Rediscovering Terry Pratchett

[The Luggage is the most terrifying literary creature ever invented.]

I couldn’t resist borrowing a copy of The Color of Magic from the library earlier today, even though I promised myself that I would only borrow books required for my literature seminar so I can concentrate fully on my studies. While sniffing out a copy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for class, I bumped into a bookcase full of Discworld paperbacks. Hala!

Rewind to early 90s, high school days: I discover Pratchett by accident. I’m checking out the fantasy titles at Goodwill Bookstore, hoping to connect with a good book to relieve me from my boring high school existence. Bam – my fingers land on The Light Fantastic, its cover all fantasy, with a hint of irreverence. I am laughing by the time I turn the second page. The months go by and I devour the next few titles: Equal Rites, Mort, and Sourcery. I feel my life is imbalanced because no bookstore in the Philippines seems to carry The Color of Magic.

But by Wyrd Sisters, I become tired of Pratchett’s humor (“same old, same old”) and feeling I have outgrown him, I cast him aside (my attention then turns to Spielberg films).

Fast forward to college: My roommate gets me hooked on The Sandman. I obsess about everything that Neil Gaiman has touched. When I find Good Omens at National Bookstore, I am floored. Gaiman and Pratchett, collaborating? They know each other? I am suddenly in love with Pratchett again, as if seeing Gaiman’s stamp of approval on the man made me regret ever abandoning him (Good Omens is more Pratchett’s than Gaiman’s book, I feel).

Still, I have been unable to rekindle the fierce loyalty I offered to Pratchett back in high school. I continued to enjoy his work, but quite sporadically. I read Strata and The Dark Side of the Sun (neither of which I fully enjoyed because of the non-Discworld setting) in the late 90s, and recently finished Truckers (Prices Slashed? Ho-ho-ho!) and The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Strangely marketed as a children’s book. Because the book’s lead characters are cutesy-wutsey animals?). But maybe because I live two blocks away from a library that has a bookcase bursting with Discworld adventures…maybe it’s time to fire up old loves.

[Sharing-Pratchett moments are always precious:
1) Peter Hunt cheerleading the literary merits of the Light Fantastic in last year’s ICFA
2) Striking a conversation with a guy in a Chinese restaurant who was reading Discworld book. The surprise there is that he was American! (Americans usually get blank expressions when I mention Tintin, Asterix, and Voltes V).
3) At the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, I didn’t miss the chance to see stagings of Mort and Guards! Guards! They were horribly clumsy productions (maybe in honor of the Rincewind, Patron Wizard of the Inept?), but the scripts, directly quoting from Pratchett’s text, still had me laughing out loud.]

Challenge:

Readers read. Writers converse with what they read. Review all the books you’ve read within the past month and brainstorm on ideas that each book inspires you to write about (three per book).

[The Lovely Bones, Tintin Vol 3, 4, 5, and 7, Rape: A Love Story, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Redwall, The Oxford Book of Poetry]

And please finish your first assignment.

Chew on This:

Goodnight nobody.

Margaret Wise Brown
From Goodnight Moon