# Terry Pratchett has died, aged 66



## Lord Camomile (Mar 12, 2015)

Breaking news on BBC 

He and his stories will be missed by many 



> UK fantasy author Terry Pratchett dies aged 66 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, his publisher says


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## Pickman's model (Mar 12, 2015)

very sad, will be much missed

thank you for the laughter, terry, and the recognition that there is no higher form of life than a librarian

rip


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## Frankie Jack (Mar 12, 2015)




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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

thanks for the stories terry


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## tommers (Mar 12, 2015)

He seemed like a genuinely nice man.  That's a shame.


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## Buddy Bradley (Mar 12, 2015)

Boo. Mort was one of my favourite books growing up.


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## Lord Camomile (Mar 12, 2015)

My friend used to have the full Discworld series until she went on a massive 'life declutter' a while back. Could read one in a couple of hours and quote entire passages at you.

I'm genuinely not sure whether I should let her know or not...


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## Sirena (Mar 12, 2015)

I saw him on the telly about 4 or 5 months ago.

It's as well he left while he was still in charge of most of his faculties.  He was a fine role model.


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## BoxRoom (Mar 12, 2015)

RIP, Terry


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## Lord Camomile (Mar 12, 2015)

Buddy Bradley said:


> Boo. Mort was one of my favourite books growing up.


Safe to say his books got a lot of people into reading at a young age, whether it was Discworld, the Carpet People or something else.


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## maomao (Mar 12, 2015)

What a shame. I didn't realise Alzheimer's could kill so quickly, he seemed relatively well on tv last year.


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## DrRingDing (Mar 12, 2015)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31858156


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## Santino (Mar 12, 2015)

Ook.


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## littlebabyjesus (Mar 12, 2015)




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## friedaweed (Mar 12, 2015)

Twice in one day
http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/terry-pratchett-has-died-aged-66.333059/


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## twentythreedom (Mar 12, 2015)

RIP


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## Pickman's model (Mar 12, 2015)

he dead 

DrRingDing you late


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## SaskiaJayne (Mar 12, 2015)

Thats sad, RIP Terry. He made an interesting programme about the Dignitas clinc in Switzerland.


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## camouflage (Mar 12, 2015)

RIP Terry


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## Maurice Picarda (Mar 12, 2015)

A shame. There are probably enough Discworld books to keep anyone happy, though.


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## Opera Buffa (Mar 12, 2015)

But does he now get to meet the Summoning Dark?

I thought that he was terribly brave to say publically, as he got older, that yes, there might be something else there_, _and that as he got older he became aware of it and he didn't know what to make of it.


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## el-ahrairah (Mar 12, 2015)

very sad.  when i was a teenager i bunked off school to go a book signing of his in barking, was the first in the queue so got a chance to chat to him as he was setting up and he seemed like a genuinely lovely chap who was totally bemused by the amount of love people had for him.  whilst i can be a lot more critical of his work these days, at the time i loved his books and got such a lot out of them.  RIP terry pratchett and thank you for the pleasure you gave me.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Mar 12, 2015)

He made my teenage years a much more entertaining place. Will be missed.

He was suffering from the same variant of alzheimers as aqua father currently is, so it's all a bit close to home for us


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## DrRingDing (Mar 12, 2015)

friedaweed said:


> Twice in one day
> http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/terry-pratchett-has-died-aged-66.333059/



He could at had the decency to die in the correct forum


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## Sprocket. (Mar 12, 2015)

Thank you Terry. GBNF.


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## gaijingirl (Mar 12, 2015)

oh this is very sad.  When I worked in TV, I once interviewed him for a piece I was filming about "silver gamers" - and his daughter too.  I was really nervous as I was MAD about his books years ago - but he was absolutely lovely.  I think he probably knew I wasn't very experienced at what I was doing and he really put me at ease - tbh, I was surprised he agreed to me interviewing him in the first place.  His daughter was also lovely - she was working at a PC gaming magazine at the time - I'll be thinking of her today.  What an amazing, creative man and a gentleman to boot.  RIP


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## aqua (Mar 12, 2015)

Sirena said:


> I saw him on the telly about 4 or 5 months ago.
> 
> It's as well he left while he was still in charge of most of his faculties.  He was a fine role model.


That's not my understanding of the reality. That was almost certainly prerecorded.

Posterior cortical atrophy is a vile and horrid illness for which Terry did some great work raising awareness. He was diagnosed around the same time as dad, and along with another I have got to know, have progressed at the same rate. This is hard news to take in on many levels 

RIP Terry, I'll always regret not slkivng off work to meet you a couple of years ago, ive learnt my lesson though, take every chance given.


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## ruffneck23 (Mar 12, 2015)

RIP Terry , youve made me laugh loads in my time


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## aqua (Mar 12, 2015)

maomao said:


> What a shame. I didn't realise Alzheimer's could kill so quickly, he seemed relatively well on tv last year.


Yes it can. Though he was diagnosed back in 2007/9 ish. Average progression is about 8-12 years but most people aren't diagnosed wi PCA until mid stages.


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## neonwilderness (Mar 12, 2015)




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## gaijingirl (Mar 12, 2015)

didn't know which thread to post this in..

oh this is very sad. When I worked in TV, I once interviewed him for a piece I was filming about "silver gamers" - and his daughter too. I was really nervous as I was MAD about his books years ago - but he was absolutely lovely. I think he probably knew I wasn't very experienced at what I was doing and he really put me at ease - tbh, I was surprised he agreed to me interviewing him in the first place. His daughter was also lovely - she was working at a PC gaming magazine at the time - I'll be thinking of her today. What an amazing, creative man and a gentleman to boot. RIP


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## aqua (Mar 12, 2015)

Merged tHreads and moved to books


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## Lord Camomile (Mar 12, 2015)

SaskiaJayne said:


> He made an interesting programme about the Dignitas clinc in Switzerland.


I made the mistake of watching that over lunch at work   Very affecting programme though.



A JustGiving page in aid of RICE has been set up


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## Crispy (Mar 12, 2015)

Iain Banks and now Pratchett. Probably my two favourite authors.


gaijingirl said:


> His daughter was also lovely - she was working at a PC gaming magazine at the time - I'll be thinking of her today.


She's now a successful writer herself


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

a clear progression in writing and plotting style- what started as straight satires of _fantasy _eventually moved into a more swiftian vein- Small Gods and Jingo meant a lot to me as satires when I was a teen. And Vimes was one of his moral ciphers by the end too althugh he was a different man when he first appeared in Guards! Guards!


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## Lord Camomile (Mar 12, 2015)

DrRingDing said:


> He could at had the decency to die in the correct forum


His work transcends books 

(I confess, I did momentarily um and ahh about sticking it straight in Books, but figured General was more 'public announcementy'  )


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## Lord Camomile (Mar 12, 2015)




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## aqua (Mar 12, 2015)

Rob (Terry's PA) has changed the profile background to black on his facebook. Between that and the The End tweet Im broken


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## wiskey (Mar 12, 2015)

Very sad  His books have meant a lot to me at various times in my life.

A long while ago I joined the 'Alzheimer's will be sorry it caught Terry Pratchett' fb group ... I'm glad he's free of the vile disease now.


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## StoneRoad (Mar 12, 2015)

Very sad, much loss, RIP Terry.


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## Nancy_Winks (Mar 12, 2015)

Lord Camomile said:


>


oh man. RIP Mr Pratchett


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## Shippou-Sensei (Mar 12, 2015)

glad I got to arm wrestle him once...


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## BoatieBird (Mar 12, 2015)

A sad loss 

Many, many moons ago I was lucky to see him give a talk at the Galway Arts Festival.
He came across as a wonderfully warm, funny person.


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

DotCommunist said:


> a clear progression in writing and plotting style- what started as straight satires of _fantasy _eventually moved into a more swiftian vein- Small Gods and Jingo meant a lot to me as satires when I was a teen. And Vimes was one of his moral ciphers by the end too althugh he was a different man when he first appeared in Guards! Guards!




e2a

when Terry first started publishing the discworld novels High Fantasy- incredibly po faced High Fantasy- was still the SQ. There were a few straight paradois of the biggies but humour less so. In his own way he influenced a lot of writers who came after to put humour and pathos into a genre a little too in love with The Saga


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## littlebabyjesus (Mar 12, 2015)

Lord Camomile said:


>



That's got me a bits here. 

What a beautiful man. Fuck me.


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## littlebabyjesus (Mar 12, 2015)

DotCommunist said:


> e2a
> 
> when Terry first started publishing the discworld novels High Fantasy- incredibly po faced High Fantasy- was still the SQ. There were a few straight paradois of the biggies but humour less so. In his own way he influenced a lot of writers who came after to put humour and pathos into a genre a little too in love with The Saga


A punk fantasy writer?


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## mentalchik (Mar 12, 2015)

RIP


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## dylanredefined (Mar 12, 2015)

RIP liked his books this always struck me as great


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## Impossible Girl (Mar 12, 2015)

This is very sad news. His books are among the first ones I've ever read in english. He'll be greatly missed


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## Orang Utan (Mar 12, 2015)

Very sad news. He struck me as a decent and lovely human being. I got stuck at The Colour Of Magic. Will have to give him another go. As a librarian with my moniker, it is my duty.
66 is no age. What rotten luck to get that horrible disease. Progressive neurological diseases can FUCK RIGHT OFF!
Farewell, Mr Pratchett.


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

littlebabyjesus said:


> A punk fantasy writer?






			
				CHina Meiville said:
			
		

> The quick answer to why fantasy looks so conservative is that for a long time a huge amount of it has been. If you look at stereotypical 'epic' or 'high' fantasy, you're talking about a genre set in magical worlds with some pretty vile ideas. They tend to be based on feudalism lite: the idea, for example, that if there's a problem with the ruler of the kingdom it's because he's a _bad_ king, as opposed to a _king_. If the peasants are visible, they're likely to be good simple folk rather than downtrodden wretches (except if it's a _bad_ kingdom...). Strong men protect curvaceous women. Superheroic protagonists stamp their will on history like characters in Nietzschean wet dreams, but at the same time things are determined by fate rather than social agency. Social threats are pathological, invading from outside rather than being born from within. Morality is absolute, with characters--and often whole races--lining up to fall into pigeonholes with 'good' and 'evil' written on them.



none of those applied to the late great terry


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

Orang Utan said:


> Very sad news. He struck me as a decent and lovely human being. I got stuck at The Colour Of Magic. Will have to give him another go. As a librarian with my moniker, it is my duty.
> 66 is no age. What rotten luck to get that horrible disease. Progressive neurological diseases can FUCK RIGHT OFF!
> Farewell, Mr Pratchett.


You might like his Gaiman collaboration 'Good Omens'. V. Funny.


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## Cloo (Mar 12, 2015)

Many happy teenage hours of reading. 

I'm glad that it sounds like he lived well with dementia,  giving hope to many people,  and hopefully didn't suffer too much pain and distress.


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## Crispy (Mar 12, 2015)

Orang Utan said:


> Very sad news. He struck me as a decent and lovely human being. I got stuck at The Colour Of Magic. Will have to give him another go.


 Skip ahead to Mort


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## wiskey (Mar 12, 2015)

Crispy said:


> Skip ahead to Mort


My favourite by far!


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

reminds me of this from september last year:




			
				niel gaiman said:
			
		

> I want to tell you about my friend Terry Pratchett, and it’s not easy. I’m going to tell you something you may not know. Some people have encountered an affable man with a beard and a hat. They believe they have met Sir Terry Pratchett. They have not.
> 
> Science fiction conventions often give you someone to look after you, to make sure you get from place to place without getting lost. Some years ago I ran into someone who had once been Terry’s handler at a convention in Texas. His eyes misted over at the memory of getting Terry from his panel to the book-dealers’ room and back. “What a jolly old elf Sir Terry is,” he said. And I thought, No. No, he’s not.
> 
> ...


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## Lord Camomile (Mar 12, 2015)

Crispy said:


> Skip ahead to Mort


Mort was the one that got me hooked, after an abortive attempt with (I think) Guards! Guards! a few years earlier.

Just been talking in my office, Death was/is easily one of my favourite characters from fiction. In an English class we once had a balloon debate (your chosen characters are in a hot air balloon that is losing altitude and you have to make the case why your character shouldn't be thrown out to save the others) and Death was my champion. Narrowly lost to bloody Kenny from South Park, because my classmates were idiots


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## Greebo (Mar 12, 2015)

Bye Pterry


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

Lord Camomile said:


> Mort was the one that got me hooked, after an abortive attempt with (I think) Guards! Guards! a few years earlier.
> 
> Just been talking in my office, Death was/is easily one of my favourite characters from fiction. In an English class we once had a balloon debate (your chosen characters are in a hot air balloon that is losing altitude and you have to make the case why your character shouldn't be thrown out to save the others) and Death was my champion. Narrowly lost to bloody Kenny from South Park, because my classmates were idiots


Soul Music is an oft overlooked Wizards\Death mash up that ranks as one of the funniest


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## sorearm (Mar 12, 2015)

So sad. I love his books, reading discworld books when I was a kid, they were amazing. What a savage horrible illness, bless him.


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## Lord Camomile (Mar 12, 2015)

A good Twitter feed to peruse and enjoy some of TP's work


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## beesonthewhatnow (Mar 12, 2015)

wiskey said:


> My favourite by far!


"Small Gods" was mine.


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## Artaxerxes (Mar 12, 2015)

Prachett books were my constant companion through my teens into early 20's, and while I drifted away from his novels in recent years thanks to the quality I'll always be grateful to him for the sense of right, wrong and decency he managed to inject into a crazy world of wizards and magic.

I'll be honest as well, my initial reaction was that he'd killed himself, I wasnt aware it was the alzheimers that killed you, and you know what I'd have applauded if he had, he did things his own way and made his own impression on the world and I can think of no braver way to say fuck you to your critics and there are more than a few of his I'm sure.

(Lords and Ladies is my favourite btw)


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> "Small Gods" was mine.


I'd have to say the same- I'll never forget 'getting' the idea of the banality of evil, before knowing the phrase, from that book. Om hangs by his mouth from a small barred opening looking into a torture dungeon and amongst what you'd expect is the 'Worlds best Dad' mug chipped and hanging on its peg


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## fishfinger (Mar 12, 2015)

Very sad news. RIP


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## Citizen66 (Mar 12, 2015)

Haven't read any of his books. Seemed a good egg though. RIP.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Mar 12, 2015)

"I must confess the activities of the UK governments for the past couple of years have been watched with frank admiration and amazement by Lord Vetinari. Outright theft as a policy had never occurred to him."


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

Charles Dance was just spot-on casting for Vetinari


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## Crispy (Mar 12, 2015)

I haven't seen any of the TV adaptations, on the assumption they'd be shit.


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## Ceej (Mar 12, 2015)




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## yield (Mar 12, 2015)

I loved his books as a kid. I think my favourite character was the camel mathematician in Pyramids.

He did two signings at the shop in the nineties and was always so humble and polite.

RIP Terry


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## beesonthewhatnow (Mar 12, 2015)

Crispy said:


> I haven't seen any of the TV adaptations, on the assumption they'd be shit.


I've only seen the "Soul Music" animated one, it was great


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## JTG (Mar 12, 2015)

*DON'T THINK OF IT AS DYING. JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.*

It's been a bit of an emotional day in work and reading this just now has got me in bits pretty much.

Thank you for the many hours of joy Terry. It has been, and still is, an absolute pleasure


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## SpookyFrank (Mar 12, 2015)

His incarnation of Death was such a humane character, I hope that's who was waiting for him on the other side.


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

Crispy said:


> I haven't seen any of the TV adaptations, on the assumption they'd be shit.


Hogfather is pretty but its not a good adapt.

Going Postal captured the feel a lot better but it's never been nailed properly (Angua was perfectly cast and acted and yet underused). Portraying Ankh Morpork itself is the key to a good adapt imo and so far, no dice


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## el-ahrairah (Mar 12, 2015)

had a little cry just now :embarassed:


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## SpookyFrank (Mar 12, 2015)

Ceej said:


>



The Tiffany books are among my favourites of his. They have a lot more emotional clout than some of the more manic and complex Discworld stories. 

He had so many rich and wonderful characters though. But I think Tiffany is my favourite.


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## SpookyFrank (Mar 12, 2015)

> It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It's called living.


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## xenon (Mar 12, 2015)

RIP Terry.


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## laptop (Mar 12, 2015)

What can you say when the person who invented DEATH dies?


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## JTG (Mar 12, 2015)

> “I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?"
> Death thought about it.
> *CATS*, he said eventually. *CATS ARE NICE*.


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

el-ahrairah said:


> had a little cry just now :embarassed:


think I did that bit of  when he was diagnosed, same with Banks.

I just checked his bibliography and somehow I've read the lot except the second baxter collab in the Long Earth series.

even Carpt People which I had forgotten existed


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## wiskey (Mar 12, 2015)

I've not read the lot but when I was actively reading them I read every one that came out, I have some signed hardbacks somewhere. 

We were just discussing starting Werv on the younger ones (Diggers/Truckers/Wings etc) the other week. Dervish has just spent an amusing half hour trying to explain the Luggage to a six year old


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## gaijingirl (Mar 12, 2015)

wiskey said:


> I've not read the lot but when I was actively reading them I read every one that came out, I have some signed hardbacks somewhere.
> 
> We were just discussing starting Werv on the younger ones (Diggers/Truckers/Wings etc) the other week. Dervish has just spent an amusing half hour trying to explain the Luggage to a six year old



I got Dragons at Crumbling Castle for O last year - there were a lot of questions!


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## gaijingirl (Mar 12, 2015)

My friend just posted this on FB:

"Sad to hear about Terry Pratchet. He died with his cat asleep next to him which made me cry on the way home from Wincanton which is where he is from. Wincanton is twinned with Ankh Morpork!"


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## Vintage Paw (Mar 12, 2015)

Very sad. I've never read any of his books, and I never cry at celeb deaths, but I saw his last tweets earlier and sobbed like a fool. He seemed like a very nice man, and clearly had a big impact on a lot of people.

Very strange, the immediacy with which we're connected to the most intimate aspects of people's lives - and now deaths. I don't think our emotional intelligence has had time to develop and keep up with the rate at which technology is changing the way we interact and experience the world.


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## Dan U (Mar 12, 2015)

When someone achieves that rare feat of their death not turning in to a bunfight here, you know a goodun has gone. 

Loved his books when I was a teenager. Thanks for the fun.


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

some of his inversions of fantasy tropes are just standard now, a lot of it goes on in the 'urban fantasy' genre which is big in the US now (although uk authours pioneered it with the New Weird). But reading the character of 'Cohen the Barbarian' was a breath of fresh air. An elderly sacker-of-cities whose rollie buts were so re-rolled he was basically smoking tar. A man who really values a good book, because the pages make good kindling and the book a good temporary pillow.




> - "What is it that a man may call the greatest things in life?"
> - "Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper."


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## weepiper (Mar 12, 2015)

Told my 11 year old daughter just now and she cried


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## SpookyFrank (Mar 12, 2015)

I'm reading China Mieville at the moment. Hard to imagine his stuff existing without Pratchett's influence.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Mar 12, 2015)

SpookyFrank said:


> The Tiffany books are among my favourites of his. They have a lot more emotional clout than some of the more manic and complex Discworld stories.
> 
> He had so many rich and wonderful characters though. But I think Tiffany is my favourite.


thgere is meant to another one in the works.

hate to be selfsh but i hope it was finished.


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## danny la rouge (Mar 12, 2015)

I've never read any of his books, but he seemed like a cool guy. To be honest he wasn't really on my radar until the news of his Alzheimer's broke (I vaguely knew the name, and knew he was a writer). But over the last few years I read interviews and articles about him from time to time, and saw a programme about Alzheimer's that he was in. He seemed like an interesting and funny guy.  Came across as genuine, warm and non self absorbed. Which isn't what I'd expect to say about a fedora wearing knight. I'm sorry for his legion of fans and for his family. He was obviously a culturally important force.


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

SpookyFrank said:


> I'm reading China Mieville at the moment. Hard to imagine his stuff existing without Pratchett's influence.


which are you reading

I think new crobuzon owes as much to ankh morpork as it does to gormenghast and 19th century london, and the london of the Borrovilles


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## starfish (Mar 12, 2015)

I've only read his first 3 Discworld books but I thought Cohen the Barbarian was an inspired character.
Might read some more.


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## wiskey (Mar 12, 2015)

weepiper said:


> Told my 11 year old daughter just now and she cried


Tell her she's not alone


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## Cid (Mar 12, 2015)

Vintage Paw said:


> Very sad. I've never read any of his books, and I never cry at celeb deaths, but I saw his last tweets earlier and sobbed like a fool. He seemed like a very nice man, and clearly had a big impact on a lot of people.



Really? You probably should, as someone at least moderately absorbed in the world of fantasy.



> Very strange, the immediacy with which we're connected to the most intimate aspects of people's lives - and now deaths. I don't think our emotional intelligence has had time to develop and keep up with the rate at which technology is changing the way we interact and experience the world.



I don't think he got around to making that the subject of a book, but he probably would have.

It's very sad... I grew up with them and still re-read from time-to-time. I think I'd probably go with bees and dottie on Small Gods as a favourite.


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## SpookyFrank (Mar 12, 2015)

DotCommunist said:


> which are you reading
> 
> I think new crobuzon owes as much to ankh morpork as it does to gormenghast and 19th century london, and the london of the Borrovilles



I'm reading Kraken, which feels like more Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere than anything else. The Bas-Lag books are more Pratchett-like.


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## laptop (Mar 12, 2015)

DotCommunist said:


> the london of the Borrovilles





Borribles?


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

laptop said:


> Borribles?


yes! years n years since I read the trilogy but I remember reading him referencing their london as an influence. Am going to dig out Pratchetts Small Gods tomorrow and re-read in tribute


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## TheHoodedClaw (Mar 12, 2015)

I've only read Good Omens, and tbh didn't like it much, but I've never seen my FB feed react to anyone's death like this. Many of my friends - and their kids - are genuinely upset today. Much respect to Mr Pratchett for touching so many lives.


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## JTG (Mar 12, 2015)

"They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not half so bad as a lot of ignorance"

"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life"

"Sometimes it is better to light a flamethrower than to curse the darkness"

And so on and so forth


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

laptop said:


> Borribles?




Also-this has been released on epub through Tor not so long ago but I just checked and there doesn't ppear to be an ebook torrent anywhere 

if anyone has epub of these, help a gent out here.


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## Sparkle Motion (Mar 12, 2015)

By coincidence I started reading "Wee Free Men" to my young daughter yesterday to introduce her to Pratchett. As mentioned, apparently the last novel will be Tiffany Aching as well. Can't be many novelists appeal so easily to adults and children alike.


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## Citizen66 (Mar 12, 2015)

It's at times like this that I resent cold hard atheism. None of us know what, if anything, happens after death. Science as we know it suggests the answer is nothing. Writers like Terry would dream up other possibilities. I hope he's gone to a place of his imagining. We should take a leaf out of his book.


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## QueenOfGoths (Mar 12, 2015)

Very, very sad news . He touched so many people and so many lives which is a rare talent.


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## Bears (Mar 12, 2015)

wiskey said:


> We were just discussing starting Werv on the younger ones (Diggers/Truckers/Wings etc) the other week. Dervish has just spent an amusing half hour trying to explain the Luggage to a six year old


I have just said, 'You are going to love the luggage.' And refused to be drawn. 

Really sad news.


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## 8ball (Mar 12, 2015)

Crispy said:


> Skip ahead to Mort





wiskey said:


> My favourite by far!



I only really liked a couple of his books (Small Gods and Monstrous Regiment) - will have to give Mort a go.

Didn't know he was so ill.


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## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

Cid said:


> I don't think he got around to making that the subject of a book, but he probably would have.
> 
> .


immediacy of communication was the clacks surely, the semaphore tower network that featured in later works


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## aqua (Mar 12, 2015)

Citizen66 said:


> It's at times like this that I resent cold hard atheism. None of us know what, if anything, happens after death. Science as we know it suggests the answer is nothing. Writers like Terry would dream up other possibilities. I hope he's gone to a place of his imagining. We should take a leaf out of his book.


Absolutely. It's the quotes about death from TPs Twitter account that floored me, about it being time to walk with him now. I hope he is, and I hope it is how he thought it might be.

Oh and again, I seem to have more in my eye.


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## A380 (Mar 12, 2015)

I have all his books, paperbacks for the first few but then hardbacks when I could afford to buy them the day they came out. They were the first books I thought worth buying in hardback. More precious though was a letter he wrote to me after I sent him a typical fan boy letter. He answered my questions and it clearly wasn't a standard letter. His imagination will live with so many people. Thank you for the stories and for Lancre and  for Ankh Morpork.


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## Citizen66 (Mar 12, 2015)

aqua said:


> Absolutely. It's the quotes about death from TPs Twitter account that floored me, about it being time to walk with him now. I hope he is, and I hope it is how he thought it might be.
> 
> Oh and again, I seem to have more in my eye.



To me, it defies logic that we become nothing. And I say that as a devout atheist. If I'm wrong it'll be a nice sleep. I'm a lazy twat so it sounds good.


----------



## Cid (Mar 12, 2015)

DotCommunist said:


> immediacy of communication was the clacks surely, the semaphore tower network that featured in later works



Yes, but not really explored in depth. He linked it to the email etc in Going Postal iirc, but have only listened to that (I tend to get through a lot of audiobooks as background chatter when working, but don't think I've bought Discworld book since um... Thief of time I think).


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 12, 2015)

The purpose of an intelligent sentient being to exist, is so that it understands its purpose is to eventually not exist.

What is the scientific answer to that question?


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

Citizen66 said:


> The purpose of an intelligent sentient being to exist, is so that it understands its purpose is to eventually not exist.
> 
> What is the scientific answer to that question?


more research into anti-geriatric treatments through gene therapy administered in the mid 30s for best effct- it'd give one an extra 20-30 years. I'd not turn those years down if they were there


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 12, 2015)

I need to pick your brains for the best scifi novels dotty. I'm finally progressing from horror.


----------



## Vintage Paw (Mar 12, 2015)

Citizen66 said:


> The purpose of an intelligent sentient being to exist, is so that it understands its purpose is to eventually not exist.
> 
> What is the scientific answer to that question?



Entropy?


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 12, 2015)




----------



## Mungy (Mar 12, 2015)

it's not just mourning the man himself but also the people he created - there are few characters more real than granny weatherwax, and them that are were also made by sir terry. i nearly met him once, but bottled it. i'll meet him on a return journey someplace in time, hopefully.


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

Citizen66 said:


> I need to pick your brains for the best scifi novels dotty. I'm finally progressing from horror.


You can't go wrong with Ian M Banks as an 'in'. Theres a reason his recent death was as lamented as terry's. Far future society called 'Culture' who are internally an anarcho-paradise of indulgence (they largely die at around 350 not because they have to but because living a longer physical existence is considered a bit distasteful. The mind lives on in a group mind gestalt of choice or in any number of 'second life' real afterlives. The conflict between that internal paradise and the external realities of what their AI 'Minds' (and the Special Circumstances) do to maintain it is where the fruit of the stories lie


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 12, 2015)

DotCommunist said:


> , and the london of the Borrovilles


what are they?


----------



## SpookyFrank (Mar 12, 2015)

Mungy said:


> it's not just mourning the man himself but also the people he created - there are few characters more real than granny weatherwax, and them that are were also made by sir terry. i nearly met him once, but bottled it. i'll meet him on a return journey someplace in time, hopefully.



I love Granny Weatherwax because she's not just an all-powerful badass with a heart of stone, she's a frail old woman who works very hard to keep up the image of an all powerful badass with a heart of stone. She has weaknesses, she doesn't always think of everything, she needs her friends to help beat the bad guys. And yet she's still a fucking badass.

And Tiffany doesn't see the mean old battleaxe who terrifies everyone else, she sees a nice old woman who probably gets lonely so she gives Granny a cat 

One of the many bad things about fantasy writing that Pratchett helped kill off was the shortage of proper female characters.


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

Orang Utan said:


> what are they?


typo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Borrible_Trilogy


----------



## JTG (Mar 12, 2015)

Too much to hope that he's got a sign on his chest saying 'I aintent dead yet!' I suppose?



Buggrit


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

millenium hand and shrimp

we may hope he had something in the works that could be finished off by gaiman for publication


----------



## JTG (Mar 12, 2015)

What duck?


----------



## JTG (Mar 12, 2015)

Oh. All that stuff Gaiman said about him being mistaken for a lovely, kindly, gentle man when all his humour and creativity and energy came from deep anger. Struck a chord with me.

Up the angry, lovely people


----------



## SpookyFrank (Mar 12, 2015)

DotCommunist said:


> millenium hand and shrimp
> 
> we may hope he had something in the works that could be finished off by gaiman for publication



I always hoped the two of them would one day do a little comic or something where it was just Pratchett's Death and Gaiman's Death having a cup of coffee and a chat.


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

JTG said:


> Oh. All that stuff Gaiman said about him being mistaken for a lovely, kindly, gentle man when all his humour and creativity and energy came from deep anger. Struck a chord with me.
> 
> Up the angry, lovely people


its a good place to put anger- organise yes. But get angry into your art too. Stienbeck was quoted on here the other day from a work of fiction and it was like a punch in the gut


----------



## DexterTCN (Mar 12, 2015)

That one with the Egyptian Ninja who didn't want to be a killer?

The one with the wizard who turned into Rambo?

The one where the witch puts her arm into the flame and the voodoo doll bursts into flame?

I read so many I forget/mix up the titles.  

The witch ones were probably the best.

So many great books, a universe created in complexity, satire and humour.

RIP Mr Pratchett, you did very well.


----------



## JTG (Mar 12, 2015)

I have no use for people who have learned the limits of the possible
Leonard of Quirm


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 12, 2015)

> It was the Year of the Notional Serpent, or two hundred years after the Declaration of the Prophet Abbys.
> 
> Which meant that the time of the 8th Prophet was imminent.
> 
> ...



hello daesh


----------



## Nylock (Mar 13, 2015)

RIP Terry


----------



## ginger_syn (Mar 13, 2015)

R.I.P Terry Pratchett and thank you for the happy hours.


----------



## Dandred (Mar 13, 2015)

The world you made, made the world a better place.


----------



## Stig (Mar 13, 2015)

lots of nice things being said about TP in the main articles this morning, and some obituaries:


http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/12/terry-pratchett#img-1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25401679
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11467719/Sir-Terry-Pratchett-author-obituary.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...nd-the-light-fantastic-goes-out-10104972.html
http://www.theguardian.com/books/20...t-author-of-the-discworld-series-dies-aged-66
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31858156


----------



## Stig (Mar 13, 2015)

Well that was quite sad. I never knew that when he was knighted he made his own sword, digging up the ore from the field out the back, and making a kiln 

BBC obit used the word whimsical


----------



## rutabowa (Mar 13, 2015)

cool guy.... I must have read about 1000 of his books when I was a teenager, used to swallow them whole whenever I got one.


----------



## rutabowa (Mar 13, 2015)

Citizen66 said:


> I hope he's gone to a place of his imagining.


I'm 90% sure he will have done.


----------



## susie12 (Mar 13, 2015)

I hope he had the death he would have wished.


----------



## Idris2002 (Mar 13, 2015)

Thanks for everything, Mr. Pratchett.


----------



## laptop (Mar 13, 2015)

DotCommunist said:


> Also-this has been released on epub through Tor not so long ago but I just checked and there doesn't ppear to be an ebook torrent anywhere
> 
> if anyone has epub of these, help a gent out here.



What have Rose de Larrabeiti and Aimee de Larrabeiti done to you, to deserve this?


----------



## el-ahrairah (Mar 13, 2015)

I think my favourite character was Nanny Ogg.  Every angry loner needs a friend like Nanny Ogg.


----------



## Pseudopsycho (Mar 13, 2015)

As someone said to me "I hope he and Death have gone for a curry".

RIP


----------



## SpookyFrank (Mar 13, 2015)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> thgere is meant to another one in the works.
> 
> hate to be selfsh but i hope it was finished.



Finished and delivered to the publisher last year apparently.


----------



## coley (Mar 13, 2015)

The patrician
Why cant some of the dross we have try to be more like him.
Sam Vimes for HS
RIPTerry, many thanks.


----------



## Sirena (Mar 13, 2015)

There's a petition to bring him back 

https://www.change.org/p/death-bring-back-terry-pratchett


----------



## laptop (Mar 13, 2015)

Sirena said:


> There's a petition to bring him back
> 
> https://www.change.org/p/death-bring-back-terry-pratchett



Signed


----------



## laptop (Mar 13, 2015)

> Tom Pride LONDON, ENG
> 
> If there is any justice in the world, this petition will beat Jeremy Clarkson's.
> 
> So it won't.





> tim Lidbetter KINGSTON UPON THAMES, UNITED KINGDOM
> 
> Death - are you sure you're
> 
> ready to meet your maker?


----------



## campanula (Mar 13, 2015)

In truth, they never did it for me...but my 2 boys have had everyone of them, in hardback cos they were too impatient for the paperbacks. Probably got the youngest into reading so he will be missed in this household.


----------



## SpookyFrank (Mar 13, 2015)

coley said:


> The patrician
> Why cant some of the dross we have try to be more like him.





> 'And is he a fair and just ruler?’
> Carding thought about it. The Patrician’s spy network was said to be superb. ‘I would say,’ he said carefully, ‘that he is unfair and unjust, but scrupulously even-handed.  He is unfair and unjust to everyone, without fear or favour’.



And one that should be the mantra of any home secretary or justice minister:



> 'Never build a dungeon you wouldn’t be happy to spend the night in yourself,’ said the Patrician, laying out the food on the cloth.  ‘The world would be a happier place if more people remembered that.'


----------



## coley (Mar 13, 2015)

SpookyFrank said:


> And one that should be the mantra of any home secretary or justice minister:


I have enjoyed all of his discworld books, but in 'going postal' he brought together all my favourite characters and of course added Arthur Spangler, just finished 'Raising steam' ( again) when the news of his death broke.
Doubt if I'll ever find another author to match his brand of humour and satire.


----------



## wiskey (Mar 13, 2015)

SpookyFrank said:


> One of the many bad things about fantasy writing that Pratchett helped kill off was the shortage of proper female characters.



Proper female characters who started off lowly and worked their way through trials and tribulations to become someone - just like male heros do ... not birthright princesses who waft about having it all. 

That always appealed to me.


----------



## 8ball (Mar 13, 2015)

I think the non-typical take on gender in a fantasy genre was def one of the reasons why I liked _Monstrous Regiment _so much.


----------



## Celyn (Mar 13, 2015)

susie12 said:


> I hope he had the death he would have wished.



I think I read he died with a cat lying on his bed, and my thought* was "oh, a cat, eh?  That will put Death in a good mood".  So, you know, maybe they had quite a merry meeting, chatting about the cat and such.


* apart from "oh shit, how sad" _etc_.


----------



## Riff (Mar 13, 2015)

el-ahrairah said:


> I think my favourite character was Nanny Ogg.  Every angry loner needs a friend like Nanny Ogg.



One of my mates likens me to Nanny Ogg - in a complimentary way (although I don't have a gazillion children, just the one husband and I would bother to remember the names of any daughters-in-law).  I do like to drink ale from a leather tankard and have been know to sing.  I must learn the words to the hedgehog song!

Not been this upset about losing someone whose work and talent I've admired for many years since we lost Freddie.

An ex-colleague handed me "Sourcery" nearly 25 years ago.  My life changed forever.

My fave quote is still:

'There is a knocking without,' he said.

'Without what?' said the Fool.

'Without the door, idiot.'

The Fool gave him a worried look. 'A knocking without a door?' he said suspiciously. 'This isn't some kind of Zen, is it?'


----------



## Celyn (Mar 13, 2015)

It was always a bit hard to know whether I liked Nanny Ogg or Granny Weatherwax best (of the witches, that is, not of the whole Discworld), and of course, Magrat was fun in her own way too.  

Nanny Ogg generally had a jollier time, but well, Granny Weatherwax was .. you know ... just so MUCH Granny
Weatherwax.  Hey, was there ever any more about that long-ago youthful romance between Granny W and Ridcully?	Thing is, I've read most of the books, but generally in no particular order - just when I could afford, or could borrow or whatever, which doesn't matter as who gives a shit about linear plots in Discworld, but I suppose it does leave me with these loose ends.  (And "loose ends" sounds like either one of those embarrassing bodily ailments that the witches could fix if in the right mood, or like scruffy hair like Magrat would have, or I would have).


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 13, 2015)

Weatherwax for me. Oggs friendly, slightly scary but a lusty lifeful character.

Granny Weatherwax is the thing the dark is scared of.


----------



## JTG (Mar 13, 2015)




----------



## Puddy_Tat (Mar 13, 2015)




----------



## A380 (Mar 13, 2015)

XKCD

http://xkcd.com/1498/


----------



## Celyn (Mar 13, 2015)

JTG said:


> View attachment 68802



Oh, I love it!    But Binky should be there somewhere.

But, suddenly I think "Oh No, it's bad to be sad about someone's death and to laugh at the same time", but then again, that's exactly what we do, isn't it?  And I do include "real" people, as in close family and friends, in that - one can be sad, yet rejoice in the memory - not the memory, even, more the re-living - of the fun and good they gave.

Or something. Or just a wossname.


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 13, 2015)

JTG said:


> View attachment 68802


grit\eye


----------



## Cid (Mar 13, 2015)

Reg Shoe. The people's republic of treacle mine road. So many little details to remember. Might have to embark on reading them again - a lot to get through but they read very quickly.


----------



## JTG (Mar 13, 2015)

If cats looked like frogs we'd realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. Style. That's what people remember.

Time is a drug. Too much of it kills you.

If you have enough book space, I don't want to talk to you.

Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.

I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.

"And what would humans be without love?"
RARE, said Death.

There is a rumour going around that I have found God. I think this is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist.

Just erotic. Nothing kinky. It's the difference between using a feather and using a chicken.


----------



## Cid (Mar 13, 2015)

Should also take a moment to remember Josh Kirby who did all the covers until his death in 2001.







Which reminds me of Albert(o Malich).


----------



## wiskey (Mar 14, 2015)

Kirby's artwork was half the fun for me, the details in the covers, and the calendars etc... Really lovely. 

Perhaps enhanced by the fact that the first Discworld book I read was a Guards Guards hardback with no cover... I didn't know what a treat they were.


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 14, 2015)

wiskey said:


> Kirby's artwork was half the fun for me, the details in the covers, and the calendars etc... Really lovely.
> 
> Perhaps enhanced by the fact that the first Discworld book I read was a Guards Guards hardback with no cover... I didn't know what a treat they were.


the french artwork for discworld books is also amazeballs








http://observationdeck.io9.com/discworld-covers-1602648377/1602872953/+katharinetrendacosta


----------



## wiskey (Mar 14, 2015)

It had not occurred to me they wouldn't just use the same onesin other countries.


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 14, 2015)

wiskey said:


> It had not occurred to me they wouldn't just use the same onesin other countries.


me niether, and I do like the french covers a lot more than the english ones. Same artist who did the english covers surely did the artwork for Truckers, Diggers, Wings trilogy. Its got the visual fingerprint


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 14, 2015)

coley said:


> I have enjoyed all of his discworld books, but in 'going postal' he brought together all my favourite characters and of course added Arthur Spangler, just finished 'Raising steam' ( again) when the news of his death broke.
> Doubt if I'll ever find another author to match his brand of humour and satire.


Ever read Robert Rankin

not quite on the same with the satire but if I was doing my bookshelf by mind-associations his books would be next to Pratchetts and Douglas Adams


----------



## rich! (Mar 14, 2015)

(been away at a conference so slightly late to the thread)

My local town library had a list of "if you read SF/Fantasy you should read" on the wall. It had Colour of Magic in it - the year before Light Fantastic came out. I had already read the Lankhmar books and the Conan books, so I was hooked.

I don't think I have anything else to say.


----------



## wiskey (Mar 14, 2015)

The Radio 4 collection of Pratchett related offerings http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02ltvn2


----------



## JTG (Mar 14, 2015)

DotCommunist said:


> Ever read Robert Rankin
> 
> not quite on the same with the satire but if I was doing my bookshelf by mind-associations his books would be next to Pratchetts and Douglas Adams


The Armageddon Trilogy in particular. Found some of his other books a bit hit and miss


----------



## beesonthewhatnow (Mar 14, 2015)




----------



## JTG (Mar 15, 2015)

Looking around fb and comment pieces and seeing the naysayers makes me sad. But also amused really. Dismissing him as a genre author in a genre they didn't like. Looking no deeper than that. It's a shame. For them but not for us.

Here was an author who satirised the genre he was writing in. Then he went on to satirise misogyny, racism, war, capitalism, diplomacy, religion, academia. He gave the reader sympathetic, flawed everyman/woman characters who were trying to do their best in a scary, confusing world and who won through by being fundamentally decent even if they weren't perfect. An author who knew very well that 'serious' is not the opposite of 'funny'. A writer who confronted Death head on in his own work and then confronted death when he lived with its looming reality and was never afraid to discuss either.

Terry Pratchett was happy to crucify the establishment on a cross of their own ridiculousness, raise up normal folk even whilst magnifying their imperfections and write with boiling anger about injustice yet simultaneously making you cry with laughter. And all whilst keeping his own success in its proper perspective.

He occasionally got accused of literature. He was actually far, far better than that.


----------



## weltweit (Mar 15, 2015)

How would I know if I would like to read a TP book or a few? I suppose I may just have to try one. What about this disk series, as it is a series is there one I should start with?


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Mar 15, 2015)

So sad...my favorite author from my early teens to this very day...


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Mar 15, 2015)

JTG said:


> I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.





will try and get that in to a conversation at work some time...


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 15, 2015)

JTG said:


> Looking around fb and comment pieces and seeing the naysayers makes me sad. But also amused really. Dismissing him as a genre author in a genre they didn't like. Looking no deeper than that. It's a shame. For them but not for us.
> 
> Here was an author who satirised the genre he was writing in. Then he went on to satirise misogyny, racism, war, capitalism, diplomacy, religion, academia. He gave the reader sympathetic, flawed everyman/woman characters who were trying to do their best in a scary, confusing world and who won through by being fundamentally decent even if they weren't perfect. An author who knew very well that 'serious' is not the opposite of 'funny'. A writer who confronted Death head on in his own work and then confronted death when he lived with its looming reality and was never afraid to discuss either.
> 
> ...




thats just it. nailed on with massive nails. He was taking the piss half the time and in the framework scored serious points. His characters lived because of that. His cities lived because of it. I've not seen any naysaying but then I hate facebook.




e2a the comedy tragedy thing. If you can make them laugh so hard they've forgot the self image and dignity you can mug them straight afterwards with the tragedy and it hits 100% more effective when you do it off the back of a laugh. Thats why things like Jingo were so good. At one point you've got Colon spinning lies about his successful infiltration then next you have things like that the generals meeting and Ankh Morporkian asks 'a making things far away look bigger device! very modern, where did you get that'

'I inherited it from my grandfather'

burn


----------



## DotCommunist (Mar 15, 2015)

weltweit said:


> How would I know if I would like to read a TP book or a few? I suppose I may just have to try one. What about this disk series, as it is a series is there one I should start with?


Just start with Small Gods, I'll email you the epub if you have an ereader


----------



## weltweit (Mar 15, 2015)

DotCommunist said:


> Just start with Small Gods, I'll email you the epub if you have an ereader


Thanks for the tip, don't have an ereader so will try my library.


----------



## rich! (Mar 15, 2015)

Somewhat amused by the number of Pratchett paperbacks I've seen being handed to people this weekend...


----------



## JTG (Mar 15, 2015)

DotCommunist said:


> Just start with Small Gods, I'll email you the epub if you have an ereader


Yep. Or Guards! Guards! Or maybe Wyrd Sisters


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (Mar 15, 2015)

Jesus  can't you just be normal and shoplift him


----------



## JTG (Mar 15, 2015)

https://www.justgiving.com/Terry-Pratchett/


----------



## JTG (Mar 15, 2015)

The sun goes down upon the Ankh,
And slowly, softly fades -
Across the Drum; the Royal Bank;
The River-Gate; the Shades.

A stony circle's closed to elves;
And here, where lines are blurred,
Between the stacks of books on shelves,
A quiet 'Ook' is heard.

A copper steps the city-street
On paths he's often passed;
The final march; the final beat;
The time to rest at last.

He gives his badge a final shine,
And sadly shakes his head -
While Granny lies beneath a sign
That says: 'I aten't dead.'

The Luggage shifts in sleep and dreams;
It's now. The time's at hand.
For where it's always night, it seems,
A timer clears of sand.

And so it is that Death arrives,
When all the time has gone...
But dreams endure, and hope survives,
And Discworld carries on.

From somewhere online


----------



## JTG (Mar 15, 2015)

Funeral Blueth
By W H Igor

Thtop the glath clockth, cut off the thpeak-to-people-a-long-way-away devithe.
Prevent Thcrapth from barking with a juithy bone.
Thilenth the pianoth and, with muffled drum,
Bring out hith coffin. Let the mournerth come.

Let fly-in-the-thky-like-birdth mathineth thircle moaning overhead
Thcribbling in the thky the methage: “He ith dead!”
Put crepe bowth around the thcabby neckth of the Ankh-Morpork doveth.
Let the Watch wear black cotton gloveth.

He wath my Hubward, my Rimward, my Turnwithe and Widderthinth,
My working week and Octeday retht,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my thong.
I thought Thir Terry would latht forever; I wath wrong.

The thtarth are not wanted now; put out every one.
Pack up the moon and dithmantle the thun.
Pour away the Thircle Thea and thweep up the Foretht of Thkund.
For nothing now can come to any good.


----------



## JTG (Mar 15, 2015)




----------



## Cid (Mar 15, 2015)

JTG said:


> Looking around fb and comment pieces and seeing the naysayers makes me sad. But also amused really. Dismissing him as a genre author in a genre they didn't like. Looking no deeper than that. It's a shame. For them but not for us.
> 
> Here was an author who satirised the genre he was writing in. Then he went on to satirise misogyny, racism, war, capitalism, diplomacy, religion, academia. He gave the reader sympathetic, flawed everyman/woman characters who were trying to do their best in a scary, confusing world and who won through by being fundamentally decent even if they weren't perfect. An author who knew very well that 'serious' is not the opposite of 'funny'. A writer who confronted Death head on in his own work and then confronted death when he lived with its looming reality and was never afraid to discuss either.
> 
> ...



Spot on. And a phenomenally eclectic mind. Absorbing influences from Lovecraft to Quantum Physics, parodying and praising in one breath.


----------



## JTG (Mar 15, 2015)

Cid said:


> Spot on. And a phenomenally eclectic mind. Absorbing influences from Lovecraft to Quantum Physics, parodying and praising in one breath.


I loved the Science of Discworld books. Barely understood a quarter of them tbh but they were fun and educational and I loved that he wanted to educate as well as entertain


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (Mar 15, 2015)

JTG said:


> I loved the Science of Discworld books. Barely understood a quarter of them tbh but they were fun and educational and I loved that he wanted to educate as well as entertain



The last one is Meh  but the previous three are excelent


----------



## wiskey (Mar 16, 2015)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...e-clacks-thanks-to-fans-programming-code.html


----------



## JTG (Mar 16, 2015)

wiskey said:


> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...e-clacks-thanks-to-fans-programming-code.html


----------



## Yata (Mar 16, 2015)

i remember reading Only You Can Save the World in the school library when i was about 12 or 13 or so and absolutely loving it, must have been my first decent sci fi book and have very good memories of it
RIP


----------



## jakethesnake (Mar 16, 2015)

Wyrd Sisters was perhaps my favourite - amongst other things it gave me an enhanced appreciation of Shakespeare while at the same time sending it up. 
He also produced a throwaway sort of Christmas stocking book one year about cats which I often call to mind when observing the cats on the garden walls round our way: Cat chess, the object of the game being for the cat to be able to see as many of the other cats as possible while being seen by as few as possible (or something like that).


----------



## Celyn (Mar 17, 2015)

wiskey said:


> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...e-clacks-thanks-to-fans-programming-code.html



While I do know that it's taken from the clacks in "Going Postal", there's a bit of my head that insists on thinking of a ghostly Terry Pratchett continuing to exist, but only in Clackmannanshire.


----------



## Idris2002 (Mar 17, 2015)

Spoiler: All will be revealed. . .


----------



## Spanky Longhorn (Mar 18, 2015)

DotCommunist said:


> Just start with Small Gods, I'll email you the epub if you have an ereader


might be a bit over his head, I would advise starting with Carpet People


----------



## Crispy (Mar 18, 2015)

Web server admins! Add the following to your HTTP headers:

<IfModule headers_module>
header set X-Clacks-Overhead "GNU Terry Pratchett"
</IfModule>

https://www.reddit.com/r/discworld/comments/2yt9j6/gnu_terry_pratchett/


----------



## DotCommunist (Apr 3, 2015)




----------



## DotCommunist (Apr 3, 2015)

north london according to the tweet


----------



## SpookyFrank (Apr 3, 2015)

Cid said:


> Should also take a moment to remember Josh Kirby who did all the covers until his death in 2001.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I didn't know Kirby was dead, although I had noticed the absence of his artwork. Thief of Time is maybe the last one of his I remember.


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## DotCommunist (Feb 11, 2017)

drama-docu on the beeb now, bbc2 'back in black'


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## bubblesmcgrath (Feb 11, 2017)

Just watched it...


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## DotCommunist (Feb 11, 2017)

bubblesmcgrath said:


> Just watched it...


I'm saving it till after I've eaten so I can watch it without getting distracted by my belly


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## bubblesmcgrath (Feb 11, 2017)

DotCommunist said:


> I'm saving it till after I've eaten so I can watch it without getting distracted by my belly


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## Shippou-Sensei (Feb 11, 2017)

This is... different.


...

Well  i kinda enjoyed that. The actor they had  kinda annoyed me at first  but  the performance grew on me as it went on.

the bit  with gaiman near the end had me welling up.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Feb 11, 2017)

massive spoilers for the shepherds crown though.


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## Celyn (Feb 11, 2017)

DotCommunist said:


> drama-docu on the beeb now, bbc2 'back in black'


Oh! Sad. Can't watch cos not got BBC licence. Woe!


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## purenarcotic (Feb 11, 2017)

Celyn said:


> Oh! Sad. Can't watch cos not got BBC licence. Woe!



If you go on iPlayer you can just tick the box that says 'I have a license' and then watch it. They don't ask for any proof or anything. Like those silly 'I am over 16' which nobody over the age of about 12 pays any attention to.


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## DexterTCN (Feb 11, 2017)

Celyn said:


> Oh! Sad. Can't watch cos not got BBC licence. Woe!


Me too  

Same reason I'd guess.


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## DexterTCN (Feb 11, 2017)

purenarcotic said:


> If you go on iPlayer you can just tick the box that says 'I have a license' and then watch it. They don't ask for any proof or anything. Like those silly 'I am over 16' which nobody over the age of about 12 pays any attention to.


It's the principle.


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## ginger_syn (Feb 12, 2017)

I've just watched this,I had my doubts about it but it was lovely and made me feel a little melancholy, it is well worth watching.


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## weltweit (Feb 12, 2017)

I haven't read any Terry Pratchett books yet but I like Sci-fi. 
Would I like his Discworld books do you think?
I liked Iain M Banks Culture books.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Feb 12, 2017)

weltweit said:


> I haven't read any Terry Pratchett books yet but I like Sci-fi.
> Would I like his Discworld books do you think?
> I liked Iain M Banks Culture books.


Read "Mort" and "Small Gods". That'll tell you if you like his stuff.


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## weltweit (Feb 12, 2017)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> Read "Mort" and "Small Gods". That'll tell you if you like his stuff.


ta, I will add them to my to-read list


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## DotCommunist (Feb 12, 2017)

DexterTCN said:


> It's the principle.


their disgraceful partisanship over indyreff? Well, theres always torrents...
I've never paid a license for reasons along the same lines- basically their a state propaganda service over at the news desk and nowhere outside london exists anyway. But I'll still watch the fiction/docus for free. Well, untill they bring in a code you have to type in for the iplayer



ginger_syn said:


> I've just watched this,I had my doubts about it but it was lovely and made me feel a little melancholy, it is well worth watching.


I wasn't entirely sold on the bloke playing TP but it was quite good anyway. At the start when someone called him the finest satirist since Swift I was all 'I made that observation on the internet, you insight stealing nob!'

but then I realised its an obvious enough point, many will have made the comparison even while he was still alive


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## Saffy (Feb 12, 2017)

Neil Gaiman had me sobbing.


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## DotCommunist (Feb 12, 2017)

Saffy said:


> Neil Gaiman had me sobbing.


refreshingly honest wasn't he. No the first few weren't very good. They were funny if you liked convoluted puns and had a knowledge of the genre he was satirising


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## Orang Utan (Feb 12, 2017)

Celyn said:


> Oh! Sad. Can't watch cos not got BBC licence. Woe!


There's no such thing as a BBC licence. You 'need' a license to watch any TV channel


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## DexterTCN (Feb 12, 2017)

Orang Utan said:


> There's no such thing as a BBC licence. You 'need' a license to watch any TV channel


This is true.   They've really spread the net wide.


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## DotCommunist (Feb 12, 2017)

nobody on the bbc news can pronounce the word year. The all say 'yur'. Even the ones with mild regional accents get infected by that RP shite


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## Orang Utan (Feb 12, 2017)

DotCommunist said:


> nobody on the bbc news can pronounce the word year. The all say 'yur'. Even the ones with mild regional accents get infected by that RP shite


Limmy's Show - Kabul - YouTube


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## fishfinger (Feb 12, 2017)

DotCommunist said:


> ...I wasn't entirely sold on the bloke playing TP but it was quite good anyway.


That was Paul Kaye aka Thoros of Myr aka Dennis Pennis. I thought it was a pretty good impression of TP.


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## DexterTCN (Feb 12, 2017)

Dennis Pennis...loved that.


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## ginger_syn (Feb 13, 2017)

weltweit said:


> I haven't read any Terry Pratchett books yet but I like Sci-fi.
> Would I like his Discworld books do you think?
> I liked Iain M Banks Culture books.


 I don't know if you would like the Pratchett books as they are definitely not sci-fi, but they are laugh out loud funny, beautifully crafted and a joy to read. Personally I'd recommend Guards! Guards! as a first read but I'm  biased as it was my first Pratchett whichever you choose to read I hope you enjoy it.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Feb 13, 2017)

For Pratchett Sci-Fi there is  _The Dark Side of the Sun_  and _Strata_   as well as he collaboration with Stephen Baxter  the long earth  series


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## Lord Camomile (Aug 30, 2017)

Terry Pratchett's unfinished novels destroyed by steamroller



> The unfinished books of Sir Terry Pratchett have been destroyed by a steamroller, following the late fantasy novelist’s wishes.
> 
> Pratchett’s hard drive was crushed by a vintage John Fowler & Co steamroller named Lord Jericho at the Great Dorset Steam Fair, ahead of the opening of a new exhibition about the author’s life and work.


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## SpookyFrank (Aug 30, 2017)

I bet Vladimir Nabokov wishes he'd thought of that.


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## Sirena (Aug 30, 2017)

Nice touch.


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## A380 (Aug 30, 2017)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> For Pratchett Sci-Fi there is  _The Dark Side of the Sun_  and _Strata_   as well as he collaboration with Stephen Baxter  the long earth  series


How about a meta alternative universe where Terry Pratchett developed one of these two universes rather than Disc World?


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## Vintage Paw (Aug 30, 2017)

I've seen people getting proper upset about this, saying it's cultural vandalism.


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## SpookyFrank (Aug 30, 2017)

Vintage Paw said:


> I've seen people getting proper upset about this, saying it's cultural vandalism.



Then it must equally be cultural vandalism to discard drafts, works in progress or just finished work that you're not happy with. As every creative person does in some form or another.


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## DotCommunist (Aug 30, 2017)

It was his choice *shrug* when they burned byron's diaries they did that of their own accord, which is out of order


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## killer b (Aug 30, 2017)

Has anyone read an unfinished book that's been any better than interesting? I once attempted to read Raymond Chandler's unfinished final novel - it was embarrassing, just terrible. I haven't risked anything else since then.


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## SpookyFrank (Aug 30, 2017)

Pratchett's last Discworld book was pretty obviously written as a farewell to his world and many of his characters. It would be a disservice to the author, his fans and frankly the characters themselves to allow some half-finished snippets of something else to trickle out and turn that dignified full stop into a rather feeble ellipsis.


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## SpookyFrank (Aug 30, 2017)

killer b said:


> Has anyone read an unfinished book that's been any better than interesting? I once attempted to read Raymond Chandler's unfinished final novel - it was embarrassing, just terrible. I haven't risked anything else since then.



You can't really avoid unfinished work if you're a fan of Pushkin.

e2a: But then you've got Douglas Adams. Not only did they publish a couple of chapters of an unfinished book, chapters that made no sense without the context of an actual story, but they let some fucking awful hack write a fucking awful Hitchhiker sequel.


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## A380 (Aug 31, 2017)

I quite liked the unfinished last Patrick O'Brian Aubrey Matyrin book ' the final unfinished voyage ' as they published the manuscript along with the text. And also it's edited so the last scene is the characters sailing away from England one last time with adventure ahead.


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## Lord Camomile (Aug 31, 2017)

Taken from that original Guardian link, I asked my (big Discworld fan) friend if she'd like to go to the exhibition for a Christmas trip, but she said it would be too sad


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## StoneRoad (Aug 31, 2017)

Patrick O'Brian was also my example of an unfinished novel that was published largely "as is" and although the fans have attempted to finish it off ...

How about Schubert's Eighth Symphony - other wise known as "the Unfinished" ... ?

I'm sad that TP didn't want this material to survive - drafts and unfinished works - are important to historical research into literature (and engineering / science !), so destroying the hard drive has prevented the future academic study.
I can understand the viewpoint - look at the discussions about the pre/sequels to the Dune saga !


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## aqua (Aug 31, 2017)

I wonder if there is an element of wanting to keep private the very obvious deterioration of his writing due to his illness. 

One of the things that make it  different TO straight Alzheimer's is people retain awareness of how much ability they're losing, a real insight into what's happening. Wanting to keep that journey private I can totally understand, watching the same happen to my dad, from the same illness, diagnosed at the same time as TP


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