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

Presto: Nov 22, 2002; Keep calm and Harry on.

Talking of characters dying... I think Granny Weatherwax's time may be coming soon. There have been a few hints, especially in the Tiffany Aching books, that she is starting to feel like an old woman, despite the fact that, well, she's Granny Weatherwax.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2007 00:38

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 05:16

Presto: Nov 22, 2002; Keep calm and Harry on.

Jolly Jumbuck posted:

It's more of the second kind. It was just weird because the DC book festival was the largest I'd ever seen, and yet on the mall, most of the people in line were for his signing. This thread showed he was fairly popular on the SA forums, but the magnitude of his total popularity in the DC area amazed me. The signing area would have been about 1/4 the size if he hadn't been there.

Yeah, I'm not sure the organizers knew what they were getting into. He was supposed to be signing from 1-2 PM. They had to separate the Pratchett line into multiple lines because it kept getting out into the pedestrian area. By the time I got there at about 10 after 1, they were up to 12 lines! They extended his signing to 3:00 and I just got in under the wire.

I was kind of disappointed because at a normal signing you can talk to him for a bit while he signs, and he'll add a custom dedication. This time they were hustling people through as fast as possible -- hand over the book, he scrawls a signature, get out.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2007 22:07

Presto: Nov 22, 2002; Keep calm and Harry on.

KTS posted:

There's something about Witches Abroad that I just really hate.

The gambling scene on the riverboat is one of the finest things he's ever written.

mentor07825 posted:

Has anyone here even gone to his book signings?

Hell, I've been to at least three, and I live in the US. One interesting one was at the National Book Festival in DC a few years ago. The interesting thing about it was how massively the organizers underestimated the fanbase. I got there pretty early and the line was already enormous. It eventually got so long that they had to start a second line. And then they had to cut it. And then the signing still ran over the scheduled time even though all he was doing was scribbling his name as fast as he could.

# ¿ Apr 8, 2011 23:28

Presto: Nov 22, 2002; Keep calm and Harry on.

Nilbop posted:

And Pterry has just illustrated this in a way no other author ever has for me, with great help from Vimes and Vetinari but mostly just through short passages or minor but important plot points explaining how everything works.

There's a story of when he was on some panel with other fantasy authors at a con or something, and the topic was designing a fictional city. Terry's answer was that you have to start by asking how the water gets in and how the crap gets out, and the other authors didn't like that so much.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2011 20:36

Presto: Nov 22, 2002; Keep calm and Harry on.

Sophia posted:

Pestilence and the others call Death "Mort" as a nickname, rather than the later character actually being there.

Yes, it's a joke. Mort = Morte = Death. Plus if I remember right, in the book Mort, there's a line where Death asks Mort his name, and Mort says something like, "Mortimer, sir. They call me Mort." And Death says, "WHAT A COINCIDENCE."

# ¿ Jul 22, 2011 17:56

Presto: Nov 22, 2002; Keep calm and Harry on.

The DC event was pretty funny, especially when they were recounting visiting the set for Hobbiton in New Zealand and he said that from what he could tell, Hobbits "never took a shite" because there were no bathrooms or outhouses anywhere.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2011 19:16

Presto: Nov 22, 2002; Keep calm and Harry on.

Joramun posted:

Can someone who is familiar with both of them tell me how much of the book is Pratchett and how much of it Gaiman, and specifically what elements?

Gaiman did the part about the maggots. That's all I know for sure.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2012 21:24

Presto: Nov 22, 2002; Keep calm and Harry on.

Tarezax posted:

I remember it being phrased as "how the water gets in and the poo poo gets out".

This is from an interview published in the back of The Discworld Companion:

Terry Pratchett posted:

I was once on a panel as some international fantasy convention where the creation of fantasy cities was discussed, and some of the Americans weren't very impressed when I said that you had to start out by wondering how the fresh water got in and how the sewage got out. But worrying about the fresh water is a major concern of all cities. The sewage hasn't always been quite such a problem because someone somewhere has generally made some money out of taking it away, or there was a handy river. World building from the bottom up, to use a happy phrase, is more fruitful than doing it from the top down. How do the million inhabitants get fed? How are they policed? What kind of politics evolve?

I found that those questions started me thinking in new ways. And that the real monsters we have to do battle with are the ones in here with us, not in some magic kingdom far, far, away.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2012 19:39

Presto: Nov 22, 2002; Keep calm and Harry on.

Nilbop posted:

Yes they are top-of-the-tree side characters. Mustrum Ridcully is so perfectly formed it is absolutely uncanny.

The great thing about a lot of Pratchett's characters is that you probably know someone like them. The world is filled with Nanny Oggs and Mustrum Ridcullys and Sergeant Colons.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2012 06:59

Presto: Nov 22, 2002; Keep calm and Harry on.

Wistful Thinking posted:

The only other time I can think of is Lance Constable Cuddy's "I'm too short for this poo poo" line in Men at Arms. Still gets a chuckle out of me.

In one of the books there's a section where a character is warning another character about the Librarian, and they say something like, "It's all right, just don't say monkey. _^Ohshit."

# ¿ Feb 29, 2012 23:01

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 05:16

Presto: Nov 22, 2002; Keep calm and Harry on.

Jedit posted:

A signing tour is different; then he does nothing but sign and briefly chat with people. I expect signing is restricted to one item per person, so combined with the talking he'll only be signing one or two books a minute. That's doable for a few hours, when he has nothing else to do and can sleep between stops.

When he was in DC on tour last year he wasn't signing at all; just using a stamp.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2012 20:47

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