Armcie

Armcie

80p

69 comments posted · 2 followers · following 0

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'I Shall We... · 1 reply · +25 points

Childrens books being darker was certainly something Terry did conciously. This is from an interview with a person known as the bookwitch:

I told you about a mother who was reading the Amazing Maurice to her little girl and there was a very fraught bit and she was very upset about it, and wondered if the daughter wasn’t. And the daughter wasn’t. She patted her mother and said “don’t worry Mum, it will get better by the end.” Because she had a child’s belief in narrativium. That of course you have to go through the horrible dark wood, to get to the sunlight at the other side, and that’s why, and you can pull a kid through the dark wood, provided you pull them right out of it. You leave them in the dark wood, the whole book has been wasted.
https://bookwitch.wordpress.com/in-conversation-w...

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Unseen Aca... · 0 replies · +10 points

Ah.... the joke Terry *didn't* make. Like the yellow, sick toad in Wee Free Men:

> I just happened to note a toad had a skin which had had unfortunately gone a bit yellow because it had been ill, Far be it from me to make a pun. *You* did that:-)

Terry Pratchett
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.fan.pratchett...

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Unseen Aca... · 0 replies · +9 points

This was published about 18 months after Terry announced his embuggerance. My memory of the fandom is that people thought this one was a bit different, and straining to see signs of the Alzheimer's in his writing.

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Unseen Aca... · 1 reply · +27 points

Loko is not a creature, or a type of creature. Its a place. Specifically its a curiously round, deep valley with steep walls and a high amount of background magic. In The Science of Discworld (I) Ridcully mentions "Lots of centaurs and fauns and other curiously shaped magical whatnots are there, I remember reading."

It also gets passing mentions in Making Money (stygium is found there) and A Hat Full of Sky (some documents about the Hiver were found in jars there.)

In the real world, Oklo is a place in Gabon where underground water flows caused Uranium to become unusually concentrated forming a natural nuclear reactor a couple of billion years ago.

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Unseen Aca... · 1 reply · +11 points

With the added connotation of "Brass neck" https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/engli...

> a type of behaviour where someone is extremely confident about their own actions but does not understand that their behaviour is unacceptable to others:

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Unseen Aca... · 1 reply · +5 points

I do sometimes wonder if Susan got a date with that guy who works down the chip shop you'd swear was elvish.

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'The Scienc... · 2 replies · +7 points

‘I don’t think you can fight a whole universe, sir!’

‘It’s the prerogative of every life form, Mr. Stibbons!’

This reminds me of...

Gur fprar va bar bs gur Qrngu if Nhqvgbe obbxf juvpu qrfpevorf gur vagrafr ungerq nhqvgbef unir sbe rira gur fvzcyrfg bs haqrejngre yvsr.

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'The Scienc... · 0 replies · +2 points

I first came across this type of time machine in Stephen Baxter's work - Timelike Infinity in particular. They open up a pre-existing nanoscopic wormhole (using negative energy) to create one big enough to travel through and send one end into the future using time dilation.

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Making Mon... · 0 replies · +4 points

Yeah. Its a pretty specialised word. If you're not brought up in the UK, and/or had Pony Club books thrust upon you then I can see how anyone could have missed it. Searching through my e book collection it comes up exactly twice - here and in a book by the Cunning Artificer himself, Bernard Pearson.

4 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Making Mon... · 1 reply · +12 points

Gurer'f pregnvayl n pbaarpgvba gb pybjavat. Gurer'f n obbx pnyyrq Urer Jr Tb Ntnva - Erpbyyrpgvbaf bs na Byq Pvephf Pybja. Naq urer'f n dhbgr sebz n yvfg bs zrzbenoyr pvephf zbzragf:

Nybat jvgu navzny evtugf ehyrf, puvyq ynobhe ynjf ner nyfb n zvffvat srngher va rneyl pvephf uvfgbel. Va 1780 Wbfcru Tevznyqv, be "Wbrl" nf guvf snohybhf gbqqyre pybja jnf cebsrffvbanyyl xabja, znqr uvf qrohg ba gur Fnqyre'f Jryyf fgntr jura uvf cresbezngvir sngure gbbx uvz ba fgntr sbe uvf svefg "obj naq svefg ghzoyr" (Jr erzrzore qbvat guvf va bhe yvivat ebbzf cresbezvat nf gur Fcvpr Tveyf.) Ol 1782 ur jnf xabja nf Ybaqba'f yrnqvat pybja naq pbzvp ragregnvare, rawblvat fhpprffqhevat erfvqrapvrf ng obgu Fnqyre'f Jryyf naq Pbirag Tneqra Gurngerf. Va bar cnegvphyneyl zrzbenoyr zbzrag va Fnqyre'f Jryyf' uvfgbel, Wbrl jnf syhat sebz gur fgntr ol uvf sngure juvyfg cynlvat gur cneg bs n zbaxrl, unatvat bagb uvf sngure'f jnvfg ol n punva naq ynaqvat snpr qbja va gur bepurfgen cvg.

Pbafvqrerq gb or gur bevtvany pbvare bs gur cnagbzvzr pngpucuenfr "Urer jr tb ntnva!" Wbrl yrnirf oruvaq na rkgrafvir yrtnpl bs punenpgre npgvat, uneyrdhvanqr naq furre lbhgushy nzovgvba va gur zbfg rkgerzr sbez.