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Thu 13 Dec, 2007 09:25 pm
Death: Humans need fantasy to *be* human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
Susan: With tooth fairies? Hogfathers?
Death: Yes. As practice, you have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
Susan: So we can believe the big ones?
Death: Yes. Justice, mercy, duty. That sort of thing.
Susan: They're not the same at all.
Death: You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder, and sieve it through the finest sieve, and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet, you try to act as if there is some ideal order in the world. As if there is some, some rightness in the universe, by which it may be judged.
Susan: But people have got to believe that, or what's the point?
Death: You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?
Ah, but death speaks in ALLCAPS! I see you have found some Pratchett.
Who would want to harm Discworld's most beloved icon? Very few things are held sacred in this twisted, corrupt, heartless -- and oddly familiar -- universe, but the Hogfather is one of them. Yet here it is, Hogswatchnight, that most joyous and acquisitive of times, and the jolly old, red-suited gift-giver has vanished without a trace. And there's something shady going on involving an uncommonly psychotic member of the Assassins' Guild and certain representatives of Ankh-Morpork's rather extensive criminal element. Suddenly Discworld's entire myth system is unraveling at an alarming rate. Drastic measures must be taken, which is why Death himself is taking up the reins of the fat man's vacated sleigh . . . which, in turn, has Death's level-headed granddaughter, Susan, racing to unravel the nasty, humbuggian mess before the holiday season goes straight to hell and takes everyone along with it.
Hey! I just saw this movie by chance last night on cable in Phenix. I thought it was the best christmas movie I have ever saw.
What is it called?
I gotta see it again and get a copy for the family. I was thinking of talking about it on A2k when I got home and then BAM.....There it was. What a great, great movie.
Ok i found everything. The name the writer....everything.
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"ER...HO. HO. HO."
-- Death makes a career move (Terry Pratchett, Hogfather)
Sad news on the front pages of both the London Times and the Telegraph this week. Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with a variety of Alzheimer's.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3042608.ece
Noddy, yes, I read that. Very very sad. I was looking forward to another hundred books from that mind.
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Susan: [Susan is reading the fairy tale "Jack and the beanstalk" to children] And then Jack chopped down what was the world's last beanstalk, adding murder and ecological terrorism to the theft, enticement and trespass charges already mentioned and all the giant's children didn't have a daddy any more. But he got away with it and lived happily ever after without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done. Which proves that you can be excused just about anything if you're a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions.
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Death: Human beings make life so interesting. Do you know, that in a universe so full of wonders, they have managed to invent boredom.
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Finding a good section to quote out of context is challenging but not impossible.
Page 60: Teatime is a Professional Assasin.
Quote:
The guard was cowering behind an overturned cabinet. He cringed back as Teatime stepped over it. "hat're you doing here?" he shouted. "Who are you?"
"Ah, I'm glad you asked. I'm your worst nightmare!" said Teatime cheerfully.
The man shuddered.
"You mean...the one with the giant cabbage and the sort of whirring knife thing?"
"Sorry?" Teatime looked momentarily nonplussed.
"Then you're the one about where I'm falling, only instead of ground underneath it's al--"
"No, in fact I'm--"
The guard sagged. "Awww, not the one where there's this door only there's no floor beyond it and then there's these claws--"
"No," said Teatime. "Not that one." He withdrew a dagger from his sleeve. "i'm the one where this man comes out of nowhere and kills you stone dead."
The Guard grinned with relief. "Oh, that one, he said. "But that one's not very--"
He crumpled around Teatime's suddenly out-thurst fist. And then, just as the others had done, he faded.
"Rather a charitable act there, I feel," Teatime said as the man vanished. "But it is nearly Hogswatch, after all."
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Lord Downey: Mr. Teatime, are you telling me you have actually sat down and given thought into how to inhume Death?
Teatime: Everyone has a weakness sir.
OK, you've convinced me, I will reread this book!
Bohne--
I knew you were a reasonable woman.
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Lord Downey: Mr. Teatime, are you telling me you have actually sat down and given thought into how to inhume Death?
Teatime: Everyone has a weakness sir.
This is very similar to the suggestion put forward by 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?" When he died he woke up in a circle of gods holding nasty-looking sticks and one of them said, "We're going to show you what we think of Mr Clever Dick in these parts..."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Hogfather)
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