DON’T THINK OF IT AS DYING, said Death. JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.
-Terry Pratchett, 1948-2015
Patience, Please
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In Memoriam: Terry Pratchett
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Have you all seen his last tweets? They go:
AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.
Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.
The End.
I’m glad that that’s how they announced it, but it makes me have so many feels
no no no no no
been thinking a lot of things but one think i’ve been thinking is — “Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”
and also Words In The Heart Cannot Be Taken.
it’s not much but it’s something and — hell. It’s one of those things were I can’t tell anymore the difference between “this is something I like because of the person I am” and “liking this made me the person I am.” Sir Terry was my hero, Susan and Tiffany and Sam and Granny were my heroes. I never met him or anything but he was so kind and brilliant and funny and brave and angry and moral and political and loving. He cared so much about stories and truth and — not just about Humanity, but about humans. Everyone in his books was human (even if they weren’t), from Sam Vimes all the way down to Foul Ole Ron and Gaspode the Wonder Dog, he made you care about all of them. His books took the top off of my head and rearranged what was inside and his books were there for me during the Worst Year and I’d be a worse person without him and
…I was talking to my English teacher about it today and she said “Was he yours?” and that’s it. He was mine. He was there for me and he saved me and he got so thoroughly into my head that I can’t quite remember how I used to think before I found him.
I’ve known people who’ve died before, I’ve had favorite authors die before, but — I never knew, before today, what it was like to hear news like that and just feel absolutely shattered. I think the strangest thing is that nothing is changing, that I still have all the same essays due tomorrow all the same responsibilities. It feels like everything should have stopped.
I’ll miss him.
“We mourn for them that has tae stay behind.†— William the gonnagle, The Wee Free Men
Muse Academy is shrouded in octarine bunting.
I feel like his death is made even worse by what caused it. A type of dementia that kept him from writing by himself, and forced him to rely on others to put his words on a page. A disease that struck at the core of what he was. Yes, he worked around it, but still.
Also, give this year’s Random Thread theme, I think we should dedicate next month to Discworld.
We certainly will. A suitable image should be easy to find. Would you like to write the caption?
I would be honored to do so. And given how many suitable images there are, I should probably start sifting through them now.
Groundhog, April is fast approaching, Will Pratchett-themed text and images be ready?
Yup, the thread is made and scheduled.
…and has apparently been rescheduled for tomorrow. Probably to make room for this year’s April Fools activities.
That’s right. Thank you, Groundhog. It’s beautiful!
*major blush* You’re welcome!
Yeah, it was a really rare form of early-onset Alzheimer’s. He campaigned heavily for the right to assisted suicide after his diagnosis, which just makes this all the more depressing.
Though in retrospect, if he were really in that much suffering, it’s probably best that he is at peace now.
“Terry Pratchett is not one to go gentle into any night, good or otherwise.
He will rage, as he leaves, against so many things: stupidity, injustice, human foolishness and shortsightedness, not just the dying of the light. And, hand in hand with the anger, like an angel and a demon walking into the sunset, there is love: for human beings, in all our fallibility; for treasured objects; for stories; and ultimately and in all things, love for human dignity.”
-Neil Gaiman
I just bought Guards! Guards! two days ago, thinking that I’d put off reading the Discworld series long enough and that I might as well go ahead and start now. Waking up the next day to find out that he had died…I don’t think I can find the right words to explain how that felt, but…yeah.
I’ve, uh, yet to read any of his books, but I love that quote already.
So someone started a petition asking Death to bring Terry Pratchett back. We’d all better sign it, just in case.
So, which of his many books and/or subseries are your favorites?
(By the way, Muse included an excerpt from The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents in its July/August 2002 cat-themed issue. Does anyone else remember that?)
I do. I still have that issue, but it’s packed up in a box across the ocean from me.
My favorites? Moist Von Lipwig, The Watch, Soul Music, and Moving Pictures.
I really enjoyed Moving Pictures, Feet of Clay, and Monstrous Regiment. I also liked the Tiffany Aching books, and Only You Can Save Mankind (and accompanying sequels).
I do!
Huh. I don’t remember that, although I definitely recall checking the cat issue out from the school library in third grade.
The Tiffany Aching books have a special place in my heart because they’re the first ones I read. And Good Omens is brilliant.
I’ve read all of the Discworld books (except for the Science ones and Raising Steam) and I love all of them, but my three favorites are Night Watch, The Truth, and I Shall Wear Midnight. In more or less that order.
Have any of you ever read the Bromeliad books? They’re stunning.
I do remember! that was my introduction to his writing.
I think my favorite is currently Thud!.
Finished re-reading Reaper Man today. I know people have been sharing this everywhere, but — “no one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away — until the clock he wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone’s life, they say, is only the core of their actual existence.”
That makes me sad, but it comforts me too. I don’t think he’ll be finally dead for a good long while. The ripples spread out and out, into forever.
I don’t know if anyone else has heard about this, but apparently Sir Terry finished another Tiffany Aching book before he died, but it hasn’t been published yet. No, it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke, the article was dated March 16th.
I heard! I’m Looking forward to it.