Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2015 08:00:25 -0400
From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: [WSFA] Terry Pratchett was a true great, the equal of Swift
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Excerpt:
  Pratchett kept seeing more in the world he had created. He found that he
could use it to satirise not just fantasy, but also cinema, the police,
financial institutions, the politics of fear, military adventurism and, the
ultimate absurdity, our own mortality. Whereas Tolkien spent years imagining
the geography, history and languages of Middle Earth before releasing his
books, Discworld grew in front of our eyes and tumbled off into streams \342\200\223
Death, The Witches, The Watch.

It was the fans who drew the maps and genealogies. Pratchett seemed to be
exploring the place and, because it was such a revealing mirror, exploring us,
too. He sometimes wore a T-shirt with the slogan: \342\200\234Tolkien\342\200\231s dead, J\342\200\211K Rowling
said no, Philip Pullman couldn\342\200\231t come. Hi, I\342\200\231m Terry Pratchett.\342\200\235 But his
invention was different from theirs. He wasn\342\200\231t imagining an alternative
universe; he was reimagining ours. His fantasies sit alongside \342\200\223 and are the
equals of \342\200\223 those of Rabelais, Voltaire, Swift, Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas
Adams. He\342\200\231s surely our most quotable writer after Shakespeare and Wilde.
Granny Weatherwax\342\200\231s definition of sin \342\200\223 \342\200\234When you treat people as things\342\200\235 \342\200\223 is
all you need to know about ethics.
--- end excerpt ---

<http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/15/terry-pratchett-death-literature>

mark