Portal:Discworld

The Discworld Portal

Discworld is a comic fantasy book series by the British author Terry Pratchett set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which are in turn standing on the back of a giant turtle, the Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody or at least borrow ideas from J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, and William Shakespeare, as well as myth, folklore and fairy tales, often using them for satirical parallels with current cultural, technological and scientific issues.

Since the first novel, The Colour of Magic (1983), the series has expanded, spawning several related books and maps, five short stories, cartoon and theatre adaptations and even music inspired by the series. The first live action screen adaptation for television (Hogfather) was broadcast over Christmas 2006. Another one for the cinema (The Wee Free Men) is currently in development.

Newly released Discworld books regularly top The Sunday Times bestsellers list, making Pratchett the UK's best-selling author in the 1990s. He has since been overtaken by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, but still holds the record for the most shoplifted books. Discworld novels have also won awards such as the Prometheus Award and the Carnegie Medal. In the BBC's Big Read, four Discworld books were in the top 100, and a total of fourteen in the top 200.

Character of the day

Cecil Wormsborough St. John "Nobby" Nobbs is a corporal in the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, first appearing in the novel Guards! Guards!.

Nobby Nobbs is the kind of person who joins the army to loot corpses. It is said that there's a field-marshall's baton in every footman's knapsack; Nobby's Army kit generally consists of two warehouses, complete with said batons, other armies' uniforms, golden teeth, other petty valuables and several kilos of boots, some of them still occupied. Despite his kleptomania, he is honest about the big things (at least, the ones too big to steal) and is described as someone that you can trust with your life, although you'd be daft to trust him with half a dollar. Sgt Colon also remarked in Jingo that he had heard of places where the generals looked at which side's uniform Nobby wore at the moment to learn the situation of the battle.

He is described as untidy, smelly, and despite being human, about the same height as a dwarf, and carrying a certificate signed by the Patrician to prove that he's a human being. The text of this note can states that on the balance of probability, he is a human being. A running joke is the inability of others to believe this, despite — or even because of — the evidence. In fact, in Hogfather, even Death himself was unable to discern Nobby's species. He always seems to have a cigarette butt about him, normally stowed behind his ear, which has been described as a nicotine graveyard. Cigarettes quickly become butts in his presence, and stay as such for an apparently infinite amount of time.

Article of the day

The Guild of Thieves, Cutpurses and Allied Trades is a fictional institition on the Discworld city of Ankh-Morpork. It is distinguished from Thieves' Guilds in other fantasy universes by being completely legal. The Thieves' Guild was established early in Lord Havelock Vetinari's rule of Ankh-Morpork. Lord Vetinari realised that what people crave is stability, and that, while it is impossible to stamp out crime altogether, it is possible to regulate it. The major gang leaders of the city were therefore called to the Patrician's Palace, where they agreed to be held responsible for ensuring a socially acceptable number of thefts. While they may have been insincere in this promise, they soon found the Patrician knew too much about them for reneging to be safe.

The Thieves' Guild quickly became the major law-enforcement body of the city, causing the Ankh-Morpork City Watch to slide even further into the pit of depression they would remain in until Carrot Ironfoundersson's arrival. In the year of the Engaging Sloth, the Guild had a General Strike, and the amount of crime doubled.

While the main money-making venture of Thieves' Guild members remains theft, more recent books show a system of "insurance", whereby people may pay a fee directly to the Guild and therefore become immune to robbery for a specified period. Unlicensed theft remains illegal, under both city and Guild law, and perpetrators consider themselves lucky if the revitalised Watch catches them.

Quotes

• The reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication.
  -- Guards! Guards!
• The Archchancellor's most important job, as the Bursar saw it, was to sign things, preferably, from the Bursar's point of view, without reading them first.
  -- Moving Pictures
• The Archchancellor was the first one to recover.
  'Windle!' he said. 'We thought you were dead!'
  He had to admit that it wasn't a very good line. You didn't put people on a slab with candles and lilies all round them because you think they have a bit of a headache and want a nice lie down for half an hour.
  -- Reaper Man
• 'Tell me,' said Magrat, 'you said your mummy knows about the big bad wolf in the woods, didn't you?'
  'That's right.'
  'But nonetheless she sent you out by yourself to take those goodies to your granny?'
  -- Witches Abroad
• Just erotic, nothing kinky. It's the difference between using a feather and using a chicken.
  -- Eric

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Book of the day

Men at Arms is the fifteenth Discworld novel, and the second about the City Watch. The story follows the Watch's investigation of a series of murders committed using a mysterious weapon called the "gonne." Commander Samuel Vimes attempts to solve the case while dealing with distractions such as his upcoming marriage to Lady Sybil Ramkin and dealing with the Watch's new recruits: a dwarf, a troll, and a woman.

Deity of the minute

Steikhegel: God of Isolated Cow Bryes

Did you know...

• ...that The Wee Free Men is the only Discworld book in which Death (right) does not appear?
• ...that The Luggage is made of sapient pearwood, an almost extinct tree whose wood is impervious to magic?
• ...that Special Sheep Liniment should on no account ever be given to sheep?
• ...that the the significant owl hoots in the night, yet many grey lords go sadly to the masterless men?
• ...that cat singing consists of standing two inches in front of other cats and screaming at them until they give in?
  

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