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Question for Discworld fans, obv spoilers

Started by Conexus, 23 November, 2005, 11:10:53 PM

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Bico

Repeating it AFTER his death was still tactless, though.

DavidXBrunt

And when he says after his death, he means in the interviews given for the news pieces about Kidbys death. Not a few months later but in the actual obituary/tribute interviews.

I've worked the night shift and been up since yesterday morning and need sleep quickly so I can't be bothered to click on that link but I suspect that you've found a different incident to the one I'm referring to Con. Is that from his recent open letter? The incident I'm referring to was possibly after collecting the Smarties or Carnegie award for one of his young persons Discworld books.

And you're going to over-react to this but what purpose does Fan-Fic serve as part of the creative writing course? What is the point and expected outcome? Genuinely want to know.

Conexus

sorry, I can't be bothered to answer that, just assume the answer I'd have given is witty and irrelevant.

hag

she " trying to "subvert" the genre."





...



by writing crap books?



i gave up on pratchett when i was about 15, but before that i was a big ol' pratchett geek.

DavidXBrunt

Right, bright eyed and bushy haired I've checked the link and that's definatley not the incident that I'm referring to. Can't find detials of the one I mean though, but I've definatley read Pratchett complain about Rowlings unwarranted dominance of the field.

But it was a serious question. What is the purpose of the exercise?

Conexus

It's this quote David

"the continued elevation of J. K. Rowling can only be achieved at the expense of other writers".

Carlsborg Expert

Yeah like he stood down when his books flooded every fantasy medium going. Gawd, its one rule for you Terry and... sorry. Pratchett the Hatchet fans. Ive read a couple too. I didnt buy them in his heighth of fashion though. I didnt want to add to his elevation at the expense of other writers.^=^




rant over

Conexus

TBH,Carlsborg I don't quite  know what you're going on about. Pratchett was never as dominant as Rowling, and the media was certainly never as saturated by his presence as it has been with Rowling.


Carlsborg Expert

Well, mabye he should.But maybe his plots are too, difficult to explain on screen to a massive audience.TBH,Connexus I would have liked to have seen his creations come to life on the big screen but I have a feeling his true fans may have been too cliquey (spurred on by his in parenthesis jokes. The revelling in being an isolated group)to support such a connection with thw masses. Young and idealistic though they were.

Conexus

Hold on, hold on- I thought you didn't like the guy for being hyppocrit of the highest order- now you say you want his novels put up on the big screen ???

Carlsborg Expert

Itll never hold up in a court of law.

:|

Bico

Pratchett has long made a habit of decrying the ghettoisation of the fantasy genre, and to a certain extent, he's right - I'm sure most sci-fi/fantasy fans are aware how something ceases to be fantasy/sci-fi once it achieves mainstream status and becomes co-opted as 'social allegory' or dystopian soothsaying of some sort or other.
The main reason that fantasy is ghettoised, mind, is because the most readily-available examples are roleplaying spin-offs like D&D or Forgotten Realms.  Mostly complete cack.
As for Pratchett's plots not translating to the screen, I've seen more impenetrable plots transfer well, and my main criticism with Pratchett these days is that he tends to write heavy-handed social comedy in a fantasy setting (the Guards books, Monstrous Regiment, The Truth), rather than outright fantasy spoofs (Sourcery, Mort).  The former would not only be right at home in some ponytailed coke-fiend's celluloid atrocity, but there are increasing incidents in the books where I cringe as I read them, and I can't help but think those moments would be what attracts American cash to a potential movie version.
My money's on Monsterous Regiment for the big screen treatment - warring trolls and dwarves, big battle scenes, and a moralising tone topped off by a cringe-inducing twist that's so hackneyed you won't *just* cringe, your balls will crawl up your urethra into your stomach.

Carlsborg Expert

How come this is not the case with the Harry Potter realm then?

As a pose to Terry Pratcheteers these fans have the wisdom of hindsight to understand the dangers of what a movie can do to an book.

The same with simpsonites.Thell never need to do a movie of the Simpsons because of its value as a cult status. Harry Potter is not and never was a cult classic. It shot up as pop. Itself is a Childrens/Teen novel with an element of fantasy to provoke the understanding of being ghetto-ised as a teenager.

This should not allow Terry Pratchet to cast a grizzled overview of the marketplace and say as testimony that fantasy is failing to be seen in its fullness of expansion. If anything it may do for sci-fi what he could not in his delusionary state as prophet of all things D+D. Bring people to understand friends who are on a mythical bent, to understand their development and not ostracise them as middle class snobs who think they know everything. Even if they themselves cannot understand the intricacies of otherworldlyness. If anything Potter is a nice bit of armament for the cult and not Discworld eventual showing of an arse bound to produce nothing more than get to an injection of submissiveness within cult societies.

He did some wonderful prose and I agree Bear with your spot on commentry. Also that what is eating away at his art is that hes a better creative writer than a marketer or social commentator.

Everyone has the right to be hypocitical its human nature. No theres no buts.Thats it, end of story.

What I hate are carpetbaggers.

Goosegash

The closest Discworld has ever come to the screen was the two Cosgrove Hall serials. Unfortunately they were a massive let down - this was after CH had abandoned cel animation for financial reasons, and the new computer-based technology just wasn't up to the same standards. It all looked a bit cheap and nasty, basically.

Also, the decision to adapt Soul Music was mystifing, because unless you're familiar with Mort, most of the story is incomprehensible.

Like most teenagers I followed the Discworld novels religiously, but about the time of Maskerade I started to feel he was becoming dishearteningly lazy and cynical(i.e. Carpe Jugulum was just a rehash of Lords and Ladies, but with vampires instead of elves), and I started to lose interest in the series. Although recently I enjoyed Night Watch - Vimes is definitely his strongest character.

So what was this Pratchett gossip, then? Come on, spill!

SamuelAWilkinson

"Everyone has the right to be hypocitical its human nature. No theres no buts.Thats it, end of story. "

Bollocks. By that line of reasoning, I have a right to kick the crap out of people I don't like, 'cause, y'know, it's human nature.
Nobody warned me I would be so awesome.