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...

  From Mort, some foreshadowing and descriptions "In short, Mort was one of those people who are more dangerous than a bag full of rattlesnakes. He was determined to discover the underlying logic behind the universe." "YES? “Well, I think it was because you were up to your knees in horseshit, to tell you the truth.” Death looked at him for a long time. Mort shifted uneasily from one foot to the other. ABSOLUTELY CORRECT, snapped Death. CLARITY OF THOUGHT. REALISTIC APPROACH. VERY IMPORTANT IN A JOB LIKE OURS." Ysabel : "She had silver hair, and eyes with a pearly sheen to them, and the kind of interesting but impractical long, dress that tends to be worn by tragic heroines who clasp single roses to their bosom while gazing soulfully at the moon. Mort had never heard the phrase “Pre-Raphaelite,” which was a pity because it would have been almost the right description. However, such girls tend to be on the translucent, consumptive side, whereas this one had a sli...

"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...

  Hogfather bathroom scene Another thought from the podcast, the bathroom. I'd wondered about that. I went back to the text a few weeks ago and pondered it through. In conclusion I think TP intended (whether it worked or not is, as usual, another matter of course) it as contributing to 1.Imagery.  Theme of doors, locked ones in particular. Dr Downey has 2 visits in succession without use of the best protected door ever (auditors and Téatimé), and the gold goes into a locked vault. Téatimé appears to enter the "bar" without coming through the door, and he is obsessed about opening the tower door even though he has accomplished his commission of dealing with the HF. Susan inadvertently goes through locked doors at the UU and the YMPA. Death looks out through a locked door at the shack to ask Albert how to open it. The children come through the nursery door, Susan deals with the bogey in the cellar behind a shut door. Inconsequential unless coming and going through doorways ...

  Fan theories and spoilers throughout.  I was chuffed to see someone else enjoying Soul Music recently.  It was one book I didn’t really appreciate until I reread it recently. I liked all the jokes and bad puns and music references, but found it a bit silly. I hadn’t spotted the bitter dark chocolate heart in the middle of the occasionally sickly sweet fun. I was too distracted. I found some amazing writing once I started looking.  1) TP is the FIRST to write orphans or boarding school themes within a short while of us hearing of the situation of the Romanian Orphans which broke in 1990 . Rowling, Pulman, Martin etc all came after TP publishing Soul Music in 1994. It turns out there was a small but growing movement discussing Boarding School Syndrome in the UK in the early 90s too - exposing the fact that children placed too young in institutions, even elite ones, could be damaged by the experience (work of Duffel, Beard, later Shcaverein).  I hadn’t seen the ...