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Message from discussion Pratchett comments on Rowling
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 More options Aug 1 2005, 6:29 am
Newsgroups: alt.fan.harry-potter, alt.fan.pratchett
From: mark <m.gallag...@student.canberra.edu.au>
Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 20:29:38 +1000
Local: Mon, Aug 1 2005 6:29 am
Subject: Re: Pratchett comments on Rowling
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While recovering from a recent, uncomfortable transmembrification,
OrionCA (Orio...@earthlink.net) was heard to remark...

> On Mon, 01 Aug 2005 01:11:47 GMT, Freezer
> <freezer8SPAMTH...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >If I don't reply to this OrionCA post, the terrorists win.
> >> WFM was published in 2003.  You really need to re-read WFM and
> >> what he wrote about "learning witchcraft in a school" before you
> >> declare it's just a coincidence.

> >"Equal Rites" (The book in which PTerry first makes the distinction
> >between Witch magic and Wizard magic) was published in 1987.  "Lords
> >and Ladies" (In which it's stated that a girl can teach herself
> >witchcraft) was published in 1994 - three years before SS was
> >published.

> >You really need to know the particulars before latching on to one
> >counterpoint.

> So you've made up your mind and aren't going to re-read (or read, it
> would seem) WFM to see what I'm talking about.

*I've* just re-read the passage to which you refer, FWIW.  Will I do,
or did you have your heart set on hearing from our American friend?

Page 303, Doubleday first edition hardback.  Tiffany decides that the
"Witches' school" is in fact the real world, and that proper witchcraft
comes from what's inside, rather than what others teach.  You can't
teach *real* witchcraft.  Granny Weatherwax agrees with her.  All well
and good.

Now, the foundations for this conversation were laid (although I'm sure
Pterry didn't realise it back then) waaaaay back in 1987 in /Equal
Rites/.  /ER/ shows us that there's two kinds of magic in Pterry's
universe: wizardry and witchcraft.  Wizardry is very impressive,
involves lots of spells and shouting and dribbly candles and *teaching
in schools*.  Witchcraft is very different.

In the Potter universe, there's no such thing as witchcraft as Pterry
describes it.  Witches are just wizards without the dangly bits.  As
such, witchcraft can be taught just as easily at Hogwarts as wizardry
is taught at Unseen University.

There can be no Discworld school of witchcraft because that would be
against the definition set up back in '87.  Um.  You have *read* /ER/,
right?  The difference between wizards and witches is a pretty big deal
in that book, while the similarity between the two in the Potter
universe is hammered home reasonably early in /PS/.

I don't know of any equivalent to Pterry's witchcraft in the fantasy
world (there's certainly plenty written about wizards that's similar).  
There is *no* crossover.  /WFM/ refers to /ER/, not to /PS/.  Any
confusion between the two universes exists only in the mind of the
reader, not in those of the authors!

--
"The [New York] Times is not a bad little newspaper in some ways. But
when it comes to things like egg balancing, it is out of its depth."
- Cecil Adams, /More of the Straight Dope/


 
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