The Annotated Pratchett File, V9.0
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The Annotated Pratchett File, v9.0 Collected and edited by: Leo Breebaart <[email protected]> Assistant Editor: Mike Kew <[email protected]> Organisation: Unseen University Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett,alt.books.pratchett Archive name: apf–9.0.5 Last modified: 2 February 2008 Version number: 9.0.5 (The Pointless Albatross Release) The Annotated Pratchett File 2 CONTENTS 1 Preface to v9.0 5 The Last Hero . 135 The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents . 137 2 Introduction 7 Night Watch . 138 3 Discworld Annotations 9 The Wee Free Men . 140 The Colour of Magic . 9 Monstrous Regiment . 143 The Light Fantastic . 14 A Hat Full of Sky . 147 Equal Rites . 17 Once More, With Footnotes . 148 Mort . 19 Going Postal . 148 Sourcery . 22 Thud . 148 Wyrd Sisters . 26 Where’s My Cow? . 148 Pyramids . 31 Wintersmith . 148 Guards! Guards! . 37 Making Money . 148 Eric . 40 I Shall Wear Midnight . 149 Moving Pictures . 43 Unseen Academicals . 149 Reaper Man . 47 Scouting for Trolls . 149 Witches Abroad . 53 Raising Taxes . 149 Small Gods . 58 The Discworld Companion . 149 Lords and Ladies . 65 The Science of Discworld . 150 Men at Arms . 72 The Science of Discworld II: the Globe . 151 Soul Music . 80 The Science of Discworld III: Darwin’s Watch . 151 Interesting Times . 90 The Streets of Ankh-Morpork . 151 Maskerade . 93 The Discworld Mapp . 151 Feet of Clay . 95 A Tourist Guide to Lancre . 151 Hogfather . 103 Death’s Domain . 152 Jingo . 110 4 Other Annotations 153 The Last Continent . 116 Good Omens . 153 Carpe Jugulum . 123 Strata . 160 The Fifth Elephant . 129 The Dark Side of the Sun . 161 The Truth . 130 Truckers . 161 Thief of Time . 133 3 The Annotated Pratchett File Diggers . 162 Wings . 163 Only You Can Save Mankind . 163 Johnny and the Dead . 164 Johnny and the Bomb . 167 The Carpet People . 168 The Unadulterated Cat . 168 Nation . 168 5 Thoughts and Themes 169 The Turtle Moves! . 169 Song. 170 . and Dance . 171 Reverse Annotations . 172 Words from the Master . 172 6 Editorial Comments 183 The Origin of the APF . 183 Version history and Timeline . 183 Credits . 184 Page Numbers . 185 To Annotate or Not to Annotate . 185 The APF in Other Formats . 186 Third-party Annotations . 186 Bibliography . 186 Copying the APF . 186 Copyright Discussion . 187 4 CHAPTER 1 Preface to v9.0 This is the first ‘real’ release of the Annotated Pratchett File since the v7a.0 release of 16 June 1996. Back then, I apologised for the eighteen months that had passed between v7.0 and v7a.0, and I promised I would do better next time. Um, yes. Apologising again, but now for the eight years that have passed between v7a.0 and this v9.0, seems a bit pointless. Let me instead just thank all you APF readers for your patience, your submissions, your corrections, and your offers to help. In all those eight years the flow of supportive words and emails and Usenet messages never once dried up, and I doubt if I could ever express adequately enough how motivating and helpful that has been. Having learned my lesson, I will make no promises or predictions this time with respect to future releases of the APF, but my honest intention is for v9.0 to signal the start of a period of steady APF development on all fronts: annotation content, World Wide Web version, typeset version — everything. In a sense I still consider v9.0 an ‘intermediate’ version, and I have Plans for major improvements all over. We will just have to see how (and when!) it all plays out; for now I hope that v9.0 will be a welcome milestone, of sufficient quality to make sure everybody is once again willing to come along on the next leg of the trip. Leo Breebaart Delft, August 2004 5 The Annotated Pratchett File 6 PREFACE TO V9.0 CHAPTER 2 Introduction You are now reading the 9th edition of the Annotated chapter.) Pratchett File, or APF for short. For information about what Each annotation is prefixed by either a ‘+’, denoting an is new or changed in v9.0 with respect to previous editions annotation that is new or has been significantly updated in I refer you to the new Version History and Timeline section this version of the APF, or a ‘–’, denoting an unchanged in the Editorial Comments chapter. older annotation. This used to be quite handy when new APF Ever since its creation in 1992, one of the most popular versions appeared more frequently, but has since become a pastimes on the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett has lot less meaningful. We are sticking to the practice for now, been discussing the many jokes, parodies, allusions and on account of tradition. references with which Terry Pratchett seasons his work. The APF incorporates, in this edition once again more than Since, as Terry once put it, “alt.fan.pratchett as an entity ever before, many passages from articles that Terry himself has the attention span of a butterfly on cocaine”, it quickly has posted to alt.fan.pratchett. As a long time active became clear that it would be a good idea to distil some of contributor to the group, he often provides inside these discussions into something with a little more information on many aspects of his writing, and it would be persistence and staying power than individual Usenet a waste to let this first-hand knowledge just disappear into articles (remember that this all took place long before Usenet history. Much of this material has been something like Google Groups — or indeed even the World incorporated into the annotations themselves, but quite a Wide Web itself — existed!). And so the Annotated bit of interesting information that did not fit anywhere else Pratchett File was born, and (because I was brave or foolish has been collected in the Thoughts and Themes chapter. enough to volunteer) I became its editor. The APF ends with the already mentioned Editorial Over the years the APF has grown in popularity and size. It Comments chapter, where various nuts & bolts of the now contains nearly two thousand annotations, and is editing process are discussed. It also lists information to available in a number of different formats. Yet it is still (and help you obtain the most recent version of the APF in if I can help it will always be) called a ‘file’, reflecting its whatever format you prefer. origin as a short text file that I regularly posted to alt.fan.pratchett. One particular piece of technical information is so important I am placing it here as well as at the end, and The structure of the APF is straightforward, with the that is the address to write to if you have any suggestions, annotations divided into two large chapters: the Discworld questions, corrections, or new annotations. Without the Annotations, and all the Other Annotations. Within each enthusiastic reactions and input from its readers, the APF group, the books are listed in the order in which they were would never have survived so far. Please mail all your published (with the exception that in the Discworld chapter feedback to me at: the proper novels come before the secondary material such as the maps and the Science of Discworld books). Within [email protected] each book, the annotations are sorted in ascending order by and maybe you will see your contribution become a part of page number, with that number referring to the edition I the next edition. I will now leave you to the annotations, actually own myself, which will typically be the original UK and end this introduction with a thought that is a bit of a hardcover edition. (Some of the earlier books also list cliché but nonetheless true: I hope you will enjoy reading paperback page numbers — for more information please the APF as much as I have enjoyed putting it together. read the Page Numbers section in the Editorial Comments 7 The Annotated Pratchett File 8 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 3 Discworld Annotations bird (frogmouths and small brown owls, respectively) that The Colour of Magic go by the name of ‘Morepork’. Since I first wrote down the above annotation, there have been new developments, however. In The Streets of – [ p. 7/7 ] “[. ] He stares fixedly at the Destination.” Ankh-Morpork and The Discworld Companion we are This line is interesting not only because it foreshadows The shown an illustration of the Ankh-Morpork coat of arms, Light Fantastic (as in fact the entire prologue does), but which does feature a Morepork/owl holding an ankh. But also because it is about the only time the narrator really from Terry’s remarks (see next annotation) I feel it’s safe to commits himself to A’Tuin’s gender without hedging his say that neither bird nor cross were explicitly on his mind bets (as e.g. on the first page of The Light Fantastic). Note when he first came up with the name Ankh-Morpork. the capital ‘H’, which Death also rates in this book and Finally, many readers have mentioned the resonance that loses in the later ones. Ankh-Morpork has with our world’s Budapest: also a large – [ p. 8/8 ] “For example, what was A’Tuin’s actual sex?” city made up of two smaller cities (Buda and Pest) separated by a river. I have had email from a herpetologist who has studied under one of the world’s experts on turtles, and he assures – [ p. 9/9 ] “[. ] two figures were watching with me that in real life determining the sex of turtles is no easy considerable interest.” task.