Hogfather - Tumblr Posts
“You need to believe in things that aren’t true. How else can they become” - Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
my mom didn't believe in lying to children so when I first asked about santa claus as a small child she was like "oh santa claus is another name for a man named saint nicholas who lived a long time ago. he was a very kind and generous man and he loved giving people presents and he would do things like put presents in people's stockings when they were hung up to dry by the fire, so they would find them and be surprised. so now when we give presents at christmas it's fun to pretend saint nicholas or 'santa claus' brings them. and we hang up stockings by the fire and when we get up in the morning there are presents in them, just like if saint nicholas was still alive to bring them!"
so that thanksgiving one of my uncles said jovially "so mac, are you being good for santa claus?" and little (not quite three year old) mac looked up and raised an eyebrow and said witheringly "he's dead."
The philosopher Didactylos has summed up an alternative hypothesis as “Things just happen. What the hell.”
-Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather
The Night is Old. The Night is Always Old.
Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather
Susan was bright enough to know that the phrase “Someone ought to do something” was not, by itself, a helpful one. People who used it never added the rider “and that someone is me.”
But someone ought to do something, and right now the whole pool of someones consisted of her, and no one else.
Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather
“He’s had a near-death experience!”
“We all have. It’s called ‘living.’”
-Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather
A little late, but happy hogswatch friends!
Some say "Merry Christmas". From the world I come from, we say "Happy Hogswatch"!
. “IT'S THE EXPRESSION ON THEIR LITTLE FACES I LIKE, said the Hogfather. "You mean sort of fear and awe and not knowing whether to laugh or cry or wet their pants?" YES. NOW THAT IS WHAT I CALL BELIEF.” ― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
There's a scene in Hogfather, a book by the late Terry Pratchett (spoilers ahead) in which Death who has for plot reasons taken the role of santa finds the little match girl. (I'm not too experienced, but maybe a trigger warning for death? Better safe than sorry.)
Does anyone know that story? A young girl is out in the cold, trying to sell matches, and lighting them herself for the brief warmth they provide. Eventually, she dies. Sure, it's presented as 'she goes off to a pleasant afterlife with family' but she's still dead. It's usually just another 'no matter how bad you've got it, someone's got it worse' story.
But not here. No, here Death ignores both his duties, because This Is Not Right.
So he gives the little match girl more life, and takes her to a charity.
That's one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite books. Because Death is kind, and is willing to ignore his job if he thinks it right.
Down in the deepest kingdoms of the sea, where there is no light, there lives a type of creature with no brain and no eyes and no mouth. It does nothing but live and put forth petals of perfect crimson where none are there to see. It is nothing except a tiny "yes" in the night. And yet... and yet... it has enemies that bear on it a vicious, unbending malice, who wish not only for its tiny life to be over, but also that it never existed. [...] Now, imagine what they think of humanity.
-Death on the Auditors of Reality, Hogfather; Terry Pratchett
“You need to believe in things that aren’t true. How else can they become” - Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
doodle // the hogfather
I love the raven & the death of rats in the hogfather, so: a teeny tiny idle doodle. happy hogswatch!
“You need to believe in things that aren’t true. How else can they become” - Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
When people talk about Terry Pratchett's Hogfather, they usually talk about Death, Susan, that very poignant monologue about how children need to believe in Santa so that they can one day believe in Truth and Justice and Compassion, smaller fantasies to be ready for the really big ones.
I don't think we ever talk enough about the Tooth Fairy.
Teatime's plan to kill the Hogfather is simple. He breaks in the Tooth Fairy's palace, kill the Tooth Fairy to stop them from interfering, and use a wizard to complete a ritual using all the teeths there collected as sacrifice so that children all over the world can stop believing in the Hogfather, which was originally a Boar God of Dawn celebrated as the victory of light and human spirit over the darkest night of the year, thus killing him off by removing people's belief on him.
Now, the Hogfather is, again, an incredibly important part of humanity, but the Tooth Fairy? Oh they are far more than that.
If Hogfather was born from the embers of human's hope and spirit, huddled together in the dark of night to live another day, the Tooth Fairy was the exact opposite. The Tooth Fairy used to be the first Boogeyman, the first creature that goes bump in the night that was ever created by the children's mind, who see all the dark and skittering shapes, the teeth and claws and yellow eyes filled with hunger for their flesh, and give them a simple, monstrous shape, one they can recognize.
And they are very important for that. They are the little fears, the safe ones, the ones that won't really hurt you unless you let them, the ones that teach children that fears and monsters can always be overcome in the end.
The Tooth Fairy, filled to the brim with teeth, is inhabited by every childhood fear that was ever created on the Discworld, powerful fears that will kill you if you're not ready for them, an abusive mother, a violent bully, spiders and rats and angry dogs. Because those fears are necessary to human nature.
And the Fairy knows this. Over the millennia, as humanity and the children they terrorised grew, the Fairy grew to love them, because that was their role, ultimately, not to harm, but to protect.
That's why they trade teeth for gold, that's why Boogeymen exist, they are there to save children from those that would seek to harm them.
The only way they know how.
That's honestly incredible as a concept.
All right,” said Susan. “I’m not stupid. You’re saying humans need… fantasies to make life bearable.” REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE. "Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—" YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES. "So we can believe the big ones?" YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING. "They’re not the same at all!" YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME…SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED. "Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point—" MY POINT EXACTLY.
Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
Terry Pratchett had the unique ability to combine a sense of wonder, a touch of wit, an eye for humor, and an ear for the common man and roll it all up into amazing works of fantasy. We are all the richer for having had him among us as long as we did, and still all the poorer for losing him.
I owe much of who I am as a roleplayer (and occasional writer) to his Discworld novels. I still have the darndest time tearing myself away from one once I start reading. Thank you for everything, Sir Terry. We’ll miss you.
(via skoryy)