Happy Endings (?)
Betsy Perry
I am, no doubt, about to add to the global belief that Americans are
the most clueless creatures on the planet. So be it.
There are two Pratchett endings that I sometimes ponder late at night.
In *Pyramids*, I try to decide whether Pteppic and Ptraci were ever reunited;
in *Wyrd Sisters*, I wonder whether Magrat and the former Fool
overcame their social differences. My current bet is
(1) yes (2) no. Do any of the rest of you have opinions? Detailed
citations of the obvious explanations I missed are, of course,
welcome.
By the way, is the game "Cripple Mr. Onion" simply a wonderful
phrase in its own right, or is it a play upon the name of a real
British game?
--
Betsy Hanes Perry (note P in userid) bet...@apollo.hp.com
Hewlett-Packard Company
"It seems to us that the readers who want fiction to be like life are
considerably outnumbered by those who would like life to be like fiction."
Michael J. Hennebry
They'll have fun together. They'd already started. Witches don't
worry much about social conventions and the king can do whatever
he wants, except tax witches. Methinks that the next monarch will
be a witch of whatever sex.
--
Mike henn...@plains.NoDak.edu
"This dream is brought to you by Sharassin of Shan. Dreams and
communication wizardry of all sorts at reasonable rates." -- Sharassin of Shan
Terry Pratchett
latest on Magrat and the Fool.
Terry
IBRU...@estec.bitnet
>By the way, is the game "Cripple Mr. Onion" simply a wonderful
>phrase in its own right, or is it a play upon the name of a real
>British game?
>--
I don't think that it's a real game, in the same way that the
hedgehog song isn't a real song, - it isn't, but it should be.
It's just the man's way of distilling the comic essence from
base material eg. Beggar my Neibour (real game), Happy Families
(real game where the cards are called things like 'Mr Bun the Baker'.
Cheers,
IAn Brunton. <><
ibru...@estec.estec.esa.nl
IBRU...@ESTEC.BITNET
NLESADGL at IBMMAIL
uuencoded stuff:
ibru...@bcserver.estec.esa.nl
Richard Vowles
> There are two Pratchett endings that I sometimes ponder late at night.
> In *Pyramids*, I try to decide whether Pteppic and Ptraci were ever reunited;
Pterry told us in a monologue over here (in NZ, "Scarier than Tom Sharpe,
More Hilarious than Stephen King") that he wanted to kill Pteppic. But the
publishers wouldn't let him. [I have it on video, you cannot deny! :-)]
> in *Wyrd Sisters*, I wonder whether Magrat and the former Fool
> overcame their social differences. My current bet is
> (1) yes (2) no. Do any of the rest of you have opinions? Detailed
> citations of the obvious explanations I missed are, of course,
> welcome.
In Witches Abroad (were Magrat is a central character), she has decided
to put off the relationship for a while while she learns a self defence
course... [or something in that vein]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
And Noah Spake unto his children: "Scattered showers my arse!"
FIDONET: Richard Vowles 3:772/110.0 USENET: ric...@nacjack.gen.nz
Leo Breebaart
> Pterry told us in a monologue over here (in NZ, "Scarier than Tom Sharpe,
> More Hilarious than Stephen King") that he wanted to kill Pteppic. But the
> publishers wouldn't let him.
Well, *I* have heard him say in a talk that in "Moving Pictures" he wanted
to kill Gaspode. But the publishers wouldn't let him.
Looks like are favourite Happy Author has a definite thing for killing
off his main characters...
[ And I *still* say, to reopen an old, pre-Pratchett a.f.p. discussion, that
"Moving Pictures" very clearly builds up to Gaspode's death, and that
it would have made a much better ending. Gaspode is one of Terry's
most tragi-comic characters, and he deserved to die. Reverting him to
normal doghood was actually a pretty lousy thing to do to him, in my
opinion. ]
--
Leo Breebaart (leo @ ph.tn.tudelft.nl)
Austin Newton Shackles
>
>Well, *I* have heard him say in a talk that in "Moving Pictures" he wanted
>to kill Gaspode. But the publishers wouldn't let him.
>
>Looks like are favourite Happy Author has a definite thing for killing
>off his main characters...
>
>[ And I *still* say, to reopen an old, pre-Pratchett a.f.p. discussion, that
> "Moving Pictures" very clearly builds up to Gaspode's death, and that
> it would have made a much better ending. Gaspode is one of Terry's
> most tragi-comic characters, and he deserved to die. Reverting him to
> normal doghood was actually a pretty lousy thing to do to him, in my
> opinion. ]
>
holy wood-ed animals found it a real pain being saddled with all the hassle of
being more "intelligent" than normal, and at the end there's the bit about
gaspode and laddie being rescued from the remains of the picture house, and
death standing there with the hourglass, which magically re-fills, giving the
impression that random bits of holy-wood magic are floating around doing a bit
or re-arranging so that everything goes back to normal. Personally i got the
impression that when gaspode said "bugger" and it came out "woof", and the
world returned to being grey, he was in fact releived to be back to the
relatively simple life of going round to the back door of Harga's for the
scraps...
hohum, just my 2 ecu's worth...
why not an europeaen MONETARY unit? emu???
--
Austin Newton Shackles | Cynic? Me??
an...@uk.ac.aberystwyth | Naahhhh!!!
DoD#0467 1981 Z440 Ltd | My opinions are just that
shac...@uk.ac.lampeter |Physics dept. University of Wales, Aberystwyth.