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From: leo@ph.tn.tudelft.nl (Leo Breebaart) Subject: The Annotated Pratchett File, v3.0 Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett Archive-name: annotated-pratchett Last-modified: 1992/09/22 21:55:26 Version: 3.0 Maintained-by: Leo Breebaart (leo@ph.tn.tudelft.nl)

*** Welcome to the Annotated Pratchett File! ***

--- What's all this, then?

"This" is the Annotated Pratchett File (or APF for short).

Discussions in alt.fan.pratchett have made it clear that sometimes people are not 'getting' all of the jokes and references in Terry Pratchett's work. If you have never read Tolkien, you won't know when he's parodying Tolkien. If you are American, you might not understand some of the typically British references. And so on.

This file is an ongoing attempt to document and explain some of these references, so that we might all enjoy Terry's books even more than we already do.

Where appropriate, this file also incorporates selected passages from articles that Terry himself has posted to alt.fan.pratchett. As an active contributor to the group he often provides us with inside information on many aspects of his writing, and it would be a waste to let this first-hand knowledge just disappear into the vacuum of Usenet history. The APF tries to preserve all the interesting bits of Terry's postings that deal with his writing.

--- Great idea, this APF; how can I help?

Glad you asked. Input from a.f.pratchett readers is the only thing that is going to make the APF grow into something truly useful, and earn it its pretentious 'annotated' claim. You can mail your explanations to:

leo @ ph.tn.tudelft.nl

if you want to be sure I see them, but I scan a.f.pratchett as well, so just mentioning something in an article should also work fine.

--- So, didya notice that "Cohen the Barbarian" is a pun on "Conan the Barbarian"?

In the first versions of the APF, I had the following answer to this question:

"No kidding. But let's try to avoid explaining the blindingly obvious, shall we? Now if Cohen, on page 98 of "The Light Fantastic" did something hilariously similar to what Conan did in a 1957 issue of "Conan Comics" -- that would be something else."

In retrospect an unfortunate paragraph, which has caused more then 90 % of the submissions I get to start out with: "This is probably too obvious, but...".

The fact is simply that everybody has different (and sometimes *vastly* different, believe me) ideas of what is trivial and what is obscure. So please just keep sending me everything that might warrant inclusion, no matter how glaringly obvious you think it is, and leave it to me to make the decision on whether to actually include it or not -- that's what I'm editor for.

--- Will you get on with it, already?

Ok, ok. Here are the annotations I have collected so far. Note that I am merely editor of this stuff: most of it has been supplied by or stolen from various Usenet correspondents. All the credits are theirs; all typos and other mistakes are mine. Page numbers refer to whatever version of the book in question I happen to have. Use them as a rough estimate.

Be aware that the information below by its very nature contains many SPOILERS, so read the APF only if you're sure you don't care about that.

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THE COLOUR OF MAGIC

+ [p.9] The two barbarians, Bravd and Weasel, are parodies of Fritz Leiber's classic fantasy heroes Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. However, Ankh Morpork is *not* derived from Leiber's similar sounding city Lankhmar from the same series. Terry says: "Bravd and the Weasel were indeed takeoffs of Leiber characters -- there was a lot of that sort of thing in TCOM. But I didn't -- at least conciously, I suppose I must say -- create Ankh-Morpork as a takeoff of Lankhmar. Originally it was just Morpork, then Ankh just sounded nice..."

Finally, the name "Ankh Morpork" also does not have anything to do with the Australian and New Zealandian birds (a species of frogmouth and a small brown owl, respectively) that go by the name of 'Morepork'.

- [p.18] The inn called 'The Broken Drum' gets burned down in this book. The later Discworld novels all feature an inn called 'The Mended Drum'. The novel "Strata" contains (on p. 35) an explanation of why you would call a pub 'The Broken Drum' in the first place: "You can't beat it".

- [p. 24] Terry has this to say about the name 'Twoflower': "[...] there's no joke in Twoflower. I just wanted a coherent way of making up 'foreign' names and I think I pinched the Mayan construction (Nine Turning Mirrors, Three Rabbits, etc)."

+ [p. 117] "I'LL GET YOU YET, CULLY, said Death [...]" Death is addressing Rincewind here, so the use of what looks like another name is confusing. Terry explains: "Cully still just about hangs on in parts of the UK as a mildy negative term meaning variously 'yer bastard', 'man', 'you there' and so only. It's quite old, but then, Death is a history kind of guy."

- [p. 169] After Rincewind and Twoflower escape from the Wyrmberg they are flying a dragon one moment and a modern jetliner the next. Clearly they have been "translated to another plane" (the last few paragraphs of that section seem to support this theory). Note also the "powerful travelling rune TWA" appearing on the Luggage: Trans *World* Airlines.

- [p.171] 'Zweiblumen' is the literal German translation of 'Twoflower'. 'Rjinswand', however, is merely something that was intended to *sound* Scandinavian -- it is not a word in any language known to the readers of alt.fan.pratchett.

THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

- [p. 7] The philosopher Ly Tin Weedle makes two other cameo appearances in Discworld novels, once in a "Mort" footnote on p. 24, and once in "Sourcery", on p.212.

+ [p. 37] "Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper." From the first Arnold Schwarzenegger "Conan the Barbarian" movie: "Conan! What is good in life?" "To crush your enemies, drive them before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women."

EQUAL RITES

[ I can't believe that we do not have one single annotation from this book. Surely there must be *something*? Come on people, I'm counting on you... ]

MORT

+ [p. 183] "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards because a refusal often offends, I read somewhere." Ysabell probably read this in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" where we find: "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards because they are subtle and quick to anger". [Anybody knows just *who* says this, and when? My own gut feeling is either Aragorn or some boring old Elf like Elrond -- but I am far from sure...]

SOURCERY

+ [p. 122] "'It looks like someone has taken twice five miles of inner city and girded them round with walls and towers,' he hazarded." From Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Xanadu": "So twice five miles of fertile ground / With walls and towers were girded round".

+ [p. 122] 'Sherbet' is not a drink or a type of ice-cream, but a sort of fizzy sweet powder children eat as a sweet.

+ [p. 125] "My name is Creosote, Seriph of Al Khali, [...]" Ok, lessee: Creosote puns on the proverbially rich Croesus [but who was Croesus, exactly?], 'Serif' is a typography term which also puns on 'caliph', and 'Al Khali' is pronounced 'alkali' (just covering all the bases here, as my original source put it).

+ [p. 126] Creosote's poetry is all based on Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the "Rubayat" of Omar Khayyam (probably the third edition - each of the six or so translations Fitzgerald published is very different, even to the point of different rhyme schemes). The poem parodied on this page goes:

"A jug of wine, underneath the bower, A book of verse, a loaf of bread... and Thou, And paradise is happiness enou (enough)"

+ [p. 126] The hashishim as the "original Assassins".

From "The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (a 19th century book, still in print today. My source for this annotation is almost certain that Terry Pratchett uses this book for many of his classical/mythic references. Terry?):

"Assas'sins. A band of Carmathians, collected my Hassa, subah of Nish'apour, called the Old Man of the Mountains, because he made Mount Leb'anon his stronghold. This band was the terror of the world for two centuries, when it was put down by Sultan Bib'aris. The assassins indulged in haschisch (bang), an intoxicating drink, and from this liquor recieved their name."

+ [p. 129] "Get up! For the morning in the cup of day, / Has dropped the spoon that scares the stars away." The "Rubayat": "Awake! for morning in the bowl of night \ Hath flung the stone which puts the stars to flight."

+ [p. 132] "The Seriph's palace, known to legend as the Rhoxie, [...]" The real Croesus' palace had a name that is also often used for cinema's. [Anybody??]

+ [p. 141] "Nijel the Destroyer" may be a suitably heroic-looking name, but 'Nijel' is of course pronounced as 'Nigel', a name that is traditionally associated with wimpy rather then heroic guys.

+ [p. 167] "'I'm looking up the Index of Wandering Monsters', said Nijel." 'Wandering Monsters' is a phrase that comes from the world of fantasy roleplaying games such as "Dungeons and Dragons", and it more or less means just what you think it means. Nijel is of course exactly the type of nerd who would, in our world, actually play D&D.

+ [p. 215] Significant Quest --> Trivial Persuit.

WYRD SISTERS

- This whole novel brims with Shakespearian references, to the Scottish Play and Hamlet in particular (the three witches, the blood that won't come off, the king's ghost, etc.). Some of the more striking references are documented below, but the list is far from exhaustive.

- Throughout the book, Hwel the Playwrite suffers from flashes of inspiration that come from plays and movies in our world. Most of these references are easy to understand (Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, etc.), and need not be listed here. Three entries that seem to me (slightly) less obvious are documented in this section.

- [p. 36] The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered At All. Terry invented the song; he has *not* written any complete words to it; but many fans (including a folk singer called Heather Wood) have; and there *did* turn out to exist an old Oxford drinking song that also uses the key phrase of the hedgehog song. See the end of this file for one documented version of that song. Terry pleads parallel evolution, and observes that: "There is a certain, how shall I put it, natural cadence to the words."

+ [p. 58] The play's subtitle: "Please Yourself" probably refers to Shakespeare's "As You Like It".

- [p. 60] "It was the cats and the rollers skates that were currently giving him trouble..." Refers to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals "Cats" and "Starlight Express".

+ [p. 133] "'I have no recollection of it at this time,' he murmured." Duke Felmet is echoing the words of Ronald Reagan during the Iran contra-affair. [Or was it at some other time, or somebody else? Americans, help!]

+ [p. 142] "Greebo's grin gradually faded, until there was nothing left but the cat, This was nearly as spooky as the other way round." Refers to the Cheshire cat in Lewis Caroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", who is famous for slowly vanishing until only the grin remains.

- [p. 158] "[...] the hero had been born in a handbag" The protagonist in Oscar Wilde's "The Importance Of Being Earnest" was found as a baby in a handbag.

+ [p. 160] The Dysk. The famous theatre build by Shakespeare & Co. was called "The Globe".

- [p. 193] "1ST WITCHE: He's late. (Pause)" [Etc.] Refers to Samuel Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot".

+ [p. 213] "I'd like to know if I could compare you to a summer's day. Because -- well, June 12th was quite nice, and ..." One of Shakespeare's more famous sonnets [but what is the bloody thing called?] is the one that starts out "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day".

PYRAMIDS

+ [p. 14] The Young Men's Reformed-Cultists-of-the-Ichor-God-Bel-Shamharoth Association puns on our world's YMCA youth hostels. YMCA stands for Young Men's Christian Association.

- [p. 17] Djelibeybi. A pun on the sweets called Jelly Babies.

+ [p. 20] On the subject of the Assasin's Guild School, Terry has this to say: "Yes, the whole setup of the Assassins Guild school has, uh, a certain resonance with Rugby School in "Tom Brown's Schooldays" (note to Americans: a minor Victorian classic of school literature which no-one reads anymore and which is probably now more famous for the first appearance of the Flashman character subsequently popularised by George MacDonald Fraser)."

- [p. 95] Pteppic's dream about the seven fat and seven thin cows is a reference to the Bible's Joseph's, who had to explain a similar dream (which did not have the bit about the trombone, though), to the Pharaoh. "Pyramids" is of course riddled with religious references, most of which are too obvious or too incomplete to warrant inclusion here.

+ [p. 117] Ptraci. Should be pronounced with a silent 'p'. Note also that in England the name Tracey (Sharon, too) is often used to generically refer to the kind of girl immortalized in the "dumb blonde" jokes.

- [p. 127] Notice the sound accompanying the pyramid flares. It phonetically spells "Cheops".

- [p. 176] The philosophers shooting arrows at tortoises are discussing their own special version of Zeno's paradox, involving Achilles and a Tortoise. See also Hofstadter's "Godel, Escher, Bach". Or Zeno.

- [p. 197] The Tsortean wars refer to the Trojan wars (read also "Eric". Or Homer.)

+ [p. 197] Philosophers' names. Xeno refers to Zeno, of aforementioned paradox. Copolymer ("the greatest storyteller in the history of the world") probably refers to Homer. Pthagonal ("a very acute man with an angle") to Pythagoras. Iesope ("the greatest teller of fables") to Aesop. Antiphon ("the greatest wrfiter of comic plays") to Aristophanes. And Ibid is actually short for ibidem, which means, when citing literature references, to mean 'same author as before'. Hence: "Ibid you already know". [This covers them all, except for Endos the Listener? Anybody?]

ERIC

- [p. 21] The book Eric uses to summon his demon has the title "Mallificarum Sumpta Diabolicite Occularis Singularum", or the Book of Ultimate Control. But note the initials.

- [p. 51] Ponce da Quirm, looking for the Fountain of Youth is a pun on Ponce de Leon, the 15th century Spanish nobleman who did the same.

- [p. 75] Lavaeolus is not only a dog-latin translation of 'Rincewind', but the character is also a parody of Ulysses, tragic hero of the Trojan wars.

GUARDS! GUARDS!

Many references to well-known detective novel and cop action movies here.

- [p. 48] The motto of the Night Watch: "FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC" is dog-latin for "Make my day, punk", a well-known Clint Eastwood quote. Notice also that the translation Terry supplies ("To protect and to serve") is actually the motto of the American police [or just the Los Angeles Police Department???? Anybody?]

+ [p. 94] "'Just give me the facts, m'lady,' he said impatiently." "Just the facts, ma'am", is a famous quote from the Dragnet TV series (later a Dan Ackroyd/Tom Hanks movie).

+ [p. 104] "Pour encourjay lays ortras". Discworld version of the well-known French phrase "pour encourager les autres". The phrase originates with Voltaire who, after the British executed their own admiral John Byng in 1757 for failing to relieve Minorca, was inspired to write (in Chapter 23 of "Candide"), a sentence that translates to: "in this country we find it pays to shoot an admiral from time to time to encourage the others".

+ [p. 104] The bit about the hero killing a monster in a lake, only to have the monster's mum come right down the hall the next day and *complain*, is a reference to Grendel and his mother, two famous monsters appearing in the Beowulf saga.

- [p. 108] "Once you've ruled out the impossible then whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truth. [...] There was also the curious incident of the orangutan in the night-time ..." This paraphrases a famous piece of Sherlock Holmes dialogue found in the story "Silver Blaze" [and it perhaps also refers to Edgar Allan Poe's "The murders in the Rue Morgue". Terry??].

+ [p. 124] "This is Lord Mounjoy Quickfang Winterforth IV, the hottest dragon in the city. It could burn your head clean off." Vimes replays here one of the best-known scenes in Clint Eastwood's first Dirty Harry movie.

MOVING PICTURES

This one has uncountable references to classic Hollywood movies and anecdotes.

- Terry actually meant for Gaspode to die at the end of the book, but his editors/publishers/beta-readers made him reconsider.

- People have noticed that the two femme fatales of this novel are called Ginger and Ruby, both names signifying a red color. Terry Pratchett says that he did *not* intend this as a reference to Gone With The Wind's Scarlett.

- Instead, Ruby got her name because like all trolls she needed a mineral name. Ginger got her name because Terry wanted to use the Fred Astaire quote (see two notes further) about her partner, and so Ginger was an obvious choice for the leading lady's name.

+ [p. 15] Archchancellor Ridcully's wizard name is 'Ridcully the Brown'. In Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" there's a (relatively) minor wizard called 'Radagast the Brown', who was also very well in tune with nature, and definitely of the "roams-the-high-forest-with-every-beast-his-brother" type. Talked to the birds, too.

+ [p. 34] Movie producer Thomas Silverfish is directly modeled on movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn, whose real name was Samuel Goldfish. Many well-known Goldwyn quotes are repeated (in one form or another) by Silverfish throughout the book ("you'll never work in this town again", "include me out", etc.).

- [p. 41] "No-one would have believed, in the final years of the Century of the Fruitbat, that Discworld affairs were being watched keenly and impatiently by intelligences greater than Man's, or at least much nastier; that their affairs were being scrutinised and studied as a man with a three-day appetite might study the All-You-Can-Gobble-For-A-Dollar menu outside Harga's House of Ribs..."

This paragraph is a word-by-word parody of H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds", which begins with:

"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.

[ The Jeff Wayne musical album "War of the Worlds" also contains a slightly abbreviated narration of this paragraph. It is not known which of the two Terry used as a source. ]

- [p. 47] "Can't sing. Can't dance. Can handle a sword a little". Refers to the quote "Can't act. Can't sing. Can dance a little" about Fred Astaire, reputedly said by a studio-executive after Fred's first screen test.

- [p. 62] "[...] Victor fights the dreaded Balgrog". In Tolkien you can find a very nasty monster called a Balrog.

- [p. 67] Ginger's real name is Theda Withel, which probably refers to Theda Bara, famous movie star of the 1920's, a kind of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, avant la lettre ('Theda Bara' is an anagram of 'Arab Death'!). Her portrayal of evil women in movies like "The Blue Flame" and "Kiss Of A Vampire" caused the current meaning of the word 'Vamp' to be added to the English language.

- [p. 69] The resograph built by Riktor the Tinkerer. Terry says: "The reality meter in Moving Pictures is loosely based on a Han dynasty (2nd Century AD) seismograph; a pendulum inside the vase moves and causes one of eight dragons to spit a ball in the direction of the tremor."

+ [p. 132] Film studio names. Untied Alchemists is United Artists. Fir Wood Studios is Pinewood Studios. Microlithic Pictures is Paramount (tiny rock vs. big mountain), and Century Of The Fruitbat is Twentieth Century Fox. Terry says: "I've already gone electronically hoarse explaining that Floating Bladder Productions was just picked out of the air [...]"

+ [p. 145] We learn that on the Discworld, the "Necrotelecomnicom" (see also the entry for p. 262 of "Good Omens") was written by Klatchian necromancer Achmed the Mad, although he preferred to be called Achmed the I Just Get These Headaches. In real life, horror author H. P. Lovecraft tells us of the evil book "Necromnicon", written by the mad Arab Abdul al-Hazred.

+ [p. 164] "'In a word -- im-possible!' 'That's two words,' said Dibbler" Another Goldwyn quote: "I can tell you in two words: im-possible."

+ [p. 235] "Twopence more and up goes the donkey!" Terry explains: "[...] In Moving Pictures and Reaper Man a lot of use is indeed made of, god help me, Victorian street sayings that were the equivalent of 'sez you'. 'Tuppence more and up goes the donkey', a favourite saying of Windle Poons, comes from the parties of strolling acrobats who'd carry their props on a donkey. They'd make a human pyramid and collectors would go around with the hat declaring that 'tuppence more and up goes the donkey' as well. But the donkey never got elevated because, of course, the collectors always needed 'tuppence more'."

- [p. 249] The climactic scene of the novel is not only a king-kong reversal spoof. Terry says the 50 ft woman also refers to the protagonist from the 1958 movie "Attack Of The 50 Ft. Woman".

- [p. 266] Detritus hitting the gong in the underground theatre refers to the Rank Organization's man-with-the-gong trademark, which Rank used at the front of each film just as Columbia used the Statue of Liberty and MGM used the roaring lion.

+ As far as the giant statue is concerned, and the running gag about it reminding everyone of their uncle Oswald or Osric etc.: the nickname "Oscar" for the Academy Awards statuette supposedly originated with one of the secretaries involved in the organization saying that the statue looked like her uncle Oscar. [People have also been mentioning Bette Midler as a source. Does anybody *really* know the Straight Dope on this?]

- I am not going to attempt listing the correspondences between the click names in "Moving Pictures" and their movie counterparts in our world -- even I have better things to do, and most of them are not particularly difficult to understand. If somebody else supplies me with a nice, complete list, though...

REAPER MAN

+ The 'Bill Door' sections of this novel have many parallels with classic Westerns, e.g. "High Plains Drifter".

- [p. 9] Azrael is not a reference to Gargamel's cat in the Smurfs. Rather, they are both references to the Islamic Angel of Death, the last creature to die.

+ [p. 87] "Who is he going to call! *We're* the wizards around here". A reference to the catchphrase from the movie "Ghostbusters".

- [p. 138] "especially if they *do* let the younger wizards build whatever that blasted thing is they keep wanting to build in the squash court." This is a reference to the fact that the first nuclear reactor, built by Enrico Fermi, was indeed erected on a squash court.

+ [p. 179] "Remember -- wild, uncontrolled bursts..." From the movie 'Aliens': "Remember -- short, controlled bursts...". This entire section is filled with action-movie references ("Yo!"), but 'Alien/Aliens' seems to have been a particularly fruitful target. Many quotes and events have direct counterparts: "Yeah, but secreted from what?", "No one touch *anything*", "It's coming from *everywhere*!", "We are *going*", are only a few examples, and of course there is the matter of the Queen...

+ [p. 232] "*YES*" In the hardcover edition of "Reaper Man", this super-large word appears on a left page, so that it takes the reader by surprise as she turns the page. In the paperback edition this is not the case, thus spoiling the effect a bit. Terry says: "Do you really think I'm some kind of dumbo to miss that kind of opportunity? I wrote 400 extra words to get it on a left-hand page in the hardcover -- then Corgi shuffled people in the production department when it was going through and my careful instructions disappeared into a black hole. Go on...tell me more about comic timing..."

+ [p. 235] "To deliver a box of chocolates like this, dark strangers drop from chairliffs and abseil down buildings." A reference to a UK TV commercial for 'Milk Tray' chocolates, in which a James Bond like figure does death-defying stunts, only to leave a box of chocolates in some place where a woman finds them at the end of the ad.

+ [p. 235] "'DARK ENCHANTMENTS', he said. I *LIKE* IT." A reference to a brand of chocolates called Black Magic.

WITCHES ABROAD

- [p. 42] The section dealing with dwarves (and in fact, almost *everything* Pratchett writes about dwarves) is a parody of Tolkien's dwarves. In particular, compare the witches' musings on mine entries and invisible runes to Tolkien's scenes outside Moria. Dwarf bread is a direct reference to Tolkien's elven bread. And as the witches leave the dwarves, they have an encounter with a wretched creature mumbling something about his birthday...

- [p. 75] The names the witches are considering for themselves are puns on existing airline companies or their acronyms. Nanny Ogg starts to say "Virgin Airlines", but is rudely interrupted by a gust of wind.

+ [p. 79] "What does cojones mean?" 'Cojones' is Spanish for balls. The whole 'Thing with the Bulls' section spoofs the annual bull running festival of Pamplona in our world. Ernest Hemingway was very impressed with this macho activity, and used the word 'cojones' to describe the bravery displayed by the young men participating in the event.

+ [p. 122] The farmhouse landing on Nanny Ogg, and the subsequent events involving dwarfs looking for ruby-colored boots are references to The "Wizard of Oz" stories.

- [p. 134] "Not a Ronald in sight" Terry says: "Yep...direct use of existing East London rhyming slang there (Richard the Third = turd)."

- [p. 201] Casanunda, "the world's greatest lover", refers to our world's Casanova. Notice that Casanova is often roughly pronounced as "Casanover", and that Casanunda is a dwarf.

+ [p. 252] "Nanny kicked her red boots together idly. 'Well, I suppose there's no place like home,' she said". Another "Wizard of Oz" reference (kicking her boots together three times and saying that sentence invokes the spell that transports Dorothy home from Oz).

SMALL GODS

- [p. 9] Brother Nhumrod's name is an obvious pun on the man's sexual problems.

+ [p. 12] The Cenobiarch. This title is presumably derived from "Arch" (as in -bishop) and "Cenobite". A cenobite is a "member of a religious order following a communal way of life".

- [p. 23] "De Chelonian Mobile [...] The Turtle Moves" This whole theory parodies Galileo Galilei's struggle to get his theory of a moving earth (around the sun, that is) accepted by the Christian church.

- [p. 85] Terry Pratchett translates the book title "Ego-Video Liber Deorum" here as "Gods: A spotter's guide". Actually, the latin translates more literally as "The I-Spy book of gods". I-spy books are little books for children with lists of things to look out for. When you see one of these things you tick a box and get some points. When you get enough points you can send off for a badge. They have titles like "The I-Spy book of birds" and "The I-spy book of cars".

- [p. 110] "[...] if Xeno the Ephebian said, 'All Ephebians are liars --'" This is the famous Liar's paradox, originally involving Epimenides the Cretan.

- [p. 112] A running gag in the book is the penguin associated with Patina, the Goddess of Wisdom. This refers to Minerva/Pallas Athena, who was the roman/greek goddess of wisdom, and whose symbol was an owl.

+ [p. 115] The name Didactylos translates as "Two-fingers". In England a slightly milder from of "giving someone the finger" consists of extending two fingers downward in a reversed 'V for Victory' sign. The origin of this rude gesture dates back to the battle of Agincourt.

- [p. 121] "Nil Illegitimo Carborandum" is dog latin for "Don't let the bastards grind you down".

- [p. 128] "Worried, eh? Feeling a bit Avis Domestica? Cluck-cluck?" Avis Domestica = latin name for chicken.

- [p. 130] "'Ah,' said Didactylos. 'Ambi-sinister?' 'What?' 'He means incompetent with both hands,' said Om." Ambidextrous means able to use both hands equally well. 'dextr-' is the prefix meaning "right" as in "right hand". 'sinistr-' is the prefix meaning "left". Hence: ambisinister == having two left hands.

- [p. 138] Didactylos carrying a lantern and living in a barrel are references to Diogenes, famous philosopher who is reputed to have done the same.

+ [p. 162] "'Life in this world,' he said, 'is, as it were, a sojourn in a cave.'" This paragraph imitates a famous passage in Plato's "Dialogues" [Anybody out there have an exact quote I can use here?]

- [p. 162] "Go on, do Deformed Rabbit ...it's my favourite." Reference to the art of making shadow animals with your hands, as described on p. 36 of "Moving Pictures": "'Mainly my uncle did "Deformed Rabbit"', said Victor. 'He wasn't very good at it, you see.'"

- [p. 166] Didactylos' anecdote about the royal road to learning parodies a similar one told about Aristotle and Alexander the Great.

+ [p. 170] "'I'm just going out,' said Brutha. 'I may be some time.'" Brutha here repeats the last words of Captain Oates, who walked out in a blizzard on Scott's unsuccessful Antarctic expedition, in order to try and save food for the remaining expedition members. He was never seen again. It didn't work.

+ [p. 232] "I don't know what effect it's going to have on the enemy, he thought, but it scares the hells out of me." Paraphrases a comment made by the Duke of Wellington immediately before the Battle of Waterloo, about his own troops.

- [p. 241] "It was a million-to-one chance, with any luck." Refers back to a running gag in "Guards! Guards!": million-to-one chances come up one in ten times, on the average.

- [p. 244] "When you have their full attention in your grip, their hearts and minds will follow." 'Testiculos' does not quite translate as 'full attention'.

+ [p. 255] Could the name Fasta Benj possibly be derived from "Faster, Ben Johnson"?

+ [p. 262] The home of the Gods at the top of Cori Celesti, is referred to as "Dunmanifestin" on several places in the Discworld novels [I am trying to chase the earliest appearance. Anyone?] This a reference to the supposedly traditional name for a twee retirement bungalow in the suburbs. When people (especially the bourgeous middle classes) retire to the suburbs, they always, according to the stereotype, name the house with some 'cute' punning name, and one of the more common ones (though it is a matter of discussion if anyone has ever actually seen a house with this name) is 'Dunroamin' - that is "Done Roaming" - i.e. the owners of the house have finished "travelling the world" (sic) and are now settled down to a life of the Daily Mail, golf and coffee mornings. From this, we get that a retirement home for gods not possessing much taste, might just be named "Dunmanifestin".

- [p. 270] "REMIND ME AGAIN, he said, HOW THE LITTLE HORSE-SHAPED ONES MOVE". Refers back to a joke on p. 12 of "Sourcery", where we are told that Death dreads playing symbolic last chess games because "he could never remember how the knight was supposed to move".

- There is a rumour going round that there was to be a crucifixion scene at the end of this book but that the publishers made Terry take it out. To quote Terry on this: "Crucifiction in Small Gods: this is a familiar thing to me, a DW 'fact' that's gone through several retellings. Nothing's been taken out of SG, or put in, and there was no pressure to do either"

GOOD OMENS

- [p. 3] "[...] he was currently wondering vaguely who Moey and Chandon were". The Queen song "Killer Queen" contains the line: "She keeps the Moet et Chandon in a pretty cabinet". Freddie Mercury's pronunciation is indeed such that if you don't *know* what he's singing this phrase can be extremely puzzling.

- [p. 28] The three lost Shakespeare plays. "The Trapping of the Mouse" refers to Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" (which has now been running for more than 30 years in London), who in turn named her play after the play-within-a-play that occurs in ... Hamlet. "Golde Diggers of 1589" refers to the movie musical of similar name made in 1933, 1935 and 1937. [Does anybody know if "The Comedie of Robin Hoode, or the Forest of Sherwoode" also refers to something modern?] "The Mousetrap" is also the name of the play-within-a-play in Hamlet.

- [p. 40] The nursery rhyme Nanny Astoreth sings to Warlock:

"Oh, the grand old Duke of York He had ten thousand men He marched them up to the top of the hill And crushed all the nations of the world and brought them under the rule of Satan our master."

is a parody of the English original:

"The Grand old Duke of York He had ten thousand men He marched them all right up a hill And marched them down again

And when they were up they were up And when they were down they were down And when they were halfway up the hill They were neither up nor down"

Accompanied (in some versions) by fingers marching up the small child appropriate and stopping to tickle for the last line.

+ [p. 52] 'Another One Bites The Dust', 'We Are The Champions', 'I Want To Break Free' and 'Fat-Bottomed Girls' are all songs by Queen (see the explanation on p. 3]. Queen fans have pointed out that at the time Good Omens was released, there was no (or at least no easily available) Queen greatest hits album that actually contained all of these songs. A recently released double album has remedied this situation.

- [p. 98] "Sable signed for it, his real name -- one word, seven letters. Sounds like examine." But 'famine' only has six letters. Terry says: "Oh, yeah. The famous seven-lettered six letter name. [...] It's like this. In the original MS, it was six letters, because we can both count. And it was six letters in the Gollancz hardcover. And six letters in the Workman US hardcover. And became seven in the Corgi edition. No-one knows why."

- [p. 112] American readers should be aware that English tabloid papers traditionally show a photo of a topless girl on page three. Hence: "Newt [...] blushed crimson as he performed the obligatory nipple- count on page three".

+ [p. 126] "Newt's card was a Wasabi" 'Wasabi' is, in fact, a kind of horseradish used in sushi

+ [p. 127] "[...] the world's only surviving Wasabi agent in Nigirizushi, Japan." 'Nigirizushi' is a kind of sushi.

+ [p. 152] "The Kappamaki, a whaling research ship, [...]" 'Kappamaki' apparently is a Japanese cucumber role.

- [p. 158] "Hi. This is Anthoney Crowley. Uh. I --" Up to this point in the novel, we have only been told Crowley's first name begins with an 'A', leading to the false expectation that his name might be *Alistair* Crowley, as in the famous British mystic, theosophist, black-arts practicioner and "most evil man on Earth".

- [p. 180] The name Citron Deux-Chevaux refers to the Citroen 2CV, or deux-chevaux as it is commonly called in Europe ("chevaux" means horses -- 'CV' has an (very loose) connection with horsepower).

- [p. 191] "Sprechen Sie Deutsch" and "Parlez-vous francais" are German resp. French for "Do you speak German/French", but "Wo bu hui jiang zhongwen" is Chinese for "I can't speak Chinese". Terry blames Neil Gaiman for this one.

- [p. 203] "'Heigh ho,' said Anthony Crowley, and just drove anyway." This refers to an old British topical song about the Italian opera-singer Antonio Rolli, well-known in London during the Regency. The song was called "A frog he would-a wooing go", and The chorus has the lines:

With a rolypoly, gammon and spinach, Heigh ho, said Anthony Rowley.

This was intended to be a highly amusing satire on the way Italian people speak. It has only survived to this day as a children's rhyme (because of its references to talking animals and despite a totally confusing chorus).

- [p. 203] "What she really wanted to be was an internationally glamorous jet-setter, but she didn't have the O-levels." This has to do with the British education system. After the 8th grade you decide how many two-year O (Ordinary) level courses you are going to take (each with an exam at the end). Most non-minimum wage jobs ask for at least 5 O levels, people in college usually have 7 or 8. After your O levels you can either leave school or go on for A (Advanced) level courses, which take another 2-3 years.

- [p. 248] Dick Turpin is the name of a famous British highwayman. Hence the joke about Newt's car being called "Dick Turpin": "'Because everywhere I go, I hold up traffic,' he mumbled wretchedly."

+ [p. 262] The "Necrotelecomnicom" appears in the Discworld books as the "Book Of Talking To The Dead", i.e. the Phonebook of the Dead, as a parallel to the more accessible Tibetan and Egyptian Books of the Dead. (see also the entry for p.145 of "Moving Pictures")

+ [p. 262] The "Malleus Maleficarum" is the name of an existing 15th century guidebook for witch-hunters, written by Heinrich Kramer and Jospeh Sprenger (one a Dominican Inquisitor, the other the Major of Cologne), two high-ranking officials of the Catholic church. This book apparently became Europe's first bestseller after the invention of the printing press, and the (early 20th century) English translation of this book ("The Hammer of Witches") was still in print as late as 1971.

+ [p. 262] "Liber Fulvarum Paginarum" is dog latin for "Book of Yellow Pages"...

+ [p. 267] "And if you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot... no, imagine a trainer, laces trailing, kicking a pebble;[...]" From George Orwell's "1984": "If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever".

+ [p. 268] "Slouching hopefully towards Tadfield." From Yeats' poem "The Second Coming": "What rough beast, its hour come round at last / Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?"

- According to Terry, the U.S. edition of Good Omens has about 700 extra words in it, because: "The Workman editor wanted...how can I put this...some things explained more carefully."

- Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman did have the title "668 - The neighbour of the beast" on hand for a Good Omens sequel, but since Neil Gaiman lives in the US now, Terry says: "I can't see it ever being written".

STRATA

- The whole book is, in a very general way, modeled on Larry Niven's classic "Ringworld" novel: a group of differently-raced beings explore an improbable, artificial world and try to find its mysterious builders.

DARK SIDE OF THE SUN

Just as "Strata" borrows from Larry Niven, so does "The Dark Side Of The Sun" pay homage to the famous SF-writer Isaac Asimov.

- [p. 27] The robot Isaac is obviously modeled on Asimov's well-known positronic robots, and less obviously inspired by a similar robot that appears in Robert Sheckley's "Dimension Of Miracles". Isaac [the robot] follows a more extended version of Asimov's equally famous 'Three Laws of Robotics' though: on p. 53: "[...] Eleventh Law of Robotics, Clause C, As Amended,' said the robot firmly."

DIGGERS

+ The American version of the Nome trilogy is not word-for-word the same as the original one. Terry says: "The Truckers trilogy has a fair amount of changes of a 'pavement=sidewalk' nature which is understandable in a book which should be accessible to kids. They also excised the word 'damn' so's not to get banned in Alabama, which is a shame because I've always wanted to be banned in Alabama, ever since I first heard of the place."

- [p. 60] "iii. And the Mark of the Dragon was on it. iv. And the Mark was Jekub" 'Jekub' was the Nomes' attempted pronunciation of JCB, the name of a well-known manufacturer of tractors, diggers, and the like, whose logo of course appears on all their products. Jekub, incidentally, appears to be a 'back-hoe loader'. In the American version of the Nomes trilogy 'JCB' was changed to 'CAT', presumably standing for 'caterpillar'.

- [p. 142] "Jcb? Jekub? It's got no vowels in it. What sort of name is that?" This is also a play on YHWH, the classical Hebrew spelling of Yahweh, i.e. Jehovah.

THE DISCWORLD IDEA

Many people think the appearance of the Discworld as described in the novels was an invention of Terry Pratchett's. This is not the case: in Hindu mythology, for instance, we find the idea of a lotus flower growing out of Vishnu's navel. Swimming in a pool in the lotus flower is the world turtle, on whose back stand four elephants facing in the four compass directions. On their back is balanced the flat, disc-shaped world. See also Josh Kirby's magnificent drawing of the Discworld in the illustrated version of "Eric" (but please read the FAQ first if you are American and wondering where you can get that book).

THE HEDGEHOG SONG

Michael Green's book "Why was he born so beautiful and other Rugby songs" (1967, Sphere UK) contains a song called "The Sexual Life of the Camel", (possibly dating back to the 1920s/30s), which goes:

The carnal desires of the camel Are stranger than anyone thinks, For this passionate but perverted mammal has designs on the hole of the Sphinx, But this deep and alluring depression Is oft clogged by the sands of the Nile, Which accounts for the camel's expression And the Sphinx's inscrutable smile.

In the process of Syphilization From the anthropoid ape down to man It is generally held that the Navy Has buggered whatever it can. Yet recent extensive researches By Darwin and Huxley and Ball Conclusively prove that the hedgehog Has never been buggered at all.

And further researches at Oxford Have incontrovertibly shown That comparative safety on shipboard Is enjoyed by the hedgehog alone. But, why haven't they done it at Spithead, As they've done it at Harvard and Yale And also at Oxford and Cambridge By shaving the spines off its tail!

MORRIS DANCING (this section written by Rich Holmes)

STRATA, GUARDS! GUARDS!, and REAPER MAN

All three of these books refer to morris dancing. (In _Strata_, Kin remembers seeing robots do a morris dance and, later, hums an "old robot-Morris tune, _Mrs. Widgery's Lodger_." In _Guards! Guards!_ Nobby turns out to be a folk dancer in his spare time; morris isn't mentioned by name, but bells and hankies are cited. _Reaper Man_ begins with a page or so about the universality of morris dancing -- _Mrs. Widgery's Lodger_ is mentioned again -- and late in the book the "other dance" is described.)

All this may be lost on the typical American reader. Picture, then, six men in white shirts and trousers, decorated with ribbons, wearing bells on their legs, in a two-by-three formation -- the men, not the bells. To a tune played on fiddle or squeezebox, they dance up and down, back and forth, gesturing with big white handkerchiefs in their hands -- or, maybe, clashing yard-long willow sticks with one another. That's morris dancing, as it was done in the late 19th century in the Cotswolds region of England.

It's also done these days, throughout the English-speaking world (though in America it's not exactly an everyday sight), these days by women's teams and mixed teams as well. As for where it came from, and when, and what it all means, no one really knows. Its roots seem to go back to the European continent sometime in or before the 15th century. Similar, possibly related dances were and are found in Europe and even as far away as India. For a while in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was commonly claimed by folklorists to be the remnant of a pre-Christian fertility rite performed by a male priesthood; there's really no hard evidence to support (or refute) such a theory, though.

None of which stops people from doing it. It used to be the case -- maybe still is -- that morris dancing was taught in English schools as part of physical education, thus leaving most English people with about the same kind of impression as we Americans mostly have of square dancing, somewhere between amusement and nausea. Enough have not been soured on the whole thing, however, to staff (reportedly) several hundred morris teams in England as well as 170 or so in the U.S. and God knows how many in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and other odd places.

Terry Pratchett tells us he's "never waved a hankie in anger" nor knows any morris dancers personally, but that he finds the morris kind of fascinating.

For those interested, contact Tom Keays (libhtk@suvm.acs.syr.edu) or Rich Holmes (suhep.phy.syr.edu) about the Morris Dancing Discussion List. You knew there was an ulterior motive here, didn't you?

WORDS FROM THE MASTER

Here are a few excerpts from articles by Terry Pratchett that I think fall under the heading of 'annotations' but which are either not associated with one particular novel, or so long they would break the flow of the regular annotations.

Quotation marks (" ") indicate the beginning and ending of quotes from different articles.

+ On the lack of chapters in the Diskworld novels:

"DW books don't have chapters because, well, I just never got into the habit of chapters. I'm not sure why they should exist (except maybe in children's books, to allow the parent to say 'I'll read to the end of the chapter and then you must go to sleep.') Films don't have chapters. Besides, I think they interfere with the shape of the story. Use a bookmark is my advice."

+ On Discworld language use:

"A certain amount of DW slang comes from Palari or Polari, the fairground/ underworld/ theatre 'secret language' (which seems to have a lot of roots in old Italian). UK readers with long memories might recall the pair of gay actors 'Julian and Sandy', in the old Round the Horne radio show in the Sixties and Seventies (innocent times, innocent times); they spoke almost pure Palari."

+ On the writing of Good Omens:

"Neil and I had known each other since early 1985. Doing it was our idea, not a publishers deal."

"I think this is an honest account of the process of writing GO. It was fairly easy to keep track because of the way we sent discs to one another, and because I was Keeper of the Official Master Copy I can say that I wrote a bit over two thirds of GO. However, we were on the phone to each other every day, at least once. If you have an idea during a brainstorming session with another guy, whose idea is it? One guy goes and writes 2,000 words after thirty minutes on the phone, what exactly is the process that's happening?

I did most of the physical writing because: 1) I had to. Neil had to keep Sandman going -- I could take time off from the DW; 2) One person has to be overall editor, and do all the stitching and filling and slicing and, as I've said before, it was me by agreement -- if it had been a graphic novel, it would have been Neil taking the chair for exactly the same reasons it was me for a novel; 3) I'm a selfish bastard and tried to write ahead to get to the good bits before Neil.

Initially, I did most of Adam and the Them and Neil did most of the Four Horsemen, and everything else kind of got done by whoever -- by the end, large sections were being done by a composite creature called Terryandneil, whoever was actually hitting the keys. By agreement, I am allowed to say that Agnes Nutter, her life and death, was completely and utterly mine. And Neil proudly claims responsibility for the maggots. Neil's had a major influence on the opening scenes, me on the ending. In the end, it was this book done by two guys, who shared the money equally and did it for fun and wouldn't do it again for a big clock."

"Yes, the maggot reversal was by me, with a gun to Neil's head (although he understood the reasons, it's just that he likes maggots). There couldn't be blood on Adam's hands, even blood spilled by third parties. No-one should die because he was alive."

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