Monday 11 February 2019

Granny Weatherwax and 'friends'


When I’m in need of pure escapism from life, reality, pain, or whatever, I travel to The Discworld of Terry Pratchett.  Perhaps the following  quotes from “Equal Rites” may give you a hint why…


There was a village tucked in a narrow valley between steep woods.  It wasn’t a large village, and wouldn’t have shown up on a map of the mountains.   It barely showed up on a map of the village.
It was, in fact, one of those places that exist merely so that people can have come from them… Often there is no more than a little plaque to reveal that, against all gynaecological probability, someone very famous was born half way up a wall. 

‘And you know where it is?’
‘Yes,’ lied Granny, whose grasp of geography was slightly worse than her knowledge of sub-atomic physics.

Anyone watching closely would have noticed strange things happening as she passed by….  A boxful of marzipan ducks on a nearby stall came to life and whirred past the stallholder to land, quacking happily, in the river (where, by dawn, they had all melted: that’s natural selection for you).



Hilta gave her a mystified look, then climbed on her broom and rose slowly and erratically into the shadows among the chimneys.  If broomsticks were cars, this one would be a split-window Morris Minor.

‘No need to take that tone,’ said Granny.  ‘I don’t see why I should listen to that sort of language from a wizard who can’t even answer letters!’
‘Oh’,’ he said.  ‘Oh, I see.  They were from you, were they?’
‘That’s right. I signed them on the bottom.  It’s supposed to be a sort of clue, isn’t it?’

6 comments:

  1. Fun and witty. I would enjoy this reading as well.

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  2. I never got past the second. Ah well.

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  3. Haven't gotten to this series, work keeps me so busy i read less than half of what i used to. Now i will have to check it out.

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  4. Have read nearly all of them, many hours of pleasure. We called our animal room rat Magrat (note spelling) and my friend and I often go Yeth Mather and speak of Thauthages.... definitely on my reread list :)

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  5. Wonderful quotes. I've listened to all the Discworld novels as audio books (I was introduced to them by my brother who has collected the audio books in English). But I never read a single one in print. This probably means I've missed some subtleties like play on words that sound the same but are spelled differently (like rites/rights in this title). (Obviously I've seen all the titles in print... but not the rest of the text.) Maybe I should try one on Kindle!

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    1. Books on CD! I used to love that, until a CD got jammed in my player. As soon as I can figure out how to remove it, I will get back to listening!

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