RIP -Terry Pratchett

[Beanz]

He was regularly dismissed by critics who could not bring themselves to read books with non humans in them, already deciding for themselves that anything so obviously entertaining and colourful, must also be frivolous and asinine, that in the end we all got to keep him to ourselves. He was all the more special for it, and if you are thinking “oh that guy with the funny hat has died, must read one of his books to see what all the fuss is about “ then don't bother, you probably wouldn't get it and frankly we don't want you to. He is too precious to share.


Life is cruel but for Pratchett, Death was everything but that. The one constant that existed outside of a world that Terry created to mirror the outrageous ridiculousness and stupidity of our own. The discworld series is in itself a postmodern comment. A parody of Fantasy cliché that became a series of novels examining the classes and races of creatures and humans that sci-fi and fantasy novelists had so lazily typecast in Gothic font for generations, forgetting to invest in them the human stories and tell tale homosapien behaviours, that had made Tolkien, and previous myth makers, enthralling for both young and old.


Discworlds Death is not cruel, because he signifies the end of suffering, the removal of the veil that is human pomposity, and with workman like efficiency his scythe severs any remaining attachment to an illusory ego that may blind those freed from this mortal coil. He illuminates truth. I have just finishing re-reading a hard bound copy of Mort today. The tale of a young lad who becomes Death's apprentice and the trouble he gets into trying to change reality into a more just and kind experience. In it he reveals a great truth


“It struck Mort with sudden, terrible poignancy that Death must be the loneliest creature in the universe. In the great party of Creation, he was always in the kitchen”


For all our childhood longing to be Heroes ,or Witches, or Wizards, or Trolls (some of us succeeded there) we soon realise that life itself is easy to get trapped within. Doomed to repeat the same patterns again and again like hamsters caught in a perpetual wheel. There does not have to be a point to make life meaningful because the living of it creates it's own meaning. Again from Mort


THAT’S MORTALS FOR YOU, Death continued. THEY’VE ONLY GOT A FEW YEARS IN THIS WORLD AND THEY SPEND THEM ALL IN MAKING THINGS COMPLICATED FOR THEMSELVES. FASCINATING


I don't think Terry Pratchett spent his life in the kitchen. He went into his head to take us all out of ours and lived his life as an adventure with scant regard to being considered worthy or a creator of great literary works. He was a satirist like Woodhouse and Douglas Adams but he was also a Philosopher and had an abiding love of Science and Folklore, Literature, Prose, Cultural Phenomenons, Religion, Art, Cinema, Military Strategy, Opera, etc. He was neither generalist or polymath, he was a man that reflected the changes that transformed the world he grew up through and catered to readers that had no wish to be talked down to or told stories in clumsy language with no eloquence and brevity. Most “fantasy” had, and often still is, weighed down in the piling on of detail, because it has no prescient insights into our own world with which to present us. You can not read one Discworld novel without coming away with the smell of the place or the surprising empathy for the plight of some creature or person so different from yourself yet in the end so utterly familiar. It's his genius. He made it seem easy and so like Dickens you are walking the streets of another world but you may be led by a Tibetan Monk who discusses with you the nature of time, or you may think that you are going into a JB Priestly style whodunnit with the commander of the city Watch, but then Sam Vimes is revealed to be at once, both an efficient pragmatist and an idealistic socialist. He was also very funny and that is an essential attribute to understanding.


He was not a one for big eulogies. He believed life was for living and I can never claim to have met the bloke so forgive me for my indulgence, but I think he summed it up in Mort. In it he said


“People don't alter history any more than birds alter the sky, they just make brief patterns in it.”


It's not a hopeless thought. It's a reminder that there are always things much bigger than us. Whoever we may be. In the end there is no master plan, we just tell ourselves there is to make ourselves feel better. Life. Now. The Present. That is what is important. Not some future reward or punishment.


“He was determined to discover the underlying logic behind the universe.
Which was going to be hard, because there wasn't one.” Mort






Thanks Terry, you made a lot of people very happy and a little wiser.


RIP

[Gandalf]

"In the end there is no master plan, we just tell ourselves there is to make ourselves feel better. Life. Now. The Present. That is what is important. Not some future reward or punishment."

Good philosophy, though I would stress a little moderation too. Too much of a good thing in the now can mean nothing in the well for tomorrow and that can be a pit of despair too and often an early death. Even politics is all about the now....but what about unfunded liabilities? A little forward thinking is always good. Live today, but think about your future a bit, and try to come to terms with your past the best you can is how I try to approach it, but there is no right and wrong in this tiny speck of forever that we are. If devices such as God help some, then fair enough I say. It doesn't make sense to my way of thinking, but I guess we all find our own ways and Pratchett seems to have done it his way and good for him.

I haven't read any of his books, but know of him and that he made a difference is of course a good thing. Nothing against fantasy myself and I often regard this reality as a kind of fantasy with the absurd things going on constantly. What would you say his best works are?

[SugarBoxing]

yea, RIP, and take all your books back to HELL, where they came from

[Gandalf]

You all have the fantasy genre in common.

[Memphis]

yea, RIP, and take all your books back to HELL, where they came from

I thought you liked fictional books?

[Beanz]

"In the end there is no master plan, we just tell ourselves there is to make ourselves feel better. Life. Now. The Present. That is what is important. Not some future reward or punishment."

Good philosophy, though I would stress a little moderation too. Too much of a good thing in the now can mean nothing in the well for tomorrow and that can be a pit of despair too and often an early death. Even politics is all about the now....but what about unfunded liabilities? A little forward thinking is always good. Live today, but think about your future a bit, and try to come to terms with your past the best you can is how I try to approach it, but there is no right and wrong in this tiny speck of forever that we are. If devices such as God help some, then fair enough I say. It doesn't make sense to my way of thinking, but I guess we all find our own ways and Pratchett seems to have done it his way and good for him.

I haven't read any of his books, but know of him and that he made a difference is of course a good thing. Nothing against fantasy myself and I often regard this reality as a kind of fantasy with the absurd things going on constantly. What would you say his best works are?

When I said "Not some future reward and punishment" I was referring to the afterlife. So NOW refers to life on earth as humans.
Where to start ? Remember it's entertainment. It's witty and intelligent but don't go in expecting Satre or John Updike. If you like Douglas Adams, Robert Rankin etc you should love it

Good Omens (with Neil Gaiman) - An angel and a demon try to save the world from an apocalypse.

Mort - DEATH takes on an apprentice

Small Gods - Pratchett takes a healthy skeptical swipe at religion

Nation - Survivors of a devastating tsunami wave band together on an island called Nation (it's for younger readers but lovely none the less)

Guards!Guards! - dragons, secret brotherhoods and the introduction of Sam Vimes, firm believer in social justice and the value of old boots

The discworld series starts with The Colour of Magic but it's not his best work and the later books move away from it. You may love it but I would leave that until you have tried one of the five above.

[Gandalf]

Wasn't fully sure how to read it, but got you now. Douglas Adams was very good. A guy at work is really into fantasy stuff, so might pop into his office and have a gander. Loads of books on his shelves, so must be something like that in there.

[brocktonblockbust]

Let's talk about Discworld, undoubtedly what Pratchett is most well known for. I say its a decent work indeed. There's no denying that Pratchett was a popular author.. He has twenty million books in circulation and is the second most read author in Britain. I can say without a doubt that he is far from a bad author and that while not my first pick for second most author in Britain, there are many worse choices. His books are fun, but are they truly some of the finest literary works the universe has ever seen? Personally, I can't see it. A lot of his books are parodies, and while they're clever, that's all they are: clever. They don't reveal deeper truths about the nature of man, nor do they really deal with deep themes about society. Pratchett flirts with these things, sure, I remember the part about when Vimes kills the werewolf. ETC... And that's fine, that's what makes his books enjoyable. He takes something familiar like say Conan the Barbarian, Genghis Khan, or whatever and rolls it up in his particular brand of parody. Nothing wrong with that. May he rest in Peace, a solid author and thinker. The world would be better with more people like him.

[Master]

RIP never heard of him until his death but sounded like a legend.

[Dia bando]

Yes I have read a few Pratchett books, a fine fantasy sci f writer RIP.

[Andre]

RIP never heard of him until his death but sounded like a legend.

Me too.

[Beanz]

RIP never heard of him until his death but sounded like a legend.

Me too.

He was interesting too Andre because of developing a rare kind of Alzheimer Disease that made him an unwitting advocate of not only those suffering from it, but also for the right to die with dignity, should a person so wish.

[ryanman]

RIP never heard of him until his death but sounded like a legend.

I'm honestly stunned you had not heard of him Master.

[ryanman]

I haven't read any of his books.
I was though impressed and humbled by the bravery and dignity with which he faced Alzheimers.