Reaper Man - Tumblr Posts
The reaper man is my favourite and the secunde book i read, the first one was the amazing maurice.
Which one was yours and which is your favourite?
HAPPY TERRY PRATCHETT DAY 🎉🎊
Seeing this i thought: "did i red the same books as others? I don't remeber a whole page with just YES on it".
So apparently italian version literally said "i don't care, why should i waste space?"
On paper (book/comic), the reader can accidentally read something a few paragraphs/panels ahead of where they actually are. In film and TV you can't do this unless you deliberately skip. Is this something you consider when writing for different media?
Yes. Not in books, but in comics I'll try and put surprises on left-hand pages, because people might see them if I put them on right hand pages.
Windle realized that talking to Mr. Shoe was very much like talking to the Archchancellor. It didn't actually matter what you said, because he wasn't listening. Only in Mustrum Ridcully's case it was because he just wasn't bothering, while Reg Shoe was in fact supplying your side of the conversation somewhere inside his own head.
Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man
Bill Door behavior here
got taken to axe throwing tonight. i may not have impressed anyone with my technical axe throwing skills but my sheer brute animal strength is unparalleled
i'm so glad nobody really tries to do a "modern take" on the grim reaper because can you imagine how lame it would be if your time of death was recorded on an apple watch or something instead of an hourglass
I want to have this exchange I had on youtube on here as well.
The video is OSP's Trope Talk: Personifying Death
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx4ByQpIMBE
Transcribed:
ME:
Reaper Man goes so unbelievably hard. “No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away, until the clock wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone’s life is only the core of their actual existence.” Big recommend for discworld to anyone, thank you Red for promoting it.
OTHER PERSON:
I'm sorry for this comment in advance, I've been having a bit of a death related spiral recently and am trying to talk myself out of it, but most people that have ever lived are still finally dead. Everyone who knew them is also dead. They probably haven't made art or music that is remembered to this day. The ripples of most peoples lives will still die away within the next few generations after their death, right?
ME:
Here's how I like to think of it.
Most people who have ever lived are forgotten. The goal of life isn't to be remembered by the world. You need to live for yourself first. What "living for yourself" means is different for each person. Some want to build a legacy and be remembered by the world, but that isn't the default purpose of your life. You get to decide what you want to be about. Almost always, people want to be loved by those around them. To have a positive impact on their friends and family.
The purpose of the Terry Pratchett quote isn't to compel you to try to be remembered by the world at large. It's not telling everyone to try to become the next Shakespeare or the next Casesar. It's condolence for people who are grieving the loss of loved ones. So long as you remember them, the advice they gave, the comfort they provided, the love they had for you, they are still with you. In spirit, they live on with you, because you remember them. You can continue to draw on their love even if they're dead, so long as they are remembered. You will die some day too, but you will be remembered by the people you affected, and in them you will live on. Eventually you will be forgotten, but the goal isn't to evade death by being remembered forever by the world at large. The world needs more mothers and brothers than it needs playwrights and generals.
This Pratchett quote comes from Reaper Man (spoiler ahead), a book in which Death is fired from his job. He becomes mortal, and takes a job working as the only other farmhand on an old widow's farm. Over the course of their interactions Death gains a new appreciation for life and the time mortals have to spend, and ends up sacrificing his remaining lifespan to save a young girl's life. The Widow and her farmhand both ultimately die at the end of the book, but they comfort each other and change each other with the time they get to spend together.
Memes are art, right?