#discworld is amazing

[songthursh]

Alright, I will start with this one then - everything starts with the glorious revolution and everything starts with the night watch 🌸

[secondhand-sonder]

The back of Discworld novels: wowee terry's whipped another wacky and wild adventure for us this time! there's so many silly shenanigans and witty wordplay in this book that you're sure to have a hilarious time!

Discword novels: a cynical alcoholic navigating and overcoming the pointlessness of his job, a transparent metaphor for racism and gun violence in the police system and in general, an intelligent young girl overcoming the ideas she's been taught by her culture and the media she consumes, just an entire novel made of commentary on war and gender, using talking animals as a way to explore what defines personhood and contrasting stories vs reality, an ex-convict coming to terms with the damage he's caused and fighting monopolies that are trying to do the same thing,

[pratchettquotes]

That evening the men were practicing archery on the green. Bill Door had carefully ensured a local reputation as the worst bowman in the entire history of toxophily; it had never occurred to anyone that putting arrows through the hats of bystanders behind him must logically take a lot more skill than merely sending them through a quite large target a mere fifty yards away.

It was amazing how many friends you could make by being bad at things, provided you were bad enough to be funny.

Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

[geeoharee]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN PEOPLE REALLY WORE POTATOES ROUND THEIR NECKS

Is ANYTHING in Discworld actually made up?!

[stellarmeals]

Discworld inktober day 12 - Dangerous Beans

This is one of my favorite little characters from The Amazing Maurice book. Dangerous Beans is the rat Clan’s much-needed philosopher, finding and “disarming” dangerous ideas for the group.

As always, Tips appreciated ♥️

@inktober

[nowritingonthewall]

[doodle-dog-diary]

To keep yourself alive AND stay sane you need an internal Senshi AND a Sam Vimes.

Senshi is there to remind you to eat, but Sam Vimes is there to parry your extended relatives rancid political takes at family events and keep you from going insane

[potato-lord-but-not]

UM !!! redrew this cosplay picture by @burlesque-brigade and @woodsmokeandwords because it itched my brain in a way I couldn’t ignore.

[writingalice]

I made my mom and my dad read Discworld books (my mom is into cats so I got her The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents and my dad likes dragons and fantasy as a whole so I got him Guards! Guards! given that it's my favourite to start with). They are both laughing and telling me that it's great. I've never been prouder of anything else in my life, given that my mom doesn't even like fantasy and my dad once told me he tried to read Pratchett but didn't really like it (he told me he started near the end, so I guess I can understand...).

[the-forest-library]

Maurice thought a rude word in cat language, which has a great many of them.

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett

[vincegoth]

"If there is a Big Rat, and I hope there is, it would not talk of war and death. It would be made of the best we could be, not the worst that we are. No, I will not join you, liar in the dark. I prefer our way. We are silly and weak, sometimes. But together we are strong. You have plans for rats ? Well, I have dreams for them." Recently I've read "The Amazing Maurice and his educated rodents" and, guys, why nobody warned me ?! I was expecting just funny take on Pied Piper from Hameln, I didn't know i would get debate about consciousness and self-control with one of the intensive moments in the series.

[stupidphototricks]

(Sorry I disappeared for a while, life happened. Well, in this case work happened, which you know, not at all the same thing. Anyway.)

The next Discworld book in my random selection was The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.

But people were people, even if they had four legs and had called themselves names like Dangerous Beans, which is the kind of name you gave yourself if you learned to read before you understood what all the words actually meant, and reading the warning notices and the labels on the old rusty cans gave you names you liked the sound of. -- Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

I love this concept, reminds me of Ford Prefect choosing his name with only a confused understanding of Earth, or Ramona Quimby naming her doll Chevrolet just because she liked the sound of it. I think this is very nearly all of the rat names in the book, I tried to keep track but I may have missed one or two:

Dangerous Beans Darktan Peaches Bitesize Feedsfour Hamnpork Donut Enter Sardines Inbrine Bestbefore Farmhouse Nourishing Specialoffer Big Savings Delicious  Kidney  Fresh Tomato Toxie Additives Sellby

The thing is, this is a really interesting list. If I were making a list of names that someone might choose with if they didn't know anything but words on cans, I would probably slide more or less unconsciously into a theme. "Corn, Tuna In Oil, Artichoke Hearts, Beef Broth" or "Healthy Choice, Gluten Free, Original Flavor." But this list is just... anything. Everything. Way more creative.

Sometimes the name has the original spacing, sometimes not. Sometimes it's the biggest word on the label, and sometimes it's in the fine print. At least one of the names (Dangerous Beans) comes from (presumably) two entirely different sources. Why not? Different people (rats) would absolutely choose their names differently.

And it's kind of fascinating how well these randomish names seem to fit the characters and personalities. Could Sardines really be anything but a tap-dancing rat with a hat?

So there's a punchline of sorts. After all of these rats whose names are very important to them, then there's the (human) kid, whose name we don't even find out until chapter 4.

“You never said you had a name!” said Maurice. “No one ever asked before,” said the kid. “Keith is not a promising name start,” said Malicia. ��It doesn’t hint of mystery. It just hints of Keith. Are you sure it’s your real name?” “It’s just the one they gave me.” -- Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

Possibly the normalest name in all of Discworld, Keith. Hardly worth mentioning. (No offense to any Keiths out there, I quite like the name, but you have to admit it's no Moist Von Lipwig.)

[pratchettquotes]

He waited patiently until the uproar had died away. It was amazing, he thought, how people would argue against figures on no better basis than 'they must be wrong'.

Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals

[milfdarthrevan]

I love when selfish protagonists have had an arc of growing a conscience and regretting past mistakes over the course of a book, and purposefully make a big sacrifice for someone else like this.

[stellarmeals]

Discworld Inktober Day 5 - Keith!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Amazing Maurice. I know it was a kids book but it was a unique adventure with lots of good puns. So heres the little guy that came along.

And as always, tips appreciated ♥️

[lyinginahammock]

I think the Internet would be a funnier place if the fantasy text that defined our generation was "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" or "The Wee Free Men" instead of "Harry Potter". If the hero of a generation was Tiffany Aching and not Harry Potter. If the mentor of a generation was Granny Weatherwax.

We'd certainly be better read and more knowledgeable, since not only is there a lot more Discworld than HP, but Discworld also makes you want to learn more about our world to understand the jokes in Discworld.

Also, there'd be actually good adaptations of Discworld (not looking at you, Sky1 Hogfather).