Some Liz Thoughts on Discworld

Fantasy Tropes 1 Thought Experiments Thought experiments are the bread and butter of fantasy and science fiction. They are a hallmark of Terry Pratchetts’s writing style. Starting with a “what if'' and running with it. There are plenty in Soul Music. a) In creating the character of Death Terry Pratchett has already set us up with one. What might an anthropomorphic personification look and behave like? What if he became influenced by the very people he was, in a sense, serving? In Soul Music he presents us with another. What if a human child should discover that they were related to him and had inherited his role? In our cultural context this is not as fantastical an idea as it sounds. In the most common faith in Western culture the in-person appearance of the son of God is a key tenet. Christianity is a belief system based on the belief that this father from another dimension sent a representative or part of himself in human form. I don’t believe Terry Pratchett was in any wa...

"In a beautiful, incremental sequence of images across a number of passages Terry Pratchett contrasts DEATH, plagued by these memory intrusions, his desperate need to forget, with Susan’s gradual return of memory, from creeping to flooding “feeling…no, she realised…the memory was creeping over her from somewhere that this one was not only real but on her side.” “Images rose from the mud at the bottom of her mind.” “The hippo of recollection stirred in the muddy waters of the mind.” “The hippo of memory wallowed…” “Susan sat while memories woke and yawned and unfolded in her head. “I remember about that bathroom now,” she said. “It’s all coming back to me.” “Nah, it never went away. It just got papered over.” “She stood and stared at it as memory flooded back.” In the bereavement section I mention that severely intrusive memories can be a symptom of PTSD (recalling the bad thing that happened) and in chronic unresolved grief (reliving the good things and hankering). and unresolv...