I learned more about kindness and humanity from reading Terry Pratchett than anyone or anything else and it isn’t particularly close we lost him far too soon GNU Terry Pratchett, and a happy Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May to all of you - ThreadSky

rincewind.run • 3 days ago

I learned more about kindness and humanity from reading Terry Pratchett than anyone or anything else and it isn’t particularly close

we lost him far too soon

GNU Terry Pratchett, and a happy Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May to all of you

Reposted from CHOAM Nomsky

“Discworld is not about how to be good, but about how to do good, and why even the smallest acts of kindness matter.” via @oliviawaite.com

Comments

aliks.bsky.social•3 days ago

my high school english teacher knew how much I loved his books so when he found out Terry died he called me over and whispered it like Bush learning about 9/11 except nobody else in the room cared

katehc78.bsky.social•1 day ago

I was on my way home from work. Husband texted me. I was standing in the middle of Warrington bus station bawling my eyes out and trying desperately to compose myself.
It was not unexpected news, we all knew it was coming, but fuck me, it hit like a ten tonne truck.

4017xan.bsky.social•3 days ago

Terry Pratchett, kind, acerbic, erudite, clever and wise, and so funny, soo funny. In the world he created terrible things happen but out of kindness to his readers, his books have a happy ending, happy enough anyway. I must go back to Ankh Morpork, rat onna stick, chat with a small smelly dog.

jonanamary.bsky.social•2 days ago

Millennium hand and shrimp!

4017xan.bsky.social•2 days ago

Bugrit!

pragmaticleftist.bsky.social•2 days ago

Terry Pratchett and Stephen King are why I am the man I am today.

theemeraldwizard.bsky.social•2 days ago

One of those is comforting, the other concerning...

lililimonada.bsky.social•3 days ago

💜

thalenfirebeard.bsky.social•3 days ago

I am absolutely a better person for having been introduced to Discworld in middle school by @thependrake.bsky.social

jennytulls.bsky.social•3 days ago

I've been trying all day to remember why today is a significant date.... thank you for reminding me. Gonna go pick some lilac.

joobileejoolz.bsky.social•3 days ago

All the little angels rise up high! GNU STP ♥️

rampantpiracy.bsky.social•3 days ago

Seemed just as nice in person too!

jodami.bsky.social•3 days ago

He got my brother to actually read books, to the extent that he’s basically a Tolkien scholar.

Why? “Well, he’s funny, but thoughtful, a good bloke.”

hotelfred.bsky.social•3 days ago

"Funny, wise and kind" - my stock answer when people who don't get it ask me what I see in his books. (There's more to it, obviously, but the "more" is grounded in that.)

phelpywoo.bsky.social•3 days ago

For me it’s like zen - simple and yet deeply profound. With zero pretentiousness.

graveslibraryofvul.com•3 days ago

Terry Pratchett was a wonderful so. I never read Discworld I’ve only seen clips. Every time I hear about him though or any of his works I smile cause he sounds absolutely charming. I wish to be as delightful as he was.

burrow.bsky.social•3 days ago

You should give them a try. They’re wonderful

cemeteryresearcher.bsky.social•2 days ago

The 2 authors I love who seem to really understand people are Sir Terry Pratchett and Ursula K Le Guin. Their worlds taught me so much. I wish they were still here.

mdit.bsky.social•3 days ago

See how they rise up!

davem3393.bsky.social•2 days ago

bayklin.bsky.social•2 days ago

You inspired me to check out Discworld, and my library had Guards! Guards! so I've started with that. I love his writing style. He's so funny!

robareowl.bsky.social•3 days ago

Thank you for posting; I think rereading Night Watch is what I want to do right now and I didn’t realize it.

freyaanduin.bsky.social•3 days ago

yocum137.bsky.social•3 days ago

No spoilers!

I’m read The Night Watch now.

yocum137.bsky.social•2 days ago

Holy crap the amount of fail on my post from yesterday.

readING*

no The*

I finished Night Watch today and now I REALLY WANT a lilac bloom to wear, because fuck Carcer and Snapcase!

(And all the symbolism and allegory that implies.)

napierinframe.bsky.social•3 days ago

Two scenes stick in my head:
Reaper Man: A barn catches fire, people need rescuing, but no one will do it, Death shrugs, sighs & heads int the flames because SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT.

Men at Arms: Detritus' Dwarf friend is killed, he sits, thinks then heads off after the killer, utterly unstoppable.

katehc78.bsky.social•1 day ago

That pause and then *dink* as he salutes when the officers are trying to stop him. Gets me every time. IYKYK.

realcinematik.bsky.social•3 days ago

Where would you recommend someone new to his work start?

rincewind.run•3 days ago

just posted a link to my starter recommendations as a follow-up to the OP - it’s also in my pinned thread if you need to refer back to it

realcinematik.bsky.social•3 days ago

Much appreciated! That infographic is intense but I wanna make a crack at it.

rincewind.run•3 days ago

if you’ve ever wanted to start and feel overwhelmed by the number of books, here are my personal starting recommendations

bwalsh.bsky.social•3 days ago

My absolute personal favourite is "Night Watch" but you have to have some prior knowledge or it doesn't make sense - it's breaking a pattern that has been set in previous books. If I'm picking one to introduce a new person, it'll be "Wyrd Sisters" all day.

bwalsh.bsky.social•3 days ago

Similarly, my favourite Buffy episodes are "The Zeppo" and "Once More, with Feeling" -- but they're both about turning the world upside down, and if you don't know which way up the world normally is, they won't make sense.

imustachechu.bsky.social•3 days ago

My only real recommendation is to read Raising Steam last and have a good cry.

katehc78.bsky.social•1 day ago

I've read Raising Steam, but I still can't bring myself to read The Shepherd's Crown.

biohazardous.bsky.social•3 days ago

My one addition is... It also kinda doesn't matter! I just started reading them in release order and got hooked. Each book has an understated brilliance of its own. Just start reading them, you'll probably like them no matter where you start.

katehc78.bsky.social•1 day ago

I discovered them after watching the animated "Truckers" at a friends house. Read the books then moved on to the Discworld. If I hadn't watched the show tho, I reckon I'd have picked one up in WHSmiths, just because the covers were so beautifully illustrated. I miss Josh Kirby too.

leidon00.bsky.social•3 days ago

i just read the ones with the dumbest titles first....

inepterudition.bsky.social•3 days ago

this website needs a god damn book mark feature

twothenumbertoo.bsky.social•3 days ago

Use the 📌 feed

erinnthered.bsky.social•3 days ago

I'm a person of Faith and loved Small Gods. It really doesn't skewer organized religion the way he thought it would. It skewers christian hypocrits quite well, but not relgions/ belief systems. He never did understand how they worked.

kwtackes.bsky.social•3 days ago

Starting at Mort or with Guards Guards and going in publication order from there works really well too. Any entry point though is grand and worth while - I am such a huge fan of Discworld. The social insight of Terry done with compassion is incredible.

funranium.bsky.social•3 days ago

Reasonably-priced love and a hard boiled egg to all.

bigbadbugsteak.bsky.social•3 days ago

ngl i could go for a hard boiled egg right now

with a little salt

not a lot just a pinch

digdogger48.bsky.social•3 days ago

My wife and I read Going Postal and Making money, then went back to read the Night Watch series. Right now, we're on Jingo. Great series

coobk.bsky.social•3 days ago

YAAAY flowcharts!

aiesjay.bsky.social•3 days ago

Books about Mort broke my little black heart

warringtonruncorn.com•3 days ago

I’ll add that with my recommendation of “Pick any one of them up, they’re all stand alone books. Choose one you like the sound of, and then work out where it sits in wider Discworld.”

imustachechu.bsky.social•3 days ago

I wouldn't say that. I tried to read Nightwatch books in the middle and I was very lost. I had to read from the beginning on that one.

Some series are okay to start wherever sure, but in the case of, say, the witch books you should probably start on book 2 or 3 before continuing.

flootzavut.bsky.social•2 days ago

Still miss that man. Was never lucky enough to meet him, & yet... I miss him.

timidtanuki.bsky.social•3 days ago

I should have some toast cut up into soldiers and day-old tea with four sugars and boiled orange in an old boot.

suasponte2023.bsky.social•2 days ago

GNU sir pterry

felgraf.bsky.social•3 days ago

I can only imagine how even more unfathomably angry he'd be at

*GESTURES WILDLY*.

slygrin.bsky.social•3 days ago

I feel like the lot of us have a duty to don some Pratchett-goggles and try our best to see things in that simple complexity that he conveyed so poignantly in each of his books. At the very least, I feel it will help us through it all with our sanity relatively intact.

whiskeywolfe.bsky.social•3 days ago

I reckon he’d at least get a kick out of Kneecap, so there’s that.

jblumenfeld100.bsky.social•3 days ago

People make fun of me when I compare STP to Shakespeare, but they share an incredible insight into what it means to be human that makes them both truly great.

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