Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 14:24, 14 February 2006

How about a name change to: Terry Pratchett's Discworld for that / page? --maveric149

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I think this is a good idea, although there are other entries about Discworld.Would these conflict? Kabads

"parodies everything under the sun" - is this appropriate, given the fantasy discworld? How should we approach this? - atorpen

I think there's too much on Discworld and not enough on the writer - more of a chronological approach through his career would be more appropriate. Discworld is another entry in itself. Kabads

1% of all the non-fiction books sold in Britain are written by Pratchett.

Surely this should be all the fiction books, right? -- Evercat 13:46 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)

Oops! :) Arwel 18:47 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)

On an ounce-of-truth per pound-of-paper basis, Pratchett is non-fiction. :) Tannin

Do we really need a section about Discworld with a list of novels? The same information appears under the Discworld article...--IYY 20:14, 20 May 2004 (UTC)

The rest is history...

There's no good reason to not including this history in the article ;-) --FvdP 18:22, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I don't like how one paragrph describes events in 1965, then says "The rest is history...", and then jumps to 1981. Could we perhaps get some of that history in the article?

Acegikmo1 16:48, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Actually it says "It was during his time as a journalist..." i.e. anytime between 1965 and 1980. Checking through the COPAC library catalogue shows that The Carpet People was actually first published in 1971. -- Arwel 19:04, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Ah, that makes a bit more sense now. Thanks. Acegikmo1 19:07, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I understand that Pratchett is marketed as a fantasy author but in my opinion he's no more of a fantasy author than is Jonathan Swift the author of Gulliver's Travels.--Kop 04:25, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Pratchett identifies his own books as comic fantasy himself. Ausir 10:41, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)

disc-shaped world rotates on the backs of four giant elephants

It does not actually rotate though, does it - a rather small and cold star rotates around it, just as Ptolemaeus envisioned...

According to Equal Rites the Disc rotates. For each rotation of the Disc there are two summers (where the sun rises and where it sets), two winters, etc. Two of the directions on the disk (can't remember their names at the moment) are named relative to the spin of the Disc (i.e. spinwards and counter-spinwards)--Misfit138 17:42, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)

The directions are turnwise and widdershins I believe, but yes, the disc does indeed rotate.--RustedGod 13:20, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Rhianna

His daughter Rhianna Pratchett is also a fantasy author.

I'm having trouble verifying this. What's she written? Evercat 01:27, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Dunno. I can't find any entries for her on COPAC, but I know she has written reviews which have been published in some newspapers. -- Arwel 01:50, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The Rhianna Pratchett article didn't say anything besides that she was a fantasy writer, like her dad. No bibliography or references. I've speedied it, but feel free to recreate it if you find evidence that she indeed wrote something. ] 08:46, Dec 2, 2004 (UTC)

A couple of references which might be useful: Beyond Divinity - Interview with the Mother of Chaos! ("Hallo, I have Rhianna Pratchett with me, the author of Child of the Chaos and one of the main writers in Larian Studios Beyond Divinity. When/how did Larian ask you to help them out? It was about a year ago. I had just left my staff position on a UK PC games magazine...Where did you get the idea for the Child of Chaos Novella? Swen, Brothion and I decided on a very rough plot for the story that started with Damian entering the Academy. However, later on down the line the length of the novella was doubled, so I decided to start the story with Damian as a young child. The rest just popped into my head really, but I’ve always liked the way in which Greek mythology depicted the Gods and Goddesses as constant observers of mortals, so I decided to work that idea into the story."); The Daily Telefrag - Games News 21 April 2004 ('Beyond Divinity shipped - Beyond Divinity has been shipped by Larian Studios Fans will also rejoice with 50-page novel Child of Chaos, included n the box, written by Rhianna Pratchett.') - it appears that this is the only writing Rhianna has done (apart from her PC Gaming journalism), and was only available with the 'Beyond Divinity' game Phantomsteve 19:11, 24 June 2005 (UTC)

Perhaps the line should be changed to His daughter Rhianna Pratchett has written a fantasy novella entitled Child of Chaos which was distributed with the PC game Beyond Divinity? Also the current line mentioned journalism... perhaps that should be amended to PC games journalist? Phantomsteve 19:17, 24 June 2005 (UTC)

Here is an useful interview. nice lass, too. she is 27/28 now

Rhianna Pratchett has been working in the games industry for seven years because she’s had a long-standing love affair with videogames since she was tall enough to turn on a ZX81. After several years cutting her teeth on PC Zone magazine, Rhianna left the security of full-time employment to pursue a freelance writing career. She still writes for PC Zone magazine and can also be found from time to time in the pages of The Guardian, The Sunday Times and Hotdog, amongst others. For the last two year she has also been giving talks, consulting and working on scripts for computer games. Rhianna has worked as story editor and writer for the PC hardcore role-playing game Beyond Divinity, has recently been working on level dialogues for Pacman World 3 and is working on story and mission design for Firefly Studio’s next project. Rhianna lives in London where she accidentally collects cats and lives in fear that she will one day be crushed by her precarious mountains of books, DVDS and videogames.

See also , , , 81.208.83.222 09:02, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

The Beauty of British Satire

There is as much Sophistication in Pratchett's Discworld Series as P.G. Woodhouse's Jeeves and Wooster, with the much of the Irreverant comedy of Monty Python...What a great mix. --Cbickford

Discworld wiki

This is not really ready for prime time yet, but I thought wiki editors who are interested in Terry Pratchett might want to give it a go. It's a MediaWiki engine and contains a wiki devoted to Terry Pratchett. There's a bare-bones bibliography list, some very brief biographical information, and quite a few linkbacks to Misplaced Pages. It could probably benefit from the attention of keen editors. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 7 July 2005 02:19 (UTC)

"Harry Potter Criticism"

I don't think Pratchett's comments are a criticism of JK Rowling and her work, but merely a criticism at how the media (namely the Times article) treats other fantasy writers. See for example Neil Gaiman's comments on his blog regarding this: 210.50.112.175 04:40, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

I have rewritten the current sentence in the article: "In July 31 2005 Pratchett criticised the status of Harry Potter author JK Rowling, claiming she is being elevated "at the expense of other writers"." My goal is to more accurately frame the context of Pratchett's comment. However, I'd like to go one step further and question whether this needs to be part of an encyclopedia article about Terry Pratchett in any case. It seems to lack any but the most ephemeral relevance. Justin Bacon 03:05, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

new added picture

The newly added picture is pretty pathetic for a man who is only 57. He looks 70.--Kim Nevelsteen 11:24, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

Footnotes

The footnote numbering is thrown off by the presence of an external link, it appears, quite spoiling the joke. Anyone more skilled than I know how to fix that? --Darksasami 21:51, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

fixed. --None-of-the-Above 20:28, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

What earthly reason is there for a humorous footnote about a translation? Let Pterry write the jokes - this is an encyclopedia, last time I checked. I'm moving it to Good Omens. ::Didactylos 00:54, 4 January 2006 (UTC) Done. ::Didactylos 02:36, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

books

Have I missed something? I dont see his three books: Truckers, Diggers, and, Wings, here. (Books about gnomes, my favorite terry prattchetts.) Again, why arent they here or have I missed them out somewhere? Banes 18:20, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

• They're under "Other non-Discworld books by Pratchett". I tried making "adaptations" a sub-section of the "Discworld" section, but I now see it contains non-discworld works, so I reverted it back. The structure of the article seems really messy, perhaps an editor familar with it could straighten it out. Shouldn't all his books be listed together, followed by an adaptations section? -- DrBob 18:34, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

Intro

I found the 'Pterry' reference in the first sentence a little odd, and distracting, so I've removed it for now..... Petesmiles 04:34, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Misquote

"I started work one morning and saw my first body three hours later, 'on-the-job training' meaning something in those days" - this is given as an unattributed quote, from context directly from Pterry. Unless anyone can provide a reference, it is actually a hacked version of a line from "about the author". From TCoM: "He started work as a journalist one day in 1965 and saw his first corpse three hours later, work experience meaning something in those days." If it can't be sourced, it can't stay. Anyone? ::Didactylos 00:51, 4 January 2006 (UTC) Done. ::Didactylos 02:36, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

He certainly used that line at a book signing and talk in Berlin, September 2000 at the Passionskirche, but he may of course have just quoted his dust jacket... chrisboote 09:28, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Dust jacket bios like this are, most often, written by the author themselves...so it's a safe bet, but sadly, still unsourced. I think if it was refactored as not being a direct quote, we'd be alright. InkSplotch 14:24, 14 February 2006 (UTC)