Friday, March 13, 2015

Our World Loses Terry Pratchett

Sitting on the backs of four elephants, while they stand on the shell of a giant turtle, being propelled through space is Discworld.  This brilliant creation was from the fantastic mind of Terry Pratchett.  However, I'm sadden to say that I've only just found out he passed away just last night.  

Terry Pratchett fired our imaginations with this brilliantly created world when he published his series of books bringing us into a hilarious storyline filled with characters we could relate to, some we love and some we hated... some we just knew would keep coming back - like Death (one of my all-time favourites.. he had such a dry wit).

However, in 2007, the author was diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer; posterior cortical atrophy, which was a progressive degenerative condition.  He continued to write his books and campaigned to make assisted dying legal, as well as giving numerous lectures about his conditions and interviews as well.

His publishers have said Terry Pratchett was one of the brightest and sharpest writing minds.  He'd published over 70 books, enriching this planet like very few before him. His world was filled with parody, wit and a colourful cast of characters inspired from the worlds of folk tales, fantasy and mythology.  His most favoured character - Death - always had his dialogue written in all capitals, and his last tweet was a conversation with this character from his books.

A famous example of Death's dialogue - and wit - would be:  'DON'T THINK OF IT AS DYING' Death said, 'JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.'

Terry Pratchett's books were filled with Death's very quotable dialogues, which often made people see him in a funny light, making him a favourite character.  However, Terry's passing came through a series of tweets written in the form of his Discworld novels, where Death and Terry started to talk:

'AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.' said the first tweet on @terryondrob.
"Terry took his arm and followed through the doors and on to the black desert and under the endless night." said the second, while the third simply said, "The End."

2 comments:

  1. I haven't read any novels/books by Terry Pratchett. Sorry to hear of his passing though. Losing good writers is never anything good.

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    1. I read only one of his books, and found his character of Death was hilarious... and what a twist he'd tweet him at the end of his own life.

      I found all this information in a news article from the ABC.net

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