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The Annotated Pratchett File, v7a.5
by Leo Breebaart
From: Leo Breebaart <apf@lspace.org>
Subject: The Annotated Pratchett File, v7a.5
Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett,alt.books.pratchett
Summary: BEING: THEE moft LEARNED and EDDYFYING COMPENDIUM intended for the
AMUSEMENT of the NOBLE and the INSTRUCTION of the VULGAR, pofted
on occafion upon THEE NETTE and CONSISTING of an OSTENTATIOUSNESS
of COMMENTARIES and EXPLICATIONS by which shall be shewn the TRUE
MEANING of the LEGION and MANY JESTS, SAWS and WITTICISMS to be
FOUND in the MULTITUDINOUS WORKS of MISTER TERENCE PRATCHETT,
OBE, scribe of thysse parifh. FEATURING a CAST of THOUSANDS
confifting in PART of WIZARDS, WARRIORS, MONK^H^H^H^HAPES, DIURSE
ALARUMS and ONE THOUSAND ELEPHANTS.
BEWARE! Here be SPOILERS!
Organization: Unseen University
Followup-To: alt.fan.pratchett,alt.books.pratchett
Reply-To: apf@lspace.org
Archive-name: apf-7a.5.1
Last-modified: 28 February 2001
Version: 7a.5.1
Editor: Leo Breebaart <apf@lspace.org>
Assistant-Editor: Mike Kew <apf@lspace.org>
URL: <http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** Preface to v7a.5
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is not the new release of the Annotated Pratchett File.
This is a development version, a work in progress, an unfinished business.
Since 1996 I have kept everybody waiting for a new release of the APF
(version 9.0, internal codename: the Pointless Albatross release). Real
life kept interfering, and year after year passed without anything
happening.
I did do large amounts of work behind the scenes, but there was never
enough time to take things all the way, to fully research and edit the raw
material, to wrap everything up into something releasable. Worse, it didn't
look as if this situation was going to change. The time had come for me to
face reality, and either give up entirely, or else make some radical
changes to the way I had been approaching the job of editing and releasing
the APF. I decided to change, and you are now looking at the results.
The first major change is that I have abandoned the concept of releasing
only complete updates to the Annotated Pratchett File, in which *all* of
the annotation sections for *all* of the books are fully updated. From now
on, the APF will be updated incrementally: book by book, section by
section, sometimes even annotation by annotation. There will, eventually,
be a version 9.0, a proper "stable release", but until that happens the
intermediate stages on the 7a.5 "development branch" will be available for
public viewing.
The second major change is that I have abandoned the concept of doing the
entire core researching/editing job by myself without outside help. From
now on, I will share that job with Mike Kew, a.k.a. Miq -- a name that
should be familiar and welcome to all alt.books.pratchett and
alt.fan.pratchett readers. Mike and I will be able to work in parallel on
different stages of the editing process, and as a result progress can be
made even if one of us is occupied with other commitments.
What has changed in version 7a.5? The single most important change is that
we have added 204 new annotations (well over 1500 lines of text), finally
bringing _Feet of Clay_ and _Hogfather_ into the domain of annotated books.
The rest of the Annotated Pratchett File has stayed mostly the same, except
for the occasional rewritten section (such as this Preface). This also
implies that some of the unchanged bits have now become outdated, because
they still refer to the situation of the previous 7a.0 release. That is one
of the disadvantages of going public with a development version:
perfectionism has to take a back seat to pragmatism, and loose ends will
dangle visibly until they get tied up.
In the same vein, the new annotations have not been proofread (yet) by my
usual team of APF proofreaders, they only cover a period of e-mail
submissions and a.f.p. logs from July 1996 until December 1998, and v7a.5
will only be available as ASCII text and on the L-Space Web, not in any of
the other formats (PostScript, MS Word) that v7a.0 was released in.
I can only hope that finally being able to read new APF annotations for the
first time in four years will be enough make up for such occasional rough
edges.
Leo Breebaart
Delft, Hogswatch 2000
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** Introduction
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
You are now about to read the 7a-th edition (the 8th, really, but since
this is the Discworld I'm not taking any chances...) of the Annotated
Pratchett File, or APF for short.
One of the most popular pastimes on the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett
has always been discussing the many jokes, parodies and references that
Terry Pratchett puts into his novels.
Since, as Terry once put it, "alt.fan.pratchett as an entity has the
attention span of a butterfly on cocaine" it quickly became apparent that
it would be a good idea to distill some of these discussions into something
with a little more persistence and staying power than individual Usenet
articles. So the _Annotated Pratchett File_ was born, and (because I was
brave/foolish enough to volunteer) I became its editor.
The structure of the file is straightforward, with the books divided into
two large groups: the Discworld related books, and all the other ones. Per
book, the annotations are sorted in ascending page order. For each
annotation I supply two page numbers: the first number is that of the
paperback (usually the UK Corgi edition), the second number that of the
hardcover (usually the UK Gollancz edition). Use these numbers as a rough
guide for finding an annotation in your own particular edition of the book.
Each annotation is also prefixed by either a '+', denoting an annotation
that is new or has been significantly updated in this version of the APF,
or a '-', denoting an unchanged older annotation. This is handy for
long-time readers who quickly want to scan for the new stuff.
The APF incorporates, in this edition even more than before, passages from
articles that Terry himself has posted to alt.fan.pratchett. As an active
contributor to the group, he often provides us with inside information on
many aspects of his writing, and it would be a waste to let this first-hand
knowledge just disappear into the vacuum of Usenet history.
The file ends with an editorial section, where various nuts & bolts of the
APF editing process are discussed, and information is given to help you
obtain the most recent version of the APF in whatever format you prefer.
One particular piece of information is so important I am putting it here
rather than at the end, and that is the address to write to if you have any
suggestions, questions, corrections, or new annotations -- without the
enthusiastic reactions and input from its readers, the APF would never have
survived. So please mail all your feedback to me at
apf@lspace.org
and look for *your* contribution in the next edition. I will now leave you
to the annotations, and end this introduction with a thought that is a bit
of a cliche but nonetheless true: I hope you will enjoy reading the APF as
much as I have enjoyed putting it together.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** Discworld Annotations
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE COLOUR OF MAGIC
- [p. 7/7] "[...] He stares fixedly at the Destination."
This line is interesting not only because it foreshadows _The Light
Fantastic_ (as in fact the entire prologue does), but also because it is
about the only time the narrator really commits himself to A'Tuin's
gender without hedging his bets (as e.g. on the first page of _The Light
Fantastic_). Note the capital 'H', which Death also rates in this book
and loses in the later ones.
- [p. 8/8] "For example, what was A'Tuin's actual sex?"
I have had e-mail from a herpetologist who has studied under one of the
world's experts on turtles, and he assures me that in real life
determining the sex of turtles is no easy task. Unlike mammals, reptiles
don't have their naughty bits hanging out where they can be easily seen,
and the only way to really tell a turtle's gender is by comparison: male
turtles are often smaller than females and have thicker tails. Since
there are no other _Chelys Galactica_ to compare A'Tuin to, the attempts
of the Discworld's Astrozoologists are probably futile to begin with.
- [p. 8/8] "[...] the theory that A'Tuin had come from nowhere and would
continue at a uniform crawl, or steady gait, [...]"
Puns on the 'steady state' theory of explaining the size, origin and
future of the universe. The best-known *other* theory is, of course, the
Big Bang theory, referred to in the preceding sentence.
- [p. 9/9] "Fire roared through the bifurcated city of Ankh-Morpork."
Terry has said that the name 'Ankh-Morpork' was inspired neither by the
ankh (the Egyptian cross with the closed loop on top), nor by the
Australian or New Zealand species of bird (frogmouths and small brown
owls, respectively) that go by the name of 'Morepork'.
Since I first wrote down the above annotation, there have been new
developments, however. In _The Streets of Ankh-Morpork_ and _The
Discworld Companion_ we are shown an illustration of the Ankh-Morpork
coat of arms, which *does* feature a Morepork/owl holding an ankh. But
from Terry's remarks (see next annotation) I feel it's safe to say that
neither bird nor cross were explicitly on his mind when he first came up
with the name Ankh-Morpork.
Finally, many readers have mentioned the resonance that Ankh-Morpork has
with our world's Budapest: also a large city made up of two smaller
cities (Buda and Pest) separated by a river.
- [p. 9/9] "[...] two figures were watching with considerable interest."
The two barbarians, Bravd and Weasel, are parodies of Fritz Leiber's
fantasy heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. The _Swords_ series of books
in which they star are absolute classics, and have probably had about as
much influence on the genre as Tolkien's _Lord of the Rings_.
The _Swords_ stories date back as far as 1939, but nearly sixty years
later they have lost none of their appeal. Both _The Colour of Magic_ and
_The Light Fantastic_ are, in large part, affectionate parodies of the
Leiberian universe, although I hasten to add that, in sharp contrast to
many later writers in the field, Leiber himself already had a great sense
of humour. Fafhrd and the Mouser are not to be taken altogether serious
in his original version, either.
Given all this, I can perhaps be forgiven for thinking that Terry
intended Ankh-Morpork to be a direct parody of the great city of Lankhmar
in which many of the _Swords_ adventures take place. However, Terry
explicitly denied this when I suggested it on alt.fan.pratchett:
"Bravd and the Weasel were indeed takeoffs of Leiber characters -- there
was a lot of that sort of thing in _The Colour of Magic_. But I didn't --
at least consciously, I suppose I must say -- create Ankh-Morpork as a
takeoff of Lankhmar."
- [p. 11/11] "[...] two lesser directions, which are Turnwise and
Widdershins."
'Widdershins' is in fact an existing word meaning 'counter-sunwise', i.e.
counter-clockwise in the Northern hemisphere, clockwise down South. A
synonym for 'turnwise' is deosil, which helps explain Ankh-Morpork's
Deosil Gate as found on the _The Streets of Ankh-Morpork_ Mappe.
Widdershins is also the name of the planet where Dom, the hero from _The
Dark Side of the Sun_ lives.
- [p. 12/12] "'Why, it's Rincewind the wizard, isn't it?' [...]"
The story behind Rincewind's name goes back to 1924, when J. B. Morton
took over authorship of the column 'By The Way' in the _Daily Express_, a
London newspaper.
He inherited the pseudonym 'Beachcomber' from his predecessors on the job
(the column had existed since 1917), but he was to make that name forever
his own by virtue of his astonishing output and success: Morton wrote the
column for over 50 years, six times a week, until 1965 when the column
became a weekly feature, and continued to the last column in November
1975.
Beachcomber/Morton used an eccentric cast of regular characters in his
sketches, which frequently caricatured self-important and high-brow
public figures. One continual theme was the silliness of the law courts,
featuring amongst others Mr Justice Cocklecarrot and the twelve
Red-Bearded Dwarves. In one sketch, the names of those dwarfs were given
as Sophus Barkayo-Tong, Amaninter Axling, Farjole Merrybody, Guttergorm
Guttergormpton, Badly Oronparser, Cleveland Zackhouse, Molonay
Tubilderborst, Edeledel Edel, Scorpion de Rooftrouser, Listenis
Youghaupt, Frums Gillygottle, and, wait for it: Churm Rincewind. Terry
says:
"I read of lot of Beachcomber in second-hand collections when I was
around 13. Dave Langford pointed out the origin of Rincewind a few years
ago, and I went back through all the books and found the name and
thought, oh, blast, *that's* where it came from. And then I thought, what
the hell, anyway."
- [p. 12/12] "Since the Hub is never closely warmed by the weak sun the
lands there are locked in permafrost. The Rim, on the other hand, is a
region of sunny islands and balmy days."
A presumably knowledgeable correspondent tells me that actually, if you
do the calculations, it turns out that it would be the other way around
(on average, the sun is closer to the hub than the rim, so the hub would
be warmer).
Do not feel obliged to take his word for it, though. 'Discworld
Mechanics' is one of alt.fan.pratchett's favourite Perennial Discussion
Topics, and I don't think that any two given participants in such a
thread have ever managed to agree on anything definite about the way in
which the Discworld might 'work'. See also the _The Turtle Moves!_
section in Chapter 5 for more information about the physical aspects of
the Discworld.
- [p. 16/16] "[...] found himself looking up into a face with four eyes in
it."
On the covers of the first two Discworld books, Josh Kirby actually drew
Twoflower with four physical eyes. Consensus on alt.fan.pratchett has it
that Terry was trying to get across the fact that Twoflower was wearing
glasses ('four-eyes' being a common insult thrown at bespectacled folks),
but that Josh Kirby simply triggered on the literal text and went off in
a direction of his own. Whether this action essentially shows Kirby's
interpretative genius (the KirbyFan explanation) or his inability to get
the joke / read very carefully (the NonKirbyFan explanation) is a matter
still under discussion.
- [p. 18/17] The inn called 'The Broken Drum' gets burned down in this
book. The later Discworld novels all feature an inn called 'The Mended
Drum'. The novel _Strata_ contains (on p. 35/42) an explanation of why
you would call a pub 'The Broken Drum' in the first place: "You can't
beat it".
This is probably as good a place as any to mention some intriguing
information that I received from one of my correspondents: if you have
ever wondered what it would be like to experience the atmosphere of an
establishment like the Mended Drum, then the closest you can possibly
come in our world is by paying a visit to Alexandria, where there exists
a bar called the 'Spitfire', populated mostly by soldiers and sailors,
and apparently a dead ringer for the Mended Drum. The story goes that
when the owner of the bar passed away a few years ago, his body was kept
in a freezer next to the toilets where, for all we know, it may still be
today. If any of you ever happen to be in Alexandria, be sure to visit
the 'Spitfire' and check it out for us.
- [p. 22/20] "Some might have taken him for a mere apprentice enchanter
[...]"
One of the few clues to Rincewind's age being younger rather than older,
despite the tendency of every cover artist to depict him as at least
sixtyish. No one ever draws him as looking like a weasel, either.
- [p. 22/20] "[...] an alumnus of Unseen University, [...]"
The name of the Discworld's premier scientific institution resonates with
that of the Invisible College, formed by the secret organisation of the
Rosicrucians, whose members were called the Invisibles because they never
dared to reveal themselves in public. The Invisible College was a
conclave of scientists, philosophers and other progressive thinkers
which, in later times and under Stuart patronage, became the Royal
Society.
In the _Brief Lives_ arc of Neil Gaiman's _Sandman_ comic, Dream visits
the Invisible College, where a scientist is happily dissecting a dead
orangutan. I don't think that scene was *entirely* coincidental...
- [p. 24/22] Terry has this to say about the name 'Twoflower': "[...]
there's no joke in Twoflower. I just wanted a coherent way of making up
'foreign' names and I think I pinched the Mayan construction (Nine
Turning Mirrors, Three Rabbits, etc.)."
- [p. 26/24] "'If you mean: is this coin the same as, say, a fifty-dollar
piece, then the answer is no.'"
An American reader was puzzled by the fact that in Ankh-Morpork the unit
of currency is the dollar, instead of, for instance, something more
British, like the pound. Terry explained:
"The dollar is quite an elderly unit of currency, from the German
'thaler', I believe, and the use of the term for the unit of currency
isn't restricted to the US. I just needed a nice easy monetary unit and
didn't want to opt for the 'gold pieces' cliche. Sure, I live in the UK,
but I haven't a clue what the appropriate unit of currency is for a city
in a world on the back of a turtle :-)..."
- [p. 28/25] "'Barely two thousand _rhinu_.'"
A very old British slang word for ready money is 'rhino', which Brewer
thinks may be related to the phrase 'to pay through the nose', since
'rhinos' means 'nose' in Greek.
- [p. 30/27] "The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork smiled, but with his mouth
only."
An interesting consideration is when Lord Vetinari became Patrician.
Clearly this isn't him (Vetinari eating crystallised jellyfish? -- I
don't think so. Besides, _Interesting Times_ makes it quite clear that
Vetinari does not know who Rincewind is). By the time _Mort_ takes place,
however, Vetinari had probably already risen to power. When some people
on alt.fan.pratchett questioned whether Vetinari would really be the type
of man to throw the kind of party described in _Mort_, Terry answered:
"I've always thought the Patrician is a party animal. Can you imagine
waking up next day and remembering all those witty things you said and
did, and then realising that he was listening?"
- [p. 44/39] "'_Reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits?_'"
Surprising as it may seem (or at least as it was to me), there are quite
a few people who do not understand this cryptification of 'economics',
even though it is explicitly explained by Terry a bit later, on p. 71/63:
'echo-gnomics'. Some of the confusion perhaps arises from the fact that
we don't usually associate gnomes with spirits, as in: ghosts. But I
think Terry here simply means spirits (as in: souls) living underground,
with the emphasis on the word 'underground'.
- [p. 49/43] "Let him but get to Chimera or Gonim or Ecalpon and half a
dozen armies couldn't bring him back."
The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster from Greek mythology (see the
annotation for p. 171/154 of _Sourcery_). The name is also a pun on
Cimmeria, Conan the Barbarian's mythical homeland, while 'Chimerical' has
the general connotation of something mythical or imaginary as well.
Ecalpon is 'Noplace' spelled backwards. This is similar to Erewhon, which
is 'Nowhere' spelled backwards (well, almost), the idealistic
commonwealth described in Samuel Butler's eponymous novel. Also, 'Nehwon'
is the universe where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser have most of their
adventures.
Go-Nim, finally, is the name of a Japanese board game similar to
four-in-a-row.
- [p. 62/55] "[...] I WAS EXPECTING TO MEET THEE IN PSEPHOPOLOLIS."
Death and Rincewind are replaying their own version of the well-known
folktale _Appointment in Samarra_. Terry says:
"My mother told me the 'Appointment in Samarra' story when I was very
young, and it remained. She says she read it somewhere, or maybe heard
it...
I'd always thought it was from the 1001 Nights, although I never went
looking for it. It's one of those stories that a lot of people vaguely
know, without quite knowing why..."
For those who aren't familiar with the story, it concerns a servant to a
rich Baghdad merchant who goes to the market and encounters Death there,
who gestures at him. Convinced that this is a very bad omen indeed, the
servant rushes back to his master in a great panic and begs him for a
horse, so that he can ride to Samarra and escape whatever calamity will
befall him should he stay in Baghdad. The kind master gives the servant a
horse, and goes out to investigate for himself. When the merchant finds
Death and asks him why he frightened the servant so, Death replies: "I
wasn't trying to scare him, it is just that I was so very surprised to
meet him here, because I have an appointment with him tonight in
Samarra!"
Over the centuries, countless versions and re-tellings of this story have
appeared in books, plays and poems in all languages and cultures. One of
my correspondents was so intrigued by the tale that with the help of
alt.fan.pratchett he set out to find the original, or at least the
earliest known version. After much research, he now believes this to be
_When Death Came to Baghdad_, an old ninth century Middle Eastern Sufi
teaching story, told by Fudail ibn Ayad in his _Hikayat-i-Naqshia_
('Tales formed according to a design').
If anyone has a reference to an even earlier version, we would love to
hear about it.
- [p. 73/65] "'Here's another fine mess you've got me into,' he moaned and
slumped backwards."
This is a well-known Laurel and Hardy catchphrase. Hardy (the fat one)
always says it to Laurel (the thin one), who then usually responded by
ruffling the top of his hair with one hand and whimpering in
characteristic fashion.
People have been quick to point out to me that Hardy never actually said
"fine mess", though, but always "nice mess".
- [p. 75/67] This is the first occurrence of the name 'Dunmanifestin' for
the home of the Gods at the top of Cori Celesti. It is used again in
several places throughout the other Discworld novels.
This is not only a reference to the many British placenames that begin
with 'Dun' (a Gaelic word meaning castle or fort and hence town) but also
a reference to the supposedly traditional name for a twee retirement
bungalow in the suburbs. When people (especially the bourgeois middle
classes) retire to the suburbs they always, according to the stereotype,
give the house some 'cute' punning name. Since the Dun/Done association
is well-known, one of the more common names (though it is a matter of
discussion if anyone has ever actually seen a house with this name) is
'Dunroamin' -- that is "done roaming" -- i.e. the owners of the house
have finished "travelling the world" and are now settled down to a life
of the Daily Mail, golf and coffee mornings. From this, we get that a
retirement home for gods not possessing much taste, might just be named
'Dunmanifestin'.
A correspondent tells me that 'Dun' is also an Old English word for hill.
- [p. 76/68] "[...] Zephyrus the god of slight breezes."
Zephyrus was in fact the Greek god of the soft west winds. The
interactions of the gods in 'The Sending of Eight' strongly bring to mind
the Godshome scenes in Leiber's _Swords_ series.
- [p. 78/70] _The Sending of Eight_
Just as the first chapter of _The Colour of Magic_ has many resonances
with Fritz Leiber's _Swords_ series, so can this chapter be regarded as a
light parody of the works of horror author H. P. Lovecraft, who wrote
many stories in a universe where unspeakable Evil lives, and where
Ancient Gods (with unpronounceable names) play games with the lives of
mortals.
- [p. 92/82] "[...] the circle began to spin widdershins."
This entire section is a direct analogy to the workings of a normal
electrical generator, with the Elemental Magical Force being the
electromotive force we all know and love from high school physics
lessons.
- [p. 98/87] "The floor was a continuous mosaic of eight-sided tiles,
[...]"
It is physically impossible for convex octagons (the ones we usually
think of when we hear the word 'octagon') to tile a plane. Unless, of
course, space itself would somehow be strangely distorted (one of the
hallmarks of the Cthulhu mythos). It is possible, however, to tile a
plane with non-convex octagons (and Terry nowhere says or implies he
meant convex tiles). Proof is left as an exercise to the reader (I hate
ASCII pictures).
- [p. 101/89] "[...] the disposal of grimoires [...]"
I don't think too many people will have missed that this section echoes
the two main methods of nuclear waste disposal: sealing drums in deep
salt mines, and dropping the drums into trenches at subduction zones. Of
these two methods, the trench dumping has only been theorised about and
not actually employed.
- [p. 114/101] "'I spent a couple of hundred years on the bottom of a lake
once.'"
Reference to the sword Excalibur from the King Arthur legend. There's
another reference to that legend on p. 128/113: "'This could have been an
anvil'".
Some people were also reminded of the black sword Stormbringer, from
Michael Moorcock's Elric saga.
- [p. 114/101] "'What I'd *really* like to be is a ploughshare. I don't
know what that is, but it sounds like an existence with some point to
it.'"
Swords and ploughshares have always been connected through a proverb
originating in a famous phrase from the Bible, in Isaiah 2:4: "[...] and
they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into
pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more".
- [p. 117/103] "I'LL GET YOU YET, CULLY, said Death [...]"
Death is addressing Rincewind here, so the use of what looks like a
different name is confusing. Terry explains: "Cully still just about
hangs on in parts of the UK as a mildly negative term meaning variously
'yer bastard', 'man', 'you there' and so on. It's quite old, but then,
Death is a history kind of guy."
_The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_, by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (a 19th
century reference book; see also the _Words From The Master_ section in
chapter 5) explains 'cully' as being a contracted form of 'cullion', "a
despicable creature" (from the Italian: coglione). An Italian
correspondent subsequently informed me that "coglione" is actually a
popular term for testicle, which is often used to signify a stupid and
gullible person. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, 'cully' may
also have been a gypsy word.
- [p. 118/104] The entire _Lure of the Wyrm_ section parodies the Pern
novels (an sf/fantasy series) by Anne McCaffrey. The heroine of the first
Pern novel _Dragonflight_ is called Lessa, and the exclamation mark in
Terry's dragonriders' names parallels the similar use of apostrophes in
McCaffrey's names.
- [p. 124/109] "_The dragons sense Liessa's presence._"
This section in italics (continued later with Ninereeds) is another Pern
reference (see the annotation for p. 118/104), in this case to the way
McCaffrey depicts the mental communications from the dragons.
- [p. 125/110] "Oh, you know how it is with wizards. Half an hour
afterwards you could do with another one, the dragon grumbles."
The 'half an hour afterwards' quip is more conventionally made about
Chinese food.
- [p. 130/114] "[...] it appeared to be singing to itself."
Although singing swords are common as dirt in myths and folklore, we do
know that Terry is familiar with many old computer games, so the
description of Kring may be a passing reference to the prototypical
computer adventure game _ADVENT_ (later versions of which were also known
as _Adventure_ or _Colossal Cave_). In this game, a room exists where a
sword is stuck in an anvil. The next line of the room's description goes:
"The sword is singing to itself".
- [p. 141/123] "[...] he had been captivated by the pictures of the fiery
beasts in _The Octarine Fairy Book_."
A reference to our world's Blue, Brown, Crimson, Green, etc., Fairy
Books, edited by Andrew Lang.
- [p. 168/145] "At that moment Lianna's dragon flashed by, and Hrun landed
heavily across its neck. Lianna leaned over and kissed him."
A strange error, since in the rest of the story the girl's name is
Liessa. Terry says the typo (which occurs in both the original Colin
Smythe hardcover and the 1st edition of the Corgi paperback, but can also
be found as late as the 5th edition of the US Signet paperback) must have
been introduced sometime during the publishing process: they are not in
his original manuscript.
Even so, the switch is kind of appropriate because Anne McCaffrey has a
tendency herself to suddenly change a character's name or other
attributes (T'ron becoming T'ton, etc.). At least one of my
correspondents thought Terry was changing Liessa's name on purpose as an
explicit parody.
- [p. 169/146] After Rincewind and Twoflower escape from the Wyrmberg they
are flying a dragon one moment and a modern jetliner the next.
Clearly they have been, get this, translated to another plane (the last
few paragraphs of this section seem to support the theory that Terry
actually intended this rather implicit pun). Note also the "powerful
travelling rune TWA" appearing on the Luggage: Trans *World* Airlines.
- [p. 171/148] 'Zweiblumen' is the (almost) literal German translation of
'Twoflower' (it actually translates to 'Twoflower*s*', so a 'better'
translation would have been the singular form: 'Zweiblume').
'Rjinswand', however, is merely something that was intended to *sound*
foreign -- it is not a word in any language known to the readers of
alt.fan.pratchett.
- [p. 172/149] "[...] a specialist in the breakaway oxidation phenomena of
certain nuclear reactors."
"Breakaway oxidation phenomena" is a reasonably well-known example of
doubletalk. Basically, what Terry's saying here is that Dr Rjinswand is
an expert on uncontrolled fires in nuclear reactors. And we all know what
Terry's job was before he became a Famous Author...
- [p. 176/153] "'I am Goldeneyes Silverhand Dactylos,' said the craftsman."
'Dactylos' means 'fingers' in dog Greek. See also the annotation for p.
159/115 of _Small Gods_.
The fate of Dactylos has been suffered by craftsmen in our world as well.
In 1555 Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of St Basil's Church
in Moscow. He was so pleased with this piece of work by the two
architects, Postnik and Barma, that he had them blinded so they would
never be able to design anything more beautiful.
- [p. 179/155] "[...] the incredibly dry desert known as the Great Nef."
'Neff' is the name of an oven manufacturer, and 'nef' is of course 'fen'
(i.e. something incredibly wet) spelled backwards.
- [p. 184/160] "The captain had long ago decided that he would, on the
whole, prefer to achieve immortality by not dying."
Probably the best known version of this line is from Woody Allen, who
said: "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to
achieve it through not dying".
- [p. 184/160] "'His name is Tethis. He says he's a sea troll.'"
In Greek mythology Tethys or Thetis was the personification of the
feminine fecundity of the sea. She was the daughter of Uranus and Gaia,
and the youngest female Titan (or Titanide). Eventually she married her
brother Oceanus, and together they had more than 3000 children, namely
all the rivers of the world.
Note that this is one instance where Terry violates his own unwritten
rule that trolls should have 'mineral' names. Perhaps this is simply
because we are looking at this early book in the series with hindsight:
the only rock troll to appear up to this point lasted about three
paragraphs and didn't have a chance to introduce himself.
But even if the unwritten rule was already established in Terry's mind at
this point, it seems logical that it should not apply to Tethis, who is,
after all, neither a rock troll, nor originally a Discworld creature.
- [p. 189/164] "'Ghlen Livid,' he said."
Glenlivet is a well-known Single Malt Scotch whisky. It's a wee bit more
expensive than Johnny Walker.
- [p. 193/168] "He told them of the world of Bathys, [...]"
'Bathys' is Greek for 'deep', as in for example bathyscaphe deep-sea
diving equipment.
- [p. 194/168] "[...] the biggest dragon you could ever imagine, covered in
snow and glaciers and holding its tail in its mouth."
Tethis is describing a planet designed according to a world-view that is
about as ancient and as widespread as the idea of a Discworld itself.
The snow and glaciers seem to point specifically to the Norse mythology
however, where the Midgard serpent Jormungand circles the world in the
manner described.
- [p. 198/172] "'Well, the disc itself would have been created by Fresnel's
Wonderful Concentrator,' said Rincewind, authoritatively."
It is stereotypical that in fantasy fiction (e.g. Jack Vance's _Dying
Earth_ stories) and role-playing games (e.g. _Advanced Dungeons &
Dragons_) spells are often named after their 'creator', e.g. 'Bigby's
Crushing Hand'. And indeed, in our universe Augustin Fresnel was the 19th
century inventor of the Fresnel lens, often used in lighthouses to
concentrate the light beam. A Fresnel lens consists of concentric ring
segments; its main advantage is that it is not as thick as a (large)
normal lens would be. The disc Rincewind is referring to is a transparent
lens twenty feet across.
- [p. 221/191] "Whoever would be wearing those suits, Rincewind decided,
was expecting to boldly go where no man [...] had boldly gone before
[...]"
From the famous opening voice-over to the _Star Trek_ television series:
"Space... the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship
Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek
out new life and new civilisations -- to boldly go where no man has gone
before."
(This became "where no-one has gone before" only in the newer, more
politically correct _Star Trek_ incarnations)
- [p. 222/192] "'? Tyo yur atl ho sooten gatrunen?'"
People have been wondering if this was perhaps a real sentence in some
Scandinavian language (the letters used are from the Danish/Norwegian
alphabet), but it isn't.
Terry remarks: "The point is that Krullian isn't Swedish -- it's *just a
language that looks foreign*. In the same way, I hope the hell that when
_Witches Abroad_ is translated the translators use some common sense when
dealing with Nanny Ogg's fractured Esperanto."
THE LIGHT FANTASTIC
- [title] _The Light Fantastic_
The book's title comes from the poem _L'Allegro_, written by John Milton
in 1631:
"Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee
Jest and youthful Jollity
Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles
Nods, and Becks, and wreathed Smiles
Such as hang on Hebe's neck
And love to live in dimple sleek
Sport that wrinkled Care derides
And Laughter holding both his sides
Come and trip it as ye go
On the Light Fantastic toe."
- [p. 6/6] "[...] proves, whatever people say, that there *is* such a thing
as a free launch."
The reference is to the saying "there ain't no such thing as a free
lunch" (also known by its acronym 'TANSTAAFL', made popular by science
fiction author Robert Heinlein in his classic novel _The Moon is a Harsh
Mistress_, although the phrase was originally coined by American
economist John Kenneth Galbraith).
- [p. 8/8] "[...] the sort of book described in library catalogues as
'slightly foxed', [...]"
"Slightly foxed" is a term used primarily by antiquarian booksellers to
denote that there is staining (usually due to Ferric OXide, hence
'FOXed') on the pages of a book. This does not usually reduce the value
of the book, but booksellers tend to be scrupulous about such matters.
- [p. 8/8] Many people have commented on the last name of the 304th
Chancellor of Unseen University: Weatherwax, and asked if there is a
connection with Granny Weatherwax.
In _Lords and Ladies_, Terry supplies the following piece of dialogue (on
p. 224/161) between Granny and Archchancellor Ridcully as an answer:
"'There was even a Weatherwax as Archchancellor, years ago,' said
Ridcully. 'So I understand. Distant cousin. Never knew him,' said
Granny."
- [p. 8/8] "[...] even with the Wee Willie Winkie candlestick in his hand."
This is one of those candlesticks with a flat, saucer-like base, a short
candleholder in the middle and a loop to grip it by at one side. 'Wee
Willie Winkie' is a Mother Goose nursery rhyme, and traditional
illustrations always show Willie going upstairs carrying a candle.
"Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,
Upstairs and downstairs, in his nightgown.
Rapping at the windows, Crying through the lock,
'Are the children all in bed? For it's now eight o'clock.'"
- [p. 9/9] "[...] the Book of Going Forth Around Elevenish, [...]"
The title the ancient Egyptians used for what we now call the Book of the
Dead was _The Book of Going Forth By Day_. Note that in the UK until a
few years ago the pubs opened at 11 a.m.
If you try really hard (one of my correspondents did) you can see this as
a very elaborate joke via the chain: Around Elevenish --> Late in the
morning --> Late --> Dead --> Book of the Dead. But I doubt if even Terry
is *that* twisted.
- [p. 10/10] Dandelion Clock
Amongst English (and Australian) children there exists the folk-belief
that the seed-heads of dandelions can be used to tell the time. The
method goes as follows: pick the dandelion, blow the seeds away, and the
number of puffs it takes to get rid of all the seeds is the time, e.g.
three puffs = three o'clock. As a result, the dandelion stalks with their
globe of seeds is regularly referred to as a "dandelion clock" in
colloquial English.
- [p. 10/10] "'To the upper cellars!' he cried, and bounded up the stone
stairs."
The magic eating its way through the ceilings with the wizards chasing it
floor after floor vaguely resonates with the 'alien blood' scene in the
movie _Alien_, where the acidic blood of the Alien burns through
successive floors of the ship, with people running down after it.
- [p. 24/24] "[...] when a wizard is tired of looking for broken glass in
his dinner, [...], he is tired of life."
See the annotation for p. 193/158 of _Mort_.
- [p. 26/26] "I WAS AT A PARTY, he added, a shade reproachfully."
When someone on the net wondered if this scene had been influenced by
Monty Python (who also do a Death-at-a-party sketch), Terry replied:
"No. I'm fairly honest about this stuff. I didn't even see the film until
long after the book was done. Once again, I'd say it's an easy parallel
-- what with the Masque of the Red Death and stuff like that, the joke is
just lying there waiting for anyone to pick it up."
It is perhaps also worth pointing out that this sentence looks very much
like a classic Tom Swiftie (if you can accept Death as a shade). Tom
Swifties (after the famous series of boys' novels which popularised them)
are sentences of the form "xxx, said he zzz-ly", where the zzz refers
back to the xxx. Examples:
"Pass me the shellfish," said Tom crabbily.
"Let's look for another Grail!" Tom requested.
"I used to be a pilot," Tom explained.
"I'm into homosexual necrophilia," said Tom in dead earnest.
- [p. 30/30] "[...] the only forest in the whole universe to be called --
in the local language -- Your Finger You Fool, [...]"
The miscommunication between natives and foreign explorers Terry
describes here occurs in our world as well. Or rather: it is *rumoured*,
with stubborn regularity, to have occurred all over the globe. Really
hard evidence, one way or the other, turns out to be surprisingly hard to
come by. As Cecil Adams puts it in _More of the Straight Dope_: "Having
now had the "I don't know" yarn turn up in three different parts of the
globe, I can draw one of two conclusions: either explorers are incredible
saps, or somebody's been pulling our leg."
- [p. 34/34] "Twoflower touched a wall gingerly."
Speaking of Tom Swifties...
- [p. 34/34] "'Good grief! A real gingerbread cottage!'"
The cottage and the events alluded to a bit later ("'Kids of today,'
commented Rincewind. 'I blame the parents,' said Twoflower.") are
straight out of the _Hansel and Gretel_ fairy tale by the brothers Grimm.
If you have access to the Internet, you can find an online version of the
original fairy tale at the URL:
<ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/literary/obi/Fairy.Tales/Grimm/hansel.and.gretel.txt.Z>
- [p. 35/35] "'Candyfloss.'"
Candyfloss is known as cotton candy in the US, or fairy floss in
Australia. It's the pink spun sugar you can eat at fairs and shows.
- [p. 35/35] "He read that its height plus its length divided by half its
width equalled exactly 1.67563..."
A parody of the typical numerical pseudo-science tossed about regarding
the Great Pyramid and the 'cosmic truths' (such as the distance from the
Earth to the Sun) that the Egyptians supposedly incorporated into its
measurements.
The remark about sharpening razor blades at the end of the paragraph is
similarly a reference to the pseudo-scientific 'fact' that (small models
of) pyramids are supposed to have, among many other powers, the ability
to sharpen razor blades that are left underneath the pyramids overnight.
- [p. 37/37] "'Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper.'"
From the first _Conan The Barbarian_ movie (starring Arnold
Schwarzenegger): "Conan! What is good in life?" "To crush your enemies,
drive them before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women." This
quote, in turn, is lifted more or less verbatim from an actual
conversation Genghiz Khan is supposed to have had with his lieutenants.
- [p. 45/45] "'Of course I'm sure,' snarled the leader. 'What did you
expect, three bears?'"
Another fairy tale reference, this time to _Goldilocks and the Three
Bears_.
- [p. 46/46] "'Someone's been eating my bed,' he said."
A mixture of "someone's been eating my porridge" and "someone's been
sleeping in my bed", both from the _Goldilocks and the Three Bears_ fairy
tale.
- [p. 47/47] "Illuminated Mages of the Unbroken Circle"
An organisation with this name is also mentioned in the _Illuminatus!_
trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.
+ [p. 57/57] "The universe, they said, depended for its operation on the
balance of four forces which they identified as charm, persuasion,
uncertainty and bloody-mindedness."
The four fundamental forces that govern *our* universe are gravitation,
electro-magnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force.
The word 'charm' also resonates with the concept of quarks, the
elementary quantum particles that the strong nuclear force in fact acts
on. For more information see the annotation for p. 133/97 of _Lords and
Ladies_.
- [p. 62/62] "'In the beginning was the word,' said a dry voice right
behind him. 'It was the Egg,' corrected another voice. [...] '[...] I'm
sure it was the primordial slime.' [...] 'No, that came afterwards. There
was firmament first.' [...] 'You're all wrong. In the beginning was the
Clearing of the Throat--'"
The bickering of the spells is cleared up somewhat by the creation
passages on pp. 103/85-119/99 from _Eric_. It is quite clearly stated
that first the Creator did an Egg and Cress (for Rincewind), then He
Cleared His Throat, then He Read the Octavo (that's the word then), which
created the world and finally the primordial slime came into being
because Rincewind couldn't eat the Egg and Cress Sandwich and just
dropped it on the beach. The Creator subcontracted for the firmament, so
it isn't quite clear when that came to be.
- [p. 82/82] "'Anyway, I don't believe in Caroc cards,' he muttered."
Caroc = Tarot. See also the annotation for p. 110/90 of _Mort_.
A minor inconsistency, by the way, is that on p. 24/24 there actually is
a reference to Tarot cards.
- [p. 88/88] "[...] what about all those studded collars and oiled muscles
down at the Young Men's Pagan Association?"
A reference to the Young Men's Christian Association, YMCA. See also the
annotation for p. 14/14 of _Pyramids_.
In our world the YMCA somehow became associated with the homosexual scene
(I think quite a few people singing merrily along to the Village People's
hit 'YMCA' would have been very surprised to learn what the song was
*really* about), hence the "studded collars and oiled muscles" bit.
- [p. 93/93] "'Only when you leave, it's very important not to look back.'"
It's always important never to look back if you're rescuing somebody from
Death's domain. The best known example of this can be found in the tragic
legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus went to fetch his departed loved
one, talked Hades (the Greek version of Death) into it, but had to leave
without looking back. Of course he looked -- and she was gone forever. A
contemporary retelling of the Orpheus legend can be found in Neil
Gaiman's _Sandman_ series.
A few people have written and suggested a reference to Lot's wife in
Genesis 19:26 (who was turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back
when they left Sodom and Gomorrah), but the fact that we're talking about
Death's domain here indicates clearly to me that the Orpheus reference is
the one Terry intended.
- [p. 104/104] "Rincewind wasn't certain what a houri was, but after some
thought he came to the conclusion that it was a little liquorice tube for
sucking up the sherbet."
A houri is actually a beautiful young girl found in the Moslem paradise.
For more information on sherbets see the annotation for p. 122/111 of
_Sourcery_.
- [p. 105/105] "[...] homesickness rose up inside Rincewind like a
late-night prawn birani."
A birani is an Indian shrimp curry.
- [p. 128/128] "'Man, we could be as rich as Creosote!'"
This is the first mention of Creosote, whom we will later meet as a fully
developed character in his own right, in _Sourcery_. See also the
annotation for p. 125/113 of _Sourcery_.
- [p. 133/133] The idea of a strange little shop that appears, sells the
most peculiar things, and then vanishes again first appears in a short
story by H. G. Wells, appropriately called _The Magic Shop_. A recent
variation on the same theme can be found in Stephen King's _Needful
Things_.
When an a.f.p. reader mistakenly thought that this type of shop was
invented by Fritz Leiber (see the annotation for p. 9/9 of _The Colour of
Magic_), Terry replied:
"Actually, magically appearing/disappearing shops were a regular feature
of fantasy stories, particularly in the old _Unknown_ magazine. They
always sold the hero something he didn't -- at the time -- know he
needed, or played some other vital part in the plot. And I think they
even turned up on the early Twilight Zones too. You're referring to a
Leiber story called Bazaar of the Bizarre or something similar, where a
shop appears which seems to contain wonderful merchandise but in fact
contains dangerous trash."
The Leiber story is indeed called _Bazaar of the Bizarre_. It features
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and can be found in _Swords Against Death_.
- [p. 171/171] "'Do not peddle in the affairs of wizards...'"
See the annotation for p. 183/149 of _Mort_.
- [p. 209/209] "The young turtles followed, orbiting their parent."
My herpetological correspondent tells me that in our world no known
turtles give any sort of care to their young. They just lay the eggs and
leave the hatchlings to fend for themselves, which incidentally helps
explain why sea turtles are becoming extinct.
It can be argued that Great A'Tuin is in fact a kind of sea turtle
(admittedly, a somewhat *unusual* sea turtle), since only sea turtles
have flippers in place of feet and spend most of their time swimming.
- [p. 213/213] "'They do say if it's summa cum laude, then the living is
easy --.'"
Substituting "graduation with distinction" for the Latin "summa cum
laude" gives a perfectly unexceptional sentiment, but it is, of course,
also a reference to the song 'Summertime' from the Gershwin
opera/operetta/musical _Porgy and Bess_: "Summertime, and the living is
easy".
EQUAL RITES
- A central theme of this book (as well as of the other Discworld witch
novels) is the contrast between on one side the (female) witches or
wiccans, who are in touch with nature, herbs and headology, and on the
other side the (male) wizards who are very ceremonial and use elaborate,
mathematics-like tools and rituals. This conflict rather closely mirrors
a long-standing feud between occult practitioners in our real world. (And
all the infighting within each camp occurs in real life, as well.)
My source for this also mentions that Pratchett's witches, especially,
are obvious stereotypes of the kinds of people one can run into at wiccan
festivals.
- "Only dumb redheads in Fifties' sitcoms are wacky."
Refers to Lucille Ball from _I Love Lucy_ fame.
- One of my correspondents recalls that he interviewed Terry in 1987 for a
university magazine. In that interview Terry said that one thing which
had tickled him about Josh Kirby's artwork for the _Equal Rites_ cover
was that it subliminally (accidentally?) reflected the Freudian overtones
of the book (references to "hot dreams", the angst of adolescence, things
that might be called "magic" envy)... Kirby's artwork "coincidentally"
draws Esk with the broom handle where a penis would be (traditionally
supposed to be the basis of the "witches flying around on broomsticks"
myth).
- Kirby caricatures himself as the pointy-eared wizard on the back cover --
anyone who has seen his picture in _The Josh Kirby Posterbook_ can
confirm this.
- [p. -/5] "Thanks to Neil Gaiman, who loaned us the last surviving copy of
the _Liber Paginarum Fulvarum_, [...]"
Neil Gaiman is the author of the acclaimed _Sandman_ comics series, as
well as the co-author with Terry of _Good Omens_.
_Liber Paginarum Fulvarum_ is a dog-Latin title that translates to _Book
of Yellow Pages_, i.e. not the _Book of the Dead_, but rather the
_Phonebook of the Dead_. The book appears in _Good Omens_ as well as in
_Sandman_, where it is used in an attempt to summon Death (although the
colourist didn't get the joke and simply coloured the pages brown). Terry
said (when questioned about it in a _Good Omens_ context):
"Liber Paginarum Fulvarum is a kind of shared gag. It's in the dedication
of _Equal Rites_, too. Although I think we've got the shade of yellow
wrong -- I think there's another Latin word for a kind of yellow which is
closer to the Yellow Pages colour."
The other word for yellow Terry is thinking of may possibly be 'gilvus',
or 'croceus', or 'luteus'.
- [p. 8/10] "[...] up here in the Ramtop Mountains [...]"
RAMTOP was the name of a system variable in the old Sinclair Spectrum
computers.
- [p. 45/45] "'I've seen the thundergods a few times,' said Granny, 'and
Hoki, of course.'"
The name Hoki derives from 'hokey' in combination with the Norse god
Loki. The description of Hoki is pure Pan, however.
- [p. 73/73] "According to the standard poetic instructions one should move
through a fair like the white swan at evening moves o'er the bay, [...]"
These instructions stem in fact from a folk song called 'She Moved
Through the Fair', which has been recorded by (amongst others) Fairport
Convention, Van Morrison and All About Eve:
"My young love said to me, 'My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you for your lack of kine'.
And she stepped away from me and this she did say,
'It will not be long now till our wedding day'
She stepped away from me and she moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her move here and move there
And she made her way homeward with one star awake
As the swan in the evening moves over the lake"
- [p. 79/79] "'Gypsies always come here for the fair, [...]'"
Someone on alt.fan.pratchett pointed out that in our world, Gypsies were
named because people thought they were Egyptians. Since the Discworld
equivalent of Egypt is Djelibeybi, shouldn't Hilta Goatfounder have been
talking about, say, 'Jellybabes'? Terry answered:
"Okay. Almost every word in the English language has a whole slew of
historic associations. People on the Disc can't possibly speak 'English'
but I have to write in English. *Some* carefully-positioned
'translations' like 'It's all Klatchian to me' can work, but if I went
the whole hog and 'discworlded' every name and term, then the books would
be even more impenetrable and would probably only be read by people who
like learning Klingon. I do my best -- French fries can't exist on
Discworld, for example -- but I think 'gypsies' is allowable."
- [p. 80/79] "If broomsticks were cars, this one would be a split-window
Morris Minor."
A Morris Minor is a British car that non-Brits might be familiar with
either through the video clip for Madness' song 'Driving in my car', or
through the TV series _Lovejoy_. In that series, Lovejoy's car 'Miriam'
is a Morris Minor. For the rest of you, here's a description:
Imagine a curvaceous jelly-mould in the shape of a crouching rabbit, like
Granny used to use. Turn it open-side-down and fit four wheels, near the
corners. On the rabbit's back build a cabin, with picture windows and a
windscreen in two parts at an angle to each other. Add turn indicators
consisting of little arms which flip out of the body at roof level, just
behind the doors. Furnish the cabin in a post-War austerity style, and
power the result with a 1935 vintage 850cc straight four engine pulling
about 30bhp. In its day, in 1948, this was the height of desirability --
so much so that for its first few years it was only available for export.
Even in the Nineties, a fair number of Moggies are still going, er,
strong. You can actually pay a couple of thousand pounds for a good one
which works, because they're so easy to maintain. And the split-screen
ones are very definitely collectors' items.
- [p. 111/109] "Bel-Shamharoth, C'hulagen, the Insider -- the hideous old
dark gods of the Necrotelicomnicom, [...]"
The Necrotelicomnicom is another reference to the Phonebook of the Dead
(see the annotation for the dedication of _Equal Rites_), but is also a
pun on the evil book of the dead _Necronomicon_, used by H. P. Lovecraft
in his Cthulhu stories.
Bel-Shamharoth is an Elder God of the Discworld we already met in 'The
Sending of Eight' in _The Colour of Magic_. C'hulagen is obviously made
up out of the same ingredients as C'thulhu, and the Insider refers to the
unnamed narrator of Lovecraft's _The Outsider_.
- [p. 119/117] "The lodgings were [...] next to the [...] premises of a
respectable dealer in stolen property because, as Granny had heard, good
fences make good neighbours."
Terry's having fun with a familiar saying that originated with Robert
Frost's poem _Mending a Wall_:
"My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbours'."
And since people keep pointing it out to me I suppose it might as well be
mentioned here that 'fence' is also the English word for a dealer in
stolen goods.
- [p. 121/119] "'Mrs Palm,' said Granny cautiously. 'Very respectable
lady.'"
"Mrs Palm(er) and her daughters" is a euphemism for male masturbation.
- [p. 122/120] "'Yes, that's it,' said Treatle. 'Alma mater, gaudy armours
eagle tour and so on.'"
Treatle refers here to the old student's (drinking) song 'Gaudeamus
Igitur', written in 1781 by Christian Wilhelm Kindleben, a priest in
Leipzig who got kicked out because of his student songs. The song is
still in use at many universities and schools, where it gets sung during
graduation ceremonies. The actual lyrics are:
"Gaudeamus igitur, iuvenes dum sumus.
Post iucundam iuventutem,
Post molestam senectutem,
Nos habebit humus, nos habebit humus."
Which roughly translates to:
"Let us be merry, therefore, whilst we are young men.
After the joys of youth,
After the pain of old age,
The ground will have us, the ground will have us."
- [p. 132/130] The maid at Unseen University is called Ksandra, which puns
on Troy's Cassandra; but might also refer to Sandra being yet another
typical 'Tracey/Sharon' sort of name in England. See also the entry for
p. 106/95 of _Reaper Man_.
Perhaps the fact that nobody can understand Ksandra (because she talks
with her mouth full of clothes-pegs) is also an obscure reference to the
classical Cassandra, daughter of Priam of Troy, whom the Gods gave the
gift of prophecy and the curse of no-one believing a word she said.
- [p. 133/130] "'Hmm. Granpone the White. He's going to be Granpone the
Grey if he doesn't take better care of his laundry.'"
You really have to read Tolkien in order to understand why this is so
funny. Sure, I can explain that in the _The Lord of the Rings_ a big deal
is made of the transformation of wizards from one 'colour' to another
(and in particular Gandalf the Grey becoming Gandalf the White), but that
just doesn't do justice to the real atmosphere of the thing.
- [p. 143/141] "[...] the Creator hadn't really decided what he wanted and
was, as it were, just idly messing around with the Pleistocene."
Refers to the Pleistocene geological era (a few dozen million years or so
ago), but also to Plasticine, a brand name that has become (at least in
Britain, Australia and New Zealand) a generic name for the modeling clay
children play with.
- [p. 163/159] Some folks thought they recognised the duel between Granny
Weatherwax and Archchancellor Cutangle from T. H. White's description of
a similar duel in his _Arthur, The Once and Future King_ (also depicted
as a very funny fragment in Disney's _The Sword in the Stone_, which was
an animation film based on this book). However, Terry says:
"The magical duel in _Equal Rites_ is certainly not lifted from T. H.
White. Beware of secondary sources. Said duel (usually between a man and
a woman, and often with nice Freudian touches to the things they turn
into) has a much longer history; folkies out there will probably know it
as the song 'The Two Magicians'."
- [p. 176/172] "'Million-to-one chances,' she said, 'crop up nine times out
of ten.'"
The first mention of this particular running gag in the Discworld canon
(to be featured most prominently in _Guards! Guards!_).
It is not quite *the* earliest appearance in Terry's work, though: he
also uses it on p. 46/55 of _The Dark Side of the Sun_.
- [p. 188/184] "[...] which by comparison made Gormenghast look like a
toolshed on a railway allotment."
Gormenghast is the ancient, decaying castle from Mervyn Peake's
_Gormenghast_ trilogy. See also the annotation for p. 17/17 of
_Pyramids_.
- [p. 202/197] "'Like "red sky at night, the city's alight",' said
Cutangle."
Plays on the folk saying: "Red sky at night, shepherd's delight. Red sky
in the morning, shepherd's warning".
MORT
- [p. 17/16] "'They call me Mort.' WHAT A COINCIDENCE, [...]"
Not only does 'Mort' mean 'death' in French, but in _The Light Fantastic_
we also learned (on p. 95/95), that Death's *own* (nick)name is Mort.
Opinions on a.f.p. are divided as to which of these two facts is the
'coincidence' Death is talking about.
- [p. 24/21] "The only thing known to go faster than ordinary light is
monarchy, [...]"
This is where the popular (on the net, at least) 'kingons and queons'
footnote starts out. During a discussion on a.f.p., Terry had this to add
to the subject:
"I've a strong suspicion that the smaller the country, the more powerful
the monarch as an emitter of kingons.
Surely the size of the king in proportion to the size of his country is
the important factor. If you're king of a country of ten people there
must be quite a high kingon flux.
As to where kingons come from in the first place, they come from God. God
is invoked in the coronation service. God *wants* fat red-haired girls
and clothes horses who can't keep their mobile phone conversations
private. God likes people with lots of front teeth. God must have a hand
in all this, otherwise we'd have slaughtered all kings years ago."
- [p. 30/25] "'How do you get all those coins?' asked Mort. IN PAIRS."
A reference to the old Eastern European practice of covering a dead
friends' eyes with coins.
In the Greek version of this custom, a single coin or obulus was put
under the tongue of a deceased person. This was done so that the departed
loved one would have some change handy to pay Charon with (the grumpy old
ferryman who transported departed souls over the river Styx towards the
afterlife -- but only if they paid him first).
The Eastern European version has a similar background.
- [p. 31/26] "The answer flowed into his mind with all the inevitability of
a tax demand."
An acknowledgment of the "nothing is certain but death and taxes" saying.
See also the annotation for p. 151/133 of _Reaper Man_.
- [p. 33/28] "'I shall call you Boy', she said."
The subplot of Ysabell and Mort and the matchmaking efforts by her father
echoes Charles Dickens' _Great Expectations_ (where Estelle, for
instance, also insists on calling Pip 'Boy' all the time).
- [p. 34/29] Albert's stove has 'The Little Moloch (Ptntd)' embossed on its
door.
There exists a make of woodburning stove called 'The Little Wenlock'.
For those who don't know what a Moloch is, I'll let Brewer (see the
annotation for p. 117/103 of _The Colour of Magic_) do the explaining:
"_Moloch_: Any influence which demands from us the sacrifice of what we
hold most dear. Thus _war_ is a Moloch, _king mob_ is a Moloch, the
_guillotine_ was the Moloch of the French Revolution, etc. The allusion
is to the god of the Ammonites [Phoenicians], to whom children were 'made
to pass through the fire' in sacrifice."
To be fair, however, it must be pointed out that almost all we know about
Moloch is based on what the bitter enemies of the Phoenicians said about
him.
- [p. 40/33] "AND WHY DO YOU THINK I DIRECTED YOU TO THE STABLES? THINK
CAREFULLY NOW."
The whole section on Mort's training, and this paragraph in particular,
explores a theme familiar from stories such as told in _The Karate Kid_,
or _The Empire Strikes Back_, and of course the TV series _Kung Fu_,
where a young student is given many menial tasks to perform, which are
revealed to be integral to his education.
- [p. 47/39] "[...] the city of Sto Lat [...]"
A Polish correspondent tells me that 'Sto lat' is actually the title of a
Polish party song, more or less equivalent to 'For he's a jolly good
fellow'. 'Sto lat' means 'hundred years', and the lyrics to the song are
as follows:
"Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje, zyje nam.
Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje, zyje nam.
Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz -- niech zyje, zyje nam.
Niech zyje nam!"
Which loosely translates to:
"Hundred years, hundred years, let him live for us,
Hundred years, hundred years, let him live for us,
Once again, once again, let him live for us!"
Thinking I was on to something I immediately enquired if 'Sto Helit',
another name Terry uses often, had a similar background, but my
correspondent says it's not even Polish at all.
- [p. 54/45] "IT'S THE MORPHOGENETIC FIELD WEAKENING, said Death."
Terry loves playing with morphogenetic principles in the Discworld canon,
and I think this is the first place he explicitly mentions it.
Morphogenetics are part of a controversial theory put forward by
ex-Cambridge biologist Rupert Sheldrake. 'Controversial' is in fact
putting it rather mildly: personally I feel 'crackpot' would be a much
better description. Which explains why on the Discworld, of course, it's
valid science.
- [p. 65/53] "TIME LIKE AN EVER-ROLLING STREAM BEARS ALL ITS..."
Death is quoting from _Our God, Our Help in Ages Past_, by Isaac Watts.
The verse in full is:
"Time like an ever-rolling stream
Bears all its sons away
They fly forgotten as a dream
Dies at the opening day."
No wonder Albert thinks Death has been overdoing it.
- [p. 71/59] "[...] the abode of Igneous Cutwell, DM(Unseen), [...]"
DM(Unseen) means that Cutwell holds a Doctorate in Magic from Unseen
University. It's the usual way of writing an academic qualification in
Britain (e.g. DD for Doctor of Divinity, or PhD for Doctor of Philosophy)
-- though the University name ought to be in Latin.
- [p. 84/69] "[...] just like a Cheshire cat only much more erotic."
See the annotation for p. 142/141 of _Wyrd Sisters_.
- [p. 85/69] "[...] the fire of the Aurora Coriolis [...]"
This is the air glow around Cori Celesti (as in our aurora borealis), but
it is also a reference to the Coriolis force that acts on spinning
objects.
- [p. 88/72] "'Die a lot, do you?' he managed."
For those readers who are not familiar with Tibetan Buddhism: it is
believed that religious leaders who are spiritually advanced (the Dalai
Lama being only one such individual) will reincarnate and continue to
guide the people. In 1993, for instance, an eight-year old boy in Tibet
was discovered to be the seventeenth reincarnation of the Karmapa, and
was promptly whisked away from his native village and installed in the
Tsurphu-monastery.
In _Guards! Guards!_ we eventually learn that Abbot Lobsang has indeed
been reincarnated.
- [p. 90/74] "Princess Keli awoke."
Another 'dumb blonde' pun (on Kelly this time) along the lines of Ptraci
and Ksandra? See the annotation for p. 45/45 of _Pyramids_.
- [p. 93/76] "[...] if Mort ever compared a girl to a summer's day, it
would be followed by a thoughtful explanation of what day he had in mind
and whether it was raining at the time."
Considering the sheer volume of Discworld material written so far, with
its high jokes-per-page count, it is quite remarkable that Terry
Pratchett doesn't recycle (or inadvertently reinvent) his own jokes more
often than he does. As for instance in the case of this particular
Shakespeare-inspired joke that would be repeated two books later in _Wyrd
Sisters_ (see the annotation for p. 213/212 of that book).
- [p. 99/81] "'[...] the princesses were so noble they, they could pee
through a dozen mattresses --'"
Albert here mangles the Grimm fairy tale known as _The Princess and the
Pea_, in which a princess proves her nobility to her future husband and
his mother by being so fine-constitutioned that a pea placed underneath
the dozen mattresses she was given to sleep on kept her awake all night.
If you have access to the Internet, you can find an online version of the
original fairy tale at the URL:
<ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/literary/obi/Fairy.Tales/Grimm/princess.and.pea.txt.Z>
I have since then received mail indicating that the best known version of
this fairy tale was the one written by Hans Christian Andersen, and that
the Grimm version was in fact pulled from the collection because it was
so similar. I was not able to obtain any further evidence for this claim,
so if anybody out there knows something about this, please drop me a
line.
- [p. 110/90] Caroc cards and the Ching Aling.
Caroc = Tarot and Ching Aling = I Ching: two ways of accessing the
Distilled Wisdom of the Ancients, and all that.
- [p. 118/97] "I SHALL CALL IT -- DEATH'S GLORY."
In the fishing world there exists a popular dry fly called Greenwell's
Glory, named after its inventor, a 19th century parson.
- [p. 126/103] "'-- and then she thought he was dead, and she killed
herself, and then he woke up and so he did kill himself, [...]'"
Ysabell starts to list off a number of tragic romances, mostly mangled
versions of existing stories. This one appears to be the Shakespearean
tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, or perhaps the original source: Ovid's
_Pyramus and Thisbe_.
- [p. 127/104] "'-- swam the river every night, but one night there was
this storm and when he didn't arrive she --'"
This is the saga of Hero and Leander. Leander swam the Hellespont each
night to be with Hero (who was a virgin (yeah, sure!) in the service of
Aphrodite, and therefore not accessible by more conventional means). But
then there was indeed a storm, and the candle she used as a beacon blew
out, and the Gods couldn't hear his prayers over the noise of the storm,
and so he drowned, and the next morning she saw his body and drowned
herself as well. Read Christopher Marlowe's _Hero and Leander_ for more
details.
- [p. 133/109] "'Why, lordship, we drink scumble, for preference.'"
Scumble is the Discworld equivalent of scrumpy, a drink probably unknown
to most non-UK readers. It's a (very) strong cider, originating from the
West country, Somerset farmhouses in particular.
On the subject of scrumpy, Terry writes:
"I can speak with authority, having lived a short walking -- to get
there, at least, although it seemed to take longer coming back --
distance from a real cider house.
1) You are unlikely to buy scrumpy anywhere but from a farm or a pub in a
cider area.
2) It won't fizz. It slumps in the glass, and is a grey-orange colour.
3) The very best scrumpy is (or at least, was) made on farms where a lot
of the metalwork around the press was lead; the acid apple juice on the
lead gave the resultant drink a kick which lasted for the rest of your
life.
4) While a lot of the stories about stuff being put in 'to give it body'
are probably apocryphal, apparently it wasn't uncommon to put a piece of
beef in the stuff to give it 'strength'.
5) I certainly recall a case of a female tourist having to have an
ambulance called out after two pints of scrumpy.
6) We used to drink *almost* a pint, topped off with half an inch of
lemonade; this was known as 'cider and gas' and was popular in our part
of the Mendips. Two pints was the max. I recall that as we went back
across the fields someone who is now a professor of medieval history fell
down a disused mineshaft and still carried on singing."
- [p. 154/126] Alberto Malich was rumoured to have disappeared when trying
to perform the Rite of AshkEnte backwards. Since we know that the Rite is
used to summon Death, it doesn't seem too unreasonable to suppose that
performing it backwards might drive Death away from you, which is
probably why Albert did it. Unfortunately for him, it is also not very
unreasonable to suppose that performing the rite backwards will instead
summon *you* to Death...
There also are two villages called Ash in Kent, UK. It is unknown if the
connection is deliberate.
- [p. 161/132] Queen Ezeriel refers to our world's Cleopatra who also used
to bathe in asses' milk, and who eventually committed honourable suicide
by clutching a venomous snake (an asp, to be precise) to her bosom.
- [p. 183/149] "'Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards because a refusal
often offends, I read somewhere.'"
Ysabell probably read one part of this in Tolkien's _The Lord of the
Rings_ where we find (in _The Fellowship of the Ring_, Book One, Chapter
III) that Gildor Inglorion the High Elf says: "Do not meddle in the
affairs of wizards because they are subtle and quick to anger". The other
part she may have got from signs often seen in stores and pubs around the
English-speaking world: "Do not ask for credit, because a refusal often
offends".
See also the annotation for p. 367/264 of _Lords and Ladies_.
- [p. 186/152] "BEGONE, YOU BLACK AND MIDNIGHT HAG, he said."
Death is alluding to Shakespeare's _Macbeth_, act 4, scene 1, where
Macbeth says to the witches: "How now, you secret, black, and midnight
hags!"
- [p. 192/157] "'Sodomy non sapiens,' said Albert under his breath."
"Sodomy non sapiens" is dog Latin for "buggered if I know". Since this is
explicitly translated by Albert two sentences later, it never occurred to
me to include this annotation in earlier versions of the APF. I had to
change my mind when e-mail and discussions in a.f.p. made it clear that
quite a few readers never make the connection, and think instead that
Albert *really* doesn't know what the phrase means.
- [p. 193/158] "'When a man is tired of Ankh-Morpork, he is tired of
ankle-deep slurry.'"
The original quote here dates back to 1777, and is by Samuel Johnson (a
well-known harmless drudge): "When a man is tired of London he is tired
of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
Quite a few people have mistaken this quote for a reference to Douglas
Adams. Of course Adams was simply parodying Johnson's quote as well when
he wrote (in Chapter 4 of _The Restaurant at the End of the Universe_):
"[...] when a recent edition of Playbeing magazine headlined an article
with the words 'When you are tired of Ursa Minor Beta you are tired of
life', the suicide rate there quadrupled overnight."
- [p. 195/159] "'Alligator sandwich,' he said. 'And make it sna--'"
Refers to an old playground one-liner: "give me an alligator sandwich and
make it snappy!". Terry uses this joke in a different context in _Witches
Abroad_ (see the annotation for p. 176/154 of that book).
- [p. 197/161] "'Fireworks?' Cutwell had said."
The stuff about wizards knowing all about fireworks is a reference to
Tolkien's _The Hobbit_, where the great Wizard Gandalf was famed (in
times of peace) for entertaining everybody with fireworks.
- [p. 212/172] In the Disc model, Ankh-Morpork was a carbuncle.
A carbuncle is (1) a red semiprecious gem, and (2) a festering sore like
a boil.
- [p. 221/180] "Alberto Malich, Founder of This University."
Albert's name resonates slightly with our world's Albertus Magnus (also
known as Albert the Great). Albertus Magnus (born in 1193 in Laufingen at
the Donau, Germany), became known as 'the Magician' and was probably the
most famous priest, philosopher and scientist of his time. Amongst other
things he taught at the University of Paris, was Bishop of Regensburg,
and at the age of 84 he again undertook the long journey from Cologne to
Paris to defend the scientific work of his greatest student, Thomas
Aquinas, against attacks and misunderstandings.
- [p. 224/183] "I don't even *remember* walking under a mirror."
Superstition says that both walking under a ladder and breaking a mirror
give bad luck. Therefore, by the sort of skewed logic Terry continually
gives to his characters, walking under a mirror must be *really* bad
news.
- [p. 226/184] "[...] purposes considerably more dire than, say, keeping a
razor blade nice and sharp."
See the annotation for p. 35/35 of _The Light Fantastic_.
- [p. 240/196] "He remembered being summoned into reluctant existence at
the moment the first creature lived, in the certain knowledge that he
would outlive life until the last being in the universe passed to its
reward, when it would then be his job, figuratively speaking, to put the
chairs on the tables and turn all the lights off."
Three years later, in 1990, Neil Gaiman's Death says, in the story
'Facade':
"When the first living thing existed, I was there, waiting. When the last
living thing dies, my job will be finished. I'll put the chairs on the
tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I
leave."
- [p. 255/208] "IS THIS THE FACE THAT LAUNCHED A THOUSAND SHIPS, AND BURNED
THE TOPLESS TOWERS OF PSEUDOPOLIS? wondered Death."
A reference to Helen of Troy (or Tsort, I suppose I should say), over
whom the Trojan War was started. The exact original quote, from
Christopher Marlowe's _The Tragical History of Dr Faustus_, goes:
"Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss!"
Ilium is the Latin name for Troy.
- [p. 271/221] "'_Only Ysabell said that since you turned the glass over
that means I shall die when I'm--' YOU HAVE SUFFICIENT, said Death
coldly. MATHEMATICS ISN'T ALL IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE._"
Except that the events detailed in _Soul Music_ imply that Ysabell was
right in this case ("After that, it was a matter of math. And the
Duty.")...
SOURCERY
- [p. 8/10] "'My son,' he said. 'I shall call him Coin.'"
A pun on the English boy's name 'Colin', with a nod to the expression "to
coin a phrase".
- [p. 12/14] "[...] this was a bit more original than the usual symbolic
chess game [...]"
This subject comes up every now and again on alt.fan.pratchett, so it is
time for an annotation to settle this matter for once and for all:
playing (chess) games with Death is a *very* old concept, that goes back
much further than both Ingmar Bergman's famous 1957 movie _The Seventh
Seal_, or Chris deBurgh's less famous 1975 song 'Spanish Train' (which
describes a poker game between God and the Devil).
- [p. 22/22] "It was quite possible that it was a secret doorway to
fabulous worlds [...]"
A reference to C. S. Lewis's classic fantasy story _The Lion, The Witch
and the Wardrobe_, in which the heroes are magically transported to the
Land of Narnia through the back of an old wardrobe, which was made from a
tree that grew from the seeds of a magical apple taken from that Land
long before.
- [p. 28/28] "'I saw this picture of a sourcerer in a book. He was standing
on a mountain top waving his arms and the waves were coming right up
[...]'"
Probably a reference to a famous scene from the 'Sorcerer's Apprentice'
segment in Disney's 1940 film _Fantasia_. The "sourcerer" being in fact
the Apprentice, Mickey, dreaming of commanding the wind to blow, the
waves to wave, the stars to fall, and so on.
Some people were also reminded of Prospero in Shakespeare's _The
Tempest_.
- [p. 44/42] "'Psst,' it said. 'Not very,' said Rincewind [...], 'but I'm
working on it.'"
Play on the word 'pissed', common British/Australian (but apparently not
American) slang for 'drunk'.
- [p. 51/48] "*Of all the disreputable taverns in all the city you could
have walked into, you walked into his*, complained the hat."
Paraphrases Humphrey Bogart's famous line from _Casablanca_: "Of all the
gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."
- [p. 55/52] "By the way, the thing on the pole isn't a sign. When they
decided to call the place the Troll's Head, they didn't mess about."
The reference is to traditional British pub names like King's Head,
Queen's Head or Nag's Head, all occurring quite frequently, where the
appropriate head (a nag being a horse) is displayed on a sign outside,
often on a pole before the building.
- [p. 66/61] "The study of genetics on the Disc had failed at an early
stage, when wizards tried the experimental crossing of such well known
subjects as fruit flies and sweet peas. Unfortunately they didn't grasp
the fundamentals, and the resultant offspring -- a sort of green bean
thing that buzzed -- led a short sad life before being eaten by a passing
spider."
Sweet peas were used by Mendel in his early genetic experiments. Fruit
flies are used in contemporary genetics. Among the 'fundamentals' that
the wizards failed to grasp is of course the fact that you can only cross
individuals *within* each species, not *across*.
However, I was told that in 1991 (three years after _Sourcery_) an
article was published in which a team of geneticists write about a
certain transposon that seemed to be common to both maize and fruit
flies, implying that it might be possible to have some form of horizontal
transmission between vegetable and animal DNA, after all.
- [p. 69/64] "'_Anus mirabilis?_'"
"Annus mirabilis" translates to "year of wonder". "*Anus* mirabilis" does
not.
Brewer mentions that the year of wonder in question is actually known to
be 1666, "memorable for the great fire of London and the successes of our
arms over the Dutch."
- [p. 71/66] "'From these walls,' said Carding, 'Two hundred supreme mages
look down upon you.'"
Napoleon, to his troops just before the Battle of the Pyramids: "From the
summit of these pyramids, forty centuries look down upon you".
- [p. 75/69] "'[...] that would be the Patrician, Lord Vetinari,' said
Carding with some caution."
A sideways pun (via 'veterinary') on the name of the famous de Medici
family, who were the enlightened rulers of Renaissance Florence.
During one of those interminable "which actor should play which Discworld
character if there was a movie?" discussions, Terry gave some insight in
how he himself visualises the Patrician:
"I can't remember the guy's name, but I've always pictured the Patrician
as looking like the father in _Beetlejuice_ -- the man also played the
Emperor of Austria in _Amadeus_. And maybe slightly like the head bad guy
in _Die Hard_."
The actors Terry is thinking of are Jeffrey Jones and Alan Rickman,
respectively.
- [p. 76/70] "[...] his chair at the foot of the steps leading up to the
throne, [...]"
In Tolkien's _The Lord of the Rings_, the Stewards of Gondor also sat on
a chair on the steps below the real throne, awaiting the return of the
king. The prophecy in that case also included a magic sword, although
Tolkien neglects to make any mention of a strawberry-shaped birthmark.
Other occurrences of the legend can be found in Robert Jordan's _The
Wheel of Time_ epic fantasy series, in Raymond E. Feist's _Prince of the
Blood_, and in David Eddings' Belgariad quintet.
This is undoubtedly one of those cases where everybody is drawing on a
much older idea. Legends about kings, swords and birthmarks are of course
legion, although I must admit that so far I haven't been able to actually
find an occurrence of the 'chair below the real throne' concept outside
of contemporary fiction.
- [p. 76/70] "[...] the sort of man you'd expect to keep a white cat, and
caress it idly while sentencing people to death in a piranha tank [...]"
A reference to Ernst Stavro Blofeld, leader of SPECTRE and arch enemy of
James Bond.
- [p. 88/81] "The market in Sator Square, the wide expanse of cobbles
outside the black gates of the University, was in full cry."
The word 'Sator' refers to a famous magic square (magic square, get it?)
dating back to the times of the spread of Christianity in Europe. 'Sator'
means sower or farmer. The complete square is:
S A T O R
A R E P O
T E N E T
O P E R A
R O T A S
This square is palindromic in all directions. The sentence you get reads:
_Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas_, which means, more or less: "The sower
[i.e. God] in his field controls the workings of his tools [i.e. us]".
Some correspondents questioned the correctness of this translation, so if
anyone has a good reference to something else I'd love to hear it.
The magic Sator square also has the property that it can be 'unfolded'
into two "A PATER NOSTER O" strings that form a cross with the 'N' as a
pivot element (sorry, proper graphics will have to wait until a future
edition of the APF). The 'A' and the 'O' stand for alpha and omega.
- [p. 107/98] "'And I seem to remember he spoke very highly of the *soak*.
It's a kind of bazaar.'"
Punning on 'souk', meaning a Middle Eastern marketplace; and the verb
'soak', meaning to charge (and get) exorbitant prices.
- [p. 122/110] "the kind of spaghetti that would make M. C. Escher go for a
good lie down [...]"
Maurits C. Escher: Dutch (yeah!) graphic artist of this century,
well-known for his tangled, paradoxical pictures of optical illusions and
plane-filling tilings. Read Douglas Hofstadter's _Goedel, Escher, Bach_
for much, much more information.
- [p. 122/111] "'It looks like someone has taken twice five miles of inner
city and girded them round with walls and towers,' he hazarded."
From Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem _Kubla Khan_:
"So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girded round"
- [p. 122/111] "[...] 'sherbet and, and -- young women.'"
'Sherbet' is a cooling Oriental fruit drink (also a frozen dessert) as
well as a fizzy sweet powder children eat as a sweet, and which comes in
a cardboard tube with a liquorice 'straw' at the top. To get to the
sherbet you bite off the end of the liquorice and suck through it. See
also the annotation for p. 104/104 of _The Light Fantastic_.
- [p. 125/113] "'[...] pretty much of a miracle of rare device.'"
Coleridge's _Kubla Khan_:
"It was a miracle of rare device
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!"
- [p. 125/113] "My name is Creosote, Seriph of Al Khali, [...]"
Ok, lessee: Creosote parodies the proverbially rich Croesus (king of
Lidya -- which lies in what is now Turkey -- in the 6th century BC),
'Serif' is a typographical term which also puns on 'caliph', and 'Al
Khali' is pronounced 'alkali' (just covering all the bases here, as my
original source put it), but probably refers to the Rub' al Khali desert
in Arabia.
Creosote itself is actually the name for an oily liquid mixture of
organic chemicals, resulting as a by-product from the industrial burning
of coal or wood.
- [p. 126/114] The hashishim as the "original Assassins".
The English word "assassins" was originally used to denote a group of
fanatical Ismailis (a Shi'ite Muslim sect) who, between 1094 and 1273,
worked for the creation of a new Fatimid caliphate, murdering prominent
individuals. They murdered prominent individuals; hence, "assassin" in
English came to mean a politically motivated murderer.
The name derives from the Arabic "hashashin" -- Marco Polo and other
European chroniclers claimed that the Assassins used hashish to stimulate
their fearless acts. For example, Brewer writes:
"*Assassins*. A band of Carmathians, collected by Hassa, subah of
Nishapour, called the _Old Man of the Mountains_, because he made Mount
Lebanon his stronghold. This band was the terror of the world for two
centuries, when it was put down by Sultan Bibaris. The assassins indulged
in *haschisch* (bang), an intoxicating drink, and from this liquor
received their name."
For more information, see also the Hawkwind song 'Hassan I Sabbah' on
their album _Quark, Strangeness and Charm_.
- [p. 126/114] Creosote's poetry is mostly based on Edward Fitzgerald's
translation of the _Rubaiyat_ of Omar Khayyam. The poem parodied on this
page goes:
"A book of verses underneath the bough
A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou"
- [p. 127/115] "'They spent simply ages getting the rills sufficiently
sinuous.'"
_Kubla Khan_:
"And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills."
- [p. 127/115] "'Wild honey and locusts seem more appropriate, [...]'"
Because John the Baptist ate those, according to Matthew 3:4 (also Mark
1:6): "And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern
girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey."
In order to avoid confusion it should perhaps be pointed out that the
locusts in question are the seeds of honey locust trees, also known as
carob and (from this story, of course) St John's Bread.
- [p. 127/115] "'You can't play a dulcimer, by any chance?'"
_Kubla Khan_:
"It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played."
- [p. 128/116] "'Has anyone ever told you your neck is as a tower of
ivory?'"
This, and Creosote's further compliments to Conina ("your hair is like a
flock of goats that graze upon the side of Mount Gebra", "your breasts
are like the jewelled melons in the fabled gardens of dawn", etc.) are
all very similar to the compliments in the Biblical 'Song of Solomon':
"Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair;
thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks:
thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead."
"Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury,
whereon there hang a thousand bucklers,
all shields of mighty men.
Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins,
which feed among the lilies."
I did an electronic search across the entire King James bible for
"jewelled melons", but those appear to be an invention of Creosote's.
Fine by me -- I was already slightly shocked to find out that "thy hair
is as a flock of goats" was a genuine Biblical compliment and not
something Terry had made up.
- [p. 129/117] "Get up! For the morning in the cup of day, / Has dropped
the spoon that scares the stars away."
The _Rubaiyat_:
"Awake! for morning in the bowl of night
Hath flung the stone that puts the stars to flight."
- [p. 130/118] "[...] a falling apple or a boiling kettle or the water
slopping over the edge of the bath."
A falling apple supposedly helped Newton discover the Law of Gravity, a
boiling kettle helped Watt revolutionise the steam engine (see also the
annotation for p. 175/153 of _Reaper Man_), and Archimedes, according to
legend, discovered the principles of fluid displacement while taking a
bath.
- [p. 132/119] "The Seriph's palace, known to legend as the Rhoxie, [...]"
No connection to the original Croesus here, but rather to the Alhambra,
the palace of the Emirs of Granada in 15th century Spain. As Terry says:
"Incidentally, the Seriph's palace, the Rhoxie, is indeed a 'resonance'
with the Alhambra -- a famous Moorish palace which became a synonym for
an impressive building, and later became a common cinema name as in Odeon
and, yes, Roxy."
- [p. 141/127] "Nijel the Destroyer" may be a suitably heroic-looking name,
but 'Nijel' is of course pronounced as 'Nigel', a name that is
traditionally associated with wimpy rather than with heroic males.
I am told that among school-age Australians, Nigel is in fact slang for
someone with no friends.
- [p. 142/129] "'For example, do you know how many trolls it takes to
change a lamp-wick?'"
Someone, somewhere, hasn't heard of the "How many <insert ethnic group>
does it take to change a light-bulb?"-jokes this is a reference to. This
annotation is for him/her.
- [p. 142/129] "'[...] it's more than just pointing a finger at it and
saying "Kazam--"'"
Captain Marvel, an American comic book character was able to transform
himself into his superhero alter-ego by saying the magic word 'Shazam'.
- [p. 154/139] "[...] the Librarian dropped on him like the descent of
Man."
Reference to Charles Darwin's landmark 1871 book _The Descent of Man_.
- [p. 162/147] "'He asked me to tell him a story.'"
This is the first, but not the last time in the book that Creosote asks
Conina for a story. This refers to _1001 Nights_, and the stories
Scheherezade had to tell every night to *her* Caliph, Harun al-Rashid.
- [p. 167/151] "'I'm looking up the Index of Wandering Monsters', said
Nijel."
'Wandering Monsters' is a phrase that comes from the world of fantasy
role-playing games such as _Dungeons And Dragons_, and it more or less
means just what you think it means. Nijel is of course exactly the type
of stereotypical nerd who would, in our world, actually play D&D.
- [p. 171/154] "'It have thee legges of an mermade, the hair of an
tortoise, the teeth of an fowel, and the wings of an snake.'"
More reputable witnesses than Broomfog describe the chimera or chimaera
(from Greek mythology) as a fire-breathing monster having either the
hindquarters of a serpent and the head of a lion on the body of a goat,
or else the back of a goat, the wings of a dragon, the front half of a
lion, and three heads (one each for goat, lion and dragon).
Woody Allen somewhere describes a mythical beast called the Great Roe,
which has "the head of lion and the body of a lion, only not the same
lion".
- [p. 185/167] "Next to it was a small, sleek oil lamp and [...] a small
gold ring."
The magic lamp and magic ring, which summon a demon when rubbed, appear
in the legend of Aladdin. On p. 208/187 Creosote tells the story of how
"one day this wicked old pedlar came round offering new lamps for old
[...]". This is also part of the original Aladdin fairy tale, an online
version of which you can find at the URL:
<gopher://wiretap.spies.com:70/00/Library/Classic/aladdin.txt>
- [p. 210/189] "It was a Fullomyth, an invaluable aid [...]"
Refers to the 'Filofax' system: a small notebook (the more expensive
versions are leather-bound) with loose-leaf information sheets, diary,
calendar, notes, wine lists, London underground maps, etc. In the UK the
Filofax at one time became the badge of the stereotypical 80s Yuppie,
seen working in London's "square mile", walking around with a mobile
phone clamped to his ear while referring to his Filofax to find a free
appointment. Hence the Genie: "'Let's do lunch...'".
- [p. 215/193] "'Like not thinking about pink rhinoceroses,' said Nijel
[...]"
I always thought that the impossibility of trying not to think of
something specific was a general concept, but a correspondent informs me
that the writer Tolstoy actually founded a club as a boy, which you could
be admitted to if you managed a test. The test was to sit in a corner,
and *not* think of a white bear.
- [p. 215/193] Significant Quest --> Trivial Pursuit.
- [p. 227/204] "Other things besides the cream floated to the top, he
reflected sourly."
Another Tom Swifty, as per the annotation for p. 26/26 of _The Light
Fantastic_.
- [p. 230/207] "'The world, you see, that is, the reality in which we live,
in fact it can be thought of as, in a manner of speaking, a rubber
sheet.'"
Ovin is modifying Einstein's explanation of gravity for a magical
setting. See also the annotation for p. 134/128 of _Pyramids_.
- [p. 236/212] "'We are poor little ... unidentified domesticated animals
... that have lost our way ...' he quavered."
'Sheep' was *almost* right. The exact song the horsemen are trying to
sing goes:
"We're poor little lambs, that have lost our way"
CHORUS: "Baaa, baa, baa."
and is a favourite of the highly drunk.
- [p. 245/221] "'It's not that, then?'"
In all editions of this novel I am aware of (UK Corgi paperback, UK
Gollancz hardcover, US Signet paperback) this line is printed in a plain
font. It seems logical, however, that the line is said by Pestilence and
should therefore have been in italics.
- [p. 257/232] "'Oh, yes. It's vital to remember who you really are. It's
very important. It isn't a good idea to rely on other people or things to
do it for you, you see. They always get it wrong.'"
Rincewind, nerving himself up to distract the Things in the Dungeon
Dimensions so that Coin can escape, is anticipating Granny Weatherwax in
this little speech. The theme is clearly important to Terry from the
humanist angle, but its roots are in the occult -- actively holding in
mind who and what you are is a traditional exercise in a number of
mystical teachings. Note that this statement is the result of the
inspiration particle which hit Rincewind on p. 165/149.
- [p. 259/233] "For a moment the ape reared against the darkness, the
shoulder, elbow and wrist of his right arm unfolding in a poem of applied
leverage, and in a movement as unstoppable as the dawn of intelligence
brought it down very heavily."
This is a rather subtle reference to the scene with the bone and tapir
skull in the 'Dawn of Man' portion of Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C.
Clarke's movie _2001: A Space Odyssey_.
WYRD SISTERS
- [title] _Wyrd Sisters_
In _Macbeth_, the three witches are sometimes called the weird sisters,
e.g. act 2, scene 1: (Banquo) "I dreamt last night of the three weird
sisters [...]"; or act 4, scene 1: (Macbeth) "Saw you the weird sisters?"
(Lennox) "No, my lord."
But there's a bit more to it than just the Macbeth reference. 'Wyrd' is
the Norse concept of destiny or fate, as embodied by the Norns (who
probably inspired the Witches in _Macbeth_). Since 'weird' to a modern
reader just means 'strange', it's easy to miss the overtones of the title
and just assume that it's an Old spelling of 'weird'.
- [p. 5/5] "'When shall we three meet again?'"
_Macbeth_, act 1, scene 1, first line. The entire opening scene of _Wyrd
Sisters_ is of course a direct parody on the opening scene of _Macbeth_.
- [p. 5/5] "Gods prefer simple, vicious games, where you Do Not Achieve
Transcendence but Go Straight To Oblivion; [...]"
Probably the most famous Chance (or Community Chest) card in Monopoly:
"GO TO JAIL -- Go directly to Jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect
$200.". (or 200 pounds, or 200 guilders, or 200 of whatever currency you
care to name).
- [p. 7/7] "The junior witch, whose name was Magrat Garlick, relaxed
considerably."
Terry says: "Magrat is pronounced Magg-rat. Doesn't matter what I think
is right -- *everyone* I've heard pronounce it has pronounced it
Maggrat."
"In Margaret Murray's book "The Witch Cult in Western Europe" you will
find a number of Magrats and Magrets, and a suggestion that they were not
misspellings but an earlier form of Margaret; also in the lists of those
arraigned for witchcraft are the surnames Garlick, Device and Nutter. No
Oggs or Weatherwax's, though."
- [p. 8/8] "Meanwhile King Verence, monarch of Lancre, was making a
discovery."
There exists a book entitled _Servants of Satan_, which is about the
history of witch hunts. It contains the following paragraph:
"This brings us back to Pierre de Lancre. He became convinced that Basque
women where an immoral and unfaithful lot when observing their social
arrangements during his witch-hunting expedition. De Lancre was
especially horrified at the leadership roles in religious services taken
by Basque women, the very women among whom witchcraft was rife..."
Terry comments: "I'm astonished. I've never heard of the guy, and I'm
reasonably well-read in that area. But it *is* a lovely coincidence."
It may also not be entirely a coincidence that 'Lancre' is a common way
of referring to Lancashire, the county where the famous 17th century
witch trials were held (see the annotation for p. 78/57 of _Lords and
Ladies_).
- [p. 11/10] "NO PREMONITIONS? STRANGE DREAMS? MAD OLD SOOTHSAYERS SHOUTING
THINGS AT YOU IN THE STREET?"
Refers to the famous "Beware the ides of March" warning in Shakespeare's
_Julius Caesar_, act 1, scene 2.
- [p. 14/14] "'Can you tell by the pricking of your thumbs?' said Magrat
earnestly."
_Macbeth_, act 4, scene 1: (2 Witch) "By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes [...]".
Keep an eye on _Macbeth_, act 4, scene 1. It's one of Terry's favourites
in _Wyrd Sisters_.
- [p. 19/19] "Duke Felmet stared out gloomily at the dripping forest."
Felmet's dislike of the forest resonates with the prophecy foretelling
Macbeth had nothing to fear until Birnam wood itself would march against
him.
- [p. 20/20] "There had been something about him being half a man, and...
infirm on purpose?"
Infirm *of* purpose, is what Lady Macbeth calls her husband in _Macbeth_,
act 2, scene 2.
- [p. 20/20] "[...] with nothing much to do but hunt, drink and exercise
his droit de seigneur."
'Droit de seigneur' or 'jus primae noctae' ('right of first night'): a
custom alleged to have existed in medieval Europe giving the lord of the
land the right to sleep the first night with the bride of any one of his
vassals. The evidence for this custom deals with redemption dues which
were paid to avoid its enforcement. It probably existed as a recognised
custom in parts of France and possibly Italy and Germany, but not
elsewhere.
- [p. 22/21] "[...] an architect who had heard about Gormenghast but hadn't
got the budget."
Gormenghast is the ancient, decaying castle from Mervyn Peake's
_Gormenghast_ trilogy. See also the annotation for p. 17/17 of
_Pyramids_.
- [p. 22/22] "'There is a knocking without,' he said."
In act 2 of _Macbeth_, scenes 2 and 3 have a lot of [Knocking within] in
the stage directions.
- [p. 25/25] "'How many times have you thrown a magic ring into the deepest
depths of the ocean and then, when you get home and have a nice bit of
turbot for your tea, there it is?'"
Nanny's ring story is a well-known folk tale that goes back as least as
far as Herodotus, but has also been used by e.g. Tolkien and Jack Vance.
More interesting is that at least one non-Brit over on alt.fan.pratchett
had some trouble making sense of the implied connection between the
concepts of 'turbot' and 'tea'. What he did not realise was that 'tea' is
the term the British tend to use for any meal taken between 4.30 and 7
pm, which may therefore include a nice, juicy turbot.
- [p. 26/26] "'You'd have to be a born fool to be a king,' said Granny."
I must have read _Wyrd Sisters_ close to twenty times by now, and except
for the last time this nice bit of foreshadowing completely passed me by.
- [p. 30/30] "'All the women are played by men.'"
For those who do not know: in Shakespeare's time this was indeed the
case; no women were allowed on stage.
- [p. 35/35] "He'd tried to wash the blood off his hand."
Obvious, because very well known, but since I'm annotating all the other
Shakespeare references, I might as well point out here that Felmet's
attempts to wash the blood from his hands echo Lady Macbeth's actions in
_Macbeth_ after the killing of Duncan in act 5, scene 1: "Out, damned
spot!", etc.
- [p. 36/35] _The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered At All_
Terry invented this title; he has *not* written any words to it (apart
from the fragments that appear in the novels); but many fans (including a
folk singer called Heather Wood) have; and there *did* turn out to exist
an old Oxford drinking song that also uses the key phrase of the hedgehog
song. See the _Song..._ section in Chapter 5 for one documented version
of that song. Terry pleads parallel evolution, and observes that: "There
is a certain, how shall I put it, natural cadence to the words."
Readers of alt.fan.pratchett have also engaged in a collective
songwriting effort, the results of which can be found in the Pratchett
Archives (see Chapter 6 for details), in the file
/pub/pratchett/misc/hedgehog-song. See also Chapter 5 for a sample.
- [p. 50/49] "Nanny Ogg also kept a cat, a huge one-eyed grey tom called
Greebo [...]"
'Greebo' is a word that was widely used in the early seventies to
describe the sort of man who wanders around in oil-covered denim and
leather (with similar long hair) and who settles disagreements with a
motorcycle chain -- the sort who would like to be a Hell's Angel but
doesn't have enough style.
- [p. 50/50] "'Well met by moonlight,' said Magrat politely. 'Merry meet. A
star shines on --'"
Magrat's first greeting comes from _A Midsummer Night's Dream_: "Ill met
by moonlight, proud Titania". See also the annotation for p. 350/252 of _Lords
and Ladies_.
From Tolkien's _The Lord of the Rings_ comes the Elvish greeting: "A star
shines on the hour of our meeting".
- [p. 53/53] "'Every inch a king,' said Granny."
A quote from _King Lear_, act 4, scene 6.
- [p. 58/58] "'_A Wizard of Sorts_,' Vitoller read. '_Or, Please
Yourself_.'"
Not quite a Shakespeare title, but _Please Yourself_ refers to both _As
You Like It_ and the subtitle of _Twelfth Night_: "Or What You Will".
- [p. 60/60] "It was the cats and the roller skates that were currently
giving him trouble..."
Refers to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals _Cats_ and _Starlight
Express_.
- [p. 61/60] "However, in Bad Ass a cockerel laid an egg and had to put up
with some very embarrassing personal questions."
Legend has it that from an egg laid by a cockerel and hatched by a
serpent, a cockatrice (also known as a basilisk) will spawn. Since the
cockatrice is a monster with the wings of a fowl, the tail of a dragon,
and the head of a cock, whose very look causes instant death, it should
be clear that such an egg would be a very bad omen indeed.
- [p. 65/65] "'Is this a dagger I see before me?' he mumbled."
From what is probably the most famous soliloquy in _Macbeth_: act 2,
scene 1. See also the annotation for p. 184/183.
- [p. 68/67] "The stone was about the same height as a tall man, [...]"
This is a reference to the Rollright stones near Chipping Norton in the
UK, which according to legend can not be accurately counted.
- [p. 75/74] "A faint glow beyond the frosted panes suggested that, against
all reason, a new day would soon dawn."
The first scene of the first act of Shakespeare's _Hamlet_ starts at
midnight, and describes a scene lasting about fifteen minutes -- yet the
act ends at dawn. Likewise, the summoning of WxrtHltl-jwlpklz the demon
takes place at night, but ends with the quote given above.
- [p. 84/83] "[...] its eyes two yellow slits of easy-going malevolence
[...]"
In earlier editions of the APF this was flagged as one of Terry's major
inconsistencies. After all, Greebo is supposed to have only *one* eye.
But since then, Terry has explained on a.f.p: "Greebo is loosely modelled
on a real cat I knew when I was a kid -- he had two eyes, but one was
sort of pearly coloured. He's *blind* in one eye."
- [p. 88/87] "Magrat was picking flowers and talking to them."
What follows is a satire of the mad Ophelia in _Hamlet_: "There's
rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is
pansies, that's for thoughts." (act 4, scene 5).
- [p. 95/94] "It's all very well calling for eye of newt, but do you mean
Common, Spotted or Great Crested?"
Eye of Newt is one of the ingredients used by the witches in _Macbeth_,
act 4, scene 1.
This scene also resonates very faintly with the famous running gag in the
movie _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_:
Bridgekeeper: "What... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen
swallow?"
Arthur: "What do you mean? An African or European
swallow?"
Bridgekeeper: "Huh? I -- I don't know that! Auuuuuuuugh!"
- [p. 103/103] "[...] (a dandelion clock at about 2 pm)."
For an explanation of the dandelion clock see the annotation for p. 10/10
of _The Light Fantastic_.
- [p. 108/107] "'Infirm of purpose!'"
Lady Macbeth says this in _Macbeth_, act 2, scene 2.
- [p. 108/108] "'[...] and *you* said, "If it's to be done, it's better if
it's done quickly", or something [...]'"
_Macbeth_, act 1, scene 7: "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere
well it were done quickly."
- [p. 109/108] "Granny glanced around the dungeon."
This is another misprint: it should be Nanny, not Granny. Terry says the
error is not present in his own version of the text, but both the UK and
USA paperbacks have it.
- [p. 127/126] "'[...] the land and the king are one.'"
A concept straight out of the Arthurian legends.
- [p. 128/127] "[...] rose from the ditch like Venus Anadyomene, only older
and with more duckweed."
Venus Anadyomene is the classical image of Venus rising from the sea
(from which she was born), accompanied by dolphins. The name is given to
the famous lost painting by Apelles, as well as to the one by Botticelli
in the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Florence.
- [p. 133/132] "'I have no recollection of it at this time,' he murmured."
Duke Felmet is echoing the words of Richard Nixon's subordinates under
questioning by the Senate Committee during the Watergate affair.
- [p. 134/133] "[...] whirl a farmhouse to any available emerald city of
its choice."
A _Wizard of Oz_ reference.
- [p. 139/138] "'I mean, Black Aliss was one of the best.'"
My sources tell me that Black Annis is the name of a fearsome witch from
Celtic/Saxon mythology.
- [p. 142/141] "Greebo's grin gradually faded, until there was nothing left
but the cat. This was nearly as spooky as the other way round."
Refers to the Cheshire cat in Lewis Carroll's _Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland_, a beast famous for slowly vanishing until only its grin
remains.
- [p. 145/144] "[...] Herne the Hunted, the terrified and apprehensive
deity of all small furry creatures [...]"
Herne the Hun*ter* is a spectral hunter of medieval legend, said to
originally have been a keeper in Windsor Forest. Herne appears in many
stories, varying from Shakespeare (who else) to the fairly recent ITV
television series "Robin of Sherwood" (starring Jason "son of" Connery).
When alt.fan.pratchett readers mistakenly assumed that the reference
*originated* from this series, Terry cautioned: "Be careful when
reference spotting... Herne the Hunter certainly did turn up in the Robin
of Sherwood series and on an album by "Let's breathe romantically to
music" group Clannad, but any passing pagan will tell you he goes back a
lot, lot further than that."
Herne the Hunter also appears himself in _Lords and Ladies_. Here is some
relevant information condensed from the book _The Western Way_ by John
and Caitlin Matthews:
"Herne the Hunter / Cernunnos is God of green and growing things;
huntsman, spirit of earth, birth and masculinity. Often pictured seated
cross-legged with antlers on his brow, he is [...] tutelary deity of many
modern witch covens."
- [p. 156/155] "[...] trying to find a laboratory opposite a dress shop
that will keep the same dummy in the window for sixty years, [...]"
This refers to the 1960 movie version of H. G. Wells' _The Time Machine_,
where the director uses the effect described to indicate the rapid
passing of time.
- [p. 158/158] "He'd sorted out the falling chandelier, and found a place
for a villain who wore a mask to conceal his disfigurement, [...]"
Describes _The Phantom of the Opera_, another musical by Andrew Lloyd
Webber. See also the annotations for _Maskerade_.
- [p. 159/158] "[...] the hero had been born in a handbag."
The protagonist in Oscar Wilde's _The Importance of Being Earnest_ was
found, as a baby, in a handbag.
- [p. 159/158] "It was the clowns who were giving him trouble again."
The clowns are the Marx Brothers. The third clown is Harpo, who never
speaks, only honks ("business with bladder on a stick"). The short speech
that follows, "This iss My Little Study..." is typical Groucho, and the
"Atsa right, Boss" is Chico.
- [p. 159/158] "_Thys ys amain Dainty Messe youe have got me into,
Stanleigh_"
Laurel & Hardy. Laurel's first name was Stan. See also the annotation for
p. 73/65 of _The Colour of Magic_.
- [p. 160/159] The Dysk.
The famous Globe Theatre (which was octagonal in form!) was built by
Cuthbert Barbage on the Bankside in Southwark (London) in 1599.
Shakespeare had a share in the theatre and acted there.
The Globe was destroyed by fire, rebuilt, and eventually completely
demolished in 1644. Currently, The Globe is being rebuilt again by an
American entrepreneur on the South Bank, a few hundred yards from its
original site.
- [p. 162/161] "*All the disk is but an Theater*, he wrote, *Ane alle men
and wymmen are but Players*. [...] *Sometimes they walke on. Sometimes
they walke off*."
_As You Like It_, act 2, scene 7: "All the world's a stage, And all the
men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances;
[...]"
- [p. 163/162] "I had this dream about a little bandy-legged man walking
down a road."
I have resisted annotating this for 7 editions of the APF, but oh what
the heck: Hwel is dreaming of Charlie Chaplin.
- [p. 165/164] "'I *said*, where's your pointy hat, dopey?'"
Dopey is one of the seven dwarfs in Walt Disney's animated _Snow White_.
Terry likes toying with Disney's dwarf names. See for instance the
annotation for p. 324/271 of _Moving Pictures_.
- [p. 167/166] "'_Brothers! And yet may I call all men brother, for on this
night --_'"
This is (in spirit) the St Crispin's Day speech from _King Henry V_. See
the annotation for p. 239/238.
- [p. 182/181] "Double hubble, stubble trouble, Fire burn and cauldron
bub---"
The witches in _Macbeth_, act 4, scene 1: "Double, double toil and
trouble; Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble."
- [p. 169/168] "[...] go around with axes in their belts, and call
themselves names like Timkin Rumbleguts."
This is a sarcastic comment on the behaviour of most generic fantasy
dwarfs, but of course the main image it invokes is of classic Tolkien
characters like Thorin Oakenshield, etc.
- [p. 173/172] "'We've got a special on GBH this season.'"
The abbreviation GBH stands for Grievous Bodily Harm.
- [p. 178/177] "The pay's the thing."
Puns on a well-known Shakespeare quote from _Hamlet_ (act 2, scene 2):
"The play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king"
If you have access to the Internet, you can find online versions of all
of Shakespeare's plays at the URL:
<http://tech-two.mit.edu/Shakespeare/>
- [p. 179/178] "'I've got this idea about this ship wrecked on an island,
where there's this--'"
This can of course refer to a thousand movies or plays, but in view of
the general influences for this book, I'd bet my money on Shakespeare's
_The Tempest_.
- [p. 181/180] "*Round about the cauldron go*, [...]"
What follows is a parody on _Macbeth_, act 4, scene 1, in which three
witches boil up some pretty disgusting things in their cauldron. Try
reading both versions side by side.
- [p. 182/181] "He punched the rock-hard pillow, and sank into a fitful
sleep. Perchance to dream."
Taken from the famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy in _Hamlet_.
- [p. 183/182] "KING: Now if I could just find my horsey..."
Hwel's script is _Richard III_ done as a Punch-and-Judy show.
- [p. 184/183] "Is this a duck I see before me, its beak pointing at me?"
_Macbeth_, act 2, scene 1 again. See the annotation for p. 65/65.
- [p. 186/185] "Leonard of Quirm. He's a painter, really."
Refers to Leonardo da Vinci, who also worked on (but didn't succeed in
building) a flying machine.
- [p. 186/185] "We grow old, Master Hwel. [...] We have heard the gongs at
midnight."
Shakespeare again: _King Henry IV, part 2_, act 3, scene 2:
"FALSTAFF: Old, old, Master Shallow. [...] We have heard the chimes at
midnight, Master Shallow."
- [p. 189/188] "'There's many a slip twixt dress and drawers.'"
A Nanny Ogg variant on the saying "There's many a slip 'tween the cup and
the lip".
- [p. 189/188] "'A week is a long time in magic,' said Nanny."
Sir Harold Wilson: "A week is a long time in politics".
- [p. 193/192] "1ST WITCHE: He's late. (Pause)" [Etc.]
Parodies Samuel Beckett's classic play _Waiting for Godot_, where similar
dialogue occurs.
- [p. 199/198] "'Did you know that an adult male carries up to five pounds
of undigested red meat in his intestines at all times?"
Stereotypical (but basically true) propaganda that radical vegetarians
like to quote in order to gross people out and get them to stop eating
meat (of course, the average vegetarian has about five pounds of
undigested vegetable matter in his intestines). The cliche is used fairly
often, amongst other places in the movie _Beverly Hills Cop_.
Terry had this to say on the subject: "Yep. That one I got from some way
out vegetarian stuff I read years ago, and went round feeling ill about
for days. And two years ago I saw _Beverly Hills Cop_ on TV and rejoiced
when I heard the line. God, I wish I'd seen the film before I'd written
_Guards! Guards!_... I'd have had someone out on stake-duty on horseback,
and someone creep up behind them with a banana..."
Note that in _Men at Arms_, the second City Watch book, Terry does manage
to work in a _Beverly Hills Cop_ joke. See the annotation for p. 251/190
of _Men At Arms_.
- [p. 207/206] "'All hail wossname,' she said under her breath, 'who shall
be king here, after.'"
_Macbeth_, act 1, scene 2: "All hail, Macbeth; that shalt be king
hereafter!"
- [p. 208/207] "'Is anyone sitting here?' he said."
_Macbeth_, act 3, scene 4:
Macbeth: 'The table's full.'
Lennox: 'Here is a place reserv'd, sir.'
Macbeth: 'Where?'
Visible only to Macbeth the ghost of Banquo is sitting in his chair.
- [p. 211/210] "'We're scheming evil secret black and midnight hags!'"
_Macbeth_, act 4, scene 1: "How now, you secret, black, and midnight
hags!" See also the annotation for p. 186/152 of _Mort_.
- [p. 212/211] "'I never shipwrecked anybody!' she said."
Neither did the three witches from _Macbeth_, if you read carefully, but
I nevertheless think there is a reference here: act 1, scene 3.
- [p. 213/212] "I'd like to know if I could compare you to a summer's day.
Because -- well, June 12th was quite nice, and ..."
One of Shakespeare's more famous sonnets (Sonnet XVIII, to be precise)
starts out:
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and
more temperate"
- [p. 213/212] "'But I never walked like that! Why's he got a hump on his
back? What's happened to his leg?'"
A reference to Richard the Third. A rather appropriate reference: in
Shakespeare's _King Richard III_, he is presented as an evil, lame,
hunchbacked king, whom Henry must kill to save England. This is not
historically correct -- rather it is how Henry would have liked people to
remember it. Had Shakespeare strayed from the 'official' version he would
have found himself in deep trouble with Henry's heirs -- royalty was
taken seriously in those days.
- [p. 213/213] "'It's art,' said Nanny. 'It wossname, holds a mirror up to
life.'"
_Hamlet_, act 3, scene 2: "To hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature;
to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and
body of the time his form and pressure."
- [p. 214/213] "'Ditch-delivered by a drabe', they said."
One of the ingredients in _Macbeth_, act 4, scene 1 is a "finger of
birth-strangled babe, ditch-delivered by a drabe".
- [p. 225/225] "--THE NEXT NIGHT IN YOUR DRESSING ROOM THEY HANG A STAR--"
Death is quoting from 'There's No Business Like Show Business', the song
from the Irvin Berlin musical _Annie Get Your Gun_, also performed by
Ethel Merman in the 1954 movie _There's No Business Like Show Business_.
- [p. 227/226] "'[...] who would have thought he had so much blood in
him?'"
Lady Macbeth in _Macbeth_, act 5, scene 1: "Yet who would have thought
the old man to have had so much blood in him".
- [p. 235/234] "Like Bognor."
Bognor Regis is a town on the south coast of England, between Brighton
and Portsmouth. A sleepy seaside resort, it is best-known for King George
V's attributed last words, supposedly said after his physician told him
he would soon be brought to Bognor to convalesce: "Bugger Bognor!".
- [p. 236/235] "'Can you remember what he said after all those tomorrows?'"
_Macbeth_, act 5, scene 5, from a another famous soliloquy:
"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
- [p. 239/238] "They were far more the type of kings who got people to
charge into battle at five o'clock in the morning..."
Shakespeare's Henry V was just such a king, and Terry is referring here
to the 'St Crispin's Day' speech in _King Henry V_, act 4, scene 3:
"And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."
PYRAMIDS
- [p. 5/5] The Titles of the Books
_Pyramids_ is split into four 'Books', a structure that gives it a unique
position amongst the otherwise chapterless Discworld novels (_The Colour
of Magic_ doesn't really count -- it's a collection of linked novellas,
not a single novel with chapters or sections).
Book I is _The Book of Going Forth_, which refers to _The Book of Going
Forth By Day_, (see the annotation for p. 9/9 of _The Light Fantastic_).
Book II is _The Book of the Dead_, a more direct reference to the
Egyptian Book of the Dead. Book III is _The Book of the New Son_ which
puns on the title of the Gene Wolfe SF novel _The Book of the New Sun_
(perhaps there is an earlier title both authors are drawing on, but I
haven't been able to trace it). Book IV, finally, is _The Book of 101
Things A Boy Can Do_, which gives a nod to the typical titles sported a
few decades ago by books containing wholesome, innocent, practical, but
above all *educational* activities for children.
- [p. 7/7] "[...] the only turtle ever to feature on the
Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, [...]"
The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram depicts the evolution of stars, plotting
luminosity (how strongly they emit light) versus surface temperature
(determined from their colour).
- [p. 8/8] "Some people think a giant dung beetle pushes it."
The ancient Egyptians did, for instance.
- [p. 10/10] "Morpork was twinned with a tar pit."
A reference to the concept of twin cities.
Following the horrors of the Second World War, and in the spirit of
egalitarianism and common feeling for our fellow men which prevailed at
that time, it was decided that the best way to cement bonds between the
people of the world so that they would never *ever* even consider
dropping big noisy things on each other again, was to have every town,
village and (apparently) cowshed in Europe 'twinned' with an equivalent
one which had previously been on the other side.
With these new-found unities, the merry laughing people of Europe would
engage in fraternal and sporting activities, school-children would go on
two-week exchange visits to discover that they couldn't stand sauerkraut,
and the respective mayors of the towns would be able to present each
other with touching and expensive symbols of international friendship and
get in the local paper all on other peoples' money.
The most visible effect of this accord is the presumptuous little legend
under the sign at the entrance to towns and villages saying "Little
Puddlebury -- twinned with Obermacht am Rhein". Some towns (Croydon
springs to mind) got a little over-enthusiastic about twinning, with the
result that they are coupled to several towns, which makes the sign
saying "Croydon welcomes careful drivers" look reminiscent of a
seventeen-year-old's jacket at a Guns n' Roses concert.
You may -- or may not -- care to know that the UK town of Cowes has a
twin relation with the New Zealand township of Bulls.
- [p. 11/11] "Teppic paused alongside a particularly repulsive gargoyle
[...] He found himself drumming his fingers on the gargoyle, [...]
Mericet appeared in front of him, wiping grey dust off his bony face."
It may not be immediately obvious from the text, but Mericet *was* the
gargoyle. Teppic had been leaning on his camouflaged instructor all the
time. This is another annotation which I am only putting in after
repeated requests from readers. Personally, I feel that 'getting' this is
simply a question of careful reading. But a quick straw poll of a.f.p.
readers showed most were in favour of explicitly annotating it, so in it
went.
Terry was once asked at a talk if he was always fully in control of his
characters and events or if they tended to run away with him. The answer
was: always in control -- with one single exception. The whole of the
assassin examination sequence in _Pyramids_ was written "almost in a
trance" with no idea of what was to happen next. It is one of his
favourite bits.
- [p. 12/12] Teppic's test.
Teppic's examination is heavily modelled on the British Driving test,
which, as with the other important tests in British life such as 16- and
18-plus exams, undergraduate finals, and doctoral vitas is not actually
intended to test whether you are actually any *good* at what is being
tested, concentrating instead on your proficiency at following arbitrary
instructions.
Many of the elements of a driving test are present in the passages which
follow: The short list of questions, the sign on a small card (often held
upside down), the clipboard. Mericet's rather stilted language, "Now, I
want you to proceed at your own pace towards the Street of Book-keepers,
obeying all signs and so forth", is almost a direct parody, as is the
little speech at the end of the test. The 'Emergency Drop' (p. 42/42) is
the 'Emergency Stop', where you have to stop the car "as if a child has
run out into the road, while keeping control of the vehicle at all
times". Finally, the back of the Highway Code has a table with minimum
vehicle stopping distances, which examiners *almost* never ask about.
- [p. 14/14] "He [...] jumped a narrow gap on to the tiled roof of the
Young Men's Reformed-Cultists-of-the-Ichor-God-Bel-Shamharoth Association
gym, [...]"
Refers our world's YMCA youth hostels. YMCA stands for 'Young Men's
Christian Association', and is often made fun of (e.g. Monthy Python and
their 'Young Men's Anti-Christian Association').
See also the annotation for p. 88/88 of _The Light Fantastic_.
- [p. 15/15] "[...] the narrow plank bridge that led across Tinlid Alley."
In our world, Tin Pan Alley is the popular name for the area in New York
City near 14th Street, where many publishers of popular songs had their
offices in the late 19th / early 20th century. Aspiring composers would
audition their new songs, and the din of so many songs being pounded out
of pianos up and down the street gave the district its name. Another
theory has it that the name derived from the rattling of tins by rivals
when a performance was too loud and too protracted.
In England, Denmark Street, off Charing Cross Road, was also called Tin
Pan Alley.
Today the phrase simply refers to the music publishing industry in
general, and it is therefore no surprise that later, in _Soul Music_, we
learn that the Guild of Musicians have their headquarters there.
- [p. 17/17] "Oh, Djelibeybi had been great once, [...]"
The name Djelibeybi puns on the sweets called Jelly Babies. See also the
annotation for p. 109/82 of _Soul Music_.
It has been remarked that there are quite a few parallels between the
country of Djelibeybi and the castle of Gormenghast as described by
Mervyn Peake in his _Gormenghast_ trilogy (which we know Terry has read
because in _Equal Rites_ he compares Unseen University to Gormenghast,
and in _Wyrd Sisters_ he does the same with Lancre Castle). The hero of
_Gormenghast_, Titus, also has a mother with a cat obsession, and his
father died because he thought he was an owl. Furthermore, the atmosphere
of decay, ancient history and unchanging ritual pervades both Djelibeybi
and Gormenghast, with in both cases the presence of arbiters of tradition
who are almost as powerful as (or even more so than) the actual ruler.
For those interested in pursuing Gormenghast further (people who have
read it almost invariably seem to think it's a work of genius), the names
of the three novels are _Titus Groan_ (1946), _Gormenghast_ (1950) and
_Titus Alone_ (1959, revised 1970).
- [p. 19/19] "[...] the Plague of Frog."
Refers to the Biblical 'Plague of Frogs' from Exodus.
- [p. 20/20] On the subject of the Assassin's Guild School, Terry has this
to say: "Yes, the whole setup of the Assassin's Guild school has, uh, a
certain resonance with Rugby School in _Tom Brown's Schooldays_ (note to
Americans: a minor Victorian classic of school literature which no-one
reads anymore and which is probably now more famous for the first
appearance of the Flashman character subsequently popularised by George
MacDonald Fraser)."
Teppic and his friends map directly to corresponding characters in _Tom
Brown's Schooldays_: Teppic is Tom, Chidder is Harry "Scud" East, Arthur
is George Arthur and Cheesewright is sort of Flashman, but not exactly.
The line on p. 27/26 about "'If he invites you up for toast in his study,
*don't go*,'" may refer to the incident where Tom is roasted in front of
the fire by Flashy and his cronies. The reference to blanket-tossing on
p. 45/44, which Arthur puts a stop to, is also an incident in _Tom
Brown_, on Tom's first day. The scene in the dormitory on the first
night, when Arthur gets down to say his prayers, also has an equivalent
in the book.
- [p. 39/38] "'Truly, the world is the mollusc of your choice...'"
The oyster is, of course, a mollusc.
- [p. 45/44] "[...] the day when Fliemoe and some cronies had decided
[...]"
Someone on a.f.p. noticed that 'Flymo' is a brand of lawnmower, and
wondered if there was a connection. Terry replied:
"Er. I may as well reveal this one. That section of the book is 'somewhat
like' _Tom Brown's Schooldays_. A bully (right hand man to the famous
Flashman) was Speedicut. Speedicut is (was?) a name for a type of
lawnmower -- I know, because I had to push the damn thing... Hence...
Fliemoe.
Well, it's better than mugging old ladies..."
- [p. 45/44] "It transpired that he was the son of the late Johan Ludorum
[...]."
At a British public school/grammar school sports day, the pupil who
overall won the most, was declared 'Victor Ludorum' -- "Winner of the
games".
- [p. 45/45] "He could send for Ptraci, his favourite handmaiden."
Should be pronounced with a silent 'p'. Note also that in the UK the name
Tracey (Sharon, too) is often used to generically refer to the kind of
girl immortalised in the "dumb blonde" jokes, or Essex Girl jokes as they
are known in the UK.
This annotation may also help explain why over on alt.fan.pratchett
people regularly and affectionately refer to their Favourite Author as
'Pterry' (although the lazier participants usually just refer to him as
TP, conforming to the sometimes bloody annoying Usenet habit of
acronymising everything longer than two words or four characters,
whichever comes first. Hence DW stands for Discworld, TCOM for _The
Colour of Magic_, and APF for Annotated Pratchett File -- but you already
knew that).
I was later informed that 'Pterry' was also the name of a pterodactyl on
a kids' TV program called _Jigsaw_, but as far as I can recall Terry's
nickname was not coined with that in mind.
- [p. 50/49] "It's rather like smashing a sixer in conkers."
Conkers are the nuts of the Horse Chestnut -- not the one you eat, the
other one with the really spiky outer covering. It is a regular autumn
pass-time in England for school-boys to put conkers on the end of bits of
string, and commence doing battle.
The game of conkers is played by two players, almost always by challenge.
One player holds his conker up at arms length on the end of its bit of
string, and the other player tries to swing his one with sufficient force
to break the other player's conker. After a swing, roles are reversed.
Since this is a virtually solely male sport, whose participants' average
age is about seven (although there is a bunch of nutters who regularly
get on local news programmes with their "world championship"), there is
of course much potential for strategic 'misses' against the opponents
knuckles, or indeed against almost any other part of his anatomy.
In the (rather unlikely, usually) event of one conker breaking the other
one, the winning conker becomes a 'one-er'. A conker which has won twice,
is a 'two-er'. Hence a 'sixer' (although it must be remembered that there
are of course the usual collection of bogus seventeeners and
sixty-seveners which circulate the black market of the playing field).
There is a black art as to how to ensure that your conker becomes a sixer
-- baking very slowly in the oven overnight, is one approach, as is
soaking for a week in vinegar. Most of these methods tend to make the
conkers, if anything, more rather than less brittle. There's probably a
lesson for us all in there somewhere.
- [p. 50/49] The legend of Ankh-Morpork being founded by two orphaned
brothers who had been found and suckled by a hippopotamus refers to the
legend of Romulus and Remus who were two orphaned brothers raised by a
wolf, who later went on to found Rome (the brothers did, not the wolf).
- [p. 58/56] "Hoot Koomi, high priest of Khefin [...] stepped forward."
The name Koot Hoomi (or Kuthhumi) is a Sanskrit word that means
'teacher'.
Koot Hoomi is the author of a series of letters that were published as
_The Mahatma Letters To A. P. Sinnett_, and which form the basis of many
theosophical teachings.
- [p. 63/62] "'Look, master Dil,' said Gern, [...]"
Since not everyone is familiar with all those weird English food items,
this is probably a good place to point out that there is a red line that
runs from 'Dil the Embalmer' to 'Dill the Pickler' to 'dill pickle', a
British delicacy.
- [p. 64/62] "'Get it? Your name in lights, see?'".
"Your name in lights" is generally a term indicative of achieved fame and
success. In this context, however, not everybody may be aware that
'lights' is also a word originally describing the lungs of sheep, pigs,
etc., but more generally used for all kinds of internal organs.
Presumably Gern has taken various parts of the dead king and spelt out
Dil's name.
- [p. 64/62] "'[...] I didn't think much of the Gottle of Geer routine,
either.'"
Ventriloquists who want to demonstrate their skill will include the
phrase "bottle of beer" as part of their patter. However, as it is
impossible to pronounce the 'B' without moving your lips, it usually
comes out as "gottle of geer". Gern has presumably been playing macabre
ventriloquism games with the corpse.
- [p. 64/63] "'Good big sinuses, which is what I always look for in a
king.'"
In the process of embalming, the Egyptians removed the deceased's brain
through the nose cavity. That's all I know about the process, and if it's
all right with you people I'd rather keep it that way.
- [p. 71/69] "'Do I really have to wear this gold mask?'"
Terry has confirmed that the scenes in which Dios dresses up Teppic in
his King's outfit (starting with the Flail of Mercy and culminating in
the Cabbage of Vegetative Increase) are a parody of the old BBC
children's game show _Crackerjack_. In this show the contestants were
asked questions, and for each correct answer they received a prize, which
they had to hold on to. If they answered wrong, they were given a large
cabbage, increasing the likelihood of dropping everything. The person
left at the end who hadn't dropped anything won the game.
- [p. 73/71] "'Interfamilial marriage is a proud tradition of our lineage,'
said Dios."
Teppic is astonished to hear that his great-great-grandmother once
declared herself male as a matter of political expediency. It was in fact
indeed the custom of the Egyptians to marry their pharaohs to close
relatives, and Hatshepsut, daughter of Thutmose I, wife and half-sister
of Thutmose II, and mother-in-law of Thutmose III actually did proclaim
herself king in order to seize the throne.
Incidentally, Dios is using the wrong word here: A marriage between
relatives would be *intra*familial, not *inter*familial.
- [p. 90/87] "'This thing could put an edge on a rolling pin.'"
See the annotation for p. 35/35 of _The Light Fantastic_. There's another
more explicit reference on p. 140/134: "[...] contrary to popular opinion
pyramids don't sharpen razor blades".
- [p. 95/91] "'Squiggle, constipated eagle, wiggly line, hippo's bottom,
squiggle' [...] the Sun God Teppic had Plumbing Installed and Scorned the
Pillows of his Forebears."
The constipated eagle is obviously the plumbing system, but what not many
people outside Britain will realise is that the hippo's bottom comes from
an advert for Slumberdown beds, which featured a hippo sitting down next
to a chick.
- [p. 95/92] Pteppic's dream about the seven fat and seven thin cows is a
reference to the Bible's Joseph, who had to explain a similar dream
(which did not have the bit about the trombone, though), to the Pharaoh.
_Pyramids_ is of course riddled with religious references, most of which
are too obvious or too vague to warrant inclusion here.
- [p. 100/97] "All things are defined by names. Change the name, and you
change the thing."
This is a very ancient concept in magic and 'primitive' religions.
Although I haven't asked him, I'm willing to bet money that Terry did
*not* take his inspiration from Ursula Le Guin's _A Wizard of Earthsea_,
despite the many e-mails I have received suggesting a connection.
For a definitive reference on this subject, read James George Frazer's
_The Golden Bough_.
- [p. 102/99] "[...] I am a stranger in a familiar land."
The phrase "stranger in a strange land" originates from the Bible, Exodus
2:22, "And she bare [Moses] a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he
said, I have been a stranger in a strange land."
Since the "strange land" in question was Egypt, there's a nice resonance
with _Pyramids_ itself in Terry's use of the phrase.
These days, people may be more familiar with the quote as the title of
Robert Heinlein's 60s cult science fiction book.
- [p. 109/105] "'*Doppelgangs*,' he said."
Pun on the German word 'doppelgaenger', meaning 'body double'. Thanks to
dozens of bad sf-movies the word has entered the English language in the
mostly sinister meaning of some metamorphic life form taking the shape of
a human being.
- [p. 127/121] Notice the sound accompanying the pyramid flares. It
phonetically spells 'Cheops'.
- [p. 134/128] "It seemed to Teppic that its very weight was deforming the
shape of things, stretching the kingdom like a lead ball on a rubber
sheet."
This metaphor ties in neatly with the quantum aspects of the Pyramids:
rubber sheets distorted by balls are one popular way of visualising
Einstein's general theory of relativity. The sheet represents the
space-time-continuum, and the balls are bits of mass (like suns and
planets). The balls press down and deform the space around them. When
things try to move along the rubber sheet, not only are they attracted
into the dimples in the sheet (gravity), but things like light which try
to travel in a straight line find little kinks in their path around an
object.
- [p. 144/138] "'She can play the dulcimer,' said the ghost of Teppicymon
XXVII, apropos of nothing much."
Reference to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's _Kubla Khan_. See also the
annotation for p. 127/115 of _Sourcery_.
- [p. 156/150] "[...] distilling the testicles of a small tree-dwelling
species of bear with the vomit of a whale, [...]"
Animal substances are extensively used as fixatives in perfume. Examples
include musk (from deer-testicles; 'musk' is Sanskrit for 'scrotum'),
ambergris (from the intestines of whales) and castor (from a beaver's
perineal gland).
- [p. 157/150] "...Phi * 1700[u/v]. Lateral e/v. Equals a tranche of seven
to twelve..."
Some confusion has arisen here, because the asterisk symbol '*' is the
same one used in at least some of the editions of _Pyramids_ as a
footnote marker. This has caused a few people to wonder if there's a
'missing footnote' intended for this page. Matters are not helped much by
the fact that the American paperback edition *does* contain the text of a
footnote on (their equivalent of) p. 157/150. This footnote is simply
misplaced and the marker for it occurs on the *previous* page (see also
previous annotation).
We'll let Terry have the last word in order to remove any remaining
doubt: "I'm pretty sure the missing footnote in Pyramids doesn't exist.
If it's what I'm thinking of, we just bunged in loads of gibberish maths
and among the symbols was, yes, '*'."
I am told that in later paperback editions the asterisk in question has
been entirely removed from the text.
- [p. 168/162] "'I've got as far as "Goblins Picnic" in Book I.'"
After the children's song called "Teddy Bears' Picnic":
"If you go down to the woods today
You're sure of a big surprise
If you go down to the woods today
You'd better go in disguise
For ev'ry bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic."
- [p. 176/169] The philosophers shooting arrows at tortoises are discussing
one of Zeno's three motion paradoxes. See also Douglas Hofstadter's
_Goedel, Escher, Bach_. Or Zeno.
- [p. 178/171] "The rest of them die of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle,
[...]"
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (HUP) says that for a quantum particle
(e.g. an electron), it is impossible to know with complete accuracy both
where it is and how fast it is going. The act of observing it interferes
with the event you want to measure (in fact, one might say that at the
quantum level the observation *is* the event) in such a way that it is
physically impossible to determine both velocity and position of the
particle in question.
- [p. 179/171] Philosophers' names.
Xeno refers to Zeno, of aforementioned paradox. Copolymer ("the greatest
storyteller in the history of the world") might refer to both Homer
(because of the name) and Herodotus, 'the father of history', who was
known for his very chatty and discursive style, and who basically made
his living as a story-teller/dinner guest. Pthagonal ("a very acute man
with an angle") refers to Pythagoras. Iesope ("the greatest teller of
fables") to Aesop. Antiphon ("the greatest writer of comic plays") to
Aristophanes. And Ibid (whose name reminds us of Ovid) is actually short
for ibidem, which means, when citing literature references: 'same author
as before'. Hence the quip later on: "Ibid you already know".
The only one left is Endos the Listener, who is perhaps meant to portray
the standard second-man-in-a-Socratic-dialogue -- the man who spends the
entire dialogue saying things like "That is correct, Socrates", "I
agree", "you're right", "your reasoning appears correct", and the like.
Also, an 'antiphon' is a name for a versicle or sentence sung by one
choir in response to another (e.g.: "No you can't / Yes I can!" repeated
many times with rising pitch. Or a more modern example would perhaps be
Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody': "No, we will not let you go / Let me go!").
'Copolymer' is a term from chemistry; it refers to a polymer (plastic)
made from more than one kind of monomer (simple compound).
[ Finally, my source also suspects that Copolymer's monologue may be a
take-off on a particular translation of his _Histories_. Anybody? ]
- [p. 179/172] "'The tortoise *did* beat the hare,' said Xeno sulkily."
Reference to Aesop's classic fable _The Hare and the Tortoise_.
If you have access to the Internet, you can find an online version of the
Aesop fables at the URL:
<ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/literary/obi/Aesop/Fables.Z>
- [p. 180/173] "Now their gods existed. They had, as it were, the complete
Set."
For those of you whose Egyptian mythology is a little rusty: Set, brother
to Isis and Osiris and father of Anubis, was the Egyptian God of evil and
darkness.
- [p. 181/174] "'Sacrifice a chicken under his nose.'"
Refers to the old practice of burning a feather under the nose of an
unconscious or fainted person.
- [p. 181/174] "'[...] here comes Scarab again... yes, he's gaining
height... Jeht hasn't seen him yet, [...].'"
The high priest's commentary on the gods' battle for the sun is obviously
based on sports commentators. In particular, several of the phrases are
based on the diction of David Coleman, a popular British figure of fun
noted for his somewhat loose grasp on reality and his tendency towards
redundancy and solecism. In fact, an amusingly redundant comment spoken
live by a personality is sometimes referred to as a 'Colemanball', after
the column of that name in the satirical magazine _Private Eye_.
Typical Colemanballs include, "...He's a real fighter, this lad, who
believes that football's a game of two halves, and that it isn't over
until the final whistle blows", or during the test (cricket) matches,
"And he's coming up to bowl now... The bowler's Holding, the batsman's
Willey...". (That last one wasn't even by David Coleman, but still
qualifies as a Colemanball).
- [p. 197/189] "'Symposium' meant a knife-and-fork tea."
Etymologically, a symposium is indeed a "get-together for a drink". Since
the Greeks believed in lubricating intellectual discussion with drink,
the term eventually came to be used for a meeting which combined elements
of partying and intellectual interchange.
- [p. 197/189] The Tsortean wars refer to the Trojan wars. (Read also
_Eric_. Or Homer.)
- [p. 201/193] "A philosopher had averred that although truth was beauty,
beauty was not necessarily truth, and a fight was breaking out."
A famous quotation from John Keats' 'Ode on a Grecian Urn':
"'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,' -- that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
- [p. 204/195] "[...] ships called the _Marie Celeste_, [...]"
The _Marie Celeste_ left port in 1872 with a full crew, but was later
found (by the crew of the _Dei Gratia_), abandoned on the open sea, with
no crew, the single lifeboat missing, and half-eaten meals in the mess
hall. It was later discovered that captain Morehouse of the _Dei Gratia_
had dined with the captain of the _Celeste_ the night before she sailed,
and Morehouse and his crew were eventually tried for murder, but
acquitted because there was no hard evidence. The missing crewmen were
never found.
- [p. 205/197] "And one of them had reputedly turned himself into a golden
shower in pursuit of his intended."
According to Greek mythology the beautiful Danae had been locked away in
a dungeon by her father (King Acrisius of Argos) because a prophecy had
foretold that his grandson would slay him. But Zeus, King of the Gods,
came upon Danae in a shower of gold, and fathered Perseus upon her.
- [p. 250/239] "'Go, tell the Ephebians --' he began."
This is a paraphrase of "Go tell the Spartans", which is the beginning of
the memorial for the Spartan soldiers who got massacred by the Persians
at Thermopylae as a result of Greek treachery. The full quote is given by
Simonides (5th century BC) as:
"Go, tell the Spartans, thou who passest by,
That here obedient to their laws we lie"
- [p. 270/259] "And it was while he was staring vaguely ahead, [...] that
there was a faint pop in the air and an entire river valley opened up in
front of him."
People interested in more stories about magically disappearing valleys
are referred to R. A. Lafferty's 'Narrow Valley' (to be found in his
collection _Nine Hundred Grandmothers_), where a half a mile wide valley
is sorcerously narrowed (with its inhabitants) to a few feet and then
opened up again by the end of the story.
- [p. 271/259] "[...] the birds said more with a simple bowel movement than
Ozymandias ever managed to say."
Ozymandias was the Greek name for Ramses the Second. Percy Bysshe
Shelley's poem _Ozymandias_ is famous, but because it is short and it has
always been a favourite of mine I hope you will forgive me the indulgence
of reproducing it here in full:
Ozymandias
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that their sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
While I was browsing the net in order to find an on-line copy of
_Ozymandias_ so that I could cut-and-paste the text, I came across a
wonderful piece of related information. It appears that in 1817 Shelley
held a sonnet-writing session with his friend, the poet Horace Smith.
Both wrote a sonnet on the same subject, but while Shelley came up with
the aforementioned _Ozymandias_, Mr Smith produced something so
delightfully horrendous I simply have to indulge even further, and
include it here as well. By now the connection to our original annotation
has been completely lost, but I think you might agree with me that
Smith's poem would be worthy of Creosote:
On a Stupendous Leg of Granite, Discovered Standing by Itself in
the Deserts of Egypt, with the Inscription Inserted Below.
In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows.
"I am great Ozymandias," saith the stone,
"The King of kings: this mighty city shows
The wonders of my hand." The city's gone!
Naught but the leg remaining to disclose
The sight of that forgotten Babylon.
We wonder, and some hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when through the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the wolf in chase,
He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess
What wonderful, but unrecorded, race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.
The poem was cited by Guy Davenport of the University of Kentucky in a
New York Times article a few years ago, which concluded: "Genius may also
be knowing how to title a poem."
- [p. 277/265] "'For the asses' milk?' said Koomi [...]"
See the annotation for p. 161/132 of _Mort_.
GUARDS! GUARDS!
- [p. 10/10] "'Hooray, hooray for the spinster's sister's daughter.'"
This recalls the ritual question "Is there no help for the Widow's Son?"
in Masonic ritual.
- [p. 16/15] "'Let's say a skion turns up, walks up to the Patrician
[...]'"
The correct spelling is actually 'scion', meaning "young descendant of a
noble family".
- [p. 18/17] "'Yea, the king will come [...] and Protect and Serve the
People with his Sword.'"
This is Terry having fun with foreshadowing again. The prophecy of
Brother Plasterer's granddad describes Carrot to a tee, with the "Protect
and Serve" tying in neatly with the motto of the City Watch (see the
annotation for p. 51/48).
- [p. 20/19] "'They were myths and they were real,' he said loudly. 'Both a
wave and a particle.'"
Reference to the wave/particle duality theory of e.g. light, which
appears to have the properties of both a wave and a particle, depending
upon what context you are working in.
- [p. 21/19] "'That was where you had to walk on ricepaper wasn't it,' said
Brother Watchtower conversationally."
Reference to the old David Carradine TV series, _Kung Fu_. In one of the
earliest episodes our Shaolin monk-in-training was tasked to walk along a
sheet of ricepaper without ripping it or leaving a mark.
- [p. 26/24] "It wasn't only the fresh mountain air that had given Carrot
his huge physique."
Someone on a.f.p. asked Terry if the name or the character of Carrot was
perhaps inspired by an old American comic called _Captain Carrot and his
Amazing Zoo Crew_. Terry answered:
"Never heard of it. The TRUE answer is that when I was writing the book
an electrician was rewiring our house and the nickname of his red-haired
apprentice was Carrot. It kind of stuck in my mind."
- [p. 29/27] "'And Bob's your uncle.'"
Some people have been wondering just where this expression comes from
(the joke also occurs on p. 16/15 and p. 108/98). Terry himself gives the
following answer:
"Apparently from a 19th Century Prime Minister, Lord Robert Stanley, who
was a great one for nepotism. If you got a good Government job it was
because "Bob's your uncle". It came to mean 'everything's all right'."
- [p. 52/48] The fizzing and flashing illuminated sign outside Captain
Vimes' office is a reference to the tired old visual cliche from most
film noir. The seedy detective's office or apartment always has a big
neon sign just outside the window.
- [p. 51/48] The motto of the Night Watch, "FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC", is dog
Latin for "Make my day, punk".
"Go ahead, make my day" is a well-known Clint 'Dirty Harry' Eastwood
quote. The 'punk' comes from another famous _Dirty Harry_ scene (see the
annotation for p. 136/124)
Notice also that the translation Terry supplies ("To protect and to
serve") is actually the motto of the Los Angeles Police Force.
My source tells me that Hollywood writers and directors, notorious for
the accuracy of their movies and TV shows, tend to have *all* police cars
bear this motto. In a sort of reverse formation, this has caused some
individual police forces across the USA to adopt it, so that by now the
motto has become fairly wide-spread.
- [p. 53/49] "'The E. And the T sizzles when it rains.'"
The magic tavern sign Brother Watchtower is stealing has a burnt-out "E"
and a sizzling "T" just like the 'HOT L BALTIMORE' sign in the play of
the same name.
- [p. 54/49] "[...] a certain resemblance to a chimpanzee who never got
invited to tea parties."
For the entertainment of their younger visitors, British zoos used to
have the tradition of holding Chimpanzees' Tea Parties, where the chimps
were dressed up and seated at a table, drinking and eating from a plastic
tea set.
Chimp tea parties have remained in the British consciousness due to the
TV advertisements for PG Tips tea bags featuring chimps pouring tea.
- [p. 55/51] "'*Shershay la fem*, eh? Got a girl into trouble?'"
"Cherchez la femme" ("look for the woman") is a cliche phrase of pulp
detective fiction: when someone's wife has been murdered one should
always search for signs of another woman's involvement.
- [p. 60/55] "'Good day! Good day! What is all of this that is going on
here (in this place)?'"
Carrot's actions and words in this scene mirror the behaviour of the
stereotypical British friendly neighbourhood bobby attempting to break up
a family argument or innocent street brawl. Nearly all my correspondents
trace this stereotype directly back to the sixties BBC television series
_Dixon of Dock Green_, where every bobby was your friend and it was
perfectly acceptable for a copper to walk into a room and say "'Ello!
'Ello! What's going on 'ere then?". Calling people 'sunshine' (next
footnote on the page), and signing off with "Evening, all" are apparently
also Dixonisms.
- [p. 62/56] "'Evenin', Detritus.'"
'Detritus' is a word meaning "any loose matter, e.g. stones, sand, silt,
formed by rock disintegration".
- [p. 64/59] "'What'd he mean, Justices?' he said to Nobby. 'There ain't no
Justices.'"
This annotation has been the subject of some heated a.f.p. discussion
(and if you think that this is a silly thing to get worked up over, you
are obviously not familiar with alt.fan.pratchett. Or with Usenet, for
that matter). Anyway, there were a few people who felt that Terry was
referring here to Larry Niven's _Ringworld_ series, where the main
character, Louis Wu, always uses the phrase "There ain't no justice"
(abbreviated as "TANJ"). Other people found this connection incredibly
far-fetched for such a generic sentence, and said so rather forcefully.
Eventually, Terry stepped in and short-circuited the entire discussion by
writing: "Mostly in the Discworld books, particularly _Mort_, the phrase
is "There's no justice" so that it can be balanced with "There's just
me/you/us". And that phrase is truly generic. Really, so is "There ain't
no justice" -- it's just that Niven does use it a lot and, I suspect,
uses it because it is familiar to readers. Admittedly, it's become 'his'
via repetition. But there's a difference between using an established
phrase which another author has commandeered and using one *specifically*
associated with one person -- "Make my day" has one owner, whereas "There
ain't no justice" is a cliche. To be honest, I didn't have anything
particularly in mind when Charley uttered the phrase -- but if you think
it's a Niven reference, fair enough."
- [p. 76/70] "'Do *real* wizards leap about after a tiny spell and start
chanting 'Here we go, here we go, here we go', Brother Watchtower?
*Hmm*?'"
"Here we go, here we go" is a chant (usually sung to the tune of Sousa's
'Stars and Stripes Forever') commonly associated with football (soccer)
fans.
According to my correspondent it is also used, historically, by gangs of
striking miners just before they realise that the mounted policemen with
big sticks are coming their way. Definitely a British phenomenon.
- [p. 91/83] "It was strange, he felt, that so-called intelligent dogs,
horses and dolphins never had any difficulty indicating to humans the
vital news of the moment [...]"
Just for the record: some famous television/movie dogs fitting this
description are Lassie and Rin Tin Tin; horse examples are Champion,
Trigger, Silver ("I said *posse*!"), and Black Beauty; the only dolphin
example I know of is probably the most famous of them all: Flipper.
Australian fans have expressed their disappointment that Terry left out
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, whose ability to communicate very complex,
often extremely abstract concepts with a bit of clicking and hopping
around was apparently a wonder to behold.
+ [p. 91/83] "And *then* he went out on to the streets, untarnished and
unafraid."
"But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who
is neither tarnished nor afraid." is a well-known quote -- that describes
Carrot to a tee -- from Raymond Chandler's essay _The Simple Art of
Murder_.
- [p. 93/85] "'Who loves you, pussycat?', said Nobby under his breath."
Nice amalgamation of TV detective Kojak's use of the word 'pussycat' and
his catchphrase "Who loves ya, baby?".
- [p. 94/86] "'I've seen a horsefly [...] And I've seen a housefly. I've
even seen a greenfly, but I ain't never seen a dragon fly"
Sounds reminiscent of the 'I've never seen an elephant fly' song which
the crows sing in Walt Disney's 1941 movie _Dumbo_. Another similar
children's song is called 'The Never Song' by Edward Lipton.
- [p. 97/88] "[...] Gayheart Talonthrust of Ankh stood fourteen thumbs
high, [...]"
The breeding of swamp dragons is a parody of British high society's
obsession with horse breeding. The height of a horse is traditionally
measured in hands.
- [p. 99/90] "'One just has to put up with the occasional total whittle.'"
Describing Errol as a whittle is actually a quite clever pun. On the one
hand 'whittle' simply means something reduced in size (usually by means
of slicing bits and pieces off it), while on the other hand Sir Frank
Whittle was the inventor of the modern aircraft jet engine.
When Whittle showed his original design to his supervisor at Manchester
University, the latter said, "Very interesting, Whittle my dear boy, but
it will never work".
- [p. 103/94] "'Just give me the facts, m'lady,' he said impatiently."
"Just the facts, ma'am", is a catchphrase from the _Dragnet_ radio series
(later a TV series, and later still a Dan Aykroyd/Tom Hanks movie).
- [p. 103/94] "Of all the cities in all the world it could have flown into,
he thought, it's flown into mine..."
Pretty obvious Bogart/Casablanca paraphrase, in keeping with Vimes' role
as the Discworld equivalent of the ultimate film noir anti-hero.
- [p. 114/104] The bit about the hero killing a monster in a lake, only to
have the monster's mum come right down the hall the next day and
*complain*, is a reference to Grendel and his mother, two famous monsters
from the _Beowulf_ saga.
- [p. 114/104] "Pour encourjay lays ortras."
Discworld version of the French phrase "pour encourager les autres". The
phrase originates with Voltaire who, after the British executed their own
admiral John Byng in 1757 for failing to relieve Minorca, was inspired to
write (in Chapter 23 of _Candide_) a sentence that translates to: "in
this country we find it pays to shoot an admiral from time to time to
encourage the others".
- [p. 116/106] "'For example, foxes are always knocking over my dustbins.'"
Terry, at least at one point in his life, lived in the west country, near
Bristol. Bristol has become famous for its urban foxes (although they
apparently operate in all largish greenish cities in the UK). About 10-12
years ago, BBC Bristol made a famous programme on these urban foxes,
called _Foxwatch_.
On this programme, hitherto unachieved photographs of vixens caring for
their sprogs were aired; this made the programme (which was narrated by
David Attenborough) very famous. The Archchancellor's rant is a very good
approximation of a David Attenborough wildlife programme narration. And
according to the Foxwatch myth, foxes knock over dustbins.
- [p. 117/107] "'Did you suggest a working party?', said Wonse."
It is British Government Policy to suggest a working party whenever an
intractable problem presents itself. It is usually stocked with
opposition MPs.
- [p. 118/108] "Once you've ruled out the impossible then whatever is left,
however improbable, must be the truth. [...] There was also the curious
incident of the orangutan in the night-time ..."
Two Sherlock Holmes references for the price of one. The original quotes
are "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" from
_The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet_, and "[...] the curious incident of
the dog at nighttime" in _Silver Blaze_.
The second reference also reminds me, in a very roundabout way, of Edgar
Allan Poe's _The Murders in the Rue Morgue_.
- [p. 120/110] "[...] as ghastly an array of faces as ever were seen
outside a woodcut about the evils of gin-drinking [...]"
The reference here is to the famous series of 18th century morality
woodcuts by William Hogarth, with names like "Gin Lane" and "Beer
Street".
- [p. 126/115] "'Dunno where this place is, Captain. It belongs to some
posh bint.'"
This is very British slang. Posh, meaning upper class, arises from the
days of the Empire. It is an acronym, standing for 'Port Out, Starboard
Home'. These were the most pleasant (least hot?) cabins on the ships
sailing to the jewel in the crown, India, and therefore the most
expensive, meaning that only the aristocracy could afford them.
(The above explanation is in fact quite false -- that is, it's true that
posh means upper class, but the acronym is one of these persistent, oh so
plausible, after-the-fact etymologies, which are nearly always wrong.)
'Bint' arises as a bit of cockney soldier slang in WWII. It is actually
Arabic for 'young girl'. Many British soldiers were stationed in
Alexandria, Egypt, in North Africa, and this word was brought into the
language by them.
- [p. 134/122] "'So I'm letting you have a place in Pseudopolis Yard.'"
The Watch's second base, affectionately called 'The Yard', is a reference
to Scotland Yard, where the British Police Headquarters used to be
located (these days, they have moved to New Scotland Yard).
- [p. 136/124] "This is Lord Mountjoy Quickfang Winterforth IV, the hottest
dragon in the city. It could burn your head clean off."
Vimes replays here one of the best-known scenes in Clint Eastwood's first
'Dirty Harry' movie, the 1971 _Dirty Harry_.
"Aha! I know what you're thinking... Did I fire six shots or only five?
To tell you the truth, I forgot it myself in all this excitement. This
here's a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and it can
blow your head clean off. Now, you must ask yourself one question: "Do I
feel lucky?" Well, do you, punk?"
Note how nicely Winter*forth* the *fourth* corresponds to the caliber of
the Magnum.
- [p. 143/130] "''E's plain clothes, ma'am,' said Nobby smartly. 'Special
Ape Services'."
_Special Ape Services_ shares the acronym SAS with the crack British
troops who are sent to storm embassies, shoot prisoners of war, and
execute alleged terrorists before anything has been proven by trial, etc.
Not that one wants to get political, mind you.
- [p. 156/141] "'Ah. Kings can cure that, you know,' said another
protomonarchist knowingly."
See the annotation for p. 103/76 of _Lords and Ladies_.
- [p. 162/147] "[...] and stepped out into the naked city."
_The Naked City_ was an American TV cop show in the 50s, mostly forgotten
today, except for its prologue narration: "There are eight million
stories in the naked city. This is one of them."
- [p. 164/149] "There are some songs which are never sung sober. 'Nellie
Dean' is one. So is any song beginning 'As I was a walking...'"
'Nellie Dean' is an old music hall song:
"There's an old mill by the stream
Nellie Dean.
Where we used to sit and dream
Nellie Dean."
For an explanation of songs beginning 'As I was a walking...' see the
annotation for p. 313/238 of _Men at Arms_.
- [p. 200/181] "'This is love-in-a-canoe coffee if ever I tasted it.'"
This refers to the punchline of the old joke (familiar from, for
instance, a Monty Python sketch):
Q: What do American beer and making
love in a canoe have in common?
A: They're both fucking close to water.
- [p. 200/182] "'He's called Rex Vivat.'"
_Rex Vivat_, of course, means: "long live the king". This reminds me a
bit of Robert Rankin, who named his lead character in _They Came And Ate
Us_ Rex Mundi. Rex's sister has a role in the book too. Her name is
Gloria.
Now you may begin to understand why Rankin is so often discussed on
alt.fan.pratchett, and why there is so much overlap between his and
Terry's audiences.
- [p. 236/214] "'The Duke of Sto Helit is looking for a guard captain, I'm
sure.'"
The Duke of Sto Helit, in case anyone had forgotten, is none other than
Mort.
- [p. 241/219] "Someone out there was going to find out that their worst
nightmare was a maddened Librarian. With a badge."
The movie _48 Hrs_, starring Nick Nolte and Eddy Murphy, has a scene in
which Eddy Murphy is in a bar full of rednecks, shouting "I am your worst
nightmare! A nigger with a badge!"
- [p. 260/236] "'If that dragon's got any voonerables, that arrow'll find
'em.'"
Killing dragons by shooting a magical arrow in a special location is a
standard cliche of mythology and fantasy fiction. One of the best-known
contemporary examples can be found in Tolkien's _The Hobbit_, where Bard
kills the dragon Smaug with a special black arrow.
- [p. 278/252] "'All for one!' [...] 'All for one what?' said Nobby."
"All for one and one for all" was of course the motto of the Three
Musketeers. A whole new generation has learned about this through the
combined efforts of an uninspired Disney flick and a particularly
nauseating song by Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting.
- [p. 282/256] "Both dragons appeared to realise that the fight was the
well-known Klatchian standoff."
Or Mexican standoff in our world, which is when two people have loaded,
cocked guns pointed right at each other. If either shoots, they both die.
This leaves them stuck, since if either just turns away, the other will
immediately shoot him.
- [p. 284/257] The scene where Errol's supersonic boom smashes the dragon
out of the air is possibly based on another Clint Eastwood movie, the
1982 _Firefox_.
- [p. 289/262] "'In 1135 a hen was arrested for crowing on Soul Cake
Thursday.'"
There are several historical examples in our world of animals being
arrested, excommunicated or killed for various crimes. Articles in the
October 1994 issue of _Scientific American_ and in _The Book of Lists #3_
give several examples: a chimpanzee was convicted in Indiana in 1905 of
smoking in public; 75 pigeons were executed in 1963 in Tripoli for
ferrying stolen money across the Mediterranean; and in 1916, "five-ton
Mary" the elephant killed her trainer and was subsequently sentenced to
death by hanging -- a sentence that involved a 100-ton derrick and a
steam shovel. But the law is fair, and sometimes the animals get the
better of it: when in 1713 a Franciscan monastery brought the termites
who had been infesting their buildings to trial, a Brazilian court ruled
that termites had a valid prior claim to the land, and ordered the monks
to give the termites their own plot.
- [p. 313/284] "'Sergeant Colon said he thought we'd get along like a
*maison en Flambe*.'"
Maison en Flambe = house on fire.
- [p. 314/285] "'Here's looking at you, kid,' he said."
Another quote from _Casablanca_.
ERIC
- [title] _Eric_
The subtitle to _Eric_ ('Faust', crossed out) already indicates what
story is being parodied in this novella: that of the German alchemist and
demonologist Johannes (or Georg) Faust who sold his soul to the devil.
The most famous version of the Faust legend is perhaps the one told by
Goethe in _Faust_, with Cristopher Marlowe's earlier play _The Tragical
History of Dr Faustus_ a close second.
- [p. 9/9] "[...] where the adventuresses Herrena the Henna-Haired
Harridan, Red Scharron and Diome, Witch of the Night, were meeting for
some girl talk [...]"
Herrena is the swordswoman from _The Light Fantastic_ who hunted
Rincewind, and Red Scharron is the Discworld version of Red Sonja. I
can't place Diome, though her name sounds horribly familiar. There was a
minor Greek goddes called Dione, and a Greek warrior called Diomedes, but
neither of those sounds appropriate.
- [p. 27/21] The book Eric uses to summon his demon has the title
_Mallificarum Sumpta Diabolicite Occularis Singularum_, or the Book of
Ultimate Control. But note the initials.
Also, the actual dog Latin translates more or less to: "Evil-making
Driver of the Little One-Eyed Devil".
- [p. 26/31] "In the centre of the inferno, rising majestically from a lake
of lava substitute and with unparalleled view of the Eight Circles, lies
the city of Pandemonium."
The name 'Pandemonium' originates with Milton's _Paradise Lost_; it's the
city built by Lucifer and his followers after the Fall.
- [p. 46/41] The name of the Tezumen god, 'Quetzovercoatl', puns on the
actual Aztec god Quetzalcoatl.
According to Aztec mythology, Quetzalcoatl was also supposed to return to
his people at some particular future date.
- [p. 50/46] "There are quite a lot of uses to which you can put a stone
disc with a hole in the middle, and the Tezumen had explored all but one
of them."
This may refer to the Aztecs (who the Tezumen are obviously modelled on
anyway) who, according to popular legend did not know about the wheel
either, but reputedly used small discs with holes in them for money, and
who had a basketball-like game where the baskets were also stone discs
with holes in them. The tale that the losers got sacrificed is probably
untrue. But the winners were allowed to take the possession of any
spectators they chose -- no one hung around after the game in those days.
Other sources say that it was the *winners* who got the privilege of
being sacrificed. Oh well, whether it was losers, spectators, or winners
-- at least *somebody* got sacrificed.
- [p. 52/47] "[...] a giant-sized statue of Quetzovercoatl, the Feathered
Boa."
Quetzalcoatl the Aztec God was in fact portrayed as a winged serpent.
This is almost, but not quite, the same as a feathered boa. A feather boa
is of course also an item of women's clothing that became popular in the
1920s.
- [p. 58/51] Ponce da Quirm, looking for the Fountain of Youth, is based on
Ponce de Leon, the 15th century Spanish nobleman who did the same.
- [p. 81/69] "Fortunately, Rincewind was able to persuade the man that the
future was another country."
Reference to the opening words of _The Go-between_. See the annotation
for p. 13/11 of _Lords and Ladies_.
- [p. 82/70] "Some talk of Alexander and some of Hercules, of Hector and
Lysander and such great names as these."
This is actually the opening line to the march 'The British Grenadiers',
an English song dating back to the 17th century with about the same
jingoism factor as 'Rule Britannia' or 'Land of Hope and Glory':
"Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules,
Of Hector and Lysander, and such great men as these;
But of all the world's brave heroes there's none that can compare
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, to the British Grenadier."
- [p. 89/75] Lavaeolus is not only a dog Latin translation of 'Rincewind',
but the character is also a parody of Ulysses, tragic hero of the Trojan
wars. It's really not necessary to annotate all the stuff about wooden
horses and such, right? Right?
- [p. 97/81] "'It'll be fifteen choruses of 'The Ball of Philodephus' next,
you mark my words.'"
Refers to an old and rather obscene British drinking song called 'The
Ball of Kerrymuir', which, according to Terry: "[...] belongs in the same
category as 'Colonel Bogey' -- everyone knows a line or two [sorry...
everyone male and in the UK, anyway]".
For a sample of the lyrics to this song, see the _Song..._ section in
Chapter 5 of this document.
The song's title was changed into the slightly more convincing-sounding
'The Ball of Philodelphus' in the small-format UK paperback of _Eric_.
- [p. 99/82] "-- vestal virgins, Came down from
Heliodeliphilodelphiboschromenos, And when the ball was over, There were
--"
From one of the more printable verses of 'The Ball of Kerrymuir' (see
previous annotation):
"Four and twenty virgins
Came down from Inverness,
And when the ball was over
There were four and twenty less"
One page later (p. 100/83) there is a final reference to the song: "--
the village harpy she was there --"
- [p. 115/96] "'Multiple choice they call it, it's like painting the --
painting the -- painting something very big that you have to keep on
painting, sort of thing.'"
The British proverb this refers to is "it's like painting the Forth
bridge". The Forth bridge can be found spanning the Forth river (no
kidding) between the towns of North Queensferry and South Queensferry,
just outside Edinburgh, Scotland. It is so large that when they have
finished painting it, it is time to start over again.
In reality, I'm told, they look for bits of the bridge that need painting
and paint them. So it is true that they keep on painting, but they do it
discretely, not continuously.
- [p. 117/97] "'Centuries [...]. Millenia. Iains.'"
For some reason, Rincewind has problems with the word 'aeons'. See p.
94/86 of _Sourcery_ for the first documented occurrence of this
particular blind spot.
- [p. 121/100] "Some ancient and probably fearful warning was edged over
the crumbling arch, but it was destined to remain unread because over it
someone had pasted a red-and-white notice which read: 'You Don't Have To
Be 'Damned' To Work Here, But It Helps!!!'"
The original notice (according to Dante, in the translation by Rev.
Francis Cary) would have been the famous: "Through me you pass into the
city of woe: Through me you pass into eternal pain: Through me among the
people lost for aye. Justice the founder of my fabric moved: To rear me
was the task of power divine, Supremest wisdom, and primeval love. Before
me things create were none, save things Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon, ye who enter here."
The more obvious reference (included here only to stop the e-mail from
people who thought I missed it) is of course the cheesy legend "You Don't
Have To Be Mad To Work Here, But It Helps!".
- [p. 121/101] "'Multiple exclamation marks [...] are a sure sign of a
diseased mind."
People like using this particular quip in Usenet conversations or in
their .signatures, and every time somebody will follow-up with "hey,
you're wrong, that's a quote from _Reaper Man_ that is!".
The answer is of course simply that similar quotes occur in *both* books
(in _Reaper Man_ it's on p. 215/189, and goes: "Five exclamation marks,
the sure sign of an insane mind"). Hopefully this entry will lay the
confusion to rest for once and for all.
- [p. 122/101] "'[...] I think it's quite possible that we're in Hell.'"
The whole sequence in Hell is based loosely on Dante's _Inferno_ (which
in turn is based on Vergil's _Aeneid_) in much the same way the book as a
whole is based on _Faust_. Rincewind and Eric correspond to Vergil (who
is Dante's guide to Hell) and Dante in the same way that they are
Mephistopheles and Faust. The various references to the geographical
topology build on how Dante organised Hell in nine concentric circles
(this of course had to become eight circles for the Discworld version!).
The outer circles contained lesser sinners, such as Julius Caesar and
Socrates, while the inner circles were reserved for mortal sinners
(mostly Dante's political enemies; some people down there weren't dead at
the time of publication, but got a mention anyway). At the centre, in the
9th circle, Lucifer sits chewing away on Brutus, Crassus and Judas. If
you climb over him you get to Purgatory, meeting Cato the younger on the
way.
- [p. 125/103] "I mean, I heard where we're supposed to have all the *best*
tunes,"
Refers to the old saying "the devil has all the good tunes".
- [p. 131/107] "'[...] his punishment was to be chained to that rock and
every day an eagle would come down and peck his liver out. Bit of an old
favourite, that one.'"
Most people will associate this particular punishment with Prometheus
(who stole the secret of fire from the Gods and gave it to mankind), but
in fact Prometheus underwent his punishment chained to a rock in the
Caucasus (from which Hercules later freed him). The chap who had to go
through to the same thing in the Underworld was the giant Tityus, who had
tried to rape Leto, the mother of Artemis and Apollo. As the demon says:
this particular punishment is a bit of an old favourite with Zeus.
- [p. 132/108] "'Man who went and defied the gods or something. Got to keep
pushing that rock up the hill even though it rolls back all the time--'"
Eric is thinking of king Sisyphus of Corinth, who betrayed Zeus to the
father of the girl Aegina, whom Zeus had abducted (the girl, not the
father).
- [p. 135/110] "'According to Ephebian mythology, there's a girl who comes
down here every winter.'"
In Greece she was called Persephone, daughter of Ceres, the goddess of
agriculture. Hades abducted Persephone, imprisoned her in the underworld,
and took her for his wife. Ceres went into mourning and there was a
worldwide death of crops and famine. The gods negotiated a deal with
Hades whereby he would release Persephone from the underworld, but only
if she had eaten nothing while down there (she hadn't thus far, being too
upset). Upon hearing of her impending release, Persephone's heart was
gladdened, and before she could be stopped, she started eating a
pomegranate. She spit it out, but it was found she had swallowed six
pomegranate seeds. Hades therefore demanded that she should spend 6
months out of each year in the underworld. During the 6 months that
Persephone is down below, her mother, Ceres, neglects her duties and this
causes the winter. Hence: "'I think the story says she actually *creates*
the winter, sort of.' 'I've known women like that,' said Rincewind,
nodding wisely."
- [p. 136/110] "'Or it helps if you've got a lyre, I think.'"
A reference to the legend of Orpheus (see also the annotation for p.
93/93 of _The Light Fantastic_), who charmed Hades and Persephone into
releasing Eurydice by virtue of his lyre-playing.
- [p. 153/124] "Pour encouragy le -- poor encoura -- to make everyone sit
up and damn well take notice."
"Pour encourager les autres." See the annotation for p. 114/104 of
_Guards! Guards!_
MOVING PICTURES
This one has uncountable references to classic Hollywood movies and
anecdotes.
- Terry actually meant for Gaspode to die at the end of the book, but his
editors/beta-readers made him reconsider.
- People have noticed that the two femmes fatale of this novel are called
Ginger and Ruby, both names signifying a red colour. Terry Pratchett says
that he did *not* intend this as a reference to _Gone with the Wind_'s
Scarlett.
- Instead, Ruby got her name because like all trolls she needed a mineral
name. Ginger got her name because Terry wanted to use the Fred Astaire
quote (see a few annotations further down) about her partner, and so
Ginger was an obvious choice for the leading lady's name.
- [p. 9/7] "This is space. It's sometimes called the final frontier."
See the annotation for p. 221/191 of _The Colour of Magic_.
- [p. 15/12] "'Looking,' it said [...] 'f'r a word. Tip of my tongue.'"
The word is 'Eureka'. See the annotation for p. 139/101 of _Small Gods._
- [p. 18/14] "'I thought they were trying to cure the philosopher's stones,
or somethin',' said the Archchancellor."
That should be: trying to *find* the Philosopher's Stone: the quest of
all alchemists is to discover a substance that will turn all base metals
into gold.
- [p. 19/15] Archchancellor Ridcully's wizard name is 'Ridcully the Brown'.
In Tolkien's _The Lord of the Rings_ there's a (relatively) minor wizard
called 'Radagast the Brown', who was also very well in tune with nature,
and definitely of the
"roams-the-high-forest-with-every-beast-his-brother" type. Talked to the
birds, too.
- [p. 22/18] "And then a voice said: 'That's all, folks.'"
Anybody out there who has never seen Porky Pig use this phrase to end one
of those classic Looney Tunes animated cartoons?
- [p. 23/19] "They often didn't notice them, or thought they were
walruses."
Sometimes people send me annotations that are so beautifully outrageous
that I simply *have* to include them. For instance, the walruses may be
connected to the boiling mercury mentioned earlier in the text, via the
chain: boiling mercury --> mad hatters --> Lewis Carroll --> walrus.
Isn't it a beauty?
- [p. 34/28] "'[...] what is the name of the outer-dimensional monster
whose distinctive cry is "Yerwhatyerwhatyerwhat"'?"
I had been getting some conflicting stories concerning this annotation,
so I hope that this time I have managed to get it right.
Apparently "Yer what?" is a common London phrase, used when you didn't
catch what someone said, or you want them to repeat it because you can't
believe it.
The longer form is more typically associated with soccer fans, as part of
a chant, usually made in response to an opposing supporter army's war
cries in an attempt to imply a certain lack of volume (and hence numbers)
to the other side's support:
"Yerwhat (pause)
Yerwhat (pause)
Yerwhatyerwhatyerwhat."
- [p. 34/28] "'Yob Soddoth,' said Ponder promptly."
Yob Soddoth should be pronounced: "Yob sod off". 'Sod off' is a British
form of 'bugger off', and 'yob' is an old term now almost entirely
synonymous to the phrase "English football supporter" (apparently Mark
Twain once said: "they are not fit to be called boys, they should be
called yobs"). The word probably derives from 'back-chat' -- a 19th
century London thieves' argot in which words were turned round in order
to confuse police eavesdroppers. Not so far removed from Polari, in fact
(see the _Words From The Master_ section in Chapter 5).
At the same time it is also a pun on H. P. Lovecraft's 'Yog-Sothoth', one
of the chief supernatural nasties in the Cthulhu mythos (see especially
the novelette _The Dunwich Horror_ and the novel _The Lurker at the
Threshold_).
Finally, Ponder and Victor are studying the _Necrotelicomnicom_ in this
scene. See the annotation for p. 111/109 of _Equal Rites_ for more
information on the Lovecraft connection there.
- [p. 34/28] "Tshup Aklathep, Infernal Star Toad with A Million Young"
Another one of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos nasties is 'Shub-Niggurath',
The Goat with a Thousand Young. ('The Black Goat of the Woods with a
Thousand Young' is the full, but less common, title).
- [p. 35/29] Victor Tugelbend's university career, with his uncle's will
and all that, shows parallels to similar situations described in Roger
Zelazny's (highly recommended) science fiction novel _Doorways in the
Sand_, and in Richard Gordon's 'Doctor' series of medical comedy
books/movies (_Doctor in the House_, _Doctor in Love_, _Doctor at Sea_,
etc.)
I had noticed the Zelazny parallel when I first read _Moving Pictures_,
but thought the reference was too unlikely and too obscure to warrant
inclusion. Since then *two* other people have pointed it out to me...
Terry later remarked, in response to someone mentioning the _Doctor in
the House_ movie on the net: "I remember that film -- the student in
question was played by Kenneth More. All he had to do, though, was fail
-- the people who drew up the will involving Victor thought they were
cleverer than that. Maybe they'd seen the film..."
- [p. 41/34] Movie producer Thomas Silverfish is directly modelled on movie
mogul Samuel Goldwyn, whose real name was Samuel Gelbfisch, and who spent
a short time as Samuel Goldfish before changing his name a second time to
Goldwyn.
Goldwyn was responsible for a whole sequence of malapropisms known
collectively as Goldwynisms, some of which are so well known now as to
have passed into the common parlance. A number of Goldwyn quips are
repeated (in one form or another) by Silverfish throughout the book
("you'll never work in this town again", "include me out", "a verbal
contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on", etc.).
- [p. 50/41] "No-one would have believed, in the final years of the Century
of the Fruitbat, that Discworld affairs were being watched keenly and
impatiently by intelligences greater than Man's, or at least much
nastier; that their affairs were being scrutinised and studied as a man
with a three-day appetite might study the All-You-Can-Gobble-For-A-Dollar
menu outside Harga's House of Ribs..."
This paragraph is a word-by-word parody of H. G. Wells' _War of the
Worlds_, which begins with:
"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century
that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences
greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied
themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and
studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might
scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of
water."
- [p. 56/47] "'Can't sing. Can't dance. Can handle a sword a little.'"
Refers to the quip: "Can't act. Can't sing. Can dance a little.", made
about Fred Astaire, reputedly by a studio-executive at RKO after
Astaire's first screen test.
When somebody once asked Astaire's producer about the story, however, he
was told that it was complete and obvious nonsense, since Fred Astaire
already was a established major Broadway star at the time.
- [p. 58/48] "'This is Gaffer Bird,' beamed Silverfish."
'Gaffer' not only means 'old man', but a gaffer is also the head
electrician in a film production unit, charged principally with taking
care of the lighting. Gaffer's tape is a less sticky form of duct tape,
used universally in the theatre, concert and movie worlds to keep people
from stumbling over cables.
If you enjoy annoying people, go over to the Kate Bush newsgroup
rec.music.gaffa, and ask there if her song 'Suspended in Gaffa' refers to
Gaffer's tape or not.
- [p. 73/61] "'Or Rock. Rock's a nice name.'"
Presumably in reference to late actor Rock Hudson, with 'Flint' punning
on Errol Flynn.
- [p. 75/62] "[...] Victor fights the dreaded Balgrog".
In Tolkien's _The Lord of the Rings_ you can find a very nasty monster
called a Balrog.
- [p. 81/67] Ginger's real name is Theda Withel, which might be a very
oblique reference to Theda Bara, famous movie star of the 1910s, a kind
of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, avant la lettre ('Theda Bara' is an
anagram of 'Arab Death'!). Her portrayal of evil women in movies like
_When a Woman Sins_ and _The She Devil_ caused the current meaning of the
word 'vamp' to be added to the English language.
Just as Dibbler later describes Ginger to Bezam Planter as "the daughter
of a Klatchian pirate and his wild, headstrong captive", so does a studio
biography describe Theda Bara as born in the Sahara to a French artiste
and his Egyptian concubine. But in fact, Theda's father was a Cincinnati
tailor.
- [p. 82/69] The resograph built by Riktor the Tinkerer.
Terry says: "The reality meter in Moving Pictures is loosely based on a
Han dynasty (2nd Century AD) seismograph; a pendulum inside the vase
moves and causes one of eight dragons to spit a ball in the direction of
the tremor."
Also, the name 'Riktor' refers to our 'Richter', of the earthquake scale
fame.
- [p. 86/71] "And perhaps even a few elves, the most elusive of Discworld
races."
Some people were wondering if this doesn't contradict the information we
get about Elves later, in _Lords and Ladies_, such as that they can only
enter our World during Circle Time -- besides, Elves would hardly be the
type of beings to become actors, one should think.
The answer can be found in _Lords and Ladies_ as well, however, on p.
229/165:
Ridcully: "Elves? Everyone knows elves don't exist any more. Not
proper elves. I mean, there's a few folk who say they're elves --"
Granny Weatherwax: "Oh, yeah. Elvish ancestry. Elves and humans
breed all right, as if that's anything to be proud of. But you just
get a race o' skinny types with pointy ears and a tendency to
giggle and burn easily in sunshine. I ain't talking about them.
There's no harm in them. I'm talking about real wild elves, what we
ain't seen here for --"
- [p. 88/73] "'We just call it the 'Hiho' song. That's all it was.
Hihohiho. Hihohiho.'"
The best-known song in Walt Disney's 1937 full length animation movie
_Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs_ is sung by the seven dwarfs and starts:
"Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
It's off to work we go"
- [p. 97/80] _The Boke Of The Film_
Traditional (if somewhat archaic by now) subtitle for movie
novelisations. The related phrase "The Book of the Series" is still alive
and well, mostly in the context of documentaries.
- [p. 97/80] "This is the Chroncal of the Keeprs of the ParaMountain [...]"
Another fleeting reference to the movie company Paramount.
- [p. 101/84] "'And my daughter Calliope plays the organ really nice,
[...]'"
Calliope is not only the name of the Muse of Epic Poetry, but a calliope
is also a large, organ-like musical instrument consisting of whistles
operated by steam. There exists a very funny Donald Duck story, called
'Land of the Totem Poles' (written by the one and only Carl Barks), in
which Donald somehow manages to become a travelling calliope salesman.
Highly recommended.
- [p. 103/86] "The sharp runes spelled out _The Blue Lias_. It was a troll
bar."
'Lias' is a blue limestone rock found in the south-west of England.
- [p. 105/87] "'Cos he was her troll and he done her wrong.'"
Ruby's song 'Amber and Jasper' is the Discworld version of the folk song
'Frankie and Johnny':
"Frankie and Johnny were lovers,
Oh, Lordie how they could love!
They swore to be true to each other,
Just as true as the stars above,
He was her man, but he done her wrong."
- [p. 111/93] Ruby's song: "Vunce again I am fallink in luf / Vy iss it I
now am a blue colour? / Vot is the action I should take this time / I
can't help it. Hiya, big boy."
In the 1930 movie _Blue Angel_ Marlene Dietrich plays Lola-Lola, the
cabaret entertainer who ruins the life of the stuffy professor who falls
in love with her. In the movie, Marlene performs a song called 'Falling
in Love':
"Falling in love again
Why am I so blue?
What am I to do?
I can't help it."
Marlene Dietrich sang this with her characteristic German accent, hence
the "fallink" and "vy" in the parody. The line "Hiya, big boy" may also
have been spoken by Marlene Dietrich in one of her movies, but I haven't
been able to confirm this so far.
- [p. 115/95] "[...] Victor couldn't understand a word."
The duck's incomprehensibility brings to mind the animated incarnation of
Donald Duck. In fact, all of the Holy Wood animals have begun to act a
bit like famous cartoon animals; for instance the cat and the mouse
acting out a Tom & Jerry scene (although the speech impediment of the cat
is more reminiscent of Sylvester).
- [p. 115/95] "'What's up, Duck?' said the rabbit."
One of Bugs Bunny's catch phrases: "What's up, doc?". (There is in fact a
cartoon where Bugs actually says "What's up, duck?" to Daffy Duck...)
- [p. 147/123] "'Rev Counter for Use in Ecclesiastical Areas'"
'Rev' is short for both 'Reverend' and for 'revolutions'. On the one hand
it stands to reason that in Ecclesiastical areas you'll find lots of
clergymen, which you may want to count. On the other hand the Biblical
book of Ecclesiastes contains the words used by the Byrds in their song
'Turn! Turn! Turn!', so perhaps Riktor's counter was indeed intended to
count actual revolutions after all.
- [p. 149/124] "'Go, Sow, Thank You Doe.'"
The usual slang for a one-night stand or a quickie at the local brothel
is "Wham, Bam, thank you, Ma'am."
- [p. 151/126] "'A rock on the head may be quite sentimental, [...], but
diamonds are a girl's best friend.'"
In the 1949 movie _Gentlemen Prefer Blondes_, Marilyn Monroe sings:
"A kiss on the hand may be quite continental
But diamonds are a girl's best friend"
- [p. 154/129] "'What's it called?' 'Laddie,' said the handler."
Laddie is the Discworld counterpart to our world's famous movie collie,
Lassie.
In the movie _Son of Lassie_ the protagonist was in fact called Laddie,
but was played by Pal, the dog who had previously played Lassie in the
original movie _Lassie Come Home_. Interestingly enough, Pal had a
real-life son who *was* called Laddie, but this Laddie was only used for
stunt and distance shots since he wasn't as pretty as his brother, who
eventually got to play Lassie in the CBS TV show, and who was the only
dog ever in the role to actually be called Lassie, or rather, Lassie Jr.
Lassie was always played by a male dog, mainly because a bitch tends to
go into heat, during which time she becomes unphotogenic because of
severe shedding. It also gets bothersome to have to deal with the
constant disruptions on the set caused by various male dogs in the area
wanting to, um, propose to her.
Finally, two odd little coincidences. First, the _Lassie_ dogs often had
small dogs as companions. Second, Pal/Lassie's trainer was a man by the
name of Rudd Weatherwax...
- [p. 158/132] Film studio names.
Untied Alchemists is United Artists. Fir Wood Studios is Pinewood
Studios. Microlithic Pictures is Paramount (tiny rock vs. big mountain),
and Century Of The Fruitbat is Twentieth Century Fox. Terry says: "I've
already gone electronically hoarse explaining that Floating Bladder
Productions was just picked out of the air [...]"
- [p. 159/132] "'[...] we're doing one about going to see a wizard.
Something about following a yellow sick toad,' [...]"
That's a yellow brick road, and the reference is of course to _The Wizard
of Oz_.
Terry's pun also reminded a correspondent of an old joke about an Oz frog
with a bright yellow penis who hops up to a man and says: "I'm looking
for the wizard to help me with my 'problem'." The man answers: "No
problem, just follow this road until you get to the emerald city." The
frog thanks him and hops off along the road. Shortly afterwards, Dorothy
and Toto come along and she also asks the man where she can find the
wizard, and then he says: "Just follow the yellow dick toad".
Well, *I* thought it was funny.
- [p. 165/137] "It was about a young ape who is abandoned in the big city
and grows up being able to speak the language of humans."
The Librarian's script is of course a reversal of Edgar Rice Burroughs'
_Tarzan_ story. Since Tarzan is supposed to be one of those five or so
cultural icons that are so truly universal that *everybody* in the world
is familiar with them, I expect this may well turn out to be the APF's
Most Unnecessary Annotation of all...
- [p. 172/143] "'It sounded like 'I want to be a lawn', I thought?'"
Ginger echoes movie star Greta Garbo's famous quote: "I want to be
alone".
Garbo later claimed, by the way, that what she had actually said at the
time was "I want to be *let* alone", which is of course not quite the
same thing at all...
- [p. 174/145] The _Necrotelicomnicom_.
On the Discworld the _Necrotelicomnicom_ (see also the entry for p.
111/109 of _Equal Rites_) was written by the Klatchian necromancer Achmed
the Mad (although he preferred to be called Achmed the I Just Get These
Headaches). In real life, horror author H. P. Lovecraft assures us that
the _Necronomicon_ was written by the mad Arab Abdul al-Hazred.
- [p. 178/148] "'It's fifteen hundred miles to Ankh-Morpork,' he said.
'We've got three hundred and sixty elephants, fifty carts of forage, the
monsoon's about to break and we're wearing... we're wearing... sort of
things, like glass, only dark... dark glass things on our eyes...'"
Paraphrases a well-known quote from the _Blues Brothers_ movie, fifteen
minutes before the end, just as the famous chase scene is about to begin
and Jake and Elwood are sitting in their car:
Elwood: "It's a hundred and six miles to Chicago, we've got a full
tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and
we're wearing sunglasses"
Jake: "Hit it."
- [p. 197/164] "'In a word -- im-possible!' 'That's two words,' said
Dibbler."
Another Goldwynism: "I can tell you in two words: im-possible."
- [p. 206/171] "'If you cut me, do I not bleed?'" said Rock.
Paraphrased from Shylock's famous monologue in Shakespeare's _The
Merchant of Venice_, act 3, scene 1: "If you prick us, do we not bleed?"
- [p. 221/184] "'Just one picture had all that effect?'"
Dibbler and Gaffer don't put a name to it, but they are discussing the
theory of subliminal messages here. It's one of those theories that
somehow manages to sound so 'right' you just *want* it to be true.
Studies have been done, however, but none has ever shown tricks like
subliminal advertising to actually have any measurable effect on an
audience.
- [p. 223/186] "'It always starts off with this mountain --'"
Ginger's dream describes the characteristic 'logo' scenes of all the
major movie companies. The mountain is from Paramount ("there are stars
around it"), and after that we get Columbia ("a woman holding a torch
over her head"), 20th Century Fox ("a lot of lights"), and MGM ("this
roar, like a lion or tiger").
- [p. 229/191] "'And Howondaland Smith, Balgrog Hunter, practic'ly eats the
dark for his tea,' said Gaspode."
Smith's name is derived from Indiana Jones, and for the explanation about
'Balgrog' see the annotation for p. 75/62.
'Howondaland' also brings to mind Gondwanaland, a name for the southern
continents mashed together by continental drift.
- [p. 245/204] "'You find nice place to indulge in bit of 'What is the
health of your parent?' [...]'"
"How's your father" is a British euphemism for "sexual intercourse", made
popular by the _Carry On_ series of films.
- [p. 282/235] "Twopence more and up goes the donkey!"
Terry explains: "[...] In _Moving Pictures_ and _Reaper Man_ a lot of use
is indeed made of, god help me, Victorian street sayings that were the
equivalent of 'sez you'. "Tuppence more and up goes the donkey", a
favourite saying of Windle Poons, comes from the parties of strolling
acrobats who'd carry their props on a donkey. They'd make a human pyramid
and collectors would go around with the hat declaring that "tuppence more
and up goes the donkey" as well. But the donkey never got elevated
because, of course, the collectors always needed "tuppence more"."
"It belongs in the same general category of promise as 'Free Beer
Tomorrow'."
- [p. 297/249] The climactic scene of the novel is not only a _King Kong_
reversal spoof. Terry says the 50 ft. woman also refers to the
protagonist from the 1958 movie _Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman_ (recently
and redundantly remade with Daryl Hannah in the title role -- if there's
one movie that did not need to be remade it was this one, trust me).
- [p. 304/254] "'If it bleeds, we can kill it!'"
This line is from the 1987 movie _Predator_, starring Arnold
Schwarzenegger. 'It' in this case was a green-blooded, invisible alien
hunter.
- [p. 305/255] "YOU BELONG DEAD, he said."
This is based on Boris Karloff's final words in the 1935 movie _Bride of
Frankenstein_: "We belong dead".
- [p. 305/255] "'Careful,' said the Dean. 'That is not dead which can
eternal lie.'"
This is from a famous H. P. Lovecraft quote (which was also used by metal
groups Iron Maiden (on the _Live After Death_ album cover) and Metallica
(in the song 'The Thing That Should Not Be')):
"That is not dead which can eternal lie
And with strange aeons even death may die"
It is supposed to be a quote from Abdul al-Hazred's _Necronomicon_ (see
annotation for p. 174/145), and Lovecraft uses the verse in several
stories, particularly in _The Call of Cthulhu_ and _The Nameless City_.
In reality, I'm told the quote originated with the Victorian decadent
poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, but I have no definite reference on
this.
- [p. 306/256] "''Twas beauty killed the beast,' said the Dean, who liked
to say things like that."
Last line of _King Kong_, said under similar circumstances.
- [p. 310/259] "[...] everyone has this way of remembering even things that
happened to their ancestors, I mean, it's like there's this great big
pool of memory and we're linked up to it [...]"
This is Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious.
- [p. 312/261] "'A fine mess you got me into.'"
See the annotation for p. 73/65 of _The Colour of Magic_.
- [p. 319/266] Detritus hitting the gong in the underground theatre refers
to the Rank Organisation's man-with-the-gong trademark, which Rank used
at the start of each film just as Columbia used the Statue of Liberty and
MGM the roaring lion.
- [p. 323/270] "'Play it again, Sham,' said Holy Wood."
The most famous line never uttered in _Casablanca_: "Play it again, Sam."
It should perhaps be pointed out that Sham Harga is a character we
already met in _Mort_. Terry did *not* just create him in order to be
able to make this pun.
- [p. 324/271] "'And that includes you, Dozy!'"
One of the dwarfs in Disney's _Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs_ was
called Sleepy, another was called Dopey.
- [p. 327/274] "'Cheer up,' she said. 'Tomorrow is another day.'"
The final line of _Gone with the Wind_.
- [p. 329/276] "'Uselessium, more like,' murmured Silverfish."
The paragraph where this quote occurs of course describes how Silverfish
discovers the Discworld equivalent of Uranium. In this light, it may be
interesting to recall that before he became a full-time writer Terry
Pratchett worked as press officer for nuclear power stations.
- As far as the giant statue is concerned (and the running gag about it
reminding everyone of their uncle Oswald or Osric etc.): the nickname
'Oscar' for the Academy Awards statuette apparently originated with the
Academy Librarian (oook!), who remarked that the statue looked like her
uncle Oscar. The nickname first appeared in print in a 1934 column by
Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky, and quickly became a household word.
REAPER MAN
- [title] _Reaper Man_
The title _Reaper Man_ parodies Alex Cox's 1984 cult movie _Repo Man_.
More accurately, _Repo Man_ itself is a pun on 'reaper man', a very
ancient name for Death (compare also e.g. 'the grim reaper'). But
apparently Terry has said elsewhere (i.e. not on the net), that his
'Reaper Man' was indeed meant as a pun on the movie-title (much to the
chagrin of his publishers, who would have probably preferred it if he had
called it _Mort II_).
- The 'Bill Door' sections of this novel have many parallels with classic
Westerns, e.g. _High Plains Drifter_.
- If you liked the idea of the trolley life-form, you may also want to
check out a short story by Avram Davidson called _Or All The Sea With
Oysters_. It's all about the life cycle of bicycles and their larval
stages: paperclips and coat hangers.
- [p. 5/7] "It is danced under blue skies to celebrate the quickening of
the soil..."
Whatever the original idea behind Morris dancing was, it long ago indeed
became associated with Spring ("As fit as [...] a morris for May Day" --
Shakespeare), and nowadays many Morris teams begin their dancing season
with a May Day performance. See the _...and Dance_ section of Chapter 5
for more on Morris dancing.
- [p. 5/7] "It is danced innocently by raggedy-bearded young mathematicians
[...]"
The Morris used to be a peasants' dance, but these days Morris dancers
often are, for some reason, scientists, mathematicians, or (ook!)
librarians.
- [p. 7/9] Azrael is not a reference to Gargamel's cat in the Smurf
cartoons. Rather, both Azraels are references to the Islamic Angel of
Death, supposedly the very last creature to die, ever.
In the actual legend, Azrael is bound in chains thousands of miles long,
and possesses millions of eyes: one for every person that has ever lived
or will ever live. When a person dies, the eye in question closes
forever, and when Azrael goes blind it will be the end of the human race.
- [p. 13/14] "The front gates of Nos 31, 7 and 34 Elm Street, Ankh
Morpork."
Minor inconsistency: we are told the conversation between the pines lasts
seventeen years, so when the old one finally gets chopped down, its age
should have been 31751 years, not still 31734.
- [p. 15/16] "The pendulum is a blade that would have made Edgar Allan Poe
give it all up and start again as a stand-up comedian [...]"
Refers to Poe's famous story _The Pit and the Pendulum_ in which a victim
of the inquisition is tied up beneath a giant descending, sweeping,
razor-sharp pendulum.
If you have access to the Internet, you can find an online version of
this story at the URL:
<ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/literary/obi/Edgar.Allan.Poe/The.Pit.And.The.Pendulum.Z>
- [p. 25/24] "'What I could do with right now is one of Mr Dibbler's famous
meat pies --' And then he died."
The attributed last words of William Pitt the younger were: "I think I
could eat one of Bellamy's veal pies."
- [p. 31/30] "'Did you see his eyes? Like gimlets!' [...] 'You mean like
that Dwarf who runs the delicatessen on Cable Street?'"
A Gimlet Eye is a piercing stare or squint. See also the annotation for
p. 35/27 of _Soul Music_.
- [p. 32/30] "'Anyway, you can't trust those voodoo gods. Never trust a god
who grins all the time and wears a top hat, that's my motto.'"
This god is Baron Samedi (or Saturday), the most important (and
best-known) voodoo god or loa. He is the God of the Dead, and is
traditionally associated with cross-roads.
For more information about Baron Samedi you should, of course, read
_Witches Abroad_ (see also the annotation for p. 179/157 of that book).
- [p. 37/35] "'Yes, but they drink blood,' said the Senior Wrangler."
I suppose most people will know that a wrangler is somebody who rounds up
cattle or horses, but it may be less common knowledge that a 'Senior
Wrangler' is in fact the title given to the top 12 maths graduates at
Cambridge University. In maths, those who get firsts are called
Wranglers, seconds are senior optimes, and thirds are junior optimes.
- [p. 58/53] "'Celery,' said the Bursar."
A few correspondents thought that the Bursar's particular choice of
vegetable might have been motivated by an old episode of the _Goon Show_,
where a sketch goes in part:
Sheriff of Nottingham: "What? Tie him to a stake?"
Bluebottle: "No, do not tie me to a stake" (pause) "I'm a vegetarian!"
Prince John: "Then tie him to a stick of celery."
- [p. 60/55] The address of the Fresh Start Club: _668 Elm Street_.
Connects a reference to the _Nightmare on Elm Street_ series of horror
movies with the tentative title for a _Good Omens_ sequel: _668 -- The
Neighbour of the Beast_ (see the _Good Omens_ annotation on that
subject).
- [p. 66/60] Ridcully's uncle disappeared under mysterious circumstances
after eating a charcoal biscuit on top of a meal spiced up by half a pint
of Wow-Wow Sauce.
The circumstances may become less mysterious once you realise that
charcoal, sulphur and saltpetre are the basic ingredients of gunpowder.
Also, there actually exists a condiment called Wow-Wow Sauce, which was
popular during the 1800s. More information can be found in the _Discworld
Companion_.
- [p. 72/65] "Many songs have been written about the bustling metropolis,
[...]"
Ok, let's see.
'Ankh-Morpork! Ankh-Morpork! So good they named it Ankh-Morpork!' comes
from 'New York, New York' (see also the annotation for p. 142/130 of
_Johnny and the Dead_), 'Carry Me Away From Old Ankh-Morpork' is 'Carry
Me Back To Old Virginia', and 'Ankh-Morpork Malady' may be 'Broadway
melody'.
'I Fear I'm Going Back to Ankh-Morpork' has not been traced to a
particular song title, but general opinion holds that it is a spoof of
the Bee Gees song 'Massachussets', which starts out "Feel I'm goin' back
to Massachussetts".
- [p. 76/69] "'Did it take long to get it looking like that?' 'About five
hundred years, I think.'"
Or, as Terry explains more poignantly in a _Sourcery_ footnote (on p.
21/22): "You mows it and you rolls it for five hundred years and then a
bunch of bastards walks across it."
A few people thought these might have been references to a scene in one
of the Asterix comics, but this is another case of two authors both using
the same, older source.
As Terry explains: "The lawns line was I believe a comment made by a
University gardener to an American tourist years and years ago; it turns
up from time to time."
- [p. 77/69] "'Isn't that one off Treacle Mine Road?'"
And on p. 176/155 we learn that One-Man-Bucket was run over by a cart on
Treacle Street. Treacle is another word for molasses, and most people
will be familiar with the concept of "a hole in the ground from which you
get molasses" through _Alice in Wonderland_'s Mad Tea Party.
Terry jokes: "Treacle mining is a lost British tradition. There used to
be treacle mines in Bisham (near Marlow, on the Thames) and in several
northern towns, I believe. But the natural treacle was too sharp and
coarse for modern tastes and the industry was finally killed off by the
bulk import of cheap white sugar in the last century."
"I know the Bisham treacle was very crudely melted into moulds and sold
in slabs. Shops used to smash the slabs up and sell the solid treacle as
sweets. It's quite a different stuff to the crude 'golden syrup' treacle
still occasionally sold."
- [p. 80/72] "'A couple of'em had a bit of a tiff or something? Messing
around with golden apples or something?'"
In Greek mythology it was a golden apple that indirectly led to the
Trojan war and to the accompanying complete division of the divine
pantheon into two opposing camps.
- [p. 88/79] "[...] honorary vestigial virgining [..]"
Pun on the Vestal virgins (priestesses of the goddess Vesta) in ancient
Rome. 'Vestigial' of course means "remaining or surviving in a degenerate
or imperfect condition or form".
- [p. 97/87] "Who is he going to call! *We're* the wizards around here."
A reference to the catchphrase "Who ya gonna call?!" from the movie
_Ghostbusters_.
- [p. 98/88] "Mr so-called Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents!'"
Send-up of the folk-story _The Pied Piper of Hamelin_.
If you have access to the Internet, you can find an online version of
this fairy tale at the URL:
<ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/literary/obi/Fairy.Tales/Grimm/pied.piper.of.hamelin.txt.Z>
- [p. 100/89] "'[...] it puts a bloody RSVP on it!' 'Oh Good. I like
sherry,' said the Bursar."
VSOP is a type of brandy, not sherry. RSVP, of course, stands for
"Respondez s'il vous plait" -- i.e. please reply [to this invitation].
- [p. 105/94] "'Don't stand in the doorway, friend. Don't block up the
hall.'"
This is an almost verbatim line from Bob Dylan's 'The Times They Are A
Changin'.
- [p. 105/94] "Or sporting a Glad To Be Grey badge"
'Glad To Be Gay' was the well-known slogan of the Gay Liberation
movement, a decade or so ago (as well as the title of an excellent Tom
Robinson song). In the late 80s, 'Glad To Be Grey' badges were actually
commercially available.
- [p. 106/95] The names of the Fresh Start Club members.
Count Notfaroutoe refers to Count Nosferatu, the vampire from Friedrich
Murnau's classic 1922 movie _Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens_
(remade in 1979 by Werner Herzog, starring Klaus Kinski). 'Lupus' is
Latin for wolf, so 'Lupine' means 'wolfish', similar to e.g. 'feline'.
Finally, there exists a mineral called ixiolite. Note, by the way, that
banshees are traditionally supposed to be female creatures.
When someone on a.f.p. asked if Reg Shoe was based on Reg, the leader of
the Judean Peoples' Front in Monty Python's _Life of Brian_, Terry
answered:
"No. Not consciously, anyway.
As with other 'real world' Discworld names, like Susan, Victor, Albert,
etc, I picked the name because of... er... associational harmonics.
Albert is an 'old' name. Reg is a good working class name and has a
post-war feel to it. It's hard to explain it further, but all popular
names carry a burden of associations. The best examples in the last
decade have been Sharon and Tracy; whatever the *truth*, the perception
is that these are working-class, Essex bimbo names, although twenty or
thirty years ago they'd have been considered glamorous (which is why, the
myth runs, the kids got given them). Any Brit would probably associate a
type or age with names like, say, Victoria, Emma, Kylie, Sid, Wayne and
Darron. Reg is a good name for a dependable guy, the sort who runs the
skittles league (I know this, 'cos my Uncle Reg did...)"
- [p. 108/97] "Every full moon I turn into a wolfman. The rest of the time
I'm just a ... wolf."
This interesting twist on the age-old werewolf idea has been thought of
and used by others a few times before. I'd particularly recommend 'What
Good is a Glass Dagger', an excellent short story by Larry Niven. (I
realise that merely by mentioning it here I may have spoilt it for you,
but I think the story is still very enjoyable, regardless).
- [p. 113/100] "'[...] songs like 'The Streets of Ankh-Morpork' [...]'"
Refers to the classic Ralph McTell song 'The Streets of London'. An
impressive set of lyrics for 'The Streets of Ankh-Morpork' can be found
on the Pratchett Archives.
- [p. 135/120] "I EXPECT, he said, THAT YOU COULD MURDER A PIECE OF
CHEESE?"
Echoes p. 24/21 of _Mort_, where Death says to Mort: "I DON'T KNOW ABOUT
YOU, BUT I COULD MURDER A CURRY".
- [p. 146/129] "LAST YEAR SOMEONE GOT THREE STREETS AND ALL THE UTILITIES."
The game 'Exclusive Possessions' is of course the Discworld equivalent of
Monopoly.
+ [p. 149/132] "On the fabled hidden continent of Xxxx, somewhere near the
rim, there is a lost colony of wizards who wear corks around their pointy
hats and live on nothing but prawns."
The continent referred to in this quote is Australia (which means that we
are talking here about the Wizards of Oz, right?), where there exists a
brand of beer called 'XXXX' (pronounced 'Four Ex'), produced by the
Castlemaine Tooheys brewery. A New Zealand correspondent tells me that
the reason the beer is called 'XXXX' is that if it had been called 'BEER'
the Australians wouldn't have been able to spell it. Ahem.
(The actual origin of the name 'XXXX' lies in the number of marks used by
Castlemaine to indicate alcoholic strength. Most European beers today are
of 4X strength, with some being 3X or even 5X.)
The corks around the pointy hats refer to the supposedly traditional
headwear of Australian Swagmen: Akubra hats with pieces of cork dangling
on strings around the wide rim in order to keep the flies off the
wearer's face. Needless to say, you can live a lifetime in Australia and
never get to actually see somebody who looks like this. Monty Python's
'Philosophers' sketch is a good send-up of the stereotype.
Since then, the stereotype has been reinforced by a series of Australian
Tourism Commission ads promoting Australia in America and Britain on
1980s television, which featured Paul 'Crocodile Dundee' Hogan saying
something along the lines of: "Come on down here, and we'll throw another
shrimp on the barbie for you" ('barbie' = barbecue).
At the risk of boring you all to death with this, I must admit that I am
curious as to the exact wording of that Hogan ad. I have received
extraordinary amounts of mail about this annotation, and so far there
have been seven different phrases mentioned, namely:
-- toss another shrimp on the barbie for you
-- throw another shrimp on the barbie
-- chuck another prawn on the barbie
-- slap a prawn on the barbie for you
-- shove a couple more prawns on the barbie
-- pop another prawn on the barbie for you
-- put another prawn on the barbie for you
So, can anybody tell me (a) whether the ad said 'shrimp' or 'prawn', (b)
whether the "for you" was actually part of the sentence or not, and ©
whether these poor animals were in fact tossed, thrown, chucked, slapped,
shoved, popped, or simply put on the barbie?
Finally, an Australian correspondent tells me that "Don't come the raw
prawn with me, sport" is a local saying having a meaning somewhere in
between "Pull the other one, it's got bells on" and "Don't give me that
crap". Use this information at your own peril.
Annotation update: Some time after the above annotation appeared in APF
7.0 I received e-mail from a correspondent who had actually managed to
obtain a compilation video from the Australian Tourist Commission,
containing all the ads Paul Hogan did for them in the 1984-89 period.
Among those was, indeed, one he did for the internationally targeted
campaign, at the end of which he clinches his spiel by saying:
"C'mon. Come and say g'day. I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie
for ya."
I find it highly ironic that the actual mystery verb turns out to be one
that was not mentioned by *any* of my previous correspondents...
- [p. 154/136] "'I don't hold with all that stuff with cards and trumpets
and Oo-jar boards, mind you.'"
An Ouija board is a well-known means of communicating with the dead. It's
a board with letters and symbols on it, and the spirits supposedly move a
glass over it and spell out messages. The name 'Ouija' derives from 'oui'
and 'ja', two words meaning 'yes', one of the symbols on the board.
- [p. 151/133] "'Everyone thought you were to do with taxes.' NO. NOT
TAXES."
As Benjamin Franklin once wrote: In this world nothing can be said to be
certain, except death and taxes.
- [p. 156/138] "[...] especially if they *do* let the younger wizards build
whatever that blasted thing is they keep wanting to build in the squash
court."
This is a reference to the fact that the first nuclear reactor, built by
Enrico Fermi, was indeed erected under a squash court.
Irrelevant, but interesting, is that for a long time Russian physicists,
misled by a poor translation, believed that Fermi's work was done in a
'pumpkin field'.
- [p. 168/147] "'Ah... many a slip 'twixt dress and drawers,' said Duke."
See the annotation for p. 189/188 of _Wyrd Sisters_.
- [p. 175/153] "Behind him, the kettle boiled over and put the fire out.
Simnel fought his way through the steam."
The joke here is that Ned Simnel is trying to think of a new, better way
to power his Combination Harvester, when he is interrupted by the
"pointless distraction" of his kettle boiling over. This refers to our
world's anecdote about James Watt, who supposedly got his idea for
improving the steam engine when he watched the condensing steam from a
kettle on the boil.
(Note that contrary to popular belief, Watt *didn't* invent the steam
engine itself: what he did was have revolutionary new ideas (e.g. the use
of a condenser) on how to make the steam engine really (cost-)efficient,
practical and portable.)
For more information on steam engines, see also the annotation for p.
259/186 of _Small Gods_.
- [p. 178/157] "Mustrum Ridcully trotted into his study and took his
wizard's staff from its rack over the fireplace. He licked his finger and
gingerly touched the top of his staff."
Gary Cooper does this a few times in the 1941 movie _Sergeant York_.
According to my source, Cooper's explanation in the movie was "It cuts
down the haze a mite" -- or something along those lines.
- [p. 182/160] "'It's from the Dungeon Dimensions!' said the Dean. 'Cream
the basket!'"
Basket is a British euphemism for bastard. In this case it of course also
applies to the shopping trolley (or basket).
- [p. 187/164] "'No, Not "with milk"', said Windle."
See the annotation for p. 277/243.
- [p. 192/168] The harvesting battle between Death and the Combined
Harvester has echoes of various similar contests in American folklore.
There is for instance the story of the legendary American lumberjack Paul
Bunyan and the Lumber Machine. According to that legend (as told in the
Disney cartoon, ahem), Paul realised, after a magnificent battle at the
end of which the Machine had won by a quarter-inch more timber, that the
age of the great lumberjacks was over, and he wandered off with his steed
Babe the Blue Ox, never to be seen again.
There's also the much older American folk song 'John Henry', which
describes a similar contest in which John Henry beats the new
steam-driven pile-driver (he was a railway builder, and drove in the
spikes that held the rails down), but dies of the effort.
- [p. 201/176] "Stripfettle's Believe-It-Or-Not Grimoire"
Ripley's _Believe It Or Not!_ was more or less the forerunner of today's
tabloids of the '500 pound baby' variety. However, his items were
supposedly true and he had a standing offer to provide notarised proof if
you didn't believe him. Typical items included potatoes that looked like
President Eisenhower, dogs that could hold a dozen tennis balls in their
mouths, and a fireplace that cast a shadow that looked like the profile
of the owner of the house, but would only cast the shadow at the exact
time of the owner's death.
- [p. 204/179] "Remember -- wild, uncontrolled bursts..."
From the movie _Aliens_: "Remember -- short, controlled bursts...". This
entire section is filled with action-movie references ('Yo!'), but
_Alien_/_Aliens_ seems to have been a particularly fruitful source. Many
quotes and events have direct counterparts: "Yeah, but secreted from
what?", "No one touch *anything*", "It's coming from *everywhere*!", and
"We are *going*" are only a few examples, and of course there is the
matter of the Queen...
- [p. 217/191] "The raven cleared its throat. Reg Shoe spun around. 'You
say one word,' he said, 'just one bloody *word*...'"
Edgar Allen Poe rears his head once more in a reference to his famous
poem, _The Raven_, which is all about death, doom and gloom. In the poem,
the ominous raven in question constantly repeats just a single word:
_Nevermore_.
- [p. 233/204] "Windle snapped his fingers in front of the Dean's pale
eyes. There was no response. 'He's not dead,' said Reg. 'Just resting,'
said Windle."
Just two words: Parrot Sketch.
- [p. 234/204] "'I used to know a golem looked like him, [...] You just
have to write a special holy word on 'em to start 'em up.'"
For those needing a refresher course in Jewish magic, a golem is indeed a
clay automaton. The special holy word is either the name of God, or the
Hebrew word for truth, 'emet' (aleph-mem-tav). To turn the golem off, you
erase the name, or, if you used 'emet', the initial aleph, which changes
the word to 'met' (mem-tav), meaning dead.
- [p. 235/206] "'Artor! Nobblyesse obligay!'"
From the phrase _noblesse oblige_, meaning "rank imposes certain
obligations".
- [p. 246/215] "'Bonsai!'"
A typical Pratchettian mix-up of two different things: 'Banzai!' is the
Japanese war cry shouted by kamikaze pilots as they performed their
suicide runs. It means 'ten thousand years', and was originally an
honorary greeting used in front of the Emperor, whom the kamikazes were,
of course, dying for.
'Bonsai' is the art of growing tiny potted trees shaped and stunted into
very particular growth patterns.
- [p. 246/215] "'Like... small trees. Bush-i-do. Yeah.'"
'Bushido' means "the way of the warrior", and is pronounced bu-shi-do.
- [p. 247/216] "Occasionally people would climb the mountain and add a
stone or two to the cairn at the top, [...]"
My correspondents tell me that there are many such mountains to be found
around the world. In Ireland there is one specific mountain called Maeves
Grave. On the top of it is a heap of stones which is believed to be the
grave of the evil Celtic Queen Maeve. To prevent her from ever leaving
the grave, each visitor to the mountain is supposed to pick up a stone,
and carry it up the hill and put it on the grave.
- [p. 258/226] "'I'm just going out,' he said. 'I may be some time.'"
A quote that Terry uses again in another, similar situation. See the
annotation for p. 236/170 of _Small Gods_.
- [p. 259/226] The idea of a were-man and were-woman who fall in love, but
whose animal and human phases are out of sync with respect to each other
was the main plot element in the 1985 fantasy movie _Ladyhawke_, starring
Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer.
- [p. 264/230] "Azrael, the Great Attractor, the Death of Universes, [...]"
In previous editions of the APF, I said that the Great Attractor was part
of an astronomical theory that had been discredited some time ago. It
turns out that this is far from the truth.
Basically, astronomers have discovered that there are large regions of
the cosmos being held back from the smooth overall expansion (or Hubble
flow) as dictated by the Big Bang/Expanding Universe theory.
The culprit would seem to be something or some things within a vast
clumping of galaxies that appears to be causing an acceleration of all
the surrounding galaxies in its direction. In an offhand comment during a
press conference, Alan Dressler referred to this galactic pileup as the
'Great Attractor', and the name immediately stuck.
Although the theory was not universally accepted by all scientists, I
understand the evidence for it has held up well, and in fact I saw a
recent newspaper article claiming that the Great Attractor had actually
been identifier by a group of international astronomers as the cluster
Abel 3627.
- [p. 264/231] "LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF
THE REAPER MAN?"
Some folks thought that this line sounded familiar and wondered if it was
a quote, but Terry has assured us that he made this one up all by
himself.
- [p. 265/232] "*YES*"
In the hardcover edition of _Reaper Man_, this super-large word appears
on a left page, so that it takes the reader by surprise as she turns the
page. In the paperback edition this is not the case, thus spoiling the
effect entirely.
When questioned about this, Terry said: "Do you really think I'm some
kind of dumbo to miss that kind of opportunity? I wrote 400 extra words
to get it on a left-hand page in the hardcover -- then Corgi shuffled
people in the production department when it was going through and my
careful instructions disappeared into a black hole. Go on... tell me more
about comic timing..."
The American paperback edition, by the way, also gets it right.
- [p. 267/235] "To deliver a box of chocolates like this, dark strangers
drop from chairlifts and abseil down buildings."
A reference to a UK TV commercial for 'Milk Tray' chocolates, in which a
James Bond-like figure does death-defying stunts, only to leave a box of
chocolates in some place where a woman finds them at the end of the ad.
- [p. 267/235] "'DARK ENCHANTMENTS', he said."
A reference to a brand of chocolates called 'Black Magic'.
- [p. 270/237] "'Chap with a whip got as far as the big sharp spikes last
week,' said the low priest."
Refers to the _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ movies, in which Indiana Jones
(with trademark whip) always steals stuff from sacred temples loaded with
spikes, big rolling balls, and nasty insects.
- [p. 271/238] "The priests heard the chink of a very large diamond being
lifted out of its socket."
This is the sequence where Death enters the Lost Jewelled Temple of Doom
of Offler the Crocodile God and purloins the massive diamond called the
Tear of Offler from the statue therein.
On p. 109/109 of the _The Light Fantastic_, however, Twoflower tells
Bethan the story of Cohen the Barbarian stealing this very same sacred
diamond.
There are ways around this inconsistency, of course. The most reasonable
one seems to me the fact that there is no reason why we have to assume
that all the stories told about Cohen are necessarily true.
- [p. 275/242] "'Let's see ... something like 'Corn be ripe, nuts be brown,
petticoats up ...' something.'"
This is a paraphrase or alternate version of an existing "ould Sussex
Folk Song", quoted in Spike Milligan's autobiography _Adolf Hitler: My
Part in his Downfall_ as follows:
"Apples be ripe, nuts be brown,
Petticoats up, trousers down."
- [p. 275/242] "'I take it you *do* dance, Mr Bill Door?' FAMED FOR IT,
MISS FLITWORTH."
Dancing with death is of course a metaphor as familiar as playing a game
of chess or Exclusive Possessions with Death.
- [p. 276/242] "[...] 'Do-si-do!' [...]"
A dosi-do is a square dance figure in which two dancers start facing each
other, then circle round each other, passing back to back.
- [p. 277/243] "'I know this one! It's the Quirmish bullfight dance!
Oh-lay!' 'WITH MILK'?"
_Oh-lay!_, a phonetic version of the Spanish cry _Ole!_, sounds also the
same as the pronunciation of the French phrase "au lait" which means
"with milk", as in e.g. 'cafe au lait'.
- [p. 280/246] "One yodel out of place would attract, not the jolly echo of
a lonely goatherd, but fifty tons of express-delivery snow."
A reference to the puppet sequence in _The Sound of Music_, a song in
which both yodelling and lonely goatherds are featured.
- [p. 280/246] "'And who was that masked man?' They both looked around.
There was no one there."
Refers to the Lone Ranger.
- [p. 282/248] "'Just me, your lordship,' said the watchman cheerfully.
'Turning up like a bad copper.'"
'Copper' is a British colloquialism for policemen (see also the
annotation for p. 185/140 of _Men at Arms_), but 'copper' is also a
somewhat archaic synonym for 'penny', which gives the link to the saying:
"turning up like a bad penny".
Hence also the old joke: 'What do you call a policeman's night shift
pay?' 'Copper nitrate'.
- [p. 283/249] "'You know,' said Windle, 'it's a wonderful afterlife.'"
_It's A Wonderful Life_ is the title of Frank Capra's classic 1946 movie
about a special kind of undead (or rather: unliving) man.
- [p. 284/250] "WINDLE POONS? 'Yes?' THAT WAS YOUR LIFE."
Reference to the TV show _This Is Your Life_, where a noted celebrity is
surprised and (hopefully) embarrassed by having the high (and
occasionally low) points of his/her life recounted by friends and
acquaintances during a half hour programme.
WITCHES ABROAD
- [p. 7/7] "'Hurrah, I've discovered Boyle's Third Law.'"
Sinking to the ultimate depths of trivial annotating, I suppose I should
point out here, if only for completeness' sake, that (a) there is only
one single 'Boyle's law', which (b) says that if temperature is kept
constant, the volume and pressure of a gas are inversely related.
- [p. 7/7] "Like finding that bloody butterfly whose flapping wings cause
all these storms we've been having lately [...]"
Rather literal interpretation of one of the most often-cited examples of
Chaos theory, called the Butterfly effect: a butterfly flapping its wings
can cause a storm because in Chaos theory results are not proportional to
causes.
- [p. 9/9] The three urban legends Terry mentions briefly in the footnote
are all quite well-known, and can be found in any decent collection of
such stories, but just in case not everyone is familiar with them:
The first story is about a family whose grandmother dies on vacation. In
order to avoid bureaucratic hassle they decide to strap her to the
roof-rack of the car, and cross the border back to their own country.
During a rest-room stop, somebody steals the car, grandmother and all.
The second story is that of the people who return home after a night out,
and find their dog choking to death in front of the door. They race him
to the vet, who discovers that the dog is choking on a human finger he
must have bitten off a burglar.
The third story is that of a man and woman having sex in the back seat of
a car, when some serious accident happens and they become trapped. In
order to free them from their predicament, the car has to be cut open
with a torch, after which the woman supposedly comments: "My husband will
be furious, it was *his* car".
Much more information about these and countless other urban legends can
be found in Jan Harold Brunvand's books. If you're on the net, you may
want to check out alt.folklore.urban.
- [p. 10/9] "She had called upon Mister Safe Way, Lady Bon Anna, Hotaloga
Andrews and Stride Wide Man."
Safeway is the name of a supermarket chain. Terry says: "I needed some
good names that sounded genuinely voodoo. Now, one of the names of one of
the classic gods is Carrefour. It's also the name of a supermarket chain
in my part of the world, and I used to grin every time I drove past.
Hence, by DW logic, Safeway. Bon Anna I'm pretty sure is a genuine voodoo
goddess. The other two are entirely made up but out of, er, the right
sort of verbal components."
- [p. 12/11] "Desiderata Hollow was making her will."
'Desiderata' literally means: "things missing and felt to be needed". It
is the name of a popular prose poem, written by Max Ehrman in 1927, full
of advice about life and how to deal with it.
DESIDERATA is copyrighted material, and can not be reproduced or sold
without permision. Any violation is the basis for legal action. Books
containing DESIDERATA are published by Crown Publishers, N.Y.C. and can
be obtained from Tim Tiley Ltd., Bristol. The author was Max Ehrmann.
Other permissions must be obtained from the owner of the copyright -
Robert L. Bell, 427 South Shore Drive, Sarasota, Florida, USA 34234.
- [p. 16/15] "'Wish *I* was going to Genua,' she said."
Terry writes: "This may or may not already be an annotation somewhere,
but Genua is a 'sort of' New Orleans with a 'sort of' Magic Kingdom
grafted on top of it.
It had its genesis some years ago when I drove from Orlando to New
Orleans and formed some opinions about both places: in one, you go there
and Fun is manufactured and presented to you, in the other you just eat
and drink a lot and fun happens."
- [p. 17/15] "'Mr Chert the troll down at the sawmill does a very good deal
on coffins [...]'"
This confirms the unwritten rule that says all Discworld trolls must have
mineral names: 'chert' is a dark-coloured, flintlike quartz.
- [p. 17/16] "Her name was Lady Lilith de Tempscire, [...]"
Tempscire is actually a French transliteration of Weatherwax.
- [p. 19/17] "[...] at least two of those present tonight were wearing
Granny Weatherwax's famous goose-grease-and-sage chest liniment."
In Victorian times, children's chests were often smeared with a large
helping of goose grease in order to keep out the cold.
Channel swimmers also used to use goose grease. Perhaps they still do...
- [p. 20/18] "'Tempers Fuggit. Means that was then and this is now,' said
Nanny."
Well -- almost. The actual Latin phrase is "tempus fugit": "time flies".
- [p. 27/24] "As Nanny Ogg would put it, when it's teatime in Genua it's
Tuesday over here..."
This refers to an old and very silly song by J. Kendis and Lew Brown,
which goes:
"When it's night-time in Italy, it's Wednesday over here.
Oh! the onions in Sicily make people cry in California.
Why does a fly? When does a bee?
How does a wasp sit down to have his tea?
If you talk to an Eskimo, his breath will freeze your ear.
When it's night-time in Italy, it's Wednesday over here."
- [p. 30/26] "'You can't get the wood,' she said."
This was Henry Crun's standard excuse for not actually building anything
he'd invented, on the _Goon Show_.
- [p. 33/29] "The author, Grand Master Lobsang Dibbler, had an address in
Ankh-Morpork."
This is yet another incarnation of Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, the Ankhian
entrepreneur we learn much more about in _Moving Pictures_, and who also
appears in _Small Gods_ as the Omnian businessman Dhblah.
Also, the name is a direct reference to Tuesday Lobsang Rampa, who was
one of our world's more successful psychic hoaxers: actually named Cyril
Hoskin, and son of a Devon plumber, Lobsang Rampa claimed to be a Tibetan
monk with paranormal powers. He wrote the best-selling 1956 book _The
Third Eye_ which, even though Rampa was exposed as a fraud by _Time_
Magazine in 1958, is still being printed and sold as the real thing 30
years later. Rich, gullible people like actress Shirley MacLaine still
pay money to have their 'third eye' opened up by contemporary Rampa
equivalents.
When questioned about the name, Terry answered: "I know all kindsa
Tibetan names... Kelsang, Jambel, Tsong, Tenzin, Tupten (drops Tibetan
reference book on foot)... but Lobsang is, thanks to Mr Rampa, probably
the best known."
- [p. 33/29] "There was a knock on the door. Magrat went and opened it.
'Hai?', she said."
Apart from being Magrat's ninja war cry, 'Hai?' also means 'Yes?' in
Japanese.
- [p. 38/34] "'Shut up. Anyway, she's non compost mental,' said Granny."
"Non compos mentis" is a Latin phrase meaning "not of sound mind".
- [p. 42/37] "'Anno Domini, I said.'"
Anno Domini of course means 'year of our Lord' (as in 1993 AD). It is
indeed used to denote old age, although this use is a fairly recent
literary invention, which was started by James Hilton in _Goodbye, Mr
Chips_ (1934).
- [p. 47/41] "No one ran up them wearing dirndls and singing. They were not
nice mountains."
Refers to the opening scene of _The Sound of Music_, where Julie Andrews
does just that: running up the mountains, and singing, and wearing
dirndls (if you want to know what a dirndl looks like, go see the movie).
- [p. 48/42] "The witches flew along a maze of twisty little canyons, all
alike."
This refers back to a legendary message that appeared in Crowther &
Woods' text adventure game _ADVENT_ (see also the annotation for p.
130/114 of _The Colour of Magic_): "You are in a maze of twisty little
passages, all alike."
Many games have included variants of this. It also appeared in _Zork_
("The second of the great early experiments in computer fantasy gaming",
as _The New Hacker's Dictionary_ describes it), and in the _Hitch Hiker's
Guide to the Galaxy_ game you appear in your own brain, in "a maze of
twisty synapses".
+ [p. 48/42] The section dealing with dwarfs (and in fact, almost
*everything* Terry writes about dwarfs) is a parody of Tolkien's dwarves.
In particular, compare the witches' musings on mine entries and invisible
runes to Tolkien's scenes outside Moria. Dwarf bread brings to mind
Tolkien's waybreads: cram and lembas. And as the witches leave the
dwarfs, they have an encounter with a wretched creature mumbling
something about his birthday...
- [p. 49/43] "[...] and spake thusly: 'Open up, you little sods!'"
In Tolkien's _The Lord of the Rings_ there is a famous scene outside the
dwarven mines of Moria, where invisible runes written on the door (and
revealed by the wizard Gandalf) give our heroes the clue as to how to get
the door to open, namely by saying the word 'friend'.
Personally, I like Nanny Ogg's way better.
- [p. 51/45] "[...] if more trolls stopped wearing suits and walking
upright, and went back to living under bridges [...]"
See the annotation for p. 193/140 of _Lords and Ladies_.
- [p. 52/45] "It's often said that eskimos have fifty words for snow. This
is not true."
In fact, the situation regarding eskimos and snow is pretty much the same
as the one Terry subsequently describes for dwarfs and rocks: eskimos
have a number of different words for different *kinds* of snow and ice,
but nothing out of the ordinary.
- [p. 58/51] "'[...] whenever I deals with dwarfs, the phrase 'Duck's Arse'
swims across my mind.'"
From the phrase "tight as a duck's arse", implying excessive meanness.
- [p. 61/53] "'I knows all about folk songs. Hah! You think you're
listenin' to a nice song about... about cuckoos and fiddlers and
nightingales and whatnot, and then it turns out to be about... about
something else entirely,' she added darkly."
Just as an example of the type of song Granny may have in mind, here are
a few verses of 'The Cuckoo's Nest':
"As I went a-walking one morning in May
I spied a pretty fair maid and unto her did say
For love I am inclined and I'll tell you of my mind
That my inclination lies in your cuckoo's nest.
Some like a girl who is pretty in the face
And some like a girl who is slender in the waist
Ah, but give me a girl who will wriggle and will twist
At the bottom of the belly lies the cuckoo's nest."
When this annotation led to a torrent of similar folk songs being
discussed on a.f.p., at one point Terry chimed in with: "My favourite was
something I think by a guy called Diz Disley back in the very early 70s.
From memory:
"As I walked out one May morning,
In the month of Februaryyy,
I saw a pretty serving maid a-comin'
out the dairy;
A handsome knight came ridin' by
I politely raised my cap and
They went behind the stable
and I never saw what happened.""
- [p. 62/54] "'Thank goodness witches float.'"
An obvious joke, but easily missed: refers to ducking suspected witches.
If they drowned, they were innocent.
- [p. 62/55] "The maiden, the mother and the... other one."
The "other one" is the crone. See also the annotation for p. 248/218.
- [p. 67/59] "'Der flabberghast,' muttered Nanny. 'What's that?' said
Magrat. 'It's foreign for bat.'"
Well no, it isn't, actually. The German word for bat is 'Fledermaus', as
in Johann Strauss' famous operette _Die Fledermaus_. 'Flabberghast' seems
to derive more from the plain English 'flabbergasted' (meaning:
astonished beyond belief). Similarly, 'die flabbergast' apparently was a
Mozart-spoofing sketch that Dudley Moore did in _Beyond The Fringe_.
- [p. 87/75] The names the witches are considering for themselves are puns
on existing airline companies or their acronyms. Nanny Ogg starts to say
_Virgin Airlines_, but is rudely interrupted by a gust of wind.
- [p. 88/77] "'I like stuff that tells you plain what it is, like...
well... Bubble and Squeak, or... or... 'Spotted Dick,' said Nanny
absently."
Americans might be amazed to learn that Bubble and Squeak, Spotted Dick,
and Toad-in-the-Hole (which is mentioned a few lines further down) are
all actually the names of existing British delicacies.
Nanny Ogg is correct in identifying Toad-in-the-Hole as a sausage
embedded in a sort of tart filled with pancake batter.
Bubble and Squeak is traditionally made on Boxing Day from Christmas
leftovers (potato, onion, cabbage and Brussels sprouts appear to be
favourite ingredients among alt.fan.pratchett readers, fried up together
in lard.
Spotted Dick is a suet-sponge pudding with currants or sultanas in it.
- [p. 89/78] "'Magrat says she will write a book called Travelling on One
Dollar a Day, and it's always the same dollar.'"
Refers to the famous traveller's guide originally titled _Europe on Five
Dollars a Day_. This is of course also extensively parodied in the _Hitch
Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ ("see the wonders of the universe for only
twenty Altairian dollars per day").
- [p. 91/79] "What does cojones mean?"
'Cojones' is Spanish for 'hen's eggs', colloquially used for 'balls'. The
whole 'Thing with the Bulls' section spoofs the annual bull running
festival of Pamplona in our world. Ernest Hemingway was very impressed
with this macho activity, and used the word 'cojones' to describe the
bravery displayed by the young men participating in the event.
- [p. 95/83] "''S called the Vieux River.' 'Yes?' 'Know what that means?'
'No.' 'The Old (Masculine) River,' said Nanny. 'Yes?' 'Words have sex in
foreign parts,' said Nanny hopefully."
The Mississippi River is often known as 'Old Man River', for instance in
the classic song from the 1936 Kern/Hammerstein musical _Show Boat_. Near
the mouth of the Mississippi lies New Orleans, on which Genua seems to be
largely based. And then there are the riverboats, with the gamblers...
- [p. 96/84] "[...] she wants to make it a Magic Kingdom, a Happy and
Peaseful place [...]"
The most famous part of the Walt Disney World theme park in Orlando,
Florida, is officially called the 'Magic Kingdom'.
- [p. 97/84] "[...] Samedi Nuit Mort, the last night of carnivale, [...]"
Samedi Nuit Mort = Saturday Night Dead, a reference to the television
comedy show _Saturday Night Live_.
- [p. 97/85] "'That means Fat Lunchtime,' said Nanny Ogg, international
linguist."
Actually, 'Mardi Gras' means Fat Tuesday. Nanny Ogg is confusing 'Mardi'
with 'Midi', which mean 'midday', i.e. lunchtime.
- [p. 114/99] "Even Magrat knew about Black Aliss."
In Terry Pratchett's universe Black Aliss is obviously the evil witch of
*all* fairy tales. The stories referred to here are _Sleeping Beauty_,
_Rumpelstiltskin_ and _Hansel And Gretel_, all of which are available as
on-line versions (see the annotation for p. 34/34 of _The Light
Fantastic_).
- [p. 122/107] "Are you the taxgatherers, dear?' 'No, ma'am, we're --' '--
fairies,' said Fairy Hedgehog quickly."
This is a _Blues Brothers_ reference: in the film, the dialogue goes:
"'Are you the police?' 'No, ma'am, we're musicians.'"
- [p. 134/117] "'[...] there's been other odd things happening in this
forest.'"
Magrat then goes on to describe more or less what happened in the fairy
tales of _Goldilocks and the Three Bears_ and _The Three Little Pigs_.
- [p. 134/118] "'[...] some ole enchantress in history who lived on an
island and turned shipwrecked sailors into pigs.'"
For once, Nanny Ogg *doesn't* mix up two or more real-world tales, but
gets the story (almost) right: Circe was the name of the sorceress from
the _Odyssey_ who lived on the island Aeaea, and turned Ulysses'
shipmates into pigs when they landed (but didn't shipwreck) there.
- [p. 136/119] "[...] around Defcon II in the lexicon of squabble."
In the jargon of American military planners, the DEFCON scale (for
_Defence Readiness Condition_) is used to describe the level of
preparedness of U.S. military forces. I quote from _The Language of
Nuclear War -- An Intelligent Citizen's Dictionary_ by H. Eric Semler,
James J. Benjamin, Jr., and Adam P. Gross:
"DEFCON 5 describes a state in which forces are at normal readiness,
while DEFCON 1, referred to as the "cocked pistol," indicates a state of
extreme emergency, when forces are poised for attack. Not all U.S.
military forces are simultaneously at the same DEFCON. The DEFCON varies
depending upon the type of weapon with which the troops are equipped and
the region in which they are deployed. For example, U.S. troops in South
Korea are always at DEFCON 4 but soldiers tending nuclear missiles
deployed in the continental U.S. are normally kept at DEFCON 5. During
the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy raised the DEFCON of
U.S. forces to DEFCON 2 (a status just below wartime conditions)."
- [p. 137/120] "'Oh? It's all wishing on stars and fairy dust, is it?'"
Fairly standard magic-related concepts, but perhaps it should be noted
that wishing on stars is done in Disney's _Pinocchio_, while fairy dust
features heavily in _Peter Pan_ (both the original play and the
subsequent Disney movie).
- [p. 137/120] "'[...] and no one doesn't get burned who sticks their hand
in a fire.'"
I feel that in _Witches Abroad_ Terry was experimenting much more than
usual with the literary device of foreshadowing. This is only one of the
many instances in the book where something is said that means nothing to
the reader first time around, but which suddenly becomes very significant
when you notice it during a re-read, and you already know what is going
to happen later.
- [p. 139/122] "'What some people need,' said Magrat, [...], 'is a bit more
heart.' 'What some people need,' said Granny Weatherwax, [...], 'is a lot
more brain.' [...] What *I* need, thought Nanny Ogg fervently, is a
drink."
These are references to the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion respectively,
once you remember that an alcoholic drink is also known as 'Dutch
courage'. In fact, in the original book the courage the Lion is given
comes in a bottle, and many feel that Baum had alcohol in mind when he
wrote it.
- [p. 139/122] The farmhouse landing on Nanny Ogg, and the subsequent
events involving dwarfs looking for ruby-coloured footwear are references
to _The Wizard of Oz_.
All Terry's references are to the movie version, incidentally, not the
book. In the book Dorothy obtains Silver Shoes instead of Ruby Slippers,
doesn't say anything approaching "... we're not in Kansas any more", and
of course the book doesn't have a 'dingdong' song.
- [p. 140/123] "'You know, Greebo,' she said. "I don't think we're in
Lancre.'
Dorothy, to her dog, in _The Wizard of Oz_: "Toto, I've a feeling we're
not in Kansas anymore."
- [p. 148/130] "'[...] that girl with the long pigtails in a tower [...]
Rumplestiltzel or someone.'"
The girl with the long hair is Rapunzel from the famous fairy tale of the
same name. 'Rumpelstiltskin' is a different, unrelated fairy tale
involving a dwarf spinning gold out of straw.
- [p. 153/134] "Not a Ronald in sight."
Terry says: "Yep... direct use of existing East London rhyming slang
there (Richard the Third = turd)."
- [p. 159/139] "'That's 'cos you're a wet hen, Magrat Garlick,' said
Granny."
When questioned about the phrase, Terry explained: "Perfectly good
British slang. A 'wet hen' is bedraggled, sad and useless. Probably not
as useless as a big girl's blouse, though, and better off than a lame
duck."
- [p. 173/152] "'My full name's Erzulie Gogol,' said Mrs Gogol. 'People
call me Mrs Gogol.'"
This resonates with _In the Heat of the Night_ (see the annotation for p.
365/277 of _Men at Arms_), in so much as we have two persons of the same
profession, one of them black, the other white, and one of them *way* out
of her territory.
The name 'Erzuli' comes directly from Voodoo religion. Maitresse Erzulie
(also known as Ezili) is the ideal figure of womanhood, and the spirit of
love and beauty.
- [p. 174/153] "'This is Legba, a dark and dangerous spirit,' said Mrs
Gogol."
Legba (also known as Papa Legba or Legba Ati-bon) is the Voodoo spirit of
the cross-roads, where the Above meets the Below. He is "on both sides of
the mirror". He leans on a stick, and another of his symbols is the
macoutte (straw sack). Chickens are sacrificed to him by twisting their
neck till they are dead.
- [p. 176/154] "So he said 'Get me an alligator sandwich -- and make it
quick!'"
It is obvious that Granny is trying to tell a joke here -- and failing
miserably. The problem was that quite a few readers (including yours
truly) were having trouble figuring out what that joke was supposed to be
in the first place.
People started asking about the Alligator Joke so frequently on
alt.fan.pratchett, that eventually Terry himself posted the following
"definitive explanation of the alligator joke":
"It is (I hope) obvious that Granny Weatherwax has absolutely no sense of
humour but she has, as it were, heard about it. She has no grasp of how
or why jokes work -- she's one of those people who say "And then what
happened?" after you've told them the punchline. She can vaguely remember
the one-liner "Give me an alligator sandwich -- and make it snappy!" but
since she's got no idea of why it's even mildly amusing she gets
confused... all that she can remember is that apparently the man wants it
quickly."
When conversation on the net then turned to the origins of the joke, he
followed up with:
"As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure I first came across the joke in an
ancient US comedy routine -- Durante or someone like him. It sounds
burlesque."
See the annotation for p. 195/159 of _Mort_ for another type of meta-joke
based on the alligator joke.
- [p. 177/155] Emberella --> Embers; Cinderella --> Cinders...
- [p. 179/157] "'I am called Saturday.' 'Man Saturday, eh?' said Nanny Ogg."
Nanny is thinking of Man Friday as in Robinson Crusoe's native friend.
But Saturday is of course none other than Baron Samedi (Samedi =
Saturday), the Voodoo keeper of cemeteries and lord of zombies. He
appears as a skeleton wearing a top hat and a black cane.
- [p. 197/172] "Nanny Ogg waved the jug again. 'Up your eye!' she said.
'Mud in your bottom!'"
The two traditional English toasts being mixed up here are "bottoms up"
and "here's mud in your eye".
- [p. 198/174] "[...] Nanny Ogg and the coachmen were getting along, as she
put it, like a maison en flambe."
See the annotation for p. 313/284 of _Guards! Guards!_
- [p. 199/175] "[...] Nanny Ogg kept calling them 'Magrats', but they were
trousers, and very practical."
Calling them Magrats is a reference to Bloomers, originally a female
costume consisting of jacket, shirt and Turkish trousers gathered closely
around the ankles, introduced by Mrs Amelia Bloomer of New York in 1849.
Associated with the Woman's Rights Movement, the outfit met with little
success. Nowadays 'bloomers' is applied to the trouser portion only.
- [p. 228/201] "'This is [...] Sir, Roger de Coverley.'"
'Sir Roger de Coverley' is the title of a folk dance.
- [p. 228/201] "'...my name is Colonel Moutarde...'"
'Moutarde' is French for 'mustard'. Colonel Mustard is the name of one of
the characters in the board game (and subsequent movie) _Clue_ (or
_Cluedo_).
- [p. 229/201] Casanunda, "the world's greatest lover", refers to our
world's Casanova. Notice that Casanova is often roughly pronounced as
'Casanover' (emphasis on the 'over'), and that Casanunda (emphasis on the
'unda') is a dwarf...
Actually, Casanunda is lying, because we later find out he's only the
world's *second* greatest lover. But this should not surprise us, since
yet even later (in _Lords and Ladies_) we also find out that he is an
Outrageous Liar.
- [p. 235/207] "Nanny Ogg's voyages on the sea of intersexual dalliance had
gone rather further than twice around the lighthouse, [...]"
A popular way of staving off boredom at typical British seaside holiday
resorts is to take a trip in a small boat, which will often journey out
as far as the local lighthouse and circumnavigate it. Hence the above
colloquialism, implying that Nanny's experiences were not limited to the
inshore waters of male/female relationships.
- [p. 248/218] "The maiden, the mother and the crone."
Traditionally, the wiccan goddess (see _Equal Rites_ annotation) is
viewed as the triple entity maiden/mother/crone, and our witches indeed
echo this model. Neil Gaiman uses the triple goddess quite often in his
_Sandman_ series.
- [p. 249/219] "Mrs Gogol's hut travelled on four large duck feet, which
were now rising out of the swamp."
Baba Yaga is a witch in Russian folklore, who had a hut that stood, and
was able to turn around, on chicken feet. I don't believe that hut could
walk, however. (Neil Gaiman seemed to think it could, though: Baba Yaga
and a walking hut figure in Book 3 of his excellent _Books of Magic_.)
One of Mussorgsky's _Pictures at an Exhibition_ ('House on hen's legs')
also refers back to Baba Yaga, by way of another Russian's painting of
said fairy tale hut.
- [p. 252/222] "'I'm a world-famous liar.' 'Is that true?' 'No.'"
Casanunda here recreates the famous liar paradox: Epimenides the Cretan
saying "All Cretans are liars". For more information on this paradox see
any good book about logic puzzles, although I particularly recommend
Douglas R. Hofstadter's _Metamagical Themas_.
- [p. 252/222] "'Well, maybe I'm only No. 2,' said Casanunda. 'But I try
harder.'"
This was the catchphrase from a well-known ad campaign in the late 60s.
The No. 2 was car rental firm Avis; Hertz was No. 1.
- [p. 274/241] "'[...] what was that Tsortean bloke who could only be
wounded if you hit 'im in the right place?'"
Nanny is thinking of the Discworld version of Achilles, who was
invincible except for a small spot on his heel.
- [p. 285/252] "Nanny kicked her red boots together idly. 'Well, I suppose
there's no place like home,' she said."
Another _Wizard of Oz_ reference (kicking her shoes together three times
and saying a similar sentence invoked the spell that transported Dorothy
home from Oz).
- [p. 285/252] "But they went the long way, and saw the elephant."
Several people were immediately reminded of Fritz Leiber's Hugo award
winning novelette _Gonna Roll The Bones_, which ends: "Then he turned and
headed straight for home, but he took the long way, around the world."
Terry has said there is no conscious connection, however.
"Seeing the elephant" also resonates nicely with _The Lord of the Rings_,
where Bilbo complains wistfully that he never got to see an elephant on
*his* adventures 'abroad': "[...] Aragorn's affairs, and the White
Council, and Gondor, and the Horsemen, and Southrons, and oliphaunts --
did you really see one, Sam? -- and caves and towers and golden trees and
goodness knows what besides. I evidently came back by much too straight a
road from my trip. I think Gandalf might have shown me round a bit."
Also, "to have seen the elephant" is British military slang dating back
to the 19th century, and means to have taken part in one's first battle.
SMALL GODS
- [p. 8/7] "'I remember,' said Lu-Tze."
Lu-Tze is probably meant to parallel Lao-Tze, the writer of the _Tao Te
Ching_ and thus one of the founders of Taoism. The mountain range he
carries with him is reminiscent of stories told by and of Taoist and
Buddhist sages.
- [p. 8/7] "'Young fellow called Ossory, wasn't there?'"
For what it's worth: an ossuary is a place where the bones of the dead
are kept.
+ [p. 9/8] The name 'Brutha' is of course pronounced as a jive-ified
'brother', and resonates with the name of Buddhism's prophet Buddha.
- [p. 11/9] Brother Nhumrod.
Brother Nhumrod's name is not only an obvious pun on the man's sexual
problems, but also refers to the Biblical Nimrod who was "a mighty hunter
before the Lord" (Genesis 10:8).
- [p. 12/10] "Give me a boy up to the age of seven, Nhumrod had always
said."
This is a reference to the Jesuit saying: "Give me a child for the first
seven years, and you may do what you like with him afterwards."
The Jesuits boasted that they could convert anyone if they just started
early enough.
- [p. 15/12] The Cenobiarch.
A cenobite is a "member of a religious order following a communal way of
life". The 'arch' suffix denotes leadership (as in e.g. 'matriarch').
- [p. 15/12] "[...] and torturers, and Vestigial Virgins..."
See the annotation for p. 88/79 of _Reaper Man_.
- [p. 19/15] _You Don't Have To Be Pitilessly Sadistic To Work Here But It
Helps!!!_
Refers to those lame stickers and signs in offices and work areas all
over the world that say: "You don't have to be insane to work here but it
helps!".
In _Eric_ a similar slogan is pasted on the door to the Discworld Hell
("You don't have to be 'Damned' to work here...").
- [p. 31/23] "De Chelonian Mobile [...] The Turtle Moves."
This whole theory parodies Galileo Galilei's struggle to get his theory
of a moving earth (moving around the sun, that is) accepted by the
Christian Church.
The specific phrasing of the motto refers to what Galileo supposedly
uttered under his breath after recanting his theory to the Inquisition
(mirrored by Didactylos having to do the same in front of Vorbis); "E pur
si muove" -- "And yet it moves". This explains why the Chelonists say
"The Turtle Moves" and not, say, "It's A Turtle" or "We're On A Turtle".
After all, the point of contention is the existence of the turtle, not
whether it's mobile or stationary.
- [p. 31/23] "'And what does that stand on?' he said."
This is the classic objection to the turtle theory, at least according to
an anecdote that has been told about every big name scientist from
Bertrand Russell to William James. In the story, the scientist, after
giving a lecture on astronomy, is approached by a little old lady who
says that he's got it all wrong and that the world in fact rests on the
back of a giant turtle. The scientist then asks the lady what the turtle
is standing on, and she answers: on the back of a second, even larger
turtle. But, asks the scientist, what does *that* turtle stand on? To
which the lady triumphantly answers: "You're very clever, young man, but
it's no use -- it's turtles all the way down!".
+ [p. 53/39] "'He was eight feet tall? With a very long beard? And a huge
staff? And the glow of the holy horns shining out of his head?'"
Michelangelo depicted Moses with horns after coming down from Mount
Sinai. This can be traced back to an interpretation error from the
original Hebrew, where the same word can mean either "send out rays" or
"be horned", depending on context.
- [p. 55/40] "'I was beginning to think I was a tortoise dreaming about
being a god.'"
This parallels one of the writings of Chuang Tzu, a Taoist sage:
"Once Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and
fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't
know he was Chuang Chou. Suddenly he woke up, and there he was, solid and
unmistakable Chuang Chou. But he didn't know if he was Chuang Chou who
had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang
Chou."
- [p. 60/44] "'The other novices make fun of him, sometimes. Call him The
Big Dumb Ox.'"
St Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) was called the "the dumb ox" by his fellow
students due to his silence during theological disputes at the
university. He just listened, or perhaps lurked is a better term. He also
had a large and awkward frame, like Brutha.
The story goes that Thomas' teacher (Albertus Magnus, see the annotation
for p. 221/180 of _Mort_) rebuked the insensitive students by saying:
"His name will be remembered long after yours are all forgotten". He was
right. Thomas Aquinas was canonised less than a century later. (And so
was Albertus Magnus, but not until 1931.)
- [p. 78/57] "He was good at raking paths. He left scallop patterns and
gentle soothing curves."
This is a description of a Zen rock garden.
- [p. 80/59] "'Nice fresh indulgences? Lizards? Onna stick?'"
Given the Medieval Catholic nature of Omnianism, Dhblah's trade in
indulgences (time off for a loved one in Purgatory) isn't at all
surprising.
- [p. 83/60] "Below it, the doors of the Great Temple, each one made of
forty tons of gilded bronze, opened by the breath (it was said) of the
Great God Himself, swung open ponderously and -- and this was the holy
part -- silently."
The doors of a temple in Alexandria were opened by a steam engine
designed by the Greek philosopher Hero. With similar legends surrounding
it.
This is a myth, however. Hero *did* invent a steam "engine", but it was
merely a small sphere that rotated due to steam pressure (history's
earliest executive toy?) There is no evidence that he ever used the
invention for any real work (e.g. opening doors).
- [p. 87/64] "'And -- that other one. The *eminence grease*.'"
Eminence grise = "grey eminence", as in "shadowy power".
- [p. 90/66] "'[...] they have to cross a terrible desert and you weigh
their heart in some scales [...] And if it weighs less than a feather,
they are spared the hells.'"
In Egyptian myth, a dead man was judged by Osiris, Thoth, Anubis and
forty-two Assessors in the Hall of Judgement in the Underworld. His heart
was balanced against the Feather of Truth while he made his Confession.
If his heart was heavy (with guilt), then the monster Amit ate the heart.
See the Egyptian Book of the Dead for more details.
- [p. 92/67] "Give me that old-time religion..."
This is the title to a song, originally belonging to the evangelist
revival camp meeting category, which has the chorus:
"Give me that old time religion,
Give me that old time religion,
Give me that old time religion,
Cos it's good enough for me."
It has been taken up by the SF filk community ('filk' = folk singing, but
with funny or parodying lyrics), which has added verses like:
"Let's sing praise to Aphrodite
She may seem a little flighty,
but she wears a green gauze nighty,
And she's good enough for me."
and the Lovecraftian:
"We will worship old Cthulhu,
Yes, we'll worship old Cthulhu,
I can't find a rhyme for Cthulhu
And that's good enough for me."
- [p. 100/73] "You have to walk a lonesome desert... You have to walk it
all alone..."
Terry said in an article to a.f.p: "This probably is a good time to raise
the 'lonesome valley/lonesome desert' lines from _Small Gods_, with
apologies to you who, because of finance, heel-dragging by publishers or
because you threw all that tea in the harbour, haven't read it yet. Yes,
I know variants of the song have turned up on various
folk/country/spiritual albums over the last forty years, but some
American friends tracked variations of it back to the last century and
the anonymous mists of folk Christianity. So I used it, like everyone
else has done. Like 'Lord of the Dance', it's one of those songs that
transcends a specific religion -- and also a very attractive use of
language."
- [p. 105/77] "The Voice of the Turtle was heard in the land."
The Bible, Song of Solomon 2:12:
"The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of the singing of birds is come,
and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
The fig tree putteth forth her green figs,
and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away."
Note that the biblical 'turtle' in fact refers to the turtledove.
- [p. 106/77] "'I am what I am. I can't help it if people think something
else.'"
This is *not* a Popeye reference! "I am that I am" is what God said to
Moses in answer to the questions "What is his name? What shall I say to
them?" (Exodus 3:14).
- [p. 108/79] "There was Sergeant Simony, a muscular young man [...]"
'Simony' is the religious crime of selling benefices. Since Terry doesn't
refer to or joke about this second meaning at all in the rest of the
book, I had left this annotation out of previous versions of the APF, but
people kept writing me about it, so this time I've put it in for
completeness' sake.
- [p. 114/83] "'Three years before the shell.'"
The phrase "x years before the mast" was used by sailors to indicate the
length of time they've been in their profession. Common seamen slept in
the forward part of the ship, i.e. before the main mast on sailing ships.
Officers slept in the after part of the ship where they could get easy
access to the tiller.
- [p. 117/85] Terry Pratchett translates the book title _Ego-Video Liber
Deorum_ here as _Gods: A Spotter's Guide_.
Actually, the dog Latin translates more literally to _The I-Spy Book of
Gods_. I-Spy books are little books for children with lists of things to
look out for. When you see one of these things you tick a box and get
some points. When you get enough points you can send off for a badge.
They have titles like _The I-Spy Book of Birds_ and _The I-Spy Book of
Cars_.
- [p. 117/85] "Or, to put it another way the existence of a badly
put-together watch proved the existence of a blind watchmaker."
This whole section is parodying the creationist argument that complex
creatures such as those which exist in the world could only be the
product of deliberate design and hence must have been created by a
Supreme Being rather than by a 'blind' process such as evolution.
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins provided a counter-argument in his
book _The Blind Watchmaker_.
- [p. 119/87] "It was worse than women aboard. It was worse than
albatrosses."
Both women and albatrosses are traditionally considered bad luck on a
ship. For a classic example of the latter, just recall Samuel Taylor
Coleridge's poem _The Rime of the Ancient Mariner_.
- [p. 126/92] "The shepherd had a hundred sheep, and it might have been
surprising that he was prepared to spend days searching for one sheep;
[...]"
Another Biblical allusion. Jesus used this as a parable for the mercy of
God, in Matthew 18:12: "How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and
one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and
goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?"
- [p. 127/92] "[...] the priests of Ur-Gilash [...]"
The name is a composite of several ancient names. The Epic of Gilgamesh
is an ancient Babylonian tale which contains some interesting parallels
to contemporary Biblical stories. Gil-Galash was ruler of one of the
Euphrates civilisations. And Ur was, of course, a Babylonian city, as
well as a prefix signifying "primal" or "original".
- [p. 131/95] "'According to Book One of the Septateuch, anyway.'"
A reference to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible/Torah. I
am surprised that on the Discworld this didn't become the Octateuch...
- [p. 138/100] "'There's one of 'em that sits around playing a flute most
of the time and chasing milkmaids.'"
This describes Krishna, an avatar or incarnation of the god Vishnu in
Indian mythology, who spent his youth playing the flute and dancing with
as many as 100 milkmaids at a time.
- [p. 139/101] Legibus's entrance incorporates some concepts borrowed from
several legends of famous philosophers.
Archimedes was the one who jumped out of the bath and ran naked down the
street shouting 'Eureka!' after he'd discovered the principle of fluid
displacement. He also said "Give me but a place to stand and a long
enough lever, and I can move the world", a quote that Terry repeatedly
uses in different forms. The "Number Nine pot and some string, please"
probably refers to the ancient method of calculating the curvature of the
Earth's surface as done by Eratosthenes of Cyrene. The drawing of
triangles vaguely recalls Pythagoras.
- [p. 142/103] "[...] putting a thirty-foot parabolic reflector on a high
place to shoot the rays of the sun at an enemy's ships [...]"
Legend has it that Archimedes did just this in the defence of the city of
Syracuse in 213 BC.
- [p. 143/103] "'[...] some intricate device that demonstrated the
principles of leverage by incidentally hurling balls of burning sulphur
two miles.'"
This is a description of the Ballista, another weapon supposedly invented
by Archimedes.
- [p. 152/110] "[...] if Xeno the Ephebian said, 'All Ephebians are liars
--'"
This is the Liar Paradox again. See the annotation for p. 252/222 of
_Witches Abroad_.
- [p. 153/111] "'That's right,' he said. 'We're philosophers. We think,
therefore we am.'"
Play on Descartes' famous philosophical pronouncement "Cogito, ergo sum"
-- "I think, therefore I am".
- [p. 153/111] "'Thesis plus antithesis equals hysteresis,' said Ibid."
A play on the central tenet of dialectical materialism, which was lifted
(by Marx and Engels) from Hegelian philosophy: "Thesis plus antithesis
yields synthesis".
- [p. 154/112] "'Fedecks the Messenger of the Gods, one of the all-time
greats,' said Xeno."
Federal Express (or FedEx) is an overnight shipping courier service.
- [p. 154/112] A running gag in the book is the penguin associated with
Patina, the Goddess of Wisdom. This refers to Minerva or Pallas Athena
(*Pal*-las A-*thena*, get it, get it?), who was the Roman/Greek goddess
of wisdom, and whose symbol was an owl.
- [p. 159/115] The Greek name Didactylos, besides having the word
'didactic' as its root (very appropriate for a philosopher), also
translates as 'Two-fingers'.
The British equivalent of "giving someone the finger" consists of
extending two fingers upwards, palm facing the gesturer, in a kind of
rotated 'V for Victory' sign.
The origin of this rude gesture is supposed to date back to the battle of
Agincourt. In those days the French used to cut the index and middle
fingers off the right hands of any British archers they happened to
catch, in order to render them useless for further shooting should they
e.g. ever manage to escape and rejoin their army.
When the English finally won the battle (largely thanks to their
longbowmen) the gesture quickly evolved from a Frenchmen-ridiculing "look
what I still got" statement into a more general rudeness.
Whether this story, charming as it may be, is in fact completely
incorrect, or only partially incorrect, or completely correct after all,
is something I will no longer be attempting to resolve in this
annotation, since proponents of all three theories have been supplying me
with quotes from various history books in order to support their claim.
- [p. 164/118] "Candidates for the Tyrantship were elected by the placing
of black or white balls in various urns, thus giving rise to a well-known
comment about politics."
That comment probably being: "It's all a load of balls".
- [p. 168/121] _Nil Illegitimo Carborundum_ is dog Latin for "Don't let the
bastards grind you down".
Variants of it crop up in various places, most notably _Nil Carborundi
Illegitimo_ which apparently is a key phrase in the Illuminati mythos.
- [p. 170/122] Urn's name is a reference to the old joke:
Question: "What's a Greek urn?"
Answer: "About $2,50 an hour!"
Or, as the _Goon Show_ put it:
-- "What's a Greek urn?"
-- "It's a vase made by Greeks for storing liquid."
-- "I wasn't expecting that answer."
-- "Neither were quite a few smart-alec listeners."
- [p. 178/128] "'Worried, eh? Feeling a bit Avis Domestica? Cluck-cluck?'"
Actually, the Latin name for 'chicken' is _Gallus Domesticus_ -- even
though 'avis' by itself does mean 'bird'.
- [p. 178/129] "He caught a glimpse of a circle of damp sand, covered with
geometrical figures. Om was sitting in the middle of them."
The whole scene with Om drawing shapes in the sand is a reference to the
computer programming language Logo, in which figures are drawn by a
turtle-shaped cursor ('turtle graphics'). In fact, it was also possible
to get a real 'turtle': a little robot attached to a Logo machine by a
long cable which would walk around on a big sheet of paper.
- [p. 180/130] "'Ah,' said Didactylos. 'Ambi-sinister?' 'What?' 'He means
incompetent with both hands,' said Om."
Ambidextrous means able to use both hands equally well. 'dextr-' is the
prefix meaning "right" as in "right hand". 'Sinistr-' is the prefix
meaning "left". Hence: ambi-sinister = having two left hands.
- [p. 182/131] "The Library of Ephebe was -- before it burned down -- the
second biggest on the Disc."
Refers of course to our world's Alexandrian Library. Brewer tells us that
this Library was supposed to have contained 700,000 volumes. It was
already burned and partially consumed in 391, but when the city fell into
the hands of the calif Omar, in 642, the Arabs found books sufficient to
"heat the baths of the city for six months".
Legend has it that Omar ordered the Library torched because all the books
in it either agreed with the Koran, and were therefore superfluous; or
else disagreed with the Koran, and were therefore heretical, but this is
probably just apocryphal. Other references say that the inhabitants of
Alexandria torched the scrolls themselves in order to keep the knowledge
out of the hands of the Arabs.
- [p. 182/131] "[...] a whole gallery of unwritten books [...]"
Libraries of unwritten books are of course very rare, but do tend to crop
up occasionally in L-Space. The library described in the opening section
of _Beyond Life_ by James Branch Cabell contains the novels of David
Copperfield as well as Milton's _King Arthur_. In Neil Gaiman's
_Sandman_, Lucien's library (a direct homage to Cabell) also contains
books that were never written, such as _Alice's Journey Beyond The Moon_
by Lewis Carroll, _The Lost Road_ by J. R. R. Tolkien, and P. G.
Wodehouse's _Psmith and Jeeves_. There's also a library of future books
in Robin McKinley's novel _Beauty_.
Finally, other people were reminded of the library in Jorge Luis Borges'
story _The Library of Babel_, where a vast universe is described which
contains *all* possible books (assuming a finite alphabet and a fixed
book size the number of all possible books is mindbogglingly huge, but
finite) -- in random order. Most books in such a library would appear
written by the 'monkey and typewriter' brigade, but all the coherent
books, whether actually written or not, are in there as well.
All libraries are connected through L-Space anyway, aren't they?
- [p. 183/132] Didactylos carrying a lantern and living in a barrel is a
reference to Diogenes, the famous philosopher who is reputed to have done
the same.
- [p. 184/132] Aristocrates = Aristotle + Socrates + aristocratic.
- [p. 185/133] "Art was not permitted in Omnia."
The comment about no art and pictures being allowed in Om resonates with
similar prohibitions in various real world religions, ranging from the
Muslims to the Amish.
- [p. 208/150] "'Ah gentlemen,' said Didactylos. 'Pray don't disturb my
circles.'"
Legend has it that when Syracuse was eventually taken the Roman soldiers
entered Archimedes' house as he was trying to solve a geometrical
problem. He had just been drawing some figures on the floor of his house
when the soldiers entered. "Gentlemen, pray don't disturb my circles,"
Archimedes is reported to have said to the soldiers, one of whom then
drew his sword and slew him on the spot.
- [p. 209/150] "'You don't belong to the Quisition,' said the Corporal.
'No. But I know a man who does,' said Brutha."
In the UK there were a series of adverts for the AA (Automobile
Association) where people were in various dire motoring trouble. They
were asked by a passenger (say) if they knew how to get out of it. They
replied either: "No. But I know a man who can." or "No. But I know a man
who does." It's now very much a part of English idiom.
- [p. 215/154] "'Describe what an Ambiguous Puzuma looks like,' he
demanded."
Brutha goes on to describe the Puzuma as having its ears laid flat
against its head. Of course, as we learned in the footnote on p. 178/171
of _Pyramids_, in a Puzuma's "natural state", everything is laid flat
against everything else...
- [p. 220/158] "'One minute upright, next minute a draught-excluder.'"
Discussions on a.f.p., initiated by a puzzled American reader, revealed
that the concept of a 'draught-excluder' is one of those things only
British readers are familiar with. Many English houses, especially older
ones, have doors with a gap at the bottom, which will allow cold draughts
into the room. To solve this, rather than simple expedients such as
making doors that fit, the English instead place a cylindrical stuffed
object (often shaped amusingly like a snake with felt eyes and tongue,
for the tackily inclined) along the bottom of the door to keep out the
draughts. Hence: a draught excluder.
I have been informed that the English exported their draught excluders to
Australia as well, and that Croatians also know them, but use them for
windows rather than for doors.
- [p. 225/161] "'Tell him you can't recall!'"
"I can't recall" was the mantra of the White House officials during the
investigation of the Iran-Contra scandal in the late 1980s.
- [p. 226/162] "'Life in this world,' he said, 'is, as it were, a sojourn
in a cave.'"
This paragraph is a very loose parody of a famous Socratic dialogue in
Plato's _Republic_, Book VII. I quote (and edit down a wee bit) from
_Labyrinths of Reason_ by William Poundstone, p. 203:
"Behold! human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth
open toward the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been
from childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot
move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from
turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a
distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way,
like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over
which they show the puppets.
[...] and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another,
which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave? [...] And of the
objects which are being carried in like manner they would see only the
shadows? [...] And if they were able to converse with one another, would
they not suppose they were naming what was actually before them? [...] To
them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the
images."
- [p. 226/162] "Go on, do Deformed Rabbit ...it's my favourite."
Reference to the art of making shadow animals with your hands, as
described on p. 43/36 of _Moving Pictures_: "'Mainly my uncle did
"Deformed Rabbit", said Victor. 'He wasn't very good at it, you see.'"
- [p. 226/162] "'And the wrong sort of ash', said Vorbis."
The (true) story goes that British Rail was having difficulty one winter
getting trains to run on time, which they blamed on the snow. They were
then quizzed as to why their snow-ploughs couldn't deal with the problem.
They replied that it was "the wrong sort of snow", a phrase that has now
entered the English idiom.
In defence of British Rail it should be pointed out that their remark
wasn't as silly as it seems at first sight: what happened was that fine,
dry, powdery snow blew inside the traction motor cooling slots and,
melting, caused the motors to arc over. It simply is very rare for
British snow to be cold and dry enough to do this, hence the "wrong sort
of snow" comment which the press, seeking as usual for any excuse to make
fun of British Rail, leapt upon with great glee.
- [p. 231/166] Didactylos' anecdote about the royal road to learning
parodies a similar one told about Aristotle and Alexander the Great.
- [p. 236/170] "'I'm just going out,' said Brutha. 'I may be some time.'"
Brutha here repeats the last words of Captain Oates, who walked out in a
blizzard on Scott's unsuccessful Antarctic expedition, in order to try
and save food for the remaining expedition members. He was never seen
again. It didn't work.
- [p. 249/179] "The scalbie took no notice. [...] It had perched on Om's
shell."
Resonates with the _B.C._ comic strip, which occasionally features a bird
of indeterminate species standing on a turtle's shell. They don't get
along very well, either.
- [p. 254/182] "'Got to have a whole parcel of worshippers to live on Nob
Hill.'"
Nob Hill is an affluent section of San Francisco (which in turn got its
name from 'nob', a British term of derision for upper-class people,
especially those who are a little ostentatious with their wealth).
- [p. 259/186] "'Something that'd open the valve if there was too much
steam. I think I could do something with a pair of revolving balls.'"
Urn's steam engines are more or less identical to the ones that were
described by Archimedes and used in ancient Ephebe -- I mean Greece.
These engines also used copper spheres as heating vessels, and these
spheres did, in fact, have a regrettable tendency to explode, which is
what limited their use until some bright person thought of adding
overpressure relief valves.
These steam engines never really caught on, because of various practical
problems and the greater cost-effectiveness of slave-power. See also the
James Watt annotation for p. 175/153 of _Reaper Man_.
The contraption with revolving balls Urn is thinking of in the sentence
quoted above was identified by several readers as something called a
speed governor, invented by James Watt. This consists of two balls
spinning on two opposite movable arms around a rotating central axis.
When the centrifugal force gets large enough to lift the balls up, the
movement opens a safety valve that lets off the steam, causing the
rotation to slow down and the balls to come down again, closing the
valve, etc. -- a simple but ingenious negative feedback device.
- [p. 264/190] "There was a city once [...] there were canals, and gardens.
There was a lake. They had floating gardens on the lake,[...]. Great
pyramid temples that reached to the sky. Thousands were sacrificed."
This description evokes Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), the capital of
the ancient Aztec Empire. Tenochtitlan was built on islands in a lake
(now drained) and was crossed by canals, and the floating gardens may
still be seen, as may ruins of many pyramid temples on which thousands
were indeed sacrificed.
- [p. 277/198] "'About life being like a sparrow flying through a room?
Nothing but darkness outside? And it flies through the room and there's
just a moment of warmth and light?'"
This story appears in the Anglo-Saxon historian St Bede's account of the
conversion of England to Christianity in the year 625. A noble relates
this metaphor for human existence to King Edwin of Northumbria, and
concludes, "Of what went before and of what is to follow, we are utterly
ignorant. If therefore this new faith [Christianity] can give us some
greater certainty, it justly deserves that we should follow it."
The original meaning of the parable was to describe the human condition,
with life as a moment of light between two dark unknowns; it's a nice
twist of irony that Terry here uses it to describe the *divine* condition
instead.
- [p. 286/205] "Like many early thinkers, the Ephebians believed that
thoughts originated in the heart, and that the brain was merely a device
to cool the blood."
In our world this idea was originally proposed by none other than
Aristotle. Aristotle got almost everything to do with natural history
dead wrong, although in his defense it must be said that it was not his
fault that later cultures took his works to be Absolute Truth instead of
trying to experiment and find things out for themselves.
- [p. 287/206] "[...] promises in his head."
The Small Gods' offer that "All this can be yours, if you just worship
*me*..." parallels the Temptation of Christ in the desert, during his
forty days' fast before starting his preaching.
The offer of food is similar, but more closely related to St Peter's
vision in Acts 10:11, in which a blanket is lowered from heaven,
containing all sorts of ritually unclean food, notably Pork (the Roast
Pig which is proffered by the Small Gods).
- [p. 289/207] "The wheel had been nailed flat on the top of a slim pole."
St Simon Stylites (or Simon the Elder), a Syrian Monk, spent the last 39
years of his life living atop a pole. There are quite a few accounts of
pole sitting in Syrian Monasticism, and a variety of other hermits and
extremely pious lunatics also lived this way.
- [p. 290/208] "'My parents named me Sevrian Thaddeus Ungulant, [...]'"
The hero of Gene Wolfe's science fiction novel _Book of the New Sun_ is
called Severian. Like Brutha, Severian has a problem with forgetting
things.
St Ungulant's sidekick Angus resonates with the breed of cattle of the
same name (the Aberdeen Angus), which in turn may not be entirely
unrelated to the fact that an 'ungulate' is a hoofed mammal.
- [p. 307/220] "'A nod's as good as a poke with a sharp stick to a deaf
camel, as they say.'"
A reference to the British saying "A nod's as good as a wink to a blind
horse", meaning that no hint is useful to one who does not notice it,
implying that a hint is currently in progress. Terry combines this in
typical fashion with the saying "It's better than a poke in the eye with
a sharp stick".
Monty Python had similar fun with this proverb in their "Nudge nudge"
sketch: "'A nod's as good as a poke with a sharp stick to a deaf camel,
as they say.'"
- [p. 321/230] "'What've you got? He's got an army! You've got an army? How
many divisions have you got?'"
As the Allies in World War II were planning the landing in Italy, they
had frequent meetings to discuss methods and consequences. On one of
these meetings, Churchill made a reference to what the Pope would think
about all this. To which Stalin replied, "The pope? How many divisions
does he have?".
- [p. 324/232] "I don't know what effect it's going to have on the enemy,
he thought, but it scares the hells out of me."
Paraphrases a comment made by the Duke of Wellington immediately before
the Battle of Waterloo, about his own troops, in particular about the
Highland regiments (large, hairy, kilts, bagpipes, etc.).
- [p. 325/233] "'We said, the first thing we'll do, we'll kill all the
priests!'"
Paraphrases a line from Shakespeare's _King Henry VI, part 2_, act 4,
scene 2 (a play that's also about bloody revolution): "The first thing we
do, let's kill all the lawyers."
- [p. 327/234] "Bishops move diagonally."
Reference to chess moves.
- [p. 340/244] "[...] plunged his beak through the brown feathers between
the talons, and *gripped*."
While I agree with Terry that biological correctness shouldn't stand in
the way of a good joke or plot point, I feel it should still be pointed
out that the organs Om is presumably aiming for don't exist in birds.
They simply haven't got the balls.
- [p. 341/244] "When you have their full attention in your grip, their
hearts and minds will follow."
'Testiculos' does not *quite* translate as 'full attention'.
The correct version of the quote originates with Chuck Colson, one of
Richard Nixon's Watergate henchmen.
- [p. 346/248] "[...] two pounds of tortoise, travelling at three metres a
second, hit him between the eyes."
Brewer tells us that in 456 BC Aeschylus, "the most sublime of the Greek
tragic poets", was "killed by a tortoise thrown by an eagle (to break the
shell) against his bald head, which it mistook for a stone".
Somebody on alt.fan.pratchett accused Terry of using 'deus ex machina'
solutions too often in the Discworld novels, and cited this as a
particular example. After all, everything has been going just swimmingly
for Vorbis right until the very end, when the situation is simply
resolved by having Om smash into him. In answer to this, Terry wrote:
"This is a valid point... but the key is whether the 'solution' is
inherent in the story.
Consider one of the most basic lessons of folk tale. The young adventurer
meets the old woman begging for food and gives her some; subsequently
(she being, of course, a witch) he becomes king/wins the princess/etc
with her aid, because of his actions earlier.
A solution doesn't 'come along'; it's built into the fabric of the story
from an early stage. _Guards! Guards!_ and _Interesting Times_ both use
this device. I'd suggest that such a resolution is perfectly valid -- as
they say, using a gun to shoot the bad guy in Act 3 is only okay if the
gun has been on the wall since Act 1. In _Small Gods_, though, not a
single new thing is introduced or resurrected in order to defeat Vorbis
-- he's defeated because of the way various characters react to events.
The problem contains the solution coiled inside.
If it's cowardice not to kill off your heroes but let them survive
because luck runs their way, then I'll plead guilty in the certain
knowledge that I won't get within a mile of the dock because of the
crowds of authors and directors already there...:-)"
- [p. 352/252] "'Right. Right. That's all I'm looking for. Just trying to
make ends hummus.'"
Hummus is a meat substitute, made from chickpeas, usually eaten in Middle
Eastern countries.
- [p. 355/254] "YOU HAVE PERHAPS HEARD THE PHRASE, he said, THAT HELL IS
OTHER PEOPLE?"
"Hell is other people" is a quote from, and the message of, Jean-Paul
Sartre's play _No Exit_.
- [p. 355/255] Could the name Fasta Benj possibly be derived from 'Faster,
Ben Johnson'?
- [p. 377/270] "REMIND ME AGAIN, he said, HOW THE LITTLE HORSE-SHAPED ONES
MOVE."
Refers back to a joke on p. 12/14 of _Sourcery_, where we are told that
Death dreads playing symbolic last chess games because "he could never
remember how the knight was supposed to move".
- There is a rumour going round that there was to be a crucifixion scene at
the end of this book but that the publishers made Terry take it out.
The idea of such a scene would appear to be a misrepresentation of the
'Brutha bound to the turtle' scene. To quote Terry on this:
"Crucifiction in _Small Gods_: this is a familiar thing to me, a DW
'fact' that's gone through several retellings. Nothing's been taken out
of _Small Gods_, or put in, and there was no pressure to do either."
LORDS AND LADIES
- [p. 5/5] "[...] young Magrat, she of the [...] tendency to be soppy about
raindrops and roses and whiskers on kittens."
One of the best songs from _The Sound of Music_ is called 'My Favourite
Things' (it's the song Maria sings for the Von Trapp children when they
are all frightened of the thunderstorm). The opening verse goes:
"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens,
Brown paper packages, tied up with strings,
These are a few of my favourite things."
The Von Trapp children would probably have murdered Magrat if she had
been their governess.
- [p. 13/11] "But that was a long time ago, in the past [footnote: Which is
another country]"
This might refer to _Hamlet_, where the future is described as "The
undiscover'd country from whose bourn / No traveller returns", or perhaps
Terry has read _The Go-between_, a 1950 book by L. P. Hartley, which
opens with the words: "The past is a foreign country; they do things
differently there", which has become a familiar quotation in England.
- [p. 13/11] "And besides, the bitch is... ...older."
This is another Christopher Marlowe quote, from _The Jew of Malta_ (act
IV, scene i):
Barnadine: "Thou hast committed --"
Barabas: "Fornication? But that was in another country;
and besides, the wench is dead."
- [p. 20/16] "This was the octarine grass country."
A reference to (Kentucky) bluegrass country.
- [p. 20/16] "Then, [...] the young corn lay down. In a circle."
An explanation of the Crop Circle phenomenon might be in order here.
Crop Circles are circular patches of flattened crops which have appeared
in fields of cereals in the South and West of England over the last few
years. There is no firm evidence pointing to their cause: this has been
taken by certain parties as a prima facie proof that they are of course
caused by either alien spacecraft or by some supernatural intelligence,
possibly in an attempt to communicate.
In recent years, circle systems have become increasingly elaborate, most
notably in the case of a circle in the shape of the Mandelbrot Set, and
another system which is shown on the cover of the recent Led Zeppelin
compilation album, which seems to indicate that whoever's up there they
probably have long hair and say _Wow!_ and _Yeah!_ a lot. A number of
staged circle-forging challenges in the summer of '92 have demonstrated
both how easy it is to produce an impressive circle by mundane, not to
say frivolous methods, and also the surprisingly poor ability of
'cereologists' to distinguish what they describe as a "genuine" circle
from one "merely made by hoaxers".
Anyone with a burning desire to believe in paranormal explanations is
invited to post to the newsgroup sci.skeptic an article asserting
essentially "I believe that crop circles are produced by UFO's/Sun
Spots/The Conservative Government/The Easter Bunny" and see how far they
get....
- [p. 24/19] "Nanny Ogg never did any housework herself, but she was the
cause of housework in other people."
Over on alt.fan.pratchett it was postulated that this sounded a bit too
much like a quote not to be a quote (annotation-hunters can get downright
paranoid at times), but it took us a while to figure out where it
originated, although in retrospect we could have used Occam's razor and
looked it up in Shakespeare immediately. In _King Henry IV, part 2_, act
1, scene 2, Falstaff says:
"I am not only witty in myself,
but the cause that wit is in other men."
- [p. 27/21] "Some people are born to kingship. Some achieve kingship, or
at least Arch-Generalissimo-Father-of-His-Countryship. But Verence had
kingship thrust upon him."
The original quote is (as usual) by William Shakespeare, from _Twelfth
Night_ (act 2, scene 5), where Malvolio reads in a letter (which he
thinks was written to him by his mistress):
"In my stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some
are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness
thrust upon 'em."
The dictator most associated with the phrase
'Arch-Generalissimo-Father-of-His-Countryship' is probably Franco.
- [p. 28/21] "Now he was inspecting a complicated piece of equipment. It
had a pair of shafts for a horse, and the rest of it looked like a
cartful of windmills. [...] 'It's a patent crop rotator,' said Verence."
The patent crop rotator is an agricultural tool that might not figure
very prominently in your day-to-day conversation (possibly since no such
machine exists: crop rotation means growing different things in a field
in successive years) but British comedy writers are apparently fascinated
by it. Several people wrote to tell me that the cult TV comedy series
_The Young Ones_ also used the patent crop rotator in their episode
_Bambi_.
When Neil (the hippy) is testing Rick (the nerd) on medieval history, the
following dialogue ensues (edited somewhat for clarity):
Rick: 'Crop rotation in the 14th century was considerably more
widespread... after... God I know this... don't tell me...
after 1172?'
Neil: 'John.'
Rick: 'Crop rotation in the 14th century was considerably more
widespread after John?'
Neil: '...Lloyd invented the patent crop rotator.'
- [p. 29/22] "'I asked Boggi's in Ankh-Morpork to send up their best
dress-maker [...]'"
Boggi's = Gucci's.
- [p. 38/29] "[...] it was always cheaper to build a new 33-MegaLith circle
than upgrade an old slow one [...]"
Think CPU's and MHz.
- [p. 40/30] "I LIKE TO THINK I AM A PICKER-UP OF UNCONSIDERED TRIFLES.
Death grinned hopefully."
In Shakespeare's _The Winter's Tale_ we find the character Autolycus ("a
Rogue"), saying in act 4, scene 2:
"My father named me Autolycus; who being, as I am, littered under
Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles."
- [p. 42/31] "'My lord Lankin?'"
Lord Lankin is a character in a traditional folk ballad:
"Then Lankin's tane a sharp knife
that hung down by his gaire
And he has gi'en the bonny nane
A deep wound and a sair"
- [p. 67/50] "One of them was known as Herne the Hunted. He was the god of
the chase and the hunt. More or less."
See the annotation for p. 145/144 of _Wyrd Sisters_.
- [p. 78/57] The names of the would-be junior witches.
Two of the names resonate with the names used in _Good Omens_: Agnes Nitt
is similar to Agnes Nutter, and Amanita DeVice (Amanita is also the name
of a gender of deadly poisonous mushrooms) is similar to Anathema Device.
There's also a Perdita in Shakespeare's _The Winter's Tale_; the name
means 'damned' or 'lost'.
In fact, all these names are based on the names of the so-called
Lancashire Witches. The deeds of this group on and around Pendle Hill
were the subject of probably England's most famous 17th century witchhunt
and trials. The story is described in some fictional detail in a
little-known book called, surprise, _The Lancashire Witches_, written at
the end of the nineteenth century in Manchester by William Harrison
Ainsworth.
Interestingly enough, Ainsworth also wrote a book called _Windsor Castle_
in which Herne the Hunter appears as a major character (see previous
annotation).
- [p. 85/62] The names of the "new directions".
'East of the Sun, West of the Moon': a fairly well-known phrase used,
amongst others, by Tolkien in a poem, by Theodore Roosevelt as the title
for a book on hunting, and by pop-group A-ha as an album title. It
originally is the title of an old Scandinavian fairy tale, which can be
found in a book by Kay Nielsen, titled _East of the Sun and West of the
Moon -- Old Tales from the North_. Terry has confirmed that this book was
his source for the phrase.
'Behind the North Wind': from the title of a book by George McDonald: _At
the Back of the North Wind_, the term itself being a translation of
_Hyperborea_.
'At the Back Of Beyond': an idiom, perhaps originating from Sir Walter
Scott's _The Antiquary_: "Whirled them to the back o' beyont".
'There and Back Again': The sub-title of Tolkien's _The Hobbit_.
'Beyond the Fields We Know': from Lord Dunsany's novel _The King of
Elfland's Daughter_, where "the fields we know" refers to our world, as
opposed to Elfland, which lies 'beyond'. The phrase was also used as the
title of a collection of Dunsany's stories.
- [p. 86/63] "'You know, ooh-jar boards and cards [...] and paddlin' with
the occult.'"
ooh-jar = Ouija. See the annotation for p. 154/136 of _Reaper Man_.
- [p. 90/66] "'... and to my freind Gytha Ogg I leave my bedde and the rag
rugge the smith in Bad Ass made for me, [...]'"
The origins of the 'rag rugge' are more fully explained in _Equal Rites_.
- [p. 103/76] "'Kings are a bit magical, mind. They can cure dandruff and
that.'"
Well, for one thing kings can cure dandruff by permanently removing
people's heads from their shoulders, but I think that what Terry is
probably referring to here is the folk-superstition that says that a
King's touch can cure scrofula (also known as the King's Evil), which is
a tubercular infection of the lymphatic glands.
A similar type of legend occurs in Tolkien's _The Lord of the Rings_, but
Shakespeare also has a lot to say on the subject in _Macbeth_, act 4,
scene 3.
- [p. 105/76] "Within were the eight members of the Lancre Morris Men [...]
getting to grips with a new art form."
In fact, many real life Morris teams put on so-called 'Mummers Plays':
traditional plays with a common theme of death and resurrection. These
ritual plays are performed on certain key days of the year, such as
Midwinter's Day (Magrat's wedding is on Midsummer's Eve!), Easter, or All
Souls Day (Halloween), at which time the Soul Cake play is performed. I
am also told that a Soul Cake, traditionally served at All Souls, is
similar to a Madeira Sponge (or 'yellow cake' as the Americans call it).
- [p. 106/77] "'We could do the Stick and Bucket Dance,' volunteered Baker
the weaver."
There are Morris dances that use sticks, but according to my sources
there aren't any that use buckets. Jason's reluctance to do this dance
has its parallels in real world Morris dancing: at least in one area
(upstate New York), a dance called the Webley Twizzle has a reputation
for being hazardous to one's health, which is perhaps why it's hardly
ever danced. It has even been claimed that someone broke his leg doing
it, although no one seems to know any details. Of course, the reluctance
of the Lancre Morris Men to perform the 'Stick and Bucket' may also have
to do with the fact that the name of the dance very probably indicates
another 'mettyfor' along the lines of maypoles and broomsticks.
See the _...and Dance_ section in Chapter 5 for more information about
Morris dancing.
- [p. 106/77] "'And why's there got to be a lion in it?' said Baker the
weaver."
Because the play-within-a-play performed by the rude mechanicals in _A
Midsummer Night's Dream_ (act 1, scene 2) also features a lion in a
starring role, of course.
The Morris Men's discussions on plays and lions reminded one of my
sources of the play written by Moominpapa in _Moominsummer Madness_ by
Tove Jansson. When asked about it, Terry said that although he has read
the Moomin books, the lion dialogue is not connected with them.
- [p. 106/78] "'Hah, I can just see a real playsmith putting *donkeys* in a
play!'"
_A Midsummer Night's Dream_, by that mediocre hack-writer William S., is
an example of a real play that *has* a donkey in it. Or to be absolutely
precise, a character magically cursed with a donkey's head.
- [p. 109/79] "The Librarian looked out at the jolting scenery. He was
sulking. This had a lot to do with the new bright collar around his neck
with the word "PONGO" on it. Someone was going to suffer for this."
The taxonomic name for orangutans is 'Pongo pygmaeus'. And of course
Pongo is a popular dog name as well, doubling the insult.
- [p. 118/86] "[...] universes swoop and spiral around one another like
[...] a squadron of Yossarians with middle-ear trouble."
Terry writes: "Can it be that this is forgotten? Yossarian -- the 'hero'
of _Catch-22_ -- was the bomber pilot who flew to the target twisting and
jinking in an effort to avoid the flak -- as opposed to the Ivy League
types who just flew nice and straight..."
A minor correction: Yossarian was not the pilot, but rather the
bombardier, who kept screaming instructions to the pilot over the
intercom, to turn hard right, dive, etc.
- [p. 118/86] "The universe doesn't much care if you step on a butterfly.
There are plenty more butterflies."
This immediately recalls the famous science fiction short story _A Sound
of Thunder_, by Ray Bradbury, which has as its basic premise that the
universe cares very much indeed if someone steps on a butterfly.
- [p. 121/89] "'Good morning, Hodgesaargh,' she said."
Hodgesaargh is based on Dave Hodges, a UK fan who runs a project called
_The REAL Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy_. This is a computer database
containing a couple of thousand entries (the project began in 1987) in
the style of Douglas Adams's _Hitch Hiker's Guide_. Dave takes his Guide
along with him to SF conventions and events, where he auctions off
printed versions of the Guide in order to raise money for charity. This
is why the Guide is not readily available, e.g. on the Internet.
One of the entries in the Guide concerns a computer virus called "Terry",
which, it says, "autographs all the files on the disk as well as any
nearby manuals".
In real life Dave Hodges works for a firm that keeps birds away from
airports and other places. To this purpose he sometimes uses a falcon
called, yes, Lady Jane, who bites all the time, which gave Terry the idea
for the character Hodgesaargh.
Note that there exist at least two other "let's write a Hitch Hikers
Guide" projects on the Internet that I know of. One of these is the
_Project Galactic Guide_, which can be reached on the Web through the
appropriate URL: <http://megadodo.com/>
- [p. 123/89] "Verence, being king, was allowed a gyrfalcon [...]"
The complex issues of class distinction in falconry apparently existed in
medieval times just as Terry describes them here. In _The Once and Future
King_, T. H. White quotes a paragraph by Abbess Juliana Berners: "An
emperor was allowed an eagle, a king could have a jerfalcon, and after
that there was the peregrine for an earl, the merlin for a lady, the
goshawk for a yeoman, the sparrow hawk for a priest, and the musket for a
holy-water clerk."
- [p. 133/97] "[...] five flavours, known as 'up', 'down', 'sideways', 'sex
appeal', and 'peppermint'."
The flavours of resons are a satire of the somewhat odd naming scheme
modern physicists have chosen for the different known quarks, namely:
'up', 'down', 'strange', 'charm', and 'beauty' (in order of discovery and
increasing mass).
Since theoretical physicists don't like odd numbers they have postulated
the existence of a sixth quark -- 'truth', which was only recently
created at FermiLab in the USA.
The beauty and truth quarks are often called 'bottom' and 'top'
respectively. In earlier times (and sometimes even now), the strange
quark was indeed called 'sideways'.
- [p. 133/97] "_resons_ [footnote: Lit: 'Thing-ies']"
In Latin 'res' does indeed mean 'thing'.
- [p. 141/103] "'You are in my kingdom, woman,' said the Queen. 'You do not
come or go without the leave of me.'"
This has echoes of another traditional ballad, this time 'Tam Lin':
"Why come you to Carterhaugh
Without command of me?
I'll come and go, young Janet said,
And ask no leave of thee"
As with some of the other folk song extracts Terry is closer to the
recorded (in this case Fairport Convention) version than to the very
early text in (say) the _Oxford Book of Ballads_.
- [p. 144/104] "'Head for the gap between the Piper and the Drummer!'"
There are several stone circles in England similar to the Dancers.
Usually, legend has it that a group of dancers, revellers, ball players,
etc. got turned to stone by the devil's trickery, for not keeping the
Sabbath, or for having too much fun, or some other awful transgression.
The Merry Maidens stone circle, with two nearby standing stones known as
the Pipers, is one such site in Cornwall; the Stanton Drew stone circles
near Bristol, the petrified remains of a wedding party that got out of
control, also include a stone circle said to be dancers with a nearby set
of stones representing the fiddlers.
- [p. 153/111] "Magrat had tried explaining things to Mrs Scorbic the cook,
but the woman's three chins wobbled so menacingly at words like
'vitamins' that she'd made an excuse to back out of the kitchen."
The technical name for vitamin C is ascorbic acid.
- [p. 163/118] "'Like the horseshoe thing. [...] Nothing to do with its
shape.'"
Granny refers to the traditional explanation for hanging horseshoes over
the door, which is that they bring luck, but only if placed with the open
side up -- otherwise the luck would just run out the bottom.
- [p. 172/125] "'Good morrow, brothers, and wherehap do we whist this merry
day?' said Carter the baker."
It is impossible to list all the ways in which the sections about the
Lancre Morris Men and the play they are performing parodies the
play-within-a-play that occurs in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_. The only
way to get full enjoyment here is to just go out and read Shakespeare.
While you're at it, pay particular attention to the names and occupations
of both Terry's and William's 'Rude Mechanicals'.
- [p. 173/125] "'And we're Rude Mechanicals as well?' said Baker the
weaver."
Baker's next three lines are "Bum!", "Drawers!" and "Belly!". These come
from a song by Flanders and Swann, which is called 'P**! P*! B****! B**!
D******!'. The first verse goes:
"Ma's out, Pa's out, let's talk rude!
Pee! Po! Belly! Bum! Drawers!
Dance in the garden in the nude,
Pee! Po! Belly! Bum! Drawers!
Let's write rude words all down the street;
Stick out our tongues at the people we meet;
Let's have an intellectual treat!
Pee! Po! Belly! Bum! Drawers!"
- [p. 174/126] "'Yeah, everyone knows 'tis your delight on a shining
night', said Thatcher the carter."
It is relevant that Thatcher is making this remark to Carpenter the
poacher, because it is a line from the chorus of an English folk song
called 'The Lincolnshire Poacher':
"When I was bound apprentice in famous Lincolnshire
Full well I served my master for more than seven year'
'Til I took up to poaching, as you shall quickly hear
Oh 'tis my delight on a shining night
In the season of the year!"
- [p. 174/126] The three paths leading from the cross-roads in the woods
are variously described as being "all thorns and briars", "all winding",
and the last (which the Lancre Morris Men decide to take) as "Ferns grew
thickly alongside it".
This echoes the poem and folk song 'Thomas the Rhymer', about a man who
followes the Queen of Elves to Elfland:
"O see ye not yon narrow road,
So thick beset wi' thorns and riers?
That is the Path of Righteousness,
Though after it but few enquires.
And see ye not yon braid, braid road,
That lies across the lily leven?
That is the Path of Wickedness,
Though some call it the Road to Heaven.
And see ye not yon bonny road
That winds about the fernie brae?
That is the Road to fair Elfland,
Where thou and I this night maun gae."
- [p. 177/128] "'But it ain't April!', neighbours told themselves [...]"
Inconsistency time! On p. 154/135 of _Witches Abroad_, Granny responds to
Nanny Ogg's intention of taking a bath with the words "My word, doesn't
autumn roll around quickly".
In subsequent discussions on the net it was postulated that Nanny's bath
habits could well be explained by taking into account the fact that the
Discworld has eight seasons (see first footnote in _The Colour of Magic_
on p. 11/11), which might result in e.g. two autumns a year. And of
course, on our world April *is* indeed a month in Autumn -- in the
southern hemisphere (don't ask me if that also holds for a Discworld,
though).
Personally, I tend to agree with Terry, who has once said: "There are
*no* inconsistencies in the Discworld books; occasionally, however, there
are alternate pasts".
- [p. 191/138] "[...] fed up with books of etiquette and lineage and
_Twurp's Peerage_ [...]"
_Burke's Peerage_ is a book that lists the hereditary titled nobility of
the British Realm (the Peers of the Realm, hence the title of the book).
It contains biographical facts such as when they were born, what title(s)
they hold, who they're married to, children, relationships to other
peers, etc. For example, under 'Westminster, Duke of' it will give
details of when the title was created, who has held it and who holds it
now.
Also, 'twerp' and 'berk' (also spelt as 'burk') are both terms of abuse,
with 'twerp' being relatively innocent, but with 'berk' coming from the
Cockney rhyming slang for 'Berkshire Hunt', meaning 'cunt'.
- [p. 191/138] "It probably looked beautiful on the Lady of Shallot, [...]"
Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote a well-known poem called _The Lady of
Shalott_ (see also e.g. Agatha Christie's _The Mirror Crack'd_). A
shallot (double l, single t), however, is a small greenish/purple
(octarine?) onion.
- [p. 193/139] "'I mean, we used to have a tradition of rolling boiled eggs
downhill on Soul Cake Tuesday, but --'"
It is in fact a Lithuanian tradition (one of many) to roll boiled eggs
downhill on Easter Sunday in a game similar to lawn bowls. The idea is to
either (1) break the other person's egg, thereby eliminating them from
the competition (although this can be risky, since your own egg may also
break) or (2) to get your egg to just hit someone else's, in which case
you win their egg. Similar traditions undoubtedly exist in many other
European countries (in fact, I'm told it is also done in some English
villages), though not in the Netherlands, where we'd be having extreme
difficulties finding a spot high enough for an egg to be rolled down from
in the first place.
- [p. 193/140] "Even these people would consider it tactless to mention the
word 'billygoat' to a troll."
This sentence used to have me completely stumped, until I discovered
(with the help of the ever helpful alt.fan.pratchett correspondents) that
this refers to a well-known British fairy tale of Scandinavian origin
called 'The Three Billygoats Gruff'.
That tale tells the story of three billygoat brothers who try to cross a
bridge guarded by, you guessed it, a mean troll who wants to eat them.
Luckily, the troll wasn't very smart, so the first two goats were able to
outwit him by passing him one at a time, each saying "Don't eat me, just
wait for my brother who's much bigger and fatter than I am". The third
goat, Big Billygoat Gruff, was big, all right. Big enough to take on the
troll and butt him off the bridge and right over the mountains far from
the green meadow (loud cheers from listening audience). So the troll was
both tricked and trounced.
- [p. 204/147] "'I'll be as rich as Creosote.'"
Creosote = Croesus. See the annotation for p. 125/113 of _Sourcery_.
- [p. 216/156] "'All the hort mond are here,' Nanny observed [...]"
Hort mond = haut monde = high society.
- [p. 226/162] "'And there's this damn cat they've discovered that you can
put in a box and it's dead and alive at the same time. Or something.'"
This is Schroedinger's cat. See also the annotation for p. 279/199.
+ [p. ???/171] "'I was young and foolish then.' 'Well? You're old and
foolish now.'"
More people than I can count have written, in the light of Terry's
fondness for They Might Be Giants, pointing out their song 'I Lost My
Lucky Ball and Chain':
"She threw away her baby-doll
I held on to my pride
But I was young and foolish then
I feel old and foolish now"
- [p. 239/172] "This made some of the _grand guignol_ melodramas a little
unusual, [...]"
Grand guignol, after the Montmartre, Paris theatre _Le Grand Guignol_, is
the name given to a form of gory and macabre drama so laboriously
horrific as to fall into absurdity.
- [p. 243/175] "'Mind you, that bramble jam tasted of fish, to my mind.' 'S
caviar,' murmured Casanunda."
Many people recognised this joke, and mentioned a variety of different
sources. Terry replied: "It's very, very old. I first heard it from
another journalist about 25 years ago, and he said he heard it on the
(wartime) radio when he was a kid. I've also been told it is a music-hall
line."
- [p. 248/178] "Quite a lot of trouble had once been caused in Unseen
University by a former Archchancellor's hat, [...]"
Refers back to certain events described more fully in _Sourcery_.
- [p. 250/180] _Jane's All The World Siege Weapons_
_Jane's_ is a well known series of books/catalogues for military
equipment of all sorts and types. There is a Jane's for aeroplanes, for
boats, etc.
- [p. 276/199] "[...] in this case there were three determinate states the
cat could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious."
This is a reference to the well-known 'Schroedinger's cat' quantum theory
thought-experiment in which a cat in a box is probabilistically killed,
leaving it in a superposition of being alive and being dead until the box
is opened and the wavefunction collapses.
- [p. 276/199] "Shawn dived sideways as Greebo went off like a Claymore
mine."
A Claymore mine is an ingenious and therefore extremely nasty device. It
is a small metal box, slightly curved. On the convex side is written
"THIS SIDE TOWARDS THE ENEMY" which explains why literacy is a survival
trait even with US marines. The box is filled with explosive and 600
steel balls. It has a tripod and a trigger mechanism, which can be
operated either by a tripwire or, when the operator doesn't want to miss
the fun, manually. When triggered, the device explodes and showers the
half of the world which could have read the letters with the steel balls.
Killing radius 100 ft., serious maiming radius a good deal more. Used to
great effect in Vietnam by both sides.
- [p. 277/199] "Green-blue blood was streaming from a dozen wounds [...]"
This is a brilliant bit of logical extrapolation on Terry's part. Since
iron is anathema to elves, they obviously can't have haemoglobin-based
red blood. Copper-based (green) blood is used by some Earth animals,
notably crayfish, so it's an obvious alternative. Of course, it was _Star
Trek_ that really made pointy-eared, green-blooded characters famous...
- [p. 285/205] "'This girl had her fiance stolen by the Queen of Elves and
she didn't hang around whining, [...]'"
A reference to the folk song 'Tam Lin', in which Fair Janet successfully
wrests her Tam Lin from the Queen of Fairies, despite various alarming
transformations inflicted on him.
- [p. 285/205] "'I'll be back.'"
Catchphrase used by Arnold Schwarzenegger in (almost) all his movies.
- [p. 287/207] "Ancient fragments chimed together now in Magrat's head."
The six lines given make up three different poems. From _The Fairies_, by
Irish poet William Allingham (1850):
"Up the airy mountain, down the rushy glen
We dare not go a-hunting for fear of little men"
From a traditional Cornish prayer:
"From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety beasties
and things that go bump in the night
Good Lord deliver us"
And finally from a traditional school girls' skipping rhyme:
"My mother said I never should
Play with the fairies in the wood
If I did, she would say
You naughty girl to disobey
Your hair won't grow, your shoes won't shine
You naughty little girl, you shan't be mine!"
- [p. 295/213] "'[...] one and six, beetle crushers! [...] one, two,
forward... bean setting!'"
This section demonstrates that Terry is not a Morris dancer himself; the
terminology isn't quite authentic enough. But "beetle crushers" is an
actual Morris step, and "bean setting" is the name of a dance and, by
extension, a name for a move used in that dance.
- [p. 298/215] "'Girls used to go up there if they wanted to get --'"
Women who wished to conceive would spend the night on the um, appropriate
bit of the Cerne Abbas Giant site in Dorset. See the annotation for p.
302/217.
- [p. 300/216] "[...] the only other one ever flying around here is Mr
Ixolite the banshee, and he's very good about slipping us a note under
the door when he's going to be about."
If you haven't read _Reaper Man_ yet, you may not realise that the reason
why Mr Ixolite slips notes under the door is that he is the only banshee
in the world with a speech impediment.
- [p. 302/217] "'They're nervy of going close to the Long Man. [...] Here
it's the landscape saying: I've got a great big tonker.'"
The Discworld's Long Man is a set of three burial mounds. In Britain
there is a famous monument called the Long Man of Wilmington, in East
Sussex. It's not a mound, but a chalk-cut figure on a hillside; the turf
was scraped away to expose the chalk underneath, outlining a standing
giant 70 meters tall. There are several such figures in England, but only
two human figures, this and the Cerne Abbas Giant.
Chalk-cut figures have to be recut periodically, which provides
opportunities to bowdlerize them. This is probably why the Long Man of
Wilmington is sexless; it was recut in the 1870s, when, presumably,
public displays of great big tonkers were rather frowned upon. However,
the other chalk-cut giant in Britain, the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, is
a nude, 55-meter-tall giant wielding a club, who has a tonker about 12
meters long, and proudly upraised. Nearby is a small earth enclosure
where maypole dancing, etc. was once held.
- [p. 305/219] "They showed a figure of an owl-eyed man wearing an animal
skin and horns."
I am told this description applies to the cave painting known as The
Sorceror (aka The Magician, aka The Shaman) in the Trois Freres cave in
Arieges, France.
- [p. 305/219] "There was a runic inscription underneath. [...] 'It's a
variant of Oggham,' she said."
Ogham is the name of an existing runic script found in the British Isles
(mostly in Ireland) and dating back at least to the 5th century. The
Pratchett Archives contain a file with more information about the oghamic
alphabet, including pictures of the individual characters.
- [p. 307/221] "'Hiho, hiho --'"
See the annotation for p. 88/73 of _Moving Pictures_.
- [p. 308/222] "'It's some old king and his warriors [...] supposed to wake
up for some final battle when a wolf eats the sun.'"
Another one of Terry's famous Mixed Legends along the lines of the
princess and the pea fairy tale in _Mort_.
The wolf bit is straight from Norse mythology. The wolf Fenris, one of
Loki's monster children, will one day break free from his chains and eat
the sun. This is one of the signs that the Goetterdaemmerung or Ragnarok
has begun, and at this point the frost giants <<Who presumably have
*still* not returned the Gods' lawnmower>> will cross the Rainbow Bridge
and fight the final battle with the gods of Asgard and the heroes who
have died and gone to Valhalla. See the last part of Richard Wagner's
Ring cycle for details.
The sleeping king is one of the oldest and deepest folk-myths of western
culture, some versions of the popular legend even have King Arthur and
his warriors sleeping on the island of Anglesea. For more information,
see e.g. the section about the Fisher King in Frazer's _The Golden
Bough_, Jessie Weston's _From Ritual To Romance_ and all the stuff that
this leads into, such as Elliot's _The Wasteland_ and David Lodge's
_Small World_.
- [p. 316/227] "The place looked as though it had been visited by Genghiz
Cohen."
Much later, in _Interesting Times_, we learn that Cohen the Barbarian's
first name is, in fact, Genghiz.
With respect to the original pun on Genghiz Kahn, Terry says:
"As a matter of interest, I'm told there's a kosher Mongolian restaurant
in LA called Genghiz Cohen's. It's a fairly obvious pun, if your mind is
wired that way."
- [p. 316/227] "Queen Ynci wouldn't have obeyed..."
The ancient warrior queen Ynci is modelled on Boadicea (who led a British
rebellion against the Romans). Boadicea's husband was the ruler of a
tribe called the Iceni, which is almost Ynci backwards.
- [p. 321/231] "...I think at some point I remember someone asking us to
clap our hands..."
From J. M. Barrie's _Peter Pan_:
[...] [Tinkerbell the Fairy] was saying that she thought she could get
well again if children believed in fairies. [...] "If you believe,"
[Peter Pan] shouted to them, "clap your hands; don't let Tink die."
- [p. 324/233] "'Millennium hand and shrimp.'"
One of the truly frequently asked questions on alt.fan.pratchett is
"Where does this phrase come from?" (Foul Ole Ron also uses it, in _Soul
Music_.)
The answer concerns Terry's experiments with computer-generated texts:
"It was a program called Babble, or something similar. I put in all kinds
of stuff, including the menu of the Dragon House Chinese take-away
because it was lying on my desk. The program attempted to make 'coherent'
phrases (!) out of it all."
One of the other things Terry must have fed it were the lyrics to the
song 'Particle Man' by They Might Be Giants (see the annotation for p.
264/199 of _Soul Music_):
"Universe man, universe man
Size of the entire universe man
Usually kind to smaller men, universe man
He's got a watch with a minute hand
A millennium hand, and an eon hand
When they meet it's happyland
Powerful man, universe man."
- [p. 328/236] "'I've got five years' worth of _Bows And Ammo_, Mum,' said
Shawn."
In our world there is a magazine _Guns And Ammo_; this appears to be the
Discworld equivalent.
- [p. 328/236] Shawn's speech.
Shawn's speech is a parody of the 'St Crispin's Day' speech in
Shakespeare's _King Henry V_. See also the annotation for p. 239/303 of
_Wyrd Sisters_.
- [p. 329/236] "[...] imitate the action of the Lancre Reciprocating Fox
and stiffen some sinews while leaving them flexible enough [...]"
And this one is from the even more famous 'Once more unto the breach'
speech, also from _King Henry V_:
"Then imitate the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon
up the blood."
- [p. 341/245] "'Ain't that so, Fairy Peaseblossom?'"
One of the fairies in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ is called Peasblossom.
In itself this is not very interesting, but it is directly relevant when
you consider the point Granny is trying to make to the Elf Queen.
- [p. 350/252] "The King held out a hand, and said something. Only Magrat
heard it. Something about meeting by moonlight, she said later."
In _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ (act 2, scene 2), Oberon, King of the
Fairies, says to Titania, Queen of the Fairies (with whom he has a kind
of love/hate relationship): "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania".
- [p. 353/253] "'You know, sir, sometimes I think there's a great ocean of
truth out there and I'm just sitting on the beach playing with... with
*stones*.'"
This paraphrases Isaac Newton. The original quote can be found in
Brewster's _Memoirs of Newton_, Volume II, Chapter 27:
"I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to
have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself
in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than
ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before
me."
- [p. 363/261] "'Go ahead, [...] bake my quiche.'"
Clint Eastwood's _Dirty Harry_ again, another satire of the line which
also inspired "FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC" (see the annotation for p. 51/48 of
_Guards! Guards!_).
- [p. 364/261] "'On with the motley. Magrat'll appreciate it.'"
"On with the motley" is a direct translation of the Italian "Vesti la
giubba" which is the first line of a famous aria from the opera _I
Pagliacci_. (Operatic arias are usually known by their first line or
first few words). It is the bitter aria in which the actor Canio laments
that he must go on stage even though his heart is breaking, and climaxes
with the line 'Ridi Pagliaccio'.
- [p. 367/264] "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, especially simian
ones. They are not all that subtle."
Definitely a Tolkien reference this time. See the annotation for p.
183/149 of _Mort_.
There is a version frequently seen on the net in people's .signatures,
which I am sure will have Terry's full approval. It runs: "Do not meddle
in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will piss on your
computer".
- [p. 371/267] "'My great-grandma's husband hammered it out of a tin bath
and a couple of saucepans.'"
On a.f.p. the question was asked why, if Magrat's armour was fake and not
made of iron at all, was it so effective against the Elves? Terry
answers:
"A tin bath isn't made out of tin. It's invariably galvanised iron -- ie,
zinc dipped. They certainly rust after a while."
- [p. 382/274] "[...] he called it _The Taming Of The Vole_ [...]"
Shakespeare again, of course. A vole is a small animal, somewhat similar
to a shrew.
MEN AT ARMS
- Starting with "Men at Arms", the word 'Discworld' appeared on the
copyright page with a 'registered trademark' symbol appended to it.
When asked if this indicated a tougher policy against possible copyright
infringements, Terry replied:
"Discworld and some associated names are subject to various forms of
trademark, but we don't make a big thing about it. We've had to take some
very gentle action in the past and the trademarking is a precautionary
measure -- it's too late to do it when you're knee-deep in lawyers. There
will be a computer game next year, and possibly a record album. We have
to do this stuff.
But -- I stress -- it's not done to discourage fans, or prevent the
general usage of Discworld, etc, in what I'd loosely call fandom. By now
afp readers ought to know that. It's been done so that we have a decent
lever if there's a BIG problem."
- Someone complained on the net that the picture of the Gonne on the back
cover of _Men at Arms_ gives away too much information about the story.
Terry replied:
"Hmm. We wondered about the cover 'giving away half the plot' and decided
to go with it -- especially since Josh got the Gonne exactly right from
the description. But I'd say it's pretty obvious VERY early in the book
what sort of thing we're dealing with. That's what distinguishes a
'police procedural' from a mystery; after all, you know from the start
whodunit in a Columbo plot, but the fun is watching him shuffle around
solving it his way..."
- [cover] On the cover, Josh Kirby draws Cuddy without a beard, even though
it is mentioned many times in the text that he has one.
- [p. 8/6] "But Edward d'Eath didn't cry, for three reasons."
De'ath is an existing old English name. The De'aths came over with
William the Conqueror, and tend to get very upset if ignorant peasants
pronounce their name... well, you know, instead of 'Dee-ath' as it's
supposed to be pronounced.
- [p. 12/8] "'[...] an iconograph box which, is a thing with a brownei
inside that paints pictures of thing's, [...]'"
Kodak's first mass-produced affordable camera was called the "box
brownie". A brownie is also the name of a helpful type of goblin. And we
all know how cameras work on the Discworld...
- [p. 20/14] "'Twurp's P-eerage,' he shouted."
Burke's Peerage. See the annotation for p. 191/138 of _Lords and Ladies_.
- [p. 20/15] "'My nurse told me,' said Viscount Skater, 'that a *true* king
could pull a sword from a stone.'"
Arthurian legend, Holy Grail, that kind of stuff.
- [p. 24/18] "Silicon Anti-Defamation League had been going on at the
Patrician, and now --"
Cf. the real life Jewish Anti-Defamation League.
- [p. 25/18] "[...] the upturned face of Lance-Constable Cuddy, with its
helpful intelligent expression and one glass eye."
Columbo had a glass eye (or rather, Peter Falk, who played the part, had
one). And he was rather short.
- [p. 29/22] "'Oh, _nil desperandum_, Mr Flannel, _nil desperandum_,' said
Carrot cheerfully."
"Nil desperandum" is a genuine old Latin phrase, still occasionally in
use, meaning "don't despair".
- [p. 44/33] "'Remember when he was going to go all the way up to
Dunmanifestin to steal the Secret of Fire from the gods?' said Nobby."
Reference to Prometheus, who gave fire to man and got severely shafted
for it by the previous owners. See also the annotation for p. 131/107 of
_Eric_.
- [p. 44/33] "Fingers-Mazda, the first thief in the world, stole fire from
the gods."
The name 'Fingers-Mazda' puns on Ahura-Mazda, or Ormuzd, the Zoroastrian
equivalent of God.
- [p. 46/34] "'Remember,' he said, 'let's be careful out there.'"
The desk sergeant in _Hill Street Blues_ used to say this in each episode
of the TV series, at the end of the force's morning briefing.
- [p. 49/37] "'Morning, Mr Bauxite!'"
Bauxite is the name of the rock that contains aluminium ore. I have fond
memories of this red-coloured rock, because I grew up in a country
(Suriname) whose economy depended entirely upon bauxite and aluminium.
- [p. 54/41] "Mr Morecombe had been the Ramkins' family solicitor for a
long time. Centuries, in fact. He was a vampire."
In other words: a bloodsucking lawyer, right?
- [p. 56/42] "[...] turn in their graves if they knew that the Watch had
taken on a w--"
Only funny the second time you read the book, because it is then that you
realise that the first time every reader will have gotten this wrong...
- [p. 62/47] "'No one ever eats the black pudding.'"
Not very surprising at the Assassin's Guild: black pudding is made with
blood.
- [p. 64/47] "Captain Vimes paused at the doorway, and then thumped the
palm of his hand on his forehead. [...] 'Sorry, excuse me -- mind like a
sieve these days -- [...]'"
Acting like a bumbling fool, making as if to leave, then smacking his
head, 'remembering' something in the doorway, and unleashing an absolute
killer question is exactly how TV Detective Columbo always drives his
suspects to despair.
- [p. 72/54] "'NEITHER RAIN NOR SNOW NOR GLOM OF NIT CAN STAY THESE
MESSENGERS ABOT THIER DUTY'"
This paraphrases the motto of the US postal service: "Neither snow nor
rain nor heat nor gloom of night stay these couriers from the swift
completion of their appointed rounds".
In Tom Burnam's _More Misinformation_ it is explained that this quote by
Herodotus is not really the official motto of the Postal service, since
there is no such thing. But it is a quote that is inscribed on the
General Post Office building in New York, and has been construed as a
motto by the general populace. It refers to a system of mounted postal
couriers used by the Persians when the Greeks attacked Persia, around 500
BC.
- [p. 76/57] Capability Brown.
Lancelot 'Capability' Brown (1715-1783) actually existed, and was a well
known landscape gardener and architect. His nickname derived from his
frequent statement to prospective employers that their estates held great
"capabilities". The existence of Sagacity Smith and Intuition De Vere
Slave-Gore must be questioned, at least in this particular trouser-leg of
time.
- [p. 77/58] "It contained the hoho, which was like a haha only deeper."
A haha is a boundary to a garden or park, usually a buried wall or
shallow ditch designed not to be seen until closely approached.
I'm told there's a rather nice haha at Elvaston Castle just outside
Derby. From the house there appears to be an unobstructed vista into the
distance, despite the presence of the main road to Derby crossing the
field of view about 200 yards away. Unfortunately, when the house was
designed, they hadn't invented double-decker buses or lorries, so the
effect is a bit spoilt by the sudden appearance of the top half of a bus
going past from time to time.
- [p. 88/66] "'I think perhaps Lance-Constable Angua shouldn't have another
go with the longbow until we've worked out how to stop her... her getting
in the way.'"
The Amazons of legend had a famously cutting way of solving this
particular problem...
- [p. 94/71] "There's a bar like it in every big city. It's where the
coppers drink."
Quite stereotypical of course, but the bar from the TV series _Hill
Street Blues_ is the one that I was immediately reminded of.
- [p. 94/71] "'That's three beers, one milk, one molten sulphur on coke
with phosphoric acid --'"
Phosphoric acid is in fact an ingredient of Coca Cola. It's part of the
0.5 % that isn't water or sugar.
- [p. 94/71] "'A Slow Comfortable Double-Entendre with Lemonade.'"
There is an existing cocktail called a 'Slow Comfortable Screw', or, in
its more advanced incarnation, a 'A Long Slow Comfortable Screw Up
against the Wall'.
This drink consists of Sloe Gin (hence the 'slow'), Southern Comfort
(hence the 'comfortable'), Orange Juice (which is what makes a
screwdriver a screwdriver and not merely a bloody big vodka; hence the
'screw'), a float of Galliano (which is in a Harvey Wallbanger; hence the
'up against the wall'), served in a long glass (hence... oh, work it out
for yourself).
- [p. 113/85] "[...] or a hubland bear across the snow [...]"
Scattered across the Discworld canon are numerous little changes in
terminology to reflect the Discworld's unusual setup, and this is one of
the more elegant ones, since there obviously can't be polar bears on the
Disc...
- [p. 115/86] The Duke of Eorle.
Duke, Duke, Duke of Earl. Of doo-wop fame.
- [p. 115/87] "One of the thoughts jostling for space was that there was no
such thing as a humble opinion."
Terry has admitted that the Duke of Eorl's conversational style was a bit
of a dig at the way discussions on the net are typically held. People
posting to Usenet newsgroups will often prefix even the most dogmatic
monologues or megalomaniacal statements with the words "In my humble
opinion...", in a (usually futile) attempt to render themselves
invulnerable to criticism. The qualifier is used so often on the net that
it even has its own acronym: 'IMHO', so you won't have to type so much
when you use it.
- [p. 116/88] "[...] that bastard Chrysoprase, [...]"
Webster's defines chrysoprase as an applegreen variety of chalcedony,
used as gem, but literally from the Greek words 'chrusos', gold and
'prason', leek. Chalcedony is a semi-precious blue-gray variety of
quartz, composed of very small crystals packed together with a fibrous,
waxy appearance.
Note how both the 'gold' etymology and the 'waxy appearance' perfectly
match Chrysoprase's character as the rich, suave, uptown Mafia-troll.
Chrysoprase already appears (off-stage) on p. 179/178 of _Wyrd Sisters_,
but his name is spelled 'Crystophrase' there.
- [p. 127/96] "'What can you make it?' Carrot frowned. 'I could make a
hat,' he said, 'or a boat. Or [...]'"
This may be far-fetched, but *exactly* the same joke appears in the 1980
movie _Airplane!_ (renamed _Flying High_ in some countries).
- [p. 130/98] "[...] a toadstool called Phallus impudicus, [...]"
This mushroom actually exists. The Latin name translates quite literally
to "Shameless penis". In English its common name is "Stinkhorn fungus",
and it has been described to me as a large, phallus-shaped, pallid,
woodland fungus smelling very strongly of rotten meat, and usually
covered with flies. "Once experienced, never forgotten", as my source
puts it.
Another mushroom expert subsequently mailed me a long, detailed
description of the toadstool's appearance, which I'm not going to include
here. Suffice it to say that it's full of phrases like "yellow, glutinous
goo", "the head exudes a black slime" and "I've smelled these from 50
paces on a still day".
And no, the _Phallus Impudicus_ is not edible.
- [p. 135/102] "A lot of equipment had been moved away, however, to make
room for a billiard table. [...] 'My word. Perhaps we're adding just the
right amount of camphor to the nitro-cellulose after all --'"
In reality, nitro-cellulose (also known as guncotton) is an extremely
explosive substance that was discovered by people trying to make
artificial ivory for billiard balls. Camphor is nicely flammable in its
own right.
- [p. 136/103] "'Oh well. Back to the crucible."
As well as being alchemist-speak for 'back to the drawing board' (a
crucible is a container used in high-temperature melting), there is also
the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield where the World Snooker Championships
are played.
- [p. 137/104] "'Haven't you seen his portrait of the Mona Ogg. [...] The
teeth followed you around the room. Amazing.'"
It can easily be observed that the Mona Lisa's *eyes* follow one around
the room; Leonardo da Vinci supposedly achieved this by using some
mysterious painting technique that only the greatest of painters are
capable of. But as Tom Burnham explains in his _Dictionary of
Misinformation_: "The eyes-that-follow-you trick is a simple one, used by
innumerable artists in everything from posters to billboards."
- [p. 143/108] "'Brother Grineldi did the old heel-and-toe trick [...]'"
Joseph (Joey) Grimaldi was a famous English clown and pantomime of the
19th century. He was so influential and instrumental in creating the
modern concept of the clown that circus clowns are still called "Joeys"
after him.
- [p. 150/113] "Possibly, if you fought your way through the mysterious old
coats hanging in it, you'd break through into a magical fairyland full of
talking animals and goblins, but it'd probably not be worth it."
Reference to the children's classic _The Lion, The Witch and the
Wardrobe_ by C. S. Lewis. See also the annotation for p. 22/22 of
_Sourcery_.
- [p. 153/116] "I'm on the path, he thought. I don't have to know where it
leads. I just have to follow."
This is almost a direct quote from a scene in _Twin Peaks_:
Cooper: God help me, I don't know where to start.
Hawk: You're on the path. You don't need to know where it leads.
Just follow.
- [p. 155/117] Zorgo the Retrophrenologist.
For a while I thought we had finally found a troll whose name wasn't
mineral-related, but no: zorgite is a metallic copper-lead selenide,
found at Zorge, in the German Harz Mountains.
- [p. 157/119] "'It's Oggham,' said Carrot."
See the annotation for p. 305/219 of _Lords and Ladies_.
- [p. 157/119] "Soss, egg, beans and rat 12p. Soss, rat and fried slice
10p. [...]"
People keep seeing a Monty Python reference in this, because they are
reminded of the "Eggs, bacon, beans and spam..." sketch.
But Terry says: "It's not really Python. Until recently transport cafes
always had menus like that, except that 'Chips' was the recurrent theme.
I used to go to one where you could order: Doublegg n Chips n Fried
Slice, Doublegg n Doublechips n Doublebeans n Soss...
..and so on...
The key thing was that you couldn't avoid the chips. I think if anyone'd
ever ordered a meal without chips they'd have been thrown out.
Note for UK types: this place was the White Horse Cafe at Cherhill on the
A4. Probably just a memory. It wasn't far from where some famous rock
star lunched himself in his car, although, come to think of it, not on
chips."
- [p. 159/120] Some people on a.f.p. indicated that they had difficulty
understanding just what the Gargoyle was saying, so here is a translation
into English of his side of the dialogue:
"Right you are."
"Cornice overlooking broadway."
"No."
"Ah. You for Mister Carrot?"
"Oh, yes. Everyone knows Carrot."
"He comes up here sometimes and talks to us."
"No. He put his foot on my head. And let off a firework.
I saw him run away along Holofernes Street."
"He had a stick. A firework stick."
"Firework. You know? Bang! Sparks! Rockets! Bang!"
"Yes. That's what I said."
"No, idiot! A stick, you point, it goes BANG!"
- [p. 159/120] "[...] the strangest, and possibly saddest, species on
Discworld is the hermit elephant."
Our real world's hermit crab (which can be found on islands like Bermuda)
behaves similarly: it has no protective shell of its own, so it utilises
the shells of dead land snails. The reason why the hermit crab is one of
the sadder species in our world as well is given in Stephen Jay Gould's
essay 'Nature's Odd Couples' (published in his collection _The Panda's
Thumb_): the shells that form the crabs' natural habitat are from a
species of snail that has been extinct since the 19th century. The hermit
crabs on Bermuda are only surviving by recycling old fossil shells, of
which there are fewer and fewer as time goes on, thus causing the hermit
crab to become, slowly but surely, just as extinct as the snails.
- [p. 162/123] "'He also did the Quirm Memorial, the Hanging Gardens of
Ankh, and the Colossus of Morpork.'"
The last two items are equivalents of two of our world's 'seven wonders
of antiquity': the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Colossus of Rhodes.
The Quirm memorial is less obvious. Perhaps Mausoleus' Tomb?
There is also a similarity between the Colossus of Morpork and the
sequence in Rob Reiner's 1985 movie _This Is Spinal Tap_ where a
Stonehenge menhir, supposedly 30' high, is constructed to be 30" high,
and ends up being trodden on by a dwarf.
- [p. 163/124] "[...] the kind of song where people dance in the street and
give the singer apples and join in and a dozen lowly match girls suddenly
show amazing choreographical ability [...]"
Terry is probably just referring to a generic stage musical stereotype
here, but the production number mentioned most frequently by my
correspondents as fitting the context is 'Who Will Buy?' from _Oliver!_,
a musical version of Charles Dickens' _Oliver Twist_.
- [p. 168/127] "'Some in rags, and some in tags, and one in a velvet
gown... it's in your Charter, isn't it?'"
This comes from the nursery rhyme _Hark! Hark!_. The Mother Goose version
goes:
"Hark! Hark! The dogs do bark,
The beggars are coming to town;
Some in rags, some in tags,
And some in velvet gown."
_Opies' Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes_ gives the last two lines as:
"Some in rags, some in jags,
And one in a velvet gown."
Terry's household nursery rhyme book must strike a balance between these
two versions. The rhyme is said to be about the mob of Dutchmen that
William of Orange brought over with him to England in 1688, with the "one
in a velvet gown" being the Prince himself. Or else it is a reference to
Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, forcing monks to beg on the
streets for a living. Take your pick.
- [p. 171/130] "'A sixteen, an eight, a four, a one!'"
This makes perfect sense: since trolls have silicon brains, naturally
they'd think in binary. Every number, no matter how large can be
represented in binary (29, for instance, is 11101; sixteen plus eight
plus four plus one). Cuddy is therefore absolutely right when he points
out to Detritus: "If you can count to two, you can count to anything!"
- [p. 172/131] "'That,' said Vimes, 'was a bloody awful cup of coffee,
Sham.' [...] 'And a doughnut'."
This entire scene is a loose parody of David Lynch's cult TV series _Twin
Peaks_, where the protagonists are forever eating doughnuts and drinking
"damn fine coffee".
- [p. 173/131] "'And give me some more coffee. Black as midnight on a
moonless night."
In one of the early _Twin Peaks_ episodes, Agent Cooper praises the
coffee at the Great Northern Hotel, and is very precise in ordering
breakfast, specifying the way the bacon etc. should be cooked and asking
for a cup of coffee which is "Black as moonlight on a moonless night".
Although the waitress at the Hotel is considerably less inclined to
nitpick than Sham Harga, she also makes a comment along the lines of
"That's a pretty tough order".
- [p. 175/133] "'[...] clown Boffo, the *corpus derelicti*, [...]'"
"Corpus delicti" is a Latin phrase meaning the victim's body in a murder
case.
- [p. 176/133] "The whole nose business looked like a conundrum wrapped up
in an enigma [...]"
Paraphrase of a famous quote by Winston Churchill, referring to Russia:
"It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there
is a key."
+ [p. 179/135] "'He went into Grope Alley!'"
Terry has confirmed that Grope Alley is based on Threadneedle Street in
the City of London, which used to be the haunt of prostitutes and hence
rejoiced in the name 'Gropecunte Lane' -- its modern name is just a more
euphemistic way of putting things. It's the site of the Bank of England.
Some would consider this to be appropriate.
There's also a Grope Alley in Shrewsbury, getting its name from the Tudor
buildings on either side almost meeting each other at roof level, causing
one to have to grope along.
- [p. 184/139] "'The word 'polite' comes from 'polis', too. It used to mean
proper behaviour from someone living *in* a city.'"
As far as I can tell this is utter and total balderdash. 'Policeman'
indeed comes from 'polis', but 'polite' comes from the Latin 'polire', to
polish.
- [p. 185/140] "Vimes had believed all his life that the Watch were called
coppers because they carried copper badges, but no, said Carrot, it comes
from the old word *cappere*, to capture."
This, however, appears to be true, according to Brewer's, who says that
it is "more likely" that 'copper' derives from 'cop' (instead of the
other way around!), as in the verb 'to cop something', which indeed comes
from the Latin 'capere', to take.
- [p. 189/143] "He pushed his hot food barrow through streets broad and
narrow, crying: 'Sausages! Hot Sausages! Inna bun!'"
From the folk song 'Molly Malone':
"In Dublin's fair city
Where the maids are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
She wheels her wheel-barrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying 'cockles and mussels alive alive-o'"
I am told that the statue that was put up in Dublin in honour of Molly
was such an artistic failure, that it is now fondly known by the
Dubliners as "The Tart with the Cart".
- [p. 192/145] "'I call it a flapping-wing-flying-device, [...] It works by
gutta-percha strips twisted tightly together.'"
This time, Leonard has invented the rubber-band-powered model aeroplane.
- [p. 193/146] "[...] wondering how the hell he came up with the idea of
pre-sliced bread in the first place."
From the saying (of inventions): "the greatest thing since sliced bread".
- [p. 194/146] "'My cartoons,' said Leonard. 'This is a good one of
the little boy with his kite stuck in a tree,' said Lord Vetinari."
The reference to Charlie Brown's struggle against the kite-eating tree in
Charles M. Shultz's comic strip _Peanuts_ will be obvious to most
readers, but perhaps not everyone will realise that in Leonardo da
Vinci's time a cartoon was also a full-size sketch used to plan a
painting.
- [p. 197/149] "'They do things like open the Three Jolly Luck Take-away
Fish Bar on the site of the old temple in Dagon Street on the night of
the Winter solstice when it also happens to be a full moon.'"
I'm rather proud of figuring this one out, because I really hadn't a clue
as to *why* this Fish Bar would be such a bad idea. Then it occurred to
me to look up the word 'Dagon'. Webster's doesn't have it, but luckily
Brewer saves the day, as usual: 'Dagon' is the Hebrew name for the god
Atergata of the Philistines; half woman and half fish.
It was actually a Dagon temple that the biblical Samson managed to push
down in his final effort to annoy the Philistenes (Judges 16:23, "Then
the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great
sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god
hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.")
After including this annotation in earlier editions of the APF, there
have been numerous e-mails from people pointing out that H. P. Lovecraft
also uses the entity Father Dagon as the leader of the Deep Ones in some
of his horror stories. Terry has confirmed, however, that the inspiration
for his Dagon goes back to the original source, not Lovecraft's
incarnation.
- [p. 203/153] "[...] Dibbler, achieving with his cart the kind of getaway
customarily associated with vehicles that have fluffy dice on the
windscreen [...]"
Take an old, battered car of the type that the Waynes and Kevins of our
world (boyfriends to Sharon and Tracey -- see the annotation for p.
106/95 of _Reaper Man_) often drive -- a Ford Cortina or Capri is the
usual candidate in the UK. Respray it metallic purple. Some go-faster
stripes, possibly a la 'Starsky and Hutch' may be appropriate at this
time. Plaster rear window with car stickers in dubious taste: "Passion
wagon -- don't laugh it could be your daughter inside", "My other car is
a Porsche", or even: "I <heart> Ankh-Morpork". Advanced students might
like to experiment with a stick-on cuddly Garfield in the rear window.
Put in stretch seat-covers, preferably in luminous pink fur. Add a
Sun-strip, possibly with the names of the owner and 'His bird' on them
(so they can remember where to sit presumably). Hang a pair of fluffy
dice from the rear-view mirror. *That* kind of vehicle.
- [p. 205/155] "'Chrysoprase, he not give a coprolith about that stuff.'"
Coprolith = a fossilised turd.
- [p. 209/158] "'He say, you bad people, make me angry, you stop toot
sweet.'"
"Toute suite" = immediately. One of the few bits of French that the
typical Brit is said to remember from schooldays.
- [p. 210/158] "'C. M. O. T. Dibbler's Genuine Authentic Soggy Mountain
Dew,' she read."
Terry is not referring to Mountain Dew, the American soft drink, but is
using the term in its original meaning, as a colloquialism for whisky --
particularly, the homemade 'moonshine' variety.
- [p. 218/165] VIA CLOACA
The major sewer in ancient Rome, running down into the Tiber, was called
the Cloaca Maxima. Anything with 'Via' in its name would have been a
street or road. The Cloaca Maxima was actually a tunnel.
- [p. 235/178] "[...] huge scrubbing brushes, three kinds of soap, a
loofah."
Loofah is a genus of tropical climbing plant bearing a fruit, the fibrous
skeleton of which is used for scrubbing backs in the bath.
- [p. 238/180] "'Hi-ho -- '-- hi-ho --' 'Oook oook oook oook ook --'"
The dwarvish hiho-song. See the annotation for p. 88/73 of _Moving
Pictures_.
- [p. 239/181] "'He said "Do Deformed Rabbit, it's my favourite",' Carrot
translated."
Running gag. See also the annotation for p. 226/162 of _Small Gods_.
- [p. 251/190] "'All right, no one panic, just stop what you're doing, stop
what you're doing, please. I'm Corporal Nobbs, Ankh-Morpork City Ordnance
Inspection City Audit -- [...] Bureau ... Special ... Audit ...
Inspection.'"
Nobby is imitating Eddie Murphy. Terry explains:
"Almost a trademark of the basic Murphy character in a tight spot is to
whip out any badge or piece of paper that looks vaguely official and
simply gabble official-sounding jargon, which sounds as if he's making it
up as he goes along but nevertheless browbeats people into doing what he
wants. As in:
'I'm special agent Axel Foley of the Special ... Division ... Secret ...
Anti-Drugs ... Secret ... Undercover ... Taskforce, that's who I am, and
I want to know right now who's in charge here, right now!'
Cpl Nobbs uses this technique to get into the Armoury in M@A."
- [p. 252/191] "'Have you got one of those Hershebian twelve-shot bows with
the gravity feed?' he snapped. 'Eh? What you see is what we got,
mister.'"
This is straight from _The Terminator_. Arnold says to the gun shop
owner: "Have you got a phase plasma rifle in the 40 watt range?" and the
shopkeeper responds: "Hey, just what you see, pal".
- [p. 255/193] "'Oh, wow! A Klatchian fire engine! This is more *my*
meteor!'"
Perhaps obvious, but this *really* had me puzzled until I realised that
'meteor' refers back to Sgt Colon's use of the French word 'metier' a few
pages back...
By the way: you really need to have a twisted mind to come up with a fire
engine that *literally* *is* a fire engine!
- [p. 257/195] "'No sir! Taking Flint and Morraine, sir!'"
These two trolls first appeared as actors in _Moving Pictures_.
As far as their names go, Flint is obvious, but I had to look up
Morraine: Webster spells it with one 'r', and defines it as "the debris
of rocks, gravel, etc. left by a melting glacier".
An e-mail correspondent subsequently pointed out to me that Webster's
definition is lacking, because (a) the spelling with two r's *is* valid,
and (b) morraine is *unstratified* debris only. If it were stratified it
would be called esker or kame, which are of course fluvioglacial products
rather than just glacial.
Hey, don't look at me -- I'm just the messenger...
- [p. 258/196] "Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse
the darkness."
From the old saying: "It is better to light a candle than curse the
darkness".
- [p. 258/196] "'Lord Vetinari won't stop at sarcasm. He might use' --
Colon swallowed -- '*irony*.'"
This reminded many correspondents of Monty Python's 'Dinsdale' sketch:
Vercotti: I've seen grown men pull their own heads off rather than see
Doug. Even Dinsdale was frightened of Doug.
Interviewer: What did he do?
Vercotti: He used sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony,
metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and satire.
Presenter: By a combination of violence and sarcasm the Piranha brothers,
by February 1966, controlled London and the South East.
- [p. 263/200] "'I mean, I don't mean well-endowed with *money*.'"
Very obvious, but still: it is the conventional stereotype that both
under-sized males as well as black males are 'better-endowed' than white
males. Hence the joke: 'What is fifteen inches long and white?' Answer:
'Nothing'.
- [p. 268/203] "'Shall we be off... Joey, wasn't it? Dr Whiteface?'"
Another Grimaldi reference. See the annotation for p. 143/108.
- [p. 269/204] "'All those little heads...'"
Clowns' faces are trademarked and cannot be copied by any other clown
(unlike clothes or a specific act). If you are a clown, you can send a
photograph of your face to the Clown and Character Registry, where the
face is then painted on a goose egg (a tradition dating back to the
1500s) and stored.
- [p. 277/210] "'Stuffed with nourishin' marrowbone jelly, that bone,' he
said accusingly."
All through the 1960s and 1970s, TV commercials for Pal ("Prolongs Active
Life") dog food used to claim that it contained "nourishing marrowbone
jelly", and showed an oozing bone to prove it.
- [p. 279/212] "Gonnes don't kill people. People kill people."
Slogan of the US National Rifle Association.
- [p. 284/216] "'It's Bluejohn and Bauxite, isn't it?' said Carrot."
More troll names. For Bauxite see the annotation for p. 49/37. Bluejohn
is another one I had to look up, and again I was saved by Brewer's,
because Webster's doesn't have it. Blue John is "A petrifaction of blue
fluor-spar, found in the Blue John mine of Tre Cliff, Derbyshire; and so
called to distinguish it from the Black Jack, an ore of zinc. Called John
from John Kirk, a miner, who first noticed it.".
Brewer's may not have the final word on this, however. A correspondent
tells me that Blue John is actually derived from a rock called
'Bleu-Jaune' (blue-yellow) because of its mixed colouring. This rock was
originally named in French either because it was first found shortly
after the Norman invasion or because the buyers were primarily French.
- [p. 285/216] "'Remember, every lance-constable has a field-marshal's
baton in his knapsack.'"
"Every French soldier carries in his cartridge-pouch the baton of a
marshal of France." Said originally by Napoleon, though of course he
would have pronounced it as "Tout soldat francais porte dans sa giberne
le baton de mere'chal de France."
Note that on p. 297/226 Detritus repeats the phrase as "You got a
field-marshal's button in your knapsack", while on p. 302/230 Cuddy
creatively manages "You could have a field-marshal's bottom in your
napkin".
- [p. 287/218] "'Only two-er things come from Slice Mountain! Rocks...
an'... an'...' he struck out wildly, 'other sortsa rocks! What kind
*you*, Bauxite?'"
Detritus in drill sergeant mode replays a scene from _An Officer and a
Gentleman_, in which sergeant Foley (played by Louis Gossett, Jr) has a
conversation with a new recruit along the lines of: "Where're you from?"
"Oklahoma, sir!" "They only have two things in Oklahoma, queers and
steers. Which one are you?"
If anyone can supply me with an exact transcription of this scene, I'd be
most obliged.
- [p. 295/224] "'You just shut up, Abba Stronginthearm!'"
One of the members of the legendary Swedish pop group Abba was Bjorn
Ulvaeus. Obviously, by Discworld logic, if Bjorn is a typical dwarf name,
so is Abba. Not to mention the 'Bjorn Again' pun Death makes on p. 82/62:
Bjorn Again is the name of an Australian band with a repertoire that
consists entirely of Abba covers.
- [p. 295/224] "'Aargh! I'm too short for this shit!'"
A phrase originating from US forces slang during the Vietnam war, where
the tour of duty was fixed so the 'grunts' knew exactly how long, to the
day, until they were due back in 'the world'. A short timer was one who
didn't have long to go and therefore didn't want to put himself at undue
risk -- hence "I'm too short for this shit".
Another popular reference to this expression is "I'm too old for this
shit", a catchphrase for Danny Glover's character in the _Lethal Weapon_
series of movies.
Terry adds:
"'I'm too short for this shit' is a line that has appeared in at least
two grunt movies. I had intended Cuddy to use it in the sewers..."
- [p. 305/232] "'I thought you rolled around on the floor grunting and
growing hair and stretching,' he whimpered."
Reference to the famous werewolf transformation scenes in the 1981 horror
movie _An American Werewolf in London_.
- [p. 307/234] "'So we're looking for someone else. A third man.'"
A reference to the film _The Third Man_. Terry says:
"It may be that there is a whole generation now to whom The Third Man is
just a man after the second man. And after all, it wasn't set in Vienna,
Ohio, so it probably never got shown in the US :-)"
The book contains a couple of other resonances with _The Third Man_. In
the film, the British, French, American and Russian occupation troops in
Vienna patrol the city in groups of four, one from each country, to keep
an eye on each other. Carrot sends the Watch out in similar squads of a
human, a dwarf and a troll. The final chase through the sewers under the
city also mirrors the film.
- [p. 313/238] "'As I was a-walking along Lower Broadway, [...]'"
Terry says: "While there are 789456000340 songs beginning "As I was
a-walking...", and I've probably heard all of them, the one I had in mind
was 'Ratcliffe Highway'."
'Ratcliffe Highway' (a version which can be found on the album _Liege &
Lief_ by Fairport Convention) starts out:
"As I was a-walking along Ratcliffe Highway,
A recruiting party came beating my way,
They enlisted me and treated me till I did not know
And to the Queen's barracks they forced me to go"
- [p. 317/241] "'Hand off rock and on with sock!'"
The Discworld version of an old army Sgt Major yell to get the troops up
in the morning: "Hands off cocks, on with socks!".
- [p. 318/242] "'We're a real model army, we are'"
The New Model Army, besides supplying the name for a Goth group, was the
Parliamentarian army which turned the tide of the English Civil War, and
ensured the defeat of King Charles I.
- [p. 321/244] "'Yes, sir. Their cohorts all gleaming in purple and gold,
sir.'"
Lord Byron, _The Destruction of Sennacherib_:
"The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold...
The sheen of his spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee."
A cohort is not an item of clothing or armour but a division of the old
Roman Army: the tenth part of a legion, 300 to 600 men.
- [p. 325/246] "[...] Fondel's 'Wedding March' [...]"
Fondel = Haendel.
- [p. 325/247] "'[...] it's got the name B.S. Johnson on the keyboard
cover!'"
Johann Sebastian Bach's initials are 'JSB', which is 'BSJ' backwards, and
Bach was of course also involved in organ music. But Terry has mentioned
numerous times (not just on-line but also in _The Discworld Companion_)
that he did not choose the name with this intention at all.
- [p. 332/252] "'Who would have thought you had it in you,' said Vimes,
[...]"
Shakespeare. See the annotation for p. 227/226 of _Wyrd Sisters_.
- [p. 341/258] "'Detritus! You haven't got *time* to ooze!'"
"I ain't got time to bleed!" is a line from _Predator_, another Arnold
Schwarzenegger action movie.
- [p. 345/262] "It was important to ensure that rumours of his death were
greatly exaggerated."
Paraphrase of a famous quip Mark Twain cabled to Associated Press after
they had reported his demise.
- [p. 357/271] "_Cling, bing, a-bing, bong..._"
The scene with Vimes' watch mirrors the movie _For a Few Dollars More_.
All the way through this film, the bad guy has been letting a watch
chime, telling his victims to go for their gun when the chimes stop (of
course he always draws first and kills them). At the end of the film his
victim is Lee van Cleef, and just as the watch chimes stop, Clint
Eastwood enters with another watch, chiming away, to ensure Lee gets his
chance and all is well.
Terry says: "[...] when the play of Men At Arms was done a couple of
months ago, [Stephen Briggs]'s people actually went to the trouble of
getting a recording of the 'right' tune for the watch.
It was interesting to hear the laughter spread as people recognised
it..."
- [p. 365/277] "'They call me *Mister* Vimes,' he said."
In the Sidney Poitier movie _In the Heat of the Night_ the most famous
line (and indeed the name of the sequel) is Poitier saying "They call me
*Mister* Tibbs."
- [p. 371/281] "'Would he accept?' 'Is the High Priest an Offlian? Does a
dragon explode in the woods?'"
Is the Pope Catholic? Does a bear shit in the woods?
- [p. 373/283] "'Like a fish needs a... er... a thing that doesn't work
underwater, sir.'"
From the quip (attributed to feminist Gloria Steinem): "A woman without a
man is like a fish without a bicycle." Note that the bicycle is not known
on the Discworld to anybody but the Patrician and Leonard of Quirm. And
they don't know what it is.
SOUL MUSIC
- [cover] The cover of _Soul Music_ bears more than a passing resemblance
to the cover of the album _Bat out of Hell_ by Meatloaf, one of the 70s
best-selling rock albums.
- [p. 8/5] "This is also a story about sex and drugs and Music With Rocks
In."
For anyone living in a cave: the classic phrase is "sex and drugs and
rock 'n' roll".
- [p. 8/5] "Well... ...one out of three ain't bad."
With the many Meatloaf references in _Soul Music_ it is perhaps no
surprise many people think they've spotted another one here, namely to
the ballad 'Two Out of Three Ain't Bad' on _Bat out of Hell_.
But in this case both Terry and Meatloaf are simply using a normal
English phrase that's been around for ages. There is no connection.
- [p. 9/7] "A dark, stormy night."
"It was a dark and stormy night" has entered the English language as
*the* canonical opening sentence for bad novels. Snoopy in _Peanuts_
traditionally starts his novels that way, and Terry and Neil used it on
p. 11/viii of _Good Omens_ as well.
I never knew, however, that the phrase actually has its origin in an
existing 19th century novel called _Paul Clifford_ by Edward George Earle
Bulwer-Lytton. Someone kindly mailed me the full opening sentence to that
novel, and only then did I understand how the phrase came by its bad
reputation:
"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents -- except at
occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which
swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling
along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps
that struggled against the darkness."
There even exists a Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, in which people try to
write the worst possible opening sentences for imaginary novels. The
entries for the 1983 edition of the contest were compiled by Scott Rice
in a book titled, what else, _It Was a Dark and Stormy Night_. I am told
that there were at least three such compilations released.
- [p. 13/10] "It was always raining in Llamedos."
Llamedos is 'sod em all' backwards. This is a reference to the town of
Llareggub in Dylan Thomas' short prose piece _Quite Early One Morning_.
That story was later expanded into _Under Milk Wood_, a verse play
scripted for radio. In that version the name of the town was changed to
the slightly less explicit Llaregyb.
Apart from that, Llamedos is instantly recognisable to the British as the
Discworld version of Wales. The double-l is a consonant peculiar to the
Celtic language (from which Welsh is descended), hence also Buddy's habit
of doubling all l's when he speaks.
- [p. 14/10] "[...] a fizzing fuse and Acme Dynamite Company written on the
side."
Acme is an often used 'generic' company name in American cartoons.
Particularly, most of the ingenious technical and military equipment Wile
E. Coyote uses in his attempts to capture the Roadrunnner is purchased
from Acme.
One of my proofreaders tells me he has a Pink Floyd _Dark Side of the
Moon_ t-shirt manufactured by ACME. Make of that what you will.
- [p. 14/11] "The harp was fresh and bright and already it sang like a
bell."
Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode' is, with the possible exception of
'Louie, Louie', the greatest rock 'n roll song of all time. It begins:
"Way down Louisiana close to New Orleans,
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens...
There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood,
Where lived a country boy name of Johnny B. Goode...
He never ever learned to read or write so well,
But he could play the guitar like ringing a bell."
- [p. 17/13] "WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT? SERIOUSLY? WHEN YOU GET RIGHT DOWN TO
IT?"
This philosophical question was of course first posed by none other than
the famous Ephebian philosopher Didactylos, in _Small Gods_.
- [p. 20/15] "As far as looks were concerned, Susan had always put people
in mind of a dandelion on the point of telling the time."
To begin with, in order to understand the dandelion reference, read the
annotation for p. 10/10 of _The Light Fantastic_.
Next, many people on a.f.p. have been wondering if Susan was perhaps
based on somebody specific, especially since Terry describes her
appearance in such great detail. Various candidates were suggested,
ranging from Neil Gaiman's Death (from his _Sandman_ stories) to Siouxsie
Sioux (singer for the Goth band Siouxsie and the Banshees), to Dr Who's
granddaughter.
Terry replied:
"As far as I'm aware, the Death/Dr Who 'coincidences' are in the mind of
the beholders :-) Death can move through space and time, yes, but that's
built in to the character. I made his house bigger on the inside than the
outside so that I could have quiet fun with people's perceptions -- in
the same way that humans live in tiny 'conceptual' rooms inside the
vastness of the 'real' rooms. Only Death (or those humans who currently
have Death-perception) not only sees but even experiences their full
size."
"I have, er, noticed on signing tours that (somewhere between the age of
ten and eighteen) girls with names like Susan or Nicola metamorphose into
girls with names like Susi, Suzi, Suzie, Siouxsie, Tsuzi, Zuzi and Niki,
Nicci, Nikki and Nikkie (this is in about the same time period as boys
with names like Adrian and Robert become boys with names like Crash and
Frab). This is fine by me, I merely chronicle the observation. I've
always had a soft spot for people who want to redesign their souls.
She got the name because it's the one that gets the most variation, and
got the hairstyle because it's been a nice weird hairstyle ever since the
Bride of Frankenstein. She's not based on anyone, as far as I know --
certainly not Neil's Death, who is supercool and by no means a
necronerd."
I agree with Terry about Neil's Death. She's a babe. Go read the books.
- [p. 25/19] "I REMEMBER EVERYTHING. [...] EVERY LITTLE DETAIL. AS IF IT
HAPPENED ONLY YESTERDAY."
Jim Steinman is the song-writing and production genius behind rock star
Meatloaf. In 1977 he wrote the all-time classic 'Paradise by the
Dashboard Light', which opens with the lines:
"Well, I remember every little thing
as if it happened only yesterday.
Parking by the lake
And there was not another car in sight"
In 1981, Steinman recorded the album _Bad For Good_ by himself (he either
had a falling out with Meatloaf or the latter had voice problems at the
time -- the story is not clear on this point; but in any case Steinman
had originally intended the album as a Meatloaf project, but eventually
decided to use his own vocals). On that album appeared a song (soliloquy,
really), called 'Love and Death and an American Guitar', which begins
similar to 'Paradise', but quickly goes off in an *entirely* different
direction:
"I remember every little thing
as if it happened only yesterday.
I was barely seventeen
and I once killed a boy with a Fender guitar"
When _Soul Music_ came out, it immediately became a question of utmost
importance (no, I don't know why, either) to Pratchett annotators all
over the world to find out whether Terry based Death's outburst on the
original Meatloaf track, or on the later Steinman song.
Eventually, somebody attended a book signing and asked Terry then and
there. The answer: Terry's source was Jim Steinman's own version of the
song.
I suppose I might as well mention the rest of the story while I'm at it,
or else my mailbox will start filling up again: in 1993, Steinman and
Meatloaf finally teamed up together again and recorded the album _Bat out
of Hell II -- Back to Hell_. The track called 'Wasted Youth' turned out
to be a re-recording of 'American Guitar', but it is still recited by Jim
Steinman himself.
- [p. 26/20] "I MAY BE SOME TIME, said Death."
Terry *likes* this quote -- it's the third time he's used it. See also
the annotations for p. 258/226 of _Reaper Man_ and p. 236/170 of _Small
Gods_.
- [p. 28/21] "'You know salmon, sarge' said Nobby. 'It is a fish of which I
am aware, yes.'"
A parody of the History Today sketches by Newman & Baddiel, where two old
professors use a discussion on history to insult each other. These often
started with a similar style of exchange along the lines of: "Do you know
the industrial revolution?" "It is a period of history of which I am
aware, yes".
- [p. 30/22] "'Are you elvish?'"
The way everyone keeps asking Imp if he's elvish resonates with our
world's 'are you sure you're not Jewish?', but it's of course also a play
on the name 'Elvis', which eventually leads to the joke explained in the
annotation for p. 376/284.
- [p. 31/23] "'Lias Bluestone,' said the troll [...]"
See the annotation for p. 103/86 of _Moving Pictures_.
- [p. 31/23] "'Imp y Celyn,' said Imp."
This gets pretty much spelled out in the text: "Imp y Celyn" is a Welsh
transliteration of 'Bud of the Holly', i.e. Buddy Holly. Terry originally
mentioned this name on alt.fan.pratchett without giving the explanation.
It took the group quite a while to figure it out, but luckily there are
some Welsh people on the Internet...
- [p. 31/24] "'Glod Glodsson,' said the dwarf."
As his name indicates, Glod Glodsson is the son of the irritable dwarf
Glod we learned about earlier in the footnotes for _Witches Abroad_.
- [p. 33/25] "[...] what you would get if you extracted fossilized genetic
material from something in amber and then gave it a suit."
What Terry means is that Mr Clete is a bit reptile-like. The reference is
to the blockbuster novel/movie _Jurassic Park_, in which various
murderous lizards were brought to life using prehistoric DNA found in
amber-fossilized mosquitoes.
- [p. 35/27] "'Gimlet? Sounds dwarfish.'"
"Gimlet, son of Groin" is a dwarf appearing in the well known National
Lampoon parody _Bored of the Rings_ by the famous Dutch author Tolkkeen
with four M's and a silent Q. The original dwarf being, um, lampooned
here is of course Tolkien's Gimli, son of Gloin.
In the Discworld canon, this is the first time Gimlet makes an actual
on-stage appearance, though he has been mentioned a number of times
before, most notably in _Reaper Man_ (see the annotation for p. 31/30 of
that book).
- [p. 36/27] "'Give me four fried rats.' [...] 'You mean rat heads or rat
legs?' 'No. Four fried rats.'"
This is a spoof of the restaurant scene in _The Blues Brothers_. Jake
orders "Four fried chickens and a coke", and the waitress (Aretha
Franklin) asks him whether he'd like chicken wings or legs, etc. Even the
"best damn fried rat in the city" is a direct paraphrase of a Blues
Brothers quote.
- [p. 36/27] "'And two hard-boilled eggs,' said Imp. The others gave him an
odd look."
This is partly a continuation of the Blues Brothers reference (after Jake
asks for the fried chickens, Elwood asks for two slices of dry toast),
and at the same time a nod to the Marx Brothers. In the cabin scene from
_A Night at the Opera_, Groucho is giving his order to the steward
outside the cabin; Chico is calling out "And two hard boiled eggs!" from
inside, Groucho repeats it to the steward, then Harpo honks his horn and
Groucho says "Make that three hard boiled eggs." This happens several
times, with Groucho ordering a multi-course meal in between. At one point
Harpo adds a second honk, in a different pitch, and Groucho adds, "And
one duck egg." At the end Harpo produces a long series of honks in
assorted tones, and Groucho says to the steward, "Either it's foggy out,
or make that a dozen hard boiled eggs."
- [p. 38/29] "'I won that at the Eisteddfod,' said Imp."
The eisteddfod is a real Welsh concept, originally a contest for poets
and harpists. Nowadays, I'm told, it is more of a generic arts and crafts
fair/contest, and it has spread as far as Australia, where the annual
Rock Eisteddfod, according to one of my correspondents, is one of the
most entertaining and highly competitive interschool activities around.
- [p. 69/52] "The Hogfather is said to have originated in the legend of a
local king [...] passing [...] the home of three young women and heard
them sobbing because they had no food [...]. He took pity on them and
threw a packet of sausages through the window."
This recalls the legend of the original (Asiatic) St Nicholas, bishop of
Myra in what is now Turkey, who threw a bag of gold (on three separate
occasions) through the window of a poor man with three daughters, so the
girls would have dowries, saving them from having to enter lives of
prostitution.
I don't know about other countries, but in the Netherlands we still
celebrate St Nicholas' day (on December 5th) rather than Christmas. Let
me rephrase that. We *do* celebrate Christmas, but we have no tradition
of a fat man in a red suit going ho-ho-ho while delivering presents.
Instead, we get St Nicholas ('Sinterklaas'), who also wears red, and
comes over from Spain each year (don't ask) to ride a white horse (not
named Binky, as far as I know) over the rooftops and drop presents down
the chimneys.
- [p. 43/33] "Just a stroke of the chalk..."
I'm not sure if it warrants an annotation, but I was fairly puzzled by
this bit when I first read _Soul Music_. Only on re-reading did it dawn
on me that what Terry is trying to tell us here is that chalked on the
guitar is the number '1'. This will turn out to be rather significant,
later on.
- [p. 46/35] "'You're not going to say something like "Oh, my paws and
whiskers", are you?' she said quietly."
The White Rabbit in _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_: "'The Duchess!
The Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur and whiskers!'".
Terry doesn't like the Alice books very much, though. See also the _Words
From The Master_ section in Chapter 5.
- [p. 47/36] "[...] 'Shave and a haircut, two pence' [...]
Bam-bam-a-bambam, bamBAM."
'Shave and a haircut, two bits' is a classic rock 'n' roll rhythm (used
in just about everything Bo Diddley did, for instance). It was most
recently reintroduced to the public as a punchline to a joke in the movie
_Who Framed Roger Rabbit_.
- [p. 48/37] _A-bam-bop-a-re-bop-a-bim-bam-boom._
A-wap-ba-ba-looba-a-wap-bam-boom, one of rock 'n roll's most famous
phrases, from Little Richard's 'Tutti Frutti'.
- [p. 50/38] "'[...] oh, you're a raven, go on, say the N word...'"
The N word is, of course, 'Nevermore' from Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven'.
See also the annotation for p. 217/191 of _Reaper Man_.
- [p. 55/42] "The wizard who thought he owned him called him Quoth, [...]"
The line from 'The Raven' fully goes: "Quoth the raven 'Nevermore'."
Quoth the Raven -- get it?
- [p. 56/42] "Lunch was Dead Man's Fingers and Eyeball Pudding, [...]"
Terry explains that this is "based on the UK tradition of giving horrible
names to items on the school menu, such as Snot and Bogey Pie. Eyeball
Pudding was usually semolina, Dead Men's Fingers are sausages. At least,
they were at my school, and friends confirm the general approach."
- [p. 56/42] "Miss Butts [...] practised eurhythmics in the gym."
Eurhythmics is an existing but little-known form of movement therapy
(usually to music), which is also where pop band The Eurythmics got their
name (both spellings of the word are valid).
- [p. 63/48] "There's a floral clock in Quirm. It's quite a tourist
attraction."
A flower display common in the more genteel and down-at-heel seaside
resorts in the shape of a clock face, with the design of the face picked
out in flowering plants of different colours. The more clever ones use
flowers which open and close at different times of day, thus in principle
allowing the time to be told by looking at the flowers. The less subtle
ones just have a clock mechanism buried in the middle, and big hands.
- [p. 69/52] "There's a song about him. It begins: You'd Better Watch
Out..."
The real world equivalent of this song is of course 'Santa Claus is
Coming to Town'. I just *love* how Terry completely reverses the meaning
of that song's opening line, without changing a single word.
- [p. 71/54] "Behind it, in the turf, two fiery hoofprints burned for a
second or two."
I have received I don't know how many e-mails pointing out that this
resonates with the burning tire tracks left by the time-travelling
DeLorean in the film _Back to the Future_.
- [p. 74/56] "[...] the sky ahead of her erupted blue for a moment. Behind
her, unseen because light was standing around red with embarrassment
[...]"
Binky is obviously going *very* fast, since the visible light in front of
him is blue-shifted and behind him red-shifted, something normally only
associated with astronomical objects.
- [p. 75/57] "The Soul Cake Tuesday Duck didn't apparently have any kind of
a home."
The Discworld equivalent of the Easter Bunny. See also the annotation for
p. 193/139 of _Lords and Ladies_.
- [p. 79/59] "[...] C. H. Lavatory & Son [...]"
It is a curious but true fact that we owe the modern flush toilet as we
know it to a Victorian gentleman by the name of Thomas Crapper. Mr
Lavatory is obviously his Discworld counterpart.
And before I start getting mail about it: no, Crapper didn't really
invent the flush toilet himself, but he made several improvements to the
design (shades of James Watt here, see the annotation for p. 175/153 of
_Reaper Man_), and he certainly sold a lot of them to the British army.
For more information about Thomas Crapper, read Cecil Adams' _More of the
Straight Dope_.
- [p. 81/61] "'What d'you call this, then, Klatchian mist?'"
The British expression this refers to is 'Scotch mist', used to describe
things that persist in being present or existing despite statements to
the contrary. For example:
Worker A: "Someone's buggered off with me three-eighths Gripley!"
Worker B: (holding up three-eighths Gripley allegedly buggered-off
with by person or persons unknown)
"What's this then? Scotch mist?"
- [p. 91/69] "'Normal girls didn't get a My Little Binky set on their third
birthday!'"
My Little Pony is a toy aimed at young girls: a small plastic pony (in
bright pink, or blue, etc.) with long hair which you can (allegedly) have
endless fun combing.
- [p. 98/73] "'You mean like... *Keith* Death?'"
I doubt very much if this is a true reference, but when I saw this I
couldn't help thinking: Keith Richards always looks like Death. No reason
why Death shouldn't look like a Keith, is there?
- [p. 103/77] "'Er,' she said, 'ANYONE HERE BEEN KILLED AND CALLED VOLF?'"
_Anyone Here Been Raped And Speak English?_ was the British title of a
book about newspapers' foreign correspondents by Edward Behr, who also
wrote _The Last Emperor_. In the US this book was released under the name
_Behrings_.
The phrase refers to a story concerning a BBC journalist in a refugee
camp in the Belgian Congo. He was investigating some of the atrocities
being committed there, and was looking for a victim to interview.
Unfortunately he didn't have a translator and the victims only spoke
French. Finally in desperation the journalist wandered through the camp
calling out "Anyone here been raped and speak English?".
- [p. 104/78] "'Hi-jo-to! Ho! Hi-jo-to! Ho!'"
This is from Wagner's opera _Die Walkuere_. I don't have to explain what
valkyries are, do I?
- [p. 109/82] "[...] at war with Hersheba and the D'regs [...]"
The name D'regs is not only a pun on 'dregs', but also refers to the
Tuaregs, a nomadic Berber tribe in North Africa. The Tuaregs are also the
desert marauders who attack Fort Zinderneuf in the movie _Beau Geste_.
The name 'Hersheba' (a pun on 'Hershey Bar') is something that Terry came
up with in 1992 on a.f.p., when he was more or less thinking out loud
about the many people who didn't get the Djelibeybi reference (see the
annotation for p. 17/17 of _Sourcery_):
"[...] say Djelibeybi OUT LOUD -- I must have had twenty letters (and one
or two emails) from people who didn't twig until the third time round...
oh god... do they have them in the US? Should it have been called
Emmenemms, or Hersheba... hmm, Hersheba... could USE that, yes, little
country near Ephebe..."
- [p. 109/82] "IS THIS THE KLATCHIAN FOREIGN LEGION?"
I'll just let Terry himself handle this one:
"Just so we don't get a zillion postings about cartoon films and comics
and movies that _Soul Music_ has been copied from: the whole Klatchian
Foreign Legion bit has its roots in 'Beau Geste', which was *the* Foreign
Legion movie. It must be one of the most parodied, echoed and copied
movies of all time -- it was so influential that it is probably where
most people's ideas of the FFL originate."
- [p. 112/84] "There was a riot going on."
This line is a fairly cliche rock 'n roll text fragment. It is used in
quite a few songs, most notably in 'Riot in Cell Block #9', a song that
has been performed by everybody from Dr Feelgood to the Blues Brothers.
_There's A Riot Goin' On_ is also the name of a famous 1971 funk album by
Sly and the Family Stone.
- [p. 116/88] "[...] the Vox Humana, the Vox Dei and the Vox Diabolica."
The Vox Humana is an existing organ stop (to be precise: a reed-type stop
with a short resonator, common in baroque organs), and so is the Vox
Angelicii. But my sources are divided as to whether the Vox Dei actually
exists. About the Vox Diabolica everyone is in perfect agreement: ain't
no such thing, and never was.
- [p. 116/88] "He raised his hands."
The Librarian powering up the organ resonates with the scene in which
Marty McFly turns on Doc Brown's guitar amplifier in _Back to the
Future_.
- [p. 117/89] "[...] except the legendary harp of Owen Mwnyy [...]"
Owen Mwnyy is pronounced as 'Owing Money' (in Welsh, the 'w' is a vowel,
pronounced as a 'u'). Also, Owen Myfanwy was a Welsh folk hero, and of
course all Welsh folk heroes are dab hands with the harp, which is the
Welsh national musical instrument.
- [p. 120/90] "'Cliff? Can't see anyone lasting long in *this* business
with a name like *Cliff*'."
A reference to Cliff Richard -- see the annotation for p. 48/45 of
_Johnny and the Dead_.
- [p. 121/91] "'Moving around on your seat like you got a pant full of
ant.'"
James Brown, the Godfather of Soul: 'I've got Ants in my Pants and I want
to Dance.'
- [p. 122/92] "They've got one of those new pianofortes [...]' 'But dat
sort of thing is for big fat guys in powdered wigs."
Johann Sebastian Bach was invited to Potsdam for the very purpose of
trying out King Frederic of Prussia's new pianofortes.
- [p. 123/93] "... the beat went on ..."
'The Beat Goes On' is a song by Sonny Bono (yes, the dude who used to be
married to Cher).
- [p. 126/95] "'Hello, hello, hello, what is all this... then?' he said
[...]"
Stereotypical British policeman's phrase. See the annotation for p. 60/55
of _Guards! Guards!_.
- [p. 127/95] "'He can't stop us. We're on a mission from Glod.'"
"We're on a mission from God" is perhaps the most famous quote from the
_Blues Brothers_ movie.
- [p. 131/98] "'As soon as he saw the duck, Elmer knew it was going to be a
bad day.'"
A nice double reference. To begin with, the cartoons Terry is referring
to here are Gary Larson's _Far Side_ cartoons (which I can highly
recommend. Just try to avoid the collections published after 1990 or so.
They're not that bad, but the earlier ones are significantly better).
Second, there are the eternal cartoon conflicts between Elmer Fudd,
hunter, and Daffy Duck, duck. Usually, when Elmer meets Daffy, it *will*
turn out to be a bad day for him.
- [p. 134/101] "Along the Ankh with Bow, Rod and Staff with a Knob on the
End"
This title certainly *sounds* as if it is a reference to something, but
Terry says it is only so in general terms. There used to be dozens of
travel books with names like "Along the [fill in river] with [gun and
camera, rod and line, etc]", usually written by retired Victorian army
men.
- [p. 135/101] "'Blert Wheedown's Guitar Primer,' he read."
Blert Wheedown puns on Bert Weedon, famous for his many "play in a day"
guitar primers, which are mainly bought by doting but slightly out of
touch grandmothers for grandsons who'd rather have "The Death Metal book
of three chords using less than three fingers".
- [p. 140/105] "[...] when Mr Hong opened his takeaway fish bar on the site
of the old temple in Dagon street?"
For a full explanation of Mr Hong's tragic fate, see the annotation for
p. 197/149 of _Men at Arms_.
- [p. 142/107] "'We call him Beau Nidle, sir.'"
Beau Nidle = Beau Geste + bone idle.
- [p. 146/110] "There was a path, though. It led across the fields for half
a mile or so, then disappeared abruptly."
This would be a good description of _Wheatfield with Crows_ by Van Gogh,
who took his own life shortly after finishing this painting.
- [p. 151/114] "Her mother's favourite dish had been Genocide by
Chocolate."
'Death by Chocolate' is an existing dish, as well as a chain of
restaurants in New Zealand and Australia.
- [p. 152/114] "MORPHIC RESONANCE, he said, [...]"
Another reference to Rupert Sheldrake's theories. See the annotation for
p. 54/45 of _Mort_.
- [p. 161/121] "The next table was occupied by Satchelmouth Lemon [...]"
Louis Armstrong's nickname was Satchmo, which was short for Satchelmouth.
The 'Lemon' part of the name also ties in with black artists by way of
the legendary bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson.
- [p. 162/122] "She was quite attractive in a skinny way, Ridcully thought.
What was the tomboy word? Gammon, or something."
Gammon is the lower end of a side of bacon. What Ridcully is thinking of
is the word 'gamine', which does have the same meaning as tomboy.
- [p. 163/123] "'It looks like a spike at the front and a duck's arse,
excuse my Klatchian, at the back.'"
"Duck's arse" is, in fact, the correct name for this type of fifties'
rock 'n roll haircut.
"Excuse my French" is a euphemism, said after swearing.
- [p. 169/127] "'A song about Great Fiery Balls. [...] Couldn't really make
out the words, the reason bein', the piano exploded.'"
Jerry Lee Lewis used to set fire to his piano using gasoline while
playing his immortal 'Great balls of Fire'.
- [p. 173/130] "[...] much later on, on the day when the music died, [...]"
The day of the infamous plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, the Big
Bopper and Ritchie Valens all in one go is commonly referred to as "the
day the music died". Years later, Don McLean would immortalise the phrase
even further in his song 'American Pie', but that song is definitely
*not* the original source.
- [p. 173/130] "Ridcully was going to say, oh, you're a rebel, are you,
what are you rebelling against, and he'd say... he'd say something pretty
damn memorable, that's what he'd do!"
In the 1954 movie _The Wild One_, starring Marlon Brando as Johnny, the
following exchange occurs:
Girl in a bar: So Johnny, what're you rebelling against?
Johnny: What've you got?
- [p. 173/130] "'mumblemumblemumble', said the Dean defiantly, a rebel
without a pause."
The name of the classic movie is _Rebel Without A Cause_. Starring
James... Dean.
- [p. 174/131] Song Titles.
'Don't Tread On My New Blue Boots' is Carl Perkins' 'Blue Suede Shoes',
'Good Gracious Miss Polly' is Little Richard's 'Good Golly Miss Molly'
and 'Sto Helit Lace' is the Big Bopper's 'Chantilly Lace'.
- [p. 174/131] "'That bit where you said "hello, baby",' he said. 'Why'd
you do that?'"
'Chantilly Lace' begins with The Big Bopper treating us to his half of a
telephone conversation with the young lady in question. It starts: Helll-
(then drop about an octave) -lllllo (then up a little bit) ba- (huge
glissando up the scale, beyond where he started) aaaaaaaaaaybeeeee!
- [p. 183/138] [...] LIVE FATS DIE YO GNU [...]
After James Dean's legendary motto: "Live fast, die young, leave a good
looking corpse."
- [p. 184/139] "'Adrian Turnipseed, Archchancellor.'"
This is probably just a coincidence, but Donald Turnupseed was the driver
of the car that collided with James Dean in the crash that killed him.
Donald was only slightly hurt.
- [p. 188/141] "It took him and Gibbsson, the apprentice, [...]"
That's of course Gibson, of guitar-building fame.
- [p. 190/144] "'I'll throw in the space between the strings for free,
OK?'"
Another Blues Brothers reference. When Elwood and Jake are buying their
instruments from 'Ray's Music Exchange', Ray Charles makes the comment
about the electric piano that he'll "throw in the black notes for free".
- [p. 192/144] "'[...] if anyone comes in and tries to play [...] Pathway
to Paradise [...] he's to pull their head off."
'Pathway to Paradise' is the Discworld version of Led Zeppelin's rock
anthem 'Stairway to Heaven'.
The song's characteristic guitar riff is so often played in music shops
that the patrons get really fed up with it, so it's quite common to see
"No Stairway" signs, or in the case of one particular shop in Denmark
Street, London, a sign saying: "Anyone who uses the instruments here to
play 'Stairway To Heaven', 'Paranoid' or 'Smoke On The Water' should
seriously consider whether they have a future in rock and roll."
- [p. 193/145] "'They say there's a background noise to the universe? A
sort of echo of some sound? [...] It wouldn't have to be very loud. It'd
just have to be everywhere, all at once.'"
What Ponder tries to describe corresponds to our universe's cosmic
blackbody microwave radiation, which is indeed a uniform background
radiation, spanning all frequencies and coming with the same intensity
from every part of the sky at every time of the day in every season. The
explanation for this phenomenon is that it is radiation originating with
the Big Bang that started our universe.
- [p. 196/147] "*This* scene took place in Crash's father's coach house,
but it was an echo of a scene evolving all around the city."
Placing them in the coach house is a reference to the "garage band"
phenomenon.
- [p. 198/149] "'The Cavern!'"
The Cavern was the name of the night club in Liverpool where the Beatles
played their first performance. It is worth noting that in _The Streets
of Ankh-Morpork_ we can see that The Cavern is located on Quarry Lane.
This not only recalls 'Penny Lane', but before the Beatles became the
Beatles, they called themselves the Quarrymen.
- [p. 198/149] "Gorlick and Hammerjug were songwriters, [...]"
A reference to the musical composers Rogers and Hammerstein, who wrote
the songs for _The Sound of Music_ (amongst many other musical scores).
Note also that 'stein' is a word the English (not the Germans) use for
'jug'.
- [p. 198/150] "Except the one about Hiho."
The Hiho song is first mentioned in _Moving Pictures_; see the annotation
for p. 88/73 of that book.
- [p. 199/150] "'And me an' my friends can walk towards you with our hats
on backwards in a menacing way, Yo!'"
Rat music = rap music.
- [p. 200/151] "Troll gambling is even simpler than Australian gambling.
One of the most popular games is One Up, [...]"
Two-up is an Australian form of gambling played extensively by Australian
soldiers during both World Wars. Although generally illegal outside of
licensed casinos, it can now be played in country towns during some local
festivals.
Professional games are controlled by at least one 'boxer', who collects a
'rake-off' or commission from all winners. Bets may be placed either
between players, or to cover the 'centre', representing the 'spinner's'
stake. The spinner must back heads, and other players must back tails.
Side bets may back either.
Two coins are placed on a 'kip' (a flat piece of wood), and the spinner
tosses them in the air. If the coins don't spin properly or if they land
one head and one tail, it is classed a 'no-throw' and all bets stand. If
both coins land heads or both tails, bets are resolved. Players take
turns as spinner and may continue to throw so long as they show heads.
The spinner begins to collect winnings only after throwing three heads;
subsequently, he may retire or place more bets. However, if the spinner
'dooks them' by throwing three *successive* heads, the boxer takes a
percentage (usually about 10%).
There are a bunch of other conventions, such as calling "Come in,
spinner" before each throw, and variations in the betting between
casinos. I'm told that although the odds favour the house (as usual), the
spinner's odds are better than other players'.
- [p. 201/152] "'I hired you a helper. [...] Meet Asphalt.'"
In the music scene, the person performing the same tasks for a band as
Asphalt does is called a roadie. His name is therefore quite appropriate.
- [p. 205/154] "'Bee There Orr Bee A Rectangular Thyng', said Cliff."
The phrase is, of course: Be There Or Be Square.
- [p. 207/156] "''S called Insanity,' said Asphalt."
Puns on the name of the British pop group Madness.
- [p. 208/157] "'It says BORN TO RUNE,' said Crash, [...]"
A combination of the 'Born to Rule' slogan, and Bruce Springsteen's
anthem 'Born to Run'.
- [p. 209/157] "'That's a bodacious audience,' said Jimbo."
This may well be a reference to the movie _Bill & Ted's Excellent
Adventure_, where the two protagonists use this word repeatedly. Later
on, Crash also says 'Excellent!', another catchphrase from the movie.
- [p. 219/165] "'[...] would they remember some felonious monk or shout for
Glod Glodsson?'"
One of my favourite Pratchett puns ever. Thelonious Monk is one of our
world's most highly regarded jazz musicians (though he played the piano,
not the horn -- you'd want Miles Davis for that).
- [p. 220/166] "'Cavern Deep, Mountain High?' said Glod."
'River Deep Mountain High', by many considered Phil Spector's last Great
Production, for Ike and Tina Turner.
- [p. 222/167] "'It's the Gritz for *you*!'"
That's the Ritz in our world.
- [p. 233/175] "Si non confectus, non reficiat."
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." See the annotation for the Discworld
mottos in _The Discworld Companion_.
- [p. 235/177] "[...] a small, greyish-brown mongrel dog [...] sat peering
into the box for a while."
A reference to the famous 'His Master's Voice' logo for the RCA records.
The dog is probably Gaspode.
- [p. 237/178] "'You tellin' me ants can count?' 'Oh, no. Not individual
ants...'"
An excellent explanation of the anthill as a metaphor for intelligence
can be found in Douglas R. Hofstadter's _Goedel, Escher, Bach_.
- [p. 239/180] "'I know a golem. Mr Dorfl down in Long Hogmeat.'"
See the annotation for p. 234/204 of _Reaper Man_. Incidentally, 'long
pig' is a name for human meat (we are supposed to taste like pork).
Dorfl will turn up later in _Feet of Clay_.
- [p. 242/182] "'Are you the Watch?' Glod bowed. 'No, ma'am. We're
musicians.'"
The _Blues Brothers_ again. See the annotation for p. 122/107 of _Witches
Abroad_.
- [p. 243/183] "'And this one?' he said. 'It'll make the world end and the
sky fall on me if I give it a tootle, will it?' 'Interesting you should
say that,' said the old lady'."
In other words, the untarnished trumpet is actually the biblical last
trump, which signals the end of the world.
- [p. 245/184] "'There were eight of them, led by... um... Cantaloupe.'"
That's Calliope. A cantaloupe is a kind of melon. Note that in our
world's classical mythology there were *nine* muses. On the Discworld,
this of course becomes eight. For another example of this mechanism in
action, see the annotation for p. 122/101 of _Eric_.
- [p. 252/190] "'That's mexical, that is. They put the worm in to show how
strong it is.'"
A piece of typical Discworld lexical confusion here: the name of the
drink (and of the associated drug) is *mescal*, the country it comes from
is Mexico. And yes, mescal is the original drink that has a worm at the
bottom of the bottle.
- [p. 254/191] "'A-wrong-wrong-wrong-wrong, a-do-wrong-wrong,' said the
other two maids."
The maids' chorus and the beehives are like those of the girl groups of
the sixties; this quote itself is similar to the background vocals in the
Crystals' 'Da Doo Ron Ron'.
- [p. 258/194] "[...] someone who sat on a wall and required royal
assistance to be put together again."
Terry means Humpty Dumpty, from the famous children's rhyme ("All the
king's horses and all the king's men / Couldn't put Humpty together
again."). From the description he gives it is clear that he is
specifically referring to Humpty as he was portrayed by Tenniel in the
illustrations for Lewis Carroll's _Through The Looking Glass_.
- [p. 263/198] "'So you want to be Music With Rocks In stars, do you?'
'Yes, sir!' 'Then listen here to what I say...'"
From The Byrds' 'So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star':
"So you want to be a rock and roll star?
Then listen now to what I say.
Just get an electric guitar
Then take some time
And learn how to play.
And with your hair swung right,
And your pants too tight
It's gonna be all right."
- [p. 264/199] "'We're Certainly Dwarfs', said Dibbler. 'Yes, that might
work.'"
Terry is a fan of a fairly obscure band (in Europe at least -- in America
they are a bit better known) called They Might Be Giants (he has
mentioned on a.f.p. that their 'Where your Eyes don't Go' is the scariest
song he's ever heard -- not that scary is a word I'd normally associate
with TMBG, mind you, but then I don't know that particular song).
Anyway, 'We're Certainly Dwarfs' appears to be the Discworld answer to
this group, or at least to their name, and it may be amusing to know that
the name was first suggested to Terry by a.f.p. reader Mike Berzonsky,
during an early discussion about Discworld popular music. Mike wrote, way
back in february 1993:
"Totally off the subject, this came to me last night. Terry's covered
tons of stuff, but other than metamorphizing tapes in _Good Omens_,
little on Rock n Roll. Since he's a fan of TMBG, maybe a dwarvish rock
band, 'No, We Really Are Dwarves'. Since rock is so central to dwarf
life, it makes sense to me that they'd have a band, although I understand
that rich dwarves hire trolls to bang on anvils, so maybe Detritus could
be the percussion section. And Dibbler could be their manager. No,
better, Gaspode the Wonder Dog. And finding the references to the last
forty years of music could be a blast. Just an idea."
Was this guy a prophet, or what? Terry replied:
"I've occasionally toyed with the Ankh music business. And I can promise
you that if it ever happens, there'll be a group called 'We Really Are
Dwarfs' :-)"
The rest is history.
The song mentioned later on in the text, 'Something's gotten into my
beard' is not directly traceable to They Might Be Giants, or it would
have to be to the track 'Fingertips' on _Apollo 18_, which features the
line "Something grabbed a hold of my hand". Most people figure it is
simply a reference to an entirely different song: Gene Pitney's
'Something's gotten hold of my Heart'.
- [p. 264/199] "'But you've got to spell it with a Z. Trollz."
In the sixties it was common for bands to get their names from
intentional misspellings of common words. The best-known examples of this
trend are probably the Byrds and Led Zeppelin.
- [p. 265/199] "'So now we're Suck,' said Crash."
Suck --> KISS.
- [p. 270/203] "[...] a name like JOE'S LIVERY STABLE, [...]"
So what we have here is the Discworld version of Joe's Garage, another
well-known rock 'n roll concept.
- [p. 270/204] "Buddy sighed. 'You had a great house there, I expect?' said
the troll. 'Just a shack,' said Buddy. 'Made of earth and wood. Well, mud
and wood really.'"
'Johnny B. Goode' again. See the annotation for p. 14/11.
- [p. 272/204] "And the one they called the Duck Man had a duck on his
head."
In Daniel Pinkwater's book _Lizard Music_ a major character is the
Chicken Man, an apparently homeless man who walks around with a chicken
perched on his head (under a hat). The Chicken Man is a lot more together
than The Duck Man -- he periodically does little street shows featuring
the chicken, who does tricks. According to Pinkwater, the Chicken Man was
based on a real person who lived in Chicago.
- [p. 278/209] "'They follow actors and musicians around,' he said,
'because of, you know, the glamour and everything --'"
While it is obvious that Buddy is talking about the phenomenon of
groupies, it is also interesting to note that the word 'glamour' is
sometimes used to mean magic spell or enchantment, making this sentence
tie in nicely with the wizard's earlier beliefs that Music With Rocks In
is somehow magical.
- [p. 282/212] "'The Surreptitious Fabric', said Jimbo."
The Discworld version of the legendary Velvet Underground.
- [p. 284/214] "'It's sort of deaf."
So, in effect they bought a Def Leppard, get it?
- [p. 285/214] More band names.
The Whom = The Who
The Blots = The Inkspots
Lead Balloon = Led Zeppelin
- [p. 285/215] "'Yes, but a rolling stone gathers no moss, my father says,'
said Crash."
Notice how when the opportunity presents itself for the group to pick one
of the most influential rock 'n roll group names imaginable, Crash and
friends totally and utterly fail to see it.
- [p. 285/215] "THANK YOU, said the grateful Death."
A straightforward reference to the band The Grateful Dead. I didn't
really think this was worth annotating, but people kept sending me mail
about it, so...
- [p. 290/218] "'Nice curtains, by the way.'"
This is a reference to rock bands 'redecorating their hotel rooms', i.e.
thrashing it beyond all recognition. Glod interprets the phrase more
literally.
- [p. 290/218] "'[...] I'm going to put my rock kit on my back and take a
long walk, and the first time someone says to me, "What are dem things on
your back?" dat's where I'm gonna settle down.'"
In Homer's _Odyssey_, Odysseus was told by the spirit of Tiresias that if
he ever made it back to Ithaca, he was to put one oar on his shoulder and
walk inland, until he reached a people who knew nothing of sailing.
There, he was to offer a sacrifice to Poseidon, after which he would be
allowed to die after a happy old age, far from the sea.
- [p. 298/225] "[...] somewhere where no one remembers your name."
Since Death has actually gone to the Mended Drum, it's not too
far-fetched to assume this is a nod to the theme song of _Cheers_, the
bar "where everybody knows your name".
- [p. 299/225] "_He built me a swing_, Susan remembered."
Death's attempts to build a swing for Susan are a Discworld version of a
cartoon that has been doing the rounds in offices all over the world.
Usually the cartoon depicts 'swing-building' as an increasingly complex
series of 'logical' steps representing an abstract process such as "the
software life cycle". The finished item, looking somewhat like Death's
completed swing, is typically followed by a final picture showing "what
the customer wanted", namely, a tire hanging from a branch by a single
rope.
- [p. 300/226] "'In like Flint, eh?'"
"In like Flynn" is the normal expression, going back to Errol Flynn's
sexual transgressions -- at one point he was even charged with statutory
rape, arrested and brought to trial, then acquitted.
- [p. 306/231] "_I can feel it. Every day. It's getting closer..._"
This is part of the lyrics to Buddy Holly's 'Everyday':
"Everyday, it's a-gettin' closer,
Goin' faster than a roller coaster,
Love like yours will surely come my way, (hey hey hey)"
- [p. 306/231] More song names.
'There's A Great Deal Of Shaking Happening' is Jerry Lee Lewis' 'Whole
Lot of Shakin' Goin' On'. 'Give Me That Music With Rocks In' is Leiber
and Stoller's 'Rock and Roll Music'.
- [p. 307/231] "'Hah. That'll be the day.'"
The title of one of Buddy Holly's greatest hits.
- [p. 307/232] "'I'd like a quarry,' said the troll. 'Yeah?' 'Yeah.
Heart-shaped.'"
A reference to the strange-shaped swimming pools rock and movie stars are
supposed to have built for themselves.
- [p. 313/236] "It was called Hide Park [...]"
A 'hide' is in fact an Old English measure of land. The definition
varies, but it is usually the amount considered adequate for the support
of one free family with its dependants, and at an earlier time this in
turn was defined as being as much land as could be tilled with one plough
in a year.
Hyde park is also the name of a largish open space in the centre of
London where, sometime around 1970, the Rolling Stones played a massive
free concert.
- [p. 314/237] "'Whoever heard of a serious musician with a glove?'"
Part of Michael Jackson's image is his always wearing one glove on stage.
- [p. 315/237] "'Dwarfs With Altitude'"
Reference to the gangster rap group Niggaz With Attitude (NWA), and the
general concept of "having an attitude".
- [p. 323/244] More band names.
Boyz from the Wood = Boyz 'n the Hood
(which is a movie, not a band, btw)
&U = U2
- [p. 324/244] "'[...] proper music with real words... 'Summer is icumen
in, lewdly sing cuckoo,' that sort of thing.'"
One of the oldest (if not the oldest) known songs in the English language
is the 'Cuckoo Song': "Sumer is icumen in, lhude sing cuccu". 'Lhude'
means 'loud', not 'lewd'.
- [p. 324/244] "'Well, it's got a beat and you can dance to it,' [...]"
This, usually followed by something like "I'll give it a 92", is a cliche
made famous by the TV music show _American Bandstand_, hosted by Dick
Clark in the 50s and 60s. _American Bandstand_ was televised daily in the
afternoon (weekly, in later years) and helped introduce such stars of the
era as Chubby Checker, Paul Anka and Frankie Avalon.
- [p. 326/245] "'I... won this,' said Buddy, in a small distant world of
his own. 'With a song. _Sioni Bod Da_, it was.'"
'Bod Da' is Welsh for 'be good'. Ergo, 'Sioni Bod Da' = 'Johnny B.
Goode'. See also the annotation for p. 270/204.
- [p. 327/244] "The right kind of name for musicians ought to be something
like Blondie and His Merry Troubadours."
'Blondie' was the name of the band fronted by Debbie Harrie in the late
seventies and early eighties. Blondel was the name of the troubadour who,
according to legend, went around singing at castles in search of King
Richard Lionheart.
- [p. 327/247] "Anyone else fancy a hot dog? Hot dog? [...] Hot dog? Right.
That's three hot d--"
Another replaying of a Blues Brothers scene, only they did it with orange
whip instead of hot dogs.
- [p. 330/249] "'Cwm on?'"
See the annotation for p. 117/89. 'Cwm' is Welsh for valley. (Note that
the Discworld has a Koom Valley...)
- [p. 340/256] "'We *could* do 'Anarchy in Ankh-Morpork',' said Jimbo
doubtfully."
Puns on the punk anthem 'Anarchy in the UK', by the Sex Pistols.
- [p. 348/263] "'It's a masterpiece,' said the Dean. 'A triumph!'"
Triumph is a British make of motorcycle, comparable in quality and
history to the Harley Davidson.
- [p. 350/264] "I NEED YOUR CLOTHES. [...] GIVE ME YOUR COAT."
Death is paraphrasing lines made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger in his
role as the Terminator. Interestingly enough, the music accompanying the
scene in question in _Terminator II_ is the song 'Bad to the Bone'...
There is an even more subtle reference hidden here, however. After this
scene, Death will be riding towards the site of the crash in "a coat he
borrowed from [the] Dean", and that is another line from Don McLean's
'American Pie' (see the annotation for p. 173/130). Terry has confirmed
on a.f.p. that the reference is indeed intentional.
- [p. 350/264] "The flower-bed erupted.'"
This is the written counterpart to Josh Kirby's cover painting, and
likewise a Discworld version of Meatloaf's _Bat out of Hell_, both the
album sleeve and the song.
- [p. 352/266] "'He... he had a rose in his teeth, sarge.'"
A reference to the Skull and Roses motifs used for many of the Grateful
Dead's album covers and concert posters.
- [p. 364/275] "A small fingerbone rolled across the stones until it came
up against another, slightly larger bone."
In light of the earlier Terminator references, most of my correspondents
think this scene replays the one in _Terminator II_ where the T-1000
model Terminator, after having been frozen by liquid nitrogen and then
shattered, slowly starts to reassemble itself.
- [p. 366/276] "'Please!' she shouted. 'Don't fade away!'"
'Not Fade Away' is the title of one of Buddy Holly's songs.
- [p. 376/284] "Gloria sighed. 'Sometimes it's hard to be a woman,' she
said."
The opening line from Tammy Wynette's torch song 'Stand By Your Man'.
- [p. 376/284] "'I'd *swear* he's elvish.'"
This paragraph is the culmination of the Elvis running gag (see the
annotation for p. 30/22), but in order to appreciate it you have to know
that Kirsty MacColl had a big hit a decade or so ago with a song called:
"There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis".
- [p. 378/285] "So you're a rebel, little Death? Against what? Death
thought about it. If there was a snappy answer, he couldn't think of
one."
See the annotation for p. 173/130.
INTERESTING TIMES
- [title] _Interesting Times_
One remarkable thing about this book's title is that it changed at least
twice since Terry began working on it. It started out as _Unclear
Physics_, then became _Imperial Wizard_ for a few days, and finally ended
up as _Interesting Times_:
"Rincewind and Cohen are having such fun -- that is to say, death and
terror attend them at every step -- on the Counterweight Continent and
the Forbidden City of the Agatean Empire that it might well end up being
called: _Imperial Wizard_ ...which ought to sell well in the US. In some
States, anyway."
"The editor and my main beta-test reader have raised objections to the
title _Unclear Physics_. They think it's a lovely title but they don't
think it's a good one for this book. Nor do I, because I've got a better
use for it -- I've realised how to utilize the squash court in UU... So
it will be the original working title: _Interesting Times_. At least for
this week."
- [p. 9/7] "'I accuse the High Priest of the Green Robe in the library with
the double-handed axe.'"
Fate and the other Gods are playing the Discworld variant of the board
game _Clue_ (known as _Cluedo_ outside North America).
The object of this game is to deduce not only which of several suspects
has murdered the unfortunate 'Mr X', but also what weapon was used, and
in which room of the mansion the murder took place. Once you think you've
figured it out you have to publicly 'accuse' the murderer, just as Fate
does, and if you're right you win the game.
Although a Reverend Green is one of the suspects, and the Library is one
of the possible rooms, the game does not feature a double-handed axe,
last time I looked.
- [p. 10/8] "Let a game begin,' said the Lady."
I'm a bit surprised at having to annotate this, but apparently not
everyone recognises just who the Lady is. She is of course none other
than Lady Luck, who was first introduced in _The Colour of Magic_, and
who has always had a soft spot for Rincewind, possibly because he never
relies on her.
Note that green is a colour often associated with luck (e.g. Irish
leprechauns).
- [p. 11/8] "The Hongs, the Sungs, the Tangs, the McSweeneys and the
Fangs."
The presence of the McSweeney name ("very old established family") in
this list is used as a running gag throughout the book. It also reminded
me of James Clavell's Hong Kong novels (_Tai-Pan_, _Noble House_ and
_Gai-Jin_), which chronicle the Asian business empire founded and headed
by various generations of the Scottish Struan family.
- [p. 13/10] "[...] the mandelbrot patterns on the wings are of
considerable interest."
Benoit Mandelbrot is the discoverer of the Mandelbrot Set, a famous
'fractal', first plotted in 1980. Mandelbrot sets are rather difficult to
describe in words (actually, they are very simple to describe in words
only not in a way that most people will understand...), but what it boils
down to is that a picture of the Mandelbrot set is a kind of mathematical
painting with many swirling colours interspersed by strange, heart-shaped
clusters of black. Most people will probably have seen Mandelbrot sets on
computer screens or screensavers or wall posters. If not, all you need to
do is catch yourself a Quantum Weather Butterfly and study its wings.
- [p. 18/14] The Agatean Empire.
There's a nice extra resonance with China here: Agate is a semi-precious
gemstone, originally used in the Orient to make dinnerware.
- [p. 36/29] "'Curiouser and curiouser,' said the Senior Wrangler."
A famous quote from _Alice in Wonderland_. Not surprisingly, it merely
confuses the other wizards.
- [p. 44/35] "'To answer such questions Hex had been built, [...]'"
That a hex is a spell or a curse is well-known, but it may be less
obvious to non-computer types that 'hex' is also short for 'hexadecimal',
a common number base used by programmers.
To belabour the obvious, this conjunction of meanings produces the
perfect name for a computer designed to analyse magic.
- [p. 44/35] "[...] he was pretty sure no one had designed the Phase of the
Moon Generator."
The phase of the moon, besides being undoubtedly very handy when it comes
to magical calculations, is used in our world's computer jargon to
humorously indicate a random parameter on which something is supposed to
depend.
- [p. 45/36] "[...] the ants rode up and down on a little paternoster
[...]"
A paternoster (in this context) is a closed-loop elevator of linked
carriages, somewhat like the bucket chain principle applied to people --
or in this case, ants.
- [p. 45/36] "[...] the aquarium had been lowered on its davits so that the
operator would have something to watch during the long hours... [...]"
A reference to the screensaver programs often found running on personal
computers to prevent phosphor burn-in of the monitor. One popular
screensaver module turns the screen into an aquarium of animated,
swimming fish.
- [p. 47/37] "+++++ Redo From Start +++++"
A typically obtuse error message of the type that is thankfully going out
of fashion.
'Redo from start' is a bona fide error message for the BASIC programming
language, caused by incorrect responses to an INPUT command.
- [p. 47/38] "The Unreal Time Clock ticked sideways."
All computers have a real time clock, but, one assumes, an unreal time
clock measures imaginary time, which explains why it ticks sideways: the
imaginary numbers are at 90 degrees to the real numbers on the Complex
Plane.
- [p. 47/38] '"Out of Cheese Error'"
In computing, you regularly encounter "out of memory" or "out of paper"
errors.
- [p. 49/39] "[...] the Bursar, still happily living in the valley of the
dried frogs."
The 'dolls' in the movie title _Valley of the Dolls_ refers to the pills
to which the starlets were addicted.
- [p. 51/41] "'Wardrobe? Er... Er... Isn't this the Magic Kingdom of
Scrumptiousness?' [...]"
A reference to the Kingdom of Narnia, from C. S. Lewis' series of books.
See the annotation for p. 22/22 of _Sourcery_.
- [p. 54/43] "'We must storm the Winter Palace! [...] Then we can storm the
Summer Palace!'"
The Russian Revolutionary army stormed the Winter Palace in St
Petersburg, but less well known is that the Summer Palace of the Chinese
royal family was indeed pillaged and destroyed by the British and the
French during the Taiping Rebellion of 1860. Terry acknowledges:
"I had 'storming the winter palace' in mind because, yes, the events of
the Russian revolution are more familiar to us -- and then I came across
the storming of the summer palace while reading up on Chinese torture. It
took me some effort not to find some joke about the Taiping Rebellion, I
have to say... and as for the Boxer Rising..."
- [p. 56/45] "'Your Wife is a big hippo'"
In _Interesting Times_, much is made of similar sounding words having
totally different meanings. Languages such as Chinese and Japanese pay
great attention to the pitch and intonation of words, and the same word
with a different intonation can indeed have radically different meanings.
(Of course not all different meanings are due to intonation -- there are
other possibilities, such as vowel lengths, and some words just naturally
have many different meanings).
Just in case you think Terry is overstating things for comic effect,
there is an anecdote told by linguist David Moser, who was learning
Chinese, and was practising with some Chinese friends. He was tired, and
said "I want to go to sleep now", but got the intonation wrong, and what
he actually said was "I stand by where the elephant urinates".
Similarly, I am told that the Chinese glyph 'sento' can alternatively
mean 'public bath', 'residence of a retired emperor', 'first scaling the
wall of a besieged castle', 'fighting together' or 'scissors', while the
Japanese 'kansen' can mean any of 'main-line', 'warship', 'sweat-gland',
'infection', 'government', 'appointed' and 'witnessing a battle'.
- [p. 60/48] "'Be afraid. Be very afraid.'"
A famous line from the 1986 remake of _The Fly_, starring Jeff Goldblum
and Geena Davis, also used as a tagline to promote the movie.
- [p. 61/48] "... *possibly* the finest lager in the world."
In our world, the advertising slogan of Carlsberg is: "Probably the best
lager in the world".
- [p. 88/70] "'The Silver Horde,' said Cohen, with a touch of pride."
Derived from the 'Golden Horde', one of the successor states to the
Mongol Empire, based in the steppes of Southern Russia and the Ukraine,
and ruled by descendants of Genghiz Khan. There was even a movie, _The
Golden Horde_, starring John Wayne as Genghiz Khan. As my correspondent
puts it: "Disbelief suspended by the neck until dead, dead, dead."
- [p. 107/85] "[...] a complicated pile of ivory tiles, playing _Shibo
Yangcong-san_."
In our world the Chinese game of Mahjongg is played with ivory tiles, and
its rules have many similarities to certain types of western card games.
It shouldn't come as a big surprise, therefore, that 'Shibo Yangcong-san'
is actually Japanese for 'Cripple Mr Onion'.
- [p. 111/88] "'Where's the pork?'"
In the early 80s there was an American TV commercial for the _Wendy's_
chain of restaurants, featuring an irate old lady looking at her
hamburger and ranting "Where's the beef?!". This became a national
catchphrase for a while, and then permanently entered the language when
it was used in the 1984 Presidential campaign by Vice President Walter
Mondale and directed towards Senator Gary Hart as an implication that the
latter's promises had no substance.
Terry says: "See? This is probably a genuine joke that Americans *will*
get and most Europeans won't. Hah! and they said it couldn't be done!"
- [p. 120/96] "'Excuse me, what is your name?' Rincewind said. 'Pretty
Butterfly.'"
Apart from her ability to cause as many problems for Rincewind as the
Quantum Weather Butterfly, Pretty Butterfly's name also resonates with
that of the operatic Madame Butterfly.
- [p. 142/113] "Bruce the Hoon"
Hoon is New Zealand/Australian slang for a lout or hooligan. 'Hooning
around' describes the act of driving around wildly in one's car, spinning
the wheels and so forth.
- [p. 156/125] "There was a corral, for the Luggages."
It is obvious that Luggages are fairly common in the Agatean Empire, yet
in _The Light Fantastic_ Twoflower explains that he got his Luggage from
one of those mysterious magic shops. Terry says:
"That was a long time ago... think of how it's all progressed. They've
got real clocks in Ankh-Morpork now, people wear spectacles... you might
as well say home computers were rare and special things in 1980 so how
come there were so many of them in 1990? What makes *the* Luggage special
is its peculiarly endearing character..."
- [p. 172/138] "Then he tugged the sword free and inspected the steaming
blade. 'Hmm,' he said. 'Interesting...'"
Lord Hong finds the blade interesting because he has just discovered a
way to quench red-hot sword blades without oxidising them. Apparently
traditional Japanese sword making actually used condemned prisoners in
the forging process.
- [p. 221/177] "History told of a runner who'd run forty miles after a
battle to report its successful outcome to those at home."
After a successful naval battle at the town of Marathon in Greece, a man
reportedly ran all the way to Athens, 42 kilometres away, to inform his
leader of the victory. He is also reported to have died on the spot from
the strain after announcing their win. This is how the running event of
the same name was born.
- [p. 230/184] "'Why're their feet so small?' said Cohen."
Foot binding was a very common practice in China among women of the upper
classes. As young girls, their feet would be wrapped in painfully tight
bandages. When the girls grew, their feet did not. By adulthood the feet
were barely half their proper length, which was considered attractive.
Thankfully the procedure has almost died out.
- [p. 236/189] "'So there was only blue left. Well, he'd show them...'
[...] He had to simplify it a bit, of course."
Three Solid Frogs is inventing the Willow Pattern Plate, the well-known
blue oriental picture of a maiden standing on a bridge.
- [p. 291/233] "'How lucky do you feel, my lords?'"
Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry. See the annotation for p. 136/124 of
_Guards! Guards!_.
- [p. 296/238] "A seven foot warrior smiled at him."
In 1974, thousands of terracotta warriors (no two faces alike!) were
discovered around the tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi at Mount Li, in the Shaanxi
Province. Huangdi was the first emperor of a unified China (221-207 BC),
famed for being harsh, autocratic, and intolerant of criticism.
- [p. 303/243] "'_Orrrrr! Itiyorshu! Yutimishu!_'"
Terry writes:
"During WWII Hollywood obviously made a lot of gung-ho war movies. But...
who could play the Japanese? The Japanese in the US were banged up in
holiday camps in Death Valley or someplace. So the producers roped in
anyone who 'looked Japanese' -- mainly Koreans, the story runs. The
actors didn't really have lines since their job was, basically, to be
shot by John Wayne. In order to give them something 'Japanese sounding'
to say, some genius suggested they shout, very fast, "I tie your shoe,
you tie my shoe"...
I've never dared check by watching the actual movies..."
- [p. 307/246] "It was a grainy picture, and it was in shades of green
rather than proper colours, [...]"
Rincewind is wearing the Discworld equivalent of a Virtual Reality
helmet.
- [p. 307/246] "[...] a row of little pictures lit up on the wide cuff.
They showed soldiers. Soldiers digging, soldiers fighting, soldiers
climbing..."
The icons for controlling the Red Clay Army are immediately familiar to
anyone who has ever played the computer game _Lemmings_, in which you
have to use similar controls to guide a group of brainlessly wandering
lemmings across intricate and dangerous underground labyrinths.
When this was first remarked upon by readers in a.f.p, Terry wrote:
"What? Lemmings? Merely because the red army can fight, dig, march and
climb and is controlled by little icons? Can't imagine how anyone thought
that...
Not only did I wipe Lemmings from my hard disc, I overwrote it so's I
couldn't get it back."
- [p. 329/264] "'Friendly stab', as it is formally known."
The Discworld version of our world's many military euphemisms, such as:
Friendly fire = weaponry accidentally fired at own troops.
Permanent pre-hostility = peace.
Collateral damage = civilians killed.
- [p. 350/281] "[...] a calendar for the year surmounted by a rather
angular picture of a beagle, standing on its hind legs."
One of the classic computer programs that circulated in the seventies
used ASCII characters to 'draw' a picture of Snoopy from _Peanuts_,
followed by the year's calendar.
- [p. 351/282] "The old blokes say that sort of thing used to happen all
the time, back in the Dream."
For an explanation of where exactly Rincewind has landed see the
annotation for p. 149/132 of _Reaper Man_ (just in case the significance
of the word "kangaroo" escaped your attention).
The Dream is a reference to the Aboriginal Dreamtime religion.
MASKERADE
- _Maskerade_, as a parody of _The Phantom of the Opera_, is based largely
upon the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, but makes the events and
characters more realistic. Hence, in _Phantom_, Christine is the
beautiful, slim, new star, with a good voice that needs training, holding
back and reluctant to take her rightful place in the opera. Carlotta is
the jealous prima donna, with a classical voice on the verge of
decreptitude, and large lungs. The Phantom wants Christine to sing, and
the owners would be happy to oblige, but for the need to keep Carlotta's
ego assuaged.
In _Maskerade_, Christine can't sing, but looks pretty, so both the
owners and the Phantom fall for her. Agnes, with the voice, is merely
utilised.
- [p. 11] "'We're going to have to get Mr Cripslock to engrave page 11
again,' he said mournfully. 'He's spelt "famine" with seven letters --'"
A reference to the celebrated 'famine' error in the Corgi paperback
edition of _Good Omens_. See the annotation for p. 154/98 of _Good
Omens_.
- [p. 12] "'Well, my old granny used to make Spotted Dick --'"
See the annotation for p. 88/77 of _Witches Abroad_.
- [p. 28] "'_Cosi fan Hita_,' she read. '_Die Meistersinger von Scrote_.'"
I am almost completely ignorant on the subject of operas, but the titles
Terry parodies in _Maskerade_ are so well-known that even I had no
problem figuring out the originals. With that in mind I really didn't
intend to annotate them, but so far nearly everybody who has sent in
annotations for _Maskerade_ has mentioned the opera titles, and I fear
very much that if I don't include them now I will continue to get tons of
mail about it.
So: _Cosi fan Hita_ is Mozart's _Cosi fan tutte_, and _Die Meistersinger
von Scrote_ is Richard Wagner's _Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg_.
- [p. 32] "She at least respected anyone's right to recreate themselves."
As does Terry himself -- see the annotation for p. 20/15 of _Soul Music_.
- [p. 36] "'_The Joye of Snacks_,' she read out loud."
The pun on _The Joy of Sex_ is obvious, but what not everybody may know
is that the title of *that* book, in turn, was inspired by an earlier
popular book called _The Joy of Cooking_.
- [p. 42] "'That's why they never sell tickets for Box Eight, didn't you
know?!'"
In the _Phantom_, the Phantom's box is Box Five, and it's out of fear
that they don't sell tickets for it. On the Discworld we have seen before
that important numbers tend to gravitate towards 8, and it's luck (far
more appropriate in opera) that prevents the sale of tickets.
- [p. 43] "'That looks like an accident waiting to happen if I ever saw
one,' she mumbled."
In the _Phantom_, one of the most spectacular and well-publicised special
effects is the crashing of the chandelier onto the stage, at the end of
act 1. This occurs when Christine and Raoul secretly pledge their love
for each other, which the Phantom overhears.
- [p. 47] "'It's white bone! He has no nose!' [...] 'Then how does he --'
Agnes began."
From the old joke, made famous by Monty Python's "The funniest joke in
the world" sketch:
-- My dog has no nose.
-- How does he smell?
-- Terrible.
And yes, I know this joke isn't the one that the sketch is named after.
The funniest joke in the world (which, in the German translation,
eventually enabled the British to win World War II) goes: "Wenn ist das
Nunstuck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt
gersput!"
- [p. 56] "'_Schneide meinen eigenen Hals_ --'"
German for: "Cut My Own Throat".
- [p. 92] "'At least stand on tiptoe!' he shouted. 'You probably cost me a
dollar just running up here!'"
It is precisely standing on tiptoe that wears out ballet shoes so
quickly.
- [p. 93] "'[...] flush him out, chase him through the city, catch him and
beat him to a pulp, and then throw what's left into the river. It's the
only way to be sure.'"
Resonates with a famous scene in _Aliens_, where Ripley says: "I say we
take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
- [p. 97] "[...] tonight's production of _La Triviata_."
Verdi's _La Traviata_.
- [p. 97] "'What in fact we would like you to do... Perdita... is *sing*
the role, indeed, but not, in fact... *play* the role.'"
This will sound familiar to anyone who has ever seen _Singing in the
Rain_, or knows any of the many other stories where this plot device is
used. Terry says:
"The idea of an understudy doing all the work for the star is probably a
common film cliche. I don't recall it in any film about music, but now I
come to think of it there was a Fred Astaire film where he *dances*
instead of the star of the show (wearing a mask... I didn't say it was a
good movie). But the basis of the Agnes/Christine thing lies not in any
movie but in real life. It has happened. My sources tell me that stars
have gone on stage jetlagged or stricken with a sore throat and someone
has been put behind them in the chorus to sing the role. I believe there
has even been at least one case where the prompter (in the box in front
of the stage) has tried to jump-start the dumbstruck star with the first
few words of the song and ended up singing it all the way through. It's
not a big step to go from that to the setup in _Maskerade_."
- [p. 98] "[...] a revival of _The Ring of the Nibelungingung_"
Wagner's opera is called 'The Ring of the Nibelung', or in German: 'Der
Ring des Nibelungen'.
- [p. 99] "'Hello Colette,' said Granny. 'What fascinatin' earrings you are
wearing.'"
Now this is an annotation that is going to need some explaining. The
short version of the story is as follows:
Colette is Colette Reap, a long-time a.f.p. regular, who impressed Terry
by attending a book signing wearing earrings made out of Clarecraft's
anorankhs.
The longer version goes as follows:
Clarecraft is a company that sells highly popular handcrafted Discworld
miniatures and jewellery. Information on Clarecraft can be found in the
_Discworld Merchandise FAQ_, available from the Pratchett Archives.
One particular item of jewellery they sell is the _anorankh_, a small
model of an Egyptian cross wearing an anorak. (Don't ask -- but in case
you think you want to know: the precise story of how the anorankh came
into existence can be found in the _Holy Anorankh_ file, also available
from the Pratchett Archives.)
Meanwhile, over on alt.fan.pratchett, it became, for some reason,
standard practice for the male readers of the group to propose marriage
(often all of them at the same time) to female readers. Colette, our
resident net.goddess and therefore one of the most 'visible' females on
the group, was one of the most popular proposal targets. (For more
detailed information about marriage proposals and other characteristic
a.f.p. habits, see the _A.f.p. Timeline_ file, also available from -- you
guessed it -- the Pratchett Archives.)
With all this background information in mind, I'll let Colette herself
tell the rest of the story:
"The interesting earrings thing comes from when I went to the _Discworld
Companion_ signing in central London in May 1994. The signing was at
lunch-time on a weekday and I was going to see our main computer supplier
in the afternoon so I was fairly smartly dressed, but I was wearing my
anorankh earrings, which Terry suddenly noticed while I was standing in
front of him getting my book signed, and it was the first time he'd seen
them made into earrings.
On 31st December 1994, completely out of the blue, I got an email from
Terry. In it he said he was doing the polishing draft of _Maskerade_ and
which of the following two characters would I like to be called Colette
-- the make-up girl at the Opera House, or one of the 'young ladies' at
Mrs. Palm's and that mention might be made of her interesting earrings.
When I had picked myself up off the floor, and being the mischievous soul
that I am, I wrote back to Terry and asked if Colette could be one of the
'young ladies' at Mrs. Palm's, explaining that I felt that such a 'young
lady' would be much more likely not only to wear interesting earrings,
but also to receive lots of marriage proposals from men she hardly knew.
When I got my copy of _Maskerade_ signed, Terry wrote in it 'What's a
nice girl like you doing in a book like this?' -- a dedication in the
same league as that which he wrote when he signed my Discworld game
booklet, which was 'To Colette, Will you marry me?'"
- [p. 99] "'What? You've been here before?' said Nanny, [...]"
Granny met Mrs Palm during her earlier stay in Ankh-Morpork. See the
annotation for p. 121/119 in _Equal Rites_.
- [p. 123] "'They beat him to death!' [...] 'And they throw him into the
river!'"
This is how the silent movie version of _The Phantom of the Opera_ ends.
- [p. 138] Grand Guignol
See the annotation for p. 239/172 of _Lords and Ladies_.
- [p. 149] "Let us examine the role of Laura in _Il Truccatore_ -- "The
Master Of Disguise", also sometimes vulgarly known as "The Man with a
Thousand Faces"...'"
The Man with a Thousand Faces was the nickname given to Lon Chaney, the
actor who played the Phantom of the Opera in the original silent
Hollywood production.
- [p. 165] "'Madam has *marvellous* hair,' said the hairdresser. 'What is
the secret?' 'You've got to make sure there's no newts in the water,'
said Granny."
This echoes back to the quote in _Reaper Man_:
"People have believed for hundreds of years that newts in a well mean
that the water's fresh and drinkable, and *in all that time* never asked
themselves whether the newts got out to go to the lavatory."
- [p. 225] "[...] while muttering, 'Rhubarb, rhubarb.'"
Apparently, this is something actors traditionally mutter on stage when
they are meant to appear to be talking amongst themselves in the
background.
- [p. 231] "'Well *I* think,' said Nobby, 'that when you have ruled out the
impossible, what is left, however improbable, ain't worth hanging around
on a cold night wonderin' about when you could be getting on the outside
of a big drink.'"
Sherlock Holmes. See the annotation for p. 118/108 of _Guards! Guards!_.
- [p. 232] Opera names.
The Barber of Pseudopolis = The Barber of Seville
The Enchanted Piccolo = The Magic Flute
- [p. 233] Musical names.
Guys and Trolls = Guys and Dolls
Hubwards Side Story = West Side Story
Miserable Les = Les Miserables
Seven Dwarfs for Seven Other Dwarfs = Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Note how the last name harks back to Terry's earlier comments on the
difficulties of dwarf mating.
- [p. 247] "'Says here "Cable Street Particulars"...'"
A reference to Conan Doyle's Baker Street Irregulars. See also the entry
for the City Watch in _The Discworld Companion_.
- [p. 257] "[...] as the opening bars of the duet began, opened her mouth
-- 'Stop right there!'"
A strong resonance with Ellen Foley's character refusing to continue the
duet 'Paradise by the Dashboard Light' with Meatloaf halfway through the
song:
"Stop right there!
I gotta know right now
Before we go any further
Do you love me? Will you love me forever?"
- [p. 270] "'Don't cry for me, Genua.'"
'Don't cry for me, Argentina', is the famous ballad from the musical
_Evita_.
FEET OF CLAY
+ [title] _Feet of Clay_
The original working title for this book was _Words in the Head_.
"Feet of Clay" is a biblical reference. The Babylonian king
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream in which he saw a statue whose head was made
of gold, but lower down the statue the materials got progressively more
base, until the feet were "part of iron, part of clay"; the statue was
shattered and destroyed by being struck on the feet, its weakest point.
Hence, colloquially, the expression "feet of clay" has come to mean that
someone regarded as an idol has a hidden weakness.
+ [frontispiece] The mottoes and crests are mostly explained in the book,
but for completeness they are:
Edward St John de Nobbes: "capite omnia" -- "take it all"
Gerhardt Sock (butcher): "futurus meus est in visceris" -- "my
future is in the entrails"
Vetinari: "si non confectus non reficiat" -- "if it ain't broke,
don't fix it" (a saying popularised by Lyndon B Johnson,
though possibly older)
Assassins Guild: "nil mortifice sine lucre" -- "no killing
without payment"
Rudolph Potts (baker): "quod subigo farinam" -- "because I knead
the dough"
Thieves' Guild: "acutus id verberat" -- "sharp's the word"
Vimes family: "protego et servio" -- "I protect and serve". In the
centre of the crest is the number 177, which -- we learnt in _Men
at Arms_ -- is Vimes' own badge number.
+ [p. 7] "WE HEAR YOU WANT A GOLEM."
The font used by the golems in the UK editions is clearly designed to
look like Hebrew lettering. For some reason, the font used in the
American editions is not.
The golem itself is a creature from Jewish mythology, a man made of clay
and animated by Kabbalistic magic. The one thing it cannot do is speak,
because only God can grant the power of speech. There is a brief summary
of the legend at <http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/6960/golem.htm>
+ [p. 8] "'Yeah, right, but you hear stories ... Going mad and making
too many things, and that.'"
One episode in the life of the golem of Prague -- the best known of the
mythical creatures -- tells that the golem was ordered to fetch water,
but never told to stop, thus causing a flood. This is very similar to
(and may be borrowed from) the classic children's story _The Sorcerer's
Apprentice_ (_Der Zauberlehrling_, a German poem by Goethe), also used in
Disney's classic animated film _Fantasia_. A spell used to animate a
broom to speed housework gets out of control, leading to a frightening
procession of hundreds of brooms bringing water from the well. The French
composer Paul Dukas based the music on Goethe's poem. A more direct
reference appears on p. 99, and elsewhere as a sort of running joke.
An on-line version of the poem is available at
<http://www.gutenberg.aol.de/goethe/gedichte/zaublehr.htm>
+ [p. 17] "[...], he says Mrs Colon wants him to buy a farm, [...]"
'Buy the farm' is military slang for 'die'
+ [p. 17] "[...] I am sure I have told you about the Cable Street
Particulars, [...]"
See the annotation for p. 247 of _Maskerade_.
+ [p. 19] "I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES."
It is said (after Benjamin Franklin) that in life only two things are
certain: Death and taxes. However, the line before this kicks off a
running gag that demonstrates than this is really one certainty too many.
+ [p. 22] "'Cheery, eh? Good to see the old naming traditions kept up.'"
'Cheery' would fit in very well with the names of the Seven Dwarfs in the
Disney Snow White film. Grumpy, Dopey, Sleepy, Bashful, Happy, Doc and
Sneezy.
+ [p. 23] "'I want someone who can look at the ashtray and tell me what
kind of cigars I smoke.'"
One of the first things Sherlock Holmes tells Watson, when they first
meet, is that he has written a treatise on this subject. This contrasts
oddly with Vimes' distrust of 'clues' in general (see the annotation for
p. 142).
+ [p. 24] "'Where the sun doesn't shine'"
A running gag from _Lords and Ladies_: the place where the sun does not
shine, on the Discworld, is a valley in Slice, near Lancre.
+ [p. 25] "Clinkerbell"
Tinkerbell via 'clinker', which is one type of mining by-product.
+ [p. 26] "Slab: Jus' say 'AarrghaarrghpleeassennononoUGH"
Echoes the anti-drugs campaign slogan 'Just say no', championed most
famously by Nancy Reagan in America.
+ [p. 26] "T'Bread Wi' T'Edge"
A long-running series of British commercials for a certain brand of bread
emphasised the Yorkshire origins of the manufacturer. This slogan is in a
parody of a Yorkshire accent, presumably for similar reasons.
+ [p. 30] The shield design described is the Ankh-Morpork coat of arms, not
shown in the front of the book (but on the cover of _Streets of
Ankh-Morpork_).
+ [p. 27] "'[...] he's got a loaded wolf.'"
Possibly a reference to the Australian story of _The Loaded Dog_.
+ [p. 29] 'Daphne's ancestors came all the way from some islands on the
other side of the Hub.'
See the annotation for p. 9/9 of _The Colour Of Magic_, but specifically
referring to the brown owls of New Zealand, which, to a British
viewpoint, are 'some islands on the other side of the world'. Thus the
morpork could be compared to the New Zealand brown owl.
+ [p. 30] "'Croissant Rouge Pursuivant'"
The names of the heralds are adapted from terms used in English heraldry.
'Pursuivant' is simply the title for an assistant herald. English
pursuivants include the Rouge Croix (cf. Terry's Croissant Rouge) and
Bluemantle (Terry gives us the 'Pardessus Chatain' or 'Brown Overcoat').
Senior to the pursuivants are the kings of arms, although none really
corresponds to 'Dragon'. This has been linked with 'Dracula' -- the most
famous vampire of all -- which is itself a title meaning 'little dragon'.
It also harks back to _Guards! Guards!_, in which a dragon actually
*became* king of Ankh-Morpork, albeit briefly.
+ [p. 35] "'There are plenty of kosher butchers down in Long Hogmeat.'"
Kosher butchering involves a special method of bleeding the animal, which
would ensure that there was plenty of spare blood around. The name 'Long
Hogmeat', however, is a bit more disturbing: apart from the question of
how 'hogmeat' could be kosher, it also sounds suspiciously like 'long
pig', which is pidgin for 'human flesh'. (See also the annotation for p.
239/180 of _Soul Music_.
+ [p. 36] "Commander of the City Watch in 1688"
1688 AD in England was the date of the 'Glorious [bloodless] Revolution'
when the Catholic James II was deposed in favour of the Protestant Willem
van Oranje, Stadholder of the Netherlands. He married Mary Stuart and
became William III. "Old Stoneface", on the other hand, is clearly
modelled on Oliver Cromwell, who ruled the Commonwealth (Republic) of
England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland from 1652 to 1658, at one point
refusing Parliament's offer of the crown. Among his many reforms, he
championed religious freedom and tolerance, extending even to Jews, who
were welcome in England for the first time since 1290.
+ [p. 36] More Latatian.
"Excretus Est Ex Altitudine" -- Shat On From a Great Height
"Depositatum De Latrina" -- Chucked Down The Toilet
+ [p. 38] "'The butcher, the baker and the candlestick-maker.'"
From an old nursery rhyme:
"Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub
And who do you think they were?
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker..."
+ [p. 41] "Commander Vimes, on the other hand, was all for giving criminals
a short, sharp shock."
"Short sharp shock" was coined in Gilbert & Sullivan's _The Mikado_ as a
euphemism for 'execution'. In 1980s Britain, Tory home secretaries used
the phrase to refer to the brief-but-harsh imprisonment of young
offenders.
+ [p. 44] "'Delphine Angua von Uberwald,' read the Dragon aloud."
Uberwald (on _The Discworld Mapp_ spelled with an umlaut over the U) is
'Over/beyond the forest' in German. In Latin, that's "Transylvania" - a
part of Romania traditionally associated with the undead (most
prominently, Count Dracula).
+ [p. 45] "Men said things like 'peace in our time' or 'an empire that
will last a thousand years,' [...]"
"peace in our time" -- Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister, in
1938.
"an empire that will last a thousand years" -- Adolf Hitler, on the Third
Reich.
+ [p. 46] "Constable Visit was an Omnian, [...]"
Read _Small Gods_ for much more information about Omnia. Brutha seems to
have taken a religion devoted to violent conquest and turned it into
something closely akin to modern evangelical Christianity.
+ [p. 54] "'Oh, well, if you prefer, I can recognize handwriting,' said
the imp proudly."
The original Apple Newton was the first PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)
capable of doing this, and was even supposed to improve its recognition
of the individual owner's writing with practice. In practice, it didn't
work too well. Hence the joke:
Q. How many Newton users does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. Foux! There to eat lemons, axe gravy soup.
+ [p. 55] "Lord Vetinari had always said that punctuality was the
politeness of princes."
In our world, the _Oxford Dictionary of Quotations_ attributes this
saying to Louis XVIII.
+ [p. 55] "It is a pervasive and beguiling myth that the people who design
instruments of death end up being killed by them."
This myth may have been started by William Makepeace Thackery, who asked
in his novel _The Adventures of Philip on His Way Through the World_:
"Was not good Dr Guillotin executed by his own neat invention?". As Terry
notes, he was not.
+ [p. 56] "'Can you paint a picture of his eye, Sydney?' [...] 'As big
as you can.'"
This idea has been used in many detective stories, but most famously in
_Blade Runner_, where the main character is able to blow up a reflection
in a photograph far beyond plausible limits.
+ [p. 63] "[...], or dribble some in their ear while they slept."
A curious method of administering poison, most famously mentioned in
_Hamlet_.
+ [p. 64] "'Crushed diamonds used to be in vogue for hundreds of years,
despite the fact that they never worked.'"
Crushed glass would theoretically work as a means of killing someone,
because it forms jagged edges, but in practice the pieces are always
either too big to go unnoticed or too small to have any effect. Aqua
fortis is nitric acid, a *very* fast-acting poison if ingested...
Cantharides is Spanish Fly, better known as an aphrodisiac, but quite
poisonous in large doses.
+ [p. 65] "And that seemed about it, short of stripping the wallpaper off
the wall."
The most obvious red herring. One of the most popular theories regarding
Napoleon Bonaparte's death is that he suffered arsenic poisoning from the
green colouration in the wallpaper of the bedroom of the place in which
he was being held. It has been suggested that microbes, present in the
humid conditions of St Helena, could absorb the poison from the
wallpaper, then be inhaled by the prisoner, giving him a small dose every
day. The wallpaper is green, and the pigment involved is copper arsenite,
known in Napoleon's day as "Paris Green".
+ [p. 68] "'But... you know I'm in the Peeled Nuts, sir...'"
The equivalent in England today is called the Sealed Knot.
+ [p. 70] "Vimes's Ironheads *won*."
A conflation of "Roundheads" and "Ironsides", two names for the
Parliamentarian soldiers of Oliver Cromwell, clearly the model for
Suffer-Not-Injustice Vimes.
+ [p. 71] "_Twurp's Peerage_"
See the annotation for p. 191/138 of _Lords and Ladies_.
+ [p. 72] "But kill one wretched king and everyone calls you a regicide."
There's an old joke about Abdul, who builds roads, raises cities,
conquers nations, but is forever remembered as Abdul the Goat Fucker as a
result of a youthful indiscretion.
+ [p. 73] "Vimes put the disorganized organizer back in his pocket."
Posts made to USENET have a header field labelled 'Organization:'. Terry
Pratchett's own posts give this as 'Disorganized'.
+ [p. 75] "... when I took you to see the Boomerang Biscuit exhibition."
Curiously, Carrot seems to have taken Vimes to the Dwarf Bread museum
before treating Angua to it.
+ [p. 77] "'Ah, h'druk g'har dWatch, Sh'rt'azs!' said Carrot."
Littlebottom, in dwarfish, is "Sh'rt'azs". In British slang, "shortarse"
is a vaguely affectionate term for the vertically challenged.
+ [p. 81] "Igneous the troll backed away until he was up against his
potter's wheel."
Igneous' shop has several parallels with a shop in the Sherlock Holmes
story of _The Six Napoleons_.
Holmes encounters a pottery/stonework shop staffed mainly by Italians,
who were also hiding out from the law and various other enemies, and is
eventually asked to leave by the back door to avoid bothering the staff,
which is locked with a large padlock. The figurines were also being used
to conceal contraband.
Terry comments: "My flabber is ghasted. I really did think I made that
one up. I mean... I had the pottery already in existence from previous
books, and I knew I'd want to bring it in later so I needed a pottery
scene now to introduce it, and Igneous already had a rep as an 'ask no
questions' type of merchant, and I needed somewhere clay could be stolen
and the golems would have had to break in, the padlock replacing the lock
they'd busted. And I knew that I'd need a way for the Watch to put
pressure on Igneous; 'hollow items' for drugs and other contraband is a
cliche, which ought to mean that his staff are somewhat outside the law.
In other words the scene is quite a complex little jigsaw piece which
slots into this plot and the ongoing DW saga in various places. I'll just
have to pretend I knew what I was doing..."
+ [p. 84] "'It hasn't really got a name', said Angua, 'but sometimes we
call it Biers.'"
The perfect name for an undead bar. Puns on "beer", which you would
normally associate with a tavern, and on "bier", which you would normally
associate with being dead. Also puns on _Cheers_, the fictional Boston
tavern in the long-running US TV comedy of the same name.
+ [p. 85] "'But sometimes it's good to go where everybody knows your
shape.'"
The theme song of _Cheers_ contains the line "sometimes you want to go
where everybody knows your name". See the annotation for p. 84, and the
annotation for p. 298/225 of _Soul Music_.
+ [p. 86] "'That's Old Man Trouble,' said Angua. 'If you know what's good
for you, you *don't* mind him.'"
From the Gerschwin song 'I Got Rhythm': "Old Man Trouble, I don't mind
him".
+ [p. 90] "'*These* words are from the Cenotine _Book of Truth_, [...]'"
There have been a number of suggestions for the derivation of this name.
The root "ken" in Hebrew means "honest, truthful, correct". "Cenogenesis"
is a biological term meaning the development of an individual that is
notably different from its group (such as happens to Dorfl in the book).
Alternatively, for the atheists, there's the "ceno" in "cenotaph", from
the Greek "kenos", meaning "empty".
+ [p. 91] Magazine titles.
_Unadorned Facts_ and _Battle Call_ are plays on _The Plain Truth_,
published by the Worldwide Church of God, and _War Cry_, published by the
Salvation Army.
+ [p. 92] "'[...] Mr Dorfl.'"
The golems' names are Yiddish, and Dorfl is no exception, although I'm
not too sure what his means. It could be a pun on "Stedtl", which means
"ghetto" -- Stadt is German for "town", Dorf for "village".
+ [p. 93] "'Feeding the yudasgoat?'"
Or in English, 'Judas goat', named after the disciple who betrayed Jesus.
+ [p. 94] "'I'm going to read your chem, Dorfl.'"
"Chem", pronounced "shem", is Hebrew for "name".
One common euphemism used by Orthodox Jews for "God" is "Ha-Shem",
literally: "The Name", which ties in to that part of the Golem legend
which involves writing the name of God on the Golem's forehead (the other
variant has the vivifying word being "Emet" (Truth)).
+ [p. 95] "NOW THREE HUNDRED DAYS ALREADY. [...] WHAT WOULD I DO WITH TIME
OFF?"
Ending sentences with "already" is a common mannerism among
Yiddish-speaking Jews in Anglophone countries. Rhetorical questions
are another mainstay of Yiddish conversational style.
+ [p. 99] "HOLY DAY STARTS AT SUNSET."
Jewish holy days do, indeed, run from sunset to sunset. Cf. Genesis 1:5:
"The evening and the morning were the first day."
+ [p. 109] "_The Rites of Man_"
Thomas Paine wrote a justification of the French Revolution entitled _The
Rights of Man_
+ [p. 110] "[...], licking his fingers delicately to turn the thin pages."
Another red herring. Putting poison on the pages of a book, so that it is
self-administered to the reader in this way, is an idea famously used in
Umberto Eco's medieval mystery _The Name of the Rose_.
+ [p. 115] "You came with me when they had that course at the YMPA.'"
See the annotation for p. 88/88 of _The Light Fantastic_. The YMCA runs
summer courses for children, and presumably for adults as well.
+ [p. 120] "'*Nobblyesse obligay*,' [...]"
See the annotation for p. 235/206 of _Reaper Man_.
+ [p. 123] "'It's "a mess of pottage", [...]'"
Another Old Testament reference.
Esau sold his status as Abraham's firstborn son to his brother Jacob
(Genesis 25:29-34) for a bowl of stew (pottage). Hence, a mess of
pottage is the proverbial price of a birthright. This phrase was
parodied by CS Lewis, who accused H. G. Wells of selling his
birthright for "a pot of message" (that is, abandoning the purely
imaginative books he did so well to push his political ideas).
+ [p. ???] "'Who streals my prurse streals trasph'"
Iago would rather be robbed than slandered in _Othello_, act 3, scene 3:
"Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed."
+ [p. 124] "[...] he had got only six weeks to retirement [...]"
The copper within days or hours of retirement has become a police movie
cliche; traditionally, anyone who starts talking like this is likely to
die within the short time left. Two examples occur in the films _Lethal
Weapon 2_ and _Falling Down_.
+ [p. 129] "'[...] ole Zhlob just used to plod along, [...]'"
Another golem name: "Zhlob" is Yiddish for "boorish glutton" (or
gluttonous boor). Probably Slavic in origin.
+ [p. 130] "As her tutors had said, there were two signs of a good
alchemist: the Athletic and the Intellectual."
Terry used this joke in a talk at the Australian National University in
Canberra in 1994, but he was talking about a shift charge engineer in a
nuclear power plant...
The standard analytical technique to prove arsenic in chemical mixtures
involves mixing the sample with zinc and adding sulphuric acid. If
arsenic is present, this produces arsenic hydride as a gas; burning the
gas, and holding the flame against a cool porcelain surface, leaves a
black precipitation of metallic arsenic.
+ [p. 132] "'It's nine of the clock,' said the organizer, poking its
head out of Vimes's pocket. '"I was unhappy because I had no shoes until
I met a man with no feet."'"
Refers to the regrettable trend among software producers to inflict a
happy Thought For The Day on their users each time they open the
software.
+ [p. 135] "One had a duck on his head, [...]"
See the annotation for p. 272/204 of _Soul Music_.
+ [p. 136] "'Buggrit, millennium hand and shrimp!'"
See the annotation for p. 324/233 of _Lords and Ladies_.
+ [p. 138] "'Dibbuk? Where the hell are you?'"
A dybbuk, in Jewish mythology, is a demonic spirit that possess the body
of someone living.
+ [p. 140] "'We're all lyin' in the gutter, Fred. But some of us're lookin'
at the stars...'"
From Oscar Wilde, _Lady Windermere's Fan_, Act 3. Although it can't be
easy to see the stars through all that fog.
+ [p. 142] "He distrusted the kind of person who'd take one look at
another man and say in a lordly voice to his companion..."
Terry is challenging the Sherlock Holmes school of detection as being "an
insult to the glorious variety of human life." P G Wodehouse does the
same in one of his PSmith stories, in which Psmith observes the local
plumber sitting in his garden, dressed well because it's Sunday and
reading Shakespeare because he likes it, while Psmith is studying the
"How To Detect" booklet that says a plumber is unlikely to dress
well/read Shakespeare.
+ [p. 143] "It wasn't by eliminating the impossible that you got at the
truth, however improbable..."
Another dig at Holmes, who said precisely this.
+ [p. 145] The description of Vetinari's drawing matches the cover of the
original publication of Thomas Hobbes' _Leviathan_, possibly *the* most
influential work of mainstream political theory.
The book argues that for people to come together in a society, they
cannot help but create a structure larger than themselves, which must
have a controlling intelligence of its own, i.e. some sort of governing
body. Hence, although political power derives from the common people, it
must be superior to them.
+ [p. 147] "[...] you might as well accuse the wallpaper of driving him
mad. Mind you, that horrible green colour would drive anyone insane..."
See the annotation for p. 65.
A number of people also wrote to say that they were reminded of Charlotte
Perking Gilman's story _The Yellow Wallpaper_ (1892), about a woman who
is indeed driven mad by wallpaper.
+ [p. 148] "'We're known for rings, sir.'"
Alberich the dwarf forges the Ring that is the centrepiece of Wagner's
interminable Ring Cycle, based on Norse legend. Tolkien uses the same
source, and his One Ring is not unlike Alberich's.
+ [p. 150] "Drumknott delicately licked his finger and turned a page."
See the note for p. 110.
+ [p. 153] "It was called the Rats Chamber."
This is another multidirectional pun. First, in German, the word for
'council chamber' is Ratskammer. Second, it's an anagram of Star Chamber,
a special civil and criminal court in England. Created by Henry VII in
1487, abolished by the Long Parliament in 1641 following abuses under
James I and Charles I. The court took its name from a star-shaped
decoration in the ceiling.
The decoration in the ceiling of the Rats Chamber -- a group of rats with
their tails tied together -- is called a rat king. According to Maarten
't Hart, in _Rats_ (translated from the Dutch), some 57 rat kings have
been found since the 17th century, although several are of dubious
authenticity. They are often found alive, and can contain as few as three
or as many as 32 members, although seven is the commonest number. Members
are of both sexes, and almost always of the same age group, which may be
young or adult. Rat kings are generally formed of black rats (Rattus
rattus), although there is one occurrence of field rats (found in Java)
and several of squirrels. No-one knows quite why they form, although one
theory is that black rats (which have longer and more pliable tails than
other breeds) get something sticky on their tails, and get tangled up
when they groom each other, or while playing or fighting.
Apparently, a modern artist decided to make a work of art depicting a
rat-king, and even put it on the internet. See Katharina Fritsch:
Rat-King (Rattenkoenig), 1993
<http://www.diacenter.org/exhibs/fritsch/fritsch.html> (which also has an
essay on the rat king through history).
+ [p. ???] "[...] Mrs Rosemary Palm, head of the Guild of Seamstresses
[...]"
See the annotation for p. 121/119 of _Equal Rites_.
+ [p. 155] "'Remember when he made his horse a city councillor?'"
Caligula, Emperor of Rome from 37 to 41 AD, famously appointed his horse
Incitatus as Consul to show his contempt for the Senate.
+ [p. 158] "'Genua wrote to Ankh-Morpork and asked to be sent one of our
generals to be their king [...] The history books say that we sent our
loyal General Tacticus, whose first act after obtaining the crown was to
declare war on Ankh-Morpork.'"
Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, 1763-1844, was a French general who
became King Karl XIV John of Sweden and Norway. The youngest son of a
French lawyer, Bernadotte joined the French army in 1780, becoming an
officer in 1792, during the French Revolution. Recognising his brilliance
in the field, the Emperor Napoleon eventually elevated him to the rank of
prince. In Sweden, where Gustav IV had abdicated (1809) and been
succeeded by the childless Karl XIII, Napoleon supported Bernadotte as
heir to the throne. In August 1810, he was elected crown prince as Karl
John. In 1813 he joined the allies against Napoleon.
+ [p. 162] "Constable Visit had told him the meek would inherit [the
world], [...]"
Another parallel between Omnianism and Christianity. See Matthew 5:5.
+ [p. 165] "'you've got to have the noses poking through the pastry...'"
Similar to Stargazy pie, a Cornish dish that has fish heads poking
through the pastry all around the edge of the dish.
+ [p. 177] "'... push off back to the Yard, job done and dusted.'"
This phrase relates to the act of distempering a wall -- another oblique
hint at the wallpaper theory.
+ [p. 181] "'*Now* we're cooking with charcoal!'"
The expression "cooking with gas" dates back to an advertising campaign
designed to persuade people of the advantages of gas over electricity.
+ [p. 189] "*'She feels the need,' [...] 'Yeah, the need to feed.'*"
In the movie _Top Gun_, the pilots boast that they 'feel the need; the
need for speed.'
+ [p. 190] "That horrible green wallpaper."
By the time Vimes has this idea (see the annotation for p. 65), he
already knows enough to dismiss it in fairly short order.
+ [p. 195] "'Then there's this one about the Klatchian who walks into a
pub with a tiny piano -- '"
The joke as adapted by thee goode folkes of alt.fan.pratchett goes like
this:
This Klatchian walked into a pub carrying a small piano. He puts in on
the bar and has a few drinks. When it comes time to pay up he says to
the publican, "I bet you double or nothing I can show you the most
amazing thing you ever saw."
"Okay, but I warn you, I've seen some weird stuff."
The Klatchian takes out a tiny stool, which he sits in front of the
piano. He then reaches into his robes and pulls out a box, about a
foot long, with tiny air-holes in it. He takes off the lid and inside
is a tiny man, fast asleep. As the lid opens he wakes up. Instantly he
jumps to the piano and plays a perfect rendition of 'The Shades of
Ankh-Morpork'! Then, as everyone in the bar is clapping, he jumps back
into the box and closes the lid.
"Wow!" The publican says, and wipes the slate clean. "If I give you
another drink, could you do it again?" The Klatchian agrees. This time
the little man plays the Hedgehog song, to thunderous applause.
"I gotta ask, where did you get that?"
"Well, a few months ago I was travelling across the deserts of Klatch,
when I suddenly came across a glass bottle. I picked it up and rubbed
it and lo and behold, out popped a Genie. For some reason it was
holding a curved bone to his ear and talking to it."
"'Genie,' I said to him, 'I have freed you, and in return I ask only
three wishes.'"
"'Huh?' The genie said, looking at me for the first time. 'Oh, OK, three,
whatever.' He then started talking to the bone again."
"'Genie, I would like a million bucks!' I said to him."
"Did you get it?"
"Not exactly. The genie kept talking to the bone and he waved one of his
hands. Instantly, I was surrounded by a million ducks. Then they flew
away."
"What was your second wish?"
"I said to him: 'I want to be the ruler the world!' the Genie was still
talking to his bone, but he waved his free hand and a piece of wood
appeared, with inches marked on it."
"Oh, a ruler. It sounds like the genie wasn't paying much attention. Did
you get your third wish?"
"Let me put it like this: do you really think I asked for a twelve-inch
pianist?"
+ [p. 196] "'Send Meshugah after him, ah-ha.'"
Another Yiddish name, from Hebrew, meaning 'crazy'.
+ [p. 203] "[...] the crowd opened up like a watercourse in front of
the better class of prophet."
Moses parted the sea to allow the Israelites to escape the pursuing
Egyptian army, who were then all killed when the seas collapsed on top of
them... (Exodus 14:21-30)
+ [p. 217] "'"My name is Sam and I'm a really suspicious bastard."'"
Parodies how people introduce themselves at meetings of Alcoholics
Anonymous.
+ [p. 222] "'I thought the damn thing smashed up...' [...] 'Well, it's
putting itself together.'"
The monster breaking into pieces and then reassembling itself is probably
best known from _Terminator 2_ (see also the annotation for p. 364/275 of
_Soul Music_), but there are earlier references. In _The Iron Giant_ by
Ted Hughes (1968) the iron man/robot falls over the edge of a cliff and
breaks into many pieces. The fingers put the hands together then they
pick up an eye and start putting the rest of the body together.
+ [p. 226] "It is not a good idea to spray finest brandy across the room,
especially when your lighted cigar is in the way."
...unless, of course, you *want* a small fireball. This trick is used in
the 1959 film _The League of Gentlemen_.
+ [p. 230] "'I wanted to buy a farm!' moaned Colon. 'Could be,' said
Arthur."
See the annotation for p. 17.
+ [p. 234] "'This candle even weighs slightly more than the other candles!"
Although there are a few fictional uses of this method of poisoning,
Terry himself explains that his source was an "attempt on the life of
Leopold I, Emperor of Austria, in 1671, which was foiled when the
alchemist Francesco Borri checked up on the candles. He found the candles
in the bedchamber were heavier than similar candles elsewhere and found
that two and a half pounds of arsenic has been added to the batch."
+ [p. 236] "'Hello hello hello, what's all this, then?'"
Catchphrase from the _Dixon of Dock Green_ TV series. See the annotation
for p. 60/55 of _Guards! Guards!_.
+ [p. 245] "'That's Mr Catterail, sir."
... whose letter Carrot read way back on p. 108, where he gives his
address as Park Lane. Kings Down is a short walk away along Long Wall.
Presumably they are on the same beat.
+ [p. 252] "'"Today Is A Good Day For Someone Else To Die!"'"
Contrary to popular belief, the saying "Today is a good day to die!"
was not invented by Klingons. It's a traditional Siouxan/Lacotah
battle-cry.
+ [p. 258] "He landed on the king's back, flung one arm around its neck,
and began to pound on its head with the hilt of his sword. It staggered
and tried to reach up to pull him off."
In _Robocop 2_, our hero (Robo) jumped on the back of the 'Robocop 2' and
tried to open its head.
+ [p. 260] "'They gave their own golem too many, I can see that."
The way the king golem is driven mad by the number of rules in its head
reminded many people of a scene in _Robocop 2_, where Robocop is rendered
useless by programming with several, partly conflicting rules. This
slightly tenuous connection is reinforced by several further similarities
between Dorfl and Robocop.
+ [p. ???] "'We can rebuild him,' said Carrot hoarsely. 'We have the
pottery.'"
From the 70s TV series _The Six Million Dollar Man_: "We can rebuild him.
We have the technology."
+ [p. 272] "'Undead Or Alive, You Are Coming With Me!'"
Another echo of Robocop.
+ [p. 278] "'He's just made of clay, Vimes.' 'Aren't we all, sir?
According to them pamphlets Constable Visit keeps handing out.'"
Another parallel between Omnianism and Christianity. See Genesis 2:7. (In
fact, the idea of God as a potter and humans as clay is a recurring
metaphor in the Bible. See, e.g., Job 33:6, Isaiah 64:8, Jeremiah 18:6.)
+ [p. 279] "'The thought occurs, sir, that if Commander Vimes did not
exist you would have had to invent him.'"
Parallels a famous saying of Voltaire (1694-1778): "If God did not exist,
it would be necessary to invent him."
+ [p. 280] "'To Serve The Public Trust, Protect The Innocent, And
Seriously Prod Buttock.'"
The first two of these were also the first two of Robocop's prime
directives.
+ [p. 283] Dorfl's plan to liberate his fellow golems seems to take a lot
for granted (e.g. that they will all decide, once free, to join him).
Terry himself describes what he envisages happening next:
"While I wasn't planning to feature this in another book, I suspect the
sequence of events, given Dorfl's character, would run like this:
1 Dorfl saves up to buy the next golem
2 Golems suddenly become very pricey
3 Dorfl does extra shifts and go on saving
4 Price of golems goes up
5 Several merchants recieved a friendly visit from the Commander of
the Watch to discuss matters of common interest
6 Golems available to Dorfl at very reasonable prices.
I want more golems on the city payroll. How else can they resurrect the
fire service?"
The names of the golems, again, are Yiddish. "Klutz" -- a clumsy clod or
bungler (from German); "Bobkes" -- beans, but only metaphorically;
something worthless or nonsensical (from Russian); "Shmata" -- a rag, or
piece of cloth; used both literally and to describe a person of weak
character (from Polish).
+ [p. 285] "'*Not* a problem, me old china,' he said."
Rhyming slang: china plate -- mate, friend.
+ [p. 285] "'Somewhere, A Crime Is Happening,' said Dorfl."
Another Robocop line.
+ [p. 285] "'But When I Am Off Duty I Will Gladly Dispute With The Priest
Of The Most Worthy God.'"
However, Dorfl has just told Vimes that he will never *be* off duty...
HOGFATHER
+ [dedication] "To the guerilla bookshop manager known to friends as
'ppint' [...]"
The bookshop in question is _Interstellar Master Traders_ in Lancaster.
ppint is a longtime contributor to alt.fan.pratchett, well-known for,
amongst many other things, maintaining a number of that group's
"Frequently Asked Questions" documents.
+ [dedication] "[...] the question Susan asks in this book."
Many people have found it difficult to determine just what this question
is. Perhaps this is because the Oh God of Hangovers asks it first, on p.
153, after which Susan turns to the Death of Raths and relays the
question to him: "'Actually... where *do* [the Tooth Fairies] take the
teeth?'"
+ When _Hogfather_ was being written, Terry answered the question what it
was going to be about as follows:
"Let's see, now...in _Hogfather_ there are a number of stabbings,
someone's killed by a man made of knives, someone's killed by the dark,
and someone just been killed by a wardrobe.
It's a book about the magic of childhood. You can tell."
+ [p. 7] "Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree."
Most physicists believe the universe started with a 'big bang.' The
contrary view is that the universe is essentially a 'steady state'
system, though this is difficult to reconcile with the available
evidence. See also the annotation for p. 8/8 of _The Colour of Magic_.
+ [p. 8] "[...] the Verruca Gnome is running around [...]"
A verruca is a large wart that appears on the sole of the foot, also
called a plantar wart. Apparently the word is not commonly used in
America.
+ [p. 13] "'[...] a stiff brandy before bedtime quite does away with the
need for the Sandman.'"
The Sandman supposedly sends children to sleep by throwing sand in their
eyes, although we have found out (in _Soul Music_) that, on the
Discworld, he doesn't bother to take the sand out of the sack first.
+ [p. 13] "'And, since I can carry a tune quite well, I suspect I'm not
likely to attract the attention of Old Man Trouble.'"
A character from the Gerschwin song 'I've Got Rhythm'. See also the
annotation for p. 86 of _Feet of Clay_.
+ [p. 16] "'Let us call him the Fat Man.'"
This nickname has an honourable history, dating back at least as far as
the 1941 classic film _The Maltese Falcon_. It was also the codename of
the second (and, so far, the last) atomic bomb ever used in war, which
was dropped on Nagasaki in August 1945.
+ [p. 24] "She'd got Gawain on the military campaigns of General Tacticus,
[...]"
We learn a lot more about this character in _Jingo_. The name seems to be
a conflation of the word 'tactics' with the Roman historian Tacitus.
+ [p. 25] "[...] if she did indeed ever find herself dancing on rooftops
with chimney sweeps [...]"
A famous scene from the 1964 film _Mary Poppins_. Miss Poppins used her
umbrella as a sort of magic wand to grant wishes for the children in her
charge. See also the annotation for p. 56.
+ [p. 26] "[...] the hope that some god or other would take their soul if
they died while they were asleep [...]"
Susan is thinking of an 18th-century prayer still popular in parts of
America:
"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take."
+ [p. 26] "'[...] *yes*, Twyla: there *is* a Hogfather.'"
Susan's response to Twyla's question loosely parodies a delightfully
sentimental editorial that first appeared in _The New York Sun_ in
December 1897. The editorial _Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus_,
appropriately enough, uses the ideas of 'deeper truths' and 'values' to
demonstrate that Santa *must* exist.
+ [p. 28] Medium Dave and Banjo Lilywhite.
From the Trad. song 'Green grow the rushes, O': "Two, two the Lilywhite
boys, clothed all in green, O".
+ [p. 34] "Deaths's destination was a slight rise in the trench floor."
The environment Death visits is called "Black Smokes". It is a lifeform
that is not based on photosynthesis in any way.
+ [p. 35] "The omnipotent eyesight of various supernatural entities is
often remarked upon. It is said they can see the fall of every sparrow."
Matthew 10:29, for instance: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?
and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father."
+ [p. 39-40] "'"Oh, there might be some temp'ry inconvenience now, my good
man, but just come back in fifty thousand years."'"
There is very often a clear parallel between Discworld magic and our
world's nuclear power. This is the sort of timescale it takes for
plutonium waste to decay to a 'harmless' state. Given Terry's background
in the nuclear industry, and his comments since, there's no doubt that
these parallels are intended.
+ [p. 42] "'Give me a child until he seven and he is mine for life.'"
A Jesuit maxim. See the annotation for p. 12/10 of _Small Gods_.
+ [p. 44] "It was the night before Hogwatch. All through the house...
...one creature stirred. It was a mouse."
In Clement Clarke Moore's poem _The Night Before Christmas_, "not a
creature was stirring, not even a mouse".
+ [p. 47] "[...] the Quirmian philosopher Ventre, who said, 'Possibly the
gods exist and possibly they do not. So why not believe in them in any
case? If it's all true you'll go to a lovely place when you die, and if
it isn't then you've lost nothing, right?'"
This is a rephrasing of Pascal's Wager: "If you believe in God and turn
out to be incorrect, you have lost nothing -- but if you don't believe in
God and turn out to be incorrect, you will go to hell. Therefore it is
foolish to be an atheist." (Formulation quoted from the alt.atheism
"Common Arguments" webpage,
<http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism/arguments.html#pascal>)
+ [p. 47] "'You could try "Pig-hooey!"'"
In P. G. Wodehouse's _Blandings Castle_, this cry was recommended to
Clarence, Earl of Emsworth, as an all-purpose call to food, and used in
the enforced absence of his pig man to get the mighty Empress back to the
trough. As such it is perhaps not surprising that Gouger, Rooter, Tusker
and Snouter did not accelerate away at the sound -- they were presumably
waiting for Albert to produce the nosebags.
+ [p. 48] "'Look at robins, now. [...] all they got to do is go
bob-bob-bobbing along [...]'"
From the song "When the red, red robin comes bob-bob-bobbing along..."
+ [p. 49] "In Biers no one took any notice."
The bar "Cheers", from the TV show of the same name, has often been
parodied as "Beers". See also the annotation for p. 84 of _Feet of
Clay_.
+ [p. 50] "'Now then, Shlimazel'"
"Shlimazel" is a Yiddish word meaning someone who always has bad luck, a
sad sack, a terminally unsuccessful person. (From German "schlimm",
meaning "bad", and the Hebrew "mazal", meaning "luck" -- or
"constellation", as in "ill-starred".)
+ [p. 54] "'Did you check the list?' YES, TWICE. ARE YOU SURE THAT'S
ENOUGH?"
This is the first of many references to the song 'Santa Claus is coming
to town'. "He's making a list, he's checking it twice, he's gonna find
out who's naughty and nice..." Other references are on p. 60 and p. 84.
+ [p. 54] "Here we are, here we are," said Albert. "James Riddle, aged
eight."
Jimmy Riddle is rhyming slang for "piddle".
+ [p. 56] "the window opened into the branches of a cherry tree."
Possibly another echo of _Mary Poppins_ (see the annotation for p.
25), who lived at 10 Cherry Tree Road. The raven's constant harping on
about robins also echoes the movie.
+ [p. 60] "'The rat says: you'd better watch out...'"
The song "Santa Claus is coming to town" takes on a whole new meaning on
the Discworld. See also the annotation for p. 69/52 of _Soul Music_.
+ [p. 66] "She'd never looked for eggs laid by the Soul Cake Duck."
The Soul Cake Duck appears to be the Discworld equivalent of the Easter
Bunny.
+ [p. 67] "'I happen to like fern patterns,' said Jack Frost coldly."
A Tom Swiftie, followed by another one on the next page: "'I don't
sleep,' said Frost icily, [...]". See the annotation for p. 26/26 of _The
Light Fantastic_.
+ [p. 73] "In general outline, at least. But with more of a PG rating."
PG = Parental Guidance suggested -- a film classification from the Motion
Picture Association of America (MPAA) meaning that "some material may not
be suitable for children".
+ [p. 74] "Between every rational moment were a billion irrational ones."
In mathematics, between every rational number there are an infinite
number of irrational numbers. A rational number is a number that can be
expressed in the form of _p/q_ where _p_ and _q_ are integers. Irrational
numbers are ones that can't, such as _pi_ or the square root of 2.
+ [p. 77] "A man might spend his life peering at the private life of
elementary particles and then find he either knew who he was or where he
was, but not both."
A lovely reference to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (see the
annotation for p. 178/171 of _Pyramids_). Also plays on the stereotype of
the absent-minded old scientist.
+ [p. 79] "'Archchancellor Weatherwax only used it once [...]'"
Archchancellor Weatherwax was in charge of UU in the time of _The Light
Fantastic_, estimated (by some deeply contorted calculation) to be set
about 25 years before the time of _Hogfather_. See also the annotation
for p. 8/8 of _The Light Fantastic_.
+ [p. 82] 'Old Faithful' is the name of the famous big regular geyser in
Yellowstone Park. No wonder Ridcully feels 'clean'.
+ [p. 83] "*On the second day of Hogswatch I... sent my true love back A
nasty little letter, hah, yes, indeed, and a partridge in a pear tree.*"
Clearly the Discworld version of "The twelve days of Christmas" is rather
less, umm, unilateral.
+ [p. 83] "'*-- the rising of the sun, and the running of the deer --*'"
The song is 'The Holly and the Ivy':
"The Holly and the Ivy, when they are both full grown,
Of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly bears the crown.
Oh, the rising of the sun, and the running of the deer,
The playing of the merry organ, sweet singing in the choir.
The Holly bears a berry, as red as any blood,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ to do poor sinners good..."
etc.
+ [p. 84] "I KNOW IF THEY ARE PEEPING, Death added proudly."
Another echo of 'Santa Claus is coming to town': "He sees you when you're
peeping". See the annotations for p. 54 and p. 60.
+ [p. 86] "'I mean, tooth fairies, yes, and them little buggers that live
in flowers, [...]'"
Flower fairies are a Victorian invention, often illustrated in
sickeningly cute pictures and still widely popular in America. See also
_Witches Abroad_.
+ [p. 86] "Oh, how the money was coming in."
This has been tentatively linked to a famous parody song, to the tune of
of 'My Bonnie lies over the ocean': "My father makes counterfeit money,
my mother brews synthetic gin, my sister makes loves to the sailors: my
God, how the money rolls in!"
+ [p. 92] "Many people are aware of the Weak and Strong Anthropic
Principles."
Physicists have discovered that there are a large number of
'coincidences' inherent in the fundamental laws and constants of nature,
seemingly *designed* or 'tuned' to lead to the development of intelligent
life. Every one of these coincidences or specific relationships between
fundamental physical parameters is needed, or the evolution of life and
consciousness as we know it could not have happened. This set of
coincidences is known collectively as the "Anthropic Principle."
The 'Weak Anthropic Principle' states, roughly, that "since we are here,
the universe must have the properties that make it possible for us to
exist, so the coincidences are not surprising".
The 'Strong Anthropic Principle' says that "the universe *can* only exist
at all because it has these properties -- it would be impossible for it
to develop any other way."
In some quarters, the idea has re-ignited the old 'argument-from-design'
for the existence of God.
+ [p. 94] "'Sufficiently *advanced* magic.'"
A perfect inversion of Arthur C. Clarke's dictum that "any sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
+ [p. 94] "'Interesting. Saves all that punching holes in bits of card and
hitting keys you lads are forever doing, then --'"
Holes punched in cards were used to input programs and data to computers
up until roughly the early 1970s, when keyboards became standard.
+ [p. 95] "+++ Why Do You Think You Are A Tickler? +++"
The conversation between the Bursar and Hex is reminiscent of the _Eliza_
program.
_Eliza_ is a program written in the dark ages of computer science by
Joseph Weizenbaum to simulate an indirect psychiatrist. It works by
transforming whatever the human says into a question using a few very
simple rules. To his grave concern, Weizenbaum discovered that people
took his simple program for real and demanded to be left alone while
'conversing' with it.
+ [p. 95] "[...] Hex's 'Anthill Inside' sticker [...]"
Refers to a marketing campaign launched by semiconductor manufacturer
Intel in the 1990s.
Intel's problem was that, although it has almost all of the market for
personal computer chips, its lawyers couldn't stop rival manufacturers
from making chips that were technically identical -- or, very often,
better and cheaper. Its response was to launch the 'Intel Inside'
sticker, to attach to a computer's case in the hope of persuading end
customers that this made it better.
+ [p. 99] "You know there's some people up on the Ramtops who kill a wren
at Hogswatch and walk around from house to house singing about it?"
There is a folksong about the hunting of the wren:
"Oh where are you going, says Milder to Maulder
Oh we may not tell you, says Festle to Fose
We're off to the woods, says John the red nose
We're off to the woods, says John the red nose
And what will you do there...
We'll hunt the cutty wren..."
+ [p. 100] "Blind Io the Thunder God used to have these myffic ravens that
flew anywhere and told him everything that was going on."
The main Viking god Odin, although not a thunder god, had two ravens,
Hugin and Munin, who did this. He also had only one eye.
+ [p. 100] "'[...] he'd go to the Castle of Bones.'"
King Arthur visited this place of horror with a bunch (24? 49? 144?) of
his trusted knights and re-emerged with only seven left alive. No one
ever told what they had encountered there. I believe it was a faerie
castle.
+ [p. 104] "The Aurora Corealis"
See the annotation for p. 85/69 of _Mort_.
+ [p. 118] "YES INDEED, HELLO, SMALL CHILD CALLED VERRUCA LUMPY, [...]"
Confirms Ridcully's remark on p. 86 that the word can be used as a name.
+ [p. 119] "'Willow bark', said the Bursar."
Willow bark contains aspirin.
+ [p. 121] "'[...] that drink, you know, there's a worm in the bottle...'"
Mescal. See also the annotation for p. 252/190 of _Soul Music_.
+ [p. 121] "'[...] surrounded by naked maenads.'"
Maenads are from Greek mythology and were tied up with Dionysus, God of
Wine. They were beautiful, nude and indeed maniacal, possessed of an
unfortunate tendency to tear apart anyone they met, especially if it was
male.
+ [p. 123] TINKLE. TINKLE. *FIZZ*.
An old advertising campaign for Alka-Seltzer (a medicine often used as a
hangover cure), used the line "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz" to describe the
sound of the pills dropping into water and dissolving.
+ [p. 126] "'*I saw this in _Bows and Ammo_!*'"
See the annotation for p. 328/236 of _Lords and Ladies_.
+ [p. 132] "While evidence says that the road to Hell is paved with good
intentions, [...]"
This is confirmed by the eyewitness testimony of Rincewind and Eric (in
_Eric_).
+ [p. 134] "'Sarah the little match girl, [...]'"
The little match girl dying of hypothermia on Christmas eve is a
traditional fairy tale, best known in the version written by Hans
Christian Anderson.
+ [p. 135] "'You're for life, not just for Hogswatch,' prompted Albert."
Plays on an old advertising slogan intended to discourage giving puppies
as Christmas presents without thinking about how they'll be cared for the
rest of their lives.
Compare also the motto for Lady Sybil's Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick
Dragons: "Remember, A Dragon is For Life, Not Just for Hogswatchnight".
+ [p. 139] "Hex worried Ponder Stibbons."
The present incarnation of Hex has a lot of in-jokes about modern
(mid-90s) personal computers.
The computer business is littered with TLAs (three-letter abbreviations),
such as CPU, RAM, VDU, FTP; Hex has its CWL (clothes wringer from the
laundry), FTB (fluffy teddy bear), GBL (great big lever). "Small
religious pictures" are icons, and they are used with a mouse. Ram skulls
are an echo of RAM (random-access memory).
The beehive long-term storage is a little more obscure, but in the 1980s
some mainframes had a mass storage system that involved data stored on
tapes wound onto cylinders. The cylinders of tape were stored in a set of
hexagonal pigeon holes, and retrieved automatically by the computer as
needed; systems diagrams always depicted this part of the computer as a
honeycomb pattern. And then there's of course the fact that 'beehive'
rhymes with 'B-drive', which is how one usually refers to the secondary
floppy drive in a personal computer.
Interestingly, Douglas R. Hofstader's _Goedel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal
Golden Braid_ contains a chapter in which one of the characters (the
Anteater) describes how an anthill can be viewed as a brain, in which the
movements of ants are the thoughts of the heap.
+ [p. 141] "+++ Error at Address:14, Treacle Mine Road, Ankh-Morpork +++"
A common error message on many types of computer tells you that there is
an error at a certain memory address, expressed as a number. This
information is completely useless to anyone except a programmer.
Based on _The Streets of Ankh-Morpork_, it has been suggested that this
may be the address of CMOT Dibbler's cellar, mentioned in _Reaper Man_.
+ [p. 141] "'I know it sounds stupid, Archchancellor, but we think it might
have caught something off the Bursar.'"
Possibly Hex has caught a virus. On the Discworld, there's no obvious
reason why a virus shouldn't be transmittable from human to computer or
vice-versa.
In the early 1970s there appeared a sort of proto-virus called the
'Cookie Monster', which cropped up on a number of computers -- notably
Multics-based machines. What would happen is that unsuspecting users
would suddenly find messages demanding cookies on their terminals, and
they would not be able to proceed until they typed 'COOKIE' or
'HAVECOOKIE', etc. -- in much the same way as Hex is 'cured' by typing
'DRYDFRORGPILLS'.
For more details see: <http://www.lilli.com/cookie.html>
+ [p. 143] "'You don't have to shout, Archchancellor,' said Ponder."
In on-line conversations, a common error among newcomers is typing
everything in block capital letters, known colloquially as 'shouting'.
This causes varying degrees of irritation among readers. There are also
some people with vision impairments who use software that purposely uses
capital letters, as they are easier to read, but fortunately this
software is improving.
+ [p. 143] "Then it wrote: +++ Good Evening, Archchancellor. I Am Fully
Recovered And Enthusiastic About My Tasks +++"
Hex's polite phrasing here parodies that of the famous computer HAL from
Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke's movie _2001: A Space Odyssey_ (and
the sequel _2010_), who said things like: "Good afternoon, gentlemen. I
am a HAL 9000 computer" and "I am completely operational and all my
systems are functioning perfectly".
+ [p. 144] "What does 'divide by cucumber' mean?" "Oh, Hex just says that
if it comes up with an answer that it knows can't possibly be real."
The real-world version of this is is known as a "Divide by Zero" error.
Dividing by zero is an operation not allowed by the rules of mathematics,
and computers will generate an error when asked to perform it.
+ [p. 150] "[...] I can TALK THAT TALK and stalk that stalk [...]"
The usual phrase is, of course, "talk the talk and walk the walk",
meaning to both say and do the right thing. If anyone can definitively
point to the origin of this phrase, I'd be interested to know it --
possibly from the US civil rights movement of the 1960s.
It's been mentioned more than once that the Stanley Kubrick movie _Full
Metal Jacket_, the character Joker bandies words with a marine called
Animal Mother, who answers: "You talk the talk but do you walk the walk?"
This encounter may be significant purely because Animal Mother's helmet
bears the text "I AM BECOME DEATH".
+ [p. 154] "There are those who believe that [...] there was some Golden
Age [...] when [...] the stones fit together so you could hardly put a
knife between them, you know, and it's obvious they had flying machines,
right, because of the way the earthworks can only be seen from above,
yeah?"
This speculation has been advanced in the context of, e.g., the ancient
pyramids of Peru, where the stones really do fit together almost
perfectly, and where the Kuta Lines really can only be seen from above.
Apparently the part of Peru where the Inca lived is rather prone to
earthquakes, and not wanting their perfectly fitting stones to fall over
and break into little pieces when the earth moved, the Inca built all
their major buildings with the walls sloping inwards. Many Inca buildings
are still standing (less a roof or two, of course), in sharp contrast
with California, where modern buildings fall over with distressing
regularity.
Britain has things called leylines -- ancient sites so arranged that they
draw a perfectly straight line across a map, allegedly impossible to
trace without modern cartographical techniques.
For the most bizarre extrapolation of this belief, see Erich von Daniken,
_Chariots of the Gods_, which claims not only that aliens visited the
earth in ancient times, but also that they actually started human
civilisation.
The footnote ties together a number of modern myths about aliens, ending
with the "The truth may be out there...", the catchphrase of the 90s TV
series _The X-Files_.
+ [p. 155] "'Lares and Penates? What were they when they were at home?'
said Ridcully."
They were Roman household gods.
There are many beautiful shrines to them -- there was at least one in
every well-to-do ancient Roman house. The god that saw to it "that the
bread rose" was called Priapus, a god of fertility, who was
conventionally represented by or with a huge phallus.
+ [p. 155] "'Careless talk creates lives!'"
A propaganda poster first used in the First World War bore the slogan
"Careless talk costs lives" as an admonition against saying anything, to
anyone, about (for instance) where your loved ones were currently
serving, in case a spy was listening. (Also: loose lips sink ships.)
Interestingly, the Auditors also feel that there is no difference between
creating and costing lives.
+ [p. 157] "'Oh, what fun,' muttered Albert."
Once again Terry completely inverts the meaning of a song lyric without
changing a single word (see the annotation for p. 60). The original song
here is 'Jingle Bells': "Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open
sleigh".
+ [p. 162] "'[...] they say you can Earn $$$ in Your Spare Time [...]'"
Refers to the nuisance phenomenon on the Internet called 'spam'. E-mail
with subject lines resembling the above are mass-mailed out to thousands
of people in the hope that a small fraction of them will fall for it, and
be persuaded to perpetuate what was, in essence, a pyramid scheme, and
highly illegal in most countries. This sort of 'Make Money Fast' spam is
growing rarer these days, being replaced with unsolicited ads for
too-good-to-be-true credit cards, mass-e-mail programs and cheap
long-distance phone calls.
+ [p. 165] "[...], would even now be tiring of painting naked young ladies
on some tropical island somewhere"
A reference to the painter Paul Gaugin, who spent his most productive
years in the South Pacific doing just this.
+ [p. 166] "The old man in the hovel looked uncertainly at the feast [...]"
The episode of the king and the old man is based on the story of Good
King Wenceslas. Of course, Terry doesn't quite see it the way of the
Christmas carol.
+ [p. 177] "It might help to think of the universe as a rubber sheet, or
perhaps not."
A common device to help visualise the effect of gravity on the fabric of
the universe, similarly useless beyond a certain point. See also the
annotation for p. 230/207 of _Sourcery_.
+ [p. 177] "'It's brass monkeys out here.'"
The full expression is "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass
monkey".
The expression supposedly dates back to a time when cannon balls were
stored on the decks of ships in pyramid-shaped stacks held in place by a
brass frame around the base. This frame was called a 'monkey', and when
it got very cold, the brass monkey would contract, causing the stacks of
cannon balls to collapse.
+ [p. 181] "[...] OTHER PEOPLE HAVE NO HOMES. IS THIS FAIR? 'Well, of
course, that's the big issue --' Albert began."
In the UK and Australia, _The Big Issue_ is a magazine sold by the
homeless. In many cities all over the world similar projects have been
started.
+ [p. 184] "A large hourglass came down on the spring."
Ever since the Apple Macintosh, graphical user interfaces for computers
have used a special cursor shape to indicate that a lengthy operation is
in progress. The Windows hourglass cursor is Microsoft's version Apple's
original wristwatch.
+ [p. 185] "'Remember when we had all that life force all over the place? A
man couldn't call his trousers his own!'"
For the details of the time Ridcully is referring to, read _Reaper Man_.
+ [p. 190] "'Excuse me madam' said Ridcully. 'But is that a chicken on your
shoulder?' 'It's, er, it's, er, it's the Blue Bird of Happiness' said the
Cheerful Fairy."
In _The Blue Bird_ by Maurice Maeterlinck, published in German in 1909,
two children set off on a long journey to find the Blue Bird of
Happiness, only to learn that it was in their own back garden all along.
There's also a Far Side cartoon wherein "Ned, the Bluebird of Happiness
long absent from his life, is visited by the Chicken of Depression".
+ [p. 192] "According to my theory it is cladisticaly associated with the
Krullian pipefish, sir, which is also yellow and goes around in bunches
or shoals."
Normally, cladists are those who try to classify organisms in such a way
that related species are placed in the same family, not in a family with
other species that look the same. This is quite the opposite to Ponder's
cladism. This method of classification is called "dichotomous key
classification": unfortunately Ponder has left out the conventional first
step in this kind of identification, which is something along the lines
of "can it move unassisted?" -- if so, go to animal, if not, go to
plants.
+ [p. 193] "Sometimes a chicken is nothing but a bird."
Freud once said "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar", for much the same
reason.
+ [p. 195] "'Hogswatch is coming, The pig is getting fat, [...]'"
There is a song that goes:
"Christmas is coming, and the goose is getting fat
Won't you put a penny in the old man's hat?
If you haven't got a penny a ha'penny will do
And if you haven't got a ha'penny then God bless you."
+ [p. 195] "'-- nobody knows how good we can live, on boots three times a
day...'"
A standard children's song, once (apparently) popular at Girl Guide
camps, went:
"Everybody hates me, nobody loves me,
Think I'll go and eat worms.
Long thin slimy ones, short fat stubby ones,
Juicy, juicy, juicy, juicy worms.
Bite their heads off, suck their juice out,
Throw their skins away.
Nobody knows how good we can live
On worms three times a day."
+ [p. 195] "'Ah, Humbugs?' he said."
In Charles Dickens' _A Christmas Carol_, Scrooge has the catchphrase
"Bah! Humbug!".
+ [p. 208] "'[...] letting me hire a boat and sail around to the islands of
--'"
Darwin gathered much of the data for his version of evolutionary theory
while in the Galapagos Islands, which he visited on HMS _Beagle_.
+ [p. 212] "'You know what happens to kids who suck their thumbs, there's
this big monster with scissors all --'"
There is a classic set of children's stories called (in English)
_Slovenly Peter_, by Heinrich Hoffman, originally written in German circa
1840. One of the stories is about the scissor man, who comes in and cuts
the thumbs off of a little girl who refuses to stop sucking her thumbs.
+ [p. 213] "But she was used to the idea of buildings that were bigger on
the inside than on the outside. Her grandfather had never been able to
get a handle on dimensions."
In the legendary BBC TV series _Doctor Who_, the Tardis is famous for
being "bigger on the inside than on the outside". When the series began
in 1963, the Doctor was accompanied by his "granddaughter", Susan.
However, before jumping to any conclusions, see the annotation for p.
20/15 of _Soul Music_.
+ [p. 219] "'You could get them to open Dad's wallet and post the contents
to some address?'"
A US television presenter named Soupy Sales was hosting a children's TV
show in 1965, and in one famous live episode ad-libbed:
"Hey kids, last night was New Year's Eve, and your mother and dad were
out having a great time. They are probably still sleeping and what I want
you to do is tiptoe in their bedroom and go in your mom's pocketbook and
your dad's pants, which are probably on the floor. You'll see a lot of
green pieces of paper with pictures of guys in beards. Put them in an
envelope and send them to me at Soupy Sales, Channel 5, New York, New
York. And you know what I'm going to send you? A post card from Puerto
Rico!"
That the station subsequently got $80,000 in the mail appears to be a bit
of an urban legend, but Soupy's show did get pulled for two weeks before
he was allowed back on the air again.
+ [p. 229] "I know I made that mistake with little William Rubin [...]"
Bilirubin is formed when haemoglobin is broken down, and is basically the
the pigment that makes faeces brown.
In _The Silence of the Lambs_, by Thomas Harris, Hannible Lecter at one
point says that the killer 'Buffalo Bill' is a former patient of his
named Bill Rubin. In Harris' previous book _Red Dragon_ the killer
Francis Dolorhyde had no teeth and was known as the Tooth Fairy.
Terry explains the name as follows:
"Oh, lor'. Billy Rubim is an old medical student joke..."
"Like most really stupid jokes, it's one that you won't spot unless you
have the right background. Others on here will doubtless explain, but
according to one of my informants, a nurse, every batch of medical
students learns it anew and Mr Rubin's name turns up in various places to
general sniggering."
+ [p. 229] "They don't think twice about pushing off for a month as a big
white bull or a swan or something [...]"
The Greek gods, particularly Zeus, were fond of incarnating themselves as
animals of this sort, usually as part of a scheme to seduce or ravish
some unsuspecting young woman. On the Discworld, Om used to do the same
sort of thing. See _Small Gods_ for details.
+ [p. 232] "'There *are* magic wardrobes,' said Violet nervously. 'If
you go into them, you come out in a magic land.'"
A land such as Narnia. See the annotation for p. 22/22 of _Sourcery_.
+ [p. 235] "'I thought you had to clap your hands and say you believed in
'em,' [...] 'That's just for the little shiny ones,' [...]"
The fairies in J M Barrie's _Peter Pan_, Tinkerbell in particular, are
generally kept happy (and alive) in this fashion. I don't know if there's
an earlier reference.
+ [p. 236] "The Dean took a small glass cube from his pocket and ran it
over the corpse."
A scene familiar to anyone who's ever watched an episode of _Star Trek_.
+ [p. 236] "+++ Big Red Lever Time +++ Query +++"
Old IBM mainframes (as well as, later, the first IBM PCs), had large,
bright red, power switches, causing the phrase "big red switch" (often
abbreviated as BRS) to enter the hacker's jargon.
Hex, after seeing Death enter the laboratory, is in fact asking if Death
has come for him, which (a) throws an interesting light on Hex's own
feelings about his sentience, and (b) explains why Death's reply to Hex
starts with the word "No".
+ [p. 237] "+++ Yes. I Am Preparing An Area Of Write-Only Memory +++"
'Write-Only Memory' is a curious, but pointless concept, since the data
stored there can presumably never be retrieved. Real computers do have a
type of storage called 'Read-Only Memory', or ROM, which contains
information that can never be erased or overwritten.
Write-Only memory has a real world precedence in a practical joke
perpetrated by an engineer working for Signetics corporation. The joke
was eventually given a wider audience in the April 1972 issue of
_Electronics_ magazine.
+ [p. 239] "Family motto _Non timetis messor_"
This translates to "Don't fear the reaper", the title of a well-known
song by Blue Oyster Cult.
+ [p. 258] "'I didn't even *have* any of that salmon mousse!'"
In _Monty Python's The Meaning of Life_, a dinner party is rather spoiled
when Death visits (a Death not entirely unlike the Discworld's). The
visit is occasioned by the hostess serving tinned salmon mousse, and the
American guest complains that he didn't have any salmon mousse.
+ [p. 265] "what are you waiting for? Hogswatch?"
"What are you waiting for? Christmas?" is a mild taunt used to encourage
someone to start doing something.
+ [p. 267] "The man was tattooed. Blue whorls and spirals haunted his
skin..."
The ancient Celts painted blue patterns on their skin using the woad
plant, possibly as a means of setting the warriors apart from civilians.
+ [p. 269] "'I remember hearing,' said Susan distantly, 'that the idea of
the Hogfather wearing a red and white outfit was invented quite
recently.' NO. IT WAS REMEMBERED."
The whole concept of the modern Santa Claus is commonly ascribed to a
Coca Cola promotion. However, the idea was around long before then. See
<http://www.urbanlegends.com/> for details.
The modern red-and-white image of Santa derives from the poem _The Night
Before Christmas_ (see the annotation for p. 44), first published in
1822. Coca-Cola adopted him as an advertising symbol in the 1920s, and
only since then have the colours become 'fixed'. However, it is worth
mentioning that St Nicholas was a 4th century bishop, who would have worn
red and white robes.
+ [p. 270] "TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE."
Desmond Morris, in _The Naked Ape_: "I viewed my fellow man not as a
fallen angel, but as a risen ape." However, Terry says that he was
unaware of this prior use.
+ [p. 272] "...pictures of rabbits in waistcoats, among other fauna."
An echo of Beatrix Potter's nursery stories and their illustrations, most
obviously Peter Rabbit. The "gold watches and top hats" suggests the
White Rabbit from _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_.
+ [p. 281] "One foot kicked the 'Afterburner' lever and the other spun the
valve of the nitrous oxide cylinder."
An afterburner helps jet aircraft gain speed by using exhaust gases for
additional combustion. Nitrous oxide (aka laughing gas) is used as a
combustion-enhancing speed fuel in e.g. drag-racing cars. Also, nitrous
oxide, when added to water, becomes nitrous acid.
All of which might throw light on the oft-asked question: "what precisely
happened to Ridcully in the bath?"
+ [p. 283] "'as they say, "better a meal of old boots where friendship is,
than a stalled ox and hatred therewith."'"
From the Bible: "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a
stalled ox and hatred therewith." (Proverbs 15:17)
+ [p. 284] "'And god bless us, every one,' said Arnold Sideways."
This is the last line of Dickens' _A Christmas Carol_, spoken by Tiny
Tim, who also had something wrong with his legs.
JINGO
+ [title] _Jingo_
"By jingo!" is an archaic, jocular oath, of obscure origin, used in
Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. The word -- with derived forms
such as 'jingoism' and 'jingoistic' -- became associated with aggressive,
militaristic nationalism as a result of a popular song dating from the
Turko-Russian war of 1877-78, which began:
"We don't want to have to fight,
but by Jingo if we do
We've got the ships, we've got the men,
we've got the money too."
Interestingly (in the light of the circumstances of this particular war),
it is also the name of a warlike Japanese empress of the 2nd/3rd
centuries, credited by legend with the power of controlling the tides.
+ [p. 8] "'Whose squid _are_ they, dad?'"
Fishing rights have been a frequent cause of dispute between the UK and
neighbours, most dramatically in the 'Cod Wars' between the UK and
Iceland (1958, 1973, 1975), in which ships from the two countries
sabotaged each other's nets.
+ [p. 11] "There was a tradition of soap-box speaking in Sator Square."
London's Hyde Park Corner has a very similar tradition.
+ [p. 11] "'Who's going to *know*, dad?'"
In the 1963 comedy _Mouse on the Moon_, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick
competes with the USA and USSR to put the first human on the moon. The
Fenwick rocket gets there first, but someone points out that this doesn't
matter -- the glory will go to whoever gets *home* first. The Americans
and Russians quickly make their excuses and leave, pausing only to enter
the wrong capsules before sorting themselves out.
+ [p. 13] "'His ship is the _Milka_, I believe.'"
One of Christopher Columbus' ships was named the _Pinta_. A UK
milk-marketing slogan from the 1980s exhorted people to 'Drinka pinta
milka day'.
+ [p. 16] "'I believe the word "assassin" actually comes from Klatch?'"
In our world, it does. See the annotation for p. 124/114 of _Sourcery_.
+ [p. 17] "'Have you ever heard of the D'regs, my lord?'"
See the annotation for p. 109/82 of _Soul Music_.
+ [p. 18] "'It's about time Johnny Klatchian was taught a lesson,'"
"Johnny Foreigner" is a generic, disparaging term used by Britons of --
well, foreigners. During the First World War, the more specific term
"Johnny Turk" appeared.
+ [p. 20] "'It is no longer considered... *nice*... to send a warship over
there to, as you put it, show Johnny Foreigner the error of his ways. For
one thing, we haven't had any warships since the _Mary-Jane_ sank four
hundred years ago.'"
In the latter part of the 19th century, the phrase "gunboat diplomacy"
was coined to describe this British method of negotiating with uppity
colonials. The gunboat in question would not normally be expected to *do*
anything, merely to "show the flag" as a reminder that, however
vulnerable it might appear on land, Britannia still Ruled the Waves, and
could make life very difficult for anyone who got too obstreperous.
The _Mary-Jane_ is a reference to Henry VIII's flagship, the _Mary Rose_,
which (most embarrassingly) sank, in calm seas, immediately after being
launched from Portsmouth in 1545. The ship was recovered in the 1980s,
and is now a tourist attraction.
+ [p. 21] "'Very well then, by jingo!'"
See this book's title annotation.
+ [p. 22] "'We have no ships. We have no men. We have no money, too.'"
See this book's title annotation.
+ [p. 22] "'Unfortunately, the right words are more readily listened to if
you also have a sharp stick.'"
Theodore Roosevelt famously summarised his foreign policy as "Speak
softly, and carry a big stick."
+ [p. 23] "'Let's have no fighting, please. This is, after all, a council
of war.'"
President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers), in the 1964 movie _Dr
Strangelove_: "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."
+ [p. 25] "The Artful Nudger scowled."
A character in Dickens' _Oliver Twist_ is called the Artful Dodger.
+ [p. 26] "'Wib wib wib.' 'Wob wob wob.'"
Carrot has formed Ankh-Morpork's first scout troop. This salute parodies
the traditional (but now discontinued) Cub Scout exchange "Dyb dyb dyb."
"Dob dob dob.". The 'dyb' in the challenge supposedly stands for "do your
best", the 'dob' in the scouts' response for "do our best".
+ [p. 27] "'I had this book about this little kid, he turned into a
mermaid,'"
This sounds very much like the story of young Tom the chimney sweep's
transformation, told in moralistic Victorian children's tale _The Water
Babies_, written in 1863 by Charles Kingsley.
+ [p. 28] "'But after the big plague, he got press-ganged.'"
Press-ganging was the 18th-century equivalent of conscription. A ship's
captain, finding himself short-handed while in a home port, would send a
gang of his men round the port, enlisting anyone they could find who
looked like a sailor. Often this involved simply picking up drunks, but
it was not unheard-of for men to be taken by force.
+ [p. 28] "'They invented all the words starting with "al".'"
In Arabic, "al" is the definite article, and it is joined to the word
that it defines.
+ [p. 29] "'[...] the Klatchians invented nothing. [...] they came up with
zero.'"
The idea of treating zero as a number was one of several major
contributions that Western mathematics adopted from the Arabs.
+ [p. 30] "'_[...] it is even better than Ironcrufts ('T'Bread Wi' T'Edge')
[...]_'"
See the annotation for p. 26 of _Feet of Clay_.
+ [p. 31] "'This *is* all right, Reg? It's not coercion, is it?'"
Carrot's apparently uncharacteristic (dishonest) behaviour in this scene
has caused a lot of comment on alt.fan.pratchett. Terry explains it thus:
"I assume when I wrote this that everyone concerned would know what was
going on. The thieves have taken a Watchman hostage, a big no-no. Coppers
the world over find their normally sunny dispositions cloud over when
faced with this sort of thing, and with people aiming things at them, and
perpetrators later tend to fall down cell stairs a lot. So Carrot is
going to make them suffer. They're going to admit to all kinds of things,
including things that everyone knows they could not possibly have done.
What'll happen next? Vetinari won't mind. Vimes will throw out half of
the charges at least, and the rest will become TICs and probably will not
hugely affect the sentencing. The thieves will be glad to get out of it
alive. Other thieves will be warned. By the rough and ready local
standards, justice will have been served."
+ [p. 34] "'Hey, that's Reg Shoe! He's a zombie! He falls to bits all the
time!' 'Very big man in the undead community, sir.'"
Reg Shoe first appeared in _Reaper Man_ as the founder of the Campaign
for Dead Rights (slogans included "Undead, yes! Unperson, no!"). Possibly
Vimes has forgotten that he personally ordered zombies to be recruited
into the Watch, towards the end of _Feet of Clay_.
+ [p. 35] "'That's Probationary Constable Buggy Swires, sir.'"
Swires was the name of the gnome Rincewind and Twoflower encountered in
_The Light Fantastic_. Given that gnome lives are described in that book
as 'nasty, brutish and short', it seems unlikely that this is the same
gnome. Possibly a relative, though.
+ [p. 35] "[...] the long and the short and the tall."
A popular song from the Second World War had the lyric:
"Bless 'em all, bless 'em all!
Bless the long and the short and the tall!
Bless all the sergeants and double-you o-ones,
Bless all the corporals and their blinkin' sons."
The phrase was also used as the title of a stage play (filmed in 1960) by
Willis Hall, describing the plight and fate of a squad of British
soldiers in Burma.
+ [p. 40] "Right now he couldn't remember what the occasional dead dog had
been. Some kind of siege weapon, possibly."
In the Good Old Days(TM), besieging armies would sometimes hurl the
rotting corpses of dead animals over the city walls by catapult, with the
aim of spreading disease and making the city uninhabitable. So in a
sense, a dead dog *could* be a siege weapon...
+ [p. 44] "It looked as if people had once tried to add human touches to
structures that were already ancient..."
Leshp bears a resemblance to H. P. Lovecraft's similarly strange-sounding
creation, R'lyeh -- an ancient, now submerged island in the Pacific,
inhabited by alien Things with strange architecture, which rises at very
long intervals and sends people mad all over the world. For full details,
see Lovecraft's _The Call of Cthulhu_.
+ [p. 47] "'Oh, Lord Venturi says it'll all be over by Hogswatch, sir.'"
"It'll all be over by Christmas" was said of the First World War by
armchair strategists, in August 1914. Ironically, the phrase has become a
popular reassurance: more recently, President Clinton promised the
American public in 1996 that US troops in Bosnia would be "home for
Christmas".
+ [p. 55] "'I go, I *h*come back.'"
Ahmed's catchphrase is borrowed from Signior So-So, a comic Italian
character in the famous wartime radio series _It's That Man Again_
(ITMA).
+ [p. 55] "'Doctor of Sweet *F*anny Adams'"
The original Fanny Adams was an eight-year-old girl in Alton, Hampshire,
whose dismembered body was discovered in 1867. About the same time,
tinned mutton was first introduced in the Royal Navy, and the sailors --
not noted for their sensitivity -- took to calling the (rather
disgusting) meat "Sweet Fanny Adams". Hence the term came to mean
something worthless, and finally to mean "nothing at all".
+ [p. 55] "The Convivium was Unseen University's Big Day."
Oxford University has a ceremony called the Encaenia, which also involves
lots of old men in silly costumes and a procession ending in the
Sheldonian Theatre. See <http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/admin/encaen.htm> for
more information.
+ [p. 56] "It was an almost Pavlovian response."
The Pavlovian experiment in *our* world involved ringing a bell before
and during the feeding of a group of dogs. After a while the dogs learned
to associate the ringing of the bell with food. A part of them was
essentially programmed to think that the bell was the same thing as food.
+ [p. 61] "'And many of them could give him a decent shave and a haircut,
too.'"
Refers to the fact that, for many years, surgeons used to double as
barbers, or vice versa.
+ [p. 61] "'The keystones of the Watch.'"
The Keystone Cops were a squad of frantically bumbling comedy policemen
from the silent movie era.
+ [p. 62] "'A lone bowman.'"
The "lone gunman" theory is still the official explanation of John F.
Kennedy's assassination, despite four decades of frenzied speculation.
Conspiracy theorists like to claim that Someone, Somewhere is covering up
the truth, in much the same way as Vimes and Vetinari are conspiring to
cover it up here.
+ [p. 62] "'[...] it is still law that every citizen should do one hour's
archery practice every day. Apparently the law was made in 1356 and it's
never been --'"
In 1363, in England, Edward III -- then in the early stages of the
Hundred Years' War with France -- ordered that all men should practise
archery on Sundays and holidays; this law remained technically in force
for some time after the longbow was effectively obsolete as a weapon of
war.
+ [p. 65] "'An experimental device for turning chemical energy into rotary
motion,' said Leonard. 'The problem, you see, is getting the little
pellets of black powder into the combustion chamber at exactly the right
speed and one at a time.'"
In our world, an early attempt at an internal combustion engine used
pellets of gunpowder, stuck to a strip of paper (rather like the roll of
caps for a cap pistol). I understand that the attempt was just as
successful as Leonard's.
+ [p. 70] "'I have run out of Burnt Umber.'"
Burnt umber is a dark, cool-toned brown colour. Umber is an earth pigment
containing manganese and iron oxides, used in paints, pastels and
pencils. The name comes from Umbria, the region where it was originally
mined and adopted as a pigment for art.
+ [p. 71] "'So he was shot in the back by a man in front of him who could
not possibly have used the bow that he didn't shoot him with from the
wrong direction...'"
The live film of JFK's assassination, allegedly, shows similar
inconsistencies with the official account.
+ [p. 72] "'[...] he thinks it'll magically improve his shot.'"
The official account of JFK's assassination describes how a bullet moved
in some *very* strange ways through his body. Conspiracy theorists
disparage this as the "magic bullet theory".
+ [p. 76] "'It looks like a complete run of _Bows and Ammo_!'"
See the annotation for p. 126 of _Hogfather_.
+ [p. 77] "'Bugger all else but sand in Klatch. Still got some in his
sandals.'"
When the First World War broke out, Britons were much comforted by the
fact that the supposedly unstoppable "steamroller" of the Russian army
was on their side. Rumours spread that Russian troops were landing in
Scotland to reinforce the British army, and these troops could be
recognised by the snow on their boots. Ever since, the story has been a
standard joke about the gullibility of people in wartime.
+ [p. 79] "'[...] that business with the barber in Gleam Street.' 'Sweeney
Jones,'"
Legend tells of Sweeney Todd, a barber in Fleet Street, London, who would
rob and kill (not necessarily in that order) solitary customers,
disposing of their bodies via a meat-pie shop next door. The story is
celebrated in a popular Victorian melodrama, in a 1936 film, in a musical
by Stephen Sondheim (1979), and in rhyming slang ("Sweeney Todd" =
"Flying Squad", an elite unit of the Metropolitan Police).
The story was the most successful of a spate of such shockers dating from
the early 19th century. _Sawney Bean, the Man-Eater of Midlothian_ was
supposedly based on a real 13th-century Scottish legal case; also
published about this time were two French versions, both set in Paris.
All of these were claimed to be based on true stories -- but then, this
pretence was standard practice for novelists at the time. The "original"
version of Sweeney Todd was written by Edward Lloyd under the title of
_The String of Pearls_, published around 1840.
+ [p. 81] "'He was shot from the University?' 'Looks like the library
building,'"
Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy from the Texas Schools Book Depository, on
the fifth floor.
+ [p. 82] "'Carrot, it's got "Mr Spuddy Face" on it.'"
Mr Potato Head is a child's toy based on putting facial features on a
potato. Nowadays, Mr Potato Head, produced by Hasbro Inc, has a plastic
body and has achieved great fame by starring in the _Toy Story_ films.
+ [p. 85] "'He just kills people for money. Snowy can't read and write.'"
In later editions of the book, this sentence was altered to 'Snowy can
barely read and write' -- presumably for consistency with the Clue about
the notebook (p. 106).
+ [p. 87] "'Dis is der Riot Act.'"
The Riot Act was an old British law that allowed the authorities to use
deadly force to break up crowds who were gathered for subversive
purposes, such as trade unionists or Chartists. It was an unusual law in
that it had to be read out to the crowd before it came into force --
hence the significance of Detritus' attempt to read it -- and the crowd
was then supposed to be given a reasonable time to disperse. However, it
was wide open to abuse, and was associated with some very nasty
incidents, such as the Peterloo Massacre in 1818. It was not finally
abolished in the UK until the mid-20th century, when the government
decided that it would not be an acceptable way to deal with the regular
riots then taking place in Northern Ireland.
+ [p. 93] "'"Testing the Locksley Reflex 7: A Whole Lotta Bow"'"
Named after the most famous archer of English mythology: Robin of
Locksley, AKA Robin Hood.
+ [p. 98] "'Good evening, Stoolie.'"
"Stoolie" is sometimes an abbreviation for "stoolpigeon", a police
informant. Of course, a stool is also something you might find in an
Ankh-Morpork street...
+ [p. 99] "'That one had plants growing on him!'"
It has been pointed out -- and I feel bound to inflict the thought on
others -- that Stoolie is technically a grassy gnoll. (And if *that*
doesn't mean anything to you in the context of political assassinations
-- be thankful.)
+ [p. 100] _'Rinse 'n' Run Scalp Tonic'_[...] "Snowy had cleaned, washed
and gone."
Two references to the shampoo 'Wash and Go', a trademark of Vidal
Sassoon.
+ [p. 104] "'Hah,' said the Dis-organizer."
See the annotation for p. 73 of _Feet of Clay_. According to legend, Dis
is also the name of a city in Hell -- particularly appropriate to a
demon-powered organiser.
+ [p. 111] "'Apparently it's over a word in their holy book, [...] The
Elharibians say it translates as "God" and the Smalies say it's "Man".'"
One of the most intractable disputes in the early Christian church was
over the nature of Christ -- to what extent he was God or man. In 325,
the Council of Nicea tried to settle the question with the Nicean Creed,
but the dispute immediately re-emerged over a single word of the creed:
one school said that it was "homoousios" (of one substance), the other
that it should be "homoiousios" (of similar substance). The difference in
the words is a single iota -- the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet
-- and the schism (between Eastern and Western churches) continues to
this day.
+ [p. 115] "Why play cards with a shaved deck?"
"Shaving" is a method of marking cards by trimming a very, very thin
slice from one edge, perceptible only if you know what to look for.
+ [p. 118] "'Prince Kalif. He's the deputy ambassador.'"
Caliph was the title of the leader of the Muslim world, from the death of
the Prophet in 632 onward; although the title has been divided and
weakened since the 10th century, it was only officially abolished by the
newly-formed Republic of Turkey as recently as 1924.
+ [p. 119] "'War, Vimes, is a continuation of diplomacy by other means.'"
Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz (1780-1831), a Prussian general who
fought against Napoleon, wrote a standard textbook _On War_ (_Vom
Kriege_, first published 1833), in which he said that "war is simply a
continuation of political intercourse, with the addition of other means".
If you want to understand Lord Rust's mindset as expressed by someone
with a working brain, read Clausewitz.
+ [p. 119] "'You've all got Foaming Sheep Disease.'"
When _Jingo_ was being written, there was much speculation about whether
"mad cow disease" had first been transmitted from sheep to cattle, and
whether it could be transmitted from cattle to humans. Both ideas are now
widely accepted.
+ [p. 120] "'The Pheasant Pluckers.' [....] 'We even had a marching song,'
he said. 'Mind you, it was quite hard to sing right.'"
Many British army regiments have, or had, nicknames of this sort, based
either on some historical event or on some idiosyncrasy of their
uniforms. The marching song is a famous old tongue-twister: "I'm not a
pheasant plucker, I'm a pheasant plucker's mate/ I'm only plucking
pheasants since the pheasant plucker's late." (Another variant
substitutes "son/come" for "mate/late".)
+ [p. 121/122] "'he stuck it in the top pocket of his jerkin [...] whoosh,
this arrow came out of nowhere, wham, straight into this book and it went
all the way through to the last page before stopping, look.'"
Apparently there are "well-documented" cases of this sort of miraculous
escape, but it has become a much-parodied staple of _Boys' Own_-style
fiction. One well-known occurrence comes at the very end of _Blackadder
III_.
+ [p. 126] "'[...] the moon rising over the Mountains of the Sun'"
Medieval Arab legend identifies the source of the Nile as being in "the
Mountains of the Moon".
+ [p. 128] "'My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is
pure.'"
A direct quote from Tennyson's poem _Sir Galahad_:
"My good blade carves the casques of men,
My tough lance thrusteth sure,
My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure."
+ [p. 130] "'The Klatchian's Head. My grandad said *his* grandad remembered
when it was still a real one.'"
There's a pub in Bath called "The Saracen's Head", which supposedly has a
similarly colourful history.
+ [p. 138] "'_VENI VIDI VICI: A Soldier's Life_ by Gen. A. Tacticus'"
'Veni vidi vici' ('I came, I saw, I conquered') is a quotation attributed
to Julius Caesar, one of several great generals who contributed to the
composite figure of Tacticus. For more on Tacticus, see the annotation
for p. 158 of _Feet of Clay_.
There are similarities between Tacticus' book, as expounded later in
_Jingo_, and _The Art of War_ by the Chinese general Sun Tzu.
+ [p. 142] "'_It is always useful to face an enemy who is prepared to die
for his country_,' he read. '_This means that both you and he have
exactly the same aim in mind_.'"
General Patton, addressing his troops in 1942: "No bastard ever won a war
by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard
die for his country."
+ [p. 143] "'[...] this note will self-destruct in five seconds[...]'"
From the beginning of every episode of the television series _Mission:
Impossible_.
+ [p. 143] "[...] extending from the cylinder for all the world like the
horn of a unicorn [...]"
Historically, the tusk of the narwhal has sometimes been taken for that
of a unicorn.
+ [p. 145] "'But usually I just think of it as the Boat.'"
_Das Boot_ (The Boat) was an epic German film, made by Wolfgang Petersen
in 1981, telling the story of a German submarine in 1941.
+ [p. 150] "'[...] which kills people but leaves buildings standing.'"
Said of the neutron bomb, which delivers a very heavy dose of radiation
but relatively small explosive power or fallout. Mind you, it could
fairly be said of most crossbows.
+ [p. 152] "'Just me and Foul Ole Ron and the Duck Man and Blind Hugh
[...]'"
Inconsistency alert: on p. 74, Carrot told Vimes that Blind Hugh had
'passed away last month'.
+ [p. 154] "'I thought that was for drillin' into the bottom of enemy ships
--'"
The first working submarine was a one-man, hand-propelled vessel called
the Turtle, designed to use an augur to attach explosive charges to the
hulls of enemy ships, the enemy in this case being the British during the
American War of Independence. The Turtle attacked HMS _Eagle_ in New York
Harbor on 6 September 1776, but the hull was lined with copper and the
screw failed to pierce it.
+ [p. 158] "D'reg wasn't their name for themselves, although they tended to
adopt it now out of pride."
This has several parallels in our own world, most notably the Sioux, who
adopted that name from their neighbours and habitual enemies the Ojibwa.
+ [p. 165] "'That's St Ungulant's Fire, that is!'"
The description matches St Elmo's Fire, a corona discharge of static
electricity sometimes seen on highly exposed surfaces (such as ships)
during thunderstorms. In our world, it's supposed to be a good omen. For
more on St Ungulant, see _Small Gods_.
+ [p. 167] "'According to the Testament of Mezerek, the fisherman Nonpo
spent four days in the belly of a giant fish.'"
According to the Bible, the prophet Jonah did much the same (Jonah 1:17).
+ [p. 174] "'The Sykoolites when being pursued in the wilderness [...] were
sustained by a rain of celestial biscuits, sir.'"
The Israelites, while fleeing from Egypt, were sustained by a divinely
provided rain of bread (Exodus 16:4).
+ [p. 175] "'Fortune favours the brave, sir,' said Carrot cheerfully."
Another Roman saying, coined by Terence (c.190-159 BC): "Fortune aids the
brave."
+ [p. 180] "The motor of his cooling helmet sounded harsh for a moment
[...]"
For the story of Detritus' helmet, read _Men at Arms_.
+ [p. 181] "'"Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on
fire and he's warm for the rest of his life."'"
The original proverb is "Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day,
teach him to fish and he can eat for the rest of his life."
+ [p. 183] "'those nautical stories about giant turtles that sleep on the
surface, thus causing sailors to think they are an island.'"
One of the many adventures of Sinbad, in _The Thousand and One Nights_.
+ [p. 192] "'"If you would seek peace, prepare for war."'"
From the 4th/5th century Roman writer Vegetius: "Qui desiderat pacem,
praeparet bellum" -- "Let him who desires peace, prepare for war."
+ [p. 204] "'"Gulli, Gulli and Beti"'"
The troop of entertainers that our heroes become is modelled on the old
time Music-Hall team of Wilson, Kepple and Betty, whose act included 'The
Sand Dance'. There's also a nice resonance of names with the Paul Simon
song 'Call Me Al':
"And if you'll be my bodyguard,
I can be your long lost pal,
And I can call you Betty,
and Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al."
+ [p. 210] "'[...] I thought that a flying column of guerrilla soldiers
--'"
Since getting into his flowing white robes, Carrot appears to be fast
turning into Lawrence of Arabia. See also the annotations for pp. 259 and
264.
+ [p. 215] "'Egg, melon! Melon, egg!'"
Vetinari's patter seems to be based on that of the fez-wearing British
comedian Tommy Cooper.
+ [p. 223] "'_En al Sams la Laisa_'"
This is, as Vetinari later translates, almost-Arabic for "where the sun
shines not".
+ [p. 224] "'Oh, I've got a thousand and one of 'em.'"
One of the best-known (in the west, at least) works of Arabic literature
is _The Thousand and One Nights_. Several classics of children's
literature -- including Aladdin and Sinbad the Sailor -- appear in this
collection. Nobby's version would appear to be rather more PG-rated.
+ [p. 224] "'Especially the one about the man who went into the tavern with
the very small musician.'"
See the annotation for p. 195 of _Feet of Clay_.
+ [p. 227] "'Donkey, minaret,' said Lord Vetinari. 'Minaret, donkey.' 'Just
like that?'"
Another Tommy Cooper reference (see also the annotation for p. 215).
+ [p. 229] "'He had a city named after him...'"
The most famous example in our world is Alexandria, built by Alexander
the Great.
+ [p. 230] "A statue must have stood here [...] Now it had gone, and there
were just feet, broken off at the ankles."
A reference to Shelley's sonnet _Ozymandias_. See the annotation for p.
271/259 of _Pyramids_.
+ [p. 243] "We were going to sail into Klatch and be in Al-Khali by
teatime, drinking sherbet with pliant young women in the Rhoxi."
British officers in the First World War, when encouraging their men to go
over the top, would quip that "We'll be eating tea and cakes in Berlin at
teatime." (Captain Blackadder observed irritably that "Everyone wants to
eat out as soon as they get there".)
+ [p. 245] "'That's "Evil Brother-in-Law of a Jackal",' said Ahmed."
See _Pyramids_ for the Discworld convention on the naming of camels.
+ [p. 246] "'That is a reason to field such a contemptible little army?'"
In 1914, the Kaiser apparently made a similar observation of the British
Expeditionary Force sent to oppose the German advance through Belgium.
The soldiers later proudly adopted the name 'Old Contemptibles'.
See also the annotation for p. 158.
+ [p. 249] "'That's a Make-Things-Bigger device, isn't it? [...] They were
invented only last year.'"
Judging from the name, this could be one of Leonard's creations -- but
Leonard has been locked up for five years. Maybe Vetinari occasionally
looks through Leonard's drawings, and releases a few devices that he
considers definitely harmless.
+ [p. 257] "'And Captain Carrot is organizing a football match.'"
There's a famous but true story of how, on Christmas Day 1914, troops
from British and German units came out of the trenches and played
football in No-Man's Land.
+ [p. 259] "'Why don't you take some well-earned rest, Sir Samuel? You are
[...] a man of action. You deal in swords and chases, and facts. Now,
alas, it is the time for the men or words, who deal in promises and
mistrust and opinions. For you the war is over. Enjoy the sunshine. I
trust we shall all be returning home shortly.'"
This speech is very similar to the end of the film _Lawrence of Arabia_
(David Lean, 1962). Prince Feisal tells Lawrence: "There's nothing
further here, for a warrior. We drive bargains, old men's work. Young men
makes wars and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage
and hope for the future. Old men make the peace and the vices of peace
are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution."
+ [p. 264] "'The trick is not to mind that it hurts.'"
Early in the film _Lawrence of Arabia_, Lawrence is sitting in an office
drawing maps and talking to his compatriot about the Bedouin attacking
the Turks. Another man joins them and Lawrence lights a cigarette,
putting the match out with his fingers. The newcomer tries the same
trick, but drops the match with a shout of "it hurts." To which Lawrence
replies: "The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts."
+ [p. 268] "'Say it ain't so, Mr Vimes!'"
Joe Jackson was the star player of the Chicago White Sox during the 1919
World Series. When it emerged that he had (allegedly) accepted bribes to
throw the series, the fans' collective reaction was of shocked
incredulity: the line "Say it ain't so, Joe!" became the canonical form
of begging someone to deny an allegation that is too shocking to accept,
but too convincing to disbelieve.
+ [p. 282] "'It is a far, far better thing I do now [...]'"
From the end of Dickens' _A Tale of Two Cities_: Sydney Carton,
good-natured layabout and occasional drunk, going to the guillotine in
the place of his beloved's beloved, muses: "It is a far, far better thing
that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go
to than I have ever known."
THE LAST CONTINENT
- No annotations yet.
CARPE JUGULUM
- No annotations yet.
THE FIFTH ELEPHANT
- No annotations yet.
THE TRUTH
- No annotations yet.
THIEF OF TIME
- No annotations yet.
This Discworld novel is scheduled to be released in May 2001.
THE LAST HERO
- No annotations yet.
This Paul Kidby-illustrated Discworld novel is scheduled to be released
in the Autumn of 2001.
THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS
- No annotations yet.
This Discworld children's novel is scheduled to be released in the Autumn
of 2001.
THE DISCWORLD COMPANION
- [p. 18] "In the bottom-left half two croix d'or on a sable field."
People reported on alt.fan.pratchett that they had found an error in the
Companion: all the descriptions of the coats of arms appear to have left
and right reversed when compared to the illustrations.
But Terry replied: "No, we're not daft... according to Stephen, who
rather enjoys the byways of heraldry, the designs on the shield were
traditionally referred to from the knight's point of view, and since he
was generally *behind* it, everything is reversed. Its makes sense, or at
least as much sense as many traditional things do. After all, if you're
left handed you use, from my point of view, your right hand. In the same
way, an actor exiting 'stage left' is walking off to the right from the
audience's point of view."
I can report from my own experience that in the medical world the same
principle is used. My parents are ophthalmologists, and when they talk
about a patient's left eye they mean the one that the patient himself
would call his left eye, i.e. the right eye from the doctor's point of
view. As a kid I found this very illogical, and it used to intrigue me no
end. But then, as Terry wrote in a subsequent posting: "Of course it's
daft, it's traditional".
- [p. 179] "As he wrote in his unpublished MS entitled _The Servant_, a
sort of handbook for the politically ambitious: [...]"
Lord Vetinari's handbook brings to mind Machiavelli's _The Prince_.
Alistair McAlpine (one of Mrs Thatcher's closest advisers) has also
written a book called _The Servant_, subtitled 'A New Machiavelli'.
- [p. 252] "Wizards of the Disc, known"
In the list a cross-reference to the name 'Catbury' appears, but that
entry is not present in hardcover nor trade paperback edition of the
Companion.
- [p. 254] "de Worde, William"
So far, the professional scribe William de Worde has not appeared in a
Discworld novel, but his name is a composition of the names Wynkyn de
Worde and William Caxton. In 1474 Caxton printed the first book in the
English language, a translation of _The Recuyell of the Historyes of
Troy_. In his career he printed more than 70 books, 20 of them his own
translations from the Latin, French, and Dutch. Wynkyn de Worde was his
successor.
- _The Discworld Companion_ contains neat illustrations and heraldic
descriptions of all the coats of arms of the various important guilds and
institutions in Ankh-Morpork. (Note: the Mappe also shows a few, but is
not complete. The Companion also gives the dog Latin motto for each of
them, but unfortunately Terry and Stephen provide a translation in only a
few cases. APF to the rescue. The combined intellectual efforts of the
Latinists on alt.fan.pratchett (Dylan Wright deserves particular mention)
were put to the task, and we came up with the following list:
The Alchemist's Guild: OMNIS QVI CORVSCAT EST OR -- All That
Glitters Is Gold
The City of Ankh-Morpork: MERVS IN PECTVM ET IN AQVAM -- Pure In
Heart And In Water QVANTI CANICVLA ILLA IN FENESTRA -- How Much
Is That Doggy In The Window?
The Assassin's Guild: NIL MORTIFII SINE LVCRE -- No Killing Without
Pay
The Beggar's Guild: MONETA SVPERVACANEA, MAGISTER -- Spare Change,
Guv'?
The Conjuror's Guild: NVNC ILLE EST MAGICVS -- Now *That's* Magic
(Catch-phrase of British magician Paul Daniels)
The Embalmer's Guild: FARCIMINI -- Stuff It!
The Engraver's Guild: NON QVOD MANEAT, SED QVOD ADIMIMVS -- Not
What Remains, But What We Take Away
The Fools' Guild (The Guild of Fools and Joculators and College of
Clowns): DICO, DICO, DICO -- I Say, I Say, I Say
The Gambler's Guild: EXCRETVS EX FORTVNA -- Shit Out Of Luck.
(_The Discworld Companion_: "Loosely speaking: 'Really out of luck'")
The Klatchian Foreign Legion: OBLIVISCOR -- I forget
The Merchant's Guild: VILIS AD BIS PRETII -- Cheap At Twice The
Price
Mort, Duke of Sto Helit: NON TIMETIS MESSOR -- Don't Fear The
Reaper (see also the annotation for p. 239 of _Hogfather_)
The Musician's Guild: ID MVRMVRATIS, ID LVDAMVS -- You Hum It,
We'll Play It
The Patrician (Lord Havelock Vetinari): SI NON CONFECTVS NON
REFICIAT -- If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It
The Plumber's Guild (Fully: The Guild of Plumbers and
Dunnikindivers): NON ANTE SEPTEM DIES PROXIMA, SQVIRI -- Not
Before Next Week, Squire
Lady Sybil Deirdre Olgivanna Ramkin: NON SVMET NVLLVS PRO RESPONSO
-- She Won't Take No For An Answer
Seamstresses' Guild: NIL VOLVPTI, SINE LVCRE -- No Pleasure Without
Pay
The Duke of Sto Helit (Mort's predecessor): FABER EST QVISQVE
FORTVNAE SVAE -- Every Man Is The Maker Of His Own Fortune
The Stripper's Guild: NVNQVAM VESTIMVS -- We Never Clothe
The Thieves' Guild: ACVTVS ID VERBERAT -- Whip it Quick
Unseen University: NVNC ID VIDES, NVNC NE VIDES -- Now You See it,
Now You Don't
The City Watch: FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC -- Make My Day, Punk (_Guards!
Guards!_: "To Protect and Serve")
THE SCIENCE OF DISCWORLD
- There are no annotations yet for this book (which is not a Discworld
novel, but does contain a Discworld novella mixed in with the science
bits).
THE STREETS OF ANKH-MORPORK
- B4--D4 Chrononhotonthologos Street.
_Chrononhotonthologos_ is the name of an 18th century burlesque stage
farce by Henry Carey. I have no idea why there is a Chrononhotonthologos
Street in Ankh-Morpork -- except that it is one heck of a cool word.
THE DISCWORLD MAPP
- No annotations yet.
A TOURIST GUIDE TO LANCRE
- No annotations yet.
DEATH'S DOMAIN
- No annotations yet.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** Other Annotations
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
GOOD OMENS
- [cover]
The weird blue/red neon thingy surrounding the '666' on the cover of the
UK hardcover version of _Good Omens_ is actually a map of the M25 London
orbital motorway, mentioned in the text as "evidence for the hidden hand
of Satan in the affairs of Man".
If you have Internet access, you can get a copy of the _Good Omens_ cover
from the Pratchett Archives.
+ [p. 9/vii] "[...] the angel, whose name was Aziraphale."
On the subject of the correct pronunciation of the name, Terry says:
"It *should* be Azz-ear-raf-AE-el, but we got into the habit of
pronouncing it Azz-ear-raf-ail, so I guess that's the right way now."
And about the name's origin:
"It was made up but... er... from real ingredients. [The name] Aziraphale
could be shoved in a list of 'real' angels and would fit right in..."
For instance, Islam recognizes the Archangels Jibril, Mikhail, Azrael
(see also the annotation for p. 7/9 of _Reaper Man_), and Israfel (whom
Edgar Allan Poe wrote a well-known poem about), whereas from Christianity
we get such names as Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, and Uriel.
- [p. 11/viii] "It was going to be a dark and stormy night."
See the annotation for p. 9/7 of _Soul Music_.
- [p. 17/1] "Archbishop James Usher (1581-1656) published _Annales Veteris
Et Novi Testamenti_ in 1654, which suggested that the Heaven and the
Earth were created in 4004 BC."
This is true in spirit, but almost completely wrong in nit-picking
detail, which leads me to conclude that Terry and Neil used sloppy
secondary sources for their research.
The man's name was spelled Ussher, the book's name was actually _Annales
Veteris Testamenti_ (Annals of the *Old* Testament), it was published in
1650, and it was Ussher himself who pinpointed the time of creation at
noon, October 23, 4004 BC -- not nine o'clock in the morning.
For a fascinating explanation of why it would really be very unfair of us
to ridicule Ussher's findings, I refer the interested reader to the essay
'Fall in the House of Ussher' by Stephen Jay Gould, which appeared in his
excellent collection _Eight Little Piggies_.
- [p. 19/3] "[...] all tapes left in a car for more than about a fortnight
metamorphose into 'Best of Queen' albums."
In an interview in _Comics Buyer's Guide_ with Terry and Neil, shortly
after the American release of _Good Omens_, Terry proposed the theory
that, when you're driving through the country late at night, and there's
nothing on the radio, you find yourself stopping in at an all-night gas
station and looking through the tape rack; the only thing there remotely
tolerable is a _Best of Queen_, so you buy that. Two weeks later you
can't remember how the thing got there, so you get rid of it, only to go
through the same process again. Neil's theory was that tapes really do
turn into _Best of Queen_ albums.
- [p. 20/3] "[...] he was currently wondering vaguely who Moey and Chandon
were".
The Queen song 'Killer Queen' contains the line: "She keeps the Moet et
Chandon in a pretty cabinet". Freddie Mercury's pronunciation is indeed
such that, if you don't already *know* what he's singing, this part of
the lyrics can be extremely puzzling.
- [p. 26/8] "...I will not let you go (let him go)..."
This sentence, and the 'scaramouche' line a few paragraphs before, are
taken from Queen's legendary song 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. This line is
misquoted though. The actual song goes: "*We* will not let you go (let
him go)".
- [p. 32/13] "Sister Mary had expected an American diplomat to look like
Blake Carrington or J.R. Ewing."
Leading male characters in the 1980s Power Soaps _Dynasty_ (Blake
Carrington played by John Forsythe) and _Dallas_ (J. R. Ewing played by
Larry Hagman). The general image is of somewhat rugged American
masculinity. In a suit.
The _Good Omens_ paperback replaces "an American diplomat" with "the
American Cultural Attache".
- [p. 33/13] "With a little old lady as the sleuth, [...]"
Not a reference to Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, but rather to Angela
Landsbury's character in the TV show _Murder, She Wrote_ (there are not
many "avuncular sheriffs" in the Miss Marple books).
- [p. 35/15] "He'd seen a Ken Russell film once. There had been nuns in
it."
This might have been, for instance, the 1971 film _The Devils_, a study
of a French nunnery that had supposedly turned to Satanism.
- [p. 37/17] "'Wormwood's a nice name,' said the nun, remembering her
classics. 'Or Damien. Damien's very popular.'"
Damien refers to the protagonist of the various _Omen_ movies (see the
annotation for p. 67/40). Wormwood is the name of the junior devil in
_The Screwtape Letters_ by C. S. Lewis. This is a series of letters from
a senior devil (Screwtape) to a junior devil (Wormwood) about Wormwood's
attempted temptation of a man in war-time London.
Wormwood is also the plant which according to tradition sprang up from
the track of the serpent as it writhed along the ground when it was
driven out of the Garden of Eden.
- [p. 41/19] "'Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.'"
A well-known quote from Shakespeare's _The Tempest_, act 1, scene 2.
- [p. 41/19] "That Hieronymus Bosch. What a weirdo."
Hieronymus Bosch was a 15th century Dutch painter of religious visions
that dealt in particular with the torments of Hell and the subjects of
sin and punishment.
- [p. 42/20] "'I don't think there's anything wrong with Errol. *Or*
Cary.'"
Errol Flynn and Cary Grant.
- [p. 50/26] "And he had a complete set of the Infamous Bibles,
individually named from errors in typesetting."
There have been many Infamous Bibles, and all of the ones mentioned in
this paragraph, except for the _Charing Cross Bible_ and the _Buggre Alle
This Bible_, actually did exist.
As usual, it is Brewer who has all the relevant information. The
_Unrighteous Bible_ and the _Wicked Bible_ are as Terry and Neil describe
them. In addition, there is:
_Discharge Bible_: An edition printed in 1806 containing "discharge" for
"charge" in 1 Timothy 5:21: "I discharge thee before God [...] that thou
observe these things [...]".
_Treacle Bible_: A popular name for the Bishops' Bible, 1568 because in
it, Jeremiah 8:22 reads "Is there no treacle in Gilead" instead of "Is
there no balm in Gilead".
_Standing Fishes Bible_: An edition of 1806 in which Ezekiel 47:10 reads:
"And it shall come to pass that the fishes [instead of: fishers] shall
stand upon it."
Also mentioned by Brewer are the _Ears To Ear Bible_, the _Rosin Bible_
and the _Rebecca's Camels Bible_.
- [p. 52/28] The three lost Shakespeare plays.
_The Trapping Of The Mouse_ refers to Agatha Christie's _The Mousetrap_
(which has now been running for more than 42 consecutive years in
London), who in turn named her play after the play-within-a-play that
occurs in... _Hamlet_.
_Golde Diggers Of 1589_ refers to the series of movie musicals with
similar names made in 1933, 1935 and 1937.
_The Comedie Of Robin Hoode, Or The Forest Of Sherwoode_ is not directly
traceable to something specific, but there have been of course many
famous Robin Hood movies, from the legendary 1938 production with Errol
Flynn, Basil Rathbone and Olivia de Havilland through the more
contemporary 1991 _Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves_, starring Kevin
Costner.
- [p. 56/31] "'I mean, d'you know what eternity is? There's this big
mountain, see, a mile high, at the end of the universe, and once every
thousand years there's this little bird--'"
Crowley's description of eternity is from the hell-and-damnation speech
in James Joyce's _Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man_.
+ [p. 62/36] "They were doing drinks in a restaurant called Top of the
Sixes, on the top of 666 Fifth Avenue, New York."
The name and address were real when _Good Omens_ was written: there
actually used to be such a restaurant on Fifth Avenue. Somewhen in the
90s it was closed and converted to a club.
- [p. 67/40] "'I am Nanny Astoreth,' she told him."
Astoreth or Ashtaroth was the Zidonian goddess-moon in Syrian mythology.
No, I have no idea who the Zidonians were, but undoubtedly they were
heathens, and therefore presumably on Evil's side by default.
- [p. 67/40] "'What a delightful child,' she said. 'He'll be wanting a
little tricycle soon.'"
The 'mother' in the 1976 horror movie _The Omen_ (which is all about the
Antichrist being raised in a normal household) was forced by little
Damien over the edge of an upstairs railing with his tricycle.
- [p. 68/40] The nursery rhyme Nanny Astoreth sings to Warlock:
"Oh, the grand old Duke of York
He had ten thousand men
He marched them up to the top of the hill
And crushed all the nations of the world and brought them
under the rule of Satan our master."
is a parody of the English original:
"The grand old Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men.
He marched them up to the top of the hill
And he marched them down again.
And when they were up they were up.
And when they were down they were down.
And when they were only half way up
They were neither up nor down."
Accompanied (in some versions) by fingers marching up the small child as
appropriate and stopping to tickle for the last line.
- [p. 68/40] "'Bwuvver Fwancis the gardener says I mus' selfwesswy pwactise
virtue an' wuv to all wivving things,' said Warlock."
The gardener is none other than Saint Francis of Assissi. Note also the
"flocks of birds settled all over him at every opportunity" bit earlier
on.
- [p. 70/42] "The message had come during _Cheers_, one of Crowley's
favourite television programmes. Woody the barman had [...]"
In the American edition of _Good Omens_, this scene was changed to refer
to the series _The Golden Girls_ and the character Rose. (The effect
remains the same).
Nobody knows the reason for this change, since both are American sitcoms
anyway. Speaking personally, I think Crowley is definitely a _Cheers_
person, and would *not* have liked _The Golden Girls_ at all.
- [p. 75/43] "He had attended a class in the 1870s run by John Maskelyne
[...]"
John Maskelyne was a 19th century stage magician who specialised in
sleight-of-hand illusions. He is fondly remembered in the illusionist
community as a mentor to aspiring young magicians. He also gained some
notoriety for exposing fraudulent spiritualists.
- [p. 78/46] "'I-should-be-so-lucky, -lucky-lucky-lucky-lucky,'"
This is the chorus to Kylie Minogue's break-through hit 'I should be so
lucky':
"I should be so lucky
Lucky lucky lucky
I should be so lucky in love"
Notice that this is yet another misquote: there are only *four*
successive 'lucky's, not five.
- [p. 79/46] The scenes of Adam growing up in Tadfield are an affectionate
parody of the _Just William_ books by Richmal Crompton.
They are a series of books about William Brown (age 11) and his gang of
Outlaws: Ginger, Douglas and Henry. The Johnsonites in _Good Omens_
parallel the Laneites in _Just William_, Hubert Lane being a similarly
lugubrious podgy kid.
- [p. 82/49] "'I'll call him Dog,' said his Master, positively."
There's a nice resonance here with the biblical Adam giving names to all
the animals in God's creation (Genesis 2:19).
- [p. 87/52] 'Another One Bites The Dust', 'We Are The Champions', 'I Want
To Break Free' and 'Fat-Bottomed Girls' are all songs by Queen (see the
annotation for p. 20/3).
Queen fans have pointed out that at the time _Good Omens_ was released,
there was no (or at least no easily available) Queen greatest hits album
that actually contained all of these songs. A recently released double
album has remedied this situation.
- [p. 94/58] "'It's probably compline, unless that's a slimming aid.'"
No, compline is indeed one of the periods of the religious day (around
18.00 h, according to my copy of _The Name of the Rose_). The slimming
aid is 'complan'.
- [p. 103/65] "The contingent from Financial Planning were lying flat on
their faces in what had once been the haha, although they weren't very
amused."
If you don't know what a haha is, see the annotation for p. 77/58 of _Men
at Arms_.
- [p. 110/70] "_...Bee-elzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me..._"
Another line from Queen's _Bohemian Rhapsody_.
- [p. 114/73] "_The Nice And Accurate Prophecies_ made the _Hitler Diaries_
look like, well, a bunch of forgeries."
_Stern_ magazine published a series of Hitler's diaries in the mid-80s
which, in fact, turned out to be forgeries.
- [p. 116/75] "[...] Elvis was taken by Space Aliens in 1976 because he was
too good for this world."
Actually, Elvis died in 1977, so perhaps these Space Aliens left a
doppelgaenger? Neil and Terry are certainly aware of the correct year,
because later on (p. 261/177, during the video trivia game scene) there
is a reference to both Bing Crosby and Marc Bolan dying in 1976. But in
fact, both died in 1977 as well.
- [p. 122/79] "'This wouldn't of happened if we'd of gone to Torremolinos
like we usually do,' [...]"
Torremolinos is a resort on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, which in
the past was very popular with the more down-market sort of British
holiday-maker. In US terms, imagine Atlantic City/Las Vegas. Take it down
market a bit. A bit more. No, a bit more than that. There. That's
beginning to get close to Torremolinos. The town has in recent years made
a great effort to change its image and attract a better class of tourist
but whether this has worked remains doubtful.
- [p. 127/80] "[...] the frequent name changes usually being prompted by
whatever Adam had happened to have read [...]"
The Hole-in-the-Chalk gang refers to Butch Cassidy's Hole-in-the-Wall
Gang, The Really Well-Known Four to The Famous Five, The Legion of Really
Super-Heroes to DC Comics' _Legion of Super-Heroes_ series, The Justice
Society of Tadfield to DC's _Justice Society of America_.
- [p. 129/81] "Pepper's given first names were Pippin Galadriel Moonchild."
Both Pippin and Galadriel are characters from Tolkien's _The Lord of the
Rings_ (although Pippin is actually a male hobbit). Terry explains that
Pepper's names are not really a parody of hippie practices:
"It's an observation. I have *signed books* for two Galadriels at least
-- and three Bilboes. Your basic hippy is fairly predictable."
- [p. 137/88] "'I bet ole Torturemada dint have to give up jus' when he was
getting started [...]'"
Tomas de Torquemada, Spanish inquisitor-general notorious for his
cruelty. He was largely responsible for the expulsion of the Jews from
Spain around 1492.
- [p. 147/95] "Where the reactor should have been was an empty space. You
could have had quite a nice game of squash in it."
For the connection between nuclear reactors and squash courts, see the
annotation for p. 156/138 of _Reaper Man_.
- [p. 154/98] "Sable signed for it, his real name -- one word, seven
letters. Sounds like examine."
But, as many alert readers have noticed, the word 'famine' only has six
letters. Terry says: "Oh, yeah. The famous seven-lettered six letter
name. [...] It's like this. In the original MS, it was six letters,
because we can both count. And it was six letters in the Gollancz
hardcover. And six letters in the Workman US hardcover. And became seven
in the Corgi edition. No-one knows why."
- [p. 155/99] "'An' there was this man called Charles Fort,' he said. 'He
could make it rain fish and frogs and stuff.'"
Charles Fort lived in the first half of this century and made a career
out of attacking established scientific convictions and practitioners,
mostly by collecting and publishing book after book of scientifically
unexplainable occurrences and phenomena such as, indeed, accounts of
rains of fish, etc.
Although Fort and his Fortean Society cheerfully collected and proposed
vast numbers of crackpot theories, Charles Fort was by no means a
crackpot himself. He just wanted to attack and needle the scientific
establishment using every possible means at his disposal.
For more information about Fort I refer the reader to Martin Gardner's
wonderful book _Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science_ (1957), or to
the Fortean Society's newspaper _The Fortean Times_, still being
published in both UK and US today.
- [p. 156/100] "[...] a highly successful film series with lasers, robots
and a princess who wore her hair like a pair of stereo headphones(TM)."
This is of course the _Star Wars_ saga, directed by George Lucas. The
princess is Princess Leia Organa; and the person with the coal scuttle
helmet who is allowed to blow up planets is Darth Vader.
+ [p. 160/103] "If Cortez, on his peak in Darien, had had slightly damp
feet [...]"
From _On First Looking into Chapman's Homer_ by John Keats, where the
experience of reading Chapman's translation of Homer is compared to the
feeling Cortez must have had:
"Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken
Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific -- and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise
Silent, upon a peak in Darien."
(Actually, Keats was mixing up Cortez (who conquered Mexico, and was the
first European to look upon Mexico City) with Balboa (who climbed Darien,
and was the first European too see the Pacific from the East).
- [p. 161/104] "[...] eight other people [...] two of them [...] and one of
the other six [...]"
Or at least, that's what it says in my hardcover version and in the
American trade paperback. In the English paperback, however, the quote
says "one of the other *five*" (italics mine), which is of course rather
confusing, since two plus five usually equals seven, not eight.
Terry says: "[...] we got the *numbers* right -- I checked the original
MS. This is another manifestation of the strange numbers glitch (remember
*famine*, the seven letter word?)"
See the annotation for p. 154/98 for the 'famine' glitch Terry refers to.
- [p. 165/107] "[...] people called Grasshopper, little old men sitting on
mountains, other people learning kung-fu in ancient temples [...]"
David Carradine's character Kwai-Chang Caine was given the nickname
'Grasshopper' by his mentor, Master Po, in the television series _Kung
Fu_.
Incidentally, the head of the Shaolin monastery where Caine studied was
Chen Ming Kan, and the subsidiary monks were the masters Shun, Teh, Yuen,
Wong, Sun and, already mentioned, Po.
If you are the kind of person who enjoys learning this type of
mindboggling trivia, then *run*, don't walk to your bookstore, and buy
the _Straight Dope_ books by Cecil Adams. Your life will be vastly
enriched. There is even a Pratchett connection as well: Terry uses the
_Straight Dope_ books as reference works.
- [p. 167/109] "There is no longer a real Witchfinder General."
Just for the record: the story as Terry and Neil give it in this section
is entirely true. Matthew Hopkins existed, and was indeed hanged as a
witch himself. I am told he was portrayed fairly accurately by Vincent
Price in the film _The Conqueror Worm_, a.k.a. _Witchfinder General_.
- [p. 167/109] "There is also, now, a Witchfinder Private. His name is
Newton Pulsifer."
The name 'Lucifer' means "bringer of light". One particular meaning of
'pulse' is a legume -- a pea or lentil. Therefore, 'Pulsifer' means
"bringer of peace (peas)".
I have no idea if this is truly what Terry and Neil intended, but it is a
beautifully convoluted pun, regardless.
- [p. 171/112] "Newt [...] blushed crimson as he performed the obligatory
nipple-count on page three".
American readers should be aware that some English tabloid papers
traditionally showed a photo of a topless girl on page three, although I
am told these days only _The Sun_ still follows this practice.
- [p. 172/113] "'Women wi' too many arms.'"
Refers to the Hindu goddess Kali (although quite a few more Hindu gods
and goddesses have more than the usual allotment of arms -- Shiva comes
to mind).
Two lines further down there is a reference to Baron Saturday, who is of
course our old friend Baron Samedi (see the annotation for p. 179/157 of
_Witches Abroad_).
- [p. 188/123] "Red sky in the morning. It was going to rain."
See the annotation for p. 202/197 of _Equal Rites_.
- [p. 192/126] "Newt's car was a Wasabi."
'Wasabi' is, in fact, a kind of horseradish used in sushi.
- [p. 193/127] "[...] the world's only surviving Wasabi agent in
Nigirizushi, Japan."
And 'Nigirizushi' *is* a kind of sushi.
- [p. 197/129] "The one that looked like a pepper pot just skidded down it,
and fell over at the bottom. The other two ignored its frantic beeping
[...]"
A reference to the robot R2D2 in _Star Wars_.
- [p. 205/136] "[...] a wall clock with a free-swinging pendulum that E. A.
Poe would cheerfully have strapped someone under."
See the annotation for p. 15/16 of _Reaper Man_.
- [p. 217/144] "'And then giant ants take over the world,' said Wensleydale
nervously. 'I saw this film. Or you go around with sawn-off shotguns and
everyone's got these cars with, you know, knives and guns stuck on --'"
The films Wensleydale is referring to are _Them!_ (how appropriate...)
and the various _Mad Max_ movies.
- [p. 227/152] "The Kappamaki, a whaling research ship, [...]"
'Kappamaki' is a Japanese cucumber roll.
- [p. 233/157] "'There doesn't have to be any of that business with one
third of the seas turning to blood or anything,' said Aziraphale
happily."
To the few particularly befuddled or atheistic readers out there who at
this point of the book still aren't quite sure what is going on, I can
only give the advice to take a closer look at Chapter 6 of the biblical
Book of Revelation.
- [p. 235/158] "Hi. This is Anthony Crowley. Uh. I --"
Up to this point in the novel, we have only been told that Crowley's
first name begins with an 'A', leading to the false expectation that his
name might be Aleister Crowley, as in the famous British mystic,
theosophist, black-arts practitioner and "most evil man on Earth".
- [p. 246/166] "'This is a Sainsbury's plant-mister, cheapest and most
efficient plant-mister in the world. It can squirt a fine spray of water
into the air.'"
Dirty Harry again. See the annotation for p. 136/124 of _Guards!
Guards!_.
- [p. 257/174] "'"Puppet on a String"! Sandie Shaw! Honest. I'm bleeding
positive!'"
American readers will probably not realise that this is the answer to the
question: "What song by which artist won the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest
for Britain?"
- [p. 258/174] "'1666!' 'No, you great pillock! That was the fire! The
Plague was 1665!'"
The Great Fire of London in 1666 helped to wipe out the bubonic plague
that had been afflicting the city since 1665.
- [p. 258/175] "He had LOVE tattooed on one set of knuckles, HATE on the
other."
Originally, this movie reference dates back to Robert Mitchum in _Night
of the Hunter_. Later it was used by many, many others, including Marlon
Brando in _The Wild One_, Meatloaf in _The Rocky Horror Picture Show_ (an
appearance entirely built around Brando's), and more recently by Robert
de Niro in the remake of _Cape Fear_.
And then there's _The Blues Brothers_, where Jake has his name tattooed
across the knuckles of one hand, while Elwood needs both hands to spell
his name; _The Simpsons_, where Sideshow Bob (who, like most cartoon
characters has only three fingers and a thumb) has LUV on one set of
knuckles and HAT (with a line across the A) on the other; and of course
_The Last Remake of Beau Geste_ (see also the annotation for p. 109/82)
where Peter Ustinov, as the sadistic sergeant, has a scene where he sits
with one hand partially obscured. We get the impression that he too has
HATE and LOVE tattooed on his knuckles. Eventually he moves, and reveals
the tattoos actually read HATE and LOATHE.
- [p. 259/175] "'I haven't seen you since Mafeking,' said Red."
Mafeking, located near Bophuthatswana in South Africa, was for 80 years
the administrative headquarters of the British Protectorate of
Bechuanaland (now Botswana). It was the starting point of the Jameson
Raid, a disastrous raid into the Boer Republic of the Transvaal in 1895,
which led to the South African War of 1899.
- [p. 263/179] "'Ere, I seen you before,' he said. 'You was on the cover of
that Blue Oyster Cult album."
This would be _Some Enchanted Evening_ (1978), the Blue Oyster Cult's
second live album. Death painted by T. R. Shorr.
See also the annotation for p. 239 of _Hogfather_.
- [p. 265/180] The name Citron Deux-Chevaux refers to the Citroen 2CV, or
deux-chevaux as it is commonly called in Europe ("chevaux" means horses
-- 'CV' has a (very loose) connection with horsepower).
- [p. 268/182] "'Just phone 0800-CASH and pledge your donation now.'"
A transatlantic amalgamation of British and American telephone number
formats.
- [p. 270/184] "..._All we need is, Radio Gaga_... sang Freddie Mercury."
Terry and Neil definitely seem to have trouble rendering songs correctly.
According to my source (I can't *stand* the bloody song myself) the line
that does appear in the song goes: "All we *hear* is, Radio Gaga".
- [p. 277/189] "[...] formerly Curl Up and Dye, [...]"
People have noticed that this name also occurs in the _Blues Brothers_
movie, but Terry assures us that the name goes back much further than
that, and that there in fact at one time actually existed a hair dresser
named like this.
I have subsequently been informed that currently existing 'Curl Up and
Dye' hairdressers can be found in both Birmingham and Chepstow.
- [p. 280/191] _Sprechen Sie Deutsch_ and _Parlez-vous Francais_ are German
and French respectively for "do you speak German/French", but "Wo bu hui
jiang zhongwen" is Chinese for "I can't speak Chinese".
Terry says: "The bit of Chinese was Neil's. I said, "Are you sure it
means 'Do you speak Chinese?'" He said yes. I should argue?"
- [p. 287/196] "'*You're thinking that any second now this head is going to
go round and round, and I'm going to start vomiting pea soup.*'"
This is an obvious reference to Linda Blair in _The Exorcist_.
- [p. 288/197] "Something about sheets of glass falling off lorries and
slicing people's heads off, as he recalled [...]"
The film referred to is _The Omen_.
- [p. 296/203] "'Heigh ho,' said Anthony Crowley, and just drove anyway."
This refers to an old British topical song about the Italian opera-singer
Antonio Rolli, well-known in London during the Regency. The song was
called 'A Frog He Would-a Wooing Go', and the chorus has the lines:
"With a rolypoly, gammon and spinach,
Heigh ho, said Anthony Rowley."
This was intended to be a highly amusing satire on the way Italian people
speak. It has only survived to this day as a children's rhyme because of
its references to talking animals, and despite a totally confusing
chorus.
- [p. 296/203] "What she really wanted to be was an internationally
glamorous jet-setter, but she didn't have the O-levels."
This has to do with the British education system. After the 8th grade you
decide how many two-year O- (Ordinary) level courses you are going to
take (each with an exam at the end). Most non-minimum wage jobs ask for
at least 5 O-levels, people in college usually have 7 or 8. After your
O-levels you can either leave school or go on for A- (Advanced) level
courses, which take another 2-3 years.
These days, O-levels are no longer a part of the British education
system, having been replaced a few years back by the GCSE (General
Certificate of Secondary Education). A-levels still exist.
- [p. 297/204] "[...] they burrowed into eyes, noses, ears, lights [...]"
'Lights' is colloquial British for 'internal organs'. See the annotation
for p. 64/62 of _Pyramids_.
- [p. 303/208] "'There's a red sky,' he said [...] 'Or is it shepherds who
are delighted at night? I can never remember.'"
See the annotations for p. 202/197 of _Equal Rites_ and p. 174/126 of
_Lords and Ladies_.
- [p. 310/214] "There was also a man selling hot dogs."
Bet you even money his initials were C.M.O.T...
- [p. 326/226] "'Where *is* Armageddon, anyway?'"
One theory holds that 'Armageddon' is a Greek translation for a Hebrew
word that may have meant 'the mountain of Megiddo', in reference to Mount
Carmel, which overlooks the plain of Megiddo, where many Old Testament
battles were fought.
- [p. 334/232] "'Did any of them kids have some space alien with a face
like a friendly turd in a bike basket?'"
A reference to the telekinetic bike-riding scene at the end of the movie
_E.T._.
- [p. 348/242] "'You think wars get started because some old duke gets
shot, or someone cuts off someone's ear, or someone's sited their
missiles in the wrong place.'"
That the assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand in
Sarajevo in 1914 sparked the beginning of World War I, and that the
Soviet placement of missiles on Cuba in 1962 almost led to World War III
is common knowledge. But to non-Brits the second reference may not be so
obvious. In 1739 Capt Robert Jenkins, of the brig _Rebecca_, claimed to
have been attacked by a Spanish ship and to have had his ear cut off. He
complained to the king on his return to England, the incident was taken
up by the general public, and the Prime Minister used it as a pretext to
go to war with Spain to regain control of shipping routes. This war is
generally referred to as the War of Jenkins' Ear.
- [p. 349/243] "'Beelzebub,' Crowley supplied. 'He's the Lord of --'"
Crowley is trying to say 'Lord of the Flies', which is the literal
meaning of the Hebrew word 'Beelzebub'.
- [p. 355/248] Dick Turpin is the name of a famous British highwayman.
Hence the joke about Newt's car being called 'Dick Turpin': "'Because
everywhere I go, I hold up traffic,' he mumbled wretchedly."
- [p. 374/262] "They went to the Ritz again [...]. And, [...] for the first
time ever, a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square."
From the song 'A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square':
"That certain night, the night we met
There was magic abroad in the air
There were angels dining at the Ritz
And a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square"
- [p. 375/262] The _Necrotelecomnicom_ also appears (but spelled
'Necrotelicomnicom') in the Discworld books.
See the annotation for p. 111/109 of _Equal Rites_).
- [p. 375/262] The _Malleus Maleficarum_ is the name of an existing 15th
century guidebook for witch-hunters, written by Heinrich Kramer and
Joseph Sprenger (one a Dominican Inquisitor, the other the Mayor of
Cologne), two high-ranking officials of the Catholic church. This book
apparently became Europe's first best-seller after the invention of the
printing press, and the (early 20th century) English translation of this
book, _The Hammer of Witches_, is still in print today.
- [p. 377/264] "It was Sunday afternoon."
According to Terry, the U.S. edition of _Good Omens_ has about 700 extra
words in it, because:
"After the MS had been accepted and edited by Gollancz, the *American*
editor at Workman in NY asked for a couple of things for the US edition,
one of which related to Warlock.
He was an American boy, you see, and she was certain that Americans would
want to know what had happened to him. So we said ok, and wrote it. To
the best of my recollection that was the biggest change, although there
were other minor additions (some we were able to slip into the Gollancz
hardcover at proof stage, but the Warlock bit was too long). I have to
say we also polished things up here and there, too, although I think we
were able to transfer most of *those* changes to the UK proofs too.
And then since the one done for Workman was technically the final MS the
UK paperback was set from it."
For the people owning the British hardcover of _Good Omens_, here is the
text of the added section:
"It was Sunday afternoon.
High over England a 747 droned westwards. In the first-class cabin a boy
called Warlock put down his comic and stared out of the window.
It had been a very strange couple of days. He still wasn't certain why
his father had been called to the Middle East. He was pretty sure that
his father didn't know, either. It was probably something cultural. All
that happened was a lot of funny-looking guys with towels on their heads
and very bad teeth had shown them around some old ruins. As ruins went,
Warlock had seen better. And then one of the old guys had said to him,
wasn't there anything he wanted to do? And Warlock said he'd like to
leave.
They'd looked very unhappy about that.
And now he was going back to the States. There had been some sort of
problem with tickets or flights or airport destinations--boards or
something. It was weird; he was pretty sure his father had meant to go
back to England. Warlock liked England. It was a nice country to be an
American in.
The plane was at that point passing right above the Lower Tadfield
bedroom of Greasy Johnson, who was aimlessly leafing through a
photography magazine that he'd bought merely because it had a rather good
picture of a tropical fish on the cover.
A few pages below Greasy's listless finger was a spread on American
football, and how it was really catching on in Europe. Which was
odd--because when the magazine had been printed, those pages had been
about photography in desert conditions.
It was about to change his life.
And Warlock flew on to America. He deserved *something* (after all, you
never forgot the first friends you ever had, even if you were all a few
hours old at the time) and the power that was controlling the fate of all
mankind at that precise time was thinking: Well, he's going to *America*,
isn't he? Don't see how you could have anythin' better than going to
*America*.
They've got thirty-nine flavors of ice cream there. Maybe even more."
- [p. 383/267] "And if you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot...
no, imagine a trainer, laces trailing, kicking a pebble; [...]"
From George Orwell's _1984_: "If you want to imagine the future, imagine
a boot stamping on a human face forever". A 'trainer' is what the British
call a 'sneaker', but I should think that much was clear from context (in
the paperback, 'trainer' has in fact been replaced by 'sneaker').
- [p. 383/268] "Slouching hopefully towards Tadfield."
From W. B. Yeats' poem _The Second Coming_:
"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last
Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?"
- Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman did have the title _668 -- The Neighbour
of the Beast_ on hand for a _Good Omens_ sequel, but since Neil Gaiman
lives in the US now, Terry says: "I can't see it ever being written".
There are many documented occurrences of this joke in other contexts, by
the way (including a recently released actual novel with this name), some
of them predating _Good Omens_. Terry again points out that it's only to
be expected since the joke is so obvious.
- There is a British KitKat chocolate bar TV commercial that predates _Good
Omens_, and which involves an angel and a devil who are just starting
their respective coffee breaks. Both exit from separate elevators, the
angel accompanied by several pure-white animals, while the devil turns
back into his elevator and screams, in a British accent, "Shut up!" to
whatever demons are causing a ruckus behind him.
If you are now thinking that this is an extremely unlikely, farfetched
annotation -- well, so did I, until Terry Pratchett himself gave us the
following piece of information (when some folks were having further
discussions on how old this ad exactly was):
"I'm pretty sure [this ad] started about the same time as _Good Omens_,
because:
One night I was sitting there typing away when I looked up and there the
angel and the devil were, having a teabreak (it's not really a
particularly _Good Omens_ idea, but I know why people like it...) And I
thought, hey, great...
And about half an hour later there was an ad (some UK viewers might
remember it) for an insurance company which showed a businessman with
wide angel wings walking down the street...
And then, just when I was doing the bit where Crowley muses that people
are much better than demons at thinking up horrible things to do to one
another, I switched on the radio; there was a performance of _The
Tempest_, and someone said "Hell is empty and all the devils are here".
It was a weird evening, really."
- People have been wondering (a) where the back cover photograph of _Good
Omens_ was taken, and (b) which one of them is Terry Pratchett.
Terry provides the answer to both questions: "In Kensal Green Cemetery,
one frosty January day. Since white clothes tend to be thinner than dark
clothes, I had to be stood in front of a blowlamp between shots."
Kensal Green Cemetery can be found in West London, fairly near to
Wormwood Scrubs Prison. It is one of the seven or so cemeteries built
around the edge of central London in the nineteenth century to cope with
the large cholera outbreaks. They are large purpose-built efforts, and
are full of the glorious stonemasonry that the Victorians indulged in to
glorify themselves.
The photograph of Terry and Neil appears on the back of the UK hardcover,
and in black and white on the inside of the Corgi paperback. If you have
Internet access, you can get a copy of the photograph from the Pratchett
Archives.
STRATA
- The whole book is, in a very general way, modelled on Larry Niven's
classic _Ringworld_ novel: a group of differently-raced beings explore an
improbable, artificial world and try to find its mysterious builders.
Terry explains:
"I intended Strata to be as much a (pisstake/homage/satire) on Ringworld
as, say, Bill the Galactic Hero was of Starship Troopers. All Niven's
heroes are competent and all his technology works for millions of
years... but he's a nice guy and says he enjoyed the book."
- [p. 12/13] "Her skin was presently midnight-black [...]"
Previous editions of the APF considered this sentence proof of a true
Josh Kirby goof-up, since he pictured Kin Arad as a Caucasian woman on
the _Strata_ cover.
However, it had totally escaped my attention that on p. 22/26 we read:
"Now her skin was silver [...]", indicating that skin-colour is not a
permanent attribute for Kin -- by the time the scene from the cover is
reached she could well have changed her skin colour to white.
On the other hand, after Kin is captured by the locals, Silver suggests
that she claim to be an Ethiopian princess, so presumably her skin color
was dark at the time, and Josh Kirby didn't read carefully enough after
all...
- [p. 21/25] "Back and forth, crossing and leaping, the robots danced their
caretaker Morris."
I think this is the earliest reference to Morris dancing in a Terry
Pratchett novel. See also the _...and Dance_ section in Chapter 5.
- [p. 76/92] "To introduce phase two Kin began to whistle the old
robot-Morris tune *Mrs Widgery's Lodger*."
'Mrs Widgery's Lodger' is a perfect name for a non-existent Morris tune.
While not seeming to be a direct takeoff on any actual tune name, it
calls several to mind: 'Blue-Eyed Stranger', 'Mrs Casey', and 'Old Woman
Tossed Up in a Blanket', for instance. 'Mrs Widgery's Lodger' would also
resurface later on the Discworld as one of the eight orders of wizardry.
For more information, see the 'Unseen University' entry in the _Discworld
Companion_.
- [p. 107/132] "'Cape illud, fracturor', [...]"
Dog Latin which roughly translates to "Take this, buster".
THE DARK SIDE OF THE SUN
- Just as _Strata_ borrows from Larry Niven, so does _The Dark Side of the
Sun_ pay homage to the famous SF-writer Isaac Asimov.
- [p. 5/5] _The Lights In The Sky Are Photofloods_
_The Lights in the Sky are Stars_ is the title of a science fiction
novel by Fredric Brown (who was most famous for his 'twisted-ending'
short-short stories, but who is unfortunately almost completely
forgotten today).
- [p. 6/6] The best dagon fishers could ride a shell with their toes.
For an explanation of the word 'dagon' see the annotation for p. 197/149
of _Men at Arms_.
- [p. 24/28] "'Probability math predicts the future.'"
A parallel to Asimov's psychohistory in the _Foundation Series_.
- [p. 27/31] The robot Isaac is obviously modelled on Asimov's well-known
positronic robots (and less obviously inspired by a similar robot that
appears in Robert Sheckley's _Dimension of Miracles_). Isaac [the robot]
follows a more extended version of Asimov's equally famous 'Three Laws of
Robotics', though: on p. 53/62: "'[...] Eleventh Law of Robotics, Clause
C, As Amended,' said the robot firmly."
- [p. 42/49] "'Beng take them!'"
Beng is Romany (Gypsy language) for the Devil.
- [p. 44/52] "'In a few days it'll be Soul Cake Friday, and also the Eve of
Small Gods,' she said."
These are of course religious festivals on the Discworld as well, though
Soul Cake day mysteriously moved from Friday to Tuesday, perhaps because
it sounded better. On p. 89/106, Hogswatchnight is also mentioned.
- [p. 73/87] "'It has been impossible for the Bank to be physically present
here today, Roche limits being what they are, but [...]'"
The Roche limit has to do with tidal pull on an object. It specifies how
close a satellite can orbit a planet before it's pulled apart by tidal
forces. It stands to reason that the First Sirian Bank, being a planet
seven thousand miles in diameter, is a bit wary of Roche limits.
- [p. 74/89] "'And I wish to notify the Joker Institute that I have located
a Joker building, description and position as noted.'"
Absolutely no relation, I'm sure, to Larry Niven's Slavers.
- [p. 117/140] "That was another Joker achievement, the Maze on Minos."
Minos was the name of the King of Crete who commissioned Daedalus to
build the famous Labyrinth to house the Minotaur.
- [p. 118/141] "'Born of the sun, we travel a little way towards the sun,'
misquoted Isaac, tactlessly."
Isaac is misquoting the last two lines of the poem _I Think Continually_
by the English poet Stephen Spender:
"Born of the sun, they travelled a short while towards the sun,
And left the vivid air signed with their honour."
- [p. 133/159] "It was a skit [...] written in early Greek style. [...]
Chorus: 'Brekekekex, co-ax, co-axial'"
The play being performed is an updated version of Old Attic Comedy, as
written by the poet Aristophanes. This section specifically parodies
Aristophanes' _The Frogs_, in which a chorus of (logically enough) frogs
sings an onomatopoeic song involving the lyric: "Brekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax".
I am told that Steven Sondheim once wrote a musical version of "The
Frogs", which was performed in a swimming pool at Yale University with
both Sigourney Weaver and Meryl Streep in the chorus.
TRUCKERS
- [cover]
The drawing of the old nome Torrit (the one holding the Thing) in Josh
Kirby's cover for this book is actually a caricature of Terry Pratchett
himself.
- [p. 12/12] "Masklin scanned the lorry park."
The name Masklin is a pun on the word 'masculine'. Duh.
- [p. 47/44] "[...] the long argument they'd had about the chicken boxes
with the pictures of the old man with the big whiskers on them."
Refers to Colonel Sanders, symbol for the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain of
fast-food chicken restaurants.
- [p. 55/51] "'Life, but not as we know it.'"
Refers to another cliche _Star Trek_ phrase, also parodied in the _Star
Trekkin'_ song by The Firm (see the annotation for p. 84/78 of _Johnny
and the Dead_).
- [p. 58/53] "'Um. It was my idea of what an Outsider would look like, you
see,' said Dorcas."
This whole scene immediately made me think of the American pulp science
fiction magazines, which would often feature elaborate drawings
depicting, for example, what a Martian might 'scientifically' look like.
In fact, I have in my possession a 1965 issue of _Fantastic Stories_,
featuring on the cover a reprint of a 1939 painting by Frank R. Paul
called 'The Man from Mars', with an accompanying explanation that Dorcas'
description of the Outsiders is almost an exact equivalent of. This
Martian has, for instance, disk-shaped suction feet (because of Mars'
lesser gravity), very big ears (because of the thin atmosphere making it
harder to catch sounds), white fur and retractable eyes because of the
extreme cold, etc. etc.
- [p. 76/70] "'Unless you know how to read books properly, they inflame the
brain, they say.'"
Everything we learn about the Stationeri, from the audience with the
Abbot to this point about censorship, indicates a fairly obvious parody
of the Roman Catholic Church during the time that the Holy Office (which
oversaw censorship) was in power.
- [p. 103/94] The Store will be closed down and replaced by "an Arnco Super
Saverstore in the Neil Armstrong Shopping Mall".
The Neil Armstrong Shopping Mall is also prominently featured as the
place where Johnny and his friends hang out in the 'Johnny' books, thus
establishing firmly that the Nomes and Johnny inhabit the same universe
(see also the annotation for p. 191/175).
- [p. 130/119] "'Breaker Break Good Buddy. Smoky. Double Egg And Chips And
Beans. Yorkiebar. Truckers.'"
A 'Yorkie Bar' is a brand of chocolate bar sold in England. Very chunky,
like one of the thick Hershey bars: Solid Chocolate. Due to a series of
adverts depicting a truck driver carrying on through the night, etc.
etc., all because he has his chunky milk chocolate to hand, the words
'Yorkie Bar' instantly summon up 'Long Distance Lorry Driver' to any
Briton.
- [p. 132/121] "'Angalo has landed,' he said."
Pun on "The Eagle has landed".
- [p. 133/122] "'It's a small step for a man, but a giant leap for
nomekind.'"
In the category Bloody Obvious References, this is of course a reference
to Neil Armstrong's first words on the occasion of being the first man on
the moon: "That's one small step for [a] man, but a giant leap for
mankind".
- [p. 145/133] "[...] he walked proudly, with a strange swaying motion,
like a nome who has boldly gone where no nome has gone before and can't
wait to be asked about it."
_Star Trek_ reference. See the annotation for p. 221/191 for _The Colour
of Magic_.
- [p. 154/141] "'Amazing things, levers. Give me a lever long enough, and a
firm enough place to stand, and I could move the Store.'"
Another reference to the famous Archimedes quote. See the annotation for
p. 139/101 of _Small Gods_.
- [p. 171/157] "He recalled the picture of Gulliver. [...] it would be nice
to think that nomes could agree on something long enough to be like the
little people in the book..."
If it's been a while since you actually read Swift, the rather bitter
irony of Masklin's musings may escape you. The point being that the
Lilliputters in _Gulliver's Travels_ were anything but capable of
"agreeing on something long enough"; in fact they were waging a
generation-spanning civil war with each other over the burning question
of whether one should open one's breakfast egg at the pointy end or at
the flat end.
Eventually, the 'little-endian' vs. 'big-endian' feud carried over into
the world of computing as well, where it refers to the order in which
bytes in multi-byte numbers should be stored, most-significant first (big
endian) or least-significant first (little endian).
- [p. 191/175] "'-- Anyone seeing the vehicle should contact Grimethorpe
police on --'"
Minor inconsistency: by the time we get to the second book in the Nome
trilogy, the place of action has been retconned from Grimethorpe to
Blackbury (which is the place where Johnny lives, see the annotation for
p. 103/94).
A possible explanation might be that there already *is* a real place
called Grimethorpe (in Yorkshire), and that Terry'd rather use a
fictional setting after all.
DIGGERS
- [title] _Diggers_
In the Corgi paperback editions I have, _Diggers_ and _Wings_ are
subtitled "The Second [respectively Third] Book Of The Nomes".
Apparently, in the first edition(s), the trilogy was called _The
Bromeliad_ (and the last two books accordingly subtitled).
This refers to the central theme of the frogs living in a bromeliad, but
is also a pun on _The Belgariad_, a well-known fantasy series by David
Eddings. And of course both names have their origin in Homer's _Iliad_.
This subtitle was dropped from the British editions, because the editor
didn't like it. In the US, there were no objections, so to this day US
editions of the Nome trilogy are subtitled _The Bromeliad_.
- People have commented on the similarity between the Nome trilogy and
other childrens stories involving "little people". In particular, the
question has arisen a few times whether Terry was inspired by the
_Borrowers_ books.
Terry answers: "I know about the _Borrowers_, and read one of the books
in my teens, but I disliked them; they seemed unreal, with no historical
background, and it seemed odd that they lived this cosy family life more
or less without any supporting 'civilisation'. The nomes are communal,
and have to think in terms of nomekind. No. Any influence at all is from
Swift, in this case."
"I'll pass on whether Truckers is funnier than the Borrowers, but I'll
defend them as being *more serious* than the Borrowers. It depends on how
you define 'serious'."
- The American version of the Nome trilogy is not word-for-word the same as
the original one.
Terry says: "The Truckers trilogy has a fair amount of changes of a
'pavement = sidewalk' nature which is understandable in a book which
should be accessible to kids. They also excised the word 'damn' so's not
to get banned in Alabama, which is a shame because I've always wanted to
be banned in Alabama, ever since I first heard of the place."
- [p. 60/54] "iii. And the Mark of the Dragon was on it. iv. And the Mark
was Jekub."
'Jekub' was the Nomes' attempted pronunciation of JCB, the name of a
well-known manufacturer of tractors, diggers, and the like, whose logo of
course appears on all its products. Jekub, incidentally, appears to be a
thing called a 'back-hoe loader'. In the American version of the Nomes
trilogy 'JCB' was changed to 'CAT', standing for 'Caterpillar'.
- [p. 82/73] "'We shall fight them in the lane. We shall fight them at the
gates. We shall fight them in the quarry. And we shall never surrender.'"
Paraphrases one of Winston Churchill's famous WW II speeches. Possibly
the easiest way to get to hear the original version is to listen to
Supertramp's 'Fool's Overture'.
- [p. 142/126] "'Jcb? Jekub? It's got no vowels in it. What sort of name is
that?'"
This is a play on 'YHWH', the classical Hebrew spelling of Yahweh, i.e.
Jehovah.
WINGS
- [p. 135/121] "'The other humans around it are trying to explain to it
what a planet is' 'Doesn't it know?' 'Many humans don't.
Mistervicepresident is one of them.'"
I don't think anybody in the Western world would not have caught this
reference to Dan Quayle, but let's face it: in twenty years people will
still be reading Terry Pratchett, and hopefully this APF -- but who'll
remember Misterexvicepresident?
- [p. 150/135] "The humans below tried shining coloured lights at it, and
playing tunes at it, and eventually just speaking to it in every language
known to humans."
Refers to the climactic scene of Steven Spielberg's science fiction movie
_Close Encounters of the Third Kind_, where contact with the aliens is
indeed established by shining lights and playing tunes at their
spaceship.
ONLY YOU CAN SAVE MANKIND
In order to fully appreciate this novel it may not be necessary, but I
think it will greatly add to your enjoyment and understanding, if you have
seen at least one of the _Alien_ movies, and have played at least one
computer shoot-em-up arcade game.
- [p. 7/7] "The Mighty ScreeWee(TM) Empire(TM) is poised to attack Earth!"
A wonderful parody of the way in which the typical computer action game
is advertised or described on the box. Terry confirms:
"Let's say I've played Wing Commander and Elite and X-Wing and loads of
other games, so writing that first page was easy for me :-)"
- [p. 9/9] The Hero With A Thousand Extra Lives
A reference to the title of Joseph Campbell's _The Hero with a Thousand
Faces_, an anthropological work comparing and contrasting Hero myths from
different cultures.
- [p. 13/13] "My dad brought me back 'Alabama Smith and the Jewels of Fate'
from the States."
Puns on the movie title _Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom_. Alabama
and Indiana are both American states.
- [p. 19/19] "Hey, I really need a computer because that way I can play
'Megasteroids'."
'Asteroids' is the name of an ancient, very famous computer game.
- [p. 27/27] Johnny's nickname for his friend: 'MC Spanner', spoofs our
world's pop-rap star 'MC Hammer' (a spanner is a wrench, and also
(colloquially) equates as a mild insult to the American English 'dork').
- [p. 40/40] This is not really an annotation, because I think it is highly
improbable that there is an actual link here, but the idea of Terry's
'Cereal Killers' immediately reminded me of the short science fiction
stories by Philip K. Dick. Not any particular one, but just the whole
idea of something horrible masquerading as something ridiculously
innocent appears again and again in Dick's slightly paranoid oeuvre.
The serial/cereal pun itself is of course fairly obvious, and can be
found in many other places, from old Infocom adventure games to Neil
Gaiman's _Sandman_ comics.
- [p. 42/42] "'I saw this film once, right, where there were these computer
games and if you were really good the aliens came and got you and you had
to fly a spaceship and fight a whole bad alien fleet,' said Bigmac."
Bigmac is describing the 1984 science fiction movie _The Last
Starfighter_ here (starring Lance Guest and Robert Preston).
As a movie this was decidedly a so-so experience (you can take my word
for it, I have seen it), but it deserves credit for one major
achievement: after the box-office disaster of _Tron_ it was the first
Hollywood film to make extensive use of computer-generated animation. And
since _The Last Starfighter_ was not a commercial failure, it effectively
opened the road again for further use of computer graphics in movies.
- [p. 72/72] "But everyone watched _Cobbers_."
'Cobber' is an Australian word meaning 'companion' or 'friend'; these
days used more as an informal slang label for addressing someone (as in:
"Now look here, cobber, ..."). Terry's use of this title reflects the
fact that Australian soap operas (such as e.g. _Neighbours_) are
extremely popular in the UK (as in the rest of Europe, I should add). As
Terry explained:
"Actually, the scene is probably lost on [non-Brits]; you have to
understand that it is almost impossible to turn on a UK TV at any time
between 4.30 -- 6pm without hearing the distinctive sound of Australian
adolescents locked in confrontation."
- [p. 109/109] "What's your game name?' 'Sigourney -- *you're laughing!*'"
Sigourney Weaver is the actress who plays the heroine in all three
_Alien_ movies.
- [p. 118/118] "On Earth, No-one Can Hear You Say 'Um'"
The now famous slogan used in the advertising campaigns for the first
_Alien_ movie was: _In Space, No-one Can Hear You Scream_.
- [p. 133/133] "'I saw a film where there was an alien crawling around
inside a spaceship's air ducts and it could come out wherever it liked,'
said Johnny reproachfully. 'Doubtless it had a map,' said the Captain."
The movie Johnny refers to is, of course, _Alien_.
- [p. 147/147] "'Is there anything I can do?' [...] 'I don't know,' she
said. 'Is there *anything* you can do?'"
The same dialogue occurs between Ripley and Sergeant Apone in the film
_Aliens_.
- [p. 158/158] "'You're thinking: He'll be in there somewhere, hiding.'"
In _Alien_, the alien creature eventually hid itself in the escape
capsule Sigourney Weaver tried to get away in at the end.
- [p. 162/162] "'If we find a cat I'm going to kick it!'"
In _Alien_, Sigourney goes *back* into the mother ship because she did
not want to leave the cat behind.
JOHNNY AND THE DEAD
- [p. 11/10] "'Singing "Here we go, here we go, here we go"?' said Johnny.
'And "Viva a spanner"?'"
For "here we go, here we go", see the annotation for p. 76/70 of _Guards!
Guards!_.
'Viva a spanner' is Johnny's version of the song 'Y Viva Espana', an
early 70s hit which appeared at about the time that many Brits were first
going on package tours to Spain (see also the annotation for p. 176/116
of _Good Omens_).
- [p. 13/12] "'He said the Council sold it to some big company for
fivepence because it was costing so much to keep it going.'"
The right-wing Westminster council, headed by Lady Shirley Porter sold
three cemeteries for 15p a couple of years ago, giving the same
reasoning.
- [p. 20/19] "'No-one visits most of the graves now, except old Mrs
Tachyon, and she's barmy.'"
A tachyon is a hypothetical faster-than-light quantum particle, which has
not been proven to actually exist.
- [p. 20/19] "'I was referring,' said his grandfather, 'to William
Stickers.'"
Refers to the posters forbidding flyposting reading "bill stickers will
be prosecuted". These quickly attracted the graffito "Bill Stickers is
Innocent" (and similar). William Stickers is obviously this much-harassed
individual.
- [p. 24/22] "The last thing to go was the finger, still demonstrating its
total disbelief in life after death."
See the Cheshire Cat annotation for p. 142/141 of _Wyrd Sisters_.
- [p. 26/25] "[...] a skinny kid with short hair and flat feet and asthma
who had difficulty even *walking* in Doc Martens, [...]"
Doc Martens (fully: 'Doctor Marten's patent Air-Wair boots and shoes',
with 'The Original Doctor Marten's Air Cushion Sole. OIL FAT ACID PETROL
ALKALI RESISTANT') are one of the most popular and fashionable footwear
in Britain among the younger generation. Once associated with skin-heads
and fascists they are now simply standard issue for almost anyone in the
UK between the age of 16 and 30.
- [p. 28/26] "'I saw this film once, about a man with X-ray eyes,' said
Bigmac."
There are of course dozens of films that this description could apply to
(starting with _Superman_, for instance), but the best candidate would
appear to be the 1963 Roger Corman movie _X -- The Man With X-Ray Eyes_,
starring Ray Milland.
- [p. 29/27] "'After _Cobbers_,' said Bigmac."
_Cobbers_ is obviously modelled on the Australian soap opera _Neighbours_
and its cousins.
- [p. 30/28] "[...] the new Council named it the Joshua Che N'Clement block
[...]"
A combination of Che Guevara, Joshua N'Komo, and the word 'inclement'.
- [p. 39/37] "Like Dead Man's Hand at parties."
One of those party games known under a dozen different names, but which
usually consists of people passing various items to each other behind
their backs. The idea is to throw in some really weird stuff and gross
people out through their imaginations.
- [p. 40/38] "'His head'll spin round in a minute!'"
A reference to the 1973 horror movie _The Exorcist_, starring Linda
Blair, which actually turned out to be a watchable movie, rather to my
surprise. For a good laugh, I recommend instead that you try to get a
hold of either its 1977 sequel _The Exorcist II_, or alternatively (if
you like more intentional humour) of that one Saturday Night Live sketch
with Richard Pryor ("the *bed* is *on* my *foot*!"). But I digress.
- [p. 42/39] "'The lady in the hat is Mrs Sylvia Liberty,' he whispered."
Sylvia Pankhurst was a famous suffragette (in fact it was something of a
family trade), but it was Emily Davidson who threw herself under the
horse.
- [p. 43/41] "'I saw this film,' gabbled Wobbler, 'where these houses were
built on an old graveyard and someone dug a swimming pool and all the
skeletons came out and tried to strangle people --'"
This movie is of course the famous 1982 movie _Poltergeist_.
- [p. 48/45] "'[...] the messages from God he heard when he played Cliff
Richard records backwards --'"
This may need some explaining for people who are (a) not into rock music
or religious fundamentalism, and (b) not European and therefore not in
the possession of the slightest idea as to who Cliff Richard is.
To begin with, it is a particularly obnoxious popular myth that heavy
metal groups (or any popular performer, for that matter) hide Satanic or
suicide-inducing or otherwise demoralising messages in their songs. This
is done by a technique known as 'backwards masking', which means the
message can only be revealed by playing the music backwards (although the
subliminal effect is supposedly in full effect when our innocent children
listen to these songs the right way round).
Needless to say, this is all an incredible load of nonsense: most
supposedly Satanic messages exist only in people's fevered imaginations,
and even if there *were* such messages there isn't a single shred of
evidence as to their effectiveness.
To finally arrive at the main idea behind this annotation: Cliff Richard
is a perpetually youthful-looking, squeaky-clean British pop singer,
who's been around since the sixties and is still hugely popular today,
even though (or perhaps even more so because) he found religion in the
seventies. Consequently, any backwards messages in *his* music, will most
definitely not be Satanic, but rather the opposite.
- [p. 49/46] "Grandad was watching _Video Whoopsy_."
Although obviously meant as an equivalent to shows like _America's
Funniest Home Videos_, this is not the name of any existing show (the
British version is called _You've Been Framed_). The word 'whoopsy' was
popularised by the 70s UK sitcom "Some Mother's Do 'Ave 'Em" as a
euphemism for excrement, as in "The cat's done a whoopsy on the carpet".
- [p. 58/54] "*WHEEEsssh* ... we built this city on ... *ssshshhh* [...]
scaramouche, can you ... *shssssss* ..."
The "we built this city" fragment is from the 1985 hit song 'We Built
This City' by the group Starship, formerly Jefferson Starship, formerly
the legendary Jefferson Airplane.
The "scaramouche" line is, of course, from Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'
(see also the annotation for p. 26/8 of _Good Omens_).
- [p. 66/61] "'Who *is* Shakespeare's Sister and why is she singing on the
wireless?'"
Shakespear's Sister is a female vocal duo (one of whom is a former
Bananarama member, as well as the wife of Dave Stewart from 'Eurythmics'
fame -- but I digress), who were hugely popular in the UK in the early
90s (and a bit less popular in the rest of the world, I'm afraid) with
hits like 'Stay' and 'Hello (Turn Your Radio On)'. Shakespear's Sister
have split up recently.
British comediennes French and Saunders did a parody of Shakespear's
Sister, called Dickens' Daughter, which has to be seen to be believed.
- [p. 68/63] "'You have to have three A-levels.'"
See the annotation for p. 296/203 of _Good Omens_.
- [p. 72/67] "*The People's Shroud is Deepest Black*"
As opposed to the People's Flag, which is Deepest Red, according to 'The
Red Flag', which is indeed a "song of the downtrodden masses" (see p.
86/79), as used by many socialist and communist parties.
- [p. 74/68] "'Ghosts don't phone up radio stations!' 'I saw this film once
where they came out of the telephone,' said Bigmac, [...]"
Refers to the 1986 movie _Poltergeist II_, starring JoBeth Williams and
Craig T. Nelson.
- [p. 84/78] "'It's worse than that. I'm dead, Jim.'"
Refers to the _Star Trek_-associated catch phrase: "It's worse than that,
he's dead Jim."
The phrase "He's dead, Jim" was a classic line from the television
series, spoken by Dr McCoy to Captain Kirk, in at least five different
episodes (if you must know: 'The Enemy Within' (about a dog), 'The
Changeling' (about Scotty), 'Wolf in the Fold' (about Hengist), 'Spectre
of the Gun' (about Chekov), and 'Is There in Truth no Beauty?' (about
Marvick)), and there are numerous near-miss instances where he said
something similar, such as "The man is dead, Jim" or "He's dead,
Captain". (This information courtesy of the newsgroup
rec.arts.startrek.misc.)
The "It's worse than that" part of the quote did not originate with _Star
Trek_ itself, but with the 1987 song 'Star Trekkin', by The Firm, which
was a huge novelty hit set to a simple 'London Bridge is falling down'
tune, and featuring lyrics along the lines of:
"It's life Jim but not as we know it
not as we know it, not as we know it
It's life Jim but not as we know it
Not as we know it Captain
It's worse than that he's dead Jim
Dead Jim, dead Jim
It's worse than that he's dead Jim
Dead Jim, dead!"
- [p. 123/113] "'Wasn't there an Elm Street down by Beech Lane?' [...]
'Freddie. Now that's a NICE name.'"
Refers to the main character of the _Nightmare on Elm Street_ series of
horror movies.
- [p. 132/122] "[...] he'd never been able to remember all that 'Foxtrot
Tango Piper' business [...]"
Since 'Foxtrot Tango Piper' spells FTP, this *may* be a reference to the
computer world's File Transfer Protocol, which is a protocol (and also
the name for the associated types of client software) used to transfer
files between different machines. FTP is a very important means of data
exchange on the Internet (see e.g. the section on the Pratchett Archives
in Chapter 6), and is also well-known for being rather confusing to the
beginner. Cries along the lines of "I can't seem to get the hang of this
FTP business" are often heard on the net.
In the NATO spelling alphabet, the actual word used to denote the letter
'p' is 'Papa', by the way.
- [p. 133/123] "'These aliens landed and replaced everyone in the town with
giant vegetables.'"
Refers to the 1978 movie _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_, starring
Donald Sutherland. (Or perhaps to the original 1956 cult movie starring
Kevin McCarthy.)
- [p. 140/129] "There is a night that never comes to an end..."
The idea of racing the sun around the world is used in the opening pages
of Larry Niven's novel _Ringworld_, in which Louis Wu spends 48 hours
celebrating his 200th birthday by using matter transmitter booths to stay
a step ahead of midnight.
However, incredibly, Niven (who has a reputation for scientific accuracy
-- not 100% deserved, but still he's better than most SF authors on that
score) originally had Wu going *west to east* to stay ahead of midnight.
Even more incredibly, no one caught this mistake until after the book
went on sale. It was corrected in the second printing. The first printing
is, as you might guess, a very rare collector's item.
Since we can be pretty certain Terry's read _Ringworld_ (see _Strata_),
and since Niven's mistake is one of the most famous SF flubs of all time,
Fletcher's admonition to Stanley Roundway ("We're going *west*, Stanley.
For once in your death, try to get the directions right.") is probably no
coincidence.
On the other hand it should be noted that for some strange reason people
on a.f.p. are always annoying Terry by trying to pin Larry Niven
influences on him (see e.g. the annotation for p. 64/59 of _Guards!
Guards!_). Maybe this annotation, too, is just a far-fetched coincidence.
It wouldn't be the first in this document, now would it?
- [p. 142/130] "'New York, New York.' 'Why did they name it twice?' 'Well,
they ARE Americans.'"
A reference to the 1979 hit song 'New York, New York', by Gerard Kenny,
which starts out:
"New York, New York,
So good they named it twice.
New York, New York
All the scandal and the vice
I love it
New York, New York
Now isn't it a pity
What they say about New York City"
See also the annotation for p. 72/65 of _Reaper Man_.
- [p. 148/136] "In a neglected corner, Mrs Tachyon was industriously
Vim-ing a gravestone."
Apparently, Vim is unknown in the USA, but in Europe it is well-known as
*the* scouring powder for cleaning sinks and stuff. It is quite ancient,
and has lately been eclipsed a bit by more modern (and less destructive)
cleaners such as Jif or Mr Sheen.
- [p. 158/146] "'Met Hannibal Lecter in a dark alley, did it?' said
Yo-less."
A reference to the cannibalistic, eh, hero of the 1991 movie _The Silence
of the Lambs_.
- [p. 159/147] "'Baron Samedi, the voodoo god,' said Yo-Less. 'I got the
idea out of James Bond.'"
The James Bond movie Yo-less means is _Live and Let Die_.
- [p. 164/151] "'Body snatchers!' said Wobbler. 'Burke 'n Head!' said
Bigmac."
Burke and Hare were a famous pair of 'resurrectionists' who operated in
Edinburgh in the 19th century. Basically, they dug up fresh bodies from
graveyards, in order to supply surgeons with material for anatomical
dissections. Edinburgh University is not very proud of its association
with this trade, especially since eventually, when demand outstripped
supply, so to speak, Burke and Hare went a bit overboard and started
creating their own supply of fresh, dead bodies.
Also, Birkenhead is a town in Merseyside (the Liverpool area).
- [p. 171/158] "'Good Work, Fumbling Four! And They All Went Home For Tea
And Cakes.'"
There was a series of children's books by Enid Blyton starring the Famous
Five who managed to repeatedly avert crimes, capture gangs and generally
have a Jolly Good Time.
JOHNNY AND THE BOMB
- The third novel in the Johnny series was released a few months ago,
but I have not read it yet myself, and I have received no annotations
from others. How about it, people?
THE CARPET PEOPLE
- [p. 120/110] "'For me, all possibilities are real. I live them all. [...]
Otherwise they never could have happened.'"
Another one of Terry's quantum references. What Culaina describes here is
a particular interpretation of quantum theory, namely that each quantum
event causes time to split up into distinct possibilities ("the trousers
of time"). The idea that certain events can only happen if they are
directly observed is one of the best-known concepts in quantum mechanics.
THE UNADULTERATED CAT
- [p. 7] "The Campaign for Real Cats is against fizzy keg cats."
Parodies the aims and objectives of the Campaign for Real Ale, a British
organisation dedicated to the preservation and promotion of traditional
beer-making in the face of the threat from mass-produced
'love-in-a-canoe' fizzy keg beer foisted on an unsuspecting public by the
large national breweries.
- [p. 18] "[...] good home in this case means anyone who doesn't actually
arrive in a van marked J. Torquemada and Sons, Furriers."
See the annotation for p. 137/88 of _Good Omens_ if you don't know who
Torquemada was.
- [p. 28] "Or perhaps there is now a Lorry cat undreamed of by T. S.
Eliot."
T. S. Eliot, 20th century poet and critic. He wrote the book _Old
Possum's Book of Practical Cats_, which the musical _Cats_ was based on.
- [p. 28] "[...] growing fat on Yorkie bars."
See the annotation for p. 130/119 of _Truckers_.
- [p. 35] "You need a word with a cutting edge. *Zut!* is pretty good."
'Zut' is also a French exclamation, meaning _Damn_ or "drop dead".
- [p. 44] "[...] sitting proudly beside a miniature rodent Somme on the
doorstep."
The Somme is a river in the north of France, which has been the scene of
some extremely heavy fighting in both World Wars. In 1916 for instance, a
French/British offensive pushed back the German lines there, at very
heavy cost to both sides.
- [p. 73] "It's bluetits and milk-bottle tops all over again, I tell you."
Refers to a well-known evolution-in-action anecdote concerning a
particular species of birds which collectively, over a period of time,
learned how to open milk-bottles that the milkman left on the doorsteps
each morning in a certain English rural area.
- [p. 84] "[...] the price of celery is eternal vigilance."
This paraphrases "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance", nowadays
usually associated with Kennedy. It was in fact first said by John
Philpot Curran in his "The Right of Election of the Lord Mayor of Dublin"
speech in 1790.
- [p. 86] "a garden that looks like an MoD installation,"
MoD = Ministry of Defence.
- [p. 92] "Owing to an unexplained occurrence of Lamarckian heredity [...]"
Lamarck was a contemporary of Darwin who became the symbol for what was
for a long time a very strong rival of Darwin's own natural selection as
an explanation for the mechanism of evolution. According to Lamarckism
(simplification alert!), changes acquired by an individual of a species
can immediately be inherited by the next generation, thus accounting for
evolution. Lamarckism has by now completely disappeared as a serious
evolutionary theory, in favour of modified versions of natural selection.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*** Thoughts and Themes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE TURTLE MOVES!
It was already mentioned in one of the annotations: on alt.fan.pratchett
there will at any given moment in time be at least one discussion ongoing
about some aspect of the Discworld considered as a physical object. What
does it look like? Where did it come from? Does it rotate? What do
constellations look like for the people living on it? Where are the
continents located? Is there a map of Ankh-Morpork <<There is now>>? What
are the names of the Elephants <<Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon and Jerakeen,
just in case anyone'd forgotten>>? Is Great A'Tuin male or female? That
sort of thing.
Summarising these discussions is useless: nobody ever agrees on anything,
anyway, and besides: half the fun is in the discussion itself -- who cares
if these issues ever get properly 'resolved'. Nevertheless, I think it will
be in the spirit of this annotation file, and of interest to the readers,
if I reproduce here some of the things Terry Pratchett *himself* has said
on the various subjects, at those times when he chose to enter the
discussion.
To start with some history: many people think the appearance of the
Discworld as described in the novels was an invention of Terry's. This is
not really the case: in Hindu mythology, for instance, we find the idea of
a lotus flower growing out of Vishnu's navel. Swimming in a pool in the
lotus flower is the world turtle, on whose back stand four elephants facing
in the four compass directions. On their backs is balanced the flat,
disc-shaped world. See also Josh Kirby's magnificent drawing of the
Discworld in the illustrated version of _Eric_.
Terry: "The myth that the world is flat and goes through space on the
back of a turtle is, with variations, found on every continent. An
African fan has just sent me a Bantu legend, which however does not
include the character of N'Rincewind."
Next up are the various questions concerning (a) exactly how the Discworld
looks, and (b) how it interacts with other celestial objects. Some relevant
quotes from Terry (as before, quotation marks (" ") indicate the beginning
and ending of quotes from different Usenet articles):
"The elephants face outwards. The spinning of the Disc does not harm the
elephants because that's how the universe is arranged."
"I've got some drawings I did of the Discworld at the start and I've
always thought of it like this:
The *shell* of the turtle is slightly smaller than the world, but the
flippers and head and tail are all visible from the Rim, looking down --
as Rincewind does in _The Colour of Magic_."
"The Discworld revolves. The sun and moon orbit it as well. This enables
the Disc to have seasons. And the DW 'universe' -- turtle, world, sun,
moon -- moves slowly through our own universe."
"Where is the sun at noon? There are two answers.
A) It's directly over the centre of the Disc;
B) It's in a small cafe."
On the subject of constellations and what they would look like (see also
the file discworld-constellations available from the Pratchett Archives):
"GA must move fairly fast -- in _The Light Fantastic_ a star goes from a
point to a sun (I assume GA halted somewhere in the temperate orbits) in
a few weeks. I've always thought that Discworld astrology would largely
consist of research; we already know the character traits, what we're
trying to find is *what the new constellations are*, as the turtle moves.
And of course some particular constellations might have very distinct and
peculiar characteristics that are never repeated. Some constellations,
facing in front and behind, would change very little. The ones 'to the
side' would change a lot. Bear in mind also that the sun revolves around
the disc and the disc revolves slowly, so that every group of stars in
the sky would have a chance to be a constellation for birth date
purposes. In short, we need hundreds and hundreds of constellation names
-- good job there's Usenet, eh?"
Finally, on the less cosmic subject of planetary maps (for more information
about the Innovations comics and the Clarecraft models mentioned below,
read the alt.fan.pratchett Frequently Asked Questions files, available from
the Pratchett Archives):
"The map of the Discworld in the Innovations comic is just an artist's
squiggle. The surface of the Discworld in the Clarecraft model is...
er... rather amazingly close to my idea, although the vertical dimension
is hugely exaggerated. And Stephen Briggs, having just sent off the
'definitive' map of Ankh-Morpork, has said that he can deduce a map of
the Disc. Fans have also sent me fairly accurate maps. Once you work out
that the Circle Sea is rather similar to the Med, but with Ephebe and
Tsort and Omnia and Djelibeybi (and Hersheba, one of these days) all on
the 'north African' coast, Klatch being 'vaguely Arabic' and Howondaland
being 'vaguely African' it's easy.
But all maps are valid."
"I've never thought that any parts of Discworld corresponded exactly to
places on Earth. Lancre is 'generic Western Europe/US rural', for example
-- not the Ozarks, not the North of England, but maybe with something of
each.
The Sto Plains are 'vaguely Central European'; Klatch, Ephebe, Tsort,
etc, are all 'vaguely Southern European/North African'.
Genua was designed to be a 'Magic Kingdom' but in a New Orleans setting
-- I hope the voodoo, cooking etc. made that reasonably obvious. Genua
and the other countries mentioned in _Witches Abroad_ are all on the
other side of the Ramtops, which more or less bisect the continent.
As far as the Ankh-Morpork map is concerned, we've decided to get it
right *at a point in time*. In any case, it's a developing city; the city
of _Guards! Guards!_ has evolved some way from the one in _The Colour of
Magic_."
SONG...
The one song that all Discworld fans will be familiar with, is of course
Nanny Ogg's favourite ballad: 'The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered At All'
(see also the annotation for p. 36/35 of _Wyrd Sisters_).
I will start this section with the complete text to the song that might
have been the prototype for the hedgehog-song -- except that it wasn't. It
can be found in Michael Green's book _Why Was He Born So Beautiful and
Other Rugby Songs_ (1967, Sphere UK), it is called 'The Sexual Life of the
Camel', it probably dates back to the 1920s/30s, and it goes:
"The carnal desires of the camel
Are stranger than anyone thinks,
For this passionate but perverted mammal
has designs on the hole of the Sphinx,
But this deep and alluring depression
Is oft clogged by the sands of the Nile,
Which accounts for the camel's expression
And the Sphinx's inscrutable smile.
In the process of Syphilization
From the anthropoid ape down to man
It is generally held that the Navy
Has buggered whatever it can.
Yet recent extensive researches
By Darwin and Huxley and Ball
Conclusively prove that the hedgehog
Has never been buggered at all.
And further researches at Oxford
Have incontrovertibly shown
That comparative safety on shipboard
Is enjoyed by the hedgehog alone.
But, why haven't they done it at Spithead,
As they've done it at Harvard and Yale
And also at Oxford and Cambridge
By shaving the spines off its tail!"
The annoying thing about the hedgehog song is of course that Terry only
leaks us bits and pieces of it, but certainly never enough material to
deduce a complete text from. So alt.fan.pratchett readers decided to write
their *own* version of the song, which is available for downloading from
the Pratchett Archives.
The first version of the song was written and posted by Matthew Crosby (who
tried to incorporate all the lines mentioned in the Discworld novels),
after which the text was streamlined and many verses were added by other
readers of the newsgroup. Currently we have thirteen verses, which makes
the song a bit too long to include here in its entirety.
Nevertheless, I thought it would be fun to show what we've come up with, so
I have compromised and chosen to reproduce just my own favourite verses:
"Bestiality sure is a fun thing to do
But I have to say this as a warning to you:
With almost all animals, you can have ball
But the hedgehog can never be buggered at all.
CHORUS:
The spines on his back are too sharp for a man
They'll give you a pain in the worst place they can
The result I think you'll find will appall:
The hedgehog can never be buggered at all!
Mounting a horse can often be fun
An elephant too; though he weighs half a ton
Even a mouse (though his hole is quite small)
But the hedgehog can never be buggered at all.
A fish is refreshing, although a bit wet
And a cat or a dog can be more than a pet
Even a giraffe (despite being so tall)
But the hedgehog can never be buggered at all.
You can ravish a sloth but it would take all night
With a shark it is faster, but the darned beast might bite
We already mentioned the horse, you may recall
But the hedgehog can never be buggered at all.
For prosimian fun, you can bugger a lemur
To bolster your name as a pervert and schemer
The lemurs cry _Frink!_ as a coy mating call
But the hedgehog can never be buggered at all."
Finally, we come to the old drinking song mentioned in the annotation for p.
99/82 of _Eric_: 'The Ball of Kerrymuir'. This song can, coincidentally
enough, also be found in Michael Green's _Why Was He Born So Beautiful and
Other Rugby Songs_. That version appears to have the dirty words replaced
by rows of asterisks -- a rather useless form of editorial restraint, since
in this particular case it means the song now contains more asterisks than
normal alphabetic characters. Enter alt.fan.pratchett correspondent Tony
D'Arcy, who was kind enough to fax me an uncensored copy of the song. 'The
Ball of Kerrymuir' has 43 verses, a small subset of which I now reproduce
for your reading pleasure, just to give you a feel for the song. From here
on down this section of the APF is rated X.
"Oh the Ball, the Ball of Kerrymuir,
Where your wife and my wife,
Were a-doing on the floor.
CHORUS:
Balls to your partner,
Arse against the wall.
If you never get fucked on a Saturday night
You'll never be fucked at all.
There was fucking in the kitchen
And fucking in the halls
You couldn't hear the music for
The clanging of the balls.
Now Farmer Giles was there,
His sickle in his hand,
And every time he swung around
He circumcised the band.
Jock McVenning he was there
A-looking for a fuck,
But every cunt was occupied
And he was out of luck.
The village doctor he was there
He had his bag of tricks,
And in between the dances,
He was sterilising pricks.
And when the ball was over,
Everyone confessed:
They all enjoyed the dancing,
but the fucking was the best."
...AND DANCE
When you mention 'Discworld' and 'dance' in the same breath, you can only
be talking about one thing: Morris Dancing, a subject that most non-Brits
will be almost completely in the dark about. Brewer has this to say on the
subject:
_Morris Dance_: brought to England in the reign of Edward III, when John of
Gaunt returned from Spain. In the dance, bells were jingled, and staves or
swords clashed. It was a military dance of the Moors or Moriscos, in which
five men and a boy engaged; the boy wore a 'morione' or head-piece, and was
called _Mad Morion_.
Which is interesting, but doesn't really explain anything in a 20th century
context. Luckily, a newsgroup like alt.fan.pratchett attracts contemporary
Morris Dancers like flies, and for the rest of this section I will give the
floor to Rich Holmes:
"In a number of books (including _Strata_, _Guards! Guards!_, _Reaper Man_,
and _Lords and Ladies_) Pratchett refers to morris dancing. These allusions
may be lost on the typical American reader. Picture, then, six men in white
shirts and trousers, decorated with ribbons, wearing bells on their legs,
in a two-by-three formation -- the men, not the bells. To a tune played on
fiddle or squeezebox, they dance up and down, back and forth, gesturing
with big white handkerchiefs in their hands -- or, maybe, clashing
yard-long willow sticks with one another. That's morris dancing, or at
least the species of morris dancing that was done in the late 19th century
in the Cotswolds region of England.
It's also done today, throughout the English-speaking world (though in
America it's not exactly an everyday sight), these days by women's teams
and mixed teams as well as by men. There are several hundred morris teams
in England as well as 170 or so in the US and Canada and God knows how many
in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and other odd places.
As for where it came from, and when, and what it all means, no one really
knows. Some of its roots seem to go back to the European continent sometime
in or before the 15th century. Similar, possibly related dances were and
are found in Europe and even as far away as India. For a while in the late
19th and early 20th centuries they were commonly claimed by folklorists to
be a remnant of a pre-Christian fertility rite performed by a male
priesthood; there's really no hard evidence to support such a theory,
though.
Terry Pratchett tells us he's "never waved a hankie in anger" nor knows any
morris dancers personally, but that he finds the morris dance kind of
fascinating.
Those interested can contact either Tom Keays ([email protected]) or Rich
Holmes ([email protected]) about the Morris Dancing Discussion
List. You knew there was an ulterior motive here, didn't you?"
There is also a web page for the Morris Dancing Discussion List. The URL
is: <http://web.syr.edu/~hytelnet/mddl/>.
REVERSE ANNOTATIONS
With the Discworld canon growing and reaching an increasingly wider
audience around the globe, we are starting to see something I'm calling
'reverse referencing': *other* writers who put references to the Discworld
into their books.
The examples I have had reported to me so far:
- _Due South_
The most often remarked-upon reverse annotation of the past year or so
concerns the television series _Due South_, which is about the adventures
of a Canadian Mountie (Constable Benton Fraser), stationed in Chicago.
The similarities between Benton Fraser and Carrot are, especially in the
first few episodes, indeed remarkable. Like Carrot, Benton is innocent
and straight-forward to the point of being naive (but not stupid!). He is
nigh-on superhuman, polite, memorises everybody's name, works alongside
cynical and jaded cops, and the first things he does are (1) take
lodgings in the roughest neighbourhood around and (2) walk into a lowlife
bar in full Mountie uniform shouting "Excuse me...". And as with Carrot,
his faith in human nature is almost always rewarded.
I doubt very much whether Benton Fraser is *really* based on Carrot
(after all, the archetype that both characters are based on goes back a
long way), but sometimes I wonder: Fraser's faithful companion is a wolf,
and in one episode of _Due South_ Fraser and his partner are locked in a
meat storage room and nearly freeze to death...
- Computer Games.
References to the Discworld have occasionally been cropping up in
otherwise unrelated computer games. In _Angband_, for instance, one of
the owners of the general store is 'Rincewind the Chicken'. In the
legendary game _Nethack_ you can explore the Dungeons as a tourist,
starting out your quest with lots of gold and food, a credit card, and an
expensive camera. Although the tourist character class wasn't originally
created as a Discworld reference, there have been many Discworld-inspired
additions in later releases of the game: the tourist's patron gods are
now The Lady, Blind Io, and Offler, while Twoflower himself appears on
the special quest level. And if you're hallucinatory, you may get to see
the Luggage.
- _Dream Park: The Californian Voodoo Game_, by Larry Niven and Stephen
Barnes, 1991.
The UK edition of this book describes the character Alan Myers as "a
Terry Pratchett wizard". In the U.S. edition this sentence was simply
left out.
At a later point in the novel (both editions this time), two characters
exchange the following lines:
-- It's been, what -- five years?
-- Since the Diskworld Game. Ah... Hamburg.
Note the misspelling of Discworld.
- _Object-Oriented Languages, Systems and Applications_, by Blair,
Hutchinson, Gallagher and Shepherd, 1991.
"Consider the domain of Colours. If we have Red, Green and Blue, but now
widen the domain to include Octaroon, an old program may read an unknown
value from a new instance. Conversely, if we begin with Octaroon
included, but now decide we no longer believe in Magic and remove it thus
narrowing the domain, [...]"
Again, note the misspelling, this time of 'Octarine'. Since this is a
formal text book, _The Colour of Magic_ gets a proper mention in the
references.
- The _British Medical Journal_, January 1996 edition.
The BMJ has a 'Soundings' page, where doctors get a chance to write about
a subject of their choice. In this issue, Liam Farrell, a GP from
Crossmaglen, ended his column with the line:
"This is only common sense, but, as we have said before,
in academic general practice, common sense is as rare
as a tourist in Ankh-Morpork."
- _The Books of Magic_, by John Ney Rieber, issue #13, April 1995.
Tim and Molly on their way through Soho, London, pass a movie theatre.
The Billboard says: "PRATCHETT THEATRE -- now playing: Unseen Demo..."
(the rest is cut off).
- _The Books of Magic II_, by Neil Gaiman and Scott Hampton, 1990.
Tim is told of an occult battle taking place offstage in Calcutta: "You
wouldn't believe it. The cult of Kali, three Ninja death squads, the
Brotherhood of the Cold Flame, a thousand elephants..."
- _Dirty Work_, by Dan McGirt, 1993, Pan Books, ISBN 0 330 32391 1, p. 215.
The relevant quotation is:
"I peeled off my outer clothing and removed the Cosmosuit. Dreadguards
took it away from me and placed it, along with Gardion and Overwhelm, in
a wooden chest. They also took the Rae medallion and the Ring of Raxx.
'The chest is made of insipid wormwood, the most highly inanimate and
unmagical substance known to the world, which specifically does not run
around on hundreds of tiny legs nor eat people,' Dread said of the box.
'But it does prevent you from summoning your magic sword by thought.'
'Thought of everything haven't you?'"
Readers on a.f.p. are, by the way, unanimously unenthusiastic about this
book, so don't assume that just because it mentions the Luggage it's got
to be a good read.
WORDS FROM THE MASTER
Here are a number of excerpts from articles by Terry Pratchett that I think
fall under the heading of 'annotations' but which are either not associated
with one particular novel, or else so long they would break the flow of the
regular annotations.
Quotation marks (" ") indicate the beginning and ending of quotes from
different Usenet articles. For further clarity I am putting my own
editorial text in square brackets ([ ]) for the rest of this section.
- What are the 'rules' and 'regulations' of headology? It just seems to be
an area that is not properly defined.
"Ah. It appears you have discovered Rule 1."
- Should Terry write Discworld novels with new characters, or should he
write Discworld novels with established characters. Should he, in fact,
listen to what his readers have to say on this subject?
"1. I always listen to advice. It's polite.
2. If I *heeded* all the advice I've had over the years, I'd have written
18 books about Rincewind. Absolutely true. The most common plea in my
mail right now is 'when are we going to read about Rincewind in XXXX?'
I'm being instructed that I have a duty to my readers -- if I was
innocent, I'd be attaching corks to that battered pointy hat even now.
But perhaps this is an issue on which I have thought long and hard. After
all, it's my living and ten years of my life.
If Discworld continues, then old characters will continue -- Rincewind
will get red dust in his sandals, the Watch will be back, Gaspode will
probably limp into stories. And new characters will arise. Why not? It's
not as if there are *rules*. What will probably *end* Discworld is simple
crowding -- the Watch already make Ankh-Morpork based stories a little
problematical, and I won't get into the comic book convention of having
Captain Courage out of town so that Commander Socko can take centre
stage."
"My publishers have *never* insisted that I 'write another Discworld
book'. If I rang them up and said 'the next one's a Western' (or
whatever) they'd probably say 'Oh, right.' In fact the current contract
does NOT specify that my next book, for example, must be Discworld.
Of course I listen to my readers! So the next book will be:
Set in Ankh-Morpork/not set in Ankh-Morpork. With lots of the good old
characters/with a whole cast of new characters. Written like the old
books, which were better/written like the later books, which were better.
With lots of character development/none of that dull character
development stuff, which gets in the way of the jokes. Short/long.
You want fries with that?"
- About the Discworld CD-ROM Game, and its sequel.
"*What I did on the Computer Game*
by Terry Pratchett
I:
a) rewrote and tinkered and generally worked quite hard on the script,
although the guy that drafted it was pretty good;
b) approved (and sometimes didn't approve) the characters -- I think the
game's got the third version of Rincewind and of the Librarian, for
example.
I think some of the puzzles are a shade too obtuse, and when Discworld II
is done I'll probably get more involved in them. But the look and feel of
the game is pretty close to the early Rincewind books, I think. As game
adaptations go, I was about as closely involved as possible for someone
who doesn't write code. It seemed to us all that 'Shouting at people' was
a fairly realistic statement of the position."
- About Unseen University's financial status.
"Unseen University owns quite a lot of land in the area of Sator Square
and while the rents are pretty low there are a lot of properties. There
have been various bequests by former Archchancellors and so on over the
history of the university. I suspect UU also earns money for generalised
magical services in the city (the Pork Futures warehouse, for example).
Over the millennia, it all adds up.
Finally, UU expenses are not high. As far as I can tell, the senior
wizards don't draw salaries but are paid in big dinners. Merchants in the
city tend to 'give' UU foodstuffs because, well, wouldn't you prefer the
local wizards to be fat and happy rather than thin and grouchy?"
- Are there any plans for Pterry to appear on Europe-wide TV?
"I don't know. I hope not."
- On interviews.
"People...(including everyone who interviews me for their Uni magazine,
'cos I must have done a hundred of those things) Rule I of interviews
should be:
Write a list of your main questions to fix things in your mind; Throw it
away; Start the interview; Then LISTEN to what the guy is saying so that
you can follow any interesting thread; Because if you don't, then what
you'll get is a quiz, not an interview.
Sigh... It happens to me all the time:
Q Where did you get the idea for the Discworld?
A I stole it from an old man I met and now I've decided to tell you all.
Q Who is your favourite character?
Sigh..."
- Does Terry keep earlier drafts of his novels around?
"I save about twenty drafts -- that's ten meg of disc space -- and the
last one contains all the final alterations. Once it has been printed out
and received by the publishers, there's a cry here of 'Tough shit,
literary researchers of the future, try getting a proper job!' and the
rest are wiped."
- On answering letters.
[ Terry's wife Lyn reads all his mail first, and selects the reply order ]
"It tends to arrive on my desk in this order:
Stuff that really needs to be dealt with today.
Stuff that needs an answer quickly.
Fan mail with SAEs (Lyn encourages politeness) or which is particularly
interesting, worthy, funny or whatever.
Any other mail from *abroad* (because it's usually taken a while
to get here).
Other mail.
People who send me their MS without checking first, and others of that
kidney.
However, I tend to stir it all up and in fact answer in the order:
From kids
Typed
Readable
Interesting
Others
Ones written in green ink on mauve paper
Ones with more exclamation marks that sanity dictates
It's a strange fact, isn't it, that emails of all sorts tend to get
answered within 24 hours while 'real' mail takes days or weeks or
months."
- On the quality of Tolkien's writing.
"What *is* a master writer?
I read Tolkien now and notice the gaps, the evasions, all the 'bad'
things... but few books have had the effect on me that TLOTR had when I
was thirteen. Is he better or worse, for example, than Anita Brookner,
widely regarded as a 'fine writer' although terribly dull to read? What
is a writer supposed to *achieve*?
Before I rank Tolkien, I'd like to know how the scoring is being done."
- Why Terry switched his German publishers (from Heyne to Goldmann).
"There were a number of reasons for switching to Goldmann, but a deeply
personal one for me was the way Heyne (in _Sourcery_, I think, although
it may have been in other books) inserted a soup advert *in the text* ...
a few black lines and then something like 'Around about now our heroes
must be pretty hungry and what better than a nourishing bowl'... etc,
etc.
My editor was pretty sick about it, but the company wouldn't promise not
to do it again, so that made it very easy to leave them. They did it to
Iain Banks, too, and apparently at a con he tore out the offending page
and ate it. Without croutons."
[ A scan of the offending page is available from the Pratchett Archives. ]
- On people wanting to write their own Discworld stories.
"There is no question that using characters, backgrounds, plot threads,
etc, etc of an author in copyright *can* get you into serious legal
trouble -- there have been cases over this recently in the States. Try
publishing a James Bond novel without consulting the Fleming estate and
see what happens. It's amazing that people don't realise this. Publishers
are used to getting stories with a covering note saying 'Here's a story
I've set in Harry Spiven's 'World of Hurts' universe...' and the
publishers say 'Did you get his permission?' and the writer says 'I don't
have to do that, do I?' and the publishers go white and say 'Does the
Pope shit in the woods?'
That's the REAL world. Now let's talk about FANDOM.
The law isn't any different. But there's people out there writing HHGTTG
stuff, Red Dwarf stuff, Star Trek stuff and Discworld stuff for the
amusement of their friends. Authors react on an individual basis. Some
hate it and try to stop it. Anne McCaffrey -- I think, although I'm open
to correction here -- doesn't mind so long as her main characters are not
used. Douglas Adams seems to have tolerated/given permission for a welter
of Hitchhikers stuff in the ZZ9 fanzine.
It seems to me that if something is being done on an amateur basis by a
fan for fans, and is clearly their own work, and is done out of a shared
regard for the basic subject matter, then it would be kind of chilly for
an author to run around hammering people. It's fandom, for god's sake. I
don't give anyone *permission*, I just smile and think what the hell.
There's a danger, of course, that some dumb bugger out there will
interpret this as an indication that Discworld is now in the public
domain or open to franchising. It is neither. If anyone tries a
commercial rip-off -- not a parody, not fanac, but a cynical attempt to
cash in on my Discworld -- then the sewage farm will hit the three
megawatt aerogenerator."
"I'd rather fanfic went on somewhere where I don't see it. Why? Because
if A Fan writes a piece about, say, Discworld tax collectors, and I chose
to write about Discworld tax collectors a year later, A Fan will send me
the 'nyer, ripoff, you nicked my idea' email."
- What is the 'H.P. Lovecraft Holiday Fun Club'?
"Nothing serious, really. This was just the name I gave to a group of
people that seemed to turn up at every UK convention in the late 80s --
me, Neil Gaiman, Jo Fletcher, Mary Gentle, Mike Harrison, etc, etc... As
to why... well, it just seemed to fit in that well-known group of clubs
like the Saudi Arabian Beer-Mat Collectors Association and the Venetian
League of Joggers."
- About special deluxe editions of the Discworld novels.
"We have been talking about some special Discworld editions, maybe with a
few choice interior illustrations and some heavy leather covers. I
personally would like to see them with chains, too.
The snag for me is that the publishers keep talking about 'limited'
editions. I've got a psychological objection to 'limited' editions. I
like unlimited editions."
- On the lack of chapters in the Discworld novels.
"DW books don't have chapters because, well, I just never got into the
habit of chapters. I'm not sure why they should exist (except maybe in
children's books, to allow the parent to say "I'll read to the end of the
chapter and then you must go to sleep."). Films don't have chapters.
Besides, I think they interfere with the shape of the story. Use a
bookmark is my advice."
"I have to shove them in the putative YA books because my editor screams
until I do."
- On Discworld language use.
"A certain amount of DW slang comes from Palari or Polari, the fairground
/ underworld / theatre 'secret language' (which seems to have a lot of
roots in old Italian). UK readers with long memories might recall the
pair of gay actors 'Julian and Sandy', in the old Round the Horne radio
show in the Sixties and Seventies (innocent times, innocent times); they
spoke almost pure Palari."
- Why don't you use a Macintosh for your writing?
"In fact I type so fluently that I can't deal with a mouse. My mother
paid for me to have touch-typing lessons when I was 13, and they took.
Hah! I can just see a DW book written with voice-recognition software!
Especially in this cat-ridden house! 'That's Ankh-Morpork, you bloody
stupid machine! GET OFF THE TURNTABLE!' As to goshwowness -- well, it
seems now that a 50MHz 486 is what you need if you're not going to have
silicon kicked in your face on the beach. But... Macs do interest me...
it's just that I associate them with manipulation rather than input."
- Where are all these references to science, physics in particular, coming
from?
"How much physics do I know? How do I know that? I don't know about the
stuff I don't know. I've no formal training but I've spent a lot of time
around scientists of one sort of another, and I'm a great believer in
osmotic knowledge."
[ People on the net (who tend to have a university or technical
background) are often impressed by Terry's many references to the
physical sciences in his novels ("Oh wow, you can really tell he used to
work for a nuclear power plant!" is an often-heard cry), but frankly I
think they are underestimating the non-university audience out there.
Most of the things Terry mentions in passing (e.g. Big Bang, quarks,
wave/particle duality) are covered in high school physics classes (or at
least in Holland they are), and surely everybody who does not
deliberately turn away from anything scientific in content will have seen
references in newspapers, on tv or in magazines to things like quantum
particles or the "Trousers of Time"? ]
- How do you write?
"How do I write? God, this is embarrassing. Look, I just do it. It's
pictures in the head and memories and thinking about things and it all
comes together. It's something I do."
"1) Watch everything, read everything, and especially read outside your
subject -- you should be importing, not recycling.
2) Use a wordprocessor... why do I feel this is not unnecessary advice
here? It makes everything mutable. It's better for the ego. And you can
play games when all else fails.
3) Write. For more than three years I wrote more than 400 words every
day. I mean, every calendar day. If for some reason, in those
pre-portable days, I couldn't get to a keyboard, I wrote hard the
previous night and caught up the following day, and if it ever seemed
that it was easy to do the average I upped the average. I also did a hell
of a lot of editing afterwards but the point was there *was* something
there to edit. I had a more than full-time job as well. I hate to say
this, but most of the successful (well, okay... *rich*) authors I know
seem to put 'application' around the top of the list of How-to-do-its.
Tough but true."
"Application? Well, it means... application. The single-minded ability to
knuckle down and get on with it, as they say in Unseen University
library."
- The advantages of having a background in journalism.
"Yes, Dave Gemmell and Neil Gaiman were both journalists. So was Bob
Shaw. So was I. It's good training because:
1) any tendency to writers' block is burned out of you within a few
weeks of starting work by unsympathetic news editors;
2) you very quickly learn the direct link between writing and
eating;
3) you pick up a style of sorts;
4) you get to hang around in interesting places;
5) you learn to take editing in your stride, and tend to be
reliable about deadlines;
6) you end up with an ability to think at the keyboard and reduce
the world to yourself and the work in hand -- you have to do
this to survive in a world of ringing telephones and shouting
sub-editors.
None of this makes you talented or *good*, but it does help you make the
best of what you've got."
- On the use of dog Latin.
"People in the UK, even in public (i.e., private) schools, don't assume
that "everyone knows Latin". Latin is barely taught anywhere anymore --
it certainly wasn't taught to me. But dog Latin *isn't* Latin, except by
accident. It's simply made-up, vaguely Latin-sounding phrases, as in Nil
Illegitimo Carborundum. 'Fabricati Diem, Punc' is total nonsense in Latin
[no doubt there are readers out there who could construct the correct
phrase that might have fallen from the lips of Dirty Hadrian]."
- On the writing of _Good Omens_.
"Neil and I had known each other since early 1985. Doing it was our idea,
not a publisher's deal."
"I think this is an honest account of the process of writing _Good
Omens_. It was fairly easy to keep track of because of the way we sent
discs to one another, and because I was Keeper of the Official Master
Copy I can say that I wrote a bit over two thirds of _Good Omens_.
However, we were on the phone to each other every day, at least once. If
you have an idea during a brainstorming session with another guy, whose
idea is it? One guy goes and writes 2,000 words after thirty minutes on
the phone, what exactly is the process that's happening?
I did most of the physical writing because:
1) I had to. Neil had to keep Sandman going -- I could take time
off from the DW;
2) One person has to be overall editor, and do all the stitching
and filling and slicing and, as I've said before, it was me by
agreement -- if it had been a graphic novel, it would have been
Neil taking the chair for exactly the same reasons it was me for
a novel;
3) I'm a selfish bastard and tried to write ahead to get to the
good bits before Neil.
Initially, I did most of Adam and the Them and Neil did most of the Four
Horsemen, and everything else kind of got done by whoever -- by the end,
large sections were being done by a composite creature called
Terryandneil, whoever was actually hitting the keys. By agreement, I am
allowed to say that Agnes Nutter, her life and death, was completely and
utterly mine. And Neil proudly claims responsibility for the maggots.
Neil's had a major influence on the opening scenes, me on the ending. In
the end, it was this book done by two guys, who shared the money equally
and did it for fun and wouldn't do it again for a big clock."
"Yes, the maggot reversal was by me, with a gun to Neil's head (although
he understood the reasons, it's just that he likes maggots). There
couldn't be blood on Adam's hands, even blood spilled by third parties.
No-one should die because he was alive."
- On rumours that Neil Gaiman claims to have come up with some of the ideas
in _Reaper Man_, most notably the title and the Death storyline.
"To the best of my recollection the Reaper Man title was suggested by
Faith Brooker at Gollancz (although I can't swear to this). But I know,
and have gone on record about this, that the central idea of Reaper Man
actually came from reading a fan letter from a lady who wrote "Death is
my favourite character -- he can be my knight on a white charger any day
of the week". The lady concerned can be produced to the court, m'lud.
Listening intelligently while a fellow author talks about an upcoming
book isn't the same as 'suggesting the storyline and some other bits' and
in fairness to Neil I doubt that he put it quite like that -- this sounds
like something which has picked up a bit of spin in the telling. We've
known each other for a long time, we share a similar conceptual universe
-- we'd both agree happily that he has the darker end of it -- and we've
often talked about what we're working on and tried out stuff on one
another. And that's it, really."
- How big is his publisher's influence on what gets written?
"Question was: do the publishers force me to write DW books? (the subtext
being, we'd like you to do other stuff). And the answer is, no, you can't
work like that. It works the other way round -- I say I'm planning two
more, they say, fine, here's a contract. The DW is sufficiently big and
vague that it can cover _Small Gods_ and _Eric_, so I've got a wide field
to work in. But... I'll say here again... the days of twice-yearly DW
books have probably gone. I'm still planning to write them regularly, in
fact publishing schedules might end up bringing out two in a year, but I
want to do other stuff as well. The fact is that each DW book sells more
than the one before, and the backlist sales keep on rising. I don't write
DW *because* of this, but it suggests that there's a readership out
there. I can't imagine how anyone can be *forced* to write a book."
- On the joint copyright notice in his novels.
[ All Terry's novels are "copyright Terry and Lyn Pratchett", and people
on the net were wondering about the reasons for it. ]
"Copyright does not necessarily have anything to do with authorship -- an
author can assign copyright wherever he or she likes. Lyn and I are a
legal partnership, and so we hold copyright jointly (for various mildly
beneficial reasons) in the same way that, if we ever bothered to form a
limited company, *that* would hold the copyright. At random I've picked a
few favourite books off the shelf, and can say that it's not unusual for
copyright not to be held simply in the name of the author. I do all the
writing!"
- On the various Discworld covers.
"No, Kirby's Nanny Ogg is pretty good. And he's getting better (...he's
getting better...) at someone who looks about right for Magrat. But he
hasn't really got a clue about Granny.
The artist who does the American book club editions -- can't recall his
name -- does not, I think, do good *covers*, but he makes a very good job
of getting the characters right. They're not *my* idea of the characters,
but they're certainly based squarely on the plot. His Granny on the cover
of Equal Rites was notable."
"The next UK paperback reprint of TCOM (they do a couple a year) will not
have a Kirby cover. This is an experiment -- there's been feedback to me
and to Transworld that suggests there are a large number of potential DW
readers out there who think they don't like fantasy and don't get past
the Kirby covers."
[ Scans of both the original Josh Kirby cover and of the new cover by
Stephen Player are available from the Pratchett Archives. ]
"Current cover policy is to have a fairly small graphic on the front of
the hardcovers but a full traditional design on the front of the
paperback; I'm not too unhappy about this, because I wasn't very keen on
the _Lords and Ladies_ hardcover artwork."
- On American editions of his books.
"I'm also nervy about 'translating' things into American. ("Friends,
Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears = Yo, muthers,
y'knowwhatI'msayin?") I've seen what even intelligent, well-travelled
American writers think is normal British conversation ("I say, good
show!") and I'd hate to be guilty of that sort of thing in reverse."
"As far as _Johnny and the Dead_ and _Only You Can Save Mankind_ are
concerned: well, I dunno. It was bad enough having to translate Truckers
into American, and then it was published so badly by Dell in hardcover we
took the paperback rights away from them (which we are looking to sell
now). And the two more recent books are very British, or at least
European -- I can just imagine the dog's breakfast an US editor would
make of them. My agent's got 'em, but I'm not that keen to sell."
- On reference books.
"I've got Brewer's, of course <<See the annotation for p. 117/103 of _The
Colour of Magic_>>, and if I need an instant reference it's a handy book.
He also did a _Reader's Companion_ which is even better. But Ebenezer is
only the tip of an iceberg of similar books, of which the Victorians were
very fond."
"Whenever I go to the States I always return with my luggage stuffed with
Panati's and _Straight Dope_ books <<See the annotation for p. 165/107 of
_Good Omens_>> (I've seen the _Straight Dope_ books here, but never seen
an imported Panati (they've got titles like "Extraordinary Origins of
Everyday Things")). I'm afraid I spend money like water in American book
shops; I dunno, they just seem more inviting. The oddest book shop I've
been in is Win Bundy's Singing Wind Book Ranch..."
- Likes and Dislikes.
"I *hated* the Alice books."
"I didn't like the Alice books because I found them creepy and horribly
unfunny in a nasty, plonking, Victorian way. Oh, here's Mr Christmas
Pudding On Legs, hohohoho, here's a Caterpillar Smoking A Pipe, hohohoho.
When I was a kid the books created in me about the same revulsion as you
get when, aged seven, you're invited to kiss your great-grandmother."
"May I also add that the film _The Return of Captain Invincible_, which
is a series of bad moments pasted together with great songs and a budget
of fourpence, is also a regularly-viewed video in the Pratchett
household. And David Byrne's _True Stories_ also. Flame me if you wish. I
laugh with scorn at threats."
"These are modern authors whose books I will automatically buy knowing
that life is going to get that little bit richer:
George McDonald Fraser (The Flashman books)
Carl Hiaasen (still to get well known over here)
Donald Westlake (a pro)
Joseph Wambaugh
Tom Robbins
But I read more and more non-fiction, biographies and stuff these days."
[About Joanna Trollope:] "An intelligent lady who writes worthwhile books
for an audience largely neglected by 'real' writers, and who occasionally
comes up with a bit of description I really wish I'd thought of. The
current TV adaptation of _The Rector's Wife_ is pretty awful."
[About P. J. O'Rourke:] "PJ may be many things, but fascist he is not, as
becomes obvious when you read his slightly more serious writings -- but
he clearly does like to wind up the kind of people who are too free with
'fascist' accusations. He's so far to the right that on many issues he's
coming back at you from the left. [...] I like PJ."
"I got Corgi to republish Roy Lewis' _The Evolution Man_ a few years ago.
To the best of my knowledge it's the only fiction he's done. Like I said
in my intro, it's honest, genuine sf... and one of my all-time favourite
funny books."
"If anyone can ever get hold of it, the classic funny cricket match was
in the book _England, Their England_ by A. G. McDonnell. A forgotten
masterpiece."
"[Carl Hiaassen] is a writer I try to promote here at every opportunity.
He hasn't written a bad book. I recommend _Native Tongue_ or maybe
_Double Whammy_."
- Is there any truth to the rumour that you and Neil Gaiman had a fall-out
over the _Good Omens_ film project?
"Me and Neil... oh gawd. Yes, it's true to say we didn't agree over the
way the film should be going. But that's about it. There's no flying
daggers -- at least, I haven't thrown any and none have hit me."
- Speaking of movies, what happened to the plans for a movie based on
_Mort_?
"A production company was put together and there was US and Scandinavian
and European involvement, and I wrote a couple of script drafts which
went down well and everything was looking fine and then the US people
said "Hey, we've been doing market research in Power Cable, Nebraska, and
other centres of culture, and the Death/skeleton bit doesn't work for us,
it's a bit of a downer, we have a prarm with it, so lose the skeleton".
The rest of the consortium said, did you read the script? The Americans
said: sure, we LOVE it, it's GREAT, it's HIGH CONCEPT. Just lose the
Death angle, guys.
Whereupon, I'm happy to say, they were told to keep on with the
medication and come back in a hundred years."
"The person also said that Americans "weren't ready for the treatment of
Death as an amusing and sympathetic character". This was about 18
months/2 years before _Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey_."
"Currently, since the amount of money available for making movies in
Europe is about sixpence, the consortium is looking for some more
intelligent Americans in the film business. This may prove difficult.
It could have been worse. I've heard what _Good Omens_ was looking like
by the time Sovereign's option mercifully ran out -- set in America, no
Four Horsemen... oh god."
"What you have to remember is that in the movies there are two types of
people 1) the directors, artists, actors and so on who have to *do*
things and are often quite human and 2) the other lifeforms.
Unfortunately you have to deal with the other lifeforms first. It is
impossible to exaggerate their baleful stupidity."
- If movies are too expensive, how about some more Discworld television
adaptations?
"There's some approaches. There's *always* some approaches. But too often
they're from people who want to do a 'funny fantasy' and paste the
Discworld label on it. I have to repeat the old mantra: Discworld isn't
internally funny to the people who live there -- there's no baseball
playing frogs. And too often the approach is [sub-text] "I bet a humble
print author like you would be overjoyed to be on REAL TELEVISION, eh?"
They get what Nanny Ogg calls the derriere velocitie PDQ, I can tell
you."
"We are talking usefully to UK TV people and, yes, there is serious
interest in doing the Guards books as a sort of 'Hill Street Octarines'.
It might work. Even if it doesn't, people are close enough for me to
scream at them."
"IF IT ALL HAPPENS ('cos we're dealing with screen here) then there would
be _Guards! Guards!_ as the pilot and _Men at Arms_ as 'the series'."
- Why does the Librarian have such troubles communicating with humans?
Surely, as a highly trained, intelligent librarian he is literate, and
therefore can write down what he wants to say?
"Personally, I think he does it out of spite."
- Responding to newspaper articles mentioning "Estimated wealth of sci-fi
novelist Terry Pratchett: UK# 26,500,000".
"This began with some survey done by a magazine called _Business Age_.
Since it's off by the national debt of Belgium my agent rang them up to
find out what the hell was going on. Various factoids emerged, like
frinstance their assumption that I sell pro rata as much in the States as
I do here (hollow laughter from the American readers). And we suspect
they fall for the common error that a mere appearance in the bestseller
lists means millionaire status (in a poor week the book at number ten
might not have sold 100 copies). But the big wobbler is that the estimate
is of 'worth', not 'wealth' -- they've hazarded a wild guess at the value
of the Discworld *rights*, as far as we can tell including film rights as
well. Remember copyright lasts for 50 years and the books are consistent
high backlist sellers. It's similar to pointing to a bright kid and
saying 'he's worth three million quids' -- i.e., all the money she or he
*might* earn during their life, at compound interest. It's fairy money.
The kind Robert Maxwell had."
- On his perennial problems with publishers in America.
"Well, I sell some [books]. I had a sort of publisher, in the same way
that duckweed counts as a plant. Let's hope HarperCollins does better."
"I can only repeat: my last publishers were so good they spelled my name
wrong in the books, made sure they had covers in 50 shades of mud, and
kept them out of the shops. HarperCollins are bringing out _Small Gods_
in January and are talking about some kind of accelerated schedule to
catch up.
I've seen the US _Small Gods_ cover, by the way. It's quite different
from anything else of mine, and mainly text... looks rather posh..."
"HarperCollins have been sent the _Soul Music_ MS and are serious about
publishing it this summer in an effort to 'catch up'. That means in
theory that new Discworld books should be published in the US at (more or
less) the same time as in the UK. But it leaves _Lords and Ladies_ and
_Men at Arms_ in a kind of limbo; HC are committed to bringing them out
"as soon as possible" and it's in their interests to do so, because
they've had to front advances which they can't recoup until they start
selling."
"Blame publishers. HarperCollins have got _Lords and Ladies_, _Small
Gods_, _Men at Arms_ and _Soul Music_. I *think* Roc have got _Eric_. I'd
be happy to see them all out in one go. As for the Map... I suspect it'll
never get a US publication. It seemed to frighten US publishers. They
don't seem to understand it.
"That seems to point up a significant difference between Europeans and
Americans:
A European says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with me? An
American says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with him?
I make no suggestion that one side or other is right, but observation
over many years leads me to believe it is true."
"The last I heard, my editor was mumbling a bit over [the Johnny books].
Though he personally loved J&tD I think he thought Americans wouldn't (as
in: no-one in the book is American, WWI happened on another continent
that American kids couldn't find on an atlas with three tries, and it
feels, ugh, European. I'm paraphrasing his far more diplomatically worded
comments)."
As I understand it, _Lords and Ladies_ and _Men at Arms_ will come out in
trade paperback "fairly soon" after _Soul Music_, to get them out of the
way -- ie, to desperately try to catch up on the schedule. But it looks
as though SM is slipping back, 'cos I saw the proofs only a week or so
ago. Basically, it's the usual arrogance of US publishers towards their
readers -- and counter-productive, since I know that quite a large number
of UK editions find their way into the US."
"The twisted thinking is as follows. Thousands of hardcover UK Discworld
books cross the Atlantic after every pub date, certainly undermining the
sales or potential sales of US copies; this pattern has become
established because of the long delay before US publication.
HarperCollins thought the only way they could retrieve the situation was
leap the gap and publish the next 'new' title as soon as possible,
bringing out the other two over the next year more or less as 'new
backlist titles' while also continuing to publish genuinely new Discworld
books. This would mean that _Lords and Ladies_ and _Men At Arms_ would be
late, but they'd have been late *anyway*, and titles from _Soul Music_ on
would have an American pub. date pretty close to the UK one.
That was the theory. Unfortunately, it has contained one major flaw, in
that it is being put into practice. It seems to be thought that a
publication date for _Soul Music_ that is 7-8 months behind the UK one is
'contemporary', which is an interesting use of the word. Moreover, I have
a horrible suspicion that they'll see two 'new' Pratchett books on their
list next year and, on the basis that the left hand does not know what
the left hand is doing, decide that 'Interesting Times' can be postponed
until 1996 (having come out in the UK in November, 1994).
Sometimes I think I'd have done better staying with Roc, sad covers and
all -- at least they were catching up..."
- Is _Strata_ a Discworld novel or isn't it?
"_Strata_ used the idea of a Discworld but I've never thought of it as a
Discworld novel within the meaning of the act. The first Discworld novel
was _The Colour of Magic_. Let the message go throughout the kingdom..."
- About the Discworld album by Dave Greenslade.
"It's called _From The Discworld_. Most of the tracks are themes for the
books (I particularly like the Small Gods one) but there are two songs,
'The Shades of Ankh-Morpork' and something about a wizard's staff. There
is also the insidious tune of the 'Stick and Bucket Dance', even down to
that special chord folk music has to have at the end so that people know
they can come out now."
[ The CD was released by Virgin (UK:CDV 2738), and features the following
tracks:
1. A'Tuin the Turtle
2. Octarine The Colour of Magic
3. The Luggage
4. The Shades of Ankh-Morpork
5. Wyrd Sisters
6. The Unseen University/The Librarian
7. Death
8. A Wizard's Staff has a Knob on the End
9. Dryads
10. Pyramids
11. Small Gods
12. Stick and Bucket Dance
13. The One Horseman and the Three pedestrians of the Apocralypse
14. Holy Wood Dreams ]
- At the end of _Wings_ you implied that the Nomes would return some day
for any remaining Nomes. Do you plan to write another book where the
Nomes return or one about the world the Nomes now call home?
"I won't do one about any new planets, but there may be another book
about the nomes."
- On computer games.
"I have played _Elite_, _Wing Commander_, _X-Wing_ and altogether too
many outer-space-shoot-em-ups. I mean, don't they all have shields,
missiles and stuff?"
"Well, right now I'm storming through _Privateer_ under the callsign of
Flash Bastard, whose career has progressed throughout the whole Wing
Commander series."
- Are _Diggers_ and _Wings_ going to be made into TV programs as follow-ups
to _Truckers_?
"Cosgrove Hall were just getting them storyboarded when Thames folded.
They're still not a dead issue, but suffering as do many things when
people at the top change: no-one likes to be associated with something
started before their time."
"Cosgrove Hall still want to do them. They're also interested in... well,
other stuff I've done. Right now a number of other people have come out
of the woodwork with money and interesting ideas -- J&tD seems like a
starter, for one. But the BBC does not figure largely in current
approaches."
- Why isn't the Ankh-Morpork Mappe released as a poster?
"Transworld have considered doing the Mappe as a poster. There are snags.
Where does the key go? The key as a booklet attached for some reason
avoids the dreaded VAT; as a poster, VAT would be on it."
- About future Discworld merchandising:
"Ankh-Morpork postcards will probably happen. There was a recent meeting
to thrash out the whole T-shirts/calendars/towel and body splash thing,
and they (and Discworld stationery) were near the top of the list..."
- About the continuing rumours that he will soon be sanctioning an official
fan club.
"It's the word 'official' that always pulls me up. It suggests I've got
some kind of control or stake and I wouldn't want that. The best I can
say is that, over the past few months (after hearing that Clarecraft's
Discworld collectors club membership is in the high hundreds, and
[Stephen Briggs] is disappearing under scarves) is that I'm no longer
killing people who say they think one would be a good idea, since there
are clearly many (if you can believe this) *people out there with no net
access* who want some kind of Discworld club. I'm not sure that's the
answer you're looking for..."
- Do you deliver your manuscripts in digital form?
"The US publishers want discs. Gollancz tried setting from disc a few
years ago and it seemed quite successful, but I think it stopped when the
lad who knew how to work their Amstrad moved on. I've been set from disc
once or twice by Corgi. But the instant-books you're looking for won't
happen because: 1) books have to be scheduled ahead of time, for cost,
sales and PR reasons 2) it's easier to squeeze a melon though the eye of
a needle than it is to get a UK publisher to think in other than
Gutenberg terms."
"Basically, most publishers still hanker for paper MS -- even the ones
that can set from disc want a print-out too. [...] So now we're back to
typos hand-set by experts (anyone who got that red and black eight page
'extract' piece with my moody pic on the front that came out about two
years ago will see what a creative typesetter can do -- there is at least
one really creative typo per page). Mind you, copy-editors can be bad --
it's taken me a long time to make mine understand that there is a
distinct difference between Mr and Mister. Mr = minor honorific, an
invisible word, Mister = John Wayne getting angry."
- A philosophical question: why are elves considered evil, while cats (who
do the same nasty things) are not?
"Ahem....
There is no inconsistency. Nanny Ogg has a point of view. So has Death.
So have I. But there's no such thing as 'the official Discworld opinion'
on, say, cats.
Personally, I like cats. And they are also nasty cruel bastards. Just ask
that two-thirds of a shrew that's outside our back door right now."
"Okay, try this. Cats are nasty cruel bastards but that's because they
are cats. As far as we know, they have no grasp of the concept of not
being nasty cruel bastards. Humans, on the other hand, do."
- About the spoken-word versions of the Discworld novels.
"Transworld intended to bring out *all* the Discworld on tape eventually
-- I think the first three titles are coming out RSN." [ RSN = Real Soon
Now ]
"There may be Braille/audiotape versions by people like Books For The
Blind. Every so often I get requests -- as do most authors, I expect --
to allow Braille editions and special tapes, and we always say, "fine,
sure, no fee, no problem". But we NEVER GET TOLD WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. So I
don't know what's out there. It's a bit of a shame."
- On the subject of dedications.
"With the exception of requests, like "Can you sign it to Scrummybunikins
with lots of Hugs", there are about 35 different Discworld dedications
(some of which I don't have time to do with the queues being the length
they are -- if you've got the Death Grin dedication in _Mort_, treasure
it, because I hardly ever do it these days). As for quality of
handwriting, well, mine never was good...
Far More Wishes is part of a set (Best Wishes, Better Wishes, Even Better
Wishes, More Wishes, Far More Wishes, Still More Wishes, Extra Wishes, A
Whole New Quantum of Wishes and -- for those people with two carrier bags
full of books -- Son of Best Wishes, Bride of Best Wishes, and Return of
the Killer Best Wishes for 20,000 Fathoms). Also look out for the special
Boo! in _Mort_ and _Reaper Man_, our new Read it And Reap one in _Reaper
Man_, the special turtle drawing in _Small Gods_, and various Now Reads
Ons, Enhanced Wishes, etc, etc. Kids! Collect the Entire Set!"
[ This explanation prompted FAQ maintainer Nathan Torkington to reply
with:
"I can't wait to see what happens when you reach the fifty book mark, and
people at the head of the queue say "just wait a sec and I'll back the
car in". The dedications will probably be:
Fuck off
Go away
Read Douglas Adams
Get a life
Get a job
Don't you have anything *better* to do with your time
Son of fuck off
My god, did I really write all these damn books
Yes, by god, I *do* regret it now
Worst wishes
I don't know why I don't have a rubber stamp made
Look, just bugger off I'm fed up to the teeth with banana daiquiris
I wish I *had* said "money"
This is the last dedication
Bloody trade editions
Oh, how cute, you have the hardback and paperback editions
Oh, and the US ones too
I'm memorising your face and your adenoidal laugh
You're next, matey
Third prodigal son of a fling with the daughter of the baker to fuck off"
Terry was very impressed by this list, and so were other readers of
a.f.p. Terry says that since this discussion appeared on the net he is
now occasionally asked for specific dedications along these lines. ]
"Book-specific ones tend to be: _Mort_ and _Reaper Man_: 'Boo!', 'HAVE
FUN', the Death grin, or 'Read It And Reap'. _Small Gods_: almost always
'The Turtle Moves!' _Pyramids_: usually the 'Hi! in the Pyramid' _Wyrd
Sisters_: often 'Really wyrd'..."
"Read It And Reap has now been established as a 'generic' line which
doesn't *just* get used in _Reaper Man_."
- What order are the Discworld books in?
"As far as I am concerned, the Discworld books are in chronological
order. Anything that suggests differently is probably because of the
Trousers of Time, magical leakage from the HEM and so on..."
- It was rumoured in _Octarine_ magazine that you and Robert Rankin were
not "the best of friends". Any truth to this? (By the way: I hear that
Rankin likes to throw wild parties in his jacuzzi.)
"I'll nail this one right now. We don't see much of one another but we
get on fine. That was _Octarine_ stirring it up. I know nothing
whatsoever about parties in jacuzzis, or rubber chickens."
- More about book shop tours and signing sessions.
"Well, the tour's over, and back I come to unload a stack of emails
including a few on the lines of: some signings were chaos/badly organised
(I'll better add that they added: we know it wasn't your fault, you were
distantly seen to be scribbling at speed...). Some interesting points
were raised so, in honour of the afp'ers who queued, I thought I'd post a
general reply here.
I don't organise signings. The *publishers* don't organise signings;
shops clamour to get certain authors, and the publishers try to select
the few dozen for this tour based on all kinds of stuff like number of
shops already picked in that chain, location and so on. But the
organisation of the signing itself is done by the shop. Not all of them
can hack it. Believe me, I know this, and the reasons include:
-- this shop's idea of a good signing hitherto is fifty people
-- this shop doesn't understand about, er, a 'fan' type signing, where
there's dedications and maybe some older titles and an occasional
brief chat.
-- the shop doesn't understand about signings *at all*,
including the need for a proper table and chair for the signer, or
a cup of tea. It happens. I carry my own bag of pens because most
shops would provide one Biro.
A lot of them *can* run a signing, and the problems simply are the
unavoidable ones you have if 300 people all want a book signed at the
same time, *and* want to say "hi".
I'm sort of stuck. I can't run the thing from the desk. Besides, I was
signing for six or seven hours most days, and my brain turns to cheese.
My PR lady can help a bit, and does. If we spot a handicapped person in
the queue, and tactful inquiry suggests they'd welcome it, they get to
the front (I have to say that, to my annoyance, the staff in some shops
seemed oblivious to this aspect). If the shop runs out of a title -- it
happened a few times -- she can get some from the reps secret stash.
On this tour I think that, despite my warnings, I signed everything. Most
of the time people with a big stack were asked to wait until the end. I'm
loathe to let shops decide how many books I'm going to sign so they're
told that I'll sign everything if there's time -- otherwise, in an effort
to be helpful, they'd make their own rules.
Some problems would be solved by doing fewer signings (and people'd
complain). We left out too many places this time as it was.
It definitely was a busy tour. I would like to apologise to the relatives
of the fan who gave me 29 books to sign in Odyssey 7, Manchester. I'm a
little twitchy towards the end of a day of signing and did not mean to
kill and eat him."
"With a little more leisure I realise that the aforesaid postings
concerned one particular shop. They did indeed seem far more interested
in shifting books than running a proper signing, and this has been
carefully noted for future reference. They had also not spotted that an
author, in order to sign, needs a table and a chair.
But a lot of shops seemed to do it well -- the Waterstones in Manchester,
for example, seemed very good at hustling pregnant ladies, etc, to the
front of the queue. In fact I think you merely had to look as though your
feet hurt.
Signings that don't involve a talk are invariably advertised as 'an
hour'. But there's always some extra time in the program."
"Some shops on the tour -- they have been noted -- acted as if having a
shop full of people buying books was terribly inconvenient. I know that
one stopped taking phone orders because the staff got fed up."
"On the latest tour I've heard that some shops have been telling people
'he'll only sign _Soul Music_'. This is shopspeak on the lines of "It's
out of print" (which really means "Who cares and bugger off, you pimply
person"). Shops have no say in what I'll sign or not sign. So I'll
repeat:
I'll sign everything of mine -- if there's time. It's all down to queue
length. If you've got an entire bag of books then generally I arrange to
sign them after the queue has gone. You don't even have to buy the
current title, although you may be subject to some righteous wragging if
this is the case."
"The tour just finished may have been the first one in which someone
brought a computer in to be signed -- a Sparc workstation, I recall."
"I'm not against flash photography! But repeated flash photography during
a long day -- well, ever tried looking down at a white page after staring
into a flash gun?"
"What is always very touching are the people who bring in their *already
signed* books to witness the new ones being signed. It's like their first
Communion or something..."
- Is the Mappe of Ankh-Morpork based on London?
"We started with a LOT of real cities -- mostly in England, mostly old.
There's a lot of Oxford and some Durham and Shrewsbury and odds and ends
from everywhere, including a street in Abingdon opposite the theatre that
puts on the Discworld plays. I think Stephen even said somewhere that
London isn't the only city with a Hyde Park, but I could be wrong. But
frankly any old city with a wall and a wiggly river looks like
London...."
- Do religious fanatics ever get mad at you for writing _Small Gods_?
"I may have posted something on these lines before, but a lot of mail
about _Small Gods_ is split between 1) pagans who say that it really
shafts the Big Beard In the Sky religions and 2) Christians who say that
it is an incredibly pro-Christian book.
I suspect the latter is because Brutha displays tolerance, compassion,
charity, steadfastness and faith, and these are now considered Christian
virtues (i.e., virtues that modern Christians feel they should have...)"
- Annotations and References.
"If I put a reference in a book I try to pick one that a generally
well-read (well-viewed, well-listened) person has a sporting chance of
picking up; I call this 'white knowledge', the sort of stuff that fills
up your brain without you really knowing where it came from. Enough
people would've read Leiber, say, to pick up a generalised reference to
Fafhrd, etc., and even more people would have some knowledge of Tolkien
-- but I wouldn't rely on people having read a specific story."
"I like doing this kind of thing. There are a number of passages in the
books which are 'enhanced' if you know where the echoes are coming from
but which are still, I hope, funny in their own right."
"Sometimes I... well... I just write stuff which hasn't been pinched from
ANYONE (shuffles feet, looks embarrassed...)."
- When will you be visiting the USA?
"The publishers keep on saying "We've got to bring you over next year". I
think I've found the logical flaw in this invitation..."
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*** Editorial Comments
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STATISTICS
Please allow me the indulgence of a short section on my favourite subject:
trivial statistics. The APF v7a.0 boasts a total of no less than 370 new or
non-trivially expanded annotations. With these results, we get the
following APF Growth Chart data points:
APF v1.4 had 14 entries, 160 lines and was 5 Kb large.
APF v2.0 had 78 entries, 631 lines, and was 28 Kb large.
APF v3.0 had 133 entries, 1071 lines, and was 49 Kb large.
APF v4.0 had 198 entries, 1702 lines, and was 79 Kb large.
APF v5.0 had 336 entries, 3340 lines, and was 148 Kb large.
APF v6.0 had 622 entries, 6611 lines, and was 296 Kb large.
APF v7.0 had 974 entries, 10165 lines, and was 450 Kb large.
APF v7a.0 has 1300 entries, 13680 lines, and is 615 Kb large.
Keep it up folks, keep it up...
TO ANNOTATE OR NOT TO ANNOTATE
In the early versions of the APF nearly every annotation that I received
was quickly incorporated into the next version of the file. For the later
versions, however, I was forced to reject literally dozens of annotations,
most of which are not so very different from ones that *did* make it into
the APF, and I am a bit apprehensive that people might take offence at this
(particularly since I suspect they will not see the method to my madness)
and will stop making an effort to supply me with annotations.
Now for one thing, quite a few annotations didn't make it into this version
of the APF because I simply couldn't place them. People send me annotations
that are keyed to the page numbers in their books, which more often than
not are not the same editions I use. As a result, I sometimes have to spend
a lot of time searching for a particular sentence or scene, and in many
cases I just can't place it at all.
Another reason why annotations may be rejected is because I couldn't
confirm the reference. Mind you, sometimes I'll include references that are
simply so cool, or so authoritative-sounding, that even though I don't know
anything about the subject myself, I feel they will enhance the file. Often
however, I receive annotations that are rather vague and non-specific, and
which I do not wish to include without some further confirmation. This
confirmation can for instance consist of someone else mailing me the same
annotation, or of me delving into encyclopedias or dictionaries and
checking things myself.
And a final batch of entries are of course rejected because I thought they
were either too implausible or too "obvious". Now *please* note, that as
soon as I start getting the same annotation from two or more sources, then
I will (in nearly all cases) accept it for the APF, regardless of what I
may think about it myself.
However. As long I have received a particular annotation from one source
only, I'm going to have to make what is basically a very subjective
judgement call -- that is what I'm editor for. If an annotation strikes me
as implausible or just not very interesting, then it's out. If I think it's
valid, or if I just *like* it, then it's in. If a trivial annotation is in
the same category as many others already in the file, then it will usually
be in (I am a stickler for consistency), unless I'm bored, in which case I
simply want to get on with the fun stuff, and I leave it out. Sic Biscuitas
Desintegrat, as they say.
The important point I want to get across here is that none of these
annotations are rejected 'forever', and that everything is filed away for
future reference. They may very well be used in later versions of the APF.
So what *do* I base my judgement calls on, you may rightfully ask? The
answer is of course that I don't really consciously know, and that it
usually just depends on my mood anyway. One important rule of thumb that I
try to follow as much as possible is the following:
I do not like explaining English puns or words. As soon as another language
is involved ("with milk?") -- fine. As soon as some weird old British
saying is parodied ("good fences") -- cool. As soon as it is obvious that
many readers are simply not getting it ("echognomics") -- no problem. But
as a basic heuristic I am assuming that everybody who is able to read Terry
Pratchett's books in the original language has enough command of the
English language to understand puns; and enough sense to use a dictionary
if she encounters an unfamiliar word. I don't want to have to explain why
_Witches Abroad_ or _Equal Rites_ are funny titles.
THE APF IN OTHER FORMATS
The APF v5.0 marked the first appearance of the typeset (PostScript)
version of the APF, which turned out to be a huge success, especially after
the v6.0 version saw big improvements in formatting and layout. If you have
access to a laser printer I definitely suggest that you give it a try.
This PostScript version is the output that results from compiling a LaTeX
version of the file, which in turn is generated automatically from the
plain text by using a number of software filters I've written especially
for this purpose. A key property of these filters is that they are largely
independent of the target language, which means that it is possible for me
to generate typeset commands for a number of different formats, not just
for LaTeX.
Starting with v7a.0, for instance, I now also automatically generate an
HTML version of the APF, suitable for viewing on the World Wide Web, or for
using as a local hypertext version of the file.
In the past, the APF has also been adapted by enterprising individuals to
various other formats (AmigaGuide, Windows Help), and as my set of filters
becomes more stable and powerful, I intend to generate those formats as
well, and thus incorporate these secondary versions into the 'official'
release.
If you know of a particular format that you'd like me to support, feel free
to send me e-mail about it.
CREDITS
People who write articles to alt.fan.pratchett or who e-mail me on the
subject of annotations have by now learned to live with one thing: for the
APF I will freely quote (i.e: steal) from everybody, without explicit
permission or credit.
It's not only that I think long lists of contributors' names would be a
bother to maintain (we're literally talking about hundreds of names here),
would make the APF even larger than it already is, and would be completely
uninteresting to anybody except the contributors themselves; but doing it
my way also allows me to edit, change, and mutilate the texts as I see fit
without worrying about folks going "but that's not what I said!".
(The only exception to this rule, by the way, is the material I quote from
Terry Pratchett himself: I do not edit or change any of that, apart from
choosing a selection in the first place, fixing typos or obvious mistakes,
and adapting punctuation to conform to the rest of the APF. In other words:
What You See Is What He Said.) Another rule that applies throughout the APF
is that whenever you see the pronoun 'I' in an annotation, then it will
*always* be me, the editor, speaking (unless explicitly noted otherwise,
e.g. in Terry's and other people's quotes).
Apart from all the folks who contributed annotations, there are heaps of
people who have gone out of their way to help me get the APF into its
current form, and thanking them is certainly something that I don't mind
spending a few paragraphs on. So here is the APF Hall Of Fame:
Nathan Torkington, for the original a.f.p. Frequently Asked Questions list.
The idea for the APF can be traced back directly to his FAQ.
Sander Plomp, for the logs of early alt.fan.pratchett newsgroup traffic,
and for coming up with the idea of making a LaTeX version of the APF.
Robert Collier, for all his help with designing and creating the HTML
version of the APF.
Paulius Stepanas, for his help with the double page numbers -- the
"conversion function" *will* be a part of APF v9.0, I promise.
Trent Fisher and David Jones, for helping me out with Perl and LaTeX
programming, respectively.
Andy "&." Holyer, for his help with the Summary, for finding me a copy of
Brewer's, and for being an utter fountain of inspiration.
My faithful group of proofreaders, who have been with me since APF v6.0 and
still show no signs of getting fed up: Ingo Brandauer, Andy Holyer, Debbie
Pickett, Paulius Stepanas and Nathan Torkington.
And last, but not least, Terry Pratchett, for giving us something to
annotate in the first place; for giving me permission to use quotes from
his articles in the APF; and for having to put up with increasing numbers
of fans who, perhaps because of the APF, have begun to think he is
incapable of writing anything truly original. They should know better.
DISTRIBUTING THE APF
It's really very simple: I have by now spent *very* considerable amounts of
time trying to make this document a useful resource for fans of Terry
Pratchett's work, and I would be delighted to see the APF reach as many of
those fans as possible, period.
So feel free to distribute the APF among your friends, to mail copies to
your colleagues, or to put it up on bulletin boards, archive sites or
whatever other advanced means of communication you have available to you.
All I ask is that you (a) only distribute the APF for free, and in its
entirety (for obvious reasons, I should hope), and (b) *let me know* if you
put it up for permanent retrieval somewhere, e.g. a bulletin board or
archive site, so that I can keep you personally informed of new versions as
they get released. Don't you just hate those archive sites that store
outdated versions of files?
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