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Rest in Peace, Terry Pratchett
Mar. 13th, 2015 08:48 amWhen celebrities pass away, it's usually not the person themselves who you mourn, but the impact and influence they had on your life. I read about Terry Pratchett's passing, and I'm a little sad and very nostalgic. My strongest memories of Year 8 (14-15y.o.) was sitting on the grass outside the library with two bookworm friends, reading Terry Pratchett books (and other novels) with the understanding that if you sniggered out loud, you had to stop and read the paragraph out to everyone to appreciate it.
I have very fond memories of the Discworld, this magical, silly place where human folly frequently showed disastrous consequences and most of the heroes and heroines were essentially practical and a bit smart. These were the books that taught me the meaning of "anthropomorphic personification" and that the secret to keeping power was being hard to kill and keeping your underlings busy. They focused on the ability to see the world as it was, not as you wanted to assume it was, and that the power of those assumptions could be used in your favour, if you were clever enough to think of them. They weren't stories where the sweet or the polite, the charming or the lovely won the day. Vetinari could be manipulative and scheming, a true dictator, and still be the best leader of the city. The witches could be soppy, sharp or lazy -- the wizards could be cowardly, selfish or bull-headed -- and still be the heroes that saved the day. People didn't make sense, except in that intrinsic human-nature way that makes narrative sense.
Amongst the distrust of anyone who uses too many exclamation points (!!!!!) and the funny songs about hedgehogs, those books made me laugh. They also taught me to be a little kinder to people and try not to judge on appearances, even though it's human nature to make assumptions.
I have very fond memories of the Discworld, this magical, silly place where human folly frequently showed disastrous consequences and most of the heroes and heroines were essentially practical and a bit smart. These were the books that taught me the meaning of "anthropomorphic personification" and that the secret to keeping power was being hard to kill and keeping your underlings busy. They focused on the ability to see the world as it was, not as you wanted to assume it was, and that the power of those assumptions could be used in your favour, if you were clever enough to think of them. They weren't stories where the sweet or the polite, the charming or the lovely won the day. Vetinari could be manipulative and scheming, a true dictator, and still be the best leader of the city. The witches could be soppy, sharp or lazy -- the wizards could be cowardly, selfish or bull-headed -- and still be the heroes that saved the day. People didn't make sense, except in that intrinsic human-nature way that makes narrative sense.
Amongst the distrust of anyone who uses too many exclamation points (!!!!!) and the funny songs about hedgehogs, those books made me laugh. They also taught me to be a little kinder to people and try not to judge on appearances, even though it's human nature to make assumptions.
