Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett-fantasy author 1948-2015

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Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett-fantasy author 1948-2015

12 Mar 15 - 10:38 AM (#3693328)
Subject: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett
From: Amergin

Just saw the news on his fb page...no other details....shit.

12 Mar 15 - 10:39 AM (#3693329)
Subject: Obit: RIP Terry Pratchett
From: Sir Roger de Beverley

Just heard that Terry Pratchett - one of the cleverest and funniest writers in any genre - died today.

His Discworld books are amongst the few that I re-read on a regular basis.

No doubt there will be more extensive and fulsome obits posted here, but I am saddened by his passing at such a young age.

R

12 Mar 15 - 10:41 AM (#3693330)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett
From: Sir Roger de Beverley

Sorry for the cross post - as you say. Shit.

R

12 Mar 15 - 10:41 AM (#3693331)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett
From: Amergin

BBC Obit

12 Mar 15 - 10:48 AM (#3693332)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett
From: Nigel Parsons

Terrible news, even if not unexpected.
Great memories of (nearly) all his books.
Great memories of meeting him at signings & SF conventions.

To use his own word, an embuggerance!

R.I.P. Terry

Nigel

12 Mar 15 - 11:20 AM (#3693345)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett
From: GUEST

AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER

12 Mar 15 - 11:39 AM (#3693351)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett
From: Roger the Skiffler

Very sad, though I never got on with his books. Who couldn't love the creator of an orangutan librarian (and I worked with a few that came close!)

RtS

12 Mar 15 - 12:37 PM (#3693367)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Jeri

The 11:20 GUEST message quotes how his death was announced on Twitter.

Here's The BBC News article.

I'm partway through "Snuff" now, and still have a few books of his to read. The world is a much more amazing place for Pratchett having been here.

12 Mar 15 - 01:01 PM (#3693371)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Jeri

Animated Intro to Discworld

A Wizard's Staff Has a Knob On The End. (The song starts after about 2 minutes.)

12 Mar 15 - 01:46 PM (#3693380)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: GUEST,Dave the Gnome

I don't think I can add anything to what other people have already said all over the internet. I am immensely saddened and know that the world will be much worse off without him. He has been part of my life for over 30 years and my model railway is built around my pride and joy - A model of the Unseen University:-) Although I never met him I feel, like many others, that I knew him well.

However, not wishing to controversial, but why BS? Anyone that has read any of his books know how much he took from and put back into the folk world.

Just a thought?

12 Mar 15 - 01:51 PM (#3693384)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Thompson

So sorry that he's gone, so glad that he escaped the insult of the culmination of Alzheimer's. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dhíl.

12 Mar 15 - 02:15 PM (#3693390)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Sir Roger de Beverley

This thread is not BS. TP is 199.47% folk.

Put it back up there above the line.

R

12 Mar 15 - 02:33 PM (#3693397)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Jeri

Wintersmith: Maddy Prior & Steeleye Span in collaboration with Terry Pratchett

12 Mar 15 - 02:48 PM (#3693400)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Musket

Sad coincidence, I am half way through Good Omens.

Top man. Sad to see his demise.

12 Mar 15 - 03:08 PM (#3693405)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Sir Roger de Beverley

Just listening to his "Desert Island discs" - "I have always been a bit of a folkie and the first record I bought was Steeleye Span" - he then went on to choose Thomas the Rhymer as his favourite record.

R

12 Mar 15 - 03:30 PM (#3693408)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: GUEST

OH, BUGGER.

What more can anyone say?

12 Mar 15 - 03:58 PM (#3693416)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: GUEST,Raggytash

I too am saddened to hear of the demise of Terry Pratchett. I cannot add to the praise he has received here, unlike him I am not eloquent enough.

The world is a lesser place with his passing.

12 Mar 15 - 04:47 PM (#3693425)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: GUEST,Dave the Gnome

Thank you elves. And goblins :-)

12 Mar 15 - 04:52 PM (#3693427)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: GUEST,Dave the Gnome

Couldn't seem to get to that link. Sorry, Jeri.

Trailer for Wintersmith here. If you want any more - Go and buy it! :-)

12 Mar 15 - 04:55 PM (#3693430)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: GUEST,Dave the Gnome

I mean go an buy it. Unless you really want to buty it of course...

12 Mar 15 - 05:12 PM (#3693435)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Brian May

I think the world is a little dimmer today . . .

RIP Sir Terry, and thank you for the years of pleasure and fun.

You WILL be missed, by my whole family.

12 Mar 15 - 05:17 PM (#3693439)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Jeri

Thanks DavetG. I don't know why the link doesn't work (and it doesn't work for me, either, now.)

13 Mar 15 - 04:14 AM (#3693512)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Wheatman

sad Sad SAD loss. I just hope some one sings Pleasant and Delightful at his funeral.

13 Mar 15 - 08:54 AM (#3693587)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Sandra in Sydney

RIP

13 Mar 15 - 10:42 AM (#3693626)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Jeri

From Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man, 1991

    The Morris dance is common to all inhabited worlds in the multiverse.

    It is danced under blue skies to celebrate the quickening of the soil and under bare stars because it's springtime and with any luck the carbon dioxide will unfreeze again. The imperative is felt by deep-sea beings who have never seen the sun and urban humans whose only connection with the cycles of nature is that their Volvo once ran over a sheep.

    It is danced innocently by raggedy-bearded young mathematicians to an inexpert accordion rendering of "Mrs Widgery's Lodger" and ruthlessly by such as the Ninja Morris Men of New Ankh, who can do strange and terrible things with a simple handkerchief and a bell.

    And it is never danced properly.

    Except on the Discworld, which is flat and supported on the backs of four elephants which travel through space on the shell of Great A'Tuin, the world turtle.

    And even there, only in one place have they got it right. It's a small village high in the Ramtop Mountains, where the big and simple secret is handed down across the generations.

    There, the men dance on the first day of spring, backwards and forwards, bells tied under their knees, white shirts flapping. People come and watch. There's an ox roast afterwards, and it's generally considered a nice day out for the all the family.

    But that isn't the secret.

    The secret is the other dance.

    In the village in the Ramtops where they understand what the Morris dance is all about, they dance it just once, at dawn, on the first day of spring. They don't dance it after that, all through the summer. After all, what would be the point? What use would it be?

    But on a certain day when the nights are drawing in, the dancers leave work early and take, from attics and cupboards, the other costume, the black one, and the other bells. And they go by separate ways to a valley among the leafless trees. They don't speak. There is no music. It's very hard to imagine what kind there could be.

    The bells don't ring. They're made of octiron, a magic metal. But they're not, precisely, silent bells. Silence is merely the absence of noise. They make the opposite of noise, a sort of heavily textured silence.

    And in the cold afternoon, as the light drains from the sky, among the frosty leaves and in the damp air, they dance the other Morris. Because of the balance of things.

    You've got to dance both, they say. Otherwise you can't dance either.

There are Morris sides that dance this now.

13 Mar 15 - 10:50 AM (#3693630)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Manitas_at_home

Now?

13 Mar 15 - 11:06 AM (#3693634)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Jeri

Well, no--not now here. The Morris police would be looking for them, wouldn't they? It has to be "on a certain day when the nights are drawing in". But there are other universes, other worlds, and undoubtedly, it is that day on at least one of them.

I love his writing. I wonder how many of us have read bits aloud just so we could feel the shapes of words.

13 Mar 15 - 12:39 PM (#3693664)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Musket

There is a petition up to death, asking if we can have him back.

According to my twitter feed, it has over 20,000 signatures already...

13 Mar 15 - 12:48 PM (#3693666)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: GUEST,Dave the Gnome

Perhaps he would do a swap for Jeremy Clarkson...

:D tG

13 Mar 15 - 01:25 PM (#3693677)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: GUEST,LynnH

The revenge of the Auditors?

14 Mar 15 - 04:56 AM (#3693838)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: GUEST,Dave the Gnome

I am surprised that the quote is from Reaper Man, Jeri. I thought the Ramtops Morris team featured most heavily in Lords and Ladies. Looking forward to getting re-acquainted with all of them again :-)

14 Mar 15 - 04:59 PM (#3694031)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Nigel Parsons

The time we feared, alas, has come.
"Last orders" at the Broken Drum".

Now Nanny's songs will not be voiced.
There's no more scams for Mr Moist.

The Watch have had their last back-hander-
"The Times" declares (this may be slander)

The Seamstress' Guild no longer sew,
They'll find another road to Ho.

The list of books will grow no greater,
As DEATH has met his own creator.

And, so we ring the passing bell,
Sir Tel,
Farewell

There may be other couplets to come, from my pen, or from those of others. But for now I had to get it out of my system.

R.I.P.

14 Mar 15 - 07:08 PM (#3694075)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett, fantasy author1948-2015
From: Mysha

Hi,

More than 25000 now at the petition.

Bye
Mysha

14 Apr 15 - 02:39 PM (#3701845)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett-fantasy author 1948-2015
From: Nigel Parsons

As suggested above, a couple more couplets have intruded themselves.
It possibly is still unfinished:

That dreaded time, alas, has come.
"Last orders" at the Broken Drum".

Now Nanny's songs will not be voiced.
There's no more scams for Mr Moist.

Dibbler's work at last is done.
There's no more "sausage in a bun"

Now Nobby : Samuel Vimes
No longer solve Ankh-Morpork's crimes.

The Watch have had their last back-hander-
"The Times" declares (this may be slander)

The Seamstress' Guild no longer sew,
They'll find another road to Ho.

The list of books will grow no greater,
As DEATH has met his own creator.

And, so we ring the passing bell,
Sir Tel,
Farewell!

Just waiting for the postman to bring me a Tee Shirt with a picture of Terry on the front & this on the back (in a suitable Gothic script)

15 Apr 15 - 03:01 AM (#3701920)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett-fantasy author 1948-2015
From: Wheatman

I would like one too.

15 Apr 15 - 05:22 AM (#3701931)
Subject: RE: Obit: Sir Terry Pratchett-fantasy author 1948-2015
From: Megan L

'The shepherds crown' the final diskworld novel due out in September