Thread: Rock on...

TRX
08-04-2011
Terry Pratchett is one of the most popular authors in Britain, and supposedly he's in the top ten in the USA, though given the difficulty in finding any of his books here it's hard to say how that happened. Most of his work is in the fantasy genre, usually set in the Discworld, which, though it operates on an entirely different set of physical laws, has eerie similarities to our own world. The quality of the books varies, and some are for young adults or children, but that's okay, because he's written a whole lot of them. I guess I'm in tune with his weird sense of humor since I managed to drive off the edge of the freeway at 70mph one night since I was laughing too hard to see...

Pratchett often works references to rock music into his books, and one book (Soul Music) was dedicated to the problem of "music with stones in it" leaking into the Discworld via the Dungeon Dimensions. He and I are on pretty much the same page as far as bands and songs.

Back in '07 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He and the BBC made pretty horrifying documentary about the disease. In '09 he was knighted as Sir Terry, and a great number of people have received the honor for less. Recently he made another documentary, this one about assisted suicide. He's physically healthy, which means he could live a long time as a vegetable, being only 63 at the moment.

As a knight, he has a crest, an escutcheon, and a motto. And the motto is... "Don't fear the reaper."

Well, yes. I should have seen that one coming... Rock on, Terry.

For those of you without time to read much, there have been film adaptations of some of his books. I recommend "The Colour of Magic" and "Hogfather." There are audio versions of all of his works; thankfully I haven't gotten tangled in any power tools yet while listening to them...

And a few quotes from his books:

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks.
-- (Equal Rites)

In Ghat they believe in vampire watermelons, although folklore is silent about *what* they believe about vampire watermelons. Possibly they suck back.
-- (Carpe Jugulum)

No enemies had ever taken Ankh-Morpork. Well *technically* they had, quite often; the city welcomed free-spending barbarian invaders, but somehow the puzzled raiders found, after a few days, that they didn't own their horses any more, and within a couple of months they were just another minority group with its own graffiti and food shops.
-- (Eric)

Rumour is information distilled so finely that it can filter through anything. It does not need doors and windows -- sometimes it does not need people. It can exist free and wild, running from ear to ear without ever touching lips.
-- (Feet of Clay)

Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on.
-- (Hogfather)

The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head.
-- (Hogfather)

"Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life."
-- (Jingo)

The person on the other side was a young woman. Very obviously a young woman. There was no possible way that she could have been mistaken for a young man in any language, especially Braille.
--(Maskerade)

Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.
-- (Men at Arms)

Azhural raised his staff. "It's fifteen hundred miles to Ankh-Morpork," he said. "We've got three hundred and sixty-three elephants, fifty carts of forage, the monsoon's about to break and we're wearing... we're wearing... sort of things, like glass, only dark... dark glass things on our eyes..."
-- (Moving Pictures)