Terry Pratchett dies aged 66

[simonp]

Just reading some nice tributes on Twitter. Before I got into Audax, Discworld books were how I kept my sleep deprivation levels up.

"Reflected sound of underground spirits" still makes me smile inwardly 20 years later.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Monstrous regiment is fantastic. I remember my stepson (big pratchett fan) buying a copy, reading it then looking confused "It's all political". Well, quite a few of the books have political undertones. The impact of 'financial services' on small people, racism is a particular theme in the discworld novels.

He will be greatly missed.

[Ham]

I can't pass an Odeon without thinking of the Odium, the first moving picture house. Well, it was a room with lots of people stuck together in the hot and dark, wasn't it?

[Steph]

I remember how stuffy the establishment was about him. Some tosser who had clearly never read any of his work spoke of "adolescent masturbatory fantasy". Another po-faced twunt said on TV that his writing was "for the functionally illiterate"

[Kim]

I remember how stuffy the establishment was about him. Some tosser who had clearly never read any of his work spoke of "adolescent masturbatory fantasy". Another po-faced twunt said on TV that his writing was "for the functionally illiterate"

They were just jealous because he had a cool hat.

[Mr Larrington]

I remember how stuffy the establishment was about him. Some tosser who had clearly never read any of his work spoke of "adolescent masturbatory fantasy". Another po-faced twunt said on TV that his writing was "for the functionally illiterate"

They were just jealous because he had a cool hat.

(Ponders whether the combination of Sir Terry and bobb's hat would have worked)

(Decides it probably wouldn't)

If $BOOK is read and enjoyed then it might lead the reader on to reading other books.  Admittedly the likelihood of someone making the jump from the Discworld to Martin Amis is slim, but so is the likelihood of anyone who has read a Martin Amis novel ever reading another Martin Amis novel (sample size=1).

[Morrisette]

Very sad news. I grew up with Sir Terry. Somewhere I have a letter he sent to me in reply to a (rather gushing) fan letter a teen-aged me wrote to him about, IIRC, Soul Music. He'd clearly read my letter, and answered it personally. I thought that was great, still do.

His writing has passed into our everyday use. Bad hair has been a Magrat day since Witches Abroad. We often cook 'curry with named meat' in Chez Morrisette, cursing the goddess Anoia when the ladle gets stuck in the drawer....

How can he be gone? This has made me very sad 

[mrcharly-YHT]

Pratchett-coined phrases that have made their way into daily use (well, in our household at least)

"Buggerit millenium hand and shrimp!"

"CMOT"

ANY mention of the word 'moist' is followed by 'von lipwig'

"I An't Ded"

[caerau]

I used to play a silly role playing game called Nethack a long time ago.  I was extremely delighted once when I entered a portal and came down in Ankh Morpork 

[mrcharly-YHT]

I used to play a silly role playing classic game called Nethack a long time ago.  I was extremely delighted once when I entered a portal and came down in Ankh Morpork 

FTFY

[Mr Larrington]

Long ago onna nother corner of teh Intarwebs I had an alternate id viz. Foul Ole Ron

[Ham]

Oh yes http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/31867210

[T42]

Very sad indeed.  For dastards, plots and evil puns there were none like him.

Interesting trivium: Back in the 70s, a while after Ringworld, Larry Niven wrote a survey of possible kinds of artificial worlds: the Ringworld, the Dyson Sphere and several others. Of one of them he said "you could take all the matter in your system and form it into a disc.  You'd put a hole in the middle and bob the sun up and down to create day and night.  The shadows would always be long and dark, but it'd be a great place to set a swords and sorcery novel."

The first Discworld novel appeared some years later.  The cosmology was a bit different, but I always wondered if TP had read that Niven article.

[T42]

Oh yes http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/31867210

 

[woollypigs]

http://xkcd.com/1498/

[caerau]

I used to play a silly role playing classic game called Nethack a long time ago.  I was extremely delighted once when I entered a portal and came down in Ankh Morpork 

FTFY

 

[ian]

Never got on the with the books, but he seemed a nice chap.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I used to play a silly role playing classic game called Nethack a long time ago.  I was extremely delighted once when I entered a portal and came down in Ankh Morpork 

FTFY

 

In a meeting at work we debated what we could port onto (very small) Linux. I suggested nethack, a youngish engineer said "What's that?". His boss gave him a sharp look and said "Remind me again why we employed you."

[caerau]

I used to play a silly role playing classic game called Nethack a long time ago.  I was extremely delighted once when I entered a portal and came down in Ankh Morpork 

FTFY

 

In a meeting at work we debated what we could port onto (very small) Linux. I suggested nethack, a youngish engineer said "What's that?". His boss gave him a sharp look and said "Remind me again why we employed you."

    First character I ever ascended was a tourist 

[interested]

The first Discworld novel appeared some years later.  The cosmology was a bit different, but I always wondered if TP had read that Niven article.

Yes, actually Pratchett's pre-Discworld Sci-Fi story "Strata" is a spoof on Niven's Ringworld series. Allegedly Larry Nivens read it and was pleased with it.
http://h2g2.com/approved_entry/A666119

"The Colour of Magic" and "Light Fantastic" are rather superb examples of menippean satire, full of allusions and spoofs of scientific debates (the steady gait theory instead of steady state theory), board and roleplaying games, Greek mythology and Homer's Ulysses, though some of the classic intertextuality apparently are from movies, not from the classic texts. There is also H.P. Lovecraft and Cthulhu, and several fantasy spoofs including "Cohen the Barbarian". Basically Pratchett was inspired by a broad wealth of books, movies and current affairs, and poked fun at it too.

[Steph]

As part of my final assessments for my language degree, I had to choose, analyse and contrast two texts, with particular regard to creativity and intertextuality.

I chose the start of 'Good Omens', with a paragraph from each author (TP and Gaiman) and in contrast, the section of Stross' 'A Colder War' in which he lists the failings of previous POTUSAs. Needless to say, the HPL references were numerous.

[caerau]

Ooh an h2g2 link - I am an old hand on that site - nice to see it linked     


Very much a place of Terry Pratchett style fandom

[pcolbeck]

I only read a couple of his books and that was years ago. Always seemed a lovely chap though.
I downloaded The Colour of Money last night onto my Kindle.
39 more Disc Worlds to go for me so I am luckier than a lot of people.

[andrewc]

Another one who's never read any of his stuff,  there just seemed so much of it & I didn't have the shelf space.

I'm amused by this https://www.change.org/p/death-bring-back-terry-pratchett 

[Wowbagger]

I have just recalled that my younger son used to play an online shoot-em-up called Unreal Tournament. He was extremely good at it (World top 50 or some such). His UT name was "Luggage".