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Pratchett on supreme beings

2009-10-18 23:49:54.465016+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments

I'm reading Terry Pratchett[Wiki]'s latest, Unseen Academicals[Wiki], and it's living up to expectations. In one passage, The Patrician, some say dictator of the city of Ankh-Morpork, is musing on watching a family of otters feast on a freshly killed salmon and her roe:

One of nature's wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that's when I first learned about evil. It is built in to the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.

When I was younger I had a friend who proclaimed that she didn't read fiction. At some point, I realized that I didn't read non-fiction, and it was often the novel that educated me the most on humanity and the world. Pratchett's most recent books have been that way in spades, and Unseen Academicals[Wiki], a foray into the world of sports (and how they serve the needs of the citizens and the state), doesn't disappoint on that front.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Books Ethics Nature and environment Sociology Terry Pratchett ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-19 15:21:19.240685+00 by: petronius

Non-fiction tells us what happened; fiction tells us why it happened.

#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-19 16:45:21.002895+00 by: Mark A. Hershberger

stories have meaning that facts can never approach

#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-27 20:08:07.153757+00 by: TC

Morpork? what is Pratchet's fascination with swine? Thinking Hogfather. I'm a tad worried watching his witting become less whimsical and more cynical, much like Mark Twain's in his later years. A brilliant mind being afflicted with Alzheimer disease would certainly fit into the evil scheme of the universe.

#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-27 20:11:50.065782+00 by: TC [edit history]

Morpork? what is Pratchet's fascination with swine? Thinking Hogfather. I'm a tad worried watching his witting become less whimsical and more cynical, much like Mark Twain's in his later years. A brilliant mind being afflicted with Alzheimer disease would certainly fit into the evil scheme of the universe.

(ACK! the posting deity is out to get me and inflicted a double post on you all. No it's not my fault! it was divine intervention. Personal Accountability?? Bah! I am absolved of my crime by my faith in the church of the screaming electron) this post is taking a weird twist. I think I need to go get some sacramental coffee