DOCSLIB.ORG

An Earth-Shattering Theory

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
An Earth-Shattering Theory An Earth-shattering Theory Copyright © Stephen Mark Alvis, 2011 Mesozoic Wonderments: How can the number of dinosaur tracks be in the billions when tracks disappear so easily? Why do we find dinosaurs with no heads at all or skulls without bodies? Did the dinosaurs perish from heat shock or drowning? What do dinosaur tracksites have to do with oil and metallic ore explorations? An expansive theory claims about 30 mighty convulsions of nature produced the geologic strata — 9 before the Mesozoic (Paleozoic strata) & 20 since the Mesozoic (Cenozoic strata), and one protracted, colossal event laying the Mesozoic strata of the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. An editorial in the New Scientist (“Think Different,” 1 August 1998), asked the question: Lilimor Hubbard, “Roasting Rex” Copyright (1993) for S. M. Alvis “Is there anyone who wouldn’t love to come up with an earth-shattering theory? One that overturns established opinion, routs all opposing views and fits together the pieces of a scientific puzzle in a way that forever after seems just so obvious. A Nobel prize plus an institute named after you would be nice too. “The opportunity doesn’t arise too often. Really big, unexpected theories are pretty thin on the ground.” egiric Theory is a real earth-shattering theory. It is the key to earth history, meteor showers, Apollo Hasteroids, lunar maria and impact events, Venusian coronae and Martian topography, captured moons, and explosive episodes throughout the Solar System. The theory is comprehensive since it completely revamps the entire science of geology. Its coherence is demonstrable from its range of simultaneous phenomena emanating from the same cause—everything from radioactive dinosaur bones to ancient shorelines to fossil fuels to asteroid orbits and mountain births. Of such, BYU historian Hugh Nibley once remarked, “The less the evidence the more brilliant the theory.” Viewed in this light, it appears Hegiric Theory lacks the luster of pure imagination, surrounded as it is by a plethora of well-worn facts. Vectors of Destruction: Theoretical alignments of dinosaur tracksites, dinosaur entombments, ore-producing veins, and clusters of faults. Vectors often run for hundreds of miles and sometimes run parallel (or nearly so) to one another. The vectors indicate where plasma from explosions in the The rare 1991 edition now selling for hundreds of dollars upper mantle breach the crust. Bright flashes of radiation bursting from the earth baked dinosaur tracks, and shock waves blew them away like leaves. When plasma traveling up the faults is impeded, it fuses the country rock into veins of metal and plasma cools to quartz. The worldwide alignments of these fault clusters also influence the deposition of petroleum, where sufficient water was present in antiquity, as along A theropod track seen on Alvis’ Tuba City Expedition vanished geosynclines of the Paleozoic, epicontinental seas of the Mesozoic, and large lakes of the Cenozoic. In most cases, hegiric skyfall buried the victims and products of hegiric fusion. Because faults persist through geologic time, many were reactivated in subsequent Hegiric events, producing various levels of strata and tracksites and other deposits. Hegiric Theory is the first analysis to unite these diverse phenomena into a cohesive and consistent construct. Baking Tracks: Atop the upper boundary of the newly laid Mid-Jurassic Entrada Formation of eastern Utah and western Colorado, there are as many as 3 billion dinosaur tracks impressed into once soft sand which was baked hard and petrified. What could bake 3 billion tracks simultaneously? Scientists have often puzzled over how something so ephemeral as footprints in mud or sand could be preserved in what is now solid rock. Dinosaur track expert Martin Lockley mentions the Author treading on Jurassic Allosaurus trackway at Purgatoire, Colorado. (Time Traveler photo, Oct. 2012) traditional “cover-up” explanation of “a wet beach or mudflat” being baked “hard as cement” by sunshine, but questions its probability. “Many of the best tracks we find were made on layers of sediment freshly deposited after a flood, and it is often cool and humid after the wet weather that produces such floods.” Usually, these tracks are accompanied by ripple marks, showing that a sheet of water was flooding the flat land. Hegiric Theory proposes that these myriad footprints were baked hard by a brilliant flashes of light and petrified. The intense light came from natural, subcrustal, thermonuclear fusion explosions. In Hegiric Theory, dinosaurs roasted instantly in the flash of super-hot plasma exiting the crust, baking their tracks atop the gushy, wet sediment. Then the shock waves picked the great beasts up, flinging them as leaves before the wind. Of all the 32 tyrannosauruses uncovered from 1892 until 2001, 16 skulls are as yet unaccounted for. Decapitated dinosaurs are not the exception – they are the rule! Shock waves beheaded them. This is why most dinosaur skeletons are disarticulated, highly fractured, or even shattered. The common understanding among excavators is that “finding the head of a dinosaur is like finding a needle in a haystack (National Geographic On Assignment, ‘Lucy the T-Rex,’ 2000).” Why? Because of all dinosaur skeletons encountered, the Tyrannosaurus Rex heads have been blown off their majority are headless. Paleontologists at bodies by shock waves. Photo: Palais de la Decouverte Utah’s Dinosaur National Monument found (GNU) circled red by Jared Alvis four skulls together, one well preserved and articulated, a second disarticulated skull (but with all its pieces), just the snout from a third beast, and only the brain case of a fourth. But no bodies were in evidence. Radioactive Bones: Often, dinosaur bones are found to be radioactive. “Indeed, one way to spot Morrison Formation dinosaur bones in the West or in museums is with a Geiger counter. Hear them click—the bones are ‘hot’ (paleontologist Don Lessem, Kings of Creation, p.189).” “Dinosaur Jim” Jenson had his BYU grad students fan out with Geiger counters to hunt bones. The fractured and fragmentary bones of four battered beasts from the The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, with white sections showing extensive bones modern repair jobs at the Utah State University Eastern Prehistoric Museum in Price. Conclusion: almost every big bone was shattered by were surpassing force at the time of death. – Time Traveler photo (15 August “hot,” 2013) but the rocks were not. This means the beasts were irradiated before they were buried. Otherwise, this would make detection of embedded bones by their radioactivity impossible. Paralleling the Chesapeake shoreline southward from Arundel, Maryland, to the foundations of Washington, D.C., the Arundel clay of the Potomac Group embraces Early Cretaceous dinosaurs, dug from the clay pits used for making bricks. The Arundel formation has lenses of dark clays nearly 125 feet thick, diffused with burnt carbon. “Lignitized trunks of trees are often found in upright position with their roots still intact (USGS DDS-6; Reston GNULEX).” The stuff of clay deposits is fine pulverized dust. This dark gray, red, and brown clay is packed with lignite coal, leaf compressions, and quartz sand lenses and pods. The upright trees still rooted in their original soil bespeak a forest overwhelmed by a rush of dust. Alvis holds a radioactive cervical (neck) vertebra of an Apatosaurus, found by BYU paleontologist Brooks B. Britt in the Morrison Formation That the wood turned to lignite at Dinosaur National Monument near Vernal, Utah. coal and the clay is full of carbon say it was extremely hot. Ore miners burned the lignitized logs for warmth as they worked through winters. That dinosaurs were instantly entombed is evident. Pieces of trees embedded in clay were also found by the Maine Geological Survey. “The amazing thing was that the logs were beautifully preserved because they were encased in clay,” but the white spruce trees were not petrified, and some of the twigs still bore cones and green needles. The surrounding clay was imprinted with marine shells. “The logs had broken into pieces,” and beneath the clay “was a layer of peat, which “resembled litter from a forest floor,” with a wide variety of plants and insects. Even after examinations by University of Maine Burnt bark is evident on this petrified wood found by botanists, the New York State Museum, and Meschak Tenney of Woodruff, Arizona. (Photos by Jared the Smithsonian Institute, Thompson Alvis & Chad Goldthwaite) admitted, “We had a mystery on our hands. How did the logs sink and become buried so quickly that the spruce branches didn’t even lose their needles?” Underground explosions thrown up vast amounts of pulverized rock which descends as dust. What goes up must come down, and it takes 4 to 5 minutes for the debris in the column to collapse and spread out in sheets in all directions — the base surge. Clay at Dinosaur Tracksites: These expectations were confirmed by Alvis’ Time Travelers’ expeditions to an Early Jurassic dinosaur tracksite at Tuba City, in north-central Arizona (August 2010), and another (November 2011) to a Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Dakota Group dinosaur tracksite at Clayton Lake Dam, McKinley County, about 12 miles north of Clayton, New Mexico, near the Oklahoma-Texas borders. In both cases, there was a 4-foot layer of soft clay atop the margins of the tracks. With decades scouting the same site, the Navajo owners at Tuba City told us that with rain and erosion, more tracks were being revealed by the retreating clay. Another Time Travelers’ expedition (October 2012) to the giant Jurassic dinosaur tracksite on Colorado’s Purgatoire River revealed multiple layers of hard-baked mud; and sandwiched in-between each of these Touching the clay layer above the dinosaur tracks just below horizontal layers was about 4 inches of another baked layer at Clayton Lake Dam, New Mexico.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Terry Pratchett -A (Disc) World of Collecting
    TERRY PRATCHETT -A (DISC) WORLD OF COLLECTING Colin Steele Background Terrence David John Pratchett - Terry Pratchett - is the author of the phenomenally successful Discworld series and is one of contemporary fiction’s most popular writers. Since Nielsen's records began in 1998, Pratchett has sold around 10 million books in the UK, generating more than £70 million in revenue. His agent and original publisher, Colin Smythe says Pratchett has either written, co-written or been creatively associated with 100-plus books, notably Discworld titles, Despite this prodigious output, Pratchett is one of the UK’s most collectable authors, particularly for his early books and special editions. Pratchett‘s first book, The Carpet People, was published in 1971, while his first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, appeared in 1983. 36 more Discworld books have followed, many of which have topped the UK hardback and paperback lists. Pratchett's novels have sold more than 60 million copies and have been translated into 33 languages Until Pratchett’s recent diagnosis of an early stage of a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease, he usually wrote two books a year, which reputedly earned him £1 million each. When asked “What do you love most about your job? “ Pratchett replied “Well, I get paid shitloads of cash...which is good”. Pratchett donated £500,000 towards Alzheimer’s research in March 2008. Pratchett anticipates dictating novels from 2009 onwards due to his illness. He recently told the BBC, that compared to his once rapid typing, that he now types “badly - if it wasn’t for my loss of typing ability, I might doubt the fact that I have Alzheimer’s.
    [Show full text]
  • Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching Series from an Arthurian Perspective By
    “First Among Shepherds”: Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching Series from an Arthurian Perspective By Freya Sacksen A thesis submitted to Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for a degree in a Master of Arts. (2018) Table of Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 3 Introduction 5 Chapter 1: Open Your Eyes, Then Open Your Eyes Again 22 Finding the Fisher King 22 Time to Thaw: The Witch as Quester 26 The Whole of the Thing: Mystical Kings of the Disc 32 Open Your Eyes: Tiffany As Reversed Fisher King 41 Chapter 2: The Goode Childe’s Booke of Faerie Tales 52 The Ill-Made Knight 52 The Arthurian Other and Pratchett 62 First Sight and Second Thoughts 71 Chapter 3: Cracked Mirrors and Melting Girls 83 Tennyson’s Inspiration 83 The Artist in the Tower 87 Light and Shadow: A Close Reading of the Lady of Shalott 91 The Melting Girl: Subversion in the Disc 101 Conclusion 114 Works Cited 116 1 Abstract Throughout his career writing on the Discworld, Terry Pratchett employed what he referred to as ‘white knowledge’; a wide spectrum of intertextuality and allusiveness that pervaded the structure of his stories, the dialogue, the narration, and that was even discussed in scenes constructed to comment on the very absurdity of its existence. In my MA thesis, I examine closely the allusive qualities of the white knowledge present in Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching series: The Wee Free Men (2003), A Hat Full of Sky (2004), Wintersmith (2006), I Shall Wear Midnight (2010) and The Shepherd’s Crown (2015).
    [Show full text]
  • Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Pratchett for Young Readers: Translation Analysis Of
    Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Bc. Kateřina Lengálová Pratchett for Young Readers: Translation Analysis of Selected Texts with Software for Lexical Analysis Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek 2009 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Signature Table of Contents 1 Introduction.............................................................................................4 2 Theory.....................................................................................................8 2.1 Introduction to Theory........................................................................8 2.2 Theory of Children’s Literature.............................................................8 2.3 Theory of Translation of Literature for Children................................... 12 2.4 Conclusion of Theory ........................................................................ 19 3 Cultural and Literary Background ............................................................. 20 3.1 Background of the Author and the Translators .................................... 20 3.1.1 Terry Pratchett: the Author ......................................................... 20 3.1.2 Helena Hrychová: the Translator of Kniha Nom............................. 22 3.1.3 Jan Kantůrek: the Translator of Kniha Nóma and Jak pan Hopsálek hledal dobrodružství...........................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Strata and Three Stories
    STRATA AND THREE STORIES Julia Adeney Thomas Jan Zalasiewicz Transformations in Environment and Society 2020 / 3 RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society is an open-access publication that exists to record and reflect the activities of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. The journal provides a forum for examining the interrelationship between environmen- tal and social changes and is designed to inspire new perspectives on humanity and the wider world. RCC Perspectives aims to bridge the gap between scholarly and non-scholarly audiences and encourage international dialogue. All issues of RCC Perspectives are available online. To view past issues, please visit www.environmentandsociety.org/perspectives. Strata and Three Stories By Julia Adeney Thomas and Jan Zalasiewicz RCC Perspectives Transformations in Environment and Society 2020 / 3 Strata and Three Stories 3 Contents 5 Introduction Julia Adeney Thomas and Jan Zalasiewicz 11 Old and New Patterns of the Anthropocene Jan Zalasiewicz 41 The Anthropocene Earth System and Three Human Stories Julia Adeney Thomas 69 About the Authors Strata and Three Stories 5 Julia Adeney Thomas and Jan Zalasiewicz Introduction The Anthropocene The Anthropocene is in some ways an accidental concept, a high-profile improvisation made in 2000 by Nobel Laureate and atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen (though the term and concept had a variety of antecedents). Accidental or not, it crystallized a growing perception of global change in the form of a proposed new geological epoch set in train by human activities. Just two decades on, overwhelming evidence has been assembled that in the mid-twentieth century our planet entered a distinct new chapter in its approximately 4.54-billion-year history.
    [Show full text]
  • Petrified Wood of Oklahoma: Lap- Lawrence, 455P
    2 Petrified Wood In Oklahoma Neil H. Suneson, Geologist IV, Oklahoma Geological Survey Adjunct Professor, ConocoPhillips School of Geology and Geophysics, University of Oklahoma [email protected] / 405.325.7315 Introduction world’s most baffling puzzles, the bane of professional cryp- tologists and amateur sleuths who have spent 15 years trying In the fossil world, petrified wood may be second only to solve it” (www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jun/11/dan- to dinosaurs in its fascination to humans, and “wood turned brown.books, acc. 2/27/10). Kryptos is referred to twice to stone” probably has the longer history of the two. In fact, on the dust jacket of the U.S. version of Dan Brown’s novel a fossil cycad was placed in the tomb of the Marzabotto “The Da Vinci Code” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kryptos, necropolis over 4000 years ago by the ancient Etruscans. It acc. 2/27/10). was accompanied by other funerary objects and thus must have had some special significance. Furthermore, it appears that the trunk of a fossil cycad may have been used by Ne- olithic people as a sharpening stone (Wieland, 1916) and thus may have “the longest known history of any fossil” (from www.plantapalm.com/vce/intro/historicalperspec- tive.htm, acc. 2/27/10). Around 1000 A.D. the Persian as- tronomer, chemist, mathematician, physicist, scientist, theologian, and philosopher Avicenna suggested “that or- ganic materials might be ‘turned into stone by a certain min- eralizing, petrifying power … and this transmutation of the bodies of animals and plants is just as short a step as the transmutation of waters.
    [Show full text]
  • The Magic of Zayas : Slippery Sourcery, Baroque Games with the Devil and Uncanny Miracles in the Novellas of María De Zayas
    ORBIT-OnlineRepository ofBirkbeckInstitutionalTheses Enabling Open Access to Birkbeck’s Research Degree output The magic of Zayas : slippery sourcery, baroque games with the devil and uncanny miracles in the novellas of María de Zayas https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40264/ Version: Full Version Citation: Berg, Sander (2017) The magic of Zayas : slippery sourcery, baroque games with the devil and uncanny miracles in the novellas of María de Zayas. [Thesis] (Unpublished) c 2020 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copy- right law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit Guide Contact: email THE MAGIC OF ZAYAS SLIPPERY SORCERY, BAROQUE GAMES WITH THE DEVIL AND UNCANNY MIRACLES IN THE NOVELLAS OF MARÍA DE ZAYAS Sander Berg Thesis submitted for the degree of doctor of philosophy (PhD) Iberian and Latin American Studies Birkbeck, University of London 31 March 2017 My thanks go to Carmen Fracchia in the first instance for having been so positive and encouraging throughout these seven years – I haven’t decided whether they were fat or lean yet. I am also very grateful for the words of wisdom from my colleague Sharon Ragaz, who has since moved to greener pastures – although I suspect they are actually white a great deal of the time. I am also in Yolanda Lojo’s debt for having generously allowed me to stay in her flat while I was working in the Biblioteca Nacional in the summer of 2013, and I am sorry I was so caught up in my research that I was not as sociable as I would have liked to have been.
    [Show full text]
  • Death, the Wintersmith and Dorfl: the Human in the Non-Human
    Death, the Wintersmith and Dorfl: The Human in the Non-human Exploring characters and themes in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Ida Suuniitty Master’s Thesis Master’s Programme in English Studies Faculty of Arts University of Helsinki May 2020 Tiedekunta – Fakultet – Faculty Koulutusohjelma – Utbildningsprogram – Degree Programme Humanistinen tiedekunta Englannin kielen ja kirjallisuuden maisteriohjelma Opintosuunta – Studieinriktning – Study Track Aineenopettajan koulutus Tekijä – Författare – Author Ida Suuniitty Työn nimi – Arbetets titel – Title Death, the wintersmith and Dorfl: The Human in the non-human – Exploring characters and themes in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Työn laji – Arbetets art – Level Aika – Datum – Month and Sivumäärä– Sidoantal – Number of pages Maisterin tutkielma year Toukokuu 2020 51 Tiivistelmä – Referat – Abstract Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) oli Iso-Britannian menestyneimpiä kirjailijoita. Elämänsä aikana hän julkaisi 41 romaania, jotka sijoittuvat hänen Discworld-fantasiasarjaansa ja samannimiseen fantasiamaailmaan. Lisäksi hän kirjoitti useita teoksia kyseisen sarjan oheiskirjallisuudeksi, ja myös muita romaaneja ja tarinoita. Uransa aikana Pratchett tuli tunnetuksi Alzheimerin tautiin sairastuneiden puolestapuhujana kerrottuaan diagnoosistaan julkisuudessa vuonna 2007. Hän oli humanisti, mikä näkyy myös hänen romaaneissaan ja niiden teemoissa. Tutkielmassani käsittelen Pratchettin ihmiskuvaa kolmen hänen Discworld-sarjansa hahmon avulla. Hahmot, joita tutkimuksessa tarkastelen ovat Death, kuoleman henkilöitymä;
    [Show full text]
  • 'O, Du Gyldne Maskarade!'
    ‘O, du gyldne Maskarade!’ ‘Oh, golden masquerade!’ The construction of Danish national identity in Carl Nielsen’s Maskarade (1906) Aksel Dalmo Tollåli Master’s thesis, Department of Musicology Faculty of Humanities UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Spring 2019 I II ‘O, du gyldne Maskarade!’ ‘Oh, golden masquerade!’ Constructions of Danish national identity in Carl Nielsen’s opera Maskarade (1906) Aksel Dalmo Tollåli Master’s thesis, Department of Musicology Faculty of Humanities University of Oslo Spring 2019 III © Aksel Dalmo Tollåli, 2019 ‘O, du gyldne Maskarade!’ (‘Oh, golden masquerade!’) Constructions of Danish national identity in Carl Nielsen’s opera Maskarade (1906) Aksel Dalmo Tollåli http://www.duo.uio.no/ IV Abstract This thesis explores the portrayal of Danish national identity in Carl Nielsen and Vilhelm Andersen’s opera Maskarade (1906). The opera is markedly different in its portrayal of Danish identity – Danishness – than the Danish operas of the 19th century, which were generally characterised by nationalist tropes of rural mediaeval glory or folk mythology, with scores heavily reliant on the folk-like strophic song. Maskarade presents a much greater musical stylistic variety, and is also a comedy, set in the Danish capital Copenhagen, among the bourgeoisie in the early 18th century. The thesis also examins potential reasons for the Maskarade’s rapid success within Denmark and status as a national opera. It seeks to investigate how Maskarade relates to previous Danish music drama, and to place it in a wider Danish operatic history, as well as look at its critical reception between the premiere and its 25th anniversary revival in 1931. While the thesis offers no conclusive answer to the question of Maskarade’s success in its first 25 years, it does posit that a main reason was the increasing fame of Carl Nielsen in that same period.
    [Show full text]
  • The Light Fantastic
    The Light Fantastic Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett, 1948-2015 Published: 1986 J J J J J I I I I I The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn’t sure it was worth all the effort. Another Disc day dawned, but very gradually, and this is why. When light encounters a strong magical field it loses all sense of urgency. It slows right down. And on the Discworld the magic was embarrassingly strong, which meant that the soft yellow light of dawn flowed over the sleeping landscape like the caress of a gentle lover or, as some would have it, like golden syrup. It paused to fill up valleys. It piled up against mountain ranges. When it reached Cori Celesti, the ten mile spire of grey stone and green ice that marked the hub of the Disc and was the home of its gods, it built up in heaps until it finally crashed in great lazy tsunami as silent as velvet, across the dark landscape beyond. It was a sight to be seen on no other world. Of course, no other world was carried through the starry infinity on the backs of four giant elephants, who were themselves perched on the shell of a giant turtle. His name—or Her name, according to another school of thought— was Great A’Tuin; he—or, as it might be, she—will not take a central role in what follows but it is vital to an understanding of the Disc that he—or she—is there, down below the mines and sea ooze and fake fossil bones put there by a Creator with nothing better to do than upset archeologists and give them silly ideas.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pratchett Quote File V6.0
    The Pratchett Quote File v6.0 The Pratchett Quote File or PQF is a collection of one-liners, catchphrases, general quotes, pieces of dialogue, and running gags, all culled from Terry Pratchett's novels and other writings (including his Usenet articles). The PQF was started years ago by Leo Breebaart on the Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett, and is now being maintained by Kimberley Verburg <[email protected]>. New quote submissions are always welcome. The PQF can also be viewed on-line, or downloaded as a text file from the Terry Pratchett Archives, at http://www.lspace.org. Contents Discworld Quotes................................................................................................................................................................3 The Colour Of Magic...........................................................................................................................................................................................3 The Light Fantastic..............................................................................................................................................................................................3 Equal Rites................................................................................................................................................................................................................5 Mort...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................6
    [Show full text]
  • Who's Afraid of the Wicked Wit?: a Comparison of the Satirical Treatment of the University System in Terry Pratchett's Discworld and Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall
    Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Theses Department of English 5-10-2014 Who's Afraid Of The Wicked Wit?: A Comparison Of The Satirical Treatment Of The University System In Terry Pratchett's Discworld And Evelyn Waugh's Decline And Fall Mary Alice Wojciechowski Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses Recommended Citation Wojciechowski, Mary Alice, "Who's Afraid Of The Wicked Wit?: A Comparison Of The Satirical Treatment Of The University System In Terry Pratchett's Discworld And Evelyn Waugh's Decline And Fall." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2014. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses/165 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WHO’S AFRAID OF THE WICKED WIT?: A COMPARISON OF THE SATIRCAL TREATMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM IN TERRY PRATCHETT’S DISCWORLD AND EVELYN WAUGH’S DECLINE AND FALL by MARY ALICE WOJCIECHOWSKI Under the Direction of Edward Christie ABSTRACT Terry Pratchett, author of the best-selling Discworld series, and winner of multiple literary awards, writes satirical fantasy for adults and children. The academic community has been slow to accept Pratchett’s work as worthy of notice. Factors that contribute to this reticence include writing fantasy, writing for children, high volume of work, and popularity in general society. This thesis will provide a comparison between Pratchett’s work and that of Evelyn Waugh by focusing on their academic satire, shedding new light on Pratchett’s work from a literary perspective, thus lending greater value to his Discworld series as a collection of novels with measurable literary value to the academic community.
    [Show full text]
  • Terry Pratchett's Witches
    Which witch is which? A feminist analysis of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld witches University of Halmstad Faculty of Humanities Lorraine Andersson 2006-06-03 Thesis for a Masters of Arts in English Supervisor: Kristina Hildebrand Foreword The researching and writing of this work took place while I was working full time, and so took time away from my family. I would therefore like to give my great appreciation to my husband, Hans, and my daughter, Emelie, who were understanding when mummy had to “go work on the computer”. Many a Pratchett novel was re-read to a background of cartoons, which is perhaps why a couple of cartoon characters made cameo appearances in this essay. Thanks also to my in-laws, Margareta and Arne Andersson, who gave me childfree afternoons when I could concentrate. I would also like to thank the head of the English Department at the time, Monica Karlsson, who allowed me to read the course when it was not officially offered. Thanks also go to Timothy Cox for taking time to read this essay and give helpful feedback. Last but in no way least, a huge thank-you to my tutor, Kristina Hildebrand, who would willingly spend hours talking Pratchett. i Abstract Terry Pratchett, writer of humorous, satirical fantasy, is very popular in Britain. His Discworld series, which encompasses over 30 novels, has witches as protagonists in one of the major sub-series, currently covering eight novels. His first “witch” novel, Equal Rites, in which he pits organised, misogynist wizards against disorganised witches, led him to being accused of feminist writing.
    [Show full text]