Terry Pratchett Disco world The novels are some of the most hilarious fantasy books ever written, but that hilarity also goes hand in hand with how well Pratchett understood people in all their blessings, flaws, joys, and mistakes. Disco world has a complicated reading order, with 41 novels in total that follow several of the world's main characters, such as Death, or Sam Vimes, the grizzled head of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch.
With Disco worldAs TV adaptations often fail to do justice to their sources, the books themselves remain the best way to appreciate Pratchett's unique blend of social commentary, with a little philosophy, a little theology, and a heavy dose of satire. What follows are ten quotes and passages from ten Disco world books – not necessarily the best Disco world novels, but ten moments that combine the profound and the absurd in a way only Terry Pratchett could.
10
“Lord, what can the harvest hope for but for the care of the reaping man?”
Death
Grim Reaperthe 11th overall novel and second book in the story of Death, continues the themes explored in the first book of Death, Dead. So the anthropomorphic personification of mortality hired an apprentice, Mort, to take a vacation; now, the influence of this event led Death to develop a personalitywhich his bosses, the Auditors of Reality, disapprove of, as they feel it affects the way he performs his duty of slaughtering souls. The Auditors send Death to live a normal life, and he ends up working as a farmhand.
ALL THE THINGS THAT ARE, ARE OURS. BUT WE MUST BE CAREFUL. BECAUSE IF WE DON'T CARE, WE DON'T EXIST. IF WE DON'T EXIST, THEN THERE IS NOTHING BUT BLIND FORGETTING. AND EVEN FORGETTING MUST END SOMEDAY. LORD, WILL YOU GIVE ME JUST A LITTLE LITTLE TIME? FOR THE PROPER BALANCE OF THINGS. TO RETURN WHAT WAS GIVEN. FOR THE SAKE OF THE PRISONERS AND THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS.
Death took a step back.
It was impossible to read the expression on Azrael's features.
Death looked askance at the servants.
LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST AWAIT, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?
With Death out of the way, the Auditors replace it with separate Deaths for each species, but it takes so long to make a New Death for humans that everyone who should have died in the meantime ends up having to move around like a slightly confused zombie. Once the New Death manifests, instead of following orders, he chases the original Death and tries to kill him.
Winning the fight against his replacement, Death realizes how badly the Auditors messed things up and regains his power, absorbing most of the other Deaths back into himself. He then appeals to the ultimate authority, Azrael, the Death of the Universe, pointing out that his personality and compassion are not just quirks, but an important part of how he does his work. His work tending the harvest helped him understand that The reason why your duty matters – why anything matters – is because it is something that is done with compassionate intention.
9
“This was Captain Samuel Vimes' theory of socioeconomic injustice.”
Vimes' Internal Monologue
The second book in the Night Watch storyline and 15th overall sees Captain Sam Vimes, on the eve of his wedding to Lady Sybil Ramkin, following the trail of an assassin who refuses to follow the rules of the Ankh-Morpork Assassin's Guild, using a mysterious projectile weapon called a “gonne”. Along the way, Vimes will also have to learn how to integrate non-human members into the Watch, facing times of prejudice on all sides.
The reason the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they were able to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month, plus allowances. A good pair of leather boots costs fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which worked well for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard ran out, was about ten dollars. They were the kind of boots that Vimes always bought and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobblestones.
But the problem is that good boots lasted years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that would still keep his feet dry in ten years, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots at the same time and still have wet feet.
This was Captain Samuel Vimes’ “Boots” theory of socioeconomic injustice.
Vimes's “Boots” theory comes up early in the novel and has little to do with the later emotional climax, but it is a very important facet of his character. Like a former street urchin turned beat cop, Vimes is intimately familiar with poverty in a way that his fiancée and the town's other aristocrats never could be..
8
“Changing an individual's destiny is changing the world”
Death
Soul Music (book 16 and third Death novel) introduces Death's granddaughter (through his former apprentice and adopted son, Mort) Susan, whose parents have just died. Even though they never told her about his relationship with Death, she is forced to take his place while he takes a sabbatical to mourn his apprentice. Meanwhile, a young bard from Llamedos has traveled to Ankh-Morpork in search of fame and, after purchasing a strange guitar from an even stranger store, accidentally invents a new type of sound: Music With Rocks In, the album's first taste of rock and roll.
At the beginning Soul MusicAs Susan explores Death's house and her new duties, she accidentally stumbles upon a moment from the past and watches Death and her father fight. After Mort leaves, the past Death sees Susan there and speaks to her, as her memory is not limited by mortal perceptions of time. They discuss Susan's new responsibilities as Death and the way human beings are like stupid ants and also essential parts of the worldand Death reminds Susan that they both hold the power to fundamentally change reality.
7
“That's what people say when the voiceless speak”
Vimes
The 19th Disco world The novel (and third City Watch book) explores the thorny nature of personhood through traditionally Jewish imagery, namely golems. Like buildings of clay, forced to follow the instructions on the scrolls inside their heads, golems on Disco are considered nothing more than tools. However, when twelve golems in Ankh-Morpork decide to create a new golem king to lead them to freedom by poisoning Lord Vetinari, but this golem loses control and kills the human and dwarf who helped create it, Sam Vimes is forced to investigate.
Out of guilt for the actions of his creation, eleven of the golems responsible destroy themselves and the twelfth, named Dorfl, turns himself in as the culprit. However, instead, the Watch effectively made Dorfl its own master, and when he is damaged while helping to subdue the rogue golem king, they reforge him and give him the ability to speak. Dorfl accompanies Vimes to question the Dragon King of Arms, a vampire who runs the city's heraldry college and who turns out to be part of the conspiracy that helped instigate everything in hopes of deposing Vetinari.
The vampire looked from the golem to Vimes.
“Did you give one of them a VOICE?” he said.
“Yes,” said Dorfl. He bent down and picked up the vampire with one hand. “I could kill you,” he said. “This is an option available to me as a free-thinking individual, but I will not do it because I am my own man and have made a moral choice.”
“Oh, gods,” Vimes muttered under his breath.
“This is BLASPHEMY,” said the vampire.
He gasped when Vimes gave him a look like sunlight. “That's what people say when the voiceless speak.”
In the confrontation between the Watch and the Dragon King of Arms, the vampire is horrified by the revelation that Dorfl is a golem who can talk, let alone arrest him for murder. Once the Dragon is subdued, the college of heraldry is destroyed and Dorfl becomes a full Watcher. Other golems can buy their own freedom, and most do, but then continue with their duties as before because it was never their job that dehumanized them, it was how other people refused to give them a choice.
6
“You have to start by learning to believe the little lies”
Death
Pork (book 20, and Death's fourth book) sees Death once again stepping out of his comfort zone, this time having to take the place of the titular Hogfather, the Disco analogue of Santa Claus. Once again, the Reality Auditors messed things upsince they attacked the Hogfather. The murderous Mr. Teatime comes very close to success when he uses the Tooth Fairies to force all the Disco children to stop believing in the Hogfather.
YOU HAVE TO START BY LEARNING TO BELIEVE IN SMALL LIES.
“So can we believe in the great ones?”
YES. JUSTICE. COMPASSION. OBLIGATION. THAT KIND OF THING.
“They're not the same at all!”
DO YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT TO THE BEST POWDER AND PICK IT THROUGH THE BEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW I AM AN ATOM OF JUSTICE, A MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET… Death waved his hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE WAS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE WAS SOME… SOME RIGHT IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT CAN BE JUDGED.
“Yes, but people have to believe it, or what's the point –”
MY POINT EXACTLY.
Death enlists Susan, his granddaughter through his former apprentice Mort, to help, as he is powerless in the Tooth Fairy's realm, and together they manage to stop Mr. Tea Time from finishing his contract. Afterwards, they manage to save the Hogfather from the Auditors, who have turned into dogs and try to kill him directly. Once the Hogfather is safe and away, Death and Susan discuss the power of beliefs and symbols, and how they help humanity make sense of a world that often seems meaningless.
5
“Sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself.”
Granny Weatherwax
Day 23 Disco world novel and sixth in the overall plot following the witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick. Carpe Jugulum see the witches fighting the Magpyr vampire clan, which is trying to take over the country of Lancreof which Magrat became queen in Gentlemen and Ladieswith his vampiric mind control powers. A first fight against them leaves Grandma about to turn into a vampire and the other witches are forced to flee.
When Nanny Ogg, Magrat, and Magrat's daughter Esmerelda become trapped in Magpyr's castle in Überwald, it's up to Grandma to save them. Having overcome nascent vampirism, she arrives in style, having forced the Omnian priest Mightily Oats to carry her. It is during this journey that the two talk about the nature of faith, exploring the stark difference between Oats's extremely conservative Omnian faith and Grandma's painfully practical perspective.
4
“But it's possible I can get a boiled egg”
Vimes
Disco world29th book and sixth in Watch history, sends Sam Vimes back in time to his own youth in search of Carcer, a particularly sadistic killer. Trapped by his younger self upon arrival, Vimes is told by a helpful Time Monk that he cannot risk changing his own past and so introduces himself as John Keel, who was supposed to join the Watch that day but was murdered by Carcer. , and who mentored Vimes in Surveillance.
Vimes, like Keel, ends up in the middle of one of the most tumultuous events in the history of Ankh-Morpork – the Glorious May 25th People's Revolution, when the residents of Treacle Mine Road formed a People's Republic and fought against the city. Watch and the city's Patrician, Homicidal Lord Winder. Although in the original timeline the Republic failed miserably, Vimes' presence changes events just enough to save a few lives. and allow him to finally catch Carcer.
“You would like Freedom, Truth and Justice, wouldn't you, Comrade Sergeant?” said Reg encouragingly.
“I’d like a hard-boiled egg,” said Vimes, flicking the match.
There was some nervous laughter, but Reg looked offended.
“Under the circumstances, Sergeant, I think we should focus a little higher…”
“Well, yes, we could,” said Vimes, heading downstairs. He looked at the sheets of paper in front of Reg. The man cared. He really did. And he was serious. He really was. “But… well, Reg, tomorrow the sun will rise again, and I'm pretty sure that whatever happens, we won't have found Freedom, and there won't be much Justice, and I'm pretty sure we won't have found the Truth. But It's possible I could get a hard-boiled egg.
The quote above is a conversation between Vimes as Keel, fellow idealist Watchman Reg Shoe (whom Vimes knows in the present as a zombie, as he is doomed to die in the Revolution), and several other guards, all discussing the rhetoric of the Revolution. Many of its most passionate proponents, including Reg, adamantly support the Revolution's intangible ideals, but Vimes, with his slightly cynical perspective, reminds them that Such intangibles are the types of promises that are nearly impossible to keep, and sometimes it helps to add a very achievable goal to a list..
The phrase “Truth, Justice, Freedom, Love at Reasonable Prices and a Boiled Egg“ became the rallying cry of the Revolution, as well as a real way for Discworld fans to sum up their own ideals.
3
“Revenge is a wheel and it turns backwards”
The Duchess (via Wazzer)
Monstrous Regiment is the 31st novel in the series and one of the few standalone books. It focuses on the small country of Borogravia, a belligerent and conservative nation whose religion increasingly disenfranchises its citizens, even as the country wears itself out in a futile war against the neighboring country of Zlobenia. The title of the book is a reference The first trumpet blast against the monstrous regiment of women, a treatise by Scottish Reformation theologian John Knox that warns against the dangers of allowing women to rule.
“And now I demand that you do what the ignorant may think is the easiest thing. You must avoid dying in battle. Revenge is not reparation. Revenge is a wheel and it turns backwards. The dead are not your masters.”
The book follows Polly Perks, a young woman whose brother Paul disappeared in the war. Polly disguises herself as a man so she can join the Borogravian army; While serving in her unit, she discovers that all of her fellow soldiers are also women disguised as men. Polly's squad manages to infiltrate the Zlobenian fortress and capture its leaders, ending the war. When Polly and the others reveal themselves as women to the Borogravian generals, they are disgusted and would be dismissed if not for the intervention of Sergeant Jackrum, who reveals a third of Borogravian leaders are women.
2
If only the pawns got together and talked to the rooks, the entire board could have been a republic in a dozen moves.
Vimes' Internal Monologue
Thud! is the 34th Disco world novel (and seventh Watch book), where Vimes stumbles upon discovering a conspiracy within dwarven society that is deeply tied to ancient racial enmities between dwarves and trolls. After a dwarven demagogue is apparently murdered, Vimes' investigation takes him and the Watch to the ancient Koom Valley, where the battle that supposedly made dwarves and trolls despise each other took place.
Vimes never got along with any game much more complex than darts. Chess, in particular, has always irritated him. It was the idiotic way the pawns went out and massacred their fellow pawns while the kings stood by and did nothing that always got to him; if only the pawns would unite, perhaps convince the rooks, the whole board could have been a republic in a dozen moves.
In Koom Valley, Vimes discovers that there never was a battle; It was a peace summit, but a storm caused the armies to stumble over each other in the fog, and the survivors were swept into a deep cave, where they were trapped. Thud! uses the board game of the same name as a repeated metaphor for the perspectives that dwarves and trolls have on each other. At the beginning of the book, Vimes' reflections on the game Thud show that, as always, the stalwart Surveillance Commander remains one of the Disco's strongest advocates of egalitarianism.
1
“Don't you know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”
Grandfather
Going postal is the 33rd novel and the first to focus on the character of Moist von Lipwig, a man who becomes central to Ankh-Morpork's attempt at an Industrial Revolution. Moist is a conman sentenced to death by hanging, but is saved at the last minute by Lord Vetinari, who offers Moist a job rebuilding the city's crumbling postal service. Even though the Post Office has been closed for decades and the building is mostly pigeon manure, Moist makes the best of it.
Grandpa, as the famous quote says, is just a clacks operator, but his statement not only had profound effects on Moist, but also Disco world fans. The Disco clacks carry a message constantly passing from tower to tower that consists only of the name of John Dearheart, son of the man who created the clacks. More specifically, the message is “GNU John Dearheart”, with the GNU prefix being a code that specifies that the message should be passed along, unlogged, and returned when it reaches the end of the line.