Pratchett on supreme beings
2009-10-18 23:49:54.465016+00 by
Dan Lyke
4 comments
I'm reading Terry Pratchett's latest, Unseen Academicals, 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, 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