When did the Discworld concept started?
Maurizio Codogno
"when TCoM was first published".
My understanding is that TCoM was meant to be a one-off book, set in a strange
world. Only after a while the concept of Discworld (and DEATH, and The
Librarian, ...) was formed. But which is the turning point?
.mau.
--
Maurizio ".mau." Codogno - CSELT UF/DD - m...@beatles.cselt.stet.it
"Did I really write that crap? It must have been the biscuits, I should have
stuck to the tea..." -- Ron Nasty
Terry Pratchett
[deleted]
>This relates to the "was Strata a Discworld (R) Book?" question I remember
>seeing here a little while ago among the scones. I've found a little snippet
>in Issue Two of The Wizard's Knob that's of relevance. It's from an interview
>with Pterry originally printed in GM Magazine in 1988.
>
> -Which is his favourite Discworld novel?
> "Well, it's always the one you're working on, isn't it. Mort has my best
> gags so far, but the only Discworld book I can actually go back and read
> is Strata."
>
>I think that clears the question up - if the Man Himself says Strata's
>canonical, then it is.
>
Wrong. GM got it wrong, so apparently WK have perpetuated the wrongness.
Strata used the idea of a Discworld but I've never thought of it as a Discworld
novel within the meaning of the act. The first Discworld novel was
The Colour of Magic. Let the message go throughout the kingdom...
Terry
DACOD
Maurizio Codogno <m...@beatles.cselt.stet.it> wrote:
>I don't mean "when the tiniest sparkl of an idea came into His mind", nor
>"when TCoM was first published".
>
>My understanding is that TCoM was meant to be a one-off book, set in a strange
>world. Only after a while the concept of Discworld (and DEATH, and The
>Librarian, ...) was formed. But which is the turning point?
>
This relates to the "was Strata a Discworld (R) Book?" question I remember
seeing here a little while ago among the scones. I've found a little snippet
in Issue Two of The Wizard's Knob that's of relevance. It's from an interview
with Pterry originally printed in GM Magazine in 1988.
-Which is his favourite Discworld novel?
"Well, it's always the one you're working on, isn't it. Mort has my best
gags so far, but the only Discworld book I can actually go back and read
is Strata."
I think that clears the question up - if the Man Himself says Strata's
canonical, then it is.
(If this has been mentioned before, Leo has my permission to come over
here and do unspeakable things to my figgin.)
DACOD (hi Terry - thanks for the signings in Chester on Friday!)
--
: DACOD (dy...@aber.ac.uk) : PHANTIS: Yes -- bizarre, is it not? :
: College of Librarianship : KING: Most quaint. But then it's a quaint world. :
: UCW, Aberystwyth. : PHANTIS: Teems with quiet fun. :
: Anything but fish. : W.S. Gilbert, "Utopia, Ltd" Act I :
Adrian Waterworth
>m...@beatles.cselt.stet.it (Maurizio Codogno) writes:
>>My understanding is that TCoM was meant to be a one-off book, set in a strange
>>world. Only after a while the concept of Discworld (and DEATH, and The
>>Librarian, ...) was formed. But which is the turning point?
>Strata already dealt with the concept of a disc world and pre-dates the
>Colour of Magic by several years.
And, of course, the general idea of a flat world, in the form
of a disc and, reputedly, carted about on the back of a few long-suffering
pachyderms who, themselves, are lugged through space/the void/the ether
or whatever on the back of a large accommodating turtle or tortoise is
probably older still. Leastways, it certainly struck a few chords in
my failing memory. Gm-F-Bb-Eb-F-Gm-F-Bb-Cm-Gm, I think [1].
On the subject of music and similar things, I have always
wondered why we have an 'octave', but only seven actual notes [2]?
If the Discworld has a system of musical notation based upon ei^H^H
er...seven-A notes (as might seem probable), then does it, in fact,
have a 'nonave' (close to Holly's 'decative' in Red Dwarf [3])?
Just wondering...
Ade.
[1] Well, it probably wasn't exactly those - I think that they're
probably an approximation to the opening of 'Heaven and Hell'
by Black Sabbath - but you get the idea!
[2] OK, OK, so folks in Germany _do_ have eight notes, but the rest
of us have to make do with seven [4].
[3] "Doh-ray-me-fah-soh-lah-woh-boh-te-doh" if I remember aright?
[4] Although I suppose it does come to eight if you count the upper
tonic at the end of the scale, but that just has the same name
as the original tonic, so doesn't really seem to count [5].
[5] AAARRRGGGHH!! I give up!
___________________________________________________________________
FROM : Adrian Waterworth. E-MAIL : A.Wate...@reading.ac.uk
POST : Department of Computer Science, University of Reading,
Whiteknights, Reading, Berks. UK.
PHONE : +44 734 875123 Ext. 7640
peag...@void.tdcnet.nl
>My understanding is that TCoM was meant to be a one-off book, set in a strange
>world. Only after a while the concept of Discworld (and DEATH, and The
>Librarian, ...) was formed. But which is the turning point?
Strata already dealt with the concept of a disc world and pre-dates the
Colour of Magic by several years.
--
| Philip Green, (peag...@void.tdcnet.nl) |
| Postbus 6252, 3002 AG Rotterdam (peag...@hacktic.nl) |
| The Netherlands. Tel. +31 (0)10 4376600 |
M E A Forrester
question, but I think I read somewhere that the luggage at least
(Which is now part of the DW multiverse) started as part of an
RPG campaign Pterry once ran..
If so, was this campaign ever considered to be taking place on
a round, flat sort of world? Possibly atop a few astrozoological
specimins?
O=- .- -. -=O
H /( )\ H ---[ SIG - Ignore here.. ]---------------------------------
| | -^^- | | The views expressed above are not those of Bath University,
\_ `' _/ Nor are they guarunteed to be my own.
| \ ) | ObQuote: In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded
H )/ H - Pterry
O=- (' -=O [ OptFrontier: Sir Wraith, Elite, Boa. (IBM) ]
`
Wolfgang Schelongowski
...
>[2] OK, OK, so folks in Germany _do_ have eight notes, but the rest
> of us have to make do with seven [4].
Huh? C-D-E-F-G-A-H-c, that's what the sounds produced by hitting the
white keys on the piano are called here, the last one being the upper
tonic - so that's _seven_ !
--
Wolfgang Schelongowski w...@xivic.bo.open.de
"Hi, Bill. You sound a bit depressed to me."
"It's worse than that. I'm dead, Jim."
-- Terry Pratchett, Johnny and the Dead
Edgar Hellfritsch
>Strata used the idea of a Discworld but I've never thought of it as a Discworld
>novel within the meaning of the act. The first Discworld novel was
>The Colour of Magic. Let the message go throughout the kingdom...
>Terry
... and way beyond its borderline.
Edgar
Maurizio Codogno
Terry Pratchett <tprat...@unseen.demon.co.uk> wrote:
%In article <1994Mar20....@aber.ac.uk> dy...@aber.ac.uk writes:
%[deleted]
%>I think that clears the question up - if the Man Himself says Strata's
%>canonical, then it is.
%>
%Wrong. GM got it wrong, so apparently WK have perpetuated the wrongness.
%Strata used the idea of a Discworld but I've never thought of it as a Discworld
%novel within the meaning of the act. The first Discworld novel was
%The Colour of Magic. Let the message go throughout the kingdom...
This is nice to know, but my question was a little different. When
you wrote TCoM, did you think at it as the start of a series, or
was it just a novel of its own (maybe with the possible sequel of
TLF, but without all other characters)?
.mau.
--
Maurizio Codogno - CSELT (UF/DD dept.) - Torino Italy
"home" email: m...@beatles.cselt.stet.it
Dave Bell
AW> [2] OK, OK, so folks in Germany _do_ have eight notes, but the rest
AW> of us have to make do with seven [4].
Because of the ways that relationships between musical notes are
defined, if the sequence of notes A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A' is properly generated
is is _impossible_ for A and A' to be an octave apart.
Throw in sharps and flats, and different keys, and you need a _lot_ of
notes to stay in tune.
Some musical instruments are flexible enough that the player can adjust
pitch in real time so that they sound right. Others do not. There is
also the approximately correct scale (12 notes) which is commonly used,
in which some sharps and flats are identical, though they shouldn't be.
Me, I just tune my guitar and play the right notes, but not necessarily
in the right order.
Dave
(Well, it make a change from the usual subjects, and there is always
Soul Music.)
... Yes, Victoria, there *is* a Cthulu.
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Rich 'mcmxciibo' Holmes
>Because of the ways that relationships between musical notes are
>defined, if the sequence of notes A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A' is properly generated
>is is _impossible_ for A and A' to be an octave apart.
Now, there's a loaded statement for you. It assumes there is one and
only one "proper" way to generate a diatonic scale. This would come as
a surprise to an awful lot of music theorists.
Hmm. What's the frequency relationship on a guitar between, say, E
(open E string) and A (fretted E string)? Or A (open A string) and e
(fretted A string)? I've always assumed e (fretted A string) = 4/3 A
(open A string) = 4/3 A (fretted E string) = 3/2 (4/3 E (open E
string))) so that e = 2 E. Is this incorrect?
ObPratchett: James Earl Jones should play Rincewind.
--
- Rich "mcmxciibo" Holmes
Of course, it's perpetual September for Amiga users, isn't it?
- Paul Tomblin
Dave Bell
R'H> In article <3837.311.uupcb#evaware.org> dave...@evaware.org (Dave
R'H> Bell) writes:
>Because of the ways that relationships between musical notes are
>defined, if the sequence of notes A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A' is properly generated
>is is _impossible_ for A and A' to be an octave apart.
R'H> Now, there's a loaded statement for you. It assumes there is one and
R'H> only one "proper" way to generate a diatonic scale. This would come as
R'H> a surprise to an awful lot of music theorists.
Well, I was told this by a scientist, demonstrating the problem with
some very expensive hardware, but he wasn't a music theorist.
Dave
... Had I but bytes enough and clock cycles...
Torsten Lif
>-=> Quoting Rich 'mcmxciibo' Holmes to All <=-
>
>R'H> In article <3837.311.uupcb#evaware.org> dave...@evaware.org (Dave
>R'H> Bell) writes:
>>Because of the ways that relationships between musical notes are
>>defined, if the sequence of notes A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A' is properly generated
>>is is _impossible_ for A and A' to be an octave apart.
>
>R'H> Now, there's a loaded statement for you. It assumes there is one and
>R'H> only one "proper" way to generate a diatonic scale. This would come as
>R'H> a surprise to an awful lot of music theorists.
>
>Well, I was told this by a scientist, demonstrating the problem with
>some very expensive hardware, but he wasn't a music theorist.
I think that was the problem...
A and A' are ALWAYS exactly an octave apart, A' being the first natural
overtone of A (double the frequency of A). I don't think there's any
argument about that. But the tones in-between are trickier. It's quite
easy to generate the other natural overtones to create a scale for most
of them. Then if you start at one of the "overtones" and make it the
base for a new octave, you find that some of its natural overtones are
not quite the same as the ones you got from the first base. C-sharp and
D-flat should not be quite the same tone.
In *theory* a diatonic scale can be deviced by starting at 440 Hz and
creating the 12 half-tones as a logarithmic series. However, this does
not sound quite right and it turns out that if you go about it the
other way and create over-tones by integer multiplication of the base,
you get slightly different results. An example:
Base 440 Hz, 1:st overtone, 880 Hz (one octave up, no good), second
overtone, 1320 Hz. 1320/2 = 660 Hz (to bring it back into the first
octave). This is the "5:th" tone (the "dominant").
But 440 * exp(7/12 * ln(2)) = 659.25...
(Where the "7" above comes from? There's two black keys in there so the
5:th tone in the scale is 7 halftones up.)
So a mathematically-generated scale sounds slightly off. A guitar with
12 logarithmically placed bands is slightly off-key occasionally. But
the difference is small and a skilled guitarist can compensate for it
by "stretching" the string a bit with his finger.
>Dave
---
Torsten Lif
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