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SPOILERS:
of course, large amounts of The Science of Discworld II: The Globe take place around 1595 AD in London, England and the book includes such persons as John Dee and William Shakespeare and results in the writing of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as well as, less directly, "Romeo and Juliet" (I think)
the goal of the wizards is to remove the elves from roundworld without actually preventing them from arriving in the first place

because when they went back in time and stopped them they ended up with uncreative people with no language who hadn't even discovered fire by the year 2600 AD when the asteroid hit earth

so they go to various points in history to make people more and more creative and thus more questioning of the world around them, thus weakening the elves' grip on roundworld, the final step is William Shakespeare, the wizard have to make sure that he is conceived, born, male, alive, sane, a playwright, and not in the Americas, once this is accomplished, they confront him and persuade him to write "A Midsummer Night's Dream" because, as Rincewind says, people only believe in the things that they cannot see, once the things are visible, people stop caring and things concerned lose power (after all, people don't believe in tables or chairs and do not allow such things to control their lives) of course, the elves are too stupid to understand this and actually help the thing get written properly, and so the wizards' plan works and the elves' power slowly dwindles to the point of almost nothing by the 1800s and humans are able to escape earth before the asteroid hits in 2600, end of story

sometimes I have dreams involving both Discworld and Sonic, they tend to be unusual

At 12/30/07 09:23 PM, Mizox wrote: sometimes I have dreams involving both Discworld and Sonic, they tend to be unusual

that reminds me of Morpheus' contract with Shakespeare in Gaiman's Sandman graphic novels, where the dream lord makes a pact with an aspiring play write to become unimaginably famous, under the condition that he writes 2 plays for the Sandman, one of them is A Midsummers Night Dream, which is The Sandman's gift to the world of faerie so that Man never forgets them

Sometimes I get annoyed when I dream about work after working for a week or so straight

At 12/30/07 09:39 PM, Malachy wrote: that reminds me of Morpheus' contract with Shakespeare in Gaiman's Sandman graphic novels, where the dream lord makes a pact with an aspiring play write to become unimaginably famous, under the condition that he writes 2 plays for the Sandman, one of them is A Midsummers Night Dream, which is The Sandman's gift to the world of faerie so that Man never forgets them

Gaiman? the guy who worked with Pratchett to write Good Omens? (great book)

Sometimes I get annoyed when I dream about work after working for a week or so straight

arrgh, band camp, arrgh, I'm glad I quit band

At 12/31/07 08:25 PM, Mizox wrote

Gaiman? the guy who worked with Pratchett to write Good Omens? (great book)

yup.

he wrote a graphic novel called Sandman which has gotten some pretty prestigious awards over the years, and he's an amazing writer of novels as well.

arrgh, band camp, arrgh, I'm glad I quit band

I worked at a summer camp for a few years as a counselor, so I'd be there for 6 weeks a summer and 6 days straight...We all went a little crazy by the end of it

At 12/16/07 06:57 PM, Malachy wrote:

At 12/16/07 05:23 PM, Coop83 wrote: It's awesome, we've got Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic this year... if I can get access to SkyOne.

are they being done by the same group of folks who did up Hogfather?

Yes, same actors, writers directors etc. David Jason will be playing Rincewind and Christopher Lee plays Death.

As I understand it, he's Athiest, right?

I think so.

Witches have that power too.

I know that witches have that power as well, but since Pratchett is male, he'd be a Wizard, not a witch :P

At 12/30/07 09:04 PM, Mizox wrote: The Science of Discworld II: The Globe

I've had that sitting on my bookshelf for too long. I've got Darwin's Watch for Xmas from my girlfriend, so I'll have to get back into them and go from the beginning.

A belated Happy New Year, as I've been away from the forums for so long (Well, the C&C anyway :P)

At 1/4/08 08:47 AM, Coop83 wrote: I know that witches have that power as well, but since Pratchett is male, he'd be a Wizard, not a witch :P

I started reading The Colour of Magic again just to recall everything from it...and it's amazing how many interesting ideas he seems to not use in the series. like Warlocks. he mentions them as existing, but you have yet to meet one after the first chapter of COM. Or his mention of seasons and the 800 day cycle the Disc goes through. You hear about Hogswatch later on, like it's a common enough thing...well, it technically is annual...but it's in Winter Prime.

He also doesn't mention Soul Cake Day...Ever...it's like a special day, and the Soul Cake Duck pops up now and then...but I want a damn description of Soul Cake Day.

Hogswatch is also the new year.

Does anything talk about the month cycle? the only month I ever recall being named is Sectober

At 1/5/08 07:19 PM, Malachy wrote: He also doesn't mention Soul Cake Day...Ever...it's like a special day, and the Soul Cake Duck pops up now and then...but I want a damn description of Soul Cake Day.

Soul Cake Tuesday gets more than just a few mentions in the books - it was kind of an amalgamation of Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) and Easter Sunday, where we get all of the chocolate eggs from.

Hogswatch is also the new year.

Best way to cram in a winter festival was to make it the renewal of the year. That way, he gets Xmas as a bonus :P

Does anything talk about the month cycle? the only month I ever recall being named is Sectober

12 Months - with some being changed - June Becomes Grune, October becomes Sektober. I'm not sure about the others.

At 1/6/08 04:08 PM, Coop83 wrote: Soul Cake Tuesday gets more than just a few mentions in the books - it was kind of an amalgamation of Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) and Easter Sunday, where we get all of the chocolate eggs from.

yes, it's mentioned all the time, but what I am talking about is what is it's meaning? it's a lot like Easter...so what masiah died for discworld's sins?

Best way to cram in a winter festival was to make it the renewal of the year. That way, he gets Xmas as a bonus :P

the books make it feel like Pratchett has scaled back the length of the year to resemble our own rather than to fit into the length he mentions in COM

12 Months - with some being changed - June Becomes Grune, October becomes Sektober. I'm not sure about the others.

I would also love to see pratchett give out a year cycle as well, he started out with "century of the fruitbat" and "year of the sickly goat" and suchlike...but has since stopped and put in a "round world" year cycle of 1890s and the suchlike.

WOOT! DISCWORLD!! ive read lots! or 20 or somthing...

... i heard Pratchet's stop writing because of illness... :(

True. He's got some memory disorder :(

<needs some booze from the Mended Drum, cannot find it, puts up posters>

WANTED
Directions to the Mended Drum

If you have them, find me
outside the gates of the
Unseen University.
No Reward Worth Mentioing

At 1/7/08 02:41 AM, JaBrwok wrote: ... i heard Pratchet's stop writing because of illness... :(

he's working on a discworld right now.

he gave some teaser about it.

he was diagnosed recently with early onset Alzheimer's after a phantom stroke (you can click back a page or two and read about it) but he's been very adamant about the fact that he "is not dead yet" and that he has at least a decade worth of good health before he even begins deteriorating. How many discworlds did he have published in the 90s alone?

At 1/6/08 04:37 PM, Malachy wrote:

At 1/6/08 04:08 PM, Coop83 wrote: Soul Cake Tuesday gets more than just a few mentions in the books - it was kind of an amalgamation of Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) and Easter Sunday, where we get all of the chocolate eggs from.

yes, it's mentioned all the time, but what I am talking about is what is it's meaning? it's a lot like Easter...so what masiah died for discworld's sins?

As far as I am aware, Omnia is the region which most closely represents Christianity. Brutha was almost Jesus, as he was about to be tortured to death over the back of a giant turtle, filled with burning coals. Deacon Vorbis played the part of Pontias Pilate, who sentenced him to the creul death, but they didn't count on the teamwork of the eagle and the tortoise.

Best way to cram in a winter festival was to make it the renewal of the year. That way, he gets Xmas as a bonus :P

the books make it feel like Pratchett has scaled back the length of the year to resemble our own rather than to fit into the length he mentions in COM

He's allowed to change it. The man is a genius and therefore allowed to change his mind about the workings of the world. You wouldn't argue with Stephen Hawking about Physics, would you?

12 Months - with some being changed - June Becomes Grune, October becomes Sektober. I'm not sure about the others.

I would also love to see pratchett give out a year cycle as well, he started out with "century of the fruitbat" and "year of the sickly goat" and suchlike...but has since stopped and put in a "round world" year cycle of 1890s and the suchlike.

Ah yes. There are some websites which show this quite well, which we've been linked to before... Right here

At 1/7/08 02:40 AM, JaBrwok wrote: WOOT! DISCWORLD!! ive read lots! or 20 or somthing...

Then you need to read the rest - spoilers are quite common here.

At 1/7/08 02:41 AM, JaBrwok wrote: ... i heard Pratchet's stop writing because of illness... :(

Not at all - he's still writing and he has a few more books he wishes to complete before retiring, if he is considering such a path for himself.

At 1/7/08 05:36 AM, Hoeloe wrote: True. He's got some memory disorder :(

FALSE! He has not stopped writing because of it. He has early onset Alzheimers disease. He has released a statement saying that the news should be interpreted as he is not dead and that he wishes to finish at least a few more loose ends before he goes.

Right, I should be starting reading The Science of Discworld trilogy tomorrow.

Should make for some fun reading :)

I just got The Light Fantastic and Interesting Times So now my collection of discworlds is pretty much complete minus Making Money which I'm only waiting for it to hit paperback.

I also picked up The Wee Free Men which was lurking about in the Young Adult section of Barnes and Noble with the other feegle books.

At 12/30/07 09:39 PM, Malachy wrote: that reminds me of Morpheus' contract with Shakespeare in Gaiman's Sandman graphic novels, where the dream lord makes a pact with an aspiring play write to become unimaginably famous, under the condition that he writes 2 plays for the Sandman, one of them is A Midsummers Night Dream, which is The Sandman's gift to the world of faerie so that Man never forgets them

Actually, as Morpheus would explain to Shakespeare later the deal was not as Faustian as it might sound. Morpheus had no power to make him famous, but in his capacity as the lord of dreams, he opened a door in Shakespeare's mind. He made him a vessel for the great stories, essentially bringing out the full potential of Shakespeare's talent.

Haven't read any discworld in awhile, I think the last thing I read was the science of discworld 1. Been meaning to get back into stuff but money has been tight lately, and other stuff has gotten in the way.

At 1/17/08 10:40 PM, aviewaskewed wrote: Haven't read any discworld in awhile, I think the last thing I read was the science of discworld 1. Been meaning to get back into stuff but money has been tight lately, and other stuff has gotten in the way.

Avie! How are you?

Funnily enough, I've started reading the Science of Discworld myself yesterday. I'm going to read the actual Discworld parts aloud to my girlfriend, as it helps me with my voice acting practice. That and I can now understand the Physics a lot more than I could when I was doing my GCSE Physics course :(

"Archchancellor, could we ask the wizards to stop playing squash?"

"Good idea, there's nothing worse than a sweaty wizard."

-Randomly floats in.- Just a question, anyone here like to play on the Discworld MUD? If anyone remembers a fidgety thief called Davydave or a priest who always drinks called Sanjiive or Snajive {Never remember how many i's I used..} they would both be me xP

Anywho, just to make it relevant, I've read Guards! Guards! and the graphical novel with Cohen. Peace out! -Flies off again, probebly never to be seen in this thread ever again.-

PS I have the official guide to Discworld companion book, funny as fuck

At 1/19/08 10:59 AM, Shalashaska-1 wrote: -Randomly floats in.- Just a question, anyone here like to play on the Discworld MUD? If anyone remembers a fidgety thief called Davydave or a priest who always drinks called Sanjiive or Snajive {Never remember how many i's I used..} they would both be me xP

I went as far as registering for it, but that was absolute years ago. I've never managed to get into it properly.

Anywho, just to make it relevant, I've read Guards! Guards! and the graphical novel with Cohen. Peace out! -Flies off again, probebly never to be seen in this thread ever again.-

Guards! Guards! is hilarious, as is The Last Hero. I particularly like the pictures, even though they look nothing like the way I had pictured the heroes.

PS I have the official guide to Discworld companion book, funny as fuck

Which one? There are to my knowledge, about 3 different editions.

I really enjoy The Wee Free Men despite it being for young adults. I like that there are mentions of discworld places (like quirm) and suchlike, but without the whole explanation of the flying space turtle, which was probably deliberate.

I'm also reading The Light Fantastic again and it's funny to think that apparently Granny Weatherwax's grandfather was the chancellor...and yet rincewind is still around so much later in the series...still alive apparently.

grant it, I understand that Pratchett wasn't looking to make a series, so of course there are plot holes between the first 2 books and the rest of the series, but he does make mention of the events in later books, like the librarian becoming an orangutan (when the magical fireball shoots up from the Octavo through the floors of the university towards the great hall and after it passes through the library it mentions that the floor boards turned into salamanders and the books turned into custard and a orangutan that looked like the head librarian).

either way, I enjoy that Pratchett didn't completely ignore the first two as the series went on, although he didn't expect fans like us trying to put it all into some sort of order

Guys, in your opinion, what is the best Watch book? Don't count spin-offs like Monstrous Regiment.

NIIIIIIIIIIIGHTWAAAAAAATCH

At 1/24/08 12:23 PM, BananaBreadMuffin wrote: Guys, in your opinion, what is the best Watch book? Don't count spin-offs like Monstrous Regiment.

NIIIIIIIIIIIGHTWAAAAAAATCH

As much as I really enjoyed the nostalgic setting of Night Watch I have to say Guards! Guards! is my most favorite of the watch books.

I really loved the relationship between Detitrius and his dwarf friend[SPOILER] and it damn near made me cry when the dwarf was killed later in the book.

I also enjoyed the character development of Carrot and Vimes.

I'm starting to re-read the series (something I never do. I usually read a book once and never read it again. So far the only books I've ever re-read have been Snow Crash, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic) and it's refreshing to see some themes between books, because I started out back in highschool not thinking of them as a series, just that TLF was simply a sequel to COM

At 1/24/08 11:47 PM, Malachy wrote: I'm starting to re-read the series (something I never do. I usually read a book once and never read it again)

Really? I read and re-read, I fold over the corners of my favourite parts, I re-read some more, etc. I've probably read Feet Of Clay the most out of all my Pratchett books, or perhaps Moving Pictures.

Actually, fuck Nightwatch, Feet of Clay is probably my favourite Watch book.

At 1/24/08 12:10 PM, Malachy wrote: I really enjoy The Wee Free Men despite it being for young adults. I like that there are mentions of discworld places (like quirm) and suchlike, but without the whole explanation of the flying space turtle, which was probably deliberate.

Well, he wants people to enjoy his books - if they want to learn more, they just need to pick up another one int he series and read on.

I'm also reading The Light Fantastic again and it's funny to think that apparently Granny Weatherwax's grandfather was the chancellor...and yet rincewind is still around so much later in the series...still alive apparently.

Don't forget what they did in Wyrd Sisters - advancing the rest of the world by about 18 years, but keeping Lancre at the status quo. That certainly helps the situation. Alos, Rincewind is reasonably old and he makes a living out of not dying, so he's set for the rest of his tenure :P

grant it, I understand that Pratchett wasn't looking to make a series, so of course there are plot holes between the first 2 books and the rest of the series, but he does make mention of the events in later books, like the librarian becoming an orangutan

Says who? He may have had this grandiose idea from the start, but only a contract for two books. Do not underestimate this man's ability to use 20-30% of his brain (The average person uses about 10%)

either way, I enjoy that Pratchett didn't completely ignore the first two as the series went on, although he didn't expect fans like us trying to put it all into some sort of order

While the references become more sparse over the later books, he tends to give the occasional reasonable vague throwback. A great marketing ploy, to say the least.

At 1/24/08 12:23 PM, BananaBreadMuffin wrote: Guys, in your opinion, what is the best Watch book? Don't count spin-offs like Monstrous Regiment.

Men at Arms. Without question. Had Pratchett not picked up the torch of Fantasy from the likes of Tolkein, he could well be writing some of the best Crime fiction in this country.

"'Carrot, I want you to throw the book at him.'
'Right you are sir!'
Vimes remembered a split second too late that dwarves have a poor grasp of irony. He also remembered that they have a very good aim."

At 1/24/08 11:47 PM, Malachy wrote: As much as I really enjoyed the nostalgic setting of Night Watch I have to say Guards! Guards! is my most favorite of the watch books.

I really loved the relationship between Detitrius and his dwarf friend[SPOILER] and it damn near made me cry when the dwarf was killed later in the book.

That was Cuddy the dwarf and he was killed by the Gonne in Men At Arms. His greatest contribution to the Watch is the helm that he made for his dear friend, Detritus.

I've got a good chance to get some reading done tonight - sitting in the car park of Worcester Royal Hospital, waiting for my girlfriend to finish visiting her mum.

Should be able to make a good few chapters in Science of Discworld during that time. Let's hope it's not too cold.

At 1/31/08 09:13 AM, Coop83 wrote: I've got a good chance to get some reading done tonight - sitting in the car park of Worcester Royal Hospital, waiting for my girlfriend to finish visiting her mum.

Should be able to make a good few chapters in Science of Discworld during that time. Let's hope it's not too cold.

my fiancee and I are reading The Wee Free Men to each other and when I'm reading on my own, I've been reading The Light Fantastic. She started reading it too, instead of picking up the copy of COM that I had already finished by that time. I'm about halfway through in both WFM and LF

hey, did you guys know that the Ogg-Vorbis audio codec is named after the discworld characters Gytha "Nanny" Ogg and Deacon Vorbis (Small Gods)? as codecs go, it's one of the better ones, definately better than mp3 and rivaling AAC

...

my favorite watch book? sorry, but I like them all too much to decide

...

I noticed a slight inconsistency between Thief of Time and Night Watch, in thief, Lobsang and Lu-Tze pass some watchmen in a shootout against criminals on street level while going through Ankh-Morpork, yet this is not mentioned at all in night, even though it was occurring during the same time (it was the temporal shattering happening just as Vimes and Carcer fell through the dome which sent them 30 years back in time)

...

the last 15-20 pages of my copy of thief fell out due to me reading it on a particularly hot day and the binding melting, I still remember what happened of course, because I had already read the book several times by that point, but it's still quite a bit of a loss, if anyone finds a few pages from thief in the parking garage of the Science Museum of Boston, please tell me, although that was several years back and they're probably long gone by now

At 1/31/08 10:25 AM, Malachy wrote: my fiancee and I are reading The Wee Free Men to each other and when I'm reading on my own, I've been reading The Light Fantastic.

I'm sure that my girlfriend would rather read to herself, but it's a case of bribery with the traditional Cadbury's Creme Egg and she will put up with it. I myself couldn't cope with being read to, as I prefer to envisage my own voices for the protagonists. I use Joss Ackland's Ridcully from Hogfather and Eric Idle's Rincewind from the Discworld computer game. I always pictured the Senior Wrangler as having a voice akin to Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh, so that's what he gets.

She started reading it too, instead of picking up the copy of COM that I had already finished by that time. I'm about halfway through in both WFM and LF

I'm about halfway through Science 1 now, so it's getting towards some life. The Wizards have just nuked Ponder's Roundworld and he is not a happy bunny.

At 1/31/08 04:19 PM, Mizox wrote: I noticed a slight inconsistency between Thief of Time and Night Watch, in thief, Lobsang and Lu-Tze pass some watchmen in a shootout against criminals on street level while going through Ankh-Morpork, yet this is not mentioned at all in night, even though it was occurring during the same time (it was the temporal shattering happening just as Vimes and Carcer fell through the dome which sent them 30 years back in time)

I'll have to bear that in mind when I come to read them both again.

I finally caved and got the hardcover of Making Money

we also ordered Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith

I really loved The Wee Free Men I found it at the same level of intelligence and humor as any other discworld and couldn't for the life of me see how it was geared more towards young adults, aside from a younger main character. Pratchett isn't exactly risque with his writing to begin with, but I was expecting something dumbed down. I enjoy that he writes at a level far beyond those "lolbbq" books (seriously, I swear to god I saw one of those in borders) and those teenage highschool "this shit is the most important shit of your life" crap that you expect from the young adult section. There was more pink and light purple on those shelves then in the entire little girls section of the childrens book corner.