The Annotated Pratchett File, v9.0

Collected and edited by: Leo Breebaart <apf@lspace.org> Assistant Editor: Mike Kew <apf@lspace.org> Organisation: Unseen University

Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett,alt.books.pratchett Archive name: apf–9.0.3

Last modified: 1 July 2005

Version number: 9.0.3 (The Pointless Albatross Release) The Annotated Pratchett File

2

CONTENTS

1 Preface to v9.0

5

The Last Hero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

135

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents .

137

2 Introduction

7

Night Watch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

138

3 Discworld Annotations

9

The Wee Free Men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

140

The Colour of Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9

Monstrous Regiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

143

The Light Fantastic

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

14

A Hat Full of Sky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

147

Equal Rites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17

Once More, With Footnotes . . . . . . . . . . . .

148

Mort

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19

Going Postal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

148

Sourcery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

22

Wintersmith

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

148

Wyrd Sisters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

26

Thud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

149

Pyramids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31

Where’s My Cow? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

149

Guards! Guards! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

37

When I Am Old I Shall Wear Midnight . . . . . . .

149

Eric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40

The Discworld Companion . . . . . . . . . . . . .

149

Moving Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

43

The Science of Discworld

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

150

Reaper Man

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

47

The Science of Discworld II: the Globe . . . . . .

151

Witches Abroad

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

53

The Science of Discworld III: Darwin’s Watch

. .

151

Small Gods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

58

The Streets of Ankh-Morpork . . . . . . . . . . .

151

Lords and Ladies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

65

The Discworld Mapp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

151

Men at Arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

72

A Tourist Guide to Lancre . . . . . . . . . . . . .

151

Soul Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

80

Death’s Domain

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

152

Interesting Times

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

90

4 Other Annotations

153

Maskerade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

93

Good Omens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

153

Feet of Clay

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

96

Strata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

160

Hogfather

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

103

The Dark Side of the Sun

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

161

Jingo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

110

Truckers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

161

The Last Continent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

117

Diggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

162

Carpe Jugulum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

123

Wings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

163

The Fifth Elephant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

129

Only You Can Save Mankind . . . . . . . . . . . .

163

The Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

131

Johnny and the Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

164

Thief of Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

133

3

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Johnny and the Bomb

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

167

The Carpet People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

168

The Unadulterated Cat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

168

5 Thoughts and Themes

169

The Turtle Moves! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

169

Song. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

170

. . . and Dance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

171

Reverse Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

172

Words from the Master

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

172

6 Editorial Comments

183

The Origin of the APF

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

183

Version history and Timeline

. . . . . . . . . . .

183

Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

184

Page Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

184

To Annotate or Not to Annotate . . . . . . . . . .

185

The APF in Other Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . .

186

Third-party Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

186

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

186

Copying the APF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

186

Copyright Discussion

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

187

4

CHAPTER

1

Preface to v9.0

This is the first ‘real’ release of the Annotated Pratchett File since the v7a.0 release of 16 June 1996.

Back then, I apologised for the eighteen months that had passed between v7.0 and v7a.0, and I promised I would do better next time. Um, yes.

Apologising again, but now for the eight years that have passed between v7a.0 and this v9.0, seems a bit pointless.

Let me instead just thank all you APF readers for your patience, your submissions, your corrections, and your offers to help. In all those eight years the flow of supportive words and emails and Usenet messages never once dried up, and I doubt if I could ever express adequately enough how motivating and helpful that has been.

Having learned my lesson, I will make no promises or predictions this time with respect to future releases of the APF, but my honest intention is for v9.0 to signal the start of a period of steady APF development on all fronts: annotation content, World Wide Web version, typeset version —everything. In a sense I still consider v9.0 an ‘intermediate’

version, and I have Plans for major improvements all over.

We will just have to see how (and when!) it all plays out; for now I hope that v9.0 will be a welcome milestone, of sufficient quality to make sure everybody is once again willing to come along on the next leg of the trip.

Leo Breebaart

Delft, August 2004

5

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6

PREFACE TO V9.0

CHAPTER

2

Introduction

You are now reading the 9th edition of the Annotated chapter.)

Pratchett File, or APF for short. For information about what Each annotation is prefixed by either a ‘+’, denoting an is new or changed in v9.0 with respect to previous editions annotation that is new or has been significantly updated in I refer you to the new Version History and Timeline section this version of the APF, or a ‘–’, denoting an unchanged in the Editorial Comments chapter.

older annotation. This used to be quite handy when new Ever since its creation in 1992, one of the most popular APF versions appeared more frequently, but has since pastimes on the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett has become a lot less meaningful. We are sticking to the been discussing the many jokes, parodies, allusions and practice for now, on account of tradition.

references with which Terry Pratchett seasons his work.

The APF incorporates, in this edition once again more than Since, as Terry once put it, “alt.fan.pratchett as an entity ever before, many passages from articles that Terry himself has the attention span of a butterfly on cocaine”, it quickly has posted to alt.fan.pratchett. As a long time active became clear that it would be a good idea to distil some of contributor to the group, he often provides inside these discussions into something with a little more information on many aspects of his writing, and it would be persistence and staying power than individual Usenet a waste to let this first-hand knowledge just disappear into articles (remember that this all took place long before Usenet history. Much of this material has been something like Google Groups — or indeed even the World incorporated into the annotations themselves, but quite a Wide Web itself — existed!). And so the Annotated bit of interesting information that did not fit anywhere else Pratchett File was born, and (because I was brave or foolish has been collected in the Thoughts and Themes chapter.

enough to volunteer) I became its editor.

The APF ends with the already mentioned Editorial Over the years the APF has grown in popularity and size. It Comments chapter, where various nuts & bolts of the now contains nearly two thousand annotations, and is editing process are discussed. It also lists information to available in a number of different formats. Yet it is still (and help you obtain the most recent version of the APF in if I can help it will always be) called a ‘file’, reflecting its whatever format you prefer.

origin as a short text file that I regularly posted to alt.fan.pratchett.

One particular piece of technical information is so important I am placing it here as well as at the end, and The structure of the APF is straightforward, with the that is the address to write to if you have any suggestions, annotations divided into two large chapters: the Discworld questions, corrections, or new annotations. Without the Annotations, and all the Other Annotations. Within each enthusiastic reactions and input from its readers, the APF

group, the books are listed in the order in which they were would never have survived so far. Please mail all your published (with the exception that in the Discworld chapter feedback to me at:

the proper novels come before the secondary material such as the maps and the Science of Discworld books). Within apf@lspace.org

each book, the annotations are sorted in ascending order by and maybe you will see your contribution become a part of page number, with that number referring to the edition I the next edition. I will now leave you to the annotations, actually own myself, which will typically be the original UK

and end this introduction with a thought that is a bit of a hardcover edition. (Some of the earlier books also list cliché but nonetheless true: I hope you will enjoy reading paperback page numbers — for more information please the APF as much as I have enjoyed putting it together.

read the Page Numbers section in the Editorial Comments 7

The Annotated Pratchett File

8

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER

3

Discworld Annotations

bird (frogmouths and small brown owls, respectively) that The Colour of Magic

go by the name of ‘Morepork’.

Since I first wrote down the above annotation, there have been new developments, however. In The Streets of

– [ p. 7/7 ] “[. . . ] He stares fixedly at the Destination.”

Ankh-Morpork and The Discworld Companion we are This line is interesting not only because it foreshadows The shown an illustration of the Ankh-Morpork coat of arms, Light Fantastic (as in fact the entire prologue does), but which does feature a Morepork/owl holding an ankh. But also because it is about the only time the narrator really from Terry’s remarks (see next annotation) I feel it’s safe to commits himself to A’Tuin’s gender without hedging his say that neither bird nor cross were explicitly on his mind bets (as e.g. on the first page of The Light Fantastic). Note when he first came up with the name Ankh-Morpork.

the capital ‘H’, which Death also rates in this book and Finally, many readers have mentioned the resonance that loses in the later ones.

Ankh-Morpork has with our world’s Budapest: also a large city made up of two smaller cities (Buda and Pest)

– [ p. 8/8 ] “For example, what was A’Tuin’s actual sex?”

separated by a river.

I have had email from a herpetologist who has studied under one of the world’s experts on turtles, and he assures

– [ p. 9/9 ] “[. . . ] two figures were watching with me that in real life determining the sex of turtles is no easy considerable interest.”

task. Unlike mammals, reptiles don’t have their naughty The two barbarians, Bravd and Weasel, are parodies of Fritz bits hanging out where they can be easily seen, and the Leiber’s fantasy heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. The only way to really tell a turtle’s gender is by comparison: Swords series of books in which they star are absolute male turtles are often smaller than females and have classics, and have probably had about as much influence on thicker tails. Since there are no other Chelys Galactica to the genre as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

compare A’Tuin to, the attempts of the Discworld’s Astrozoologists are probably futile to begin with.

The Swords stories date back as far as 1939, but more than sixty years later they have lost none of their appeal. Both

– [ p. 8/8 ] “[. . . ] the theory that A’Tuin had come from The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are, in large nowhere and would continue at a uniform crawl, or steady part, affectionate parodies of the Leiberian universe, gait, [. . . ]”

although I hasten to add that, in sharp contrast to many later writers in the field, Leiber himself already had a great Puns on the ‘steady state’ theory of explaining the size, sense of humour. Fafhrd and the Mouser are not to be origin and future of the universe. The best-known other taken altogether serious in his original version, either.

theory is, of course, the Big Bang theory, referred to in the preceding sentence.

Given all this, I can perhaps be forgiven for thinking that Terry intended Ankh-Morpork to be a direct parody of the

– [ p. 9/9 ] “Fire roared through the bifurcated city of great city of Lankhmar in which many of the Swords Ankh-Morpork.”

adventures take place. However, Terry explicitly denied this Terry has said that the name ‘Ankh-Morpork’ was inspired when I suggested it on alt.fan.pratchett:

neither by the ankh (the Egyptian cross with the closed loop

“Bravd and the Weasel were indeed takeoffs of Leiber on top), nor by the Australian or New Zealand species of characters — there was a lot of that sort of thing in The 9

The Annotated Pratchett File

Colour of Magic. But I didn’t — at least consciously, I which the Discworld might ‘work’. See also the The Turtle suppose I must say — create Ankh-Morpork as a takeoff of Moves! section in Chapter 5 for more information about the Lankhmar.”

physical aspects of the Discworld.

– [ p. 11/11 ] “[. . . ] two lesser directions, which are

– [ p. 16/16 ] “[. . . ] found himself looking up into a face Turnwise and Widdershins.”

with four eyes in it.”

‘Widdershins’ is in fact an existing word meaning On the covers of the first two Discworld books, Josh Kirby

‘counter-sunwise’, i.e. counter-clockwise in the Northern actually drew Twoflower with four physical eyes. Consensus hemisphere, clockwise down South. A synonym for on alt.fan.pratchett has it that Terry was trying to get

‘turnwise’ is deosil, which helps explain Ankh-Morpork’s across the fact that Twoflower was wearing glasses Deosil Gate as found on the The Streets of Ankh-Morpork (‘four-eyes’ being a common insult thrown at bespectacled Mappe.

folks), but that Josh Kirby simply triggered on the literal text and went off in a direction of his own. Whether this Widdershins is also the name of the planet where Dom, the action essentially shows Kirby’s interpretative genius (the hero from The Dark Side of the Sun lives.

KirbyFan explanation) or his inability to get the joke / read

– [ p. 12/12 ] “ ‘Why, it’s Rincewind the wizard, isn’t it?’

very carefully (the NonKirbyFan explanation) is a matter

[. . . ]”

still under discussion.

The story behind Rincewind’s name goes back to 1924,

– [ p. 18/17 ] The inn called ‘The Broken Drum’ gets burned when J. B. Morton took over authorship of the column ‘By down in this book. The later Discworld novels all feature an The Way’ in the Daily Express, a London newspaper.

inn called ‘The Mended Drum’. The novel Strata contains He inherited the pseudonym ‘Beachcomber’ from his (on p. 35/42) an explanation of why you would call a pub predecessors on the job (the column had existed since

‘The Broken Drum’ in the first place: “You can’t beat it”.

1917), but he was to make that name forever his own by This is probably as good a place as any to mention some virtue of his astonishing output and success: Morton wrote intriguing information that I received from one of my the column for over 50 years, six times a week, until 1965

correspondents: if you have ever wondered what it would when the column became a weekly feature, and continued be like to experience the atmosphere of an establishment to the last column in November 1975.

like the Mended Drum, then the closest you can possibly Beachcomber/Morton used an eccentric cast of regular come in our world is by paying a visit to Alexandria, where characters in his sketches, which frequently caricatured there exists a bar called the ‘Spitfire’, populated mostly by self-important and highbrow public figures. One continual soldiers and sailors, and apparently a dead ringer for the theme was the silliness of the law courts, featuring amongst Mended Drum. The story goes that when the owner of the others Mr Justice Cocklecarrot and the twelve Red-Bearded bar passed away a few years ago, his body was kept in a Dwarves. In one sketch, the names of those dwarfs were freezer next to the toilets where, for all we know, it may still given as Sophus Barkayo-Tong, Amaninter Axling, Farjole be today. If any of you ever happen to be in Alexandria, be Merrybody, Guttergorm Guttergormpton, Badly Oronparser, sure to visit the ‘Spitfire’ and check it out for us.

Cleveland Zackhouse, Molonay Tubilderborst, Edeledel Edel, Scorpion de Rooftrouser, Listenis Youghaupt, Frums

– [ p. 22/20 ] “Some might have taken him for a mere Gillygottle, and, wait for it: Churm Rincewind. Terry says: apprentice enchanter [. . . ]”

“I read of lot of Beachcomber in second-hand collections One of the few clues to Rincewind’s age being younger when I was around 13. Dave Langford pointed out the rather than older, despite the tendency of every cover artist origin of Rincewind a few years ago, and I went back to depict him as at least sixtyish. No one ever draws him as through all the books and found the name and thought, oh, looking like a weasel, either.

blast, that’s where it came from. And then I thought, what the hell, anyway.”

– [ p. 22/20 ] “[. . . ] an alumnus of Unseen University, [. . . ]”

The name of the Discworld’s premier scientific institution

– [ p. 12/12 ] “Since the Hub is never closely warmed by the resonates with that of the Invisible College, formed by the weak sun the lands there are locked in permafrost. The secret organisation of the Rosicrucians, whose members Rim, on the other hand, is a region of sunny islands and were called the Invisibles because they never dared to balmy days.”

reveal themselves in public. The Invisible College was a A presumably knowledgeable correspondent tells me that conclave of scientists, philosophers and other progressive actually, if you do the calculations, it turns out that it would thinkers which, in later times and under Stuart patronage, be the other way around (on average, the sun is closer to became the Royal Society.

the hub than the rim, so the hub would be warmer).

In the Brief Lives arc of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic, Do not feel obliged to take his word for it, though.

Dream visits the Invisible College, where a scientist is

‘Discworld Mechanics’ is one of alt.fan.pratchett’s happily dissecting a dead orangutan. I don’t think that favourite Perennial Discussion Topics, and I don’t think that scene was entirely coincidental. . .

any two given participants in such a thread have ever managed to agree on anything definite about the way in

– [ p. 24/22 ] Terry has this to say about the name

‘Twoflower’: “[. . . ] there’s no joke in Twoflower. I just 10

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

wanted a coherent way of making up ‘foreign’ names and I cryptification of ‘economics’, even though it is explicitly think I pinched the Mayan construction (Nine Turning explained by Terry a bit later, on p. 71/63: ‘echo-gnomics’.

Mirrors, Three Rabbits, etc.).”

Some of the confusion perhaps arises from the fact that we don’t usually associate gnomes with spirits, as in: ghosts.

– [ p. 26/24 ] “ ‘If you mean: is this coin the same as, say, a But I think Terry here simply means spirits (as in: souls) fifty-dollar piece, then the answer is no.’ ”

living underground, with the emphasis on the word An American reader was puzzled by the fact that in

‘underground’.

Ankh-Morpork the unit of currency is the dollar, instead of,

– [ p. 49/43 ] “Let him but get to Chimera or Gonim or for instance, something more British, like the pound. Terry Ecalpon and half a dozen armies couldn’t bring him back.”

explained:

The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster from Greek

“The dollar is quite an elderly unit of currency, from the mythology (see the annotation for p. 171/154 of Sourcery).

German ‘thaler’, I believe, and the use of the term for the The name is also a pun on Cimmeria, Conan the Barbarian’s unit of currency isn’t restricted to the US. I just needed a mythical homeland, while ‘Chimerical’ has the general nice easy monetary unit and didn’t want to opt for the ‘gold connotation of something mythical or imaginary as well.

pieces’ cliché. 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 Ecalpon is ‘Noplace’ spelled backwards. This is similar to on the back of a turtle :–) . . . ”

Erewhon, which is ‘Nowhere’ spelled backwards (well, almost), the idealistic commonwealth described in Samuel

– [ p. 28/25 ] “ ‘Barely two thousand rhinu.’ ”

Butler’s eponymous novel. Also, ‘Nehwon’ is the universe A very old British slang word for ready money is ‘rhino’, where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser have most of their which Brewer thinks may be related to the phrase ‘to pay adventures.

through the nose’, since ‘rhinos’ means ‘nose’ in Greek.

Go-Nim, finally, is the name of a Japanese board game similar to four-in-a-row.

+ [ p. 30/27 ] “The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork smiled, but with his mouth only.”

– [ p. 62/55 ] “[. . . ] I WAS EXPECTING TO MEET THEE IN

An interesting consideration is just when Lord Vetinari PSEPHOPOLOLIS.”

became Patrician. Clearly this isn’t him (Vetinari eating Death and Rincewind are replaying their own version of the crystallised jellyfish? — I don’t think so. Besides, well-known folktale Appointment in Samarra. Terry says: Interesting Times makes it quite clear that Vetinari does

“My mother told me the ‘Appointment in Samarra’ story not know who Rincewind is).

when I was very young, and it remained. She says she read However, Terry has always denied this interpretation: it somewhere, or maybe heard it. . .

“I’m pretty certain that the same Patrician was in all the I’d always thought it was from the 1001 Nights, although I books. [. . . ] He’s clearly lost weight and got more austere.

never went looking for it. It’s one of those stories that a lot It must be the pressure. As for racehorses and so on —of people vaguely know, without quite knowing why. . . ”

Vetinari is not the first Patrician, and no doubt the earlier For those who aren’t familiar with the story, it concerns a ones, like Lord Snapcase, were often crazed, greedy and servant to a rich Baghdad merchant who goes to the market acquisitive. So he has inherited all sorts of things. But he and encounters Death there, who gestures at him.

doesn’t change anything without a reason.”

Convinced that this is a very bad omen indeed, the servant When the people on afp were not immediately prepared to rushes back to his master in a great panic and begs him for take his word for this (after all, what does he know — he’s a horse, so that he can ride to Samarra and escape only the author. . . ), Terry conceded:

whatever calamity will befall him should he stay in

“How about: maybe he was Vetinari, but written by a more Baghdad. The kind master gives the servant a horse, and stupid writer?”

goes out to investigate for himself. When the merchant finds Death and asks him why he frightened the servant so, Which was grudgingly accepted. Still, discussion about the Death replies: “I wasn’t trying to scare him, it is just that I differences between the “early” and the “recent” Patrician was so very surprised to meet him here, because I have an continues to flare up regularly. When some people on appointment with him tonight in Samarra!”

alt.fan.pratchett questioned whether Vetinari would really be the type of man to throw the kind of party described in Over the centuries, countless versions and re-tellings of this Mort, Terry answered:

story have appeared in books, plays and poems in all languages and cultures. One of my correspondents was so

“I’ve always thought the Patrician is a party animal. Can intrigued by the tale that with the help of alt.fan.pratchett you imagine waking up next day and remembering all those he set out to find the original, or at least the earliest known witty things you said and did, and then realising that he version. After much research, he now believes this to be was listening?”

When Death Came to Baghdad, an old ninth century Middle Eastern Sufi teaching story, told by Fudail ibn Ayad in his

– [ p. 44/39 ] “ ‘Reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits? ’ ”

Hikayat-i-Naqshia (‘Tales formed according to a design’).

Surprising as it may seem (or at least as it was to me), there If anyone has a reference to an even earlier version, we are quite a few people who do not understand this would love to hear about it.

THE COLOUR OF MAGIC

11

The Annotated Pratchett File

– [ p. 73/65 ] “ ‘Here’s another fine mess you’ve got me strangely distorted (one of the hallmarks of Lovecraft’s into,’ he moaned and slumped backwards.”

Cthulhu mythos). It is possible, however, to tile a plane with non-convex octagons (and Terry nowhere says or implies he This is a well-known Laurel and Hardy catchphrase. Hardy meant convex tiles). Proof is left as an exercise to the (the fat one) always says it to Laurel (the thin one), who reader (I hate ASCII pictures).

then usually responded by ruffling the top of his hair with one hand and whimpering in characteristic fashion.

– [ p. 101/89 ] “[. . . ] the disposal of grimoires [. . . ]”

People have been quick to point out to me that Hardy never I don’t think too many people will have missed that this actually said “fine mess”, though, but always “nice mess”.

section echoes the two main methods of nuclear waste disposal: sealing drums in deep salt mines, and dropping

– [ p. 75/67 ] This is the first occurrence of the name the drums into trenches at subduction zones. Of these two

‘Dunmanifestin’ for the home of the Gods at the top of Cori methods, the trench dumping has only been theorised about Celesti. It is used again in several places throughout the and not actually employed.

other Discworld novels.

This is not only a reference to the many British placenames

– [ p. 114/101 ] “ ‘I spent a couple of hundred years on the that begin with ‘Dun’ (a Gaelic word meaning castle or fort bottom of a lake once.’ ”

and hence town) but also a reference to the supposedly Reference to the sword Excalibur from the King Arthur traditional name for a twee retirement bungalow in the legend. There’s another reference to that legend on suburbs. When people (especially the bourgeois middle p. 128/113: “ ‘This could have been an anvil’ ”.

classes) retire to the suburbs they always, according to the stereotype, give the house some ‘cute’ punning name. Since Some people were also reminded of the black sword the Dun/Done association is well-known, one of the more Stormbringer, from Michael Moorcock’s Elric saga.

common names (though it is a matter of discussion if anyone has ever actually seen a house with this name) is

– [ p. 114/101 ] “ ‘What I’d really like to be is a ploughshare.

‘Dunroamin’ — that is “done roaming” — i.e. the owners of I don’t know what that is, but it sounds like an existence the house have finished “travelling the world” and are now with some point to it.’ ”

settled down to a life of the Daily Mail, golf and coffee Swords and ploughshares have always been connected mornings. From this, we get that a retirement home for through a proverb originating in a famous phrase from the gods not possessing much taste, might just be named Bible, in Isaiah 2:4: “[. . . ] and they shall beat their swords

‘Dunmanifestin’.

into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks: nation A correspondent tells me that ‘Dun’ is also an Old English shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they word for hill.

learn war any more”.

– [ p. 76/68 ] “[. . . ] Zephyrus the god of slight breezes.”

– [ p. 117/103 ] “I’LL GET YOU YET, CULLY, said Death [. . . ]”

Zephyrus was in fact the Greek god of the soft west winds.

Death is addressing Rincewind here, so the use of what The interactions of the gods in ‘The Sending of Eight’

looks like a different name is confusing. Terry explains: strongly bring to mind the Godshome scenes in Leiber’s

“Cully still just about hangs on in parts of the UK as a Swords series.

mildly negative term meaning variously ‘yer bastard’,

‘man’, ‘you there’ and so on. It’s quite old, but then, Death

– [ p. 78/70 ] The Sending of Eight

is a history kind of guy.”

Just as the first chapter of The Colour of Magic has many The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, by Ebenezer Cobham resonances with Fritz Leiber’s Swords series, so can this Brewer (a 19th century reference book; see also the Words chapter be regarded as a light parody of the works of horror From The Master section in chapter 5) explains ‘cully’ as author H. P. Lovecraft, who wrote many stories in a universe being a contracted form of ‘cullion’, “a despicable creature”

where unspeakable Evil lives, and where Ancient Gods (from the Italian: coglione). An Italian correspondent (with unpronounceable names) play games with the lives of subsequently informed me that “coglione” is actually a mortals. Lovecraft also wrote a story called The Colour out popular term for testicle, which is often used to signify a of Space, about an indescribable, unnatural colour.

stupid and gullible person. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, ‘cully’ may also have been a gypsy word.

– [ p. 92/82 ] “[. . . ] the circle began to spin widdershins.”

– [ p. 118/104 ] The entire Lure of the Wyrm section This entire section is a direct analogy to the workings of a parodies the Pern novels (an sf/fantasy series) by Anne normal electrical generator, with the Elemental Magical McCaffrey. The heroine of the first Pern novel Dragonflight Force being the electromotive force we all know and love is called Lessa, and the exclamation mark in Terry’s from high school physics lessons.

dragonriders’ names parallels the similar use of apostrophes in McCaffrey’s names.

– [ p. 98/87 ] “The floor was a continuous mosaic of eight-sided tiles, [. . . ]”

– [ p. 124/109 ] “The dragons sense Liessa’s presence.”

It is physically impossible for convex octagons (the ones we This section in italics (continued later with Ninereeds) is usually think of when we hear the word ‘octagon’) to tile a another Pern reference (see the annotation for p. 118/104), plane. Unless, of course, space itself would somehow be 12

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in this case to the way McCaffrey depicts the mental singular form: ‘Zweiblume’).

communications from the dragons.

‘Rjinswand’, however, is merely something that was intended to sound foreign — it is not a word in any

– [ p. 125/110 ] “Oh, you know how it is with wizards. Half language known to the readers of alt.fan.pratchett.

an hour afterwards you could do with another one, the dragon grumbles.”

– [ p. 172/149 ] “[. . . ] a specialist in the breakaway The ‘half an hour afterwards’ quip is more conventionally oxidation phenomena of certain nuclear reactors.”

made about Chinese food.

“Breakaway oxidation phenomena” is a reasonably well-known example of doubletalk. Basically, what Terry’s

– [ p. 130/114 ] “[. . . ] it appeared to be singing to itself.”

saying here is that Dr Rjinswand is an expert on Although singing swords are common as dirt in myths and uncontrolled fires in nuclear reactors. And we all know folklore, we do know that Terry is familiar with many old what Terry’s job was before he became a Famous Author. . .

computer games, so the description of Kring may be a passing reference to the prototypical computer adventure

– [ p. 176/153 ] “ ‘I am Goldeneyes Silverhand Dactylos,’

game ADVENT (later versions of which were also known as said the craftsman.”

Adventure or Colossal Cave). In this game, a room exists

‘Dactylos’ means ‘fingers’ in dog-Greek. See also the where a sword is stuck in an anvil. The next line of the annotation for p. 159/115 of Small Gods.

room’s description goes: “The sword is singing to itself”.

The fate of Dactylos has been suffered by craftsmen in our

– [ p. 141/123 ] “[. . . ] he had been captivated by the world as well. In 1555 Ivan the Terrible ordered the pictures of the fiery beasts in The Octarine Fairy Book.”

construction of St Basil’s Church in Moscow. He was so pleased with this piece of work by the two architects, A reference to our world’s Blue, Brown, Crimson, Green, Postnik and Barma, that he had them blinded so they would etc., Fairy Books, edited by Andrew Lang.

never be able to design anything more beautiful.

+ [ p. 156 ] “ ‘It is forbidden to fight on the Killing Ground,’

– [ p. 179/155 ] “[. . . ] the incredibly dry desert known as he said, and paused while he considered the sense of this.”

the Great Nef.”

This echoes a famous line from Stanley Kubrick’s 1964

‘Neff’ is the name of an oven manufacturer, and ‘nef’ is of movie Dr Strangelove, which has President Merkin Muffley course ‘fen’ (i.e. something incredibly wet) spelled (Peter Sellers) saying: “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here!

backwards.

This is the War Room.”

– [ p. 184/160 ] “The captain had long ago decided that he

– [ p. 168/145 ] “At that moment Lianna’s dragon flashed by, would, on the whole, prefer to achieve immortality by not and Hrun landed heavily across its neck. Lianna leaned dying.”

over and kissed him.”

Probably the best known version of this line is from Woody A strange error, since in the rest of the story the girl’s name Allen, who said: “I don’t want to achieve immortality is Liessa. Terry says the typo (which occurs in both the through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying”.

original Colin Smythe hardcover and the 1st edition of the Corgi paperback, but can also be found as late as the 5th

+ [ p. 184/160 ] “ ‘His name is Tethis. He says he’s a sea edition of the US Signet paperback) must have been troll.’ ”

introduced sometime during the publishing process: they are not in his original manuscript.

In Greek mythology Tethys or Thetis was the personification of the feminine fecundity of the sea. She was the daughter Even so, the switch is kind of appropriate because Anne of Uranus and Gaia, and the youngest female Titan (or McCaffrey has a tendency herself to suddenly change a Titanide). Eventually she married her brother Oceanus, and character’s name or other attributes (T’ron becoming T’ton, together they had more than 3000 children, namely all the etc.). At least one of my correspondents thought Terry was rivers of the world.

changing Liessa’s name on purpose as an explicit parody.

Undoubtedly because of these origins, ‘Tethys’ is a name

– [ p. 169/146 ] After Rincewind and Twoflower escape from that has been given to, amongst others, a tropical sea that the Wyrmberg they are flying a dragon one moment and a existed during the Triassic era in what is now Southern modern jetliner the next.

Europe, and to a moon of Saturn, one primarily composed of water ice.

Clearly they have been, get this, translated to another plane (the last few paragraphs of this section seem to support the Note that this is one instance where it appears Terry theory that Terry actually intended this rather implicit pun).

violates his own unwritten rule that trolls should have Note also the “powerful travelling rune TWA” appearing on

‘mineral’ names. Perhaps this is simply because we are the Luggage: Trans World Airlines.

looking at this early book in the series with hindsight: the only rock troll to appear up to this point lasted about three

– [ p. 171/148 ] ‘Zweiblumen’ is the (almost) literal German paragraphs and didn’t have a chance to introduce himself.

translation of ‘Twoflower’ (it actually translates to But even if the unwritten rule was already established in

‘Twoflowers’, so a ‘better’ translation would have been the Terry’s mind at this point, it seems reasonable that it need THE COLOUR OF MAGIC

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not apply to Tethis, who is, after all, neither a rock troll nor originally a Discworld creature.

The Light Fantastic

– [ p. 189/164 ] “ ‘Ghlen Livid,’ he said.”

– [title ] The Light Fantastic

Glenlivet is a well-known Single Malt Scotch whisky. It’s a wee bit more expensive than Johnny Walker.

The book’s title comes from the poem L’Allegro, written by John Milton in 1631:

– [ p. 193/168 ] “He told them of the world of Bathys, [. . . ]”

Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee

‘Bathys’ is Greek for ‘deep’, as in for example bathyscaphe Jest and youthful Jollity

deep-sea diving equipment.

Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles

Nods, and Becks, and wreathed Smiles

– [ p. 194/168 ] “[. . . ] the biggest dragon you could ever Such as hang on Hebe’s neck

imagine, covered in snow and glaciers and holding its tail in And love to live in dimple sleek

its mouth.”

Sport that wrinkled Care derides

Tethis is describing a planet designed according to a And Laughter holding both his sides

world-view that is about as ancient and as widespread as Come and trip it as ye go

the idea of a Discworld itself.

On the Light Fantastic toe.

The snow and glaciers seem to point specifically to the

– [ p. 6/6 ] “[. . . ] proves, whatever people say, that there is Norse mythology however, where the Midgard serpent such a thing as a free launch.”

Jormungand circles the world in the manner described.

The reference is to the saying “there ain’t no such thing as

– [ p. 198/172 ] “ ‘Well, the disc itself would have been a free lunch” (also known by its acronym ‘TANSTAAFL’, created by Fresnel’s Wonderful Concentrator,’ said made popular by science fiction author Robert Heinlein in Rincewind, authoritatively.”

his classic novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, although the phrase was originally coined by American economist It is stereotypical that in fantasy fiction (e.g. Jack Vance’s John Kenneth Galbraith).

Dying Earth stories) and role-playing games (e.g. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) spells are often named after their

– [ p. 8/8 ] “[. . . ] the sort of book described in library

‘creator’, e.g. ‘Bigby’s Crushing Hand’. And indeed, in our catalogues as ‘slightly foxed’, [. . . ]”

universe Augustin Fresnel was the 19th century inventor of

“Slightly foxed” is a term used primarily by antiquarian the Fresnel lens, often used in lighthouses to concentrate booksellers to denote that there is staining (usually due to the light beam. A Fresnel lens consists of concentric ring Ferric OXide, hence ‘FOXed’) on the pages of a book. This segments; its main advantage is that it is not as thick as a does not usually reduce the value of the book, but (large) normal lens would be. The disc Rincewind is booksellers tend to be scrupulous about such matters.

referring to is a transparent lens twenty feet across.

– [ p. 8/8 ] Many people have commented on the last name

– [ p. 221/191 ] “Whoever would be wearing those suits, of the 304th Chancellor of Unseen University: Weatherwax, Rincewind decided, was expecting to boldly go where no and asked if there is a connection with Granny Weatherwax.

man [. . . ] had boldly gone before [. . . ]”

In Lords and Ladies, Terry supplies the following piece of From the famous opening voice-over to the Star Trek dialogue (on p. 224/161) between Granny and

television series:

Archchancellor Ridcully as an answer:

“Space. . . the final frontier. These are the voyages of the

“ ‘There was even a Weatherwax as Archchancellor, years Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore ago,’ said Ridcully. ‘So I understand. Distant cousin. Never strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new knew him,’ said Granny.”

civilisations — to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

This became “where no-one has gone before” only in the

– [ p. 8/8 ] “[. . . ] even with the Wee Willie Winkie newer, more politically correct Star Trek incarnations.

candlestick in his hand.”

This is one of those candlesticks with a flat, saucer-like

– [ p. 222/192 ] “ ‘? Tyø yur åtl hø sooten gåtrunen?’ ”

base, a short candleholder in the middle and a loop to grip People have been wondering if this was perhaps a real it by at one side. ‘Wee Willie Winkie’ is a Mother Goose sentence in some Scandinavian language (the letters used nursery rhyme, and traditional illustrations always show are from the Danish/Norwegian alphabet), but it isn’t.

Willie going upstairs carrying a candle.

Terry remarks: “The point is that Krullian isn’t Swedish —

Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,

it’s just a language that looks foreign. In the same way, I Upstairs and downstairs, in his nightgown.

hope the hell that when Witches Abroad is translated the Rapping at the windows, Crying through the lock, translators use some common sense when dealing with

‘Are the children all in bed? For it’s now eight Nanny Ogg’s fractured Esperanto.”

o’clock.’

– [ p. 9/9 ] “[. . . ] the Book of Going Forth Around Elevenish, 14

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[. . . ]”

dead earnest.

The title the ancient Egyptians used for what we now call

– [ p. 30/30 ] “[. . . ] the only forest in the whole universe to the Book of the Dead was The Book of Going Forth By Day.

be called — in the local language — Your Finger You Fool, Note that in the UK until a few years ago the pubs opened

[. . . ]”

at 11 a.m.

The miscommunication between natives and foreign If you try really hard (one of my correspondents did) you explorers Terry describes here occurs in our world as well.

can see this as a very elaborate joke via the chain: Around Or rather: it is rumoured, with stubborn regularity, to have Elevenish → Late in the morning → Late → Dead → Book occurred all over the globe. Really hard evidence, one way of the Dead. But I doubt if even Terry is that twisted.

or the other, turns out to be surprisingly hard to come by.

As Cecil Adams puts it in More of the Straight Dope:

– [ p. 10/10 ] Dandelion Clock

“Having now had the “I don’t know” yarn turn up in three Amongst English (and Australian) children there exists the different parts of the globe, I can draw one of two folk-belief that the seed-heads of dandelions can be used to conclusions: either explorers are incredible saps, or tell the time. The method goes as follows: pick the somebody’s been pulling our leg.”

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

– [ p. 34/34 ] “Twoflower touched a wall gingerly.”

= three o’clock. As a result, the dandelion stalks with their Speaking of Tom Swifties. . .

globes of seeds are regularly referred to as a “dandelion clocks” in colloquial English.

– [ p. 34/34 ] “ ‘Good grief! A real gingerbread cottage!’ ”

– [ p. 10/10 ] “ ‘To the upper cellars!’ he cried, and bounded The cottage and the events alluded to a bit later (“ ‘Kids of up the stone stairs.”

today,’ commented Rincewind. ‘I blame the parents,’ said Twoflower.”) are straight out of the Hansel and Gretel fairy The magic eating its way through the ceilings with the tale by the brothers Grimm.

wizards chasing it floor after floor vaguely resonates with the ‘alien blood’ scene in the movie Alien, where the acidic If you have access to the Internet, you can find an online blood of the Alien burns through successive floors of the version of the original fairy tale at the URL: ship, with people running down after it.

ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/literary/obi/Fairy.Tales/Grimm/

hansel.and.gretel.txt.Z

– [ p. 24/24 ] “[. . . ] when a wizard is tired of looking for broken glass in his dinner, [. . . ], he is tired of life.”

– [ p. 35/35 ] “ ‘Candyfloss.’ ”

See the annotation for p. 193/158 of Mort.

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

– [ p. 26/26 ] “I WAS AT A PARTY, he added, a shade and shows.

reproachfully.”

When someone on the net wondered if this scene had been

– [ p. 35/35 ] “He read that its height plus its length divided influenced by Monty Python (who also do a Death-at-a-party by half its width equalled exactly 1.67563. . . ”

sketch), Terry replied:

A parody of the typical numerical pseudo-science tossed

“No. I’m fairly honest about this stuff. I didn’t even see the about regarding the Great Pyramid and the ‘cosmic truths’

film until long after the book was done. Once again, I’d say (such as the distance from the Earth to the Sun) that the it’s an easy parallel — what with the Masque of the Red Egyptians supposedly incorporated into its measurements.

Death and stuff like that, the joke is just lying there waiting The remark about sharpening razor blades at the end of the for anyone to pick it up.”

paragraph is similarly a reference to the pseudo-scientific The Masque of the Red Death is a well-known story by

‘fact’ that (small models of) pyramids are supposed to have, Edgar Allan Poe, in which the nobility, in a decadent and among many other powers, the ability to sharpen razor senseless attempt to escape from the plague that’s blades that are left underneath the pyramids overnight.

ravishing the land, lock themselves up a castle and hold a big party. At which a costumed personification of Death, of

– [ p. 37/37 ] “ ‘Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft course, eventually turns up and claims everyone anyway.

lavatory paper.’ ”

It is perhaps also worth pointing out that the quoted From the first Conan The Barbarian movie (starring Arnold sentence looks very much like a classic Tom Swiftie (if you Schwarzenegger): “Conan! What is good in life?” “To crush can accept Death as a shade). Tom Swifties (after the your enemies, drive them before you, and to hear the famous series of boys’ novels which popularised them) are lamentation of their women.” This quote, in turn, is lifted sentences of the form “xxx, said he zzz-ly”, where the zzz more or less verbatim from an actual conversation Genghiz refers back to the xxx. Examples:

Khan is supposed to have had with his lieutenants.

“Pass me the shellfish,” said Tom crabbily.

– [ p. 45/45 ] “ ‘Of course I’m sure,’ snarled the leader.

“Let’s look for another Grail!” Tom requested.

‘What did you expect, three bears?’ ”

“I used to be a pilot,” Tom explained.

“I’m into homosexual necrophilia,” said Tom in Another fairy tale reference, this time to Goldilocks and the THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

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The Annotated Pratchett File

Three Bears.

about), hence the “studded collars and oiled muscles” bit.

– [ p. 46/46 ] “ ‘Someone’s been eating my bed,’ he said.”

– [ p. 93/93 ] “ ‘Only when you leave, it’s very important not to look back.’ ”

A mixture of “someone’s been eating my porridge” and

“someone’s been sleeping in my bed”, both from the It’s always important never to look back if you’re rescuing Goldilocks and the Three Bears fairy tale.

somebody from Death’s domain. The best known example of this can be found in the tragic legend of Orpheus and

– [ p. 47/47 ] “Illuminated Mages of the Unbroken Circle”

Eurydice. Orpheus went to fetch his departed loved one, An organisation with this name is also mentioned in the talked Hades (the Greek version of Death) into it, but had to Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton leave without looking back. Of course he looked — and she Wilson.

was gone forever. A contemporary retelling of the Orpheus legend can be found in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series.

+ [ p. 57/57 ] “The universe, they said, depended for its A few people have written and suggested a reference to operation on the balance of four forces which they identified Lot’s wife in Genesis 19:26 (who was turned into a pillar of as charm, persuasion, uncertainty and bloody-mindedness.”

salt when she looked back when they left Sodom and The four fundamental forces that govern our universe are Gomorrah), but the fact that we’re talking about Death’s gravitation, electro-magnetism, the strong nuclear force domain here indicates clearly to me that the Orpheus and the weak nuclear force.

reference is the one Terry intended.

The word ‘charm’ also resonates with the concept of

– [ p. 104/104 ] “Rincewind wasn’t certain what a houri quarks, the elementary quantum particles that the strong was, but after some thought he came to the conclusion that nuclear force in fact acts on. For more information see the it was a little liquorice tube for sucking up the sherbet.”

annotation for p. 133/97 of Lords and Ladies.

A houri is actually a beautiful young girl found in the

+ [ p. 62/62 ] “ ‘In the beginning was the word,’ said a dry Moslem paradise. For more information on sherbets see the voice right behind him. ‘It was the Egg,’ corrected another annotation for p. 122/111 of Sourcery.

voice. [. . . ] ‘[. . . ] I’m sure it was the primordial slime.’ [. . . ]

‘No, that came afterwards. There was firmament first.’ [. . . ]

– [ p. 105/105 ] “[. . . ] homesickness rose up inside

‘You’re all wrong. In the beginning was the Clearing of the Rincewind like a late-night prawn birani.”

Throat—’ ”

A birani is an Indian rice curry.

The bickering of the spells is cleared up somewhat by the

– [ p. 128/128 ] “ ‘Man, we could be as rich as Creosote!’ ”

creation passages on pp. 103/85–119/99 from Eric. It is quite clearly stated that first the Creator did an Egg and This is the first mention of Creosote, whom we will later Cress (for Rincewind), then He Cleared His Throat, then He meet as a fully developed character in his own right, in Read the Octavo (that’s the word then), which created the Sourcery. See also the annotation for p. 125/113 of world and finally the primordial slime came into being Sourcery.

because Rincewind couldn’t eat the Egg and Cress Sandwich and just dropped it on the beach. The Creator

– [ p. 133/133 ] The idea of a strange little shop that subcontracted for the firmament, so it isn’t quite clear appears, sells the most peculiar things, and then vanishes when that came to be.

again first appears in a short story by H. G. Wells, appropriately called The Magic Shop. A recent variation on

“In the beginning was the word” is of course also a biblical the same theme can be found in Stephen King’s Needful allusion to John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and Things.

the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

When an a.f.p. reader mistakenly thought that this type of

– [ p. 82/82 ] “ ‘Anyway, I don’t believe in Caroc cards,’ he shop was invented by Fritz Leiber (see the annotation for muttered.”

p. 9/9 of The Colour of Magic), Terry replied: Caroc = Tarot. See also the annotation for p. 110/90 of

“Actually, magically appearing/disappearing shops were a Mort.

regular feature of fantasy stories, particularly in the old Unknown magazine. They always sold the hero something A minor inconsistency, by the way, is that on p. 24/24 there he didn’t — at the time — know he needed, or played some actually is a reference to Tarot cards.

other vital part in the plot. And I think they even turned up

– [ p. 88/88 ] “[. . . ] what about all those studded collars and on the early Twilight Zones too. You’re referring to a Leiber oiled muscles down at the Young Men’s Pagan Association?”

story called Bazaar of the Bizarre or something similar, where a shop appears which seems to contain wonderful A reference to the Young Men’s Christian Association, merchandise but in fact contains dangerous trash.”

YMCA. See also the annotation for p. 14/14 of Pyramids.

The Leiber story is indeed called Bazaar of the Bizarre. It In our world the YMCA somehow became associated with features Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and can be found in the homosexual scene (I think quite a few people singing Swords Against Death.

merrily along to the Village People’s disco hit ‘YMCA’ would have been very surprised to learn what the song was really

– [ p. 171/171 ] “ ‘Do not peddle in the affairs of 16

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wizards. . . ’ ”

Josh Kirby Posterbook can confirm this.

See the annotation for p. 183/149 of Mort.

– [ p. -/5 ] “Thanks to Neil Gaiman, who loaned us the last surviving copy of the Liber Paginarum Fulvarum, [. . . ]”

– [ p. 209/209 ] “The young turtles followed, orbiting their parent.”

Neil Gaiman is the author of the acclaimed Sandman comics series, as well as Terry’s co-author on Good Omens.

My herpetological correspondent tells me that in our world no known turtles give any sort of care to their young. They Liber Paginarum Fulvarum is a dog-Latin title that just lay the eggs and leave the hatchlings to fend for translates to Book of Yellow Pages, i.e. not the Book of the themselves, which incidentally helps explain why sea Dead, but rather the Phonebook of the Dead. The book turtles are becoming extinct.

appears in Good Omens as well as in Sandman, where it is used in an attempt to summon Death (although the It can be argued that Great A’Tuin is in fact a kind of sea colourist didn’t get the joke and simply coloured the pages turtle (admittedly, a somewhat unusual sea turtle), since brown). Terry said (when questioned about it in a Good only sea turtles have flippers in place of feet and spend Omens context):

most of their time swimming.

“Liber Paginarum Fulvarum is a kind of shared gag. It’s in

– [ p. 213/213 ] “ ‘They do say if it’s summa cum laude, then the dedication of Equal Rites, too. Although I think we’ve the living is easy —.’ ”

got the shade of yellow wrong — I think there’s another Substituting “graduation with distinction” for the Latin Latin word for a kind of yellow which is closer to the Yellow

“summa cum laude” gives a perfectly unexceptional Pages colour.”

sentiment, but it is, of course, also a reference to the song The other word for yellow Terry is thinking of may possibly

‘Summertime’ from the Gershwin opera/operetta/musical be ‘gilvus’, or ‘croceus’, or ‘luteus’.

Porgy and Bess: “Summertime, and the living is easy”.

– [ p. 8/10 ] “[. . . ] up here in the Ramtop Mountains [. . . ]”

RAMTOP was the name of a system variable in the old Sinclair Spectrum computers.

Equal Rites

– [ 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

– A central theme of this book (as well as of the other the Norse god Loki. The description of Hoki is pure Pan, Discworld witch novels) is the contrast between on one side however.

the (female) witches or wiccans, who are in touch with nature, herbs and headology, and on the other side the

– [ p. 73/73 ] “According to the standard poetic instructions (male) wizards who are very ceremonial and use elaborate, one should move through a fair like the white swan at mathematics-like tools and rituals. This conflict rather evening moves o’er the bay, [. . . ]”

closely mirrors a long-standing feud between occult practitioners in our real world. (And all the infighting These instructions stem in fact from a folk song called ‘She within each camp occurs in real life, as well.) Moved Through the Fair’, which has been recorded by (amongst others) Fairport Convention, Van Morrison and All My source for this also mentions that Pratchett’s witches, About Eve:

especially, are obvious stereotypes of the kinds of people one can run into at wiccan festivals.

My young love said to me, ‘My mother won’t mind And my father won’t slight you for your lack of

– “Only dumb redheads in Fifties’ sitcoms are wacky.”

kine’.

And she stepped away from me and this she did Refers to Lucille Ball from I Love Lucy fame.

say,

‘It will not be long now till our wedding day’

– One of my correspondents recalls that he interviewed Terry in 1987 for a university magazine. In that interview She stepped away from me and she moved

Terry said that one thing which had tickled him about Josh through the fair

Kirby’s artwork for the Equal Rites cover was that it And fondly I watched her move here and move

subliminally (accidentally?) reflected the Freudian there

overtones of the book (references to “hot dreams”, the And she made her way homeward with one star

angst of adolescence, things that might be called “magic”

awake

envy). . . Kirby’s artwork “coincidentally” draws Esk with As the swan in the evening moves over the lake the broom handle where a penis would be (traditionally supposed to be the basis of the “witches flying around on

– [ p. 79/79 ] “ ‘Gypsies always come here for the fair, [. . . ]’ ”

broomsticks” myth).

Someone on alt.fan.pratchett pointed out that in our world, Gypsies were named because people thought they

– Kirby caricatures himself as the pointy-eared wizard on were Egyptians. Since the Discworld equivalent of Egypt is the back cover — anyone who has seen his picture in The Djelibeybi, shouldn’t Hilta Goatfounder have been talking EQUAL RITES

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The Annotated Pratchett File

about, say, ‘Jellybabes’? Terry answered:

neighbours’.

“Okay. Almost every word in the English language has a And since people keep pointing it out to me I suppose it whole slew of historic associations. People on the Disc can’t might as well be mentioned here that ‘fence’ is also the possibly speak ‘English’ but I have to write in English.

English word for a dealer in stolen goods.

Some carefully-positioned ‘translations’ like ‘It’s all Klatchian to me’ can work, but if I went the whole hog and

– [ p. 121/119 ] “ ‘Mrs Palm,’ said Granny cautiously. ‘Very

‘discworlded’ every name and term, then the books would respectable lady.’ ”

be even more impenetrable and would probably only be

“Mrs Palm(er) and her daughters” is a euphemism for male read by people who like learning Klingon. I do my best —masturbation.

French fries can’t exist on Discworld, for example — but I think ‘gypsies’ is allowable.”

– [ p. 122/120 ] “ ‘Yes, that’s it,’ said Treatle. ‘Alma mater, gaudy armours eagle tour and so on.’ ”

– [ p. 80/79 ] “If broomsticks were cars, this one would be a split-window Morris Minor.”

Treatle refers here to the old student’s (drinking) song

‘Gaudeamus Igitur’, written in 1781 by Christian Wilhelm A Morris Minor is a British car that non-Brits might be Kindleben, a priest in Leipzig who got kicked out because of familiar with either through the video clip for Madness’

his student songs. The song is still in use at many song ‘Driving in my car’, or through the TV series Lovejoy.

universities and schools, where it gets sung during In that series, Lovejoy’s car ‘Miriam’ is a Morris Minor. For graduation ceremonies. The actual lyrics are: the rest of you, here’s a description:

Gaudeamus igitur, iuvenes dum sumus.

Imagine a curvaceous jelly-mould in the shape of a Post iucundam iuventutem,

crouching rabbit, like Granny used to use. Turn it Post molestam senectutem,

open-side-down and fit four wheels, near the corners. On Nos habebit humus, nos habebit humus.

the rabbit’s back build a cabin, with picture windows and a windscreen in two parts at an angle to each other. Add turn Which roughly translates to:

indicators consisting of little arms which flip out of the body Let us be merry, therefore, whilst we are young at roof level, just behind the doors. Furnish the cabin in a men.

post-War austerity style, and power the result with a 1935

After the joys of youth,

vintage 850cc straight four engine pulling about 30bhp. In After the pain of old age,

its day, in 1948, this was the height of desirability — so The ground will have us, the ground will have us.

much so that for its first few years it was only available for export.

– [ p. 132/130 ] The maid at Unseen University is called Ksandra, which puns on Troy’s Cassandra; but might also Even in the Nineties, a fair number of Moggies are still refer to Sandra being yet another typical ‘Tracey/Sharon’

going, er, strong. You can actually pay a couple of thousand sort of name in England. See also the entry for p. 106/95 of pounds for a good one which works, because they’re so Reaper Man.

easy to maintain. And the split-screen ones are very definitely collectors’ items.

Perhaps the fact that nobody can understand Ksandra (because she talks with her mouth full of clothes-pegs) is

– [ p. 111/109 ] “Bel-Shamharoth, C’hulagen, the Insider —also an obscure reference to the classical Cassandra, the hideous old dark gods of the Necrotelicomnicom, [. . . ]”

daughter of Priam of Troy, whom the Gods gave the gift of The Necrotelicomnicom is another reference to the prophecy and the curse of no-one believing a word she said.

Phonebook of the Dead (see the annotation for the

– [ p. 133/130 ] “ ‘Hmm. Granpone the White. He’s going to dedication of Equal Rites), but is also a pun on the evil book be Granpone the Grey if he doesn’t take better care of his of the dead Necronomicon, used by H. P. Lovecraft in his laundry.’ ”

Cthulhu stories.

You really have to read Tolkien in order to understand why Bel-Shamharoth is an Elder God of the Discworld we this is so funny. Sure, I can explain that in the The Lord of already met in ‘The Sending of Eight’ in The Colour of the Rings a big deal is made of the transformation of Magic. C’hulagen is obviously made up out of the same wizards from one ‘colour’ to another (and in particular ingredients as C’thulhu, and the Insider refers to the Gandalf the Grey becoming Gandalf the White), but that unnamed narrator of Lovecraft’s The Outsider.

just doesn’t do justice to the real atmosphere of the thing.

– [ p. 119/117 ] “The lodgings were [. . . ] next to the [. . . ]

– [ p. 143/141 ] “[. . . ] the Creator hadn’t really decided premises of a respectable dealer in stolen property because, what he wanted and was, as it were, just idly messing as Granny had heard, good fences make good neighbours.”

around with the Pleistocene.”

Terry’s having fun with a familiar saying that originated Refers to the Pleistocene geological era (a few dozen million with Robert Frost’s poem Mending a Wall :

years or so ago), but also to Plasticine, a brand name that My apple trees will never get across

has become (at least in Britain, Australia and New Zealand) And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

a generic name for the modeling clay children play with.

He only says, ‘Good fences make good

18

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

– [ p. 163/159 ] Some folks thought they recognised the During a discussion on a.f.p., Terry had this to add to the duel between Granny Weatherwax and Archchancellor subject:

Cutangle from T. H. White’s description of a similar duel in

“I’ve a strong suspicion that the smaller the country, the his Arthur, The Once and Future King (also depicted as a more powerful the monarch as an emitter of kingons.

very funny fragment in Disney’s The Sword in the Stone, which was an animation film based on this book). However, Surely the size of the king in proportion to the size of his Terry says:

country is the important factor. If you’re king of a country of ten people there must be quite a high kingon flux.

“The magical duel in Equal Rites is certainly not lifted from T. H. White. Beware of secondary sources. Said duel As to where kingons come from in the first place, they come (usually between a man and a woman, and often with nice from God. God is invoked in the coronation service. God Freudian touches to the things they turn into) has a much wants fat red-haired girls and clothes horses who can’t longer history; folkies out there will probably know it as the keep their mobile phone conversations private. God likes song ‘The Two Magicians’.”

people with lots of front teeth. God must have a hand in all this, otherwise we’d have slaughtered all kings years ago.”

– [ p. 176/172 ] “ ‘Million-to-one chances,’ she said, ‘crop up nine times out of ten.’ ”

– [ p. 30/25 ] “ ‘How do you get all those coins?’ asked Mort.

IN PAIRS.”

The first mention of this particular running gag in the Discworld canon (to be featured most prominently in A reference to the old Eastern European practice of Guards! Guards! ).

covering a dead friends’ eyes with coins.

It is not quite the earliest appearance in Terry’s work, In the Greek version of this custom, a single coin or obulus though: he also uses it on p. 46/55 of The Dark Side of the was put under the tongue of a deceased person. This was Sun.

done so that the departed loved one would have some change handy to pay Charon with (the grumpy old ferryman

– [ p. 188/184 ] “[. . . ] which by comparison made who transported departed souls over the river Styx towards Gormenghast look like a toolshed on a railway allotment.”

the afterlife — but only if they paid him first).

Gormenghast is the ancient, decaying castle from Mervyn The Eastern European version has a similar background.

Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy. See also the annotation for p. 17/17 of Pyramids.

– [ p. 31/26 ] “The answer flowed into his mind with all the inevitability of a tax demand.”

– [ p. 202/197 ] “ ‘Like “red sky at night, the city’s alight”,’

An acknowledgment of the “nothing is certain but death said Cutangle.”

and taxes” saying. See also the annotation for p. 151/133 of Plays on the folk saying: “Red sky at night, shepherd’s Reaper Man.

delight. Red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning”.

– [ 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 Mort

calling Pip ‘Boy’ all the time).

– [ p. 34/29 ] Albert’s stove has ‘The Little Moloch (Ptntd)’

– [ p. 17/16 ] “ ‘They call me Mort.’ WHAT A COINCIDENCE, embossed on its door.

[. . . ]”

There exists a make of woodburning stove called ‘The Little Not only does ‘Mort’ mean ‘death’ in French, but in The Wenlock’.

Light Fantastic we also learned (on p. 95/95), that Death’s For those who don’t know what a Moloch is, I’ll let Brewer own (nick)name is Mort. Opinions on a.f.p. are divided as to (see the annotation for p. 117/103 of The Colour of Magic) which of these two facts is the ‘coincidence’ Death is do the explaining:

talking about.

“Moloch : Any influence which demands from us the

+

sacrifice of what we hold most dear. Thus war is a Moloch,

[ p. 24/21 ] “The only thing known to go faster than ordinary light is monarchy, [. . . ]”

king mob is a Moloch, the guillotine was the Moloch of the French Revolution, etc. The allusion is to the god of the This is where the popular (on the net, at least) ‘kingons and Ammonites [Phoenicians], to whom children were ‘made to queons’ footnote starts out, which parodies a postulate of J.

pass through the fire’ in sacrifice.”

Sarfatti based on Bell’s theorem on quantum physics. Bell proves that in order for quantum theory to be valid, there To be fair, however, it must be pointed out that almost all has to exist a way to transfer information between we know about Moloch is based on what the bitter enemies subatomic particles that is faster than light. Sarfatti then of the Phoenicians said about him.

theorised that this so called ‘superluminar’ communication

– [ p. 40/33 ] “AND WHY DO YOU THINK I DIRECTED YOU TO

could be modulated and used to send messages.

THE STABLES? THINK CAREFULLY NOW.”

MORT

19

The Annotated Pratchett File

The whole section on Mort’s training, and this paragraph in

– [ p. 85/69 ] “[. . . ] the fire of the Aurora Coriolis [. . . ]”

particular, explores a theme familiar from stories such as This is the air glow around Cori Celesti (as in our aurora told in The Karate Kid, or The Empire Strikes Back, and of borealis), but it is also a reference to the Coriolis force that course the TV series Kung Fu, where a young student is acts on spinning objects.

given many menial tasks to perform, which are revealed to be integral to his education.

– [ p. 88/72 ] “ ‘Die a lot, do you?’ he managed.”

– [ p. 47/39 ] “[. . . ] the city of Sto Lat [. . . ]”

For those readers who are not familiar with Tibetan Buddhism: it is believed that religious leaders who are A Polish correspondent tells me that ‘Sto lat’ is actually the spiritually advanced (the Dalai Lama being only one such title of a Polish party song, more or less equivalent to ‘For individual) will reincarnate and continue to guide the he’s a jolly good fellow’. ‘Sto lat’ means ‘hundred years’, people. In 1993, for instance, an eight-year old boy in Tibet and the lyrics to the song are as follows:

was discovered to be the seventeenth reincarnation of the Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje, zyje nam.

Karmapa, and was promptly whisked away from his native Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje, zyje nam.

village and installed in the Tsurphu-monastery.

Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz — niech zyje, zyje nam.

In Guards! Guards! we eventually learn that Abbot Lobsang Niech zyje nam!

has indeed been reincarnated.

Which loosely translates to:

– [ p. 90/74 ] “Princess Keli awoke.”

Hundred years, hundred years, let him live for us, Hundred years, hundred years, let him live for us, Another ‘dumb blonde’ pun (on Kelly this time) along the Once again, once again, let him live for us!

lines of Ptraci and Ksandra? See the annotation for p. 45/45

of Pyramids.

Thinking I was on to something I immediately enquired if

‘Sto Helit’, another name Terry uses often, had a similar

– [ p. 93/76 ] “[. . . ] if Mort ever compared a girl to a background, but my correspondent says it’s not even Polish summer’s day, it would be followed by a thoughtful at all.

explanation of what day he had in mind and whether it was raining at the time.”

– [ p. 54/45 ] “IT’S THE MORPHOGENETIC FIELD

WEAKENING, said Death.”

Considering the sheer volume of Discworld material written so far, with its high jokes-per-page count, it is quite Terry loves playing with morphogenetic principles in the remarkable that Terry Pratchett doesn’t recycle (or Discworld canon, and I think this is the first place he inadvertently reinvent) his own jokes more often than he explicitly mentions it. Morphogenetics are part of a does. As for instance in the case of this particular controversial theory put forward by ex-Cambridge biologist Shakespeare-inspired joke that would be repeated two Rupert Sheldrake. ‘Controversial’ is in fact putting it rather books later in Wyrd Sisters (see the annotation for mildly: personally I feel ‘crackpot’ would be a much better p. 213/212 of that book).

description. Which explains why on the Discworld, of course, it’s valid science.

– [ p. 99/81 ] “ ‘[. . . ] the princesses were so noble they, they could pee through a dozen mattresses —’ ”

– [ p. 65/53 ] “TIME LIKE AN EVER-ROLLING STREAM BEARS

ALL ITS. . . ”

Albert here mangles the Grimm fairy tale known as The Princess and the Pea, in which a princess proves her Death is quoting from Our God, Our Help in Ages Past, by nobility to her future husband and his mother by being so Isaac Watts. The verse in full is:

fine-constitutioned that a pea placed underneath the dozen Time like an ever-rolling stream

mattresses she was given to sleep on kept her awake all Bears all its sons away

night.

They fly forgotten as a dream

If you have access to the Internet, you can find an online Dies at the opening day.

version of the original fairy tale at the URL: No wonder Albert thinks Death has been overdoing it.

ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/literary/obi/Fairy.Tales/Grimm/

princess.and.pea.txt.Z

– [ p. 71/59 ] “[. . . ] the abode of Igneous Cutwell, DM(Unseen), [. . . ]”

I have since then received mail indicating that the best known version of this fairy tale was the one written by Hans DM(Unseen) means that Cutwell holds a Doctorate in Magic Christian Andersen, and that the Grimm version was in fact from Unseen University. It’s the usual way of writing an pulled from the collection because it was so similar. I was academic qualification in Britain (e.g. DD for Doctor of not able to obtain any further evidence for this claim, so if Divinity, or PhD for Doctor of Philosophy) — though the anybody out there knows something about this, please drop University name ought to be in Latin.

me a line.

– [ p. 84/69 ] “[. . . ] just like a Cheshire cat only much more

– [ p. 110/90 ] Caroc cards and the Ching Aling.

erotic.”

Caroc = Tarot and Ching Aling = I Ching: two ways of See the annotation for p. 142/141 of Wyrd Sisters.

accessing the Distilled Wisdom of the Ancients, and all that.

20

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

– [ p. 118/97 ] “I SHALL CALL IT — DEATH’S GLORY.”

– [ p. 154/126 ] Alberto Malich was rumoured to have disappeared when trying to perform the Rite of AshkEnte In the fishing world there exists a popular dry fly called backwards. Since we know that the Rite is used to summon Greenwell’s Glory, named after its inventor, a 19th century Death, it doesn’t seem too unreasonable to suppose that parson.

performing it backwards might drive Death away from you,

– [ p. 126/103 ] “ ‘— and then she thought he was dead, and which is probably why Albert did it. Unfortunately for him, she killed herself, and then he woke up and so he did kill it is also not very unreasonable to suppose that performing himself, [. . . ]’ ”

the rite backwards will instead summon you to Death. . .

Ysabell starts to list off a number of tragic romances, mostly There also are two villages called Ash in Kent, UK. It is mangled versions of existing stories. This one appears to be unknown if there is a deliberate connection.

the Shakespearean tragedy Romeo and Juliet, or perhaps

– [ p. 161/132 ] Queen Ezeriel refers to our world’s the original source: Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe.

Cleopatra who also used to bathe in asses’ milk, and who

– [ p. 127/104 ] “ ‘— swam the river every night, but one eventually committed honourable suicide by clutching a night there was this storm and when he didn’t arrive she venomous snake (an asp, to be precise) to her bosom.

—’ ”

– [ p. 183/149 ] “ ‘Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards This is the saga of Hero and Leander. Leander swam the because a refusal often offends, I read somewhere.’ ”

Hellespont each night to be with Hero (who was a virgin Ysabell probably read one part of this in Tolkien’s The Lord (yeah, sure!) in the service of Aphrodite, and therefore not of the Rings where we find (in The Fellowship of the Ring, accessible by more conventional means). But then there Book One, Chapter III) that Gildor Inglorion the High Elf was indeed a storm, and the candle she used as a beacon says: “Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards because they blew out, and the Gods couldn’t hear his prayers over the are subtle and quick to anger”. The other part she may noise of the storm, and so he drowned, and the next have got from signs often seen in stores and pubs around morning she saw his body and drowned herself as well.

the English-speaking world: “Do not ask for credit, because Read Christopher Marlowe’s Hero and Leander for more a refusal often offends”.

details.

See also the annotation for p. 367/264 of Lords and Ladies.

– [ p. 133/109 ] “ ‘Why, lordship, we drink scumble, for preference.’ ”

– [ p. 186/152 ] “BEGONE, YOU BLACK AND MIDNIGHT HAG, he said.”

Scumble is the Discworld equivalent of scrumpy, a drink probably unknown to most non-UK readers. It’s a (very) Death is alluding to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, act 4, scene 1, strong cider, originating from the West country, Somerset where Macbeth says to the witches: “How now, you secret, farmhouses in particular.

black, and midnight hags!”

On the subject of scrumpy, Terry writes:

– [ p. 192/157 ] “ ‘Sodomy non sapiens,’ said Albert under

“I can speak with authority, having lived a short walking —his breath.”

to get there, at least, although it seemed to take longer

“Sodomy non sapiens” is dog-Latin for “buggered if I know”.

coming back — distance from a real cider house.

Since this is explicitly translated by Albert two sentences 1) You are unlikely to buy scrumpy anywhere but from a later, it never occurred to me to include this annotation in farm or a pub in a cider area.

earlier versions of the APF. I had to change my mind when 2) It won’t fizz. It slumps in the glass, and is a grey-orange email and discussions in a.f.p. made it clear that quite a few colour.

readers never make the connection, and think instead that Albert really doesn’t know what the phrase means.

3) The very best scrumpy is (or at least, was) made on farms where a lot of the metalwork around the press was

– [ p. 193/158 ] “ ‘When a man is tired of Ankh-Morpork, he lead; the acid apple juice on the lead gave the resultant is tired of ankle-deep slurry.’ ”

drink a kick which lasted for the rest of your life.

The original quote here dates back to 1777, and is by 4) While a lot of the stories about stuff being put in ‘to give Samuel Johnson (a well-known harmless drudge): “When a it body’ are probably apocryphal, apparently it wasn’t man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in uncommon to put a piece of beef in the stuff to give it London all that life can afford.”

‘strength’.

Quite a few people have mistaken this quote for a reference 5) I certainly recall a case of a female tourist having to have to Douglas Adams. Of course Adams was simply parodying an ambulance called out after two pints of scrumpy.

Johnson’s quote as well when he wrote (in Chapter 4 of The 6) We used to drink almost a pint, topped off with half an Restaurant at the End of the Universe):

inch of lemonade; this was known as ‘cider and gas’ and

“[. . . ] when a recent edition of Playbeing magazine was popular in our part of the Mendips. Two pints was the headlined an article with the words ‘When you are tired of max. I recall that as we went back across the fields Ursa Minor Beta you are tired of life’, the suicide rate there someone who is now a professor of medieval history fell quadrupled overnight.”

down a disused mineshaft and still carried on singing.”

MORT

21

The Annotated Pratchett File

– [ p. 195/159 ] “ ‘Alligator sandwich,’ he said. ‘And make it A reference to Helen of Troy (or Tsort, I suppose I should sna—’ ”

say), over whom the Trojan War was started. The exact original quote, from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical Refers to an old playground one-liner: “give me an alligator History of Dr Faustus, goes:

sandwich and make it snappy!”. Terry uses this joke in a different context in Witches Abroad (see the annotation for Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, p. 176/154 of that book).

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss!

– [ p. 197/161 ] “ ‘Fireworks?’ Cutwell had said.”

Ilium is the Latin name for Troy.

The stuff about wizards knowing all about fireworks is a reference to Tolkien’s The Hobbit, where the great Wizard

– [ p. 271/221 ] “ ‘Only Ysabell said that since you turned Gandalf was famed (in times of peace) for entertaining the glass over that means I shall die when I’m—’ YOU HAVE

everybody with fireworks.

SUFFICIENT, said Death coldly. MATHEMATICS ISN’T ALL

IT’S CRACKED UP TO BE.”

– [ p. 212/172 ] In the Disc model, Ankh-Morpork was a Except that the events detailed in Soul Music imply that carbuncle.

Ysabell was right in this case (“After that, it was a matter of A carbuncle is (1) a red semiprecious gem, and (2) a math. And the Duty.”). . .

festering sore like a boil.

– [ p. 221/180 ] “Alberto Malich, Founder of This University.”

Albert’s name resonates slightly with our world’s Albertus Sourcery

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

– [ p. 8/10 ] “ ‘My son,’ he said. ‘I shall call him Coin.’ ”

priest, philosopher and scientist of his time. Amongst other A pun on the English boy’s name ‘Colin’, with a nod to the things he taught at the University of Paris, was Bishop of expression “to coin a phrase”.

Regensburg, and at the age of 84 he again undertook the long journey from Cologne to Paris to defend the scientific

– [ p. 12/14 ] “[. . . ] this was a bit more original than the work of his greatest student, Thomas Aquinas, against usual symbolic chess game [. . . ]”

attacks and misunderstandings.

This subject comes up every now and again on

– [ p. 224/183 ] “I don’t even remember walking under a alt.fan.pratchett, so it is time for an annotation to settle mirror.”

this matter for once and for all: playing (chess) games with Death is a very old concept. It goes back much further than Superstition says that both walking under a ladder and either Ingmar Bergman’s famous 1957 movie The Seventh breaking a mirror give bad luck. Therefore, by the sort of Seal, or Chris deBurgh’s less famous 1975 song ‘Spanish skewed logic Terry continually gives to his characters, Train’ (which describes a poker game between God and the walking under a mirror must be really bad news.

Devil).

– [ p. 226/184 ] “[. . . ] purposes considerably more dire

– [ p. 22/22 ] “It was quite possible that it was a secret than, say, keeping a razor blade nice and sharp.”

doorway to fabulous worlds [. . . ]”

See the annotation for p. 35/35 of The Light Fantastic.

A reference to C. S. Lewis’s classic fantasy story The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, in which the heroes are

– [ p. 240/196 ] “He remembered being summoned into magically transported to the Land of Narnia through the reluctant existence at the moment the first creature lived, back of an old wardrobe, which was made from a tree that in the certain knowledge that he would outlive life until the grew from the seeds of a magical apple taken from that last being in the universe passed to its reward, when it Land long before.

would then be his job, figuratively speaking, to put the chairs on the tables and turn all the lights off.”

– [ p. 28/28 ] “ ‘I saw this picture of a sourcerer in a book.

Three years later, in 1990, Neil Gaiman’s Death says, in the He was standing on a mountain top waving his arms and story ‘Facade’:

the waves were coming right up [. . . ]’ ”

“When the first living thing existed, I was there, waiting.

Probably a reference to a famous scene from the When the last living thing dies, my job will be finished. I’ll

‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ segment in Disney’s 1940 film put the chairs on the tables, turn out the lights and lock the Fantasia. The “sourcerer” being in fact the Apprentice, universe behind me when I leave.”

Mickey, dreaming of commanding the wind to blow, the waves to wave, the stars to fall, and so on.

– [ p. 255/208 ] “IS THIS THE FACE THAT LAUNCHED A Some people were also reminded of Prospero in THOUSAND SHIPS, AND BURNED THE TOPLESS TOWERS OF

Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

PSEUDOPOLIS? wondered Death.”

22

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

– [ p. 44/42 ] “ ‘Psst,’ it said. ‘Not very,’ said Rincewind Pyramids: “From the summit of these pyramids, forty

[. . . ], ‘but I’m working on it.’ ”

centuries look down upon you”.

Play on the word ‘pissed’, common British/Australian (but

– [ p. 75/69 ] “ ‘[. . . ] that would be the Patrician, Lord apparently not American) slang for ‘drunk’.

Vetinari,’ said Carding with some caution.”

– [ p. 51/48 ] “Of all the disreputable taverns in all the city A sideways pun (via ‘veterinary’) on the name of the famous you could have walked into, you walked into his, de Medici family, who were the enlightened rulers of complained the hat.”

Renaissance Florence.

Paraphrases Humphrey Bogart’s famous line from During one of those interminable “which actor should play Casablanca: “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the which Discworld character if there was a movie?”

world, she walks into mine.”

discussions, Terry gave some insight in how he himself visualises the Patrician:

– [ p. 55/52 ] “By the way, the thing on the pole isn’t a sign.

“I can’t remember the guy’s name, but I’ve always pictured When they decided to call the place the Troll’s Head, they the Patrician as looking like the father in Beetlejuice — the didn’t mess about.”

man also played the Emperor of Austria in Amadeus. And The reference is to traditional British pub names like King’s maybe slightly like the head bad guy in Die Hard.”

Head, Queen’s Head or Nag’s Head, all occurring quite The actors Terry is thinking of are Jeffrey Jones and Alan frequently, where the appropriate head (a nag being a Rickman, respectively.

horse) is displayed on a sign outside, often on a pole before the building.

– [ p. 76/70 ] “[. . . ] his chair at the foot of the steps leading up to the throne, [. . . ]”

– [ p. 66/61 ] “The study of genetics on the Disc had failed at an early stage, when wizards tried the experimental In Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the Stewards of Gondor crossing of such well known subjects as fruit flies and sweet also sat on a chair on the steps below the real throne, peas. Unfortunately they didn’t grasp the fundamentals, awaiting the return of the king. The prophecy in that case and the resultant offspring — a sort of green bean thing also included a magic sword, although Tolkien neglects to that buzzed — led a short sad life before being eaten by a make any mention of a strawberry-shaped birthmark.

passing spider.”

Other occurrences of the legend can be found in Robert Sweet peas were used by Mendel in his early genetic Jordan’s The Wheel of Time epic fantasy series, in Raymond experiments. Fruit flies are used in contemporary genetics.

E. Feist’s Prince of the Blood, and in David Eddings’

Among the ‘fundamentals’ that the wizards failed to grasp Belgariad quintet.

is of course the fact that (a) you can only cross individuals This is undoubtedly one of those cases where everybody is within each species, not across, and (b) you are not drawing on a much older idea. Legends about kings, swords supposed to use magic.

and birthmarks are of course legion, although I must admit With respect to (a) I was told that in 1991 (three years after that so far I haven’t been able to actually find an Sourcery) an article was published in which a team of occurrence of the ‘chair below the real throne’ concept geneticists write about a certain transposon that seemed to outside of contemporary fiction.

be common to both maize and fruit flies, implying that it might be possible to have some form of horizontal

– [ p. 76/70 ] “[. . . ] the sort of man you’d expect to keep a transmission between vegetable and animal DNA, after all.

white cat, and caress it idly while sentencing people to death in a piranha tank [. . . ]”

+ [ p. 68 ] “SEE ALSO: thee Apocralypse, the legende of A reference to Ernst Stavro Blofeld, leader of SPECTRE and thee Ice Giants, and thee Teatime of the Goddes.”

arch enemy of James Bond.

In Norse mythology, the “Twilight of the Gods” refers to Ragnarok, the final conflict at the end of times between the

– [ p. 88/81 ] “The market in Sator Square, the wide gods and their enemies (amongst which are the Ice Giants).

expanse of cobbles outside the black gates of the See also the annotation for p. 308/222 of Lords and Ladies University, was in full cry.”

The word ‘Sator’ refers to a famous magic square (magic

– [ p. 69/64 ] “ ‘Anus mirabilis? ’ ”

square, get it?) dating back to the times of the spread of

“Annus mirabilis” translates to “year of wonder”. “Anus Christianity in Europe. ‘Sator’ means sower or farmer. The mirabilis” does not.

complete square is:

Brewer mentions that the year of wonder in question is

S A T O R

actually known to be 1666, “memorable for the great fire of

A R E P O

London and the successes of our arms over the Dutch.”

T E N E T

O P E R A

– [ p. 71/66 ] “ ‘From these walls,’ said Carding, ‘Two

R O T A S

hundred supreme mages look down upon you.’ ”

This square is palindromic in all directions. The sentence Napoleon, to his troops just before the Battle of the you get reads: Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas, which SOURCERY

23

The Annotated Pratchett File

means, more or less: “The sower [i.e. God] in his field The English word “assassins” was originally used to denote controls the workings of his tools [i.e. us]”. Some a group of fanatical Ismailis (a Shi’ite Muslim sect) who, correspondents questioned the correctness of this between 1094 and 1273, worked for the creation of a new translation, so if anyone has a good reference to something Fatimid caliphate, murdering prominent individuals. They else I’d love to hear it.

murdered prominent individuals; hence, “assassin” in English came to mean a politically motivated murderer.

The magic Sator square also has the property that it can be

‘unfolded’ into two “A PATER NOSTER O” strings that form The name derives from the Arabic “hashashin” — Marco a cross with the ‘N’ as a pivot element (sorry, proper Polo and other European chroniclers claimed that the graphics will have to wait until a future edition of the APF).

Assassins used hashish to stimulate their fearless acts. For The ‘A’ and the ‘O’ stand for alpha and omega.

example, Brewer writes:

“Assassins. A band of Carmathians, collected by Hassa,

– [ p. 107/98 ] “ ‘And I seem to remember he spoke very subah of Nishapour, called the Old Man of the Mountains, highly of the soak. It’s a kind of bazaar.’ ”

because he made Mount Lebanon his stronghold. This band Punning on ‘souk’, meaning a Middle Eastern marketplace; was the terror of the world for two centuries, when it was and the verb ‘soak’, meaning to charge (and get) exorbitant put down by Sultan Bibaris. The assassins indulged in prices.

haschisch (bang), an intoxicating drink, and from this liquor received their name.”

– [ p. 122/110 ] “the kind of spaghetti that would make For more information, see also the Hawkwind song ‘Hassan M. C. Escher go for a good lie down [. . . ]”

I Sabbah’ on their album Quark, Strangeness and Charm.

Maurits C. Escher: Dutch graphic artist of the 20th century, well-known for his tangled, paradoxical pictures of optical

– [ p. 126/114 ] Creosote’s poetry is mostly based on illusions and plane-filling tilings. Read Douglas Hofstadter’s Edward Fitzgerald’s translation of the Rubaïyat of Omar Gödel, Escher, Bach for much, much more information.

Khayyam. The poem parodied on this page goes: A book of verses underneath the bough

– [ p. 122/111 ] “ ‘It looks like someone has taken twice five A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou

miles of inner city and girded them round with walls and towers,’ he hazarded.”

– [ p. 127/115 ] “ ‘They spent simply ages getting the rills From Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan: sufficiently sinuous.’ ”

So twice five miles of fertile ground

Kubla Khan:

With walls and towers were girded round

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills.

– [ p. 122/111 ] “[. . . ] ‘sherbet and, and — young women.’ ”

– [ p. 127/115 ] “ ‘Wild honey and locusts seem more

‘Sherbet’ is a cooling Oriental fruit drink (also a frozen appropriate, [. . . ]’ ”

dessert) as well as a fizzy sweet powder children eat as a Because John the Baptist ate those, according to Matthew sweet, and which comes in a cardboard tube with a 3:4 (also Mark 1:6): “And the same John had his raiment of liquorice ‘straw’ at the top. To get to the sherbet you bite camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his off the end of the liquorice and suck through it. See also the meat was locusts and wild honey.”

annotation for p. 104/104 of The Light Fantastic.

In order to avoid confusion it should perhaps be pointed out

– [ p. 125/113 ] “ ‘[. . . ] pretty much of a miracle of rare that the locusts in question are the seeds of honey locust device.’ ”

trees, also known as carob and (from this story, of course) St John’s Bread.

Coleridge’s Kubla Khan:

It was a miracle of rare device

– [ p. 127/115 ] “ ‘You can’t play a dulcimer, by any A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

chance?’ ”

Kubla Khan:

– [ p. 125/113 ] “My name is Creosote, Seriph of Al Khali,

[. . . ]”

It was an Abyssinian maid,

And on her dulcimer she played.

Ok, lessee: Creosote parodies the proverbially rich Croesus (king of Lidya — which lies in what is now Turkey — in the

– [ p. 128/116 ] “ ‘Has anyone ever told you your neck is as 6th century BC), ‘Serif’ is a typographical term which also a tower of ivory?’ ”

puns on ‘caliph’, and ‘Al Khali’ is pronounced ‘alkali’ (just covering all the bases here, as my original source put it), This, and Creosote’s further compliments to Conina (“your but probably refers to the Rub’ al Khali desert in Arabia.

hair is like a flock of goats that graze upon the side of Mount Gebra”, “your breasts are like the jewelled melons in Creosote itself is actually the name for an oily liquid the fabled gardens of dawn”, etc.) are all very similar to the mixture of organic chemicals, resulting as a by-product compliments in the Biblical ‘Song of Solomon’: from the industrial burning of coal or wood.

Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art

– [ p. 126/114 ] The hashishim as the “original Assassins”.

fair;

24

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks:

at it and saying “Kazam—” ’ ”

thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from Captain Marvel, an American comic book character was mount Gilead.

able to transform himself into his superhero alter-ego by Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an saying the magic word ‘Shazam’.

armoury,

whereon there hang a thousand bucklers,

– [ p. 154/139 ] “[. . . ] the Librarian dropped on him like the all shields of mighty men.

descent of Man.”

Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are Reference to Charles Darwin’s landmark 1871 book The twins,

Descent of Man.

which feed among the lilies.

– [ p. 162/147 ] “ ‘He asked me to tell him a story.’ ”

I did an electronic search across the entire King James bible for “jewelled melons”, but those appear to be an This is the first, but not the last time in the book that invention of Creosote’s. Fine by me — I was already slightly Creosote asks Conina for a story. This refers to 1001

shocked to find out that “thy hair is as a flock of goats” was Nights, and the stories Scheherezade had to tell every night a genuine Biblical compliment and not something Terry had to her Caliph, Harun al-Rashid.

made up.

– [ p. 167/151 ] “ ‘I’m looking up the Index of Wandering

– [ p. 129/117 ] “Get up! For the morning in the cup of day, /

Monsters’, said Nijel.”

Has dropped the spoon that scares the stars away.”

‘Wandering Monsters’ is a phrase that comes from the The Rubaïyat :

world of fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons And Dragons, and it more or less means just what you think it Awake! for morning in the bowl of night

means. Nijel is of course exactly the type of stereotypical Hath flung the stone that puts the stars to flight.

nerd who would, in our world, actually play D&D.

– [ p. 130/118 ] “[. . . ] a falling apple or a boiling kettle or

– [ p. 171/154 ] “ ‘It have thee legges of an mermade, the the water slopping over the edge of the bath.”

hair of an tortoise, the teeth of an fowel, and the wings of A falling apple supposedly helped Newton discover the Law an snake.’ ”

of Gravity, a boiling kettle helped Watt revolutionise the More reputable witnesses than Broomfog describe the steam engine (see also the annotation for p. 175/153 of chimera or chimaera (from Greek mythology) as a Reaper Man), and Archimedes, according to legend, fire-breathing monster having either the hindquarters of a discovered the principles of fluid displacement while taking serpent and the head of a lion on the body of a goat, or else a bath.

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).

– [ p. 132/119 ] “The Seriph’s palace, known to legend as the Rhoxie, [. . . ]”

Woody Allen somewhere describes a mythical beast called the Great Roe, which has “the head of lion and the body of a No connection to the original Croesus here, but rather to lion, only not the same lion”.

the Alhambra, the palace of the Emirs of Granada in 15th century Spain. As Terry says:

– [ p. 185/167 ] “Next to it was a small, sleek oil lamp and

“Incidentally, the Seriph’s palace, the Rhoxie, is indeed a

[. . . ] a small gold ring.”

‘resonance’ with the Alhambra — a famous Moorish palace The magic lamp and magic ring, which summon a demon which became a synonym for an impressive building, and when rubbed, appear in the legend of Aladdin. On later became a common cinema name as in Odeon and, yes, p. 208/187 Creosote tells the story of how “one day this Roxy.”

wicked old pedlar came round offering new lamps for old

[. . . ]”. This is also part of the original Aladdin fairy tale.

– [ p. 141/127 ] “Nijel the Destroyer” may be a suitably heroic-looking name, but ‘Nijel’ is of course pronounced as

– [ p. 210/189 ] “It was a Fullomyth, an invaluable aid [. . . ]”

‘Nigel’, a name that is traditionally associated with wimpy rather than with heroic males.

Refers to the ‘Filofax’ system: a small notebook (the more expensive versions are leather-bound) with loose-leaf I am told that among school-age Australians, Nigel is in fact information sheets, diary, calendar, notes, wine lists, slang for someone with no friends.

London underground maps, etc. In the UK the Filofax at one time became the badge of the stereotypical 80s Yuppie,

– [ p. 142/129 ] “ ‘For example, do you know how many seen working in London’s “square mile”, walking around trolls it takes to change a lamp-wick?’ ”

with a mobile phone clamped to his ear while referring to Someone, somewhere, hasn’t heard of the “How many his Filofax to find a free appointment. Hence the Genie:

<insert ethnic group> does it take to change a

“ ‘Let’s do lunch. . . ’ ”.

light-bulb?”-jokes this is a reference to. This annotation is for him/her.

– [ p. 215/193 ] “ ‘Like not thinking about pink rhinoceroses,’ said Nijel [. . . ]”

– [ p. 142/129 ] “ ‘[. . . ] it’s more than just pointing a finger SOURCERY

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The Annotated Pratchett File

I always thought that the impossibility of trying not to think Odyssey.

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.

Wyrd Sisters

– [ p. 215/193 ] Significant Quest → Trivial Pursuit.

– [title ] Wyrd Sisters

– [ p. 227/204 ] “Other things besides the cream floated to the top, he reflected sourly.”

In Macbeth, the three witches are sometimes called the weird sisters, e.g. act 2, scene 1: (Banquo) “I dreamt last Another Tom Swifty, as per the annotation for p. 26/26 of night of the three weird sisters [. . . ]”; or act 4, scene 1: The Light Fantastic.

(Macbeth) “Saw you the weird sisters?” (Lennox) “No, my lord.”

– [ 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 But there’s a bit more to it than just the Macbeth reference.

speaking, a rubber sheet.’ ”

‘Wyrd’ is the Norse concept of destiny or fate, as embodied by the Norns (who probably inspired the Witches in Ovin is modifying Einstein’s explanation of gravity for a Macbeth ). Since ‘weird’ to a modern reader just means magical setting. See also the annotation for p. 134/128 of

‘strange’, it’s easy to miss the overtones of the title and just Pyramids.

assume that it’s an Old spelling of ‘weird’.

– [ p. 236/212 ] “ ‘We are poor little . . . unidentified

– [ p. 5/5 ] “ ‘When shall we three meet again?’ ”

domesticated animals . . . that have lost our way . . . ’ he quavered.”

Macbeth, act 1, scene 1, first line. The entire opening scene of Wyrd Sisters is of course a direct parody on the opening

‘Sheep’ was almost right. The exact song the horsemen are scene of Macbeth.

trying to sing goes:

We’re poor little lambs, that have lost our way

– [ p. 5/5 ] “Gods prefer simple, vicious games, where you CHORUS: “Baaa, baa, baa.”

Do Not Achieve Transcendence but Go Straight To Oblivion; and is a favourite of the highly drunk.

[. . . ]”

Probably the most famous Chance (or Community Chest)

– [ p. 245/221 ] “ ‘It’s not that, then?’ ”

card in Monopoly: “GO TO JAIL — Go directly to Jail. Do not In all editions of this novel I am aware of (UK Corgi pass Go. Do not collect $200.”. (or 200 pounds, or 200

paperback, UK Gollancz hardcover, US Signet paperback) guilders, or 200 of whatever currency you care to name).

this line is printed in a plain font. It seems logical, however, that the line is said by Pestilence and should therefore have

– [ p. 7/7 ] “The junior witch, whose name was Magrat been in italics.

Garlick, relaxed considerably.”

Terry says: “Magrat is pronounced Magg-rat. Doesn’t

– [ p. 257/232 ] “ ‘Oh, yes. It’s vital to remember who you matter what I think is right — everyone I’ve heard really are. It’s very important. It isn’t a good idea to rely on pronounce it has pronounced it Maggrat.”

other people or things to do it for you, you see. They always

“In Margaret Murray’s book “The Witch Cult in Western get it wrong.’ ”

Europe” you will find a number of Magrats and Magrets, Rincewind, nerving himself up to distract the Things in the and a suggestion that they were not misspellings but an Dungeon Dimensions so that Coin can escape, is earlier form of Margaret; also in the lists of those arraigned anticipating Granny Weatherwax in this little speech. The for witchcraft are the surnames Garlick, Device and Nutter.

theme is clearly important to Terry from the humanist No Oggs or Weatherwax’s, though.”

angle, but its roots are in the occult — actively holding in mind who and what you are is a traditional exercise in a

– [ p. 8/8 ] “Meanwhile King Verence, monarch of Lancre, number of mystical teachings. Note that this statement is was making a discovery.”

the result of the inspiration particle which hit Rincewind on There exists a book entitled Servants of Satan, which is p. 165/149.

about the history of witch hunts. It contains the following paragraph:

– [ p. 259/233 ] “For a moment the ape reared against the darkness, the shoulder, elbow and wrist of his right arm

“This brings us back to Pierre de Lancre. He became unfolding in a poem of applied leverage, and in a movement convinced that Basque women where an immoral and as unstoppable as the dawn of intelligence brought it down unfaithful lot when observing their social arrangements very heavily.”

during his witch-hunting expedition. De Lancre was especially horrified at the leadership roles in religious This is a rather subtle reference to the scene with the bone services taken by Basque women, the very women among and tapir skull in the ‘Dawn of Man’ portion of Stanley whom witchcraft was rife. . . ”

Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke’s movie 2001: A Space 26

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

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Terry comments: “I’m astonished. I’ve never heard of the as least as far as Herodotus, but has also been used by e.g.

guy, and I’m reasonably well-read in that area. But it is a Tolkien and Jack Vance.

lovely coincidence.”

More interesting is that at least one non-Brit over on It may also not be entirely a coincidence that ‘Lancre’ is a alt.fan.pratchett had some trouble making sense of the common way of referring to Lancashire, the county where implied connection between the concepts of ‘turbot’ and the famous 17th century witch trials were held (see the

‘tea’. What he did not realise was that ‘tea’ is the term the annotation for p. 78/57 of Lords and Ladies).

British tend to use for any meal taken between 4.30 and 7

pm, which may therefore include a nice, juicy turbot.

– [ p. 11/10 ] “NO PREMONITIONS? STRANGE DREAMS? MAD

OLD SOOTHSAYERS SHOUTING THINGS AT YOU IN THE

– [ p. 26/26 ] “ ‘You’d have to be a born fool to be a king,’

STREET?”

said Granny.”

Refers to the famous “Beware the ides of March” warning I must have read Wyrd Sisters close to twenty times by in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, act 1, scene 2.

now, and except for the last time this nice bit of foreshadowing completely passed me by.

– [ p. 14/14 ] “ ‘Can you tell by the pricking of your thumbs?’

said Magrat earnestly.”

– [ p. 30/30 ] “ ‘All the women are played by men.’ ”

Macbeth, act 4, scene 1: (2 Witch) “By the pricking of my For those who do not know: in Shakespeare’s time this was thumbs, Something wicked this way comes [. . . ]”.

indeed the case; no women were allowed on stage.

Keep an eye on Macbeth, act 4, scene 1. It’s one of Terry’s

– [ p. 35/35 ] “He’d tried to wash the blood off his hand.”

favourites in Wyrd Sisters.

Obvious, because very well known, but since I’m annotating

– [ p. 19/19 ] “Duke Felmet stared out gloomily at the all the other Shakespeare references, I might as well point dripping forest.”

out here that Felmet’s attempts to wash the blood from his hands echo Lady Macbeth’s actions in Macbeth after the Felmet’s dislike of the forest resonates with the prophecy killing of Duncan in act 5, scene 1: “Out, damned spot!”, foretelling Macbeth had nothing to fear until Birnam wood etc.

itself would march against him.

– [ p. 36/35 ] The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered At All

– [ p. 20/20 ] “There had been something about him being half a man, and. . . infirm on purpose?”

Terry invented this title; he has not written any words to it (apart from the fragments that appear in the novels); but Infirm of purpose, is what Lady Macbeth calls her husband many fans (including a folk singer called Heather Wood) in Macbeth, act 2, scene 2.

have; and there did turn out to exist an old Oxford drinking

– [ p. 20/20 ] “[. . . ] with nothing much to do but hunt, drink song that also uses the key phrase of the hedgehog song.

and exercise his droit de seigneur.”

See the Song. . . section in Chapter 5 for one documented version of that song. Terry pleads parallel evolution, and

‘Droit de seigneur’ or ‘jus primae noctae’ (‘right of first observes that: “There is a certain, how shall I put it, natural night’): a custom alleged to have existed in medieval cadence to the words.”

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 Readers of alt.fan.pratchett have also engaged in a for this custom deals with redemption dues which were collective songwriting effort, the results of which can be paid to avoid its enforcement. It probably existed as a found in the Pratchett Archives (see Chapter 6 for details), recognised custom in parts of France and possibly Italy and in the file /pub/pratchett/misc/hedgehog-song. See also Germany, but not elsewhere.

Chapter 5 for a sample.

– [ p. 22/21 ] “[. . . ] an architect who had heard about

– [ p. 50/49 ] “Nanny Ogg also kept a cat, a huge one-eyed Gormenghast but hadn’t got the budget.”

grey tom called Greebo [. . . ]”

Gormenghast is the ancient, decaying castle from Mervyn

‘Greebo’ is a word that was widely used in the early Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy. See also the annotation for seventies to describe the sort of man who wanders around p. 17/17 of Pyramids.

in oil-covered denim and leather (with similar long hair) and who settles disagreements with a motorcycle chain —

– [ p. 22/22 ] “ ‘There is a knocking without,’ he said.”

the sort who would like to be a Hell’s Angel but doesn’t have enough style.

In act 2 of Macbeth, scenes 2 and 3 have a lot of [Knocking within] in the stage directions.

– [ p. 50/50 ] “ ‘Well met by moonlight,’ said Magrat politely.

‘Merry meet. A star shines on —’ ”

– [ p. 25/25 ] “ ‘How many times have you thrown a magic ring into the deepest depths of the ocean and then, when Magrat’s first greeting comes from A Midsummer Night’s you get home and have a nice bit of turbot for your tea, Dream: “Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania”. See also the there it is?’ ”

annotation for p. 350/252 of Lords and Ladies.

Nanny’s ring story is a well-known folk tale that goes back From Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings comes the Elvish WYRD SISTERS

27

The Annotated Pratchett File

greeting: “A star shines on the hour of our meeting”.

to have only one eye.

But since then, Terry has explained on a.f.p: “Greebo is

– [ p. 53/53 ] “ ‘Every inch a king,’ said Granny.”

loosely modelled on a real cat I knew when I was a kid — he A quote from King Lear, act 4, scene 6.

had two eyes, but one was sort of pearly coloured. He’s blind in one eye.”

– [ p. 58/58 ] “ ‘A Wizard of Sorts,’ Vitoller read. ‘Or, Please Yourself.’ ”

– [ p. 88/87 ] “Magrat was picking flowers and talking to Not quite a Shakespeare title, but Please Yourself refers to them.”

both As You Like It and the subtitle of Twelfth Night : “Or What follows is a satire of the mad Ophelia in Hamlet : What You Will”.

“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.” (act

– [ p. 60/60 ] “It was the cats and the roller skates that were 4, scene 5).

currently giving him trouble. . . ”

Refers to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals Cats and

– [ p. 95/94 ] “It’s all very well calling for eye of newt, but Starlight Express.

do you mean Common, Spotted or Great Crested?”

Eye of Newt is one of the ingredients used by the witches in

– [ p. 61/60 ] “However, in Bad Ass a cockerel laid an egg Macbeth, act 4, scene 1.

and had to put up with some very embarrassing personal This scene also resonates very faintly with the famous questions.”

running gag in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail : Legend has it that from an egg laid by a cockerel and Bridgekeeper: “What. . . is the air-speed velocity hatched by a serpent, a cockatrice (also known as a of an unladen swallow?”

basilisk) will spawn. Since the cockatrice is a monster with Arthur: “What do you mean? An African or

the wings of a fowl, the tail of a dragon, and the head of a European swallow?”

cock, whose very look causes instant death, it should be Bridgekeeper: “Huh? I — I don’t know that!

clear that such an egg would be a very bad omen indeed.

Auuuuuuuugh!”

– [ p. 65/65 ] “ ‘Is this a dagger I see before me?’ he

– [ p. 103/103 ] “[. . . ] (a dandelion clock at about 2 pm).”

mumbled.”

For an explanation of the dandelion clock see the From what is probably the most famous soliloquy in annotation for p. 10/10 of The Light Fantastic.

Macbeth : act 2, scene 1. See also the annotation for p. 184/183.

– [ p. 108/107 ] “ ‘Infirm of purpose!’ ”

– [ p. 68/67 ] “The stone was about the same height as a tall Lady Macbeth says this in Macbeth, act 2, scene 2.

man, [. . . ]”

– [ p. 108/108 ] “ ‘[. . . ] and you said, “If it’s to be done, it’s This is a reference to the Rollright stones near Chipping better if it’s done quickly”, or something [. . . ]’ ”

Norton in the UK, which according to legend can not be accurately counted.

Macbeth, act 1, scene 7: “If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly.”

– [ p. 75/74 ] “A faint glow beyond the frosted panes suggested that, against all reason, a new day would soon

– [ p. 109/108 ] “Granny glanced around the dungeon.”

dawn.”

This is another misprint: it should be Nanny, not Granny.

The first scene of the first act of Shakespeare’s Hamlet Terry says the error is not present in his own version of the starts at midnight, and describes a scene lasting about text, but both the UK and USA paperbacks have it.

fifteen minutes — yet the act ends at dawn. Likewise, the summoning of WxrtHltl-jwlpklz the demon takes place at

– [ p. 127/126 ] “ ‘[. . . ] the land and the king are one.’ ”

night, but ends with the quote given above.

A concept straight out of the Arthurian legends.

+ [ p. 82 ] “[. . . ] the Twins, toddling hand in hand along the

– [ p. 128/127 ] “[. . . ] rose from the ditch like Venus midnight corridors, [. . . ]”

Anadyomene, only older and with more duckweed.”

The same image can also be found in Stanley Kubrick’s Venus Anadyomene is the classical image of Venus rising classic horror movie The Shining, where the ghosts of two from the sea (from which she was born), accompanied by small girl twins (who were horribly murdered in a ‘dark dolphins. The name is given to the famous lost painting by deed’) walk handin hand through the corridors of the Apelles, as well as to the one by Botticelli in the Accademia Overlook Hotel.

delle Belle Arti in Florence.

– [ p. 84/83 ] “[. . . ] its eyes two yellow slits of easy-going

– [ p. 133/132 ] “ ‘I have no recollection of it at this time,’ he malevolence [. . . ]”

murmured.”

In earlier editions of the APF this was flagged as one of Duke Felmet is echoing the words of Richard Nixon’s Terry’s major inconsistencies. After all, Greebo is supposed 28

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

subordinates under questioning by the Senate Committee Earnest was found, as a baby, in a handbag.

during the Watergate affair.

– [ p. 159/158 ] “It was the clowns who were giving him

– [ p. 134/133 ] “[. . . ] whirl a farmhouse to any available trouble again.”

emerald city of its choice.”

The clowns are the Marx Brothers. The third clown is A Wizard of Oz reference.

Harpo, who never speaks, only honks (“business with bladder on a stick”). The short speech that follows, “This iss

– [ p. 139/138 ] “ ‘I mean, Black Aliss was one of the best.’ ”

My Little Study. . . ” is typical Groucho, and the “Atsa right, My sources tell me that Black Annis is the name of a Boss” is Chico.

fearsome witch from Celtic/Saxon mythology.

– [ p. 159/158 ] “Thys ys amain Dainty Messe youe have got

– [ p. 142/141 ] “Greebo’s grin gradually faded, until there me into, Stanleigh ”

was nothing left but the cat. This was nearly as spooky as Laurel & Hardy. Laurel’s first name was Stan. See also the the other way round.”

annotation for p. 73/65 of The Colour of Magic.

Refers to the Cheshire cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s

– [ p. 160/159 ] The Dysk.

Adventures in Wonderland, a beast famous for slowly vanishing until only its grin remains.

The famous Globe Theatre (which was octagonal in form!) was built by Cuthbert Barbage on the Bankside in

– [ p. 145/144 ] “[. . . ] Herne the Hunted, the terrified and Southwark (London) in 1599. Shakespeare had a share in apprehensive deity of all small furry creatures [. . . ]”

the theatre and acted there.

Herne the Hunter is a spectral hunter of medieval legend, The Globe was destroyed by fire, rebuilt, and eventually said to originally have been a keeper in Windsor Forest.

completely demolished in 1644. Currently, The Globe is Herne appears in many stories, varying from Shakespeare being rebuilt again by an American entrepreneur on the (who else) to the fairly recent ITV television series “Robin South Bank, a few hundred yards from its original site.

of Sherwood” (starring Jason “son of” Connery).

– [ p. 162/161 ] “All the disk is but an Theater, he wrote, When alt.fan.pratchett readers mistakenly assumed that Ane alle men and wymmen are but Players. [. . . ]

the reference originated from this series, Terry cautioned: Sometimes they walke on. Sometimes they walke off.”

“Be careful when reference spotting. . . Herne the Hunter certainly did turn up in the Robin of Sherwood series and As You Like It, act 2, scene 7: “All the world’s a stage, And on an album by “Let’s breathe romantically to music” group all the men and women merely players: They have their Clannad, but any passing pagan will tell you he goes back a exits and their entrances; [. . . ]”

lot, lot further than that.”

– [ p. 163/162 ] “I had this dream about a little Herne the Hunter also appears himself in Lords and Ladies.

bandy-legged man walking down a road.”

Here is some relevant information condensed from the book The Western Way by John and Caitlin Matthews: I have resisted annotating this for 7 editions of the APF, but oh what the heck: Hwel is dreaming of Charlie Chaplin.

“Herne the Hunter / Cernunnos is God of green and growing things; huntsman, spirit of earth, birth and

– [ p. 165/164 ] “ ‘I said, where’s your pointy hat, dopey?’ ”

masculinity. Often pictured seated cross-legged with antlers on his brow, he is [. . . ] tutelary deity of many modern witch Dopey is one of the seven dwarfs in Walt Disney’s animated covens.”

Snow White. Terry likes toying with Disney’s dwarf names.

See for instance the annotation for p. 324/271 of Moving

– [ p. 156/155 ] “[. . . ] trying to find a laboratory opposite a Pictures.

dress shop that will keep the same dummy in the window for sixty years, [. . . ]”

– [ p. 167/166 ] “ ‘Brothers! And yet may I call all men brother, for on this night —’ ”

This refers to the 1960 movie version of H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine, where the director uses the effect described This is (in spirit) the St Crispin’s Day speech from King to indicate the rapid passing of time.

Henry V. See the annotation for p. 239/238.

– [ p. 158/158 ] “He’d sorted out the falling chandelier, and

– [ p. 182/181 ] “Double hubble, stubble trouble, Fire burn found a place for a villain who wore a mask to conceal his and cauldron bub—-”

disfigurement, [. . . ]”

The witches in Macbeth, act 4, scene 1: “Double, double toil Describes The Phantom of the Opera, another musical by and trouble; Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble.”

Andrew Lloyd Webber. See also the annotations for Maskerade.

– [ p. 169/168 ] “[. . . ] go around with axes in their belts, and call themselves names like Timkin Rumbleguts.”

– [ p. 159/158 ] “[. . . ] the hero had been born in a This is a sarcastic comment on the behaviour of most handbag.”

generic fantasy dwarfs, but of course the main image it The protagonist in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being invokes is of classic Tolkien characters like Thorin WYRD SISTERS

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The Annotated Pratchett File

Oakenshield, etc.

Sir Harold Wilson: “A week is a long time in politics”.

– [ p. 173/172 ] “ ‘We’ve got a special on GBH this season.’ ”

– [ p. 193/192 ] “1ST WITCHE: He’s late. (Pause)” [Etc.]

The abbreviation GBH stands for Grievous Bodily Harm.

Parodies Samuel Beckett’s classic play Waiting for Godot, where similar dialogue occurs.

– [ p. 178/177 ] “The pay’s the thing.”

– [ p. 199/198 ] “ ‘Did you know that an adult male carries Puns on a well-known Shakespeare quote from Hamlet (act up to five pounds of undigested red meat in his intestines at 2, scene 2):

all times?”

The play’s the thing

Stereotypical (but basically true) propaganda that radical Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king vegetarians like to quote in order to gross people out and If you have access to the Internet, you can find online get them to stop eating meat (of course, the average versions of all of Shakespeare’s plays at the URL: vegetarian has about five pounds of undigested vegetable

http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/

matter in his intestines). The cliché is used fairly often, amongst other places in the movie Beverly Hills Cop.

– [ p. 179/178 ] “ ‘I’ve got this idea about this ship wrecked Terry had this to say on the subject: “Yep. That one I got on an island, where there’s this—’ ”

from some way out vegetarian stuff I read years ago, and This can of course refer to a thousand different movies or went round feeling ill about for days. And two years ago I plays. In view of the general influences for this book, saw Beverly Hills Cop on TV and rejoiced when I heard the however, I’d bet my money on Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

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

– [ p. 181/180 ] “Round about the cauldron go, [. . . ]”

horseback, and someone creep up behind them with a banana. . . ”

What follows is a parody on Macbeth, act 4, scene 1, in which three witches boil up some pretty disgusting things Note that in Men at Arms, the second City Watch book, in their cauldron. Try reading both versions side by side.

Terry does manage to work in a Beverly Hills Cop joke. See the annotation for p. 251/190 of Men At Arms.

– [ p. 182/181 ] “He punched the rock-hard pillow, and sank into a fitful sleep. Perchance to dream.”

– [ p. 207/206 ] “ ‘All hail wossname,’ she said under her breath, ‘who shall be king here, after.’ ”

Taken from the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy in Hamlet.

Macbeth, act 1, scene 2: “All hail, Macbeth; that shalt be king hereafter!”

– [ p. 183/182 ] “KING: Now if I could just find my horsey. . . ”

– [ p. 208/207 ] “ ‘Is anyone sitting here?’ he said.”

Hwel’s script is Richard III done as a Punch-and-Judy show.

Macbeth, act 3, scene 4:

Macbeth: ‘The table’s full.’

– [ p. 184/183 ] “Is this a duck I see before me, its beak Lennox: ‘Here is a place reserv’d, sir.’

pointing at me?”

Macbeth: ‘Where?’

Macbeth, act 2, scene 1 again. See the annotation for Visible only to Macbeth the ghost of Banquo is sitting in his p. 65/65.

chair.

– [ p. 186/185 ] “Leonard of Quirm. He’s a painter, really.”

– [ p. 211/210 ] “ ‘We’re scheming evil secret black and Refers to Leonardo da Vinci, who also worked on (but didn’t midnight hags!’ ”

succeed in building) a flying machine.

Macbeth, act 4, scene 1: “How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!” See also the annotation for p. 186/152 of

– [ p. 186/185 ] “We grow old, Master Hwel. [. . . ] We have Mort.

heard the gongs at midnight.”

Shakespeare again: King Henry IV, part 2, act 3, scene 2:

– [ p. 212/211 ] “ ‘I never shipwrecked anybody!’ she said.”

“FALSTAFF: Old, old, Master Shallow. [. . . ] We have heard Neither did the three witches from Macbeth, if you read the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.”

carefully, but I nevertheless think there is a reference here: act 1, scene 3.

– [ p. 189/188 ] “ ‘There’s many a slip twixt dress and drawers.’ ”

– [ p. 213/212 ] “I’d like to know if I could compare you to a A Nanny Ogg variant on the saying “There’s many a slip summer’s day. Because — well, June 12th was quite nice,

‘tween the cup and the lip” (‘slip’ here meaning ‘petticoat’).

and . . . ”

One of Shakespeare’s more famous sonnets (Sonnet XVIII,

– [ p. 189/188 ] “ ‘A week is a long time in magic,’ said to be precise) starts out:

Nanny.”

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

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DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

Thou art more lovely and more temperate

got people to charge into battle at five o’clock in the morning. . . ”

– [ p. 213/212 ] “ ‘But I never walked like that! Why’s he got Shakespeare’s Henry V was just such a king, and Terry is a hump on his back? What’s happened to his leg?’ ”

referring here to the ‘St Crispin’s Day’ speech in King A reference to Richard the Third. A rather appropriate Henry V, act 4, scene 3:

reference: in Shakespeare’s Richard III, he is presented as And gentlemen in England now a-bed

an evil, lame, hunchbacked king, whom Henry must kill to Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not save England. This is not historically correct — rather it is here,

how Henry would have liked people to remember it. Had And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks Shakespeare strayed from the ‘official’ version he would That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

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.’ ”

Pyramids

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

– [ p. 5/5 ] The Titles of the Books

pressure.”

Pyramids is split into four ‘Books’, a structure that gives it

– [ p. 214/213 ] “ ‘Ditch-delivered by a drabe’, they said.”

a unique position amongst the otherwise chapterless Discworld novels (The Colour of Magic doesn’t really count One of the ingredients in Macbeth, act 4, scene 1 is a

— it’s a collection of linked novellas, not a single novel with

“finger of birth-strangled babe, ditch-delivered by a drabe”.

chapters or sections).

– [ p. 225/225 ] “—THE NEXT NIGHT IN YOUR DRESSING

Book I is The Book of Going Forth, which refers to The Book ROOM THEY HANG A STAR—”

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 Death is quoting from ‘There’s No Business Like Show direct reference to the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Book III Business’, the song from the Irvin Berlin musical Annie Get is The Book of the New Son which puns on the title of the Your Gun, also performed by Ethel Merman in the 1954

Gene Wolfe SF novel The Book of the New Sun (perhaps movie There’s No Business Like Show Business.

there is an earlier title both authors are drawing on, but I

– [ p. 227/226 ] “ ‘[. . . ] who would have thought he had so haven’t been able to trace it). Book IV, finally, is The Book of much blood in him?’ ”

101 Things A Boy Can Do, which gives a nod to the typical titles sported a few decades ago by books containing Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, act 5, scene 1: “Yet who would wholesome, innocent, practical, but above all educational have thought the old man to have had so much blood in activities for children.

him”.

– [ p. 7/7 ] “[. . . ] the only turtle ever to feature on the

– [ p. 235/234 ] “Like Bognor.”

Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, [. . . ]”

Bognor Regis is a town on the south coast of England, The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram depicts the evolution of between Brighton and Portsmouth. A sleepy seaside resort, stars, plotting luminosity (how strongly they emit light) it is best-known for King George V’s attributed last words, versus surface temperature (determined from their colour).

supposedly said after his physician told him he would soon be brought to Bognor to convalesce: “Bugger Bognor!”.

– [ p. 8/8 ] “Some people think a giant dung beetle pushes it.”

– [ p. 236/235 ] “ ‘Can you remember what he said after all those tomorrows?’ ”

The ancient Egyptians did, for instance.

Macbeth, act 5, scene 5, from a another famous soliloquy:

– [ p. 10/10 ] “Morpork was twinned with a tar pit.”

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

A reference to the concept of twin cities.

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

Following the horrors of the Second World War, and in the To the last syllable of recorded time;

spirit of egalitarianism and common feeling for our fellow And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

men which prevailed at that time, it was decided that the The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!

best way to cement bonds between the people of the world Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player

so that they would never ever even consider dropping big That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, noisy things on each other again, was to have every town, And then is heard no more: it is a tale

village and (apparently) cowshed in Europe ‘twinned’ with Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

an equivalent one which had previously been on the other Signifying nothing.

side.

– [ p. 239/238 ] “They were far more the type of kings who With these new-found unities, the merry laughing people of PYRAMIDS

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The Annotated Pratchett File

Europe would engage in fraternal and sporting activities, with minimum vehicle stopping distances, which examiners school-children would go on two-week exchange visits to almost never ask about.

discover that they couldn’t stand sauerkraut, and the respective mayors of the towns would be able to present

– [ p. 14/14 ] “He [. . . ] jumped a narrow gap on to the tiled each other with touching and expensive symbols of roof of the Young Men’s

international friendship and get in the local paper all on Reformed-Cultists-of-the-Ichor-God-Bel-Shamharoth other peoples’ money.

Association gym, [. . . ]”

The most visible effect of this accord is the presumptuous Refers our world’s YMCA youth hostels. YMCA stands for little legend under the sign at the entrance to towns and

‘Young Men’s Christian Association’, and is often made fun villages saying “Little Puddlebury — twinned with of (e.g. Monthy Python and their ‘Young Men’s Obermacht am Rhein”. Some towns (Croydon springs to Anti-Christian Association’).

mind) got a little over-enthusiastic about twinning, with the See also the annotation for p. 88/88 of The Light Fantastic.

result that they are coupled to several towns, which makes the sign saying “Croydon welcomes careful drivers” look

– [ p. 15/15 ] “[. . . ] the narrow plank bridge that led across reminiscent of a seventeen-year-old’s jacket at a Guns n’

Tinlid Alley.”

Roses concert.

In our world, Tin Pan Alley is the popular name for the area You may — or may not — care to know that the UK town of in New York City near 14th Street, where many publishers Cowes has a twin relation with the New Zealand township of popular songs had their offices in the late 19th / early of Bulls.

20th century. Aspiring composers would audition their new songs, and the din of so many songs being pounded out of

– [ p. 11/11 ] “Teppic paused alongside a particularly pianos up and down the street gave the district its name.

repulsive gargoyle [. . . ] He found himself drumming his Another theory has it that the name derived from the fingers on the gargoyle, [. . . ] Mericet appeared in front of rattling of tins by rivals when a performance was too loud him, wiping grey dust off his bony face.”

and too protracted.

It may not be immediately obvious from the text, but In England, Denmark Street, off Charing Cross Road, was Mericet was the gargoyle. Teppic had been leaning on his also called Tin Pan Alley.

camouflaged instructor all the time. This is another annotation which I am only putting in after repeated Today the phrase simply refers to the music publishing requests from readers. Personally, I feel that ‘getting’ this is industry in general, and it is therefore no surprise that simply a question of careful reading. But a quick straw poll later, in Soul Music, we learn that the Guild of Musicians of a.f.p. readers showed most were in favour of explicitly have their headquarters there.

annotating it, so in it went.

– [ p. 17/17 ] “Oh, Djelibeybi had been great once, [. . . ]”

Terry was once asked at a talk if he was always fully in The name Djelibeybi puns on the sweets called Jelly Babies.

control of his characters and events or if they tended to run See also the annotation for p. 109/82 of Soul Music.

away with him. The answer was: always in control — with one single exception. The whole of the assassin It has been remarked that there are quite a few parallels examination sequence in Pyramids was written “almost in a between the country of Djelibeybi and the castle of trance” with no idea of what was to happen next. It is one Gormenghast as described by Mervyn Peake in his of his favourite bits.

Gormenghast trilogy (which we know Terry has read because in Equal Rites he compares Unseen University to

– [ p. 12/12 ] Teppic’s test.

Gormenghast, and in Wyrd Sisters he does the same with Teppic’s examination is heavily modelled on the British Lancre Castle). The hero of Gormenghast, Titus, also has a Driving test, which, as with the other important tests in mother with a cat obsession, and his father died because he British life such as 16- and 18-plus exams, undergraduate thought he was an owl. Furthermore, the atmosphere of finals, and doctoral vitas is not actually intended to test decay, ancient history and unchanging ritual pervades both whether you are actually any good at what is being tested, Djelibeybi and Gormenghast, with in both cases the concentrating instead on your proficiency at following presence of arbiters of tradition who are almost as powerful arbitrary instructions.

as (or even more so than) the actual ruler.

Many of the elements of a driving test are present in the For those interested in pursuing Gormenghast further passages which follow: The short list of questions, the sign (people who have read it almost invariably seem to think on a small card (often held upside down), the clipboard.

it’s a work of genius), the names of the three novels are Mericet’s rather stilted language, “Now, I want you to Titus Groan (1946), Gormenghast (1950) and Titus Alone proceed at your own pace towards the Street of (1959, revised 1970).

Book-keepers, obeying all signs and so forth”, is almost a

– [ p. 19/19 ] “[. . . ] the Plague of Frog.”

direct parody, as is the little speech at the end of the test.

The ‘Emergency Drop’ (p. 42/42) is the ‘Emergency Stop’, Refers to the Biblical ‘Plague of Frogs’ from Exodus.

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

– [ p. 20/20 ] On the subject of the Assassin’s Guild School, times”. Finally, the back of the Highway Code has a table Terry has this to say: “Yes, the whole setup of the Assassin’s 32

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

Guild school has, uh, a certain resonance with Rugby I was later informed that ‘Pterry’ was also the name of a School in Tom Brown’s Schooldays (note to Americans: a pterodactyl on a kids’ TV program called Jigsaw, but as far minor Victorian classic of school literature which no-one as I can recall Terry’s nickname was not coined with that in reads anymore and which is probably now more famous for mind.

the first appearance of the Flashman character subsequently popularised by George MacDonald Fraser).”

– [ p. 50/49 ] “It’s rather like smashing a sixer in conkers.”

Teppic and his friends map directly to corresponding Conkers are the nuts of the Horse Chestnut — not the one characters in Tom Brown’s Schooldays: Teppic is Tom, you eat, the other one with the really spiky outer covering.

Chidder is Harry “Scud” East, Arthur is George Arthur and It is a regular autumn pass-time in England for school-boys Cheesewright is sort of Flashman, but not exactly.

to put conkers on the end of bits of string, and commence doing battle.

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 The game of conkers is played by two players, almost roasted in front of the fire by Flashy and his cronies. The always by challenge. One player holds his conker up at reference to blanket-tossing on p. 45/44, which Arthur puts arms length on the end of its bit of string, and the other a stop to, is also an incident in Tom Brown, on Tom’s first player tries to swing his one with sufficient force to break day. The scene in the dormitory on the first night, when the other player’s conker. After a swing, roles are reversed.

Arthur gets down to say his prayers, also has an equivalent Since this is a virtually solely male sport, whose in the book.

participants’ average age is about seven (although there is a bunch of nutters who regularly get on local news

– [ p. 39/38 ] “ ‘Truly, the world is the mollusc of your programmes with their “world championship”), there is of choice. . . ’ ”

course much potential for strategic ‘misses’ against the opponents knuckles, or indeed against almost any other The oyster is, of course, a mollusc.

part of his anatomy.

– [ p. 45/44 ] “[. . . ] the day when Fliemoe and some cronies In the (rather unlikely, usually) event of one conker had decided [. . . ]”

breaking the other one, the winning conker becomes a Someone on a.f.p. noticed that ‘Flymo’ is a brand of

‘one-er’. A conker which has won twice, is a ‘two-er’. Hence lawnmower, and wondered if there was a connection. Terry a ‘sixer’ (although it must be remembered that there are of replied:

course the usual collection of bogus seventeeners and sixty-seveners which circulate the black market of the

“Er. I may as well reveal this one. That section of the book playing field). There is a black art as to how to ensure that is ‘somewhat like’ Tom Brown’s Schooldays. A bully (right your conker becomes a sixer — baking very slowly in the hand man to the famous Flashman) was Speedicut.

oven overnight, is one approach, as is soaking for a week in Speedicut is (was?) a name for a type of lawnmower — I vinegar. Most of these methods tend to make the conkers, if know, because I had to push the damn thing. . . Hence. . .

anything, more rather than less brittle. There’s probably a Fliemoe.

lesson for us all in there somewhere.

Well, it’s better than mugging old ladies. . . ”

– [ p. 50/49 ] The legend of Ankh-Morpork being founded by

– [ p. 45/44 ] “It transpired that he was the son of the late two orphaned brothers who had been found and suckled by Johan Ludorum [. . . ].”

a hippopotamus refers to the legend of Romulus and Remus who were two orphaned brothers raised by a wolf, who later At a British public school/grammar school sports day, the went on to found Rome (the brothers did, not the wolf).

pupil who overall won the most, was declared ‘Victor Ludorum’ — “Winner of the games”.

– [ p. 58/56 ] “Hoot Koomi, high priest of Khefin [. . . ]

stepped forward.”

– [ p. 45/45 ] “He could send for Ptraci, his favourite handmaiden.”

The name Koot Hoomi (or Kuthhumi) is a Sanskrit word that means ‘teacher’.

Should be pronounced with a silent ‘p’. Note also that in the UK the name Tracey (Sharon, too) is often used to Koot Hoomi is the author of a series of letters that were generically refer to the kind of girl immortalised in the published as The Mahatma Letters To A. P. Sinnett, and

“dumb blonde” jokes, or Essex Girl jokes as they are known which form the basis of many theosophical teachings.

in the UK.

– [ p. 63/62 ] “ ‘Look, master Dil,’ said Gern, [. . . ]”

This annotation may also help explain why over on alt.fan.pratchett people regularly and affectionately refer Since not everyone is familiar with all those weird English to their Favourite Author as ‘Pterry’ (although the lazier food items, this is probably a good place to point out that participants usually just refer to him as TP, conforming to there is a red line that runs from ‘Dil the Embalmer’ to ‘Dill the sometimes bloody annoying Usenet habit of the Pickler’ to ‘dill pickle’, a British delicacy.

acronymising everything longer than two words or four characters, whichever comes first. Hence DW stands for

– [ p. 64/62 ] “ ‘Get it? Your name in lights, see?’ ”.

Discworld, TCOM for The Colour of Magic, and APF for

“Your name in lights” is generally a term indicative of Annotated Pratchett File — but you already knew that).

achieved fame and success. In this context, however, not PYRAMIDS

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The Annotated Pratchett File

everybody may be aware that ‘lights’ is also a word but what not many people outside Britain will realise is that originally describing the lungs of sheep, pigs, etc., but more the hippo’s bottom comes from an advert for Slumberdown generally used for all kinds of internal organs. Presumably beds, which featured a hippo sitting down next to a chick.

Gern has taken various parts of the dead king and spelt out Dil’s name.

– [ 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

– [ p. 64/62 ] “ ‘[. . . ] I didn’t think much of the Gottle of explain a similar dream (which did not have the bit about Geer routine, either.’ ”

the trombone, though), to the Pharaoh. Pyramids is of course riddled with religious references, most of which are Ventriloquists who want to demonstrate their skill will too obvious or too vague to warrant inclusion here.

include the phrase “bottle of beer” as part of their patter.

However, as it is impossible to pronounce the ‘B’ without

– [ p. 100/97 ] “All things are defined by names. Change the moving your lips, it usually comes out as “gottle of geer”.

name, and you change the thing.”

Gern has presumably been playing macabre ventriloquism games with the corpse.

This is a very ancient concept in magic and ‘primitive’

religions. Although I haven’t asked him, I’m willing to bet

– [ p. 64/63 ] “ ‘Good big sinuses, which is what I always money that Terry did not take his inspiration from Ursula look for in a king.’ ”

Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, despite the many emails I have received suggesting a connection.

In the process of embalming, the Egyptians removed the deceased’s brain through the nose cavity. That’s all I know For a definitive reference on this subject, read James about the process, and if it’s all right with you people I’d George Frazer’s The Golden Bough.

rather keep it that way.

– [ p. 102/99 ] “[. . . ] I am a stranger in a familiar land.”

– [ p. 71/69 ] “ ‘Do I really have to wear this gold mask?’ ”

The phrase “stranger in a strange land” originates from the Terry has confirmed that the scenes in which Dios dresses Bible, Exodus 2:22, “And she bare [Moses] a son, and he up Teppic in his King’s outfit (starting with the Flail of called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a Mercy and culminating in the Cabbage of Vegetative stranger in a strange land.”

Increase) are a parody of the old BBC children’s game show Since the “strange land” in question was Egypt, there’s a Crackerjack. In this show the contestants were asked nice resonance with Pyramids itself in Terry’s use of the questions, and for each correct answer they received a phrase.

prize, which they had to hold on to. If they answered wrong, they were given a large cabbage, increasing the These days, people may be more familiar with the quote as likelihood of dropping everything. The person left at the the title of Robert Heinlein’s 60s cult science fiction book.

end who hadn’t dropped anything won the game.

– [ p. 109/105 ] “ ‘Doppelgangs,’ he said.”

– [ p. 73/71 ] “ ‘Interfamilial marriage is a proud tradition of Pun on the German word ‘doppelgänger’, meaning ‘body our lineage,’ said Dios.”

double’. Thanks to dozens of bad sf-movies the word has Teppic is astonished to hear that his

entered the English language in the mostly sinister great-great-grandmother once declared herself male as a meaning of some metamorphic life form taking the shape of matter of political expediency. It was in fact indeed the a human being.

custom of the Egyptians to marry their pharaohs to close relatives, and Hatshepsut, daughter of Thutmose I, wife and

– [ p. 127/121 ] Notice the sound accompanying the half-sister of Thutmose II, and mother-in-law of Thutmose pyramid flares. It phonetically spells ‘Cheops’.

III actually did proclaim herself king in order to seize the

– [ p. 134/128 ] “It seemed to Teppic that its very weight throne.

was deforming the shape of things, stretching the kingdom Incidentally, Dios is using the wrong word here: A marriage like a lead ball on a rubber sheet.”

between relatives would be intrafamilial, not interfamilial.

This metaphor ties in neatly with the quantum aspects of

– [ p. 90/87 ] “ ‘This thing could put an edge on a rolling the Pyramids: rubber sheets distorted by balls are one pin.’ ”

popular way of visualising Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The sheet represents the space-time-continuum, See the annotation for p. 35/35 of The Light Fantastic.

and the balls are bits of mass (like suns and planets). The There’s another more explicit reference on p. 140/134: balls press down and deform the space around them. When

“[. . . ] contrary to popular opinion pyramids don’t sharpen things try to move along the rubber sheet, not only are they razor blades”.

attracted into the dimples in the sheet (gravity), but things like light which try to travel in a straight line find little

– [ p. 95/91 ] “ ‘Squiggle, constipated eagle, wiggly line, kinks in their path around an object.

hippo’s bottom, squiggle’ [. . . ] the Sun God Teppic had Plumbing Installed and Scorned the Pillows of his

– [ p. 144/138 ] “ ‘She can play the dulcimer,’ said the ghost Forebears.”

of Teppicymon XXVII, apropos of nothing much.”

The constipated eagle is obviously the plumbing system, Reference to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Kubla Khan. See 34

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also the annotation for p. 127/115 of Sourcery.

(“the greatest storyteller in the history of the world”) might refer to both Homer (because of the name) and Herodotus,

– [ p. 156/150 ] “[. . . ] distilling the testicles of a small

‘the father of history’, who was known for his very chatty tree-dwelling species of bear with the vomit of a whale, and discursive style, and who basically made his living as a

[. . . ]”

story-teller/dinner guest. Pthagonal (“a very acute man Animal substances are extensively used as fixatives in with an angle”) refers to Pythagoras. Iesope (“the greatest perfume. Examples include musk (from deer-testicles; teller of fables”) to Aesop. Antiphon (“the greatest writer of

‘musk’ is Sanskrit for ‘scrotum’), ambergris (from the comic plays”) to Aristophanes. And Ibid (whose name intestines of whales) and castor (from a beaver’s perineal reminds us of Ovid) is actually short for ibidem, which gland).

means, when citing literature references: ‘same author as before’. Hence the quip later on: “Ibid you already know”.

– [ p. 157/150 ] “. . . Phi * 1700[u/v]. Lateral e/v. Equals a The only one left is Endos the Listener, who is perhaps tranche of seven to twelve. . . ”

meant to portray the standard

Some confusion has arisen here, because the asterisk second-man-in-a-Socratic-dialogue — the man who spends symbol ‘*’ is the same one used in at least some of the the entire dialogue saying things like “That is correct, editions of Pyramids as a footnote marker. This has caused Socrates”, “I agree”, “you’re right”, “your reasoning a few people to wonder if there’s a ‘missing footnote’

appears correct”, and the like.

intended for this page. Matters are not helped much by the Also, an ‘antiphon’ is a name for a versicle or sentence sung fact that the American paperback edition does contain the by one choir in response to another (e.g.: “No you can’t /

text of a footnote on (their equivalent of) p. 157/150. This Yes I can!” repeated many times with rising pitch. Or a footnote is simply misplaced and the marker for it occurs on more modern example would perhaps be Queen’s

the previous page (see also previous annotation).

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’: “No, we will not let you go / Let me We’ll let Terry have the last word in order to remove any go!”). ‘Copolymer’ is a term from chemistry; it refers to a remaining doubt: “I’m pretty sure the missing footnote in polymer (plastic) made from more than one kind of Pyramids doesn’t exist. If it’s what I’m thinking of, we just monomer (simple compound).

bunged in loads of gibberish maths and among the symbols

[ Finally, my source also suspects that Copolymer’s was, yes, ‘*’.”

monologue may be a take-off on a particular translation of I am told that in later paperback editions the asterisk in his Histories. Anybody? ]

question has been entirely removed from the text.

– [ p. 179/172 ] “ ‘The tortoise did beat the hare,’ said Xeno

– [ p. 168/162 ] “ ‘I’ve got as far as “Goblins Picnic” in Book sulkily.”

I.’ ”

Reference to Aesop’s classic fable The Hare and the After the children’s song called “Teddy Bears’ Picnic”: Tortoise.

If you go down to the woods today

If you have access to the Internet, you can find an online You’re sure of a big surprise

version of the Aesop fables at the URL:

If you go down to the woods today

ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/literary/obi/Aesop/Fables.Z

You’d better go in disguise

For ev’ry bear that ever there was

– [ p. 180/173 ] “Now their gods existed. They had, as it Will gather there for certain, because

were, the complete Set.”

Today’s the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic.

For those of you whose Egyptian mythology is a little rusty: Set, brother to Isis and Osiris and father of Anubis, was the

– [ p. 176/169 ] The philosophers shooting arrows at Egyptian God of evil and darkness.

tortoises are discussing one of Zeno’s three motion paradoxes. See also Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher,

– [ p. 181/174 ] “ ‘Sacrifice a chicken under his nose.’ ”

Bach. Or Zeno.

Refers to the old practice of burning a feather under the

– [ p. 178/171 ] “The rest of them die of Heisenberg’s nose of an unconscious or fainted person.

Uncertainty Principle, [. . . ]”

– [ p. 181/174 ] “ ‘[. . . ] here comes Scarab again. . . yes, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle (HUP) says that for a he’s gaining height. . . Jeht hasn’t seen him yet, [. . . ].’ ”

quantum particle (e.g. an electron), it is impossible to know with complete accuracy both where it is and how fast it is The high priest’s commentary on the gods’ battle for the going. The act of observing it interferes with the event you sun is obviously based on sports commentators. In want to measure (in fact, one might say that at the quantum particular, several of the phrases are based on the diction of level the observation is the event) in such a way that it is David Coleman, a popular British figure of fun noted for his physically impossible to determine both velocity and somewhat loose grasp on reality and his tendency towards position of the particle in question.

redundancy and solecism. In fact, an amusingly redundant comment spoken live by a personality is sometimes referred

– [ p. 179/171 ] Philosophers’ names.

to as a ‘Colemanball’, after the column of that name in the satirical magazine Private Eye.

Xeno refers to Zeno, of aforementioned paradox. Copolymer PYRAMIDS

35

The Annotated Pratchett File

Typical Colemanballs include, “. . . He’s a real fighter, this

– [ p. 270/259 ] “And it was while he was staring vaguely lad, who believes that football’s a game of two halves, and ahead, [. . . ] that there was a faint pop in the air and an that it isn’t over until the final whistle blows”, or during the entire river valley opened up in front of him.”

test (cricket) matches, “And he’s coming up to bowl now. . .

People interested in more stories about magically The bowler’s Holding, the batsman’s Willey. . . ”. (That last disappearing valleys are referred to R. A. Lafferty’s one wasn’t even by David Coleman, but still qualifies as a

‘Narrow Valley’ (to be found in his collection Nine Hundred Colemanball).

Grandmothers), where a half a mile wide valley is sorcerously narrowed (with its inhabitants) to a few feet

– [ p. 197/189 ] “ ‘Symposium’ meant a knife-and-fork tea.”

and then opened up again by the end of the story.

Etymologically, a symposium is indeed a “get-together for a drink”. Since the Greeks believed in lubricating intellectual

– [ p. 271/259 ] “[. . . ] the birds said more with a simple discussion with drink, the term eventually came to be used bowel movement than Ozymandias ever managed to say.”

for a meeting which combined elements of partying and Ozymandias was the Greek name for Ramses the Second.

intellectual interchange.

Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Ozymandias is famous, but because it is short and it has always been a favourite of

– [ p. 197/189 ] The Tsortean wars refer to the Trojan wars.

mine I hope you will forgive me the indulgence of (Read also Eric. Or Homer.)

reproducing it here in full:

– [ p. 201/193 ] “A philosopher had averred that although Ozymandias

truth was beauty, beauty was not necessarily truth, and a I met a traveler from an antique land

fight was breaking out.”

Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone A famous quotation from John Keats’ ‘Ode on a Grecian Stand in the desert. . . Near them, on the sand, Urn’:

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ — that is all Tell that their sculptor well those passions read Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless

things,

– [ p. 204/195 ] “[. . . ] ships called the Marie Celeste, [. . . ]”

The hand that mocked them and the heart that

The Marie Celeste left port in 1872 with a full crew, but was fed;

later found (by the crew of the Dei Gratia), abandoned on And on the pedestal these words appear:

the open sea, with no crew, the single lifeboat missing, and

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

half-eaten meals in the mess hall. It was later discovered Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’

that captain Morehouse of the Dei Gratia had dined with Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

the captain of the Celeste the night before she sailed, and Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

Morehouse and his crew were eventually tried for murder, The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

but acquitted because there was no hard evidence. The While I was browsing the net in order to find an on-line missing crewmen were never found.

copy of Ozymandias so that I could cut-and-paste the text, I

– [ p. 205/197 ] “And one of them had reputedly turned came across a wonderful piece of related information. It himself into a golden shower in pursuit of his intended.”

appears that in 1817 Shelley held a sonnet-writing session with his friend, the poet Horace Smith. Both wrote a sonnet According to Greek mythology the beautiful Danaë had on the same subject, but while Shelley came up with the been locked away in a dungeon by her father (King Acrisius aforementioned Ozymandias, Mr Smith produced

of Argos) because a prophecy had foretold that his grandson something so delightfully horrendous I simply have to would slay him. But Zeus, King of the Gods, came upon indulge even further, and include it here as well. By now Danaë in a shower of gold, and fathered Perseus upon her.

the connection to our original annotation has been completely lost, but I think you might agree with me that

+ [ p. 221 ] “[. . . ] every camel knew what two bricks added Smith’s poem would be worthy of Creosote:

up to.”

On a Stupendous Leg of Granite, Discovered

In jokes, the castration (or, as the punchline dictates, Standing by Itself in

speeding up) of camels is achieved by taking two bricks and the Deserts of Egypt, with the Inscription Inserted smashing the animal’s testicles between them.

Below.

– [ p. 250/239 ] “ ‘Go, tell the Ephebians —’ he began.”

In Egypt’s sandy silence, all alone,

Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws

This is a paraphrase of “Go tell the Spartans”, which is the The only shadow that the Desert knows.

beginning of the memorial for the Spartan soldiers who got

“I am great Ozymandias,” saith the stone,

massacred by the Persians at Thermopylae as a result of

“The King of kings: this mighty city shows

Greek treachery. The full quote is given by Simonides (5th The wonders of my hand.” The city’s gone!

century BC) as:

Naught but the leg remaining to disclose

Go, tell the Spartans, thou who passest by,

The sight of that forgotten Babylon.

That here obedient to their laws we lie

We wonder, and some hunter may express

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Wonder like ours, when through the wilderness Someone on a.f.p. asked Terry if the name or the character Where London stood, holding the wolf in chase, of Carrot was perhaps inspired by an old American comic He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess called Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew. Terry What wonderful, but unrecorded, race

answered:

Once dwelt in that annihilated place.

“Never heard of it. The TRUE answer is that when I was The poem was cited by Guy Davenport of the University of writing the book an electrician was rewiring our house and Kentucky in a New York Times article a few years ago, the nickname of his red-haired apprentice was Carrot. It which concluded: “Genius may also be knowing how to title kind of stuck in my mind.”

a poem.”

– [ p. 29/27 ] “ ‘And Bob’s your uncle.’ ”

+ [ p. 273 ] “ ‘You said it worked for Queen wossname, Some people have been wondering just where this Ram-Jam-Hurrah, or whoever,’ said Chidder.”

expression comes from (the joke also occurs on p. 16/15

Legend has it that Cleopatra had herself smuggled to and p. 108/98). Terry himself gives the following answer: Caesar inside an oriental rug.

“Apparently from a 19th Century Prime Minister, Lord Robert Stanley, who was a great one for nepotism. If you

– [ p. 277/265 ] “ ‘For the asses’ milk?’ said Koomi [. . . ]”

got a good Government job it was because “Bob’s your See the annotation for p. 161/132 of Mort.

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 cliché from most film noir. The seedy detective’s Guards! Guards!

office or apartment always has a big neon sign just outside the window.

– [ p. 10/10 ] “ ‘Hooray, hooray for the spinster’s sister’s

– [ p. 51/48 ] The motto of the Night Watch, “FABRICATI daughter.’ ”

DIEM, PVNC”, is dog Latin for “Make my day, punk”.

This recalls the ritual question “Is there no help for the

“Go ahead, make my day” is a well-known Clint ‘Dirty Widow’s Son?” in Masonic ritual.

Harry’ Eastwood quote. The ‘punk’ comes from another famous Dirty Harry scene (see the annotation for

– [ p. 16/15 ] “ ‘Let’s say a skion turns up, walks up to the p. 136/124)

Patrician [. . . ]’ ”

Notice also that the translation Terry supplies (“To protect The correct spelling is actually ‘scion’, meaning “young and to serve”) is actually the motto of the Los Angeles descendant of a noble family”.

Police Force.

My source tells me that Hollywood writers and directors,

– [ p. 18/17 ] “ ‘Yea, the king will come [. . . ] and Protect and notorious for the accuracy of their movies and TV shows, Serve the People with his Sword.’ ”

tend to have all police cars bear this motto. In a sort of This is Terry having fun with foreshadowing again. The reverse formation, this has caused some individual police prophecy of Brother Plasterer’s granddad describes Carrot forces across the USA to adopt it, so that by now the motto to a tee, with the “Protect and Serve” tying in neatly with has become fairly wide-spread.

the motto of the City Watch (see the annotation for p. 51/48).

– [ p. 53/49 ] “ ‘The E. And the T sizzles when it rains.’ ”

The magic tavern sign Brother Watchtower is stealing has a

– [ p. 20/19 ] “ ‘They were myths and they were real,’ he burnt-out ‘E’ and a sizzling ‘T’ just like the ‘HOT L

said loudly. ‘Both a wave and a particle.’ ”

BALTIMORE’ sign in the play of the same name.

Reference to the wave/particle duality theory of e.g. light, which appears to have the properties of both a wave and a

– [ p. 54/49 ] “[. . . ] a certain resemblance to a chimpanzee particle, depending upon what context you are working in.

who never got invited to tea parties.”

For the entertainment of their younger visitors, British zoos

– [ p. 21/19 ] “ ‘That was where you had to walk on used to have the tradition of holding Chimpanzees’ Tea ricepaper wasn’t it,’ said Brother Watchtower Parties, where the chimps were dressed up and seated at a conversationally.”

table, drinking and eating from a plastic tea set.

Reference to the old David Carradine TV series, Kung Fu.

Chimp tea parties have remained in the British In one of the earliest episodes our Shaolin monk-in-training consciousness due to the TV advertisements for PG Tips tea was tasked to walk along a sheet of ricepaper without bags featuring chimps pouring tea.

ripping it or leaving a mark.

– [ p. 55/51 ] “ ‘Shershay la fem, eh? Got a girl into

– [ p. 26/24 ] “It wasn’t only the fresh mountain air that had trouble?’ ”

given Carrot his huge physique.”

“Cherchez la femme” (“look for the woman”) is a cliché

GUARDS! GUARDS!

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The Annotated Pratchett File

phrase of pulp detective fiction: when someone’s wife has Definitely a British phenomenon.

been murdered one should always search for signs of another woman’s involvement.

– [ p. 91/83 ] “It was strange, he felt, that so-called intelligent dogs, horses and dolphins never had any

– [ p. 60/55 ] “ ‘Good day! Good day! What is all of this that difficulty indicating to humans the vital news of the moment is going on here (in this place)?’ ”

[. . . ]”

Carrot’s actions and words in this scene mirror the Just for the record: some famous television/movie dogs behaviour of the stereotypical British friendly fitting this description are Lassie and Rin Tin Tin; horse neighbourhood bobby attempting to break up a family examples are Champion, Trigger, Silver (“I said posse!”), argument or innocent street brawl. Nearly all my and Black Beauty; the only dolphin example I know of is correspondents trace this stereotype directly back to the probably the most famous of them all: Flipper.

sixties BBC television series Dixon of Dock Green, where Australian fans have expressed their disappointment that every bobby was your friend and it was perfectly acceptable Terry left out Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, whose ability to for a copper to walk into a room and say “ ‘Ello! ‘Ello!

communicate very complex, often extremely abstract What’s going on ‘ere then?”. Calling people ‘sunshine’ (next concepts with a bit of clicking and hopping around was footnote on the page), and signing off with “Evening, all”

apparently a wonder to behold.

are apparently also Dixonisms.

Terry later more than made up for this when he introduced

– [ p. 62/56 ] “ ‘Evenin’, Detritus.’ ”

Scrappy the Kangaroo as a character in The Last Continent.

See also the annotation for p.55 of that book.

‘Detritus’ is a word meaning “any loose matter, e.g. stones, sand, silt, formed by rock disintegration”.

+ [ p. 91/83 ] “And then he went out on to the streets, untarnished and unafraid.”

– [ p. 64/59 ] “ ‘What’d he mean, Justices?’ he said to Nobby.

‘There ain’t no Justices.’ ”

“But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.” is a This annotation has been the subject of some heated a.f.p.

well-known quote — that describes Carrot to a tee — from discussion (and if you think that this is a silly thing to get Raymond Chandler’s essay The Simple Art of Murder.

worked up over, you are obviously not familiar with alt.fan.pratchett. Or with Usenet, for that matter).

– [ p. 93/85 ] “ ‘Who loves you, pussycat?’, said Nobby under Anyway, there were a few people who felt that Terry was his breath.”

referring here to Larry Niven’s Ringworld series, where the main character, Louis Wu, always uses the phrase “There Nice amalgamation of TV detective Kojak’s use of the word ain’t no justice” (abbreviated as “TANJ”). Other people

‘pussycat’ and his catchphrase “Who loves ya, baby?”.

found this connection incredibly far-fetched for such a generic sentence, and said so rather forcefully.

– [ 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 Eventually, Terry stepped in and short-circuited the entire dragon fly”

discussion by writing: “Mostly in the Discworld books, particularly Mort, the phrase is “There’s no justice” so that Sounds reminiscent of the ‘I’ve never seen an elephant fly’

it can be balanced with “There’s just me/you/us”. And that song which the crows sing in Walt Disney’s 1941 movie phrase is truly generic. Really, so is “There ain’t no justice”

Dumbo. Another similar children’s song is called ‘The

— it’s just that Niven does use it a lot and, I suspect, uses it Never Song’ by Edward Lipton.

because it is familiar to readers. Admittedly, it’s become

– [ p. 97/88 ] “[. . . ] Gayheart Talonthrust of Ankh stood

‘his’ via repetition. But there’s a difference between using fourteen thumbs high, [. . . ]”

an established phrase which another author has commandeered and using one specifically associated with The breeding of swamp dragons is a parody of British high one person — “Make my day” has one owner, whereas society’s obsession with horse breeding. The height of a

“There ain’t no justice” is a cliché. To be honest, I didn’t horse is traditionally measured in hands.

have anything particularly in mind when Charley uttered the phrase — but if you think it’s a Niven reference, fair

– [ p. 99/90 ] “ ‘One just has to put up with the occasional enough.”

total whittle.’ ”

Describing Errol as a whittle is actually a quite clever pun.

– [ p. 76/70 ] “ ‘Do real wizards leap about after a tiny spell On the one hand ‘whittle’ simply means something reduced and start chanting ‘Here we go, here we go, here we go’, in size (usually by means of slicing bits and pieces off it), Brother Watchtower? Hmm?’ ”

while on the other hand Sir Frank Whittle was the inventor

“Here we go, here we go” is a chant (usually sung to the of the modern aircraft jet engine.

tune of Sousa’s ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’) commonly When Whittle showed his original design to his supervisor associated with football (soccer) fans.

at Manchester University, the latter said, “Very interesting, According to my correspondent it is also used, historically, Whittle my dear boy, but it will never work”.

by gangs of striking miners just before they realise that the mounted policemen with big sticks are coming their way.

– [ p. 103/94 ] “ ‘Just give me the facts, m’lady,’ he said 38

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impatiently.”

roundabout way, of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

“Just the facts, ma’am”, is a catchphrase from the Dragnet radio series (later a TV series, and later still a Dan

– [ p. 120/110 ] “[. . . ] as ghastly an array of faces as ever Aykroyd/Tom Hanks movie).

were seen outside a woodcut about the evils of gin-drinking

[. . . ]”

– [ p. 103/94 ] “Of all the cities in all the world it could have flown into, he thought, it’s flown into mine. . . ”

The reference here is to the famous series of 18th century morality woodcuts by William Hogarth, with names like Pretty obvious Bogart/Casablanca paraphrase, in keeping

“Gin Lane” and “Beer Street”.

with Vimes’ role as the Discworld equivalent of the ultimate film noir anti-hero.

– [ p. 126/115 ] “ ‘Dunno where this place is, Captain. It belongs to some posh bint.’ ”

– [ 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 This is very British slang. Posh, meaning upper class, arises hall the next day and complain, is a reference to Grendel from the days of the Empire. It is an acronym, standing for and his mother, two famous monsters from the Beowulf

‘Port Out, Starboard Home’. These were the most pleasant saga.

(least hot?) cabins on the ships sailing to the jewel in the crown, India, and therefore the most expensive, meaning

– [ p. 114/104 ] “Pour encourjay lays ortras.”

that only the aristocracy could afford them.

Discworld version of the French phrase “pour encourager (The above explanation is in fact quite false — that is, it’s les autres”. The phrase originates with Voltaire who, after true that posh means upper class, but the acronym is one of the British executed their own admiral John Byng in 1757

these persistent, oh so plausible, after-the-fact etymologies, for failing to relieve Minorca, was inspired to write (in which are nearly always wrong.)

Chapter 23 of Candide) a sentence that translates to: “in

‘Bint’ arises as a bit of cockney soldier slang in WWII. It is this country we find it pays to shoot an admiral from time to actually Arabic for ‘young girl’. Many British soldiers were time to encourage the others”.

stationed in Alexandria, Egypt, in North Africa, and this word was brought into the language by them.

– [ p. 116/106 ] “ ‘For example, foxes are always knocking over my dustbins.’ ”

– [ p. 134/122 ] “ ‘So I’m letting you have a place in Terry, at least at one point in his life, lived in the west Pseudopolis Yard.’ ”

country, near Bristol. Bristol has become famous for its The Watch’s second base, affectionately called ‘The Yard’, is urban foxes (although they apparently operate in all largish a reference to Scotland Yard, where the British Police greenish cities in the UK). In the early 80s, BBC Bristol Headquarters used to be located (these days, they have made a famous programme on these urban foxes, called moved to New Scotland Yard).

Foxwatch.

On this programme, hitherto unachieved photographs of

– [ p. 136/124 ] “This is Lord Mountjoy Quickfang vixens caring for their sprogs were aired; this made the Winterforth IV, the hottest dragon in the city. It could burn programme (which was narrated by David Attenborough) your head clean off.”

very famous. The Archchancellor’s rant is a very good Vimes replays here one of the best-known scenes in Clint approximation of a David Attenborough wildlife programme Eastwood’s first ‘Dirty Harry’ movie, the 1971 Dirty Harry.

narration. And according to the Foxwatch myth, foxes knock over dustbins.

“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

– [ p. 117/107 ] “ ‘Did you suggest a working party?’, said excitement. This here’s a .44 Magnum, the most powerful Wonse.”

handgun in the world, and it can blow your head clean off.

Now, you must ask yourself one question: “Do I feel lucky?”

It is British Government Policy to suggest a working party Well, do you, punk?”

whenever an intractable problem presents itself. It is usually stocked with opposition MPs.

Note how nicely Winterforth the fourth corresponds to the caliber of the Magnum.

– [ p. 118/108 ] “Once you’ve ruled out the impossible then whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truth.

– [ p. 143/130 ] “ ‘’E’s plain clothes, ma’am,’ said Nobby

[. . . ] There was also the curious incident of the orangutan smartly. ‘Special Ape Services’.”

in the night-time . . . ”

Special Ape Services shares the acronym SAS with the Two Sherlock Holmes references for the price of one. The crack British troops who are sent to storm embassies, shoot original quotes are “It is an old maxim of mine that when prisoners of war, and execute alleged terrorists before you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, anything has been proven by trial, etc. Not that one wants however improbable, must be the truth” from The to get political, mind you.

Adventure of the Beryl Coronet, and “[. . . ] the curious incident of the dog at nighttime” in Silver Blaze.

– [ p. 156/141 ] “ ‘Ah. Kings can cure that, you know,’ said another protomonarchist knowingly.”

The second reference also reminds me, in a very GUARDS! GUARDS!

39

The Annotated Pratchett File

See the annotation for p. 103/76 of Lords and Ladies.

– [ p. 278/252 ] “ ‘All for one!’ [. . . ] ‘All for one what?’ said Nobby.”

– [ p. 162/147 ] “[. . . ] and stepped out into the naked city.”

“All for one and one for all” was of course the motto of the The Naked City was an American TV cop show in the 50s, Three Musketeers. A whole new generation has learned mostly forgotten today, except for its prologue narration: about this through the combined efforts of an uninspired

“There are eight million stories in the naked city. This is Disney flick and a particularly nauseating song by Bryan one of them.”

Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting.

– [ p. 164/149 ] “There are some songs which are never

– [ p. 282/256 ] “Both dragons appeared to realise that the sung sober. ‘Nellie Dean’ is one. So is any song beginning fight was the well-known Klatchian standoff.”

‘As I was a walking. . . ’ ”

Or Mexican standoff in our world, which is when two people

‘Nellie Dean’ is an old music hall song:

have loaded, cocked guns pointed right at each other. If There’s an old mill by the stream

either shoots, they both die. This leaves them stuck, since if Nellie Dean.

either just turns away, the other will immediately shoot him.

Where we used to sit and dream

– [ p. 284/257 ] The scene where Errol’s supersonic boom Nellie Dean.

smashes the dragon out of the air is possibly based on For an explanation of songs beginning ‘As I was a another Clint Eastwood movie, the 1982 Firefox.

walking. . . ’ see the annotation for p. 313/238 of Men at Arms.

– [ p. 289/262 ] “ ‘In 1135 a hen was arrested for crowing on Soul Cake Thursday.’ ”

– [ p. 200/181 ] “ ‘This is love-in-a-canoe coffee if ever I There are several historical examples in our world of tasted it.’ ”

animals being arrested, excommunicated or killed for This refers to the punchline of the old joke (familiar from, various crimes. Articles in the October 1994 issue of for instance, a Monty Python sketch):

Scientific American and in The Book of Lists #3 give Q: What do American beer and making love in a several examples: a chimpanzee was convicted in Indiana in canoe have in common?

1905 of smoking in public; 75 pigeons were executed in A: They’re both fucking close to water.

1963 in Tripoli for ferrying stolen money across the Mediterranean; and in 1916, “five-ton Mary” the elephant

– [ p. 200/182 ] “ ‘He’s called Rex Vivat.’ ”

killed her trainer and was subsequently sentenced to death by hanging — a sentence that involved a 100-ton derrick Rex Vivat, of course, means: “long live the king”. This and a steam shovel. But the law is fair, and sometimes the reminds me a bit of Robert Rankin, who named his lead animals get the better of it: when in 1713 a Franciscan character in They Came And Ate Us Rex Mundi. Rex’s monastery brought the termites who had been infesting sister has a role in the book too. Her name is Gloria.

their buildings to trial, a Brazilian court ruled that termites Now you may begin to understand why Rankin is so often had a valid prior claim to the land, and ordered the monks discussed on alt.fan.pratchett, and why there is so much to give the termites their own plot.

overlap between his and Terry’s audiences.

Note that Soul Cake Thursday in later Discworld novels becomes Soul Cake Tuesday, after previously having been

– [ p. 236/214 ] “ ‘The Duke of Sto Helit is looking for a Soul Cake Friday in The Dark Side of the Sun.

guard captain, I’m sure.’ ”

The Duke of Sto Helit, in case anyone had forgotten, is none

– [ p. 313/284 ] “ ‘Sergeant Colon said he thought we’d get other than Mort.

along like a maison en Flambé.’ ”

Maison en Flambé = house on fire.

– [ p. 241/219 ] “Someone out there was going to find out that their worst nightmare was a maddened Librarian. With

– [ p. 314/285 ] “ ‘Here’s looking at you, kid,’ he said.”

a badge.”

Another quote from Casablanca.

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 Eric

arrow’ll find ‘em.’ ”

Killing dragons by shooting a magical arrow in a special

– [title ] Eric

location is a standard cliché of mythology and fantasy fiction. One of the best-known contemporary examples can The subtitle to Eric (‘Faust’, crossed out) already indicates be found in Tolkien’s The Hobbit, where Bard kills the what story is being parodied in this novella: that of the dragon Smaug with a special black arrow.

German alchemist and demonologist Johannes (or Georg) Faust who sold his soul to the devil.

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DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

The most famous version of the Faust legend is perhaps the

– [ p. 58/51 ] Ponce da Quirm, looking for the Fountain of one told by Goethe in Faust, with Cristopher Marlowe’s Youth, is based on Ponce de Leon, the 15th century Spanish earlier play The Tragical History of Dr Faustus a close nobleman who did the same.

second.

– [ p. 81/69 ] “Fortunately, Rincewind was able to persuade

– [ p. 9/9 ] “[. . . ] where the adventuresses Herrena the the man that the future was another country.”

Henna-Haired Harridan, Red Scharron and Diome, Witch of Reference to the opening words of The Go-between. See the Night, were meeting for some girl talk [. . . ]”

the annotation for p. 13/11 of Lords and Ladies.

Herrena is the swordswoman from The Light Fantastic who hunted Rincewind, and Red Scharron is the Discworld

– [ p. 82/70 ] “Some talk of Alexander and some of Hercules, version of Red Sonja. I can’t place Diome, though her name of Hector and Lysander and such great names as these.”

sounds horribly familiar. There was a minor Greek goddes This is actually the opening line to the march ‘The British called Dione, and a Greek warrior called Diomedes, but Grenadiers’, an English song dating back to the 17th neither of those sounds appropriate.

century with about the same jingoism factor as ‘Rule Britannia’ or ‘Land of Hope and Glory’:

– [ p. 27/21 ] The book Eric uses to summon his demon has the title Mallificarum Sumpta Diabolicite Occularis Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules, Singularum, or the Book of Ultimate Control. But note the Of Hector and Lysander, and such great men as initials.

these;

But of all the world’s brave heroes there’s none Also, the actual dog-Latin translates more or less to: that can compare

“Evil-making Driver of the Little One-Eyed Devil”.

With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, to the British Grenadier.

– [ p. 26/31 ] “In the centre of the inferno, rising majestically from a lake of lava substitute and with

– [ p. 89/75 ] Lavaeolus is not only a dog-Latin translation of unparalleled view of the Eight Circles, lies the city of

‘Rincewind’, but the character is also a parody of Ulysses, Pandemonium.”

tragic hero of the Trojan wars. It’s really not necessary to The name ‘Pandemonium’ originates with Milton’s Paradise annotate all the stuff about wooden horses and such, right?

Lost ; it’s the city built by Lucifer and his followers after the Right?

Fall.

– [ p. 97/81 ] “ ‘It’ll be fifteen choruses of ‘The Ball of

– [ p. 46/41 ] The name of the Tezumen god,

Philodephus’ next, you mark my words.’ ”

‘Quetzovercoatl’, puns on the actual Aztec god Quetzalcóatl.

Refers to an old and rather obscene British drinking song According to Aztec mythology, Quetzalcóatl was also called ‘The Ball of Kerrymuir’, which, according to Terry: supposed to return to his people at some particular future

“[. . . ] belongs in the same category as ‘Colonel Bogey’ —date.

everyone knows a line or two [sorry. . . everyone male and in the UK, anyway]”.

– [ p. 50/46 ] “There are quite a lot of uses to which you can For a sample of the lyrics to this song, see the Song. . .

put a stone disc with a hole in the middle, and the Tezumen section in Chapter 5 of this document.

had explored all but one of them.”

The song’s title was changed into the slightly more This may refer to the Aztecs (who the Tezumen are convincing-sounding ‘The Ball of Philodelphus’ in the obviously modelled on anyway) who, according to popular small-format UK paperback of Eric.

legend did not know about the wheel either, but reputedly used small discs with holes in them for money, and who had

– [ p. 99/82 ] “— vestal virgins, Came down from a basketball-like game where the baskets were also stone Heliodeliphilodelphiboschromenos, And when the ball was discs with holes in them. The tale that the losers got over, There were —”

sacrificed is probably untrue. But the winners were allowed to take the possession of any spectators they chose — no From one of the more printable verses of ‘The Ball of one hung around after the game in those days.

Kerrymuir’ (see previous annotation):

Other sources say that it was the winners who got the Four and twenty virgins

privilege of being sacrificed. Oh well, whether it was losers, Came down from Inverness,

spectators, or winners — at least somebody got sacrificed.

And when the ball was over

There were four and twenty less

– [ p. 52/47 ] “[. . . ] a giant-sized statue of Quetzovercoatl, One page later (p. 100/83) there is a final reference to the the Feathered Boa.”

song: “— the village harpy she was there —”

Quetzalcóatl the Aztec God was in fact portrayed as a winged serpent. This is almost, but not quite, the same as a

– [ p. 115/96 ] “ ‘Multiple choice they call it, it’s like feathered boa. A feather boa is of course also an item of painting the — painting the — painting something very big women’s clothing that became popular in the 1920s.

that you have to keep on painting, sort of thing.’ ”

The British proverb this refers to is “it’s like painting the ERIC

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The Annotated Pratchett File

Forth bridge”. The Forth bridge can be found spanning the guide to Hell) and Dante in the same way that they are Forth river (no kidding) between the towns of North Mephistopheles and Faust. The various references to the Queensferry and South Queensferry, just outside geographical topology build on how Dante organised Hell in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is so large that when they have nine concentric circles (this of course had to become eight finished painting it, it is time to start over again.

circles for the Discworld version!). The outer circles contained lesser sinners, such as Julius Caesar and In reality, I’m told, they simply look for bits of the Forth Socrates, while the inner circles were reserved for mortal bridge that need painting and paint them. So it is true that sinners (mostly Dante’s political enemies; some people they keep on painting, but they do it discretely, not down there weren’t dead at the time of publication, but got continuously.

a mention anyway). At the centre, in the 9th circle, Lucifer (One correspondent reports that a similar story is told sits chewing away on Brutus, Crassus and Judas. If you about Golden Gate bridge being in a perpetual state of climb over him you get to Purgatory, meeting Cato the corrosion control painting, and it would not surprise to find younger on the way.

other very large man-made structures will have given rise to their own local versions of the proverb.)

– [ p. 125/103 ] “I mean, I heard where we’re supposed to have all the best tunes,”

– [ p. 117/97 ] “ ‘Centuries [. . . ]. Millenia. Iains.’ ”

Refers to the old saying “the devil has all the good tunes”.

For some reason, Rincewind has problems with the word

‘aeons’. See p. 94/86 of Sourcery for the first documented

– [ p. 131/107 ] “ ‘[. . . ] his punishment was to be chained to occurrence of this particular blind spot.

that rock and every day an eagle would come down and peck his liver out. Bit of an old favourite, that one.’ ”

– [ p. 121/100 ] “Some ancient and probably fearful warning Most people will associate this particular punishment with was edged over the crumbling arch, but it was destined to Prometheus (who stole the secret of fire from the Gods and remain unread because over it someone had pasted a gave it to mankind), but in fact Prometheus underwent his red-and-white notice which read: ‘You Don’t Have To Be punishment chained to a rock in the Caucasus (from which

‘Damned’ To Work Here, But It Helps!!!’ ”

Hercules later freed him). The chap who had to go through The original notice (according to Dante, in the translation to the same thing in the Underworld was the giant Tityus, by Rev. Francis Cary) would have been the famous: who had tried to rape Leto, the mother of Artemis and

“Through me you pass into the city of woe: Through me you Apollo. As the demon says: this particular punishment is a pass into eternal pain: Through me among the people lost bit of an old favourite with Zeus.

for aye. Justice the founder of my fabric moved: To rear me was the task of power divine, Supremest wisdom, and

– [ p. 132/108 ] “ ‘Man who went and defied the gods or primeval love. Before me things create were none, save something. Got to keep pushing that rock up the hill even things Eternal, and eternal I endure. All hope abandon, ye though it rolls back all the time—’ ”

who enter here.”

Eric is thinking of king Sisyphus of Corinth, who betrayed The more obvious reference (included here only to stop the Zeus to the father of the girl Aegina, whom Zeus had email from people who thought I missed it) is of course the abducted (the girl, not the father).

cheesy legend “You Don’t Have To Be Mad To Work Here, But It Helps!”.

– [ p. 135/110 ] “ ‘According to Ephebian mythology, there’s a girl who comes down here every winter.’ ”

– [ p. 121/101 ] “ ‘Multiple exclamation marks [. . . ] are a In Greece she was called Persephone, daughter of Ceres, sure sign of a diseased mind.”

the goddess of agriculture. Hades abducted Persephone, People like using this particular quip in Usenet imprisoned her in the underworld, and took her for his wife.

conversations or in their .signatures, and every time Ceres went into mourning and there was a worldwide death somebody will follow-up with “hey, you’re wrong, that’s a of crops and famine. The gods negotiated a deal with Hades quote from Reaper Man!”.

whereby he would release Persephone from the

The answer is of course simply that similar quotes occur in underworld, but only if she had eaten nothing while down both books (in Reaper Man it’s on p. 215/189, and goes: there (she hadn’t thus far, being too upset). Upon hearing

“Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind”).

of her impending release, Persephone’s heart was gladdened, and before she could be stopped, she started Since then, Maskerade has been released, which of course eating a pomegranate. She spit it out, but it was found she takes the concept of the insanity-defining exclamation had swallowed six pomegranate seeds. Hades therefore marks to a whole new level.

demanded that she should spend 6 months out of each year in the underworld. During the 6 months that Persephone is

– [ p. 122/101 ] “ ‘[. . . ] I think it’s quite possible that we’re down below, her mother, Ceres, neglects her duties and this in Hell.’ ”

causes the winter. Hence: “ ‘I think the story says she The whole sequence in Hell is based loosely on Dante’s actually creates the winter, sort of.’ ‘I’ve known women like Inferno (which in turn is based on Vergil’s Aeneid ) in much that,’ said Rincewind, nodding wisely.”

the same way the book as a whole is based on Faust.

Rincewind and Eric correspond to Vergil (who is Dante’s

– [ p. 136/110 ] “ ‘Or it helps if you’ve got a lyre, I think.’ ”

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DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

A reference to the legend of Orpheus (see also the cartoons?

annotation for p. 93/93 of The Light Fantastic), who charmed Hades and Persephone into releasing Eurydice by

– [ p. 23/19 ] “They often didn’t notice them, or thought virtue of his lyre-playing.

they were walruses.”

Sometimes people send me annotations that are so

– [ p. 153/124 ] “Pour encouragy le — poor encoura — to beautifully outrageous that I simply have to include them.

make everyone sit up and damn well take notice.”

For instance, the walruses may be connected to the boiling

“Pour encourager les autres.” See the annotation for mercury mentioned earlier in the text, via the chain: boiling p. 114/104 of Guards! Guards!

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 Moving Pictures

“Yerwhatyerwhatyerwhat” ’?”

I had been getting some conflicting stories concerning this This one has uncountable references to classic Hollywood annotation, so I hope that this time I have managed to get it movies and anecdotes.

right.

Apparently “Yer what?” is a common London phrase, used

– Terry actually meant for Gaspode to die at the end of the when you didn’t catch what someone said, or you want book, but his editors/beta-readers made him reconsider.

them to repeat it because you can’t believe it.

– People have noticed that the two femmes fatale of this The longer form is more typically associated with soccer novel are called Ginger and Ruby, both names signifying a fans, as part of a chant, usually made in response to an red colour. Terry Pratchett says that he did not intend this opposing supporter army’s war cries in an attempt to imply as a reference to Gone with the Wind ’s Scarlett.

a certain lack of volume (and hence numbers) to the other side’s support:

– Instead, Ruby got her name because like all trolls she Yerwhat (pause)

needed a mineral name. Ginger got her name because Yerwhat (pause)

Terry wanted to use the Fred Astaire quote (see a few Yerwhatyerwhatyerwhat.

annotations further down) about her partner, and so Ginger was an obvious choice for the leading lady’s name.

– [ p. 34/28 ] “ ‘Yob Soddoth,’ said Ponder promptly.”

– [ p. 9/7 ] “This is space. It’s sometimes called the final Yob Soddoth should be pronounced: “Yob sod off”. ‘Sod off’

frontier.”

is a British form of ‘bugger off’, and ‘yob’ is an old term now almost entirely synonymous to the phrase “English See the annotation for p. 221/191 of The Colour of Magic.

football supporter” (apparently Mark Twain once said:

“they are not fit to be called boys, they should be called

– [ p. 15/12 ] “ ‘Looking,’ it said [. . . ] ‘f’r a word. Tip of my yobs”). The word probably derives from ‘back-chat’ — a tongue.’ ”

19th century London thieves’ argot in which words were The word is ‘Eureka’. See the annotation for p. 139/101 of turned round in order to confuse police eavesdroppers. Not Small Gods.

so far removed from Polari, in fact (see the Words From The Master section in Chapter 5).

– [ p. 18/14 ] “ ‘I thought they were trying to cure the At the same time it is also a pun on H. P. Lovecraft’s philosopher’s stones, or somethin’,’ said the

‘Yog-Sothoth’, one of the chief supernatural nasties in the Archchancellor.”

Cthulhu mythos (see especially the novelette The Dunwich That should be: trying to find the Philosopher’s Stone: the Horror and the novel The Lurker at the Threshold ).

quest of all alchemists is to discover a substance that will Finally, Ponder and Victor are studying the

turn all base metals into gold.

Necrotelicomnicom in this scene. See the annotation for p. 111/109 of Equal Rites for more information on the

– [ p. 19/15 ] Archchancellor Ridcully’s wizard name is Lovecraft connection there.

‘Ridcully the Brown’.

In Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings there’s a (relatively)

– [ p. 34/28 ] “Tshup Aklathep, Infernal Star Toad with A minor wizard called ‘Radagast the Brown’, who was also Million Young”

very well in tune with nature, and definitely of the Another one of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos nasties is

“roams-the-high-forest-with-every-beast-his-brother” type.

‘Shub-Niggurath’, The Goat with a Thousand Young. (‘The Talked to the birds, too.

Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young’ is the full, but less common, title).

– [ p. 22/18 ] “And then a voice said: ‘That’s all, folks.’ ”

Anybody out there who has never seen Porky Pig use this

– [ p. 35/29 ] Victor Tugelbend’s university career, with his phrase to end one of those classic Looney Tunes animated uncle’s will and all that, shows parallels to similar situations MOVING PICTURES

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The Annotated Pratchett File

described in Roger Zelazny’s (highly recommended) science head electrician in a film production unit, charged fiction novel Doorways in the Sand, and in Richard principally with taking care of the lighting. Gaffer’s tape is Gordon’s ‘Doctor’ series of medical comedy books/movies a less sticky form of duct tape, used universally in the (Doctor in the House, Doctor in Love, Doctor at Sea, etc.) theatre, concert and movie worlds to keep people from stumbling over cables.

I had noticed the Zelazny parallel when I first read Moving Pictures, but thought the reference was too unlikely and too If you enjoy annoying people, go over to the Kate Bush obscure to warrant inclusion. Since then two other people newsgroup rec.music.gaffa, and ask there if her song have pointed it out to me. . .

‘Suspended in Gaffa’ refers to Gaffer’s tape or not.

Terry later remarked, in response to someone mentioning

– [ p. 73/61 ] “ ‘Or Rock. Rock’s a nice name.’ ”

the Doctor in the House movie on the net: “I remember that film — the student in question was played by Kenneth More.

Presumably in reference to late actor Rock Hudson, with All he had to do, though, was fail — the people who drew up

‘Flint’ punning on Errol Flynn.

the will involving Victor thought they were cleverer than that. Maybe they’d seen the film. . . ”

– [ p. 75/62 ] “[. . . ] Victor fights the dreaded Balgrog”.

In Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings you can find a very nasty

– [ p. 41/34 ] Movie producer Thomas Silverfish is directly monster called a Balrog.

modelled on movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn, whose real name was Samuel Gelbfisch, and who spent a short time as

– [ p. 81/67 ] Ginger’s real name is Theda Withel, which Samuel Goldfish before changing his name a second time to might be a very oblique reference to Theda Bara, famous Goldwyn.

movie star of the 1910s, a kind of Elvira, Mistress of the Goldwyn was responsible for a whole sequence of Dark, avant la lettre (‘Theda Bara’ is an anagram of ‘Arab malapropisms known collectively as Goldwynisms, some of Death’!). Her portrayal of evil women in movies like When a which are so well known now as to have passed into the Woman Sins and The She Devil caused the current meaning common parlance. A number of Goldwyn quips are repeated of the word ‘vamp’ to be added to the English language.

(in one form or another) by Silverfish throughout the book Just as Dibbler later describes Ginger to Bezam Planter as (“you’ll never work in this town again”, “include me out”, “a

“the daughter of a Klatchian pirate and his wild, headstrong verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on”, etc.).

captive”, so does a studio biography describe Theda Bara as born in the Sahara to a French artiste and his Egyptian

– [ p. 50/41 ] “No-one would have believed, in the final concubine. But in fact, Theda’s father was a Cincinnati years of the Century of the Fruitbat, that Discworld affairs tailor.

were being watched keenly and impatiently by intelligences greater than Man’s, or at least much nastier; that their

– [ p. 82/69 ] The resograph built by Riktor the Tinkerer.

affairs were being scrutinised and studied as a man with a Terry says: “The reality meter in Moving Pictures is loosely three-day appetite might study the

based on a Han dynasty (2nd Century AD) seismograph; a All-You-Can-Gobble-For-A-Dollar menu outside Harga’s pendulum inside the vase moves and causes one of eight House of Ribs. . . ”

dragons to spit a ball in the direction of the tremor.”

This paragraph is a word-by-word parody of H. G. Wells’

Also, the name ‘Riktor’ refers to our ‘Richter’, of the War of the Worlds, which begins with:

earthquake scale fame.

“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched

– [ p. 86/71 ] “And perhaps even a few elves, the most keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and elusive of Discworld races.”

yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves Some people were wondering if this doesn’t contradict the about their various concerns they were scrutinised and information we get about Elves later, in Lords and Ladies, studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a such as that they can only enter our World during Circle microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that Time — besides, Elves would hardly be the type of beings to swarm and multiply in a drop of water.”

become actors, one should think.

– [ p. 56/47 ] “ ‘Can’t sing. Can’t dance. Can handle a sword The answer can be found in Lords and Ladies as well, a little.’ ”

however, on p. 229/165:

Refers to the quip: “Can’t act. Can’t sing. Can dance a Ridcully: “Elves? Everyone knows elves don’t

little.”, made about Fred Astaire, reputedly by a exist any more. Not proper elves. I mean,

studio-executive at RKO after Astaire’s first screen test.

there’s a few folk who say they’re elves —”

When somebody once asked Astaire’s producer about the Granny Weatherwax: “Oh, yeah. Elvish ancestry.

story, however, he was told that it was complete and Elves and humans breed all right, as if that’s obvious nonsense, since Fred Astaire already was a anything to be proud of. But you just get a race established major Broadway star at the time.

o’ skinny types with pointy ears and a tendency to giggle and burn easily in sunshine. I ain’t

– [ p. 58/48 ] “ ‘This is Gaffer Bird,’ beamed Silverfish.”

talking about them. There’s no harm in them.

‘Gaffer’ not only means ‘old man’, but a gaffer is also the I’m talking about real wild elves, what we ain’t 44

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

seen here for —”

take this time / I can’t help it. Hiya, big boy.”

In the 1930 movie Blue Angel Marlene Dietrich plays

– [ p. 88/73 ] “ ‘We just call it the ‘Hiho’ song. That’s all it Lola-Lola, the cabaret entertainer who ruins the life of the was. Hihohiho. Hihohiho.’ ”

stuffy professor who falls in love with her. In the movie, The best-known song in Walt Disney’s 1937 full length Marlene performs a song called ‘Falling in Love’: animation movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is sung Falling in love again

by the seven dwarfs and starts:

Why am I so blue?

Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho

What am I to do?

It’s off to work we go

I can’t help it.

Marlene Dietrich sang this with her characteristic German

+ [ p. 76 ] “They were the only witnesses to the manic accent, hence the “fallink” and “vy” in the parody.

figure which splashed down the dripping street, pirouetted through the puddles, [. . . ]”

The line “Hiya, big boy” is typically associated with Mae West, though I have not been able to find out if it was ever As Nobby’s subsequent comment (“Singing in the rain like used in any specific movie.

that.”) already indicates, Holy Wood magic is making Dibbler reenact one of the ost famous movie scenes of all

– [ p. 115/95 ] “[. . . ] Victor couldn’t understand a word.”

time: Gene Kelly dancing and singing through the deserted city streets in Singin’ in the Rain. The ‘DUMdi-dum-dum, The duck’s incomprehensibility brings to mind the animated dumdi-dumdi-DUM-DUM’ rhythm also fits the song exactly.

incarnation of Donald Duck. In fact, all of the Holy Wood animals have begun to act a bit like famous cartoon

– [ p. 97/80 ] The Boke Of The Film

animals; for instance the cat and the mouse acting out a Tom & Jerry scene (although the speech impediment of the Traditional (if somewhat archaic by now) subtitle for movie cat is more reminiscent of Sylvester).

novelisations. The related phrase “The Book of the Series”

is still alive and well, mostly in the context of

– [ p. 115/95 ] “ ‘What’s up, Duck?’ said the rabbit.”

documentaries.

One of Bugs Bunny’s catch phrases: “What’s up, doc?”.

– [ p. 97/80 ] “This is the Chroncal of the Keeprs of the (There is in fact a cartoon where Bugs actually says “What’s ParaMountain [. . . ]”

up, duck?” to Daffy Duck. . . )

Another fleeting reference to the movie company

– [ p. 147/123 ] “ ‘Rev Counter for Use in Ecclesiastical Paramount.

Areas’ ”

– [ p. 101/84 ] “ ‘And my daughter Calliope plays the organ

‘Rev’ is short for both ‘Reverend’ and for ‘revolutions’. On really nice, [. . . ]’ ”

the one hand it stands to reason that in Ecclesiastical areas you’ll find lots of clergymen, which you may want to count.

Calliope is not only the name of the Muse of Epic Poetry, On the other hand the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes contains but a calliope is also a large, organ-like musical instrument the words used by the Byrds in their song ‘Turn! Turn!

consisting of whistles operated by steam. There exists a Turn!’, so perhaps Riktor’s counter was indeed intended to very funny Donald Duck story, called ‘Land of the Totem count actual revolutions after all.

Poles’ (written by the one and only Carl Barks), in which Donald somehow manages to become a travelling calliope

– [ p. 149/124 ] “ ‘Go, Sow, Thank You Doe.’ ”

salesman. Highly recommended.

The usual slang for a one-night stand or a quickie at the

– [ p. 103/86 ] “The sharp runes spelled out The Blue Lias.

local brothel is “Wham, Bam, thank you, Ma’am.”

It was a troll bar.”

– [ p. 151/126 ] “ ‘A rock on the head may be quite

‘Lias’ is a blue limestone rock found in the south-west of sentimental, [. . . ], but diamonds are a girl’s best friend.’ ”

England.

In the 1949 movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn

– [ p. 105/87 ] “ ‘Cos he was her troll and he done her Monroe sings:

wrong.’ ”

A kiss on the hand may be quite continental

Ruby’s song ‘Amber and Jasper’ is the Discworld version of But diamonds are a girl’s best friend

the folk song ‘Frankie and Johnny’:

– [ p. 154/129 ] “ ‘What’s it called?’ ‘Laddie,’ said the Frankie and Johnny were lovers,

handler.”

Oh, Lordie how they could love!

They swore to be true to each other,

Laddie is the Discworld counterpart to our world’s famous Just as true as the stars above,

movie collie, Lassie.

He was her man, but he done her wrong.

In the movie Son of Lassie the protagonist was in fact called Laddie, but was played by Pal, the dog who had

– [ p. 111/93 ] Ruby’s song: “Vunce again I am fallink in luf /

previously played Lassie in the original movie Lassie Come Vy iss it I now am a blue colour? / Vot is the action I should Home. Interestingly enough, Pal had a real-life son who was MOVING PICTURES

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The Annotated Pratchett File

called Laddie, but this Laddie was only used for stunt and On the Discworld the Necrotelicomnicom (see also the distance shots since he wasn’t as pretty as his brother, who entry for p. 111/109 of Equal Rites) was written by the eventually got to play Lassie in the CBS TV show, and who Klatchian necromancer Achmed the Mad (although he was the only dog ever in the role to actually be called preferred to be called Achmed the I Just Get These Lassie, or rather, Lassie Jr.

Headaches). In real life, horror author H. P. Lovecraft assures us that the Necronomicon was written by the mad Lassie was always played by a male dog, mainly because a Arab Abdul al-Hazred.

bitch tends to go into heat, during which time she becomes unphotogenic because of severe shedding. It also gets

– [ p. 178/148 ] “ ‘It’s fifteen hundred miles to bothersome to have to deal with the constant disruptions on Ankh-Morpork,’ he said. ‘We’ve got three hundred and sixty the set caused by various male dogs in the area wanting to, elephants, fifty carts of forage, the monsoon’s about to um, propose to her.

break and we’re wearing. . . we’re wearing. . . sort of Finally, two odd little coincidences. First, the Lassie dogs things, like glass, only dark. . . dark glass things on our often had small dogs as companions. Second, Pal/Lassie’s eyes. . . ’ ”

trainer was a man by the name of Rudd Weatherwax. . .

Paraphrases a well-known quote from the Blues Brothers movie, fifteen minutes before the end, just as the famous

– [ p. 158/132 ] Film studio names.

chase scene is about to begin and Jake and Elwood are Untied Alchemists is United Artists. Fir Wood Studios is sitting in their car:

Pinewood Studios. Microlithic Pictures is Paramount (tiny Elwood: “It’s a hundred and six miles to Chicago, rock vs. big mountain), and Century Of The Fruitbat is we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of

Twentieth Century Fox. Terry says: “I’ve already gone cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing

electronically hoarse explaining that Floating Bladder sunglasses”

Productions was just picked out of the air [. . . ]”

Jake: “Hit it.”

– [ p. 159/132 ] “ ‘[. . . ] we’re doing one about going to see a

– [ p. 197/164 ] “ ‘In a word — im-possible!’ ‘That’s two wizard. Something about following a yellow sick toad,’

words,’ said Dibbler.”

[. . . ]”

Another Goldwynism: “I can tell you in two words: That’s a yellow brick road, and the reference is of course to im-possible.”

The Wizard of Oz.

Terry’s pun also reminded a correspondent of an old joke

– [ p. 206/171 ] “ ‘If you cut me, do I not bleed?’ ” said Rock.

about an Oz frog with a bright yellow penis who hops up to Paraphrased from Shylock’s famous monologue in a man and says: “I’m looking for the wizard to help me with Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, act 3, scene 1: “If my ‘problem’.” The man answers: “No problem, just follow you prick us, do we not bleed?”

this road until you get to the emerald city.” The frog thanks him and hops off along the road. Shortly afterwards,

– [ p. 221/184 ] “ ‘Just one picture had all that effect?’ ”

Dorothy and Toto come along and she also asks the man where she can find the wizard, and then he says: “Just Dibbler and Gaffer don’t put a name to it, but they are follow the yellow dick toad”.

discussing the theory of subliminal messages here. It’s one of those theories that somehow manages to sound so ‘right’

Well, I thought it was funny.

you just want it to be true. Studies have been done, however, but none has ever shown tricks like subliminal

– [ p. 165/137 ] “It was about a young ape who is advertising to actually have any measurable effect on an abandoned in the big city and grows up being able to speak audience.

the language of humans.”

The Librarian’s script is of course a reversal of Edgar Rice

– [ p. 223/186 ] “ ‘It always starts off with this mountain —’ ”

Burroughs’ Tarzan story. Since Tarzan is supposed to be Ginger’s dream describes the characteristic ‘logo’ scenes of one of those five or so cultural icons that are so truly all the major movie companies. The mountain is from universal that everybody in the world is familiar with them, Paramount (“there are stars around it”), and after that we I expect this may well turn out to be the APF’s Most get Columbia (“a woman holding a torch over her head”), Unnecessary Annotation of all. . .

20th Century Fox (“a lot of lights”), and MGM (“this roar, like a lion or tiger”).

– [ p. 172/143 ] “ ‘It sounded like ‘I want to be a lawn’, I thought?’ ”

– [ p. 229/191 ] “ ‘And Howondaland Smith, Balgrog Hunter, Ginger echoes movie star Greta Garbo’s famous quote: “I practic’ly eats the dark for his tea,’ said Gaspode.”

want to be alone”.

Smith’s name is derived from Indiana Jones, and for the Garbo later claimed, by the way, that what she had actually explanation about ‘Balgrog’ see the annotation for p. 75/62.

said at the time was “I want to be let alone”, which is of

‘Howondaland’ also brings to mind Gondwanaland, a name course not quite the same thing at all. . .

for the southern continents mashed together by continental drift.

– [ p. 174/145 ] The Necrotelicomnicom.

46

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

– [ p. 245/204 ] “ ‘You find nice place to indulge in bit of we’re linked up to it [. . . ]”

‘What is the health of your parent?’ [. . . ]’ ”

This is Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious.

“How’s your father” is a British euphemism for “sexual intercourse”, made popular by the Carry On series of films.

– [ p. 312/261 ] “ ‘A fine mess you got me into.’ ”

See the annotation for p. 73/65 of The Colour of Magic.

– [ p. 282/235 ] “Twopence more and up goes the donkey!”

Terry explains: “[. . . ] In Moving Pictures and Reaper Man a

– [ p. 319/266 ] Detritus hitting the gong in the lot of use is indeed made of, god help me, Victorian street underground theatre refers to the Rank Organisation’s sayings that were the equivalent of ‘sez you’. “Tuppence man-with-the-gong trademark, which Rank used at the start more and up goes the donkey”, a favourite saying of Windle of each film just as Columbia used the Statue of Liberty and Poons, comes from the parties of strolling acrobats who’d MGM the roaring lion.

carry their props on a donkey. They’d make a human pyramid and collectors would go around with the hat

– [ p. 323/270 ] “ ‘Play it again, Sham,’ said Holy Wood.”

declaring that “tuppence more and up goes the donkey” as The most famous line never uttered in Casablanca: “Play it well. But the donkey never got elevated because, of course, again, Sam.” It should perhaps be pointed out that Sham the collectors always needed “tuppence more”.”

Harga is a character we already met in Mort. Terry did not

“It belongs in the same general category of promise as just create him in order to be able to make this pun.

‘Free Beer Tomorrow’.”

– [ p. 324/271 ] “ ‘And that includes you, Dozy!’ ”

– [ p. 297/249 ] The climactic scene of the novel is not only One of the dwarfs in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven a King Kong reversal spoof. Terry says the 50 ft. woman Dwarfs was called Sleepy, another was called Dopey.

also refers to the protagonist from the 1958 movie Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (recently and redundantly remade with

– [ p. 327/274 ] “ ‘Cheer up,’ she said. ‘Tomorrow is another Daryl Hannah in the title role — if there’s one movie that day.’ ”

did not need to be remade it was this one, trust me).

The final line of Gone with the Wind.

– [ p. 304/254 ] “ ‘If it bleeds, we can kill it!’ ”

– [ p. 329/276 ] “ ‘Uselessium, more like,’ murmured This line is from the 1987 movie Predator, starring Arnold Silverfish.”

Schwarzenegger. ‘It’ in this case was a green-blooded, The paragraph where this quote occurs of course describes invisible alien hunter.

how Silverfish discovers the Discworld equivalent of Uranium. In this light, it may be interesting to recall that

– [ p. 305/255 ] “YOU BELONG DEAD, he said.”

before he became a full-time writer Terry Pratchett worked This is based on Boris Karloff’s final words in the 1935

as press officer for nuclear power stations.

movie Bride of Frankenstein: “We belong dead”.

– As far as the giant statue is concerned (and the running

– [ p. 305/255 ] “ ‘Careful,’ said the Dean. ‘That is not dead gag about it reminding everyone of their uncle Oswald or which can eternal lie.’ ”

Osric etc.): the nickname ‘Oscar’ for the Academy Awards This is from a famous H. P. Lovecraft quote (which was also statuette apparently originated with the Academy Librarian used by metal groups Iron Maiden (on the Live After Death (oook!), who remarked that the statue looked like her uncle album cover) and Metallica (in the song ‘The Thing That Oscar. The nickname first appeared in print in a 1934

Should Not Be’)):

column by Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky, and quickly became a household word.

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 Reaper Man

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

– [title ] Reaper Man

definite reference on this.

The title Reaper Man parodies Alex Cox’s 1984 cult movie Repo Man.

– [ p. 306/256 ] “ ‘’Twas beauty killed the beast,’ said the Dean, who liked to say things like that.”

More accurately, Repo Man itself is a pun on ‘reaper man’, a very ancient name for Death (compare also e.g. ‘the grim Last line of King Kong, said under similar circumstances.

reaper’). But apparently Terry has said elsewhere (i.e. not on the net), that his ‘Reaper Man’ was indeed meant as a

– [ p. 310/259 ] “[. . . ] everyone has this way of pun on the movie-title (much to the chagrin of his remembering even things that happened to their ancestors, publishers, who would have probably preferred it if he had I mean, it’s like there’s this great big pool of memory and called it Mort II ).

REAPER MAN

47

The Annotated Pratchett File

– The ‘Bill Door’ sections of this novel have many parallels of the darkness.”

with classic Westerns, e.g. High Plains Drifter.

An allusion to the Biblical creation of the universe as described in Genesis 1:2: “And the earth was without form,

– If you liked the idea of the trolley life-form, you may also and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And want to check out a short story by Avram Davidson called the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

Or All The Sea With Oysters. It’s all about the life cycle of bicycles and their larval stages: paperclips and coat

– [ p. 31/30 ] “ ‘Did you see his eyes? Like gimlets!’ [. . . ]

hangers.

‘You mean like that Dwarf who runs the delicatessen on Cable Street?’ ”

– [ p. 5/7 ] “It is danced under blue skies to celebrate the quickening of the soil. . . ”

A Gimlet Eye is a piercing stare or squint. See also the annotation for p. 35/27 of Soul Music.

Whatever the original idea behind Morris dancing was, it long ago indeed became associated with Spring (“As fit as

– [ p. 32/30 ] “ ‘Anyway, you can’t trust those voodoo gods.

[. . . ] a morris for May Day” — Shakespeare), and nowadays Never trust a god who grins all the time and wears a top many Morris teams begin their dancing season with a May hat, that’s my motto.’ ”

Day performance. See the . . . and Dance section of Chapter 5 for more on Morris dancing.

This god is Baron Samedi (or Saturday), the most important (and best-known) voodoo god or loa. He is the God of the

– [ p. 5/7 ] “It is danced innocently by raggedy-bearded Dead, and is traditionally associated with cross-roads.

young mathematicians [. . . ]”

For more information about Baron Samedi you should, of The Morris used to be a peasants’ dance, but these days course, read Witches Abroad (see also the annotation for Morris dancers often are, for some reason, scientists, p. 179/157 of that book).

mathematicians, or (ook!) librarians.

– [ p. 37/35 ] “ ‘Yes, but they drink blood,’ said the Senior

– [ p. 7/9 ] Azrael is not a reference to Gargamel’s cat in the Wrangler.”

Smurf cartoons. Rather, both Azraels are references to the I suppose most people will know that a wrangler is Islamic Angel of Death, supposedly the very last creature to somebody who rounds up cattle or horses, but it may be die, ever.

less common knowledge that a ‘Senior Wrangler’ is in fact In the actual legend, Azrael is bound in chains thousands of the title given to the top 12 maths graduates at Cambridge miles long, and possesses millions of eyes: one for every University. In maths, those who get firsts are called person that has ever lived or will ever live. When a person Wranglers, seconds are senior optimes, and thirds are dies, the eye in question closes forever, and when Azrael junior optimes.

goes blind it will be the end of the human race.

– [ p. 58/53 ] “ ‘Celery,’ said the Bursar.”

– [ p. 13/14 ] “The front gates of Nos 31, 7 and 34 Elm A few correspondents thought that the Bursar’s particular Street, Ankh Morpork.”

choice of vegetable might have been motivated by an old Minor inconsistency: we are told the conversation between episode of the Goon Show, where a sketch goes in part: the pines lasts seventeen years, so when the old one finally Sheriff of Nottingham: “What? Tie him to a

gets chopped down, its age should have been 31751 years, stake?”

not still 31734.

Bluebottle: “No, do not tie me to a stake” (pause)

“I’m a vegetarian!”

– [ p. 15/16 ] “The pendulum is a blade that would have Prince John: “Then tie him to a stick of celery.”

made Edgar Allan Poe give it all up and start again as a stand-up comedian [. . . ]”

– [ p. 60/55 ] The address of the Fresh Start Club: 668 Elm Refers to Poe’s famous story The Pit and the Pendulum in Street.

which a victim of the inquisition is tied up beneath a giant Connects a reference to the Nightmare on Elm Street descending, sweeping, razor-sharp pendulum.

series of horror movies with the tentative title for a Good If you have access to the Internet, you can find an online Omens sequel: 668 — The Neighbour of the Beast (see the version of this story at the URL:

Good Omens annotation on that subject).

ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/literary/obi/Edgar.Allan.Poe/The.

– [ p. 66/60 ] Ridcully’s uncle disappeared under mysterious

Pit.And.The.Pendulum.Z

circumstances after eating a charcoal biscuit on top of a meal spiced up by half a pint of Wow-Wow Sauce.

– [ p. 25/24 ] “ ‘What I could do with right now is one of Mr Dibbler’s famous meat pies —’ And then he died.”

The circumstances may become less mysterious once you realise that charcoal, sulphur and saltpetre are the basic The attributed last words of William Pitt the younger were: ingredients of gunpowder.

“I think I could eat one of Bellamy’s veal pies.”

Also, there actually exists a condiment called Wow-Wow

+ [ p. 25 ] “There was no shape, no sound. It was void, Sauce, which was popular during the 1800s. More without form. The spirit of Windle Poons moved on the face information can be found in the Discworld Companion.

48

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

– [ p. 72/65 ] “Many songs have been written about the

– [ p. 97/87 ] “Who is he going to call! We’re the wizards bustling metropolis, [. . . ]”

around here.”

Ok, let’s see.

A reference to the catchphrase “Who ya gonna call?!” from the movie Ghostbusters.

‘Ankh-Morpork! Ankh-Morpork! So good they named it Ankh-Morpork!’ comes from ‘New York, New York’ (see also

– [ p. 98/88 ] “Mr so-called Amazing Maurice and His the annotation for p. 142/130 of Johnny and the Dead ), Educated Rodents!’ ”

‘Carry Me Away From Old Ankh-Morpork’ is ‘Carry Me Back To Old Virginia’, and ‘Ankh-Morpork Malady’ may be Send-up of the folk-story The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

‘Broadway melody’.

If you have access to the Internet, you can find an online

‘I Fear I’m Going Back to Ankh-Morpork’ has not been version of this fairy tale at the URL:

traced to a particular song title, but general opinion holds

ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/literary/obi/Fairy.Tales/Grimm/

that it is a spoof of the Bee Gees song ‘Massachussets’,

pied.piper.of.hamelin.txt.Z

which starts out “Feel I’m goin’ back to Massachussetts”.

– [ p. 100/89 ] “ ‘[. . . ] it puts a bloody RSVP on it!’ ‘Oh

– [ p. 76/69 ] “ ‘Did it take long to get it looking like that?’

Good. I like sherry,’ said the Bursar.”

‘About five hundred years, I think.’ ”

VSOP is a type of brandy, not sherry. RSVP, of course, Or, as Terry explains more poignantly in a Sourcery stands for “Respondez s’il vous plait” — i.e. please reply [to footnote (on p. 21/22): “You mows it and you rolls it for five this invitation].

hundred years and then a bunch of bastards walks across it.”

– [ p. 105/94 ] “ ‘Don’t stand in the doorway, friend. Don’t A few people thought these might have been references to a block up the hall.’ ”

scene in one of the Asterix comics, but this is another case This is an almost verbatim line from Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times of two authors both using the same, older source.

They Are A Changin’.

As Terry explains: “The lawns line was I believe a comment made by a University gardener to an American tourist years

– [ p. 105/94 ] “Or sporting a Glad To Be Grey badge”

and years ago; it turns up from time to time.”

‘Glad To Be Gay’ was the well-known slogan of the Gay Liberation movement, a decade or so ago (as well as the

– [ p. 77/69 ] “ ‘Isn’t that one off Treacle Mine Road?’ ”

title of an excellent Tom Robinson song). In the late 80s, And on p. 176/155 we learn that One-Man-Bucket was run

‘Glad To Be Grey’ badges were actually commercially over by a cart on Treacle Street. Treacle is another word available.

for molasses, and most people will be familiar with the concept of “a hole in the ground from which you get

– [ p. 106/95 ] The names of the Fresh Start Club members.

molasses” through Alice in Wonderland ’s Mad Tea Party.

Count Notfaroutoe refers to Count Nosferatu, the vampire Terry jokes: “Treacle mining is a lost British tradition.

from Friedrich Murnau’s classic 1922 movie Nosferatu, There used to be treacle mines in Bisham (near Marlow, on eine Symphonie des Grauens (remade in 1979 by Werner the Thames) and in several northern towns, I believe. But Herzog, starring Klaus Kinski). ‘Lupus’ is Latin for wolf, so the natural treacle was too sharp and coarse for modern

‘Lupine’ means ‘wolfish’, similar to e.g. ‘feline’. Finally, tastes and the industry was finally killed off by the bulk there exists a mineral called ixiolite. Note, by the way, that import of cheap white sugar in the last century.”

banshees are traditionally supposed to be female creatures.

“I know the Bisham treacle was very crudely melted into When someone on a.f.p. asked if Reg Shoe was based on moulds and sold in slabs. Shops used to smash the slabs up Reg, the leader of the Judean Peoples’ Front in Monty and sell the solid treacle as sweets. It’s quite a different Python’s Life of Brian, Terry answered:

stuff to the crude ‘golden syrup’ treacle still occasionally

“No. Not consciously, anyway.

sold.”

As with other ‘real world’ Discworld names, like Susan, Victor, Albert, etc, I picked the name because of. . . er. . .

– [ p. 80/72 ] “ ‘A couple of’em had a bit of a tiff or associational harmonics. Albert is an ‘old’ name. Reg is a something? Messing around with golden apples or good working class name and has a post-war feel to it. It’s something?’ ”

hard to explain it further, but all popular names carry a In Greek mythology it was a golden apple that indirectly led burden of associations. The best examples in the last to the Trojan war and to the accompanying complete decade have been Sharon and Tracy; whatever the truth, division of the divine pantheon into two opposing camps.

the perception is that these are working-class, Essex bimbo names, although twenty or thirty years ago they’d have

– [ p. 88/79 ] “[. . . ] honorary vestigial virgining [..]”

been considered glamorous (which is why, the myth runs, Pun on the Vestal virgins (priestesses of the goddess Vesta) the kids got given them). Any Brit would probably associate in ancient Rome. ‘Vestigial’ of course means “remaining or a type or age with names like, say, Victoria, Emma, Kylie, surviving in a degenerate or imperfect condition or form”.

Sid, Wayne and Darron. Reg is a good name for a dependable guy, the sort who runs the skittles league (I REAPER MAN

49

The Annotated Pratchett File

know this, ‘cos my Uncle Reg did. . . )”

in America and Britain on 1980s television, which featured Paul ‘Crocodile Dundee’ Hogan saying something along the

– [ p. 108/97 ] “Every full moon I turn into a wolfman. The lines of: “Come on down here, and we’ll throw another rest of the time I’m just a . . . wolf.”

shrimp on the barbie for you” (‘barbie’ = barbecue).

This interesting twist on the age-old werewolf idea has At the risk of boring you all to death with this, I must admit been thought of and used by others a few times before. I’d that I am curious as to the exact wording of that Hogan ad.

particularly recommend ‘What Good is a Glass Dagger’, an I have received extraordinary amounts of mail about this excellent short story by Larry Niven. (I realise that merely annotation, and so far there have been seven different by mentioning it here I may have spoilt it for you, but I phrases mentioned, namely:

think the story is still very enjoyable, regardless).

— toss another shrimp on the barbie for you

— throw another shrimp on the barbie

– [ p. 113/100 ] “ ‘[. . . ] songs like ‘The Streets of

— chuck another prawn on the barbie

Ankh-Morpork’ [. . . ]’ ”

— slap a prawn on the barbie for you

Refers to the classic Ralph McTell song ‘The Streets of

— shove a couple more prawns on the barbie

London’. An impressive set of lyrics for ‘The Streets of

— pop another prawn on the barbie for you

Ankh-Morpork’ can be found on the Pratchett Archives.

— put another prawn on the barbie for you

So, can anybody tell me (a) whether the ad said ‘shrimp’ or

– [ p. 135/120 ] “I EXPECT, he said, THAT YOU COULD

‘prawn’, (b) whether the “for you” was actually part of the MURDER A PIECE OF CHEESE?”

sentence or not, and (c) whether these poor animals were in Echoes p. 24/21 of Mort, where Death says to Mort: “I fact tossed, thrown, chucked, slapped, shoved, popped, or DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT I COULD MURDER A CURRY”.

simply put on the barbie?

– [ p. 146/129 ] “LAST YEAR SOMEONE GOT THREE STREETS

Finally, an Australian correspondent tells me that “Don’t AND ALL THE UTILITIES.”

come the raw prawn with me, sport” is a local saying having a meaning somewhere in between “Pull the other The game ‘Exclusive Possessions’ is of course the Discworld one, it’s got bells on” and “Don’t give me that crap”. Use equivalent of Monopoly.

this information at your own peril.

+ [ p. 131 ] “When he turned the blade, it made a noise like Annotation update: Some time after the above annotation whommmm. The fires of the forge were barely alive now, appeared in APF 7.0 I received email from a correspondent but the blade glowed with razor light.”

who had actually managed to obtain a compilation video from the Australian Tourist Commission, containing all the This description evokes images of the light sabers in the ads Paul Hogan did for them in the 1984–89 period. Among Star Wars movies.

those was, indeed, one he did for the internationally targeted campaign, at the end of which he clinches his spiel

+ [ p. 149/132 ] “On the fabled hidden continent of Xxxx, by saying:

somewhere near the rim, there is a lost colony of wizards who wear corks around their pointy hats and live on

“C’mon. Come and say g’day. I’ll slip an extra nothing but prawns.”

shrimp on the barbie

for ya.”

The continent referred to in this quote is Australia (which means that we are talking here about the Wizards of Oz, I find it highly ironic that the actual mystery verb turns out right?), where there exists a brand of beer called ‘XXXX’

to be one that was not mentioned by any of my previous (pronounced ‘Four Ex’), produced by the Castlemaine correspondents. . .

Tooheys brewery. A New Zealand correspondent tells me that the reason the beer is called ‘XXXX’ is that if it had

– [ p. 154/136 ] “ ‘I don’t hold with all that stuff with cards been called ‘BEER’ the Australians wouldn’t have been able and trumpets and Oo-jar boards, mind you.’ ”

to spell it. Ahem.

An Ouija board is a well-known means of communicating (The actual origin of the name ‘XXXX’ lies in the number of with the dead. It’s a board with letters and symbols on it, marks used by Castlemaine to indicate alcoholic strength.

and the spirits supposedly move a glass over it and spell out Most European beers today are of 4X strength, with some messages. The name ‘Ouija’ derives from ‘oui’ and ‘ja’, two being 3X or even 5X.)

words meaning ‘yes’, one of the symbols on the board.

The corks around the pointy hats refer to the supposedly

– [ p. 151/133 ] “ ‘Everyone thought you were to do with traditional headwear of Australian Swagmen: Akubra hats taxes.’ NO. NOT TAXES.”

with pieces of cork dangling on strings around the wide rim in order to keep the flies off the wearer’s face. Needless to As Benjamin Franklin once wrote: In this world nothing can say, you can live a lifetime in Australia and never get to be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

actually see somebody who looks like this. Monty Python’s

– [ p. 156/138 ] “[. . . ] especially if they do let the younger

‘Philosophers’ sketch is a good send-up of the stereotype.

wizards build whatever that blasted thing is they keep Since then, the stereotype has been reinforced by a series wanting to build in the squash court.”

of Australian Tourism Commission ads promoting Australia This is a reference to the fact that the first nuclear reactor, 50

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

built by Enrico Fermi, was indeed erected under a squash down), but dies of the effort.

court.

– [ p. 201/176 ] “Stripfettle’s Believe-It-Or-Not Grimoire”

Irrelevant, but interesting, is that for a long time Russian physicists, misled by a poor translation, believed that Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! was more or less the forerunner Fermi’s work was done in a ‘pumpkin field’.

of today’s tabloids of the ‘500 pound baby’ variety.

However, his items were supposedly true and he had a

– [ p. 168/147 ] “ ‘Ah. . . many a slip ‘twixt dress and standing offer to provide notarised proof if you didn’t drawers,’ said Duke.”

believe him. Typical items included potatoes that looked like President Eisenhower, dogs that could hold a dozen See the annotation for p. 189/188 of Wyrd Sisters.

tennis balls in their mouths, and a fireplace that cast a

– [ p. 175/153 ] “Behind him, the kettle boiled over and put shadow that looked like the profile of the owner of the the fire out. Simnel fought his way through the steam.”

house, but would only cast the shadow at the exact time of the owner’s death.

The joke here is that Ned Simnel is trying to think of a new, better way to power his Combination Harvester, when he is

– [ p. 204/179 ] “Remember — wild, uncontrolled bursts. . . ”

interrupted by the “pointless distraction” of his kettle From the movie Aliens: “Remember — short, controlled boiling over. This refers to our world’s anecdote about bursts. . . ”. This entire section is filled with action-movie James Watt, who supposedly got his idea for improving the references (‘Yo!’), but Alien/Aliens seems to have been a steam engine when he watched the condensing steam from particularly fruitful source. Many quotes and events have a kettle on the boil.

direct counterparts: “Yeah, but secreted from what?”, “No (Note that contrary to popular belief, Watt didn’t invent the one touch anything”, “It’s coming from everywhere!”, and steam engine itself: what he did was have revolutionary

“We are going” are only a few examples, and of course new ideas (e.g. the use of a condenser) on how to make the there is the matter of the Queen. . .

steam engine really (cost-)efficient, practical and portable.) For more information on steam engines, see also the

– [ p. 217/191 ] “The raven cleared its throat. Reg Shoe annotation for p. 259/186 of Small Gods.

spun around. ‘You say one word,’ he said, ‘just one bloody word . . . ’ ”

– [ p. 178/157 ] “Mustrum Ridcully trotted into his study Edgar Allen Poe rears his head once more in a reference to and took his wizard’s staff from its rack over the fireplace.

his famous poem, The Raven, which is all about death, He licked his finger and gingerly touched the top of his doom and gloom. In the poem, the ominous raven in staff.”

question constantly repeats just a single word: Nevermore.

Gary Cooper does this a few times in the 1941 movie Sergeant York. According to my source, Cooper’s

– [ p. 233/204 ] “Windle snapped his fingers in front of the explanation in the movie was “It cuts down the haze a mite”

Dean’s pale eyes. There was no response. ‘He’s not dead,’

— or something along those lines.

said Reg. ‘Just resting,’ said Windle.”

Just two words: Parrot Sketch.

– [ p. 182/160 ] “ ‘It’s from the Dungeon Dimensions!’ said the Dean. ‘Cream the basket!’ ”

– [ p. 234/204 ] “ ‘I used to know a golem looked like him, Basket is a British euphemism for bastard. In this case it of

[. . . ] You just have to write a special holy word on ‘em to course also applies to the shopping trolley (or basket).

start ‘em up.’ ”

For those needing a refresher course in Jewish magic, a

– [ p. 187/164 ] “ ‘No, Not “with milk” ’, said Windle.”

golem is indeed a clay automaton. The special holy word is See the annotation for p. 277/243.

either the name of God, or the Hebrew word for truth,

‘emet’ (aleph-mem-tav). To turn the golem off, you erase the

– [ p. 192/168 ] The harvesting battle between Death and name, or, if you used ‘emet’, the initial aleph, which the Combined Harvester has echoes of various similar changes the word to ‘met’ (mem-tav), meaning dead.

contests in American folklore.

– [ p. 235/206 ] “ ‘Artor! Nobblyesse obligay!’ ”

There is for instance the story of the legendary American lumberjack Paul Bunyan and the Lumber Machine.

From the phrase noblesse oblige, meaning “rank imposes According to that legend (as told in the Disney cartoon, certain obligations”.

ahem), Paul realised, after a magnificent battle at the end of which the Machine had won by a quarter-inch more

– [ p. 246/215 ] “ ‘Bonsai!’ ”

timber, that the age of the great lumberjacks was over, and A typical Pratchettian mix-up of two different things: he wandered off with his steed Babe the Blue Ox, never to

‘Banzai!’ is the Japanese war cry shouted by kamikaze be seen again.

pilots as they performed their suicide runs. It means ‘ten There’s also the much older American folk song ‘John thousand years’, and was originally an honorary greeting Henry’, which describes a similar contest in which John used in front of the Emperor, whom the kamikazes were, of Henry beats the new steam-driven pile-driver (he was a course, dying for.

railway builder, and drove in the spikes that held the rails

‘Bonsai’ is the art of growing tiny potted trees shaped and REAPER MAN

51

The Annotated Pratchett File

stunted into very particular growth patterns.

word appears on a left page, so that it takes the reader by surprise as she turns the page. In the paperback edition

– [ p. 246/215 ] “ ‘Like. . . small trees. Bush-i-do. Yeah.’ ”

this is not the case, thus spoiling the effect entirely.

‘Bushido’ means “the way of the warrior”, and is When questioned about this, Terry said: “Do you really pronounced bu-shi-do.

think I’m some kind of dumbo to miss that kind of opportunity? I wrote 400 extra words to get it on a

– [ p. 247/216 ] “Occasionally people would climb the left-hand page in the hardcover — then Corgi shuffled mountain and add a stone or two to the cairn at the top, people in the production department when it was going

[. . . ]”

through and my careful instructions disappeared into a My correspondents tell me that there are many such black hole. Go on. . . tell me more about comic timing. . . ”

mountains to be found around the world. In Ireland there is The American paperback edition, by the way, also gets it one specific mountain called Maeves Grave. On the top of it right.

is a heap of stones which is believed to be the grave of the evil Celtic Queen Maeve. To prevent her from ever leaving

– [ p. 267/235 ] “To deliver a box of chocolates like this, the grave, each visitor to the mountain is supposed to pick dark strangers drop from chairlifts and abseil down up a stone, and carry it up the hill and put it on the grave.

buildings.”

A reference to a UK TV commercial for ‘Milk Tray’

– [ p. 258/226 ] “ ‘I’m just going out,’ he said. ‘I may be chocolates, in which a James Bond-like figure does some time.’ ”

death-defying stunts, only to leave a box of chocolates in A quote that Terry uses again in another, similar situation.

some place where a woman finds them at the end of the ad.

See the annotation for p. 236/170 of Small Gods.

– [ p. 267/235 ] “ ‘DARK ENCHANTMENTS’, he said.”

– [ p. 259/226 ] The idea of a were-man and were-woman A reference to a brand of chocolates called ‘Black Magic’.

who fall in love, but whose animal and human phases are out of sync with respect to each other was the main plot

– [ p. 270/237 ] “ ‘Chap with a whip got as far as the big element in the 1985 fantasy movie Ladyhawke, starring sharp spikes last week,’ said the low priest.”

Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Refers to the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies, in which

– [ p. 264/230 ] “Azrael, the Great Attractor, the Death of Indiana Jones (with trademark whip) always steals stuff Universes, [. . . ]”

from sacred temples loaded with spikes, big rolling balls, and nasty insects.

In previous editions of the APF, I said that the Great Attractor was part of an astronomical theory that had been

– [ p. 271/238 ] “The priests heard the chink of a very large discredited some time ago. It turns out that this is far from diamond being lifted out of its socket.”

the truth.

This is the sequence where Death enters the Lost Jewelled Basically, astronomers have discovered that there are large Temple of Doom of Offler the Crocodile God and purloins regions of the cosmos being held back from the smooth the massive diamond called the Tear of Offler from the overall expansion (or Hubble flow) as dictated by the Big statue therein.

Bang/Expanding Universe theory.

On p. 109/109 of the The Light Fantastic, however, The culprit would seem to be something or some things Twoflower tells Bethan the story of Cohen the Barbarian within a vast clumping of galaxies that appears to be stealing this very same sacred diamond.

causing an acceleration of all the surrounding galaxies in its direction. In an offhand comment during a press There are ways around this inconsistency, of course. The conference, Alan Dressler referred to this galactic pileup as most reasonable one seems to me the fact that there is no the ‘Great Attractor’, and the name immediately stuck.

reason why we have to assume that all the stories told about Cohen are necessarily true.

Although the theory was not universally accepted by all scientists, I understand the evidence for it has held up well,

– [ p. 275/242 ] “ ‘Let’s see . . . something like ‘Corn be ripe, and in fact I saw a recent newspaper article claiming that nuts be brown, petticoats up . . . ’ something.’ ”

the Great Attractor had actually been identifier by a group of international astronomers as the cluster Abel 3627.

This is a paraphrase or alternate version of an existing

“ould Sussex Folk Song”, quoted in Spike Milligan’s

– [ p. 264/231 ] “LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, autobiography Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall as IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?”

follows:

Some folks thought that this line sounded familiar and Apples be ripe, nuts be brown,

wondered if it was a quote, but Terry has assured us that he Petticoats up, trousers down.

made this one up all by himself.

– [ p. 275/242 ] “ ‘I take it you do dance, Mr Bill Door?’

– [ p. 265/232 ] “YES ”

FAMED FOR IT, MISS FLITWORTH.”

In the hardcover edition of Reaper Man, this super-large Dancing with death is of course a metaphor as familiar as playing a game of chess or Exclusive Possessions with 52

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

Death.

and pressure of a gas are inversely related.

– [ p. 276/242 ] “[. . . ] ‘Do-si-do!’ [. . . ]”

– [ p. 7/7 ] “Like finding that bloody butterfly whose flapping wings cause all these storms we’ve been having A dosi-do is a square dance figure in which two dancers lately [. . . ]”

start facing each other, then circle round each other, passing back to back (in French: ‘dos-a-dos’).

Rather literal interpretation of one of the most often-cited examples of Chaos theory, called the Butterfly effect: a

– [ p. 277/243 ] “ ‘I know this one! It’s the Quirmish butterfly flapping its wings can cause a storm because in bullfight dance! Oh-lay!’ ‘WITH MILK’?”

Chaos theory results are not proportional to causes.

Oh-lay!, a phonetic version of the Spanish cry ¡Olé!, sounds

– [ p. 9/9 ] The three urban legends Terry mentions briefly also the same as the pronunciation of the French phrase in the footnote are all quite well-known, and can be found in

“au lait” which means “with milk”, as in e.g. ‘cafe au lait’.

any decent collection of such stories, but just in case not

– [ p. 280/246 ] “One yodel out of place would attract, not everyone is familiar with them:

the jolly echo of a lonely goatherd, but fifty tons of The first story is about a family whose grandmother dies on express-delivery snow.”

vacation. In order to avoid bureaucratic hassle they decide A reference to the puppet sequence in The Sound of Music, to strap her to the roof-rack of the car, and cross the border a song in which both yodelling and lonely goatherds are back to their own country. During a rest-room stop, featured.

somebody steals the car, grandmother and all.

The second story is that of the people who return home

– [ p. 280/246 ] “ ‘And who was that masked man?’ They after a night out, and find their dog choking to death in both looked around. There was no one there.”

front of the door. They race him to the vet, who discovers Refers to the Lone Ranger.

that the dog is choking on a human finger he must have bitten off a burglar.

– [ p. 282/248 ] “ ‘Just me, your lordship,’ said the The third story is that of a man and woman having sex in watchman cheerfully. ‘Turning up like a bad copper.’ ”

the back seat of a car, when some serious accident happens

‘Copper’ is a British colloquialism for policemen (see also and they become trapped. In order to free them from their the annotation for p. 185/140 of Men at Arms), but ‘copper’

predicament, the car has to be cut open with a torch, after is also a somewhat archaic synonym for ‘penny’, which which the woman supposedly comments: “My husband will gives the link to the saying: “turning up like a bad penny”.

be furious, it was his car”.

Hence also the old joke: ‘What do you call a policeman’s Much more information about these and countless other night shift pay?’ ‘Copper nitrate’.

urban legends can be found in Jan Harold Brunvand’s books. If you’re on the net, you may want to check out

– [ p. 283/249 ] “ ‘You know,’ said Windle, ‘it’s a wonderful alt.folklore.urban.

afterlife.’ ”

– [ p. 10/9 ] “She had called upon Mister Safe Way, Lady It’s A Wonderful Life is the title of Frank Capra’s classic Bon Anna, Hotaloga Andrews and Stride Wide Man.”

1946 movie about a special kind of undead (or rather: unliving) man.

Safeway is the name of a supermarket chain. Terry says: “I needed some good names that sounded genuinely voodoo.

– [ p. 284/250 ] “WINDLE POONS? ‘Yes?’ THAT WAS YOUR

Now, one of the names of one of the classic gods is LIFE.”

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.

Reference to the TV show This Is Your Life, where a noted Hence, by DW logic, Safeway. Bon Anna I’m pretty sure is a celebrity is surprised and (hopefully) embarrassed by genuine voodoo goddess. The other two are entirely made having the high (and occasionally low) points of his/her life up but out of, er, the right sort of verbal components.”

recounted by friends and acquaintances during a half hour programme.

– [ 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.

Witches Abroad

DESIDERATA is copyrighted material, and can not be reproduced or sold without permision. Any violation is the

– [ p. 7/7 ] “ ‘Hurrah, I’ve discovered Boyle’s Third Law.’ ”

basis for legal action. Books containing DESIDERATA are published by Crown Publishers, N.Y.C. and can be obtained Sinking to the ultimate depths of trivial annotating, I from Tim Tiley Ltd., Bristol. The author was Max Ehrmann.

suppose I should point out here, if only for completeness’

Other permissions must be obtained from the owner of the sake, that (a) there is only one single ‘Boyle’s law’, which copyright — Robert L. Bell, 427 South Shore Drive, (b) says that if temperature is kept constant, the volume Sarasota, Florida, USA 34234.

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53

The Annotated Pratchett File

– [ p. 16/15 ] “ ‘Wish I was going to Genua,’ she said.”

about in Moving Pictures, and who also appears in Small Gods as the Omnian businessman Dhblah.

Terry writes: “This may or may not already be an annotation somewhere, but Genua is a ‘sort of’ New Also, the name is a direct reference to Tuesday Lobsang Orleans with a ‘sort of’ Magic Kingdom grafted on top of it.

Rampa, who was one of our world’s more successful psychic hoaxers: actually named Cyril Hoskin, and son of a It had its genesis some years ago when I drove from Devon plumber, Lobsang Rampa claimed to be a Tibetan Orlando to New Orleans and formed some opinions about monk with paranormal powers. He wrote the best-selling both places: in one, you go there and Fun is manufactured 1956 book The Third Eye which, even though Rampa was and presented to you, in the other you just eat and drink a exposed as a fraud by Time Magazine in 1958, is still being lot and fun happens.”

printed and sold as the real thing 30 years later. Rich,

– [ p. 17/15 ] “ ‘Mr Chert the troll down at the sawmill does gullible people like actress Shirley MacLaine still pay a very good deal on coffins [. . . ]’ ”

money to have their ‘third eye’ opened up by contemporary Rampa equivalents.

This confirms the unwritten rule that says all Discworld trolls must have mineral names: ‘chert’ is a dark-coloured, When questioned about the name, Terry answered: “I know flintlike quartz.

all kindsa Tibetan names. . . Kelsang, Jambel, Tsong, Tenzin, Tupten (drops Tibetan reference book on foot). . . but

– [ p. 17/16 ] “Her name was Lady Lilith de Tempscire, Lobsang is, thanks to Mr Rampa, probably the best known.”

[. . . ]”

– [ p. 33/29 ] “There was a knock on the door. Magrat went Tempscire is actually a French transliteration of and opened it. ‘Hai?’, she said.”

Weatherwax.

Apart from being Magrat’s ninja war cry, ‘Hai?’ also means

– [ p. 19/17 ] “[. . . ] at least two of those present tonight

‘Yes?’ in Japanese.

were wearing Granny Weatherwax’s famous

goose-grease-and-sage chest liniment.”

– [ p. 38/34 ] “ ‘Shut up. Anyway, she’s non compost mental,’ said Granny.”

In Victorian times, children’s chests were often smeared with a large helping of goose grease in order to keep out

“Non compos mentis” is a Latin phrase meaning “not of the cold.

sound mind”.

Channel swimmers also used to use goose grease. Perhaps

+ [ p. 42/37 ] “ ‘Anno Domini, I said.’ ”

they still do. . .

Anno Domini means ‘year of our Lord’ (as in e.g.: 1993 AD).

– [ p. 20/18 ] “ ‘Tempers Fuggit. Means that was then and It is indeed also used to denote old age, although this usage this is now,’ said Nanny.”

is a fairly recent literary invention, dating back to at least 1888 when Rudyard Kipling wrote the short story Venus Well — almost. The actual Latin phrase is “tempus fugit”: Annodomini.

“time flies”.

– [ p. 47/41 ] “No one ran up them wearing dirndls and

– [ p. 27/24 ] “As Nanny Ogg would put it, when it’s teatime singing. They were not nice mountains.”

in Genua it’s Tuesday over here. . . ”

Refers to the opening scene of The Sound of Music, where This refers to an old and very silly song by J. Kendis and Julie Andrews does just that: running up the mountains, Lew Brown, which goes:

and singing, and wearing dirndls (if you want to know what When it’s night-time in Italy, it’s Wednesday over a dirndl looks like, go see the movie).

here.

Oh! the onions in Sicily make people cry in

– [ p. 48/42 ] “The witches flew along a maze of twisty little California.

canyons, all alike.”

Why does a fly? When does a bee?

This refers back to a legendary message that appeared in How does a wasp sit down to have his tea?

Crowther & Woods’ text adventure game ADVENT (see also If you talk to an Eskimo, his breath will freeze the annotation for p. 130/114 of The Colour of Magic): “You your ear.

are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.”

When it’s night-time in Italy, it’s Wednesday over Many games have included variants of this. It also here.

appeared in Zork (“The second of the great early

– [ p. 30/26 ] “ ‘You can’t get the wood,’ she said.”

experiments in computer fantasy gaming”, as The New Hacker’s Dictionary describes it), and in the Hitch Hiker’s This was Henry Crun’s standard excuse for not actually Guide to the Galaxy game you appear in your own brain, in building anything he’d invented, on the Goon Show.

“a maze of twisty synapses”.

– [ p. 33/29 ] “The author, Grand Master Lobsang Dibbler,

+ [ p. 48/42 ] The section dealing with dwarfs (and in fact, had an address in Ankh-Morpork.”

almost everything Terry writes about dwarfs) is a parody of This is yet another incarnation of Cut-Me-Own-Throat Tolkien’s dwarves.

Dibbler, the Ankhian entrepreneur we learn much more 54

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

In particular, compare the witches’ musings on mine entries A handsome knight came ridin’ by

and invisible runes to Tolkien’s scenes outside Moria.

I politely raised my cap and

Dwarf bread brings to mind Tolkien’s waybreads: cram and They went behind the stable

lembas. And as the witches leave the dwarfs, they have an and I never saw what happened.”

encounter with a wretched creature mumbling something about his birthday. . .

– [ p. 62/54 ] “ ‘Thank goodness witches float.’ ”

An obvious joke, but easily missed: refers to ducking

– [ p. 49/43 ] “[. . . ] and spake thusly: ‘Open up, you little suspected witches. If they drowned, they were innocent.

sods!’ ”

In Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings there is a famous scene

– [ p. 62/55 ] “The maiden, the mother and the. . . other outside the dwarven mines of Moria, where invisible runes one.”

written on the door (and revealed by the wizard Gandalf) The “other one” is the crone. See also the annotation for give our heroes the clue as to how to get the door to open, p. 248/218.

namely by saying the word ‘friend’.

Personally, I like Nanny Ogg’s way better.

– [ p. 67/59 ] “ ‘Der flabberghast,’ muttered Nanny. ‘What’s that?’ said Magrat. ‘It’s foreign for bat.’ ”

– [ p. 51/45 ] “[. . . ] if more trolls stopped wearing suits and Well no, it isn’t, actually. The German word for bat is walking upright, and went back to living under bridges

‘Fledermaus’, as in Johann Strauss’ famous operette Die

[. . . ]”

Fledermaus. ‘Flabberghast’ seems to derive more from the See the annotation for p. 193/140 of Lords and Ladies.

plain English ‘flabbergasted’ (meaning: astonished beyond belief). Similarly, ‘die flabbergast’ apparently was a

– [ p. 52/45 ] “It’s often said that eskimos have fifty words Mozart-spoofing sketch that Dudley Moore did in Beyond for snow. This is not true.”

The Fringe.

In fact, the situation regarding eskimos and snow is pretty

– [ p. 87/75 ] The names the witches are considering for much the same as the one Terry subsequently describes for themselves are puns on existing airline companies or their dwarfs and rocks: eskimos have a number of different acronyms. Nanny Ogg starts to say Virgin Airlines, but is words for different kinds of snow and ice, but nothing out rudely interrupted by a gust of wind.

of the ordinary.

– [ p. 88/77 ] “ ‘I like stuff that tells you plain what it is,

– [ p. 58/51 ] “ ‘[. . . ] whenever I deals with dwarfs, the like. . . well. . . Bubble and Squeak, or. . . or. . . ‘Spotted phrase ‘Duck’s Arse’ swims across my mind.’ ”

Dick,’ said Nanny absently.”

From the phrase “tight as a duck’s arse”, implying Americans might be amazed to learn that Bubble and excessive meanness.

Squeak, Spotted Dick, and Toad-in-the-Hole (which is mentioned a few lines further down) are all actually the

– [ p. 61/53 ] “ ‘I knows all about folk songs. Hah! You think names of existing British delicacies.

you’re listenin’ to a nice song about. . . about cuckoos and fiddlers and nightingales and whatnot, and then it turns out Nanny Ogg is correct in identifying Toad-in-the-Hole as a to be about. . . about something else entirely,’ she added sausage embedded in a sort of tart filled with pancake darkly.”

batter.

Just as an example of the type of song Granny may have in Bubble and Squeak is traditionally made on Boxing Day mind, here are a few verses of ‘The Cuckoo’s Nest’: from Christmas leftovers (potato, onion, cabbage and Brussels sprouts appear to be favourite ingredients among As I went a-walking one morning in May

alt.fan.pratchett readers, fried up together in lard.

I spied a pretty fair maid and unto her did say For love I am inclined and I’ll tell you of my mind Spotted Dick is a suet-sponge pudding with currants or That my inclination lies in your cuckoo’s nest.

sultanas in it.

Some like a girl who is pretty in the face

– [ p. 89/78 ] “ ‘Magrat says she will write a book called And some like a girl who is slender in the waist Travelling on One Dollar a Day, and it’s always the same Ah, but give me a girl who will wriggle and will dollar.’ ”

twist

At the bottom of the belly lies the cuckoo’s nest.

Refers to the famous traveller’s guide originally titled Europe on Five Dollars a Day. This is of course also When this annotation led to a torrent of similar folk songs extensively parodied in the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the being discussed on a.f.p., at one point Terry chimed in with: Galaxy (“see the wonders of the universe for only twenty

“My favourite was something I think by a guy called Diz Altairian dollars per day”).

Disley back in the very early 70s. From memory: As I walked out one May morning,

– [ p. 91/79 ] “What does cojones mean?”

In the month of Februaryyy,

‘Cojones’ is Spanish for ‘hen’s eggs’, colloquially used for I saw a pretty serving maid a-comin’

‘testicles’. The whole ‘Thing with the Bulls’ section spoofs out the dairy;

WITCHES ABROAD

55

The Annotated Pratchett File

the annual bull running festival of Pamplona in our world.

the name of the sorceress from the Odyssey who lived on Ernest Hemingway was very impressed with this macho the island Aeaea, and turned Ulysses’ shipmates into pigs activity, and used the word ‘cojones’ to describe the bravery when they landed (but didn’t shipwreck) there.

displayed by the young men participating in the event.

– [ p. 136/119 ] “[. . . ] around Defcon II in the lexicon of I doubt if it originated with Hemingway, but to this day squabble.”

“having the balls” is used in both English and Spanish to mean “act bravely”.

In the jargon of American military planners, the DEFCON

scale (for Defence Readiness Condition) is used to describe

– [ p. 95/83 ] “ ‘’S called the Vieux River.’ ‘Yes?’ ‘Know what the level of preparedness of U.S. military forces. I quote that means?’ ‘No.’ ‘The Old (Masculine) River,’ said Nanny.

from The Language of Nuclear War — An Intelligent

‘Yes?’ ‘Words have sex in foreign parts,’ said Nanny Citizen’s Dictionary by H. Eric Semler, James J. Benjamin, hopefully.”

Jr., and Adam P. Gross:

The Mississippi River is often known as ‘Old Man River’, for

“DEFCON 5 describes a state in which forces are at normal instance in the classic song from the 1936

readiness, while DEFCON 1, referred to as the “cocked Kern/Hammerstein musical Show Boat. Near the mouth of pistol,” indicates a state of extreme emergency, when forces the Mississippi lies New Orleans, on which Genua seems to are poised for attack. Not all U.S. military forces are be largely based. And then there are the riverboats, with simultaneously at the same DEFCON. The DEFCON varies the gamblers. . .

depending upon the type of weapon with which the troops are equipped and the region in which they are deployed.

– [ p. 96/84 ] “[. . . ] she wants to make it a Magic Kingdom, For example, U.S. troops in South Korea are always at a Happy and Peaseful place [. . . ]”

DEFCON 4 but soldiers tending nuclear missiles deployed The most famous part of the Walt Disney World theme park in the continental U.S. are normally kept at DEFCON 5.

in Orlando, Florida, is officially called the ‘Magic Kingdom’.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy raised the DEFCON of U.S. forces to DEFCON 2 (a status

– [ p. 97/84 ] “[. . . ] Samedi Nuit Mort, the last night of just below wartime conditions).”

carnivale, [. . . ]”

– [ p. 137/120 ] “ ‘Oh? It’s all wishing on stars and fairy Samedi Nuit Mort = Saturday Night Dead, a reference to dust, is it?’ ”

the television comedy show Saturday Night Live.

Fairly standard magic-related concepts, but perhaps it

– [ p. 97/85 ] “ ‘That means Fat Lunchtime,’ said Nanny should be noted that wishing on stars is done in Disney’s Ogg, international linguist.”

Pinocchio, while fairy dust features heavily in Peter Pan (both the original play and the subsequent Disney movie).

Actually, ‘Mardi Gras’ means Fat Tuesday. Nanny Ogg is confusing ‘Mardi’ with ‘Midi’, which mean ‘midday’, i.e.

– [ p. 137/120 ] “ ‘[. . . ] and no one doesn’t get burned who lunchtime.

sticks their hand in a fire.’ ”

– [ p. 114/99 ] “Even Magrat knew about Black Aliss.”

I feel that in Witches Abroad Terry was experimenting much more than usual with the literary device of In Terry Pratchett’s universe Black Aliss is obviously the foreshadowing. This is only one of the many instances in evil witch of all fairy tales. The stories referred to here are the book where something is said that means nothing to the Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin and Hansel And Gretel, reader first time around, but which suddenly becomes very all of which are available as on-line versions (see the significant when you notice it during a re-read, and you annotation for p. 34/34 of The Light Fantastic).

already know what is going to happen later.

– [ p. 122/107 ] “Are you the taxgatherers, dear?’ ‘No,

– [ p. 139/122 ] “ ‘What some people need,’ said Magrat, ma’am, we’re —’ ‘— fairies,’ said Fairy Hedgehog quickly.”

[. . . ], ‘is a bit more heart.’ ‘What some people need,’ said This is a Blues Brothers reference: in the film, the dialogue Granny Weatherwax, [. . . ], ‘is a lot more brain.’ [. . . ] What I goes: “ ‘Are you the police?’ ‘No, ma’am, we’re musicians.’ ”

need, thought Nanny Ogg fervently, is a drink.”

These are references to the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion

– [ p. 134/117 ] “ ‘[. . . ] there’s been other odd things respectively, once you remember that an alcoholic drink is happening in this forest.’ ”

also known as ‘Dutch courage’. In fact, in the original book Magrat then goes on to describe more or less what the courage the Lion is given comes in a bottle, and many happened in the fairy tales of Goldilocks and the Three feel that Baum had alcohol in mind when he wrote it.

Bears and The Three Little Pigs.

– [ p. 139/122 ] The farmhouse landing on Nanny Ogg, and

– [ p. 134/118 ] “ ‘[. . . ] some ole enchantress in history who the subsequent events involving dwarfs looking for lived on an island and turned shipwrecked sailors into ruby-coloured footwear are references to The Wizard of Oz.

pigs.’ ”

All Terry’s references are to the movie version, incidentally, For once, Nanny Ogg doesn’t mix up two or more not the book. In the book Dorothy obtains Silver Shoes real-world tales, but gets the story (almost) right: Circe was instead of Ruby Slippers, doesn’t say anything approaching 56

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“. . . we’re not in Kansas any more”, and of course the book

— she’s one of those people who say “And then what doesn’t have a ‘dingdong’ song.

happened?” after you’ve told them the punchline. She can vaguely remember the one-liner “Give me an alligator

– [ p. 140/123 ] “ ‘You know, Greebo,’ she said. “I don’t think sandwich — and make it snappy!” but since she’s got no we’re in Lancre.’

idea of why it’s even mildly amusing she gets confused. . .

Dorothy, to her dog, in The Wizard of Oz: “Toto, I’ve a all that she can remember is that apparently the man wants feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

it quickly.”

When conversation on the net then turned to the origins of

– [ p. 148/130 ] “ ‘[. . . ] that girl with the long pigtails in a the joke, he followed up with:

tower [. . . ] Rumplestiltzel or someone.’ ”

“As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I first came across the The girl with the long hair is Rapunzel from the famous joke in an ancient US comedy routine — Durante or fairy tale of the same name. ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ is a different, someone like him. It sounds burlesque.”

unrelated fairy tale involving a dwarf spinning gold out of See the annotation for p. 195/159 of Mort for another type straw.

of meta-joke based on the alligator joke.

– [ p. 153/134 ] “Not a Ronald in sight.”

– [ p. 177/155 ] Emberella → Embers; Cinderella →

Terry says: “Yep. . . direct use of existing East London Cinders. . .

rhyming slang there (Richard the Third = turd).”

– [ p. 179/157 ] “ ‘I am called Saturday.’ ‘Man Saturday, eh?’

– [ p. 159/139 ] “ ‘That’s ‘cos you’re a wet hen, Magrat said Nanny Ogg.”

Garlick,’ said Granny.”

Nanny is thinking of Man Friday as in Robinson Crusoe’s When questioned about the phrase, Terry explained: native friend. But Saturday is of course none other than

“Perfectly good British slang. A ‘wet hen’ is bedraggled, sad Baron Samedi (Samedi = Saturday), the Voodoo keeper of and useless. Probably not as useless as a big girl’s blouse, cemeteries and lord of zombies. He appears as a skeleton though, and better off than a lame duck.”

wearing a top hat and a black cane.

– [ p. 173/152 ] “ ‘My full name’s Erzulie Gogol,’ said Mrs

– [ p. 197/172 ] “Nanny Ogg waved the jug again. ‘Up your Gogol. ‘People call me Mrs Gogol.’ ”

eye!’ she said. ‘Mud in your bottom!’ ”

This resonates with In the Heat of the Night (see the The two traditional English toasts being mixed up here are annotation for p. 365/277 of Men at Arms), in so much as

“bottoms up” and “here’s mud in your eye”.

we have two persons of the same profession, one of them black, the other white, and one of them way out of her

– [ p. 198/174 ] “[. . . ] Nanny Ogg and the coachmen were territory.

getting along, as she put it, like a maison en flambé.”

The name ‘Erzuli’ comes directly from Voodoo religion.

See the annotation for p. 313/284 of Guards! Guards!

Maîtresse Erzulie (also known as Ezili) is the ideal figure of womanhood, and the spirit of love and beauty.

– [ p. 199/175 ] “[. . . ] Nanny Ogg kept calling them

‘Magrats’, but they were trousers, and very practical.”

– [ p. 174/153 ] “ ‘This is Legba, a dark and dangerous Calling them Magrats is a reference to Bloomers, originally spirit,’ said Mrs Gogol.”

a female costume consisting of jacket, shirt and Turkish Legba (also known as Papa Legba or Legba Ati-bon) is the trousers gathered closely around the ankles, introduced by Voodoo spirit of the cross-roads, where the Above meets the Mrs Amelia Bloomer of New York in 1849. Associated with Below. He is “on both sides of the mirror”. He leans on a the Woman’s Rights Movement, the outfit met with little stick, and another of his symbols is the macoutte (straw success. Nowadays ‘bloomers’ is applied to the trouser sack). Chickens are sacrificed to him by twisting their neck portion only.

till they are dead.

– [ p. 228/201 ] “ ‘This is [. . . ] Sir, Roger de Coverley.’ ”

– [ p. 176/154 ] “So he said ‘Get me an alligator sandwich —

‘Sir Roger de Coverley’ is the title of a folk dance.

and make it quick!’ ”

It is obvious that Granny is trying to tell a joke here — and

– [ p. 228/201 ] “ ‘. . . my name is Colonel Moutarde. . . ’ ”

failing miserably. The problem was that quite a few readers

‘Moutarde’ is French for ‘mustard’. Colonel Mustard is the (including yours truly) were having trouble figuring out name of one of the characters in the board game (and what that joke was supposed to be in the first place.

subsequent movie) Clue (or Cluedo).

People started asking about the Alligator Joke so frequently on alt.fan.pratchett, that eventually Terry himself posted

– [ p. 229/201 ] Casanunda, “the world’s greatest lover”, the following “definitive explanation of the alligator joke”: refers to our world’s Casanova. Notice that Casanova is often roughly pronounced as ‘Casanover’ (emphasis on the

“It is (I hope) obvious that Granny Weatherwax has

‘over’), and that Casanunda (emphasis on the ‘unda’) is a absolutely no sense of humour but she has, as it were, dwarf. . .

heard about it. She has no grasp of how or why jokes work WITCHES ABROAD

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Actually, Casanunda is lying, because we later find out he’s that transported Dorothy home from Oz).

only the world’s second greatest lover. But this should not surprise us, since yet even later (in Lords and Ladies) we

+ [ p. 285/252 ] “But they went the long way, and saw the also find out that he is an Outrageous Liar.

elephant.”

Several people were immediately reminded of Fritz Leiber’s

– [ p. 235/207 ] “Nanny Ogg’s voyages on the sea of Hugo award winning novelette Gonna Roll The Bones, intersexual dalliance had gone rather further than twice which ends: “Then he turned and headed straight for home, around the lighthouse, [. . . ]”

but he took the long way, around the world.” Terry has said A popular way of staving off boredom at typical British there is no conscious connection, however.

seaside holiday resorts is to take a trip in a small boat,

“Seeing the elephant” also resonates nicely with The Lord which will often journey out as far as the local lighthouse of the Rings, where Bilbo complains wistfully that he never and circumnavigate it. Hence the above colloquialism, got to see an elephant on his adventures ‘abroad’: “[. . . ]

implying that Nanny’s experiences were not limited to the Aragorn’s affairs, and the White Council, and Gondor, and inshore waters of male/female relationships.

the Horsemen, and Southrons, and oliphaunts — did you really see one, Sam? — and caves and towers and golden

– [ p. 248/218 ] “The maiden, the mother and the crone.”

trees and goodness knows what besides. I evidently came Traditionally, the wiccan goddess (see Equal Rites back by much too straight a road from my trip. I think annotation) is viewed as the triple entity

Gandalf might have shown me round a bit.”

maiden/mother/crone, and our witches indeed echo this Also, “to have seen the elephant” is British military slang model. Neil Gaiman uses the triple goddess quite often in dating back to the 19th century, and means to have taken his Sandman series.

part in one’s first battle, while during the 1849 California Goldrush, “going to see the elephant” was widely used as a

– [ p. 249/219 ] “Mrs Gogol’s hut travelled on four large phrase by people to signify their intention to travel duck feet, which were now rising out of the swamp.”

westwards and try their luck. (See e.g. JoAnn Levy’s 1999

Baba Yaga is a witch in Russian folklore, who had a hut that book They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold stood, and was able to turn around, on chicken feet. I don’t Rush.)

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 Small Gods

another Russian’s painting of said fairy tale hut.

– [ p. 252/222 ] “ ‘I’m a world-famous liar.’ ‘Is that true?’

– [ p. 8/7 ] “ ‘I remember,’ said Lu-Tze.”

‘No.’ ”

Lu-Tze is probably meant to parallel Lao-Tze, the writer of Casanunda here recreates the famous liar paradox: the Tao Te Ching and thus one of the founders of Taoism.

Epimenides the Cretan saying “All Cretans are liars”. For The mountain range he carries with him is reminiscent of more information on this paradox see any good book about stories told by and of Taoist and Buddhist sages.

logic puzzles, although I particularly recommend Douglas R. Hofstadter’s Metamagical Themas.

– [ p. 8/7 ] “ ‘Young fellow called Ossory, wasn’t there?’ ”

For what it’s worth: an ossuary is a place where the bones

– [ p. 252/222 ] “ ‘Well, maybe I’m only No. 2,’ said of the dead are kept.

Casanunda. ‘But I try harder.’ ”

This was the catchphrase from a well-known ad campaign

+ [ p. 9/8 ] The name ‘Brutha’ is of course pronounced as a in the late 60s. The No. 2 was car rental firm Avis; Hertz jive-ified ‘brother’, and resonates with the name of was No. 1.

Buddhism’s prophet Buddha.

Avis still uses the “we try harder” slogan, but the “we’re

– [ p. 11/9 ] Brother Nhumrod.

No. 2” part was dropped a long time ago.

Brother Nhumrod’s name is not only an obvious pun on the

– [ p. 274/241 ] “ ‘[. . . ] what was that Tsortean bloke who man’s sexual problems, but also refers to the Biblical could only be wounded if you hit ‘im in the right place?’ ”

Nimrod who was “a mighty hunter before the Lord”

(Genesis 10:8).

Nanny is thinking of the Discworld version of Achilles, who was invincible except for a small spot on his heel.

– [ p. 12/10 ] “Give me a boy up to the age of seven, Nhumrod had always said.”

– [ p. 285/252 ] “Nanny kicked her red boots together idly.

‘Well, I suppose there’s no place like home,’ she 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 Another Wizard of Oz reference (kicking her shoes together him afterwards.”

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The Jesuits boasted that they could convert anyone if they This parallels one of the writings of Chuang Tzu, a Taoist just started early enough.

sage:

“Once Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly

– [ p. 15/12 ] The Cenobiarch.

flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing A cenobite is a “member of a religious order following a as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Chuang Chou.

communal way of life”. The ‘arch’ suffix denotes leadership Suddenly he woke up, and there he was, solid and (as in e.g. ‘matriarch’).

unmistakable Chuang Chou. But he didn’t know if he was Chuang Chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a

– [ p. 15/12 ] “[. . . ] and torturers, and Vestigial Virgins. . . ”

butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Chou.”

See the annotation for p. 88/79 of Reaper Man.

– [ p. 60/44 ] “ ‘The other novices make fun of him,

– [ p. 19/15 ] You Don’t Have To Be Pitilessly Sadistic To sometimes. Call him The Big Dumb Ox.’ ”

Work Here But It Helps!!!

St Thomas Aquinas (1224–1274) was called the “the dumb Refers to those lame stickers and signs in offices and work ox” by his fellow students due to his silence during areas all over the world that say: “You don’t have to be theological disputes at the university. He just listened, or insane to work here but it helps!”.

perhaps lurked is a better term. He also had a large and awkward frame, like Brutha.

In Eric a similar slogan is pasted on the door to the Discworld Hell (“You don’t have to be ‘Damned’ to work The story goes that Thomas’ teacher (Albertus Magnus, see here. . . ”).

the annotation for p. 221/180 of Mort ) rebuked the insensitive students by saying: “His name will be

– [ p. 31/23 ] “De Chelonian Mobile [. . . ] The Turtle Moves.”

remembered long after yours are all forgotten”. He was right. Thomas Aquinas was canonised less than a century This whole theory parodies Galileo Galilei’s struggle to get later. (And so was Albertus Magnus, but not until 1931.) his theory of a moving earth (moving around the sun, that is) accepted by the Christian Church.

– [ p. 78/57 ] “He was good at raking paths. He left scallop The specific phrasing of the motto refers to what Galileo patterns and gentle soothing curves.”

supposedly uttered under his breath after recanting his This is a description of a Zen rock garden.

theory to the Inquisition (mirrored by Didactylos having to do the same in front of Vorbis); “E pur si muove” — “And yet

– [ p. 80/59 ] “ ‘Nice fresh indulgences? Lizards? Onna it moves”. This explains why the Chelonists say “The Turtle stick?’ ”

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 Given the Medieval Catholic nature of Omnianism, Dhblah’s turtle, not whether it’s mobile or stationary.

trade in indulgences (time off for a loved one in Purgatory) isn’t at all surprising.

– [ p. 31/23 ] “ ‘And what does that stand on?’ he said.”

– [ p. 83/60 ] “Below it, the doors of the Great Temple, each This is the classic objection to the turtle theory, at least one made of forty tons of gilded bronze, opened by the according to an anecdote that has been told about every big breath (it was said) of the Great God Himself, swung open name scientist from Bertrand Russell to William James. In ponderously and — and this was the holy part — silently.”

the story, the scientist, after giving a lecture on astronomy, is approached by a little old lady who says that he’s got it The doors of a temple in Alexandria were opened by a all wrong and that the world in fact rests on the back of a steam engine designed by the Greek philosopher Hero.

giant turtle. The scientist then asks the lady what the turtle With similar legends surrounding it.

is standing on, and she answers: on the back of a second, This is a myth, however. Hero did invent a steam “engine”, even larger turtle. But, asks the scientist, what does that but it was merely a small sphere that rotated due to steam turtle stand on? To which the lady triumphantly answers: pressure (history’s earliest executive toy?) There is no

“You’re very clever, young man, but it’s no use — it’s turtles evidence that he ever used the invention for any real work all the way down!”.

(e.g. opening doors).

+ [ p. 53/39 ] “ ‘He was eight feet tall? With a very long

– [ p. 87/64 ] “ ‘And — that other one. The eminence beard? And a huge staff? And the glow of the holy horns grease.’ ”

shining out of his head?’ ”

Éminence grise = “grey eminence”, as in “shadowy power”.

Michelangelo depicted Moses with horns after coming down from Mount Sinai. This can be traced back to an

– [ p. 90/66 ] “ ‘[. . . ] they have to cross a terrible desert and interpretation error from the original Hebrew, where the you weigh their heart in some scales [. . . ] And if it weighs same word can mean either “send out rays” or “be horned”, less than a feather, they are spared the hells.’ ”

depending on context.

In Egyptian myth, a dead man was judged by Osiris, Thoth, Anubis and forty-two Assessors in the Hall of Judgement in

– [ p. 55/40 ] “ ‘I was beginning to think I was a tortoise the Underworld. His heart was balanced against the dreaming about being a god.’ ”

Feather of Truth while he made his Confession. If his heart SMALL GODS

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was heavy (with guilt), then the monster Amit ate the heart.

– [ p. 108/79 ] “There was Sergeant Simony, a muscular See the Egyptian Book of the Dead for more details.

young man [. . . ]”

‘Simony’ is the religious crime of selling benefices. Since

– [ p. 92/67 ] “Give me that old-time religion. . . ”

Terry doesn’t refer to or joke about this second meaning at This is the title to a song, originally belonging to the all in the rest of the book, I had left this annotation out of evangelist revival camp meeting category, which has the previous versions of the APF, but people kept writing me chorus:

about it, so this time I’ve put it in for completeness’ sake.

Give me that old time religion,

– [ p. 114/83 ] “ ‘Three years before the shell.’ ”

Give me that old time religion,

Give me that old time religion,

The phrase “x years before the mast” was used by sailors to Cos it’s good enough for me.

indicate the length of time they’ve been in their profession.

Common seamen slept in the forward part of the ship, i.e.

It has been taken up by the SF filk community (‘filk’ = folk before the main mast on sailing ships. Officers slept in the singing, but with funny or parodying lyrics), which has after part of the ship where they could get easy access to added verses like:

the tiller.

Let’s sing praise to Aphrodite

She may seem a little flighty,

– [ p. 117/85 ] Terry Pratchett translates the book title but she wears a green gauze nighty,

Ego-Video Liber Deorum here as Gods: A Spotter’s Guide.

And she’s good enough for me.

Actually, the dog-Latin translates more literally to The I-Spy and the Lovecraftian:

Book of Gods. I-Spy books are little books for children with We will worship old Cthulhu,

lists of things to look out for. When you see one of these Yes, we’ll worship old Cthulhu,

things you tick a box and get some points. When you get I can’t find a rhyme for Cthulhu

enough points you can send off for a badge. They have titles And that’s good enough for me.

like The I-Spy Book of Birds and The I-Spy Book of Cars.

– [ p. 100/73 ] “You have to walk a lonesome desert. . . You

– [ p. 117/85 ] “Or, to put it another way the existence of a have to walk it all alone. . . ”

badly put-together watch proved the existence of a blind watchmaker.”

Terry said in an article to a.f.p: “This probably is a good time to raise the ‘lonesome valley/lonesome desert’ lines This whole section is parodying the creationist argument from Small Gods, with apologies to you who, because of that complex creatures such as those which exist in the finance, heel-dragging by publishers or because you threw world could only be the product of deliberate design and all that tea in the harbour, haven’t read it yet. Yes, I know hence must have been created by a Supreme Being rather variants of the song have turned up on various than by a ‘blind’ process such as evolution. Evolutionary folk/country/spiritual albums over the last forty years, but biologist Richard Dawkins provided a counter-argument in some American friends tracked variations of it back to the his book The Blind Watchmaker.

last century and the anonymous mists of folk Christianity.

So I used it, like everyone else has done. Like ‘Lord of the

– [ p. 119/87 ] “It was worse than women aboard. It was Dance’, it’s one of those songs that transcends a specific worse than albatrosses.”

religion — and also a very attractive use of language.”

Both women and albatrosses are traditionally considered bad luck on a ship. For a classic example of the latter, just

– [ p. 105/77 ] “The Voice of the Turtle was heard in the recall Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the land.”

Ancient Mariner.

The Bible, Song of Solomon 2:12:

– [ p. 126/92 ] “The shepherd had a hundred sheep, and it The flowers appear on the earth;

might have been surprising that he was prepared to spend the time of the singing of birds is come,

days searching for one sheep; [. . . ]”

and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; Another Biblical allusion. Jesus used this as a parable for The fig tree putteth forth her green figs,

the mercy of God, in Matthew 18:12: “How think ye? if a and the vines with the tender grape give a good man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone smell.

astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?”

Note that the biblical ‘turtle’ in fact refers to the turtledove.

– [ p. 127/92 ] “[. . . ] the priests of Ur-Gilash [. . . ]”

– [ p. 106/77 ] “ ‘I am what I am. I can’t help it if people The name is a composite of several ancient names. The Epic think something else.’ ”

of Gilgamesh is an ancient Babylonian tale which contains This is not a Popeye reference! “I am that I am” is what some interesting parallels to contemporary Biblical stories.

God said to Moses in answer to the questions “What is his Gil-Galash was ruler of one of the Euphrates civilisations.

name? What shall I say to them?” (Exodus 3:14).

And Ur was, of course, a Babylonian city, as well as a prefix signifying “primal” or “original”.

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+ [ p. 131/95 ] “ ‘According to Book One of the Septateuch, Federal Express (or FedEx) is an overnight shipping courier anyway.’ ”

service.

A reference to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the

– [ p. 154/112 ] A running gag in the book is the penguin Bible/Torah.

associated with Patina, the Goddess of Wisdom. This refers When Brutha, Om’s last great prophet, finishes writing his to Minerva or Pallas Athena (Pal -las A-thena, get it, get it?), book, the Septateuch will become the Octateuch, which is who was the Roman/Greek goddess of wisdom, and whose of course wholly appropriate for the Discworld. . .

symbol was an owl.

– [ p. 138/100 ] “ ‘There’s one of ‘em that sits around

– [ p. 159/115 ] The Greek name Didactylos, besides having playing a flute most of the time and chasing milkmaids.’ ”

the word ‘didactic’ as its root (very appropriate for a This describes Krishna, an avatar or incarnation of the god philosopher), also translates as ‘Two-fingers’.

Vishnu in Indian mythology, who spent his youth playing the The British equivalent of “giving someone the finger”

flute and dancing with as many as 100 milkmaids at a time.

consists of extending two fingers upwards, palm facing the gesturer, in a kind of rotated ‘V for Victory’ sign.

– [ p. 139/101 ] Legibus’s entrance incorporates some The origin of this rude gesture is supposed to date back to concepts borrowed from several legends of famous the battle of Agincourt. In those days the French used to philosophers.

cut the index and middle fingers off the right hands of any Archimedes was the one who jumped out of the bath and British archers they happened to catch, in order to render ran naked down the street shouting ‘Eureka!’ after he’d them useless for further shooting should they e.g. ever discovered the principle of fluid displacement. He also said manage to escape and rejoin their army.

“Give me but a place to stand and a long enough lever, and I When the English finally won the battle (largely thanks to can move the world”, a quote that Terry repeatedly uses in their longbowmen) the gesture quickly evolved from a different forms. The “Number Nine pot and some string, Frenchmen-ridiculing “look what I still got” statement into please” probably refers to the ancient method of calculating a more general rudeness.

the curvature of the Earth’s surface as done by Eratosthenes of Cyrene. The drawing of triangles vaguely Whether this story, charming as it may be, is in fact recalls Pythagoras.

completely incorrect, or only partially incorrect, or completely correct after all, is something I will no longer be

– [ p. 142/103 ] “[. . . ] putting a thirty-foot parabolic attempting to resolve in this annotation, since proponents reflector on a high place to shoot the rays of the sun at an of all three theories have been supplying me with quotes enemy’s ships [. . . ]”

from various history books in order to support their claim.

Legend has it that Archimedes did just this in the defence of

– [ p. 164/118 ] “Candidates for the Tyrantship were elected the city of Syracuse in 213 BC.

by the placing of black or white balls in various urns, thus

– [ p. 143/103 ] “ ‘[. . . ] some intricate device that giving rise to a well-known comment about politics.”

demonstrated the principles of leverage by incidentally That comment probably being: “It’s all a load of balls”.

hurling balls of burning sulphur two miles.’ ”

– [ p. 168/121 ] Nil Illegitimo Carborundum is dog-Latin for This is a description of the Ballista, another weapon

“Don’t let the bastards grind you down”.

supposedly invented by Archimedes.

Variants of it crop up in various places, most notably Nil

– [ p. 152/110 ] “[. . . ] if Xeno the Ephebian said, ‘All Carborundi Illegitimo which apparently is a key phrase in Ephebians are liars —’ ”

the Illuminati mythos.

This is the Liar Paradox again. See the annotation for

– [ p. 170/122 ] Urn’s name is a reference to the old joke: p. 252/222 of Witches Abroad.

Question: “What’s a Greek urn?”

– [ p. 153/111 ] “ ‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘We’re philosophers.

Answer: “About $2,50 an hour!”

We think, therefore we am.’ ”

Or, as the Goon Show put it:

Play on Descartes’ famous philosophical pronouncement

— “What’s a Greek urn?”

“Cogito, ergo sum” — “I think, therefore I am”.

— “It’s a vase made by Greeks for storing liquid.”

— “I wasn’t expecting that answer.”

– [ p. 153/111 ] “ ‘Thesis plus antithesis equals hysteresis,’

— “Neither were quite a few smart-alec listeners.”

said Ibid.”

A play on the central tenet of dialectical materialism, which

– [ p. 178/128 ] “ ‘Worried, eh? Feeling a bit Avis was lifted (by Marx and Engels) from Hegelian philosophy: Domestica? Cluck-cluck?’ ”

“Thesis plus antithesis yields synthesis”.

Actually, the Latin name for ‘chicken’ is Gallus Domesticus

— even though ‘avis’ by itself does mean ‘bird’.

– [ p. 154/112 ] “ ‘Fedecks the Messenger of the Gods, one of the all-time greats,’ said Xeno.”

– [ p. 178/129 ] “He caught a glimpse of a circle of damp SMALL GODS

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The Annotated Pratchett File

sand, covered with geometrical figures. Om was sitting in who is reputed to have done the same.

the middle of them.”

– [ p. 184/132 ] Aristocrates = Aristotle + Socrates +

The whole scene with Om drawing shapes in the sand is a aristocratic.

reference to the computer programming language Logo, in which figures are drawn by a turtle-shaped cursor (‘turtle

– [ p. 185/133 ] “Art was not permitted in Omnia.”

graphics’). In fact, it was also possible to get a real ‘turtle’: a little robot attached to a Logo machine by a long cable The comment about no art and pictures being allowed in which would walk around on a big sheet of paper.

Om resonates with similar prohibitions in various real world religions, ranging from the Muslims to the Amish.

– [ p. 180/130 ] “ ‘Ah,’ said Didactylos. ‘Ambi-sinister?’

‘What?’ ‘He means incompetent with both hands,’ said Om.”

– [ p. 208/150 ] “ ‘Ah gentlemen,’ said Didactylos. ‘Pray don’t disturb my circles.’ ”

Ambidextrous means able to use both hands equally well.

‘dextr-’ is the prefix meaning “right” as in “right hand”.

Legend has it that when Syracuse was eventually taken the

‘Sinistr-’ is the prefix meaning “left”. Hence: ambi-sinister Roman soldiers entered Archimedes’ house as he was trying

= having two left hands.

to solve a geometrical problem. He had just been drawing some figures on the floor of his house when the soldiers

– [ p. 182/131 ] “The Library of Ephebe was — before it entered. “Gentlemen, pray don’t disturb my circles,”

burned down — the second biggest on the Disc.”

Archimedes is reported to have said to the soldiers, one of whom then drew his sword and slew him on the spot.

Refers of course to our world’s Alexandrian Library. Brewer tells us that this Library was supposed to have contained

– [ p. 209/150 ] “ ‘You don’t belong to the Quisition,’ said the 700,000 volumes. It was already burned and partially Corporal. ‘No. But I know a man who does,’ said Brutha.”

consumed in 391, but when the city fell into the hands of the calif Omar, in 642, the Arabs found books sufficient to In the UK there were a series of adverts for the AA

“heat the baths of the city for six months”.

(Automobile Association) where people were in various dire motoring trouble. They were asked by a passenger (say) if Legend has it that Omar ordered the Library torched they knew how to get out of it. They replied either: “No.

because all the books in it either agreed with the Koran, But I know a man who can.” or “No. But I know a man who and were therefore superfluous; or else disagreed with the does.” It’s now very much a part of English idiom.

Koran, and were therefore heretical, but this is probably just apocryphal. Other references say that the inhabitants

– [ p. 215/154 ] “ ‘Describe what an Ambiguous Puzuma of Alexandria torched the scrolls themselves in order to looks like,’ he demanded.”

keep the knowledge out of the hands of the Arabs.

Brutha goes on to describe the Puzuma as having its ears

– [ p. 182/131 ] “[. . . ] a whole gallery of unwritten books 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. . .

Libraries of unwritten books are of course very rare, but do tend to crop up occasionally in L-Space. The library

– [ p. 220/158 ] “ ‘One minute upright, next minute a described in the opening section of Beyond Life by James draught-excluder.’ ”

Branch Cabell contains the novels of David Copperfield as well as Milton’s King Arthur. In Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Discussions on a.f.p., initiated by a puzzled American Lucien’s library (a direct homage to Cabell) also contains reader, revealed that the concept of a ‘draught-excluder’ is books that were never written, such as Alice’s Journey one of those things only British readers are familiar with.

Beyond The Moon by Lewis Carroll, The Lost Road by Many English houses, especially older ones, have doors J. R. R. Tolkien, and P. G. Wodehouse’s Psmith and Jeeves.

with a gap at the bottom, which will allow cold draughts There’s also a library of future books in Robin McKinley’s into the room. To solve this, rather than simple expedients novel Beauty.

such as making doors that fit, the English instead place a cylindrical stuffed object (often shaped amusingly like a Finally, other people were reminded of the library in Jorge snake with felt eyes and tongue, for the tackily inclined) Luis Borges’ story The Library of Babel, where a vast along the bottom of the door to keep out the draughts.

universe is described which contains all possible books Hence: a draught excluder.

(assuming a finite alphabet and a fixed book size the number of all possible books is mindbogglingly huge, but I have been informed that the English exported their finite) — in random order. Most books in such a library draught excluders to Australia as well, and that Croatians would appear written by the ‘monkey and typewriter’

also know them, but use them for windows rather than for brigade, but all the coherent books, whether actually doors.

written or not, are in there as well.

– [ p. 225/161 ] “ ‘Tell him you can’t recall!’ ”

All libraries are connected through L-Space anyway, aren’t they?

“I can’t recall” was the mantra of the White House officials during the investigation of the Iran-Contra scandal in the

– [ p. 183/132 ] Didactylos carrying a lantern and living in a late 1980s.

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– [ p. 226/162 ] “ ‘Life in this world,’ he said, ‘is, as it were,

– [ p. 249/179 ] “The scalbie took no notice. [. . . ] It had a sojourn in a cave.’ ”

perched on Om’s shell.”

This paragraph is a very loose parody of a famous Socratic Resonates with the B.C. comic strip, which occasionally dialogue in Plato’s Republic, Book VII. I quote (and edit features a bird of indeterminate species standing on a down a wee bit) from Labyrinths of Reason by William turtle’s shell. They don’t get along very well, either.

Poundstone, p. 203:

– [ p. 254/182 ] “ ‘Got to have a whole parcel of worshippers

“Behold! human beings living in an underground den, to live on Nob Hill.’ ”

which has a mouth open toward the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from childhood, and Nob Hill is an affluent section of San Francisco (which in have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot turn got its name from ‘nob’, a British term of derision for move, and can only see before them, being prevented by upper-class people, especially those who are a little the chains from turning round their heads. Above and ostentatious with their wealth).

behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way, like the screen

– [ p. 259/186 ] “ ‘Something that’d open the valve if there which marionette players have in front of them, over which was too much steam. I think I could do something with a they show the puppets.

pair of revolving balls.’ ”

[. . . ] and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows Urn’s steam engines are more or less identical to the ones of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of that were described by Archimedes and used in ancient the cave? [. . . ] And of the objects which are being carried Ephebe — I mean Greece. These engines also used copper in like manner they would see only the shadows? [. . . ] And spheres as heating vessels, and these spheres did, in fact, if they were able to converse with one another, would they have a regrettable tendency to explode, which is what not suppose they were naming what was actually before limited their use until some bright person thought of adding them? [. . . ] To them, I said, the truth would be literally overpressure relief valves.

nothing but the shadows of the images.”

These steam engines never really caught on, because of various practical problems and the greater

– [ p. 226/162 ] “Go on, do Deformed Rabbit . . . it’s my cost-effectiveness of slave-power. See also the James Watt favourite.”

annotation for p. 175/153 of Reaper Man.

Reference to the art of making shadow animals with your The contraption with revolving balls Urn is thinking of in hands, as described on p. 43/36 of Moving Pictures: the sentence quoted above was identified by several

“ ‘Mainly my uncle did “Deformed Rabbit”, said Victor. ‘He readers as something called a speed governor, invented by wasn’t very good at it, you see.’ ”

James Watt. This consists of two balls spinning on two opposite movable arms around a rotating central axis.

– [ p. 226/162 ] “ ‘And the wrong sort of ash’, said Vorbis.”

When the centrifugal force gets large enough to lift the The (true) story goes that British Rail was having difficulty balls up, the movement opens a safety valve that lets off the one winter getting trains to run on time, which they blamed steam, causing the rotation to slow down and the balls to on the snow. They were then quizzed as to why their come down again, closing the valve, etc. — a simple but snow-ploughs couldn’t deal with the problem. They replied ingenious negative feedback device.

that it was “the wrong sort of snow”, a phrase that has now entered the English idiom.

– [ p. 264/190 ] “There was a city once [. . . ] there were canals, and gardens. There was a lake. They had floating In defence of British Rail it should be pointed out that their gardens on the lake,[. . . ]. Great pyramid temples that remark wasn’t as silly as it seems at first sight: what reached to the sky. Thousands were sacrificed.”

happened was that fine, dry, powdery snow blew inside the traction motor cooling slots and, melting, caused the motors This description evokes Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), the to arc over. It simply is very rare for British snow to be cold capital of the ancient Aztec Empire. Tenochtitlan was built and dry enough to do this, hence the “wrong sort of snow”

on islands in a lake (now drained) and was crossed by comment which the press, seeking as usual for any excuse canals, and the floating gardens may still be seen, as may to make fun of British Rail, leapt upon with great glee.

ruins of many pyramid temples on which thousands were indeed sacrificed.

– [ p. 231/166 ] Didactylos’ anecdote about the royal road to learning parodies a similar one told about Aristotle and

– [ p. 277/198 ] “ ‘About life being like a sparrow flying Alexander the Great.

through a room? Nothing but darkness outside? And it flies through the room and there’s just a moment of warmth and

– [ p. 236/170 ] “ ‘I’m just going out,’ said Brutha. ‘I may be light?’ ”

some time.’ ”

This story appears in the Anglo-Saxon historian St Bede’s Brutha here repeats the last words of Captain Oates, who account of the conversion of England to Christianity in the walked out in a blizzard on Scott’s unsuccessful Antarctic year 625. A noble relates this metaphor for human expedition, in order to try and save food for the remaining existence to King Edwin of Northumbria, and concludes, expedition members. He was never seen again. It didn’t

“Of what went before and of what is to follow, we are work.

utterly ignorant. If therefore this new faith [Christianity]

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can give us some greater certainty, it justly deserves that

– [ p. 321/230 ] “ ‘What’ve you got? He’s got an army!

we should follow it.”

You’ve got an army? How many divisions have you got?’ ”

The original meaning of the parable was to describe the As the Allies in World War II were planning the landing in human condition, with life as a moment of light between Italy, they had frequent meetings to discuss methods and two dark unknowns; it’s a nice twist of irony that Terry here consequences. On one of these meetings, Churchill made a uses it to describe the divine condition instead.

reference to what the Pope would think about all this. To which Stalin replied, “The pope? How many divisions does

– [ p. 286/205 ] “Like many early thinkers, the Ephebians he have?”.

believed that thoughts originated in the heart, and that the brain was merely a device to cool the blood.”

– [ 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.”

In our world this idea was originally proposed by none other than Aristotle. Aristotle got almost everything to do Paraphrases a comment made by the Duke of Wellington with natural history dead wrong, although in his defense it immediately before the Battle of Waterloo, about his own must be said that it was not his fault that later cultures took troops, in particular about the Highland regiments (large, his works to be Absolute Truth instead of trying to hairy, kilts, bagpipes, etc.).

experiment and find things out for themselves.

– [ p. 325/233 ] “ ‘We said, the first thing we’ll do, we’ll kill

– [ p. 287/206 ] “[. . . ] promises in his head.”

all the priests!’ ”

The Small Gods’ offer that “All this can be yours, if you just Paraphrases a line from Shakespeare’s King Henry VI, part worship me. . . ” parallels the Temptation of Christ in the 2, act 4, scene 2 (a play that’s also about bloody revolution): desert, during his forty days’ fast before starting his

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

preaching.

– [ p. 327/234 ] “Bishops move diagonally.”

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 Reference to chess moves.

from heaven, containing all sorts of ritually unclean food, notably Pork (the Roast Pig which is proffered by the Small

– [ p. 340/244 ] “[. . . ] plunged his beak through the brown Gods).

feathers between the talons, and gripped.”

While I agree with Terry that biological correctness

– [ p. 289/207 ] “The wheel had been nailed flat on the top shouldn’t stand in the way of a good joke or plot point, I feel of a slim pole.”

it should still be pointed out that the organs Om is St Simon Stylites (or Simon the Elder), a Syrian Monk, presumably aiming for don’t exist in birds. They simply spent the last 39 years of his life living atop a pole. There haven’t got the balls.

are quite a few accounts of pole sitting in Syrian Monasticism, and a variety of other hermits and extremely

– [ p. 341/244 ] “When you have their full attention in your pious lunatics also lived this way.

grip, their hearts and minds will follow.”

‘Testiculos’ does not quite translate as ‘full attention’.

– [ p. 290/208 ] “ ‘My parents named me Sevrian Thaddeus Ungulant, [. . . ]’ ”

The correct version of the quote originates with Chuck Colson, one of Richard Nixon’s Watergate henchmen.

The hero of Gene Wolfe’s science fiction novel Book of the New Sun is called Severian. Like Brutha, Severian has a

– [ p. 346/248 ] “[. . . ] two pounds of tortoise, travelling at problem with forgetting things.

three metres a second, hit him between the eyes.”

St Ungulant’s sidekick Angus resonates with the breed of Brewer tells us that in 456 BC Aeschylus, “the most sublime cattle of the same name (the Aberdeen Angus), which in of the Greek tragic poets”, was “killed by a tortoise thrown turn may not be entirely unrelated to the fact that an by an eagle (to break the shell) against his bald head, which

‘ungulate’ is a hoofed mammal.

it mistook for a stone”.

– [ p. 307/220 ] “ ‘A nod’s as good as a poke with a sharp Somebody on alt.fan.pratchett accused Terry of using stick to a deaf camel, as they say.’ ”

‘deus ex machina’ solutions too often in the Discworld novels, and cited this as a particular example. After all, A reference to the British saying “A nod’s as good as a wink everything has been going just swimmingly for Vorbis right to a blind horse”, meaning that no hint is useful to one who until the very end, when the situation is simply resolved by does not notice it, implying that a hint is currently in having Om smash into him. In answer to this, Terry wrote: progress. Terry combines this in typical fashion with the saying “It’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp

“This is a valid point. . . but the key is whether the ‘solution’

stick”.

is inherent in the story.

Monty Python had similar fun with this proverb in their Consider one of the most basic lessons of folk tale. The

“Nudge nudge” sketch: “ ‘A nod’s as good as a wink to a young adventurer meets the old woman begging for food blind bat, eh?’ ”

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.

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A solution doesn’t ‘come along’; it’s built into the fabric of thunderstorm). The opening verse goes:

the story from an early stage. Guards! Guards! and Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,

Interesting Times both use this device. I’d suggest that Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens, such a resolution is perfectly valid — as they say, using a Brown paper packages, tied up with strings,

gun to shoot the bad guy in Act 3 is only okay if the gun has These are a few of my favourite things.

been on the wall since Act 1. In Small Gods, though, not a single new thing is introduced or resurrected in order to The Von Trapp children would probably have murdered defeat Vorbis — he’s defeated because of the way various Magrat if she had been their governess.

characters react to events. The problem contains the solution coiled inside.

– [ p. 13/11 ] “But that was a long time ago, in the past

[footnote: Which is another country]”

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 This might refer to Hamlet, where the future is described as the certain knowledge that I won’t get within a mile of the

“The undiscover’d country from whose bourn / No traveller dock because of the crowds of authors and directors returns”, or perhaps Terry has read The Go-between, a already there. . . :–) ”

1950 book by L. P. Hartley, which opens with the words:

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently

– [ p. 352/252 ] “ ‘Right. Right. That’s all I’m looking for.

there”, which has become a familiar quotation in England.

Just trying to make ends hummus.’ ”

– [ p. 13/11 ] “And besides, the bitch is. . . . . . older.”

Hummus is a meat substitute/complement, made from chickpeas, usually eaten in Middle Eastern countries.

This is another Christopher Marlowe quote, from The Jew of Malta (act IV, scene i):

– [ p. 355/254 ] “YOU HAVE PERHAPS HEARD THE PHRASE, Barnadine: “Thou hast committed —”

he said, THAT HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE?”

Barabas: “Fornication? But that was in another

“Hell is other people” is a quote from, and the message of, country; and besides, the wench is dead.”

Jean-Paul Sartre’s play No Exit.

– [ p. 20/16 ] “This was the octarine grass country.”

– [ p. 355/255 ] Could the name Fasta Benj possibly be A reference to (Kentucky) bluegrass country.

derived from ‘Faster, Ben Johnson’?

– [ p. 20/16 ] “Then, [. . . ] the young corn lay down. In a

– [ p. 377/270 ] “REMIND ME AGAIN, he said, HOW THE

circle.”

LITTLE HORSE-SHAPED ONES MOVE.”

An explanation of the Crop Circle phenomenon might be in Refers back to a joke on p. 12/14 of Sourcery, where we are order here.

told that Death dreads playing symbolic last chess games Crop Circles are circular patches of flattened crops which because “he could never remember how the knight was have appeared in fields of cereals in the South and West of supposed to move”.

England over the last few years. There is no firm evidence pointing to their cause: this has been taken by certain

– There is a rumour going round that there was to be a parties as a prima facie proof that they are of course caused crucifixion scene at the end of this book but that the by either alien spacecraft or by some supernatural publishers made Terry take it out.

intelligence, possibly in an attempt to communicate.

The idea of such a scene would appear to be a In recent years, circle systems have become increasingly misrepresentation of the ‘Brutha bound to the turtle’ scene.

elaborate, most notably in the case of a circle in the shape To quote Terry on this:

of the Mandelbrot Set, and another system which is shown

“Crucifiction in Small Gods: this is a familiar thing to me, a on the cover of the recent Led Zeppelin compilation album, DW ‘fact’ that’s gone through several retellings. Nothing’s which seems to indicate that whoever’s up there they been taken out of Small Gods, or put in, and there was no probably have long hair and say Wow! and Yeah! a lot. A pressure to do either.”

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 Lords and Ladies

one “merely made by hoaxers”.

Anyone with a burning desire to believe in paranormal explanations is invited to post to the newsgroup sci.skeptic

– [ p. 5/5 ] “[. . . ] young Magrat, she of the [. . . ] tendency to an article asserting essentially “I believe that crop circles be soppy about raindrops and roses and whiskers on are produced by UFO’s/Sun Spots/The Conservative kittens.”

Government/The Easter Bunny” and see how far they One of the best songs from The Sound of Music is called get. . . .

‘My Favourite Things’ (it’s the song Maria sings for the Von Trapp children when they are all frightened of the

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but she was the cause of housework in other people.”

– [ p. 40/30 ] “I LIKE TO THINK I AM A PICKER-UP OF

Over on

UNCONSIDERED TRIFLES. Death grinned hopefully.”

alt.fan.pratchett it was postulated that this sounded a bit too much like a quote not to be a quote In Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale we find the character (annotation-hunters can get downright paranoid at times), Autolycus (“a Rogue”), saying in act 4, scene 2: but it took us a while to figure out where it originated,

“My father named me Autolycus; who being, as I although in retrospect we could have used Occam’s razor am, littered under

and looked it up in Shakespeare immediately. In King Henry Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of

IV, part 2, act 1, scene 2, Falstaff says: “I am not only witty unconsidered trifles.”

in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.”

– [ p. 42/31 ] “ ‘My lord Lankin?’ ”

– [ p. 27/21 ] “Some people are born to kingship. Some achieve kingship, or at least

Lord Lankin is a character in a traditional folk ballad: Arch-Generalissimo-Father-of-His-Countryship. But Verence Then Lankin’s tane a sharp knife

had kingship thrust upon him.”

that hung down by his gaire

The original quote is (as usual) by William Shakespeare, And he has gi’en the bonny nane

from Twelfth Night (act 2, scene 5), where Malvolio reads A deep wound and a sair

in a letter (which he thinks was written to him by his mistress):

– [ 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.”

“In my stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some

See the annotation for p. 145/144 of Wyrd Sisters.

are born great, some achieve greatness, and some

– [ p. 78/57 ] The names of the would-be junior witches.

have greatness

thrust upon ‘em.”

Two of the names resonate with the names used in Good Omens: Agnes Nitt is similar to Agnes Nutter, and Amanita The dictator most associated with the phrase

DeVice (Amanita is also the name of a gender of deadly

‘Arch-Generalissimo-Father-of-His-Countryship’ is probably poisonous mushrooms) is similar to Anathema Device.

Franco.

There’s also a Perdita in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale;

– [ p. 28/21 ] “Now he was inspecting a complicated piece the name means ‘damned’ or ‘lost’.

of equipment. It had a pair of shafts for a horse, and the In fact, all these names are based on the names of the rest of it looked like a cartful of windmills. [. . . ] ‘It’s a so-called Lancashire Witches. The deeds of this group on patent crop rotator,’ said Verence.”

and around Pendle Hill were the subject of probably The patent crop rotator is an agricultural tool that might England’s most famous 17th century witchhunt and trials.

not figure very prominently in your day-to-day conversation The story is described in some fictional detail in a (possibly since no such machine exists: crop rotation means little-known book called, surprise, The Lancashire Witches, growing different things in a field in successive years) but written at the end of the nineteenth century in Manchester British comedy writers are apparently fascinated by it.

by William Harrison Ainsworth.

Several people wrote to tell me that the cult TV comedy Interestingly enough, Ainsworth also wrote a book called series The Young Ones also used the patent crop rotator in Windsor Castle in which Herne the Hunter appears as a their episode Bambi.

major character (see previous annotation).

When Neil (the hippy) is testing Rick (the nerd) on medieval

– [ p. 85/62 ] The names of the “new directions”.

history, the following dialogue ensues (edited somewhat for clarity):

‘East of the Sun, West of the Moon’: a fairly well-known phrase used, amongst others, by Tolkien in a poem, by Rick: ‘Crop rotation in the 14th century was

Theodore Roosevelt as the title for a book on hunting, and considerably more widespread. . . after. . . God by pop-group A-ha as an album title. It originally is the title I know this. . . don’t tell me. . . after 1172?’

of an old Scandinavian fairy tale, which can be found in a Neil: ‘John.’

book by Kay Nielsen, titled East of the Sun and West of the Rick: ‘Crop rotation in the 14th century was

Moon — Old Tales from the North. Terry has confirmed that considerably more widespread after John?’

this book was his source for the phrase.

Neil: ‘. . . Lloyd invented the patent crop rotator.’

‘Behind the North Wind’: from the title of a book by George

– [ p. 29/22 ] “ ‘I asked Boggi’s in Ankh-Morpork to send up McDonald: At the Back of the North Wind, the term itself their best dress-maker [. . . ]’ ”

being a translation of Hyperborea.

Boggi’s = Gucci’s.

‘At the Back Of Beyond’: an idiom, perhaps originating from Sir Walter Scott’s The Antiquary: “Whirled them to the

– [ p. 38/29 ] “[. . . ] it was always cheaper to build a new back o’ beyont”.

33-MegaLith circle than upgrade an old slow one [. . . ]”

‘There and Back Again’: The sub-title of Tolkien’s The Think CPU’s and MHz.

Hobbit.

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The King of Elfland’s Daughter, where “the fields we know”

+ [ p. 106/77 ] “ ‘I repaired a pump for one once. Artisan refers to our world, as opposed to Elfland, which lies wells.’ ”

‘beyond’. The phrase was also used as the title of a Jason Ogg is thinking of Artesian Wells, a kind of well that collection of Dunsany’s stories.

gets its name from the French town of Artois, where they were first drilled in the 12th century.

– [ p. 86/63 ] “ ‘You know, ooh-jar boards and cards [. . . ] and paddlin’ with the occult.’ ”

– [ p. 106/77 ] “ ‘And why’s there got to be a lion in it?’ said ooh-jar = Ouija. See the annotation for p. 154/136 of Baker the weaver.”

Reaper Man.

Because the play-within-a-play performed by the rude mechanicals in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (act 1,

– [ p. 90/66 ] “ ‘. . . and to my freind Gytha Ogg I leave my scene 2) also features a lion in a starring role, of course.

bedde and the rag rugge the smith in Bad Ass made for me,

[. . . ]’ ”

The Morris Men’s discussions on plays and lions reminded one of my sources of the play written by Moominpapa in The origins of the ‘rag rugge’ are more fully explained in Moominsummer Madness by Tove Jansson. When asked Equal Rites.

about it, Terry said that although he has read the Moomin books, the lion dialogue is not connected with them.

– [ p. 103/76 ] “ ‘Kings are a bit magical, mind. They can cure dandruff and that.’ ”

– [ p. 106/78 ] “ ‘Hah, I can just see a real playsmith putting Well, for one thing kings can cure dandruff by permanently donkeys in a play!’ ”

removing people’s heads from their shoulders, but I think A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by that mediocre hack-writer that what Terry is probably referring to here is the William S., is an example of a real play that has a donkey in folk-superstition that says that a King’s touch can cure it. Or to be absolutely precise, a character magically cursed scrofula (also known as the King’s Evil), which is a with a donkey’s head.

tubercular infection of the lymphatic glands.

A similar type of legend occurs in Tolkien’s The Lord of the

– [ p. 109/79 ] “The Librarian looked out at the jolting Rings, but Shakespeare also has a lot to say on the subject scenery. He was sulking. This had a lot to do with the new in Macbeth, act 4, scene 3.

bright collar around his neck with the word “PONGO” on it.

Someone was going to suffer for this.”

– [ p. 105/76 ] “Within were the eight members of the The taxonomic name for orangutans is ‘Pongo pygmaeus’.

Lancre Morris Men [. . . ] getting to grips with a new art And of course Pongo is a popular dog name as well, form.”

doubling the insult.

In fact, many real life Morris teams put on so-called

‘Mummers Plays’: traditional plays with a common theme of

– [ p. 118/86 ] “[. . . ] universes swoop and spiral around one death and resurrection. These ritual plays are performed on another like [. . . ] a squadron of Yossarians with middle-ear certain key days of the year, such as Midwinter’s Day trouble.”

(Magrat’s wedding is on Midsummer’s Eve!), Easter, or All Terry writes: “Can it be that this is forgotten? Yossarian —

Souls Day (Halloween), at which time the Soul Cake play is the ‘hero’ of Catch–22 — was the bomber pilot who flew to performed. I am also told that a Soul Cake, traditionally the target twisting and jinking in an effort to avoid the flak served at All Souls, is similar to a Madeira Sponge (or

— as opposed to the Ivy League types who just flew nice

‘yellow cake’ as the Americans call it).

and straight. . . ”

– [ p. 106/77 ] “ ‘We could do the Stick and Bucket Dance,’

A minor correction: Yossarian was not the pilot, but rather volunteered Baker the weaver.”

the bombardier, who kept screaming instructions to the pilot over the intercom, to turn hard right, dive, etc.

There are Morris dances that use sticks, but according to my sources there aren’t any that use buckets. Jason’s

– [ p. 118/86 ] “The universe doesn’t much care if you step reluctance to do this dance has its parallels in real world on a butterfly. There are plenty more butterflies.”

Morris dancing: at least in one area (upstate New York), a dance called the Webley Twizzle has a reputation for being This immediately recalls the famous science fiction short hazardous to one’s health, which is perhaps why it’s hardly story A Sound of Thunder, by Ray Bradbury, which has as ever danced. It has even been claimed that someone broke its basic premise that the universe cares very much indeed his leg doing it, although no one seems to know any details.

if someone steps on a butterfly.

Of course, the reluctance of the Lancre Morris Men to perform the ‘Stick and Bucket’ may also have to do with the

– [ p. 121/89 ] “ ‘Good morning, Hodgesaargh,’ she said.”

fact that the name of the dance very probably indicates Hodgesaargh is based on Dave Hodges, a UK fan who runs another ‘mettyfor’ along the lines of maypoles and a project called The REAL Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the broomsticks.

Galaxy. This is a computer database containing a couple of See the . . . and Dance section in Chapter 5 for more thousand entries (the project began in 1987) in the style of information about Morris dancing.

Douglas Adams’s Hitch Hiker’s Guide. Dave takes his Guide along with him to SF conventions and events, where he LORDS AND LADIES

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auctions off printed versions of the Guide in order to raise

– [ p. 144/104 ] “ ‘Head for the gap between the Piper and money for charity. This is why the Guide is not readily the Drummer!’ ”

available, e.g. on the Internet.

There are several stone circles in England similar to the One of the entries in the Guide concerns a computer virus Dancers. Usually, legend has it that a group of dancers, called “Terry”, which, it says, “autographs all the files on revellers, ball players, etc. got turned to stone by the devil’s the disk as well as any nearby manuals”.

trickery, for not keeping the Sabbath, or for having too much fun, or some other awful transgression. The Merry In real life Dave Hodges works for a firm that keeps birds Maidens stone circle, with two nearby standing stones away from airports and other places. To this purpose he known as the Pipers, is one such site in Cornwall; the sometimes uses a falcon called, yes, Lady Jane, who bites Stanton Drew stone circles near Bristol, the petrified all the time, which gave Terry the idea for the character remains of a wedding party that got out of control, also Hodgesaargh.

include a stone circle said to be dancers with a nearby set Note that there exist at least two other “let’s write a Hitch of stones representing the fiddlers.

Hikers Guide” projects on the Internet that I know of. One of these is the Project Galactic Guide, which can be reached

– [ p. 153/111 ] “Magrat had tried explaining things to Mrs on the Web through the URL:

Scorbic the cook, but the woman’s three chins wobbled so

http://www.galactic-guide.com/

menacingly at words like ‘vitamins’ that she’d made an excuse to back out of the kitchen.”

– [ p. 123/89 ] “Verence, being king, was allowed a The technical name for vitamin C is ascorbic acid.

gyrfalcon [. . . ]”

The complex issues of class distinction in falconry

– [ p. 163/118 ] “ ‘Like the horseshoe thing. [. . . ] Nothing to apparently existed in medieval times just as Terry describes do with its shape.’ ”

them here. In The Once and Future King, T. H. White quotes Granny refers to the traditional explanation for hanging a paragraph by Abbess Juliana Berners: “An emperor was horseshoes over the door, which is that they bring luck, but allowed an eagle, a king could have a jerfalcon, and after only if placed with the open side up — otherwise the luck that there was the peregrine for an earl, the merlin for a would just run out the bottom.

lady, the goshawk for a yeoman, the sparrow hawk for a priest, and the musket for a holy-water clerk.”

– [ p. 172/125 ] “ ‘Good morrow, brothers, and wherehap do we whist this merry day?’ said Carter the baker.”

– [ p. 133/97 ] “[. . . ] five flavours, known as ‘up’, ‘down’,

‘sideways’, ‘sex appeal’, and ‘peppermint’.”

It is impossible to list all the ways in which the sections about the Lancre Morris Men and the play they are The flavours of resons are a satire of the somewhat odd performing parodies the play-within-a-play that occurs in A naming scheme modern physicists have chosen for the Midsummer Night’s Dream. The only way to get full different known quarks, namely: ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘strange’, enjoyment here is to just go out and read Shakespeare.

‘charm’, and ‘beauty’ (in order of discovery and increasing While you’re at it, pay particular attention to the names and mass).

occupations of both Terry’s and William’s ‘Rude Since theoretical physicists don’t like odd numbers they Mechanicals’.

have postulated the existence of a sixth quark — ‘truth’, which was only recently created at FermiLab in the USA.

– [ p. 173/125 ] “ ‘And we’re Rude Mechanicals as well?’

The beauty and truth quarks are often called ‘bottom’ and said Baker the weaver.”

‘top’ respectively. In earlier times (and sometimes even Baker’s next three lines are “Bum!”, “Drawers!” and now), the strange quark was indeed called ‘sideways’.

“Belly!”. These come from a song by Flanders and Swann, which is called ‘P**! P*! B****! B**! D******!’. The first

– [ p. 133/97 ] “resons [footnote: Lit: ‘Thing-ies’]”

verse goes:

In Latin ‘res’ does indeed mean ‘thing’.

Ma’s out, Pa’s out, let’s talk rude!

Pee! Po! Belly! Bum! Drawers!

– [ p. 141/103 ] “ ‘You are in my kingdom, woman,’ said the Dance in the garden in the nude,

Queen. ‘You do not come or go without the leave of me.’ ”

Pee! Po! Belly! Bum! Drawers!

This has echoes of another traditional ballad, this time ‘Tam Let’s write rude words all down the street;

Lin’:

Stick out our tongues at the people we meet;

Let’s have an intellectual treat!

Why come you to Carterhaugh

Pee! Po! Belly! Bum! Drawers!

Without command of me?

I’ll come and go, young Janet said,

– [ p. 174/126 ] “ ‘Yeah, everyone knows ‘tis your delight on And ask no leave of thee

a shining night’, said Thatcher the carter.”

As with some of the other folk song extracts Terry is closer It is relevant that Thatcher is making this remark to to the recorded (in this case Fairport Convention) version Carpenter the poacher, because it is a line from the chorus than to the very early text in (say) the Oxford Book of of an English folk song called ‘The Lincolnshire Poacher’: Ballads.

When I was bound apprentice in famous

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Lincolnshire

‘berk’ coming from the Cockney rhyming slang for Full well I served my master for more than seven

‘Berkshire Hunt’, meaning ‘cunt’.

year’

‘Til I took up to poaching, as you shall quickly

– [ p. 191/138 ] “It probably looked beautiful on the Lady of hear

Shallot, [. . . ]”

Oh ‘tis my delight on a shining night

Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote a well-known poem called The In the season of the year!

Lady of Shalott (see also e.g. Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d ). A shallot (double l, single t), however, is a small

– [ p. 174/126 ] The three paths leading from the greenish/purple (octarine?) onion.

cross-roads in the woods are variously described as being

“all thorns and briars”, “all winding”, and the last (which

+ [ p. 193/139 ] “ ‘I mean, we used to have a tradition of the Lancre Morris Men decide to take) as “Ferns grew rolling boiled eggs downhill on Soul Cake Tuesday, but —’ ”

thickly alongside it”.

It is in fact a Lithuanian tradition (one of many) to roll This echoes the poem and folk song ‘Thomas the Rhymer’, boiled eggs downhill on Easter Sunday in a game similar to about a man who followes the Queen of Elves to Elfland: lawn bowls. The idea is to either (1) break the other person’s egg, thereby eliminating them from the O see ye not yon narrow road,

competition (although this can be risky, since your own egg So thick beset wi’ thorns and riers?

may also break) or (2) to get your egg to just hit someone That is the Path of Righteousness,

else’s, in which case you win their egg. Similar traditions Though after it but few enquires.

undoubtedly exist in many other European countries (in And see ye not yon braid, braid road,

fact, I’m told it is also done in some English villages), That lies across the lily leven?

though not in the Netherlands, where we’d be having That is the Path of Wickedness,

extreme difficulties finding a spot high enough for an egg to Though some call it the Road to Heaven.

be rolled down from in the first place.

And see ye not yon bonny road

This the first mention in the Discworld books of Soul Cake That winds about the fernie brae?

Tuesday (see also the annotation for p. 289/262 of Guards!

That is the Road to fair Elfland,

Guards! ). Perhaps Terry finally settled on this day of the Where thou and I this night maun gae.

week because of the resonance with the traditional

‘Pancake Tuesday’ (the first Tuesday after Lent).

– [ p. 177/128 ] “ ‘But it ain’t April!’, neighbours told themselves [. . . ]”

– [ p. 193/140 ] “Even these people would consider it Inconsistency time! On p. 154/135 of Witches Abroad, tactless to mention the word ‘billygoat’ to a troll.”

Granny responds to Nanny Ogg’s intention of taking a bath This sentence used to have me completely stumped, until I with the words “My word, doesn’t autumn roll around discovered (with the help of the ever helpful quickly”.

alt.fan.pratchett correspondents) that this refers to a In subsequent discussions on the net it was postulated that well-known British fairy tale of Scandinavian origin called Nanny’s bath habits could well be explained by taking into

‘The Three Billygoats Gruff’.

account the fact that the Discworld has eight seasons (see That tale tells the story of three billygoat brothers who try first footnote in The Colour of Magic on p. 11/11), which to cross a bridge guarded by, you guessed it, a mean troll might result in e.g. two autumns a year. And of course, on who wants to eat them. Luckily, the troll wasn’t very smart, our world April is indeed a month in Autumn — in the so the first two goats were able to outwit him by passing southern hemisphere (don’t ask me if that also holds for a him one at a time, each saying “Don’t eat me, just wait for Discworld, though).

my brother who’s much bigger and fatter than I am”. The Personally, I tend to agree with Terry, who has once said: third goat, Big Billygoat Gruff, was big, all right. Big

“There are no inconsistencies in the Discworld books; enough to take on the troll and butt him off the bridge and occasionally, however, there are alternate pasts”.

right over the mountains far from the green meadow (loud cheers from listening audience). So the troll was both

– [ p. 191/138 ] “[. . . ] fed up with books of etiquette and tricked and trounced.

lineage and Twurp’s Peerage [. . . ]”

– [ p. 204/147 ] “ ‘I’ll be as rich as Creosote.’ ”

Burke’s Peerage is a book that lists the hereditary titled nobility of the British Realm (the Peers of the Realm, hence Creosote = Croesus. See the annotation for p. 125/113 of the title of the book). It contains biographical facts such as Sourcery.

when they were born, what title(s) they hold, who they’re married to, children, relationships to other peers, etc. For

– [ p. 216/156 ] “ ‘All the hort mond are here,’ Nanny example, under ‘Westminster, Duke of’ it will give details of observed [. . . ]”

when the title was created, who has held it and who holds it Hort mond = haut monde = high society.

now.

– [ p. 226/162 ] “ ‘And there’s this damn cat they’ve Also, ‘twerp’ and ‘berk’ (also spelt as ‘burk’) are both terms discovered that you can put in a box and it’s dead and alive of abuse, with ‘twerp’ being relatively innocent, but with LORDS AND LADIES

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The Annotated Pratchett File

at the same time. Or something.’ ”

want to miss the fun, manually. When triggered, the device explodes and showers the half of the world which could This is Schrödinger’s cat. See also the annotation for have read the letters with the steel balls. Killing radius 100

p. 279/199.

ft., serious maiming radius a good deal more. Used to great

+ [p. ???/171] “ ‘I was young and foolish then.’ ‘Well?

effect in Vietnam by both sides.

You’re old and foolish now.’ ”

– [ p. 277/199 ] “Green-blue blood was streaming from a More people than I can count have written, in the light of dozen wounds [. . . ]”

Terry’s fondness for They Might Be Giants, pointing out This is a brilliant bit of logical extrapolation on Terry’s part.

their song ‘I Lost My Lucky Ball and Chain’:

Since iron is anathema to elves, they obviously can’t have She threw away her baby-doll

haemoglobin-based red blood. Copper-based (green) blood I held on to my pride

is used by some Earth animals, notably crayfish, so it’s an But I was young and foolish then

obvious alternative. Of course, it was Star Trek that really I feel old and foolish now

made pointy-eared, green-blooded characters famous. . .

– [ p. 239/172 ] “This made some of the grand guignol

– [ p. 285/205 ] “ ‘This girl had her fiancé stolen by the melodramas a little unusual, [. . . ]”

Queen of Elves and she didn’t hang around whining, [. . . ]’ ”

Grand guignol, after the Montmartre, Paris theatre Le A reference to the folk song ‘Tam Lin’, in which Fair Janet Grand Guignol, is the name given to a form of gory and successfully wrests her Tam Lin from the Queen of Fairies, macabre drama so laboriously horrific as to fall into despite various alarming transformations inflicted on him.

absurdity.

– [ p. 285/205 ] “ ‘I’ll be back.’ ”

– [ p. 243/175 ] “ ‘Mind you, that bramble jam tasted of fish, Catchphrase used by Arnold Schwarzenegger in (almost) all to my mind.’ ‘S caviar,’ murmured Casanunda.”

his movies.

Many people recognised this joke, and mentioned a variety of different sources. Terry replied: “It’s very, very old. I

– [ p. 287/207 ] “Ancient fragments chimed together now in first heard it from another journalist about 25 years ago, Magrat’s head.”

and he said he heard it on the (wartime) radio when he was The six lines given make up three different poems. From a kid. I’ve also been told it is a music-hall line.”

The Fairies, by Irish poet William Allingham (1850):

– [ p. 248/178 ] “Quite a lot of trouble had once been Up the airy mountain, down the rushy glen

caused in Unseen University by a former Archchancellor’s We dare not go a-hunting for fear of little men hat, [. . . ]”

From a traditional Cornish prayer:

Refers back to certain events described more fully in From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety

Sourcery.

beasties

and things that go bump in the night

– [ p. 250/180 ] Jane’s All The World Siege Weapons Good Lord deliver us

Jane’s is a well known series of books/catalogues for And finally from a traditional school girls’ skipping rhyme: military equipment of all sorts and types. There is a Jane’s for aeroplanes, for boats, etc.

My mother said I never should

Play with the fairies in the wood

– [ p. 276/199 ] “[. . . ] in this case there were three If I did, she would say

determinate states the cat could be in: these being Alive, You naughty girl to disobey

Dead, and Bloody Furious.”

Your hair won’t grow, your shoes won’t shine

You naughty little girl, you shan’t be mine!

This is a reference to the well-known ‘Schrödinger’s cat’

quantum theory thought-experiment in which a cat in a box

– [ p. 295/213 ] “ ‘[. . . ] one and six, beetle crushers! [. . . ]

is probabilistically killed, leaving it in a superposition of one, two, forward. . . bean setting!’ ”

being alive and being dead until the box is opened and the wavefunction collapses.

This section demonstrates that Terry is not a Morris dancer himself; the terminology isn’t quite authentic enough. But

– [ p. 276/199 ] “Shawn dived sideways as Greebo went off

“beetle crushers” is an actual Morris step, and “bean like a Claymore mine.”

setting” is the name of a dance and, by extension, a name for a move used in that dance.

A Claymore mine is an ingenious and therefore extremely nasty device. It is a small metal box, slightly curved. On the

– [ p. 298/215 ] “ ‘Girls used to go up there if they wanted to convex side is written “THIS SIDE TOWARDS THE ENEMY”

get —’ ”

which explains why literacy is a survival trait even with US

marines. The box is filled with explosive and 600 steel balls.

Women who wished to conceive would spend the night on It has a tripod and a trigger mechanism, which can be the um, appropriate bit of the Cerne Abbas Giant site in operated either by a tripwire or, when the operator doesn’t Dorset. See the annotation for p. 302/217.

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DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

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– [ p. 300/216 ] “[. . . ] the only other one ever flying around and fight the final battle with the gods of Asgard and the here is Mr Ixolite the banshee, and he’s very good about heroes who have died and gone to Valhalla. See the last slipping us a note under the door when he’s going to be part of Richard Wagner’s Ring cycle for details.

about.”

The sleeping king is one of the oldest and deepest If you haven’t read Reaper Man yet, you may not realise folk-myths of western culture, some versions of the popular that the reason why Mr Ixolite slips notes under the door is legend even have King Arthur and his warriors sleeping on that he is the only banshee in the world with a speech the island of Anglesea. For more information, see e.g. the impediment.

section about the Fisher King in Frazer’s The Golden Bough, Jessie Weston’s From Ritual To Romance and all the

– [ p. 302/217 ] “ ‘They’re nervy of going close to the Long stuff that this leads into, such as Elliot’s The Wasteland and Man. [. . . ] Here it’s the landscape saying: I’ve got a great David Lodge’s Small World.

big tonker.’ ”

– [ p. 316/227 ] “The place looked as though it had been The Discworld’s Long Man is a set of three burial mounds.

visited by Genghiz Cohen.”

In Britain there is a famous monument called the Long Man of Wilmington, in East Sussex. It’s not a mound, but a Much later, in Interesting Times, we learn that Cohen the chalk-cut figure on a hillside; the turf was scraped away to Barbarian’s first name is, in fact, Genghiz.

expose the chalk underneath, outlining a standing giant 70

With respect to the original pun on Genghiz Kahn, Terry meters tall. There are several such figures in England, but says:

only two human figures, this and the Cerne Abbas Giant.

“As a matter of interest, I’m told there’s a kosher Mongolian Chalk-cut figures have to be recut periodically, which restaurant in LA called Genghiz Cohen’s. It’s a fairly provides opportunities to bowdlerize them. This is probably obvious pun, if your mind is wired that way.”

why the Long Man of Wilmington is sexless; it was recut in the 1870s, when, presumably, public displays of great big

– [ p. 316/227 ] “Queen Ynci wouldn’t have obeyed. . . ”

tonkers were rather frowned upon. However, the other chalk-cut giant in Britain, the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, The ancient warrior queen Ynci is modelled on Boadicea is a nude, 55-meter-tall giant wielding a club, who has a (who led a British rebellion against the Romans).

tonker about 12 meters long, and proudly upraised. Nearby Boadicea’s husband was the ruler of a tribe called the Iceni, is a small earth enclosure where maypole dancing, etc. was which is almost Ynci backwards.

once held.

– [ p. 321/231 ] “. . . I think at some point I remember

– [ p. 305/219 ] “They showed a figure of an owl-eyed man someone asking us to clap our hands. . . ”

wearing an animal skin and horns.”

From J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan:

I am told this description applies to the cave painting

[. . . ] [Tinkerbell the Fairy] was saying that she thought she known as The Sorceror (aka The Magician, aka The could get well again if children believed in fairies. [. . . ] “If Shaman) in the Trois Freres cave in Arieges, France.

you believe,” [Peter Pan] shouted to them, “clap your hands; don’t let Tink die.”

– [ p. 305/219 ] “There was a runic inscription underneath.

[. . . ] ‘It’s a variant of Oggham,’ she said.”

– [ p. 324/233 ] “ ‘Millennium hand and shrimp.’ ”

Ogham is the name of an existing runic script found in the One of the truly frequently asked questions on British Isles (mostly in Ireland) and dating back at least to alt.fan.pratchett is “Where does this phrase come from?”

the 5th century. The Pratchett Archives contain a file with (Foul Ole Ron also uses it, in Soul Music.)

more information about the oghamic alphabet, including The answer concerns Terry’s experiments with

pictures of the individual characters.

computer-generated texts:

– [ p. 307/221 ] “ ‘Hiho, hiho —’ ”

“It was a program called Babble, or something similar. I put in all kinds of stuff, including the menu of the Dragon See the annotation for p. 88/73 of Moving Pictures.

House Chinese take-away because it was lying on my desk.

The program attempted to make ‘coherent’ phrases (!) out

– [ p. 308/222 ] “ ‘It’s some old king and his warriors [. . . ]

of it all.”

supposed to wake up for some final battle when a wolf eats the sun.’ ”

One of the other things Terry must have fed it were the lyrics to the song ‘Particle Man’ by They Might Be Giants Another one of Terry’s famous Mixed Legends along the (see the annotation for p. 264/199 of Soul Music): lines of the princess and the pea fairy tale in Mort.

Universe man, universe man

The wolf bit is straight from Norse mythology. The wolf Size of the entire universe man

Fenris, one of Loki’s monster children, will one day break Usually kind to smaller men, universe man

free from his chains and eat the sun. This is one of the signs He’s got a watch with a minute hand

that the Götterdämmerung or Ragnarok has begun, and at A millennium hand, and an eon hand

this point the frost giants1 will cross the Rainbow Bridge When they meet it’s happyland

1 Who presumably have still not returned the Gods’ lawnmower.

Powerful man, universe man.

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– [ p. 328/236 ] “ ‘I’ve got five years’ worth of Bows And the line ‘Ridi Pagliaccio’.

Ammo, Mum,’ said Shawn.”

– [ p. 367/264 ] “Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, In our world there is a magazine Guns And Ammo; this especially simian ones. They are not all that subtle.”

appears to be the Discworld equivalent.

Definitely a Tolkien reference this time. See the annotation

– [ p. 328/236 ] Shawn’s speech.

for p. 183/149 of Mort.

Shawn’s speech is a parody of the ‘St Crispin’s Day’ speech There is a version frequently seen on the net in people’s in Shakespeare’s King Henry V. See also the annotation for

.signatures, which I am sure will have Terry’s full approval.

p. 239/303 of Wyrd Sisters.

It runs: “Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will piss on your computer”.

– [ p. 329/236 ] “[. . . ] imitate the action of the Lancre Reciprocating Fox and stiffen some sinews while leaving

– [ p. 371/267 ] “ ‘My great-grandma’s husband hammered them flexible enough [. . . ]”

it out of a tin bath and a couple of saucepans.’ ”

And this one is from the even more famous ‘Once more unto On a.f.p. the question was asked why, if Magrat’s armour the breach’ speech, also from King Henry V :

was fake and not made of iron at all, was it so effective against the Elves? Terry answers:

“Then imitate the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon up

“A tin bath isn’t made out of tin. It’s invariably galvanised the blood.”

iron — ie, zinc dipped. They certainly rust after a while.”

– [ p. 341/245 ] “ ‘Ain’t that so, Fairy Peaseblossom?’ ”

– [ p. 382/274 ] “[. . . ] he called it The Taming Of The Vole

[. . . ]”

One of the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is called Peasblossom. In itself this is not very interesting, but it is Shakespeare again, of course. A vole is a small animal, directly relevant when you consider the point Granny is somewhat similar to a shrew.

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.”

Men at Arms

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

– Starting with “Men at Arms”, the word ‘Discworld’

by moonlight, proud Titania”.

appeared on the copyright page with a ‘registered trademark’ symbol appended to it.

– [ p. 353/253 ] “ ‘You know, sir, sometimes I think there’s a When asked if this indicated a tougher policy against great ocean of truth out there and I’m just sitting on the possible copyright infringements, Terry replied: beach playing with. . . with stones.’ ”

“Discworld and some associated names are subject to This paraphrases Isaac Newton. The original quote can be various forms of trademark, but we don’t make a big thing found in Brewster’s Memoirs of Newton, Volume II, about it. We’ve had to take some very gentle action in the Chapter 27:

past and the trademarking is a precautionary measure —

“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to it’s too late to do it when you’re knee-deep in lawyers.

myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the There will be a computer game next year, and possibly a seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a record album. We have to do this stuff.

smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the But — I stress — it’s not done to discourage fans, or prevent great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

the general usage of Discworld, etc, in what I’d loosely call fandom. By now afp readers ought to know that. It’s been

– [ p. 363/261 ] “ ‘Go ahead, [. . . ] bake my quiche.’ ”

done so that we have a decent lever if there’s a BIG

Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry again, another satire of the problem.”

line which also inspired “FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC” (see the annotation for p. 51/48 of Guards! Guards! ).

– Someone complained on the net that the picture of the Gonne on the back cover of Men at Arms gives away too

– [ p. 364/261 ] “ ‘On with the motley. Magrat’ll appreciate much information about the story. Terry replied: it.’ ”

“Hmm. We wondered about the cover ‘giving away half the

“On with the motley” is a direct translation of the Italian plot’ and decided to go with it — especially since Josh got

“Vesti la giubba” which is the first line of a famous aria the Gonne exactly right from the description. But I’d say it’s from the opera I Pagliacci. (Operatic arias are usually pretty obvious VERY early in the book what sort of thing known by their first line or first few words). It is the bitter we’re dealing with. That’s what distinguishes a ‘police aria in which the actor Canio laments that he must go on procedural’ from a mystery; after all, you know from the stage even though his heart is breaking, and climaxes with start whodunit in a Columbo plot, but the fun is watching 72

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

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him shuffle around solving it his way. . . ”

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

– [cover ] On the cover, Josh Kirby draws Cuddy without a morning briefing.

beard, even though it is mentioned many times in the text that he has one.

– [ p. 49/37 ] “ ‘Morning, Mr Bauxite!’ ”

Bauxite is the name of the rock that contains aluminium

– [ p. 8/6 ] “But Edward d’Eath didn’t cry, for three ore. I have fond memories of this red-coloured rock, reasons.”

because I grew up in a country (Suriname) whose economy De’ath is an existing old English name. The De’aths came depended entirely upon bauxite and aluminium.

over with William the Conqueror, and tend to get very upset if ignorant peasants pronounce their name. . . well, you

– [ p. 54/41 ] “Mr Morecombe had been the Ramkins’ family know, instead of ‘Dee-ath’ as it’s supposed to be solicitor for a long time. Centuries, in fact. He was a pronounced.

vampire.”

In other words: a bloodsucking lawyer, right?

– [ p. 12/8 ] “ ‘[. . . ] an iconograph box which, is a thing with a brownei inside that paints pictures of thing’s, [. . . ]’ ”

– [ p. 56/42 ] “[. . . ] turn in their graves if they knew that Kodak’s first mass-produced affordable camera was called the Watch had taken on a w—”

the “box brownie”. A brownie is also the name of a helpful Only funny the second time you read the book, because it is type of goblin. And we all know how cameras work on the then that you realise that the first time every reader will Discworld. . .

have gotten this wrong. . .

– [ p. 20/14 ] “ ‘Twurp’s P-eerage,’ he shouted.”

– [ p. 62/47 ] “ ‘No one ever eats the black pudding.’ ”

Burke’s Peerage. See the annotation for p. 191/138 of Lords Not very surprising at the Assassin’s Guild: black pudding and Ladies.

is made with blood.

– [ p. 20/15 ] “ ‘My nurse told me,’ said Viscount Skater,

– [ p. 64/47 ] “Captain Vimes paused at the doorway, and

‘that a true king could pull a sword from a stone.’ ”

then thumped the palm of his hand on his forehead. [. . . ]

Arthurian legend, Holy Grail, that kind of stuff.

‘Sorry, excuse me — mind like a sieve these days — [. . . ]’ ”

Acting like a bumbling fool, making as if to leave, then

– [ p. 24/18 ] “Silicon Anti-Defamation League had been smacking his head, ‘remembering’ something in the going on at the Patrician, and now —”

doorway, and unleashing an absolute killer question is Cf. the real life Jewish Anti-Defamation League.

exactly how TV Detective Columbo always drives his suspects to despair.

– [ p. 25/18 ] “[. . . ] the upturned face of Lance-Constable Cuddy, with its helpful intelligent expression and one glass

– [ p. 72/54 ] “ ‘NEITHER RAIN NOR SNOW NOR GLOM OF NIT

eye.”

CAN STAY THESE MESSENGERS ABOT THIER DUTY’ ”

Columbo had a glass eye (or rather, Peter Falk, who played This paraphrases the motto of the US postal service: the part, had one). And he was rather short.

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed

– [ p. 29/22 ] “ ‘Oh, nil desperandum, Mr Flannel, nil rounds”.

desperandum,’ said Carrot cheerfully.”

In Tom Burnam’s More Misinformation it is explained that

“Nil desperandum” is a genuine old Latin phrase, still this quote by Herodotus is not really the official motto of occasionally in use, meaning “don’t despair”.

the Postal service, since there is no such thing. But it is a quote that is inscribed on the General Post Office building

– [ p. 44/33 ] “ ‘Remember when he was going to go all the in New York, and has been construed as a motto by the way up to Dunmanifestin to steal the Secret of Fire from the general populace. It refers to a system of mounted postal gods?’ said Nobby.”

couriers used by the Persians when the Greeks attacked Reference to Prometheus, who gave fire to man and got Persia, around 500 BC.

severely shafted for it by the previous owners. See also the annotation for p. 131/107 of Eric.

– [ p. 76/57 ] Capability Brown.

Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1715–1783) actually existed,

– [ p. 44/33 ] “Fingers-Mazda, the first thief in the world, and was a well known landscape gardener and architect.

stole fire from the gods.”

His nickname derived from his frequent statement to The name ‘Fingers-Mazda’ puns on Ahura-Mazda, or prospective employers that their estates held great Ormuzd, the Zoroastrian equivalent of God.

“capabilities”. The existence of Sagacity Smith and Intuition De Vere Slave-Gore must be questioned, at least in

– [ p. 46/34 ] “ ‘Remember,’ he said, ‘let’s be careful out this particular trouser-leg of time.

there.’ ”

– [ p. 77/58 ] “It contained the hoho, which was like a haha MEN AT ARMS

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only deeper.”

that there was no such thing as a humble opinion.”

A haha is a boundary to a garden or park, usually a buried Terry has admitted that the Duke of Eorl’s conversational wall or shallow ditch designed not to be seen until closely style was a bit of a dig at the way discussions on the net are approached.

typically held. People posting to Usenet newsgroups will often prefix even the most dogmatic monologues or I’m told there’s a rather nice haha at Elvaston Castle just megalomaniacal statements with the words “In my humble outside Derby. From the house there appears to be an opinion. . . ”, in a (usually futile) attempt to render unobstructed vista into the distance, despite the presence themselves invulnerable to criticism. The qualifier is used of the main road to Derby crossing the field of view about so often on the net that it even has its own acronym: 200 yards away. Unfortunately, when the house was

‘IMHO’, so you won’t have to type so much when you use it.

designed, they hadn’t invented double-decker buses or lorries, so the effect is a bit spoilt by the sudden appearance

– [ p. 116/88 ] “[. . . ] that bastard Chrysoprase, [. . . ]”

of the top half of a bus going past from time to time.

Webster’s defines chrysoprase as an applegreen variety of

– [ p. 88/66 ] “ ‘I think perhaps Lance-Constable Angua chalcedony, used as gem, but literally from the Greek words shouldn’t have another go with the longbow until we’ve

‘chrusos’, gold and ‘prason’, leek. Chalcedony is a worked out how to stop her. . . her getting in the way.’ ”

semi-precious blue-gray variety of quartz, composed of very small crystals packed together with a fibrous, waxy The Amazons of legend had a famously cutting way of appearance.

solving this particular problem. . .

Note how both the ‘gold’ etymology and the ‘waxy

– [ p. 94/71 ] “There’s a bar like it in every big city. It’s appearance’ perfectly match Chrysoprase’s character as where the coppers drink.”

the rich, suave, uptown Mafia-troll.

Quite stereotypical of course, but the bar from the TV series Chrysoprase already appears (off-stage) on p. 179/178 of Hill Street Blues is the one that I was immediately Wyrd Sisters, but his name is spelled ‘Crystophrase’ there.

reminded of.

– [ p. 127/96 ] “ ‘What can you make it?’ Carrot frowned. ‘I

– [ p. 94/71 ] “ ‘That’s three beers, one milk, one molten could make a hat,’ he said, ‘or a boat. Or [. . . ]’ ”

sulphur on coke with phosphoric acid —’ ”

This may be far-fetched, but exactly the same joke appears Phosphoric acid is in fact an ingredient of Coca Cola. It’s in the 1980 movie Airplane! (renamed Flying High in some part of the 0.5 % that isn’t water or sugar.

countries).

– [ p. 94/71 ] “ ‘A Slow Comfortable Double-Entendre with

– [ p. 130/98 ] “[. . . ] a toadstool called Phallus impudicus, Lemonade.’ ”

[. . . ]”

There is an existing cocktail called a ‘Slow Comfortable This mushroom actually exists. The Latin name translates Screw’, or, in its more advanced incarnation, a ‘A Long Slow quite literally to “Shameless penis”. In English its common Comfortable Screw Up against the Wall’.

name is “Stinkhorn fungus”, and it has been described to This drink consists of Sloe Gin (hence the ‘slow’), Southern me as a large, phallus-shaped, pallid, woodland fungus Comfort (hence the ‘comfortable’), Orange Juice (which is smelling very strongly of rotten meat, and usually covered what makes a screwdriver a screwdriver and not merely a with flies. “Once experienced, never forgotten”, as my bloody big vodka; hence the ‘screw’), a float of Galliano source puts it.

(which is in a Harvey Wallbanger; hence the ‘up against the Another mushroom expert subsequently mailed me a long, wall’), served in a long glass (hence. . . oh, work it out for detailed description of the toadstool’s appearance, which yourself).

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

+ [ p. 74 ] “ ‘GONNE’ ”

black slime” and “I’ve smelled these from 50 paces on a still

‘Gonne’ is actually an existing older spelling for ‘gun’ that day”.

can be found in e.g. the works of Chaucer.

And no, the Phallus Impudicus is not edible.

– [ p. 113/85 ] “[. . . ] or a hubland bear across the snow

– [ p. 135/102 ] “A lot of equipment had been moved away,

[. . . ]”

however, to make room for a billiard table. [. . . ] ‘My word.

Scattered across the Discworld canon are numerous little Perhaps we’re adding just the right amount of camphor to changes in terminology to reflect the Discworld’s unusual the nitro-cellulose after all —’ ”

setup, and this is one of the more elegant ones, since there In reality, nitro-cellulose (also known as guncotton) is an obviously can’t be polar bears on the Disc. . .

extremely explosive substance that was discovered by people trying to make artificial ivory for billiard balls.

– [ p. 115/86 ] The Duke of Eorle.

Camphor is nicely flammable in its own right.

Duke, Duke, Duke of Earl. Of doo-wop fame.

– [ p. 136/103 ] “ ‘Oh well. Back to the crucible.”

– [ p. 115/87 ] “One of the thoughts jostling for space was As well as being alchemist-speak for ‘back to the drawing 74

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

board’ (a crucible is a container used in high-temperature

..and so on. . .

melting), there is also the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield The key thing was that you couldn’t avoid the chips. I think where the World Snooker Championships are played.

if anyone’d ever ordered a meal without chips they’d have been thrown out.

– [ p. 137/104 ] “ ‘Haven’t you seen his portrait of the Mona Ogg. [. . . ] The teeth followed you around the room.

Note for UK types: this place was the White Horse Café at Amazing.’ ”

Cherhill on the A4. Probably just a memory. It wasn’t far from where some famous rock star lunched himself in his It can easily be observed that the Mona Lisa’s eyes follow car, although, come to think of it, not on chips.”

one around the room; Leonardo da Vinci supposedly achieved this by using some mysterious painting technique

– [ p. 159/120 ] Some people on a.f.p. indicated that they that only the greatest of painters are capable of. But as Tom had difficulty understanding just what the Gargoyle was Burnham explains in his Dictionary of Misinformation: “The saying, so here is a translation into English of his side of the eyes-that-follow-you trick is a simple one, used by dialogue:

innumerable artists in everything from posters to billboards.”

“Right you are.”

“Cornice overlooking broadway.”

– [ p. 143/108 ] “ ‘Brother Grineldi did the old heel-and-toe

“No.”

trick [. . . ]’ ”

“Ah. You for Mister Carrot?”

“Oh, yes. Everyone knows Carrot.”

Joseph (Joey) Grimaldi was a famous English clown and

“He comes up here sometimes and talks to us.”

pantomime of the 19th century. He was so influential and

“No. He put his foot on my head. And let off a instrumental in creating the modern concept of the clown firework. I saw him

that circus clowns are still called “Joeys” after him.

run away along Holofernes Street.”

“He had a stick. A firework stick.”

– [ p. 150/113 ] “Possibly, if you fought your way through

“Firework. You know? Bang! Sparks! Rockets!

the mysterious old coats hanging in it, you’d break through Bang!”

into a magical fairyland full of talking animals and goblins,

“Yes. That’s what I said.”

but it’d probably not be worth it.”

“No, idiot! A stick, you point, it goes BANG!”

Reference to the children’s classic The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. See also the annotation for

– [ p. 159/120 ] “[. . . ] the strangest, and possibly saddest, p. 22/22 of Sourcery.

species on Discworld is the hermit elephant.”

Our real world’s hermit crab (which can be found on islands

– [ p. 153/116 ] “I’m on the path, he thought. I don’t have to like Bermuda) behaves similarly: it has no protective shell know where it leads. I just have to follow.”

of its own, so it utilises the shells of dead land snails. The This is almost a direct quote from a scene in Twin Peaks: reason why the hermit crab is one of the sadder species in Cooper: “God help me, I don’t know where to

our world as well is given in Stephen Jay Gould’s essay start.”

‘Nature’s Odd Couples’ (published in his collection The Hawk: “You’re on the path. You don’t need to

Panda’s Thumb ): the shells that form the crabs’ natural know where it leads. Just follow.”

habitat are from a species of snail that has been extinct since the 19th century. The hermit crabs on Bermuda are

– [ p. 155/117 ] Zorgo the Retrophrenologist.

only surviving by recycling old fossil shells, of which there are fewer and fewer as time goes on, thus causing the For a while I thought we had finally found a troll whose hermit crab to become, slowly but surely, just as extinct as name wasn’t mineral-related, but no: zorgite is a metallic the snails.

copper-lead selenide, found at Zorge, in the German Harz Mountains.

– [ p. 162/123 ] “ ‘He also did the Quirm Memorial, the Hanging Gardens of Ankh, and the Colossus of Morpork.’ ”

– [ p. 157/119 ] “ ‘It’s Oggham,’ said Carrot.”

The last two items are equivalents of two of our world’s See the annotation for p. 305/219 of Lords and Ladies.

‘seven wonders of antiquity’: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Colossus of Rhodes. The Quirm memorial

– [ p. 157/119 ] “Soss, egg, beans and rat 12p. Soss, rat and is less obvious. Perhaps Mausoleus’ Tomb?

fried slice 10p. [. . . ]”

There is also a similarity between the Colossus of Morpork People keep seeing a Monty Python reference in this, and the sequence in Rob Reiner’s 1985 movie This Is Spinal because they are reminded of the “Eggs, bacon, beans and Tap where a Stonehenge menhir, supposedly 30 feet high, spam. . . ” sketch.

is constructed to be 30 inches high, and ends up being But Terry says: “It’s not really Python. Until recently trodden on by a dwarf.

transport cafes always had menus like that, except that

‘Chips’ was the recurrent theme. I used to go to one where

– [ p. 163/124 ] “[. . . ] the kind of song where people dance you could order: Doublegg n Chips n Fried Slice, Doublegg in the street and give the singer apples and join in and a n Doublechips n Doublebeans n Soss. . .

dozen lowly match girls suddenly show amazing MEN AT ARMS

75

The Annotated Pratchett File

choreographical ability [. . . ]”

– [ p. 176/133 ] “The whole nose business looked like a conundrum wrapped up in an enigma [. . . ]”

Terry is probably just referring to a generic stage musical stereotype here, but the production number mentioned Paraphrase of a famous quote by Winston Churchill, most frequently by my correspondents as fitting the context referring to Russia: “It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery is ‘Who Will Buy?’ from Oliver!, a musical version of inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key.”

Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.

+ [ p. 179/135 ] “ ‘He went into Grope Alley!’ ”

– [ p. 168/127 ] “ ‘Some in rags, and some in tags, and one Terry has confirmed that Grope Alley is based on in a velvet gown. . . it’s in your Charter, isn’t it?’ ”

Threadneedle Street in the City of London, which used to This comes from the nursery rhyme Hark! Hark!. The be the haunt of prostitutes and hence rejoiced in the name Mother Goose version goes:

‘Gropecunte Lane’ — its modern name is just a more euphemistic way of putting things. It’s the site of the Bank Hark! Hark! The dogs do bark,

of England. Some would consider this to be appropriate.

The beggars are coming to town;

Some in rags, some in tags,

There’s also a Grope Alley in Shrewsbury, getting its name And some in velvet gown.

from the Tudor buildings on either side almost meeting each other at roof level, causing one to have to grope along.

Opies’ Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes gives the last two lines as:

– [ p. 184/139 ] “ ‘The word ‘polite’ comes from ‘polis’, too.

Some in rags, some in jags,

It used to mean proper behaviour from someone living in a And one in a velvet gown.

city.’ ”

Terry’s household nursery rhyme book must strike a As far as I can tell this is utter and total balderdash.

balance between these two versions. The rhyme is said to

‘Policeman’ indeed comes from ‘polis’, but ‘polite’ comes be about the mob of Dutchmen that William of Orange from the Latin ‘polire’, to polish.

brought over with him to England in 1688, with the “one in a velvet gown” being the Prince himself. Or else it is a

– [ p. 185/140 ] “Vimes had believed all his life that the reference to Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, Watch were called coppers because they carried copper forcing monks to beg on the streets for a living. Take your badges, but no, said Carrot, it comes from the old word pick.

cappere, to capture.”

This, however, appears to be true, according to Brewer’s,

– [ p. 171/130 ] “ ‘A sixteen, an eight, a four, a one!’ ”

who says that it is “more likely” that ‘copper’ derives from This makes perfect sense: since trolls have silicon brains,

‘cop’ (instead of the other way around!), as in the verb ‘to naturally they’d think in binary. Every number, no matter cop something’, which indeed comes from the Latin how large can be represented in binary (29, for instance, is

‘capere’, to take.

11101; sixteen plus eight plus four plus one). Cuddy is therefore absolutely right when he points out to Detritus:

– [ p. 189/143 ] “He pushed his hot food barrow through

“If you can count to two, you can count to anything!”

streets broad and narrow, crying: ‘Sausages! Hot Sausages! Inna bun!’ ”

– [ p. 172/131 ] “ ‘That,’ said Vimes, ‘was a bloody awful cup From the folk song ‘Molly Malone’:

of coffee, Sham.’ [. . . ] ‘And a doughnut’.”

In Dublin’s fair city

This entire scene is a loose parody of David Lynch’s cult TV

Where the maids are so pretty

series Twin Peaks, where the protagonists are forever I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone

eating doughnuts and drinking “damn fine coffee”.

She wheels her wheel-barrow

Through streets broad and narrow

– [ p. 173/131 ] “ ‘And give me some more coffee. Black as Crying ‘cockles and mussels alive alive-o’

midnight on a moonless night.”

I am told that the statue that was put up in Dublin in In one of the early Twin Peaks episodes, Agent Cooper honour of Molly was such an artistic failure, that it is now praises the coffee at the Great Northern Hotel, and is very fondly known by the Dubliners as “The Tart with the Cart”.

precise in ordering breakfast, specifying the way the bacon etc. should be cooked and asking for a cup of coffee which

– [ p. 192/145 ] “ ‘I call it a flapping-wing-flying-device, [. . . ]

is “Black as moonlight on a moonless night”. Although the It works by gutta-percha strips twisted tightly together.’ ”

waitress at the Hotel is considerably less inclined to nitpick than Sham Harga, she also makes a comment along the This time, Leonard has invented the rubber-band-powered lines of “That’s a pretty tough order”.

model aeroplane.

– [ p. 175/133 ] “ ‘[. . . ] clown Boffo, the corpus derelicti,

– [ p. 193/146 ] “[. . . ] wondering how the hell he came up

[. . . ]’ ”

with the idea of pre-sliced bread in the first place.”

“Corpus delicti” is a Latin phrase meaning the victim’s body From the saying (of inventions): “the greatest thing since in a murder case.

sliced bread”.

76

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

– [ p. 194/146 ] “ ‘My cartoons,’ said Leonard. ‘This is a

“Toute suite” = immediately. One of the few bits of French good one of the little boy with his kite stuck in a tree,’ said that the typical Brit is said to remember from schooldays.

Lord Vetinari.”

– [ p. 210/158 ] “ ‘C. M. O. T. Dibbler’s Genuine Authentic The reference to Charlie Brown’s struggle against the Soggy Mountain Dew,’ she read.”

kite-eating tree in Charles M. Shultz’s comic strip Peanuts will be obvious to most readers, but perhaps not everyone Terry is not referring to Mountain Dew, the American soft will realise that in Leonardo da Vinci’s time a cartoon was drink, but is using the term in its original meaning, as a also a full-size sketch used to plan a painting.

colloquialism for whisky — particularly, the homemade

‘moonshine’ variety.

– [ p. 197/149 ] “ ‘They do things like open the Three Jolly Luck Take-away Fish Bar on the site of the old temple in

– [ p. 218/165 ] VIA CLOACA

Dagon Street on the night of the Winter solstice when it The major sewer in ancient Rome, running down into the also happens to be a full moon.’ ”

Tiber, was called the Cloaca Maxima. Anything with ‘Via’ in I’m rather proud of figuring this one out, because I really its name would have been a street or road. The Cloaca hadn’t a clue as to why this Fish Bar would be such a bad Maxima was actually a tunnel.

idea. Then it occurred to me to look up the word ‘Dagon’.

Webster’s doesn’t have it, but luckily Brewer saves the day,

– [ p. 235/178 ] “[. . . ] huge scrubbing brushes, three kinds as usual: ‘Dagon’ is the Hebrew name for the god Atergata of soap, a loofah.”

of the Philistines; half woman and half fish.

Loofah is a genus of tropical climbing plant bearing a fruit, It was actually a Dagon temple that the biblical Samson the fibrous skeleton of which is used for scrubbing backs in managed to push down in his final effort to annoy the the bath.

Philistenes (Judges 16:23, “Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto

– [ p. 238/180 ] “ ‘Hi-ho — ‘— hi-ho —’ ‘Oook oook oook Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath oook ook —’ ”

delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.”)

The dwarvish hiho-song. See the annotation for p. 88/73 of After including this annotation in earlier editions of the APF, Moving Pictures.

there have been numerous emails from people pointing out that H. P. Lovecraft also uses the entity Father Dagon as the

– [ p. 239/181 ] “ ‘He said “Do Deformed Rabbit, it’s my leader of the Deep Ones in some of his horror stories. Terry favourite”,’ Carrot translated.”

has confirmed, however, that the inspiration for his Dagon Running gag. See also the annotation for p. 226/162 of goes back to the original source, not Lovecraft’s Small Gods.

incarnation.

– [ p. 251/190 ] “ ‘All right, no one panic, just stop what

– [ p. 203/153 ] “[. . . ] Dibbler, achieving with his cart the you’re doing, stop what you’re doing, please. I’m Corporal kind of getaway customarily associated with vehicles that Nobbs, Ankh-Morpork City Ordnance Inspection City Audit have fluffy dice on the windscreen [. . . ]”

— [. . . ] Bureau . . . Special . . . Audit . . . Inspection.’ ”

Take an old, battered car of the type that the Waynes and Nobby is imitating Eddie Murphy. Terry explains: Kevins of our world (boyfriends to Sharon and Tracey — see

“Almost a trademark of the basic Murphy character in a the annotation for p. 106/95 of Reaper Man) often drive — a tight spot is to whip out any badge or piece of paper that Ford Cortina or Capri is the usual candidate in the UK.

looks vaguely official and simply gabble official-sounding Respray it metallic purple. Some go-faster stripes, possibly jargon, which sounds as if he’s making it up as he goes a la ‘Starsky and Hutch’ may be appropriate at this time.

along but nevertheless browbeats people into doing what Plaster rear window with car stickers in dubious taste: he wants. As in:

“Passion wagon — don’t laugh it could be your daughter inside”, “My other car is a Porsche”, or even: “I ♥

‘I’m special agent Axel Foley of the Special . . . Division . . .

Ankh-Morpork”. Advanced students might like to Secret . . . Anti-Drugs . . . Secret . . . Undercover . . .

experiment with a stick-on cuddly Garfield in the rear Taskforce, that’s who I am, and I want to know right now window. Put in stretch seat-covers, preferably in luminous who’s in charge here, right now!’

pink fur. Add a Sun-strip, possibly with the names of the Cpl Nobbs uses this technique to get into the Armoury in owner and ‘His bird’ on them (so they can remember where M@A.”

to sit presumably). Hang a pair of fluffy dice from the rear-view mirror. That kind of vehicle.

– [ p. 252/191 ] “ ‘Have you got one of those Hershebian twelve-shot bows with the gravity feed?’ he snapped. ‘Eh?

– [ p. 205/155 ] “ ‘Chrysoprase, he not give a coprolith What you see is what we got, mister.’ ”

about that stuff.’ ”

This is straight from The Terminator. Arnold says to the gun Coprolith = a fossilised turd.

shop owner: “Have you got a phase plasma rifle in the 40

watt range?” and the shopkeeper responds: “Hey, just what

– [ p. 209/158 ] “ ‘He say, you bad people, make me angry, you see, pal”.

you stop toot sweet.’ ”

MEN AT ARMS

77

The Annotated Pratchett File

– [ p. 255/193 ] “ ‘Oh, wow! A Klatchian fire engine! This is

– [ p. 277/210 ] “ ‘Stuffed with nourishin’ marrowbone jelly, more my meteor!’ ”

that bone,’ he said accusingly.”

Perhaps obvious, but this really had me puzzled until I All through the 1960s and 1970s, TV commercials for Pal realised that ‘meteor’ refers back to Sgt Colon’s use of the (“Prolongs Active Life”) dog food used to claim that it French word ‘métier’ a few pages back. . .

contained “nourishing marrowbone jelly”, and showed an oozing bone to prove it.

– [ p. 257/195 ] “ ‘No sir! Taking Flint and Morraine, sir!’ ”

– [ p. 279/212 ] “Gonnes don’t kill people. People kill These two trolls first appeared as actors in Moving Pictures.

people.”

As far as their names go, Flint is obvious, but I had to look Slogan of the US National Rifle Association.

up Morraine: Webster spells it with one ‘r’, and defines it as

“the debris of rocks, gravel, etc. left by a melting glacier”.

– [ p. 284/216 ] “ ‘It’s Bluejohn and Bauxite, isn’t it?’ said An email correspondent subsequently pointed out to me Carrot.”

that Webster’s definition is lacking, because (a) the spelling More troll names. For Bauxite see the annotation for with two r’s is valid, and (b) morraine is unstratified debris p. 49/37. Bluejohn is another one I had to look up, and only. If it were stratified it would be called esker or kame, again I was saved by Brewer’s, because Webster’s doesn’t which are of course fluvioglacial products rather than just have it. Blue John is “A petrifaction of blue fluor-spar, found glacial.

in the Blue John mine of Tre Cliff, Derbyshire; and so called Hey, don’t look at me — I’m just the messenger. . .

to distinguish it from the Black Jack, an ore of zinc. Called John from John Kirk, a miner, who first noticed it.”.

– [ p. 258/196 ] “Sometimes it’s better to light a Brewer’s may not have the final word on this, however. A flamethrower than curse the darkness.”

correspondent tells me that Blue John is actually derived From the old saying: “It is better to light a candle than from a rock called ‘Bleu-Jaune’ (blue-yellow) because of its curse the darkness”.

mixed colouring. This rock was originally named in French either because it was first found shortly after the Norman

– [ p. 258/196 ] “ ‘Lord Vetinari won’t stop at sarcasm. He invasion or because the buyers were primarily French.

might use’ — Colon swallowed — ‘irony.’ ”

This reminded many correspondents of Monty Python’s

– [ p. 285/216 ] “ ‘Remember, every lance-constable has a

‘Dinsdale’ sketch:

field-marshal’s baton in his knapsack.’ ”

Vercotti: I’ve seen grown men pull their own heads off

“Every French soldier carries in his cartridge-pouch the rather than see Doug. Even Dinsdale was frightened of baton of a marshal of France.” Said originally by Napoleon, Doug.

though of course he would have pronounced it as “Tout soldat francais porte dans sa giberne le baton de mere’chal Interviewer: What did he do?

de France.”

Vercotti: He used sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic Note that on p. 297/226 Detritus repeats the phrase as “You irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and satire.

got a field-marshal’s button in your knapsack”, while on Presenter: By a combination of violence and sarcasm the p. 302/230 Cuddy creatively manages “You could have a Piranha brothers, by February 1966, controlled London and field-marshal’s bottom in your napkin”.

the South East.

+ [ p. 287/218 ] “ ‘Only two-er things come from Slice

– [ p. 263/200 ] “ ‘I mean, I don’t mean well-endowed with Mountain! Rocks. . . an’. . . an’. . . ’ he struck out wildly, money.’ ”

‘other sortsa rocks! What kind you, Bauxite?’ ”

Very obvious, but still: it is the conventional stereotype that Detritus in drill sergeant mode replays a scene from the both under-sized males as well as black males are movie An Officer and a Gentleman, in which sergeant Foley

‘better-endowed’ than white males. Hence the joke: ‘What (played by Louis Gossett, Jr) has a conversation with a new is fifteen inches long and white?’ Answer: ‘Nothing’.

recruit as follows:

Sgt Foley: “You a queer?”

– [ p. 268/203 ] “ ‘Shall we be off. . . Joey, wasn’t it? Dr Sid Worley: “Hell no sir!”

Whiteface?’ ”

Sgt Foley: “Where you from, boy?”

Another Grimaldi reference. See the annotation for Sid Worley: “Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, sir.”

p. 143/108.

Sgt Foley: “Ah! Only two things come out of

Oklahoma. Steers and queers.”

– [ p. 269/204 ] “ ‘All those little heads. . . ’ ”

Clowns’ faces are trademarked and cannot be copied by any

– [ p. 295/224 ] “ ‘You just shut up, Abba Stronginthearm!’ ”

other clown (unlike clothes or a specific act). If you are a One of the members of the legendary Swedish pop group clown, you can send a photograph of your face to the Clown Abba was Bjorn Ulvaeus. Obviously, by Discworld logic, if and Character Registry, where the face is then painted on a Bjorn is a typical dwarf name, so is Abba. Not to mention goose egg (a tradition dating back to the 1500s) and stored.

the ‘Bjorn Again’ pun Death makes on p. 82/62: Bjorn Again 78

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

is the name of an Australian band with a repertoire that The New Model Army, besides supplying the name for a consists entirely of Abba covers.

Goth group, was the Parliamentarian army which turned the tide of the English Civil War, and ensured the defeat of

– [ p. 295/224 ] “ ‘Aargh! I’m too short for this shit!’ ”

King Charles I.

A phrase originating from US forces slang during the

– [ p. 321/244 ] “ ‘Yes, sir. Their cohorts all gleaming in Vietnam war, where the tour of duty was fixed so the purple and gold, sir.’ ”

‘grunts’ knew exactly how long, to the day, until they were due back in ‘the world’. A short timer was one who didn’t Lord Byron, The Destruction of Sennacherib :

have long to go and therefore didn’t want to put himself at The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, undue risk — hence “I’m too short for this shit”.

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and

Another popular reference to this expression is “I’m too old gold. . .

for this shit”, a catchphrase for Danny Glover’s character in The sheen of his spears was like stars on the sea, the Lethal Weapon series of movies.

When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Terry adds:

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

“ ‘I’m too short for this shit’ is a line that has appeared in at 600 men.

least two grunt movies. I had intended Cuddy to use it in the sewers. . . ”

– [ p. 325/246 ] “[. . . ] Fondel’s ‘Wedding March’ [. . . ]”

– [ p. 305/232 ] “ ‘I thought you rolled around on the floor Fondel = Händel.

grunting and growing hair and stretching,’ he whimpered.”

– [ p. 325/247 ] “ ‘[. . . ] it’s got the name B.S. Johnson on the Reference to the famous werewolf transformation scenes in keyboard cover!’ ”

the 1981 horror movie An American Werewolf in London.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s initials are ‘JSB’, which is ‘BSJ’

– [ p. 307/234 ] “ ‘So we’re looking for someone else. A third backwards, and Bach was of course also involved in organ man.’ ”

music. But Terry has mentioned numerous times (not just on-line but also in The Discworld Companion) that he did A reference to the film The Third Man. Terry says: not choose the name with this intention at all.

“It may be that there is a whole generation now to whom The Third Man is just a man after the second man. And

– [ p. 332/252 ] “ ‘Who would have thought you had it in after all, it wasn’t set in Vienna, Ohio, so it probably never you,’ said Vimes, [. . . ]”

got shown in the US :–) ”

Shakespeare. See the annotation for p. 227/226 of Wyrd The book contains a couple of other resonances with The Sisters.

Third Man. In the film, the British, French, American and Russian occupation troops in Vienna patrol the city in

– [ p. 341/258 ] “ ‘Detritus! You haven’t got time to ooze!’ ”

groups of four, one from each country, to keep an eye on

“I ain’t got time to bleed!” is a line from Predator, another each other. Carrot sends the Watch out in similar squads of Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie.

a human, a dwarf and a troll. The final chase through the sewers under the city also mirrors the film.

– [ p. 345/262 ] “It was important to ensure that rumours of his death were greatly exaggerated.”

– [ p. 313/238 ] “ ‘As I was a-walking along Lower Broadway,

[. . . ]’ ”

Paraphrase of a famous quip Mark Twain cabled to Associated Press after they had reported his demise.

Terry says: “While there are 789456000340 songs beginning “As I was a-walking. . . ”, and I’ve probably heard

– [ p. 357/271 ] “Cling, bing, a-bing, bong. . . ”

all of them, the one I had in mind was ‘Ratcliffe Highway’.”

The scene with Vimes’ watch mirrors the movie For a Few

‘Ratcliffe Highway’ (a version which can be found on the Dollars More. All the way through this film, the bad guy has album Liege & Lief by Fairport Convention) starts out: been letting a watch chime, telling his victims to go for As I was a-walking along Ratcliffe Highway,

their gun when the chimes stop (of course he always draws A recruiting party came beating my way,

first and kills them). At the end of the film his victim is Lee They enlisted me and treated me till I did not van Cleef, and just as the watch chimes stop, Clint know

Eastwood enters with another watch, chiming away, to And to the Queen’s barracks they forced me to go ensure Lee gets his chance and all is well.

Terry says: “[. . . ] when the play of Men At Arms was done a

– [ p. 317/241 ] “ ‘Hand off rock and on with sock!’ ”

couple of months ago, [Stephen Briggs]’s people actually The Discworld version of an old army Sgt Major yell to get went to the trouble of getting a recording of the ‘right’ tune the troops up in the morning: “Hands off cocks, on with for the watch.

socks!”.

It was interesting to hear the laughter spread as people recognised it. . . ”

– [ p. 318/242 ] “ ‘We’re a real model army, we are’ ”

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The Annotated Pratchett File

– [ p. 365/277 ] “ ‘They call me Mister Vimes,’ he said.”

struggled against the darkness.”

In the Sidney Poitier movie In the Heat of the Night the There even exists a Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, in which most famous line (and indeed the name of the sequel) is people try to write the worst possible opening sentences for Poitier saying “They call me Mister Tibbs.”

imaginary novels. The entries for the 1983 edition of the contest were compiled by Scott Rice in a book titled, what

– [ p. 371/281 ] “ ‘Would he accept?’ ‘Is the High Priest an else, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night. I am told that there Offlian? Does a dragon explode in the woods?’ ”

were at least three such compilations released.

Is the Pope Catholic? Does a bear shit in the woods?

– [ p. 13/10 ] “It was always raining in Llamedos.”

– [ p. 373/283 ] “ ‘Like a fish needs a. . . er. . . a thing that Llamedos is ‘sod em all’ backwards. This is a reference to doesn’t work underwater, sir.’ ”

the town of Llareggub in Dylan Thomas’ short prose piece From the quip (attributed to feminist Gloria Steinem): “A Quite Early One Morning. That story was later expanded woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” Note into Under Milk Wood, a verse play scripted for radio. In that the bicycle is not known on the Discworld to anybody that version the name of the town was changed to the but the Patrician and Leonard of Quirm. And they don’t slightly less explicit Llaregyb.

know what it is.

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.

Soul Music

– [ p. 14/10 ] “[. . . ] a fizzing fuse and Acme Dynamite Company written on the side.”

– [cover ] The cover of Soul Music bears more than a Acme is an often used ‘generic’ company name in American passing resemblance to the cover of the album Bat out of cartoons. Particularly, most of the ingenious technical and Hell by Meatloaf, one of the 70s best-selling rock albums.

military equipment Wile E. Coyote uses in his attempts to capture the Roadrunnner is purchased from Acme.

– [ p. 8/5 ] “This is also a story about sex and drugs and Music With Rocks In.”

One of my proofreaders tells me he has a Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon t-shirt manufactured by ACME. Make of For anyone living in a cave: the classic phrase is “sex and that what you will.

drugs and rock ‘n’ roll”.

– [ p. 14/11 ] “The harp was fresh and bright and already it

– [ p. 8/5 ] “Well. . . . . . one out of three ain’t bad.”

sang like a bell.”

With the many Meatloaf references in Soul Music it is Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B. Goode’ is, with the possible perhaps no surprise many people think they’ve spotted exception of ‘Louie, Louie’, the greatest rock ’n roll song of another one here, namely to the ballad ‘Two Out of Three all time. It begins:

Ain’t Bad’ on Bat out of Hell.

Way down Louisiana close to New Orleans,

But in this case both Terry and Meatloaf are simply using a Way back up in the woods among the

normal English phrase that’s been around for ages. There is evergreens. . .

no connection.

There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood, Where lived a country boy name of Johnny B.

– [ p. 9/7 ] “A dark, stormy night.”

Goode. . .

“It was a dark and stormy night” has entered the English He never ever learned to read or write so well, language as the canonical opening sentence for bad novels.

But he could play the guitar like ringing a bell.

Snoopy in Peanuts traditionally starts his novels that way, and Terry and Neil used it on p. 11/viii of Good Omens as

– [ p. 17/13 ] “WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? SERIOUSLY? WHEN

well.

YOU GET RIGHT DOWN TO IT?”

I never knew, however, that the phrase actually has its This philosophical question was of course first posed by origin in an existing 19th century novel called Paul Clifford none other than the famous Ephebian philosopher by Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton. Someone kindly Didactylos, in Small Gods.

mailed me the full opening sentence to that novel, and only then did I understand how the phrase came by its bad

– [ p. 20/15 ] “As far as looks were concerned, Susan had reputation:

always put people in mind of a dandelion on the point of telling the time.”

“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents —except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a To begin with, in order to understand the dandelion violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in reference, read the annotation for p. 10/10 of The Light London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, Fantastic.

and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that Next, many people on a.f.p. have been wondering if Susan 80

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was perhaps based on somebody specific, especially since either) to Pratchett annotators all over the world to find out Terry describes her appearance in such great detail.

whether Terry based Death’s outburst on the original Various candidates were suggested, ranging from Neil Meatloaf track, or on the later Steinman song.

Gaiman’s Death (from his Sandman stories) to Siouxsie Eventually, somebody attended a book signing and asked Sioux (singer for the Goth band Siouxsie and the Banshees), Terry then and there. The answer: Terry’s source was Jim to Dr Who’s granddaughter.

Steinman’s own version of the song.

Terry replied:

I suppose I might as well mention the rest of the story while

“As far as I’m aware, the Death/Dr Who ‘coincidences’ are I’m at it, or else my mailbox will start filling up again: in in the mind of the beholders :–) Death can move through 1993, Steinman and Meatloaf finally teamed up together space and time, yes, but that’s built in to the character. I again and recorded the album Bat out of Hell II — Back to made his house bigger on the inside than the outside so Hell. The track called ‘Wasted Youth’ turned out to be a that I could have quiet fun with people’s perceptions — in re-recording of ‘American Guitar’, but it is still recited by the same way that humans live in tiny ‘conceptual’ rooms Jim Steinman himself.

inside the vastness of the ‘real’ rooms. Only Death (or those humans who currently have Death-perception) not only sees

– [ p. 26/20 ] “I MAY BE SOME TIME, said Death.”

but even experiences their full size.”

Terry likes this quote — it’s the third time he’s used it. See

“I have, er, noticed on signing tours that (somewhere also the annotations for p. 258/226 of Reaper Man and between the age of ten and eighteen) girls with names like p. 236/170 of Small Gods.

Susan or Nicola metamorphose into girls with names like Susi, Suzi, Suzie, Siouxsie, Tsuzi, Zuzi and Niki, Nicci, Nikki

– [ p. 28/21 ] “ ‘You know salmon, sarge’ said Nobby. ‘It is a and Nikkie (this is in about the same time period as boys fish of which I am aware, yes.’ ”

with names like Adrian and Robert become boys with A parody of the History Today sketches by Newman & names like Crash and Frab). This is fine by me, I merely Baddiel, where two old professors use a discussion on chronicle the observation. I’ve always had a soft spot for history to insult each other. These often started with a people who want to redesign their souls.

similar style of exchange along the lines of: “Do you know She got the name because it’s the one that gets the most the industrial revolution?” “It is a period of history of which variation, and got the hairstyle because it’s been a nice I am aware, yes”.

weird hairstyle ever since the Bride of Frankenstein. She’s not based on anyone, as far as I know — certainly not Neil’s

– [ p. 30/22 ] “ ‘Are you elvish?’ ”

Death, who is supercool and by no means a necronerd.”

The way everyone keeps asking Imp if he’s elvish resonates I agree with Terry about Neil’s Death. She’s a babe. Go with our world’s ‘are you sure you’re not Jewish?’, but it’s read the books.

of course also a play on the name ‘Elvis’, which eventually leads to the joke explained in the annotation for p. 376/284.

– [ p. 25/19 ] “I REMEMBER EVERYTHING. [. . . ] EVERY

LITTLE DETAIL. AS IF IT HAPPENED ONLY YESTERDAY.”

– [ p. 31/23 ] “ ‘Lias Bluestone,’ said the troll [. . . ]”

Jim Steinman is the song-writing and production genius See the annotation for p. 103/86 of Moving Pictures.

behind rock star Meatloaf. In 1977 he wrote the all-time classic ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light’, which opens with

– [ p. 31/23 ] “ ‘Imp y Celyn,’ said Imp.”

the lines:

This gets pretty much spelled out in the text: “Imp y Celyn”

Well, I remember every little thing

is a Welsh transliteration of ‘Bud of the Holly’, i.e. Buddy as if it happened only yesterday.

Holly. Terry originally mentioned this name on Parking by the lake

alt.fan.pratchett without giving the explanation. It took And there was not another car in sight

the group quite a while to figure it out, but luckily there are some Welsh people on the Internet. . .

In 1981, Steinman recorded the album Bad For Good by himself (he either had a falling out with Meatloaf or the

– [ p. 31/24 ] “ ‘Glod Glodsson,’ said the dwarf.”

latter had voice problems at the time — the story is not As his name indicates, Glod Glodsson is the son of the clear on this point) but in any case Steinman had originally irritable dwarf Glod we learned about earlier in the intended the album as a Meatloaf project, but eventually footnotes for Witches Abroad.

decided to use his own vocals). On that album appeared a song (soliloquy, really), called ‘Love and Death and an

– [ p. 33/25 ] “[. . . ] what you would get if you extracted American Guitar’, which begins similar to ‘Paradise’, but fossilized genetic material from something in amber and quickly goes off in an entirely different direction: then gave it a suit.”

I remember every little thing

What Terry means is that Mr Clete is a bit reptile-like. The as if it happened only yesterday.

reference is to the blockbuster novel/movie Jurassic Park, in I was barely seventeen

which various murderous lizards were brought to life using and I once killed a boy with a Fender guitar

prehistoric DNA found in amber-fossilized mosquitoes.

When Soul Music came out, it immediately became a question of utmost importance (no, I don’t know why, SOUL MUSIC

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The Annotated Pratchett File

– [ p. 35/27 ] “ ‘Gimlet? Sounds dwarfish.’ ”

that” is a phrase she used a lot.

“Gimlet, son of Groin” is a dwarf appearing in the well

– [ p. 69/52 ] “The Hogfather is said to have originated in known Harvard Lampoon parody Bored of the Rings by the the legend of a local king [. . . ] passing [. . . ] the home of famous Dutch author Tolkkeen with four M’s and a silent Q.

three young women and heard them sobbing because they The original dwarf being, um, lampooned here is of course had no food [. . . ]. He took pity on them and threw a packet Tolkien’s Gimli, son of Glóin.

of sausages through the window.”

In the Discworld canon, this is the first time Gimlet makes This recalls the legend of the original (Asiatic) St Nicholas, an actual on-stage appearance, though he has been bishop of Myra in what is now Turkey, who threw a bag of mentioned a number of times before, most notably in gold (on three separate occasions) through the window of a Reaper Man (see the annotation for p. 31/30 of that book).

poor man with three daughters, so the girls would have dowries, saving them from having to enter lives of

– [ p. 36/27 ] “ ‘Give me four fried rats.’ [. . . ] ‘You mean rat prostitution.

heads or rat legs?’ ‘No. Four fried rats.’ ”

I don’t know about other countries, but in the Netherlands This is a spoof of the restaurant scene in The Blues we still celebrate St Nicholas’ day (on December 5th) Brothers. Jake orders “Four fried chickens and a coke”, and rather than Christmas. Let me rephrase that. We do the waitress (Aretha Franklin) asks him whether he’d like celebrate Christmas, but we have no tradition of a fat man chicken wings or legs, etc. Even the “best damn fried rat in in a red suit going ho-ho-ho while delivering presents.

the city” is a direct paraphrase of a Blues Brothers quote.

Instead, we get St Nicholas (‘Sinterklaas’), who also wears

– [ p. 36/27 ] “ ‘And two hard-boilled eggs,’ said Imp. The red, and comes over from Spain each year (don’t ask) to others gave him an odd look.”

ride a white horse (not named Binky, as far as I know) over the rooftops and drop presents down the chimneys.

This is partly a continuation of the Blues Brothers reference (after Jake asks for the fried chickens, Elwood asks for two

– [ p. 43/33 ] “Just a stroke of the chalk. . . ”

slices of dry toast), and at the same time a nod to the Marx I’m not sure if it warrants an annotation, but I was fairly Brothers. In the cabin scene from A Night at the Opera, puzzled by this bit when I first read Soul Music. Only on Groucho is giving his order to the steward outside the re-reading did it dawn on me that what Terry is trying to cabin; Chico is calling out “And two hard boiled eggs!” from tell us here is that chalked on the guitar is the number ‘1’.

inside, Groucho repeats it to the steward, then Harpo honks This will turn out to be rather significant, later on.

his horn and Groucho says “Make that three hard boiled eggs.” This happens several times, with Groucho ordering a

– [ p. 46/35 ] “ ‘You’re not going to say something like “Oh, multi-course meal in between. At one point Harpo adds a my paws and whiskers”, are you?’ she said quietly.”

second honk, in a different pitch, and Groucho adds, “And one duck egg.” At the end Harpo produces a long series of The White Rabbit in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland : honks in assorted tones, and Groucho says to the steward,

“ ‘The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur

“Either it’s foggy out, or make that a dozen hard boiled and whiskers!’ ”.

eggs.”

Terry doesn’t like the Alice books very much, though. See also the Words From The Master section in Chapter 5.

– [ p. 38/29 ] “ ‘I won that at the Eisteddfod,’ said Imp.”

The eisteddfod is a real Welsh concept, originally a contest

– [ p. 47/36 ] “[. . . ] ‘Shave and a haircut, two pence’ [. . . ]

for poets and harpists. Nowadays, I’m told, it is more of a Bam-bam-a-bambam, bamBAM.”

generic arts and crafts fair/contest, and it has spread as far

‘Shave and a haircut, two bits’ is a classic rock ‘n’ roll as Australia, where the annual Rock Eisteddfod, according rhythm (used in just about everything Bo Diddley did, for to one of my correspondents, is one of the most entertaining instance). It was most recently reintroduced to the public and highly competitive interschool activities around.

as a punchline to a joke in the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

+ [ p. 30 ] “[. . . ] a thin slice of a face belonging to an old woman.”

– [ p. 48/37 ] A-bam-bop-a-re-bop-a-bim-bam-boom.

(See also the scene that starts on p. 181.) The attitudes and A-wap-ba-ba-looba-a-wap-bam-boom, one of rock ’n roll’s mannerisms of the old woman owning the pawn shop are most famous phrases, from Little Richard’s ‘Tutti Frutti’.

very like those of Auntie Wainwright in the BBC sitcom Last of the Summer Wine.

– [ p. 50/38 ] “ ‘[. . . ] oh, you’re a raven, go on, say the N

For quite a number of episodes she ran the funny old word. . . ’ ”

antiques shop from which many props and plot devices The N word is, of course, ‘Nevermore’ from Edgar Allan were available. When people entered the shop, she often Poe’s ‘The Raven’. See also the annotation for p. 217/191 of appeared holding a double barrelled shotgun and Reaper Man.

describing herself as a “poor defenseless old lady” or calling from just off the scene to describe the many

– [ p. 55/42 ] “The wizard who thought he owned him called (non-existant) security devices she has installed. She him Quoth, [. . . ]”

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The line from ‘The Raven’ fully goes: “Quoth the raven something normally only associated with astronomical

‘Nevermore’.”

objects.

Quoth the Raven — get it?

– [ p. 75/57 ] “The Soul Cake Tuesday Duck didn’t apparently have any kind of a home.”

– [ p. 56/42 ] “Lunch was Dead Man’s Fingers and Eyeball Pudding, [. . . ]”

The Discworld equivalent of the Easter Bunny. See also the annotation for p. 193/139 of Lords and Ladies.

Terry explains that this is “based on the UK tradition of giving horrible names to items on the school menu, such as

– [ p. 79/59 ] “[. . . ] C. H. Lavatory & Son [. . . ]”

Snot and Bogey Pie. Eyeball Pudding was usually semolina, Dead Men’s Fingers are sausages. At least, they were at my It is a curious but true fact that we owe the modern flush school, and friends confirm the general approach.”

toilet as we know it to a Victorian gentleman by the name of Thomas Crapper. Mr Lavatory is obviously his Discworld

+ [ p. 56/42 ] “Miss Butts [. . . ] practised eurhythmics in the counterpart.

gym.”

And before I start getting mail about it: no, Crapper didn’t Eurhythmics (literally: “good rhythms”) is an existing form really invent the flush toilet himself, but he made several of movement therapy that originated in Europe in the late improvements to the design (shades of James Watt here, see 19th century, which aims to study the rhythmic the annotation for p. 175/153 of Reaper Man), and he underpinning of music through movement (it is of course certainly sold a lot of them to the British army. For more also where pop band The Eurythmics got their name from).

information about Thomas Crapper, read Cecil Adams’

More of the Straight Dope.

In its early years, the more philosophical aspects of Eurhythmics were not always properly recognised, which

– [ p. 81/61 ] “ ‘What d’you call this, then, Klatchian mist?’ ”

often led to classes that were, according to one author,

“little more than ‘the place were the rich girls from the The British expression this refers to is ‘Scotch mist’, used to village went to learn dancing’ ”, which of course ties in describe things that persist in being present or existing neatly with the Quirm College for Young Girls.

despite statements to the contrary. For example: Note that Miss Butts’ co-founder of the College is Miss Worker A: “Someone’s buggered off with me

Delcross, and that the Eurhythmics method was created by three-eighths Gripley!”

the Swiss composer Emile Jaques-Dalcroze.

Worker B: (holding up three-eighths Gripley

allegedly buggered-off with by person or

– [ p. 63/48 ] “There’s a floral clock in Quirm. It’s quite a persons unknown) “What’s this then? Scotch

tourist attraction.”

mist?”

A flower display common in the more genteel and

– [ p. 91/69 ] “ ‘Normal girls didn’t get a My Little Binky set down-at-heel seaside resorts in the shape of a clock face, on their third birthday!’ ”

with the design of the face picked out in flowering plants of different colours. The more clever ones use flowers which My Little Pony is a toy aimed at young girls: a small plastic open and close at different times of day, thus in principle pony (in bright pink, or blue, etc.) with long hair which you allowing the time to be told by looking at the flowers. The can (allegedly) have endless fun combing.

less subtle ones just have a clock mechanism buried in the middle, and big hands.

– [ p. 98/73 ] “ ‘You mean like. . . Keith Death?’ ”

I doubt very much if this is a true reference, but when I saw

– [ p. 69/52 ] “There’s a song about him. It begins: You’d this I couldn’t help thinking: Keith Richards always looks Better Watch Out. . . ”

like Death. No reason why Death shouldn’t look like a The real world equivalent of this song is of course ‘Santa Keith, is there?

Claus is Coming to Town’. I just love how Terry completely reverses the meaning of that song’s opening line, without

– [ p. 103/77 ] “ ‘Er,’ she said, ‘ANYONE HERE BEEN KILLED

changing a single word.

AND CALLED VOLF?’ ”

Anyone Here Been Raped And Speak English? was the

– [ p. 71/54 ] “Behind it, in the turf, two fiery hoofprints British title of a book about newspapers’ foreign burned for a second or two.”

correspondents by Edward Behr, who also wrote The Last I have received I don’t know how many emails pointing out Emperor. In the US this book was released under the name that this resonates with the burning tire tracks left by the Behrings.

time-travelling DeLorean in the film Back to the Future.

The phrase refers to a story concerning a BBC journalist in a refugee camp in the Belgian Congo. He was investigating

– [ p. 74/56 ] “[. . . ] the sky ahead of her erupted blue for a some of the atrocities being committed there, and was moment. Behind her, unseen because light was standing looking for a victim to interview. Unfortunately he didn’t around red with embarrassment [. . . ]”

have a translator and the victims only spoke French. Finally Binky is obviously going very fast, since the visible light in in desperation the journalist wandered through the camp front of him is blue-shifted and behind him red-shifted, calling out “Anyone here been raped and speak English?”.

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– [ p. 104/78 ] “ ‘Hi-jo-to! Ho! Hi-jo-to! Ho!’ ”

the ‘w’ is a vowel, pronounced as a ‘u’). Also, Owen Myfanwy was a Welsh folk hero, and of course all Welsh folk This is from Wagner’s opera Die Walküre. I don’t have to heroes are dab hands with the harp, which is the Welsh explain what valkyries are, do I?

national musical instrument.

– [ p. 109/82 ] “[. . . ] at war with Hersheba and the D’regs

– [ p. 120/90 ] “ ‘Cliff? Can’t see anyone lasting long in this

[. . . ]”

business with a name like Cliff ’.”

The name D’regs is not only a pun on ‘dregs’, but also A reference to Cliff Richard — see the annotation for refers to the Tuaregs, a nomadic Berber tribe in North p. 48/45 of Johnny and the Dead.

Africa. The Tuaregs are also the desert marauders who attack Fort Zinderneuf in the movie Beau Geste (based on

– [ p. 121/91 ] “ ‘Moving around on your seat like you got a the book by P. C. Wren).

pant full of ant.’ ”

The name ‘Hersheba’ (a pun on ‘Hershey Bar’ /

James Brown, the Godfather of Soul: ‘I’ve got Ants in my

‘Beersheba’) is something that Terry came up with in 1992

Pants and I want to Dance.’

on a.f.p., when he was more or less thinking out loud about the many people who didn’t get the Djelibeybi reference

– [ p. 122/92 ] “They’ve got one of those new pianofortes (see the annotation for p. 17/17 of Pyramids):

[. . . ]’ ‘But dat sort of thing is for big fat guys in powdered

“[. . . ] say Djelibeybi OUT LOUD — I must have had twenty wigs.”

letters (and one or two emails) from people who didn’t twig Johann Sebastian Bach was invited to Potsdam for the very until the third time round. . . oh god. . . do they have them purpose of trying out King Frederic of Prussia’s new in the US? Should it have been called Emmenemms, or pianofortes.

Hersheba. . . hmm, Hersheba. . . could USE that, yes, little country near Ephebe. . . ”

– [ p. 123/93 ] “. . . the beat went on . . . ”

– [ p. 109/82 ] “IS THIS THE KLATCHIAN FOREIGN LEGION?”

‘The Beat Goes On’ is a song by Sonny Bono (yes, the dude who used to be married to Cher).

I’ll just let Terry himself handle this one:

“Just so we don’t get a zillion postings about cartoon films

– [ p. 126/95 ] “ ‘Hello, hello, hello, what is all this. . . then?’

and comics and movies that Soul Music has been copied he said [. . . ]”

from: the whole Klatchian Foreign Legion bit has its roots Stereotypical British policeman’s phrase. See the in ‘Beau Geste’, which was the Foreign Legion movie. It annotation for p. 60/55 of Guards! Guards!.

must be one of the most parodied, echoed and copied movies of all time — it was so influential that it is probably

– [ p. 127/95 ] “ ‘He can’t stop us. We’re on a mission from where most people’s ideas of the FFL originate.”

Glod.’ ”

– [ p. 112/84 ] “There was a riot going on.”

“We’re on a mission from God” is perhaps the most famous quote from the Blues Brothers movie.

This line is a fairly cliché rock ’n roll text fragment. It is used in quite a few songs, most notably in ‘Riot in Cell

– [ p. 131/98 ] “ ‘As soon as he saw the duck, Elmer knew it Block #9’, a song that has been performed by everybody was going to be a bad day.’ ”

from Dr Feelgood to the Blues Brothers. There’s A Riot Goin’ On is also the name of a famous 1971 funk album by A nice double reference. To begin with, the cartoons Terry Sly and the Family Stone.

is referring to here are Gary Larson’s Far Side cartoons (which I can highly recommend. Just try to avoid the

– [ p. 116/88 ] “[. . . ] the Vox Humana, the Vox Dei and the collections published after 1990 or so. They’re not that bad, Vox Diabolica.”

but the earlier ones are significantly better).

The Vox Humana is an existing organ stop (to be precise: a Second, there are the eternal cartoon conflicts between reed-type stop with a short resonator, common in baroque Elmer Fudd, hunter, and Daffy Duck, duck. Usually, when organs), and so is the Vox Angelicii. But my sources are Elmer meets Daffy, it will turn out to be a bad day for him.

divided as to whether the Vox Dei actually exists. About the Vox Diabolica everyone is in perfect agreement: ain’t no

+ [ p. 134/101 ] “Along the Ankh with Bow, Rod and Staff such thing, and never was.

with a Knob on the End”

Not a reference to anything specific, but there used to be

– [ p. 116/88 ] “He raised his hands.”

dozens of travel books with names like “Along the [fill in The Librarian powering up the organ resonates with the river] with [gun and camera, rod and line, etc]”, usually scene in which Marty McFly turns on Doc Brown’s guitar written by retired Victorian army men.

amplifier in Back to the Future.

These cliché-ridden travelogues were already being parodied as early as 1930 by George Chappell in his

– [ p. 117/89 ] “[. . . ] except the legendary harp of Owen Through the Alimentary Canal with Gun and Camera.

Mwnyy [. . . ]”

Owen Mwnyy is pronounced as ‘Owing Money’ (in Welsh,

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DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

read.”

music died, [. . . ]”

Blert Wheedown puns on Bert Weedon, famous for his many The day of the infamous plane crash that killed Buddy Holly,

“play in a day” guitar primers, which are mainly bought by the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens all in one go is commonly doting but slightly out of touch grandmothers for grandsons referred to as “the day the music died”. Years later, Don who’d rather have “The Death Metal book of three chords McLean would immortalise the phrase even further in his using less than three fingers”.

song ‘American Pie’, but that song is definitely not the original source.

– [ p. 140/105 ] “[. . . ] when Mr Hong opened his takeaway fish bar on the site of the old temple in Dagon street?”

– [ p. 173/130 ] “Ridcully was going to say, oh, you’re a rebel, are you, what are you rebelling against, and he’d For a full explanation of Mr Hong’s tragic fate, see the say. . . he’d say something pretty damn memorable, that’s annotation for p. 197/149 of Men at Arms.

what he’d do!”

– [ p. 142/107 ] “ ‘We call him Beau Nidle, sir.’ ”

In the 1954 movie The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando as Beau Nidle = Beau Geste + bone idle.

Johnny, the following exchange occurs:

Girl in a bar: So Johnny, what’re you rebelling

– [ p. 146/110 ] “There was a path, though. It led across the against?

fields for half a mile or so, then disappeared abruptly.”

Johnny: What’ve you got?

This would be a good description of Wheatfield with Crows by Van Gogh, who took his own life shortly after finishing

– [ p. 173/130 ] “ ‘mumblemumblemumble’, said the Dean this painting.

defiantly, a rebel without a pause.”

The name of the classic movie is Rebel Without A Cause.

– [ p. 151/114 ] “Her mother’s favourite dish had been Starring James. . . Dean.

Genocide by Chocolate.”

‘Death by Chocolate’ is an existing dish, as well as a chain

– [ p. 174/131 ] Song Titles.

of restaurants in New Zealand and Australia.

‘Don’t Tread On My New Blue Boots’ is Carl Perkins’ ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, ‘Good Gracious Miss Polly’ is Little Richard’s

– [ p. 152/114 ] “MORPHIC RESONANCE, he said, [. . . ]”

‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ and ‘Sto Helit Lace’ is the Big Another reference to Rupert Sheldrake’s theories. See the Bopper’s ‘Chantilly Lace’.

annotation for p. 54/45 of Mort.

– [ p. 174/131 ] “ ‘That bit where you said “hello, baby”,’ he

– [ p. 161/121 ] “The next table was occupied by said. ‘Why’d you do that?’ ”

Satchelmouth Lemon [. . . ]”

‘Chantilly Lace’ begins with The Big Bopper treating us to Louis Armstrong’s nickname was Satchmo, which was short his half of a telephone conversation with the young lady in for Satchelmouth. The ‘Lemon’ part of the name also ties in question. It starts: Helll- (then drop about an octave) -lllllo with black artists by way of the legendary bluesman Blind (then up a little bit) ba- (huge glissando up the scale, Lemon Jefferson.

beyond where he started) aaaaaaaaaaybeeeee!

– [ p. 162/122 ] “She was quite attractive in a skinny way,

– [ p. 183/138 ] [. . . ] LIVE FATS DIE YO GNU [. . . ]

Ridcully thought. What was the tomboy word? Gammon, or After James Dean’s legendary motto: “Live fast, die young, something.”

leave a good looking corpse.”

Gammon is the lower end of a side of bacon. What Ridcully is thinking of is the word ‘gamine’, which does have the

– [ p. 184/139 ] “ ‘Adrian Turnipseed, Archchancellor.’ ”

same meaning as tomboy.

This is probably just a coincidence, but Donald Turnupseed was the driver of the car that collided with James Dean in

– [ p. 163/123 ] “ ‘It looks like a spike at the front and a the crash that killed him. Donald was only slightly hurt.

duck’s arse, excuse my Klatchian, at the back.’ ”

“Duck’s arse” is, in fact, the correct name for the type of

– [ p. 188/141 ] “It took him and Gibbsson, the apprentice, fifties’ rock ’n roll haircut more politely described as a duck

[. . . ]”

tail haircut: one with the hair long in the back.

That’s of course Gibson, of guitar-building fame.

“Excuse my French” is a euphemism, said after swearing.

– [ p. 190/144 ] “ ‘I’ll throw in the space between the strings

– [ p. 169/127 ] “ ‘A song about Great Fiery Balls. [. . . ]

for free, OK?’ ”

Couldn’t really make out the words, the reason bein’, the Another Blues Brothers reference. When Elwood and Jake piano exploded.’ ”

are buying their instruments from ‘Ray’s Music Exchange’, Jerry Lee Lewis used to set fire to his piano using gasoline Ray Charles makes the comment about the electric piano while playing his immortal ‘Great balls of Fire’.

that he’ll “throw in the black notes for free”.

– [ p. 173/130 ] “[. . . ] much later on, on the day when the

– [ p. 192/144 ] “ ‘[. . . ] if anyone comes in and tries to play SOUL MUSIC

85

The Annotated Pratchett File

[. . . ] Pathway to Paradise [. . . ] he’s to pull their head off.”

extensively by Australian soldiers during both World Wars.

Although generally illegal outside of licensed casinos, it can

‘Pathway to Paradise’ is the Discworld version of Led now be played in country towns during some local festivals.

Zeppelin’s rock anthem ‘Stairway to Heaven’.

Professional games are controlled by at least one ‘boxer’, The song’s characteristic guitar riff is so often played in who collects a ‘rake-off’ or commission from all winners.

music shops that the patrons get really fed up with it, so it’s Bets may be placed either between players, or to cover the quite common to see “No Stairway” signs, or in the case of

‘centre’, representing the ‘spinner’s’ stake. The spinner one particular shop in Denmark Street, London, a sign must back heads, and other players must back tails. Side saying: “Anyone who uses the instruments here to play bets may back either.

‘Stairway To Heaven’, ‘Paranoid’ or ‘Smoke On The Water’

should seriously consider whether they have a future in Two coins are placed on a ‘kip’ (a flat piece of wood), and rock and roll.”

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

– [ p. 193/145 ] “ ‘They say there’s a background noise to

‘no-throw’ and all bets stand. If both coins land heads or the universe? A sort of echo of some sound? [. . . ] It both tails, bets are resolved. Players take turns as spinner wouldn’t have to be very loud. It’d just have to be and may continue to throw so long as they show heads. The everywhere, all at once.’ ”

spinner begins to collect winnings only after throwing three What Ponder tries to describe corresponds to our universe’s heads; subsequently, he may retire or place more bets.

cosmic blackbody microwave radiation, which is indeed a However, if the spinner ‘dooks them’ by throwing three uniform background radiation, spanning all frequencies and successive heads, the boxer takes a percentage (usually coming with the same intensity from every part of the sky about 10%).

at every time of the day in every season. The explanation There are a bunch of other conventions, such as calling for this phenomenon is that it is radiation originating with

“Come in, spinner” before each throw, and variations in the the Big Bang that started our universe.

betting between casinos. I’m told that although the odds favour the house (as usual), the spinner’s odds are better

– [ p. 196/147 ] “This scene took place in Crash’s father’s than other players’.

coach house, but it was an echo of a scene evolving all around the city.”

– [ p. 201/152 ] “ ‘I hired you a helper. [. . . ] Meet Asphalt.’ ”

Placing them in the coach house is a reference to the In the music scene, the person performing the same tasks

“garage band” phenomenon.

for a band as Asphalt does is called a roadie. His name is therefore quite appropriate.

– [ p. 198/149 ] “ ‘The Cavern!’ ”

The Cavern was the name of the night club in Liverpool

– [ p. 205/154 ] “ ‘Bee There Orr Bee A Rectangular Thyng’, where the Beatles played their first performance. It is said Cliff.”

worth noting that in The Streets of Ankh-Morpork we can The phrase is, of course: Be There Or Be Square.

see that The Cavern is located on Quarry Lane. This not only recalls ‘Penny Lane’, but before the Beatles became

– [ p. 207/156 ] “ ‘’S called Insanity,’ said Asphalt.”

the Beatles, they called themselves the Quarrymen.

Puns on the name of the British pop group Madness.

– [ p. 198/149 ] “Gorlick and Hammerjug were songwriters,

– [ p. 208/157 ] “ ‘It says BORN TO RUNE,’ said Crash, [. . . ]”

[. . . ]”

A combination of the ‘Born to Rule’ slogan, and Bruce A reference to the musical composers Rogers and Springsteen’s anthem ‘Born to Run’.

Hammerstein, who wrote the songs for The Sound of Music (amongst many other musical scores).

– [ p. 209/157 ] “ ‘That’s a bodacious audience,’ said Jimbo.”

Note also that ‘stein’ is a word the English (not the This may well be a reference to the movie Bill & Ted’s Germans) use for ‘jug’.

Excellent Adventure, where the two protagonists use this word repeatedly. Later on, Crash also says ‘Excellent!’,

– [ p. 198/150 ] “Except the one about Hiho.”

another catchphrase from the movie.

The Hiho song is first mentioned in Moving Pictures; see the annotation for p. 88/73 of that book.

– [ p. 219/165 ] “ ‘[. . . ] would they remember some felonious monk or shout for Glod Glodsson?’ ”

– [ p. 199/150 ] “ ‘And me an’ my friends can walk towards One of my favourite Pratchett puns ever. Thelonious Monk you with our hats on backwards in a menacing way, Yo!’ ”

is one of our world’s most highly regarded jazz musicians Rat music = rap music.

(though he played the piano, not the horn — you’d want Miles Davis for that).

– [ p. 200/151 ] “Troll gambling is even simpler than Australian gambling. One of the most popular games is One

– [ p. 220/166 ] “ ‘Cavern Deep, Mountain High?’ said Up, [. . . ]”

Glod.”

Two-up is an Australian form of gambling played

‘River Deep Mountain High’, by many considered Phil 86

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

Spector’s last Great Production, for Ike and Tina Turner.

– [ p. 258/194 ] “[. . . ] someone who sat on a wall and required royal assistance to be put together again.”

– [ p. 222/167 ] “ ‘It’s the Gritz for you!’ ”

Terry means Humpty Dumpty, from the famous children’s That’s the Ritz in our world.

rhyme (“All the king’s horses and all the king’s men /

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.”). From the

– [ p. 233/175 ] “Si non confectus, non reficiat.”

description he gives it is clear that he is specifically

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” See the annotation for the referring to Humpty as he was portrayed by Tenniel in the Discworld mottos in The Discworld Companion.

illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass.

– [ p. 235/177 ] “[. . . ] a small, greyish-brown mongrel dog

– [ p. 263/198 ] “ ‘So you want to be Music With Rocks In

[. . . ] sat peering into the box for a while.”

stars, do you?’ ‘Yes, sir!’ ‘Then listen here to what I say. . . ’ ”

A reference to the famous ‘His Master’s Voice’ logo for the From The Byrds’ ‘So You Want to be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’: RCA records. The dog is probably Gaspode.

So you want to be a rock and roll star?

Then listen now to what I say.

– [ p. 237/178 ] “ ‘You tellin’ me ants can count?’ ‘Oh, no.

Just get an electric guitar

Not individual ants. . . ’ ”

Then take some time

An excellent explanation of the anthill as a metaphor for And learn how to play.

intelligence can be found in Douglas R. Hofstadter’s Gödel, And with your hair swung right,

Escher, Bach.

And your pants too tight

It’s gonna be all right.

– [ p. 239/180 ] “ ‘I know a golem. Mr Dorfl down in Long Hogmeat.’ ”

– [ p. 264/199 ] “ ‘We’re Certainly Dwarfs’, said Dibbler.

‘Yes, that might work.’ ”

See the annotation for p. 234/204 of Reaper Man.

Incidentally, ‘long pig’ is a name for human meat (we are Terry is a fan of a fairly obscure band (in Europe at least —supposed to taste like pork).

in America they are a bit better known) called They Might Be Giants (he has mentioned on a.f.p. that their ‘Where Dorfl will turn up later in Feet of Clay.

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,

– [ p. 242/182 ] “ ‘Are you the Watch?’ Glod bowed. ‘No, mind you, but then I don’t know that particular song).

ma’am. We’re musicians.’ ”

Anyway, ‘We’re Certainly Dwarfs’ appears to be the The Blues Brothers again. See the annotation for Discworld answer to this group, or at least to their name, p. 122/107 of Witches Abroad.

and it may be amusing to know that the name was first suggested to Terry by a.f.p. reader Mike Berzonsky, during

– [ p. 243/183 ] “ ‘And this one?’ he said. ‘It’ll make the an early discussion about Discworld popular music. Mike world end and the sky fall on me if I give it a tootle, will it?’

wrote, way back in february 1993:

‘Interesting you should say that,’ said the old lady’.”

“Totally off the subject, this came to me last night. Terry’s In other words, the untarnished trumpet is actually the covered tons of stuff, but other than metamorphizing tapes biblical last trump, which signals the end of the world.

in Good Omens, little on Rock n Roll. Since he’s a fan of

– [ p. 245/184 ] “ ‘There were eight of them, led by. . . um. . .

TMBG, maybe a dwarvish rock band, ‘No, We Really Are Cantaloupe.’ ”

Dwarves’. Since rock is so central to dwarf life, it makes sense to me that they’d have a band, although I understand That’s Calliope. A cantaloupe is a kind of melon. Note that that rich dwarves hire trolls to bang on anvils, so maybe in our world’s classical mythology there were nine muses.

Detritus could be the percussion section. And Dibbler could On the Discworld, this of course becomes eight. For be their manager. No, better, Gaspode the Wonder Dog.

another example of this mechanism in action, see the And finding the references to the last forty years of music annotation for p. 122/101 of Eric.

could be a blast. Just an idea.”

– [ p. 252/190 ] “ ‘That’s mexical, that is. They put the worm Was this guy a prophet, or what? Terry replied: in to show how strong it is.’ ”

“I’ve occasionally toyed with the Ankh music business. And A piece of typical Discworld lexical confusion here: the I can promise you that if it ever happens, there’ll be a group name of the drink (and of the associated drug) is mescal, called ‘We Really Are Dwarfs’ :–) ”

the country it comes from is Mexico. And yes, mescal is the The rest is history.

original drink that has a worm at the bottom of the bottle.

The song mentioned later on in the text, ‘Something’s gotten into my beard’ is not directly traceable to They

– [ p. 254/191 ] “ ‘A-wrong-wrong-wrong-wrong, Might Be Giants, or it would have to be to the track a-do-wrong-wrong,’ said the other two maids.”

‘Fingertips’ on Apollo 18, which features the line The maids’ chorus and the beehives are like those of the

“Something grabbed a hold of my hand”. Most people girl groups of the sixties; this quote itself is similar to the figure it is simply a reference to an entirely different song: background vocals in the Crystals’ ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’.

Gene Pitney’s ‘Something’s gotten hold of my Heart’.

SOUL MUSIC

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The Annotated Pratchett File

– [ p. 264/199 ] “ ‘But you’ve got to spell it with a Z. Trollz.”

– [ p. 285/215 ] “THANK YOU, said the grateful Death.”

In the sixties it was common for bands to get their names A straightforward reference to the band The Grateful Dead.

from intentional misspellings of common words. The I didn’t really think this was worth annotating, but people best-known examples of this trend are probably the Byrds kept sending me mail about it, so. . .

and Led Zeppelin.

– [ p. 290/218 ] “ ‘Nice curtains, by the way.’ ”

– [ p. 265/199 ] “ ‘So now we’re Suck,’ said Crash.”

This is a reference to rock bands ‘redecorating their hotel Suck → KISS.

rooms’, i.e. thrashing it beyond all recognition. Glod interprets the phrase more literally.

– [ p. 270/203 ] “[. . . ] a name like JOE’S LIVERY STABLE,

[. . . ]”

– [ 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 So what we have here is the Discworld version of Joe’s to me, “What are dem things on your back?” dat’s where Garage, another well-known rock ’n roll concept.

I’m gonna settle down.’ ”

– [ p. 270/204 ] “Buddy sighed. ‘You had a great house In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus was told by the spirit of there, I expect?’ said the troll. ‘Just a shack,’ said Buddy.

Tiresias that if he ever made it back to Ithaca, he was to put

‘Made of earth and wood. Well, mud and wood really.’ ”

one oar on his shoulder and walk inland, until he reached a

‘Johnny B. Goode’ again. See the annotation for p. 14/11.

people who knew nothing of sailing. There, he was to offer a sacrifice to Poseidon, after which he would be allowed to

– [ p. 272/204 ] “And the one they called the Duck Man had die after a happy old age, far from the sea.

a duck on his head.”

– [ p. 298/225 ] “[. . . ] somewhere where no one remembers In Daniel Pinkwater’s book Lizard Music a major character your name.”

is the Chicken Man, an apparently homeless man who walks around with a chicken perched on his head (under a hat).

Since Death has actually gone to the Mended Drum, it’s not The Chicken Man is a lot more together than The Duck Man too far-fetched to assume this is a nod to the theme song of

— he periodically does little street shows featuring the Cheers, the bar “where everybody knows your name”.

chicken, who does tricks. According to Pinkwater, the

– [ p. 299/225 ] “He built me a swing, Susan remembered.”

Chicken Man was based on a real person who lived in Chicago.

Death’s attempts to build a swing for Susan are a Discworld version of a cartoon that has been doing the rounds in

– [ p. 278/209 ] “ ‘They follow actors and musicians around,’

offices all over the world. Usually the cartoon depicts he said, ‘because of, you know, the glamour and everything

‘swing-building’ as an increasingly complex series of

—’ ”

‘logical’ steps representing an abstract process such as “the While it is obvious that Buddy is talking about the software life cycle”. The finished item, looking somewhat phenomenon of groupies, it is also interesting to note that like Death’s completed swing, is typically followed by a final the word ‘glamour’ is sometimes used to mean magic spell picture showing “what the customer wanted”, namely, a tire or enchantment, making this sentence tie in nicely with the hanging from a branch by a single rope.

wizard’s earlier beliefs that Music With Rocks In is

– [ p. 300/226 ] “ ‘In like Flint, eh?’ ”

somehow magical.

“In like Flynn” is the normal expression, going back to Errol

– [ p. 282/212 ] “ ‘The Surreptitious Fabric’, said Jimbo.”

Flynn’s sexual transgressions — at one point he was even The Discworld version of the legendary Velvet charged with statutory rape, arrested and brought to trial, Underground.

then acquitted.

– [ p. 284/214 ] “ ‘It’s sort of deaf.”

– [ p. 306/231 ] “I can feel it. Every day. It’s getting closer. . . ”

So, in effect they bought a Def Leppard, get it?

This is part of the lyrics to Buddy Holly’s ‘Everyday’:

– [ p. 285/214 ] More band names.

Everyday, it’s a-gettin’ closer,

The Whom are The Who, The Blots are The Inkspots, and Goin’ faster than a roller coaster,

Lead Balloon are of course Led Zeppelin.

Love like yours will surely come my way, (hey hey hey)

– [ p. 285/215 ] “ ‘Yes, but a rolling stone gathers no moss, my father says,’ said Crash.”

– [ p. 306/231 ] More song names.

Notice how when the opportunity presents itself for the

‘There’s A Great Deal Of Shaking Happening’ is Jerry Lee group to pick one of the most influential rock ’n roll group Lewis’ ‘Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On’. ‘Give Me That names imaginable, Crash and friends totally and utterly fail Music With Rocks In’ is Leiber and Stoller’s ‘Rock and Roll to see it.

Music’.

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DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

– [ p. 307/231 ] “ ‘Hah. That’ll be the day.’ ”

the name of the troubadour who, according to legend, went around singing at castles in search of King Richard The title of one of Buddy Holly’s greatest hits.

Lionheart.

– [ p. 307/232 ] “ ‘I’d like a quarry,’ said the troll. ‘Yeah?’

– [ p. 327/247 ] “Anyone else fancy a hot dog? Hot dog?

‘Yeah. Heart-shaped.’ ”

[. . . ] Hot dog? Right. That’s three hot d—”

A reference to the strange-shaped swimming pools rock and Another replaying of a Blues Brothers scene, only they did movie stars are supposed to have built for themselves.

it with orange whip instead of hot dogs.

– [ p. 313/236 ] “It was called Hide Park [. . . ]”

– [ p. 330/249 ] “ ‘Cwm on?’ ”

A ‘hide’ is in fact an Old English measure of land. The See the annotation for p. 117/89. ‘Cwm’ is Welsh for valley.

definition varies, but it is usually the amount considered (Note that the Discworld has a Koom Valley. . . ) adequate for the support of one free family with its dependants, and at an earlier time this in turn was defined

– [ p. 340/256 ] “ ‘We could do ‘Anarchy in Ankh-Morpork’,’

as being as much land as could be tilled with one plough in said Jimbo doubtfully.”

a year.

Puns on the punk anthem ‘Anarchy in the UK’, by the Sex Hyde park is also the name of a largish open space in the Pistols.

centre of London where, sometime around 1970, the Rolling Stones played a massive free concert.

– [ p. 348/263 ] “ ‘It’s a masterpiece,’ said the Dean. ‘A triumph!’ ”

– [ p. 314/237 ] “ ‘Whoever heard of a serious musician with a glove?’ ”

Triumph is a British make of motorcycle, comparable in quality and history to the Harley Davidson.

Part of Michael Jackson’s image is his always wearing one glove on stage.

– [ p. 350/264 ] “I NEED YOUR CLOTHES. [. . . ] GIVE ME

YOUR COAT.”

– [ p. 315/237 ] “ ‘Dwarfs With Altitude’ ”

Death is paraphrasing lines made famous by Arnold Reference to the gangster rap group Niggaz With Attitude Schwarzenegger in his role as the Terminator. Interestingly (NWA), and the general concept of “having an attitude”.

enough, the music accompanying the scene in question in Terminator II is the song ‘Bad to the Bone’. . .

– [ p. 323/244 ] More band names.

There is an even more subtle reference hidden here, Boyz from the Wood are Boyz ’n the Hood (which is a movie, however. After this scene, Death will be riding towards the not a band, incidentally), and &U are U2.

site of the crash in “a coat he borrowed from [the] Dean”,

– [ p. 324/244 ] “ ‘[. . . ] proper music with real words. . .

and that is another line from Don McLean’s ‘American Pie’

‘Summer is icumen in, lewdly sing cuckoo,’ that sort of (see the annotation for p. 173/130). Terry has confirmed on thing.’ ”

a.f.p. that the reference is indeed intentional.

One of the oldest (if not the oldest) known songs in the

– [ p. 350/264 ] “The flower-bed erupted.’ ”

English language is the ‘Cuckoo Song’: “Sumer is icumen This is the written counterpart to Josh Kirby’s cover in, lhude sing cuccu”. ‘Lhude’ means ‘loud’, not ‘lewd’.

painting, and likewise a Discworld version of Meatloaf’s Bat

– [ p. 324/244 ] “ ‘Well, it’s got a beat and you can dance to out of Hell, both the album sleeve and the song.

it,’ [. . . ]”

– [ p. 352/266 ] “ ‘He. . . he had a rose in his teeth, sarge.’ ”

This, usually followed by something like “I’ll give it a 92”, is A reference to the Skull and Roses motifs used for many of a cliché made famous by the TV music show American the Grateful Dead’s album covers and concert posters.

Bandstand, hosted by Dick Clark in the 50s and 60s.

American Bandstand was televised daily in the afternoon

+ [ p. 363/274 ] “He held up a hand. It was transparent.”

(weekly, in later years) and helped introduce such stars of the era as Chubby Checker, Paul Anka and Frankie Avalon.

Another resonance with the first Back to the Future movie.

When the timelines start to converge, and Marty is also on

– [ p. 326/245 ] “ ‘I. . . won this,’ said Buddy, in a small the verge of being erased from the one he’s currently in, his distant world of his own. ‘With a song. Sioni Bod Da, it hand becomes transparent, just as he’s playing (wait for was.’ ”

it). . . ‘Johnny B. Goode’.

‘Bod Da’ is Welsh for ‘be good’. Ergo, ‘Sioni Bod Da’ =

+ [ p. 363/274 ] “There was a roar like the scream of a

‘Johnny B. Goode’. See also the annotation for p. 270/204.

camel who has just seen two bricks.”

– [ p. 327/244 ] “The right kind of name for musicians ought See the annotation for p. 221 of Pyramids.

to be something like Blondie and His Merry Troubadours.”

– [ p. 364/275 ] “A small fingerbone rolled across the stones

‘Blondie’ was the name of the band fronted by Debbie until it came up against another, slightly larger bone.”

Harrie in the late seventies and early eighties. Blondel was SOUL MUSIC

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The Annotated Pratchett File

In light of the earlier Terminator references, most of my week.”

correspondents think this scene replays the one in Terminator II where the T–1000 model Terminator, after

– [ p. 9/7 ] “ ‘I accuse the High Priest of the Green Robe in having been frozen by liquid nitrogen and then shattered, the library with the double-handed axe.’ ”

slowly starts to reassemble itself.

Fate and the other Gods are playing the Discworld variant of the board game Clue (known as Cluedo outside North

– [ p. 366/276 ] “ ‘Please!’ she shouted. ‘Don’t fade away!’ ”

America).

‘Not Fade Away’ is the title of one of Buddy Holly’s songs.

The object of this game is to deduce not only which of several suspects has murdered the unfortunate ‘Mr X’, but

+ [ p. 277 ] “ ‘This is your brain on drugs. . . ’, said Jimbo.”

also what weapon was used, and in which room of the An American anti-drugs television campaign in 1987 used mansion the murder took place. Once you think you’ve the text “This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any figured it out you have to publicly ‘accuse’ the murderer, questions?” voiced over the image of a whole egg followed just as Fate does, and if you’re right you win the game.

by one of a scrambled egg sizzling in a frying pan. The Although a Reverend Green is one of the suspects, and the phrase immediately entered popular culture and has since Library is one of the possible rooms, the game does not been parodied or referred to many, many times.

feature a double-handed axe, last time I looked.

– [ p. 376/284 ] “Gloria sighed. ‘Sometimes it’s hard to be a

– [ p. 10/8 ] “Let a game begin,’ said the Lady.”

woman,’ she said.”

I’m a bit surprised at having to annotate this, but The opening line from Tammy Wynette’s torch song ‘Stand apparently not everyone recognises just who the Lady is.

By Your Man’.

She is of course none other than Lady Luck, who was first introduced in The Colour of Magic, and who has always had

– [ p. 376/284 ] “ ‘I’d swear he’s elvish.’ ”

a soft spot for Rincewind, possibly because he never relies This paragraph is the culmination of the Elvis running gag on her.

(see the annotation for p. 30/22), but in order to appreciate Note that green is a colour often associated with luck (e.g.

it you have to know that Kirsty MacColl had a big hit a Irish leprechauns).

decade or so ago with a song called: “There’s a guy works down the chip shop swears he’s Elvis”.

– [ p. 11/8 ] “The Hongs, the Sungs, the Tangs, the McSweeneys and the Fangs.”

– [ p. 378/285 ] “So you’re a rebel, little Death? Against what? Death thought about it. If there was a snappy The presence of the McSweeney name (“very old answer, he couldn’t think of one.”

established family”) in this list is used as a running gag throughout the book. It also reminded me of James Clavell’s See the annotation for p. 173/130.

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 Interesting Times

are of considerable interest.”

Benoit Mandelbrot is the discoverer of the Mandelbrot Set, a famous ‘fractal’, first plotted in 1980. Mandelbrot sets are

– [title ] Interesting Times

rather difficult to describe in words (actually, they are very One remarkable thing about this book’s title is that it simple to describe in words only not in a way that most changed at least twice since Terry began working on it. It people will understand. . . ), but what it boils down to is that started out as Unclear Physics, then became Imperial a picture of the Mandelbrot set is a kind of mathematical Wizard for a few days, and finally ended up as Interesting painting with many swirling colours interspersed by Times:

strange, heart-shaped clusters of black. Most people will

“Rincewind and Cohen are having such fun — that is to say, probably have seen Mandelbrot sets on computer screens death and terror attend them at every step — on the or screensavers or wall posters. If not, all you need to do is Counterweight Continent and the Forbidden City of the catch yourself a Quantum Weather Butterfly and study its Agatean Empire that it might well end up being called: wings.

Imperial Wizard . . . which ought to sell well in the US. In some States, anyway.”

– [ p. 18/14 ] The Agatean Empire.

“The editor and my main beta-test reader have raised There’s a nice extra resonance with China here: Agate is a objections to the title Unclear Physics. They think it’s a semi-precious gemstone, originally used in the Orient to lovely title but they don’t think it’s a good one for this book.

make dinnerware.

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

– [ p. 36/29 ] “ ‘Curiouser and curiouser,’ said the Senior original working title: Interesting Times. At least for this Wrangler.”

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A famous quote from Alice in Wonderland. Not surprisingly, Kingdom of Scrumptiousness?’ [. . . ]”

it merely confuses the other wizards.

A reference to the Kingdom of Narnia, from C. S. Lewis’

series of books. See the annotation for p. 22/22 of Sourcery.

– [ p. 44/35 ] “ ‘To answer such questions Hex had been built, [. . . ]’ ”

– [ p. 54/43 ] “ ‘We must storm the Winter Palace! [. . . ]

That a hex is a spell or a curse is well-known, but it may be Then we can storm the Summer Palace!’ ”

less obvious to non-computer types that ‘hex’ is also short The Russian Revolutionary army stormed the Winter Palace for ‘hexadecimal’, a common number base used by in St Petersburg, but less well known is that the Summer programmers.

Palace of the Chinese royal family was indeed pillaged and To belabour the obvious, this conjunction of meanings destroyed by the British and the French during the Taiping produces the perfect name for a computer designed to Rebellion of 1860. Terry acknowledges:

analyse magic.

“I had ‘storming the winter palace’ in mind because, yes, the events of the Russian revolution are more familiar to us

– [ p. 44/35 ] “[. . . ] he was pretty sure no one had designed

— and then I came across the storming of the summer the Phase of the Moon Generator.”

palace while reading up on Chinese torture. It took me The phase of the moon, besides being undoubtedly very some effort not to find some joke about the Taiping handy when it comes to magical calculations, is used in our Rebellion, I have to say. . . and as for the Boxer Rising. . . ”

world’s computer jargon to humorously indicate a random parameter on which something is supposed to depend.

– [ p. 56/45 ] “ ‘Your Wife is a big hippo’ ”

In Interesting Times, much is made of similar sounding

– [ p. 45/36 ] “[. . . ] the ants rode up and down on a little words having totally different meanings. Languages such as paternoster [. . . ]”

Chinese and Japanese pay great attention to the pitch and A paternoster (in this context) is a closed-loop elevator of intonation of words, and the same word with a different linked carriages, somewhat like the bucket chain principle intonation can indeed have radically different meanings.

applied to people — or in this case, ants.

(Of course not all different meanings are due to intonation

— there are other possibilities, such as vowel lengths, and

– [ p. 45/36 ] “[. . . ] the aquarium had been lowered on its some words just naturally have many different meanings).

davits so that the operator would have something to watch Just in case you think Terry is overstating things for comic during the long hours. . . [. . . ]”

effect, there is an anecdote told by linguist David Moser, A reference to the screensaver programs often found who was learning Chinese, and was practising with some running on personal computers to prevent phosphor burn-in Chinese friends. He was tired, and said “I want to go to of the monitor. One popular screensaver module turns the sleep now”, but got the intonation wrong, and what he screen into an aquarium of animated, swimming fish.

actually said was “I stand by where the elephant urinates”.

Similarly, I am told that the Chinese glyph ‘sento’ can

– [ p. 47/37 ] “+++++ Redo From Start +++++”

alternatively mean ‘public bath’, ‘residence of a retired A typically obtuse error message of the type that is emperor’, ‘first scaling the wall of a besieged castle’, thankfully going out of fashion.

‘fighting together’ or ‘scissors’, while the Japanese ‘kansen’

‘Redo from start’ is a bona fide error message for the can mean any of ‘main-line’, ‘warship’, ‘sweat-gland’, BASIC programming language, caused by incorrect

‘infection’, ‘government’, ‘appointed’ and ‘witnessing a responses to an INPUT command.

battle’.

– [ p. 47/38 ] “The Unreal Time Clock ticked sideways.”

– [ p. 60/48 ] “ ‘Be afraid. Be very afraid.’ ”

All computers have a real time clock, but, one assumes, an A famous line from the 1986 remake of The Fly, starring unreal time clock measures imaginary time, which explains Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, also used as a tagline to why it ticks sideways: the imaginary numbers are at 90

promote the movie.

degrees to the real numbers on the Complex Plane.

– [ p. 61/48 ] “. . . possibly the finest lager in the world.”

+ [ p. 47/38 ] “‘Out of Cheese Error’ ”

In our world, the advertising slogan of Carlsberg is: In computing, you regularly encounter “out of memory” or

“Probably the best lager in the world”.

“out of paper” errors. Presumably hex needs the cheese for its mouse.

+ [ p. 63 ] “The Art of War was the ultimate basis of diplomacy in the Empire. [. . . ] No one remembered the

– [ p. 49/39 ] “[. . . ] the Bursar, still happily living in the author. Some said it was One Tzu Sung, some claimed it valley of the dried frogs.”

was Three Sun Sung.”

The ‘dolls’ in the movie title Valley of the Dolls refers to the In our world, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is the oldest known pills to which the starlets were addicted.

military treatise (around 400 BC). “Know the enemy, and know yourself” is a straight quote from the chapter on

– [ p. 51/41 ] “ ‘Wardrobe? Er. . . Er. . . Isn’t this the Magic Offensive Strategy.

INTERESTING TIMES

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The Annotated Pratchett File

– [ p. 88/70 ] “ ‘The Silver Horde,’ said Cohen, with a touch Luggage special is its peculiarly endearing character. . . ”

of pride.”

– [ p. 172/138 ] “Then he tugged the sword free and Derived from the ‘Golden Horde’, one of the successor inspected the steaming blade. ‘Hmm,’ he said.

states to the Mongol Empire, based in the steppes of

‘Interesting. . . ’ ”

Southern Russia and the Ukraine, and ruled by descendants of Genghiz Khan. There was even a movie, The Golden Lord Hong finds the blade interesting because he has just Horde, starring John Wayne as Genghiz Khan. As my discovered a way to quench red-hot sword blades without correspondent puts it: “Disbelief suspended by the neck oxidising them.

until dead, dead, dead.”

I am told that traditional Japanese sword makers did actually use condemned prisoners, but that was for testing

+ [ p. 72 ] “ ‘And I was very interested in Auriental purposes only, not for the actual forging process.

studies.’ ”

Apparently, sword quality was sometimes measured in

‘Aurum’ is Latin for ‘gold’. This is also why ‘gold’ is signified terms of the number of bodies the sword could cut through by the symbol ‘Au’ in the Periodic Table of Elements.

with a single blow.

– [ p. 107/85 ] “[. . . ] a complicated pile of ivory tiles,

– [ p. 221/177 ] “History told of a runner who’d run forty playing Shibo Yangcong-san.”

miles after a battle to report its successful outcome to those at home.”

In our world the Chinese game of Mahjongg is played with ivory tiles, and its rules have many similarities to certain After a successful naval battle at the town of Marathon in types of western card games. It shouldn’t come as a big Greece, a man reportedly ran all the way to Athens, 42

surprise, therefore, that ‘Shibo Yangcong-san’ is actually kilometres away, to inform his leader of the victory. He is Japanese for ‘Cripple Mr Onion’.

also reported to have died on the spot from the strain after announcing their win. This is how the running event of the

– [ p. 111/88 ] “ ‘Where’s the pork?’ ”

same name was born.

In the early 80s there was an American TV commercial for

– [ p. 230/184 ] “ ‘Why’re their feet so small?’ said Cohen.”

the Wendy’s chain of restaurants, featuring an irate old lady looking at her hamburger and ranting “Where’s the Foot binding was a very common practice in China among beef?!”. This became a national catchphrase for a while, women of the upper classes. As young girls, their feet and then permanently entered the language when it was would be wrapped in painfully tight bandages. When the used in the 1984 Presidential campaign by Vice President girls grew, their feet did not. By adulthood the feet were Walter Mondale and directed towards Senator Gary Hart as barely half their proper length, which was considered an implication that the latter’s promises had no substance.

attractive. Thankfully the procedure has almost died out.

Terry says: “See? This is probably a genuine joke that

– [ p. 236/189 ] “ ‘So there was only blue left. Well, he’d Americans will get and most Europeans won’t. Hah! and show them. . . ’ [. . . ] He had to simplify it a bit, of course.”

they said it couldn’t be done!”

Three Solid Frogs is inventing the Willow Pattern Plate, the

– [ p. 120/96 ] “ ‘Excuse me, what is your name?’ Rincewind well-known blue oriental picture of a maiden standing on a said. ‘Pretty Butterfly.’ ”

bridge.

Apart from her ability to cause as many problems for

– [ p. 291/233 ] “ ‘How lucky do you feel, my lords?’ ”

Rincewind as the Quantum Weather Butterfly, Pretty Butterfly’s name also resonates with that of the operatic Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry. See the annotation for Madame Butterfly.

p. 136/124 of Guards! Guards!.

– [ p. 142/113 ] “Bruce the Hoon”

– [ p. 296/238 ] “A seven foot warrior smiled at him.”

Hoon is New Zealand/Australian slang for a lout or In 1974, thousands of terracotta warriors (no two faces hooligan. ‘Hooning around’ describes the act of driving alike!) were discovered around the tomb of Qin Shi around wildly in one’s car, spinning the wheels and so forth.

Huangdi at Mount Li, in the Shaanxi Province. Huangdi was the first emperor of a unified China (221–207 BC), famed

– [ p. 156/125 ] “There was a corral, for the Luggages.”

for being harsh, autocratic, and intolerant of criticism.

It is obvious that Luggages are fairly common in the

– [ p. 303/243 ] “ ‘Orrrrr! Itiyorshu! Yutimishu! ’ ”

Agatean Empire, yet in The Light Fantastic Twoflower explains that he got his Luggage from one of those Terry writes:

mysterious magic shops. Terry says:

“During WWII Hollywood obviously made a lot of gung-ho

“That was a long time ago. . . think of how it’s all war movies. But. . . who could play the Japanese? The progressed. They’ve got real clocks in Ankh-Morpork now, Japanese in the US were banged up in holiday camps in people wear spectacles. . . you might as well say home Death Valley or someplace. So the producers roped in computers were rare and special things in 1980 so how anyone who ‘looked Japanese’ — mainly Koreans, the story come there were so many of them in 1990? What makes the runs. The actors didn’t really have lines since their job was, 92

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

basically, to be shot by John Wayne. In order to give them based largely upon the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, something ‘Japanese sounding’ to say, some genius but makes the events and characters more realistic. Hence, suggested they shout, very fast, “I tie your shoe, you tie my in Phantom, Christine is the beautiful, slim, new star, with a shoe”. . .

good voice that needs training, holding back and reluctant to take her rightful place in the opera. Carlotta is the I’ve never dared check by watching the actual movies. . . ”

jealous prima donna, with a classical voice on the verge of

– [ p. 307/246 ] “It was a grainy picture, and it was in decreptitude, and large lungs. The Phantom wants shades of green rather than proper colours, [. . . ]”

Christine to sing, and the owners would be happy to oblige, but for the need to keep Carlotta’s ego assuaged.

Rincewind is wearing the Discworld equivalent of a Virtual Reality helmet.

In Maskerade, Christine can’t sing, but looks pretty, so both the owners and the Phantom fall for her. Agnes, with the

– [ p. 307/246 ] “[. . . ] a row of little pictures lit up on the voice, is merely utilised.

wide cuff. They showed soldiers. Soldiers digging, soldiers fighting, soldiers climbing. . . ”

– [ p. 11 ] “ ‘We’re going to have to get Mr Cripslock to engrave page 11 again,’ he said mournfully. ‘He’s spelt The icons for controlling the Red Clay Army are

“famine” with seven letters —’ ”

immediately familiar to anyone who has ever played the computer game Lemmings, in which you have to use similar A reference to the celebrated ‘famine’ error in the Corgi controls to guide a group of brainlessly wandering paperback edition of Good Omens. See the annotation for lemmings across intricate and dangerous underground p. 154/98 of Good Omens.

labyrinths.

– [ p. 12 ] “ ‘Well, my old granny used to make Spotted Dick When this was first remarked upon by readers in a.f.p,

—’ ”

Terry wrote:

See the annotation for p. 88/77 of Witches Abroad.

“What? Lemmings? Merely because the red army can fight, dig, march and climb and is controlled by little icons? Can’t

– [ p. 28 ] “ ‘Cosi fan Hita,’ she read. ‘Die Meistersinger von imagine how anyone thought that. . .

Scrote.’ ”

Not only did I wipe Lemmings from my hard disc, I I am almost completely ignorant on the subject of operas, overwrote it so’s I couldn’t get it back.”

but the titles Terry parodies in Maskerade are so well-known that even I had no problem figuring out the

– [ p. 329/264 ] “ ‘Friendly stab’, as it is formally known.”

originals. With that in mind I really didn’t intend to The Discworld version of our world’s military euphemistic annotate them, but so far nearly everybody who has sent in language, in which “friendly fire” stands for weaponry annotations for Maskerade has mentioned the opera titles, accidentally fired at own troops, “permanent pre-hostility”

and I fear very much that if I don’t include them now I will means ‘peace’, and “collateral damage” refers to civilians continue to get tons of mail about it.

killed.

So: Cosi fan Hita is Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, and Die Meistersinger von Scrote is Richard Wagner’s Die

– [ p. 350/281 ] “[. . . ] a calendar for the year surmounted Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

by a rather angular picture of a beagle, standing on its hind legs.”

– [ p. 32 ] “She at least respected anyone’s right to recreate One of the classic computer programs that circulated in the themselves.”

seventies used ASCII characters to ‘draw’ a picture of As does Terry himself — see the annotation for p. 20/15 of Snoopy from Peanuts, followed by the year’s calendar.

Soul Music.

– [ p. 351/282 ] “The old blokes say that sort of thing used

– [ p. 36 ] “ ‘The Joye of Snacks,’ she read out loud.”

to happen all the time, back in the Dream.”

The pun on The Joy of Sex is obvious, but what not For an explanation of where exactly Rincewind has landed everybody may know is that the title of that book, in turn, see the annotation for p. 149/132 of Reaper Man (just in was inspired by an earlier popular book called The Joy of case the significance of the word “kangaroo” escaped your Cooking.

attention).

The Dream is a reference to the Aboriginal Dreamtime

– [ p. 42 ] “ ‘That’s why they never sell tickets for Box Eight, religion.

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 Maskerade

opera) that prevents the sale of tickets.

– [ p. 43 ] “ ‘That looks like an accident waiting to happen if

– Maskerade, as a parody of The Phantom of the Opera, is I ever saw one,’ she mumbled.”

MASKERADE

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The Annotated Pratchett File

In the Phantom, one of the most spectacular and through. It’s not a big step to go from that to the setup in well-publicised special effects is the crashing of the Maskerade.”

chandelier onto the stage, at the end of act 1. This occurs when Christine and Raoul secretly pledge their love for

– [ p. 98 ] “[. . . ] a revival of The Ring of the each other, which the Phantom overhears.

Nibelungingung”

Wagner’s opera is called ‘The Ring of the Nibelung’, or in

– [ p. 47 ] “ ‘It’s white bone! He has no nose!’ [. . . ] ‘Then German: ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’.

how does he —’ Agnes began.”

From the old joke, made famous by Monty Python’s “The

– [ p. 99 ] “ ‘Hello Colette,’ said Granny. ‘What fascinatin’

funniest joke in the world” sketch:

earrings you are wearing.’ ”

— My dog has no nose.

Now this is an annotation that is going to need some

— How does he smell?

explaining. The short version of the story is as follows:

— Terrible.

Colette is Colette Reap, a long-time a.f.p. regular, who And yes, I know this joke isn’t the one that the sketch is impressed Terry by attending a book signing wearing named after. The funniest joke in the world (which, in the earrings made out of Clarecraft’s anorankhs.

German translation, eventually enabled the British to win The longer version goes as follows:

World War II) goes: “Wenn ist das Nunstuck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt Clarecraft is a company that sells highly popular gersput!”

handcrafted Discworld miniatures and jewellery.

Information on Clarecraft can be found in the Discworld

– [ p. 56 ] “ ‘Schneide meinen eigenen Hals —’ ”

Merchandise FAQ, available from the Pratchett Archives.

German for: “Cut My Own Throat”.

One particular item of jewellery they sell is the anorankh, a small model of an Egyptian cross wearing an anorak. (Don’t

– [ p. 92 ] “ ‘At least stand on tiptoe!’ he shouted. ‘You ask — but in case you think you want to know: the precise probably cost me a dollar just running up here!’ ”

story of how the anorankh came into existence can be found in the Holy Anorankh file, also available from the Pratchett It is precisely standing on tiptoe that wears out ballet shoes Archives.)

so quickly.

Meanwhile, over on alt.fan.pratchett, it became, for some

+ [ p. 93 ] “ ‘[. . . ] flush him out, chase him through the city, reason, standard practice for the male readers of the group catch him and beat him to a pulp, and then throw what’s to propose marriage (often all of them at the same time) to left into the river. It’s the only way to be sure.’ ”

female readers. Colette, our resident net.goddess and therefore one of the most ‘visible’ females on the group, Resonates with the famous murder of Rasputin, as well as was one of the most popular proposal targets. (For more with the scene in the movie Aliens, where Ripley says: “I detailed information about marriage proposals and other say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only characteristic a.f.p. habits, see the A.f.p. Timeline file, also way to be sure.”

available from — you guessed it — the Pratchett Archives.)

– [ p. 97 ] “[. . . ] tonight’s production of La Triviata.”

With all this background information in mind, I’ll let Colette herself tell the rest of the story:

Verdi’s La Traviata.

“The interesting earrings thing comes from when I went to

– [ p. 97 ] “ ‘What in fact we would like you to do. . .

the Discworld Companion signing in central London in May Perdita. . . is sing the role, indeed, but not, in fact. . . play 1994. The signing was at lunch-time on a weekday and I the role.’ ”

was going to see our main computer supplier in the This will sound familiar to anyone who has ever seen afternoon so I was fairly smartly dressed, but I was wearing Singing in the Rain, or knows any of the many other stories my anorankh earrings, which Terry suddenly noticed while I where this plot device is used. Terry says:

was standing in front of him getting my book signed, and it was the first time he’d seen them made into earrings.

“The idea of an understudy doing all the work for the star is probably a common film cliché. I don’t recall it in any film On 31st December 1994, completely out of the blue, I got about music, but now I come to think of it there was a Fred an email from Terry. In it he said he was doing the polishing Astaire film where he dances instead of the star of the show draft of Maskerade and which of the following two (wearing a mask. . . I didn’t say it was a good movie). But characters would I like to be called Colette — the make-up the basis of the Agnes/Christine thing lies not in any movie girl at the Opera House, or one of the ‘young ladies’ at Mrs.

but in real life. It has happened. My sources tell me that Palm’s and that mention might be made of her interesting stars have gone on stage jetlagged or stricken with a sore earrings. When I had picked myself up off the floor, and throat and someone has been put behind them in the chorus being the mischievous soul that I am, I wrote back to Terry to sing the role. I believe there has even been at least one and asked if Colette could be one of the ‘young ladies’ at case where the prompter (in the box in front of the stage) Mrs. Palm’s, explaining that I felt that such a ‘young lady’

has tried to jump-start the dumbstruck star with the first would be much more likely not only to wear interesting few words of the song and ended up singing it all the way earrings, but also to receive lots of marriage proposals from men she hardly knew.

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When I got my copy of Maskerade signed, Terry wrote in it stage when they are meant to appear to be talking amongst

‘What’s a nice girl like you doing in a book like this?’ — a themselves in the background.

dedication in the same league as that which he wrote when he signed my Discworld game booklet, which was ‘To

– [ p. 231 ] “ ‘Well I think,’ said Nobby, ‘that when you have Colette, Will you marry me?’ ”

ruled out the impossible, what is left, however improbable, ain’t worth hanging around on a cold night wonderin’ about

– [ p. 99 ] “ ‘What? You’ve been here before?’ said Nanny, when you could be getting on the outside of a big drink.’ ”

[. . . ]”

Sherlock Holmes. See the annotation for p. 118/108 of Granny met Mrs Palm during her earlier stay in Guards! Guards!.

Ankh-Morpork. See the annotation for p. 121/119 in Equal Rites.

– [ p. 232 ] Opera names.

The Barber of Pseudopolis = The Barber of Seville

– [ p. 123 ] “ ‘They beat him to death!’ [. . . ] ‘And they throw The Enchanted Piccolo = The Magic Flute

him into the river!’ ”

This is how the silent movie version of The Phantom of the

– [ p. 233 ] Musical names.

Opera ends.

‘Guys and Trolls’ is ‘Guys and Dolls’, ‘Hubwards Side Story’

is ‘West Side Story’, ‘Miserable Les’ is ‘Les Miserables’, and

+ [ p. 126 ] “ ‘Walter’s your son?’ said Granny. ‘Wears a

‘Seven Dwarfs for Seven Other Dwarfs’ is ‘Seven Brides for beret?’ ”

Seven Brothers’.

A nice bit of foreshadowing here: ‘Walter Plinge’ is a Note how the last name harks back to Terry’s earlier generic pseudonym often used in the theatre world by an comments on the difficulties of dwarf mating.

actor who has two different roles in the same play.

Many people have also spotted that the description Terry

– [ p. 247 ] “ ‘Says here “Cable Street Particulars”. . . ’ ”

gives of Walter Plinge — beret, brown coat, nervousness, A reference to Conan Doyle’s Baker Street Irregulars. See clumsy — is very similar to that of Frank Spencer, the lead also the entry for the City Watch in The Discworld character in the British television comedy Some Mothers Companion.

Do ’Ave ’Em. Frank Spencer was played by Michael Crawford, who went on to become truly famous as the

– [ p. 257 ] “[. . . ] as the opening bars of the duet began, original. . . Phantom of the Opera in Andrew Lloyd opened her mouth — ‘Stop right there!’ ”

Webber’s musical. When asked about this, Terry said: A strong resonance with Ellen Foley’s character refusing to

“I certainly wanted Walter to be a superficially Frank continue the duet ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light’ with Spencer character, although he’s a lot sadder and clearly a Meatloaf halfway through the song:

few bricks short of a shilling, as Nanny Ogg would say.

Stop right there!

I was just amused at the way Michael Crawford, a man I gotta know right now

known to the UK as someone who played a hapless berk in Before we go any further

a black beret, suddenly emerged as the suave Phantom.”

Do you love me? Will you love me forever?

– [ p. 138 ] Grand Guignol

– [ p. 270 ] “ ‘Don’t cry for me, Genua.’ ”

See the annotation for p. 239/172 of Lords and Ladies.

‘Don’t cry for me, Argentina’, is the famous ballad from the musical Evita.

– [ p. 149 ] “Let us examine the role of Laura in Il Truccatore — “The Master Of Disguise”, also sometimes

+ [ p. 276 ] “Nanny grinned. ‘Ah,’ she said, ‘Now the vulgarly known as “The Man with a Thousand Faces”. . . ’ ”

opera’s over.’ ”

The Man with a Thousand Faces was the nickname given to Because, as the saying goes, the opera ain’t over until the Lon Chaney, the actor who played the Phantom of the Opera fat lady sings. . .

in the original silent Hollywood production.

+ [ p. 276 ] “He wore red: a red suit with red lace, a red

– [ p. 165 ] “ ‘Madam has marvellous hair,’ said the cloak, [. . . ]”

hairdresser. ‘What is the secret?’ ‘You’ve got to make sure Death dressing up for Salzella makes a nice finishing touch there’s no newts in the water,’ said Granny.”

to the whole ‘masquerade’ theme of the book. It resonates This echoes back to the quote in Reaper Man:

with the Phantom of the Opera musical where the Phantom

“People have believed for hundreds of years that newts in a gatecrashes a party “dressed all in crimson, with a death’s well mean that the water’s fresh and drinkable, and in all head visible inside the hood of his robe”, and both scenes in that time never asked themselves whether the newts got turn evoke Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death out to go to the lavatory.”

(see also the annotation for p. 26/26 of The Light Fantastic).

– [ p. 225 ] “[. . . ] while muttering, ‘Rhubarb, rhubarb.’ ”

Apparently, this is something actors traditionally mutter on MASKERADE

95

The Annotated Pratchett File

leading to a frightening procession of hundreds of brooms Feet of Clay

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

+ [title ] Feet of Clay

running joke.

The original working title for this book was Words in the Head.

+ [ p. 17 ] “[. . . ], he says Mrs Colon wants him to buy a farm, [. . . ]”

“Feet of Clay” is a biblical reference. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar had a dream in which he saw a statue

‘Buy the farm’ is military slang for ‘die’

whose head was made of gold, but lower down the statue

+ [ p. 17 ] “[. . . ] I am sure I have told you about the Cable the materials got progressively more base, until the feet Street Particulars, [. . . ]”

were “part of iron, part of clay”; the statue was shattered and destroyed by being struck on the feet, its weakest See the annotation for p. 247 of Maskerade.

point. Hence, colloquially, the expression “feet of clay” has come to mean that someone regarded as an idol has a

+ [ p. 19 ] “I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES.”

hidden weakness.

It is said (after Benjamin Franklin) that in life only two things are certain: Death and taxes. However, the line

+ [frontispiece ] The mottoes and crests are mostly before this kicks off a running gag that demonstrates than explained in the book, but for completeness they are: this is really one certainty too many.

Edward St John de Nobbes: “capite omnia” —

“take it all”

+ [ p. 22 ] “ ‘Cheery, eh? Good to see the old naming traditions kept up.’ ”

Gerhardt Sock (butcher): “futurus meus est in visceris” — “my future is in the entrails”

‘Cheery’ would fit in very well with the names of the Seven Dwarfs in the Disney Snow White film. Grumpy, Dopey, Vetinari: “si non confectus non reficiat” — “if it Sleepy, Bashful, Happy, Doc and Sneezy.

ain’t broke, don’t fix it” (a saying popularised by Lyndon B Johnson, though possibly older)

+ [ p. 23 ] “ ‘I want someone who can look at the ashtray Assassins Guild: “nil mortifice sine lucre” — “no and tell me what kind of cigars I smoke.’ ”

killing without payment”

One of the first things Sherlock Holmes tells Watson, when Rudolph Potts (baker): “quod subigo farinam” —they first meet, is that he has written a treatise on this

“because I knead the dough”

subject. This contrasts oddly with Vimes’ distrust of ‘clues’

Thieves’ Guild: “acutus id verberat” — “sharp’s in general (see the annotation for p. 142).

the word”

+ [ p. 24 ] “ ‘Where the sun doesn’t shine’ ”

Vimes family: “protego et servio” — “I protect and A running gag from Lords and Ladies: the place where the serve”. In the centre of the crest is the number sun does not shine, on the Discworld, is a valley in Slice, 177, which — we learnt in Men at Arms — is

near Lancre.

Vimes’ own badge number.

+ [ p. 25 ] “Clinkerbell”

+ [ p. 7 ] “WE HEAR YOU WANT A GOLEM.”

Tinkerbell via ‘clinker’, which is one type of mining The font used by the golems in the UK editions is clearly by-product.

designed to look like Hebrew lettering. For some reason, the font used in the American editions is not.

+ [ p. 26 ] “Slab: Jus’ say

The golem itself is a creature from Jewish mythology, a man

‘AarrghaarrghpleeassennononoUGH”

made of clay and animated by Kabbalistic magic. The one Echoes the anti-drugs campaign slogan ‘Just say no’, thing it cannot do is speak, because only God can grant the championed most famously by Nancy Reagan in America.

power of speech. There is a brief summary of the legend at

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/6960/golem.htm

+ [ p. 26 ] “T’Bread Wi’ T’Edge”

+ [ p. 8 ] “ ‘Yeah, right, but you hear stories . . . Going mad A long-running series of British commercials for a certain and making too many things, and that.’ ”

brand of bread emphasised the Yorkshire origins of the manufacturer. This slogan is in a parody of a Yorkshire One episode in the life of the golem of Prague — the best accent, presumably for similar reasons.

known of the mythical creatures — tells that the golem was ordered to fetch water, but never told to stop, thus causing

+ [ p. 30 ] The shield design described is the Ankh-Morpork a flood. This is very similar to (and may be borrowed from) coat of arms, not shown in the front of the book (but on the the classic children’s story The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Der cover of Streets of Ankh-Morpork ).

Zauberlehrling, a German poem by Goethe), also used in Disney’s classic animated film Fantasia. A spell used to

+ [ p. 27 ] “ ‘[. . . ] he’s got a loaded wolf.’ ”

animate a broom to speed housework gets out of control, 96

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Possibly a reference to the Australian story of The Loaded

+ [ p. 41 ] “Commander Vimes, on the other hand, was all Dog.

for giving criminals a short, sharp shock.”

“Short sharp shock” was coined in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The

+ [ p. 29 ] ‘Daphne’s ancestors came all the way from some Mikado as a euphemism for ‘execution’. In 1980s Britain, islands on the other side of the Hub.’

Tory home secretaries used the phrase to refer to the See the annotation for p. 9/9 of The Colour Of Magic, but brief-but-harsh imprisonment of young offenders.

specifically referring to the brown owls of New Zealand, which, to a British viewpoint, are ‘some islands on the other

+ [ p. 44 ] “ ‘Delphine Angua von Uberwald,’ read the side of the world’. Thus the morpork could be compared to Dragon aloud.”

the New Zealand brown owl.

Uberwald (on The Discworld Mapp spelled with an umlaut over the U) is ‘Over/beyond the forest’ in German. In Latin,

+ [ p. 30 ] “ ‘Croissant Rouge Pursuivant’ ”

that’s “Transylvania” — a part of Romania traditionally The names of the heralds are adapted from terms used in associated with the undead (most prominently, Count English heraldry. ‘Pursuivant’ is simply the title for an Dracula).

assistant herald. English pursuivants include the Rouge Croix (cf. Terry’s Croissant Rouge) and Bluemantle (Terry

+ [ p. 45 ] “Men said things like ‘peace in our time’ or ‘an gives us the ‘Pardessus Chatain’ or ‘Brown Overcoat’).

empire that will last a thousand years,’ [. . . ]”

Senior to the pursuivants are the kings of arms, although

“peace in our time” — Neville Chamberlain, British Prime none really corresponds to ‘Dragon’. This has been linked Minister, in 1938.

with ‘Dracula’ — the most famous vampire of all — which is

“an empire that will last a thousand years” — Adolf Hitler, itself a title meaning ‘little dragon’. It also harks back to on the Third Reich.

Guards! Guards!, in which a dragon actually became king of Ankh-Morpork, albeit briefly.

+ [ p. 46 ] “Constable Visit was an Omnian, [. . . ]”

+ [ p. 35 ] “ ‘There are plenty of kosher butchers down in Read Small Gods for much more information about Omnia.

Long Hogmeat.’ ”

Brutha seems to have taken a religion devoted to violent conquest and turned it into something closely akin to Kosher butchering involves a special method of bleeding modern evangelical Christianity.

the animal, which would ensure that there was plenty of spare blood around. The name ‘Long Hogmeat’, however, is

+ [ p. 54 ] “ ‘Oh, well, if you prefer, I can recognize a bit more disturbing: apart from the question of how handwriting,’ said the imp proudly.”

‘hogmeat’ could be kosher, it also sounds suspiciously like

‘long pig’, which is pidgin for ‘human flesh’. (See also the The original Apple Newton was the first PDA (Personal annotation for p. 239/180 of Soul Music.

Digital Assistant) capable of doing this, and was even supposed to improve its recognition of the individual

+ [ p. 36 ] “Commander of the City Watch in 1688”

owner’s writing with practice. In practice, it didn’t work too well. Hence the joke:

1688 AD in England was the date of the ‘Glorious

[bloodless] Revolution’ when the Catholic James II was Q. How many Newton users does it take to

deposed in favour of the Protestant Willem van Oranje, change a lightbulb?

Stadholder of the Netherlands. He married Mary Stuart A. Foux! There to eat lemons, axe gravy soup.

and became William III. “Old Stoneface”, on the other hand, is clearly modelled on Oliver Cromwell, who ruled the

+ [ p. 55 ] “Lord Vetinari had always said that punctuality Commonwealth (Republic) of England, Scotland, Wales and was the politeness of princes.”

Ireland from 1652 to 1658, at one point refusing In our world, the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations attributes Parliament’s offer of the crown. Among his many reforms, this saying to Louis XVIII.

he championed religious freedom and tolerance, extending even to Jews, who were welcome in England for the first

+ [ p. 55 ] “It is a pervasive and beguiling myth that the time since 1290.

people who design instruments of death end up being killed by them.”

+ [ p. 36 ] More Latatian.

This myth may have been started by William Makepeace

“Excretus Est Ex Altitudine” — Shat On From a Great Thackery, who asked in his novel The Adventures of Philip Height; “Depositatum De Latrina” — Chucked Down The on His Way Through the World : “Was not good Dr Guillotin Toilet.

executed by his own neat invention?”. As Terry notes, he was not.

+ [ p. 38 ] “ ‘The butcher, the baker and the candlestick-maker.’ ”

+ [ p. 56 ] “ ‘Can you paint a picture of his eye, Sydney?’

From an old nursery rhyme:

[. . . ] ‘As big as you can.’ ”

Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub

This idea has been used in many detective stories, but most And who do you think they were?

famously in Blade Runner, where the main character is able The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker. . .

to blow up a reflection in a photograph far beyond plausible FEET OF CLAY

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limits.

+ [ p. 77 ] “ ‘Ah, h’druk g’har dWatch, Sh’rt’azs!’ said Carrot.”

+ [ p. 63 ] “[. . . ], or dribble some in their ear while they Littlebottom, in dwarfish, is “Sh’rt’azs”. In British slang, slept.”

‘shortarse’ is a vaguely affectionate term for the vertically A curious method of administering poison, most famously challenged.

mentioned in Hamlet.

+ [ p. 81 ] “Igneous the troll backed away until he was up

+ [ p. 64 ] “ ‘Crushed diamonds used to be in vogue for against his potter’s wheel.”

hundreds of years, despite the fact that they never Igneous’ shop has several parallels with a shop in the worked.’ ”

Sherlock Holmes story of The Six Napoleons.

Crushed glass would theoretically work as a means of Holmes encounters a pottery/stonework shop staffed mainly killing someone, because it forms jagged edges, but in by Italians, who were also hiding out from the law and practice the pieces are always either too big to go various other enemies, and is eventually asked to leave by unnoticed or too small to have any effect. Aqua fortis is the back door to avoid bothering the staff, which is locked nitric acid, a very fast-acting poison if ingested. . .

with a large padlock. The figurines were also being used to Cantharides is Spanish Fly, better known as an aphrodisiac, conceal contraband.

but quite poisonous in large doses.

Terry comments: “My flabber is ghasted. I really did think I

+ [ p. 65 ] “And that seemed about it, short of stripping the made that one up. I mean. . . I had the pottery already in wallpaper off the wall.”

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, The most obvious red herring. One of the most popular and Igneous already had a rep as an ‘ask no questions’ type theories regarding Napoleon Bonaparte’s death is that he of merchant, and I needed somewhere clay could be stolen suffered arsenic poisoning from the green colouration in and the golems would have had to break in, the padlock the wallpaper of the bedroom of the place in which he was replacing the lock they’d busted. And I knew that I’d need a being held. It has been suggested that microbes, present in way for the Watch to put pressure on Igneous; ‘hollow the humid conditions of St Helena, could absorb the poison items’ for drugs and other contraband is a cliché, which from the wallpaper, then be inhaled by the prisoner, giving ought to mean that his staff are somewhat outside the law.

him a small dose every day. The wallpaper is green, and the In other words the scene is quite a complex little jigsaw pigment involved is copper arsenite, known in Napoleon’s piece which slots into this plot and the ongoing DW saga in day as “Paris Green”.

various places. I’ll just have to pretend I knew what I was doing. . . ”

+ [ p. 68 ] “ ‘But. . . you know I’m in the Peeled Nuts, sir. . . ’ ”

+ [ p. 84 ] “ ‘It hasn’t really got a name’, said Angua, ‘but The equivalent in England today is called the Sealed Knot.

sometimes we call it Biers.’ ”

The perfect name for an undead bar. Puns on “beer”, which

+ [ p. 70 ] “Vimes’s Ironheads won.”

you would normally associate with a tavern, and on “bier”, A conflation of “Roundheads” and “Ironsides”, two names which you would normally associate with being dead. Also for the Parliamentarian soldiers of Oliver Cromwell, clearly puns on Cheers, the fictional Boston tavern in the the model for Suffer-Not-Injustice Vimes.

long-running US TV comedy of the same name.

+ [ p. 71 ] “Twurp’s Peerage”

+ [ p. 85 ] “ ‘But sometimes it’s good to go where everybody See the annotation for p. 191/138 of Lords and Ladies.

knows your shape.’ ”

The theme song of Cheers contains the line “sometimes you

+ [ p. 72 ] “But kill one wretched king and everyone calls want to go where everybody knows your name”. See the you a regicide.”

annotation for p. 84, and the annotation for p. 298/225 of There’s an old joke about Abdul, who builds roads, raises Soul Music.

cities, conquers nations, but is forever remembered as Abdul the Goat Fucker as a result of a youthful indiscretion.

+ [ p. 86 ] “ ‘That’s Old Man Trouble,’ said Angua. ‘If you know what’s good for you, you don’t mind him.’ ”

+ [ p. 73 ] “Vimes put the disorganized organizer back in From the Gershwin song ‘I Got Rhythm’: “Old Man Trouble, his pocket.”

I don’t mind him”.

Posts made to USENET have a header field labelled

‘Organization:’. Terry Pratchett’s own posts give this as

+ [ p. 89 ] “ ‘[. . . ] sunglasses tester for Argus Opticians. . .

‘Disorganized’.

[. . . ]’ ”

A very appropriate name. Argus “the all-seeing” was the

+ [ p. 75 ] “. . . when I took you to see the Boomerang name of the many-eyed watchman from Greek mythology, Biscuit exhibition.”

who was tasked by Hera to keep an eye (so to speak) on Io, Curiously, Carrot seems to have taken Vimes to the Dwarf a human priestess who, after her seduction by Zeus, had Bread museum before treating Angua to it.

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from getting suspicious. No such luck.

so that it is self-administered to the reader in this way, is an idea famously used in Umberto Eco’s medieval mystery The

+ [ p. 90 ] “ ‘These words are from the Cenotine Book of Name of the Rose.

Truth, [. . . ]’ ”

+ [ p. 115 ] “You came with me when they had that course There have been a number of suggestions for the derivation at the YMPA.’ ”

of this name. The root “ken” in Hebrew means “honest, truthful, correct”. “Cenogenesis” is a biological term See the annotation for p. 88/88 of The Light Fantastic. The meaning the development of an individual that is notably YMCA runs summer courses for children, and presumably different from its group (such as happens to Dorfl in the for adults as well.

book). Alternatively, for the atheists, there’s the “ceno” in

“cenotaph”, from the Greek “kenos”, meaning “empty”.

+ [ p. 120 ] “ ‘Nobblyesse obligay,’ [. . . ]”

See the annotation for p. 235/206 of Reaper Man.

+ [ p. 91 ] Magazine titles.

Unadorned Facts and Battle Call are plays on The Plain

+ [ p. 123 ] “ ‘It’s “a mess of pottage”, [. . . ]’ ”

Truth, published by the Worldwide Church of God, and War Another Old Testament reference.

Cry, published by the Salvation Army.

Esau sold his status as Abraham’s firstborn son to his

+ [ p. 92 ] “ ‘[. . . ] Mr Dorfl.’ ”

brother Jacob (Genesis 25:29–34) for a bowl of stew (pottage). Hence, a mess of pottage is the proverbial price All he golems’ names are Yiddish, and Dorfl is no exception, of a birthright. This phrase was parodied by CS Lewis, who although I’m not too sure what his means. It could be a pun accused H. G. Wells of selling his birthright for “a pot of on “Stedtl”, which means “ghetto” — Stadt is German for message” (that is, abandoning the purely imaginative books

“town”, Dorf for “village”. In Austria, ‘Dorfl’ is indeed a he did so well to push his political ideas).

word used to denote a small village.

+ [ p. 123 ] “ ‘Who streals my prurse streals trasph, right?’ ”

+ [ p. 93 ] “ ‘Feeding the yudasgoat?’ ”

Iago would rather be robbed than slandered in Othello, Or in English, ‘Judas goat’, named after the disciple who act 3, scene 3:

betrayed Jesus.

Who steals my purse steals trash; ‘tis something, Judas goats are used by slaughterhouses to lead sheep to nothing;

the killing floor. The sheep cannot easily be driven, but the

‘Twas mine, ‘tis his, and has been slave to

herding instinct will make them follow the goat.

thousands:

But he that filches from me my good name

+ [ p. 94 ] “ ‘I’m going to read your chem, Dorfl.’ ”

Robs me of that which not enriches him

“Chem”, pronounced “shem”, is Hebrew for “name”.

And makes me poor indeed.

One common euphemism used by Orthodox Jews for “God”

+ [ p. 124 ] “[. . . ] he had got only six weeks to retirement 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 The copper within days or hours of retirement has become vivifying word being “Emet” (Truth)).

a police movie cliché; traditionally, anyone who starts talking like this is likely to die within the short time left.

+ [ p. 95 ] “NOW THREE HUNDRED DAYS ALREADY. [. . . ]

Two examples occur in the films Lethal Weapon 2 and WHAT WOULD I DO WITH TIME OFF?”

Falling Down.

Ending sentences with “already” is a common mannerism

+ [ p. 129 ] “ ‘[. . . ] ole Zhlob just used to plod along, [. . . ]’ ”

among Yiddish-speaking Jews in Anglophone countries.

Rhetorical questions are another mainstay of Yiddish Another golem name: “Zhlob” is Yiddish for “boorish conversational style.

glutton” (or gluttonous boor). Probably Slavic in origin.

+ [ p. 99 ] “HOLY DAY STARTS AT SUNSET.”

+ [ p. 130 ] “As her tutors had said, there were two signs of a good alchemist: the Athletic and the Intellectual.”

Jewish holy days do, indeed, run from sunset to sunset. Cf.

Genesis 1:5: “The evening and the morning were the first Terry used this joke in a talk at the Australian National day.”

University in Canberra in 1994, but he was talking about a shift charge engineer in a nuclear power plant. . .

+ [ p. 109 ] “The Rites of Man”

The standard analytical technique to prove arsenic in Thomas Paine wrote a justification of the French Revolution chemical mixtures involves mixing the sample with zinc and entitled The Rights of Man

adding sulphuric acid. If arsenic is present, this produces arsenic hydride as a gas; burning the gas, and holding the

+ [ p. 110 ] “[. . . ], licking his fingers delicately to turn the flame against a cool porcelain surface, leaves a black thin pages.”

precipitation of metallic arsenic.

Another red herring. Putting poison on the pages of a book, FEET OF CLAY

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+ [ p. 132 ] “ ‘It’s nine of the clock,’ said the organizer,

+ [ p. 148 ] “ ‘We’re known for rings, sir.’ ”

poking its head out of Vimes’s pocket. “‘I was unhappy Alberich the dwarf forges the Ring that is the centrepiece of because I had no shoes until I met a man with no feet.” ’ ”

Wagner’s interminable Ring Cycle, based on Norse legend.

Refers to the regrettable trend among software producers Tolkien uses the same source, and his One Ring is not to inflict a happy Thought For The Day on their users each unlike Alberich’s.

time they open the software.

+ [ p. 150 ] “Drumknott delicately licked his finger and

+ [ p. 135 ] “One had a duck on his head, [. . . ]”

turned a page.”

See the annotation for p. 272/204 of Soul Music.

See the note for p. 110.

+ [ p. 136 ] “ ‘Buggrit, millennium hand and shrimp!’ ”

+ [ p. 153 ] “It was called the Rats Chamber.”

See the annotation for p. 324/233 of Lords and Ladies.

This is another multidirectional pun. First, in German, the word for ‘council chamber’ is Ratskammer. Second, it’s an

+ [ p. 138 ] “ ‘Dibbuk? Where the hell are you?’ ”

anagram of Star Chamber, a special civil and criminal court A dybbuk, in Jewish mythology, is a demonic spirit that in England. Created by Henry VII in 1487, abolished by the possess the body of someone living.

Long Parliament in 1641 following abuses under James I and Charles I. The court took its name from a star-shaped

+ [ p. 140 ] “ ‘We’re all lyin’ in the gutter, Fred. But some of decoration in the ceiling.

us’re lookin’ at the stars. . . ’ ”

The decoration in the ceiling of the Rats Chamber — a From Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan, Act 3. Although group of rats with their tails tied together — is called a rat it can’t be easy to see the stars through all that fog.

king. According to Maarten ‘t Hart, in Rats (translated from the Dutch), some 57 rat kings have been found since the

+ [ p. 142 ] “He distrusted the kind of person who’d take 17th century, although several are of dubious authenticity.

one look at another man and say in a lordly voice to his They are often found alive, and can contain as few as three companion. . . ”

or as many as 32 members, although seven is the commonest number. Members are of both sexes, and almost Terry is challenging the Sherlock Holmes school of always of the same age group, which may be young or detection as being “an insult to the glorious variety of adult. Rat kings are generally formed of black rats (Rattus human life.” P G Wodehouse does the same in one of his rattus), although there is one occurrence of field rats (found PSmith stories, in which Psmith observes the local plumber in Java) and several of squirrels. No-one knows quite why sitting in his garden, dressed well because it’s Sunday and they form, although one theory is that black rats (which reading Shakespeare because he likes it, while Psmith is have longer and more pliable tails than other breeds) get studying the “How To Detect” booklet that says a plumber something sticky on their tails, and get tangled up when is unlikely to dress well/read Shakespeare.

they groom each other, or while playing or fighting.

+ [ p. 143 ] “It wasn’t by eliminating the impossible that Apparently, a modern artist decided to make a work of art you got at the truth, however improbable. . . ”

depicting a rat-king, and even put it on the internet. See Katharina Fritsch: Rat-King (Rattenkoenig), 1993

Another dig at Holmes, who said precisely this.

http://www.diacenter.org/exhibs/fritsch/ratking/ (which also has an essay on the rat king through history).

+ [ p. 145 ] The description of Vetinari’s drawing matches the cover of the original publication of Thomas Hobbes’

+ [ p. ??? ] “[. . . ] Mrs Rosemary Palm, head of the Guild of Leviathan, possibly the most influential work of mainstream Seamstresses [. . . ]”

political theory.

See the annotation for p. 121/119 of Equal Rites.

The book argues that for people to come together in a society, they cannot help but create a structure larger than

+ [ p. 155 ] “ ‘Remember when he made his horse a city themselves, which must have a controlling intelligence of councillor?’ ”

its own, i.e. some sort of governing body. Hence, although political power derives from the common people, it must be Caligula, Emperor of Rome from 37 to 41 AD, famously superior to them.

appointed his horse Incitatus as Consul to show his contempt for the Senate.

+ [ p. 147 ] “[. . . ] you might as well accuse the wallpaper of driving him mad. Mind you, that horrible green colour

+ [ p. 158 ] “ ‘Genua wrote to Ankh-Morpork and asked to would drive anyone insane. . . ”

be sent one of our generals to be their king [. . . ] The history books say that we sent our loyal General Tacticus, See the annotation for p. 65.

whose first act after obtaining the crown was to declare A number of people also wrote to say that they were war on Ankh-Morpork.’ ”

reminded of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story The Yellow Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, 1763–1844, was a French Wallpaper (1892), about a woman who is indeed driven mad general who became King Karl XIV John of Sweden and by wallpaper.

Norway. The youngest son of a French lawyer, Bernadotte joined the French army in 1780, becoming an officer in 100

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1792, during the French Revolution. Recognising his Klatchian agrees. This time the little man plays the brilliance in the field, the Emperor Napoleon eventually Hedgehog song, to thunderous applause.

elevated him to the rank of prince. In Sweden, where

“I gotta ask, where did you get that?”

Gustav IV had abdicated (1809) and been succeeded by the childless Karl XIII, Napoleon supported Bernadotte as heir

“Well, a few months ago I was travelling across the deserts to the throne. In August 1810, he was elected crown prince of Klatch, when I suddenly came across a glass bottle. I as Karl John. In 1813 he joined the allies against Napoleon.

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

+ [ p. 162 ] “Constable Visit had told him the meek would ear and talking to it.”

inherit [the world], [. . . ]”

“ ‘Genie,’ I said to him, ‘I have freed you, and in return I ask Another parallel between Omnianism and Christianity. See only three wishes.’ ”

Matthew 5:5.

“ ‘Huh?’ The genie said, looking at me for the first time.

‘Oh, OK, three, whatever.’ He then started talking to the

+ [ p. 165 ] “ ‘you’ve got to have the noses poking through bone again.”

the pastry. . . ’ ”

“ ‘Genie, I would like a million bucks!’ I said to him.”

Similar to Stargazy pie, a Cornish dish that has fish heads poking through the pastry all around the edge of the dish.

“Did you get it?”

“Not exactly. The genie kept talking to the bone and he

+ [ p. 177 ] “ ‘. . . push off back to the Yard, job done and waved one of his hands. Instantly, I was surrounded by a dusted.’ ”

million ducks. Then they flew away.”

This phrase relates to the act of distempering a wall —

“What was your second wish?”

another oblique hint at the wallpaper theory.

“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

+ [ p. 181 ] “ ‘Now we’re cooking with charcoal!’ ”

a piece of wood appeared, with inches marked on it.”

The expression “cooking with gas” dates back to an

“Oh, a ruler. It sounds like the genie wasn’t paying much advertising campaign designed to persuade people of the attention. Did you get your third wish?”

advantages of gas over electricity.

“Let me put it like this: do you really think I asked for a

+ [ p. 189 ] “*’She feels the need,’ [. . . ] ‘Yeah, the need to twelve-inch pianist?”

feed.’*”

+ [ p. 196 ] “ ‘Send Meshugah after him, ah-ha.’ ”

In the movie Top Gun, the pilots boast that they ‘feel the need; the need for speed.’

Another Yiddish name, from Hebrew, meaning ‘crazy’.

+ [ p. 190 ] “That horrible green wallpaper.”

+ [ p. 196 ] “[. . . ] sometimes people inconsiderately throw their enemies into rooms entirely bereft of nails, handy bits By the time Vimes has this idea (see the annotation for of sharp stone, sharp-edged shards of glass or even, in p. 65), he already knows enough to dismiss it in fairly short extreme cases, enough pieces of old junk and tools to make order.

a fully functional armoured car.”

+ [ p. 195 ] “ ‘Then there’s this one about the Klatchian who Most correspondent feel that the “extreme cases” are walks into a pub with a tiny piano — ‘”

exactly the kind that the heroes of the television series The The joke as adapted by thee goode folkes of

A-Team for years encountered on an almost weekly basis.

alt.fan.pratchett goes like this:

+ [ p. 203 ] “[. . . ] the crowd opened up like a watercourse This Klatchian walked into a pub carrying a small piano. He in front of the better class of prophet.”

puts in on the bar and has a few drinks. When it comes time Moses parted the sea to allow the Israelites to escape the to pay up he says to the publican, “I bet you double or pursuing Egyptian army, who were then all killed when the nothing I can show you the most amazing thing you ever seas collapsed on top of them. . . (Exodus 14:21–30) saw.”

“Okay, but I warn you, I’ve seen some weird stuff.”

+ [ p. 217 ] “ ‘ “My name is Sam and I’m a really suspicious The Klatchian takes out a tiny stool, which he sits in front of bastard.” ’ ”

the piano. He then reaches into his robes and pulls out a Parodies how people introduce themselves at meetings of box, about a foot long, with tiny air-holes in it. He takes off Alcoholics Anonymous.

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

+ [ p. 222 ] “ ‘I thought the damn thing smashed up. . . ’

perfect rendition of ‘The Shades of Ankh-Morpork’! Then,

[. . . ] ‘Well, it’s putting itself together.’ ”

as everyone in the bar is clapping, he jumps back into the The monster breaking into pieces and then reassembling box and closes the lid.

itself is probably best known from Terminator 2 (see also

“Wow!” The publican says, and wipes the slate clean. “If I the annotation for p. 364/275 of Soul Music), but there are give you another drink, could you do it again?” The earlier references. In The Iron Man by Ted Hughes (1968) FEET OF CLAY

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the iron man/robot falls over the edge of a cliff and breaks posited that the entire candle factory sequence is a clever into many pieces. The fingers put the hands together then amalgam of the endings to both Terminator movies. I will they pick up an eye and start putting the rest of the body let him explain this to you in his own words — I couldn’t together.

bring myself to paraphrase or edit it down:

“The candle factory itself, with all the candle production

+ [ p. 226 ] “It is not a good idea to spray finest brandy lines is reminiscent of the robotics in the automated factory across the room, especially when your lighted cigar is in the that Reese activates to confuse the Terminator. Throughout way.”

the candle factory scene, Carrot is Reese, Angua is Sarah

. . . unless, of course, you want a small fireball. This trick is Connor, the king switches between the original T–800 when used in the 1959 film The League of Gentlemen.

fighting Carrot and the T–1000 from T2 when fighting Dorfl, who is the ‘good’ Terminator from T2.

+ [ p. 230 ] “ ‘I wanted to buy a farm!’ moaned Colon.

Carrot is shot early on and has to be dragged around

‘Could be,’ said Arthur.”

initially by Angua, much like the injured Reese has to be See the annotation for p. 17.

supported by Sarah. The following fight between Dorfl and the king is similar to the big T2 confrontation between the

+ [ p. 234 ] “ ‘This candle even weighs slightly more than two Terminators, in which one of the combatants is able to the other candles!”

‘repair’ himself and thus has an advantage. When Dorfl is Although there are a few fictional uses of this method of

‘killed’, his red eyes fade out just like a T–800s, but he is poisoning, Terry himself explains that his source was an later able to come back to life. The T–800 achieves this by

“attempt on the life of Leopold I, Emperor of Austria, in rerouting power through undamaged circuitry; Dorfl does it 1671, which was foiled when the alchemist Francesco Borri by getting the words from elsewhere (heart as opposed to checked up on the candles. He found the candles in the head).

bedchamber were heavier than similar candles elsewhere In T1, Reese finds a metal bar and tries to fight an opponent and found that two and a half pounds of arsenic has been he can’t possibly beat — exactly as Carrot does. When added to the batch.”

Angua finds herself facing the injured king, it is similar to the scene in T1 after Reese’s death, when the torso of the

+ [ p. 236 ] “ ‘Hello hello hello, what’s all this, then?’ ”

Terminator pulls itself along after the injured Sarah, Catchphrase from the Dixon of Dock Green TV series. See grabbing at her legs (which the king also does to Angua).

the annotation for p. 60/55 of Guards! Guards!.

Then, Detritus’ shot at the king, which has no effect, is like Sarah’s last stand against the T–1000, when she runs out of

+ [ p. 245 ] “ ‘That’s Mr Catterail, sir.”

ammo just at the crucial point. When it appears that the seemingly invincible king has survived everything and is

. . . whose letter Carrot read way back on p. 108, where he about to finish the job and kill Carrot, the

gives his address as Park Lane. Kings Down is a short walk thought-to-be-dead Dorfl makes a last-gasp interjection away along Long Wall. Presumably they are on the same which finally kills the king — much like the resurrected beat.

Arnie appears just in time to kill the T–1000 in T2. Oh, and

+ [ p. 252 ] “ ‘ “Today Is A Good Day For Someone Else To finally, the molten tallow that Cheery almost falls into is, of Die!” ’ ”

course, the molten metal at the end of T2.”

Contrary to popular belief, the saying “Today is a good day

+ [ p. 260 ] “ ‘We can rebuild him,’ said Carrot hoarsely. ‘We to die!” was not invented by Klingons. It’s a traditional have the pottery.’ ”

Siouxan/Lacotah battle-cry.

From the 70s TV series The Six Million Dollar Man: “We

+ [ p. 258 ] “He landed on the king’s back, flung one arm can rebuild him. We have the technology.”

around its neck, and began to pound on its head with the

+ [ p. 272 ] “ ‘Undead Or Alive, You Are Coming With Me!’ ”

hilt of his sword. It staggered and tried to reach up to pull him off.”

Another echo of Robocop.

In Robocop 2, our hero (Robo) jumped on the back of the

+ [ p. 278 ] “ ‘He’s just made of clay, Vimes.’ ‘Aren’t we all,

‘Robocop 2’ and tried to open its head.

sir? According to them pamphlets Constable Visit keeps handing out.’ ”

+ [ p. 260 ] “ ‘They gave their own golem too many, I can see that.”

Another parallel between Omnianism and Christianity. See Genesis 2:7. (In fact, the idea of God as a potter and The way the king golem is driven mad by the number of humans as clay is a recurring metaphor in the Bible. See, rules in its head reminded many people of a scene in e.g., Job 33:6, Isaiah 64:8, Jeremiah 18:6.)

Robocop 2, where Robocop is rendered useless by programming with several, partly conflicting rules. This

+ [ p. 279 ] “ ‘The thought occurs, sir, that if Commander slightly tenuous connection is reinforced by several further Vimes did not exist you would have had to invent him.’ ”

similarities between Dorfl and Robocop.

Parallels a famous saying of Voltaire (1694–1778): “If God Never mind Robocop, however: one correspondent has did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”

102

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

+ [ p. 280 ] “ ‘To Serve The Public Trust, Protect The Many people have found it difficult to determine just what Innocent, And Seriously Prod Buttock.’ ”

this question is. Perhaps this is because the Oh God of Hangovers asks it first, on p. 153, after which Susan turns The first two of these were also the first two of Robocop’s to the Death of Raths and relays the question to him: prime directives.

“ ‘Actually. . . where do [the Tooth Fairies] take the teeth?’ ”

+ [ p. 283 ] Dorfl’s plan to liberate his fellow golems seems

+ When Hogfather was being written, Terry answered the to take a lot for granted (e.g. that they will all decide, once question what it was going to be about as follows: free, to join him).

“Let’s see, now. . . in Hogfather there are a number of Terry himself describes what he envisages happening next: stabbings, someone’s killed by a man made of knives,

“While I wasn’t planning to feature this in another book, I someone’s killed by the dark, and someone just been killed suspect the sequence of events, given Dorfl’s character, by a wardrobe.

would run like this:

It’s a book about the magic of childhood. You can tell.”

1 Dorfl saves up to buy the next golem

2 Golems suddenly become very pricey

+ [ p. 7 ] “Everything starts somewhere, although many 3 Dorfl does extra shifts and go on saving

physicists disagree.”

4 Price of golems goes up

Most physicists believe the universe started with a ‘big 5 Several merchants recieved a friendly visit from bang.’ The contrary view is that the universe is essentially a the Commander of the Watch to discuss

‘steady state’ system, though this is difficult to reconcile matters of common interest

with the available evidence. See also the annotation for 6 Golems available to Dorfl at very reasonable p. 8/8 of The Colour of Magic.

prices.

I want more golems on the city payroll. How else can they

+ [ p. 8 ] “[. . . ] the Verruca Gnome is running around [. . . ]”

resurrect the fire service?”

A verruca is a large wart that appears on the sole of the The names of the golems, again, are Yiddish. “Klutz” — a foot, also called a plantar wart. Apparently the word is not clumsy clod or bungler (from German); “Bobkes” — beans, commonly used in America.

but only metaphorically; something worthless or nonsensical (from Russian); “Shmata” — a rag, or piece of

+ [ p. 13 ] “ ‘[. . . ] a stiff brandy before bedtime quite does cloth; used both literally and to describe a person of weak away with the need for the Sandman.’ ”

character (from Polish).

The Sandman supposedly sends children to sleep by throwing sand in their eyes, although we have found out (in

+ [ p. 285 ] “ ‘Not a problem, me old china,’ he said.”

Soul Music) that, on the Discworld, he doesn’t bother to Rhyming slang: china plate — mate, friend.

take the sand out of the sack first.

+ [ p. 285 ] “ ‘Somewhere, A Crime Is Happening,’ said

+ [ p. 13 ] “ ‘And, since I can carry a tune quite well, I Dorfl.”

suspect I’m not likely to attract the attention of Old Man Another Robocop line.

Trouble.’ ”

A character from the Gershwin song ‘I’ve Got Rhythm’. See

+ [ p. 285 ] “ ‘But When I Am Off Duty I Will Gladly Dispute also the annotation for p. 86 of Feet of Clay.

With The Priest Of The Most Worthy God.’ ”

However, Dorfl has just told Vimes that he will never be off

+ [ p. 16 ] “ ‘Let us call him the Fat Man.’ ”

duty. . .

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.

Hogfather

+ [ p. 24 ] “She’d got Gawain on the military campaigns of General Tacticus, [. . . ]”

+ [dedication ] “To the guerilla bookshop manager known We learn a lot more about this character in Jingo. The name to friends as ‘ppint’ [. . . ]”

seems to be a conflation of the word ‘tactics’ with the The bookshop in question is Interstellar Master Traders in Roman historian Tacitus.

Lancaster. ppint is a longtime contributor to

+ [ p. 25 ] “[. . . ] if she did indeed ever find herself dancing alt.fan.pratchett, well-known for, amongst many other things, maintaining a number of that group’s “Frequently on rooftops with chimney sweeps [. . . ]”

Asked Questions” documents.

A famous scene from the 1964 film Mary Poppins. Miss Poppins used her umbrella as a sort of magic wand to grant

+ [dedication ] “[. . . ] the question Susan asks in this book.”

wishes for the children in her charge. See also the HOGFATHER

103

The Annotated Pratchett File

annotation for p. 56.

nothing, right?’ ”

This is a rephrasing of Pascal’s Wager: “If you believe in

+ [ p. 26 ] “[. . . ] the hope that some god or other would God and turn out to be incorrect, you have lost nothing —take their soul if they died while they were asleep [. . . ]”

but if you don’t believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, Susan is thinking of an 18th-century prayer still popular in you will go to hell. Therefore it is foolish to be an atheist.”

parts of America:

(Formulation quoted from the alt.atheism “Common Now I lay me down to sleep,

Arguments” webpage, http:

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

//www.infidels.org/news/atheism/arguments.html#pascal)

If I should die before I wake,

+ [ p. 47 ] “ ‘You could try “Pig-hooey!” ’ ”

I pray the Lord my soul to take.

In P. G. Wodehouse’s Blandings Castle, this cry was

+ [ p. 26 ] “ ‘[. . . ] yes, Twyla: there is a Hogfather.’ ”

recommended to Clarence, Earl of Emsworth, as an Susan’s response to Twyla’s question loosely parodies a all-purpose call to food, and used in the enforced absence of delightfully sentimental editorial that first appeared in The his pig man to get the mighty Empress back to the trough.

New York Sun in December 1897. The editorial Yes, As such it is perhaps not surprising that Gouger, Rooter, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus, appropriately enough, uses Tusker and Snouter did not accelerate away at the sound —the ideas of ‘deeper truths’ and ‘values’ to demonstrate that they were presumably waiting for Albert to produce the Santa must exist.

nosebags.

+ [ p. 28 ] Medium Dave and Banjo Lilywhite.

+ [ p. 48 ] “ ‘Look at robins, now. [. . . ] all they got to do is go bob-bob-bobbing along [. . . ]’ ”

From the Trad. song ‘Green grow the rushes, O’: “Two, two the Lilywhite boys, clothed all in green, O”.

From the song “When the red, red robin comes

bob-bob-bobbing along. . . ”

+ [ p. 34 ] “Deaths’s destination was a slight rise in the trench floor.”

+ [ p. 49 ] “In Biers no one took any notice.”

The environment Death visits is called “Black Smokes”. It is The bar “Cheers”, from the TV show of the same name, has a lifeform that is not based on photosynthesis in any way.

often been parodied as “Beers”. See also the annotation for p. 84 of Feet of Clay.

+ [ p. 35 ] “The omnipotent eyesight of various supernatural entities is often remarked upon. It is said they

+ [ p. 50 ] “ ‘Now then, Shlimazel’ ”

can see the fall of every sparrow.”

“Shlimazel” is a Yiddish word meaning someone who always Matthew 10:29, for instance: “Are not two sparrows sold for has bad luck, a sad sack, a terminally unsuccessful person.

a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground (From German “schlimm”, meaning “bad”, and the Hebrew without your Father.”

“mazal”, meaning “luck” — or “constellation”, as in

“ill-starred”.)

+ [ p. 39–40 ] “ ‘ “Oh, there might be some temp’ry inconvenience now, my good man, but just come back in

+ [ p. 54 ] “ ‘Did you check the list?’ YES, TWICE. ARE YOU

fifty thousand years.” ’ ”

SURE THAT’S ENOUGH?”

There is very often a clear parallel between Discworld This is the first of many references to the song ‘Santa Claus magic and our world’s nuclear power. This is the sort of is coming to town’. “He’s making a list, he’s checking it timescale it takes for plutonium waste to decay to a twice, he’s gonna find out who’s naughty and nice. . . ”

‘harmless’ state. Given Terry’s background in the nuclear Other references are on p. 60 and p. 84.

industry, and his comments since, there’s no doubt that

+ [ p. 54 ] “Here we are, here we are,” said Albert. “James these parallels are intended.

Riddle, aged eight.”

+ [ p. 42 ] “ ‘Give me a child until he seven and he is mine Jimmy Riddle is rhyming slang for “piddle”.

for life.’ ”

+ [ p. 56 ] “the window opened into the branches of a A Jesuit maxim. See the annotation for p. 12/10 of Small cherry tree.”

Gods.

Possibly another echo of Mary Poppins (see the annotation

+ [ p. 44 ] “It was the night before Hogwatch. All through for p. 25), who lived at 10 Cherry Tree Road. The raven’s the house. . . . . . one creature stirred. It was a mouse.”

constant harping on about robins also echoes the movie.

In Clement Clarke Moore’s poem The Night Before

+ [ p. 60 ] “ ‘The rat says: you’d better watch out. . . ’ ”

Christmas, “not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse”.

The song “Santa Claus is coming to town” takes on a whole

+ [ p. 47 ] “[. . . ] the Quirmian philosopher Ventre, who new meaning on the Discworld. See also the annotation for said, ‘Possibly the gods exist and possibly they do not. So p. 69/52 of Soul Music.

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

+ [ p. 66 ] “She’d never looked for eggs laid by the Soul 104

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

Cake Duck.”

The playing of the merry organ, sweet singing in the choir.

The Discworld equivalent of the Easter Bunny. See also the annotation for p. 193/139 of Lords and Ladies.

The Holly bears a berry, as red as any blood, And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ to do poor

+ [ p. 67 ] “ ‘I happen to like fern patterns,’ said Jack Frost sinners good. . .

coldly.”

etc.

A Tom Swiftie, followed by another one on the next page:

“ ‘I don’t sleep,’ said Frost icily, [. . . ]”. See the annotation

+ [ p. 84 ] “I KNOW IF THEY ARE PEEPING, Death added for p. 26/26 of The Light Fantastic.

proudly.”

Another echo of ‘Santa Claus is coming to town’: “He sees

+ [ p. 73 ] “In general outline, at least. But with more of a you when you’re peeping”. See the annotations for p. 54

PG rating.”

and p. 60.

PG = Parental Guidance suggested — a film classification used in the USA and the UK, meaning that “some material

+ [ p. 86 ] “ ‘I mean, tooth fairies, yes, and them little may not be suitable for children”.

buggers that live in flowers, [. . . ]’ ”

Flower fairies are a Victorian invention, often illustrated in

+ [ p. 74 ] “Between every rational moment were a billion sickeningly cute pictures and still widely popular in irrational ones.”

America. See also Witches Abroad.

In mathematics, between every rational number there are an infinite number of irrational numbers. A rational number

+ [ p. 86 ] “Oh, how the money was coming in.”

is a number that can be expressed in the form of p/q where This has been tentatively linked to a famous parody song, to p and q are integers. Irrational numbers are ones that the tune of of ‘My Bonnie lies over the ocean’: “My father can’t, such as pi or the square root of 2.

makes counterfeit money, my mother brews synthetic gin, my sister makes loves to the sailors: my God, how the

+ [ p. 77 ] “A man might spend his life peering at the money rolls in!”

private life of elementary particles and then find he either knew who he was or where he was, but not both.”

+ [ p. 92 ] “Many people are aware of the Weak and Strong A lovely reference to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle Anthropic Principles.”

(see the annotation for p. 178/171 of Pyramids). Also plays Physicists have discovered that there are a large number of on the stereotype of the absent-minded old scientist.

‘coincidences’ inherent in the fundamental laws and constants of nature, seemingly designed or ‘tuned’ to lead

+ [ p. 79 ] “ ‘Archchancellor Weatherwax only used it once to the development of intelligent life. Every one of these

[. . . ]’ ”

coincidences or specific relationships between fundamental Archchancellor Weatherwax was in charge of UU in the physical parameters is needed, or the evolution of life and time of The Light Fantastic, estimated (by some deeply consciousness as we know it could not have happened. This contorted calculation) to be set about 25 years before the set of coincidences is known collectively as the “Anthropic time of Hogfather. See also the annotation for p. 8/8 of The Principle.”

Light Fantastic.

The ‘Weak Anthropic Principle’ states, roughly, that “since we are here, the universe must have the properties that

+ [ p. 82 ] ‘Old Faithful’ is the name of the famous big make it possible for us to exist, so the coincidences are not regular geyser in Yellowstone Park. No wonder Ridcully surprising”.

feels ‘clean’.

The ‘Strong Anthropic Principle’ says that “the universe can

+ [ p. 83 ] “On the second day of Hogswatch I. . . sent my only exist at all because it has these properties — it would true love back A nasty little letter, hah, yes, indeed, and a be impossible for it to develop any other way.”

partridge in a pear tree.”

In some quarters, the idea has re-ignited the old Clearly the Discworld version of “The twelve days of

‘argument-from-design’ for the existence of God.

Christmas” is rather less, umm, unilateral.

+ [ p. 94 ] “ ‘Sufficiently advanced magic.’ ”

+ [ p. 83 ] “ ‘— the rising of the sun, and the running of the A perfect inversion of Arthur C. Clarke’s dictum that “any deer —’ ”

sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from The song is ‘The Holly and the Ivy’:

magic.”

The Holly and the Ivy, when they are both full

+ [ p. 94 ] “ ‘Interesting. Saves all that punching holes in grown,

bits of card and hitting keys you lads are forever doing, Of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly then —’ ”

bears the crown.

Holes punched in cards were used to input programs and Oh, the rising of the sun, and the running of the data to computers up until roughly the early 1970s, when deer,

keyboards became standard.

HOGFATHER

105

The Annotated Pratchett File

+ [ p. 95 ] “+++ Why Do You Think You Are A Tickler?

Confirms Ridcully’s remark on p. 86 that the word can be

+++”

used as a name.

The conversation between the Bursar and Hex is

+ [ p. 119 ] “ ‘Willow bark’, said the Bursar.”

reminiscent of the Eliza program.

Willow bark contains aspirin.

Eliza is a program written in the dark ages of computer science by Joseph Weizenbaum to simulate an indirect

+ [ p. 121 ] “ ‘[. . . ] that drink, you know, there’s a worm in psychiatrist. It works by transforming whatever the human the bottle. . . ’ ”

says into a question using a few very simple rules. To his grave concern, Weizenbaum discovered that people took his Mescal. See also the annotation for p. 252/190 of Soul simple program for real and demanded to be left alone Music.

while ‘conversing’ with it.

+ [ p. 121 ] “ ‘[. . . ] surrounded by naked maenads.’ ”

+ [ p. 95 ] “[. . . ] Hex’s ‘Anthill Inside’ sticker [. . . ]”

Maenads are from Greek mythology and were tied up with Refers to a marketing campaign launched by semiconductor Dionysus, God of Wine. They were beautiful, nude and manufacturer Intel in the 1990s.

indeed maniacal, possessed of an unfortunate tendency to tear apart anyone they met, especially if it was male.

Intel’s problem was that, although it has almost all of the market for personal computer chips, its lawyers couldn’t

+ [ p. 123 ] TINKLE. TINKLE. FIZZ.

stop rival manufacturers from making chips that were technically identical — or, very often, better and cheaper.

An old advertising campaign for Alka-Seltzer (a medicine Its response was to launch the ‘Intel Inside’ sticker, to often used as a hangover cure), used the line “Plop, plop, attach to a computer’s case in the hope of persuading end fizz, fizz” to describe the sound of the pills dropping into customers that this made it better.

water and dissolving.

+ [ p. 99 ] “You know there’s some people up on the

+ [ p. 126 ] “ ‘I saw this in Bows and Ammo! ’ ”

Ramtops who kill a wren at Hogswatch and walk around See the annotation for p. 328/236 of Lords and Ladies.

from house to house singing about it?”

There is a folksong about the hunting of the wren:

+ [ p. 132 ] “While evidence says that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, [. . . ]”

Oh where are you going, says Milder to Maulder Oh we may not tell you, says Festle to Fose

This is confirmed by the eyewitness testimony of Rincewind We’re off to the woods, says John the red nose and Eric (in Eric).

We’re off to the woods, says John the red nose

+ [ p. 134 ] “ ‘Sarah the little match girl, [. . . ]’ ”

And what will you do there. . .

The little match girl dying of hypothermia on Christmas eve We’ll hunt the cutty wren. . .

is a traditional fairy tale, best known in the version written In Ireland until quite recently, the hunting of the wren on by Hans Christian Anderson.

St. Stephen’s day — Dec. 26th — was a very real tradition.

People did kill a wren and hang it on a branch of a holly

+ [ p. 135 ] “ ‘You’re for life, not just for Hogswatch,’

tree, taking it from house to house rather like children prompted Albert.”

trick-or-treating on Hallowe’en.

Plays on an old advertising slogan intended to discourage giving puppies as Christmas presents without thinking

+ [ p. 100 ] “Blind Io the Thunder God used to have these about how they’ll be cared for the rest of their lives.

myffic ravens that flew anywhere and told him everything that was going on.”

Compare also the motto for Lady Sybil’s Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons: “Remember, A Dragon is For The main Viking god Odin, although not a thunder god, had Life, Not Just for Hogswatchnight”.

two ravens, Hugin and Munin, who did this. He also had only one eye.

+ [ p. 139 ] “Hex worried Ponder Stibbons.”

+ [ p. 100 ] “ ‘[. . . ] he’d go to the Castle of Bones.’ ”

The present incarnation of Hex has a lot of in-jokes about modern (mid–90s) personal computers.

King Arthur visited this place of horror with a bunch (24?

49? 144?) of his trusted knights and re-emerged with only The computer business is littered with TLAs (three-letter seven left alive. No one ever told what they had abbreviations), such as CPU, RAM, VDU, FTP; Hex has its encountered there. I believe it was a faerie castle.

CWL (clothes wringer from the laundry), FTB (fluffy teddy bear), GBL (great big lever). “Small religious pictures” are

+ [ p. 104 ] “The Aurora Corealis”

icons, and they are used with a mouse. Ram skulls are an See the annotation for p. 85/69 of Mort.

echo of RAM (random-access memory).

The beehive long-term storage is a little more obscure, but

+ [ p. 118 ] “YES INDEED, HELLO, SMALL CHILD CALLED

in the 1980s some mainframes had a mass storage system VERRUCA LUMPY, [. . . ]”

that involved data stored on tapes wound onto cylinders.

106

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

The cylinders of tape were stored in a set of hexagonal

+ [ p. 144 ] “What does ‘divide by cucumber’ mean?” “Oh, pigeon holes, and retrieved automatically by the computer Hex just says that if it comes up with an answer that it as needed; systems diagrams always depicted this part of knows can’t possibly be real.”

the computer as a honeycomb pattern. And then there’s of The real-world version of this is is known as a “Divide by course the fact that ‘beehive’ rhymes with ‘B-drive’, which Zero” error. Dividing by zero is an operation not allowed by is how one usually refers to the secondary floppy drive in a the rules of mathematics, and computers will generate an personal computer.

error when asked to perform it.

Interestingly, Douglas R. Hofstader’s Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid contains a chapter in which one of

+ [ p. 150 ] “[. . . ] I can TALK THAT TALK and stalk that stalk the characters (the Anteater) describes how an anthill can

[. . . ]”

be viewed as a brain, in which the movements of ants are The usual phrase is, of course, “talk the talk and walk the the thoughts of the heap.

walk”, meaning to both say and do the right thing. If anyone can definitively point to the origin of this phrase, I’d

+ [ p. 141 ] “+++ Error at Address:14, Treacle Mine Road, be interested to know it — possibly from the US civil rights Ankh-Morpork +++”

movement of the 1960s.

A common error message on many types of computer tells It’s been mentioned more than once that the Stanley you that there is an error at a certain memory address, Kubrick movie Full Metal Jacket, the character Joker expressed as a number. This information is completely bandies words with a marine called Animal Mother, who useless to anyone except a programmer.

answers: “You talk the talk but do you walk the walk?” This Based on The Streets of Ankh-Morpork, it has been encounter may be significant purely because Animal suggested that this may be the address of CMOT Dibbler’s Mother’s helmet bears the text “I AM BECOME DEATH”.

cellar, mentioned in Reaper Man.

+ [ p. 154 ] “There are those who believe that [. . . ] there

+ [ p. 141 ] “ ‘I know it sounds stupid, Archchancellor, but was some Golden Age [. . . ] when [. . . ] the stones fit we think it might have caught something off the Bursar.’ ”

together so you could hardly put a knife between them, you know, and it’s obvious they had flying machines, right, Possibly Hex has caught a virus. On the Discworld, there’s because of the way the earthworks can only be seen from no obvious reason why a virus shouldn’t be transmittable above, yeah?”

from human to computer or vice-versa.

This speculation has been advanced in the context of, e.g., In the early 1970s there appeared a sort of proto-virus the ancient pyramids of Peru, where the stones really do fit called the ‘Cookie Monster’, which cropped up on a number together almost perfectly, and where the Kuta Lines really of computers — notably Multics-based machines. What can only be seen from above.

would happen is that unsuspecting users would suddenly find messages demanding cookies on their terminals, and Apparently the part of Peru where the Inca lived is rather they would not be able to proceed until they typed prone to earthquakes, and not wanting their perfectly

‘COOKIE’ or ‘HAVECOOKIE’, etc. — in much the same way fitting stones to fall over and break into little pieces when as Hex is ‘cured’ by typing ‘DRYDFRORGPILLS’.

the earth moved, the Inca built all their major buildings with the walls sloping inwards. Many Inca buildings are For more details see:

still standing (less a roof or two, of course), in sharp

http://www.multicians.org/cookie.html

contrast with California, where modern buildings fall over

+ [ p. 143 ] “ ‘You don’t have to shout, Archchancellor,’ said with distressing regularity.

Ponder.”

Britain has things called leylines — ancient sites so In on-line conversations, a common error among arranged that they draw a perfectly straight line across a newcomers is typing everything in block capital letters, map, allegedly impossible to trace without modern known colloquially as ‘shouting’. This causes varying cartographical techniques.

degrees of irritation among readers. There are also some For the most bizarre extrapolation of this belief, see Erich people with vision impairments who use software that von Daniken, Chariots of the Gods, which claims not only purposely uses capital letters, as they are easier to read, that aliens visited the earth in ancient times, but also that but fortunately this software is improving.

they actually started human civilisation.

The footnote ties together a number of modern myths about

+ [ p. 143 ] “Then it wrote: +++ Good Evening, aliens, ending with the “The truth may be out there. . . ”, the Archchancellor. I Am Fully Recovered And Enthusiastic catchphrase of the 90s TV series The X-Files.

About My Tasks +++”

Hex’s polite phrasing here parodies that of the famous

+ [ p. 155 ] “ ‘Lares and Penates? What were they when computer HAL from Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke’s they were at home?’ said Ridcully.”

movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (and the sequel 2010 ), who They were Roman household gods.

said things like: “Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL

9000 computer” and “I am completely operational and all There are many beautiful shrines to them — there was at my systems are functioning perfectly”.

least one in every well-to-do ancient Roman house. The god that saw to it “that the bread rose” was called Priapus, a HOGFATHER

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god of fertility, who was conventionally represented by or FAIR? ‘Well, of course, that’s the big issue —’ Albert began.”

with a huge phallus.

In the UK and Australia, The Big Issue is a magazine sold by the homeless. In many cities all over the world similar

+ [ p. 155 ] “ ‘Careless talk creates lives!’ ”

projects have been started.

A propaganda poster first used in the First World War bore the slogan “Careless talk costs lives” as an admonition

+ [ p. 184 ] “A large hourglass came down on the spring.”

against saying anything, to anyone, about (for instance) Ever since the Apple Macintosh, graphical user interfaces where your loved ones were currently serving, in case a spy for computers have used a special cursor shape to indicate was listening. (Also: loose lips sink ships.) that a lengthy operation is in progress. The Windows Interestingly, the Auditors also feel that there is no hourglass cursor is Microsoft’s version Apple’s original difference between creating and costing lives.

wristwatch.

+ [ p. 157 ] “ ‘Oh, what fun,’ muttered Albert.”

+ [ p. 185 ] “ ‘Remember when we had all that life force all over the place? A man couldn’t call his trousers his own!’ ”

Once again Terry completely inverts the meaning of a song lyric without changing a single word (see the annotation for For the details of the time Ridcully is referring to, read p. 60). The original song here is ‘Jingle Bells’: “Oh what fun Reaper Man.

it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh”.

+ [ p. 190 ] “ ‘Excuse me madam’ said Ridcully. ‘But is that

+ [ p. 162 ] “ ‘[. . . ] they say you can Earn $$$ in Your Spare a chicken on your shoulder?’ ‘It’s, er, it’s, er, it’s the Blue Time [. . . ]’ ”

Bird of Happiness’ said the Cheerful Fairy.”

Refers to the nuisance phenomenon on the Internet called In The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck, published in

‘spam’. Email with subject lines resembling the above are German in 1909, two children set off on a long journey to mass-mailed out to thousands of people in the hope that a find the Blue Bird of Happiness, only to learn that it was in small fraction of them will fall for it, and be persuaded to their own back garden all along.

perpetuate what was, in essence, a pyramid scheme, and There’s also a Far Side cartoon wherein “Ned, the Bluebird highly illegal in most countries. This sort of ‘Make Money of Happiness long absent from his life, is visited by the Fast’ spam is growing rarer these days, being replaced with Chicken of Depression”.

unsolicited ads for too-good-to-be-true credit cards, mass-email programs and cheap long-distance phone calls.

+ [ p. 192 ] “According to my theory it is cladisticaly associated with the Krullian pipefish, sir, which is also

+ [ p. 165 ] “[. . . ], would even now be tiring of painting yellow and goes around in bunches or shoals.”

naked young ladies on some tropical island somewhere”

Normally, cladists are those who try to classify organisms in A reference to the painter Paul Gaugin, who spent his most such a way that related species are placed in the same productive years in the South Pacific doing just this.

family, not in a family with other species that look the same.

This is quite the opposite to Ponder’s cladism. This method

+ [ p. 166 ] “The old man in the hovel looked uncertainly at of classification is called “dichotomous key classification”: the feast [. . . ]”

unfortunately Ponder has left out the conventional first step The episode of the king and the old man is based on the in this kind of identification, which is something along the story of Good King Wenceslas. Of course, Terry doesn’t lines of “can it move unassisted?” — if so, go to animal, if quite see it the way of the Christmas carol.

not, go to plants.

In our world, there is also some classificational confusion

+ [ p. 177 ] “It might help to think of the universe as a concerning bananas, since the so-called banana tree is rubber sheet, or perhaps not.”

technically a banana plant (its stem does not contain actual A common device to help visualise the effect of gravity on wood tissue), which would make the banana (so the the fabric of the universe, similarly useless beyond a certain argument goes) a herb instead of a fruit. This is one those point. See also the annotation for p. 230/207 of Sourcery.

arguments that never really gets resolved, because the

‘answer’ can simply go either way depending on what

+ [ p. 177 ] “ ‘It’s brass monkeys out here.’ ”

definitions you use in which contexts.

The full expression is “cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey”.

+ [ p. 193 ] “Sometimes a chicken is nothing but a bird.”

The expression supposedly dates back to a time when Freud once said “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”, for cannon balls were stored on the decks of ships in much the same reason.

pyramid-shaped stacks held in place by a brass frame around the base. This frame was called a ‘monkey’, and

+ [ p. 195 ] “ ‘Hogswatch is coming, The pig is getting fat, when it got very cold, the brass monkey would contract,

[. . . ]’ ”

causing the stacks of cannon balls to collapse.

There is a song that goes:

Christmas is coming, and the goose is getting fat

+ [ p. 181 ] “[. . . ] OTHER PEOPLE HAVE NO HOMES. IS THIS

Won’t you put a penny in the old man’s hat?

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If you haven’t got a penny a ha’penny will do Channel 5, New York, New York. And you know what I’m And if you haven’t got a ha’penny then God bless going to send you? A post card from Puerto Rico!”

you.

That the station subsequently got $80,000 in the mail appears to be a bit of an urban legend, but Soupy’s show

+ [ p. 195 ] “ ‘— nobody knows how good we can live, on did get pulled for two weeks before he was allowed back on boots three times a day. . . ’ ”

the air again.

A standard children’s song, once (apparently) popular at Girl Guide camps, went:

+ [ p. 229 ] “I know I made that mistake with little William Rubin [. . . ]”

Everybody hates me, nobody loves me,

Think I’ll go and eat worms.

Bilirubin is formed when haemoglobin is broken down, and Long thin slimy ones, short fat stubby ones,

is basically the the pigment that makes faeces brown.

Juicy, juicy, juicy, juicy worms.

In The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris, Hannible Bite their heads off, suck their juice out,

Lecter at one point says that the killer ‘Buffalo Bill’ is a Throw their skins away.

former patient of his named Bill Rubin. In Harris’ previous Nobody knows how good we can live

book Red Dragon the killer Francis Dolorhyde had no teeth On worms three times a day.

and was known as the Tooth Fairy.

+ [ p. 195 ] “ ‘Ah, Humbugs?’ he said.”

Terry explains the name as follows:

In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Scrooge has the

“Oh, lor’. Billy Rubim is an old medical student joke. . . ”

catchphrase “Bah! Humbug!”.

“Like most really stupid jokes, it’s one that you won’t spot unless you have the right background. Others on here will

+ [ p. 208 ] “ ‘[. . . ] letting me hire a boat and sail around to doubtless explain, but according to one of my informants, a the islands of —’ ”

nurse, every batch of medical students learns it anew and Darwin gathered much of the data for his version of Mr Rubin’s name turns up in various places to general evolutionary theory while in the Galapagos Islands, which sniggering.”

he visited on HMS Beagle.

+ [ p. 229 ] “They don’t think twice about pushing off for a

+ [ p. 212 ] “ ‘You know what happens to kids who suck month as a big white bull or a swan or something [. . . ]”

their thumbs, there’s this big monster with scissors all —’ ”

The Greek gods, particularly Zeus, were fond of incarnating There is a classic set of children’s stories called (in English) themselves as animals of this sort, usually as part of a Slovenly Peter, by Heinrich Hoffman, originally written in scheme to seduce or ravish some unsuspecting young German circa 1840. One of the stories is about the scissor woman. On the Discworld, Om used to do the same sort of man, who comes in and cuts the thumbs off of a little girl thing. See Small Gods for details.

who refuses to stop sucking her thumbs.

+ [ p. 232 ] “ ‘There are magic wardrobes,’ said Violet

+ [ p. 213 ] “But she was used to the idea of buildings that nervously. ‘If you go into them, you come out in a magic were bigger on the inside than on the outside. Her land.’ ”

grandfather had never been able to get a handle on A land such as Narnia. See the annotation for p. 22/22 of dimensions.”

Sourcery.

In the legendary BBC TV series Dr Who, the Tardis is famous for being “bigger on the inside than on the outside”.

+ [ p. 235 ] “ ‘I thought you had to clap your hands and say When the series began in 1963, the Doctor was you believed in ’em,’ [. . . ] ‘That’s just for the little shiny accompanied by his “granddaughter”, Susan.

ones,’ [. . . ]”

However, before jumping to any conclusions, see the The fairies in J M Barrie’s Peter Pan, Tinkerbell in annotation for p. 20/15 of Soul Music.

particular, are generally kept happy (and alive) in this fashion. I don’t know if there’s an earlier reference.

+ [ p. 219 ] “ ‘You could get them to open Dad’s wallet and post the contents to some address?’ ”

+ [ p. 236 ] “The Dean took a small glass cube from his pocket and ran it over the corpse.”

A US television presenter named Soupy Sales was hosting a children’s TV show in 1965, and in one famous live episode A scene familiar to anyone who’s ever watched an episode ad-libbed:

of Star Trek.

“Hey kids, last night was New Year’s Eve, and your mother

+ [ p. 236 ] “+++ Big Red Lever Time +++ Query +++”

and dad were out having a great time. They are probably still sleeping and what I want you to do is tiptoe in their Old IBM mainframes (as well as, later, the first IBM PCs), bedroom and go in your mom’s pocketbook and your dad’s had large, bright red, power switches, causing the phrase pants, which are probably on the floor. You’ll see a lot of

“big red switch” (often abbreviated as BRS) to enter the green pieces of paper with pictures of guys in beards. Put hacker’s jargon.

them in an envelope and send them to me at Soupy Sales, Hex, after seeing Death enter the laboratory, is in fact HOGFATHER

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The Annotated Pratchett File

asking if Death has come for him, which (a) throws an that St Nicholas was a 4th century bishop, who would have interesting light on Hex’s own feelings about his sentience, worn red and white robes.

and (b) explains why Death’s reply to Hex starts with the word “No”.

+ [ p. 270 ] “TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL

MEETS THE RISING APE.”

+ [ p. 237 ] “+++ Yes. I Am Preparing An Area Of Desmond Morris, in The Naked Ape: “I viewed my fellow Write-Only Memory +++”

man not as a fallen angel, but as a risen ape.” However,

‘Write-Only Memory’ is a curious, but pointless concept, Terry says that he was unaware of this prior use.

since the data stored there can presumably never be retrieved. Real computers do have a type of storage called

+ [ p. 272 ] “. . . pictures of rabbits in waistcoats, among

‘Read-Only Memory’, or ROM, which contains information other fauna.”

that can never be erased or overwritten.

An echo of Beatrix Potter’s nursery stories and their Write-Only memory has a real world precedence in a illustrations, most obviously Peter Rabbit. The “gold practical joke perpetrated by an engineer working for watches and top hats” suggests the White Rabbit from Signetics corporation. The joke was eventually given a Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

wider audience in the April 1972 issue of Electronics magazine.

+ [ p. 277 ] “AND GOODNIGHT, CHILDREN. . .

EVERYWHERE.”

+ [ p. 239 ] “Family motto Non timetis messor”

“Uncle Mac”, the BBC presenter of the popular 1950 radio This translates to “Don’t fear the reaper”, the title of a programme “Children’s Hour”, always used this phrase to well-known song by Blue Öyster Cult.

sign off his show.

+ [ p. 258 ] “ ‘I didn’t even have any of that salmon

+ [ p. 281 ] “One foot kicked the ‘Afterburner’ lever and the mousse!’ ”

other spun the valve of the nitrous oxide cylinder.”

In Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, a dinner party is An afterburner helps jet aircraft gain speed by using rather spoiled when Death visits (a Death not entirely exhaust gases for additional combustion. Nitrous oxide (aka unlike the Discworld’s). The visit is occasioned by the laughing gas) is used as a combustion-enhancing speed fuel hostess serving tinned salmon mousse, and the American in e.g. drag-racing cars. Also, nitrous oxide, when added to guest complains that he didn’t have any salmon mousse.

water, becomes nitrous acid.

All of which might throw light on the oft-asked question:

+ [ p. 265 ] “ ‘What are you waiting for? Hogswatch?’ ”

“what precisely happened to Ridcully in the bath?”

“What are you waiting for? Christmas?” is a mild taunt used to encourage someone to start doing something. It is,

+ [ p. 283 ] “ ‘as they say, “better a meal of old boots where for instance, what Duke Nukem in the computer game Duke friendship is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.” ’ ”

Nukem 3D says after the player has been inactive for a From the Bible: “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, while. Given Terry Pratchett’s love of other games in that than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.” (Proverbs 15:17) genre (such as Doom and Tombraider) a familiarity with Duke Nukem may perhaps have contributed to his use of

+ [ p. 284 ] “ ‘And god bless us, every one,’ said Arnold the phrase here.

Sideways.”

+ [ p. 267 ] “The man was tattooed. Blue whorls and spirals This is the last line of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, spoken haunted his skin. . . ”

by Tiny Tim, who also had something wrong with his legs.

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, Jingo

‘that the idea of the Hogfather wearing a red and white outfit was invented quite recently.’ NO. IT WAS

+ [title ] Jingo

REMEMBERED.”

The whole concept of the modern Santa Claus is commonly

“By jingo!” is an archaic, jocular oath, of obscure origin, ascribed to a Coca Cola promotion. However, the idea was used in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. The word —around long before then. See with derived forms such as ‘jingoism’ and ‘jingoistic’ —became associated with aggressive, militaristic nationalism

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/santa.asp for details.

as a result of a popular song dating from the Turko-Russian The modern red-and-white image of Santa derives from the war of 1877–78, which began:

poem The Night Before Christmas (see the annotation for p. 44), first published in 1822. Coca-Cola adopted him as an We don’t want to have to fight,

advertising symbol in the 1920s, and only since then have but by Jingo if we do

the colours become ‘fixed’. However, it is worth mentioning We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men,

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we’ve got the money too.

obstreperous.

Interestingly (in the light of the circumstances of this The Mary-Jane is a reference to Henry VIII’s flagship, the particular war), it is also the name of a warlike Japanese Mary Rose, which (most embarrassingly) sank, in calm empress of the 2nd/3rd centuries, credited by legend with seas, immediately after being launched from Portsmouth in the power of controlling the tides.

1545. The ship was recovered in the 1980s, and is now a tourist attraction.

+ [ p. 8 ] “ ‘Whose squid are they, dad?’ ”

+ [ p. 21 ] “ ‘Very well then, by jingo!’ ”

Fishing rights have been a frequent cause of dispute between the UK and neighbours, most dramatically in the See this book’s title annotation.

‘Cod Wars’ between the UK and Iceland (1958, 1973, 1975), in which ships from the two countries sabotaged each

+ [ p. 22 ] “ ‘We have no ships. We have no men. We have other’s nets.

no money, too.’ ”

See this book’s title annotation.

+ [ p. 11 ] “There was a tradition of soap-box speaking in Sator Square.”

+ [ p. 22 ] “ ‘Unfortunately, the right words are more London’s Hyde Park Corner has a very similar tradition.

readily listened to if you also have a sharp stick.’ ”

Theodore Roosevelt famously summarised his foreign policy

+ [ p. 11 ] “ ‘Who’s going to know, dad?’ ”

as “Speak softly, and carry a big stick.”

In the 1963 comedy Mouse on the Moon, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick competes with the USA and USSR to put the

+ [ p. 23 ] “ ‘Let’s have no fighting, please. This is, after all, first human on the moon. The Fenwick rocket gets there a council of war.’ ”

first, but someone points out that this doesn’t matter — the Echoes the movie Dr Strangelove. See also the annotation glory will go to whoever gets home first. The Americans for p.156 of The Colour of Magic.

and Russians quickly make their excuses and leave, pausing only to enter the wrong capsules before sorting themselves

+ [ p. 25 ] “The Artful Nudger scowled.”

out.

A character in Dickens’ Oliver Twist is called the Artful

+ [ p. 13 ] “ ‘His ship is the Milka, I believe.’ ”

Dodger.

One of Christopher Columbus’ ships was named the Pinta.

+ [ p. 26 ] “ ‘Wib wib wib.’ ‘Wob wob wob.’ ”

A UK milk-marketing slogan from the 1980s exhorted Carrot has formed Ankh-Morpork’s first scout troop. This people to ‘Drinka pinta milka day’.

salute parodies the traditional (but now discontinued) Cub

+ [ p. 16 ] “ ‘I believe the word “assassin” actually comes Scout exchange “Dyb dyb dyb.” “Dob dob dob.”. The ‘dyb’

from Klatch?’ ”

in the challenge supposedly stands for “do your best”, the

‘dob’ in the scouts’ response for “do our best”.

In our world, it does. See the annotation for p. 126/114 of Sourcery.

+ [ p. 27 ] “ ‘I had this book about this little kid, he turned into a mermaid,’ ”

+ [ p. 17 ] “ ‘Have you ever heard of the D’regs, my lord?’ ”

This sounds very much like the story of young Tom the See the annotation for p. 109/82 of Soul Music.

chimney sweep’s transformation, told in moralistic Victorian children’s tale The Water Babies, written in 1863

+ [ p. 18 ] “ ‘It’s about time Johnny Klatchian was taught a by Charles Kingsley.

lesson,’ ”

“Johnny Foreigner” is a generic, disparaging term used by

+ [ p. 28 ] “ ‘But after the big plague, he got Britons of — well, foreigners. During the First World War, press-ganged.’ ”

the more specific term “Johnny Turk” appeared.

Press-ganging was the 18th-century equivalent of conscription. A ship’s captain, finding himself short-handed

+ [ p. 20 ] “ ‘It is no longer considered. . . nice. . . to send a while in a home port, would send a gang of his men round warship over there to, as you put it, show Johnny Foreigner the port, enlisting anyone they could find who looked like a the error of his ways. For one thing, we haven’t had any sailor. Often this involved simply picking up drunks, but it warships since the Mary-Jane sank four hundred years was not unheard-of for men to be taken by force.

ago.’ ”

In the latter part of the 19th century, the phrase “gunboat

+ [ p. 28 ] “ ‘They invented all the words starting with diplomacy” was coined to describe this British method of

“al”.’ ”

negotiating with uppity colonials. The gunboat in question In Arabic, “al” is the definite article, and it is joined to the would not normally be expected to do anything, merely to word that it defines.

“show the flag” as a reminder that, however vulnerable it might appear on land, Britannia still Ruled the Waves, and

+ [ p. 29 ] “ ‘[. . . ] the Klatchians invented nothing. [. . . ]

could make life very difficult for anyone who got too they came up with zero.’ ”

JINGO

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The Annotated Pratchett File

The idea of treating zero as a number was one of several In the Good Old DaysT M , besieging armies would major contributions that Western mathematics adopted sometimes hurl the rotting corpses of dead animals over the from the Arabs.

city walls by catapult, with the aim of spreading disease and making the city uninhabitable. So in a sense, a dead

+ [ p. 30 ] “ ‘[. . . ] it is even better than Ironcrufts (‘T’Bread dog could be a siege weapon. . .

Wi’ T’Edge’) [. . . ] ’ ”

+ [ p. 44 ] “It looked as if people had once tried to add See the annotation for p. 26 of Feet of Clay.

human touches to structures that were already ancient. . . ”

+ [ p. 31 ] “ ‘This is all right, Reg? It’s not coercion, is it?’ ”

Leshp bears a resemblance to H. P. Lovecraft’s similarly Carrot’s apparently uncharacteristic (dishonest) behaviour strange-sounding creation, R’lyeh — an ancient, now in this scene has caused a lot of comment on

submerged island in the Pacific, inhabited by alien Things alt.fan.pratchett. Terry explains it thus:

with strange architecture, which rises at very long intervals and sends people mad all over the world. For full details,

“I assume when I wrote this that everyone concerned would see Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu.

know what was going on. The thieves have taken a Watchman hostage, a big no-no. Coppers the world over

+ [ p. 47 ] “ ‘Oh, Lord Venturi says it’ll all be over by find their normally sunny dispositions cloud over when Hogswatch, sir.’ ”

faced with this sort of thing, and with people aiming things

“It’ll all be over by Christmas” was said of the First World at them, and perpetrators later tend to fall down cell stairs War by armchair strategists, in August 1914. Ironically, the a lot. So Carrot is going to make them suffer. They’re going phrase has become a popular reassurance: more recently, to admit to all kinds of things, including things that President Clinton promised the American public in 1996

everyone knows they could not possibly have done.

that US troops in Bosnia would be “home for Christmas”.

What’ll happen next? Vetinari won’t mind. Vimes will throw out half of the charges at least, and the rest will become

+ [ p. 55 ] “ ‘I go, I h come back.’ ”

TICs and probably will not hugely affect the sentencing.

Ahmed’s catchphrase is borrowed from Signior So-So, a The thieves will be glad to get out of it alive. Other thieves comic Italian character in the famous wartime radio series will be warned. By the rough and ready local standards, It’s That Man Again (ITMA).

justice will have been served.”

+ [ p. 55 ] “ ‘Doctor of Sweet F anny Adams’ ”

+ [ p. 34 ] “ ‘Hey, that’s Reg Shoe! He’s a zombie! He falls to bits all the time!’ ‘Very big man in the undead The original Fanny Adams was an eight-year-old girl in community, sir.’ ”

Alton, Hampshire, whose dismembered body was

discovered in 1867. About the same time, tinned mutton Reg Shoe first appeared in Reaper Man as the founder of was first introduced in the Royal Navy, and the sailors —the Campaign for Dead Rights (slogans included “Undead, not noted for their sensitivity — took to calling the (rather yes! Unperson, no!”). Possibly Vimes has forgotten that he disgusting) meat “Sweet Fanny Adams”. Hence the term personally ordered zombies to be recruited into the Watch, came to mean something worthless, and finally to mean towards the end of Feet of Clay.

“nothing at all”.

+ [ p. 35 ] “ ‘That’s Probationary Constable Buggy Swires, Many correspondents point out that these days “Sweet sir.’ ”

Fanny Adams” is also used as a euphemism for “Sweet Fuck All” (still meaning: absolutely nothing), but that is definitely Swires was the name of the gnome Rincewind and not the original meaning of the phrase.

Twoflower encountered in The Light Fantastic. Given that gnome lives are described in that book as ‘nasty, brutish

+ [ p. 55 ] “The Convivium was Unseen University’s Big and short’, it seems unlikely that this is the same gnome.

Day.”

Possibly a relative, though.

Oxford University has a ceremony called the Encaenia,

+ [ p. 35 ] “[. . . ] the long and the short and the tall.”

which also involves lots of old men in silly costumes and a procession ending in the Sheldonian Theatre.

A popular song from the Second World War had the lyric: Bless ‘em all, bless ‘em all!

+ [ p. 56 ] “It was an almost Pavlovian response.”

Bless the long and the short and the tall!

The Pavlovian experiment in our world involved ringing a Bless all the sergeants and double-you o-ones, bell before and during the feeding of a group of dogs. After Bless all the corporals and their blinkin’ sons.

a while the dogs learned to associate the ringing of the bell The phrase was also used as the title of a stage play (filmed with food. A part of them was essentially programmed to in 1960) by Willis Hall, describing the plight and fate of a think that the bell was the same thing as food.

squad of British soldiers in Burma.

+ [ p. 61 ] “ ‘And many of them could give him a decent

+ [ p. 40 ] “Right now he couldn’t remember what the shave and a haircut, too.’ ”

occasional dead dog had been. Some kind of siege weapon, Refers to the fact that, for many years, surgeons used to possibly.”

double as barbers, or vice versa.

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+ [ p. 61 ] “ ‘The keystones of the Watch.’ ”

comforted by the fact that the supposedly unstoppable

“steamroller” of the Russian army was on their side.

The Keystone Cops were a squad of frantically bumbling Rumours spread that Russian troops were landing in comedy policemen from the silent movie era.

Scotland to reinforce the British army, and these troops

+ [ p. 62 ] “ ‘A lone bowman.’ ”

could be recognised by the snow on their boots. Ever since, the story has been a standard joke about the gullibility of The “lone gunman” theory is still the official explanation of people in wartime.

John F. Kennedy’s assassination, despite four decades of frenzied speculation. Conspiracy theorists like to claim that

+ [ p. 79 ] “ ‘[. . . ] that business with the barber in Gleam Someone, Somewhere is covering up the truth, in much the Street.’ ‘Sweeney Jones,’ ”

same way as Vimes and Vetinari are conspiring to cover it Legend tells of Sweeney Todd, a barber in Fleet Street, up here.

London, who would rob and kill (not necessarily in that

+ [ p. 62 ] “ ‘[. . . ] it is still law that every citizen should do order) solitary customers, disposing of their bodies via a one hour’s archery practice every day. Apparently the law meat-pie shop next door. The story is celebrated in a was made in 1356 and it’s never been —’ ”

popular Victorian melodrama, in a 1936 film, in a musical by Stephen Sondheim (1979), and in rhyming slang In 1363, in England, Edward III — then in the early stages (“Sweeney Todd” = “Flying Squad”, an elite unit of the of the Hundred Years’ War with France — ordered that all Metropolitan Police).

men should practise archery on Sundays and holidays; this law remained technically in force for some time after the The story was the most successful of a spate of such longbow was effectively obsolete as a weapon of war.

shockers dating from the early 19th century. Sawney Bean, the Man-Eater of Midlothian was supposedly based on a

+ [ p. 65 ] “ ‘An experimental device for turning chemical real 13th-century Scottish legal case; also published about energy into rotary motion,’ said Leonard. ‘The problem, you this time were two French versions, both set in Paris. All of see, is getting the little pellets of black powder into the these were claimed to be based on true stories — but then, combustion chamber at exactly the right speed and one at a this pretence was standard practice for novelists at the time.’ ”

time. The “original” version of Sweeney Todd was written by Edward Lloyd under the title of The String of Pearls, In our world, an early attempt at an internal combustion published around 1840.

engine used pellets of gunpowder, stuck to a strip of paper (rather like the roll of caps for a cap pistol). I understand

+ [ p. 81 ] “ ‘He was shot from the University?’ ‘Looks like that the attempt was just as successful as Leonard’s.

the library building,’ ”

+ [ p. 70 ] “ ‘I have run out of Burnt Umber.’ ”

Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy from the Texas Schools Book Depository, on the fifth floor.

Burnt umber is a dark, cool-toned brown colour. Umber is an earth pigment containing manganese and iron oxides,

+ [ p. 82 ] “ ‘Carrot, it’s got “Mr Spuddy Face” on it.’ ”

used in paints, pastels and pencils. The name comes from Umbria, the region where it was originally mined and Mr Potato Head is a child’s toy based on putting facial adopted as a pigment for art.

features on a potato. Nowadays, Mr Potato Head, produced by Hasbro Inc, has a plastic body and has achieved great

+ [ p. 71 ] “ ‘So he was shot in the back by a man in front of fame by starring in the Toy Story films.

him who could not possibly have used the bow that he didn’t shoot him with from the wrong direction. . . ’ ”

+ [ p. 85 ] “ ‘He just kills people for money. Snowy can’t read and write.’ ”

The live film of JFK’s assassination, allegedly, shows similar inconsistencies with the official account.

In later editions of the book, this sentence was altered to

‘Snowy can barely read and write’ — presumably for

+ [ p. 72 ] “ ‘[. . . ] he thinks it’ll magically improve his consistency with the Clue about the notebook (p. 106).

shot.’ ”

+ [ p. 87 ] “ ‘Dis is der Riot Act.’ ”

The official account of JFK’s assassination describes how a bullet moved in some very strange ways through his body.

The Riot Act was an old British law that allowed the Conspiracy theorists disparage this as the “magic bullet authorities to use deadly force to break up crowds who theory”.

were gathered for subversive purposes, such as trade unionists or Chartists. It was an unusual law in that it had

+ [ p. 76 ] “ ‘It looks like a complete run of Bows and to be read out to the crowd before it came into force —

Ammo!’ ”

hence the significance of Detritus’ attempt to read it — and the crowd was then supposed to be given a reasonable time See the annotation for p. 126 of Hogfather.

to disperse. However, it was wide open to abuse, and was associated with some very nasty incidents, such as the

+ [ p. 77 ] “ ‘Bugger all else but sand in Klatch. Still got Peterloo Massacre in 1818. It was not finally abolished in some in his sandals.’ ”

the UK until the mid–20th century, when the government When the First World War broke out, Britons were much decided that it would not be an acceptable way to deal with JINGO

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the regular riots then taking place in Northern Ireland.

other means.’ ”

Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz (1780–1831), a

+ [ p. 93 ] “ ‘ “Testing the Locksley Reflex 7: A Whole Lotta Prussian general who fought against Napoleon, wrote a Bow” ’ ”

standard textbook On War (Vom Kriege, first published Named after the most famous archer of English mythology: 1833), in which he said that “war is simply a continuation of Robin of Locksley, AKA Robin Hood.

political intercourse, with the addition of other means”. If In our world, there really do exist ‘reflex bows’: they are a you want to understand Lord Rust’s mindset as expressed type of bow that will curve away from the archer when by someone with a working brain, read Clausewitz.

unstrung.

+ [ p. 119 ] “ ‘You’ve all got Foaming Sheep Disease.’ ”

+ [ p. 98 ] “ ‘Good evening, Stoolie.’ ”

When Jingo was being written, there was much speculation

“Stoolie” is sometimes an abbreviation for “stoolpigeon”, a about whether “mad cow disease” had first been police informant. Of course, a stool is also something you transmitted from sheep to cattle, and whether it could be might find in an Ankh-Morpork street. . .

transmitted from cattle to humans. Both ideas are now widely accepted.

+ [ p. 99 ] “ ‘That one had plants growing on him!’ ”

+ [ p. 120 ] “ ‘The Pheasant Pluckers.’ [. . . .] ‘We even had a It has been pointed out — and I feel bound to inflict the marching song,’ he said. ‘Mind you, it was quite hard to thought on others — that Stoolie is technically a grassy sing right.’ ”

gnoll. (And if that doesn’t mean anything to you in the context of political assassinations — be thankful.) Many British army regiments have, or had, nicknames of this sort, based either on some historical event or on some

+ [ p. 100 ] ’Rinse ‘n’ Run Scalp Tonic’ [. . . ] “Snowy had idiosyncrasy of their uniforms. The marching song is a cleaned, washed and gone.”

famous old tongue-twister: “I’m not a pheasant plucker, I’m a pheasant plucker’s mate/ I’m only plucking pheasants Two references to the shampoo ‘Wash and Go’, a trademark since the pheasant plucker’s late.” (Another variant of Vidal Sassoon.

substitutes “son/come” for “mate/late”.)

+ [ p. 104 ] “ ‘Hah,’ said the Dis-organizer.”

+ [ p. 121/122 ] “ ‘he stuck it in the top pocket of his jerkin See the annotation for p. 73 of Feet of Clay. According to

[. . . ] whoosh, this arrow came out of nowhere, wham, legend, Dis is also the name of a city in Hell — particularly straight into this book and it went all the way through to appropriate to a demon-powered organiser.

the last page before stopping, look.’ ”

Apparently there are “well-documented” cases of this sort

+ [ p. 111 ] “ ‘Apparently it’s over a word in their holy book, of miraculous escape, but it has become a much-parodied

[. . . ] The Elharibians say it translates as “God” and the staple of Boys’ Own-style fiction. One well-known Smalies say it’s “Man”.’ ”

occurrence comes at the very end of the Blackadder III One of the most intractable disputes in the early Christian television series. Another can be found in the 1975 movie church was over the nature of Christ — to what extent he The Man Who Would Be King, starring Sean Connery and was God or man. In 325, the Council of Nicea tried to settle Michael Caine.

the question with the Nicean Creed, but the dispute immediately re-emerged over a single word of the creed:

+ [ p. 126 ] “ ‘[. . . ] the moon rising over the Mountains of one school said that it was “homoousios” (of one the Sun’ ”

substance), the other that it should be “homoiousios” (of Medieval Arab legend identifies the source of the Nile as similar substance). The difference in the words is a single being in “the Mountains of the Moon”.

iota — the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet — and the schism (between Eastern and Western churches) continues

+ [ p. 128 ] “ ‘My strength is as the strength of ten because to this day.

my heart is pure.’ ”

+ [ p. 115 ] “Why play cards with a shaved deck?”

A direct quote from Tennyson’s poem Sir Galahad :

“Shaving” is a method of marking cards by trimming a very, My good blade carves the casques of men,

very thin slice from one edge, perceptible only if you know My tough lance thrusteth sure,

what to look for.

My strength is as the strength of ten,

Because my heart is pure.

+ [ p. 118 ] “ ‘Prince Kalif. He’s the deputy ambassador.’ ”

+ [ p. 130 ] “ ‘The Klatchian’s Head. My grandad said his Caliph was the title of the leader of the Muslim world, from grandad remembered when it was still a real one.’ ”

the death of the Prophet in 632 onward; although the title has been divided and weakened since the 10th century, it There’s a pub in Bath called “The Saracen’s Head”, which was only officially abolished by the newly-formed Republic supposedly has a similarly colourful history.

of Turkey as recently as 1924.

+ [ p. 138 ] “ ‘VENI VIDI VICI: A Soldier’s Life by Gen. A.

+ [ p. 119 ] “ ‘War, Vimes, is a continuation of diplomacy by Tacticus’ ”

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‘Veni vidi vici’ (‘I came, I saw, I conquered’) is a quotation The description matches St Elmo’s Fire, a corona discharge attributed to Julius Caesar, one of several great generals of static electricity sometimes seen on highly exposed who contributed to the composite figure of Tacticus. For surfaces (such as ships) during thunderstorms. In our more on Tacticus, see the annotation for p. 158 of Feet of world, it’s supposed to be a good omen. For more on St Clay.

Ungulant, see Small Gods.

There are similarities between Tacticus’ book, as

+ [ p. 167 ] “ ‘According to the Testament of Mezerek, the expounded later in Jingo, and The Art of War by the Chinese fisherman Nonpo spent four days in the belly of a giant general Sun Tzu.

fish.’ ”

+ [ p. 142 ] “ ‘It is always useful to face an enemy who is According to the Bible, the prophet Jonah did much the prepared to die for his country,’ he read. ‘This means that same (Jonah 1:17).

both you and he have exactly the same aim in mind.’ ”

+ [ p. 174 ] “ ‘The Sykoolites when being pursued in the General Patton, addressing his troops in 1942: “No bastard wilderness [. . . ] were sustained by a rain of celestial ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by biscuits, sir.’ ”

making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.”

The Israelites, while fleeing from Egypt, were sustained by

+ [ p. 143 ] “ ‘[. . . ] this note will self-destruct in five a divinely provided rain of bread (Exodus 16:4).

seconds[. . . ]’ ”

+ [ p. 175 ] “ ‘Fortune favours the brave, sir,’ said Carrot From the beginning of every episode of the television series cheerfully.”

Mission: Impossible.

Another Roman saying, coined by Terence (c.190–159 BC):

+ [ p. 143 ] “[. . . ] extending from the cylinder for all the

“Fortune aids the brave.”

world like the horn of a unicorn [. . . ]”

+ [ p. 180 ] “The motor of his cooling helmet sounded harsh Historically, the tusk of the narwhal has sometimes been for a moment [. . . ]”

taken for that of a unicorn.

For the story of Detritus’ helmet, read Men at Arms.

+ [ p. 145 ] “ ‘But usually I just think of it as the Boat.’ ”

+ [ p. 181 ] “ ‘ “Give a man a fire and he’s warm for a day, Das Boot (The Boat) was an epic German film, made by but set him on fire and he’s warm for the rest of his life.” ’ ”

Wolfgang Petersen in 1981, telling the story of a German submarine in 1941.

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

+ [ p. 150 ] “ ‘[. . . ] which kills people but leaves buildings life.”

standing.’ ”

+ [ p. 183 ] “ ‘those nautical stories about giant turtles that Said of the neutron bomb, which delivers a very heavy dose sleep on the surface, thus causing sailors to think they are of radiation but relatively small explosive power or fallout.

an island.’ ”

Mind you, it could fairly be said of most crossbows.

One of the many adventures of Sinbad, in The Thousand

+ [ p. 152 ] “ ‘Just me and Foul Ole Ron and the Duck Man and One Nights.

and Blind Hugh [. . . ]’ ”

+ [ p. 192 ] “ ‘ “If you would seek peace, prepare for war.” ’ ”

Inconsistency alert: on p. 74, Carrot told Vimes that Blind Hugh had ‘passed away last month’.

From the 4th/5th century Roman writer Vegetius: “Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum” — “Let him who

+ [ p. 154 ] “ ‘I thought that was for drillin’ into the bottom desires peace, prepare for war.”

of enemy ships —’ ”

+ [ p. 204 ] “ ‘ “Gulli, Gulli and Beti” ’ ”

The first working submarine was a one-man, hand-propelled vessel called the Turtle, designed to use an augur to attach The troop of entertainers that our heroes become is explosive charges to the hulls of enemy ships, the enemy in modelled on the old time Music-Hall team of Wilson, Kepple this case being the British during the American War of and Betty, whose act included ‘The Sand Dance’. There’s Independence. The Turtle attacked HMS Eagle in New York also a nice resonance of names with the Paul Simon song Harbor on 6 September 1776, but the hull was lined with

‘Call Me Al’:

copper and the screw failed to pierce it.

And if you’ll be my bodyguard,

I can be your long lost pal,

+ [ p. 158 ] “D’reg wasn’t their name for themselves, And I can call you Betty,

although they tended to adopt it now out of pride.”

and Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al.

This has several parallels in our own world, most notably the Sioux, who adopted that name from their neighbours

+ [ p. 210 ] “ ‘[. . . ] I thought that a flying column of and habitual enemies the Ojibwa.

guerrilla soldiers —’ ”

Since getting into his flowing white robes, Carrot appears

+ [ p. 165 ] “ ‘That’s St Ungulant’s Fire, that is!’ ”

JINGO

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The Annotated Pratchett File

to be fast turning into Lawrence of Arabia. See also the

+ [ p. 249 ] “ ‘That’s a Make-Things-Bigger device, isn’t it?

annotations for pp. 259 and 264.

[. . . ] They were invented only last year.’ ”

Judging from the name, this could be one of Leonard’s

+ [ p. 215 ] “ ‘Egg, melon! Melon, egg!’ ”

creations — but actually we’ve learned in Soul Music Vetinari’s patter seems to be based on that of the (p. 137) that this particular invention was the work of fez-wearing British comedian Tommy Cooper.

Ponder Stibbons at Unseen University.

+ [ p. 223 ] “ ‘En al Sams la Laisa’ ”

+ [ p. 257 ] “ ‘And Captain Carrot is organizing a football This is, as Vetinari later translates, almost-Arabic for match.’ ”

“where the sun shines not”.

There’s a famous but true story of how, on Christmas Day 1914, troops from British and German units came out of the

+ [ p. 224 ] “ ‘Oh, I’ve got a thousand and one of ‘em.’ ”

trenches and played football in No-Man’s Land.

One of the best-known (in the west, at least) works of Arabic literature is The Thousand and One Nights. Several

+ [ p. 259 ] “ ‘Why don’t you take some well-earned rest, Sir classics of children’s literature — including Aladdin and Samuel? You are [. . . ] a man of action. You deal in swords Sinbad the Sailor — appear in this collection. Nobby’s and chases, and facts. Now, alas, it is the time for the men version would appear to be rather more PG-rated.

or words, who deal in promises and mistrust and opinions.

For you the war is over. Enjoy the sunshine. I trust we shall

+ [ p. 224 ] “ ‘Especially the one about the man who went all be returning home shortly.’ ”

into the tavern with the very small musician.’ ”

This speech is very similar to the end of the film Lawrence See the annotation for p. 195 of Feet of Clay.

of Arabia (David Lean, 1962). Prince Feisal tells Lawrence:

“There’s nothing further here, for a warrior. We drive

+ [ p. 227 ] “ ‘Donkey, minaret,’ said Lord Vetinari.

bargains, old men’s work. Young men makes wars and the

‘Minaret, donkey.’ ‘Just like that?’ ”

virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage and hope for the future. Old men make the peace and the vices Another Tommy Cooper reference (see also the annotation of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution.”

for p. 215).

+ [ p. 264 ] “ ‘The trick is not to mind that it hurts.’ ”

+ [ p. 229 ] “ ‘He had a city named after him. . . ’ ”

Early in the film Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence is sitting in The most famous example in our world is Alexandria, built an office drawing maps and talking to his compatriot about by Alexander the Great.

the Bedouin attacking the Turks. Another man joins them and Lawrence lights a cigarette, putting the match out with

+ [ p. 230 ] “A statue must have stood here [. . . ] Now it had his fingers. The newcomer tries the same trick, but drops gone, and there were just feet, broken off at the ankles.”

the match with a shout of “it hurts.” To which Lawrence A reference to Shelley’s sonnet Ozymandias. See the replies: “The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it annotation for p. 271/259 of Pyramids.

hurts.”

+ [ p. 243 ] “We were going to sail into Klatch and be in

+ [ p. 268 ] “ ‘Say it ain’t so, Mr Vimes!’ ”

Al-Khali by teatime, drinking sherbet with pliant young

‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson was the star player of the Chicago women in the Rhoxi.”

White Sox during the 1919 World Series. When it emerged British officers in the First World War, when encouraging that he had (allegedly) accepted bribes to throw the series, their men to go over the top, would quip that “We’ll be the fans’ collective reaction was of shocked incredulity: the eating tea and cakes in Berlin at teatime.” (Captain line “Say it ain’t so, Joe!” became the canonical form of Blackadder observed irritably that “Everyone wants to eat begging someone to deny an allegation that is too shocking out as soon as they get there”.)

to accept, but too convincing to disbelieve.

+ [ p. 245 ] “ ‘That’s “Evil Brother-in-Law of a Jackal”,’ said

+ [ p. 282 ] “ ‘It is a far, far better thing I do now [. . . ]’ ”

Ahmed.”

At the end of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, Sydney Carton, See Pyramids for the Discworld convention on the naming good-natured layabout and occasional drunk, goes to the of camels.

guillotine in the place of his beloved’s beloved.

The book’s famous last line is not a direct quote from

+ [ p. 246 ] “ ‘That is a reason to field such a contemptible Sydney (since he’s already dead by then), but rather what little army?’ ”

the narrator feels he might have said: “If he had given any In 1914, the Kaiser apparently made a similar observation utterance to his [thoughts], and they were prophetic, they of the British Expeditionary Force sent to oppose the would have been these: ‘[. . . ] It is a far, far better thing German advance through Belgium. The soldiers later that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest proudly adopted the name ‘Old Contemptibles’.

that I go to than I have ever known.’ ”.

See also the annotation for p. 158.

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Oh Lydia The Queen of Tattoo.

The Last Continent

On her back is the Battle of Waterloo.

Beside it, The Wreck of the Hesperus, too.

And proudly above waves the red, white, and blue,

+ [title ] The Last Continent

You can learn a lot from Lydia!

The title puns on “The Lost Continent”, a literary phrase Teaching artifical intelligences to sing songs, recite poetry, associated with vanished worlds, both literal (e.g. Col James or tell jokes is a well-established science fiction theme, with Churchward’s 1931 The Lost Continent of Mu) as well as probably the most famous example being HAL in the movie metaphorical (Bill Bryson’s 1990 The Lost Continent, about 2001: A Space Odyssey reverting back to his ‘childhood’

his rediscovery of and journey through the lesser known and singing ‘Daisy’ for Bowman. Possibly, that scene might parts of his native USA).

not have been quite as poignant had HAL sung ‘Lydia’, instead. . .

+ [ p. 9 ] “[. . . ] one particular planet whose inhabitants watched, with mild interest, huge continent-wrecking slabs

+ [ p. 23 ] “A man sits in some museum somewhere and of ice slap into another world which was, in astronomical writes a harmless book about political economy [. . . ]”

terms, right next door — and then did nothing about it Karl Marx spent a lot of time in the old Reading Room of because that sort of thing only happens in Outer Space.”

the British Museum when he was writing Das Kapital.

This is pretty much what happened in 1994 when comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into Jupiter.

+ [ p. 28 ] “ ‘You see, we think he’s on EcksEcksEcksEcks, Archchancellor,’ said Ponder.”

+ [ p. 10 ] “It is a general test of the omnipotence of a god See the annotation for p. 149/132 of Reaper Man for much that they can see the fall of a tiny bird.”

more information on why the Last Continent is called ‘Xxxx’.

Matthew 10:29. Terry has referred to this “test” before, see e.g. the annotation for p. 35 of Hogfather.

+ [ p. 31 ] “ ‘ “Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography”,’ he said.”

+ [ p. 11 ] “ ‘The Archchancellor’s Keys!’ ”

‘Egregrious’ originally meant “distinguished, eminent”, but This ceremony spoofs a ritual conducted at the Tower of is now a term of abuse. It also puns on the regis (meaning: London, where “The Queen’s Keys” are used to lock up

“sponsored by the crown”) professors at some UK

every day.

universities.

+ [ p. 16 ] “ ‘Grubs! That’s what we’re going to eat!’ ”

+ [ p. 34 ] “ ‘ “Little is known about it save that it is girt by Witchety grubs, a traditional Aboriginal food. Taste a bit sea.” ’ ”

like nuts, apparently.

One of the few lines of the Australian national anthem that most Australians actually know is “Our home is girt by sea”.

+ [ p. 17 ] “ ‘Strewth!’ ”

Possibly it sticks in the memory because, at the age when Exclamation, archaic in Britain but much more current in kids first learn it, nobody knows what “girt” means. (It Australia. Shortened form of “God’s truth!”.

means “encircled, enclosed”.)

+ [ p. 19 ] “Ridcully was to management what King Herod

+ [ p. 35 ] “ ‘Sir Roderick Purdeigh spent many years was to the Bethlehem Playgroup Association.”

looking for the alleged continent and was very emphatic that it didn’t exist.’ ”

Matthew 2:16: “Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent The Discworld Mapp chronicles Sir Roderick’s career in forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and some detail, his principal achievement being three epic in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, voyages of discovery around the Disc, during which he

[. . . ]”

completely failed to find XXXX, the Counterweight Continent, or indeed any land of any consequence at all.

+ [ p. 22 ] “[. . . ] trying to teach Hex to sing ‘Lydia the Tattooed Lady’, [. . . ]”

+ [ p. 35 ] “ ‘[. . . ] in that country the bark fell off the trees in the winter and the leaves stayed on.’ ”

‘Lydia the Tattooed Lady’ is one of Groucho Marx’ most famous songs, originally performed in the 1939 Marx This is what happens with Australian gum trees, such as the Brothers movie At the Circus. Kermit the Frog did a great coolabah.

cover of ‘Lydia’ on the Connie Stevens episode of The Muppet Show.

+ [ p. 35 ] “ ‘[. . . ] men who go around on one big foot’ ”

Oh Lydia, oh Lydia, say, have you met Lydia?

C. S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, book three of Lydia The Tattooed Lady.

the Narnia series, features the island of the Dufflepuds, who She has eyes that folks adore so,

do this. Terry himself traces the story back much further: And a torso even more so.

“Two things influenced this. One is that, in accounts of very Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclo-pidia,

early long-distance voyages, ‘people who go around on one THE LAST CONTINENT

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The Annotated Pratchett File

foot’ are among the usual freaks encountered (memory annotation for p. 91/83 of Guards! Guards!.

creaks, and recalls some about them in The Saga of Eirik the Red. . . ). The other is that, when I was a kid, I’ll swear

+ [ p. 60 ] “It looked as though the artist hadn’t just wanted we had a class reader of Robinson Crusoe and a pic showed to draw a kangaroo from the outside but had wanted to him in his goat skins marvelling at the one footprint he’d show the inside as well.”

found in the sand. The illustrator had obviously been told to A characteristic of Aboriginal art, sometimes known as draw the picture of RC finding ‘a footprint’ and had done

“X-Ray painting”.

just that.”

+ [ p. 61 ] “What it showed, outlined in red ochre, were

+ [ p. 35 ] “ ‘It says the continent has very few poisonous dozens of hands.”

snakes. . . ’ ”

Important Aboriginal tribe members often had their In fact, the snakes of Australia are noted for their lethality.

handprint put on a rock face by having the artist fill their According to one source, 14 of the world’s top 15 poisonous mouth with water and ochre, and then squirt the “paint”

snakes are Australian.

over the hand leaving the silhouette on the rock.

+ [ p. 37 ] “If you made a hole in the soles and threaded the

+ [ p. 68 ] “ ‘I don’t mind putting my hand up to killing a twine through it [. . . ]”

few spiders,’ ”

. . . you’d have a thong sandal. Pretty much acceptable as See the annotation for p. 99.

footwear in most of tropical Oz, although not in most restaurants.

+ [ p. 75 ] “ ‘Are you coming the raw prawn?’ ”

+ [ p. 39 ] “[. . . ] expanding circles of dim white light.”

Australian for lying or pulling someone’s leg. See also the annotation for p. 149/132 of Reaper Man.

In Aboriginal art, a waterhole is generally shown radiating concentric circles outwards into the desert.

+ [ p. 81 ] “ ‘There’s only one of everything.’ ”

+ [ p. 41 ] “ ‘Many a poor sailorman has washed up on them In Hobbyist, a short story by science fiction writer Eric fatal shores rather than get carried right over the Rim,’ ”

Frank Russell, the hero finds a planet where there is, indeed, only one of every kind of animal and plant. It turns The Fatal Shore, by Robert Hughes, is one of the seminal out to be run by an alien super-being who creates life forms.

history texts concerning the British colonisation of Australia and the transportation of convicts.

+ [ p. 87 ] “ ‘Most people call me Mad.’ ”

+ [ p. 46 ] “Ridcully’s own eyes were burning bright.[. . . ]

Refers to Mad Max, eponymous hero of the classic

‘Tigers, eh?’ he said.”

Australian film series that made Mel Gibson a star. Max drove the V8 Interceptor (matching Mad’s eight horses), The first stanza of William Blake’s famous poem ‘The with a supercharger (which Mad also engages, although Tyger’:

Max’s version didn’t involve feedbags). The description of Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

the pursuing road gang certainly looks as if it might have In the forests of the night,

been inspired by a scene from the movie Mad Max 2: The What immortal hand or eye

Road Warrior.

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

+ [ p. 91 ] “ ‘Mental as anything’ ”

+ [ p. 48 ] “ ‘Turned out nice again,’ he said.”

The name of a well known Australian rock band.

“Turned out nice again” was the catchphrase of the 1940s/50s British comedian George Formby. In his films, he

+ [ p. 97 ] “[..] The Small Boring Group of Faint Stars [. . . ]”

invariably said this just as he realised that he was in trouble Appropriately enough, Rincewind’s birth sign, according to and a split second before he started running.

The Light Fantastic.

+ [ p. 52 ] “Some of the trees lining the beach looked

+ [ p. 98 ] “ ‘[. . . ] the important thing is not to kill your own hauntingly familiar, and spoke to the Librarian of home.

grandfather.’ ”

This was strange, because he had been born in Moon Pond The “grandfather paradox” is a common philosophical Lane, Ankh-Morpork, next to the saddle-makers.”

objection to time travel. Science fiction writers have This name may be related to the famous Australian suburb developed numerous ways of dealing with it, of which what of Moonee Ponds, which gave the world Dame Edna Terry calls “the trousers of time” is only one. This scene Everage and Tina Arena.

looks at a couple of others (see also the annotations for pp.

99, 101).

+ [ p. 55 ] “ ‘Oh that means “come quick, someone’s fallen down a deep hole” ’ ”

+ [ p. 99 ] “ ‘You might . . . tread on an ant now and it might Scrappy the Kangaroo parodies Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, entirely prevent someone from being born in the future!’ ”

an Australian children’s television series. See also the In Ray Bradbury’s short story A Sound of Thunder, the 118

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

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killing of a butterfly in the distant past completely changes deep-seated suspicion that perhaps the country isn’t quite history. See also the annotation for p. 118/86 of Lords and on a par with Britain or even America when it comes to Ladies.

“culture” — with the result that the cultural “high points”

get aggressively promoted, while the regular beer and

+ [ p. 101 ] “ ‘Because, in fact, history already depends on suchlike are regarded with something close to your treading on any ants that you happen to step on.’ ”

embarrassment.

The “closed loop” theory of time travel — that all the loose

+ [ p. 109 ] “ ‘This is what I call a knife!’ [. . . ] ‘No worries.

ends will be tied up, even if it’s not immediately obvious This [. . . ] is what I call a crossbow.’ ”

how — contrasts with the “trousers of time” model. It was well expressed in the film The Terminator, although the Two film references for the price of one. The competitive sequel promptly abandoned the idea.

knife-sizing is straight out of Crocodile Dundee; Mad’s move of trumping the whole issue by pulling a crossbow

+ [ p. 104 ] “ ‘Dijabringabeeralong: Check your Weapons.’ ”

comes from Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Harrison Ford You can actually get doormats and house name plates with pulls a revolver on a show-off swordsman.

the inscription “didjabringabeeralong”. The first

+ [ p. 112 ] “ ‘Er. . . there’s a great big spider on the toilet description of the town, including the sign, is similar to seat.’ ”

Bartertown in the movie Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome.

Spiders on the toilet are a big problem in Australia — it’s

+ [ p. 104 ] “It’s run by Crocodile.’ ”

always worth having a good look before you sit. A small Signals a shift in the films being parodied, from the Mad number of people per year, apparently, suffer nasty bites Max series to Crocodile Dundee. (In the film, Crocodile was from redbacks (a kind of black widow) when sitting on the a human, nicknamed for his prowess at wrestling or toilet. A mid–90s UK TV commercial for Carling Black Label otherwise dealing with crocs.)

(a brand of beer) showed an English tourist in Australia faced with this problem.

+ [ p. 105 ] “ ‘[. . . ] one day he found a footprint in the sand.

There is also a well-known Australian folk song that goes: There was a woodcut.’ ”

There was a redback on the toilet seat

The book the Chair is talking about is known, in our world, when I was there last night

as Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe. See the annotation I didn’t see him in the dark

for p. 35.

but boy I felt his bite

And now I am in hospital

+ [ p. 106 ] “ ‘If you were marooned on a desert island, eh a sad and sorry plight

Dean. . . what kind of music would you like to listen to, I curse the redback spider

eh?’ ”

on the toilet seat last night

Desert Island Discs is a long-running BBC radio programme, in which celebrity guests are asked to pick

+ [ p. 124 ] “ ‘Everything is so completely selfish about it.’ ”

eight records to be stuck with on a hypothetical desert Possibly a reference to The Selfish Gene, a book on island.

evolution by Richard Dawkins. The term has stuck in the Terry was himself a guest on 9 September 1997, and chose current consensus about the mechanics of evolution.

the following list:

- ‘Symphonie Fantastique: Dream of a Witches’

+ [ p. 129 ] “ ‘ “Tie my kangaroo up”. Bloody good fong.’ ”

Sabbath’ — Berlioz, London Symphony

Rincewind’s version of the famous Rolf Harris song ‘Tie me Orchestra/Sir Eugene Goossens.

kangaroo down’. Of course, in Rincewind’s case, what he

- ‘Thomas the Rhymer’ — Steeleye Span.

really wants is for someone to keep Scrappy away from

- ‘The Race for the Rheingold Stakes’ — Bernard him. . .

Miles.

- ‘The Marriage of Figaro: Voi che sapete’ —

+ [ p. 129 ] “ ‘[. . . ] playing Two Up. [. . . ] Kept bettin’ they Mozart, Petra Lang, ms; Royal Concertgebouw

wouldn’t come down at all.’ ”

Orchestra, Amsterdam/Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

See the annotation for p. 200/151 of Soul Music. Back in

- ‘Bat out of Hell’ — Meatloaf.

The Colour of Magic, Rincewind witnessed a coin being

- ‘Silk Road Theme’ — Kitaro.

tossed in the air and not coming down at all.

- ‘Great Southern Land’ — Icehouse.

- ‘Four Seasons: Summer’ — Vivaldi, Israel

+ [ p. 131 ] “The purple cart rumbled off. Painted crudely Philharmonic Orchestra/Itzhak Perlman, v.

on the back were the words: Petunia, The Desert Princess.”

+ [ p. 109 ] “ ‘An’ I expect you don’t even know that we The scenes with Letitia, Darleen and Neilette resonate with happen to produce some partic’ly fine wines [. . . ] yew The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the 1994

bastard ?’ ”

movie about two transvestites and a transsexual crossing Australia in a bus.

Expresses a phenomenon known in Australia as ‘cultural cringe’ — a nagging inferiority complex, based on a THE LAST CONTINENT

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+ [ p. 133 ] “[. . . ] enquiries as to whether it required undeniably Haldane’s, who often repeated it, but the story something for the weekend [. . . ]”

of it being a riposte to an actual theological question cannot be verified.)

“Something for the weekend”, in barber’s shops up until the mid–20th century, meant ‘condoms’.

Haldane was also the author of a children’s book, My Friend Mr Leakey, which has a very Pratchettian tone, and

+ [ p. 136 ] “ ‘You’re not going to say anything about woolly is strongly recommended.

jumpers, are you?’ ”

+ [ p. 157 ] “ ‘Big bills, short bills, bills for winkling insects The punchline to an ancient joke about crossing a kangaroo out of bark [. . . ]’ ”

with a sheep.

One of the key things Darwin noticed, which led him to his

+ [ p. 137 ] “ ‘Why Snowy? That’s an odd name for a detailed theory of evolution, was the slight differences in horse.’ ”

bills between finches on different islands in the Galapagos Because Banjo Patterson, poet and author of many fine group.

Australian tales, wrote a narrative poem called The Man

+ [ p. 161 ] “Embarrassment filled the air, huge and pink. If from Snowy River, telling of a man who rode a creature it were rock, you could have carved great hidden rose-red

“something like a racehorse undersized”.

cities in it.”

Patterson’s other writing credits include the lyrics to

‘Petra’ (a Greek word meaning ‘stone’) is the name of an

‘Waltzing Matilda’, which gives him a strong claim to have ancient pre-Roman city in Jordan. Victorian traveler and invented the idea of the Australian hero, which is what the poet John William Burgon describes the city in his poem old man is trying to turn Rincewind into. See also the Petra, ending with the line: “A rose-red city, ‘half as old as annotations for pp. 145, 146, 148, 170.

Time!’ ”

+ [ p. 137 ] “ ‘Why din’t you tell him about the drop-bears

+ [ p. 170 ] “Once a moderately jolly wizard camped by a over that way?’ ”

waterhole under the shade of a tree that he was completely Drop-bears are the standard story to tell gullible foreigners.

unable to identify.”

Basically a sort of predatory koala that has evolved to drop, Banjo Patterson’s (see the annotation for p. 137) leopard-like, out of trees onto unwary (non-native) best-known work, by some margin, is ‘Waltzing Matilda’.

bushwalkers.

Unfortunately, his words are not the same as those sung to

+ [ p. 145 ] “ ‘Old Remorse says [. . . ]’ ”

the world-renowned tune. Even more unfortunately, although every Australian knows this song, no two of them The Man from Snowy River (see annotation for p. 137) seem to agree on all the lyrics, so this version should not be describes the pursuit of a horse identified as “the colt from taken as authoritative:

old Regret”.

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,

+ [ p. 146 ] “Snowy’s nostrils flared and, without even Under the shade of a coolabah tree,

pausing, he continued down the slope.”

And he sang as he watched and waited for his

billy boil,

Rincewind’s ride across the canyon, while the rest of the

‘Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?’

gang can’t follow, again echoes The Man from Snowy River.

CHORUS:

+ [ p. 148 ] “ ‘Where was it he wanted to go, Clancy?’ ”

Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda,

Who’ll come a waltzing Matilda with me?

Clancy of the Overflow was another poem by Banjo And he sang as he watched and waited for the

Patterson, and Clancy also plays a major role in The Man billy boil,

from Snowy River.

Who’ll come a waltzing Matilda with me?

+ [ p. 154 ] “It was the front half of an elephant.”

Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong, Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with

In the early 1990s, the British artist Damien Hirst caused glee,

much controversy by exhibiting animals cut in half and And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his

preserved in formaldehyde.

tuckerbag,

‘You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.’

+ [ p. 155 ] “ ‘Beetles?’ said Ponder.”

Down came the squatter, a-riding on his

There are over 400,000 distinct, named species of beetle in thoroughbred,

the world, and possibly twice as many unnamed ones.

Down came the troopers, one, two, three.

When asked what his studies of Creation had revealed to

‘Whose is the jumbuck you’ve got in your

him about the nature of God, the Scottish geneticist J. B. S.

tuckerbag?

Haldane (1892–1964) supposedly answered: “He seems to You’ll come a-waltzing matilda with me.’

have had an inordinate fondness for beetles.”

Up jumped the swagman and leapt into the

(According to science writer Stephen Jay Gould, the quip is billabong,

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‘You’ll never take me alive,’ said he,

The main shopping street in central Melbourne is called And his ghost may be heard as you pass beside Bourke Street.

the billabong,

‘You’ll come a-waltzing matilda with me.’

+ [ p. 198 ] “ ‘ “Hill’s Clothesline Co.” ’ ”

The astute reader will have noticed that the last sentence of Real Australian company that makes the world famous Terry’s paragraph (“And he swore as he hacked and hacked Hill’s Hoist clothesline.

at a can of beer, saying ‘What kind of idiots put beer in tins?’ ”) fits both the tune and the structure of the song.

+ [ p. 199 ] “ ‘[. . . ] ‘cos Duncan’s me mate.’ ”

The expression “waltzing Matilda” existed before the song, From the Australian song ‘Duncan’, which was a big hit for meaning to hump or carry one’s belongings with one, like a singer Slim Dusty in 1958: “I love to have a beer with tramp.

Duncan, ‘cos Duncan’s me mate.”

+ [ p. 174 ] “No, what you got was salty-tasting beery

+ [ p. 199 ] “ ‘The way I see it, I’m more indigenous than brown gunk.”

them.’ ”

Rincewind has invented Marmite, close cousin to the milder It has been suggested that Dibbler’s politics are inspired by Vegemite.

those of the radical Australian politician Pauline Hanson, who also came from the fast-food industry.

+ [ p. 184 ] “ ‘It even does me good to have a proper criminal in the cells for once, instead of all these bloody

+ [ p. 202 ] “ ‘That’s going to make the one about the land politicians.’ ”

of the giant walking plum puddings look very tame.’ ”

Politicians in Australia have an even worse reputation than There’s a famous Australian children’s story called “The those elsewhere in the Anglophone world, but in fact their Magic Pudding”.

rate of conviction is not all that high. There was a particularly notorious scandal in the late 80s involving Sir

+ [ p. 203 ] “well, it had to be a building. No one could have Joh Bjelke-Peterson, premier of Queensland; several of his left an open box of tissues that big. [. . . ] a building that associates were jailed, and the premier himself was looked about to set sail [. . . ]”

accused and (briefly) tried on charges of perjury. The trial Both descriptions have been applied, at various times, to was aborted.

Sydney Opera House — which is, indeed, on the waterfront.

+ [ p. 185 ] “ ‘Only it’d help me if it was a name with three

+ [ p. 213 ] “ ‘She’s. . . her name’s. . . Dame Nellie. . .

syllables.’ ”

Butt.’ ”

The balladeer is in luck. See the annotation for p. 170.

Dame Nellie Butt has two aspects: Dame Nellie Melba, of Peach Melba fame, and Dame Clara Butt, an English singer

+ [ p. 185 ] “ ‘Reckon you might be as famous as Tinhead who moved to Australia.

Ned, mate.’ ”

Ned Kelly was a legendary Australian bushranger of the

+ [ p. 215 ] “ ‘I give you. . . the Peach Nellie.’ ”

1870s who, at his famous last stand, wore a suit of armour Rincewind has invented the Peach Melba, named in our to stop bullets. Unfortunately for him, the police noticed world for Dame Nellie Melba, a famous Australian contralto.

that he didn’t have armour on his legs. . . Famous also for his reputed last words: “Such is life.”

+ [ p. 218 ] “ ‘You mean this whole place is a prison?’ ”

+ [ p. 187 ] “ ‘Meat pie floater.’ ”

It’s often said — not least by Australians — that they are the descendants of British convicts who were sentenced to As Terry later explains, this is a Regional Delicacy found

“transportation” as a penalty only slightly preferable to specifically in South Australia.

death, and indeed the earliest European settlements, from 1788 onwards, were penal colonies. However, separate

+ [ p. 194 ] “ ‘Remember old “Dicky” Bird’?”

“free colonies” were established not long afterwards, and Terry suggests that everyone named Bird probably attracts the transportation of prisoners stopped in the mid 19th the nickname “Dicky” at some point in their lives, but the century.

most famous (and appropriate, in this context) is a legendary, now retired, cricket umpire.

+ [ p. 219 ] “ ‘This is the Galah they keep talking about.’ ”

Rincewind seems to have stumbled into the world-famous

+ [ p. 197 ] “ ‘Dibbler’s Café de Feet’ ”

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. A galah is also a small There is a place in Adelaide called the Café de Wheels, pink parrot with a grey head. They are apparently very which is famous for its meat pie floaters (see annotation for gentle and inoffensive birds, which makes it harder to p. 187). Dibbler’s version also puns on ‘defeat’, which understand why “galah” is also a Australian slang term of seems appropriate to his general attitude.

derision meaning “likeable fool” or “simpleton”. Apparently, transvestites are not entirely welcome in the Sydney Mardi

+ [ p. 197 ] “ ‘I just came up Berk Street.’ ”

Gras.

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The Annotated Pratchett File

+ [ p. 223 ] “Rincewind leapt from the cart, landed on

+ [ p. 253 ] “ ‘We’re a clever country —’ ”

someone’s shoulder, jumped again very briefly on to Australia once tried to sell itself to the world as “the clever someone’s head.”

country”, to attract the right kind of immigrants.

At the end of the movie Crocodile Dundee, our Australian hero makes his way across a packed New York subway

+ [ p. 254 ] “ ‘ “Funnelweb”? ‘s a funny name for a beer.’ ”

station platform in this fashion.

It is, of course, the name of a spider. One of Terry’s favourite Australian beers is “Redback”, another spider.

+ [ p. 233 ] “ ‘A sarong.’ ‘Looks right enough to me, haha.’ ”

Probably best not to inquire too closely as to the recipe.

The Dean is trying, with rather too much desperation, to make a joke that requires him to have a pseudo-Italian

+ [ p. 263 ] “He sloshed wildly at the stone, humming under accent for it to work. If Chico Marx were to say “That’s his breath. ‘Anyone guess what it is yet?’ he said over his wrong”, it would sound something like “a sarong”.

shoulder.”

Rincewind is imitating Rolf Harris, a scruffily-bearded

+ [ p. 239 ] “ ‘When Darleen sings “Prancing Queen” [. . . ]’ ”

Australian singer and artist who used to present kids’

The heroines of the film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen cartoon programmes on UK TV. Before each cartoon, he’d of the Desert perform (well, playback to) a repertoire of demonstrate how to draw the leading characters, humming Abba songs. See the annotation for p. 131.

as he sketched and often asking ‘Can you guess what it is yet?’ over his shoulder.

+ [ p. 240 ] “ ‘Look, it’s the new brewery because we built it See also the annotation for p. 129.

to replace the one over the river.’ ”

The Old Brewery in WA is situated by the Swan River, on or

+ [ p. 266 ] “There were more important questions as they near a sacred site (depending on who you ask). Neilette’s sat round the table in BU.”

brewery is positioned on possibly the most definitively The natural assumption that BU stands for “Bugarup unsacred site in the continent. . .

University” is entirely logical, but the fact that it’s not spelt out gives us license to speculate wildly about many

+ [ p. 241 ] “ ‘My dad lost nearly all his money.’ ”

alternative resonances. . .

Brewing is a financially dangerous business. Alan Bond (see First, it’s worth noting that there really is a BU in Australia: the annotation for p. 266) lost a fortune in the 1990s, when Bond University, in the Gold Coast, was financed and named lessees of his pubs objected to his plan to sell them all off after Alan Bond, the well-known Americas Cup winner, for a quick return.

colourful businessman and ex-gaolbird. His principal business interest was in brewing: he owned the

+ [ p. 247 ] “ ‘Now look,’ said Ridcully. ‘I’m a man who Castlemaine Tooheys brand, before running into trouble in knows his ducks, and what you’ve got there is laughable.’ ”

the late 80s. (see also the annotation for p. 241).

It’s been said, cruelly, that a platypus is what a duck would Adding a second dimension to the name, one could note look like if it was designed by a committee.

that "bû" is the past participle of the French “boire”, to drink. Third, there’s the well-known drinking expression

+ [ p. 248 ] “ ‘ “Nulli Sheilae sanguineae” ’ ”

“bottoms up!” — an exhortation to fellow drinkers to quaff

“No bloody Sheilas”.

harder. Even more improbably, there’s the notion that never fails to raise a laugh in primary schools in the UK that

+ [ p. 249 ] “ ‘Er, I had an assisted passage.’ ”

Australians, being upside-down, all walk on their heads, i.e.

“Assisted passage” was the term for the financial support with their bums uppermost. Of course, most likely BU does given to British immigrants during the 1960s.

stand for Bugarup University. But all that was worth thinking about, wasn’t it?

+ [ p. 252 ] “ ‘We used to call them bullroarers when I was a kid,’ ”

+ [ p. 267 ] “The Librarian sneezed. ‘. . . awk. . . ’ ‘Er. . . now you’re some sort of large bird. . . ’ said Rincewind.”

Bullroars were apparently used traditionally by the aborigines as a means of communicating and signalling Possibly a Great Auk (an extinct species of flightless, over distances of several miles. Its use is demonstrated in penguin-like sea bird).

the movie Crocodile Dundee II, where he uses one to call for help from nearby Aborigines.

+ [ p. 268 ] “He could save up and buy a farm on the Never-Never.”

+ [ p. 253 ] “ ‘You’re trying to tell me you’ve got a tower Puns on the “Never-Never” (a name for Outback Australia) that’s taller at the top than it is at the bottom?’ ”

and “buying on the never-never” (i.e. on hire-purchase).

Once again, a nod to the classic BBC TV series Dr Who —characters were forever remarking on how the Doctor’s

+ [ p. 269 ] “ ‘If we could get to the Hub we could cut loose ship, the Tardis, was bigger on the inside than it was on the a big iceberg and tow it here and that’d give us plenty of outside. Given that the outside was the size of a large water. . . ”

phone box, this was just as well.

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more water for Australia.

2000 AD ; ‘Dere c’n onlie be whin t’ousand!’ seems to be based on the tagline of the film Highlander: ‘There can be

+ [ p. 271 ] “There were classes for boats [. . . ] propelled by only one!’; and ‘Nac mac Feegle wha hae!’ echoes Robert the simple expedient of the crew cutting the bottoms out, Burns’s ‘Scots wha hae’ — although this makes little sense gripping the sides and running like hell.”

on its own. . .

At Henley-on-Todd, Alice Springs, there is an annual regatta

+ [ p. 8 ] “Do they really think that spelling their name on these lines. This event usually has about twenty teams backwards fools anyone?”

that take part in a race up and down the Todd river bed.

The teams are sponsored by local businesses and they are There are many vampire movies in which this trick works normally made up of people that work for the company that remarkably well: in Son of Dracula (1943), Count ‘Alucard’

sponsors them plus other family members. Team members travels to the southern USA to marry a disturbed woman run up and down the river bed carrying a cardboard cut out who wants to be immortal; in Dracula’s Last Rites (1979), of a boat with sails and masts. This looks quite a sight when vampire Dr A. Lucard runs a mortuary, which keeps him you see boats on a dry river and all these hairy legs sticking well-stocked with fresh bodies. The same trick occurs in out of the bottom of the boats. The final race is between Dracula: the Series (1990), and the films Dr Terror’s Galaxy two large boats on tractor bodies. These boats have of Horrors (1966) and Dracula: the Dirty Old Man (1969).

cannons fastened onto the side of them and large fire hoses joined to water tanks on board these are used to fire flour

+ [ p. 11 ] “Not, of course, with her reflection in the glass, at the other teams and the crowd. Mix this with water, and because that kind of heroine will sooner or later end up it makes a lot of mess and a great deal of fun for all.

singing a duet with Mr Blue Bird and other forest creatures

[. . . ]”

Once every seven years or so, it rains, and the event has to be cancelled because the river is full of water.

Various Disney heroines have done this: Snow White was the first, but Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty perpetrated

+ [ p. 272 ] “ ‘One spell, one bucket of seawater, no more similar offences. In the film Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews problem. . . ’ ”

sings in harmony with her own reflection (‘A Spoonful of Sugar’) and does indeed go on to sing with other creatures.

Desalinated seawater plays an important part in the water

‘Mr Blue Bird’ comes into the song ‘Zippedy Doo-Dah’, from supply of many desert countries. However, it is (as Ponder the Disney film Song of the South, although there may be objects) very energy-intensive.

some older reference.

+ [ p. 274 ] “ ‘Can you hear that thunder? [. . . ] We’d better

+ [ p. 13 ] “If you needed to boil an egg, you sang fifteen take cover.’ ”

verses of ‘Where Has All The Custard Gone?’ under your From the Aussie group Men at Work’s 1983 hit ‘Down breath.”

Under’: “Can you hear that thunder? You’d better run, Possibly the Lancrastrian version of ‘Where Have All The you’d better take cover.”

Flowers Gone?’, which can also be used for egg-timing

+ [ p. 280 ] “Near the centre of the last continent, where purposes.

waterfalls streamed down the flanks of a great red

+ [ p. 14 ] “ ‘You got to come to Mrs Ivy and her baby rock[. . . ]”

missus!’ ”

Uluru, or Ayer’s Rock, is regarded as sacred by the Ivy is an evergreen plant that continues growing even on Aborigines so they never climb the rock, although many dead trees; hence it is sometimes a symbol of immortality, tourists do.

persistence of life.

+ [ p. 15 ] “ ‘I thought old Mrs Patternoster was seeing to her.’ ”

Carpe Jugulum

Paternoster (Latin for ‘Our Father’) generally refers to the Lord’s Prayer in Latin, as said by Roman Catholics until the 1960s.

+ [ p. 6 ] “ ‘Nac mac Feegle!’ ”

+ [ p. 18 ] “WELL, I HAVE A SMALL AMOUNT OF MONEY. A The Feegles speak a version of Scots. In theory this is couple of coins landed on the frosty road.”

closely related to English, and an English speaker can usually understand Scots with a bit of effort, but this very See the annotation for p. 30/25 of Mort.

thick dialect is largely incomprehensible to most English speakers. Terry himself warns against trying to decode all

+ [ p. 19 ] “Later on, there’d be a command performance by of their sayings — the important thing is the impression you that man who put weasels down his trousers,”

get, not the exact words — but some of them are A traditional stunt act in Yorkshire, only with ferrets rather straightforward enough.

than weasels.

Of the ‘battle cries’, ‘Bigjobs!’ is the catchphrase of

+ [ p. 21 ] “Now the Quite Reverend Oats looked at himself Mek-Quake, one of the ‘ABC Warriors’ in the cult comic CARPE JUGULUM

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The Annotated Pratchett File

in the mirror.”

The usual tune is ‘Shave and a haircut, two pence’. See also the annotation for p. 47/36 of Soul Music.

In the Anglican church, a priest is known as ‘Reverend’, a dean is ‘Very Reverend’, a bishop is ‘Right Reverend’, an

+ [ p. 51 ] “ ‘We eat only fish this month. [. . . ] Because the archbishop ‘Most Reverend’.

prophet Brutha eschewed meat, um, while he was Oats’s name may be a reference to Titus Oates, a wandering in the desert, see.’ ”

17th-century English clergyman who in 1678 alleged that The Christian fast of Lent, originally a period of abstaining Jesuits were planning to assassinate Charles II and place from all ‘rich food’, commemorates Christ’s time spent his Roman Catholic brother James, Duke of York (later fasting in the wilderness, during which Satan tempted him James II), on the throne. In the subsequent wave of with bread. See Matthew 4:1–11 and Luke 4:1–14. For the anti-Catholic hysteria, Oates was gratefully rewarded, and full story of Brutha, read Small Gods.

about 35 innocent people were executed. In 1685, after James acceded to the throne, Oates was convicted of

+ [ p. 52 ] “ ‘Wstfgl?’ said Agnes.”

perjury, flogged, and imprisoned. He was released and given a pension after James was deposed in the Glorious The earliest occurrence of this non-word that anyone has Revolution of 1688.

yet reported is in Asterix the Legionary, when Obelix catches sight of the beautiful Fabella. Terry says: “You’ve

+ [ p. 27 ] “Lancre people didn’t bother much with got me there. . . I thought I’d just strung together some letterboxes.”

letters!”

All the same, it seems that arrangements have moved on But there’s something about this set of letters, because since Lords and Ladies, in which the mail was left hanging Ptraci says the same thing in Pyramids, and in Feet of Clay, in a sack in the town for people to collect in their own time.

in her sleep, Sybil says ‘wsfgl’. There’s also Astfgl, the

‘villain’ of Eric. More significantly, if you search for “wstfgl”

+ [ p. 30 ] “ ‘[. . . ] an’ it’s bein’ used up on der Copperhead on the Web, you’ll find it cropping up in all sorts of road tonight.’ ”

apparently unrelated stories in a similar context — the noise people make when they’re either asleep or lost for words.

The name is Terry’s tribute to Steve Earle, a large, ‘new country’ singer who recorded a song called ‘Copperhead We may be witnessing the birth of a new word.

Road’. A copperhead is a poisonous snake native to parts of the eastern and southern USA.

+ [ p. 54 ] “ ‘I do not drink. . . wine,’ said Igor haughtily.”

This line, with the dramatic pause before the word ‘wine’,

+ [ p. 32 ] “ ‘It is as well to remember that your ancestors appears in many different movie versions of Dracula,

[. . . ] firmly believed that they couldn’t cross a stream.’ ”

starting with Bela Lugosi’s 1931 classic version, down to Some vampire stories include a prohibition against crossing the Francis Ford Coppola 1992 remake Bram Stoker’s running water. Although it’s worth mentioning that this Dracula.

only ever prevented them from crossing streams under The line itself does not occur in the book, but originated in their own propulsion — they could still be carried across it, the Hamilton Deane stage-play Dracula, which was hugely e.g. in a coach.

successful in New York in the 1920s.

+ [ p. 38 ] “ ‘the worst she can put her hand up to at her

+ [ p. 55 ] “ ‘There wath none of thith fumble-finger thtuff age is a few grubby nappies and keepin’ you awake at and then pinching a brain out of the “Really Inthane” jar night. That’s hardly sinful, to my mind.’ ”

and hopin’ no one’d notithe.’ ”

St Augustine, in his Confessions, pointed to the At least one of the early Frankenstein films (which are attention-seeking behaviour of babies as evidence that even clearly the main inspiration for Igor) involves the servant the most innocent are selfish, because of original sin.

being sent to steal the brain of a famous scientist from a medical lab, but he drops that one and substitutes one

+ [ p. 39 ] “ ‘If Klatch sneezes, Ankh-Morpork catches a labelled ‘Abnormal’, which is then transplanted into the cold.’ ”

monster.

‘If “foo” sneezes, “bar” catches a cold’ has become a cliché

in economics. “foo” and “bar” may be pretty much any

+ [ p. 59 ] “ ‘Vlad de Magpyr,’ said Vlad, bowing.”

combination of America, Japan, Europe and Asia.

Bram Stoker borrowed the name ‘Dracula’ from Vlad Dracula, ‘the Impaler’, 1431–1476, prince of Wallachia.

+ [ p. 39 ] “ ‘The “werewolf economies”, as the Patrician in This Vlad was as brutal and psychopathic a ruler as you Ankh-Morpork calls them.’ ”

could ever hope to avoid, but there is no historical evidence The East Asian economies of South Korea, Singapore, that he either drank blood or dabbled in sorcery.

Malaysia, Thailand and others that grew outstandingly fast The name ‘Magpyr’ puns both on magpie and Magyar, an throughout the 1980s and 90s are sometimes collectively equestrian tribe who settled in what is now Hungary and called the ‘Tiger Economies’.

parts of Romania during the 9th century. Dracula would have been a Magyar. Nowadays, the word is more or less

+ [ p. 41 ] “ ‘ “shave and a haircut, no legs” ’ ”

synonymous with ‘Hungarian’.

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+ [ p. 59 ] “ ‘Or, we prefer, vampyres. With a “y”. It’s more downright flattering, to the magpie in this manner.

modern.’ ”

The rhyme Agnes repeats over the next few pages is similar This spelling has a very old pedigree, but has become a to the one Mike learned as a child:

hallmark of certain modern-day vampire fans who, like the One for sorrow, two for joy,

Count, want to distance themselves from traditional beliefs Three for a girl, four for a boy,

about vampires. I blame Anne Rice.

Five for silver, six for gold,

Seven for a secret never to be told.

+ [ p. 60 ] “ ‘And this is my daughter, Lacrimosa.’ ”

Nanny’s version seems closer to the Scots version given in

‘Lacrimosa’ is Latin for ‘tearful one’, which seems Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable:

appropriate to Lacci’s whiney personality. It’s also the first word of the traditional Latin requiem mass:

One’s sorrow, two’s mirth,

Three’s a wedding, four’s a birth,

Lacrymosa dies illa

Five’s a christening, six a dearth,

quae resurget ex favilla

Seven’s heaven, eight is hell,

judicandus homo reus.

And nine’s the devil his ane sel’.

Huic ergo parce, Deus,

— although Nanny’s also varies noticeably from this, which pie Jesu, Jesu Domine,

just goes to prove what she says about there being lots of dona eis requiem.

different rhymes.

Which translates approximately to:

+ [ p. 90 ] “ ‘Lady Strigoiul said her daughter has taken to O tearful the day

calling herself Wendy,’ [. . . ] ‘Maladora Krvoijac does,’ said when from the ashes rises

Vlad.”

the guilty to be judged.

In Romanian, ‘strigoi’ or ‘strigoiaca’ is the modern form of Therefore spare him, God,

the ancient Roman ‘stryx’, a type of shape-changing, Good Jesus, Jesus Lord,

bloodsucking witch. ‘Krvopijac’ is either Bulgarian or give them rest.

Croatian for ‘blood-drinker’.

+ [ p. 62 ] “ ‘The Queen makes up some sort of headache

+ [ p. 91 ] “ ‘Le sang nouveau est arrive,’ said Vlad.”

pills out of willow bark.”

Every year, towards the end of October, the first press of the As previously noted (see the annotation for p. 119 of year’s Beaujolais wine is marketed as ‘Beaujolais nouveau’, Hogfather), willow bark contains aspirin.

announced with the slogan ‘Le Beaujolais nouveau est

+ [ p. 63 ] “Agnes’s left arm twitched [. . . ] as if guided by a arrive.’ The wine is generally quite strong, both in alcohol mind of its own.”

content and flavour, and not highly regarded by connoisseurs. After a few months it becomes undrinkable, The hero of the cult horror parody Evil Dead II has a similar owing to the accelerated fermentation process.

problem, which he eventually resolves by cutting off his own hand; this scene could well be partly inspired by the

+ [ p. 91 ] “ ‘That is the double snake symbol of the film.

Djelibeybian water cult,’ he said calmly.”

+ [ p. 72 ] “national anthems [. . . ] all have the same second In Pyramids, the Djelibeybian high priest Dios had a staff verse, which goes ‘nur. . . hnur. . . mur. . . nur nur, hnur. . .

with two serpents entwined around it — possibly the same nur. . . nur, hnur’ at some length, until everyone remembers symbol. There are at least three distinct theories about why the last line of the first verse and sings it as loudly as they holy symbols repel vampires. The Catholic theory is that the can.”

repelling force is the faith of the holder, and the symbol merely focuses that faith — so a symbol on its own, or in the Not long after the publication of Carpe Jugulum, Terry hands of a non-believer, is useless. (This has produced some wrote the Ankh-Morpork national anthem along these lines, interesting interpretations of what a ‘holy symbol’ could be set to original music by Carl Davis.

— one film shows a yuppie repelling a vampire with his wallet.) The Orthodox theory is that faith is irrelevant — it’s

+ [ p. 75 ] “ ‘The trolls are stupid, the dwarfs are devious, God who is performing the miracle, not the wielder. The the pixies are evil and the gnomes stick in your teeth.’ ”

psychological theory, which Terry seems to be subscribing Later in the book, it appears that gnomes and pixies are the to here, is that the effect is entirely in the mind of the same thing, but Vlad seems to think differently.

vampire.

+ [ p. 82 ] “ ‘Good morning, Mister Magpie,’ said Agnes

+ [ p. 98 ] “ ‘Although having studied the passage in automatically.”

question in the original Second Omnian IV text, I have advanced the rather daring theory that the word in As Agnes and Nanny go on to discuss, there are many question translates more accurately as “cockroaches”.’ ”

different counting rhymes for magpies, but they generally agree that a single magpie is unlucky. Some people believe Exodus 22:18: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” It is that one can avert the bad luck by being polite, or even often suggested that the Hebrew word used here should be CARPE JUGULUM

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translated ‘poisoner’, but the case for this is unconvincing

“Some Gypsies in Kosova once believed that a brother and and based mainly on the flawed Greek translation of the Old sister born together as twins on a Saturday could see a Testament, the Septuagint. Modern translations of the Bible vampiric mulo if they wore their underwear and shirts still say ‘witch’.

inside out. The mulo would flee as soon as it was seen by the twins.”

+ [ p. 99–100 ] “ ‘Look, there was this donkey, and it stopped in the middle of the river, and it wouldn’t go

+ [ p. 120 ] “ ‘You were so successful in Escrow, I know.’ ”

backwards or forwards, [. . . ] Bad Ass. See?’ ”

Escrow is a legal term for a formal contract or agreement This is slightly reminiscent of the Biblical story of Balaam’s to do something, where the document is held by a trusted ass (Numbers 22:1–41).

third party until its conditions are satisfied.

+ [ p. 100 ] “Agnes had seen pictures of an ostrich. So. . .

+ [ p. 121 ] “ ‘Every day, in every way, we get better and start with one of them, but make the head and neck in better,’ ”

violent yellow, and give the head a huge ruff of red and One of the very first positive-thinking mantras, coined by purple feathers and two big round eyes, the pupils of which Emile Coue (1857–1926), French psychotherapist and jiggled drunkenly as the head moved back and forth. . . ”

pharmacist. Coue’s study of hypnotism convinced him that The description may be modelled on ‘Emu’, property of Rod auto-suggestion could cure anything.

Hull; their double act was very popular on UK TV in the 1970s.

+ [ p. 123 ] “They stared into the abyss, which didn’t stare back.”

+ [ p. 100 ] “ ‘Take that thing out of your mouth,’ said A famous quotation from Nietzsche: “If you gaze for long Agnes. ‘You sound like Mr Punch.’ ”

into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” (From Beyond Mr Punch is the lead character in a Punch-and-Judy show, a Good and Evil.)

traditional British children’s entertainment featuring theft, extreme violence, wife-beating and multiple murders, using

+ [ p. 126 ] “She pushed gently until her toes were pointed glove puppets. The performer would use a special at the sky and she was doing a handstand on the edge.”

throat-whistle, called a swozzle, to produce the character’s Agnes is imitating Lara Croft, hero of the hugely successful squeaky voice. See also the Discworld short story Theatre Tomb Raider series of video games. Terry admits to being a of Cruelty.

Lara fan.

+ [ p. 103 ] “A huge gilded china beer stein that played ‘Ich

+ [ p. 128 ] “ ‘Oh, that’s the witch,’ said Nanny. ‘She’s not a Bin Ein Rattarsedschwein’ from The Student Horse [. . . ]”

problem.’ ”

‘Ich Bin Ein Rattarsedschwein’ means ‘I am a Drunken Pig’, There’s a cave in Somerset, near where Terry lives, with a rat-arsed being British slang for very drunk. The Student similar feature outside it.

Horse refers to The Student Prince, an operetta by Romberg about a prince who studies at Heidelberg and falls

+ [ p. 138 ] “ ‘Like the hero in Tsort or wherever it was, who for a barmaid. In the film, allegedly, Mario Lanza was was completely invincible except for his heel [. . . ]’ ”

supposed to play the part of the prince, but got too fat, so See the annotation for p. 274/241 of Witches Abroad.

his voice is just dubbed over the lead actor’s when singing.

Songs include the ‘Drinking Song’ and the unfortunately

+ [ p. 139 ] “The man lowered the thimble. ‘Pictsies!’ ”

titled ‘Come Boys, Let’s All Be Gay Boys’.

Puns on ‘pixie’ and ‘Picts’ (inhabitants of Scotland in Iron

+ [ p. 104 ] “ ‘Why did you bring Soapy Sam back with Age times).

you?’ ”

+ [ p. 141 ] “Hundreds of pixies had simply appeared The original ‘Soapy Sam’ was Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop among the ornaments. Most of them wore pointed hats that of Oxford from 1845 to 1869, best remembered today for curved so that the point was practically pointing down.”

his diehard opposition to the theory of evolution. The name is occasionally applied today as a generic insult to any Combined with the blue skin, this suggests a decidedly churchman who holds an opinion contrary to one’s own.

Smurf-like quality to the Feegles. Terry says:

“1 I wanted some background to Wee Mad Arthur, of Feet of

+ [ p. 106 ] “ ‘I believe that in Glitz you have to fill their Clay and so they’d be small. 2 I’d been listening to mouth with salt, hammer a carrot into both ears, and then Laureena McKennitt singing ‘The Stolen Child’. 3 Since cut off their head.’ ‘I can see it must’ve been fun finding (see 1) the tribe would be cod-Scottish, then Braveheart that out.’ ”

and Rob Roy (“let’s bash the English” movies made by Terry is here parodying, but not even slightly exaggerating, people sitting on the biggest piece of land ever stolen from the bewildering variety of ways of dealing with vampires in its owners by trickery, genocide and war) were natural earth mythology. To give a taste of how abstruse these targets. . . which meant that the NmF would be blue. . . ”

beliefs could become, here is a quotation from the alt.vampyres FAQ (held on http://www.altvampyres.net/:

+ [ p. 143 ] “ ‘Yez lukin’ at a faceful o’heid! ’ ”

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Typical Glaswegian greeting. See also p. 169 “ ‘What ya’

possessing spirits. Many of the popular myths about lookin a’, chymie (Jimmy)?’ ”

medieval treatment of witches, including many of the various tests by ordeal, first appeared in this book. See also

+ [ p. 148 ] “ ‘You mean vampirism is like. . . pyramid the annotation for p. 375/262 of Good Omens.

selling?’ ”

+ [ p. 168 ] “ ‘yin, tan, TETRA!’ ”

Pyramid selling is when each of your customers goes out and sells to a number of other customers, and you get a This is an old northern English (not Scots) dialect, used for share of the profits from them; then each of those other counting sheep in Yorkshire and Cumbria. ‘Yan, tan, customers goes out and tries the same trick, and so on until tethera, methera, pip, sethera, lethera, hovera, dovera, everyone in the world is a customer. Of course, if you’re one dick.’

of the last generation to be recruited, you’re stuffed. Most According to one correspondent, the folklorist A. L. Lloyd pyramid-selling schemes are illegal in most countries. The traced the words to a group of Romanian shepherds scam is a common nuisance phenomenon on the Internet.

brought to England early in the 19th century to teach the locals something about increase in flocks. The words were

+ [ p. 150 ] “ ‘Ah. . . Aunt Carmilla. . . ’ ”

thought very Occult and Mysterious, until it was explained Carmilla, by J. Sheridan LeFanu, was one of the earliest that they were just counting.

literary vampire stories, published in 1872, a good quarter of a century before Dracula. The story about bathing in the

+ [ p. 169 ] “ ‘Well done,’ Verence murmured. ‘How long blood of virgins is told of Erzsebet Bathory (1560–1614), a have you been a hallucination? Jolly good.’ ”

Hungarian princess who believed that it would keep her Verence’s side of the dialogue seems to be modelled on the young; her name is often associated with vampire stories.

sorts of things the British royal family, most particularly The beaked, hunched figure that Vlad calls ‘a distant Prince Charles, say when they are meeting The People.

ancestor’ is a reference to the stryx, a creature from Roman Verence’s general earnest and well meaning — but mythology that stabbed and drank blood through its beak.

unappreciated — interest in the welfare of his subjects is strongly reminiscent of Charles.

Terry explains: “What Agnes is shown is the ‘evolution’ of vampires — harpy, hairy monster, Lugosi/Lee and Byronic

+ [ p. 180 ] “Up the airy mountain and down the rushy glen bastard. And what better way to demonstrate this that a ran the Nac mac Feegle,”

succession of family portraits?”

From The Fairies, by William Allingham:

“As an aside, very little vampiric legend and folklore in CJ is made up — even the vampire tools and watermelons are Up the airy mountain

real world beliefs.”

Down the rushy glen,

We daren’t go a-hunting,

+ [ p. 154 ] “ ‘. . . The blood is the life [. . . ] porphyria, lack For fear of little men;

of? ’ ”

See also the annotation for p.287/207 of Lords and Ladies.

Oats has crammed an impressive collection of vampire stories into one page of notes. “The blood is the life” is a

+ [ p. 180 ] “ ‘Hakkis lugs awa’!’ ”

catchphrase from Dracula; it is closely associated with the

‘Hack his lugs away’ — cut his ears off.

Christian view of the vampire — just as the Christian gains eternal life through the sacrament of Christ’s blood, so the

+ [ p. 180 ] “ ‘An’ b’side, she’ll gi’us uskabarch muckell.’ ”

vampire earns a perverted version of the same.

Just to make their dialect even more confusing, the Feegles Porphyria is a very rare, genetic blood disorder, one form of throw in words of Gaelic. ‘Uskabarch’ is ‘uisge beatha’, which includes the symptoms of severe light sensitivity,

‘water of life’ — whisky.

reddish-brown urine and teeth, deformation of the nose, ears, eyelids, and fingers, an excess of body hair, and

+ [ p. 193 ] “ ‘Will ye no’ have a huge dram and a burned anaemia. It has been suggested that it explains some bannock while yer waiting?’ ”

aspects of both vampire and werewolf legends.

The usual offering is a ‘wee dram’, but to the Feegles it would, of course, appear huge. A bannock is a well known

+ [ p. 155 ] “On one shelf alone he found forty-three Scottish bread product. The fact that it’s burned could be a remarkably similar accounts of a great flood, [. . . ]”

reference to the Battle of Bannockburn, a famous Scots The Biblical version is the story of Noah (Genesis 6–8).

victory.

Many myth cycles have a similar story of how humanity was almost wiped out by a flood, but saved by one good person

+ [ p. 195 ] “ ‘I’ve read about the phoenix. It’s a mythical building a boat.

creature, a symbol, a —’ ”

The phoenix as described by the Greek historian Herodotus

+ [ p. 159 ] “ ‘This is from Ossory’s Malleus Maleficarum,’ ”

was an eagle-like bird, with red and gold plumage, that was The Malleus Maleficarum (usually translated Hammer of sacred to the sun-god in ancient Egypt. The bird lived for Witches) was written by two Dominican monks in the 15th 500 years, at the end of which it built its own funeral pyre century as a manual for dealing with witches and and was consumed to ashes, from which another phoenix CARPE JUGULUM

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would then rise. Allegedly symbolic of the rising and setting entendre is quite an admission from Nanny.

of the sun, it was adopted by medieval Christianity as a symbol of death and resurrection.

+ [ p. 223 ] “ ‘ “Thunderclap 14”? “Wolf Howl 5”?’ ”

Organ registers are named after the sound they make, and

+ [ p. 199 ] “ ‘Oh, yes, sir, ‘cos of when the other side are the height of tone they produce. Owing to the nature of yelling “We’re gonna cut yer tonk— yer tongue off,” ’ ”

sound, however, 14 is very rarely found in real life; it would In Interesting Times we learned that, on the Disc, be 1. out of tune; most registers are powers of two, or three

‘psychological warfare’ is defined as drumming on your times powers of two for quints; and 2. pretty low.

shield and shouting “We’re gonna cut yer tonkers off.”

+ [ p. 242 ] “No, thought Agnes. It’ll take the nightmares

+ [ p. 205 ] “ ‘Aye, mucken! Born sicky, imhoe!’ ”

away.”

A common abbreviation used on parts of the Internet is There is a quotation, attributed to G. K. Chesterton: “Fairy IMHO, meaning ‘in my humble opinion’. Terry seems to tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children have a particular dislike for this phrase, which in practice already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children often translates to “and anyone who disagrees with me is the dragons can be killed.” This seems to chime remarkably patently a moron”.

well with Terry’s own attitude to children’s stories.

+ [ p. 205 ] “ ‘Ach, I wouldna’ gi’ye skeppens for him —’ ”

+ [ p. 247 ] “ ‘Do you remember Mr and Mrs Harker?’ ”

This is very similar to a recurrent line “I wadna gie a button Jonathan and Mina Harker are two of the leading for her”, in Robert Burns’s poem Sic a Wife as Willie’s Wife.

characters in Dracula.

The poem describes the vile, vile looking wife of a wee

‘greasy weaver’ (no Adonis himself), and when performed

+ [ p. 247 ] “ ‘Do onions hurt us? Are we frightened of usually has the audience in stitches when the descriptions shallots? No.’ ”

of the wife are mimed. It is a good party piece for a Burns The hero of the classic 1954 novel I am Legend, the last Supper on 25 January.

living human on an earth where everyone else has become a vampire, actually experiments with this possibility.

+ [ p. 206 ] “ ‘So she’s made up some brose for ye. . . ’ ”

Brose is a famous Scottish pick-me-up, made with oats,

+ [ p. 248 ] “Greebo sheathed his claws and went back to whisky, cream and. . . herbs.

sleep.”

This is the second time Greebo has taken out a vampire —

+ [ p. 206 ] “ ‘I thought you turned into bats!’ she shouted he ate a bat in Witches Abroad — which suggests that there to Vlad.”

are other ways of killing them than those sophisticated Discworld vampires used to do this (in Reaper Man and methods prescribed by folklore.

Witches Abroad, for instance), but more recently they have taken to flying without changing form. Presumably it’s

+ [ p. 249 ] “ ‘— burn, with a clear bright light —’ ”

another aspect of being a Modern vampire.

A very tame, sweet, modern children’s hymn (see the annotation for p. 279):

+ [ p. 209 ] “ ‘It’s called “Om Is In His Holy Temple”.’ ”

Jesus bids us shine with a pure clear light

‘God is in His Holy Temple’ was a popular Victorian hymn.

Like a little candle, burning in the night.

In this world of darkness so we must shine,

+ [ p. 213 ] “ ‘. . . and Brutha said to Simony, “Where there You in your small corner and I in mine.

is darkness we will make a great light . . . ” ’ ”

Isaiah 9:2: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a

+ [ p. 255 ] “ ‘Remember — that which does not kill us can great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of only make us stronger.”

death, upon them hath the light shined.”

“That which does not kill me, makes me stronger” —popular saying, attributed to Nietzsche, whose morality

+ [ p. 223 ] “It read: ‘HLISTEN TO ZEE CHILDREN OFF DER

would certainly have appealed to the Count.

NIGHT. . . VOT VONDERFUL MHUSICK DEY MAKE. Mnftrd. by Bergholt Stuttley Johnson, Ankh-Morpork.’ ‘It’s a Johnson,’

+ [ p. 256 ] “ ‘Lines and crosses and circles. . . oh, my. . . ’ ”

she breathed. ‘I haven’t got my hands on a Johnson for ages. . . ’ ”

Echoes ‘Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!’ from The Wizard of Oz.

Combined with Igor’s previous comment that ‘the Century of the Fruitbat has its compensations’, this suggests that

+ [ p. 257 ] “ ‘And I’d watch that bloke with the stake. He’s B. S. Johnson was active within the past hundred years —altogether too keen on it. I reckon there’s some psychology the first solid clue we’ve had about his lifetime. The there —’ ”

‘children of the night’ quote is one of the most famous lines from the original 1931 Dracula movie.

It’s become a commonplace observation, about Dracula, that a man driving a stake into a female vampire is about as

‘Johnson’ is American slang for a penis, so this single strong a sexual image as it was possible to publish in 128

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Victorian times. . .

+ [ p. 21 ] “ ‘[. . . ] Uberwald remains a mystery inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma.’ ”

+ [ p. 261 ] “ ‘They’ve killed Thcrapth! The bathtardth!’ ”

A slight paraphrase of what Churchill originally said about A running joke in the adult cartoon South Park is how the Russia. See also the annotation for p. 176/133 of Men At character Kenny is killed, in some deeply implausible way, Arms.

in every episode, whereupon Kyle and Stan exchange the comments “Oh my god! They’ve killed Kenny!” “You

+ [ p. 28 ] “ ‘The Scone of Stone. A replica, of course.’ ”

bastards!”

The Stone of Scone, aka The Stone of Destiny, aka Jacob’s Pillow or Pillar, is the coronation stone that Scottish kings

+ [ p. 266 ] “ ‘Griminir the Impaler, she was.’ ”

were crowned on. The stone was moved to England by Grimnir the Impaler (1514–1553, 1553–1557, 1557–1562, Edward I after he defeated the Scots in 1296, and has since 1562–1567 and 1568–1573) is mentioned in Wyrd Sisters.

then been part of the English monarchy’s coronation chair The difference in spelling is presumably a typo.

(except for the 4 months after Christmas Day 1950, when the Stone was stolen by Scots Nationalists before being

+ [ p. 268 ] “ ‘Old Red Eyeth ith back!’ ”

recovered at Arbroath Abbey on April 11, 1951).

One of Frank Sinatra’s later albums bore the title ‘Old Blue Currently, the Stone (although rumours of it being a fake Eyes is Back’. ‘Old Red Eyes is Back’ is also the title of a one abound) is “on loan” to Scotland, and can be seen in song by Beautiful South.

Edinburgh Castle.

+ [ p. 275 ] “Oats’s gaze went out across the haze, and the

+ [ p. 29 ] “ ‘[. . . ] all the Low Kings have done that ever forest, and the purple mountains.”

since B’hrian Bloodaxe, fifteen hundred years ago.’ ”

For some reason, mountains often seem to be described as Brian Boru (c.940–1014) was the most famous of the Irish

‘purple’ in the context of noble or uplifting thoughts.

High Kings.

Compare the song ‘America the Beautiful’, by Katharine Lee Brian Bloodaxe, on the other hand, was the name of a Bates:

platforms ’n ladders style computer game for the Sinclair O beautiful for spacious skies,

Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, etc. in the For amber waves of grain,

mid–1980s.

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

+ [ p. 39 ] “[. . . ] Ping said, ‘It’s a dialect word meaning

“watermeadow”, sir.’ ”

+ [ p. 279 ] “The singing wasn’t very enthusiastic, though, According to Terry, ‘ping’ is in fact a Cornish dialect word until Oats tossed aside the noisome songbook and taught meaning ‘watermeadow’.

them some of the songs he remembered from his grandmother, full of fire and thunder and death and justice

+ [ p. 42 ] “ ‘They act as if B’hrian Bloodaxe was still alive.

and tunes you could actually whistle, with titles like ‘Om That’s why we call them drudak’ak.’ ”

Shall Trample The Ungodly’ and ‘Lift Me To The Skies’ and

‘Light The Good Light’.”

Echoes of Chassidic Jews, the Amish, or basically any traditional, ultra-orthodox movement in Roundworld Many modern churches have sanitised their official religions.

hymnbooks, leaving many of their worshippers complaining vigorously about the insipidness of the new hymns. ‘Light

+ [ p. 49 ] “ ‘Inigo Skimmer, sir. Mhm-mhm.’ ”

The Good Light’ is presumably the Omnian version of ‘Fight the Good Fight’; ‘Om Shall Trample The Ungodly’ is less People tried to read a reference to The Princess Bride’s clear, but it could scan to the tune of ‘The Battle-Hymn of Inigo Montoya character in the name, but Terry said: the Republic.’

“Inigo is just a name. So is Skimmer. It’s not an intentional reference to anything. [. . . ] if you are a certain age, were brought up in the UK and were taught history in a certain way, you recalled Inigo Jones as a famous 17th Century architect — mostly remembered because he had a The Fifth Elephant

memorable name.”

+ [ p. 56 ] “ ‘Very fast coffee. I rather think you will like it.’ ”

+ [ p. 20 ] “ ‘The crowning of the Low King,’ said Carrot.”

Espresso. Duh.

Resonates with the semi-mythical High Kings of Ireland and Britain in our world’s history, who ruled over autonomous

+ [ p. 60 ] “The first page showed the crest of the Unholy lesser kingdoms. As Dwarf kingdoms are underground, with Empire [. . . ]”

the most important bits being deepest, it makes sense for Shades of both Holy Russia and the Holy Roman Empire.

their king of kings to be set under his subjects, rather than Tsar Ivan “the Terrible” nailed some visiting Turkish above.

ambassadors’ turbans to their heads when he felt they did THE FIFTH ELEPHANT

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The Annotated Pratchett File

not show him the proper respect.

+ [ p. 227 ] “ ‘If we moved to Bonk [. . . ]’ ”

(But the same story is also told of Vlad ‘Dracula’: The three provincial sisters in the Chekhov play are always supposedly, the Venetian ambassadors failed to take their remembering their past in Moscow, but only the younger skullcaps off before him, explaining that they had special sister is the one with the idea and desire to get out.

dispensation saying that they were allowed to keep their heads covered even in the presence of the Pope, whereupon

+ [ p. 228 ] “ ‘We have the gloomy and purposeless trousers Uncle Vlad had the caps nailed to their heads.) of Uncle Vanya,’ said one, doubtfully.”

Uncle Vanya is the other great Chekhov play. “Gloomy and

+ [ p. 60 ] “The crest was altogether too florid for Vimes’s purposeless” sums up much Chekhovian drama quite taste, and was dominated by a double-headed bat.”

accurately. The Russian word is “toska” — a sort of weary, The coat of arms of the Russian royal family, the Romanovs, faded ennui.

sported the black double-headed eagle, which also crops up Uncle Vanya’s trousers, interestingly enough, are not in different colours in other Eastern European heraldry, actually featured in either of Chekhov’s plays. As Terry such as the Austria-Hungary coat of arms. It also crops up pointed out on afp: “Well, yes. Vimes got them.”

(very batlike — black on red) in the Albanian flag.

Apparently the double-headed eagle specifically came to

+ [ p. 253 ] “She’d called them ‘sub-human’ ”

symbolise Imperial power in heraldry, as opposed to the A literal translation of the Nazi term ‘Untermensch’, used single-headed eagles, which were more generally used for to describe all non-Aryan people.

conventional royalty and kingdoms in that area of the world.

Going back further in time, the Holy Roman Empire (see

+ [ p. 255 ] “Blow the bloody doors off!”

the previous annotation) also used a double-headed eagle in Intentional or not, this piece has resonances with the UK

the 15th century.

classic cult movie The Italian Job. One character is instructed by another to open a safe and ends up blowing

+ [ p. 61 ] “ ‘Silver has not been mined in Uberwald since up the entire van, thus leading to the famous line “You were the Diet of Bugs in AM 1880 [. . . ]’ ”

only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”. Detritus The Diet of Worms (or Reichstag zu Worms as the Germans exhibits a similar amount of overkill here.

refer to it) was a political council (influenced by the Roman Catholic church) that took place in the town of Worms in

+ [ p. 278 ] “ ‘Ah, yes. . . “joy through strength”.’ ”

1521. It was during this session that Martin Luther was Slogans like these resonate strongly with the slogans used called upon to defend his Reformist teachings against Pope by Nazi Germany, such as “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Leo X’s threat of excommunication. When he refused to Brings Freedom”), infamously used above the entrances of recant, he was ordered to leave and declared to be an various Nazi concentration camps.

outlaw as per the Edict of Worms.

“Strength through Joy” (“Kraft durch Freude”) was the

+ [ p. 65 ] “[. . . ] a production of Chicken Lake.”

name of a large German National Socialist labour organisation, which provided affordable leisure activities Chicken Lake -> Swan Lake.

for its members such as concerts and cruises. Early prototypes of the Volkswagen Beetle were in fact known as

+ [ p. 66 ] “ ‘And you shall have some corn, provided locally KdF-Wagen.

by Josiah Frument and Sons [. . . ]’ ”

‘Frument’ means grain (from the Latin ‘frumentum’).

+ [ p. 310 ] “ ‘Is that why he’s got human ears all over his Frumenty (porridge made from wheat) was an important back?’ ‘Early experiment, thur.’ ”

medieval and Renaissance peasant staple.

There was a famous tissue engineering experiment done at the University of Massachusetts (MIT), in which a

+ [ p. 86 ] “[. . . ] he was making headway with the religious biodegradable, ear-shaped scaffold was impregnated with instruction of the pigeons.”

human cartilage cells, and then successfully grafted onto Overtones of St. Francis of Assisi, who famously preached the back of a mouse.

to the birds. See also the annotation for p. 68/40 of Good The resulting picture of the living mouse with the ear-like Omens.

structure on his back became very well known, although the story is often misconstrued as involving genetic

+ [ p. 174 ] “ ‘Sybil wants to go to take the waters at Bad engineering or the transplantation of an actual human ear, Heisses Bad—-”

neither of which was the case.

“Heisses Bad” is German for Hot Bath.

+ [ p. 226 ] “ ‘How beautiful the snow is, sisters. . . ’ ”

This whole section is a riff on Chekhov’s 1901 play Three Sisters, complete with Chekhovian misunderstandings and pauses.

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William Caslon, who released it in the 1730s. It was a The Truth

highly successful and popular typeface throughout Europe and America: the first printings of the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution were set in

+ [ p. 11 ] “Then the two watchmen trailed through the Caslon. See also the annotations for p. 47 and p. 160.

slush and muck to the Water Gate, [. . . ]”

Pin and Tulip enter Ankh-Morpork via the Water Gate,

+ [ p. 22 ] “ ‘We are a bodyguard of lies, gentlemen.’ ”.

which is oddly appropriate, considering both Gaspode’s Winston Churchill said “In war-time, truth is so precious later pseudonym (see the annotation for p. 190) and the that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies”.

name of the organisation that hires Pin and Tulip (see the Any book called The Truth should therefore have one.

annotation for p. 68).

+ [ p. 27 ] “And then there had been the war against

+ [ p. 13 ] “ ‘I could’ve done all right with the Fung Shooey, Klatch. . . ”

though.’ ”

The story of this particular war has been told in great detail Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese design philosophy in in Jingo.

which the positioning and physical characteristics of the items within a residence are believed to affect the fortunes

+ [ p. 29 ] “ ‘M-a-k-e-$-$-$-I-n-n-Y-o-u-r-e-S-p-a-r-e-T-y-m—’

of the owner.

he murmured.”

A development of the chain letter, ‘Make money

+ [ p. 15 ] “Two men were bent over the oars.”

fast’-pyramid schemes (often literally with that title, and The characters of Pin and Tulip are somewhat frustrating with the ‘$$$’ spelling) formed a major part of the first for Terry in the sense that many, many people feel that they waves of Internet spam (or unsolicited bulk messages).

are ‘obviously’ based on Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar in Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere (who refer to themselves as the Old

+ [ p. 34 ] “ ‘Have you heard of c-commerce?’ ”

Firm, and call each other ‘Mr’). Or ‘obviously’ based on the C-commerce resonates with e-commerce, or doing business thugs Jules Winfield and Vincent Vega from the 1994 movie electronically, e.g. over the Internet.

Pulp Fiction (and there are a good number of Pulp Fiction references in The Truth ). Or obviously based on Mr Wint

+ [ p. 35 ] “ ‘A thousand years ago we thought the world and Mr Kidd from the James Bond movie Diamonds are was a bowl,’ he said. ‘Five hundred years ago we knew it Forever. Or obviously based on the two Rons (who called was a globe. Today we know it is flat and round and carried themselves ‘The Management’) from the BBC Hale and through space on the back of a turtle.’ He turned and gave Pace series. Or. . .

the High Priest another smile. ‘Don’t you wonder what Terry himself had this to say:

shape it will turn out to be tomorrow?’ ”

“1. The term ‘The Old Firm’ certainly wasn’t invented by In the 1997 movie Men in Black, Tommy Lee Jones’

Neil. I think it first turned up amongst bookies, but I’ve character says: “1500 years ago, everybody knew that the even seen the Kray Brothers referred to that way. Since the Earth was the centre of the universe. 500 years ago, sixties at least the ‘the firm’ has tended to mean ‘criminal everybody knew that the Earth was flat. And 15 minutes gang.’ And, indeed, the term turned up in DW long before ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet.

Neverwhere.

Imagine what you’ll know. . . tomorrow.”

2. Fiction and movies are full of pairs of bad guys that

+ [ p. 40 ] “For that matter, what would it do to the pie?”

pretty much equate to Pin and Tulip. They go back a long way. That’s why I used ’em, and probably why Neil did too.

As well as referring to the cooking in the previous sentence, You can have a trio of bad guys (who fill roles that can be this also refers to Printer Pie, a term for jumbled-up type, abbreviated to ‘the big thick one, the little scrawny one and which will be sorted for the next job or recast into new type The Boss’) but the dynamic is different. With two guys, one

— very much in context.

can always explain the plot to the other. . . ”

+ [ p. 41 ] “[. . . ] that Holy Wood moving picture fiasco a

“A point worth mentioning, ref other threads I’ve seen: Hale few years ago. . . ”

and Pace’s ‘Ron and Ron’ worked precisely because people already knew the archetype.”

This fiasco is detailed in Moving Pictures.

+ [ p. 19 ] “ ‘Are you Gunilla Goodmountain?’ ”

+ [ p. 41 ] “[. . . ] that Music with Rocks In business a few years after. . . ”

Goodmountain -> Gutenberg. Johann Gutenberg is the German (claimed) inventor of movable type in the 1450s, And this story is told in Soul Music.

most famously responsible for the Gutenberg Bibles.

+ [ p. 41 ] “ ‘[. . . ] when the late Mr Hong chose to open his

+ [ p. 19 ] “ ‘Just give me a ninety-six-point lower-case h, Three Jolly Luck Take-Away Fish Bar in Dagon Street during will you, Caslong? Thank you,’ ”

the lunar eclipse.’ ”

Caslon is a well-known typeface named after its creator An H. P. Lovecraft reference. See also the annotation for p. 197/149 of Men at Arms.

THE TRUTH

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The Annotated Pratchett File

+ [ p. 47 ] “Boddony, who seemed to be second in command

+ [ p. 97 ] “ ‘Oh? You’ve signed the pledge?’ said of the print room, [. . . ]”

Sacharissa.”

Another very aptly named dwarf: Bodoni is a well-known

“Taking the pledge” is what one used to do when joining typeface designed at the end of the eighteenth century by Alcoholics Anonymous (or any other temperance movement Italian printer Giambattista Bodoni, who became the

/ Methodist tee-total congregation).

director of the press for the Duke of Parma, and who seems to have a reputation for elegance rather than accuracy.

+ [ p. 101 ] “[. . . ] lies could run round the world before the truth could get its boots on.”

+ [ p. 51 ] “ ‘Gottle o’ geer, gottle o’ geer,’ said Ron A saying attributed to Mark Twain, as well as to James Watt, mysteriously.”

the Scottish inventor.

A reference to the old ventriloquist “bottle of beer” routine.

See the annotation for p. 64/62 of Pyramids for a full

+ [ p. 113 ] “ ‘Carpet dust got mixed in, I expect.’ said explanation.

Otto.”

People have been speculating that this may be a reference

+ [ p. 60 ] “The tons acted like society lords.”

to various earlier occurrences of a similar theme (in The tons are troll heavies, the equivalent of Mafia capos or H. P. Lovecraft’s work, for instance), but Terry said: dons. But they are also trying to join The Ton, an eighteenth

“AFP, eh? Look, some ideas are just so damn obvious no one century term for leaders of fashion.

has probably lifted them from anyone. Vampire crumbles to dust, you sweep up the dust, you get the vampire back —

+ [ p. 61 ] “[. . . ] the P’gi Su dynasty?”

mixed up with all the cat hairs and breadcrumbs, maybe.”

‘Peggy Sue’ is the title of one of Buddy Holly’s many hit songs.

+ [ p. 142 ] “Ankh-Morpork Inquirer”

Equivalent to the National Enquirer in its coverage of

+ [ p. 68 ] “ ‘And now. . . this meeting of the Committee to highly inventive news.

Unelect the Patrician is declared closed.’ ”

The Watergate scandal break-in at the offices of the

+ [ p. 144 ] “ ‘Yeah, King of the Golden River,’ said the Democratic National Committee in 1972 was eventually dwarf.”

traced back to the Committee to Re-Elect the President.

‘The King of the Golden River’ is a classic fairy tale written Nixon denied any personal involvement, but tape in 1842 by John Ruskin.

recordings proved otherwise.

Terry adds:

+ [ p. 79 ] “ ‘Do you know what they called a

“And let me say right now that practically everything in the sausage-in-a-bun in Quirm?’ said Mr Pin, [. . . ]”

career of Harry King is fairly based on fact (except for the Riffs on the famous “Quarter Pounder with Cheese”

trolls).”

dialogue from Pulp Fiction:

+ [ p. 147 ] “ ‘A dog has got personality. Personality counts Vincent: “And you know what they call a. . . a. . . a for a lot.’ ”

Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?”

Jules: “They don’t call it a Quarter Pounder with Another Pulp Fiction quote from Jules: “I wouldn’t go so far cheese?”

as to call a dog filthy, but they’re definitely dirty. But, a Vincent: “No man, they got the metric system.

dog’s got personality. Personality goes a long way.”

They wouldn’t know what the fuck a Quarter

Pounder is.”

+ [ p. 147 ] “ ‘In the history of this city, gentlemen, we have Jules: “Then what do they call it?”

put on trial at various times seven pigs, a tribe of rats, four Vincent: “They call it a ‘Royale’ with cheese.”

horses, one flea and a swarm of bees.’ ”

Jules: “A ‘Royale’ with cheese. What do they call a This has many Roundworld counterparts; see also the Big Mac?”

annotation for p. 289/262 of Guards! Guards!

Vincent: “Well, a Big Mac’s a Big Mac, but they call it ‘le Big-Mac’.”

+ [ p. 149 ] “ ‘An’ then. . . then I’m gonna get medieval on his arse.’ ”

+ [ p. 88 ] “ ‘’m Rocky,’ he mumbled, looking down.”

A quote from Pulp Fiction, spoken by Marcellus Wallace as A boxing troll called Rocky, who keeps getting knocked an indication of his intended course of action concerning down. . . It’s really astonishing that it took Terry so long to the person who had, um, displeased him.

come up with this particular troll name. The reference is, of When asked why he changed the original word ‘ass’ to the course, to Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky movies.

more British ‘arse’, but kept the American spelling of

‘medieval’, Terry replied:

+ [ p. 90 ] “The Truth Shall Make Ye Free”

“Because I prefer it, and it’s optional. But ass is a weak, sad A famous bible quote, from John 8:32: “And ye shall know word.”

the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

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+ [ p. 160 ] “ ‘You get them right now, Gowdie,’ snapped A person such as Jules from Pulp Fiction might. Only his Boddony.”

wallet read Bad Motherfucker.

This dwarf brings to mind Frederic William Goudy, the

+ [ p. 279 ] “ ‘Let us use your “ing” presses or I’ll “ing”

American type designer who designed several Goudy fonts, shoot your “ing” head “ing” off!’ she screamed.”

as well as Berkeley Old Style.

Very reminiscent of Honey Bunny’s sudden and unexpected

+ [ p. 169 ] “ ‘Who was that hero who was condemned to yelling at the cafe denizens in Pulp Fiction: “Any of you push a rock up a hill and every time he got it to the top it fuckin’ pricks move and I’ll execute every motherfuckin’

rolled down again?’ ”

last one of ya!”.

A reference to Sisyphus from Greek mythology. See also

+ [ p. 289 ] “WHO KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEART

annotation for p. 132/108 of Eric.

OF MEN?”

+ [ p. 176 ] “ ‘Have you still got the box it came in?’ said Mr The Shadow Knows!

Tulip, turning the candlestick over and over in his hands.”

This question and answer made up the opening lines from This scene spoofs the Antiques Roadshow type television one of the most popular radio shows in history, Detective programs, where people bring their old items to be Story (later quickly renamed to The Shadow).

identified and appraised by experts.

+ [ p. 296 ] “ ‘Every day, in every vay, ve get better and When asked if the reference was deliberate, Terry said: better.’ ”

“My god, I don’t think I could have made it more obvious. . .

“Every day, in every way, I am becoming better and better”

‘You’d get more if you had a pair’ and ‘have you still got the was the mantra introduced as a form of auto-suggestion box it came in?’ and the piggy little gleam the owners get psychotherapy by Emile Coue in the 1920s.

when they realise that it’s worth a wad. Except on ARS the owner isn’t clubbed to the ground at the end, which I often

+ [ p. 310 ] “ ‘Have you locked him up,’ said Sacharissa think is a shame.”

suspiciously, ‘in a deep cell, and made him wear a mask all the time [. . . ]”

+ [ p. 188 ] “[. . . ], HALF MAN HALF MOTH?”

Reference to Alexandre Dumas’ 1846 novel The Man in the The “Mothman” was a large creature (man-sized, but with Iron Mask.

wings) seen by several people in West Virginia in the second half of the 1960s, and reported on extensively by the regular newspapers at the time as well as by the Fortean Times (see also the annotation for p. 155/99 of Good Omens).

Thief of Time

+ [ p. 189 ] “Hobson’s Livery Stable”

Clearly, Willie Hobson has built the Disc’s equivalent of a

+ Terry comments on the inspiration for Thief of Time: multi-storey car park.

“The genesis for ToT, for me, was an article I read a few This becomes especially significant (as confirmed by Terry years ago about a genuine glass clock, with one metal himself) in light of the fact the original Watergate Deep component (the image of it shattering in slow motion tends Throat used to deliver his information in a. . . multi-storey to stick in the mind) and I believe it was made in Germany.

car park.

The idea of a perfect clock stopping Time seemed an Also, Thomas Hobson (1544–1630) was the Cambridge inevitable next step. This made it a ‘Susan’ book, because stable manager after whom the concept of “Hobson’s she’s not a creature of time. . . which brought in Death and choice” (the appearance of giving someone a choice, when the Auditors, with their known animosity to life. . . and so it actually there is but a single option) was named. People went.”

renting horses from him would be shown all available horses, but in the end they always had to take the one

+ [title ] “Thief of Time”

nearest the door, so that all his horses were exercised.

From the old saying: Procrastination is the thief of time.

+ [ p. 190 ] “ ‘You can call me. . . Deep Bone.’ ”

+ [ p. 7 ] “an enthusiasm for healthy sports [footnote: Deep Bone -> Deep Throat, the named used by the Mostly involving big, big beachballs]”

Watergate informant. See also the annotation for p. 68.

A cliché of 50’s “naturist” films was a group of women throwing around a large beachball.

+ [ p. 210 ] “ ‘[. . . ] back in Schüschien.’ ”

Schüschien -> Shoe Shine.

+ [ p. 7 ] “Tragedy loomed in the shape of thousands of tons of unaccountably floating iron and an exciting

+ [ p. 275 ] “ ‘ “Not A Very Nice Person At All”,’ she read. ‘I soundtrack. . . ”

wonder what kind of person would put that on a wallet?’ ”

A reference to the 1997 movie Titanic.

THIEF OF TIME

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The Annotated Pratchett File

+ [ p. 15 ] “There were snatches of sound, too, of laughter, ravine — from the Roadrunner cartoons.

tears, screams and for some reason a brief burst of xylophone music, which caused him to pause for a

+ [ p. 35 ] “[. . . ] a crowbar dropped out and onto the street moment.”

with a clang.”

Refers back to the conversation Susan had with Albert back Later in the book (p. 138) Lobsang says building a clock in Soul Music:

that would tick with the universe would be impossible because “it would be like opening a box with the crowbar Susan: “I mean I’m an ordinary kid!”

that’s inside”, but that’s just what happens here because Albert: “Listen, ordinary kids get a xylophone.

Jeremy has some help. A nice little precursor.

They don’t just ask their granddad to take his shirt off!”

+ [ p. 60 ] “The abbot had never mastered the art of circular ageing.”

+ [ p. 18 ] “ ‘We are Myria LeJean. Lady Myria LeJean.’ ”

Circular breathing is the technique of breathing in through The name “Myria” resonated with the English word the nose while simultaneously breathing out through the

“myriad”, meaning “a vast number” or “comprised of a mouth. This allows musicians playing a wind instrument to large number of things”.

hold a single note for minutes at a time, if necessary.

In the Bible, Mark 5, Jesus encounters a man in the country of the Gadarenes who is possessed by not one, but a

+ [ p. 70 ] “ ‘It is the Way of Mrs Marietta Cosmopilite, 3

multitude of unclean spirits: “And [Jesus] asked him, What Quirm Street, Ankh-Morpork, Rooms For Rent, Very is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: Reasonable.’ ”

for we are many.” (Jesus allows the spirits to leave the man, We have met Mrs Marietta Cosmopilite in several previous and enter a herd of swine instead.)

books starting from Moving Pictures.

In other words (and as Susan will also explain later),

+ [ p. 72 ] “ ‘Word one is, you don’t call me “master” and I Myria(d) LeJean/legion is a perfectly appropriate name for a don’t name you after some damn insect.’ ”

large group of (evil) spirits controlling a human body.

A reference to the ‘grasshopper’ nickname from the Kung

+ [ p. 21 ] “ ‘It’s Xeno’s Paradox.’ ”

Fu television series (see also the annotation for p. 165/107

We’ve encountered Xeno the philosopher and his paradoxes of Good Omens).

before, in Pyramids. See the various ‘philosopher’

+ [ p. 110 ] “Oh, maybe fishermen would start to dredge up annotations for that book.

strange whiskery fish that they’d only ever seen before as

+ [ p. 21 ] “ ‘Grim Fairy Tales?’ he said.”

fossils [. . . ]”

Reference to our world’s Grimm’s Fairy Tales, after the Coelacanths are the oldest living fish known to date. In influential volumes of folk and fairy tales collected and 1938, a Coelacanth was found off the east coast of South published in the nineteenth century by the German Africa. Up to then, these animals were considered to have brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

been extinct since the end of the Cretaceous era.

+ [ p. 28 ] “[footnote: There may, as the philosopher says,

+ [ p. 121 ] “ ‘You’ve disobeyed my baababa orders before, be no spoon, although this begs the question of why there is though. In Omnia, I remember.’ ”

the idea of soup.]”

Indeed he has. This story is told in greater detail in Small I don’t think there has ever been a philosopher who has Gods.

made pronouncements about spoons, but “There is no

+ [ p. 124 ] “ ‘Qu’s having fun, I see,’ said Lu-Tze.”

spoon” is of course one of the better-known metaphysical mumbo-jumbo quotes from the original The Matrix movie.

Qu is of course the Discworld version of Q, head of the technical branch of the British Secret Service in the James

+ [ p. 29 ] “ ‘Master Soto sent him. You know?’ ”

Bond movies, who was played by Desmond Llewellyn until

‘Soto’ is the last name of Marco Soto, who won a charity his death in 1999.

auction for the right to appear as a character in a Discworld This entire scene is written in the style of the classic James novel.

Bond / Q dialogues. Terry says:

“As I wrote it I could [hear Llewellyn’s voice], too. Qu will

+ [ p. 31 ] “ ‘Soto said he saw him perform the Stance of the be back — unlike, alas, Desmond Llewellyn.”

Coyote!’ ”

Echoes of the ‘Crane’ technique’ made famous by the The

+ [ p. 124 ] “ ‘Bang, instant karma!’ ”

Karate Kid movies. Martial Arts in general, and Kung Fu in

‘Instant Karma!’ is the title of a well-known John Lennon particular, have many techniques and styles named after track.

animals, e.g. ‘Stance of Horse’.

There’s of course also Wile E. Coyote’s ‘stance’ —

+ [ p. 130 ] “He found himself thinking of his new master as suspended in mid-air for seconds before dropping into the the tick-tock man.”

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‘Repent Harlequin! Said the Ticktock Man’ is the title of a classic science-fiction short story by Harlan Ellison. It The Last Hero

describes a dystopian society, ruled and time-regulated down to the microsecond by the Master Timekeeper, aka the Ticktock Man. The Timekeeper is challenged by the

+ [cover ] The hardcover version of The Last Hero shows free-spirited Harlequin (who is never on time — a crime Cohen in typical Conan pose, but the softcover version (“16

punishable by death in that society).

pages of all-new illustrations!”) has Rincewind doing his rendition of Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream.

+ [ p. 136 ] “[footnote: ‘We belong dead? Ecthcuthe me?

Where doeth it thay “we”?’]”

+ [title page ] The tapestry depicted on the title pages (and on pp. 152–3) not only tells the story of Cohen and the From the Bride of Frankenstein movie. See also the Silver Horde, but is also a pretty awesome parody (down to annotation for p. 305/255 of Moving Pictures.

the positioning of the characters at the beginning) of the Bayeux Tapestry, a 230 feet long embroidery telling the

+ [ p. 150 ] “ ‘Is it a book?’ said one who was slightly story of the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

intellectual. ‘How many words?’ ”

Reference to the game ‘charades’.

+ [ p. 8 ] The circular illustration of Fingers Mazda, Io and the eagle is drawn in the style of Etruscan ceramics of

+ [ p. 159 ] “Given that she’d met the Tooth Fairy, the Soul pre-Roman Italy, in black and cream (actually terracotta).

Cake Duck and Old Man Trouble, it amazed Susan that she The style was revived in Europe in the eighteenth century had grown up to be mostly human, nearly normal.”

as part of the Neo-Classical style of art, design and Susan met the Tooth Fairy in Hogfather. For the Soul Cake architecture.

Duck see the annotation for p. 75/57 of Soul Music, and for Old Man Trouble see the annotation for p. 86 of Feet of

+ [ p. 12 ] One of the birds Leonardo is feeding in the Clay.

picture is a parrot with “dog” written on its body.

Back in The Truth, William de Worde offered a $25 reward

+ [ p. 188 ] “ ‘Mr Black. Mr Green. Miss Brown. Miss to anybody who could find the Patrician’s dog. This lead to White. Miss. . . Yellow. And Mr Blue.’ ”

Sacharissa having to explain to an enterprising citizen of Reminiscent of the criminal protagonists in Quentin Ankh-Morpork: “—- no, that’s not it. No, sir, I know that’s Tarantino’s 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs (Mr White, Mr not it. Because it’s a parrot, that’s why. You’ve taught it to Orange, Mr Blonde, Mr Pink, Mr Brown and Mr Blue). Note bark and you’ve painted “DoG” on the side of it but it’s still how ‘Mr Blonde’ maps to ‘Miss. . . Yellow’.

a parrot —”

Evidently the parrot escaped. . .

+ [ p. 274 ] “The idea was strangely attractive.”

Strange attractors are a concept from mathematics,

+ [ p. 14 ] “Lord Vetinari gave him a severe look, but specifically the study of chaos theory and dynamical essayed a little wave. ‘Oh. How curious.’ ”

systems.

To spell it out: instead of seeing his reflection waving back, Vetinari sees himself waving the ‘wrong’ hand, making him

+ [ p. 275 ] “The Fifth Horseman rode out, and a faint smell realise he is watching an image, not a reflection.

of cheese followed him”

The Bible, Revelation 6:7: “And I saw, and behold, a pale

+ [ p. 18 ] “Who wins with the most believers, lives.”

horse, and its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed From the sarcastic saying: “he who dies with the most toys, with him”.

wins”.

+ [ p. 283 ] “ ‘ “Oh, my paws and whiskers”?’ ”

+ [ p. 18 ] “They sometimes forgot what happened if you let The White Rabbit in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a pawn get all the way up the board.”

always late (i.e. having trouble with time) and anxious: “Oh On the surface, this appears to be a simple chess or my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting!”. See also the checkers reference, but is also likely to be deeper annotation for p. 46/35 of Soul Music.

foreshadowing of Them not knowing exactly what to do when humans (i.e. the Horde) make it all the way up the

+ [ p. 289 ] “The Death of Rats had scurried up the side of mountain and actually enter the city of Cori Celesti.

the clock [. . . ]”

As the nursery rhyme goes:

+ [ p. 21 ] Ponder Stibbons looks a bit like Harry Potter.

Hickory Dickory Dock,

Or so people keep saying, which is a bit unfortunate, The mouse ran up the clock

because ever since the success of the Harry Potter books, The clock struck one,

Terry is hearing increasingly more often from people who The mouse ran down,

ask if (or sometimes even demand he acknowledge that) he Hickory Dickory Dock

‘got’ Unseen University from Hogwarts, etcetera, etcetera.

In this case, the first drawing of Ponder Stibbons (looking THE LAST HERO

135

The Annotated Pratchett File

exactly as he does here) appeared in the 1996 Discworld around the room. See also the annotation for p. 137/104 of Portfolio, whereas the first Harry Potter novel was not Men At Arms.

published until 1997. . .

+ [ p. 38 ] “[. . . ], Leonard had drawn a perfect circle.”

Terry says:

The story goes that the Pope was requesting Leonardo da

“Ponder Stibbons was indeed first drawn in 1996. I, of Vinci to submit some of his work for a competition for a new course, used a time machine to ‘get the idea’ of Unseen commission. Leonardo kept putting him off, saying he was University from Hogwarts; I don’t know what Paul used in too busy, as the requests grew more and more insistent. In this case. Obviously he must have used something.”

the end, to avoid the Pope having him arrested, he drew, freehand, at arms length, a perfect circle on a sheet of

+ [ p. 29 ] “ ‘That’s what heroes want, isn’t it? To crush the paper and sent it to the Pope, who promptly gave him the thrones of the world beneath their sandalled feet, as the commission. The reason for this is that to draw a perfect poet puts it?’ ”

circle, freehand and unsupported is one of the hardest Every issue of the classic Conan the Barbarian comic series things possible to draw, achieved by few artists, usually from Marvel Comics used to start out with the following only after much practice and was for a long time considered quote:

to be the pinnacle of artistic achievement.

“Know, O prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and in the years of

+ [ p. 40 ] “Vena the Raven-Haired”

the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed Both name and behaviour echo that of the main character of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like in the Xena: Warrior Princess television series, and Paul blue mantles beneath the stars — Nemedia, Ophir, Kidby has drawn her armour to look very similar to what Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women Xena typically wears (although it’s difficult to tell whether and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its that’s a deliberate likeness or just your generic fantasy chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, female warrior outfit in both cases)

Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest

+ [ p. 69 ] “Morituri Nolumus Mori”

kingdom was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming As explained later on, this is dog-Latin for “We who are west. Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, about to die don’t want to”. The original quote is of course sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a slayer, with gigantic

“Morituri Te Salutant” — “We who are about to die salute melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled you”, said in Roman amphitheatres by the gladiators to the thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet.”

Emperor.

I have not been able to determine with certainty who Also, the mission badge bears a striking resemblance to the actually wrote this quote, but if it is attributed at all, it is NASA badges worn by astronauts and to the NASA logo usually to Robert E Howard, author of the original Conan itself, down to the oval path around the central object.

books.

+ [ p. 76 ] “With your sword. . . like Carelinus untied the

+ [ p. 31 ] “ ‘I recall an old story about a ship that was Tsortean Knot?”

pulled by swans and flew all the way to —”

In our world’s mythology it was Alexander the Great who In 1638, Bishop Francis Godwin of Hereford wrote The Man

‘untied’ the Gordian Knot this way.

In The Moone, in which a Spaniard travels to the moon in a chariot drawn by swans. It is one of the earliest published

+ [ p. 82 ] “ ‘[. . . ] like who leaves all the weapons and keys accounts of space travel.

and medicine kits lying around in the unexplored dungeons.’ ”

+ [ p. 36 ] “[. . . ] poems longer’n seventeen syllables.”

That you can find such valuable items in unexplored Seventeen syllables (5+7+5) is the length that dungeons is known to everybody who has ever played a English-language haiku poems are supposed to have.

computer game of e.g. the ‘first-person shooter’ type.

+ [ p. 36 ] “ ‘And also, if you recall. . . the Maria Pesto?”

+ [ p. 83 ] Rincewind is shown as Leonardo’s Vitruvian This name echoes that of the mysteriously lost Roundworld Man, drawn in 1490 in venice.

ship Marie Celeste (see also the annotation for p. 204/195

of Pyramids).

+ [ p. 84 ] Rincewind’s dragon pack has resonances of both James Bond’s NASA rocket pack from 1964, and the EMU

+ [ p. 36 ] “ ‘My God, it’s full of elephants!’ ”

(Extravehicular Mobility Unit) that shuttle astronauts use to This parallels Dave Bowman’s famous line, “My God, it’s full manoeuvre outside.

of stars!” at the end of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

+ [ p. 93 ] “ ‘I think there’s a catch there,’ said the wizard,

+ [ p. 37 ] “[. . . ] he could paint pictures that didn’t just knowing that he’d lost.”

follow you around the room but went home with you [. . . ]”

And the catch is, of course, nothing other than Catch–22, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is said to have eyes that follow one made famous by Joseph Heller’s book of the same name.

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+ [ p. 94 ] The sign: “No handball playing allowed”.

the roof of the Sistine Chapel, by Michelangelo Buonarotti in 1509–1512.

Before the launch, John Glenn pasted a small sign saying

“No handball playing here” to the instrument panel of the

+ [ p. 156 ] I can’t find a source for this particular picture,

‘Freedom 7’ Mercury flight that was to make Alan Shepard but the illustration depicts the minstrel as Orpheus.

the first American in space.

+ [ p. 157 ] “ ‘Second star to the left and straight on ‘til

+ [ p. 98 ] “The Kite rose from the splintering barge.”

morning?’ ”

Terry says:

Those are the directions to Never-Never Land in Peter Pan.

“As far as I know, Paul designed the Kite (Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Great Bird’) from first principles, bearing in mind

+ [ p. 159 ] The spiraling machine that Leonard is using in we wanted to use a sea eagle design to allow it to this illustration is actually based on a drawing of a

‘realistically’ hold the huge ‘salmon’. Then we had a model helicopter designed by Leonardo da Vinci.

made up from his original sketches, for him to use as a drawing aid. If you want something that can do the things the Kite does, you end up with a design pretty much like that!”

The Amazing Maurice and his

+ [ p. 100 ] “ ‘Think of it as a sort of. . . well, a magic carpet ride. . . ’ ”

Educated Rodents

Steppenwolf’s song ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ is featured on the soundtrack of many genre films. Amongst others, it can be

+ The Amazing Maurice presents a new take on the old heard in Apollo 13, Austin Powers 2, Coneheads, The Dish, fairy tale of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Jay and Silent Bob strike Back, and Star Trek: First Contact.

Terry says:

+ [ p. 9 ] “Mr Bunnsy Has an Adventure”

“It tends to turn up a lot in SF movies, to the extent that I Mr Bunnsy’s adventures are a parody of the Beatrix Potter think directors do it deliberately. I just added to the list.”

Peter Rabbit children’s stories, most of which concern fluffy

“I’d swear that it was in My Stepmother Was An Alien, animals being rather nice to each other.

too. . . ”

+ [ p. 9 ] “Rats! They chased the dogs and bit the cats, they

“Anyway, Magic Carpet Ride is definitely a movie tradition.

—”

I’m just wondering how many directors put it in because An allusion to Robert Browning’s well known 1842 version they’d seen it on the other movies. . . ”

of The Pied Piper of Hamelin:

+ [ p. 101 ] “ ‘I’ve got to get one of these,’ he murmured.”

Rats!

Rincewind is saying the same thing Will Smith’s character’s They fought the dogs and killed the cats,

says in the 1996 movie Independence Day upon admiring a And bit the babies in the cradles,

new piece of technology, after having just blasted off into And ate the cheeses out of the vats,

space.

And licked the soup from the cooks’ own ladles, Split open the kegs of salted sprats,

As an afper put it: “The contrast between Will Smith (“I’ve Made nests inside men’s Sunday hats,

got to get one of these so I can fly around blowing up aliens And even spoiled the women’s chats

for God, motherhood & apple pie”) and Rincewind (“I’ve got By drowning their speaking

to get one of these so I can run away more efficiently”) says With shrieking and squeaking

(to me at least) that this has just got to be deliberate.”

In fifty different sharps and flats.

Terry later confirmed that it was, indeed, a deliberate reference.

+ [ p. 58 ] “The thick line, where she’d pressed heavily, had to mean ‘no’.”

+ [ p. 105 ] “ ‘Leonard took a deep breath. ‘Ankh-Morpork, I have no idea if this is what Terry had in mind, but in formal we have an orangutan. . . ’ ”

logic one of the possible ways to indicate the negation of a

“Houston, we have a problem” was what was supposedly proposition ‘p’ (i.e. turn it into the opposite statement “not said by the crew of Apollo 13, after one of their oxygen

‘p’ ”) is indeed to write ‘p’ with a horizontal bar on top of it.

tanks blew a leak.

+ [ p. 69 ] “Of all the kitchens in all the town he could turn As far as I’ve been able to ascertain, what astronaut Jack up in, he’s turned up in this one.”

Swigert literally said was first: “Hey, we’ve got a problem here.”, followed (after Mission Control asked him to repeat) Casablanca reference. See the annotation for p. 51/48 of by: “Houston, we’ve had a problem. We’ve had a Main B

Sourcery.

bus undervolt.”

+ [ p. 77 ] “ ‘Haven’t you heard of the Sisters Grim?

+ [ p. 144 ] Cohen and Io are drawn as Adam and God, from Agoniza and Eviscera Grim? [. . . ]’ ”

THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS

137

The Annotated Pratchett File

The Discworld versions of our Brothers Grimm. See also the than e.g. the usage of The Phantom of the Opera in annotation for p. 21 of Thief of Time.

Maskerade (sometimes they are mirror inversions of themes rather than straight references).

+ [ p. 87 ] “ ‘[. . . ] four children and a dog, which is the right Some of the parallels include the fact that in Les Miserables number for an adventure, [. . . ]’ ”

the plot concerns Jean Valjean, who is being pursued by an A reference to Enid Blyton’s Famous Five stories. See also officer of the law many years before the start of the the annotation for p. 127/80 of Good Omens.

book/musical, which mirrors what happens to Carcer in Night Watch.

+ [ p. 90 ] “[. . . ] the doubting rat, who was called Tomato.”

In LM, Jean Valjean is essentially a good man whose crime Note that ‘Tomato’ is about as close as you can get to is the theft of a loaf of bread. Carcer is a murdererous

‘Thomas’ (i.e. the proverbial ‘Doubting Thomas’) when you murderous psychopath (who later claims that his original choose your name from food labels. . .

crime was stealing a loaf of bread).

Javert, the policeman in LM, is concerned only with justice,

+ [ p. 106 ] “ ‘[. . . ] the Acme Poison Company [. . . ]’ ”

which he defines as the punishment of the guilty. Vimes, the The Acme company rears its head again. See the annotation policeman in NW, is equally obsessed by justice, but he for p. 14/10 of Soul Music.

defines it as the protection of the innocent.

+ [ p. 182 ] “ ‘[. . . ] of course everyone knows about Dick In LM, Javert attempts to join the revolutionaries on the Livingstone and his wonderful cat, don’t they?’ ”

barricades as a means to betray and defeat them. Vimes organises the building of the barricades as a means of Dick Livingstone is an amalgam of Dick Whittington and protecting the people.

Ken Livingstone.

Valjean tries to save a prostitute, Fantine, and when she Dick Whittington is a character in British pantomime, dies he promises to take care of her daughter. Vimes is loosely based on the real-life Richard Whittington. Dick is a saved by a prostitute, Rosie Palm (who will later become boy from a poor family who sets out for London to make his famous for having “daughters”).

fortune, accompanied by his cat. At one point he loses heart and turns to go back home, but then he hears the bells of In both LM and NW, a street urchin plays a role in the London ringing out, saying: “Turn again, Dick Whittington, rebellion. LM’s Gavroche dies, while Nobby survives.

three times Lord Mayor of London.” The real Richard Both rebellions (certainly in the musical version of LM) are Whittington was mayor of London under Richard II in the

“led” by impassioned revolutionaries in frilly shirts who late 14th century.

take a long time to die.

One of Ken Livingstone’s first acts as new mayor of London Having said all that, it is of course eminently possible that after being elected in 2000, was to get rid of the famous Terry never intended any of these specific references — his pigeons from Trafalgar Square. He did not get his cat to eat sources of inspiration can just as easily have been other them (at least not as far as is known), but he just removed revolutionary settings, from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two the street-traders who sold bags of bird-feed to tourists Cities to the actual Paris Commune of 1871, and everything there — if pigeons don’t get limitless food, you stop getting in between.

huge flocks in one place.

+ [title ] Night Watch

+ [ p. 226 ] “Sergeant Doppelpunkt [. . . ]”

The working title for this book was The Nature of the Beast, Translated back from German to English, ‘Doppelpunkt’

but this was discarded when Frances Fyfield published a means ‘Colon’ (as in the punctuation, not the digestive book with exactly that title in the UK in late 2001.

tract). Corporal Knopf, who makes his appearance on the next page has a name that translates back to ‘Knob’. So, it

+ [cover ] Paul Kidby’s cover parodies the famous appears we are dealing with the Uberwald equivalents of Rembrandt painting commonly known as The Night Watch.

Sergeant Colon and Corporal Nobbs. . .

+ [ p. 16 ] “Sammies, they were called, [. . . ]”

+ [ p. 227 ] “ ‘We fight dogs and we chase cats. . . ’ ”

Sir Robert Peel, British Prime Minister in the 1830s and A singing cadence call-and-response song in the 1840s, is best remembered for the organisation of a time-honoured military tradition. Also another reference to metropolitan police force in London, operating out of Browning’s poem (see the annotation for p. 9).

Scotland Yard. The colloquial term for police in Britain,

‘bobbies’, is taken from Peel’s name, as is ‘Peelers’, an older nickname.

+ [ p. 22 ] “ ‘None of that “comic gravedigger” stuff.’ ”

Night Watch

A nod to Shakespeare’s gravediggers in Hamlet.

+ [ p. 26 ] “ ‘[. . . ] the only species I’ve heard of there in any

+ Night Watch has a number of influences from the book numbers are the kvetch, sir.’ ”

and musical Les Miserables, but these are a lot less obvious 138

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

Kvetch is a Yiddish verb meaning to complain or gripe.

children. Local magistrates had been afraid the meeting organised by people asking for repeal of the Corn Laws

+ [ p. 40 ] “They said afterwards that the bolt of lightning (which had led to high bread prices) would turn into a riot, hit a clockmaker’s shop in the Street of Cunning Artificers, and prematurely sent in the cavalry — led by a nincompoop stopping all the clocks at that instant.”

— with drawn sabres to break up the meeting.

Refers to the events in Thief of Time.

Terry says:

“It was Peterloo that I had in mind, as discussed here some

+ [ p. 82 ] “The Abbot of the History Monks (the Men In time ago. But as a general rule, when things look bad Saffron, No Such Monastery. . . they had many names) there’s always some dickhead who can make them worse.”

[. . . ]”

“Men In Saffron” is a reference to the “Men in Black”,

+ [ p. 209 ] “Leggy Gaskin”

possibly inspired by the movie of that name (which Terry This is actually Herbert Gaskin, whose funeral occurs just has expressed a liking for), but more likely directly before the start of Guards! Guards! : “It had been a hard referring to the original, mythical federal hush-up agents day for the Watch. There had been the funeral of Herbert the movie is named after. “No Such Agency” is how in our Gaskin, for one thing.”

world the American NSA (National Security Agency) is jokingly referred to, because of their reputation for extreme It is also mentioned he died because he ran too fast and secrecy and paranoia.

actually caught up with the criminal he was chasing —hence, presumably, the nickname ‘Leggy’. His widow also

+ [ p. 85 ] “ ‘The man couldn’t talk and chew gum at the gets a mention in Men at Arms.

same time.’ ”

+ [ p. 224 ] “Dark sarcasm ought to be taught in schools, he Supposedly Lyndon Johnson once said that President Ford thought.”

couldn’t fart and chew gum at the same time, after which the bowdlerised version of the phrase became common, but From the lyrics to Pink Floyd’s classic hit ‘Another Brick in I am not sure if the saying originates with him, or if, in fact, the Wall’:

he ever actually said it.

We don’t need no education

We don’t need no thought control

+ [ p. 131 ] “Morphic Street, 9 o’clock tonight. Password: No dark sarcasm in the classroom

swordfish. Swordfish? Every password was swordfish!”

Teachers, leave them kids alone

A reference to the 1932 Marx Brothers’ movie

Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!

Horsefeathers, in which ‘Swordfish’ was the password for entering the speakeasy, and passed into history as the

+ [ p. 229 ] “ ‘I regret that I have only one life to lay down archetypical password.

for Whalebone Lane!’ ”

From a famous quote attributed to American revolutionary

+ [ p. 148 ] “For a moment, the tiger burned brightly.”

Nathan Hale before he was executed as a spy by the British A passing reference to William Blake’s poem ‘The Tyger’

army in 1776: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose (see the annotation for p. 46 of The Last Continent ).

for my country”.

+ [ p. 156 ] “ ‘Turned out he didn’t know the ginger beer

+ [ p. 230 ] “Who knew what evil lurked in the hearts of trick.’ ”

men? A copper, that’s who.”

There has been much confusion on alt.fan.pratchett Another reference to the question made famous by the The concerning what exactly constitutes the ‘ginger beer trick’, Shadow radio series. See also the annotation for p. 289 of and which bodily orifices are involved. Terry says: The Truth.

“To save debate running wild: I’ve heard this attributed to

+ [ p. 243 ] “ ‘That’s right!’ he said. ‘The people are the sea the Mexican police as a cheap way of getting a suspect to in which the revolutionary swims!’ ”

talk and which, happily, does not leave a mark. The carbonated beverage of choice was Coca-Cola. Hint: This is in fact one of the sayings of Chairman Mao.

expanding bubbles, and the sensitivity of the sinuses.

+ [ p. 359 ] “ ‘Carcer, we’ll take you to the Tanty, one I seem to recall a brief shot of something very like this in gallows, no waiting, and you can dance the hemp the movie Traffic.”

fandango.’ ”

Both Amnesty Internation and Human Rights Watch confirm Vimes’ speech here resonates with the kind of speech Judge that this kind of torture is regularly reported as being used Roy Bean used to make. Bean was a barkeeper turned by the Mexican police.

hanging judge and self-proclaimed “Law West of the Pecos”, who set up court in Texas, and was known for his colourful

+ [ p. 165 ] “The Dolly Sisters Massacre”

(‘dubious’ and ‘arbitrary’ would also be good words Reminiscent of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, in which a here. . . ) judgements. He famously fined a corpse $40 for cavalry charge into a crowd killed eleven people and carrying a concealed weapon, for instance.

injured over 400 others, including many women and When asked if Vimes’ speech was inspired by Roy Bean, NIGHT WATCH

139

The Annotated Pratchett File

Terry said:

+ [ p. 29 ] “Jenny Green-Teeth.”

“I’ve seen several variations on the quote, but I was Lancashire folk stories tell of a kind of spirit or boggart who certainly after the same general cadence, yes.

lived underwater named “Jenny Green-Teeth”. Her presence was indicated by the growth of duckweed, which To the best of my recollection the quote does not appear in thrives in still fresh water.

The Life and Times of JRB movie (1972) but may have turned up somewhere else.

+ [ p. 32 ] “ ‘You’re very yellow for a toad.’ ‘I’ve been a bit

[later] Ah. . . the only version of the quote I can find in my ill,’ said the toad.”

books here is different in details and rather more poetic.

So, clearly, what we have here is a yellow sick toad. See It’s also on the Web:

also the annotation for p. 159/132 of Moving Pictures.

‘You have been tried by twelve good men and true, not of Terry says: “I just happened to note a toad had a skin which your peers but as high above you as heaven is of hell, and had had unfortunately gone a bit yellow because it had they have said you are guilty. Time will pass and seasons been ill, Far be it from me to make a pun. You did that:–) ”

will come and go. Spring with its wavin’ green grass and heaps of sweet-smellin’ flowers on every hill and in every

+ [ p. 41 ] “Yan Tan Tethera”

dale. Then sultry Summer, with her shimmerin’ heat-waves on the baked horizon. And Fall, with her yeller harvest This is indeed the ancient counting language of shepherds moon and the hills growin’ brown and golden under a in Northern England. It was also used by the Nac Mac sinkin’ sun. And finally Winter, with its bitin’, whinin’ wind, Feegle themselves in Carpe Jugulum.

and all the land will be mantled with snow. But you won’t be here to see any of ‘em; not by a damn sight, because it’s

+ [ p. 42 ] “[. . . ] especially ones strong enough to the order of this court that you be took to the nearest tree withstand falling farmhouses.”

and hanged by the neck til you’re dead, dead, dead, you A Wizard of Oz reference. See also the annotation for olive-colored son of a billy goat.’ ”

p. 139/122 of Witches Abroad.

+ [ p. 51 ] “[. . . ] she climbed to the top of Arken Hill [. . . ]”

The legends concerning Arken Hill are similar to those of Dragon Hill, Oxfordshire (where some people claim St The Wee Free Men

George fought the dragon) and Silbury Hill, Wiltshire (alleged burial of a knight in gold armour, or possibly the forgotten King Sil, whoever he might be). Both hills are flat

+ [title ] The working title of this book was For Fear of topped, like Arken Hill, and believed to be artificial.

Little Men. See also the annotation for p. 287/207 of Lords and Ladies.

+ [ p. 67 ] “ ‘It’s a’ gang agley.’ ”

“It’s all gone wahoonie-shaped”. One of the best known bits

+ The Nac Mac Feegle appear to be very Scottish in nature.

of Scots, due to it being what the best laid plans o’ mice and Terry says:

men do in the poem “To a mouse” by Robert Burns.

“Um. The Nac Mac Feegle are not Scottish. There is no But Mousie, thou are no thy-lane,

Scotland on Discworld. They may, in subtle ways, suggest In proving foresight may be vain:

some aspects of the Scottish character as filtered through The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,

the media, but that’s because of quantum.”

Gang aft agley,

+

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

[ p. 15 ] “They call it the Chalk.”

For promis’d joy!

The Chalk has many similarities to the English Wiltshire region, where Terry himself comes from. He says:

+ [ p. 74 ] “The headless man would catch her on the flat.”

“[It’s] based wherever there was something I wanted. But From The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving —probably mostly on the southern Chalk, it’s true. It’s what I and many other similar folk tales.

know.

The term ‘the Chalk’, by the way, is not from Kipling as

+ [ p. 75 ] “ ‘[. . . ] yer bogle [. . . ]’ ”

suggested elsewhere. It used to be, and may still be, a

‘bogle’ is Scots for ghost or apparition.

general term for, well, the chalk country. I actually do have a copy of an old book called Wild Flowers of the Chalk . . . ”

+ [ p. 75 ] “ ‘[. . . ] courtesy of Big Yan!’ ”

Glaswegian comedian Billy Connolly (who, at least to my

+ [ p. 24 ] “ ‘I can’t do,’ said Miss Tick, straightening up.

Dutch ears, speaks very much as I imagine a Nac Mac

‘But I can teach!’ ”

Feegle would) is known as “The Big Yin”.

As the old insult says: “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach”. The UK government at one time used “Those

+ [ p. 83 ] “ ‘Ach, see you, pussycat, scunner that y’are!’ he who can, teach.” as an advertising slogan to try and get yelled. ‘Here’s a giftie from the t’ wee burdies, yah people to train as teachers.

schemie!’ ”

140

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

‘Scunner’ is a Scots word for something or someone to passing over it. The first verse reads:

which/whom you’ve taken a strong dislike. A ‘schemie’ is a Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!

pejorative Scots term for someone who lives in a Housing Alas! I am very sorry to say

Scheme, i.e. a nasty concrete housing estate built as That ninety lives have been taken away

replacement for slums, but rapidly becoming slums On the last Sabbath day of 1879,

themselves.

Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

+ [ p. 92 ] “ ‘[. . . ] it means our kelda is weakenin’ fast,

+ [ p. 138 ] Tir-far-Thiónn

[. . . ]’ ”

In actual Gaelic, I am told that this means “Land over word

‘Kelda’ is a Scots word derived from the Old Norse ‘kelda’, that does not exist”. “Land Under Wave” would be meaning origin or source (in the spring/well sense).

“Tír-fa-Tonn”, and there is in fact such a place in Irish mythology, a sort of Gaelic Atlantis.

+ [ p. 93 ] “ ‘See their swords? They glow blue in the presence of lawyers.’ ”

+ [ p. 149 ] “He’s got a bo-ut for chasin’ the great white In the The Lord of The Rings books, various weapons glow whale fish on the salt sea. He’s always chasing it, all round blue in the presence of Orcs and other evil creatures.

the world. It’s called Mopey.”

Puns on the classic “Moby-Dick; or, The Whale” (this is in

+ [ p. 107 ] “There were odd carvings in the chalk, too fact its original title) by Herman Melville.

[. . . ]”

Chalk figures like the Rude Man of Cerne or the horses

+ [ p. 152 ] “He spoke differently too, [. . . ]”

(such as the Uffington White Horse) that you find all over While the other Nac Mac Feegle sound like people doing the chalk areas of Britain. See also the annotation for Rab C Nesbitt impressions (Nesbitt is a well-known Scots p. 302/217 of Lords and Ladies.

character (of the dirty, foul-mouthed, sexist drunkard kind) from a BBC comedy series), William has the sort of

+ [ p. 113 ] “ ‘Onna black horse.’ ”

exaggerated Ayrshire burr you might hear folk put on when The Elf Queen rides a black steed in the ballad of ‘Tam Lin’.

reciting Robert Burns (the famous Scots poet, who wrote See also the annotation for p. 141/103 of Lords and Ladies.

‘Auld Lang Syne’).

+ [ p. 116 ] “Grimhounds!”

+ [ p. 153 ] “ ‘We’ll dance the FiveHundredAndTwelvesome There are various Hellhound/Devil Dog legends in Britain.

Reel to the tune o’ “The Devil Among The Lawyers” ’ ”

Specifically, the “grim” part of the name and the reference There are Foursome, Eightsome and Twelvesome Reels, to them haunting graveyards suggests the Kirk Grim, which which involve exchanges of partners between two, four or hangs around churchyards to protect the dead buried there six couples. 512 is eight cubed, so presumably it’s more from evil spirits or the devil.

complicated, but basically the same. “The Devil Among The There are many Devil Dog legends in Sussex, most of them Lawyers” is possibly a reference to Burns’ “The Deil’s Awa’

on, yes, the Downs. Most of these creatures are described Wi’ The Exciseman”, or to ‘The Devil Among The Tailors’, a much as the grimhounds, and to see them is a portent of well-known folk-dance tune (which is in fact, I’m told, the death: presumably if they’re visible to you, then you need original tune for an Eightsome Reel).

their protection (and so are or will soon be dead).

+ [ p. 159 ] “Trilithons, they were called, [. . . ]”

+ [ p. 123 ] “ ‘You live in one of the mounds?’ Tiffany asked.

‘Trilithon’ is the technical term for any group of three

‘I thought they were, you know, the graves of ancient stones arranged so that one sits flat atop the other two.

chieftains?’ ”

The mention of stones arranged in circles suggests In folklore, Bronze Age Burial Mounds are supposed to be Stonehenge and the Avebury circle (which isn’t far from the homes of fairy folk. On the Disc, of course, they’re both.

Silbury Hill; see the annotation for p. 51). Although they seem to have been erected for much the same reason as the

+ [ p. 135 ] “When a well-trained gonnagle starts to recite, Dancers in Lancre, there is no mention of them being the enemy’s ears explode.”

magnetic, certainly the frying pan gets through without A reference to William Topaz McGonagall, Scotland’s Worst trouble.

Poet (he was to rhyme and meter what B.S. Johnson was to bricks and mortar, as my correspondent puts it), and also a

+ [ p. 168 ] Nac Mac Feegle battlecries

slight exaggeration of the abilities accredited to bards in

“They can tak’ oour lives, but they cannae tak’ oour Celtic tradition. Note that the gonnagle turns out to be troousers!” This is “They can take our lives, but they’ll called William.

never take our freedom”, from the movie Braveheart.

William McGonagall’s most famous poem is probably The

“Bang went saxpence!” is of those punchlines everyone’s Tay Bridge Disaster which recounts the events of the forgotten the joke to, reflecting the alleged meanness of the evening of 28 December 1879, when, during a severe gale, Scots. It comes from a Punch cartoon in which a Scotsman the Tay Rail Bridge near Dundee collapsed as a train was complains about the expense of London. “Mun, a had na’

THE WEE FREE MEN

141

The Annotated Pratchett File

been the-erre abune Twa Hoours when- Bang went to me, I’m afraid, but it’s eerie, innit? I think I might start Saxpence!!!”

pretending I had that in mind all along:–) ”

“Ye’ll tak’ the high road an’ I’ll tak’ yer wallet!” is based on

+ [ p. 206 ] The ballroom scene reminded many people of a the refrain of ‘The Bonny, Bonny Banks of Loch Lomond’: similar scene in the movie ‘Labyrinth’.

“Ye tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road”.

“There can only be one t’ousand!” is still based on the

+ [ p. 210 ] “ ‘[. . . ] pretend ye’re enjoying the cailey.’ ”

“There can be only one” quote from Highlander, as already Usually spelt “ceilidh” , this is the Scots Gaelic word for a seen in Carpe Jugulum.

party. These days used almost exclusively to signify Scottish

“Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willnae be Folk Music Festivals.

fooled again!” echoes the sentiments of The Who’s song

‘Won’t get fooled again’.

+ [ p. 212 ] “She cut Roland’s head off.”

Rowland had to cut off everybody’s head but Ellen’s in

+ [ p. 173 ] “ ‘Cloggets are a trembling of the greebs in order to break the spell on her.

hoggets,’ [. . . ]”

I have no idea what cloggets and greebs (‘grebes’ are a

+ [ p. 215 ] “ ‘Crivens!’ (She was sure it was a swear particular type of 9 inch long duck — I doubt whether Terry word.)”

had them in mind) are, but a hogget is the term used to Like Truckle the Uncivil, it’s possible that, in the mouth of a describe an adult female sheep before she has had any Mac Feegle, anything’s a swear word, but in fact offspring.

“crivvens!” translates into Sassanach roughly as “good grief!”. It’s now a bit of a joke, used only by Sunday Post

+ [ p. 180 ] “ ‘ “The King Underrrr Waterrrr” ’ ”

cartoon characters “Oor Wullie” and “The Broons”, and Possibly a reference to the Jacobite toast “The King Over

“I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue” ’s Hamish and Dougal.

the Water”.

+ [ p. 225 ] “ ‘Well, there was this fine lady on a horse with

+ [ p. 192 ] “ ‘If ye eats anythin’ in the dream, ye’ll never bells all over its harness and she galloped past me when I wanta’ leave it.’ ”

was out hunting and she was laughing, [. . . ]’ ”

Various legends (including Childe Rowland and Burd Helen, Tam Lin was captured while hunting, although the see below) mention that eating fairy food is a sure way to circumstances were different. When Thomas the Rhymer get trapped in Elfhame/Fairyland.

(see the annotation for p. 174/126 of Lords and Ladies] met the Queen “At ilka tett of her horse’s mane/Hung fifty siller

+ [ p. 199 ] “ ‘..oooooiiiiiit is with grreat lamentation and bells and nine”.

much worrying dismay, [. . . ]’ ”

Exactly the sort of thing McGonagall wrote. Although the

+ [ p. 285 ] “ ‘[. . . ] ye bloustie ol’ callyack that ye are!’ ”

“oooooo” bit seems to have crept in from Spike Milligan’s

“Callyack” is probably meant to represent the Gaelic William McGonagall: The Truth At Last.

‘cailleach’, old woman, which is actually pronounced

‘kyle-yak’ (with a good hard cough on the k).

+ [ p. 204 ] “Tiffany looked up at a white horse. [. . . ] And there was a boy on it.”

+ [ p. 287 ] “ ‘[. . . ] once I was a lawyer.’ ”

In the ballad of ‘Tam Lin’, Fair Janet is told she can As has been strongly foreshadowed throughout the book. In recognise Tam when she goes to rescue him, as he is the addition, once you know, a glance at the cover shows the only rider on a white horse.

swords of the Feegle immediately surrounding him are glowing blue. . .

+ [ p. 204 ] “ ‘This is my forest!,’ said the boy. ‘I command you to do what I say!’ ”

+ [ p. 287 ] “ ‘Potest-ne mater tua suere, amice.’ ”

More ‘Tam Lin’: see the annotation for p. 141/103 of Lords

“Vis-ne faciem capite repleta” (“Would you like a face that and Ladies.

is full of head?”) is translated on p. 289. Similarly, this means “Does your mother have the ability to sew, friend?”

+ [ p. 204 ] “ ‘Your name is Roland, isn’t it?’ she said.”

Roland’s name suggests the ballad ‘Childe Rowland and

+ [ p. 289 ] Nac Mac Feegle legal battlecries.

Burd Ellen’, about a young boy who has to rescue his sister

“Twelve hundred angry men!” comes from the film title (and the brothers who had previously failed) from the King Twelve Angry Men.

of Elfland. Of course, the DW version is worse than useless.

“We ha’ the law on oour side!” This phrase, OTOH, has Terry had no connection in mind, however:

been used so often that if there was ever an original source

“I chose Roland because it’s a) old b) a solid kind of name, (which there probably wasn’t), it’s long gone. Chalk it up as suggesting the kind of boy he is and c) probably, because I a cliché.

used to live next door to a Roland when I was a kid.”

“The law’s made to tak’ care o’ raskills!” is an almost

“[’Childe Rowland and Burd Ellen’] doesn’t mean anything verbatim quote from The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot, 142

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

who spelt “rascals” like that all the time. Note that in that

+ [ p. 9 ] “In Borogravia, [. . . ]”

book “take care of” means “deal with”. The Feegles seem to The name ‘Borogravia’ invokes the made-up word be using it to mean “protect”. . .

‘borogove’ (often misprinted as ‘borogrove’) from the poem

‘Jabberwocky’ in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking

+ [ p. 292 ] “The Queen. . . changed shape madly in Glass:

Tiffany’s arms.”

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Another commonplace of folk tales, where the hero(ine) has Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

to keep a tight grip on the villain(ess) whatever (s)he All mimsy were the borogoves,

becomes. In particular, there’s Tam Lin again, and the And the mome raths outgrabe.

battle between the Queen of Elfland and Fair Janet although in that case it was Tam himself Janet had to keep hold of.

Carroll described borogoves as an extinct variety of wingless parrot with an upturned beak, which nested on

+ [ p. 298 ] “The broomsticks descended.”

sundials and lived on veal. Terry’s dislike of the Alice books has been previously noted (see the Words From The Master There was some confusion on afp as to the place where The section).

Wee Free Men fits in the Discworld chronology. With Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg flying to the Chalk, is

+ [ p. 13 ] “[. . . ] if you had a billygoat.”

the third witch left holding the fort in Lancre Magrat or Agnes?

A reference to the “The Three Billygoats Gruff” fairy tale.

See also the annotation for p. 193/140 of Lords and Ladies.

Terry says:

“As for the chronology, it’s ‘now’ — or at least, after Carpe

+ [ p. 14 ] “The songs had been part of her childhood.”

Jugulum. Since Carpe Jugulum a clan of NMF have been Many, if not all, of the songs listed here are actual folk living in Lancre, too.”

songs. You can find the full lyrics using on-line resources

“The Wee Free Men was doodled around the time of Carpe such as the Digital Tradition Archive

Jugulum, but with a young male hero and set in Lancre. It

(http://www.mudcat.org/), but I’ll reproduce a couple of evolved for all kinds of good and vindicated reasons, but verses here to give an indication of the flavour.

among them was the realisation that it’d be too damn hard Tradition says ‘The World Turned Upside Down’ was played to keep the witches from taking a major role.

at Cornwallis’ surrender to Washington during the That’s one of the constrictions to writing a long-term series American Revolution:

like this. If something big, bad and public happens in If buttercups buzz’d after the bee,

Ankh-Morpork now, it will have a terrible tendency to If boats were on land, churches on sea,

become a Watch book. It’s not inevitable, given the palette If ponies rode men and if grass ate the cows, I’ve got to play with, but it is a consideration.”

And cats should be chased into holes by the

mouse,

+ [ p. 317 ] “ ‘[. . . ] that big heap o’ jobbies that just left

[. . . ]’ ”

If the mamas sold their babies

To the gypsies for half a crown;

‘Jobbies’ is a modern Scots word for solid excrement.

If summer were spring and the other way round, Then all the world would be upside down.

+ [ p. 318 ] “For ever and ever, wold without end.”

‘The Devil Shall Be My Sergeant’ (known as ‘Rogue’s From the Christian prayer ‘Gloria Patri’: “As it was in the March’):

beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.”

I left my home and I left my job

Went and joined the army

Note that the ‘wold’ in the text is not a misprint — a wold is If I knew then what I know now

an area of high, open, uncultivated land or moor.

I wouldn’t have been so barmy.

Poor old soldier, poor old soldier

If I knew then what I know now

I wouldn’t have been so barmy.

Monstrous Regiment

[. . . ]

Fifty I got for selling me coat

Fifty for me blankets

+ [title ] Monstrous Regiment

If ever I ‘list for a soldier again

The title of this book is a reference to the pamphlet The The devil shall be me sergeant.

First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment

‘Johnny Has Gone For a Soldier’ (also known as ‘Shule of Women, written by John Knox in 1558, complaining about Agra’, which is badly anglicised Irish for “Walk, My Love”): the sudden appearance of female monarchs such as Elizabeth of England and Mary of Scotland pre-empting the With fife and drum he marched away

natural position and authority of men.

He would not heed what I did say

He’ll not come back for many a day

MONSTROUS REGIMENT

143

The Annotated Pratchett File

Johnny has gone for a soldier

Frustrate their knavish tricks;

On thee our hopes we fix:

Shule shule shule shule agra

God save us all.

Sure a sure and he loves me

When he comes back he’ll marry me

For what it’s worth, very few national anthems start with Johnny has gone for a soldier

‘awake’, although many begin with ‘arise’.

‘The Girl I Left Behind Me’ (many versions exist):

+ [ p. 21 ] “ ‘[. . . ] the Book of Nuggan.’ ”

I’m lonesome since I cross’d the hills,

We have seen Nuggan before, in The Last Hero. He is And o’er the moor that’s sedgy;

therein depicted as short and irritable; perhaps his stature With heavy thoughts my mind is fill’d,

indicates his demise is already underway.

Since I parted with my Naggy

When e’er I return to view the place,

+ [ p. 25 ] “They’re cutting the continent in half”

The tears doth fall and blind me,

When I think on the charming grace

The Discworld Mapp shows that the location of Borogravia Of the girl I left behind me.

indeed falls neatly across Clacks lines between Ankh-Morpork and Genua.

And finally, ‘Sweet Polly Oliver’ tells the story of a woman who dresses as a male soldier in order to follow her true

+ [ p. 28 ] “you can call me Maladict”

love into the army:

The name is both a play on the name ‘Benedict’ and on the As sweet Polly Oliver lay musing in bed,

word ‘maledict’, which Webster’s defines as accursedness A sudden strange fancy came into her head.

or the act of bringing a curse.

‘Nor father nor mother shall make me false prove, I’ll ‘list as a soldier, and follow my love.’

+ [ p. 30 ] “ ‘I, of course, don’t drink. . . horse piss, [. . . ]’ ”

So early next morning she softly arose,

Terry loves to play with this famous Dracula “I don’t And dressed herself up in her dead brother’s

drink. . . wine” line. See also the annotation for p. 54 of clothes.

Carpe Jugulum.

She cut her hair close, and she stained her face brown,

+ [ p. 32 ] “ ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell.’ ”

And went for a soldier to fair London Town.

During the early 1990s, the United States military I’ve not been able to find real-world equivalents yet for reexamined its long-standing prohibition on homosexuals

‘Colonel Crapski’ and ‘I Wish I’d Never Kissed Her’ — any serving in the armed forces. Social conservatives strongly pointers will be most welcome.

opposed the change in policy; the compromise eventually reached, which persists to this writing (2004), was labelled

+ [ p. 15 ] “[. . . ] the spanking red uniform [. . . ]”

“don’t ask, don’t tell”; the administration of the military The entire Borogravian army wears a standard red uniform.

was not allowed to ask a recruit or soldier his or her sexual Both the uniform and its standardisation point to the orientation, but revealing it to be homosexual (or bisexual) Borogravian army being modelled on the English (later was still grounds for discharge. The compromise was British) army, whose soldiers were clad in red for nearly widely ridiculed by all sides.

250 years from 1645 onward. Among many other armies, even those of major military powers, uniforms didn’t truly

+ [ p. 34 ] “ ‘[. . . ] orders an Electrick Floorbanger, [. . . ]’ ”

become ‘uniform’ until as late as the First World War.

Carborundum’s drink contains silver and copper metal in some kind of acidic electrolyte. In such conditions, an

+ [ p. 16 ] “ ‘Give him the shilling, corporal.’ ”

electric current can be established between the silver and In the English army, taking the King’s or Queen’s Shilling copper, acting as a primitive battery.

was a ritual of induction; upon taking a shilling coin as The name ‘Electric Floorbanger’ also resonates with the enlistment bounty, the inductee was legally considered a Harvey Wallbanger, a classic 1970s cocktail made of vodka, soldier.

Galliano and orange.

+ [ p. 17 ] “Awake! ”

+ [ p. 37 ] “[. . . ] according to Father Jupe [. . . ]”

The Borogravian national anthem does not seem to parody A running gag is that famous officers lend their names to any specific national anthem. However, the line “Awake, ye articles of clothing. ‘Jupe’ is French for ‘skirt’; possibly sons of the Motherland” echoes France’s “Allons, enfants de Father Jupe is a former military hero?

la Patrie” (“come, children of the Fatherland”); while

“Frustrate the endless wiles of our enemies” echoes the

+ [ p. 39 ] “ ‘Well, it won’t be in front of me for long.’ ”

second verse of Britain’s “God Save the Queen”: A quotation often attributed to George Bernard Shaw, O Lord our God, arise,

although it may have originated with composer Max Reger: Scatter our enemies,

“I am in the smallest room of the house. I have your review And make them fall;

in front of me. Soon it will be behind me.”

Confound their politics,

144

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

+ [ p. 39 ] “ ‘Hands off — well, you lot wouldn’t be able to

+ [ p. 90 ] “They wore dark-blue uniforms, [. . . ]”

find ‘em. . . ’ ”

The Zlobenian cavalry uniforms hearken to those of Prussia

“Hands off cocks, on with socks!” is the traditional military and of the United States during the late 19th century.

wake-up shout (see also the annotation for p. 317/241 of Men At Arms). Does it need pointing out that in this

+ [ p. 92 ] “We have met the enemy and he is nice? ”

particular case, unbeknownst to Strappi, there are very The original quote is: “We have met the enemy and they are good reasons why these soldiers wouldn’t be able to “find ours — two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop”,

‘em”. . . ?

written by Oliver Hazard Perry in a Letter to General Harrison. after defeating the British at the battle of Lake

+ [ p. 50 ] “[. . . ] Strappi had written WHAT WE ARE

Erie in a decisive victory.

FIGHTING FOR and down the side he had written 1, 2, 3.”

These days, however, the better known version is probably From the Vietnam-era protest song

Walt Kelly’s “We have met the enemy, and they are us”, used

‘I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die-Rag’, by Country Joe & The in his classic comic strip Pogo, during the Vietnam years.

Fish (famously performed at Woodstock):

And it’s one, two, three,

+ [ p. 96 ] “ ‘[. . . ] you bloody beeteater, [. . . ]’ ”

What are we fighting for?

Borogravians and Zlobenians derisively refer to each other Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,

as ‘beeteater’ and ‘swede-eater’.

Next stop is Vietnam;

And it’s five, six, seven,

+ [ p. 101 ] “ ‘[. . . ] temporary feelings of shock and awe, Open up the pearly gates,

sir.’ ”

Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,

“Shock and Awe” is the name of a military doctrine first Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.

coined by the USA in its 2003 invasion of Iraq, and

+ [ p. 68 ] “most of you will almost certainly be pikemen”

immediately became a household phrase all over the world.

Pikes are used defensively against cavalry charges, or

+ [ p. 103 ] “ ‘Oh damn’, said Maladict”

offensively against infantry in the following fashion: a rank Maladict curses; a rather clever Tom Swiftie. (See the of pikemen advances on a rank of enemy infantry, pikes annotation for p. 26/26 of The Light Fantastic.) extended forward, and attempts to jab the enemy with their pikes; then draws swords and engages as standard infantry

+ [ p. 108 ] “Road to perdition”

while the rank behind them advances with their pikes. The Borogravian pike may be the “tool formerly used for lifting Albert Einstein: “The road to perdition has ever been beets” referred to in the National Anthem.

accompanied by lip service to an ideal.”

+ [ p. 76 ] “The Craft of War”

+ [ p. 112 ] “ ‘So you’re not actually waylaying field reports from the Times, then, sir?’ [. . . ]”

Sun Tzu’s The Art Of War is the standard text of military philosophy. See also the annotation for p. 63 of Interesting During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, both sides relied on Times.

television news for information; private journalists were often better-informed than military intelligence.

+ [ p. 85 ] “[. . . ] a banknote [. . . ]”

+ [ p. 136 ] “I’m lonesome since I crossed the hill ”

Borogravia uses paper currency, while A-M still uses precious-metal coins. In a world where coin is the standard From “The Girl I Left Behind Me”; see the annotation for of exchange, a country operating on paper currency not p. 14.

backed by precious metal (“fiat money”, in economic parlance) might see its economy become isolated from the

+ [ p. 143 ] “ ‘[. . . ] nothing I do in pursuit of my quest will rest of the world. The very fact that paper money is being be held Abominable.’ ”

issued indicates that Borogravia may have been strapped Soldiers who went on the Crusades were told that in for hard cash for some time.

undertaking the Crusade they would be absolved of all sins.

+ [ p. 86 ] “One shilling extra ‘per Diem’ ”

+ [ p. 144 ] “ ‘I am to take command of the Army,’ said Using this information and UK army pay scales, one can Wazzer.”

estimate that a second lieutenant in the Borogravian army Jeanne d’Arc, aka Joan of Arc or St. Joan, led the French receives approximately 1807 shillings per year as payment, army against the English while dressed as a man, and compared to 2012 shillings per year for a first lieutenant; believed she heard the voice of God.

and that there are approximately 11.16 Borogravian shillings to one UK pound.

+ [ p. 151 ] “Jolly Sailor”

As my original afp source for this annotation puts it: The same tobacco seen in The Wee Free Men.

“Working this out may be the single geekiest thing I have ever done.”

+ [ p. 165 ] “Lord Rust’s regiment”

MONSTROUS REGIMENT

145

The Annotated Pratchett File

Lord Rust’s style of command is described thoroughly in

+ [ p. 222 ] “’Tis Pity She’s A Tree”

Jingo and Night Watch.

From John Ford’s 1633 ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, a play with an important, sexually-based female role played by a man.

+ [ p. 166 ] “One, Two, Three! What We Are Fighting For!”

Another reference to the ‘I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag’

+ [ p. 223 ] “[. . . ] a stick thicker than the regulation one by Country Joe and the Fish (see the annotation for p. 50).

inch”

Maladict, in her coffee withdrawal hallucinations, is Popular knowledge has it that the expression “rule of apparently starting to channel Apocalypse Now type thumb” comes from English common law regarding the Vietnam scenes.

diameter of a stick with which one’s wife could legally be beaten, but this is now generally accepted to be a complete

+ [ p. 177 ] “ ‘Our cartoonist Fizz drew this for the special myth.

edition.’ ”

The cartoonist Hablot Knight Browne used the pseudonym

+ [ p. 235 ] “[. . . ] the job is making some other poor devil

‘Phiz’, and drew copperplate illustrations for many die for his.”

Victorian works, especially those of Charles Dickens.

“Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other

+ [ p. 177 ] “there was a beet stuck on the end of it”

poor dumb bastard die for his country.” — attributed to See the annotation for p. 68.

Gen. George S. Patton.

+ [ p. 178 ] “Morporkia”

+ [ p. 240 ] “ ‘The SoLid DoVes,’ Polly read.”

Compare Victorian-era illustrations of Britannia and

“Soiled Doves” is a euphemism for prostitutes originating in Columbia, depictions of state-gods for the United Kingdom the American west during the 19th century.

and United States, respectively.

+ [ p. 284 ] “ ‘In Klatch, I think, it means “I hope your

+ [ p. 176 ] “ ‘Civis Morporkias sum, sir.’ ”

donkey explodes”.’ ”

It is said that, at the time of the Roman Empire, a person In Arabia, the thumbs-up gesture does mean something like could walk anywhere in the Empire protected only by the

“up yours”. On occupying Iraq, many American and British words “Civis Romanus sum” or “I am a Roman citizen”, soldiers were greeted with crowds flashing thumbs-up knowing that the Empire would bring down a terrible wrath symbols, and mistakenly believed them to be showing on anyone who dared harm just one of its people.

approval.

+ [ p. 180 ] “ ‘Have you considered a squeezing

+ [ p. 303 ] “Let’s see how that one plays in Plün! ”

algorithm?’ ”

The Americanism “Let’s see how that one plays in Peoria”: Blouse is describing an existing data compression

“How will it fare when presented to the sensibilities of the technique known as Run-length Encoding (RLE). RLE is a rural population?”

simple algorithm that is well-suited to compressing graphic images containing limited amounts of (colour) information

+ [ p. 309 ] “ ‘[. . . ] the Ins-and-Outs, the Side-to-Sides and (such as the military maps containing mostly white space the Backwards-and-Forwards, [. . . ]’ ”

Blouse mentions).

Before the 1881 reforms, there was a British Army regiment, the 69th Foot, who were known as the

+ [ p. 191 ] “ ‘Charlie’s tracking us!’ ”

“Ups-and-Downs” (because it mostly consisted of old Another Vietnam reference from Maladict’s parallel veterans and raw recruits).

universe: during the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong were Terry says:

referred to by the abbreviation “VC”, or in radio phonetic alphabet “Victor Charlie”. This was shortened to ‘Charlie’

“Yep. And they — or in fact, one of them — is the subject of and the name became a common slang term for the enemy a folksong of a fairly generic kind in which (as an English during the war.

folk singer once observed) a young lady is en route to Maidenhead when she loses her Aylesbury.”

+ [ p. 192 ] “She’d roasted some acorns.”

There is for instance the song called ‘The Ups and Downs’, During the American Civil War, the Confederacy was recorded by Steeleye Span:

blockaded by the Union and coffee became almost As I was going to Aylesbury all on a market day unobtainable. Soldiers and citizens of the Confederacy A pretty little Aylesbury girl I met upon the way experimented with, among other things, roasted acorns and Her business was to market with butter, cheese roasted chicory as substitutes for the beverage.

and whey

And we both jogged on together my boys fol-der-o

+ [ p. 222 ] “Except my Auntie Parthenope, as I recall.”

diddle-o-day

From ‘parthenos’, Greek for ‘virgin’; Auntie Parthenope is a And we both jogged on together my boys fol-der-o genuine maiden aunt.

diddle-o-day

146

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

As we jogged on together my boys together side when William Russell described in the London Times the by side

93rd Highlanders at the Battle of Balaclava in October By chance this fair maid’s garter it came untied 1854. This was then probably picked up by Rudyard Kipling For fear that she might lose it I unto her did say for use in his poem ‘Tommy’:

Your garter’s come untied my love fol-der-o

Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you

diddle-o-day

while you sleep

Your garter’s come untied my love fol-der-o

Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re

diddle-o-day

starvation cheap;

As we rode on together my boys to the outskirts An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’

of the town

large a bit

At length this fair young damsel she stopped and Is five times better business than paradin’ in full looked around

kit.

O since you’ve been so venturesome pray tie it up Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’

for me

“Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul?”

O I will if you go to the apple grove fol-der-o But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums diddle-o-day

begin to roll,

O I will if you go to the apple grove fol-der-o The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums

diddle-o-day

begin to roll,

And when we got to the apple grove the grass was O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums growing high

begin to roll.

I laid this girl upon her back her garter for to tie The phrase was also used as the title of James Jones’ novel While tying of her garter such sights I never did (and the 1998 movie based on it) telling the story of the see

United States capture of Guadalcanal during the Second And we both jogged on together my boys fol-der-o World War.

diddle-o-day

And we both jogged on together my boys fol-der-o

+ [ p. 348 ] “Generals and majors and captains, oh my.”

diddle-o-day

Echoes Dorothy’s “Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!” in Etcetera. Note that this is very likely also the same The Wizard of Oz.

cheese-and-garters song that Polly and the others have been discussing earlier.

+ [ p. 312 ] “ ‘[. . . ] that detachment of Kopelies.’ ”

‘Kopelies’ is Greek for ‘girls’.

A Hat Full of Sky

+ [ p. 314 ] “ ‘Much ado, in fact, about nothing.’ ”

A Shakespeare play in which women dress as men, and

+ [ p. 19 ] “Miss Tick was a sort of witch-finder”

which includes a character named Benedick. See the A neat reversal of the Roundworld witch-finder concept (in annotation for p. 28.

the same vein as the Witch Trials). See the annotation for p. 167/109 of Good Omens.

+ [ p. 326 ] “ ‘[. . . ] like an ambassador but without the little gold chocolates.’ ”

+ [ p. 39 ] “Kelda Jeannie was from the Long Lake clan, up Refers to a well-known television advert for Ferrero Rocher in the mountains — and they did write things down.”

chocolates (which come individually wrapped in gold foil), This could well be the Nac Mac Feegle clan from Carpe which were served at the Ambassador’s balls.

Jugulum. The lake they settled at wasn’t actually named but, looking at the Lancre Mapp, it certainly is long. And

+ [ p. 328 ] “ ‘But why did you say you were a cherry they do indeed write things down: “We of the Nac Mac pancake?’ said Polly.”

Feegle are a simple folk, but we write verra comp-lic-ated John F. Kennedy, speaking in West Berlin in 1963, famously documents”.

declared: “Ich bin ein Berliner” — “I am a citizen of Berlin”.

+ [ p. 47 ] “ ‘There can only be one, is that not so?’ ”

As a ‘Berliner’ is also a kind of jam-filled pastry, Kennedy’s words have been interpreted by some people as a language Highlander, again. See the annotation for p. 6 of Carpe blunder, similar to the one Vimes makes here. This is, Jugulum.

however, simply nonsense: the meaning Kennedy intended is a correct one as well, and was absolutely clear from

+ [ p. 52 ] “ ‘It’s a shamble’ ”

context.

On Roundworld, the word shamble has no magical connotations, as far as I know. The thing Miss Tick has

+ [ p. 341 ] “I was part of the Thin Red Line [. . . ]”

created would probably be called a focus, or a talisman, or The generally-accepted first use of “Thin Red Line” was perhaps, somewhat misguidedly, a dream catcher.

A HAT FULL OF SKY

147

The Annotated Pratchett File

+ [ p. 73 ] “a dobby stone”

Much of the rest of Awf’ly Wee Billy’s outburst reflects traditional Scottish curses.

The idea that stones with holes in them are magical first appeared in Guards! Guards! On the Discworld, they were

+ [ p. 289 ] “The Ducking Stool was very popular among first called ‘dobby stones’ in the Thieves’ Guild Diary, after young children on such a hot day.”

a con-man called Dobby Stone.

Ducking stool type things are popular at modern fairs, but Here on Roundworld, “dobby stones” are hollow stones the significance of their presence at Witch Trials goes with a hole in the top, into which are poured offerings of without saying. (See also the annotation for p. 62/54 of milk to spirits. In Scotland they did something similar, Witches Abroad.

offering milk to Gruac, a goddess who watched over cattle.

Stones with holes in are generally considered lucky, and are

+ [ p. 317 ] “ ‘I’m telling you this as a friend.’ ”

sometimes called hagstones. There are also slightly A phrase Mrs Earwig used to Granny Weatherwax in The different stones with holes in called brownie stones (a Sea And Little Fishes, prompting Nanny Ogg to think that dobby is another name for a brownie). Which brings us

“Nobody even remotely friendly would say a thing like that.”

back to the Nac Mac Feegle.

+ [ p. 323 ] “There were no judges, and no prizes.”

+ [ p. 79 ] “Professor Monty Bladder’s Three Ring Circus”

In The Sea And Little Fishes Mrs Earwig does set up a It is difficult to believe that a UK humorist could call a judging panel, and spends ten dollars on a trophy cup.

circus owner “Monty” by coincidence.

However, given how that turned out it’s unsurprising she hasn’t tried it again.

+ [ p. 93 ] “The ill-fated First Expedition to the Loko Region”

+ [ p. 333 ] “When I’m old I shall wear midnight, she’d The story of this expedition is told in The Science of decided.”

Discworld. The former inhabitants of Loko seem to have

“When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple”, the specialised in Meddling With Things Man Was Not Meant opening line of Jenny Joseph’s 1961 poem ‘Warning’.

To Know.

+ [ p. 136 ] “Mrs Earwig”

Mrs Earwig first appeared in the Discworld short story “The Sea And Little Fishes”, where she challenged a centipede to Once More, With Footnotes

an arse-kick. . . sorry, challenged Granny Weatherwax’s authority.

In some ways the second half of A Hat Full Of Sky is as

+ This collection of short stories and non-fiction was much as sequel to The Sea and Little Fishes as it is to The released in September 2004. No annotations yet.

Wee Free Men.

+ [ p. 179 ] “ ‘It’s pronounced Ah-wij,’ said Mrs Earwig coldly.”

In the Keeping Up Appearances BBC television comedy, the Going Postal

very snobbish Mrs-Earwig-like Hyacinth Bucket always insists her name is pronounced “Bouquet”.

+ This book was released November 2004. No annotations

+ [ p. 185 ] “Lovely to look at/Nice to hold/If you drop it/You yet.

get torn apart by wild horses”

A sign occasionally seen in gift shops, except the last two lines are normally “If you break it/Consider it sold”.

+ [ p. 230 ] “ ‘What ha’ I done to be among this parcel o’

Wintersmith

rogues?’ ”

Reference to “A Parcel O Rogues In A Nation” by Robert

+ I do not know the scheduled release date for this book, Burns:

but I’d guess May 2006 to be a likely candidate.

Fareweel to a’ oor Scottish fame

Fareweel oor ancient glory

+ Terry read some pages from this book at the Discworld Fareweel even tae oor Scottish name

Convention 2004. It is another Tiffany Aching novel, and Sae famed in martial story

the bits we heard focused on Tiffany attempting to fight (at Noo Sark runs o’er the Solway sands

great personal risk) an unprecedented fall of snow that is Tweed runs tae the ocean

threatening to kill all the livestock. There is also a Tae mark where England’s province stands

wonderful scene where Tiffany gives a white kitten as a Such a parcel o’ rogues in a nation

present to Granny Weatherwax.

148

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

I can report from my own experience that in the medical Thud

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

+ This book is scheduled to be released in October 2005.

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

+ Terry read some pages from this book at the Discworld intrigue me no end. But then, as Terry wrote in a Convention 2004. It is another Watch book, and the bits we subsequent posting: “Of course it’s daft, it’s traditional”.

heard focused on Vimes being, um, persuaded by the Patrician to accept a female vampire as a Watch member.

– [ p. 179 ] “As he wrote in his unpublished MS entitled The Terry did not divulge major plot points, but as the title Servant, a sort of handbook for the politically ambitious: indicates, Dwarf/Troll rivalry and Koom Valley can be

[. . . ]”

expected to feature.

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 Where’s My Cow?

Machiavelli’.

– [ p. 252 ] “Wizards of the Disc, known”

+ This Discworld picture book, illustrated by Melvin Grant, In the list a cross-reference to the name ‘Catbury’ appears, is scheduled to be released in October 2005.

but that entry is not present in hardcover nor trade paperback edition of the Companion.

– [ p. 254 ] “de Worde, William”

William de Worde did not appear in an actual Discworld When I Am Old I Shall Wear Midnight

novel until 2000, when The Truth was released, six years after The Discworld Companion was written. His name is a composition of the names Wynkyn de Worde and William

+ This book is in the planning stages only. No scheduled Caxton. In 1474 Caxton printed the first book in the English release date is known.

language, a translation of The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troy. In his career he printed more than 70 books, 20 of

+ Terry mentioned this novel at the Discworld Convention them his own translations from the Latin, French, and 2004. It will be the fourth Tiffany Aching novel, and Dutch. Wynkyn de Worde was his successor.

“depending on what happens in [it]”, there may be a fifth one. But either fourth or fifth book will be the last one.

– The Discworld Companion contains neat illustrations and heraldic descriptions of all the coats of arms of the various

+ For an explanation of the title, see the annotation for important guilds and institutions in Ankh-Morpork. (Note: p. 333 of A Hat Full Of Sky

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 The Discworld Companion

(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

– [ p. 18 ] “In the bottom-left half two croix d’or on a sable EST OR — All That Glitters Is Gold

field.”

The City of Ankh-Morpork: MERVS IN PECTVM

People reported on alt.fan.pratchett that they had found ET IN AQVAM — Pure In Heart And In Water

an error in the Companion: all the descriptions of the coats QVANTI CANICVLA ILLA IN FENESTRA —

of arms appear to have left and right reversed when How Much Is That Doggy In The Window?

compared to the illustrations.

The Assassin’s Guild: NIL MORTIFII SINE LVCRE

But Terry replied: “No, we’re not daft. . . according to

— No Killing Without Pay

Stephen, who rather enjoys the byways of heraldry, the designs on the shield were traditionally referred to from the The Beggar’s Guild: MONETA SVPERVACANEA,

knight’s point of view, and since he was generally behind it, MAGISTER — Spare Change, Guv’?

everything is reversed. Its makes sense, or at least as much The Conjuror’s Guild: NVNC ILLE EST MAGICVS

sense as many traditional things do. After all, if you’re left

— Now That’s Magic (Catch-phrase of British

handed you use, from my point of view, your right hand. In magician Paul Daniels)

the same way, an actor exiting ‘stage left’ is walking off to the right from the audience’s point of view.”

The Embalmer’s Guild: FARCIMINI — Stuff It!

THE DISCWORLD COMPANION

149

The Annotated Pratchett File

The Engraver’s Guild: NON QVOD MANEAT, SED

Roundworld, with the Librarian taking the place of the QVOD ADIMIMVS — Not What Remains, But

frightened child.

What We Take Away

+ [ p. 19 ] “ ‘Lots of centaurs and fauns and other curiously The Fools’ Guild (The Guild of Fools and

shaped magical whatnots are there, [. . . ]’ ”

Joculators and College of

Clowns): DICO, DICO, DICO — I Say, I Say, I Say Centaurs first appeared in Carpe Jugulum, and are now being mentioned again in the very next book. Apparently The Gambler’s Guild: EXCRETVS EX FORTVNA —

they’re regarded as some sort of magical mutation, rather Shit Out Of Luck. ( The Discworld Companion:

than as part of the original Creation. Would that account for

“Loosely speaking: ‘Really out of luck’ ”)

more of the denizens of Uberwald?

The Klatchian Foreign Legion: OBLIVISCOR — I

forget

+ [ p. 43 ] “ ‘Well, sir, you could ask what use is a new-born The Merchant’s Guild: VILIS AD BIS PRETII —

child. . . ’ ”

Cheap At Twice The Price

This was the alleged reply of Michael Faraday to the Mort, Duke of Sto Helit: NON TIMETIS MESSOR

question “What use is electricity?”, but probably also

— Don’t Fear The Reaper (see also the

attributed to other scientists.

annotation for p. 239 of Hogfather)

+ [ p. 45 ] “[. . . ] the ancient principle of WYGIWYGAINGW.”

The Musician’s Guild: ID MVRMVRATIS, ID

In the Enlightenment, most thinkers had pretty much LVDAMVS — You Hum It, We’ll Play It

unbounded faith that science would eventually answer The Patrician (Lord Havelock Vetinari): SI NON

every conceivable question. This led to a parallel CONFECTVS NON REFICIAT — If It Ain’t

philosophical movement based on a variant of

Broke, Don’t Fix It

predestination — if the whole universe runs on Rules, then The Plumber’s Guild (Fully: The Guild of

everything must be as it is and it’s no good wishing it were Plumbers and Dunnikindivers): NON ANTE

otherwise. Most famously parodied by Voltaire in ‘Candide’, SEPTEM DIES PROXIMA, SQVIRI — Not

through the character of Pangloss.

Before Next Week, Squire

‘WYGIWYGAINGW’ is of course also a pun on ‘WYSIWYG’, Lady Sybil Deirdre Olgivanna Ramkin: NON

the technology principle that What You See Is What You Get SVMET NVLLVS PRO RESPONSO — She Won’t

(originally used in the context of an image on the screen in Take No For An Answer

e.g. a word processor corresponding exactly to a printed version).

Seamstresses’ Guild: NIL VOLVPTI, SINE LVCRE

— No Pleasure Without Pay

+ [ p. 57 ] “It was the second day. . . ”

The Duke of Sto Helit (Mort’s predecessor):

On the second day, God separated Heaven from Earth. The FABER EST QVISQVE FORTVNAE SVAE —

Roundworld chooses this day to develop its first planets.

Every Man Is The Maker Of His Own Fortune

The Stripper’s Guild: NVNQVAM VESTIMVS —

+ [ p. 61 ] “‘As Above, So Below”,’

We Never Clothe

This was the theoretical basis of late medieval/Renaissance The Thieves’ Guild: ACVTVS ID VERBERAT —

magical theory, including traditional alchemy.

Whip it Quick

+ [ p. 99 ] “It was day four.”

Unseen University: NVNC ID VIDES, NVNC NE

VIDES — Now You See it, Now You Don’t

On the fourth day, God created the sun, moon and stars.

Ridcully et al try to do the same thing.

The City Watch: FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC — Make

My Day, Punk ( Guards! Guards!: “To Protect

+ [ p. 101 ] “Things fall apart, but centres hold.”

and Serve”)

Plays on a well-known quote from W. B. Yeats’s poem ‘The Second Coming’ (see also the annotation for p. 383/268 of Good Omens for another mention of this poem): Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

The Science of Discworld

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned.

+ [cover ] The cover of the book is a Discworld version of the 1768 painting An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump

+ [ p. 121 ] “ ‘Days and nights!’ said Ponder. ‘Seasons, too, by Joseph Wright, depicting the formation of a vacuum by if we do it right!’ ”

withdrawing air from a glass bowl containing a white Still on the fourth day of Genesis (1:14): And God said, Let cockatoo.

there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the Note that in Paul Kidby’s version the bowl contains the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for 150

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

seasons, and for days, and years:

+ [ p. 126 ] “The Shellfish Scene”

Puns on The Selfish Gene, the title of a well-known book by

+ [ p. 152 ] “In April 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped down biologist Richard Dawkins.

on top the surface of the Moon, [. . . ]”

I am not sure if this error has been fixed in later printings

+ [ p. 301 ] “Worlds Of If”

of the book (I have been told that it is still present in the Worlds of If was the name of an American pulp science 2002 paperback edition), but it definitely needs to be: the fiction magazine published in the 1950s.

first Moon landing was in July 1969.

+ [ p. 207 ] “ ‘Sniffleheim,’ said the Dean, [. . . ]”

In Norse mythology, Niflheim is one name of the underworld, the domain of Hel.

The Science of Discworld III:

+ [ p. 207 ] ‘We can get HEX to reverse the thaumic flow in Darwin’s Watch

the cthonic matrix. . . ’

“Reversing the polarity” of the something or other as a last

+ This book was released in May 2005. No annotations yet.

desperate measure has become the archetypical example of the kind of meaningless technobabble often used in the various Star Trek television series.

Similarly, Dr Who was also often seen “reversing the polarity of the neutron flow” of something with his sonic The Streets of Ankh-Morpork

screwdriver.

+ [ p. 271 ] “[. . . ] the big black rectangle looming over

– B4—D4 Chrononhotonthologos Street.

them.”

Chrononhotonthologos is the name of an 18th century A reference to the black monolith that teaches the apes in burlesque stage farce by Henry Carey. I have no idea why the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. The subsequent there is a Chrononhotonthologos Street in Ankh-Morpork —

“throwing the thighbone up into the air” sequence is except that it is one heck of a cool word.

another. (See also the annotation for p. 259/233 of Sourcery).

+ [ p. 272 ] “Rincewind was wandering in the next bay, staring at the cliffs.”

The Discworld Mapp

Cliffs were one of the textbook inspirational sights that caused Darwin and his contemporaries to think about extinctions and the history of life. This is significant

+ “[. . . ] XXXX and its companion islands (‘Foggy Islands’, because Rincewind’s thoughts here are quite reminiscent of reputedly the place where XXXX kept the lawnmower).”

Darwin’s thoughts, when he tried to reconcile his theory of evolution with the story of creation.

The Maori name for New Zealand is ‘Aotearoa’, which means “land of the long white cloud”.

For the XXXX/Australia connection, see the annotation for p. 149/132 of Reaper Man.

The Science of Discworld II: the

Globe

A Tourist Guide to Lancre

+ [ p. 12 ] “[. . . ] the Reader in Slood Dynamics”

Slood was mentioned first in The Last Continent. It is a

+ “A rain-proof, hooded overgarment (Orac Oracssons’s mysterious substance that appears to have not been outfitters in Ohulan Cutash supply the best waterproof discovered yet (either on Roundworld or on Discworld), so clothing. Most seasoned walkers would not be seen without it is an eminently suitable research subject for Rincewind.

their Orac).”

See also the footnote on p. 58.

So you would call one of these garments “an Orac”, I

+ [ p. 64 ] “ ‘This world is a cheap parody of our own. As suppose. . .

Above, So Below and all that.’ ”

+ “Mr Cmot Dibbler sells an excellent compass [. . . ] As a See the annotation for p. 61 of The Science Of Discworld.

means of finding your bearings, however, they are totally useless).”

THE SCIENCE OF DISCWORLD III: DARWIN’S WATCH

151

The Annotated Pratchett File

This may have as much to do with the usual lack of quality associated with Dibbler’s products, as it does with the fact that Roundworld compasses work because of the Earth’s magnetic field — on Discworld the equivalent is the enchanted needle that always points to the Hub.

+ “[. . . ] isolated hamlets with romantic names such as Slippery Hollow, a collection of cottages now inevitably connected in the traveller’s mind with the legend of the headless horse rider.”

Or the legend of Sleepy Hollow in Roundworld terms.

Death’s Domain

+ “[. . . ] the dandelion clocks won’t strike. . . ”

See the annotation for p. 10/10 of The Light Fantastic.

152

DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS

CHAPTER

4

Other Annotations

and Neil used sloppy secondary sources for their research.

Good Omens

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

– [cover ] The weird blue/red neon thingy surrounding the himself who pinpointed the time of creation at noon,

‘666’ on the cover of the UK hardcover version of Good October 23, 4004 BC — not nine o’clock in the morning.

Omens is actually a map of the M25 London orbital motorway, mentioned in the text as “evidence for the For a fascinating explanation of why it would really be very hidden hand of Satan in the affairs of Man”.

unfair of us to ridicule Ussher’s findings, I refer the interested reader to the essay ‘Fall in the House of Ussher’

If you have Internet access, you can get a copy of the Good by Stephen Jay Gould, which appeared in his excellent Omens cover from the Pratchett Archives.

collection Eight Little Piggies.

+ [ p. 9/vii ] “[. . . ] the angel, whose name was Aziraphale.”

– [ p. 19/3 ] “[. . . ] all tapes left in a car for more than about On the subject of the correct pronunciation of the name, a fortnight metamorphose into ‘Best of Queen’ albums.”

Terry says:

In an interview in Comics Buyer’s Guide with Terry and

“It should be Azz-ear-raf-AE-el, but we got into the habit of Neil, shortly after the American release of Good Omens, pronouncing it Azz-ear-raf-ail, so I guess that’s the right Terry proposed the theory that, when you’re driving way now.”

through the country late at night, and there’s nothing on And about the name’s origin:

the radio, you find yourself stopping in at an all-night gas station and looking through the tape rack; the only thing

“It was made up but. . . er. . . from real ingredients. [The there remotely tolerable is a Best of Queen, so you buy that.

name] Aziraphale could be shoved in a list of ‘real’ angels Two weeks later you can’t remember how the thing got and would fit right in. . . ”

there, so you get rid of it, only to go through the same For instance, Islam recognizes the Archangels Jibril, process again. Neil’s theory was that tapes really do turn Mikhail, Azrael (see also the annotation for p. 7/9 of Reaper into Best of Queen albums.

Man), and Israfel (whom Edgar Allan Poe wrote a well-known poem about), whereas from Christianity we get

– [ p. 20/3 ] “[. . . ] he was currently wondering vaguely who such names as Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, and Uriel.

Moey and Chandon were”.

The Queen song ‘Killer Queen’ contains the line: “She

– [ p. 11/viii ] “It was going to be a dark and stormy night.”

keeps the Moët et Chandon in a pretty cabinet”. Freddie See the annotation for p. 9/7 of Soul Music.

Mercury’s pronunciation is indeed such that, if you don’t already know what he’s singing, this part of the lyrics can

– [ p. 17/1 ] “Archbishop James Usher (1581–1656) be extremely puzzling.

published Annales Veteris Et Novi Testamenti in 1654, which suggested that the Heaven and the Earth were

– [ p. 26/8 ] “. . . I will not let you go (let him go). . . ”

created in 4004 BC.”

This sentence, and the ‘scaramouche’ line a few paragraphs This is true in spirit, but almost completely wrong in before, are taken from Queen’s legendary song ‘Bohemian nit-picking detail, which leads me to conclude that Terry Rhapsody’. This line is misquoted though. The actual song 153

The Annotated Pratchett File

goes: “We will not let you go (let him go)”.

Discharge Bible: An edition printed in 1806 containing

“discharge” for “charge” in 1 Timothy 5:21: “I discharge

– [ p. 32/13 ] “Sister Mary had expected an American thee before God [. . . ] that thou observe these things [. . . ]”.

diplomat to look like Blake Carrington or J.R. Ewing.”

Treacle Bible: A popular name for the Bishops’ Bible, 1568

Leading male characters in the 1980s Power Soaps Dynasty because in it, Jeremiah 8:22 reads “Is there no treacle in (Blake Carrington played by John Forsythe) and Dallas Gilead” instead of “Is there no balm in Gilead”.

(J. R. Ewing played by Larry Hagman). The general image is Standing Fishes Bible: An edition of 1806 in which Ezekiel of somewhat rugged American masculinity. In a suit.

47:10 reads: “And it shall come to pass that the fishes The Good Omens paperback replaces “an American

[instead of: fishers] shall stand upon it.”

diplomat” with “the American Cultural Attache”.

Also mentioned by Brewer are the Ears To Ear Bible, the Rosin Bible and the Rebecca’s Camels Bible.

– [ p. 33/13 ] “With a little old lady as the sleuth, [. . . ]”

Not a reference to Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, but

– [ p. 52/28 ] The three lost Shakespeare plays.

rather to Angela Landsbury’s character in the TV show The Trapping Of The Mouse refers to Agatha Christie’s The Murder, She Wrote (there are not many “avuncular Mousetrap (which has now been running for more than 42

sheriffs” in the Miss Marple books).

consecutive years in London), who in turn named her play after the play-within-a-play that occurs in. . . Hamlet.

– [ p. 35/15 ] “He’d seen a Ken Russell film once. There had been nuns in it.”

Golde Diggers Of 1589 refers to the series of movie musicals with similar names made in 1933, 1935 and 1937.

This might have been, for instance, the 1971 film The Devils, a study of a French nunnery that had supposedly The Comedie Of Robin Hoode, Or The Forest Of Sherwoode turned to Satanism.

is not directly traceable to something specific, but there have been of course many famous Robin Hood movies, from

– [ p. 37/17 ] “ ‘Wormwood’s a nice name,’ said the nun, the legendary 1938 production with Errol Flynn, Basil remembering her classics. ‘Or Damien. Damien’s very Rathbone and Olivia de Havilland through the more popular.’ ”

contemporary 1991 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner.

Damien refers to the protagonist of the various Omen movies (see the annotation for p. 67/40). Wormwood is the

– [ p. 56/31 ] “ ‘I mean, d’you know what eternity is?

name of the junior devil in The Screwtape Letters by There’s this big mountain, see, a mile high, at the end of the C. S. Lewis. This is a series of letters from a senior devil universe, and once every thousand years there’s this little (Screwtape) to a junior devil (Wormwood) about bird—’ ”

Wormwood’s attempted temptation of a man in war-time London.

Crowley’s description of eternity is from the hell-and-damnation speech in James Joyce’s Portrait of the Wormwood is also the plant which according to tradition Artist as a Young Man.

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. 62/36 ] “They were doing drinks in a restaurant called Top of the Sixes, on the top of 666 Fifth Avenue, New York.”

– [ p. 41/19 ] “ ‘Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.’ ”

The name and address were real when Good Omens was A well-known quote from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, written: there actually used to be such a restaurant on top act 1, scene 2.

of 666 Fifth Avenue. Somewhen in the 90s it was closed and converted to a club.

– [ p. 41/19 ] “That Hieronymus Bosch. What a weirdo.”

The rest of the building is of course also still very much in Hieronymus Bosch was a 15th century Dutch painter of use. On the 37th floor, for instance, resides Demon Internet religious visions that dealt in particular with the torments Inc, the American arm of the well-known British Internet of Hell and the subjects of sin and punishment.

Service Provider, which Terry himself uses.

– [ p. 42/20 ] “ ‘I don’t think there’s anything wrong with

– [ p. 67/40 ] “ ‘I am Nanny Astoreth,’ she told him.”

Errol. Or Cary.’ ”

Astoreth or Ashtaroth was the Zidonian goddess-moon in Errol Flynn and Cary Grant.

Syrian mythology. No, I have no idea who the Zidonians

– [ p. 50/26 ] “And he had a complete set of the Infamous were, but undoubtedly they were heathens, and therefore Bibles, individually named from errors in typesetting.”

presumably on Evil’s side by default.

There have been many Infamous Bibles, and all of the ones

– [ p. 67/40 ] “ ‘What a delightful child,’ she said. ‘He’ll be mentioned in this paragraph, except for the Charing Cross wanting a little tricycle soon.’ ”

Bible and the Buggre Alle This Bible, actually did exist.

The ‘mother’ in the 1976 horror movie The Omen (which is As usual, it is Brewer who has all the relevant information.

all about the Antichrist being raised in a normal household) The Unrighteous Bible and the Wicked Bible are as Terry was forced by little Damien over the edge of an upstairs and Neil describe them. In addition, there is: 154

OTHER ANNOTATIONS

APF v9.0, August 2004

railing with his tricycle.

successive ‘lucky’s, not five.

– [ p. 68/40 ] The nursery rhyme Nanny Astoreth sings to

– [ p. 79/46 ] The scenes of Adam growing up in Tadfield are Warlock:

an affectionate parody of the Just William books by Richmal Crompton.

Oh, the grand old Duke of York

He had ten thousand men

They are a series of books about William Brown (age 11) He marched them up to the top of the hill

and his gang of Outlaws: Ginger, Douglas and Henry. The And crushed all the nations of the world and

Johnsonites in Good Omens parallel the Laneites in Just brought them under the rule of Satan our

William, Hubert Lane being a similarly lugubrious podgy master.

kid.

is a parody of the English original:

– [ p. 82/49 ] “ ‘I’ll call him Dog,’ said his Master, positively.”

The grand old Duke of York,

There’s a nice resonance here with the biblical Adam giving He had ten thousand men.

names to all the animals in God’s creation (Genesis 2:19).

He marched them up to the top of the hill

And he marched them down again.

– [ p. 87/52 ] ‘Another One Bites The Dust’, ‘We Are The And when they were up they were up.

Champions’, ‘I Want To Break Free’ and ‘Fat-Bottomed And when they were down they were down.

Girls’ are all songs by Queen (see the annotation for And when they were only half way up

p. 20/3).

They were neither up nor down.

Queen fans have pointed out that at the time Good Omens Accompanied (in some versions) by fingers marching up the was released, there was no (or at least no easily available) small child as appropriate and stopping to tickle for the last Queen greatest hits album that actually contained all of line.

these songs. A recently released double album has remedied this situation.

– [ p. 68/40 ] “ ‘Bwuvver Fwancis the gardener says I mus’

selfwesswy pwactise virtue an’ wuv to all wivving things,’

– [ p. 94/58 ] “ ‘It’s probably compline, unless that’s a said Warlock.”

slimming aid.’ ”

The gardener is none other than Saint Francis of Assisi.

No, compline is indeed one of the periods of the religious Note also the “flocks of birds settled all over him at every day (around 18.00 h, according to my copy of The Name of opportunity” bit earlier on.

the Rose). The slimming aid is ‘complan’.

– [ p. 70/42 ] “The message had come during Cheers, one of

– [ p. 103/65 ] “The contingent from Financial Planning Crowley’s favourite television programmes. Woody the were lying flat on their faces in what had once been the barman had [. . . ]”

haha, although they weren’t very amused.”

In the American edition of Good Omens, this scene was If you don’t know what a haha is, see the annotation for changed to refer to the series The Golden Girls and the p. 77/58 of Men at Arms.

character Rose. (The effect remains the same).

– [ p. 110/70 ] “. . . Bee-elzebub has a devil put aside for me, Nobody knows the reason for this change, since both are for me. . . ”

American sitcoms anyway. Speaking personally, I think Crowley is definitely a Cheers person, and would not have Another line from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

liked The Golden Girls at all.

– [ p. 114/73 ] “The Nice And Accurate Prophecies made

– [ p. 75/43 ] “He had attended a class in the 1870s run by the Hitler Diaries look like, well, a bunch of forgeries.”

John Maskelyne [. . . ]”

Stern magazine published a series of Hitler’s diaries in the John Maskelyne was a 19th century stage magician who mid–80s which, in fact, turned out to be forgeries.

specialised in sleight-of-hand illusions. He is fondly remembered in the illusionist community as a mentor to

– [ p. 116/75 ] “[. . . ] Elvis was taken by Space Aliens in aspiring young magicians. He also gained some notoriety 1976 because he was too good for this world.”

for exposing fraudulent spiritualists.

Actually, Elvis died in 1977, so perhaps these Space Aliens left a doppelgänger? Neil and Terry are certainly aware of

– [ p. 78/46 ] “ ‘I-should-be-so-lucky,

the correct year, because later on (p. 261/177, during the

-lucky-lucky-lucky-lucky,’ ”

video trivia game scene) there is a reference to both Bing This is the chorus to Kylie Minogue’s break-through hit ‘I Crosby and Marc Bolan dying in 1976. But in fact, both died should be so lucky’:

in 1977 as well.

I should be so lucky

– [ p. 122/79 ] “ ‘This wouldn’t of happened if we’d of gone Lucky lucky lucky

to Torremolinos like we usually do,’ [. . . ]”

I should be so lucky in love

Torremolinos is a resort on the Mediterranean coast of Notice that this is yet another misquote: there are only four Spain, which in the past was very popular with the more GOOD OMENS

155

The Annotated Pratchett File

down-market sort of British holiday-maker. In US terms, attack and needle the scientific establishment using every imagine Atlantic City/Las Vegas. Take it down market a bit.

possible means at his disposal.

A bit more. No, a bit more than that. There. That’s For more information about Fort I refer the reader to beginning to get close to Torremolinos. The town has in Martin Gardner’s wonderful book Fads and Fallacies in the recent years made a great effort to change its image and Name of Science (1957), or to the Fortean Society’s attract a better class of tourist but whether this has worked newspaper The Fortean Times, still being published in both remains doubtful.

UK and US today.

– [ p. 127/80 ] “[. . . ] the frequent name changes usually

– [ p. 156/100 ] “[. . . ] a highly successful film series with being prompted by whatever Adam had happened to have lasers, robots and a princess who wore her hair like a pair read [. . . ]”

of stereo headphonesT M .”

The Hole-in-the-Chalk gang refers to Butch Cassidy’s This is of course the Star Wars saga, directed by George Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, The Really Well-Known Four to The Lucas. The princess is Princess Leia Organa; and the Famous Five, The Legion of Really Super-Heroes to DC

person with the coal scuttle helmet who is allowed to blow Comics’ Legion of Super-Heroes series, The Justice Society up planets is Darth Vader.

of Tadfield to DC’s Justice Society of America.

+ [ p. 160/103 ] “If Cortez, on his peak in Darien, had had

– [ p. 129/81 ] “Pepper’s given first names were Pippin slightly damp feet [. . . ]”

Galadriel Moonchild.”

From On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer by John Both Pippin and Galadriel are characters from Tolkien’s The Keats, where the experience of reading Chapman’s Lord of the Rings (although Pippin is actually a male translation of Homer is compared to the feeling Cortez hobbit). Terry explains that Pepper’s names are not really a must have had:

parody of hippie practices:

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies

“It’s an observation. I have signed books for two Galadriels When a new planet swims into his ken

at least — and three Bilboes. Your basic hippy is fairly Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes

predictable.”

He stared at the Pacific — and all his men

Looked at each other with a wild surmise

– [ p. 137/88 ] “ ‘I bet ole Torturemada dint have to give up Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

jus’ when he was getting started [. . . ]’ ”

(Actually, Keats was mixing up Cortez (who conquered Tomás de Torquemada, Spanish inquisitor-general Mexico, and was the first European to look upon Mexico notorious for his cruelty. He was largely responsible for the City) with Balboa (who climbed Darien, and was the first expulsion of the Jews from Spain around 1492.

European to see the Pacific from the east).

– [ p. 147/95 ] “Where the reactor should have been was an

– [ p. 161/104 ] “[. . . ] eight other people [. . . ] two of them empty space. You could have had quite a nice game of

[. . . ] and one of the other six [. . . ]”

squash in it.”

Or at least, that’s what it says in my hardcover version and For the connection between nuclear reactors and squash in the American trade paperback. In the English paperback, courts, see the annotation for p. 156/138 of Reaper Man.

however, the quote says “one of the other five” (italics mine), which is of course rather confusing, since two plus

– [ p. 154/98 ] “Sable signed for it, his real name — one five usually equals seven, not eight.

word, seven letters. Sounds like examine.”

Terry says: “[. . . ] we got the numbers right — I checked the But, as many alert readers have noticed, the word ‘famine’

original MS. This is another manifestation of the strange only has six letters. Terry says: “Oh, yeah. The famous numbers glitch (remember famine, the seven letter word?)”

seven-lettered six letter name. [. . . ] It’s like this. In the original MS, it was six letters, because we can both count.

See the annotation for p. 154/98 for the ‘famine’ glitch And it was six letters in the Gollancz hardcover. And six Terry refers to.

letters in the Workman US hardcover. And became seven in the Corgi edition. No-one knows why.”

– [ p. 165/107 ] “[. . . ] people called Grasshopper, little old men sitting on mountains, other people learning kung-fu in

– [ p. 155/99 ] “ ‘An’ there was this man called Charles Fort,’

ancient temples [. . . ]”

he said. ‘He could make it rain fish and frogs and stuff.’ ”

David Carradine’s character Kwai-Chang Caine was given Charles Fort lived in the first half of this century and made the nickname ‘Grasshopper’ by his mentor, Master Po, in a career out of attacking established scientific convictions the television series Kung Fu.

and practitioners, mostly by collecting and publishing book Incidentally, the head of the Shaolin monastery where after book of scientifically unexplainable occurrences and Caine studied was Chen Ming Kan, and the subsidiary phenomena such as, indeed, accounts of rains of fish, etc.

monks were the masters Shun, Teh, Yuen, Wong, Sun and, Although Fort and his Fortean Society cheerfully collected already mentioned, Po.

and proposed vast numbers of crackpot theories, Charles If you are the kind of person who enjoys learning this type Fort was by no means a crackpot himself. He just wanted to 156

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of mindboggling trivia, then run, don’t walk to your (In an earlier release of the APF, this annotation listed only bookstore, and buy the Straight Dope books by Cecil R2D2 as a possibility. I received a steady trickle of mail Adams. Your life will be vastly enriched. There is even a saying: “no, you’re wrong, it’s a reference to the Daleks”.

Pratchett connection as well: Terry uses the Straight Dope So I changed the annotation, which of course only led to the books as reference works.

steady trickle changing into: “no, you’re wrong, it’s a reference to R2D2”. Clearly, we have a controversy on our

– [ p. 167/109 ] “There is no longer a real Witchfinder hands. . . )

General.”

– [ p. 205/136 ] “[. . . ] a wall clock with a free-swinging Just for the record: the story as Terry and Neil give it in this pendulum that E. A. Poe would cheerfully have strapped section is entirely true. Matthew Hopkins existed, and was someone under.”

indeed hanged as a witch himself. I am told he was portrayed fairly accurately by Vincent Price in the film The See the annotation for p. 15/16 of Reaper Man.

Conqueror Worm, aka Witchfinder General.

– [ p. 217/144 ] “ ‘And then giant ants take over the world,’

– [ p. 167/109 ] “There is also, now, a Witchfinder Private.

said Wensleydale nervously. ‘I saw this film. Or you go His name is Newton Pulsifer.”

around with sawn-off shotguns and everyone’s got these cars with, you know, knives and guns stuck on —’ ”

The name ‘Lucifer’ means “bringer of light”. One particular meaning of ‘pulse’ is a legume — a pea or lentil. Therefore, The films Wensleydale is referring to are Them! (how

‘Pulsifer’ means “bringer of peace (peas)”.

appropriate. . . ) and the various Mad Max movies.

I have no idea if this is truly what Terry and Neil intended,

– [ p. 227/152 ] “The Kappamaki, a whaling research ship, but it is a beautifully convoluted pun, regardless.

[. . . ]”

– [ p. 171/112 ] “Newt [. . . ] blushed crimson as he

‘Kappamaki’ is a Japanese cucumber roll.

performed the obligatory nipple-count on page three”.

– [ p. 233/157 ] “ ‘There doesn’t have to be any of that American readers should be aware that some English business with one third of the seas turning to blood or tabloid papers traditionally showed a photo of a topless girl anything,’ said Aziraphale happily.”

on page three, although I am told these days only The Sun still follows this practice.

To the few particularly befuddled or atheistic readers out there who at this point of the book still aren’t quite sure

– [ p. 172/113 ] “ ‘Women wi’ too many arms.’ ”

what is going on, I can only give the advice to take a closer look at Chapter 6 of the biblical Book of Revelation.

Refers to the Hindu goddess Kali (although quite a few more Hindu gods and goddesses have more than the usual

– [ p. 235/158 ] “Hi. This is Anthony Crowley. Uh. I —”

allotment of arms — Shiva comes to mind).

Up to this point in the novel, we have only been told that Two lines further down there is a reference to Baron Crowley’s first name begins with an ‘A’, leading to the false Saturday, who is of course our old friend Baron Samedi (see expectation that his name might be Aleister Crowley, as in the annotation for p. 179/157 of Witches Abroad ).

the famous British mystic, theosophist, black-arts practitioner and “most evil man on Earth”.

– [ p. 188/123 ] “Red sky in the morning. It was going to rain.”

– [ p. 246/166 ] “ ‘This is a Sainsbury’s plant-mister, See the annotation for p. 202/197 of Equal Rites.

cheapest and most efficient plant-mister in the world. It can squirt a fine spray of water into the air.’ ”

– [ p. 192/126 ] “Newt’s car was a Wasabi.”

Dirty Harry again. See the annotation for p. 136/124 of

‘Wasabi’ is, in fact, a kind of horseradish used in sushi.

Guards! Guards!.

– [ p. 193/127 ] “[. . . ] the world’s only surviving Wasabi

– [ p. 257/174 ] “ ‘ “Puppet on a String”! Sandie Shaw!

agent in Nigirizushi, Japan.”

Honest. I’m bleeding positive!’ ”

And ‘Nigirizushi’ is a kind of sushi.

American readers will probably not realise that this is the answer to the question: “What song by which artist won the

+ [ p. 197/129 ] “The one that looked like a pepper pot just 1967 Eurovision Song Contest for Britain?”

skidded down it, and fell over at the bottom. The other two ignored its frantic beeping [. . . ]”

– [ p. 258/174 ] “ ‘1666!’ ‘No, you great pillock! That was The Daleks in the television series Dr Who are robots that the fire! The Plague was 1665!’ ”

look very much like pepper pots. They don’t beep much, The Great Fire of London in 1666 helped to wipe out the though.

bubonic plague that had been afflicting the city since 1665.

R2D2 in the movie Star Wars (and sequels) is a robot that does a lot of frantic beeping. It doesn’t look that much like

– [ p. 258/175 ] “He had LOVE tattooed on one set of a pepper pot, though.

knuckles, HATE on the other.”

Originally, this movie reference dates back to Robert GOOD OMENS

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Mitchum in Night of the Hunter. Later it was used by many, Birmingham and Chepstow.

many others, including Marlon Brando in The Wild One, Meatloaf in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (an appearance

– [ p. 280/191 ] Sprechen Sie Deutsch and Parlez-vous entirely built around Brando’s), and more recently by Francais are German and French respectively for “do you Robert de Niro in the remake of Cape Fear.

speak German/French”, but “Wo bu hui jiang zhongwen” is Chinese for “I can’t speak Chinese”.

And then there’s The Blues Brothers, where Jake has his name tattooed across the knuckles of one hand, while Terry says: “The bit of Chinese was Neil’s. I said, “Are you Elwood needs both hands to spell his name; The Simpsons, sure it means ‘Do you speak Chinese?’ ” He said yes. I where Sideshow Bob (who, like most cartoon characters should argue?”

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;

– [ p. 287/196 ] “ ‘You’re thinking that any second now this and of course The Last Remake of Beau Geste (see also the head is going to go round and round, and I’m going to start annotation for p. 109/82) where Peter Ustinov, as the vomiting pea soup.’ ”

sadistic sergeant, has a scene where he sits with one hand This is an obvious reference to Linda Blair in The Exorcist.

partially obscured. We get the impression that he too has HATE and LOVE tattooed on his knuckles. Eventually he

– [ p. 288/197 ] “Something about sheets of glass falling off moves, and reveals the tattoos actually read HATE and lorries and slicing people’s heads off, as he recalled [. . . ]”

LOATHE.

The film referred to is The Omen.

– [ p. 259/175 ] “ ‘I haven’t seen you since Mafeking,’ said

– [ p. 296/203 ] “ ‘Heigh ho,’ said Anthony Crowley, and just Red.”

drove anyway.”

Mafeking, located near Bophuthatswana in South Africa, This refers to an old British topical song about the Italian was for 80 years the administrative headquarters of the opera-singer Antonio Rolli, well-known in London during British Protectorate of Bechuanaland (now Botswana). It the Regency. The song was called ‘A Frog He Would-a was the starting point of the Jameson Raid, a disastrous Wooing Go’, and the chorus has the lines:

raid into the Boer Republic of the Transvaal in 1895, which led to the South African War of 1899.

With a rolypoly, gammon and spinach,

Heigh ho, said Anthony Rowley.

– [ p. 263/179 ] “ ‘Ere, I seen you before,’ he said. ‘You was This was intended to be a highly amusing satire on the way on the cover of that Blue Öyster Cult album.”

Italian people speak. It has only survived to this day as a This would be Some Enchanted Evening (1978), the Blue children’s rhyme because of its references to talking Öyster Cult’s second live album. Death painted by animals, and despite a totally confusing chorus.

T. R. Shorr.

– [ p. 296/203 ] “What she really wanted to be was an See also the annotation for p. 239 of Hogfather.

internationally glamorous jet-setter, but she didn’t have the O-levels.”

– [ p. 265/180 ] The name Citron Deux-Chevaux refers to the Citroen 2CV, or deux-chevaux as it is commonly called This has to do with the British education system. After the in Europe (“chevaux” means horses — ‘CV’ has a (very 8th grade you decide how many two-year O- (Ordinary) loose) connection with horsepower).

level courses you are going to take (each with an exam at the end). Most non-minimum wage jobs ask for at least 5

– [ p. 268/182 ] “ ‘Just phone 0800-CASH and pledge your O-levels, people in college usually have 7 or 8. After your donation now.’ ”

O-levels you can either leave school or go on for AA transatlantic amalgamation of British and American (Advanced) level courses, which take another 2–3 years.

telephone number formats.

These days, O-levels are no longer a part of the British education system, having been replaced a few years back

– [ p. 270/184 ] “. . . All we need is, Radio Gaga. . . sang by the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education).

Freddie Mercury.”

A-levels still exist.

Terry and Neil definitely seem to have trouble rendering songs correctly. According to my source (I can’t stand the

– [ p. 297/204 ] “[. . . ] they burrowed into eyes, noses, ears, bloody song myself) the line that does appear in the song lights [. . . ]”

goes: “All we hear is, Radio Gaga”.

‘Lights’ is colloquial British for ‘internal organs’. See the annotation for p. 64/62 of Pyramids.

– [ p. 277/189 ] “[. . . ] formerly Curl Up and Dye, [. . . ]”

People have noticed that this name also occurs in the Blues

– [ p. 303/208 ] “ ‘There’s a red sky,’ he said [. . . ] ‘Or is it Brothers movie, but Terry assures us that the name goes shepherds who are delighted at night? I can never back much further than that, and that there in fact at one remember.’ ”

time actually existed a hair dresser named like this.

See the annotations for p. 202/197 of Equal Rites and I have subsequently been informed that currently existing p. 174/126 of Lords and Ladies.

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– [ p. 310/214 ] “There was also a man selling hot dogs.”

apparently became Europe’s first best-seller after the invention of the printing press, and the (early 20th century) Bet you even money his initials were C.M.O.T. . .

English translation of this book, The Hammer of Witches, is

– [ p. 326/226 ] “ ‘Where is Armageddon, anyway?’ ”

still in print today.

One theory holds that ‘Armageddon’ is a Greek translation

– [ p. 377/264 ] “It was Sunday afternoon.”

for a Hebrew word that may have meant ‘the mountain of According to Terry, the U.S. edition of Good Omens has Megiddo’, in reference to Mount Carmel, which overlooks about 700 extra words in it, because:

the plain of Megiddo, where many Old Testament battles were fought.

“After the MS had been accepted and edited by Gollancz, the American editor at Workman in NY asked for a couple of

– [ p. 334/232 ] “ ‘Did any of them kids have some space things for the US edition, one of which related to Warlock.

alien with a face like a friendly turd in a bike basket?’ ”

He was an American boy, you see, and she was certain that A reference to the telekinetic bike-riding scene at the end Americans would want to know what had happened to him.

of the movie E.T..

So we said ok, and wrote it. To the best of my recollection that was the biggest change, although there were other

– [ p. 348/242 ] “ ‘You think wars get started because some minor additions (some we were able to slip into the old duke gets shot, or someone cuts off someone’s ear, or Gollancz hardcover at proof stage, but the Warlock bit was someone’s sited their missiles in the wrong place.’ ”

too long). I have to say we also polished things up here and That the assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz there, too, although I think we were able to transfer most of Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 sparked the beginning of those changes to the UK proofs too.

World War I, and that the Soviet placement of missiles on And then since the one done for Workman was technically Cuba in 1962 almost led to World War III is common the final MS the UK paperback was set from it.”

knowledge. But to non-Brits the second reference may not For the people owning the British hardcover of Good be so obvious. In 1739 Capt Robert Jenkins, of the brig Omens, here is the text of the added section: Rebecca, claimed to have been attacked by a Spanish ship and to have had his ear cut off. He complained to the king

“It was Sunday afternoon.

on his return to England, the incident was taken up by the High over England a 747 droned westwards. In the general public, and the Prime Minister used it as a pretext first-class cabin a boy called Warlock put down his comic to go to war with Spain to regain control of shipping routes.

and stared out of the window.

This war is generally referred to as the War of Jenkins’ Ear.

It had been a very strange couple of days. He still wasn’t

– [ p. 349/243 ] “ ‘Beelzebub,’ Crowley supplied. ‘He’s the certain why his father had been called to the Middle East.

Lord of —’ ”

He was pretty sure that his father didn’t know, either. It was probably something cultural. All that happened was a Crowley is trying to say ‘Lord of the Flies’, which is the lot of funny-looking guys with towels on their heads and literal meaning of the Hebrew word ‘Beelzebub’.

very bad teeth had shown them around some old ruins. As ruins went, Warlock had seen better. And then one of the

– [ p. 355/248 ] Dick Turpin is the name of a famous British old guys had said to him, wasn’t there anything he wanted highwayman. Hence the joke about Newt’s car being called to do? And Warlock said he’d like to leave.

‘Dick Turpin’: “ ‘Because everywhere I go, I hold up traffic,’

he mumbled wretchedly.”

They’d looked very unhappy about that.

And now he was going back to the States. There had been

– [ p. 374/262 ] “They went to the Ritz again [. . . ]. And, some sort of problem with tickets or flights or airport

[. . . ] for the first time ever, a nightingale sang in Berkeley destinations—boards or something. It was weird; he was Square.”

pretty sure his father had meant to go back to England.

From the song ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’: Warlock liked England. It was a nice country to be an American in.

That certain night, the night we met

There was magic abroad in the air

The plane was at that point passing right above the Lower There were angels dining at the Ritz

Tadfield bedroom of Greasy Johnson, who was aimlessly And a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square

leafing through a photography magazine that he’d bought merely because it had a rather good picture of a tropical

– [ p. 375/262 ] The Necrotelecomnicom also appears (but fish on the cover.

spelled ‘Necrotelicomnicom’) in the Discworld books.

A few pages below Greasy’s listless finger was a spread on See the annotation for p. 111/109 of Equal Rites).

American football, and how it was really catching on in Europe. Which was odd—because when the magazine had

– [ p. 375/262 ] The Malleus Maleficarum is the name of an been printed, those pages had been about photography in existing 15th century guidebook for witch-hunters, written desert conditions.

by Heinrich Kramer and Joseph Sprenger (one a Dominican It was about to change his life.

Inquisitor, the other the Mayor of Cologne), two high-ranking officials of the Catholic church. This book And Warlock flew on to America. He deserved something GOOD OMENS

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(after all, you never forgot the first friends you ever had, radio; there was a performance of The Tempest, and even if you were all a few hours old at the time) and the someone said “Hell is empty and all the devils are here”. It power that was controlling the fate of all mankind at that was a weird evening, really.”

precise time was thinking: Well, he’s going to America, isn’t he? Don’t see how you could have anythin’ better than

– People have been wondering (a) where the back cover going to America.

photograph of Good Omens was taken, and (b) which one of them is Terry Pratchett.

They’ve got thirty-nine flavors of ice cream there. Maybe even more.”

Terry provides the answer to both questions: “In Kensal Green Cemetery, one frosty January day. Since white

– [ p. 383/267 ] “And if you want to imagine the future, clothes tend to be thinner than dark clothes, I had to be imagine a boot. . . no, imagine a trainer, laces trailing, stood in front of a blowlamp between shots.”

kicking a pebble; [. . . ]”

Kensal Green Cemetery can be found in West London, fairly From George Orwell’s 1984 : “If you want to imagine the near to Wormwood Scrubs Prison. It is one of the seven or future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever”.

so cemeteries built around the edge of central London in A ‘trainer’ is what the British call a ‘sneaker’, but I should the nineteenth century to cope with the large cholera think that much was clear from context (in the paperback, outbreaks. They are large purpose-built efforts, and are full

‘trainer’ has in fact been replaced by ‘sneaker’).

of the glorious stonemasonry that the Victorians indulged in to glorify themselves.

– [ p. 383/268 ] “Slouching hopefully towards Tadfield.”

The photograph of Terry and Neil appears on the back of From W. B. Yeats’ poem The Second Coming:

the UK hardcover, and in black and white on the inside of And what rough beast, its hour come round at last the Corgi paperback. If you have Internet access, you can Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?

get a copy of the photograph from the Pratchett Archives.

– 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”.

Strata

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

– The whole book is, in a very general way, modelled on Omens. Terry again points out that it’s only to be expected Larry Niven’s classic Ringworld novel: a group of since the joke is so obvious.

differently-raced beings explore an improbable, artificial world and try to find its mysterious builders.

– There is a British KitKat chocolate bar TV commercial that Terry explains:

predates Good Omens, and which involves an angel and a

“I intended Strata to be as much a (pisstake/homage/satire) devil who are just starting their respective coffee breaks.

on Ringworld as, say, Bill the Galactic Hero was of Starship Both exit from separate elevators, the angel accompanied Troopers. All Niven’s heroes are competent and all his by several pure-white animals, while the devil turns back technology works for millions of years. . . but he’s a nice into his elevator and screams, in a British accent, “Shut guy and says he enjoyed the book.”

up!” to whatever demons are causing a ruckus behind him.

If you are now thinking that this is an extremely unlikely,

– [ p. 12/13 ] “Her skin was presently midnight-black [. . . ]”

farfetched annotation — well, so did I, until Terry Pratchett Previous editions of the APF considered this sentence proof himself gave us the following piece of information (when of a true Josh Kirby goof-up, since he pictured Kin Arad as a some folks were having further discussions on how old this Caucasian woman on the Strata cover.

ad exactly was):

However, it had totally escaped my attention that on

“I’m pretty sure [this ad] started about the same time as p. 22/26 we read: “Now her skin was silver [. . . ]”, Good Omens, because:

indicating that skin-colour is not a permanent attribute for One night I was sitting there typing away when I looked up Kin — by the time the scene from the cover is reached she and there the angel and the devil were, having a teabreak could well have changed her skin colour to white.

(it’s not really a particularly Good Omens idea, but I know On the other hand, after Kin is captured by the locals, why people like it. . . ) And I thought, hey, great. . .

Silver suggests that she claim to be an Ethiopian princess, And about half an hour later there was an ad (some UK

so presumably her skin color was dark at the time, and Josh viewers might remember it) for an insurance company Kirby didn’t read carefully enough after all. . .

which showed a businessman with wide angel wings walking down the street. . .

– [ p. 21/25 ] “Back and forth, crossing and leaping, the robots danced their caretaker Morris.”

And then, just when I was doing the bit where Crowley muses that people are much better than demons at thinking I think this is the earliest reference to Morris dancing in a up horrible things to do to one another, I switched on the Terry Pratchett novel. See also the . . . and Dance section in 160

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Chapter 5.

These are of course religious festivals on the Discworld as well, though the Soul Cake festivities moved to a different

+ [ p. 130 ] “Kin rose like a well-soaped Venus Anadyomene day there (see the annotation for p. 289/262 of Guards!

[. . . ]”

Guards! ). Later in the book, on p. 89/106, Hogswatchnight See the annotation for p. 128/127 of Wyrd Sisters.

is also mentioned.

– [ p. 76/92 ] “To introduce phase two Kin began to whistle

– [ p. 73/87 ] “ ‘It has been impossible for the Bank to be the old robot-Morris tune Mrs Widgery’s Lodger.”

physically present here today, Roche limits being what they are, but [. . . ]’ ”

‘Mrs Widgery’s Lodger’ is a perfect name for a non-existent Morris tune. While not seeming to be a direct takeoff on The Roche limit has to do with tidal pull on an object. It any actual tune name, it calls several to mind: ‘Blue-Eyed specifies how close a satellite can orbit a planet before it’s Stranger’, ‘Mrs Casey’, and ‘Old Woman Tossed Up in a pulled apart by tidal forces. It stands to reason that the Blanket’, for instance. ‘Mrs Widgery’s Lodger’ would also First Sirian Bank, being a planet seven thousand miles in resurface later on the Discworld as one of the eight orders diameter, is a bit wary of Roche limits.

of wizardry. For more information, see the ‘Unseen

– [ p. 74/89 ] “ ‘And I wish to notify the Joker Institute that I University’ entry in the Discworld Companion.

have located a Joker building, description and position as

– [ p. 107/132 ] “ ‘Cape illud, fracturor’, [. . . ]”

noted.’ ”

Dog-Latin which roughly translates to “Take this, buster”.

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

The Dark Side of the Sun

commissioned Daedalus to build the famous Labyrinth to house the Minotaur.

– Just as Strata borrows from Larry Niven, so does The

– [ p. 118/141 ] “ ‘Born of the sun, we travel a little way Dark Side of the Sun pay homage to the famous SF-writer towards the sun,’ misquoted Isaac, tactlessly.”

Isaac Asimov.

Isaac is misquoting the last two lines of the poem I Think Continually by the English poet Stephen Spender:

– [ p. 5/5 ] The Lights In The Sky Are Photofloods Born of the sun, they travelled a short while The Lights in the Sky are Stars is the title of a science towards the sun,

fiction novel by Fredric Brown (who was most famous for And left the vivid air signed with their honour.

his ‘twisted-ending’ short-short stories, but who is unfortunately almost completely forgotten today).

– [ p. 133/159 ] “It was a skit [. . . ] written in early Greek style. [. . . ] Chorus: ‘Brekekekex, co-ax, co-axial’ ”

– [ p. 6/6 ] The best dagon fishers could ride a shell with The play being performed is an updated version of Old Attic their toes.

Comedy, as written by the poet Aristophanes. This section For an explanation of the word ‘dagon’ see the annotation specifically parodies Aristophanes’ The Frogs, in which a for p. 197/149 of Men at Arms.

chorus of (logically enough) frogs sings an onomatopoeic song involving the lyric: “Brekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax”.

– [ p. 24/28 ] “ ‘Probability math predicts the future.’ ”

I am told that Steven Sondheim once wrote a musical A parallel to Asimov’s psychohistory in the Foundation version of “The Frogs”, which was performed in a Series.

swimming pool at Yale University with both Sigourney Weaver and Meryl Streep in the chorus.

– [ 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 Truckers

Law of Robotics, Clause C, As Amended,’ said the robot firmly.”

– [cover ] The drawing of the old nome Torrit (the one holding the Thing) in Josh Kirby’s cover for this book is

– [ p. 42/49 ] “ ‘Beng take them!’ ”

actually a caricature of Terry Pratchett himself.

Beng is Romany (Gypsy language) for the Devil.

– [ p. 12/12 ] “Masklin scanned the lorry park.”

– [ p. 44/52 ] “ ‘In a few days it’ll be Soul Cake Friday, and The name Masklin is a pun on the word ‘masculine’. Duh.

also the Eve of Small Gods,’ she said.”

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– [ p. 47/44 ] “[. . . ] the long argument they’d had about the In the category Bloody Obvious References, this is of course chicken boxes with the pictures of the old man with the big a reference to Neil Armstrong’s first words on the occasion whiskers on them.”

of being the first man on the moon: “That’s one small step for [a] man, but a giant leap for mankind”.

Refers to Colonel Sanders, symbol for the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain of fast-food chicken restaurants.

– [ p. 145/133 ] “[. . . ] he walked proudly, with a strange swaying motion, like a nome who has boldly gone where no

– [ p. 55/51 ] “ ‘Life, but not as we know it.’ ”

nome has gone before and can’t wait to be asked about it.”

Refers to another cliché Star Trek phrase, also parodied in Star Trek reference. See the annotation for p. 221/191 for the Star Trekkin’ song by The Firm (see the annotation for The Colour of Magic.

p. 84/78 of Johnny and the Dead ).

– [ p. 154/141 ] “ ‘Amazing things, levers. Give me a lever

– [ p. 58/53 ] “ ‘Um. It was my idea of what an Outsider long enough, and a firm enough place to stand, and I could would look like, you see,’ said Dorcas.”

move the Store.’ ”

This whole scene immediately made me think of the Another reference to the famous Archimedes quote. See the American pulp science fiction magazines, which would annotation for p. 139/101 of Small Gods.

often feature elaborate drawings depicting, for example, what a Martian might ‘scientifically’ look like.

– [ p. 171/157 ] “He recalled the picture of Gulliver. [. . . ] it In fact, I have in my possession a 1965 issue of Fantastic would be nice to think that nomes could agree on something Stories, featuring on the cover a reprint of a 1939 painting long enough to be like the little people in the book. . . ”

by Frank R. Paul called ‘The Man from Mars’, with an If it’s been a while since you actually read Swift, the rather accompanying explanation that Dorcas’ description of the bitter irony of Masklin’s musings may escape you. The point Outsiders is almost an exact equivalent of. This Martian being that the Lilliputters in Gulliver’s Travels were has, for instance, disk-shaped suction feet (because of anything but capable of “agreeing on something long Mars’ lesser gravity), very big ears (because of the thin enough”; in fact they were waging a generation-spanning atmosphere making it harder to catch sounds), white fur civil war with each other over the burning question of and retractable eyes because of the extreme cold, etc. etc.

whether one should open one’s breakfast egg at the pointy end or at the flat end.

– [ p. 76/70 ] “ ‘Unless you know how to read books properly, they inflame the brain, they say.’ ”

Eventually, the ‘little-endian’ vs. ‘big-endian’ feud carried over into the world of computing as well, where it refers to Everything we learn about the Stationeri, from the the order in which bytes in multi-byte numbers should be audience with the Abbot to this point about censorship, stored, most-significant first (big endian) or least-significant indicates a fairly obvious parody of the Roman Catholic first (little endian).

Church during the time that the Holy Office (which oversaw censorship) was in power.

– [ p. 191/175 ] “ ‘— Anyone seeing the vehicle should contact Grimethorpe police on —’ ”

– [ p. 103/94 ] The Store will be closed down and replaced by “an Arnco Super Saverstore in the Neil Armstrong Minor inconsistency: by the time we get to the second book Shopping Mall”.

in the Nome trilogy, the place of action has been retconned from Grimethorpe to Blackbury (which is the place where The Neil Armstrong Shopping Mall is also prominently Johnny lives, see the annotation for p. 103/94).

featured as the place where Johnny and his friends hang out in the ‘Johnny’ books, thus establishing firmly that the A possible explanation might be that there already is a real Nomes and Johnny inhabit the same universe (see also the place called Grimethorpe (in Yorkshire), and that Terry’d annotation for p. 191/175).

rather use a fictional setting after all.

– [ 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 Diggers

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

– [title ] Diggers

Bar’ instantly summon up ‘Long Distance Lorry Driver’ to In the Corgi paperback editions I have, Diggers and Wings any Briton.

are subtitled “The Second [respectively Third] Book Of The Nomes”.

– [ p. 132/121 ] “ ‘Angalo has landed,’ he said.”

Apparently, in the first edition(s), the trilogy was called The Pun on “The Eagle has landed”.

Bromeliad (and the last two books accordingly subtitled).

– [ p. 133/122 ] “ ‘It’s a small step for a man, but a giant This refers to the central theme of the frogs living in a leap for nomekind.’ ”

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fantasy series by David Eddings. And of course both names have their origin in Homer’s Iliad.

Wings

This subtitle was dropped from the British editions, because the editor didn’t like it. In the US, there were no objections,

– [ p. 135/121 ] “ ‘The other humans around it are trying to so to this day US editions of the Nome trilogy are subtitled explain to it what a planet is’ ‘Doesn’t it know?’ ‘Many The Bromeliad.

humans don’t. Mistervicepresident is one of them.’ ”

– People have commented on the similarity between the I don’t think anybody in the Western world would not have Nome trilogy and other childrens stories involving “little caught this reference to Dan Quayle, but let’s face it: in people”. In particular, the question has arisen a few times twenty years people will still be reading Terry Pratchett, whether Terry was inspired by the Borrowers books.

and hopefully this APF — but who’ll remember

Misterexvicepresident?

Terry answers: “I know about the Borrowers, and read one of the books in my teens, but I disliked them; they seemed

– [ p. 150/135 ] “The humans below tried shining coloured unreal, with no historical background, and it seemed odd lights at it, and playing tunes at it, and eventually just that they lived this cosy family life more or less without any speaking to it in every language known to humans.”

supporting ‘civilisation’. The nomes are communal, and have to think in terms of nomekind. No. Any influence at all Refers to the climactic scene of Steven Spielberg’s science is from Swift, in this case.”

fiction movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where contact with the aliens is indeed established by shining

“I’ll pass on whether Truckers is funnier than the lights and playing tunes at their spaceship.

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.

Only You Can Save Mankind

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 In order to fully appreciate this novel it may not be kids. They also excised the word ‘damn’ so’s not to get necessary, but I think it will greatly add to your enjoyment banned in Alabama, which is a shame because I’ve always and understanding, if you have seen at least one of the wanted to be banned in Alabama, ever since I first heard of Alien movies, and have played at least one computer the place.”

shoot-em-up arcade game.

– [ p. 60/54 ] “iii. And the Mark of the Dragon was on it. iv.

– [ p. 7/7 ] “The Mighty ScreeWeeT M EmpireT M is poised And the Mark was Jekub.”

to attack Earth!”

‘Jekub’ was the Nomes’ attempted pronunciation of JCB, A wonderful parody of the way in which the typical the name of a well-known manufacturer of tractors, computer action game is advertised or described on the diggers, and the like, whose logo of course appears on all box. Terry confirms:

its products. Jekub, incidentally, appears to be a thing

“Let’s say I’ve played Wing Commander and Elite and called a ‘back-hoe loader’. In the American version of the X-Wing and loads of other games, so writing that first page Nomes trilogy ‘JCB’ was changed to ‘CAT’, standing for was easy for me :–) ”

‘Caterpillar’.

– [ p. 9/9 ] The Hero With A Thousand Extra Lives

– [ p. 82/73 ] “ ‘We shall fight them in the lane. We shall fight them at the gates. We shall fight them in the quarry.

A reference to the title of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with And we shall never surrender.’ ”

a Thousand Faces, an anthropological work comparing and contrasting Hero myths from different cultures.

Paraphrases one of Winston Churchill’s famous WW II speeches. Possibly the easiest way to get to hear the

– [ p. 13/13 ] “My dad brought me back ‘Alabama Smith and original version is to listen to Supertramp’s ‘Fool’s the Jewels of Fate’ from the States.”

Overture’.

Puns on the movie title Indiana Jones and the Temple of

– [ p. 142/126 ] “ ‘Jcb? Jekub? It’s got no vowels in it. What Doom. Alabama and Indiana are both American states.

sort of name is that?’ ”

– [ p. 19/19 ] “Hey, I really need a computer because that This is a play on ‘YHWH’, the classical Hebrew spelling of way I can play ‘Megasteroids’.”

Yahweh, i.e. Jehovah.

‘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 WINGS

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mild insult to the American English ‘dork’).

– [ p. 147/147 ] “ ‘Is there anything I can do?’ [. . . ] ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘Is there anything you can do?’ ”

– [ p. 40/40 ] This is not really an annotation, because I The same dialogue occurs between Ripley and Sergeant think it is highly improbable that there is an actual link Apone in the film Aliens.

here, but the idea of Terry’s ‘Cereal Killers’ immediately reminded me of the short science fiction stories by Philip K.

– [ p. 158/158 ] “ ‘You’re thinking: He’ll be in there Dick. Not any particular one, but just the whole idea of somewhere, hiding.’ ”

something horrible masquerading as something ridiculously innocent appears again and again in Dick’s slightly In Alien, the alien creature eventually hid itself in the paranoid oeuvre.

escape capsule Sigourney Weaver tried to get away in at the end.

The serial/cereal pun itself is of course fairly obvious, and can be found in many other places, from old Infocom

– [ p. 162/162 ] “ ‘If we find a cat I’m going to kick it!’ ”

adventure games to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics.

In Alien, Sigourney goes back into the mother ship because

– [ p. 42/42 ] “ ‘I saw this film once, right, where there were she did not want to leave the cat behind.

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 Johnny and the Dead

Last Starfighter here (starring Lance Guest and Robert Preston).

As a movie this was decidedly a so-so experience (you can

– [ p. 11/10 ] “ ‘Singing “Here we go, here we go, here we take my word for it, I have seen it), but it deserves credit go”?’ said Johnny. ‘And “Viva a spanner”?’ ”

for one major achievement: after the box-office disaster of For “here we go, here we go”, see the annotation for Tron it was the first Hollywood film to make extensive use p. 76/70 of Guards! Guards!.

of computer-generated animation. And since The Last Starfighter was not a commercial failure, it effectively

‘Viva a spanner’ is Johnny’s version of the song ‘Y Viva opened the road again for further use of computer graphics España’, an early 70s hit which appeared at about the time in movies.

that many Brits were first going on package tours to Spain (see also the annotation for p. 176/116 of Good Omens).

– [ p. 72/72 ] “But everyone watched Cobbers.”

– [ p. 13/12 ] “ ‘He said the Council sold it to some big

‘Cobber’ is an Australian word meaning ‘companion’ or company for fivepence because it was costing so much to

‘friend’; these days used more as an informal slang label for keep it going.’ ”

addressing someone (as in: “Now look here, cobber, . . . ”).

Terry’s use of this title reflects the fact that Australian soap The right-wing Westminster council, headed by Lady operas (such as e.g. Neighbours) are extremely popular in Shirley Porter sold three cemeteries for 15p a couple of the UK (as in the rest of Europe, I should add). As Terry years ago, giving the same reasoning.

explained:

– [ p. 20/19 ] “ ‘No-one visits most of the graves now, except

“Actually, the scene is probably lost on [non-Brits]; you have old Mrs Tachyon, and she’s barmy.’ ”

to understand that it is almost impossible to turn on a UK

TV at any time between 4.30 — 6pm without hearing the A tachyon is a hypothetical faster-than-light quantum distinctive sound of Australian adolescents locked in particle, which has not been proven to actually exist.

confrontation.”

– [ p. 20/19 ] “ ‘I was referring,’ said his grandfather, ‘to

– [ p. 109/109 ] “What’s your game name?’ ‘Sigourney —

William Stickers.’ ”

you’re laughing! ’ ”

Refers to the posters forbidding flyposting reading “bill Sigourney Weaver is the actress who plays the heroine in all stickers will be prosecuted”. These quickly attracted the three Alien movies.

graffito “Bill Stickers is Innocent” (and similar). William Stickers is obviously this much-harassed individual.

– [ p. 118/118 ] “On Earth, No-one Can Hear You Say ‘Um’ ”

– [ p. 24/22 ] “The last thing to go was the finger, still The now famous slogan used in the advertising campaigns demonstrating its total disbelief in life after death.”

for the first Alien movie was: In Space, No-one Can Hear You Scream.

See the Cheshire Cat annotation for p. 142/141 of Wyrd Sisters.

– [ p. 133/133 ] “ ‘I saw a film where there was an alien crawling around inside a spaceship’s air ducts and it could

– [ p. 26/25 ] “[. . . ] a skinny kid with short hair and flat feet come out wherever it liked,’ said Johnny reproachfully.

and asthma who had difficulty even walking in Doc

‘Doubtless it had a map,’ said the Captain.”

Martens, [. . . ]”

The movie Johnny refers to is, of course, Alien.

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and shoes’, with ‘The Original Doctor Marten’s Air Cushion To begin with, it is a particularly obnoxious popular myth Sole. OIL FAT ACID PETROL ALKALI RESISTANT’) are one that heavy metal groups (or any popular performer, for that of the most popular and fashionable footwear in Britain matter) hide Satanic or suicide-inducing or otherwise among the younger generation. Once associated with demoralising messages in their songs. This is done by a skin-heads and fascists they are now simply standard issue technique known as ‘backwards masking’, which means the for almost anyone in the UK between the age of 16 and 30.

message can only be revealed by playing the music backwards (although the subliminal effect is supposedly in

– [ p. 28/26 ] “ ‘I saw this film once, about a man with X-ray full effect when our innocent children listen to these songs eyes,’ said Bigmac.”

the right way round).

There are of course dozens of films that this description Needless to say, this is all an incredible load of nonsense: could apply to (starting with Superman, for instance), but most supposedly Satanic messages exist only in people’s the best candidate would appear to be the 1963 Roger fevered imaginations, and even if there were such Corman movie X — The Man With X-Ray Eyes, starring Ray messages there isn’t a single shred of evidence as to their Milland.

effectiveness.

To finally arrive at the main idea behind this annotation:

– [ p. 29/27 ] “ ‘After Cobbers,’ said Bigmac.”

Cliff Richard is a perpetually youthful-looking, Cobbers is obviously modelled on the Australian soap opera squeaky-clean British pop singer, who’s been around since Neighbours and its cousins.

the sixties and is still hugely popular today, even though (or perhaps even more so because) he found religion in the

– [ p. 30/28 ] “[. . . ] the new Council named it the Joshua seventies. Consequently, any backwards messages in his Che N’Clement block [. . . ]”

music, will most definitely not be Satanic, but rather the A combination of Che Guevara, Joshua N’Komo, and the opposite.

word ‘inclement’.

– [ p. 49/46 ] “Grandad was watching Video Whoopsy.”

– [ p. 39/37 ] “Like Dead Man’s Hand at parties.”

Although obviously meant as an equivalent to shows like One of those party games known under a dozen different America’s Funniest Home Videos, this is not the name of names, but which usually consists of people passing various any existing show (the British version is called You’ve Been items to each other behind their backs. The idea is to throw Framed ). The word ‘whoopsy’ was popularised by the 70s in some really weird stuff and gross people out through UK sitcom Some Mother’s Do ’Ave ’Em as a euphemism for their imaginations.

excrement, as in “The cat’s done a whoopsy on the carpet”.

– [ p. 40/38 ] “ ‘His head’ll spin round in a minute!’ ”

– [ p. 58/54 ] “WHEEEsssh . . . we built this city on . . .

ssshshhh [. . . ] scaramouche, can you . . . shssssss . . . ”

A reference to the 1973 horror movie The Exorcist, starring Linda Blair, which actually turned out to be a watchable The “we built this city” fragment is from the 1985 hit song movie, rather to my surprise. For a good laugh, I

‘We Built This City’ by the group Starship, formerly recommend instead that you try to get a hold of either its Jefferson Starship, formerly the legendary Jefferson 1977 sequel The Exorcist II, or alternatively (if you like Airplane.

more intentional humour) of that one Saturday Night Live The “scaramouche” line is, of course, from Queen’s sketch with Richard Pryor (“the bed is on my foot !”). But I

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (see also the annotation for p. 26/8 of digress.

Good Omens).

– [ p. 42/39 ] “ ‘The lady in the hat is Mrs Sylvia Liberty,’ he

– [ p. 66/61 ] “ ‘Who is Shakespeare’s Sister and why is she whispered.”

singing on the wireless?’ ”

Sylvia Pankhurst was a famous suffragette (in fact it was Shakespear’s Sister is a female vocal duo (one of whom is a something of a family trade), but it was Emily Davidson who former Bananarama member, as well as the wife of Dave threw herself under the horse.

Stewart from ‘Eurythmics’ fame — but I digress), who were hugely popular in the UK in the early 90s (and a bit less

– [ p. 43/41 ] “ ‘I saw this film,’ gabbled Wobbler, ‘where popular in the rest of the world, I’m afraid) with hits like these houses were built on an old graveyard and someone

‘Stay’ and ‘Hello (Turn Your Radio On)’. Shakespear’s dug a swimming pool and all the skeletons came out and Sister have split up recently.

tried to strangle people —’ ”

British comediennes French and Saunders did a parody of This movie is of course the famous 1982 movie Poltergeist.

Shakespear’s Sister, called Dickens’ Daughter, which has to be seen to be believed.

– [ p. 48/45 ] “ ‘[. . . ] the messages from God he heard when he played Cliff Richard records backwards —’ ”

– [ p. 68/63 ] “ ‘You have to have three A-levels.’ ”

This may need some explaining for people who are (a) not See the annotation for p. 296/203 of Good Omens.

into rock music or religious fundamentalism, and (b) not European and therefore not in the possession of the

– [ p. 72/67 ] “The People’s Shroud is Deepest Black ”

slightest idea as to who Cliff Richard is.

JOHNNY AND THE DEAD

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As opposed to the People’s Flag, which is Deepest Red,

– [ p. 133/123 ] “ ‘These aliens landed and replaced according to ‘The Red Flag’, which is indeed a “song of the everyone in the town with giant vegetables.’ ”

downtrodden masses” (see p. 86/79), as used by many Refers to the 1978 movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, socialist and communist parties.

starring Donald Sutherland. (Or perhaps to the original 1956 cult movie starring Kevin McCarthy.)

– [ p. 74/68 ] “ ‘Ghosts don’t phone up radio stations!’ ‘I saw this film once where they came out of the telephone,’ said

– [ p. 140/129 ] “There is a night that never comes to an Bigmac, [. . . ]”

end. . . ”

Refers to the 1986 movie Poltergeist II, starring JoBeth The idea of racing the sun around the world is used in the Williams and Craig T. Nelson.

opening pages of Larry Niven’s novel Ringworld, in which Louis Wu spends 48 hours celebrating his 200th birthday by

– [ p. 84/78 ] “ ‘It’s worse than that. I’m dead, Jim.’ ”

using matter transmitter booths to stay a step ahead of Refers to the Star Trek -associated catch phrase: “It’s worse midnight.

than that, he’s dead Jim.”

However, incredibly, Niven (who has a reputation for The phrase “He’s dead, Jim” was a classic line from the scientific accuracy — not 100% deserved, but still he’s television series, spoken by Dr McCoy to Captain Kirk, in at better than most SF authors on that score) originally had least five different episodes (if you must know: ‘The Enemy Wu going west to east to stay ahead of midnight. Even Within’ (about a dog), ‘The Changeling’ (about Scotty), more incredibly, no one caught this mistake until after the

‘Wolf in the Fold’ (about Hengist), ‘Spectre of the Gun’

book went on sale. It was corrected in the second printing.

(about Chekov), and ‘Is There in Truth no Beauty?’ (about The first printing is, as you might guess, a very rare Marvick)), and there are numerous near-miss instances collector’s item.

where he said something similar, such as “The man is dead, Since we can be pretty certain Terry’s read Ringworld (see Jim” or “He’s dead, Captain”. (This information courtesy of Strata), and since Niven’s mistake is one of the most the newsgroup rec.arts.startrek.misc.)

famous SF flubs of all time, Fletcher’s admonition to The “It’s worse than that” part of the quote did not Stanley Roundway (“We’re going west, Stanley. For once in originate with Star Trek itself, but with the 1987 song ‘Star your death, try to get the directions right.”) is probably no Trekkin’, by The Firm, which was a huge novelty hit set to a coincidence.

simple ‘London Bridge is falling down’ tune, and featuring On the other hand it should be noted that for some strange lyrics along the lines of:

reason people on a.f.p. are always annoying Terry by trying It’s life Jim but not as we know it

to pin Larry Niven influences on him (see e.g. the not as we know it, not as we know it

annotation for p. 64/59 of Guards! Guards! ). Maybe this It’s life Jim but not as we know it

annotation, too, is just a far-fetched coincidence. It Not as we know it Captain

wouldn’t be the first in this document, now would it?

It’s worse than that he’s dead Jim

– [ p. 142/130 ] “ ‘New York, New York.’ ‘Why did they name Dead Jim, dead Jim

it twice?’ ‘Well, they ARE Americans.’ ”

It’s worse than that he’s dead Jim

Dead Jim, dead!

A reference to the 1979 hit song ‘New York, New York’, by Gerard Kenny, which starts out:

– [ p. 123/113 ] “ ‘Wasn’t there an Elm Street down by New York, New York,

Beech Lane?’ [. . . ] ‘Freddie. Now that’s a NICE name.’ ”

So good they named it twice.

Refers to the main character of the Nightmare on Elm New York, New York

Street series of horror movies.

All the scandal and the vice

I love it

– [ p. 132/122 ] “[. . . ] he’d never been able to remember all New York, New York

that ‘Foxtrot Tango Piper’ business [. . . ]”

Now isn’t it a pity

Since ‘Foxtrot Tango Piper’ spells FTP, this may be a What they say about New York City

reference to the computer world’s File Transfer Protocol, See also the annotation for p. 72/65 of Reaper Man.

which is a protocol (and also the name for the associated types of client software) used to transfer files between

– [ p. 148/136 ] “In a neglected corner, Mrs Tachyon was different machines. FTP is a very important means of data industriously Vim-ing a gravestone.”

exchange on the Internet (see e.g. the section on the Apparently, Vim is unknown in the USA, but in Europe it is Pratchett Archives in Chapter 6), and is also well-known for well-known as the scouring powder for cleaning sinks and being rather confusing to the beginner. Cries along the stuff. It is quite ancient, and has lately been eclipsed a bit lines of “I can’t seem to get the hang of this FTP business”

by more modern (and less destructive) cleaners such as Jif are often heard on the net.

or Mr Sheen.

In the NATO spelling alphabet, the actual word used to denote the letter ‘p’ is ‘Papa’, by the way.

– [ p. 158/146 ] “ ‘Met Hannibal Lecter in a dark alley, did it?’ said Yo-less.”

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A reference to the cannibalistic, eh, hero of the 1991 movie It’s only a mercy we haven’t got a dog.’ ”

The Silence of the Lambs.

A reference to the Famous Five. See also the annotation for p. 127/80 of Good Omens and the annotation for p. 87 of

– [ p. 159/147 ] “ ‘Baron Samedi, the voodoo god,’ said The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.

Yo-Less. ‘I got the idea out of James Bond.’ ”

The James Bond movie Yo-less means is Live and Let Die.

+ [ p. 203 ] “She held up a pickled onion.”

It was observed on afp that the previous Johnny books both

– [ p. 164/151 ] “ ‘Body snatchers!’ said Wobbler. ‘Burke ’n seem to leave open the option that what happens is all Head!’ said Bigmac.”

somehow a dream or a figment of Johnny’s imagination, and Burke and Hare were a famous pair of ‘resurrectionists’

that Kirsty actually finding a physical object this time would who operated in Edinburgh in the 19th century. Basically, be an indication of a change in focus. But Terry disagrees: they dug up fresh bodies from graveyards, in order to

“In OYCSM Kirsty (‘Sigourney’) is involved and remembers supply surgeons with material for anatomical dissections.

it, and Wobbler gets messages from Johnny on his own Edinburgh University is not very proud of its association computer screen. OYCSM is, I admit, deliberately the most with this trade, especially since eventually, when demand

‘equivocal’ of the trio. I think it’s not an either/or case —outstripped supply, so to speak, Burke and Hare went a bit it’s all real AND it’s all happening in his imagination.

overboard and started creating their own supply of fresh, dead bodies.

In JatD newspapers float in the air, the Dead are heard to speak on the radio (and the guys in the radio station notice Also, Birkenhead is a town in Merseyside (the Liverpool this) and things happen in the pub and the cinema.

area).

In JatB bits of the town change, Mrs Tachyon has fresh fish

– [ p. 171/158 ] “ ‘Good Work, Fumbling Four! And They All and chips wrapped in a 1941 newspaper and is seen by Went Home For Tea And Cakes.’ ”

people in the past after being in the present, the gang appear mysteriously in front of the old folks’ club, Johnny (I There was a series of children’s books by Enid Blyton think) finds that there’s someone in the old newspaper starring the Famous Five who managed to repeatedly avert picture which (if you know it’s Wobbler) looks like Wobbler, crimes, capture gangs and generally have a Jolly Good and Johnny also has the playing card missing from his Time.

grandad’s pack (and grandad got a medal for running a distance which couldn’t possibly be run in the time). But what happens is the familiar ‘history reasserting itself’

motif, as in Back to the Future III — there have to be clues that the process misses, of course, otherwise there’d be no Johnny and the Bomb

point. Remember that (in addition to all the other stuff) it’s not the pickle that’s the clue, it’s the fact that Kirsty now remembers.”

+ [ p. 16 ] “ ‘Like in that film where the robot is sent back to kill the mother of the boy who’s going to beat the robots When subsequently someone on afp said that they’d always when he grows up.’ ”

figured the Johnny books were explorations of childhood angst in which the protagonist’s fantasies are projected A reference to the original 1984 The Terminator movie.

onto reality in an attempt to escape to a different world where he can be more powerful and significant, Terry

+ [ p. 40 ] “ ‘Millennium hand and shrimp?’ ”

replied in no uncertain terms:

Ah, clearly Mrs Tachyon is somehow receiving on the same

“I can’t be having with that pernicious rubbish. ‘Window’

astral frequency as the Bursar and Foul Ole Ron. See also books, they are called: young Sid has big problems at the annotation for p. 324/233 of Lords and Ladies.

home, so in his dreams he battles a dragon, and this gives him the strength to deal with the problems — as if

+ [ p. 50 ] “ ‘[. . . ] the mysterious rain of fish we had in imagination and fantasy were some kind of medicines.

September [. . . ]’ ”

Yo-less trots out this handy explanation in OYCSM.

A Fortean resonance (see also the annotation for p. 155/99

I’d be the first to say that the exercise of imagination and of Good Omens.

humanity’s genius with metaphor can make a huge

+

difference to our lives and are part of what makes us

[ p. 64 ] “The Truth is Out Of Here”

human. I just hate to see fantasy dismissed as a kind of Puns on the famous tagline for the The X-Files television poultice or, worse, as a drug. It’s led to some godawful series (see also the annotation for p. 154 of Hogfather).

smug books (and some very good ones, I have to admit —but a lot of dumb ones too).

+ [ p. 67 ] “D’you see that film where the car travelled in time [. . . ]’ ”

There are natural explanations for a lot of the things that happen in the books, if you are desperate to find them (and Undoubtedly this is the original Back To The Future movie.

people will sometimes go through some serious mental gymnastics to avoid changing their preconceived ideas

+ [ p. 73 ] “ ‘Me, and four token boys. Oh, dear. Oh, dear.

about the universe) But I like to be equivocal about what is JOHNNY AND THE BOMB

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‘real’ and what isn’t — to Johnny it’s all real, and that’s pretty good.”

what counts. ‘Saving the Screewee’ isn’t some code for

‘Zut’ is also a French exclamation, meaning Damn or “drop improving his own life — he deals with all the problems on dead”.

their own terms and half the time he’s projecting reality onto fantasy. Maybe sorting out one part of your life gives

– [ p. 44 ] “[. . . ] sitting proudly beside a miniature rodent you some strength to sort out others, but you don’t need Somme on the doorstep.”

aliens in your computer to tell you that.

The Somme is a river in the north of France, which has So: is what happens in the books real? Yes. Does it all been the scene of some extremely heavy fighting in both happen in Johnny’s head? Yes. Are the Dead a metaphor?

World Wars. In 1916 for instance, a French/British offensive Yes. Are they real? Yes. Not just waving, but particalling.”

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.”

The Carpet People

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

– [ p. 120/110 ] “ ‘For me, all possibilities are real. I live the milkman left on the doorsteps each morning in a certain them all. [. . . ] Otherwise they never could have English rural area.

happened.’ ”

Another one of Terry’s quantum references. What Culaina

– [ p. 84 ] “[. . . ] the price of celery is eternal vigilance.”

describes here is a particular interpretation of quantum This paraphrases “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance”, theory, namely that each quantum event causes time to split nowadays usually associated with Kennedy. It was in fact up into distinct possibilities (“the trousers of time”). The first said by John Philpot Curran in his “The Right of idea that certain events can only happen if they are directly Election of the Lord Mayor of Dublin” speech in 1790.

observed is one of the best-known concepts in quantum mechanics.

– [ p. 86 ] “a garden that looks like an MoD installation,”

MoD = Ministry of Defence.

– [ p. 92 ] “Owing to an unexplained occurrence of Lamarckian heredity [. . . ]”

The Unadulterated Cat

Lamarck was a contemporary of Darwin who became the symbol for what was for a long time a very strong rival of

– [ p. 7 ] “The Campaign for Real Cats is against fizzy keg Darwin’s own natural selection as an explanation for the cats.”

mechanism of evolution. According to Lamarckism (simplification alert!), changes acquired by an individual of Parodies the aims and objectives of the Campaign for Real a species can immediately be inherited by the next Ale, a British organisation dedicated to the preservation generation, thus accounting for evolution. Lamarckism has and promotion of traditional beer-making in the face of the by now completely disappeared as a serious evolutionary threat from mass-produced ‘love-in-a-canoe’ fizzy keg beer theory, in favour of modified versions of natural selection.

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 168

OTHER ANNOTATIONS

CHAPTER

5

Thoughts and Themes

Next up are the various questions concerning (a) exactly The Turtle Moves!

how the Discworld looks, and (b) how it interacts with other celestial objects. Some relevant quotes from Terry (as It was already mentioned in one of the annotations: on before, quotation marks (“ ”) indicate the beginning and alt.fan.pratchett there will at any given moment in time ending of quotes from different Usenet articles): be at least one discussion ongoing about some aspect of the

“The elephants face outwards. The spinning of the Disc Discworld considered as a physical object. What does it does not harm the elephants because that’s how the look like? Where did it come from? Does it rotate? What do universe is arranged.”

constellations look like for the people living on it? Where

“I’ve got some drawings I did of the Discworld at the start are the continents located? Is there a map of and I’ve always thought of it like this:

Ankh-Morpork1? What are the names of the Elephants2? Is Great A’Tuin male or female? That sort of thing.

The shell of the turtle is slightly smaller than the world, but the flippers and head and tail are all visible from the Rim, Summarising these discussions is useless: nobody ever looking down — as Rincewind does in The Colour of Magic.”

agrees on anything, anyway, and besides: half the fun is in the discussion itself — who cares if these issues ever get

“The Discworld revolves. The sun and moon orbit it as well.

properly ‘resolved’. Nevertheless, I think it will be in the This enables the Disc to have seasons. And the DW

spirit of this annotation file, and of interest to the readers, if

‘universe’ — turtle, world, sun, moon — moves slowly I reproduce here some of the things Terry Pratchett himself through our own universe.”

has said on the various subjects, at those times when he

“Where is the sun at noon? There are two answers.

chose to enter the discussion.

A) It’s directly over the centre of the Disc; To start with some history: many people think the B) It’s in a small cafe.”

appearance of the Discworld as described in the novels was On the subject of constellations and what they would look an invention of Terry’s. This is not really the case: in Hindu like (see also the file discworld-constellations available from mythology, for instance, we find the idea of a lotus flower the Pratchett Archives):

growing out of Vishnu’s navel. Swimming in a pool in the lotus flower is the world turtle, on whose back stand four

“GA must move fairly fast — in The Light Fantastic a star elephants facing in the four compass directions. On their goes from a point to a sun (I assume GA halted somewhere backs is balanced the flat, disc-shaped world. See also Josh in the temperate orbits) in a few weeks. I’ve always thought Kirby’s magnificent drawing of the Discworld in the that Discworld astrology would largely consist of research; illustrated version of Eric.

we already know the character traits, what we’re trying to find is what the new constellations are, as the turtle moves.

Terry: “The myth that the world is flat and goes through And of course some particular constellations might have space on the back of a turtle is, with variations, found on very distinct and peculiar characteristics that are never every continent. An African fan has just sent me a Bantu repeated. Some constellations, facing in front and behind, legend, which however does not include the character of would change very little. The ones ‘to the side’ would N’Rincewind.”

change a lot. Bear in mind also that the sun revolves 1 There is now.

around the disc and the disc revolves slowly, so that every 2 Berilia, Tubul, Great T’Phon and Jerakeen, just in case anyone’d forgot-group of stars in the sky would have a chance to be a ten.

169

The Annotated Pratchett File

constellation for birth date purposes. In short, we need has designs on the hole of the Sphinx,

hundreds and hundreds of constellation names — good job But this deep and alluring depression

there’s Usenet, eh?”

Is oft clogged by the sands of the Nile,

Which accounts for the camel’s expression

Finally, on the less cosmic subject of planetary maps (for And the Sphinx’s inscrutable smile.

more information about the Innovations comics and the Clarecraft models mentioned below, read the

In the process of Syphilization

alt.fan.pratchett Frequently Asked Questions files, From the anthropoid ape down to man

available from the Pratchett Archives):

It is generally held that the Navy

Has buggered whatever it can.

“The map of the Discworld in the Innovations comic is just Yet recent extensive researches

an artist’s squiggle. The surface of the Discworld in the By Darwin and Huxley and Ball

Clarecraft model is. . . er. . . rather amazingly close to my Conclusively prove that the hedgehog

idea, although the vertical dimension is hugely Has never been buggered at all.

exaggerated. And Stephen Briggs, having just sent off the

‘definitive’ map of Ankh-Morpork, has said that he can And further researches at Oxford

deduce a map of the Disc. Fans have also sent me fairly Have incontrovertibly shown

accurate maps. Once you work out that the Circle Sea is That comparative safety on shipboard

rather similar to the Med, but with Ephebe and Tsort and Is enjoyed by the hedgehog alone.

Omnia and Djelibeybi (and Hersheba, one of these days) all But, why haven’t they done it at Spithead,

on the ‘north African’ coast, Klatch being ‘vaguely Arabic’

As they’ve done it at Harvard and Yale

and Howondaland being ‘vaguely African’ it’s easy.

And also at Oxford and Cambridge

By shaving the spines off its tail!

But all maps are valid.”

The annoying thing about the hedgehog song is of course

“I’ve never thought that any parts of Discworld that Terry only leaks us bits and pieces of it, but certainly corresponded exactly to places on Earth. Lancre is ‘generic never enough material to deduce a complete text from. So Western Europe/US rural’, for example — not the Ozarks, alt.fan.pratchett readers decided to write their own not the North of England, but maybe with something of version of the song, which is available for downloading from each.

the Pratchett Archives.

The Sto Plains are ‘vaguely Central European’; Klatch, The first version of the song was written and posted by Ephebe, Tsort, etc, are all ‘vaguely Southern Matthew Crosby (who tried to incorporate all the lines European/North African’.

mentioned in the Discworld novels), after which the text Genua was designed to be a ‘Magic Kingdom’ but in a New was streamlined and many verses were added by other Orleans setting — I hope the voodoo, cooking etc. made readers of the newsgroup. Currently we have thirteen that reasonably obvious. Genua and the other countries verses, which makes the song a bit too long to include here mentioned in Witches Abroad are all on the other side of in its entirety.

the Ramtops, which more or less bisect the continent.

Nevertheless, I thought it would be fun to show what we’ve As far as the Ankh-Morpork map is concerned, we’ve come up with, so I have compromised and chosen to decided to get it right at a point in time. In any case, it’s a reproduce just my own favourite verses:

developing city; the city of Guards! Guards! has evolved Bestiality sure is a fun thing to do

some way from the one in The Colour of Magic.”

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:

Song. . .

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 one song that all Discworld fans will be familiar with, is The hedgehog can never be buggered at all!

of course Nanny Ogg’s favourite ballad: ‘The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered At All’ (see also the annotation for Mounting a horse can often be fun

p. 36/35 of Wyrd Sisters).

An elephant too; though he weighs half a ton

Even a mouse (though his hole is quite small) I will start this section with the complete text to the song But the hedgehog can never be buggered at all.

that might have been the prototype for the hedgehog-song

— except that it wasn’t. It can be found in Michael Green’s A fish is refreshing, although a bit wet

book Why Was He Born So Beautiful and Other Rugby And a cat or a dog can be more than a pet

Songs (1967, Sphere UK), it is called ‘The Sexual Life of the Even a giraffe (despite being so tall)

Camel’, it probably dates back to the 1920s/30s, and it goes: But the hedgehog can never be buggered at all.

The carnal desires of the camel

You can ravish a sloth but it would take all night Are stranger than anyone thinks,

With a shark it is faster, but the darned beast For this passionate but perverted mammal

might bite

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APF v9.0, August 2004

We already mentioned the horse, you may recall completely in the dark about. Brewer has this to say on the But the hedgehog can never be buggered at all.

subject:

For prosimian fun, you can bugger a lemur

Morris Dance: brought to England in the reign of Edward To bolster your name as a pervert and schemer III, when John of Gaunt returned from Spain. In the dance, The lemurs cry Frink! as a coy mating call

bells were jingled, and staves or swords clashed. It was a But the hedgehog can never be buggered at all.

military dance of the Moors or Moriscos, in which five men and a boy engaged; the boy wore a ‘morione’ or head-piece, Finally, we come to the old drinking song mentioned in the and was called Mad Morion.

annotation for p. 99/82 of Eric: ‘The Ball of Kerrymuir’.

This song can, coincidentally enough, also be found in Which is interesting, but doesn’t really explain anything in Michael Green’s Why Was He Born So Beautiful and Other a 20th century context. Luckily, a newsgroup like Rugby Songs. That version appears to have the dirty words alt.fan.pratchett attracts contemporary Morris Dancers replaced by rows of asterisks — a rather useless form of like flies, and for the rest of this section I will give the floor editorial restraint, since in this particular case it means the to Rich Holmes:

song now contains more asterisks than normal alphabetic

“In a number of books (including Strata, Guards! Guards!, characters. Enter alt.fan.pratchett correspondent Tony Reaper Man, and Lords and Ladies) Pratchett refers to D’Arcy, who was kind enough to fax me an uncensored copy morris dancing. These allusions may be lost on the typical of the song. ‘The Ball of Kerrymuir’ has 43 verses, a small American reader. Picture, then, six men in white shirts and subset of which I now reproduce for your reading pleasure, trousers, decorated with ribbons, wearing bells on their just to give you a feel for the song. From here on down this legs, in a two-by-three formation — the men, not the bells.

section of the APF is rated X.

To a tune played on fiddle or squeezebox, they dance up Oh the Ball, the Ball of Kerrymuir,

and down, back and forth, gesturing with big white Where your wife and my wife,

handkerchiefs in their hands — or, maybe, clashing Were a-doing on the floor.

yard-long willow sticks with one another. That’s morris dancing, or at least the species of morris dancing that was CHORUS:

done in the late 19th century in the Cotswolds region of Balls to your partner,

England.

Arse against the wall.

If you never get fucked on a Saturday night

It’s also done today, throughout the English-speaking world You’ll never be fucked at all.

(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 was fucking in the kitchen

There are several hundred morris teams in England as well And fucking in the halls

as 170 or so in the US and Canada and God knows how You couldn’t hear the music for

many in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and other odd The clanging of the balls.

places.

Now Farmer Giles was there,

As for where it came from, and when, and what it all means, His sickle in his hand,

no one really knows. Some of its roots seem to go back to And every time he swung around

the European continent sometime in or before the 15th He circumcised the band.

century. Similar, possibly related dances were and are Jock McVenning he was there

found in Europe and even as far away as India. For a while A-looking for a fuck,

in the late 19th and early 20th centuries they were But every cunt was occupied

commonly claimed by folklorists to be a remnant of a And he was out of luck.

pre-Christian fertility rite performed by a male priesthood; The village doctor he was there

there’s really no hard evidence to support such a theory, He had his bag of tricks,

though.

And in between the dances,

Terry Pratchett tells us he’s “never waved a hankie in He was sterilising pricks.

anger” nor knows any morris dancers personally, but that And when the ball was over,

he finds the morris dance kind of fascinating.

Everyone confessed:

Those interested can contact either Tom Keays They all enjoyed the dancing,

(htkeys@syr.edu) or Rich Holmes

but the fucking was the best.

(rsholmes@suhep.phy.syr.edu) 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/.

. . . 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

. . . AND DANCE

171

The Annotated Pratchett File

– Object-Oriented Languages, Systems and Applications, by Reverse Annotations

Blair, Hutchinson, Gallagher and Shepherd, 1991.

“Consider the domain of Colours. If we have Red, Green With the Discworld canon growing and reaching an and Blue, but now widen the domain to include Octaroon, increasingly wider audience around the globe, we are an old program may read an unknown value from a new starting to see something I’m calling ‘reverse referencing’: instance. Conversely, if we begin with Octaroon included, other writers who put references to the Discworld into their but now decide we no longer believe in Magic and remove it books.

thus narrowing the domain, [. . . ]”

The examples I have had reported to me so far: Again, note the misspelling, this time of ‘Octarine’. Since this is a formal text book, The Colour of Magic gets a

– Due South

proper mention in the references.

The most often remarked-upon reverse annotation of the past year or so concerns the television series Due South,

– The British Medical Journal, January 1996 edition.

which is about the adventures of a Canadian Mountie The BMJ has a ‘Soundings’ page, where doctors get a (Constable Benton Fraser), stationed in Chicago.

chance to write about a subject of their choice. In this The similarities between Benton Fraser and Carrot are, issue, Liam Farrell, a GP from Crossmaglen, ended his especially in the first few episodes, indeed remarkable. Like column with the line:

Carrot, Benton is innocent and straight-forward to the point

“This is only common sense, but, as we have said before, in of being naive (but not stupid!). He is nigh-on superhuman, academic general practice, common sense is as rare as a polite, memorises everybody’s name, works alongside tourist in Ankh-Morpork.”

cynical and jaded cops, and the first things he does are (1) take lodgings in the roughest neighbourhood around and

– The Books of Magic, by John Ney Rieber, issue #13, April (2) walk into a lowlife bar in full Mountie uniform shouting 1995.

“Excuse me. . . ”. And as with Carrot, his faith in human Tim and Molly on their way through Soho, London, pass a nature is almost always rewarded.

movie theatre. The Billboard says: “PRATCHETT THEATRE

I doubt very much whether Benton Fraser is really based on

— now playing: Unseen Demo. . . ” (the rest is cut off).

Carrot (after all, the archetype that both characters are based on goes back a long way), but sometimes I wonder:

– The Books of Magic II, by Neil Gaiman and Scott Fraser’s faithful companion is a wolf, and in one episode of Hampton, 1990.

Due South Fraser and his partner are locked in a meat Tim is told of an occult battle taking place offstage in storage room and nearly freeze to death. . .

Calcutta: “You wouldn’t believe it. The cult of Kali, three Ninja death squads, the Brotherhood of the Cold Flame, a

– Computer Games.

thousand elephants. . . ”

References to the Discworld have occasionally been cropping up in otherwise unrelated computer games. In

– Dirty Work, by Dan McGirt, 1993, Pan Books, ISBN 0 330

Angband, for instance, one of the owners of the general 32391 1, p. 215.

store is ‘Rincewind the Chicken’. In the legendary game The relevant quotation is:

Nethack you can explore the Dungeons as a tourist, starting out your quest with lots of gold and food, a credit

“I peeled off my outer clothing and removed the Cosmosuit.

card, and an expensive camera. Although the tourist Dreadguards took it away from me and placed it, along with character class wasn’t originally created as a Discworld Gardion and Overwhelm, in a wooden chest. They also took reference, there have been many Discworld-inspired the Rae medallion and the Ring of Raxx. ‘The chest is made additions in later releases of the game: the tourist’s patron of insipid wormwood, the most highly inanimate and gods are now The Lady, Blind Io, and Offler, while unmagical substance known to the world, which specifically Twoflower himself appears on the special quest level. And if does not run around on hundreds of tiny legs nor eat you’re hallucinatory, you may get to see the Luggage.

people,’ Dread said of the box. ‘But it does prevent you from summoning your magic sword by thought.’ ‘Thought

– Dream Park: The Californian Voodoo Game, by Larry of everything haven’t you?’ ”

Niven and Stephen Barnes, 1991.

Readers on a.f.p. are, by the way, unanimously The UK edition of this book describes the character Alan unenthusiastic about this book, so don’t assume that just Myers as “a Terry Pratchett wizard”. In the U.S. edition this because it mentions the Luggage it’s got to be a good read.

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?

Words from the Master

— Since the Diskworld Game. Ah. . . Hamburg.

Note the misspelling of Discworld.

Here are a number of excerpts from articles by Terry Pratchett that I think fall under the heading of ‘annotations’

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APF v9.0, August 2004

but which are either not associated with one particular of the Librarian, for example.

novel, or else so long they would break the flow of the I think some of the puzzles are a shade too obtuse, and regular annotations.

when Discworld II is done I’ll probably get more involved in Quotation marks (“ ”) indicate the beginning and ending of them. But the look and feel of the game is pretty close to quotes from different Usenet articles. For further clarity I the early Rincewind books, I think. As game adaptations go, am putting my own editorial text in square brackets ([ ]) for I was about as closely involved as possible for someone who the rest of this section.

doesn’t write code. It seemed to us all that ‘Shouting at people’ was a fairly realistic statement of the position.”

– What are the ‘rules’ and ‘regulations’ of headology? It just seems to be an area that is not properly defined.

– About Unseen University’s financial status.

“Ah. It appears you have discovered Rule 1.”

“Unseen University owns quite a lot of land in the area of Sator Square and while the rents are pretty low there are a

– Should Terry write Discworld novels with new characters, lot of properties. There have been various bequests by or should he write Discworld novels with established former Archchancellors and so on over the history of the characters. Should he, in fact, listen to what his readers university. I suspect UU also earns money for generalised have to say on this subject?

magical services in the city (the Pork Futures warehouse,

“1. I always listen to advice. It’s polite.

for example). Over the millennia, it all adds up.

2. If I heeded all the advice I’ve had over the years, I’d Finally, UU expenses are not high. As far as I can tell, the have written 18 books about Rincewind. Absolutely true.

senior wizards don’t draw salaries but are paid in big The most common plea in my mail right now is ‘when are dinners. Merchants in the city tend to ‘give’ UU foodstuffs we going to read about Rincewind in XXXX?’ I’m being because, well, wouldn’t you prefer the local wizards to be instructed that I have a duty to my readers — if I was fat and happy rather than thin and grouchy?”

innocent, I’d be attaching corks to that battered pointy hat

– Are there any plans for Pterry to appear on Europe-wide even now. But perhaps this is an issue on which I have TV?

thought long and hard. After all, it’s my living and ten years of my life.

“I don’t know. I hope not.”

If Discworld continues, then old characters will continue —

– On interviews.

Rincewind will get red dust in his sandals, the Watch will be back, Gaspode will probably limp into stories. And new

“People. . . (including everyone who interviews me for their characters will arise. Why not? It’s not as if there are rules.

Uni magazine, ‘cos I must have done a hundred of those What will probably end Discworld is simple crowding — the things) Rule I of interviews should be:

Watch already make Ankh-Morpork based stories a little Write a list of your main questions to fix things in your problematical, and I won’t get into the comic book mind; Throw it away; Start the interview; Then LISTEN to convention of having Captain Courage out of town so that what the guy is saying so that you can follow any Commander Socko can take centre stage.”

interesting thread; Because if you don’t, then what you’ll

“My publishers have never insisted that I ‘write another get is a quiz, not an interview.

Discworld book’. If I rang them up and said ‘the next one’s Sigh. . . It happens to me all the time:

a Western’ (or whatever) they’d probably say ‘Oh, right.’ In fact the current contract does NOT specify that my next Q Where did you get the idea for the Discworld?

book, for example, must be Discworld.

A I stole it from an old man I met and now I’ve decided to Of course I listen to my readers! So the next book will be: tell you all.

Set in Ankh-Morpork/not set in Ankh-Morpork. With lots of Q Who is your favourite character?

the good old characters/with a whole cast of new Sigh. . . ”

characters. Written like the old books, which were better/written like the later books, which were better. With

– Does Terry keep earlier drafts of his novels around?

lots of character development/none of that dull character

“I save about twenty drafts — that’s ten meg of disc space development stuff, which gets in the way of the jokes.

— and the last one contains all the final alterations. Once it Short/long.

has been printed out and received by the publishers, there’s You want fries with that?”

a cry here of ‘Tough shit, literary researchers of the future, try getting a proper job!’ and the rest are wiped.”

– About the Discworld CD-ROM Game, and its sequel.

– On answering letters.

“What I did on the Computer Game by Terry Pratchett

[ Terry’s wife Lyn reads all his mail first, and selects the I:

reply order ]

a) rewrote and tinkered and generally worked quite hard on

“It tends to arrive on my desk in this order: the script, although the guy that drafted it was pretty good; Stuff that really needs to be dealt with today.

b) approved (and sometimes didn’t approve) the characters Stuff that needs an answer quickly.

— I think the game’s got the third version of Rincewind and WORDS FROM THE MASTER

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The Annotated Pratchett File

Fan mail with SAEs (Lyn encourages politeness) saying ‘Here’s a story I’ve set in Harry Spiven’s ‘World of or which is particularly interesting, worthy, Hurts’ universe. . . ’ and the publishers say ‘Did you get his funny or whatever.

permission?’ and the writer says ‘I don’t have to do that, do Any other mail from abroad (because it’s usually I?’ and the publishers go white and say ‘Does the Pope shit taken a while to get here).

in the woods?’

Other mail.

That’s the REAL world. Now let’s talk about FANDOM.

People who send me their MS without checking

first, and others of that kidney.

The law isn’t any different. But there’s people out there writing HHGTTG stuff, Red Dwarf stuff, Star Trek stuff and However, I tend to stir it all up and in fact answer in the Discworld stuff for the amusement of their friends. Authors order:

react on an individual basis. Some hate it and try to stop it.

From kids

Anne McCaffrey — I think, although I’m open to correction Typed

here — doesn’t mind so long as her main characters are not Readable

used. Douglas Adams seems to have tolerated/given Interesting

permission for a welter of Hitchhikers stuff in the ZZ9

Others

fanzine.

Ones written in green ink on mauve paper

It seems to me that if something is being done on an Ones with more exclamation marks that sanity

amateur basis by a fan for fans, and is clearly their own dictates

work, and is done out of a shared regard for the basic It’s a strange fact, isn’t it, that emails of all sorts tend to get subject matter, then it would be kind of chilly for an author answered within 24 hours while ‘real’ mail takes days or to run around hammering people. It’s fandom, for god’s weeks or months.”

sake. I don’t give anyone permission, I just smile and think what the hell.

– On the quality of Tolkien’s writing.

There’s a danger, of course, that some dumb bugger out

“What is a master writer?

there will interpret this as an indication that Discworld is I read Tolkien now and notice the gaps, the evasions, all the now in the public domain or open to franchising. It is

‘bad’ things. . . but few books have had the effect on me neither. If anyone tries a commercial rip-off — not a parody, that TLOTR had when I was thirteen. Is he better or worse, not fanac, but a cynical attempt to cash in on my Discworld for example, than Anita Brookner, widely regarded as a ‘fine

— then the sewage farm will hit the three megawatt writer’ although terribly dull to read? What is a writer aerogenerator.”

supposed to achieve?

“I’d rather fanfic went on somewhere where I don’t see it.

Before I rank Tolkien, I’d like to know how the scoring is Why? Because if A Fan writes a piece about, say, Discworld being done.”

tax collectors, and I chose to write about Discworld tax collectors a year later, A Fan will send me the ‘nyer, ripoff,

– Why Terry switched his German publishers (from Heyne you nicked my idea’ email.”

to Goldmann).

– What is the ‘H.P. Lovecraft Holiday Fun Club’?

“There were a number of reasons for switching to Goldmann, but a deeply personal one for me was the way

“Nothing serious, really. This was just the name I gave to a Heyne (in Sourcery, I think, although it may have been in group of people that seemed to turn up at every UK

other books) inserted a soup advert in the text . . . a few convention in the late 80s — me, Neil Gaiman, Jo Fletcher, black lines and then something like ‘Around about now our Mary Gentle, Mike Harrison, etc, etc. . . As to why. . . well, heroes must be pretty hungry and what better than a it just seemed to fit in that well-known group of clubs like nourishing bowl’. . . etc, etc.

the Saudi Arabian Beer-Mat Collectors Association and the Venetian League of Joggers.”

My editor was pretty sick about it, but the company wouldn’t promise not to do it again, so that made it very

– About special deluxe editions of the Discworld novels.

easy to leave them. They did it to Iain Banks, too, and

“We have been talking about some special Discworld apparently at a con he tore out the offending page and ate editions, maybe with a few choice interior illustrations and it. Without croutons.”

some heavy leather covers. I personally would like to see

[ A scan of the offending page is available from the them with chains, too.

Pratchett Archives. ]

The snag for me is that the publishers keep talking about

– On people wanting to write their own Discworld stories.

‘limited’ editions. I’ve got a psychological objection to

‘limited’ editions. I like unlimited editions.”

“There is no question that using characters, backgrounds, plot threads, etc, etc of an author in copyright can get you

– On the lack of chapters in the Discworld novels.

into serious legal trouble — there have been cases over this

“DW books don’t have chapters because, well, I just never recently in the States. Try publishing a James Bond novel got into the habit of chapters. I’m not sure why they should without consulting the Fleming estate and see what exist (except maybe in children’s books, to allow the parent happens. It’s amazing that people don’t realise this.

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go to sleep.”). Films don’t have chapters. Besides, I think 3) Write. For more than three years I wrote more than 400

they interfere with the shape of the story. Use a bookmark words every day. I mean, every calendar day. If for some is my advice.”

reason, in those pre-portable days, I couldn’t get to a keyboard, I wrote hard the previous night and caught up

“I have to shove them in the putative YA books because my the following day, and if it ever seemed that it was easy to editor screams until I do.”

do the average I upped the average. I also did a hell of a lot

– On Discworld language use.

of editing afterwards but the point was there was something there to edit. I had a more than full-time job as

“A certain amount of DW slang comes from Palari or Polari, well. I hate to say this, but most of the successful (well, the fairground / underworld / theatre ‘secret language’

okay. . . rich ) authors I know seem to put ‘application’

(which seems to have a lot of roots in old Italian). UK

around the top of the list of How-to-do-its. Tough but true.”

readers with long memories might recall the pair of gay actors ‘Julian and Sandy’, in the old Round the Horne radio

“Application? Well, it means. . . application. The show in the Sixties and Seventies (innocent times, innocent single-minded ability to knuckle down and get on with it, as times); they spoke almost pure Palari.”

they say in Unseen University library.”

– Why don’t you use a Macintosh for your writing?

– The advantages of having a background in journalism.

“In fact I type so fluently that I can’t deal with a mouse. My

“Yes, Dave Gemmell and Neil Gaiman were both journalists.

mother paid for me to have touch-typing lessons when I was So was Bob Shaw. So was I. It’s good training because: 13, and they took. Hah! I can just see a DW book written 1) any tendency to writers’ block is burned out of with voice-recognition software! Especially in this you within a few weeks of starting work by

cat-ridden house! ‘That’s Ankh-Morpork, you bloody stupid unsympathetic news editors;

machine! GET OFF THE TURNTABLE!’ As to goshwowness 2) you very quickly learn the direct link between

— well, it seems now that a 50MHz 486 is what you need if writing and eating;

you’re not going to have silicon kicked in your face on the beach. But. . . Macs do interest me. . . it’s just that I 3) you pick up a style of sorts;

associate them with manipulation rather than input.”

4) you get to hang around in interesting places;

– Where are all these references to science, physics in 5) you learn to take editing in your stride, and particular, coming from?

tend to be reliable about deadlines;

“How much physics do I know? How do I know that? I don’t 6) you end up with an ability to think at the know about the stuff I don’t know. I’ve no formal training keyboard and reduce the world to yourself and but I’ve spent a lot of time around scientists of one sort of the work in hand — you have to do this to

another, and I’m a great believer in osmotic knowledge.”

survive in a world of ringing telephones and

shouting sub-editors.

[ People on the net (who tend to have a university or technical background) are often impressed by Terry’s many None of this makes you talented or good, but it does help references to the physical sciences in his novels (“Oh wow, you make the best of what you’ve got.”

you can really tell he used to work for a nuclear power

– On the use of dog-Latin.

plant!” is an often-heard cry), but frankly I think they are underestimating the non-university audience out there.

“People in the UK, even in public (i.e., private) schools, Most of the things Terry mentions in passing (e.g. Big Bang, don’t assume that “everyone knows Latin”. Latin is barely quarks, wave/particle duality) are covered in high school taught anywhere anymore — it certainly wasn’t taught to physics classes (or at least in Holland they are), and surely me. But dog-Latin isn’t Latin, except by accident. It’s everybody who does not deliberately turn away from simply made-up, vaguely Latin-sounding phrases, as in Nil anything scientific in content will have seen references in Illegitimo Carborundum. ‘Fabricati Diem, Punc’ is total newspapers, on tv or in magazines to things like quantum nonsense in Latin [no doubt there are readers out there particles or the “Trousers of Time”? ]

who could construct the correct phrase that might have fallen from the lips of Dirty Hadrian].”

– How do you write?

– On the writing of Good Omens.

“How do I write? God, this is embarrassing. Look, I just do it. It’s pictures in the head and memories and thinking

“Neil and I had known each other since early 1985. Doing it about things and it all comes together. It’s something I do.”

was our idea, not a publisher’s deal.”

“1) Watch everything, read everything, and especially read

“I think this is an honest account of the process of writing outside your subject — you should be importing, not Good Omens. It was fairly easy to keep track of because of recycling.

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 2) Use a wordprocessor. . . why do I feel this is not bit over two thirds of Good Omens. However, we were on unnecessary advice here? It makes everything mutable. It’s the phone to each other every day, at least once. If you have better for the ego. And you can play games when all else an idea during a brainstorming session with another guy, fails.

whose idea is it? One guy goes and writes 2,000 words after WORDS FROM THE MASTER

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thirty minutes on the phone, what exactly is the process that it can cover Small Gods and Eric, so I’ve got a wide that’s happening?

field to work in. But. . . I’ll say here again. . . the days of twice-yearly DW books have probably gone. I’m still I did most of the physical writing because:

planning to write them regularly, in fact publishing 1) I had to. Neil had to keep Sandman going — I schedules might end up bringing out two in a year, but I could take time off from the DW;

want to do other stuff as well. The fact is that each DW

2) One person has to be overall editor, and do all book sells more than the one before, and the backlist sales the stitching and filling and slicing and, as I’ve keep on rising. I don’t write DW because of this, but it said before, it was me by agreement — if it had suggests that there’s a readership out there. I can’t been a graphic novel, it would have been Neil imagine how anyone can be forced to write a book.”

taking the chair for exactly the same reasons it was me for a novel;

– On the joint copyright notice in his novels.

3) I’m a selfish bastard and tried to write ahead to

[ All Terry’s novels are “copyright Terry and Lyn Pratchett”, get to the good bits before Neil.

and people on the net were wondering about the reasons for it. ]

Initially, I did most of Adam and the Them and Neil did most of the Four Horsemen, and everything else kind of got done

“Copyright does not necessarily have anything to do with by whoever — by the end, large sections were being done authorship — an author can assign copyright wherever he by a composite creature called Terryandneil, whoever was or she likes. Lyn and I are a legal partnership, and so we actually hitting the keys. By agreement, I am allowed to say hold copyright jointly (for various mildly beneficial reasons) that Agnes Nutter, her life and death, was completely and in the same way that, if we ever bothered to form a limited utterly mine. And Neil proudly claims responsibility for the company, that would hold the copyright. At random I’ve maggots. Neil’s had a major influence on the opening picked a few favourite books off the shelf, and can say that scenes, me on the ending. In the end, it was this book done it’s not unusual for copyright not to be held simply in the by two guys, who shared the money equally and did it for name of the author. I do all the writing!”

fun and wouldn’t do it again for a big clock.”

– On the various Discworld covers.

“Yes, the maggot reversal was by me, with a gun to Neil’s head (although he understood the reasons, it’s just that he

“No, Kirby’s Nanny Ogg is pretty good. And he’s getting likes maggots). There couldn’t be blood on Adam’s hands, better (. . . he’s getting better. . . ) at someone who looks even blood spilled by third parties. No-one should die about right for Magrat. But he hasn’t really got a clue about because he was alive.”

Granny.

The artist who does the American book club editions —

– On rumours that Neil Gaiman claims to have come up with can’t recall his name — does not, I think, do good covers, some of the ideas in Reaper Man, most notably the title and but he makes a very good job of getting the characters the Death storyline.

right. They’re not my idea of the characters, but they’re

“To the best of my recollection the Reaper Man title was certainly based squarely on the plot. His Granny on the suggested by Faith Brooker at Gollancz (although I can’t cover of Equal Rites was notable.”

swear to this). But I know, and have gone on record about

“The next UK paperback reprint of TCOM (they do a couple this, that the central idea of Reaper Man actually came a year) will not have a Kirby cover. This is an experiment —from reading a fan letter from a lady who wrote “Death is there’s been feedback to me and to Transworld that my favourite character — he can be my knight on a white suggests there are a large number of potential DW readers charger any day of the week”. The lady concerned can be out there who think they don’t like fantasy and don’t get produced to the court, m’lud.

past the Kirby covers.”

Listening intelligently while a fellow author talks about an

[ Scans of both the original Josh Kirby cover and of the new upcoming book isn’t the same as ‘suggesting the storyline cover by Stephen Player are available from the Pratchett and some other bits’ and in fairness to Neil I doubt that he Archives. ]

put it quite like that — this sounds like something which

“Current cover policy is to have a fairly small graphic on has picked up a bit of spin in the telling. We’ve known each the front of the hardcovers but a full traditional design on other for a long time, we share a similar conceptual the front of the paperback; I’m not too unhappy about this, universe — we’d both agree happily that he has the darker because I wasn’t very keen on the Lords and Ladies end of it — and we’ve often talked about what we’re hardcover artwork.”

working on and tried out stuff on one another. And that’s it, really.”

– On American editions of his books.

– How big is his publisher’s influence on what gets written?

“I’m also nervy about ‘translating’ things into American.

(“Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears = Yo,

“Question was: do the publishers force me to write DW

muthers, y’knowwhatI’msayin?”) I’ve seen what even books? (the subtext being, we’d like you to do other stuff).

intelligent, well-travelled American writers think is normal And the answer is, no, you can’t work like that. It works the British conversation (“I say, good show!”) and I’d hate to be other way round — I say I’m planning two more, they say, guilty of that sort of thing in reverse.”

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“As far as Johnny and the Dead and Only You Can Save he is not, as becomes obvious when you read his slightly Mankind are concerned: well, I dunno. It was bad enough more serious writings — but he clearly does like to wind up having to translate Truckers into American, and then it was the kind of people who are too free with ‘fascist’

published so badly by Dell in hardcover we took the accusations. He’s so far to the right that on many issues paperback rights away from them (which we are looking to he’s coming back at you from the left. [. . . ] I like PJ.”

sell now). And the two more recent books are very British,

“I got Corgi to republish Roy Lewis’ The Evolution Man a or at least European — I can just imagine the dog’s few years ago. To the best of my knowledge it’s the only breakfast an US editor would make of them. My agent’s got fiction he’s done. Like I said in my intro, it’s honest,

’em, but I’m not that keen to sell.”

genuine sf. . . and one of my all-time favourite funny books.”

– On reference books.

“If anyone can ever get hold of it, the classic funny cricket match was in the book England, Their England by

“I’ve got Brewer’s, of course3, and if I need an instant A. G. McDonnell. A forgotten masterpiece.”

reference it’s a handy book. He also did a Reader’s Companion which is even better. But Ebenezer is only the

“[Carl Hiaassen] is a writer I try to promote here at every tip of an iceberg of similar books, of which the Victorians opportunity. He hasn’t written a bad book. I recommend were very fond.”

Native Tongue or maybe Double Whammy.”

“Whenever I go to the States I always return with my

– Is there any truth to the rumour that you and Neil Gaiman luggage stuffed with Panati’s and Straight Dope books4

had a fall-out over the Good Omens film project?

(I’ve seen the Straight Dope books here, but never seen an imported Panati (they’ve got titles like “Extraordinary

“Me and Neil. . . oh gawd. Yes, it’s true to say we didn’t Origins of Everyday Things”)). I’m afraid I spend money agree over the way the film should be going. But that’s like water in American book shops; I dunno, they just seem about it. There’s no flying daggers — at least, I haven’t more inviting. The oddest book shop I’ve been in is Win thrown any and none have hit me.”

Bundy’s Singing Wind Book Ranch. . . ”

– Speaking of movies, what happened to the plans for a

– Likes and Dislikes.

movie based on Mort ?

“I hated the Alice books.”

“A production company was put together and there was US

and Scandinavian and European involvement, and I wrote a

“I didn’t like the Alice books because I found them creepy couple of script drafts which went down well and and horribly unfunny in a nasty, plonking, Victorian way.

everything was looking fine and then the US people said Oh, here’s Mr Christmas Pudding On Legs, hohohoho,

“Hey, we’ve been doing market research in Power Cable, here’s a Caterpillar Smoking A Pipe, hohohoho. When I was Nebraska, and other centres of culture, and the a kid the books created in me about the same revulsion as Death/skeleton bit doesn’t work for us, it’s a bit of a you get when, aged seven, you’re invited to kiss your downer, we have a prarm with it, so lose the skeleton”. The great-grandmother.”

rest of the consortium said, did you read the script? The

“May I also add that the film The Return of Captain Americans said: sure, we LOVE it, it’s GREAT, it’s HIGH

Invincible, which is a series of bad moments pasted CONCEPT. Just lose the Death angle, guys.

together with great songs and a budget of fourpence, is also Whereupon, I’m happy to say, they were told to keep on a regularly-viewed video in the Pratchett household. And with the medication and come back in a hundred years.”

David Byrne’s True Stories also. Flame me if you wish. I laugh with scorn at threats.”

“The person also said that Americans “weren’t ready for the treatment of Death as an amusing and sympathetic

“These are modern authors whose books I will automatically character”. This was about 18 months/2 years before Bill buy knowing that life is going to get that little bit richer: and Ted’s Bogus Journey.”

George McDonald Fraser (The Flashman books)

“Currently, since the amount of money available for making Carl Hiaasen (still to get well known over here) movies in Europe is about sixpence, the consortium is Donald Westlake (a pro)

looking for some more intelligent Americans in the film Joseph Wambaugh

business. This may prove difficult.

Tom Robbins

It could have been worse. I’ve heard what Good Omens was But I read more and more non-fiction, biographies and stuff looking like by the time Sovereign’s option mercifully ran these days.”

out — set in America, no Four Horsemen. . . oh god.”

[About Joanna Trollope:] “An intelligent lady who writes

“What you have to remember is that in the movies there are worthwhile books for an audience largely neglected by two types of people 1) the directors, artists, actors and so

‘real’ writers, and who occasionally comes up with a bit of on who have to do things and are often quite human and 2) description I really wish I’d thought of. The current TV

the other lifeforms. Unfortunately you have to deal with the adaptation of The Rector’s Wife is pretty awful.”

other lifeforms first. It is impossible to exaggerate their

[About P. J. O’Rourke:] “PJ may be many things, but fascist baleful stupidity.”

3 See the annotation for p. 117/103 of The Colour of Magic.

– If movies are too expensive, how about some more 4 See the annotation for p. 165/107 of Good Omens.

Discworld television adaptations?

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“There’s some approaches. There’s always some serious about publishing it this summer in an effort to approaches. But too often they’re from people who want to

‘catch up’. That means in theory that new Discworld books do a ‘funny fantasy’ and paste the Discworld label on it. I should be published in the US at (more or less) the same have to repeat the old mantra: Discworld isn’t internally time as in the UK. But it leaves Lords and Ladies and Men funny to the people who live there — there’s no baseball at Arms in a kind of limbo; HC are committed to bringing playing frogs. And too often the approach is [sub-text] “I them out “as soon as possible” and it’s in their interests to bet a humble print author like you would be overjoyed to be do so, because they’ve had to front advances which they on REAL TELEVISION, eh?” They get what Nanny Ogg calls can’t recoup until they start selling.”

the derriere velocitie PDQ, I can tell you.”

“Blame publishers. HarperCollins have got Lords and

“We are talking usefully to UK TV people and, yes, there is Ladies, Small Gods, Men at Arms and Soul Music. I think serious interest in doing the Guards books as a sort of ‘Hill Roc have got Eric. I’d be happy to see them all out in one Street Octarines’. It might work. Even if it doesn’t, people go. As for the Map. . . I suspect it’ll never get a US

are close enough for me to scream at them.”

publication. It seemed to frighten US publishers. They don’t seem to understand it.

“IF IT ALL HAPPENS (‘cos we’re dealing with screen here) then there would be Guards! Guards! as the pilot and Men

“That seems to point up a significant difference between at Arms as ‘the series’.”

Europeans and Americans:

A European says: I can’t understand this, what’s wrong

– Why does the Librarian have such troubles

with me? An American says: I can’t understand this, what’s communicating with humans? Surely, as a highly trained, wrong with him?

intelligent librarian he is literate, and therefore can write down what he wants to say?

I make no suggestion that one side or other is right, but observation over many years leads me to believe it is true.”

“Personally, I think he does it out of spite.”

“The last I heard, my editor was mumbling a bit over [the

– Responding to newspaper articles mentioning “Estimated Johnny books]. Though he personally loved J&tD I think he wealth of sci-fi novelist Terry Pratchett: UK# 26,500,000”.

thought Americans wouldn’t (as in: no-one in the book is American, WWI happened on another continent that

“This began with some survey done by a magazine called American kids couldn’t find on an atlas with three tries, and Business Age. Since it’s off by the national debt of Belgium it feels, ugh, European. I’m paraphrasing his far more my agent rang them up to find out what the hell was going diplomatically worded comments).”

on. Various factoids emerged, like frinstance their assumption that I sell pro rata as much in the States as I do As I understand it, Lords and Ladies and Men at Arms will here (hollow laughter from the American readers). And we come out in trade paperback “fairly soon” after Soul Music, suspect they fall for the common error that a mere to get them out of the way — ie, to desperately try to catch appearance in the bestseller lists means millionaire status up on the schedule. But it looks as though SM is slipping (in a poor week the book at number ten might not have sold back, ‘cos I saw the proofs only a week or so ago. Basically, 100 copies). But the big wobbler is that the estimate is of it’s the usual arrogance of US publishers towards their

‘worth’, not ‘wealth’ — they’ve hazarded a wild guess at the readers — and counter-productive, since I know that quite a value of the Discworld rights, as far as we can tell including large number of UK editions find their way into the US.”

film rights as well. Remember copyright lasts for 50 years

“The twisted thinking is as follows. Thousands of hardcover and the books are consistent high backlist sellers. It’s UK Discworld books cross the Atlantic after every pub date, similar to pointing to a bright kid and saying ‘he’s worth certainly undermining the sales or potential sales of US

three million quids’ — i.e., all the money she or he might copies; this pattern has become established because of the earn during their life, at compound interest. It’s fairy long delay before US publication. HarperCollins thought money. The kind Robert Maxwell had.”

the only way they could retrieve the situation was leap the gap and publish the next ‘new’ title as soon as possible,

– On his perennial problems with publishers in America.

bringing out the other two over the next year more or less

“Well, I sell some [books]. I had a sort of publisher, in the as ‘new backlist titles’ while also continuing to publish same way that duckweed counts as a plant. Let’s hope genuinely new Discworld books. This would mean that HarperCollins does better.”

Lords and Ladies and Men At Arms would be late, but they’d have been late anyway, and titles from Soul Music

“I can only repeat: my last publishers were so good they on would have an American pub. date pretty close to the UK

spelled my name wrong in the books, made sure they had one.

covers in 50 shades of mud, and kept them out of the shops.

HarperCollins are bringing out Small Gods in January and That was the theory. Unfortunately, it has contained one are talking about some kind of accelerated schedule to major flaw, in that it is being put into practice. It seems to catch up.

be thought that a publication date for Soul Music that is 7–8 months behind the UK one is ‘contemporary’, which is I’ve seen the US Small Gods cover, by the way. It’s quite an interesting use of the word. Moreover, I have a horrible different from anything else of mine, and mainly text. . .

suspicion that they’ll see two ‘new’ Pratchett books on their looks rather posh. . . ”

list next year and, on the basis that the left hand does not

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Times’ can be postponed until 1996 (having come out in the time.”

UK in November, 1994).

“Cosgrove Hall still want to do them. They’re also Sometimes I think I’d have done better staying with Roc, interested in. . . well, other stuff I’ve done. Right now a sad covers and all — at least they were catching up. . . ”

number of other people have come out of the woodwork with money and interesting ideas — J&tD seems like a

– Is Strata a Discworld novel or isn’t it?

starter, for one. But the BBC does not figure largely in

“Strata used the idea of a Discworld but I’ve never thought current approaches.”

of it as a Discworld novel within the meaning of the act. The

– Why isn’t the Ankh-Morpork Mappe released as a poster?

first Discworld novel was The Colour of Magic. Let the message go throughout the kingdom. . . ”

“Transworld have considered doing the Mappe as a poster.

There are snags. Where does the key go? The key as a

– About the Discworld album by Dave Greenslade.

booklet attached for some reason avoids the dreaded VAT;

“It’s called From The Discworld. Most of the tracks are as a poster, VAT would be on it.”

themes for the books (I particularly like the Small Gods

– About future Discworld merchandising:

one) but there are two songs, ‘The Shades of

Ankh-Morpork’ and something about a wizard’s staff. There

“Ankh-Morpork postcards will probably happen. There was is also the insidious tune of the ‘Stick and Bucket Dance’, a recent meeting to thrash out the whole

even down to that special chord folk music has to have at T-shirts/calendars/towel and body splash thing, and they the end so that people know they can come out now.”

(and Discworld stationery) were near the top of the list. . . ”

[ The CD was released by Virgin (UK:CDV 2738), and

– About the continuing rumours that he will soon be features the following tracks:

sanctioning an official fan club.

1. A’Tuin the Turtle

“It’s the word ‘official’ that always pulls me up. It suggests 2. Octarine The Colour of Magic

I’ve got some kind of control or stake and I wouldn’t want 3. The Luggage

that. The best I can say is that, over the past few months 4. The Shades of Ankh-Morpork

(after hearing that Clarecraft’s Discworld collectors club 5. Wyrd Sisters

membership is in the high hundreds, and [Stephen Briggs]

6. The Unseen University/The Librarian

is disappearing under scarves) is that I’m no longer killing 7. Death

people who say they think one would be a good idea, since 8. A Wizard’s Staff has a Knob on the End

there are clearly many (if you can believe this) people out 9. Dryads

there with no net access who want some kind of Discworld 10. Pyramids

club. I’m not sure that’s the answer you’re looking for. . . ”

11. Small Gods

12. Stick and Bucket Dance

– Do you deliver your manuscripts in digital form?

13. The One Horseman and the Three pedestrians of the Apocralypse

“The US publishers want discs. Gollancz tried setting from 14. Holy Wood Dreams ]

disc a few years ago and it seemed quite successful, but I think it stopped when the lad who knew how to work their

– At the end of Wings you implied that the Nomes would Amstrad moved on. I’ve been set from disc once or twice by return some day for any remaining Nomes. Do you plan to Corgi. But the instant-books you’re looking for won’t write another book where the Nomes return or one about happen because: 1) books have to be scheduled ahead of the world the Nomes now call home?

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

“I won’t do one about any new planets, but there may be publisher to think in other than Gutenberg terms.”

another book about the nomes.”

“Basically, most publishers still hanker for paper MS —

– On computer games.

even the ones that can set from disc want a print-out too.

[. . . ] So now we’re back to typos hand-set by experts

“I have played Elite, Wing Commander, X-Wing and (anyone who got that red and black eight page ‘extract’

altogether too many outer-space-shoot-em-ups. I mean, piece with my moody pic on the front that came out about don’t they all have shields, missiles and stuff?”

two years ago will see what a creative typesetter can do —

“Well, right now I’m storming through Privateer under the there is at least one really creative typo per page). Mind callsign of Flash Bastard, whose career has progressed you, copy-editors can be bad — it’s taken me a long time to throughout the whole Wing Commander series.”

make mine understand that there is a distinct difference between Mr and Mister. Mr = minor honorific, an invisible

– Are Diggers and Wings going to be made into TV

word, Mister = John Wayne getting angry.”

programs as follow-ups to Truckers?

“Cosgrove Hall were just getting them storyboarded when

– A philosophical question: why are elves considered evil, Thames folded. They’re still not a dead issue, but suffering while cats (who do the same nasty things) are not?

as do many things when people at the top change: no-one

“Ahem. . . .

likes to be associated with something started before their There is no inconsistency. Nanny Ogg has a point of view.

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So has Death. So have I. But there’s no such thing as ‘the I don’t know why I don’t have a rubber stamp

official Discworld opinion’ on, say, cats.

made

Look, just bugger off I’m fed up to the teeth with Personally, I like cats. And they are also nasty cruel banana daiquiris

bastards. Just ask that two-thirds of a shrew that’s outside I wish I had said “money”

our back door right now.”

This is the last dedication

“Okay, try this. Cats are nasty cruel bastards but that’s Bloody trade editions

because they are cats. As far as we know, they have no Oh, how cute, you have the hardback and

grasp of the concept of not being nasty cruel bastards.

paperback editions

Humans, on the other hand, do.”

Oh, and the US ones too

I’m memorising your face and your adenoidal

– About the spoken-word versions of the Discworld novels.

laugh

“Transworld intended to bring out all the Discworld on tape You’re next, matey

eventually — I think the first three titles are coming out Third prodigal son of a fling with the daughter of RSN.” [ RSN = Real Soon Now ]

the baker to fuck off”

“There may be Braille/audiotape versions by people like Terry was very impressed by this list, and so were other Books For The Blind. Every so often I get requests — as do readers of a.f.p. Terry says that since this discussion most authors, I expect — to allow Braille editions and appeared on the net he is now occasionally asked for special tapes, and we always say, “fine, sure, no fee, no specific dedications along these lines. ]

problem”. But we NEVER GET TOLD WHAT HAPPENS

“Book-specific ones tend to be: Mort and Reaper Man: NEXT. So I don’t know what’s out there. It’s a bit of a

‘Boo!’, ‘HAVE FUN’, the Death grin, or ‘Read It And Reap’.

shame.”

Small Gods: almost always ‘The Turtle Moves!’ Pyramids: usually the ‘Hi! in the Pyramid’ Wyrd Sisters: often ‘Really

– On the subject of dedications.

wyrd’. . . ”

“With the exception of requests, like “Can you sign it to

“Read It And Reap has now been established as a ‘generic’

Scrummybunikins with lots of Hugs”, there are about 35

line which doesn’t just get used in Reaper Man.”

different Discworld dedications (some of which I don’t have time to do with the queues being the length they are — if

– What order are the Discworld books in?

you’ve got the Death Grin dedication in Mort, treasure it, because I hardly ever do it these days). As for quality of

“As far as I am concerned, the Discworld books are in handwriting, well, mine never was good. . .

chronological order. Anything that suggests differently is probably because of the Trousers of Time, magical leakage Far More Wishes is part of a set (Best Wishes, Better from the HEM and so on. . . ”

Wishes, Even Better Wishes, More Wishes, Far More Wishes, Still More Wishes, Extra Wishes, A Whole New

– It was rumoured in Octarine magazine that you and Quantum of Wishes and — for those people with two carrier Robert Rankin were not “the best of friends”. Any truth to bags full of books — Son of Best Wishes, Bride of Best this? (By the way: I hear that Rankin likes to throw wild Wishes, and Return of the Killer Best Wishes for 20,000

parties in his jacuzzi.)

Fathoms). Also look out for the special Boo! in Mort and

“I’ll nail this one right now. We don’t see much of one Reaper Man, our new Read it And Reap one in Reaper Man, another but we get on fine. That was Octarine stirring it up.

the special turtle drawing in Small Gods, and various Now I know nothing whatsoever about parties in jacuzzis, or Reads Ons, Enhanced Wishes, etc, etc. Kids! Collect the rubber chickens.”

Entire Set!”

[ This explanation prompted FAQ maintainer Nathan

– More about book shop tours and signing sessions.

Torkington to reply with:

“Well, the tour’s over, and back I come to unload a stack of

“I can’t wait to see what happens when you reach the fifty emails including a few on the lines of: some signings were book mark, and people at the head of the queue say “just chaos/badly organised (I’ll better add that they added: we wait a sec and I’ll back the car in”. The dedications will know it wasn’t your fault, you were distantly seen to be probably be:

scribbling at speed. . . ). Some interesting points were Fuck off

raised so, in honour of the afp’ers who queued, I thought I’d Go away

post a general reply here.

Read Douglas Adams

I don’t organise signings. The publishers don’t organise Get a life

signings; shops clamour to get certain authors, and the Get a job

publishers try to select the few dozen for this tour based on Don’t you have anything better to do with your all kinds of stuff like number of shops already picked in that time

chain, location and so on. But the organisation of the Son of fuck off

signing itself is done by the shop. Not all of them can hack My god, did I really write all these damn books it. Believe me, I know this, and the reasons include: Yes, by god, I do regret it now

— this shop’s idea of a good signing hitherto is Worst wishes

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APF v9.0, August 2004

fifty people

I’ll sign everything of mine — if there’s time. It’s all down to

— this shop doesn’t understand about, er, a ‘fan’

queue length. If you’ve got an entire bag of books then type signing, where there’s dedications and

generally I arrange to sign them after the queue has gone.

maybe some older titles and an occasional

You don’t even have to buy the current title, although you brief chat.

may be subject to some righteous wragging if this is the

— the shop doesn’t understand about signings at case.”

all, including the need for a proper table and

“The tour just finished may have been the first one in which chair for the signer, or a cup of tea. It happens.

someone brought a computer in to be signed — a Sparc I carry my own bag of pens because most

workstation, I recall.”

shops would provide one Biro.

“I’m not against flash photography! But repeated flash A lot of them can run a signing, and the problems simply photography during a long day — well, ever tried looking are the unavoidable ones you have if 300 people all want a down at a white page after staring into a flash gun?”

book signed at the same time, and want to say “hi”.

“What is always very touching are the people who bring in I’m sort of stuck. I can’t run the thing from the desk.

their already signed books to witness the new ones being Besides, I was signing for six or seven hours most days, and signed. It’s like their first Communion or something. . . ”

my brain turns to cheese. My PR lady can help a bit, and does. If we spot a handicapped person in the queue, and

– Is the Mappe of Ankh-Morpork based on London?

tactful inquiry suggests they’d welcome it, they get to the front (I have to say that, to my annoyance, the staff in some

“We started with a LOT of real cities — mostly in England, shops seemed oblivious to this aspect). If the shop runs out mostly old. There’s a lot of Oxford and some Durham and of a title — it happened a few times — she can get some Shrewsbury and odds and ends from everywhere, including from the reps secret stash.

a street in Abingdon opposite the theatre that puts on the Discworld plays. I think Stephen even said somewhere that On this tour I think that, despite my warnings, I signed London isn’t the only city with a Hyde Park, but I could be everything. Most of the time people with a big stack were wrong. But frankly any old city with a wall and a wiggly asked to wait until the end. I’m loathe to let shops decide river looks like London. . . .”

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

– Do religious fanatics ever get mad at you for writing Small be helpful, they’d make their own rules.

Gods?

Some problems would be solved by doing fewer signings

“I may have posted something on these lines before, but a (and people’d complain). We left out too many places this lot of mail about Small Gods is split between 1) pagans who time as it was.

say that it really shafts the Big Beard In the Sky religions It definitely was a busy tour. I would like to apologise to the and 2) Christians who say that it is an incredibly relatives of the fan who gave me 29 books to sign in pro-Christian book.

Odyssey 7, Manchester. I’m a little twitchy towards the end I suspect the latter is because Brutha displays tolerance, of a day of signing and did not mean to kill and eat him.”

compassion, charity, steadfastness and faith, and these are

“With a little more leisure I realise that the aforesaid now considered Christian virtues (i.e., virtues that modern postings concerned one particular shop. They did indeed Christians feel they should have. . . )”

seem far more interested in shifting books than running a proper signing, and this has been carefully noted for future

– Annotations and References.

reference. They had also not spotted that an author, in

“If I put a reference in a book I try to pick one that a order to sign, needs a table and a chair.

generally well-read (well-viewed, well-listened) person has But a lot of shops seemed to do it well — the Waterstones in a sporting chance of picking up; I call this ‘white Manchester, for example, seemed very good at hustling knowledge’, the sort of stuff that fills up your brain without pregnant ladies, etc, to the front of the queue. In fact I you really knowing where it came from. Enough people think you merely had to look as though your feet hurt.

would’ve read Leiber, say, to pick up a generalised reference to Fafhrd, etc., and even more people would have Signings that don’t involve a talk are invariably advertised some knowledge of Tolkien — but I wouldn’t rely on people as ‘an hour’. But there’s always some extra time in the having read a specific story.”

program.”

“I like doing this kind of thing. There are a number of

“Some shops on the tour — they have been noted — acted passages in the books which are ‘enhanced’ if you know as if having a shop full of people buying books was terribly where the echoes are coming from but which are still, I inconvenient. I know that one stopped taking phone orders hope, funny in their own right.”

because the staff got fed up.”

“Sometimes I. . . well. . . I just write stuff which hasn’t been

“On the latest tour I’ve heard that some shops have been pinched from ANYONE (shuffles feet, looks

telling people ‘he’ll only sign Soul Music’. This is shopspeak embarrassed. . . ).”

on the lines of “It’s out of print” (which really means “Who cares and bugger off, you pimply person”). Shops have no

– When will you be visiting the USA?

say in what I’ll sign or not sign. So I’ll repeat:

“The publishers keep on saying “We’ve got to bring you WORDS FROM THE MASTER

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over next year”. I think I’ve found the logical flaw in this invitation. . . ”

182

THOUGHTS AND THEMES

CHAPTER

6

Editorial Comments

really was a large and enthusiastic response on the The Origin of the APF

newsgroup, and from then on the APF was a going concern.

The first person ever to publicly suggest the concept of collecting annotations for Terry’s books was Tor Iver Wilhelmsen, a Usenet poster from Norway. On 2 February 1992 (this was all of three days after alt.fan.pratchett was Version history and Timeline

created!), he wrote in a message to the newsgroup:

“Does anyone feel up to compiling a list of the various 2 July 2005 — v9.0.3

references to other works that crops up in Pratchett’s

- Updating book release data

works, such as the Lovecraftian inspirations

- Adding an entry for Where’s My Cow?

(Bel-Shammaroth, the Dungeon Dimensions, The Place The Dragons Dwell etc.), more like an ‘annotations’

23 January 2005 — v9.0.2

collection??”

- Fixing some broken URLs.

There was no immediate response, but Nathan Torkington 29 August 2004 — v9.0.1

started maintaining a broader FAQ (Frequently Asked

- A couple of small fixes and corrections.

Questions list) for the newsgroup soon after that, and

- Adding information about new book titles: Thud, included a couple of explanations of references that were Wintersmith and When I Am Old I Shall Wear

cropping up often.

Midnight.

People continued asking for explanations and discovering 17 August 2004 — v9.0

new references, however, and on 29 July 1992 I posted the following message (in a discussion about Small Gods, which

- Size: 2041 entries, 20703 lines, 916 kB.

had just been released):

- ‘Breadth-first’ release: no book left unannotated, although not every book annotated

“It’s difficult to come up with more Small Gods gags from exhaustively yet.

memory, though. There were so many I’m sure I did not get

- First official PDF typeset format.

all of the references.

- PDF/PostScript version now double-columned, Which brings me to the fact that I more and more wish that with many other tweaks.

there was an “Annotated Pratchett” file somewhere. The 24 December 2000 — 10 July 2001 — v7a.5.x

FAQ makes a good start, but it could be a whole project in its own right.

- Size: 1777 entries, 18065 lines, 806 kB.

- Series of quick incremental ‘development’

Tell you what; if people are interested in this, I’m willing to releases.

start the Annotated Pratchett Project right here and now.”

- Mike Kew joins as APF Assistant Editor and does The reaction to this proposal was overwhelming (well, most of the work.

Nathan thought it was a good idea — turns out I didn’t need

- HTML version becomes XHTML/CSS-compliant.

any more encouragement than that), and eventually the

- Experimentally available in PDF typeset format.

first publicly released version of the APF (v1.4) was posted 16 June 1996 — v7a.0

to alt.fan.pratchett on 12 August 1992. This time there 183

The Annotated Pratchett File

- Size: 1300 entries, 13680 lines, 615 kB.

quotation marks and preceded by a source attribution) form

- Pratchett Archives and mirrors now use

the exception to this rule. In particular when including lspace.org domain.

quotes from Terry Pratchett himself, I will choose a

- First official HTML version and web pages.

selection in the first place, fix typos or obvious syntactical mistakes, and adapt punctuation to conform to the rest of 27 September 1994 — v7.0

the APF, but I will make no further edits or changes. In

- Size: 974 entries, 10165 lines, 450 kB.

other words: What You See Is What He Said.

- Now also available from Gopher server in USA.

Apart from all the folks who contributed annotations, there

- Converted to HTML and put up on newfangled

are heaps of people who have gone out of their way to help World Wide Web thingy by several UK readers.

me get the APF into its current form, and thanking them is 17 September 1993 — v6.0

certainly something that I don’t mind spending a few

- Size: 622 entries, 6611 lines, 296 kB.

paragraphs on.

- Too large to be posted to afp.

First and foremost, I have to thank Mike Kew, my Assistant

- Now also available from Pratchett Archives

Editor, who came aboard in 2000 and basically did the mirror sites in the USA and Australia.

hardest and most thankless bits of work for the various 24 January 1993 — v5.0

7a.5.x releases. His efforts kept the APF going in its darkest hours, and without him v9.0 would not yet have seen the

- Size: 336 entries, 3340 lines, 148 kB.

light of day.

- Posted to afp in three parts.

- First version to be available in typeset

I would also like to thank all the APF proofreaders, PostScript format.

beta-testers and fact-checkers (by now again too many to

- Custom mail server and FTP site ‘Pratchett

list separately), who have helped exterminate typos and Archives’ at Delft University created for APF

grammar errors while improving quote and page number and other Pratchett-related material.

accuracy. It’s mindnumbingly boring work, and you have no idea how much I appreciate not having to do it all by myself.

7 November 1992 — v4.0

There are a number of people who have been so

- Size: 198 entries, 1702 lines, 79 kB.

instrumental over the years I would like to mention and

- Posted to afp in two parts.

thank them individually:

22 September 1992 — v3.0

Nathan Torkington and Andy “&.” Holyer, for being there at

- Size: 133 entries, 1071 lines, 49 kB.

the beginning and helping to get the whole thing rolling.

- Posted to afp.

Sander Plomp, for the logs of early alt.fan.pratchett

- First version to be available from FTP site and newsgroup traffic, and for coming up with the idea of mail server.

making a LATEX version of the APF.

1 September 1992 — v2.0

Robert Collier, for his work on the original HTML version of

- Size: 78 entries, 631 lines, 28 kB.

the APF.

- Posted to afp.

Paulius Stepanas, for his help with the double page 12 August 1992 — v1.4

numbers. I once promised that the “conversion function”

- Size: 14 entries, 160 lines, 5 kB.

would be a part of APF v9.0 — but it was not to be, and I

- Posted to alt.fan.pratchett.

apologise. . .

Trent Fisher and David Jones, for helping me out in the beginning with Perl and LATEX programming, respectively.

Last, but not least: Terry Pratchett, for giving us something to annotate in the first place; for giving me permission to Credits

use quotes from his articles in the APF; and for having to put up with increasing numbers of fans who, perhaps People who write articles to the Pratchett newsgroups or because of the APF, have begun to think he is incapable of who email me annotations should always be aware of one writing anything truly original. They should know better.

thing: for the APF I will freely quote and copy from your submissions, without further explicit permission or credit.

It’s not only that I think long lists of contributors’ names would be a bother to maintain (we’re talking about many hundreds of names here), would make the APF even larger Page Numbers

than it already is, and would be completely uninteresting to anybody except the contributors themselves; but doing it Up to APF v7a.0, each annotation was identified (in addition my way also allows me to edit, change, and mutilate the to the relevant quote from the book) by two page numbers: texts as I see fit without worrying about folks going: “but one for the Gollancz hardcover and one for the Corgi that’s not what I said!”.

paperback. Unfortunately, this system has a number of Explicitly marked quotes (i.e. the material placed between drawbacks.

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APF v9.0, August 2004

One minor problem is that I have never liked the look of this version of the APF because I simply couldn’t place those double page numbers. The “247/391” strings look them. People send me annotations that are keyed to the ugly, bloat the text, and make the annotations just that tiny page numbers in their books, which more often than not are bit harder to read.

not the same editions I use, or they don’t mention page numbers at all. As a result, I sometimes have to spend a lot A more serious problem is that having two page numbers is of time searching for a particular sentence or scene, and in a maintenance headache. Double the numbers means many cases I just can’t place it at all.

double the chance of mistakes. And since I don’t own Terry’s books in both hardcover and paperback editions Another reason why annotations may be rejected is because myself, I have to rely on volunteers to supply fully half of I couldn’t confirm the reference. Mind you, sometimes I’ll the data I need: all the page numbers for the editions of the include references that are simply so cool, or so books I don’t have.

authoritative-sounding, that even though I don’t know anything about the subject myself, I feel they will enhance Thankfully, so far I have had the help of volunteers who the file. However, I often receive annotations that are have done a stellar job on this, but it does still mean that I rather vague and non-specific, and which I do not wish to can never just add an annotation without having to go include without some further confirmation. This bother someone else for the second page number. This confirmation can for instance consist of someone else makes annotating a two-step process, which is especially mailing me the same annotation, or of me delving into tiresome now that APF updates are supposed to happen in encyclopedias or dictionaries and checking things myself.

more frequent incremental steps.

And a final batch of entries are of course rejected because I The most serious drawback, however, and the one that has thought they were either too implausible or too ‘obvious’.

made me truly reconsider the whole setup, is fairly recent, Now note that these are not fixed properties, and that as and caused by the fact that there are now so many different soon as I start getting the same annotation from multiple editions of Terry’s books available that the percentage of sources, I will nearly always accept it for the readers to whom either of the page numbers I supply APF,

regardless of what I may think about it myself.

means anything useful, is shrinking, and will only get smaller over time. Not only do we now have American However, as long I have received a particular annotation editions in widespread use, but we also have reissues of the from one source only I’m going to have to make what is older Corgi paperbacks and Gollancz hardcovers, both with basically a very subjective judgement call — that is what page counts that are different from the original versions.

editors are for. If an annotation strikes me as implausible or just not very interesting, then it’s out. If I think it’s valid, or Finally, I think the most useful aspects of the page numbers if I just like it, then it’s in. If a trivial annotation is in the is that they provide an ordering of the list of annotations for same category as many others already in the file, then it a given book. Had Terry written in chapters, I probably will usually be in (I am a stickler for consistency), unless would never have used page numbers at all, but merely I’m bored, in which case I simply want to get on with the listed the annotations on a per-chapter basis. I strongly fun stuff, and I leave it out. Sic Biscuitas Desintegrat, as suspect that the actual page numbers are used more often they say.

by me as editor than by the vast majority of APF readers. I doubt that the APF readers often have a need to use the The important point I want to get across here is that none page numbers as a link back from individual annotations to of these annotations are rejected permanently, and that the source text. Rather, it will be the other way around, and everything is filed away for future reference. They may very on a much more global level: “I have just read Pyramids, well be used in later versions of the APF.

now I’ll go browse through the annotations for that book So what do I base my judgement calls on? The answer is of and see what I’ve missed”.

course that I don’t really consciously know, and that it With all that in mind I have decided that the APF will be usually just depends on my mood anyway. One important switching to uni-numbered annotations, based on the rule of thumb that I try to follow as much as possible is the editions of the books I happen to have in my possession. For following:

v9.0, the double page numbers are still present for the I do not like explaining English puns or words. As soon as older books, but removing them will be one of the first another language is involved (“with milk?”) — fine. As soon things on the TODO list for v10.0.

as some weird old British saying is referenced (“good fences”) — cool. As soon as it is obvious that many readers are simply not getting something that I consider obvious (“echognomics”) — no problem. But as a basic heuristic I am assuming that everybody who is able to read Terry To Annotate or Not to Annotate

Pratchett’s books in the original language has enough command of the English language to understand basic In the early years of the

puns, and enough sense to use a dictionary if they APF nearly every annotation that I

received was quickly incorporated into the next version of encounter an unfamiliar word. I don’t want to have to the file. For the later versions, I became a bit more selective explain why Equal Rites is a funny title.

and started rejecting as well as accepting annotations.

For one thing, quite a few annotations didn’t make it into TO ANNOTATE OR NOT TO ANNOTATE

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2. Bible Gateway, http://www.biblegateway.com/, operated The APF in Other Formats

by Gospel Communications International.

Another web site that goes back to 1993. It is an Currently, the APF is available in three main formats: as a unsurpassed resource for scriptural research, and all Bible text file, as a typeset PDF/PostScript file, and as an on-line quotes in the APF are taken from (and in the Web version collection of HTML web pages.

linked to) the King James Version available on this site.

The recommended point of entry for obtaining all these 3. The Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/,

formats remains the APF section of the L-Space Web at operated by Internet Movie Database, Inc.

http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/. If you are more Another dinosaur resource that has been around since the old-school, you can use your browser or an FTP client to early nineties. Much of the movie-related data in the APF is bypass the web and go directly to the Pratchett Archives taken from (and in the Web version linked to) the IMDB.

located at ftp://ftp.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/.

4. Wikipedia — The Free Encyclopedia,

http://www.wikipedia.org/, operated by Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

A relative newcomer among the APF editing resources, but Third-party Annotations

a very important one. The Wikipedia articles have been invaluable in providing and checking the facts and definitions that make up so much of the APF.

Over the years, a number of non-APF collections of Discworld annotations have appeared (mostly on the Web), I have tried to keep my usage of the Wikipedia material at partially in reaction to the APF going without updates for so the level of ‘fair use’. Although in many cases I would have long.

liked to use much more direct cutting-and-pasting of Wikipedia information, I cannot do this yet because I am Detritus.co.uk http:

not sure if this is allowed, copyright-wise. Wikipedia

//books.detritus.co.uk/pratchett/annotations/index.shtml

information is available under a so-called Free collects annotations that have appeared on

Documentation License, which allows unlimited use and alt.fan.pratchett for the books up to The Truth, but seems modification but only under one condition: that the APF

to have gone without updates itself for a number of years would in turn be released under a similar license, and I am now.

not sure I can do that yet — see also the ‘Copyright Bugarup University http:

Discussion’ section.

//www.geocities.com/SoHo/Village/4108/xxxx_explained.htm

specifically collects ‘Australian’ annotations for The Last Continent.

Google Groups http://groups.google.com/ is not a dedicated web site, but a Usenet search engine that offers a Copying the APF

very good way to seek out annotation discussions that have appeared on the Pratchett newsgroups.

It’s really quite simple: I have by now spent very If you know of any other annotation sites or sources, let me considerable amounts of time trying to make this document know, and I will add them to the list.

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.

Please feel free to distribute the text and PDF/PostScript versions of the APF to others by mail or in print, and to put Bibliography

them up on bulletin boards, archive sites or whatever other advanced means of communication you have available to In this section I want to list some of the specific resources I you.

use in editing the APF: reference works, web sites, All I ask is that you (a) always distribute the APF for free, software, etcetera.

and in its entirety (for obvious reasons, I should hope), and A more exhaustive list will have to wait until one of the (b) always include information telling people where they future updates to the

can find the original version (and possible updates) of the APF, but for v9.0 there are a few

really heavily-used resources I want to mention: file (i.e. http://www.lspace.org/).

1. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, I’d also prefer it if you did not put up separate copies of the HTML version of the

http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/, operated by The APF on the World Wide Web (local

Tech at MIT.

copies for personal use are just fine). Experience has shown that on-line copies always become outdated very soon, but The oldest on-line Shakespeare website in existence. All continue to foul up search engine results for other people Shakespeare quotes in the APF are taken from (and in the for ages onwards. Please just link to the canonical version Web version linked to) this site.

of the APF on the Web instead (again:

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APF v9.0, August 2004

http://www.lspace.org/).

mirrors for free. And did I mention we could do without the hassle?

If you want to translate a version of the APF into another language (or otherwise distribute a modified version of the I will continue to think about the copyright situation for the APF), please first contact me at apf@lspace.org, and I will APF, and it is entirely possible that in a future version some give you more information in email.

kind of formal license will appear. Until then, I merely claim the editorial copyright on the APF on behalf of Mike Kew and myself as editors, and I request that everyone abide with the informal requests and restrictions outlined in the previous section, Copying the APF.

Copyright Discussion

Formally speaking, the APF copyright situation is a bit murky. I would love to release the APF under some form of open document license, which would basically formalise the fact that everybody is allowed to copy and modify the APF

as they see fit. Such a license would also be a prerequisite for being allowed to make more intensive use of other free resources such as the Wikipedia free encyclopedia.

However, with the APF containing so much quoted and contributed material it is not clear to me if I actually have the right to release the APF under an open license. Terry has, for instance, given me permission to use excerpts from his Usenet articles in the APF, but he is able to do that because the copyright resides with him in the first place. I surely cannot (and even if I could might not want to) release his words under a license that would explicitly allow people to modify those words.

Similarly, although the vast majority of people have contributed annotations to the APF with the full knowledge that their words might be copied verbatim or edited beyond recognition, no formal copyright transfer has ever been part of the deal. An open license would also make it possible for people to e.g. actually start trying to sell printed copies of the APF — and that might in turn be something an original submitter would not like at all, and could lead to complaints or ill feelings.

It is for this same reason that my own project of selling printed versions of the APF for charity never came to anything. Although at one point I already had Terry’s permission to go ahead, in the end I felt that adding the concept of ‘money’ into the equation, even for charity, would generate too much potential for problems. Better to just keep everything absolutely non-profit.

This turned out to have been a very good decision when in 1997 we received a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer who claimed that we had violated his copyright by quoting parts of the poem ‘Desiderata’ in one of the annotations, and could we please tell him how much money we had made off of it, so that he could estimate the damages he was going to sue us for. We told him no money had ever been involved in the APF, we removed the poem, and we never heard from him again. Now I dare say that this was just a “can’t hurt to try” approach intended to scare us (and everybody else his search engine threw up) into settling; if he had really sued us I am fairly certain we would been able to claim fair-use successfully. But the point is that nobody wanted the hassle, that it would have inevitably jeopardised our relationship with the Universities and ISPs who have been hosting the Pratchett Archive and L-Space Web COPYRIGHT DISCUSSION

187

Document Outline

- Preface to v9.0

- Introduction

- Discworld Annotations

- The Colour of Magic

- The Light Fantastic

- Equal Rites

- Mort

- Sourcery

- Wyrd Sisters

- Pyramids

- Guards! Guards!

- Eric

- Moving Pictures

- Reaper Man

- Witches Abroad

- Small Gods

- Lords and Ladies

- Men at Arms

- Soul Music

- Interesting Times

- Maskerade

- Feet of Clay

- Hogfather

- Jingo

- The Last Continent

- Carpe Jugulum

- The Fifth Elephant

- The Truth

- Thief of Time

- The Last Hero

- The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

- Night Watch

- The Wee Free Men

- Monstrous Regiment

- A Hat Full of Sky

- Once More, With Footnotes

- Going Postal

- Wintersmith

- Thud

- Where's My Cow?

- When I Am Old I Shall Wear Midnight

- The Discworld Companion

- The Science of Discworld

- The Science of Discworld II: the Globe

- The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch

- The Streets of Ankh-Morpork

- The Discworld Mapp

- A Tourist Guide to Lancre

- Death's Domain

- Other Annotations

- Good Omens

- Strata

- The Dark Side of the Sun

- Truckers

- Diggers

- Wings

- Only You Can Save Mankind

- Johnny and the Dead

- Johnny and the Bomb

- The Carpet People

- The Unadulterated Cat

- Thoughts and Themes

- The Turtle Moves!

- Song�

- �and Dance

- Reverse Annotations

- Words from the Master

- Editorial Comments

- The Origin of the APF

- Version history and Timeline

- Credits

- Page Numbers

- To Annotate or Not to Annotate

- The APF in Other Formats

- Third-party Annotations

- Bibliography

- Copying the APF

- Copyright Discussion

Table of Contents

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

1 Preface to v9.0

The Last Hero

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

2 Introduction

Night Watch

3 Discworld Annotations

The Wee Free Men

Monstrous Regiment

The Light Fantastic

A Hat Full of Sky

Equal Rites

Once More, With Footnotes

Mort

Sourcery

Wyrd Sisters

Thud

Pyramids

Guards! Guards!

Eric

Moving Pictures

The Science of Discworld

Reaper Man

The Science of Discworld II: the Globe

Witches Abroad

Small Gods

Lords and Ladies

Men at Arms

Soul Music

Death’s Domain

Interesting Times

4 Other Annotations

Maskerade

Feet of Clay

Strata

Hogfather

The Dark Side of the Sun

Jingo

The Last Continent

Diggers

Carpe Jugulum

Wings

The Fifth Elephant

The Truth

Johnny and the Dead

Thief of Time

Johnny and the Bomb

The Carpet People

5 Thoughts and Themes

Song. . .

. . . and Dance

Table of Contents

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

1 Preface to v9.0

The Last Hero

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

2 Introduction

Night Watch

3 Discworld Annotations

The Wee Free Men

Monstrous Regiment

The Light Fantastic

A Hat Full of Sky

Equal Rites

Once More, With Footnotes

Mort

Sourcery

Wyrd Sisters

Thud

Pyramids

Guards! Guards!

Eric

Moving Pictures

The Science of Discworld

Reaper Man

The Science of Discworld II: the Globe

Witches Abroad

Small Gods

Lords and Ladies

Men at Arms

Soul Music

Death’s Domain

Interesting Times

4 Other Annotations

Maskerade

Feet of Clay

Strata

Hogfather

The Dark Side of the Sun

Jingo

The Last Continent

Diggers

Carpe Jugulum

Wings

The Fifth Elephant

The Truth

Johnny and the Dead

Thief of Time

Johnny and the Bomb

The Carpet People

5 Thoughts and Themes

Song. . .

. . . and Dance