Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter collaborate on 'The Long Earth'

From Cleveland.com:  Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter collaborate on 'The Long Earth'

The notion of a parallel universe probably has been around since humans first set down their spears to sniff daisies and ponder the sky.

So the idea at the center of the collaboration between British fantasy masters Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter doesn't exactly smack us on the head with originality. Yet it's the execution that makes or breaks a novel, and there's a lot to like about "The Long Earth." And I also harbor some reservations.

In a near-future world, someone leaks plans for a machine that enables a person to "step" from our Earth to parallel versions almost identical but far less populated. The plans go viral, and on what comes to be known as Step Day, kids the world over rush to assemble their own step machines.

Potatoes, it must be said, power the machines.

Before long the grownups are stepping two, three or 3,000 worlds away for all the standard reasons people travel: to explore, to escape, to exploit, hide or discover.

But all along, a small, silent minority has stepped perfectly well without aid of technology. One such natural stepper is Joshua Valiente of Madison, Wis., whose mother not only stepped during Joshua's birth but died just afterwards. Joshua went on to be raised by nuns but kept his abilities secret, lest he be treated as a kind of latter-day witch.

Still, he gets noticed by Lobsang, a mysterious creature of artificial intelligence who appears in different forms, including a drink machine. Lobsang persuades a reluctant Joshua to accompany him to the farthest reaches of the Long Earth.

Pratchett, known for satirical humor and his lengthy Discworld series of fantasy novels, announced in 2007 that he'd been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. In a promotional video for "The Long Earth," he said he harvested the core idea for this novel from notebooks he made decades ago, before his career took off.
Perhaps now Pratchett needs to engage a writing partner, but in any case Baxter seems a natural fit. His "Xeelee Sequence" and other novels concern time and parallel universes.

The collaboration works, especially the writing. Consider a passage inside the head of a bibliophile who has found a book-lover's renaissance 10 Earths away from home:

"If Humphrey Llewellyn III could have his way, every book ever written would be treasured, at least one copy bound in sheepskin and illuminated by monks (or specifically by naked nuns, his predilections being somewhat biased in that direction). So now, he hoped, here was a chance to bring mankind back into the book-loving fold. He gloated. There was still no electronics in the pioneer worlds, was there? Where was your internet? Hah! Where was Google? Where was your mother's old Kindle? Your iPad 25? Where was Wickedpedia? (Very primly, he always called it that, just to show his disdain; very few people noticed.)"

"The Long Earth" sets up a fun sandbox of ideas, but does less well with plot. As Joshua and Lobsang travel, their talks about the meaning of it all overwhelm the action, which is too episodic and a little tepid.
A large dramatic event closes the novel, but by the time readers get there, they may be a bit too drowsy from the travels to care.

 

SIR TERRY PRATCHETT: WRITING'S AS EASY AS EVER BUT I CAN'T TIE MY SHOELACES

From Excpress.co.uk:  SIR TERRY PRATCHETT: WRITING'S AS EASY AS EVER BUT I CAN'T TIE MY SHOELACES 

YOU'VE got to hand it to Terry Pratchett. Even when discussing the difficult subject of his rare form of Alzheimer’s he can’t help but look on the bright side and even throw in a few jokes for good measure. We are sitting in a plush London hotel room to discuss his new book and Pratchett is punchy and ebullient. Even as he tells me that his condition means he can no longer tie his own shoelaces, he glances down at the black loafers he’s wearing and adds: “On the other hand a nice pair of slip-ons are okay and since I seem to be on flights a lot it saves time at airport security.”

Since being diagnosed with dementia in 2007 Sir Terry has hardly stopped for breath. The country’s best-selling adult novelist, who has sold 75 million books, last year brought out Snuff, the 39th in his Discworld series. This autumn will see the publication of a Dickens-inspired work called Dodger and today we are discussing The Long Earth, a novel about a chain of parallel worlds that he has co-authored with award-winning sci-fi writer Stephen Baxter.

The novel is published today and, he says, it positively explodes with ideas for sequels. In short Terry Pratchett is not slowing down. If anything he’s speeding up. It’s tempting to wonder whether this is because his condition had given him a sense of urgency but he bats away such suggestions.

“I’m a writer so I write,” he says simply although he adds that he started using voice recognition technology when he lost the ability to touch-type.

It’s muscle memory and you’d think your muscles can’t get dementia but they do

Sir Terry Pratchett

“And that actually makes the process of writing easier because I’m telling the story rather than typing on a keyboard.”

Being unable to touch-type was the first result of his condition that really affected him.

He’s also puzzled by it: “It’s muscle memory and you’d think your muscles can’t get dementia but they do.”

Driving is also impossible now meaning his wife Lyn chauffeurs him around and he finds it “tricky” to read certain types of fonts. “Lately,” he says, “I’ve also noticed that I’ll have a sentence lined up and something just drops out of it and a moment later it comes back. But other people have told me that happens to them too. In fact a lot of the things I notice may be what it’s like to be 64 rather than what it’s like to be suffering from this.” 

H e has described his variant form of dementia – posterior cortical atrophy – as a precursor to Alzheimer’s and refuses to worry about what might happen in the future. His creative streak, he maintains, is as robust as ever as his new book will show.

The idea for The Long Earth was one Pratchett came up with in the mid-Eighties but by then he had already written The Colour Of Magic, the first in the Discworld series, which became a sudden bestseller. “Woman’s Hour picked it up and the hard cover sold out immediately,” says Pratchett. “I thought, hang on, I should start thinking of a sequel.”

As the fantasy Discworld series became a huge success so the fragments of his early sci-fi work lay discarded in a drawer. “Then about two years ago I picked them up again and thought there are some good ideas here. It would be a shame for them to go to waste,” says Pratchett. “But I thought I can’t do it by myself. I really need someone else who can look quantum in the eye without flinching.”

In other words he needed an expert, specifically in hard science fiction, which is where Stephen Baxter comes in. The pair had met at book conventions over the years so the next time they found themselves at a dinner together Pratchett mentioned The Long Earth. “It’s such a rich idea,” says Baxter, “And we were speculating about it so much over dinner that I missed at least one cab and our hostess was trying to get rid of us.”

The premise is based on the quantum theory idea – that the Earth is one of an immeasurable number of earths – and mankind has just discovered how to step into them. Each of the earths differ slightly but none of the others are inhabited by human beings.

Pratchett and Baxter each took different plotlines – sometimes one coming up with the idea and the other writing it. “In the end we weren’t sure who’d written what,” says Pratchett, “though I’m sure there are some fans who will say they can tell.”

On the subject of fans I can’t help thinking I’m a disappointment to him. Throughout our interview he refers to me as a “fan girl” (I brought along the copy of Colour Of Magic that I read when I was 11) but when he learns I’ve only read nine of his books he sniffs: “Not much of a fan then.” Compared with his army of Discworld fans, I’m really not.

“Having been to some Discworld conventions,” says Baxter, “ There are people who won’t read anything other than Discworld novels.”

T he fans might not be best pleased then, as Pratchett confides that he has put aside the next Discworld novel to work on the second Long Earth book. Ask whether he plans to wind up the Discworld series, however, and the question is met with an exclamatory, “Good heavens no!” Pratchett could talk about his books for hours but does he mind that he is now asked as much about dementia as about his writing?

“No because I made my own bed,” he says. “When I was diagnosed Rob, my PA, said to me, ‘Who are you going to tell?’ I said, ‘Everyone’. When I was a young journalist no one talked about cancer. Now they talk about it all the time. That’s because Richard Dimbleby died of cancer and his family let that fact be known. He was such a well-known person that the ice was broken so I thought I wouldn’t mind doing a Dimbleby for ­Alzheimer’s because it would ­actually do some good.”

As well as raising awareness of dementia and highlighting the alarming lack of research into the illness, Pratchett has also donated a million dollars (£600,000) to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust. More recently, he has also become vocal about assisted dying, making a Bafta-winning BBC documentary called Choosing To Die.

He concedes there are difficult issues to digest on the subject, not least that an Alzheimer’s sufferer would still have to be compos mentis when considering that step. “Would you consider me to be compos mentis?” he questions, before signalling to Baxter and adding, “Personally I don’t think he does.”

The joking is back and Pratchett concedes that his father gave him “a sense of humour you can’t break with an axe”.

As for his future he says he certainly has no intention of giving up the day job and will, he believes, be writing to the last.

“My wife and my PA have been told,” he says, “that when they find me slumped in front of my computer, the first thing to do would be to save the work in progress.”

 

Great Atuin

Terry Pratchett: I'm not afraid of death, I made him popular

From WalesOnline: Terry Pratchett: I'm not afraid of death, I made him popular

Sir Terry Pratchett was in fine form during his hour-long performance at Hay Festival, made all the more poignant due to the slot being scheduled directly after a talk on Alzheimer’s.

One of the most commercially successful authors of all time, Pratchett has recently made headlines for speaking publicly on the topic after he was diagnosed with a rare form of the disease in 2008.

However his business at Hay was purely on the subject of his work, and with the help of his assistant, Rob Wilkins, the audience was treated to the inner workings of Pratchett’s literary mind, which is still as sharp as ever.

The talk started with Pratchett being formally awarded the Bollinger Wodehouse prize, which saw him having a pig named after his book, Snuff. The prize for comic writing signalled the beginning of a talk that had fans calling him back for more.

An hour wasn’t even enough time to touch the tip of the iceberg in the career of a man who manages to fuse satire, political commentary and fantasy with ease.

When asked by a member of the audience if he wished he was taken more seriously, he retorted “no I bloody don’t”, before going on to say that he never wished to be respected by the Turner Prize panel, and was happy enough being rich.

Another audience member asked him if he was frightened of death, to which he replied: “I can’t be bothered about death, I have made him so popular that he owes me one... I’m bothered about dying badly but everybody is.”

He was even forthcoming when giving advice to young writers, telling them to steer well clear of mimicking his style of writing, but telling them: “Look at how the best did it, but don’t try to write like me... that’s suicide.”

Whether or not he intended to use the word which has appeared next to his name so often in newspaper headlines of late we will never know, but this talk made it clear that Pratchett is still an institution. He still has work in him, and if his current works are anything to go by, it might just be his best ever.

From his anecdotes about the writing of new novel, The Long Earth, which had the working title of Quantum Bollocks, it seems as though readers have much to look forward to in his collaboration with sci-fi legend Stephen Baxter.

It is set in a world predicted by quantum physicists, with infinite versions of Earth. Humans can jump from one world to the next after draining our world for resources, but still manage to “bugger things up” according to Pratchett.

The BBC’s relentless bias over euthanasia

From Catholic Herald: The BBC’s relentless bias over euthanasia

On June 14 last year I blogged about a TV programme I had watched the night before: it was Sir Terry Pratchett on BBC2 on the subject of euthanasia. He had filmed a man choosing to die at Dignitas, the notorious Swiss clinic and this is what I wrote: “Here was the full, compelling, visual creepiness: the soft muzac in the background…the slow, respectful narrative and the very civilised demeanour of the gentleman about to drink poison – a millionaire called Peter Smedley. He described dying by motor neurone disease as a “beastly undignified business”; his wife chimed in, saying (as people do) “I wouldn’t put my dog or my cat through such an undignified ending.” They both exemplified throughout the best behaviour of tactful, brave, secular Britain – as shown (by implication) on the tactful, brave, secular BBC.”

The point of my blog was not to criticise Sir Terry himself. He is entitled to his enthusiastic endorsement of euthanasia. At the same time he is suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s – which might have played its part in his outlook on death and dying. My extreme annoyance was with the BBC which, far from being the impartial, patrician organ of national broadcasting that it is meant to be, simply reflects the general, shallow (and Left-wing) secularism of the times we live in. That arch-propagandist, Dr Goebbels, could not have dreamed of a more persuasive film about the merits of euthanasia – and he made some pretty nasty propaganda films in the 1930s about the best “solution” for the mentally handicapped and infirm.

The reason I mention all this is because the Bafta awards, presented for the best television programmes in the last year, have just given “the best single documentary award” to Sir Terry for Choosing to Die, “which showed a gravely ill man ending his life at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.” The Telegraph report adds that “Sir Terry… paid tribute to Mr Smedley and his family for allowing his story to be told. He thanked the BBC “for allowing us to tackle this rather strange subject for a documentary.” I am sure the BBC was only too delighted to comply. Were there no other BBC documentaries of equal merit made last year? Or is this the BBC showing its bias again?

As I write this, on my desk is a novel, written by a former Telegraph journalist under the pen-name of “Adam Grace”. Entitled “Keep Breathing” it tells the dramatic story of a future British government’s decision to hurry along the process of euthanizing elderly people in the interests of the national economy. Fifteen million citizens over 65, a huge national debt and dodgy politicians – “it’s a chilling scenario waiting to happen”, says the author. The novel is well-constructed and fast-moving, a page-turner with many humorous moments; but at its heart is a wake-up call: if we don’t protect our senior citizens they will end up at the mercy of “the utilitarian, money-obsessed minds of the politicians.”

Lord Falconer (funded by Sir Terry Pratchett as it happens) has already tried to stimulate interest in a Bill for assisted suicide. So far he has failed – but he will be back. Adam Grace’s book is available in paperback from Amazon at £8.99 plus postage, or as an e-book on Kindle for £2.90.

It's All About Headology

From British Psychological Society: It's All About Headology

Terry Pratchett has written many books for adults and children. They have a lot to offer psychology by providing good explanations and examples of how the human mind works, argues Chartered Psychologist Dr Katie Sparks. The majority of Pratchett's literary output focuses on the fictitious world of Discworld, a flat planet held up by four elephants which stand on a giant turtle which is slowly travelling through space. One could describe his work as fantasy meets fairytale, folklore, quantum physics and philosophy, but they also tellus a lot about psychology .

One such example is the power of belief in creating reality. There are numerous Discworld characters appearing repeatedly in the series, including humans, trolls, dwarves and other species. One character is Death, a large skeleton complete with black robe and scythe (and white horse called Binky!). Death came into existence in this form purely through human belief. There are also many Gods in the world, some small, some all-powerful, some barely a whisper on the wind. Their strength and power is entirely dependent on the number of their believers and the strength of their belief.

Several books feature witches, who act as nurse, midwife, and counsel to the villages in which they live. Generally, they do not perform much magic (aside from broom transport) but as one witch, Granny Weatherwax, often cites, their role is all about Headology - again, what people believe is what is their reality. Communities believe in the 'magical' power of their local witch - both to heal and to destroy - and this, in turn, enables the witch to act with authority, often with little questioning of her advice and actions.

In Maskerade, for example, Granny Weatherwax gives an elderly man, with backache, a black bottle of sticky medicine. This is what he expecting to receive, and believes it has magical healing powers. However, on the way out of her cottage she 'accidentally' trips him up and in the process does a small chiropractic manoeuvre with his spine, so correcting the back problem. He, of course, ascribes the miraculous cure to the 'magical' sticky medicine. To increase the power of this 'Headology' witches also often wear false warts and wigs, and never, of course, go out without their black pointy hat!

Another theme relevant to Psychology is the concept that 'form defines function'. If something takes on human shape it becomes human, affecting their thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. Hence Death's human form can affect his actions and emotions, and as the books progress he does indeed become more 'human'. Auditors are another 'species' on Discworld, appearing as ethereal grey hoods floating in the air. They represent the rules of nature, and strive to attain order, seeing humans and other life forms as somewhat chaotic and ruining the orderliness of the world. They exist as many but think as 'One' with little feeling and emotion.

In The Thief of Time they take on human form. This becomes very interesting from the psychological perspective, as once becoming individualised in human form they also take on human emotions and feelings. The human experience is described as being alone in the dark behind the eyes, and they experience sensations previously alien to them, such as jealousy, pain and anger which leads eventually to their destruction. Fear becomes a prominent emotion as their new perception of being a 'me', a unique individual, means the auditors have a lot more at lose if they are destroyed, compared to when they were a multiple of 'One'.They also become susceptible to death by chocolate. Previously ignorant to the sensation of taste they disintegrate when tasting chocolate due to the overwhelming bliss experienced.

The power of words underlies many stories. For example, Golems are creatures made of clay, created purely to work. They receive their 'modus operandi' from words written on scrolls placed in their heads during their manufacture. In 'Feet of Clay' a Golum is created by other Golems to be their leader. Wanting him to be the best, they place a huge list of instructions inside his head. The result is a Golem who destroys everything in his overwhelmed state of confusion from too many words and instructions. As any therapist knows the words in our head can create or even destroy our worlds.

In the Discworld books Terry Pratchett touches on many topical issues (e.g. prejudice, politics, even the weather). He includes analogies and parodies of ancient and modern culture, history, literatureand philosophy, dropping in little references to keep the reader on their toes. (For example, a sign above a City Watch house is translated by one character as 'to protect and serve'. The sign? ''Fabricate Diem, Pvnc'. Think Mr Eastwood.)

His descriptions of the human mind within the context of both humour and an intriguing, intelligent narrative would transform any ordinary Psychology lecture into a refreshing example of the mechanics behind what it is to be human.

If he hasn't already been given one, I recommend Terry Pratchett be awarded an honourary degree in Psychology.

Louisiana Aims To Privatize Its Entire Education System

From LezGetREal: Louisiana Aims To Privatize Its Entire Education System

In the novel Going Postal, Terry Pratchett makes the real point about the privatization of the government. The character of Lord Havelock Vetinari, in a discussion about the Royal Post Office, states ‘Unfortunately the Post Office came to be seen not as a system for moving the mail efficiently, to the benefit and profit of all, but as a money box. And so it collapsed, losing both mail and money.’

This is what the government has become to so many Republicans- a money box. Money is going to benefit businesses and such and not benefitting the taxpayers in the form of protections, education, proper incarceration and so forth. What is more, often times, these private enterprises actually end up sapping money from the government as the bidding is usually done lower than the actual cost will be or the private businesses will do things like charge the government far more than the items are worth.

The Huffington Post has reported that Louisiana is all but going to privatize their educational system. They report that:

Louisiana is embarking on the nation’s boldest experiment in privatizing public education, with the state preparing to shift tens of millions in tax dollars out of the public schools to pay private industry, businesses owners and church pastors to educate children.

Starting this fall, thousands of poor and middle-class kids will get vouchers covering the full cost of tuition at more than 120 private schools across Louisiana, including small, Bible-based church schools.

They also noted that:

Yet at some private schools with low tuition, administrators contacted by Reuters said they would also ask the state to cover additional, unspecified fees, which would bring the cost to taxpayers close to the $8,800 cap. The law requires the state to cover both tuition and fees.

May of the schools that are setting up to rake in the government cash want desperately to push their own agendas. The HuffPo noted:

At Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake, pastor-turned-principal Marie Carrier hopes to secure extra space to enroll 135 voucher students, though she now has room for just a few dozen. Her first- through eighth-grade students sit in cubicles for much of the day and move at their own pace through Christian workbooks, such as a beginning science text that explains “what God made” on each of the six days of creation. They are not exposed to the theory of evolution.

“We try to stay away from all those things that might confuse our children,” Carrier said.

Other schools approved for state-funded vouchers use social studies texts warning that liberals threaten global prosperity; Bible-based math books that don’t cover modern concepts such as set theory; and biology texts built around refuting evolution.

In other words, many of these schools will not prepare these children for college all the while draining the state of much needed monies. Oh, and let us not forget just how dangerous these schools can be for LGBT youths. While education can be done better in this nation, the fact that they aren’t willing to put things in to actually improve education including things like ability grouping and telling parents that, quite frankly, it isn’t the school’s job to make sure that their kid’s self esteem is raises through falsified means, they aren’t being implemented at all.

Smaller class sizes, better teacher pay, and so forth would also help a lot. Welcome to the worst education that money can buy.

Terry Pratchett: I have no fear of death

From the Sun: Terry Pratchett: I have no fear of death

ALZHEIMER'S sufferer Terry Pratchett paid tribute to the people who bravely featured in his documentary Terry Pratchett: Choosing To Die at the BAFTAs last night.

The author, who picked up the award for Best Single Documentary, said: "It is said that knowing that one day you will die, is the beginning of wisdom.

"I have absolutely no fear of death. I have a dreadful fear of a bad death and I think many people would be with me on that. I fight the corner for assisted death.

"Everybody dies, it should be good to have a good death."

The 64-year-old said of his own health: "Some days I feel a bit worse, and some days I feel a bit better. You just keep going, one day after the other, just like everybody else.

"But always fighting. You should always fight, especially if you think you are going to lose, as that's when you fight the hardest."

Terry Pratchett: Choosing To Die was a frank and personal documentary in which Terry considered how he might choose to end his life before his Alzheimer's takes over.

Travelling to the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland, Terry witnessed first hand the procedures set out for assisted death, and confronted the point at which he would have to take the lethal drug.

The cameras also followed Peter Smedley, who had motor neurone disease.

Talking about the hard-hitting documentary, Terry said: "We knew it was a difficult subject and I think that we thought that we might follow Peter to the door of the room where the death would take place and make our excuses and leave.

"They opened a double door and said 'come on in' and some people have said to me that it's very strange to see a man laughing and joking and a little while later he's dead and they couldn't understand why we were laughing and joking."

He explained: "It was displacement activity. There were so many things you can say, and so many things you can't and you just have to find something to laugh at.

"Peter, more or less in his last few breaths, shook my hand and then by name thanked every single member of the crew. Except for the sound man Mike, and he was embarrassed about it and this was a dying man."

Bollinger Wodehouse prize awarded to Terry Pratchett

From The Guardian: Bollinger Wodehouse prize awarded to Terry Pratchett

One wrote comedies of upper-class English manners, the other writes about a fantastical world set on the back of a giant turtle, but Terry Pratchett has nonetheless been deemed the author who this year best captured the spirit of PG Wodehouse.

The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse award is given to the book that summons up the "comic spirit" of Wodehouse. Pratchett was named winner on Tuesday for his 39th Discworld novel, Snuff, beating authors including Sue Townsend and John Lanchester to take home the literary prize, which comes in the shape of a Gloucestershire Old Spot pig named after the winning title.

Snuff puts Pratchett's regular character Sam Vimes in the middle of a country house murder while on holiday. Judge and director of the Hay festival Peter Florence called it a "comic masterpiece". He said; "Yes, there are little jewels of language and comedy, but it's the generosity of spirit throughout the whole project which makes it such a comic masterpiece," he said.

"And even after all these years he's spent in Discworld, he actually keeps refining it and making it sharper and clearer. That's an extraordinary achievement. You would expect a slowdown but there's none of that, and that, I think, is almost an unparalleled feat."

Pratchett has been shortlisted on three previous occasions for the Wodehouse award: the two authors, said Florence, are surprisingly similar. "There are so many things he does which Wodehouse did too.

"It's not just the playfulness of the language – he's also quite patently satirical in the way Wodehouse was," he said. "Wodehouse was really hard on fascism. He wasn't simply writing a comedy of manners, and neither is Pratchett … Both of their invented worlds are wrestling with the political realities of their times."

Although Pratchett's wizards, vampires and goblins are far removed from Wodehouse's butlers, toffs and parties, both, said Florence, are from fantastical worlds. "Wodehouse's society had no relation to how people actually lived. Both worlds are fantastical in different ways, and both are completely consistent within those worlds. Pratchett's is just a slightly more extreme and imaginative version."

The author's pig Snuff will join former winning porcines including A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Solar and The Rotter's Club.

"Comic spirit is something which is impossible to define, but you know it when you see it. And Pratchett's absolutely got it," said Florence, who was joined on the judging panel by the broadcaster James Naughtie and the publisher David Campbell.