Pg 31
"It is said that when a wizard is about to die Death himself turns up to claim him (instead of delegating the task to a subordinate, such as Disease or Famine, as is usually the case.)"
Death will appear later on in this book, having a somewhat different personality than the Death of the later novels.
I'll refer to that when it happens.
In future books, Death shows up for everybody - Disease and/or Famine, War and Pestilence become the four Horsepeople of the Apocolypse and we see them in Thief of Time.) They, like Death, have become avatars, humanoid figures who have gained human characteristics because of "living" among them for so long.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Rincewind abandons Twoflower
This is why I don't like Rincewind, and never have.
On pg 30:
"But what would happen to TWoflower, all alone in a city where even the cockroaches had an unerring instinct for gold? A man would have to be a real heel to leave him."
And he does.
The Patrician is actually one of my favorite characters, but the Patrician in The Colour of Magic is not the Patrician, even though in interviews Pratchett has said that it is. Well - he's wrong!
"The Patrician cradled his chins in a beringed hand, and regarded the wizard with eyes as small and hard as beads."
In other words, this Patrician is fat, and that is not the Patrician of Guards! Guards! and so on.
On pg 30:
"But what would happen to TWoflower, all alone in a city where even the cockroaches had an unerring instinct for gold? A man would have to be a real heel to leave him."
And he does.
The Patrician is actually one of my favorite characters, but the Patrician in The Colour of Magic is not the Patrician, even though in interviews Pratchett has said that it is. Well - he's wrong!
"The Patrician cradled his chins in a beringed hand, and regarded the wizard with eyes as small and hard as beads."
In other words, this Patrician is fat, and that is not the Patrician of Guards! Guards! and so on.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
First description of Rincewind
pg 22
Watch Rincewind.
Look at him. Dcrawny, like most wizard, and clad in a dark red robe on which a few mystic sigils were embroidered in tarnished sequins. Some might have taken him for a mere apprentice enchanter who had run away from his master out of defiance, boredom, fear and a lingering taste for heterosexuality.
Yet around his neck was a chain bearing the bronze octagon that marked him as an alumnus of Unseen University, the high school of magic whose time-and-space transcendent campus is never precisely Here or There.
Graduates were usually destined for mageship at least, but Rincewind - after an unfortunate event - had left knowing only one spell and made a living of sorts around the town by capitalizing on an innate gift for languages. He avoided work as a rule, but had a quickness of wit that put his acquaintances in mind of a bright rodent.
And he knew sapient pearwood when he saw it. He was seeing it now, and he didn't quite believe it.
In an interview, Pratchett said that he unwittingly took Rincewind's name from "Churm Rincewind", a fictitious person referred to in early Beachcomber columns in the Daily Express (an English newspaper).
Rincewind is the protagonist of the first two Discworld novels - The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic.
I personally dislike Rincewind, as I dislike all inept characters who are made the heroes of books. If The Color Of Magic had been my introduction to the Discworld, I probably would not have continued on. (Fortunately, it was Guards! Guards!)
Of course Rincewind is important to the saga of the Discworld because it's because of him that the Librarian was turned into an orangutang - but we'll come to that in due course.
The books featuring Rincewind:
The Color of Magic (1983) 1st novel in the series
The Light Fantastic (1986) 2nd novel in the series
Mort (cameo) (1987) 4th novel in the series
Sourcery (1988) 5th novel in the series
Eric (1990) 9th novel in the series
Interesting Times (1994) 17th novel in series
The Last Continent (1998) 22nd novel in series
The Last Hero (2001) 27th novel (or rather short novel)
Unseen Academicals (extended cameo) (2009) 37th novel in the series
Watch Rincewind.
Look at him. Dcrawny, like most wizard, and clad in a dark red robe on which a few mystic sigils were embroidered in tarnished sequins. Some might have taken him for a mere apprentice enchanter who had run away from his master out of defiance, boredom, fear and a lingering taste for heterosexuality.
Zing!
Yet around his neck was a chain bearing the bronze octagon that marked him as an alumnus of Unseen University, the high school of magic whose time-and-space transcendent campus is never precisely Here or There.
Graduates were usually destined for mageship at least, but Rincewind - after an unfortunate event - had left knowing only one spell and made a living of sorts around the town by capitalizing on an innate gift for languages. He avoided work as a rule, but had a quickness of wit that put his acquaintances in mind of a bright rodent.
And he knew sapient pearwood when he saw it. He was seeing it now, and he didn't quite believe it.
In an interview, Pratchett said that he unwittingly took Rincewind's name from "Churm Rincewind", a fictitious person referred to in early Beachcomber columns in the Daily Express (an English newspaper).
Rincewind is the protagonist of the first two Discworld novels - The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic.
I personally dislike Rincewind, as I dislike all inept characters who are made the heroes of books. If The Color Of Magic had been my introduction to the Discworld, I probably would not have continued on. (Fortunately, it was Guards! Guards!)
Of course Rincewind is important to the saga of the Discworld because it's because of him that the Librarian was turned into an orangutang - but we'll come to that in due course.
The books featuring Rincewind:
The Color of Magic (1983) 1st novel in the series
The Light Fantastic (1986) 2nd novel in the series
Mort (cameo) (1987) 4th novel in the series
Sourcery (1988) 5th novel in the series
Eric (1990) 9th novel in the series
Interesting Times (1994) 17th novel in series
The Last Continent (1998) 22nd novel in series
The Last Hero (2001) 27th novel (or rather short novel)
Unseen Academicals (extended cameo) (2009) 37th novel in the series
Friday, February 10, 2012
The Color of Magic: Two Eyes, Not Four!
pg 16
Blind Hugh is standing on the wharves when a ship comes in with a fabulously wealthy passenger, Twoflower.
Blind Hugh is of course a takeoff on Blind Pew, from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
Blind Hugh greets the stranger, and "found himself looking up into a face with four eyes in."
Twoflower does not have four eyes - he's wearing glasses! Which apparently no one in Ankh Morpork has seen before.
Twoflower consults a Phrasebook as he talks to Blind Hugh, another take off on the poor unwary tourist.
The tavern to which Blind Hugh brings Twoflower is the Broken Drum. In subsequent books, it will be Mended.
Blind Hugh is standing on the wharves when a ship comes in with a fabulously wealthy passenger, Twoflower.
Blind Hugh is of course a takeoff on Blind Pew, from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
Blind Hugh greets the stranger, and "found himself looking up into a face with four eyes in."
Twoflower does not have four eyes - he's wearing glasses! Which apparently no one in Ankh Morpork has seen before.
Twoflower consults a Phrasebook as he talks to Blind Hugh, another take off on the poor unwary tourist.
The tavern to which Blind Hugh brings Twoflower is the Broken Drum. In subsequent books, it will be Mended.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
The Color of Magic: Twoflower
Terry Pratchett is mocking the tourist with Twoflower - for example when he's first introduced he's "dressed very oddly in a pair of knee-length britches and a shirt in such a violent and vivid conflict of colors that Weasel's fastidious eye was offended even more in the half light."
That's the typical American in Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. (Remember this was written in 1983, a few years before the fad of wearing baggy, over the knee shorts took off, and long before the fad of belting your shorts underneath your buttocks took off. Not that Twoflower would ever have done that.
Two-Flower's luggage is protected by "reflected-sound-as-of-underground-spirits."
That would be "echo-nomics." (The underground spirits being gnomes.)
That's the typical American in Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. (Remember this was written in 1983, a few years before the fad of wearing baggy, over the knee shorts took off, and long before the fad of belting your shorts underneath your buttocks took off. Not that Twoflower would ever have done that.
Two-Flower's luggage is protected by "reflected-sound-as-of-underground-spirits."
That would be "echo-nomics." (The underground spirits being gnomes.)
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Terry Pratchett bio from birth to The Color of Magic
Fro Wikipedia:
Background
Early life
Pratchett was born in 1948 in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, England, the only child of David and Eileen Pratchett, of Hay-on-Wye. His family moved to Bridgwater, Somerset briefly in 1957, following which he passed his eleven plus exam in 1959, earning him a place in John Hampden Grammar School. Pratchett described himself as a "non-descript student", and in his Who's Who entry, credits his education to the Beaconsfield Public Library.
His early interests included astronomy; he collected Brooke Bond tea cards about space, owned a telescope and desired to be an astronomer, but lacked the necessary mathematical skills. However, this led to an interest in reading British and American science fiction. In turn, this led to attending science fiction conventions from about 1963/4, which stopped when he got his first job a few years later. His early reading included the works of H. G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle and "every book you really ought to read" which he now regards as "getting an education".
At age 13, Pratchett published his first short story "The Hades Business" in the school magazine. It was published commercially when he was 15.
Pratchett earned 5 O-levels and started A-level courses in Art, English and History. Pratchett's first career choice was journalism and he left school at 17 in 1965 to start working for the Bucks Free Press where he wrote, amongst other things, several stories for the Children's Circle section under the name Uncle Jim. One of these episodic stories contains named characters from The Carpet People. These stories are currently part of a project by the Bucks Free Press to make them available online. While on day release he finished his A-Level in English and took a proficiency course for journalists.
Early career
Terry Pratchett married his wife Lyn in 1968, and they moved to Rowberrow, Somerset in 1970. Their daughter Rhianna Pratchett, who is also a writer, was born there in 1976.
Pratchett had his first writing breakthrough in 1968, when working as a journalist. He came to interview Peter Bander van Duren, co-director of a small publishing company. During the meeting, Pratchett mentioned he had written a manuscript, The Carpet People. Bander van Duren and his business partner, Colin Smythe (of Colin Smythe Ltd Publishers) published the book in 1971, with illustrations by Pratchett himself. The book received strong, if few reviews. The book was followed by the science fiction novels The Dark Side of the Sun, published in 1976, and Strata, published in 1981.
After various positions in journalism, in 1980 Pratchett became Press Officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board in an area which covered three nuclear power stations. He later joked that he had demonstrated "impeccable timing" by making this career change so soon after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania, U.S., and said he would "write a book about my experiences, if I thought anyone would believe it".
The first Discworld novel The Colour of Magic was published in 1983 by Colin Smythe in hardback. The publishing rights for paperback were soon taken by Corgi, an imprint of Transworld, the current publisher. Pratchett received further popularity after the BBC's Woman's Hour broadcast The Colour of Magic as a serial in six parts, after it was published by Corgi in 1985.
.
Background
Early life
Pratchett was born in 1948 in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, England, the only child of David and Eileen Pratchett, of Hay-on-Wye. His family moved to Bridgwater, Somerset briefly in 1957, following which he passed his eleven plus exam in 1959, earning him a place in John Hampden Grammar School. Pratchett described himself as a "non-descript student", and in his Who's Who entry, credits his education to the Beaconsfield Public Library.
His early interests included astronomy; he collected Brooke Bond tea cards about space, owned a telescope and desired to be an astronomer, but lacked the necessary mathematical skills. However, this led to an interest in reading British and American science fiction. In turn, this led to attending science fiction conventions from about 1963/4, which stopped when he got his first job a few years later. His early reading included the works of H. G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle and "every book you really ought to read" which he now regards as "getting an education".
At age 13, Pratchett published his first short story "The Hades Business" in the school magazine. It was published commercially when he was 15.
Pratchett earned 5 O-levels and started A-level courses in Art, English and History. Pratchett's first career choice was journalism and he left school at 17 in 1965 to start working for the Bucks Free Press where he wrote, amongst other things, several stories for the Children's Circle section under the name Uncle Jim. One of these episodic stories contains named characters from The Carpet People. These stories are currently part of a project by the Bucks Free Press to make them available online. While on day release he finished his A-Level in English and took a proficiency course for journalists.
Early career
Terry Pratchett married his wife Lyn in 1968, and they moved to Rowberrow, Somerset in 1970. Their daughter Rhianna Pratchett, who is also a writer, was born there in 1976.
Pratchett had his first writing breakthrough in 1968, when working as a journalist. He came to interview Peter Bander van Duren, co-director of a small publishing company. During the meeting, Pratchett mentioned he had written a manuscript, The Carpet People. Bander van Duren and his business partner, Colin Smythe (of Colin Smythe Ltd Publishers) published the book in 1971, with illustrations by Pratchett himself. The book received strong, if few reviews. The book was followed by the science fiction novels The Dark Side of the Sun, published in 1976, and Strata, published in 1981.
After various positions in journalism, in 1980 Pratchett became Press Officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board in an area which covered three nuclear power stations. He later joked that he had demonstrated "impeccable timing" by making this career change so soon after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania, U.S., and said he would "write a book about my experiences, if I thought anyone would believe it".
The first Discworld novel The Colour of Magic was published in 1983 by Colin Smythe in hardback. The publishing rights for paperback were soon taken by Corgi, an imprint of Transworld, the current publisher. Pratchett received further popularity after the BBC's Woman's Hour broadcast The Colour of Magic as a serial in six parts, after it was published by Corgi in 1985.
.
Discworld: The eight seasons
Pratchett goes into a bit of detail about the physical appearance of the Discworld in this first book, mentioning facts which are never repeated.
For example on pg 11, he states that the Discworld rotates once every 800 days ("to distribute the weight fairly upon itds supportive pachderms). (How could the Discworld rotate? Granted that it's a disc resting on the backs of four giant elephants, there's no way it could!)
The disc also has a tiny orbiting sunlet.
"Since the disc's tiny orbiting sunlet maintains a fixed orbit while the majestic disc turns slowly beneath it, it will be readily deduced that a disc year consists not of four but of eight seasons.The summers are those times when the sun rises or sets at the nearest point on the rim, the winters those occasions when it rises or sets at a point around ninety degrees along the circumference.
Thus, in the lands around the Circle Sea, the year begins on Hogs' Watch Night, progresses through a Sppring Prime to its first midsummer (Small God's Eve) which is followed by the Autumn Prime and, straddling the half-year point of Crueltide, Winter Secundus (also known as Spindlewinter, since at this time the sun rises in the direction of spin..."
For example on pg 11, he states that the Discworld rotates once every 800 days ("to distribute the weight fairly upon itds supportive pachderms). (How could the Discworld rotate? Granted that it's a disc resting on the backs of four giant elephants, there's no way it could!)
The disc also has a tiny orbiting sunlet.
"Since the disc's tiny orbiting sunlet maintains a fixed orbit while the majestic disc turns slowly beneath it, it will be readily deduced that a disc year consists not of four but of eight seasons.The summers are those times when the sun rises or sets at the nearest point on the rim, the winters those occasions when it rises or sets at a point around ninety degrees along the circumference.
Thus, in the lands around the Circle Sea, the year begins on Hogs' Watch Night, progresses through a Sppring Prime to its first midsummer (Small God's Eve) which is followed by the Autumn Prime and, straddling the half-year point of Crueltide, Winter Secundus (also known as Spindlewinter, since at this time the sun rises in the direction of spin..."
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