Disney appreciation thread here

[Kalimaa23]

Hiya,

We have a Disney appreciation thread here. Why not have a DISCWORLD thread! Come on, you fellow Discworld lovers! Post your experience, favourites quotes, trivia or thoughts on Terry Pratchett's series here.

I've read every one of them exept Thud so far. I'll start of with some physics related quotes


"A Thaum is the basic unit of magical strength. It has been universally established as the amount of magic needed to create one small white pigeon or three normal sized billiard balls." - The Light Fantastic

"It was here that the thaum, hitherto believed to be the smallest possible particle of magic, was succesfully demonstrated to be made up of /resons/ (Lit.: 'Thing-ies') or reality fragments. Currently research indicates that each reson is itself made up of a combination of at least five 'flavours', known as 'up', 'down', 'sideways', 'sex appeal' and 'peppermint'." - Lords and Ladies

"The only things known to go faster than ordinary light is monarchy, according to the philosopher Ly Tin Weedle. He reasoned like this: you can't have more than one king, and tradition demands that there is no gap between kings, so when a king dies the succession must therefore pass to the heir *instantaneously*. Presumably, he said, there must be some elementary particles -- kingons, or possibly queons -- that do this job, but
of course succession sometimes fails if, in mid-flight, they strike an anti-particle, or republicon. His ambitious plans to use his discovery to send messages, involving the careful torturing of a small king in order t o modulate the signal, were never fully expanded because, at that point, the bar closed." - Mort

 

[fargoth]

well, i can't remember exact quotes... i really love this series, i think the first two books were the best (The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic), followed closely by Guards! Guards! and Reaper Man.
and the computer games (played the first and the second) are great too.

you got to love smart british humor.

i brought some quotes from wikipedia, because i felt wasnt contributing enough to this talk

Light is so oddly affected by magic that, as it passes into the Disc's atmosphere, it actually slows down from millions to hundreds of miles an hour, so that, as the Disc has no horizon, it is actually possible to see days into the past from some of the higher mountain peaks. One odd effect of this is that the Disc has time zones, when, as a flat world, it shouldn't. Another effect is that, as reported in Thud!, the red- and blue-shifting of light becomes noticeable when traveling at speeds of a hundred and twenty miles per hour.

and

With reality spread as thin as it is on the Disc, it is not surprising that events are easily affected by human expectations. Such a world is not governed by physics or logic but by belief and narrative resolution. Essentially, if something is believed strongly enough, it is true. Our world has jokes about treacle mines and drop bears; the Disc has treacle mines and drop bears. In our world, lemmings don't actually rush en masse off cliffs, but on the Disc they do, because that is what people believe. This acts as a useful energy saver in both wizard and witch magic. For example, if you wish to turn a cat into a human, the easiest way is to convince him, on a deep level, that he is a human.

well, instead of me c&ping what i like on that page, just go look there yourselves you parasites =)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_(Discworld )

 

[Astronuc]

for the uninitiated - Discworld oddities of note:

Anti-crimes: On the Disc, even crime has an opposite. Some anti-crimes include: breaking-and-decorating, proferring-with-embarassment, and whitemailing (as in, threatening to reveal to his enemies a mobster's secret donations to charity).

The Auditors of Reality: a race of beings whose job it is to make sure the universe functions properly and doesn't just do what it likes.

Computers: Young wizards at the Unseen University are experimenting with a device made of glass tubes full of busy ants. It might work some day, if they can get all the bugs into it.

Deities: There are 3000 known major gods on the Disc, and more are discovered by research theologians every week.

Genetics: Some wizards tried the experimental crossing of such well-known subjects as fruit flies and sweat peas. Unfortunately, they didn't quite grasp the fundamentals, and the resultant offspring -- a sort of green thing that buzzed -- led a short, sad life before being eaten by a passing vegetarian spider.

Balancing monks: Central to their faith is a belief that the Discworld will wobble if not balanced perfectly. The monks spend most of their time moving small weights around according to rituals in of their holy books.

Yen Buddhists: They believe that the accumulation of money is a great evil and a burden on the soul. They therefore, regardless of personal hazard, see it as their unpleasant duty to acquire as much money as possible to reduce the risk to innocent people.

 

[SamuelGreen800]

I love Pratchett's work. The guards series are definitely my favourite. I'm actually rereading "Jingo" right now.

 

[siddharth]

Computers: Young wizards at the Unseen University are experimenting with a device made of glass tubes full of busy ants. It might work some day, if they can get all the bugs into it.

It's made, called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_%28Discworld%29" . Because of the ants, there's a sticker which warns Anthill inside. The output is powered by a waterwheel covered in sheep skulls (male sheep or ... )

My favourite character is Lord Vetinari, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork.

"The Patrician was not a man you shook a finger at unless you wanted to end up being able to count only to nine." - Guards! Guards!

"I know who you are, he said. I know where you live. I know what kind of horse you ride. I know where your wife has her hair done. I know where your lovely children, how old are they now, my doesn't time fly, I know where they play. So you won't forget about what we agreed, will you? And he smiled.
So did they, after a fashion." - Guards! Guards!

'Ah, Drumknott,' said Lord Vetinari, 'just go and tell the head of the Musicians' Guild he wants a word with me, will you?' - Soul Music

Lord Vetinari has a vast spy network, and he himself is the head of intelligence, the only man who knows all of the information so far collected. It is rumoured that some of his spies are particularly intelligent rats who evolved under the magic-contaminated grounds of Unseen University. Vetinari is very good at listening, and has a way of making people uncomfortable so that they talk more and more in trying to dilute the atmosphere. Lord Vetinari is also very manipulative. His more obvious moves include the innovation of allowing crime syndicates to become legalized guilds much as guilds of people of other trades. This means that a certain amount of crime is legal, and it is the responsibility of the Thieves' Guild to punish unlicensed stealing, Assassins' Guild to punish uncontracted killing, etc., arguably doing a better job than the Guard (when the Thieves' Guild went on strike, crime actually increased). In politics Lord Vetinari strongly believes in the "one man - one vote" system, where he is the man and he has the vote.

...

(source:http://wiki.lspace.org/index.php/Havelock_Vetinari")

 

[Kalimaa23]

My favourite Vetinari quote :

"Vetinari ruled his city by the concept of One Man, One Vote. He was the Man. He had the Vote."

 

[jimmy p]

I love Discworld. My favourite book is The Last Continent.

"They say the heat and the flies here can drive a man insane. But you don't have to believe that, and nor does that bright mauve elephant that just cycled past."

Well... The Last Continent and Soul Music...