Post #112,730
8/5/03 5:35:59 AM
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Small Gods [!!]
The Geo Carlin Kurt Vonnegut Jonathan Swift William Blake Unified-Field replacement for all those Theo- Scato- Psycho- illogical wasted-bookshelfs-full. Sell 'em off on eBay and get The Last Upgrades you'll ever need. Will work with any standard wetware, however damaged through excessive storage of scripts from obsolete languages or memorized Cricket scores. (Imagine if Wm James had an appendix in Varieties of Religious Experience saying, "Never mind..")
I guess I wouldn't go so far as to say that a life sans Terry Pratchett is a completely wasted life, since.. all past is umm prologue, and grist for the Pratchett Mill on the Floss. (OTOH.. a death! without ever having encountered Mr. P: will prove to be flat, stale and unprofitable - as DEATH (HimSelf) is apt to mutter to you point blank, in just those words.. while he's leading you to the desert - your just desserts.)
Why am I mentioning all this, since I seem to be among the last here to have become Pratchettated? as in D' Oh. Ah.. I See. Because {ugh} No One IS *entirely* immune from that obnoxious tic of the unquiet mind in need of constant reassurance - that of {urp} evangelism. Et moi Brute? then help me fallonsword.
OK I can at least cut to the chase, (without first inviting everyone to a Love-Bombing Party wherein *everyone* keeps calling you By Name so that you wallow in the orchestrated impression that -
You Are Special [to Our Cult, Our Cult Leader and..Everyone Alive\ufffd] -
>It's ALL about YOU!< (etc.)
Hey - just go get a copy of any old Disc World book, shut up and read. I happened to begin, via the Law of Accident, with Small Gods. It's a Duesy and will answer all those nagging Questions you might have thought you had, but which sorta evanesced in HHGTTG or effloresced throughout The Life of Brian.
(OK so there's a published order but.. WTF. SG didn't need no steenkin precedents, to grok to fullness. And Brutha, ya won't be disappointed.)
Ashton
Om-budsman, First Church of Pratchett - Reprobate
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Post #112,733
8/5/03 8:39:36 AM
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On the published order.
Yes, Small Gods essentially stands alone as a novel, by which I mean there isn't any other novel set in Omnia. That said, there are post-Brutha Omnians in some later novels, particularly Feet Of Clay and Carpe Jugulum.
I found that if you had only ever read them in essentially random order, it is definitely worthwhile re-reading them all in published order. It turns out that a not insignificant amount of humour makes rather more sense the first time you do that (not that PTerry really planned that...).
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
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Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
| -- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. |
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Post #112,815
8/5/03 6:31:08 PM
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Good advice
and since I imagine I'm hooked, er 'indiscriminately' anyway, will try to adhere. I must suffer the potential disappointment that.. perhaps not every one shall match the Wonderfulness of Bro Brutha.
... or grab an Eagle by the balls :-\ufffd
Or match Simony,
Even I don't like us much and, I am us! and the unToppable:
This doesn't change anything, you know! Don't think you can get around me by Existing!
Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle..
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Post #112,854
8/5/03 11:01:13 PM
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OK
And will you take the other advice that has been offered and start watching "The Daily Show"?
I dare to say this show in all it's sacred-cow-puncturing, tongue-in-cheek, news-as-an-in-joke straight forward delivery is as important (yes, 'important' is the correct word) as the Smothers Brothers were or Satuday Night Live once was.
Pay for a godammn cable hookup. At the least you can get some BBC as a bonus.
Or get friends to tape and deliver. I can't stress enough what you are missing without the occasional Daily Show infushion.
-----------------------------------------
[link|http://www.talion.com/questionw.html|?W]
Where were you in 72?
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Post #112,866
8/6/03 12:03:29 AM
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OK - redux
Yes, you anticipate my excuses though you may not realize my massive reluctance to become involved with any more folks as slimy as the phone-droids. However.. for surcease for a half? hour per day from the massive droning noises
ummm gotta reconsider.
(It didn't work trying to get the tapes, before. But thanx for ass-kick - I may have a devious scheme for eliciting cooperation, this time) ...
Y'say ya wants yer Doze to sorta work for awhile, again? OK but .. here's the payback:
Ashton, Shameless
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Post #112,867
8/6/03 12:17:50 AM
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Well, there is a third choice
The local pub. As long as you can talk them into letting you choose the channel.
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[link|http://www.talion.com/questionw.html|?W]
Where were you in 72?
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Post #112,755
8/5/03 10:49:00 AM
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Re; Small Gods [!!] (new thread)
Created as new thread #112754 titled [link|/forums/render/content/show?contentid=112754|Re; Small Gods [!!]]
I'm gonna go build my own theme park! With Blackjack! And hookers! In fact, forget the park!
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Post #113,159
8/8/03 12:08:46 AM
8/21/07 12:39:08 PM
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Haven't read any
But have finally heard enough about him that I've picked up a couple in the last day or two - I've begun reading The Carpet People (first book) and have The Color of Magic on deck.
The Carpet People has a rather slow start but it is growing on me.
Also found this [link|http://www.ie.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-reading-order-guide-colour-v1-1.gif|chart] that maps relationships among his books.
Smalltalk is dangerous. It is a drug. My advice to you would be don't try it; it could ruin your life. Once you take the time to learn it (to REALLY learn it) you will see that there is nothing out there (yet) to touch it. Of course, like all drugs, how dangerous it is depends on your character. It may be that once you've got to this stage you'll find it difficult (if not impossible) to "go back" to other languages and, if you are forced to, you might become an embittered character constantly muttering ascerbic comments under your breath. Who knows, you may even have to quit the software industry altogether because nothing else lives up to your new expectations.
--AndyBower
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Post #113,978
8/16/03 7:04:57 AM
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Great!
Beats the mere chronology (and appendix which is apparently in most? all of the books).
Kinda nice that his mind isn't Too-orderly, esp. as to "sequences"; I like that in an Idol-candidate. :-\ufffd
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