Talk:Discworld

Discworld is similar to Middle Earth as it is a creation by a single author. But unlike Discworld is linked off Terry Pratchett, Middle Earth is not linked off JRR Tolkien. This will be a moot point anyway once subpages no longer exist. -- Ap

Anyone planning to write pages for individual books? I'd do it except, uh, I don't want to. :). AW

I have written a few and plan to do more (I've just read the whole series). I also plan to rewrite the main page a bit and do more on the characters and such. -- poco poco 10:48 22 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Short Stories

Why are the short stories "Turntables of the Night" and "Hollywood Chickens" not mentioned? They appeared in the anthologies "The Flying Sorcerers – More Comic Tales of Fantasy" and "Knights of Madness" —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 212.47.183.195 (talk • contribs) .

Err, because they're not Discworld short stories? :-) Stephenb (Talk) 18:00, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

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no point in making the title longer: does anything else need to be at "Discworld"?. And don't do "cut&paste" moves, please (see the FAQ for more) -- Tarquin 22:02 Dec 21, 2002 (UTC)

Classification

Is Thief of Time a Death novel? Yes, susan and death appear, but as side characters - the book is mainly about the history monks. Daveryan 06:06 19 Jun 2003 (UTC)

For me this is a Susan novel, Susan is a relative of Death, so the book can be added to the "Death" novels. If there will be more Susan novels (I am look forward to that! ;-) , then we can group it to "Susan", if the History-monks get more novels, then they could also be used as a new group. Fantasy 06:40 19 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I listed it as "or arguably miscellaneous" - Susan shows at the end, yes, but none of her family do. I also wonder whether the Nac Mac Feegle books should be listed under "witches" - but I haven't read the latest of those. Pakaran. 23:44, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I'd say the Tiffany books are probably witch books; Hat Full Of Sky features Granny Weatherwas in a major role, and is almost as much a sequel to The Sea And Little Fishes as it is to Wee Free Men. I'd also say that Thief of Time is a "Death" novel; Susan is one of the main characters, just like she was in Hogfather and Soul Music (she's just as significant relative to Lobsang as she was relative to Buddy, IMO), and her grandfather plays a significant supporting role, just like he does in the earlier books (Reaper Man is the only one that's really about Death himself).

On the other hand, I'd say The Last Hero is a Rincewind book, so maybe I'm to easy with the categories 8-). Daibhid C 23:24 24 August 2004 (UTC)

When I have to classify the Discworld books, I'd double-classify some of them, Thief of Time for one could be Death and miscellaneous, The Last Continent could be the Wizards and Rincewind...--SmegEd 7 July 2005 17:33 (UTC)

Perhaps rather than "death" books, we should be talking about "personification of great natural forces" books. I'm thinking of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortallity books. TP has done death and time. War and Fate -- well, one is a god, and one was peripherally mentioned in Thief of Time. And Gia, possibly, is the great turtle herself. Thus the book about Om kind of belongs here.

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On a related note, could Moving Pictures be classed as a Wizards book? It does introduce the personalities of most of the figures who are prominent through the rest of that group. -FZ 00:12, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Would it be reasonable to argue that certain books such as 'Small Gods' and 'Pyramids' could be classified as the God books? They have, after all, at one point been published in a trilogy under that name, I believe. See: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0575070366/ref=si_1_1/026-7441268-9440401 for more details. - Featherfin 30 Aug 2005

Children's books

I hotly dispute the claim that A Hat Full of Sky is a childrens' book. To be fair, though, I just finished it and haven't come down from whatever's the literature equivalent of being high yet. -- Kizor 22:45, 9 May 2004 (UTC)

To quote the author (during a discussion yesterday on the use of chapters in the new book... "A Hat Full Of Sky is a children's book, just like The Wee Free Men, Truckers and the Johnny Maxwell series". Sorry! --Dan Huby 11:11, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

Righto. --Kizor 15:49, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

It's a Very Pratchett Children's Book (tm), to paraphrase the man himself, You can tell it's a children's book because it has more blood and guts than normal; It's the type of book kids want to read, not the type their parents want them to... --JeffUK 15:19, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

help, please

There's a query at Talk:Great A'Tuin in re H-R diagrams. Can anyone help with this?

It's been answered now. --Paul A 06:46, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)

The Last Hero: mass market edition?

Does anyone know if there are plans to release The Last Hero in a mass-market paperback format (i.e. normal sized paperback)? --Phil | Talk 10:52, Aug 25, 2004 (UTC)

From the man himself:

There are currently no plans for TLH to be published sans pix, as happened with Eric. I think the novel would need to be considerably lengthened to make that work, and I'd rather spend the time on something new.

List of Novels

I've added a couple of possible future novels talked about in 'The Art of Discworld' to the list of novels - maybe it might be better to put these into a [new] future novels section. --NeilTarrant 20:50, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I take issue with the listing of "first novel in the series". At least some mention of Strata, published in 1981 should be mentioned. It is missing from the complete article. Strata provides a background that is the foundation of much of the remaining Discworld series. ChadC 21:47, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Strata doesn't seem to share too much with Discworld, apart from the idea of the disc-shaped world. Still, I can't remember the plot too well. Nethertheless I have added something about it to the 'novels' section. --Neo 22:04, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Strata is a hard science fiction novel about Discworld. It features a disc shaped world sitting on elephants sitting on a turtle. Talking animals, flying dragons, etc are all featured, but not as comedic elements in a fantasy novel, but as participants in a interstellar joke among planet building entities. The machinery that makes Discworld work is exposed and explored as a straight-faced adventure novel. The odd part is that Strata predates the other novels, and I'm not sure if Pratchett intended it to become Discworld or not. -ChadC 15:14, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Change focus of this article

I think that it might be best to change to focus of this article to the Discworld itself, taking out all the novels (and related work) information to something like Discworld publications and works (been trying to think of a decent title for ages!). There is plenty to say about the Discworld itself and I think it should be written separate from the novel/play/etc. information. violet/riga (t) 11:19, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Please see User:Violetriga/inprogress for a rough general idea (needs a lot of work so feel free to play around there). violet/riga (t) 11:48, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I think that the idea of splitting the article into two isn't a bad one, but I think that the article about the novels, etc. should be the one at Discworld. Information about the novels is of a much wider interest than the specifics about the world itself. If I were a random reader who had never before heard of Discworld, I'd be much more interested by the fact that it was a best-selling series of 30+ books and various spin offs than I would be to read about various fictional continents in a context withe very little to establish notability.

I think we should keep the "real world" elements where they are, possibly expanding to cover, for instance, sales figures, awards won, longevity, literary themes, or so on. This can establish notability to the casual reader, who can then go on to read the minutiae of the world itself at a different page -- possibly something like Discworld (world) -- if they so wish. Rho 12:41, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Very good suggestion - I reckon we should do that. I'm thinking of merging some of the continent articles together as shown in a very rough draft here and expanding it to cover different aspects of the world. violet/riga (t) 12:47, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Right, this has all been done:

• Discworld contains all the information about the books etc.
• Discworld (world) contains all the information about the world itself

I think that any reference to the former should be italicised and any reference to the world shouldn't be; that will allow some form of disambig between the two. That may involve quite a bit of work and I by no means think all the Discworld articles are brought together properly quite yet - WikiProject anyone? violet/riga (t) 19:42, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I'm up for it. I've found a lot of stuff that I want to change since I started poking at the discworld articles. Rho 01:51, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

WikiProject

There is now a WikiProject for the Discworld articles – please lend your support at Wikipedia:WikiProject Discworld. violet/riga (t) 00:12, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Stealth Philosophy

I recently added the section on Stealth Philosophy. This is my first wikipedia entry, so I'm not certain as to how good it was... still, I felt it should be added. =)

The Nth novel in the Discworld series

Hello. I love the series and happen to own quite a few the books, and one thing I have noticed--as I tend to read the sort of "inner blurb" or whatever you call the piece of writing next to a rather dark picture of Terry right at the beginning of the books--is that they usually say something to the effect of "Moving Pictures is the tenth novel in the phenomenally successful Discworld series". This is alright up until Nightwatch which the book says is 27th, Monstrous Regiment 28, Going Postal 29th, but the articles on wikipedia seem to differ because, as I figured out, they include the 3 Young Adult novels and the 1 Illustrated novel in the numbering scheme. Would it be possible to rather have a scheme for Discworld novels like this:

Novels: 1-29... Illustrated novels: 1.. Young adult novels: 1-3... ?

It is also what http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/Terry_Pratchett.htm (and the books themselves) seem to use. --Ajshm 14:21, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

I wouold include the illustrated novels with the novels because of the I believe that Eric has both been released with and without illustrations. I don't think that it makes sense to make a differnce between them here. L-space puts all Discworld novels in the order they have been realesed. My personal oppinion is that we should number the books as they appear in the template – that we should count the children's novels separtly. Jeltz talk 15:16, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

About Eric, it has indeed been released first with illustrations as a "Discworld story" (?) and later without illustrations in the vain of previous books. The Last Hero has never been released without illustrations, in fact, the paperback has more illustrations than the hardcover. It's not as if I want to somehow snub TLH, it is a great and very special book. But somehow I think that something that is written in the books takes precedence "x is the nth novel in the...", or at least it would seem strange to ignore this.

I have changed the template a little bit, which incidentally makes it more compact. All Discworld novels (Discworld themed novels by Pratchett) are under the Novels: heading, not separating YA Novels, they are a "sub-list" along with the illustrated novel TLH. --Ajshm 16:05, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Spoiler warning?

The discussion of Rincewind stories includes what I suppose is a major plot point in Sourcery. Shouldn't there be a spoiler warning? Or, better, remove this detail as not particularly relevant to the discussion? Phiwum 11:31, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

I think that it should be removed as an unnecessary spoiler. Jeltz talk 17:51, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

More motifs to the list of novels.

I think that several motifs must be specified for each novel. For example to "Soul Music" motifs one can add Family Entertainment Copyright Act, FUD and some more.

I added the 'Blues Brothers' motif for soul music as the book mimics scenes from the film frequently. (I think there were about 5 large scenes and several other smaller mentions). - Icecradle 12:29, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Joan of Arc.

"Joan d'Arc" (in the description of _Monstrous Regiment_) should be either Joan of Arc or Jeanne d'Arc. Is she actually mentioned in the book? If so, I would think it best to go with whichever Pratchett uses. If not, I vote for Joan of Arc since the article's in English.

Making Money?

Much to my delight I find a new Discworld book on the list, but it was added by an anon user. Can anyone find the source of the info? Thegreatloofa 13:21, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

This seems to be legit, as the source of the rumor is Paul Kidby himself (scroll down to January 6th)...great news indeed :) -- Ferkelparade π 15:13, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Image:Discworld_Map.jpg

I've reverted the image addition, as I suspect the map, which was commercially released, is still under copyright. The website the user took the image from is a fan page, which I suspect illegally scanned the image. Whether it is fair use, given that the map is the product, is doubtful. Does anyone have any info about whether the image is free for "promotional" use, though? Stephenb (Talk) 09:58, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

I believe that we could use this under fair use because it is a low resolution copy of the map, and it definitely adds to the article. If someone had never heard of the "discworld" then this would be a necessary encyclopedic tool. Fosnez 11:04, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, but it's a commerically produced product. We need permission to use it. It would be nice, yes, but so would most of the images that get deleted from wikipedia. - DavidWBrooks 11:25, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm still getting my legs for the fine line of copyright... The Map also appears inside the front cover of the Unseen Library reprintings of the books. Could we use the Book cover copyright tab? Fosnez 01:25, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

They would presumably have payed for its use - if you have a copy, see if there's an attribution on the credits page. Stephenb (Talk) 09:47, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

Would it be worth emailing Terry Prachett & asking if he would approve its use? He has frequently stated he has no objections to the use of his books as plays if people ask permission. This is diffent but the use of a low res image would seem somthing he might consider Nate1481 17:53 27 July 2006

It would be whoever holds the copyright - it might be Pratchett, but it's more likely to be the artist (Stephen Player, IIRC) and the publishers (Gollanz?) who would need to be asked. Stephenb (Talk) 19:22, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Citation

I believe that Scotsman.com has citation for Terry Pratchet as the most shoplifted author in Britain. (look in the first paragraph) If nobody objects, I will go ahead and add it into the article.

No objections, so I added it in jf 00:29, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Pratchett Portfolio

In the list of discworld books, we have listed "The Discworld Portfolio" as being a collection of Paul Kidby's art. This is not the case - when you click on the link, it brings you to the correct page, because that particular book is entitled "The Pratchett Portfolio," whereas "The Discworld Portfolio" is a completely separate book along the same lines. The correct title for that book is "The Josh Kirby Discworld Portfolio," and it contains the late Josh Kirby's art. They should be listed separately.

Unless, of course, I have gone completely nuts, and I am mixing things up.

Great A'Tuin

I seem to recall as a kid learning about a myth about the Earth being held on the back of elephants, which in turn are on the back of a turtle. When I first was introduced to Discworld, I thought Prattchet had used that ancient myth as the basis of his novels. However, the only myth I could find that was similar was an Iroquois myth that had the earth on the back of a turtle. I have yet to find a myth that has both the turtle and elephants. I thought that perhaps I was just confusing Discworld with this myth, but the Discworld (world) article indicates that it was in "reference to popular mythology." Can anyone help me out here? What was the myth? If it exists, it should be mentioned in the article.

-- Fogelmatrix 16:10, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

The world on the back of a turtle is a reasonably common myth (see the delightful article Turtles all the way down) - I've always assumed that's what Pratchett meant. I've never heard of a world-on-the-back-of-an-elephant, and certainly not both elephants and turtles, but that's a possibility. - DavidWBrooks 18:43, 18 October 2006 (UTC)