Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Discworld
Most recents (15)
One of life's finest pleasures: discovering a complete series of novels as an adult, devouring them to the end, and discovering that, while you'd have happily inhabited the author's world for many more volumes, you are *eminently* satisfied with the conclusion. 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/01/08/tem… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/01/08/tem… 2/
I just had this experience and I am still basking in the warm glow of having had such a thoroughly fulfilling imaginary demi-life for half a year. 3/
1/n LET’S PLAY GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR!!!!
Well as my last attempt⤵️to #StopTheWar in #Ukraine failed to get any traction I thought my 2nd attempt should start with a bang or in the words of #DrStrangelove"How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"
Well as my last attempt⤵️to #StopTheWar in #Ukraine failed to get any traction I thought my 2nd attempt should start with a bang or in the words of #DrStrangelove"How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"
2/n It seems I am not scary enough to scare sense into some participants of the current war, I thought trying to use a selection of #GNUTerryPratchett words from #Discworld #Jingo & #Hogfather along with some horrors of war concepts might persuade #WarCriminals in the conflict
3/n that a better path might be available to them and others if the war ended quickly but as another Author @Kurt_Vonnegut said of horrors in another War #SoItGoes🤷♂️
I started with the words
“LET’S PLAY GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR‼️‼️”
From the #WarGames film
I started with the words
“LET’S PLAY GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR‼️‼️”
From the #WarGames film
1/n It seems that these are trying times in #Ukraine at the moment, for those in that country with a slightly dark sense of humour this #Discworld reading list may be morale building & also informative in your current situation
2/n #GNUTerryPratchett also has a range of books more suitable to the younger reader & may also be a good distraction if you can get hold of them in your current situation see full reading list below. 
3/n The real point of this thread is to get some ideas to @DefenceU & people of #Ukraine on how to #StopTheWar by persuading the Russians currently in #Ukraine to cease their actions & go home, by the very careless use of words to paint a vivid picture of some of their possible
Oh no I'm back at it again
Oh dear
Buckle up
Oh dear
Buckle up
"No civil police force could hold out against an irate and resolute population. The trick is not to let them realize that. Yes?”
― Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals
(Lord Vetenari, ruminating on policing a la Vimes)
#Discworld
― Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals
(Lord Vetenari, ruminating on policing a la Vimes)
#Discworld
“When people who can write and read fight for other people who lack that knowledge, the result is just a new kind of stupidity. If you want to do something for them, build a library somewhere and leave the door open.”
- Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times
#Discworld
- Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times
#Discworld
Many people have said lots of witty & moving things about #Discworld #TerryPratchett and the awful The Watch today.
I shall just add this.
They people behind this were told.
[1/4]
I shall just add this.
They people behind this were told.
[1/4]
If this is a ‘mistake’, it is the equivalent of being warned not to climb Ben Nevis in flip flops and a pair of shorts whilst looking at the horizon and saying “oh, they’re just clouds, clouds can’t hurt anyone!”
[2/4]
[2/4]
The people who made this somehow, gods only know how, failed to recognise that @terryandrob and @rhipratchett are, deep in their hearts & souls, fans. They told them it was umpteen kinds of wrong. They were ignored and dismissed.
[3/4]
[3/4]
Okay, look, this is why I am so upset by #TheWatch adaptation. I think I read my first #Discworld book a couple of decades ago, as a young teenager. I'd never read anything like it in my life. After that I went to the library every week & meticulously hunted for them, over years.
It took me five years from discovering #Discworld to catch up with them. I remember going to a little Worcestershire bookshop and buying a copy of Wintersmith and Terry Pratchett signed it for me and I just - I didn't know what to say to him! I was in awe!
The #Discworld books gave me a grounding in empathy and the complexity of human nature in a way no other book has. When I call Terry Pratchett a philosopher, I am not joking. I am being entirely sincere, because he was one of the brightest minds I've ever come across.
Dr James Hadley explains the sensible way to build a world... #prprcon2020 #TerryPratchett #Discworld @PratchettProj
... and the stupid way 😉
Argh.
What I mean to say is that this is from Ian Stewart's (co-author of The Science of the Discworld books) @JoatStewart presentation. Dr Hadley is the conference host!
What I mean to say is that this is from Ian Stewart's (co-author of The Science of the Discworld books) @JoatStewart presentation. Dr Hadley is the conference host!
"Sometimes you had to take a look at yourself and then look away.”
― Terry Pratchett, Snuff
#Discworld
― Terry Pratchett, Snuff
#Discworld
“They say that the eyes of some paintings can follow you around the room, a fact that I doubt, but I am wondering whether some music can follow you for ever.”
― Terry Pratchett, Snuff
Yes. It can.
#Discworld
― Terry Pratchett, Snuff
Yes. It can.
#Discworld
“Gods don't like people not doing much work. People who aren't busy all the time might start to think.”
― Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
(I'll add you can definitely substitute 'the ruling class' for Gods here.)
#Discworld
― Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
(I'll add you can definitely substitute 'the ruling class' for Gods here.)
#Discworld
This seems like a good time to have a little thread on the #Discworld #TerryPratchett philosophy of not treating people as things...
1/10
1/10
If you google this quote, you'll find it referenced to Carpe Jugulum, first published in 1998, in which Granny Weatherwax says:
'sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.’
2/10
'sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.’
2/10
But that's not the first mention of the idea. I'm actually not 100% certain (and happy to be corrected), but I think the first time might be Hogfather, first published 1996...
3/10
3/10
Right! The #Discworld #TerryPratchett books without the character of Death are Wee Free Men & Snuff.
Not books you'd normally put together: published 8 years apart, one for younger readers, & one... very much not.
But they have more in common than you might think...
Thread 1/
Not books you'd normally put together: published 8 years apart, one for younger readers, & one... very much not.
But they have more in common than you might think...
Thread 1/
This is my copy of Wee Free Men. My Nan got it signed. You can tell, because she gave my full name. She was German by birth, didn't suffer fools & had an aptitude for arithmetic. Until Alzheimer's did its nasty little thing. She died in 2015. It was the year for it, it seems.
2/
2/
And that all seems rather apt, doesn't it? Because Wee Free Men is, in part, a story of a girl and her grandmother. So perhaps it's not surprising that I have a fondness for this book.
It's also a story about thinking beyond, about seeing through, and...
3/
It's also a story about thinking beyond, about seeing through, and...
3/
Bit of fun: only one #Discworld book doesn't feature Death as an explicit character. Let's drill down (please don't give it away if you know which one it is).
Which series is it from....?
Which series is it from....?
@20thcenturymarc do you know this?
If so, shhhh 😉
If so, shhhh 😉
Whoops hahaha well anyway yes.
Um.
There are two books without Death.
BUT no matter, because now, right, you have a 50/50 chance.
Let's see if the top two poll results are correct!
😁
Um.
There are two books without Death.
BUT no matter, because now, right, you have a 50/50 chance.
Let's see if the top two poll results are correct!
😁
"There were times when the world did not need policemen, because what it really did need was for somebody who knew what they were doing to shut it all down and start it all up again so that THIS time it could be done properly."
- Terry Pratchett, Snuff
#Discworld
- Terry Pratchett, Snuff
#Discworld
"...but what should we do when the highborn and wealthy take to crime? Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger, how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man who breaks the law out of greed?"
- Terry Pratchett, Snuff
- Terry Pratchett, Snuff
"I'm not a natural killer! See this? See what it says? I'm supposed to KEEP the peace, I am! If I kill people to do it, I'm reading the wrong manual!"
- Watch Commander Sam Vimes on policing
(Terry Pratchett, Jingo)
- Watch Commander Sam Vimes on policing
(Terry Pratchett, Jingo)
Wednesday headcanon thread: What are the #Discworld characters stockpiling?
The librarian: peanuts. Everyone else has stockpiled bananas on his behalf.
Rincewind: Potatoes which he will, regretfully, end up throwing at whoever's chasing him.
The librarian: peanuts. Everyone else has stockpiled bananas on his behalf.
Rincewind: Potatoes which he will, regretfully, end up throwing at whoever's chasing him.
The luggage went out and stocked up on *something*, but we don't know what and quite frankly we're too afraid to ask.
William de Worde has stockpiled Sacharissa’s favourite kind of pen because she won’t write without it.
William de Worde has stockpiled Sacharissa’s favourite kind of pen because she won’t write without it.
Drumknott has never stopped stockpiling paperclips, and finds his collection very soothing.
The Watch: Dartboards.
The Watch: Dartboards.
How #Discworld characters would cope with lockdown:
Rincewind - has been hiding under the bed for the last few years anyway.
The Luggage - hibernating.
The Librarian - has locked the doors to the library after panic-buying bananas.
Rincewind - has been hiding under the bed for the last few years anyway.
The Luggage - hibernating.
The Librarian - has locked the doors to the library after panic-buying bananas.
Granny Weatherwax - is furiously bored and bored of being furious at them what won’t stay home. Borrowing A Lot.
Nanny Ogg - Hitting the Scumble in the tin bath and insisting her daughters-in-law leave dinner on the porch, knock and back away.
Nanny Ogg - Hitting the Scumble in the tin bath and insisting her daughters-in-law leave dinner on the porch, knock and back away.
Nobby and Fred - as key workers, still reluctantly on the beat. Nobby is spritzing himself with a foul-smelling potion from Mrs Cake. Mrs Colon has made Fred sleep in the shed.
Vimes - Wearing the lovely mask Sybil made him at all times. Furious about this.
Vimes - Wearing the lovely mask Sybil made him at all times. Furious about this.
I have not really mentioned this before on Twitter but, in addition to my many other hobbies, I also enjoy making cakes. I thought I'd share a few of my past creations, as a distraction from our troubles.
I'll start with this #LegendofZelda #WindWaker cake for @nomenloony
I'll start with this #LegendofZelda #WindWaker cake for @nomenloony
Cake for my Grandad's 90th Birthday.
Hickory Dickory Dock cake for my niece. It contained a mechanism and was a fully working clock!
