworld novels or so was actually Rob providing the cement for Terry's bricks. I don't have my books here with me right now, but is he ever credited in some way? I don't remember any "Thanks to" notes in the beginning of the books ever, but that also may be my bad memory. He's definitely flown under the radar for most casual readers. "Tiffany Aching's Guide to Being a Witch" definitely doesn't mention him anywhere, to the extent where I wondered/feared if it was a deliberate snub and whether there had been some bad blood between him and Rhianna in the aftermath. But maybe my brain has just been poisoned by exposure to American showbusiness news - I do hope they're all doing fine. Since neither of them seem to be very active on social media, it can be hard to tell sometimes.
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Feb 7, 2024 08:45
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I had always assumed that Rob was doing a lot to help him over the line at the end. One thing I do remember is that at some point the characters stopped sounding like themselves, presumably because it just got harder and harder to hit that consistent character voice, and I suspect that's more true when you have someone acting as amanuensis and live editor or whatnot. I don't mean any shade to Rob over that to be clear. It must have been impossibly hard.
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Feb 7, 2024 08:50
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Dave Syndrome posted:Reading the book it definitely made me wonder just how much of the last ten Discworld novels or so was actually Rob providing the cement for Terry's bricks. I don't have my books here with me right now, but is he ever credited in some way? I don't remember any "Thanks to" notes in the beginning of the books ever, but that also may be my bad memory. He's definitely flown under the radar for most casual readers. He is completey open about what books he had to put together and which one he didn't have to do that. There's no need to speculate. Reading the book I also found it interesting that Pratchett didn't really have any beef with Rowling either. He wrote one article and that was that. Alhazred fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Feb 7, 2024 |
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Feb 7, 2024 12:19
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Alhazred posted:There also isn't any need to try and invent a story about bad blood between Rob and Rhianna. Apologies if it came across that way - that was not my intention in the least. (EDIT: Rambling explanation snipped. I'm going through some personal crap right now that leads to me posting inside thoughts, worries and fears outside. I'm going to take a break from posting for a while. If some friendly mod could hit me with a one month probation or so, I'd appreciate it. Sorry again.) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) Dave Syndrome fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Feb 7, 2024 |
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Feb 7, 2024 16:06
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Dave Syndrome posted:Apologies if it came across that way - that was not my intention in the least. <3 to you goonfriend, pm me if you want to come back early otherwise see you on your return.
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Feb 7, 2024 22:09
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Skyl3lazer posted:I only really felt the quality dip in Raising Steam, right at the very end. Snuff was the first one where I really noticed it feeling different. What would have been a witty aside or a pithy back-and-forth in earlier books is now a page-long monologue. I don't know if "heavy handed" is exactly the right term, because it's not like earlier books were exactly subtle with a lot of the message, but it just feels a lot rougher and unrefined from Snuff onwards.
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Feb 8, 2024 05:32
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Wingnut Ninja posted:Snuff was the first one where I really noticed it feeling different. What would have been a witty aside or a pithy back-and-forth in earlier books is now a page-long monologue. I don't know if "heavy handed" is exactly the right term, because it's not like earlier books were exactly subtle with a lot of the message, but it just feels a lot rougher and unrefined from Snuff onwards. One thing I do think you noticed, if only subconsciously, is that despite quite a few people dying in the book Snuff is the only Discworld novel in which Death does not appear. I think Pterry had things on his mind at the time.
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Feb 8, 2024 07:23
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Snuff and Raising Steam are the only "bad" Discworld books imo, though tbh I didn't really like The Shepard's Crown either. The obvious bits are still good but there's some writing in there that made me think "man this reads like Discworld fanfic" at the time 
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Feb 8, 2024 08:40
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The fact that Shepard's Crown reached a state where they could publish it at all is a small miracle.
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Feb 8, 2024 12:43
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:Snuff and Raising Steam are the only "bad" Discworld books imo, though tbh I didn't really like The Shepard's Crown either. The obvious bits are still good but there's some writing in there that made me think "man this reads like Discworld fanfic" at the time Even Snuff is internally coherent.
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Feb 8, 2024 15:38
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Snuff was the first Discworld book I ever bounced off of, and that's when I knew it was time.
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Feb 8, 2024 15:41
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Alhazred posted:The fact that Shepard's Crown reached a state where they could publish it at all is a small miracle. I think the entirety of the effort went into That Chapter, which makes me cry every single time I read it. The rest of the book is just there to give a reason for that chapter to exist.
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Feb 8, 2024 15:50
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ConfusedUs posted:I think the entirety of the effort went into That Chapter, which makes me cry every single time I read it. ^^ This. The rest of the book, you can see such a decline. And then that chapter hits, it guts you extra hard.
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Feb 9, 2024 14:46
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I'll say it yet again, The Shepherd's Crown is a genuine miracle. To go from Raising Steam, a completely Not Great book, to all the cool stuff in Shepherd's Crown? I really don't want to be crass here but terminal lucidity is the only thing that comes to mind
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Feb 9, 2024 18:26
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Large parts of Shepherds Crown were written a while before the embuggerance really took hold.
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Feb 10, 2024 02:43
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Me n Nova just finished Carpe Jugulum. I had a blast doing vampiric accent variations. We have already read most of the Tiffany Aching books so we were already introduced to the Nac Mac Feegle. I think my favorite bit is Igor, it's written with the speech built in, it's like Terry knew what voice i was already going to do.
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Feb 10, 2024 04:21
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sebmojo posted:The biography will make you cry a lot but in an extremely good way, it's excellent. Got like four pages in before I started crying a bit. This is going to be a rough ride, isn't it?
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Feb 12, 2024 10:10
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lines posted:Got like four pages in before I started crying a bit. This is going to be a rough ride, isn't it? There's a kind of ... thoughtful rigour ...to it that makes it even sadder, but you have a lot of pages before it really bites.
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Feb 12, 2024 20:50
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Phenotype posted:I have been reading Terry Pratchett for over 25 years and it was just now pointed out to me that dwarf bread is supposed to be a parallel of Tolkien's elf bread, which can also keep you going for days but which can't be used to beat a troll to death. Also surprisingly real-world accurate, if you've ever tried to eat hardtack.
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Feb 13, 2024 02:55
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sebmojo posted:There's a kind of ... thoughtful rigour ...to it that makes it even sadder, but you have a lot of pages before it really bites. Yeah, it gives you a little taste but then things are so good for so long you can kind of forget it even if you know it’s coming, and then, well.
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Feb 13, 2024 02:58
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