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

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ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

Long post but whenever Hogfather is mentioned I think of the following quote and how much it has shaped my world view since first time I read it 12 years ago. The works of Terry Pratchett (and Kurt Vonnegut) have changed the way I think about myself, the world, and my place in it. Happy Hogswatch everyone!

quote:

"All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little�"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET�Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point�"

MY POINT EXACTLY.

ONE YEAR LATER fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Dec 26, 2014

# ¿ Dec 25, 2014 22:45

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 02:59

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

Yes, he's a Santa figure, even down to dressing in white and red, riding a sled, and throwing things through windows.

Also I'll edit my post to include spoilers sorry about that.

# ¿ Dec 26, 2014 05:27

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

Feet of Clay makes me tear up every time I reread it.

WORDS IN THE HEART CANNOT BE TAKEN.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2015 16:27

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

First Sam Simon, now Terry Pratchett. Bad week for a kid who spent multiple summers watching The Simpsons reruns all day and reading Discworld paperbacks all night. This is how I felt when Kurt Vonnegut died, a small part of me is missing now. The impact Pratchett had on my world view is immeasurable, I know I would not be the same person if I had not picked up an anthology of short stories with one written by a guy named Terry years ago.

Talk about a bummer two days before I'm going on vacation. I don't even want to go to work today, but I guess I can't tell them someone I never met died and I need to go cry a bunch.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2015 18:18

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

I think Feet of Clay is my favorite Watch book and I'm due for a re-read.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2019 17:52

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

Richard Dormer does look like Vimes in the Paul Kidby illustrations, at least in that one shot.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2020 23:02

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

At least the Hogfather adaption was good.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2020 17:03

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

The first Discworld I read was a short story in a collection of shorts by various fantasy authors. It was a Granny Wetherwax story, I had no context for what was going on but I enjoyed it enough to seek out The Color of Magic and went from there.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2020 01:09

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

Publication order or bust

# ¿ Jan 29, 2021 17:43

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

Feliday Melody posted:

If you could pick any Discworld book to turn into a good and faithful movie/series adaptation. Which would it be?

Stand alone it would have to be Small Gods. But Feet of Clay is probably my favorite book of the series and to see a good version of that would be amazing.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2021 19:29

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

SQUEAK

# ¿ Nov 2, 2021 21:35

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

A fish!

# ¿ Nov 12, 2021 18:56

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

Publishing order or bust

# ¿ Nov 15, 2021 00:22

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

Pratchett could write good cops since he was writing fantasy books.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2021 15:17

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

Publication order or gtfo

# ¿ Aug 5, 2022 21:09

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

The first Pratchett I read was a short story featuring Granny Weatherwax, then I went and started from The Color of Magic.

It's a good short story:

https://www.angelfire.com/weird2/athenia/stories/pterry/sea.htm

# ¿ Aug 18, 2022 00:11

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

Yeah I was surprised that the link worked haha

# ¿ Aug 18, 2022 00:17

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

I gotta reread the Aching books, the ending of the first one with Ghost Granny and the dogs is something that I think of fairly often and I read that book 20 years ago.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2022 22:27

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

Beachcomber posted:

Look up when it is, and read the short story

"The Sea and Little Fishes."

If you can't get a hard copy, there are alternative ways to access it, and it's really good.

ONE YEAR LATER posted:

The first Pratchett I read was a short story featuring Granny Weatherwax, then I went and started from The Color of Magic.

It's a good short story:

https://www.angelfire.com/weird2/athenia/stories/pterry/sea.htm

# ¿ Dec 24, 2022 05:30

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

Give me publication order or give me death.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2023 00:00

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

SEE YOU SOON
- DEATH

# ¿ Jun 10, 2023 00:29

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

Reaper Man, Catch-22, and Slaughterhouse-Five are my three "these books shaped who I am" picks. Well, pretty much all of pratchett and vonnegut but if I gotta pick it's those ones.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2023 22:21

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

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.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2024 00:49

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 02:59

ONE YEAR LATER: Apr 13, 2004; Fry old buddy, it's me, Bender!; Oven Wrangler

Publication order, don't listen to anyone else I'm the correct one

# ¿ Mar 26, 2024 19:37

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

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