(A) Yes (B) Yes (not read either TBS or JW. Just things that are part of the cultural furniture for people of a certain age, by osmosis - like Billy Bunter. I could tell you one of his nicknames was The Owl of The Remove. Never read a Bunter story, never watched a Bunter story. But I just know) - ThreadSky

twlldun.bsky.social • 169 days ago

(A) Yes
(B) Yes

(not read either TBS or JW. Just things that are part of the cultural furniture for people of a certain age, by osmosis - like Billy Bunter. I could tell you one of his nicknames was The Owl of The Remove. Never read a Bunter story, never watched a Bunter story. But I just know)

Reposted from BeijingPalmer

I assume that a fair number of my followers are Pratchett readers. Out of curiosity, a) if you've read PYRAMIDS, did you recognize the first section as being a parody of Tom Brown's Schooldays and b) if you've read GOOD OMENS, did you recognize the parody/homage to the Just William books?

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yellowboy.bsky.social•169 days ago

I've not read that much Pratchett, but have read/absorbed JW, BB etc. So much so, that I was shocked at the global popularity of Harry Potter, because for me it just read like Just William with wizards, so VERY English.

twlldun.bsky.social•169 days ago

Biggles, ofc, being another.

paul-anderson.bsky.social•169 days ago

Biggles Flies Undone was the best, I'm told, though I never read it.

rob.lidalia.org.uk•169 days ago

Not as good as "Biggles Takes it Rough". Which is an actual title.

paul-anderson.bsky.social•169 days ago

Is that the one in which Biggles is chucked by his girlfriend?

campbells.bsky.social•169 days ago

You should be watching the Scotland game, Paul. No time for literary levity

paul-anderson.bsky.social•169 days ago

Of course I am -- but I can also walk and chew gum.

campbells.bsky.social•169 days ago

GOAL!!!!!!

campbells.bsky.social•169 days ago

Makes you eminently qualified for something. Anyhow, looks like a draw but this team is def improving

paul-anderson.bsky.social•169 days ago

And then...

alonzoswhitebeard.bsky.social•169 days ago

Orwell, rather than osmosis. His essay on boys’ comics is unforgettable.

twlldun.bsky.social•169 days ago

Eh, he’s a great essayist but I only read that one in the last decade or so and I’ve known about Bunter and Just William and Tom Brown and the like without actually reading them for literally 40 years

twlldun.bsky.social•169 days ago

(The one on Donald McGill is one of the great essays. The description of the duality of man - “which are you, Don Quixote or Sancha Panza? Almost certainly you are both”)

kevbeachus.bsky.social•169 days ago

Many of STP's readers will not have read either, so would not make the connection...

twlldun.bsky.social•169 days ago

Oh I’m sure, but this is the milieu he’s writing, drawing from. In the same way the colour of magic riffs on Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser (“Bravd and the Weasel”), he’s using that shared vocabulary

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