Discworld – Page 2

Episode 2 – Murdering a Curry

08/12/2017 by Pratchat Imps 2 Comments

In our second episode, writer and deputy culture editor for Guardian Australia Stephanie Convery joins us as we discuss the runner-up in our poll for which book to read first – Mort! Published 30 years ago, it’s the fourth Discworld novel, and the first to put Death in a starring role.

Mort (short for Mortimer), a daydreaming farmer’s son, is offered an apprenticeship by Death himself. Travelling outside of space and time to Death’s home, he finds things aren’t what he expects: Death has an elderly manservant, an adopted daughter, and an unusual interest in fly fishing. Mort, left to do the job alone, tries to defy fate in a very human (and teenage) moment – but can he possibly succeed? And why does an immortal anthropomorphic personification need an apprentice, anyway?

Mort is often cited (including by us) as the first book in the series that feels like the Discworld we know and love, so if you’re joining us for the first time this episode, this is a great place to start. (And don’t worry: we will go back and read the first three books at some point!)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:33:48 — 86.6MB)

Show Notes and Errata:

You can follow Stephanie on Twitter at @gingerandhoney, and find her work at Guardian Australia here.
Sir Terry’s thoughts on where to start reading the Discworld are most clearly outlined in the essay “Straight from the Heart, Via the Groin”, which is most easily found in the collection A Slip of the Keyboard.
“Mort” does mean death, but it’s not Latin – it’s French (or in Discworld terms, Quirmian).
A “squib” in the world of Harry Potter is the rare child of a magical person who is not magical themselves.
The lead Gentleman in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Hush was played by Doug Jones, now famous for playing Abe Sapien in the Hellboy films, the Faun and the Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth, and Saru in Star Trek Discovery. He plays Count Orlok, the titular vampire, in the upcoming remake of Nosferatu. And he’d make a great Death.
Christopher Lee was the voice of Death in both Cosgrove Hall animated adaptations (Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music), and The Mob’s live-action adaptation of The Colour of Magic, following Ian Richardson’s death. And his Death. (Richardson played Death in The Mob’s first Discworld adaptation, Hogfather.) The body of Death was played by Marnix Van Den Broeke, who also played the golem Mr Pump in Going Postal.
The horse that plays Bucephalus in Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is, unfairly, not named in the credits of the film.

Episode 1 – Boots Theory

08/11/2017 by Pratchat Imps 5 Comments

In our first (more than) full-length episode, Elizabeth and Ben are joined by comedian Cal Wilson to discuss the winner of our poll – Men at Arms (1993)! The fifteenth Discworld novel, Men at Arms is the second to focus on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, following Guards! Guards! (1989).

Captain of the Night Watch Samuel Vimes is only a week away from retirement – so of course “ethnic tensions” between dwarves and trolls are at boiling point, something explodes in the Assassin’s Guild, and there’s a murderer on the loose. Luckily the Watch has expanded, with three unorthodox new recruits…

It’s a real smorgasbord of Discworld stuff and a great introduction to the world, especially the quintessential Discworld city of Ankh-Morpork.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:27:12 — 85.5MB)

Show Notes and Errata:

You can follow Cal on Twitter at @calbo, and we promise to let you know the title of her book when she knows what it is! (Watch out for it in July.
Clowns in our world can and do copyright their face makeup, and the egg gallery is based on the “Clown and Character Registry”, where many clowns actually did register to have their makeup painted on a goose egg and displayed, though we were unable to discover whether the UK or US registries still exist. We’re sorry again, clowns. (Ben uses commedia dell’arte more-or-less correctly.)
99% Invisible is a podcast all about design, hosted by Roman Mars. The episode Ben mentions while discussing the Alchemist’s Guild is The Post-Billiards Age from May 2015.
There are indeed ghosts on the Discworld, appearing in several of the novels. We’ll be meeting some of them fairly soon…
The final Discworld book is actually The Shepherd’s Crown; I Shall Wear Midnight is the fourth-last, and the second-last to feature young witch Tiffany Aching. (We’ll keep our spreadsheet handy for future episodes.)
“Shoot” is used for arrows, as the term predates guns by many centuries.
CMOT Dibbler is pervasive once he arrives, but is not in The Colour of Magic. In fact he first shows up when the Watch does, in Guards! Guards!
Not only are Lord Vetinari’s plans for the future unknown, but it has also never been revealed how he ascended to the position of Patrician in the first place.
We are aware that despite being asked “which Guild would you join”, we decided we would be wizards, witches or members of the Watch, none of which have an official guild (at least at the time of Men at Arms).

Let’s Start From The Very Beginning (but not actually)

20/10/2017 by Elizabeth Flux Leave a Comment

The polls are in and though it was neck and neck throughout, Men At Arms won over Mort by a whisker. Sorry Mort – gonne but not forgotten.

We’re now deep into prep for next month’s episode. Ben’s dug up his lovingly-contacted copy*, we’ve been in chats with our ~special guest~, and now it’s time to address a question that came up during the voting process: why aren’t we starting at the beginning?

It’s a good point – one that we debated at length about, but in the end as much as we love The Colour of Magic (though some of us, admittedly, love it more than others) we didn’t feel that it represented Discworld as a whole as well as either Mort of Men At Arms would. The tone and voice isn’t quite the same as the slightly later books, and so we wanted to start with something that would give a better idea of what the series was like over all.

We will come back to it though, and we’ll discuss this and all the emotional luggage that comes along with it at greater length.

Thank you to everyone who voted and who has already listened to episode 0. We’ll see you again in November!

*and we’ve really been enjoying all the pictures you’ve been tweeting us of your copies.

Episode 0 – And the Winner is…

08/10/2017 by Pratchat Imps 5 Comments

Welcome to Pratchat! In this special 10-minute introductory episode, Liz and Ben talk about their first Pratchett experiences, introduce the Discworld, and put forward their cases for which book they should read first, Mort, or Men at Arms, before announcing the winner of the closely contested public poll. If you want to go in not knowing which one it will be, then don’t look below!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:59 — 19.3MB)

Okay, I think all the spoiler-concerned have looked away now…

It was Men at Arms! So get yourself a copy and get reading, as we’ll be discussing it on the very first proper episode, which will be released on November 8th. We’ll probably even have art and a theme tune and everything by then! In the meantime, you can watch this site for more info about the book itself, and our plans – including some thoughts about our long-term reading order. But if you have thoughts on anything we mention in the intro, please leave a comment and let us know!

Mort vs. Men At Arms: Help Us Choose!

02/10/2017 by Elizabeth Flux 9 Comments

We’re almost set to release our episode 0 — but we need your help. Deciding what book to begin with is a hell of a thing, and Ben and I have been arguing, debating, grumbling and then debating some more and we finally have it down to two options. So, in the interests of fairness, we are turning it over to you to help us decide which book will be kicking off our podcast!

“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.”