The Terry Pratchett Thread: For the sake of prisoners and the flight of birds

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The Terry Pratchett Thread: For the sake of prisoners and the flight of birds

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Zephyrine posted:

It took me a while to get used to Rinsewind's "poo poo poo poo poo poo poo poo poo poo poo poo poo poo" line because he never seems to say the word outside of that "string"

He has that excellent "spell" in Latin in Interesting Times. The "mantra he uses to raise the magical fluxes" or whatever.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2014 17:24

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# ¿ May 6, 2024 13:41

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

thespaceinvader posted:

Theories abound as to why, including 'well he wasn't a Vampire back then'.

Is he, canonically? I know he has the close relationship with Lady Margolotta, and a lot of the signs, but has that been confirmed?

# ¿ Jul 22, 2014 01:47

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Trin Tragula posted:

Presumably when Mister Vimes gets back and finishes going spare, they return to clamping duty until some point after Night Watch when Fred begins to slow down even more than he had done already.

They put clamps on the Opera House :3:

# ¿ Sep 3, 2014 04:29

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

mirthdefect posted:

Did you know they've made Discworld miniatures? They're pretty rad.

Those are indeed pretty rad.

Reading through the descriptions, I learned something! When did we learn that the Guild of Assassins has a "a considerable price" on the Duck Man's head?

# ¿ Oct 3, 2014 03:50

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Sam. posted:

How does nobody die in a Watch book?

Vimes isn't a wizard, he can't automatically see Death.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2014 21:12

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

subx posted:

Eric is one of the weirder books. It's not really "bad" but I don't believe I've ever heard anyone call it good either. If I were making suggestions to someone on reading order, Eric probably would not be in there at all, or at the very least after you read the better books.

The only scene I even remember in any detail at all is the one at the end with We are in the damnation business!!!

(and I guess also the one where Rincewind tells the guy he gets home okay)

...it just didn't leave any impression on me at all

# ¿ Dec 6, 2014 10:05

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Gravitas Shortfall posted:

And also why Vetinari's nickname at school is "Dog Botherer"

And when your last name is Vetinari, madam, you're lucky if it's only "Dog Botherer".

# ¿ Dec 24, 2014 15:49

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

GodFish posted:

Pretty sure it was "Where's Muntab?"

Yeah, I thought it was "Where the hell is Muntab?" myself too for some reason.

# ¿ May 5, 2015 08:01

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

EvilTaytoMan posted:

Honestly, I forgot he existed until I reread it recently.

He did have the one good scene where he was pretending to be a priest and had to deliver theology off the top of his head to an old lady. I enjoyed that specific scene.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2015 05:20

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

snograt posted:

Possibly not the Long Earth sequels - but I can blame the co-author.

That series is so weird. Both of the authors are great individually and yet somehow the collaborative product is borderline unreadable to me.

# ¿ May 10, 2016 16:23

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Kesper North posted:

You mean that his talent didn't spring fully formed from the head of Zeus like your better class of Greek god?!

I liked that random airplane section :shobon:

Mostly the humor in Rincewind's Earth-equivalent having a completely useless doctorate in giant nuclear reactors, but still.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2016 19:50

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Brainiac Five posted:

There's a well-known psychological phenomenon involved in reading/listening where you overestimate the presence of phrases or words that stick out to you. It's related to the process where you see words everywhere for a while after you learn them.

Which is called the "Baader-Meinhof phenomenon" or the frequency illusion, depending on who you ask :eng101:

# ¿ Sep 11, 2016 05:57

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Screaming Idiot posted:

I like how as the series progresses otherworldly things begin to fade. Indeed, in Raising Steam the wizards and Sweeper only had token appearances -- appearances which I personally believe should have been cut out since they're pretty obvious notes from Pratchett to tell us, "Yes, these characters still exist, and they, too, are completely okay with non-magical, non-quantum engineering."

Eh, it's an interesting contrast to the bit in The Truth where the wizards actively try to interfere. Not written as well as it could have been, especially because The Truth had more Bursar, but I thought it was deliberately a parallel.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2016 19:07

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Ddraig posted:

Didn't he sort of do that in the Last Hero? The Divine Right of Kings sort of says that Kings are favoured by the gods and he certainly was when he squared up against the entire silver horde and won.

Didn't Cohen call that one out as the Code? One man, with a sword and a badge, against a bunch of men who have lived by the Code, and all that.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2016 20:08

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Mad Hamish posted:

This is basically it, and I'm fairly certain that it's explicitly stated at one point in a book that heavily involves the Faculty.

It's also mentioned pretty explicitly in The Last Hero when he has the conversation with his brother, who has the same job with different funny hats.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2016 16:53

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Alhazred posted:

Discworld Noir is an unique point-and-click game in that the crowbar you acquire early in the game is actually used the way a crowbar is used in the real world. I imagine that there were a lot of gamers used to the logic of the first games that were confused by that.

Next you'll be telling me you got a fake mustache by walking out to a Boffo shop and purchasing one, rather than scaring a cat into running across double-stick tape.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2016 19:15

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Jedit posted:

I don't know how matters stand in Germany, but Terry Pratchett is officially the author whose books are most frequently stolen from UK libraries. A donation of his books is only likely to be refused on basis of condition.

I did not know this and it's a fact that made me smile and brightened my day a little. That's excellent!

# ¿ Feb 10, 2017 18:47

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Skippy McPants posted:

He more than made up for it with the band name "We're Certainly Dwarfs."

...

I had been wondering what the joke there was for literally years.

...but obviously They Might Be Dwarfs, and in fact they certainly are dwarfs. Holy poo poo. How did I miss that?

# ¿ Jul 10, 2017 19:06

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

precision posted:

The wizard b-plot is the best part of Moving Pictures not named Gaspode.

Their little bits in Soul Music aren't awful but I think I'm just biased because both "BORN TO RUNE" and "BORN TO LIVE FATS DIE YO GNU" make me laugh every time.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2017 17:49

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Segway Rave posted:

Read his short story in Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy, then stop.

That's the one with Granny and the yearly witches' competition, right?

# ¿ Sep 13, 2017 21:56

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Rand Brittain posted:

Anathema's decision to burn it was important to her as a person, so of course Agnes would have sent it. And yeah, it was totally empty, because there was no point in actually writing it.

If they wanted to open it to a page to make sure it was legit, that page would have had text! (just like how picking an index card at random without picking them all up off the car floor would have worked just as well, Newt was not wrong)

But since they didn't, it was blank.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2019 21:01

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Snow Cone Capone posted:

I think you're right, I'm like 99% sure he makes a little aside about how he knows Vimes is/was Keel, which wouldn't have made sense at the beginning of the book.

He calls Vimes Sergeant to get him to slip up and respond, which confirms what he had suspected because Keel's body was cold from being stored in the morgue. Vimes asks him how long he knew and he says something like "since, oh, about thirty seconds ago" - being Vetinari, obviously he didn't know until it was confirmed for him firsthand.

Snow Cone Capone posted:

I don't think I've ever seen so much extrapolation and speculation over literally a single word out of a single quote before

The end of season one of The Venture Bros, before season two dropped, people kept mishearing "get their clothes" as "get their clones" and it sparked a years-long debate.

and then it turned out that yes he really did say clothes but the boys were clones and got replaced with more clones

# ¿ Nov 20, 2019 16:15

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Isn't it Carrot that does the "easy way/hard way" gag with a stick poking into a guard's back in uh, Fifth Elephant as well?

# ¿ Dec 30, 2019 17:11

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

My Lovely Horse posted:

I think the stick in the back gag went something along the lines of "don't turn around, or I'll be forced to do something I'll regret" (i.e. acknowledging that I only have a stick).

But now that I think about it that actually might have been Douglas Adams. There's no guns on Discworld anyway. Well, anymore.

Yeah, I think I'm thinking of that and conflating it with the scene above (the "go and look for another way in" clarified it for me)

# ¿ Dec 30, 2019 20:10

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

gently caress me, that's totally it. When they break into the Air Force base ("Peace is Our Profession")

# ¿ Dec 31, 2019 17:03

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

ConfusedUs posted:

Honestly, I don't like Wyrd Sisters much either. I feel like Witches don't find their feet until Witches Abroad, and then every book is gold.

Wyrd Sisters definitely feels like Early Pratchett, he seems to go a little too far to make explicit Shakespeare parodies.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2020 19:52

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Cardiac posted:

You say like it is a bad thing?

Unlike the later Witches books, it feels like the parodies get in the way of letting the characters breathe. But that's obviously just my opinion!

# ¿ Jan 9, 2020 15:09

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Canuckistan posted:

So who hired him? Assassins don't work for free.

"I come from the city. Think of me as... your future."

# ¿ Sep 19, 2020 12:07

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

freelop posted:

Considering how likely they are to explode without forcing them to shoot fire it doesn't seem like a practical weapon

IIRC she explicitly pointed that out, like "wow, these dragons sure do get nervous, better be careful..."

e: what I actually came in here to post is that
41 Discworld books are $4.99 each on Kindle today over at Amazon

and if I was not poor I'd just buy double copies and get rid of my physical ones forever

# ¿ Dec 11, 2020 20:33

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

are you sure the bitches make it quick line wasn't copypasted from literally any of the Borderlands games, I have no recollection of it but it would be tone-perfect

# ¿ Jan 2, 2021 21:41

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Jedit posted:

The Big Bopper reference is intentional. I've never been able to figure out how or if Glod Glodsson relates to Ritchie Valens, though.

Best I got is glod -> gold -> rich -> ritchie which isn't very good at all.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2021 14:51

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Alhazred posted:

..that we know of.

Without his generous small-business-friendly taxation policies there may not have been a single milkman servicing the entire city, and if Soak wasn't there he couldn't get found and then who knows what would happen?

# ¿ Aug 4, 2021 18:55

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Jedit posted:

Complete set barring The Last Hero is £529.

cowards not making a really, really big The Last Hero

# ¿ Jun 15, 2022 13:06

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

MisterBear posted:

Likewise, like I can just about remember that it exists - barely.

Nation, for me, falls into that category as well, and maybe Eric too.

Eric has the demon in charge of hell that's really into middle management and bureaucracy

if it doesn't have the "neuralger, a demon that shows up and has a headache at you" joke then oops, that's all I know about the entire book

# ¿ Jun 30, 2022 21:37

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Jedit posted:

It also adds a large dose of hilarity to Ponder Stibbons becoming the most progressive member of the UU faculty and pushing the boundaries of experimental magic, when in fact he technically isn't qualified as a wizard at all.

He knows what the answer to question one is. Which is what his name is. That was 100% on that exam.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2023 10:25

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Yeah, I was trying to evoke that. It's hilarious because I've absolutely done that where I'm like, looking over a test question that seems too easy, figuring I'm missing the mark, maybe I get some partial credit...

# ¿ Mar 12, 2023 10:54

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

dervival posted:

I do wonder how he would have responded if someone asked that beggar what the thing on his head was - it may look like a duck and quack like a duck, but who knows, really? Funny old world, really.

it's hair. the thing on top of his head is hair

(presumably if you asked him what was on top of that you might get the answer you're seeking, but you know he'd go for "it's hair")

# ¿ Sep 1, 2023 15:16

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Strange Cares posted:

Yeah it's really written to be read with full illustrations, there's a lot of details that are referred to in the text or that are glossed over in the plot because Terry assumes that you're looking at the pictures.

As someone who read the non-illustrated version like a decade before finding out there was an illustrated version, the only bits that stuck with me are the neuralger joke ("it's a demon that comes and has a headache at you") and the bit at the very end where the one demon is very happy just being a middle manager in Hell. I imagine the pictures would have done a lot more to make it memorable on first impression.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2024 14:45

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# ¿ May 6, 2024 13:41

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

The_Doctor posted:

Yeah, I don�t like them, either. I quite like the hardcover woodcut ones though.

these are goddamn fantastic, I should look into whether there's a way to switch the covers on the ebook versions I have from that enormous bundle because wow, I hate them and I love these

# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 12:31

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