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Interview: Discworld author Terry Pratchett

26.10.2002

An edited transcript of a conversation with the best-selling writer Terry Pratchett in which he tells John Gardner some of his views on jokes, death, literary reputations and strange diseases.

JG: Nightwatch, which is just being published in New Zealand, is the 27th Discworld book. Are you now working on the next one?

No. I'm working on the next Discworld after the next one after Nightwatch because there's one coming out in May � what is officially a young adult Discworld - and we're just seeing it through its proof stage. In fact I'm in one of those what I call a node � they're one of those very strained periods of time because it's when there's a book about to come out and there's the PR for that I have to get involved in. Then there's a book just going through the final editing and proof stage which is quite intense. So I'm involved in that, plus around the time I'm trying to get the next book well and truly on the road.

So it's a fairly busy time. There's about six weeks when everything is a bit panicky and then it settles down and there's just one book I have to think about.

JG: You are a prolific producer and in some critics' eyes that seems to render a writer suspect.

There is something to be said for that. But there is an upside which is that you get a lot of readers and you get paid quite a lot of money.

But there is something in that view and it would probably be better for me in the long run to slow down but I was trained as a journalist and so putting words in an acceptable order in exchange for money is kind of built in

(In journalism) the concept of writer's block never crops up. Unsympathetic men come and shout at you. It takes a week for any posing attempt at writer's block to be burned out of you.

Yes, of course there are times when you're stuck. But that's a bit different. That's when you've gone down the wrong alley � you need to rethink things. You have to go back and start to tinker. You have to find out what's getting in the way but that's not writer's block. In fact that's the time when you're working at your hardest. The flow is not coming so you just sit down and graft until you bend the story the way it has to go.

JG: You have said you like the process of writing but what about the public relations, the book signings and the conventions?

I look forward to them and I remember them with pleasure. I believe that signing tours are part of the whole thing, though if you then ask me 'what is the whole thing?' I'd say I'm not quite certain. But probably it boils down to 'it's not rock'n'roll until you take it on the road'.

It's certainly good to get out. This is, on the whole, a profession where you're encouraged to stay indoors and, indeed, not meet people.

I think that also the fact is that I grew up at least as a science fiction and fantasy fan and within that genre � and it's unlike any other genre I know - it's quite easy to get to meet on a social level some of the best writers around and indeed there's a tacit encouragement that you could be a writer yourself.

If you go along to, say, the World Science Fiction convention there will be writers' workshops and advice from senior writers and panels and so forth. So there is a communication, which you don't get, I think, in any other genre.

JG: Were you the beneficiary of that yourself?

Yes, I was, obviously. When I was 13 I persuaded my parents that a science fiction convention was very literary and learned with things for me to go to and I didn't mention the beer. And I met Arthur C Clarke - that was when you could meet him, the days when gods walked the earth � and I met quite a few other UK authors and I came away thinking 'these authors are people, I am a person, therefore I could be an author', which was a reasonably important revelation, I think.

JG: So you feel you are paying your dues?

It's called paying forward, not paying back. Maybe you can write the kind of book that will have the same effect on some kid now that a book had on you 40 years ago.

JG: Is meeting readers that important to you?

Oh, yes it is and I do an awful lot of that. The feedback is interesting. It would be a troubled author who tried to follow the advice of every single letter from the readers. And occasionally you get one that makes you sit and stare at the wall for half an hour and that's good for you as well. It's important.

JG: Your readers are often referred to as fans, as though they were somehow different from readers.

(They have been) in some of the pieces that have been done. And there have been a great many of them over the years and on the whole they have been pretty favourable. But if you call them fans you can disenfranchise them because (the suggestion is) they are fans and they will put up with anything because they are fans.

There have been some calculations about this. If I've go, let's say, possibly three quarters of a million readers in the UK we suspect that about 10,000 of them are fans in the classic "we'll buy the T shirt, we'll buy the body splash, we'll buy the talcum powder, we'll buy the cake mixes" in that really serious way.

The people that talk like this have got stuck in round about in the 1970s. There are grandparents, if not great grandparents, who are walking the streets who are Star Trek fans and you can't spot 'em because they look like everybody else.

Things like fantasy and science fiction have just entered the mainstream even if only unofficially as the success of Tolkien demonstrates, as the success of the movie (shows). The readers were out there and they went to the movie. But there are some that persist in thinking that people who read in these genres are all 14-year-old boys called Kevin and don't really count as readers.

JG: Isn't it true that 60 per cent of your readers are females over 25?

That's true. The thing is that probably most readers of just about anything apart from the "books for men" - the Tom Clancy's - are probably female. When you think about it, 50 doesn't seem like a bad bet. Fantasy fiction is generally believed to have a higher female readership than male.

It's kind of puzzling the whole '14-year-old boy called Kevin bit'. What's the problem exactly? It can't be that he's a boy because about 50 per cent of the population are that. It can't be that he's 14 because that's a disease, which generally clears up after 12 months. So it must be that there's something wrong with the name Kevin.

JG: From my conversations it seems that, in fact, your books appeal across a wide age range.

Quite apart from any other considerations since they've been around for 20 years the readership has had a chance to smear. I've gone to do a talk at a school and the headmaster recalled standing in a queue to have a book signed by me when he was at university. Things have now spread out and if I'm doing a talk and there's a grey haired lady with a 14-year-old boy sitting next to her in the audience I have got no idea who is accompanying who.

The last time I came to the Antipodes, which was to go on holiday in Australia last year, the lady who disinfected my boots - because, of course, we come from a farming area - was a Discworld fan and I signed something for her � this was still jetlagged while my feet stank of Dettol or Jeyes fluid or whatever it was. And on the way out the lady in immigration recognised me as well. That's kind of nice because they're not people given to displays of emotion.

JG: Your writing is in a field which seems to provoke literary snobbery.

Can I just nail something here? I'm not actually certain that there is all that much literary snobbery. What I'm fighting against here is � you're a journalist and I have been and it never actually leaves you. �And we know how things come in what you might call story shape.

It's ever so nice to think here is this rich author with loads and loads of readers but no literary street cred and everyone is very snobbish about him. It doesn't actually work like that.

Most of the reviews I've had over the years in the posh papers have been pretty favourable. They genuinely have and, believe me, I'd say if they hadn't because you always remember the bad reviews. I get on very well with loads of authors and I've been the chairman of the Society of Authors.

Yeah, there are some snobs out there but no one really bothers that much about them because the river just divides and flows around them. Unfortunately they tend to be in positions of power in some newspapers but I'm pretty content with things as they are, I have to say.

I'm not complaining, is what I'm really getting at.

JG: You won the Carnegie medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, which is for children's writing. Yet it seemed to me that you had not altered your writing a great deal, except perhaps in rhythm, to accommodate a younger audience.

The Discworld style is clearly for adults but it's readily adaptable. Let's start with the fact that fantasy is any case uni-age � it is the great cross-over genre because it owes something to fairy tales. They are beguilingly easy to get into. I get letters from schools where they've been reading � have you read The Truth? � (and there's) a bunch of 11-year-olds and Mr Tulip is their hero. And I thought 'I did not write this book for kids'. Nevertheless, while he is indeed a drug-taking, raving swearing madman it's presented in � for want of a better word � the right kind of way. He doesn't actually swear on the page and he never actually takes drugs and so there's just enough of a pantomime element to him for me not to feel too guilty about it.

JG: You are, in fact, quite kind to Mr Tulip.

Well, yes, the poor guy � clearly his upbringing left a considerable amount to be desired. He's obviously come from a war zone. He was too stupid to know what he was doing while Mr Pin deserved everything that came to him.

(So to return to writing for children) it is a question of rhythm. It is a question of vocabulary but I believe that the best way to learn new words is to experience them in context and that is, in fact, how we learn.

There are some other little things that you have to be careful with. A throwaway line in a children's book can often be thrown away because the kid isn't old enough to see what you're getting at � that you're making a reference to a movie that was very popular 30 years ago or something like that. It's genuinely thrown away.

But I've got used to handling those kind of asides in such a way that I hope that those who get them, get them while those that don't, don't realise that an aside has actually been made.

JG: Your books are fantasies but in writing about, say, newspapers in The Truth or the nature of power with Lord Vetinari or the balance between law and freedom you tackle very solid real life issues.

The English writer G.K. Chesterton said a number of very wise things but one of the wisest was his definition of fantasy which I won't quote verbatim. But roughly speaking it was that the role of fantasy is to take that which is commonplace and therefore no longer seen and lift it up and turn it around and present it to the viewer from a completely new direction so that they see it once again for the first time. And marvel at the wonder of it.

We know about and accept newspapers but how strange it is, though, that the man with the printing press and the notebook more or less does what he likes.

One of the things that the people in Ankh Morpork come to terms with is that nobody is actually telling him what to write and yet no one can actually see why anyone should let him.

And the character himself, as I did when I was a kid of 17 and given a notebook and pencil, suddenly realised he has this terrible power, which he hadn't actually earned and possibly doesn't deserve. And you learn the very strange magic of writing things down.

When you (JG) started out was it a notebook and pen? Did people, as you were writing, edge round to see what you were writing? You kind of move your notebook and they can't actually tell you not to put it in the paper although they will attempt to do so sometimes.

Everyone accepts this. While there is some little legal backing to it is actually accepted because that is how it's done.

Though these days you are far more likely, I think, to find people of the sort that William encounters towards the end of the book that have actually worked out how journalism goes and start talking in journalese: "I am shocked and disappointed. I am Mrs Mavis Battle, 34, mother of three."

People respond in stressful circumstances in the way that society has taught them people will respond in those sorts of circumstances � soap operas, experience and the movies have given them a kind of script to follow,

But I can tell you that there a number of people in The Truth that I personally have met and what is interesting is that many journalists I've spoken to have met them, the same people, including the steeplejack threatening to jump. I didn't have to look far for characters in that book.

JG: You mentioned the Tolkien film. DreamWorks are reported to have signed a deal to make an animated film of some of your work. Is that still on?

We have signed up and, indeed, only yesterday did I have a good thumping big wad of money for the Truckers trilogy. They've given me money which they can't have back which is normally a sign of things going ahead. Nothing is certain in movies but on the other hand this is something we've been negotiating about � talking about for two years. A guy actually flew in a private jet across the Atlantic to come and talk to me about it initially. There were some various contractual difficulties we both had to overcome. I think it's gone on the backburner slightly because, after the success of Shrek, they'd got to get Shrek 2 at least under way.

But, yes, insofar as one can ever say this about the movies it's going to happen. After all, DreamWorks is largely composed of the talent rather than the suits. What they pick up, on the whole, tends to happen.

JG: Prompted by a question from a young friend, I wondered about the personification in Discworld of Death who seems almost a benign character.

(Not benign) Understanding, I think. He doesn't go out of his way to be nasty but he has a job to do.

JG: Do you view death that way?

It's my hope, if you like. I am a disappointed atheist. I feel upset on the whole that I've had to resort to atheism. I'm kind of angry with God for not existing.

Put it this way: if you're going to conceive of death as some kind of animate character the Discworld death is a pretty good one to do and it makes him more interesting and it makes him more funny. But the humour has that rather nice poignant quality which gives it an extra something, I hope.

What is nice is that I've tried to make Discworld, at least for the first 15 books, accessible in the sense that even if you start on book number 15 you'd work out what was going on. But it's not one series all the way through � there are story arcs involving various characters � the only commonality in the books is that they are all on the Discworld.

Up to about book 15 I tried to make certain I was explaining everything to new readers but suddenly I thought I just can't do this because the whole book is going to be full of 'now read on' and I just continued evolving the world. And it hasn't actually reduced the take up of new readers at all.

I get letters from people who started with something like Thief of Time which was pretty intense. They say they got this and they were skimming fast over the bits which relied on you knowing a little bit about Discworld because they wanted to get to the next bit. And now they've gone out to buy the series and that cheers me up.

JG: With the cyclical nature of the books, do readers want you to come back to characters they are particularly fond of?

If I had done � and this is getting back to what we were saying about fans � if I had taken the advice I'd been given I'd have written - or probably failed miserably to write - by now some 30 books about a wizard and his humorous travel accessory. Because everyone liked Rincewind and the Luggage and they wanted more. But I started ringing the changes and doing new things and the series progresses and I think has become more � grown up would probably be the wrong word, darker would probably be the wrong word - but it's certainly evolved into something stronger than it used to be.

Because I keep applying changes. There's a world of difference between the first book and the last.

Up to about Mort I was getting into gear. What I like about, say The Fifth Elephant is that people would clearly pigeon hole this as a funny book although there are not actually that many jokes in it, as jokes. There are situations which are, among other things, funny although they may not be very amusing for the characters involved in them. And the book I'm writing at the moment is certainly funny but it's serious as well.

That's why I quoted Chesterton earlier on. Because he also famously said that people get confused about funny and serious. They think that serious is the opposite of funny. In fact, the opposite of serious is not serious and the opposite of funny is not funny. A politician can be serious and funny and it is quite possible to be funny and serious at the same time. The two pairs are quite separate things.

JG: Yes, the character of Vimes for instance and his ambivalence about his role is a serious matter.

What I really enjoyed, and it's something I shall be doing again, was in The Truth Vimes became a minor character and something of an annoyance to the major character. In fact, he played the traditional copper's role with his suspicions of a newspaper story. What was nice about that was that I knew the bulk of the readers would be familiar with this annoying suspicious strait laced policeman as someone they were sympathetic to. That's because in other books they could see inside his head.

Now they have to see him from the point of view of someone who cannot see inside his head and it throws a different light on him. People wrote to me and said it was very strange because the scene that contained both of them was disturbing because they wanted to shout at one or other of them "It's Ok, you can trust him. He's a good guy."

JG: As a journalist I liked The Truth because of its background but another of my favourites is Maskerade.

The nice thing about this job is you get fans in all kinds of places and one of them smuggled me into the Royal Opera House just for an hour and every minute I spent there was worth a golden guinea. Seeing behind the stage. It was not just the anecdotes about opera, because everyone gets to hear them, but the little asides and comments which the person concerned didn't realise were important but which were hugely important to a writer.

The thing that really struck me because I'd never seen it before, for example, was the big mirror that everyone walks past so they can titivate themselves up before they go on stage. The likes of you and me, we can grow old and ugly and it doesn't really matter so long as we can still actually hit a keyboard. But for the actor and the dancer and the singer - they know that they've a clock ticking and that long before their number is up they're probably not going to be as good as once they were and that mirror is going to tell them. So that went in the notebook.

JG: Who was it said: for a writer nothing is wasted?

It was definitely a writer. I went to Hay on Wye, a little town on the English-Welsh border which is the second-hand book capital of the world, and spent about eighty quid on books at the weekend. And it was money well spent for the very first item I read, which was in a book about the American Civil War. I was idly leafing through it because I thought it would be interesting and came across a quote which absolutely told me in what direction a plot of mine should be going. What you have to do is have fun and that sort of thing turns up.

JG: You are due in New Zealand again soon.

I've been to Auckland more times than I've been to Edinburgh. What I do like is the flight. Because it's the better part of a day out of the reach of telephones. You're entirely enclosed, as it were in your own personal space, and if anything goes wrong it's the pilot's fault.

It is gruelling but you're going on the whole to places where people want to see you. You live in a little bubble of time which is completely divorced from the rest of the world and you get strange diseases.

I'd better explain about the strange diseases, hadn't I? It happens especially around Christmas time. Here's an author who sits by himself for most of the year, well for months on end, and you go out and ten thousand people breathe on you. I always come back from a signing tour with strains of flu hitherto unknown to mankind.

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Interview with Terry Pratchett by Judith Ridge
The full transcript of this interview is published here for the first time. I used sections of the interview for a "Meet the Author" feature of The School Magazine, where I worked at the time of this interview (1994) and where, as it happens, I am now working again!

Given the success the Discworld books have had with younger readers, in my experience, particularly boys around 12, 13 years old, I wonder why you chose to write specifically for children, given that they were already reading your work.

The Discworld series was never intended for children, and I have to say that you perceive them to be very popular with young boys. That is a trick of the light rather than the actual demographics of the readership. I know from the fanmail I get that an awful lot of my readers are the mothers of those young boys, and we find this at all the signings; the whole family comes and very often it’s because mum got interested because the kids were reading them. My wife actually analyses our fan mail. Now, obviously it’s limited to letters, so you can’t say exactly what readership survey it is, because it’s limited to those people who are actually going to write to you, but more than half of them are from females. Somewhere between 30 and 50% of them are from, to use that lovely phrase, "women of a certain age". I think that basically, firstly, mum keeps quiet in public, if she reads Discworld books, and 13 year old boys, if they like something, tend to be noisy about it, so they kind of show up. Same if you go to signings; a signing in the middle of the day is basically gonna have those people who can actually afford to stand in a line for a couple of hours in the middle of the day, and if there’s a university in the town, the creaking of the leather jackets will sound like a tea clipper going around Cape Horn. But I did a thing last night at the Mary Ryan bookshop in Paddington in Brisbane, and it was a family thing. There were lots of adults and there were lots of kids and there were lots of people there as families.

Yes, my boss reads the Discworld books with his 12 year old son.

So that’s point one. The children’s books, of which I suppose I’ve now written six, in a sense, I have to say, that they became children’s books purely because of the way books are currently marketed. In the case of the Truckers trilogy, it’s as if Gulliver’s Travels had never existed. If you’re going to write a series about humanoids six inches high, then "he’s-a going to be a children’s book" or at least it’s going to be slipped on to the market disguised as a children’s book, because the way books are currently marketed and sold, you don’t really stand a chance of doing it any other way.

So you didn’t write the Truckers trilogy specifically with children in mind.

I did, but it’s very hard to say... I knew that I could deal with quite big, important things, and that meant it was going to be a book for children. Because if was a book for adults, you deal with things like the problems of going through the male menopause while being a university lecture who’s been passed over for promotion. But for kids you can actually deal with big sky topics, and do the big brush. Curiously enough, it’s much easier to do that for kids, because they’ll cut right through the crap to the important stuff. So I knew it was going to be a book for children, but I, I though it would be... this is all post facto reasoning, I mean, I don’t actually think consciously like this when I’m doing it. But afterwards I can that what I’ve actually written was an onion skin book, so that you could go back to it a little later on, maybe, and see whole aspects to it. I mean, doubtless this would be purely of interest to you, and I doubt it would be of interest readers, it’s clear for example, in the Truckers trilogy, you have Gurder, who actually believes, but secretly suspects that what he believes isn’t actually truth. And you have Angalo, who’s the nearest thing they’ve actually got to a free-thinking atheist, and yet it’s very clear that all he’s done is found science, and his belief in science is quite as irrational as Gurder’s belief in "Prices Slashed". I did the quotes from his book, I forget what it’s called now, The Young Nomes Encyclopaedia of Science; it’s full of things like "we do not know why this happens, but because of science we will". "Planes stay up in the sky because of science". They have no real idea what it is, and while kids can enjoy the joke with this, when you’re a little older, you can see some of the mechanisms that are taking place. So those three books and the two Johnny Maxwell books, yes, I kind of had children in my sights, but I think what I really had in my sights was more a type of mind-set, which maybe is more common among kids, but is also to be found among fortunate adults.

Well, you’ve actually brought me really neatly and nicely to my next question.

I do, I give you quotes!

There is an assumption by a lot of people who aren’t terribly involved in children’s books that there must be enormous restrictions on writing for children in terms of content and form, but in fact a lot of children’s authors I’ve read about or discussed this with...

There are thoroughly "politically correct" restrictions. God knows how you get around this...

You’ve been working on it!

B ut I’ve had a long argument — discussion — with my editor who was aghast, not aghast, because she’s far too intelligent for that, but she was perturbed by the use of the word "nigger" even though it was in a context to make it clear why this was such an offensive word. It was almost like magic. The mere putting down of the word regardless of any of the context surrounding it was a bad thing, and Philippa Dickinson, who is my editor, is very very bright and very on the ball in this sort of thing. But this was OK, because I then could use it as a bargaining counter to get some other things that I wanted past!

Well, the same could be said about when Johnny (Only You Can Save Mankind) says the business about girls not being able to play computer games, and girls don’t have the part of the brain that allows you to play computer games, and we had this session at school when they told us to be nice to the girls at school about the things that they can’t do...

"If you pretend they can, they might". Yes... what was the point you were going to make about that?

Putting that in could have the same effect as putting the word "nigger" in, that it could be offensive if you read it just...

But the thing is, I can’t really be responsible for what people think if they read part of a book, and this is very clear in Truckers; the Stationeri, and it’s also clear that Grimma is really the motor who holds the whole thing together. She plods Masklin along, she can read faster, she’s brighter than most of the others. I don’t really have to point up the moral. And also in Only You can Save Mankind it’s very clear, I mean, it’s abundantly clear to Johnny that Kirsty is cleverer, luckier, in practically every respect except one, she’s superior. But frankly, that’s how 12 year old boys think. And I’m not going to make them think in a different way.

Exactly.

The third book in the series...

There’s going to be another Johnny book?

There will be eventually. One of the working titles was Johnny and the Devil, and as Philippa said, 10 000 sales get lost. Actually, in the UK, that probably isn’t the case, because I’m probably a big enough bulldozer to drive a title like that through the dirndl-mafia. But in the same way "witch" in the title can now cause hands to be thrown up. I think somebody’s going to actually have to confront that sort of thing, and just engage four-wheel drive and surge forward. It depends on the context, how you actually deal with it. And in the case of Only You..... you can see, and also in Johnny and the Dead, that the kids are trying to think, they know they should be thinking politically correct, but they can’t actually do it. Is a film racist, if Yo-less, who is black, actually enjoys it? White people worry about that sort of thing.

What you’re actually doing is allowing kids to think about those things without saying "this is the way to think about it". You’ve got Johnny’s perceptions and point of view, and then you’ve got Kirsty who’s contradicting that, so within the same book you’re giving them the room to think about it.

She also had a lot of wrong things with her character, like not listening to anyone else in any way, shape, or form.

And her bloody-minded determination to kill people!

Well, a bloody-minded determination to win, whereas Johnny is far too wet to ever have a very clear opinion.

Those "politically correct" issues aside, I’m thinking particularly of an article Diana Wynne Jones wrote about a book for adults she was writing, and how she thought, "yippee, I’ve got a book for adults, I can do what I like", and in fact found it far more restricting than she’d ever found writing for children. So are there things that you can do in children’s books that you can’t do in adult’s books?

Remember, I write in a field — the genre with which I am associated, I pick my words with care — is fantasy, and there’s always historically been a huge cross-over between children’s books and fantasy to the extent that they’ve often been confused. To some extent they both use the same tool kit, so that if in a Discworld book, in order that, apart from in order to amuse people and to hurry the plot along, if I want to look at human frailties from a different perspective, I can have an intelligent talking dog, provided within the context of the story I can make that stick. If the readers are approaching the books with the right mind set, they will accept this, provided you’ve got some explanation that fits.

Internal logic.

Internal logic. I have some difficulty with the Americans with these books. For example, they don’t touch the two Johnny Maxwell books. Partly, one of the reasons is the absolute horror at the political incorrectness of Johnny. They’re not allowed to think like that in America, even if the whole point of setting up that thing is to make them look foolish, which bodes badly for their culture. I had a long argument with an American editor, who said about Only You... "Look, what’s really happening. Are aliens really contacting him, is he really a disturbed child with it all happening in his head?" It is both of these things. This is merely the world as seen from his viewpoint, and the whole point which is surely being made is, it was the Gulf War, was it real or was it a video war? What’s real and what isn’t real.

It’s a lovely juxtaposition.

And kids are quite happy — they don’t even think about this. They’ll accept the whole thing as a given. They’re quite capable; kids can understand that life is a wave and a particle at the same time, they have no problem with that, but when you get older, you start labelling it. And the same with Johnny and the Dead. Can Johnny really see the dead? Is he really terminally disturbed? Well, you’re terminally disturbed when you’re twelve anyway, that’s what being twelve’s is all about. But it really doesn’t matter. He thinks he can see the dead, and acts as if this is the case, and that’s how it works.

So adults would ask too many questions about the whole premise of the book, where kids just accept it and read it in whatever terms you offer them.

With kids you can say "Once upon a time". With adults when you say "Once upon a time", and someone puts their hand up and says "When, exactly?" With the kids, you do have to get around to the "When, exactly?" at some point, but they will allow you to get that first mouthful out.

We’ve talked a bit about the tools of fantasy, and also questions of "political correctness" — I hate that term, but that’s the one that we’re all familiar with! Fantasy is generally, at least, sort of traditional fantasy, has been for a long time basically plot-driven, and writers like yourself and Diana Wynne Jones, who I’ve done a lot of work on, while plot is still very important, character is becoming far more important in fantasies than they were in perhaps traditional fantasies, where characters were basically archetypes; the hero, the princess, etc. I feel that part of this is because you’re deliberately manipulating stereotypes to raise the kinds of issues we’ve just talked about, is there anything else about character... Your characters are so interesting and involving; Granny Weatherwax...

I knew Granny Weatherwax was lurching towards the conversation... The thing is with fantasy, well, you have to be very careful. I am now allowed to go to literary festivals...

You’re studied at post-graduate level!

Oh yes! Once I was perceived as writing for children as well, a big sigh of relief, "now we can invite him to all the best dos". All fiction is fantasy, and of fiction, how can I put it? The perception is, there is Literature, and there are these things budding off around the side, called "westerns" and "police procedural crime", whereas in fact, there is Fantasy, and off this main stem has budded off... and one of these things is known as the "Literate Novel", which was invented, what, about 150 years ago? And it’s got a subset known as "Potential Booker Winners". I am sorry to say that I represent the mainstream. It’s not the Literate Novel, and I use that term with a certain amount of disparagement. People will always need heroes, no matter how politically correct we become, the charismatic male, with his big sword is always going to... I’ve just in fact finished a Discworld book where Cohen the Barbarian, who is very very old, and politically totally incorrect, everyone likes him. They all follow him, they do as he says, because he just blows like fresh air everywhere he goes.

Is it just to keep you interested...?

It’s quite easy to say, "ok, here are all the clichés of classic fantasy, let’s turn them over", but if you do that and all you’ve done is turn them over, then you haven’t really done anything. If you just turn them over, all you’ve dome is just destroy things. But when turning them over raises all kinds of questions; what kind of witch is it that actually dislike magic? So as you do your characters they automatically become important. If all you do is kick over the table and say "look at me, aren’t I clever?" you’re just being some spoilt kid. But certainly there are some characters that I’m very pleased with, and the three witches quite definitely are becoming quite central to the series. I’ve yet to meet an intelligent woman who wouldn’t long to be Granny Weatherwax, would settle for Nanny Ogg and secretly suspects that she’s really Magrat. It’s a big problem, because Magrat is now married, which, without drawing too much attention to the symbolism of the three of them, one may assume that her prime requirement for membership is no longer possessed, so I’m not quite sure what the other two are going to do about it. What’s fun about Granny Weatherwax is, she’s a bully, she’s autocratic, she’s, on paper she’s a bad witch, she just happens to be on the right side, in fact, I think, in Lords and Ladies, she says something to Nanny Ogg along the lines of "Just because I’m right doesn’t have to mean I’m nice". You get your characters right, and everything else happens.

The four boys in the Johnny books, too, in terms of character; you tread a really fine line with them in terms of an ironical adult look at their pretensions and their foibles and their sillinesses, and at the same time keeping them real and still attractive to children.

The point is, I can’t speak for Australia, but kids in England now suffer from this terrible ersatz Americanism, so they walk around trying to look like a kid from South Central (L.A.). What the hell, they live in Taunton, Somerset, you know, and you can’t hang out at the shopping mall, because there’s only that silly shop, and the weather isn’t like Southern California. It’s a bit like we were in the 60’s. The 60’s only happened to about 250 people in London, everyone else pretended they were there as well. And they don’t know what the slang now is, and there’s this horrible feeling that everyone else knows and you don’t, and that you’re not doing it right. There’s a terrible uncertainty, you definitely want to fit in, but you don’t actually know where the "in" is you’re supposed to fit.

And the goal posts shift all the time.

I think that’s common to every age, all we have to do is remember what it’s like.

Your brand of humour is frequently satirical; extended puns and...

I pun far less often than people think.

OK! The Book of Nome, the elevated biblical language, a lot of your humour is based on political theory, philosophy, all these kinds of things, and you do that in your kids books too, you don’t assume that kids don’t know about these things. We often assume that kids’ sense of humour is often pretty unsubtle and pretty earthy, but you’ve assumed a degree of sophistication in kids.

I’m not entirely certain you’re right. I think you are, how can I put it? You may feel that something I’ve got is based on a political theory, or is parodying... Now, kids might not even see that, they’ll just go for the underlying truth.

This isn’t a criticism, in fact...

No, no, no... I’m saying that, curiously enough, a lady trying to translate Truckers into Russian said there were two problems she had to try and overcome; a small one and a big one. The small one was that Russian children would simply not be familiar with the concept of biblical language, so they wouldn’t recognise (the parody). The second was, it’s set in a store full of merchandise, and they would have no concept of that idea at all. It may be that kids understand things that they don’t vocalise very well.

Yes, I think that’s right.

I get the same thing from my Japanese translator. They say "this theory you’ve got from T.H. Robinovitch in his book...." and I think, I’ve never heard of this fellow, if I did, I thought he was a harmonica player! All I’ve done, to be honest, I’ve done what the story wanted, as Granny Weatherwax would say. The fact that it may fit in with someone’s theory of archetypes is a lucky shot, that’s something to give the Ph.D’s something to write about!

Well, yes, but say, the philosopher’s scene in Small Gods; you don’t have to know about philosophy to get the humour of that...

But remember, Small Gods wasn’t written for kids.

No, I know, but I think that it’s great that you don’t underestimate kids and say, well, they’re not going to get this, so I won’t put it in, that in fact you allow whatever needs to be there to be there, and if they get the reference, great, and if they don’t they’ll get something else from it, and take it with them anyway.

Well, something like the philosopher’s scene in Small Gods, I based it on the old principal, "That’s all the big philosopher’s you can remember". Well, OK, what can I remember? Some guy had a bath, and said "Eureka!", and they used to argue a lot, and if you’re slightly more advanced, you know, for example, in Pyramids I have the philosophers again, and one of them’s called Endos the Listener, and his job is just to sit there and say "yes, you are entirely correct", and "indeed, that is absolutely right". Because they’re all busy talking, and he actually charges money for listening, because no one wants to listen, and he charges money to do it. And also, if people are slightly more advanced, up to student level, they’d be familiar with the symposium, which is supposed to take place over a dinner party, and so in Pyramids, I did what it would really be like if you tried to have philosophers at a dinner party. What I often do, and again, this is post facto reasoning, the humour is based on everything you vaguely remember — we’re very thinly educated these days — everything you can vaguely remember about Greek philosophers, and I use that as a starting point. Even now, although less so than when I was a kid, kids pick up a lot of information on an osmotic basis; they certainly don’t do it from school. I have unfortunate views about education.

I wanted to ask you some specific questions that will be of interest to the children who are readers of School Magazine, and they’re pretty like the questions kids would ask you when you go into schools. It seems to me from reading your books that you must get a lot of pleasure out of writing. Are you a disciplined writer? Do you have a regular routine?

I would like to be. It doesn’t actually work like that, and this sounds awfully pseudo, but writing is my ground state of being. It’s what, on the whole, I think I should be doing, so everything else that I’m doing is time filched from writing. Increasingly, I think this is a slightly unhealthy way of living, and maybe I ought to get a life as well! I like writing, and I resent it if I can’t do it. I’m not disciplined, but if left to myself, I’d do a lot of writing every day.

What are your inspirations, who are your inspirations, do you read other children’s writers? Other writer’s generally who inspire you? Does reading other writers’ work interfere with your own writing?

Everyone, not just kids, think ideas lie around like little nuggets, and you just wander around... and what they want you to do is tell them the way to the Holy Grail. It’s the same with inspiration. If you tell us where you get your inspiration from, we’ll go and stand there. I make up my ideas in my head, and that’s where the inspiration comes from as well. Yes, sometimes I can see, in the real world, unusual juxtapositions, or there are little triggers which happen to set something off in my mind, but usually I get my ideas by thinking logically about things that you’re not supposed to think logically about.

Do you start with story or character?

It might be a story, it might be a character. Weird Sisters began with a joke, which was the joke at the beginning, and I knew very little about the rest of it. The witches; well, Granny Weatherwax already existed, and the other witches just sprang fully formed. I’m a great believer in the silent writer inside. Back in the 60s I experimented with dope, because people did in the 60s, and I remember saying, "well, this is supposed to make me very creative", so I had a little smoke, and I thought "Well, OK, I’ll sit by my typewriter. If Huxley is allowed to do it with mescalin, I thought, at least I should be allowed to do it with... So, I thought, I’ll type what is going on. I remember looking at the key and thinking, "That "a" key. What a superb "a" key that is. That’s a great "a" key. Wow, look at it! And there’s all these other keys! And there’s numbers as well! Anything I want to write, it’s all here, all contained in this keyboard is anything I want to write." And I sort of drooled like an over-grown setter. You wouldn’t know what I’m talking about, of course. And because nobody can stop me from saying in public what I think, I say to kids, "This is why you shouldn’t take drugs, not because they’re bad for you, because some of them aren’t that bad for you, but they’ll turn you into a hippy!" But what sometimes is necessary is to find a way of allowing — I always say the sub-conscious writer — but allowing the ideas that are floating around looking for a place to settle, find a way of switching off sufficiently to allow them to do so. That’s why, and I’m not the only person to say it, you often get ideas when you’re driving a car, because various parts of your mind are actually taken up with the job in hand, which actually means that something comes through from the back. Listening to music can do the same sort of thing.

In fact, it boils down to what I always tell kids, if you want to be a writer, try and do something else. A., because you should try and look for an alternative means of making a living, and B., because no one ever went straight from school into "being a writer", I mean, that’s ridiculous. You should get a life, fill yourself up, and you start to overflow. But also sometimes you have to fool yourself to allow the ideas to come through. That’s why I mow the lawn. I’ve got a big lawn, it’s one of the shortest lawns in Yorkshire. I’ve got a ride-on mower, and I sit on there with my hat singing American revivalist hymns at the top of my voice, because no one can hear me. I often get the ideas, because everything’s switched off, and it’s noisy. That’s why kids do their homework in front of the television. Kids do their homework in front of the television because it actually provides white noise, to allow things to happen. I often write with music on.

Back to the Johnny books — and I have to say that I read Johnny and the Dead just yesterday, and I think it’s one of the finest kids’ books I’ve read in a long time. I just think it’s wonderful...

It’s up for a Carnegie, but it won’t get it.

Because it’s funny?

Yes, it’s partly that, but also because I’m, how can I put it. This is the second one I’ve had for that award...

What else was up? Truckers?

Truckers. And Truckers was up for the Smarties award. Johnny and the Dead’s won a couple of awards. No, Johnny and the Dead’s won one award, the Writer’s Guild award. That was very nice, because it’s actually fellow writers. Because I have a small suspicion that in the UK I am thought of to be personally politically incorrect, even if I sit there being absolutely quiet, and saying the right things, people say, "Yes, but he’s thinking politically incorrect thoughts. He’s not really a proper children’s writer, you can see, inside. He might be sitting there, but any minute if we’re not careful he’s going to do something."

The whole argument I think is really unfortunate, because of course it’s good to be nice to people regardless of whether they’re one thing or another, but when it starts restricting people’s creativity...

Well, I don’t mean it like that. I use the term "dirndl mafia", with whom I have sort of love-hate thing. I think it’s really great that around the world there are people, probably like yourself, there’s this loose association of librarians, and teachers and the adults involved in the book business who are keeping the guttering flame alive, usually in the face of total media disinterest. When you think books for kids in the UK get in the mainstream newspapers get minimal reviews, and there’s usually a little teddy bear at the top of the page to show that it’s not really that important. Given the vast forces ranged against them, I’m just incredibly gratified that there’s anyone out there doing that kind of job. The fact that they sometimes annoy me is almost a minor consideration.

It’s a very vexed issue at the moment, isn’t it. Anyway, back to Johnny. The Johnny books are more in the realist mode, and again, this is broad generalisation...

I think they are exactly in the realist mode if you are about 12 years old.

They also deal — now, I think that all your books have serious ideas lurking around — but I think you’ve brought them more to the front in the Johnny books. Do you agree? What prompted the change of approach anyway to a more realist mode, was it just that’s what the story needed?

That was what the story needed. I’m quite viciously straightforward about that. I couldn’t have written — Johnny and the Dead had to be set in a world which appeared to be the real world to have the effect it could. on Discworld, in Ankh-Morpork, the dead have a perfectly everyday role to play in the normal civilisation. Your milk may well be delivered by a zombie. As I say, in Ankh-Morpork, the fact that I have the classical races of horror and fantasy actually playing roles as citizens has its own pleasant connotations. The fact that your local butcher might be a vampire has no more or less comment than him being a Muslim. So there had to be a framework of conventional reality for both those books to work. In Only You..., for example, I actually was up late working when the Gulf War started, and I was also aware of how much an effect it had on kids, that despite apparently being inured by years of video games and Schwarzenegger movies, this is a real war, and they seem to understand it was a real war, more than adults did. They were actually afraid it was going to happen here, maybe because they were a bit locationally challenged, as far as the Gulf was concerned. And the thing that triggered Only You... was that I was having all the normal wishy-washy things that it’s not a nice idea to say "wow, look we can drop this bomb straight down this chimney" because 38 people you might like if you’d met in person have been laminated against the walls inside, but we don’t want to show you that, we’re going to show you the video. And then there was an interview, I think it was by CNN, with two pilots who’d just come back from over-flying the desert, and they were Americans. If the Brits had been interviewed it would have been "well, yes it was very regrettable, but yes, it was a successful flight." Because we’ve learned the stiff upper lip. But these Americans pilots come out like "Woh, it’s like a turkey shoot out there, we really kicked some butt, it’s like shootin’ cockroaches." Everyone was raising their hands in horror, and I watched this and a lot of people were saying how disgusting it was, to show this, and I thought, "They’re soldiers." And despite the fact that there was more or less air supremacy, I mean there were ak-ak guns, and they’d been doing what civilisation had been very specifically training them to do for years, and at any moment when they were out there there could have been a bang and their manhood could have gone past their face on a little column of white-hot metal, and they were at least sub-consciously aware of that. And when they came back, they were drunk, they were drunk with relief and testosterone, as soldiers always are after a battle. The only difference is that, after the Trojan wars or whatever, we never saw it television. And I thought it’s silly, I mean, what do you think soldiers are like? They’re humans, they come back and they’re safe, and that’s why in the book there’s a scene where all the kids in the class are discussing it, they’re all taking a view, and Johnny says, "Look, it’s more complicated than that. When they go up there they’re soldiers who might be dying. It’s just a whole lot more complicated than you think." That’s what war is, it isn’t so nicely clean-cut. And all these things sort of came together, and I thought I can do this in a children’s book, because children seem to be involved in all that. Children all seem to live between video games and video war very readily.

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

Autor nie z tej ziemi

O komputerach, dyskach i złośliwych wtyczkach mówi Terry Pratchett, autor powieści fantasy

Terryego Pratchetta spotykam na warszawskim Dworcu Centralnym. Za chwilę wyruszymy na spotkanie autorskie do Poznania. Plan pobytu Terryego w Polsce jest tak napięty, że udziela wywiadów jedynie w pociągach. Autor najpoczytniejszej serii książek w dziejach ludzkości Świat Dysku i jeden z najbogatszych pisarzy w Wielkiej Brytanii, który do chwili pojawienia się na horyzoncie Joanne K. Rowling odpowiadał za 1 procent wszystkich sprzedawanych na Wyspach książek... wcale na takiego nie wygląda.

Z tłumu wyróżnia go jedynie przyduży czarny kapelusz trochę podobny do tych, jakie noszą czarodzieje w jego książkach oraz zapalczywa gestykulacja. Kiedy w przedziale Pratchett zdejmuje kapelusz, moim oczom ukazuje się miły pan około sześćdziesiątki o ciepłych, bystrych oczach.

Gazeta Studencka: Jak wpadł Pan na pomysł Świata Dysku

Terry Pratchett: Tylko nie to! Odpowiadam na to pytanie od lat! Za każdym razem czuję się w obowiązku dać oryginalną odpowiedź. Tym razem niech będzie, że podpowiedział mi to kosmita... Albo nie! Napisz, że to był anioł.

GS: Wiedział Pan od początku, że to będzie cała seria

Myślałem o jednej, może dwóch książkach...

GS: Cholera! Włożyłem wtyczkę mikrofonu w złe gniazdko!

(śmiech) Nie przejmuj się. Jeden dziennikarz z Australii zrobił kiedyś w ten sposób cały wywiad ze mną.

GS: Kolejne powieści z serii Świat Dysku ewoluują. Na początku były głównie gagi i mnóstwo śmiechu, teraz w tle pojawiają się poważne tematy.

Brytyjski pisarz Gilbert Keith Chesterton stwierdził, że poważny nie jest przeciwstawny do śmiesznego. Poważny jest przeciwstawny do niepoważnego, a śmieszny do nie śmiesznego. Literatura może być jednocześnie śmieszna i poważna. W myśl tej zasady niektórzy politycy są nie śmieszni i niepoważni. Często używam humoru, aby uwypuklić poważne zagadnienia. Coraz częściej.

GS: Dlaczego coraz częściej?

Mogę pisać jedynie o sprawach, które mnie interesują. Kiedyś zajmowała mnie jedynie czysta fantasy. Potem zacząłem zwracać uwagę na to, co dzieje się wokół, a są to często bardzo poważne rzeczy, stąd odniesienia do rzeczywistości. Zauważyłem również, że aby uznać powieść za dobrą, musi się ona bronić, nawet w poza humorystycznej warstwie.

GS: Niektóre z Pańskich postaci wręcz ocierają się o tragizm.

Jeżeli wszystko jest śmieszne, to do niczego nie prowadzi. Monty Python był śmieszny, ale czasem bywał krańcowo ponury. Jeszcze dalej posunął się w swej twórczości Terry Gilliam [jeden z członków grupy Monty Pythona przyp. MW] w Jabber Wocky humor szedł w parze z horrorem. Śmiech ma sens jedynie wtedy, jeśli towarzyszy mu głębsza refleksja.

GS: Mimo że Pańskie powieści osadzone są w wyimaginowanym świecie, zawarty w nich humor jest typowo wyspiarski. Kto jest dla Pana inspiracją ?

Przede wszystkim Charles Dickens. Ten klasyk powieści europejskiej określił to, co dziś nazywamy brytyjskim poczuciem humoru. Następny to Jerome K. Jerome, być może najczystsze uosobienie takiego humoru. Nazwałbym go typem obserwatora rozbawionego tym, co się dzieje dookoła. Do tego typu humoru nawiązuję i ja.

GS: W zeszłym roku w ogólnonarodowej ankiecie BBC na ulubioną książkę jedynie dwóch autorów miało po pięć pozycji w pierwszej setce...

Dickens i ja! Gdyby tylko moi fani byli bardziej zorganizowani i wszyscy zagłosowali na tę samą książkę, to kto wie, czy nie zostałbym autorem wszech czasów (śmiech)

GS: Na którą ze swoich książek Pan sam by zagłosował?

Trudne pytanie. Lubię je wszystkie, każdą z innego powodu. Być może byłaby to książka dla dzieci Wee three men, ponieważ jest tam kilka fragmentów, które nawet ja uważam za kawał dobrej literatury.

GS: Jest Pan aż tak krytyczny w stosunku do swojej twórczości?

Może trochę przesadziłem. Po prostu unikam samochwalstwa.

GS: Elementy kultury brytyjskiej w Świecie Dysku są bardzo widoczne. Czy wykorzystuje Pan w swoich powieściach również obserwacje z innych krajów?

Czasami notuję to i owo, chociaż nigdy nie wiem, kiedy i czy w ogóle to wykorzystam.

GS: A coś z Polski?

Ależ tak! To bardzo świeża sprawa. Kiedy byłem ostatnio w Polsce, poprosiłem Piotra [Piotr W. Cholewa przyp. MW], żeby zabrał mnie do jakiejś tradycyjnej polskiej restauracji. Poszliśmy do Chłopskiego Jadła w Krakowie. Kiedy spojrzałem w kartę dań, odniosłem wrażenie, że nie ma tam niczego poza tłuszczem w różnych postaciach i kombinacjach. Na tym spostrzeżeniu oparłem znaczną część fabuły książki Piąty elefant, w której występują kopalnie tłuszczu.

[Piotr W. Cholewa: Potrawą, którą wtedy jadł Terry, były pierogi. On narzeka na tłuszcz, ale ilekroć przyjeżdża do Polski, zawsze ciągnie mnie na pierogi.]

GS: Szuka Pan cech typowych dla poszczególnych narodowości?

Skądże! Nie interesują mnie spostrzeżenia, które mówią mi coś o Polakach, ale głównie te, które mówią mi coś o ludzkości. Wczoraj ktoś mi powiedział, że Ankh Morpork [największe miasto w ¦wiecie Dysku przyp. MW] przypomina mu Kraków. Gdziekolwiek na świecie się pojawię, ludzie mówią mi, że Ankh Morpork przypomina im ich własne miasto. Tak samo dzieje się z wieloma postaciami z moich książek. To mi bardzo pochlebia, bo oznacza, że postacie i miejsca w moich książkach są uniwersalne.

GS: Jest Pan znanym miłośnikiem komputerów. Na jakim pracuje Pan obecnie?

Ciężko określić typ mojego komputera. Ciągle coś w nim zmieniam. Określiłbym go jako Pentium 4 z dodatkami. Najbardziej interesujące jest w nim to, że posiada aż trzy ekrany.

GS: Po co?

Windows to okna. Używając wielu ekranów, korzystam z wielu okien i nie muszę otwierać ich na tym samym ekranie. Okna nakładające się jedno na drugie nie są nawet w połowie tak użyteczne jak wtedy, kiedy są widoczne obok siebie. Szczerze mówiąc, rozważam dokupienie czwartego monitora. Pracuję na wielu dokumentach na jednym ekranie mam brudnopis, na innym notatki, a na jeszcze innym ostateczną wersję tekstu.

GS: Poza pracą też do czegoś służą ?

Komputery są bardzo ważną częścią mojego życia. Pracują jako telewizor albo odtwarzacz DVD lub SETI.

GS: Co to jest ?

To program, który służy do szukania obcych cywilizacji. Miliony internautów ściągają go, aby wykorzystywał wolną pamięć ich komputerów do analizowania sygnałów z kosmosu. Poza tym wszystkie kamery rozmieszczone w mojej posiadłości ze względów bezpieczeństwa podłączone są do mojego komputera. Pracując, mam jednocześnie oko na to, co dzieje się na zewnątrz. Nie mam na tym punkcie paranoi. Po prostu lubię gadżety.

GS: A na którym napisał Pan swoją pierwszą książkę ?

Nazywał się Amstrad 464. Miał znakomitą klawiaturę i bardzo przyzwoity program do pisania.

GS: Ale był bardzo wolny.

Teraz wydaje się, że był wolny. Wtedy był szczytem szybkości. Jest takie powiedzenie, że nowe komputery wcale nie są szybsze, po prostu sprawiają, że stare wydają się wolniejsze. Chociaż przyznaję, że użycie programu sprawdzającego błędy na moim Amstradzie zajmowało całe popołudnie.

GS: Z jakich dodatkowych narzędzi korzysta Pan podczas pisania ?

Z mózgu okazuje się bardzo użyteczny. Mój jest dosyć stary i nie mogę go aktualizować, ale wciąż się przydaje do wykonywania wielu prostych czynności.

MARCIN WYRWAŁ 2004-09-24 [/b]

Aida · Gość

Londyńskie "Metro" z 5.X br. zamie¶ciło wywiad z Pterrym, który na listę dyskusyjn± przysłała Karen Rowland.

Terry Pratchett's first book in the Discworld series, The Colour of
Magic,
appeared in 1983. Hs novels have sold more than 21 million copies
worldwide
and been translated into 27 languages. It was once calculated that he
was
responsible for one in every 100 fiction books sold in Britain. He
spends
most days typing at his computer.

Metro: What inspired Discworld? Only joking....

TP: Don't do that! If you knew how my stomach went into this little
tight
hard ball. After 33 books, I still get asked that question. The next
one
is: "Where do you get your ideas from?"

Metro: You can give some journalists a bit of a hard time./..

TP: The curious thing is that, over the years, I've always got the
impression that I'm starting from square one in interviews. Discworld is
quite established and lots of people have heard of it even if they don't
read it, yet they still act as if I've sort of just popped up. There
have
been so many interviews based on the idea that the readers of the
particular
newspaper won't have heard of me. It doesn't annoy me, it just strikes
me
as a strange way of doing things.

Metro: You've been called the biggest banker in modern publishing.

TP: Assuming banker is what they actually meant, that probably true.
The
books sell well, like clockwork, which is kind of frightening.

Metro: As you get older and wiser, the books get that bit darker and
more
adult.

TP: You have to have some darkness because that helps the light show up
better. I don't say the early books are bad books, but I would say that
if
I wasn't writing better books by now something would be seriously wrong.
I
do pick up new readers with every book, which is quite interesting. You
wouldn't think it would quite happen like that but it does.

Metro: You still spend a lot of time doing book tours?

TP: Once upon a time, when I started writing, there were an awful lot of
fantasy bookshops around the place, generally down in the back street
between the porno bookshop and the massage parlour. It was quite
possible,
if you started in that genre, to do quite a good signing tour without
ever
touching the high street bookshops. So that's always been within me - a
tradition of authors touring. It never really occurred to me that this
was
an unusual thing to do but it takes a toll after a while.

Metro: Will Discworld ever be filmed?

TP: Movies these days are more about merchandising and often involve
control of the characters, And, since I've famously made a lot of money
out
of the books, there's not a huge amount of leverage to be used on me.
Somewhere in the world are between 20 and 25 Discworld plays in planning
or
production and they've been performed on every continent now - even
Antarctica. The plays interest me far more. Real people are spending
time
doing real stuff. I can never see movies as quite real.

Metro: Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter?

TP: Without a shadow of a doubt, Harry Potter. Sorry, hang on... did I
just say that? My brain short-circuited. Without a shadow of a doubt,
Lord
of the Rings. Watching The Fellowship of the Ring was as if someone had
stuck some electrodes into my brain when I was 13 years old and extracted
the images. It had depths that I wouldn't have expected. They were
trying
to get it right.

Metro: What's been your biggest extravagance?

TP: Having a PA... I think that's extravagant. Maybe buying computers.
I'm extravagant on the things I always did anyway. When you first start
out
and you're just married, all your bookcases are made out of some curious
wood and they always sag in the middle. I though: "I do not have to
have
this." So I got the Encyclopaedia Britannica and told the joiner: "The
bookcase you build must be strong enough to hold this on every shelf and
also strong enough to allow me to climb it." That is extravagant but now
I
have this nice room to fill up.

Metro: What about your hats?

TP: I've still go the first black hat, which is incredibly long-lasting.
That's the stunt hat, the one I wear to signing that ht e kids all try
on.
If you wear them a lot they don't last long. Then they get given to
charity.

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

The Whole Truth

At last the printing press comes to the great and smelly city of Ankh-Morpork, and the
Ankh-Morpork Times is born. Motto: "The truth shall make ye fret." Or possibly "fred", or
maybe even "free", proofreading being a little slower in arriving... Professional letter-writer
William de Worde finds himself cast as Discworld's first investigative reporter, just when a
major crime story breaks. The Truth is out there, but it may be a messy, dangerous thing to go
hunting for, as David Langford found out for Amazon.co.uk when he talked to Terry Pratchett.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amazon.co.uk: Does that magic number of 25 Discworld books seem significant, or just a bit
of pointless numerology?

Terry Pratchett: It's the number you get to after 24, and the one just before 26.
I think that answers that question very succinctly, don't you? But I suspect the publishers
will open a magnum of Rusted Dunny Valley Semi-Semillon 1999 and some of the papers will do the
usual "who's this Terry Pratchett then?" articles.

Amazon.co.uk: Have 17 years of Discworld provided you with a succinct answer to that question?

Pratchett: Well, they never actually ask me that question (to which the answer would be
"I think that's him over there") but the pattern is usually the same. I think every DW book
since Sourcery has got to No. 1 in hardback or paperback or both, and my publisher can dish
out reams of "goshwow" sales statistics (some of which I regard with extreme suspicion), but
even the well-intentioned interviewers start on the basis that none of the paper's readers will
have a clue about me or the books. It's a genre thing, I'm sure. And it applies only to the
fantasy/SF genres. God knows why.

Amazon.co.uk: Onward to The Truth... Was your long-ago career in journalism inspirational for
the Ankh-Morpork Times? Do you have any specific anecdotes, insights, or humorous vegetables
with real-world roots?

Pratchett: Oh god, yes. There are direct bits of my life in there. That interview with
Mr Crank--the would-be suicide! That was me one dark November afternoon on the Avon Gorge
suspension bridge in Bristol, that was. And William's constant amazement at the fact that the
stuff written by him is taken seriously by people was me, too. And the disruption at the flower
and baking society. I've sat there as a sub-editor and tactfully led a trainee reporter through
a very similar story. And every local reporter knows--or at least, knew--that once you let one
funny potato through, you're doomed.

Amazon.co.uk: Meanwhile some Ankh-Morpork citizens report big silver dishes in the sky ... did
you get UFO-spotters too?

Pratchett: Oh yes. Oh yes. For some reason all the UFO stories, and the people being spied
on by laser rays, always ended up with me. Still it got me out of the office. Come to think of
it, that may have been the reason.

Amazon.co.uk: Was it difficult to wave away the Discworld wizards' established rule against
movable-type printing?

Pratchett: No. I'd been laying the groundwork for some time. Omnia and the Agatean Empire have
printing, the dwarfs are now a politically-powerful group and Lord Vetinari is getting to grips
with the information age. Things happen in Ankh-Morpork when it's in the interest of the
majority of powerful groupings to let them happen. Besides, Vetinari would be the first to see
that newspapers could have a very useful part to play in the Byzantine politics of the city.

Amazon.co.uk: Sometimes you plant material for whole books in advance--could it be sheer
serendipity that you had a candidate for the first investigative journalist in place, right
down to his having an appropriate name from the early days of printing?

Pratchett: William was planted way back in the first edition of the Discworld Companion,
I think.

Amazon.co.uk: Which said, six years ago: "It could well be that the future holds great things
for young de Worde..."

Pratchett: There are a number of sleepers in the books. And then, when it's time ...
mwahahahah!!!!!

Amazon.co.uk: Conversely, The Truth's insanely angry co-villain Mr Tulip is brand new, with a
hint that he was warped by awful experiences in early life, but no details. Did it just seem
better to let the reader's imagination work than say more?

Pratchett: I think the phrase here that the well-read might understand is: "Something Nasty In
The Woodshed". He's a vicious, unthinking killer, but he screams in his sleep. There are a few
glimpses of his childhood. I thought: I don't need any more than that.

Amazon.co.uk: Do you worry about the number of balls you're now keeping in the air of
Ankh-Morpork, the number of spanners clanking around in its works?

Pratchett: I'm sure those wonderful people on alt.fan.pratchett will put me right whenever I
stray. But Larry Niven was right--the things you invent for story X have to be taken account of
in story Y. Yes. It's tougher. But there are ways.

Amazon.co.uk: Some really dangerous inventions remain suppressed, such as the high-velocity
rifle from Guards! Guards! and various weapons of mass destruction innocently devised by genius
inventor Leonard of Quirm. Is this all too grim for Discworld--or will the logic of
Ankh-Morpork's industrial revolution take you into this territory?

Pratchett: The industrial revolution is quite advanced. Lots of water power, lots of
golem-operated treadmills. What we haven't had in Ankh-Morpork is that view of people as mill
fodder that you need in order to consolidate it, though. But, since you ask, I think there may
be big challenges ahead.

Amazon.co.uk: How about an example?

Pratchett: The trouble with allowing an invention is that you have to deal with everything that
follows. Take the bicycle--good old piece of technology, doesn't cost as much as a horse--but
it means the common people can move about a lot, visit other towns, get a different view of the
world ... the long-term fallout can be huge. We shall see.

Amazon.co.uk: Another unsuppressed innovation is the magic personal Dis-Organizer, now upgraded
to Mark II. Its small-print contract terms certainly ring true: had you overdosed on software
licences?

Pratchett: Around that time I had to buy a piece of software so that I could read the re-worked
script of Mort the movie, which is still substantially mine although the movie has been in
development hell so long it's been given its own pitchfork. Anyway ... the software had all
kinds of endorsements on the box, but when I read the really tiny print it said, in effect, if
this doesn't do what it says on the box, tough luck. Why do we take this rubbish? You wouldn't
buy a packet of biscuits on that basis!

Amazon.co.uk: You occasionally throw in a really erudite reference. I noticed that the Watch's
latest toy, the speaking-tube intercom, has the same flaw as Ireland's air-powered Kingston to
Dalkey Atmospheric Railway of 1844: "rats have been nibbling at the tubes".

Pratchett: Funny how you do a lot of research for the sheer fun of learning how complex a
communication system could get without electricity, and end up with one line.... I used to work
in a newspaper office that used pneumatic tubes to ferry the copy around between floors; I had
this fantasy about the days when there were also speaking tubes, and what might happen if the
plumber got the tubes mixed up. Those containers moved at quite a speed and were very heavy...

Amazon.co.uk: Ouch.... Ringing the changes on city factions helps keep things fresh. Was it a
relief to move familiar City Watch characters to the sidelines and see them from outside? Vimes,
for example, is shown as a mite high-handed with ordinary citizens he might die for but doesn't
actually like. Such as William.

Pratchett: It was fun. We like Vimes, I hope, but that's because we see him from the inside and
understand why he acts the way he does.... Seen from the point of view of someone with a vague
idea about civil liberties, he's not quite so nice. So you can end up with this confrontational
situation and yet we know that both men are, in their different ways, decent people. In fact my
proto-journalist is a bit of an arrogant prick and something of a bully. It's just that he needs
to be.

Pratchett: It becomes pretty clear that William takes after his totally arrogant father Lord de
Worde, even though he's so sure he doesn't! Yes, characters generally seem nicer from inside.
Is this why you so rarely use Lord Vetinari's viewpoint--to keep him distanced and menacing?

Pratchett: Exactly. You never quite know what he's thinking on the next level down.

Amazon.co.uk: I loved Otto the vampire press photographer, your latest rethinking of whether
Discworld vampires need be inherently bad. Despite temptations to backslide, Otto is definitely
on the side of the angels and comic with it. Are there any received Fantasyland ideas about
goodies and baddies that you haven't yet revised in this way?

Pratchett: Well, yes ... Dark Lords, now--they get this bad press, but does anyone mention what
they do for local employment? Stand by for Evil Harry Dread, the Dark Lord who never made it
into the big time because of his commitment to craftsmanship and personal service in a field
increasingly taken over by the big boys (Harry always made sure he had the stupidest henchmen
and dungeons with suspiciously large and readily accessible ventilation ducts, and so on ...).
He'll turn up in The Last Hero, next year.

I think it's against the very nature of Discworld to write off an entire race as automatically,
inherently bad. Except for the bloody elves, of course.

Amazon.co.uk: No chance of any rehabilitation on that front, then?

Pratchett: Certainly none planned! In fact I've got something planned a few years ahead where
they--oops, not time to talk about that yet.

Amazon.co.uk: I hear The Last Hero also features inept wizard Rincewind--is he still the
character whose return is most demanded by the fans?

Pratchett: By younger fans, at least. Older fans want the witches/the Watch/Death. With fries
and a Coke.

Amazon.co.uk: Looking further ahead, can you reveal anything about the novel in progress, Thief
of Time?

Pratchett: Well, Susan's in it. And Death. And the Death of Rats. But not always in the
spotlight. And at last I'm using the fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse, who left before they
became famous (and who doesn't envy the success of the other four at all, of course ...). As to
what the book is about ... well, it's about time.

Amazon.co.uk: And about time to finish. Dare you comment on Terry Pratchett: Guilty of
Literature, the Science Fiction Foundation's new collection of academic essays about your
writing?

Pratchett: It was very ... kind of them. If I'd known anyone would take that much interest, I'd
have written better books.

(c)Amazon.co.uk

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

Ktoś wcześniej wspomniał o wywiadzie Terry’ego dla czasopisma komputerowego Secret Servivce (a właściwie to NewS Service)

Otóż wygrzebałem ten wywiadzik z nr. 70. Jest tam jeszcze trochę dłuższy od wywiadu opis wyprawy Mamouliana (ekpa SS) do Londynu, do siedziby firmy TEENY WEENY GAMES (autorzy wszystkich 3-ech komputerowych discworldów), który jak znajdę trochę więcej czasu to klępę i podrzucę na forum.

Rozmowy o Discworld nor.

NSS: O ile nam wiadomo, uczestniczył Pan we wszystkich projektach związanych z trzema grami z cyklu DISCWORLD. Pierwsze tytuły były utrzymane w konwencji Pańskich książek, natomiast ostatni DISCWORLD NOIR zaskoczył nas zupełnie, bo wykonano go zgoła inaczej. Jego akcja rozgrywa się w mrocznym Ankh-Morpork zanurzonym w bezkresnej nocy, a nawet gdy zdarzy się, że zawita w nim słońce, jest ono również przygnębiające, nawet jak na Ankh. Skąd taka nagła zmiana atmosfery?

TP: Myślałem, że to zbyt oczywiste, po prostu przenieść bohaterów moich powieści na ekran komputera. Wydawało mi się, że o wiele ciekawiej będzie wpleść nowe postacie, zdarzenia, jak również klimat świata, coś, co odświerzy znany już przez wielu świat DISCWORLD. Nie mówię przez to, że wszyscy muszą kochać świat Dysku, co więcej, dzięki zabiegowi zmiany wyglądu otoczenia gra jest otwarta na szerszą widownię, nie tylko znawców mojego świata. Wciąż jednak mamy wiele humoru, wciągającą fabuł i dobrze zarysowane osobowości, czyli te czynniki, które zadecydowały o popularności poprzednich gier. W DISCWORLD NOIR jest wszystko to, co wcześniej, plus oryginalne środowisko, dające szansę na zabawę dla wszystkich, których bawią przygodówki, bez wyjątku... Wierzę, że pomimo nowego nastroju, jaku udało nam się stworzyć w DISCWORLD NOIR, został zachowany oryginalny charakter Świata Dysku.

NSS: Czy uważa Pan, że wyrenderowane, mroczne lokacje bardziej odpowiadają wizji Świata Dysku? Uważamy, że DISCWORLD NOIR posiada świetnie ułożoną historię detektywistyczną, ale mieliśmy problemy z powiązaniem jej z poprzednimi książkami i grami. Czy to oznacza, że ma Pan zamiar napisać nowe książki także w takiej właśnie atmosferze nocy?

TP: Brak powiązania z naszymi poprzednimi dokonaniami był, jak już mówiłem wcześniej, całkowicie zamierzony i przemyślany. Zbytnie obeznanie w świecie może rozleniwić jednych (znawców), a zniechęcić zupełnie nowych graczy, mających poczucie bycia "poza grą". Generalnie Świat Dysku często zmusza ludzi do zaznajomienia się z jego detalami i klimatem, postaciami i charakterystycznymi sytuacjami. Jednak nie widzę niczego złego z zmianach i otwarciu nowych możliwości i perspektyw. Cały styl NOIR wydawał nam się bardzo otwarty, zwłaszcza w obszarze zajmowanym przez gry interaktywne.

NSS: Wracając do książek - Rincewind był głównym bohaterem całej serii. Potem schodził na dalszy plan, aż ukrył się zupełnie w cieniu, przedstawiając nam inne postacie, w których znajdowaliśmy z zaskoczeniem jeszcze więcej frajdy. Czy będą jeszcze jakieś kontynuacje gier z DISCRORLDU, a jeśli tak, to jakie nowe postacie pojawią się w nich?

TP: Za wcześnie o rozmowy o przyszłych grach opartych na realiach Świata Dysku i o tym, kto się w nich pojawi. Gry, podobnie jak książki, będą wychodzić tak długo, jak będzie na nie czekać horda zapaleńców, i nie ma takich ludzi na ziemi, którzy nam w tym przeszkodzą!

NSS: W jednym z wywiadów przyznał Pan, że gra czasami w stzelanki 3D, takie jak Quake 2. Czy gra Pan też możę w przygodówki? Co ogólnie sądzi pan o grach inspirowanych książkami? Czy wystarczająco przekazują one linię fabuły ze stronic książki?

TP: Myślę, że obecnie coraz więcej gier, filmów, książek i tym podobnych rzeczy miesza się ze sobą, korzystając z jednych lub inspirując drugie: gra na podstawie filmu, film na kanwie gry... Kiedy technologia, jaką dysponuje PERFECT ENTERTAINMENT, został użyta w pełni, łączenie animacji, mowy, muzyki i trójwymiarowych lokacji oferuje ogromny potencjał fabularny...

NSS: Na koniec chcieliśmy zapytać, czy był jakiś specjalny powód dla obsadzenia rolami Wielkiego A'Tuina i czterech słoni? Dlaczego na przykład nie wybrał Pan krokodyla i czterech wielbłądów? To może idiotyczne pytanie, ale wiem, że kilku ludzi nurtuje ta kwestia od jakiegoś czasu...

TP: Bo gdyby to był krokodyl i cztery wielbłądy, to zapytalibyście dlaczego nie żółw i cztery słonie!

Blade_Master

Daje tutaj ten wywiad z Terrym, bo może ktoś zna tu ten język (włoski - sett) ( a jak zna, to miło by było, gdyby przetłumaczył ) :

Uno dei più amati scrittori fantasy dell'ultima generazione, ogni suo libro è un best seller... Delos non poteva lasciarselo sfuggire!
di Luigi Pachì

Terry Pratchett è tra i più popolari autori di letteratura del fantastico in Inghilterra. Nella sua produzione, che ha raggiunto circa venti best-seller, spicca la saga di Discworld (Mondadori), romanzi ambientati in uno strano mondo piatto che si prendono gioco della nostra società attraverso allegorie e divertenti aneddoti. Terry è stato recentemente menzionato tra i 500 uomini più ricchi della Gran Bretagna (beato lui!). Lo abbiamo avvicinato per i nostri lettori di Delos Cyberzine, per farlo conoscere meglio. Delos: Terry, quando hai iniziato a scrivere letteratura del fantastico, e perchè?

Terry Pratchett: La fantascienza e la fantasy mi sono sempre piaciute. Ho iniziato a scrivere questi generi fin da quando ero bambino.

Delos: C'è stato un approccio particolare con l'editore che ha pubblicato il tuo primo romanzo fantasy?

Terry Pratchett: Huh? No, nulla di tutto questo. Ho soltanto spedito una copia all'editore e successivamente è stato accettato. Credo si trattasse del 1968...

Delos: Da dove è nata l'idea principale del folle mondo fantasy da te descritto?

Terry Pratchett: Discworld non rappresenta un mondo pazzo. O almeno, comparato al nostro mondo è abbastanza "sano". Direi che Discworld non è un mondo folle, lo sembra solamente!

Delos: C'è una ragione in particolare per la quale hai deciso di scrivere letteratura fantasy con questa peculiarità che ti contraddistingue dalla norma? Hai forse riscontrato una mancanza di storie fantasy scritte in tal senso?

Terry Pratchett: Non saprei. Si tratta solo del mio modo di scrivere, credo. Non avevo nessuna grossa idea in testa quando inizia a cimentarmi con queste storie. Volevo soltanto scrivere il tipo di cose che mi piace leggere.

Delos: Terry, pensi che esista una differenza tra i romanzi di fantasy paradossali da te scritti e la produzione fantascientifica di autori quali Robert Sheckley e Douglas Adams?

Terry Pratchett: Credo che tutti e tre utilizziamo nel nostro lavoro il "genere umoristico" come nella migliore tradizione generale. Le differenze (poche? molte?) che esistono tra noi sono le stesse riscontrabili in qualsiasi altro gruppo d'autori.

Delos: Qual'é l'ingrediante principale usato nei tuoi romanzi che ti permette di essere sempre nelle liste dei best-seller?

Terry Pratchett: Il "feedback" dice che la gente ama un mix fatto principalmente di umorismo e filosofia. A parte questo, se fosse stato possibile isolare il magico ingrediente per realizzare un "best-seller" lo staremmo già tutti utilizzando...

Delos: Hai qualche idea sulle vendite dei tuoi libri pubblicati in Italia da Mondadori?

Terry Pratchett: No, davvero. Il tutto passa per le mani di così tante persone che è proprio difficile venire a conoscenza di dati di questo genere.

Delos: Film come "Spaceballs", di Mel brooks, o serie televisive del tipo di "Red Dwarf" possono aiutare il pubblico ad avvicinarsi maggiormente alla fantascienza in senso più generico, o pensi che queste produzioni vengano seguite solo da pochi "aficionados"?

Terry Pratchett: E' proprio l'opposto. Questi film e telefilm vengono guardati da milioni di persone (per lo meno in Inghilterra). Ma in realtà non si tratta di vera fantascienza: principalmente vengono solo utilizzati gli scenari e alcuni plot della science-fiction.

Delos: Ci sono novità per il futuro?

Terry Pratchett: Moltissime.

Delos: Ci sono progetti, ad esempio, di portare sul grande schermo la saga di Discworld?

Terry Pratchett: Vi sono sempre progetti di questo tipo, anche se generalmente proposti da americani poco convincenti. In ogni caso qualche interpretazione per la TV potrebbe prendere presto consistenza.

Delos: Ho recentemente letto su una rivista specializzata che sei stufo dell'autostrada informatica. Potresti spiegare meglio ai nostri lettori cosa intendi dire?

Terry Pratchett: Non sono stufo, sono proprio scocciato con tutto questo parlare di reti. Internet viene venduta come il magico strumento che curerà ogni cosa. Certo, Internet è divertente, ma fondamentalmente è soltanto un'altra dannata COSA. Il futuro non è modellato dalla rete. Per me, chiunque voglia realmente ordinare una pizza attreverso Internet è terribilmente triste.

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

Wywiad dla brytyjskiego Reader's Digest

On the Spot: Terry Pratchett

He is the king of fantasy fiction. Prolifically imaginative, effortlessly humorous, he has written 25 acclaimed Discworld novels about a comic universe populated by trolls, wizards, witches and humans, and sells a million books a year. With his trademark fedora and his death's head cane, he cuts a suitably eccentric figure and, when not devising yet more devilish plots, 53-year-old Terry Pratchett OBE tends his collection of insect-eating plants.

What inspired you to write the Discworld series?

Nothing inspired me. I always distrust the word: it makes it sound as though writing is just a matter of waiting for a light bulb to go on in your head. The series began as a sideways look at heroic fantasy and then it just…kept going.

Do you plan what you are going to write or does it just come out?

Yeah, right! The first draft is mapped in my head. The map is like those once used for navigating 10,000 miles of the Pacific by raft, the mental equivalent of a few bits of wood tied together, some feathers, some bright shells, but it gives me a direction with points en route. Then I think my way through the journey. The process is a lot more controlled than "making it up as I go along", but, happily, less rigid than writing down the details of every scene beforehand on 156 individual file cards.

What is it about your work that allows it to be enjoyed by anyone?

Anyone? I think I appeal to people with the mindset of the keen reader. They'll read an interesting book regardless of who it is "meant" for. When I was a kid I read shelf after shelf of books intended for adults. I learned the meaning of most of the unfamiliar words from context, which is exactly how it should work. A good book should be accessible to anyone.

Does the humour in your books come spontaneously?

It's amazing how easy you can make it seem if you work hard enough. Most of the humour evolves from the plot; I don't go out of my way these days to include a gag.

Which one of your characters do you feel most resembles you?

I'd like to think that I have the same basic honesty and slightly strained patience of Commander Vimes. But I try to keep in mind that the characters are fictional and I'm not. Confusion on this point is a major drawback in my line of work!

Describe your typical reader.

There isn't one. Some assume that a typical fantasy reader is a 14-year-old called Kevin. Well, if he was 14 when Discworld started then Kevin is probably a headmaster by now, and he might even have children of his own who are old enough to be fans.
A readership grows and evolves. I've got a letter here from an eight-year-old girl who says she's read all the books (worrying, eh?). And I know I've got quite a few readers over 80. There's some evidence, though, that I've got more female readers than male.

Do you ever feel trapped by the success of your Discworld novels, that you'd like to explore other ideas?

It is amazing how much can be explored within Discworld. I certainly don't feel trapped. I think people find this hard to understand. But the true clown never wants to play Shakespeare—he wants to play Las Vegas.

Will you carry on Discworld to a fiftieth novel?

If I didn't go mad, I could do that by the time I was 65. But I don't think I will. There are other things on my To Do Before Dying list.

Why does the literary establishment look down on your success?

That's a loaded question. It depends on what you mean by "literary establishment". There are occasional stupidities, like a few bookshops that decided not to put my novels on the best-seller shelves even when they'd been at number one for some time. One told me, very kindly I thought, "Well, you're not exactly best-selling material, you see." Frankly, if you're seen to be a regular best-seller, generally smiling when photographed and not hugely interested in the literary circus, you can make enemies of some people by waking up in the morning.

Do you earn a lot of money?

Yes. That would be a very good description of the amount of money.

Which authors' books do you take to bed?

If I just want a good read it'll be someone like Donald Westlake, Carl Hiaasen or P. J. O'Rourke. But I don't generally read in bed; I try to make time during the day.

Where do you buy your hats? I've wanted one for ages.

It's a firm called Lock and Co in St James's Street, London. But there are other places. Be prepared to do a certain amount of work with a steaming kettle.

Do you find that modern education isn't preparing younger readers to understand your allusive style?

I sometimes think, to judge by the results, that modern education is not preparing anyone to do anything much. But I try to layer the books so that if you don't "get" the reference you don't notice the reference. In any case, the plot never depends on spotting references; they're there as fun.

What keeps you motivated? Do you ever get bored with writing?

I've never thought about being motivated. I can't imagine not writing. I mean, what would I do?

What do you dream about?

Oh, the usual weird stuff. But I often wake up with the solution to some little plotting problem or some insight into a character in the current book. I think someone else uses my brain while I'm asleep.

If you weren't a successful author, what would you be doing?

Probably writing features on a big regional newspaper—and dreaming of early retirement.

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

Transkrypcja czata z Terrym w BBC Radio 2

R2_hostess topic :Drivetime welcomes Terry Pratchett.

Terry_Pratchett :Hi, Terry here on this wonderful BBC keyboard...

Adrian: May I ask a question? I have always been intrigued by the double meanings of the names of your characters, such as Lady LeJane and Edward D’eath. Do you always put such careful consideration into your characters titles?

Terry_Pratchett : I dont do too much of that

amazing_maurice: Hi Terry ... Have you got a cat_ called Maurice? What was your inspiration for Amazing Maurice????

Terry_Pratchett: We've got 6 cats right now, at leat one of them could be Maurice!

Wizzard : Hello Terry what is your favorite character from your books and where did you get that hat?

Terry_Pratchett : That hat I got from Bates in St James, and it was prickly expensive. I suppose I like writing about Vines most of all.

Hex : Terry, Which charater do you think you are most like?

Terry_Pratchett : I think it's vitally important for an author to remember that he is real and his characters are not. Failing to do that makes you a candidate for the white canvas jacket with the optional long sleeves.

Dmac : Hey TP, any more collaborations on the cards with Neil?

Terry_Pratchett: None are planned. We get on fine, but there are just lots of other things that we want to do.

Adrian : Where do you stand on the great file share debate? Do you see it as freedom of expression or encroaching on your rights as a writer? Do you know that all of your books are available on Kazaa?

Terry_Pratchett : That sort of thing I leave in the hands of the men with the thin watches and the expensive briefcases. But I don't believe that theft becomes legal just because someone's invented a better lockpick.

Deltafun : Wonders exactly what the Patrician would do about Noel Edmonds and Mr Blobby, would the have the same special classification as Mime Artists prehaps?

Terry_Pratchett : I feel sure that he would welcome him to the city with open arms :-)

Elvarean : Terry a friend in the usa, wants to know why it takes so long for your books to come out over there?

Terry_Pratchett: Your friend is well behind the times. All the backlist is in print in the US and all the new titles now get released on exactly the same day in the US. I know people are buying them because I keep getting lots of money.

Adrian : Given the success of the Lord of The Rings movies do you still stand buy your comment that “Tolkein’s work is two dimensional” and is there any chance of a Diskworld movie?

Terry_Pratchett : I've never said that. Personally I think it is unlikely that a Discworld film will ever be made. I get lots of appraoches, but they tend to be from people who want to own the rights rather than make the movie.

Jan : I have a complaint Terry, I hate it when you bring a new book out. My husband reads it in bed and I can't get to sleep cos the bed is wobbling cos he is laughing so much!

Terry_Pratchett : Lucky you. Those vibrating beds are actually quite expensive.

Deltafun : Terry, what Authors do you often read for your own enjoyment?

Terry_Pratchett : People like Carl Hiassen, Christopher Brookmyer, Bernard Cornwell...but these days I mostly read history.

Notepadfreak : Terry do you find it interesting that because WFM and Maurice were good books some people tried to say they weren't children's stories?

Terry_Pratchett - It's funny that adults tell me that these books aren't really children's books, but the children just write and say they like them. Kids are rather better at reading than most adults think.

Cohen : What about getting Peter Jackson to do a Discworld movie?

Terry_Pratchett: A good idea. I never thought of that. I didn't realize that all I had to do was ask!

Biggerdave: How was the Scottish reception of the 'Wee Free Men'???

Terry_Pratchett : - Pretty good, you can hardly see the scars. Actually we did the launch in Inverness and I got away without a scratch. There is going to be a sequel to that book in May, by the way.

David : Terry, what advice would you give to budding authors ?

Terry_Pratchett : Become a celebrity first, they find it very easy to get published! But if you want one simple bit of advice, it's read as much as you can about practically everything.

Ridcully : But what book would you turn into a movie first?

Terry_Pratchett : - I've always thought that Mort would be the obvious movie. It is true that an American studio said that no one would want to see a movie that treated Death as an amusing character, and said this in fact two years before Bill and Ted's Bogus journey.

Rhea : Terry... I play the tapes of your books to my kids who have profound and complex needs, and even if they dont understand them, they listen!

Terry_Pratchett : Good. If you only give kids things they easily understand, they'll always be kids.

David : Terry, Thanks for replying. I am 13 yrs old and am writing a book. Where can I get some advice on whether on not it's good enough to be published ?

Terry_Pratchett : - Only by trying. You have to send it to an agent or to a publisher. It's a tough career, and only the every lucky or the very persistent make it.

Neil1 : Terry, many of your books to date have been centred around familier, well loved characters, but Sam Vimes seems to be settling down, Rincewind his back in hiding (not surprising when you consider what happens every time he raises his head). Are there any plans for stories based on all new characters or character groups?

Terry_Pratchett :Well, Monstorus Regiment consists almost entirely of new characters and so will the DW book for late 2004. It will be called Going Postal.

Elvarean : Terry: seen you on posters sitting astride a harley davidson, are you really a biker and how often do you tour?

Terry_Pratchett : I tour twice a year, somewhere. Yes I was once a biker, but after a while a man reaches a point where sliding for forty feet on gravel just no longer has same the appeal.

Adrian : Terry, are there any plans to develop the ‘King Carrot’ storyline any further. It has gone a bit quiet since Men at Arms.

Terry_Pratchett: I'm keeping quiet on the whole King Carrot thing.

Paul : How do you get the inspiration to write the likes of 'Diskworld' or 'Good Omens'?

Terry_Pratchett: Mostly it's just hard work, and banging your head against the monitor until your ears bleed.

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

Wywiad znaleziony naprawdę całkiem przypadkowo na stronie http://www.gadget.co.za

Wywiad dotyczy m.in. HEX-a i słynnego komputera Terry'ego ZX-81.

Pratchett`s gadgets that help mould the Discworld

Reprinted by popular demand! In an exclusive interview, Britain`s best-selling author and the planet`s leading fantasy writer Terry Pratchett tell Gadget about the gadgets that help mould his writing...

TP: "If I didn`t use computers, would you ask me about my pens?" is Terry Pratchett`s testy response to the obvious Gadget question about his writing tools.
And the answer, frankly Terry, is Yes.*

Eventually, Pratchett succumbs. Perhaps it`s the Italian food we`re eating. Perhaps it`s the chemicals in the Johannesburg air. It`s certainly not the the fact that this interviewer has been introduced to him as "a fan". He dreads being asked questions by fans who remember obscure punchlines long after he has retired them from his best-selling Discworld series of satirical fantasy novels. Or questions about his computers.
But persevere, and he begins to wax lyrical.

TP: "If I still used a typewriter, it would be an old old Imperial 58. That`s the one I had most fun with. After that I got an electric typewriter, but typing a page was so final. You felt you had control of the Imperial 58; it was purely manual."

TP: "When computers became available I began using a computer immediately. My first computer was a ZX-81, but I did word processing on it only for fun. The first computer I used for writing was an Amstrad 464. It was really a games machine with a tape dr ive built in, so my first word processor was on a cassette."

Pratchett then "graduated" to the personal computer:

TP: "In the last 10 years I got through six PC`s, six portables and a couple of handhelds. Which is less odd than it sounds, since the real life of early machines was very short - from the XT to the AT and then pretty soon the 386, which let one use Wind ows with one window open. No one would expect an author of my input to use a PC bought 10 years ago."

TP: "I always had a policy of having two machines to work on and at the moment it is a low end and a high end Pentium. If one blows up, I want a maximum of 10 minutes before I am working on the other machine."

Pratchett likes his computing as portable as possible, but is not wildly impressed with Windows CE. "It looks nice," he says, "but it just doesn`t have the capacity."
Instead, he uses a Toshiba Libretto when travelling.

TP: "The nice thing about the Libretto is that I am writing a novel on it, I have all my other novels on it and my letters are on it, so if I need to check on something, I`ve got it there. With CE you can`t have that. And the Libretto is not much heavie r than a high-end CE. I`ve also got a Palm Pilot with me. It`s fun and quite useful."

A little more useful, indeed, than Hex, the hilarious, elaborate computer housed at the Unseen University in the Discworld series. Although Pratchett might disagree...

Pratchett`s gadget put a Hex on his work

Hex is a computer like no other the world has ever seen. Or rather, that the Discworld has ever seen. For it is the one and only computer on the bizarre world created by Terry Pratchett, Britain`s best-selling author and the world`s favourite fantasy writer.

In the Discworld series, Hex evolves under the watchful eyes of apprentice wizard Ponder Stibbons, who by default becomes what we might think of as the IT manager at the Unseen University in the city of Ankh-Morpork.

As Pratchett puts it in his Christmas send-up, Hogfather, "Hex worried Ponder Stibbons. He didn`t know how it worked, but everyone else assumed that he did."

Sounds like most IT managers we know, doesn`t it? But this is different: Hex is activated by initialising the GBL, which Stibbons reluctantly admits stands for "pulling the Great Big Lever". This releases millions of ants into a network of glass tubing, hence the sticker on Hex that reads "Anthill inside". And it is all powered by a waterwheel covered with sheep skulls. That is, male sheep. In other words, ram.

TP: "Hex is a lot brighter than most computers," says Pratchett, discussing the properties of this very insane machine in the very sane light of a Johannesburg afternoon.

In The Last Continent (his new book, set in Australia), Stibbons says that after he has been working with HEX for a long time, it is easier to talk to senior wizards, because he has to break every idea into small bits and mustn`t leave any room for ambiguity.

TP: "It always amazes me that people who spend a great deal of time programming computers don`t spend time programming their fellow human beings."

The inspiration for Hex, which evolves through seemingly unexplainable upgrades like extra cheese, a CWL (clothes wringer from the laundry) and "small religious pictures" (i.e. icons), came from Pratchett`s own early experiments with unfathomable upgrades.

TP: "I started off with a ZX-81 which I put together myself. It was very easy to add things to it. By the time I was finished with it, it had a speech card, a sound card, and 8 or 9 sensors: a barometer, solar sensor, temperature sensor and various light sensors. I invented Paged RAM; effectively, I gave ZX-81 lots and lots of memory, but it could only access a certain amount of it at one time. It was important that information was at specific memory locations and stayed there. I had lots and lots of 2kb memory chips. One program would dump all kinds of sub-routines on all these RAM chips, and the next routine would run the whole damn show."

TP: "I no longer knew why that sub-routine was there or what it was doing there but it was vitally important that it was there. I couldn`t figure out why, except that it stopped working if I took it out."

This Hex prototype still exists today, and would probably be a fine exhibit in a literary museum, if they ould prize it from Pratchett`s grasp. But he does not share the same respect for it.

TP: "It`s still lying in a shed. It`s a real rat`s nest, and I no longer know how I got it to work."

Pratchett got the ZX-81 do do things that the computer industry is still trying to get right in the consumer versions of multimedia PCs and artificual intelligence. In those early days, the world "multimedia" did not even exist.

TP: "I would get up and it would sense me when I went into the office and say good morning, tell me what the weather conditions were, and whatever the forecast for the day was. It had a wind sensor too. If you know the wind direction and what the barometer is doing today, and you have a lookup table, it`s not difficult to forecast the weather."

TP: "It had a lovely sound card with the sound of waves breaking. It had to do things all the time. Eventually thre was too much to do, and BASIC (the computer language that founded Bill Gates` empire) couldn`t keep up."

He pauses, and with a practised sense of timing that would have done a stand-up comedian proud, adds: "The voice recognition system was probably a mistake."
But it did provide inspiration for the Discworld.

TP: "Hex is pretty much the same thing. The wizards are not quite sure why it works and not sure that everything it`s got is what they added. For instance, someone gave me a box of relays, so relays became part of the system. I`m not sure why. It was all done with a soldering iron and a box of spares and a bit of BASIC. Once I stopped using it for a while, I completely forgot how it worked."

One can never be sure if Pratchett is being serious, but there is no denying that he has a unique view - if rather a strange one in a way that would interest the medical fraternity - of the world and the things in it.

While it is almost comforting to know that our reality helped shape his lunatic ideas, perhaps we also need to look at it from the opposite perspective: if the Discworld is inspired by the real world, we have to question the sanity of our own existence .

As the Unseen University`s Archchancellor, Mustrum Ridcully, would probably say, "Sanity? Now there`s an interesting concept. Totally impractical, of course..."

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

z serwisu Crescent Blue

Terry Pratchett: Carpe Discworld

If you're already addicted to reading Terry Pratchett's hilarious Discworld novels, you've probably skipped this introduction entirely in your haste to reach the master's words. We at Crescent Blues take a dim view of this callous disregard for our editorial brilliance and thus take pleasure in revealing to those loyal souls who continued reading (both of you) that during the balance of this introduction, we will reveal the Meaning of Life.

And the secret is [insert trumpet fanfare here]: the new Terry Pratchett book, Carpe Jugulum, will arrive in bookstores this month. At least in the U.S. Over in England, where they manage these things better, the book appeared in November 1998. Come to think of it, those ingrates who skipped the introduction probably know this already. Well, never mind. Carpe Jugulum purports to be Pratchett's 23rd Discworld novel. We must take this statistic on faith, since the only staff member who might know for certain (he conducted the interview) promptly scampered off to England to be closer to The Source. To which we can only say he'd jolly well better be scaring up Pratchett No. 24 for his friends back here in the States if he ever wants to come back.

Crescent Blues: Your work is enormously popular, not only with the general public but also with other writers, (and heaven knows they're an impossible lot to please). But do you ever have dark, paranoid thoughts that your audience might eventually die off? How good is the outlook for books, particularly books like yours that require a reasonably alert and well-educated reader to appreciate the witty wordplay and other good bits?

Terry Pratchett: As far as I can tell from experience with mail and on signing tours, there is a fair proportion of younger people among my readership. In fact, I reckon that readers have always been a minority. It's just that until the last couple of decades the others haven't had such high profile hobbies, being confined in the old days to street football and torturing small domestic animals. Certainly the frontlist readership increases with every book, and my backlist sales in the U.K. are pretty big. So... no, I don't worry overmuch. In any case, I am 51, and the books have already made me a lot of money...

Crescent Blues: Does this mean your children's books are having the intended addictive effect? With this in mind, how do you plan to top Johnny and the Dead and Johnny and the Bomb?

Terry Pratchett: I don't know. I've never planned ahead. I hear an item on the news, or read something in an old history book -- and there's a story.

Crescent Blues: What historical facts or news items have caught your eye and inspired you recently? Now that you're on the Internet yourself…

Terry Pratchett: ... er... for last seven years...

Crescent Blues: More than enough time to stray into technology issues. Do you see the echo of current technology issues, including Y2K, affecting Discworlders?

Terry Pratchett: Sheesh, here we go. This is like the question they kept on asking on AFP: "When R we gonna C the Net on DW?" Computers and faxes and telephones are just things -- you use them to make life better and more interesting. You don't have to evangelize them. It's all just stuff.

That being said, the beginning of Discworld's hesitant step in the information age starts in The Fifth Elephant.

I'm not proposing to do a Y2K story -- I think we're going to be swamped with them.

Crescent Blues: The Fifth Elephant? This is quite a drastic revision in Discworld cosmogony. Would you share a little with our readers as to what effects this might have on Discworld?

Terry Pratchett: Nope. The title can mean all sorts of things. After all, the Discword has had four elephants all through the series. It's unlikely that a fifth has suddenly turned up. Legends, folk memories and ancient sayings, however, are a different matter.

Crescent Blues: Perhaps you might expand on the topic of Discworld's legends, folk memories and ancient sayings. Which aspect of Discworld myths would you like to discuss?

Terry Pratchett: None, really. I just put them in the books. Anyway, what kind of question is that? One of those short ones that hopes for a thousand-word answer, that's what.

Crescent Blues: [Interviewer hangs his head in shame.] Shucks, guess I was really hoping you'd tell us more about The Fifth Elephant.

Terry Pratchett: What's a book "about?" On one level I could say The Fifth Elephant is about a crime; it's about dwarfs; it's about international diplomacy; it's about how integrity makes poor body armor. It's mainly about what happens when cultures meet and screw one another up.

Crescent Blues: I know you've had lots of interest in people wanting to make movies about Discworld and such…

Terry Pratchett: Yeah, but they never had any money.

Crescent Blues: Is there a book which you personally feel is custom made for a movie script, one that when you wrote it you felt, "Yes this could be a movie!"

Terry Pratchett: Mort. Simple plot, easy to grasp even by mall rats.

Crescent Blues: You've obviously never met the mall rats over here. Given that you never plan ahead for your novels, are you surprised at how diverse and multi-booked the Discworld series has become?

Terry Pratchett: Too right! But it seems a natural evolution.

Crescent Blues: Do you have any vague notion or aim to where the Discworld series is heading?

Terry Pratchett: Where some strands are going, yes. It's the difference between knowing the future of one person and the future of the planet.

Crescent Blues: Would you like to write a straight non-humorous novel but feel "trapped" in your comedic style?

Terry Pratchett: No. It's me. What you see is what you get. I vary it, though -- a lot of Carpe Jugulum and The Fifth Elephant are not funny and not meant to be.

Crescent Blues: You've already had several Discworld games produced for the PC. Have you ever considered producing an online interactive game over the Internet? Or, as some fantasy writers do, producing a role playing board or card game?

Terry Pratchett: I worked with Phil Masters of the Gurps: Discworld book. Beyond that... look, where does it stop? I'm one guy. I want to spend my time writing. Some things won't happen because there is no time, and because I don't see the need for all this. Beyond a certain point, you're taking advantage of the fans. Sure, I've even been asked for Discworld wallpaper, but I don't let things happen until I'm sure there is a copper-bottomed demand -- and even then I have to like the idea as well.

Crescent Blues: How do you know when an idea does have a copper-bottomed demand?

Terry Pratchett: Gut feeling, really. I read the mail, listen to fans. I don't let things happen until I know its something the readers want (or at least feel sure that they'd want it if they knew about it. [Smiles.]

Crescent Blues: Could you tell us about some of the most rancid ideas you've rejected?

Terry Pratchett: None were particularly rancid. I'm not interested in Discworld trading cards or plastic figures, because they'd take the magic away.

Crescent Blues: Do you have any novels/stories that you wrote before you were first published and would never dream of revealing to your fans because you feel they are dreadful?

Terry Pratchett: Not really. Pretty much everything I've written got published.

Crescent Blues: Was everything written in your famous comic style or were there any experiments?

Terry Pratchett: There are a handful of short stories I wrote in my teens, which are in about every style you can imagine!

Crescent Blues: Some of your Discworld books are obvious parodies or satires of other works, e.g. Macbeth, Phantom of the Opera. What would you say are the differences between writing this sort of novel and one that isn't based on something else?

Terry Pratchett: There aren't many "full" parodies as such. There's some Macbeth in Wyrd Sisters, and some Midsummer Night's Dream in Lords and Ladies, but in both books they're mixed up with other things as well. I look upon the parody structure as a vehicle for other things.

The only book squarely based on something else was Maskerade, which was based not just on the book AND the musical AND the movie but also on people's perceptions of them. It wasn't hard to do -- it's not a very complex plot. But none of the books is a parody in the sense that, say, Bored of the Rings was a parody of The Lord of the Rings. I prefer the term "resonance." [Smiles] Put Discworld people in, say, a movie-making setting and they'll resonate with every Hollywood cliché that ever was.

Crescent Blues: The way Discworld resonates with cliches is a major factor in the humor of your novels. One of the funniest plays on cliches I remember was, I believe, in an earlier novel -- The Colour of Magic or The Light Fantastic. It's where Rincewind and Twoflower meet a gnome, and there is a discussion of Twoflower's perception of what a gnome should look like (bright red and blue clothing, etc., with white beards) and the survivability factor of something that small which so obviously stands out from its forest surroundings. Do you ever worry that you might run out of clichés and ideas that you can work your humor on?

Terry Pratchett: Shit, no. Mind you, it depends what you call a cliché. Part of being human is to have a headful of received opinions, out-of-date information, half-digested and completely unconsidered factoids and a whole bunch of other stuff which we use instead of thinking. That's my happy hunting ground.

In any case, there's got to be more to a book than that. But a lot of Discworld humor -- in fact the basis of Discworld humour -- is not "wacky thinking" but entirely logical thinking. All the picture books show gnomes in brightly colored clothes -- let's take that seriously and see what happens next. For centuries artists have portrayed Death as a figure -- let's take that seriously. In The Fifth Elephant, one of the strands lies in taking seriously the idea of a true werewolf (i.e., not some shambling monster, but someone who can take on a wolf shape) and wondering what would real wolves think about this? You get an interesting answer.

Crescent Blues: For The Fifth Elephant, have you done research into real wolf behavior to understand this type of thing or is it more of a common sense (Discworld style) reasoning?

Terry Pratchett: Both. I've researched wolves, over the years, but generally I start from what is "common sense." I think I've come up with quite a good way of explaining the different types of werewolves, anyway.

Crescent Blues: Different types of werewolf? I'm afraid I have to plead ignorance here as know only one type of werewolf unless of course I was to differ between British and American werewolves. (I understand one came to London a few years back. [Grins.]) Would you elucidate a little about what the different types are?

Terry Pratchett: Bearing in mind Discworld deals with the world as perceived, and what we "know" about werewolves, as with vampires, has a lot to do with a huge body of movies/fiction/folklore. [Smiles.]

Apparently Discworld werewolves look a lot like the three classes of werewolves defined by a guy called Riccardo Testa in a book called, I think, Die Lycanthropia, published several hundred years ago -- I say this because I've seen it referred to but have never come across a copy.

There are the "royal" werewolves -- people who can become a wolf at will at any time (although in Discworld I add that they must be a wolf at full moon). For them, being a werewolf is a noble thing. There are the "classic" werewolves -- the guy who becomes a werewolf at full moon. And there is their opposite, which I think of as the "cursed" werewolf -- the wolf who becomes a man at full moon. For both of these, being a werewolf is no fun at all.

Folklore and the great body of fiction support the first two -- I thought I'd invented the last one, but apparently not. But I've also had to take on board the "hairy guy still with his trousers on" werewolf (folklore suggests you just turn into a wolf, not some kind of a wolfman), so I've had to find a way to plausibly allow this, too. Werewolf families can be weird -- wait until The Fifth Elephant!

Crescent Blues: There are several American writers, including Elizabeth Peters and Sharyn McCrumb, who are so keen to read your books that they have standing orders with English publishers and book distributors to buy your books the moment they come into print. (And who said that eccentricity was purely a British trait?) Are there any authors whose books you refuse to miss?

Terry Pratchett: Er... Carl Hiassen, George McDonald Fraser, Donald Westlake, Joseph Waumbaugh...

Crescent Blues: Any who provide a great inspiration to your work?

Terry Pratchett: That's harder to say. Inspiration comes from everywhere.

Crescent Blues: Thank you. That's quite an impressive list of authors and they cover such diverse areas too. (Translation: I had to go and look one up.) Do you find that reading the comic mysteries gives you a break from Discworld, or do you find that their absurdist visions feed your own imagination and help produce facets of the Discworld?

Terry Pratchett: Both. But the four books currently beside my bed are a history of the tobacco industry, a collection of English essays on various subjects, a book of American folklore and a Tom Clancy. I read lots of stuff...

In a couple of weeks I'm off to Australia. [Do you] think this interview will be over by then?

Crescent Blues: That was actually the next to the last question. For a closing question, we give you a blank page. Is there anything else you'd like to add or feel we haven't covered enough. Or do you have a soapbox topic you want to mention? As I said before, your text is unaltered (except for proofing) when it's posted to the site.

Terry Pratchett: I answer questions. I've never been very good at the "and is there anything else you want to say?" one, though. [Smiles.]

Stephen J. Metherell Smith and Donna Andrews

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

Bodajże najświeższy wywiad z Terrym, z tegorocznego Worldconu w Glasgow.

Somehow amidst all the chaos of Worldcon I was able to track down renowned fantasy author Terry Pratchett and arrange to interview him in a dank, shady warehouse. Here's what he has to say about conventions, collectables, and carnivorous plants.

Alternative Nation: You've attended a fair few WorldCons in your time. How did Interaction measure up, aside from the name not being very good?

Terry Pratchett: I think it was probably the best I've attended—not the biggest, by a long way, and not the fanciest, but certainly the best to hang out at. This may have had something to do with the Real Ale bar. I think I met just about everyone I know in fandom there.

Oh, and the food was much better. Instead of going to the Hugos a bunch of us went to a Japanese restaurant and had a great meal—nothing deep-fried at all.

AN: It did have a wonderfully relaxing atmosphere. We drank the local microbrewery dry, I'm told. How did it compare to other Glasgow cons you've attended? Chasing Iain Banks around the rooftop of the Central Hotel must be hard to beat.

TP: Did I do that? Mythology is a powerful force. It beats 'em all, anyway.

AN: Were there any events (or participants) that you particularly enjoyed?

TP: I moderated an international panel of translators and wished it could have gone on for longer, because lots of interesting stuff was revealed. The two different French translations of Lord of the Rings, for a start, and the strange reason why so many Brits get translated into Swedish.

AN: I had meant to catch that one, but got distracted by shiny sword fighting demonstrations. Why do so many Brits get translated into Swedish?

TP: In summary: 'because Swedish writers want to write literature that is reviewed in the serious papers, so to meet the demand for popular reading we have to import you guys'.

AN: Heh. Are there many countries that take things the other way and just don't publish fantasy? I've heard that Spain, for example, is rather hit-and-miss about it.

TP: That's true. They publish, but feel guilty about it. Certainly, across Europe, it's much harder to sell 'out of genre' than it is here, But odd attitudes still crop up even here. I remember very kindly being put in my place by a bookshop manager some years back. I'd wondered why my latest book wasn't on the shop's Best Sellers shelf, having been number one for three weeks; he said "well, you see, you're not exactly Best Seller list material." You've got to laugh, eh?

AN: You've got to wonder what he does consider "Best Seller list material". It's back to the idea of SF&F vs 'proper' books. Do you think there's much that can be done for the public perception of the genre?

TP: The public perception? What is that? I know that only a small minority of my readers are classic fans—when the first DW con was held, about ninety percent of the people who came along knew nothing about mainstream fandom and conventions. I think there are lots of people who read F/SF who don't think of themselves as 'fans'. In short, 'the public' reads lots of the books and watches the movies and TV shows. They're quite happy about it, as far as I can tell. But they do get uneasy, maybe, in the presence of costumers. Odd, really. Puking your guts out and pushing you arm through a shop window on a Friday night is 'normal', but wearing a hall costume at what is in effect a huge private party is 'weird'. Strange...

Some myths float around. On tour last year some shops brought in security guards. They'd picked up the idea that my queues would be difficult in some way. What they got was three hundred people being quite cheerful and patient; one manager came up afterwards and said, in amazement: "they were so...nice!" as if this was a revelation.

AN: I guess your average man on the street might have a better grasp of things than journalists do. Media coverage, for the most part, isn't exactly well researched. Recently, you wrote to the Sunday Times about a Time article, written by Lev Grossman, in which he describes Fantasy (before the advent of Harry Potter) as "a deeply conservative genre" that "looks backwards to an idealized, romanticized, pseudofeudal world, where knights and ladies morris-dance to Greensleeves". Leaving aside for a second the fact that your letter was widely touted, quite mistakenly, as an attack on JK Rowling, do you think that there are many people who subscribe to Grossman's view? Does this notion that Harry Potter has completely reinvented an ailing genre exist outside of the skulls of poorly-read journalists?

TP: What happened, I think, was this: when the HP wagon began to roll, a lot of journalists who knew little or nothing about children's books took a look at them and said : "Great stuff! A school for wizards! Hey! Pet dragons! Magic streets! Fantastic!" Which was rather strange, because none of this was exactly new.

Now, let's assume that, as a good journalist, you will at this point interject: "So, are you accusing JK Rowling of plagiarism?" And I'll sigh deeply and say: "No. Don't be silly, that's how genres work." Writers have always put a new spin on old ideas. I can think of a dozen pre-Hogwarts 'Magic schools'. Some of them are pre-Unseen University, too. It doesn't matter. No one is stealing from anyone. It's a shared heritage.

Grossman's remark was a silly throwaway line which insulted a lot of good authors. Those familiar with the genre know this; those who move from HP onto other authors will find out.

AN: Do you still get accused of plagiarism for using (and, quite often, poking fun at) ideas which are, manifestly, genre property?

TP: Not really. The problem, such as it was, used to lie with kids who genuinely thought that plagiarise actually meant the same thing as 'refers to.'

I suppose the weirdest one lately was the "attack" on Harry Potter in The Wee Free Men. You may have missed it. Tiffany daydreams of a wonderful magical school and Granny Weatherwax punctures this when she says you can't learn witching in a school. Now, Discworld indeed has its own magical schools, and Granny Weatherwax has gone on about exactly this sort of thing since Equal Rites - but several people have called this an 'attack'. I believe someone said that even though the incident fits in with DW history, it is nevertheless still an 'attack.' That makes me rather nervous.

AN: Have you been catching much flak due to all the 'Pratchett Slams Rowling' spinoff reports, from people other than posters on Harry Potter message boards? Many of whom still think you're female, despite the beard.

TP: Damn, I knew I should have bought a bigger beard.

No, away from the close world of fandom there's been none at all.

AN: It's kind of frightening that people would distort things like that, just so that they can go on the defensive about something they like.

Your latest book, Thud!, centres around dwarfs, trolls, and the City Watch. Is there much wizardly involvement, or is this one relatively safe from accusations of veiled attacks?

TP: It would be nice to think so. There is hardly any wizarding in the book.

AN: Thud! actually existed as a board game before the book of the same name was released. Are there plans for any other non-videogame-related Discworld spin-offs?

TP: Well, spin-offs tend to... spin off, without any long-term planning. Like the DW stamps, for example; they began as a joke for the core fans. And suddenly philatelists around the world are collecting them.

There are no plans for any more stuff, but I've no problem with limited spin-off.

AN: DW spin-off stuff has generally managed to avoid being rubbish, so far. Which is quite a feat, considering how much there is. Is Where's My Cow? another one that just sort of happened?

TP: More or less. My editor loved the WMC? sequences in Thud! So much that she said "We ought to publish this as a real book!" So we did, after I'd expanded it a bit. Melvyn Grant got the pictures spot on. I think it's a gem.

I don't think of things like WMC? and the diaries and maps as spin-off, really. They're all part of the whole thing.

AN: When you first started writing, did you ever imagine that people would take your work and do so much stuff with it? Plays, maps, guides, quizbooks, boardgames and so forth?

TP: When I first started writing I didn't think there'd even be a published book.

AN: Did it come as quite a shock, then, when Discworld took off the way it did?

TP: Not in the way you'd think. It didn't take off with a bang, but there was a thirty-month period towards the end of the '80s when the sales were really building, and that was quite heady. I remember sitting in this nice cabin in a 747 over the Pacific en-route to a tour of Australia and New Zealand and thinking "What happened?" But it was all kind of quiet, like it was all some big secret shared with the readers; I didn't get much non-genre media until I'd topped the bestseller lists a few times.

Since I wasn't in the papers, people didn't know what I looked like; I remember turning up at one mall signing by myself, walking up to the front of the huge queue, and being stopped by a member of staff and told to go to the end. So I did, and started signing for the last guy. Oh, how we laughed.

AN: Can you see yourself writing more sci-fi in future, or does it no longer interest you?

TP: No, it's just that the things I want to do right now—finish Wintersmith and get on with Unseen Academicals and Scouting for Trolls—aren't SF.

AN: Wintersmith, as I'll point out here for anyone who doesn't know, is the next Tiffany Aching novel. Do you plan to keep this series running, or will it be a trilogy after the fashion of the Johnny Maxwell books?

TP: It will go to four, maybe five. But Johnny, by hallowed children's book practice, can stay the same age. Tiffany is growing up.

AN: Is there anything more you can tell us about Unseen Academicals and Scouting for Trolls?

TP: Er...no.

AN: Ach. Tease. Well, I've taken up more than enough of your time. So, just to finish, here are a couple of questions that I can blame other people for.

In fact, no, I'm not going to ask you that one, it's too dreadful.

Big Tony, who may or may not have Mafia connections, wants to know how on earth you attempt to perform Death's voice when you do readings.

TP: I don't do voices—except for Nobby and Fred Colon, sometimes.

AN: Along with, oh, everyone else, he'd also like to know how those carnivorous plants are getting along.

TP: Oh dear. And you were doing so well up till now.

AN: See, it was that or "If you could fight any one other author..."

But it's too late. Terry has already risen from his chair. Smiling enigmatically, he turns, making for the inky shadows at the far end of this ill-lit warehouse. His left hand rises briefly over his head, then slices downward in a swift chopping motion. The ground spontaneously erupts, verdant roots boiling from the earth like the tentacles of some landlocked Kraken. Pinned in the embrace of a botanical nightmare, I can dimly make out the distant figure of the author as he mounts the neck of an enormous venus flytrap, which takes off into the night with a sudden, terrifying burst of speed.

Wywiad przeprowadził Stuart Crawford

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

Wywiad z Terrym, przeprowadzony po pokazie Soul Music (?1997?)

The first few episodes of Soul Music were screened at a special preview showing at the National Film Theatre in London on 9th February. Whilst the animation takes a little getting used to, there is no doubting the quality of the production and I felt quite disappointed when the screening ended on a cliff-hanger. I wanted to see it all! After the show, Terry Pratchett, Mike Hall (from Cosgrove Hall) and Lucinda Whitely (from Channel 4) took to the stage to field questions from the floor. I don't have an exact transcript, but the questions went something like this:

? What do you think of it, then, Terry?

Terry Pratchett: I was sent one episode at a time and having watched it, was on the phone asking for the next one as soon as possible. I'm still waiting for the Blues Brothers bit. I think the music is marvellous - the soundtrack is an 8 track potted history of the history of Rock and Roll. It would be hard to make it perfect without extending the budget fourfold, although there are lots of things I'd want changed in a perfect world. I didn't think anyone could do a better DEATH than James Earl Jones, but Christopher Lee is now the definitive voice of Death in my mind.

? Why Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters?

Lucinda Whiteley: Originally we wanted to do Mort but the rights were not available.

TP: Men in suits in LA were chipping away trying to get Mort. Soul Music was a good choice because the music aspect makes it accessible to everybody. Wyrd Sisters is also suitable because Macbeth is well known, although having said that, I recently had to tell someone who Buddy Holly was.

? What do you think about the regional accents?

TP: In the bits where they strayed from the plot, they did so in the right way. I loved the drawing of Cliff and the stony sounds when he moved. Little touches like the Hibiscus's nostril flare in one scene really make it. And new jokes are generally pretty funny. Eg. Ridcully, when faced with a burger for breakfast describes it as fried pattie in a bun. The cook retorts "It's my pattie and I'll fry if I want to!". Imp is obviously Welsh in the book, so Neil Morrissey's Welsh accent is fine. Glod's Liverpool accent works well and Cliff's blues voice is spot on.

Mark Hall: There are 162 different characters in Soul Music and the audience has to relate to them all. Casting would have been a nightmare with different actors for every part, so we had a small (six people) repertory company who doubled up on voices. David (gestures to actor in audience) did 20-ish voices.

LW: Because it was financed in the UK, we were able to use British accents.

MH: We always wanted Christopher Lee for Death, but at first he wasn't available so we tested a few other actors. Eventually CL became free and we recorded his bits entirely separately from the rest of the cast. It's difficult to get actors together at the same time.

TP: There's a soundtrack "The King of Elflans Daughter" with Christopher Lee as the king of the elves. The range of his voice on the album demonstrates why he is perfect for Death.

MH: We were a bit worried before the DW Con.

TP: Yes, I have to act like a Roman emperor at times like these. If the People like it, then I like it; if they don't like it, you will be facing "rabid wild beasts in the arena within a week". They set a lot of store by fannish feedback.

MH: I had a phone call one morning from TP saying he totally disassociates himself from Granny Weatherwax wearing motoring goggles. Later, when Terry realised that they weren't motoring goggles, he phoned back - I totally associate myself with Granny Weatherwax wearing flying goggles.

TP: I had to go to Manchester to show them what Granny's boots should look like.

MH: Actually, Wyrd Sisters has a bigger budget - more detail and nice touches.

? The media are typically Pratchett unfriendly, is that why you chose Channel 4?

LW: It happened almost by chance. I had a business lunch with Cosgrove Hall and the conversation turned to Terry - I was reading Eric at the time. It just goes to show that business lunches can be productive! Hopefully it'll attract more than just Pratchett fans - the Simpsons has made cartoons more acceptable.

TP: The advantage of doing things this way is that I can phone LW and tell her "Make them do what they're told!". Working with a bigger company would mean that my request would disappear into the machinery. I'm very, very happy with what's been produced. Since Truckers, Cosgrove Hall have carte blanche to do anything of mine. Money is a minor detail!

Terry later said,

With all these things, it's a question of profit and loss. You start out knowing that stuff is going to get lost in the translation -- what you have to hope is that the new medium is going to add 'replacement' things. There's a lot I like about this version of SM -- all of the voices, for example (especially those of Susan, Death and Ridcully, who has exactly the right loud exasperated tone) and most of the realisations of the characters. Maybe I've just had too many dealing with screen people to get too excited when minor things aren't according to the book -- as I said at the showing, all you can hope to establish is that the makers' hearts are in the right place; trying to look over their shoulders all the time isn't going to result in a good production.

Reaction to the showing has been pretty positive, given that it is, when all's said and done, a cartoon. Maybe the Librarian's movements aren't quite right and Mr Clete is lacking his "hat hat hat", but the spirit of the Discworld is definitely captured.

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

Mega wywiad! Naprawdę warto przeczytać:

Terry, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Pratchett: Well, I was born. [Pauses for laughter.]

I had suspected as much.

Pratchett: I was born in a nursing home, but was taken to a little village in Buckinghamshire. I'm a quintessential example of an only child. The house I grew up in—cue Monty Python—didn't even have water. My father had to run a hosepipe every day or so to the house next door and fill up a little cistern that my mother would use in the scullery. It was kind of deep country. We had gaslights, and every week or two my mother used to come home with a huge 90-volt dry battery that ran the radio. But we didn't think we were poor. Everyone we knew was in the same situation, so we just thought that was the way things were.

It was right after the war, so that if you had a house with a roof on it, you were ahead of the game.

There were plenty of kids in the village, and it was idyllic, because we were the last pre-television generation. We went around in a kind of cloud of dust with loads of arms and legs sticking out. We didn't have a pond; otherwise I would have drowned fairly young anyway. Apart from that we had everything else that you needed. We probably never went more than half a mile or two-thirds of a mile from our home. But there were woods and fields, you know. It was magnificent.

One of my earliest memories is being taken by my mother up to a large department store called Gammages, in London, to see Father Christmas. So here's this kid who grows up in a house with candles and gaslight, goes up to London on the train—which is an excitement in its own right. I was about 6. He goes to a brightly lit department store. There were more toys than you could ever possibly imagine. And lots of my future writing started to happen on that day. Let's see if you can spot the links.

First of all, a very small person in a huge department store—I'd got lost. When my mother found me, I was going up the escalators and getting off and then going down the other side.

And then we scurried off to see Father Christmas. You flew to the North Pole on board this rather wooden-looking aeroplane. I can remember this with crystal clarity—you got in a door on this side, and you weren't supposed to realize that the door you got out of was on the other side of the aeroplane. And you got in and there was apparently the sound of the aeroplane starting up, and then a creak and rattle as canvas clouds were wound past the windows. When I close my eyes, I can remember the squeak of the clouds.

And then I got out, and I cannot remember Father Christmas, because you cannot look upon the face of a god. There was this figure about 25 feet high that kind of rumbled, and I got a present. I think I probably pissed myself, as most kids do. Father Christmases always have something waterproof around the knee area. One of the little-known tips of the trade.

So Hogfather got a start there. And the Trucker's Trilogy [Truckers (1988), Diggers (1990) and Wings (1990)] got a start there. The nice thing was that—whereas other kids had plenty of brothers and sisters—I got to go home where I had a room all by myself, and at Christmastime there was only one kid to buy presents for, so I scored in every direction.

And then in the course of time you discovered fandom.

Pratchett: That came later. The big thing was that, in 1957, Brook Bond Tea produced the "Out Into Space" cards. My family all went a sort of orange color from drinking tea so that I could collect these things. They were like baseball cards. It took me a while to realize this—and that only in the last year or two: I discovered astronomy first. We had pretty good skies where we were. And you collected 50 of these tea cards—and, basically, give or take a few changes in what we know—if you knew everything on those cards, you'd know more astronomy than probably 99.99 percent of the population. And I collected them avidly and watched the sky.

They went the way of all things. You know, after you've left home, your mother finds this alternate ending to Star Wars that this nice Mr. Lucas gave you and she throws it away.

Recently I contacted this card collector over the magic of the Internet and bought the set again. I could actually just about afford it now. There was a 60-pound version and a 300-pound version. The difference was in the small print on some of the cards. So I thought I'd have the 60-pound version.

It was like that bloke Proust. He eats a biscuit and he goes back in time. I just look at Jupiter—it's a black and purple color on that card—and I'm 9 years old again.

My parents got me a telescope. I think it was special kind of telescope—produced by the Kind of Telescope Your Parents Get You Without Reading the Book About Telescopes Telescope Company. So everything you could see had a halo round it. You could just about see the moons of Jupiter, and that's that. But you got to stay outside. ... I got to be really expert on the moon. And then a few years ago I bought myself a Meade LX2000, and then we had an observatory built—a purpose-built one. Because our house is a thousand years old there's all kinds of planning things involved in that. In fact, we nearly had a thatched observatory at one point!

Curiously enough, the science fiction came from astronomy. I wasn't really an astronomer, because astronomers have to take it seriously and do mathematics. I just thought it was really cool 'cause you could stay up all night.

I've got a kind of tourist's mentality. I take an interest in things. I learn a lot about them, but I'm never going to get that hooked. So I was into short-wave radio. I built myself a receiver and listened in, and that was fun, and then moved onto something else.

Then I invented the integrated circuit.

[doing a double take] How did you come up with that?

Pratchett: It was interesting. I didn't know that someone else had done it. But I was sitting there thinking, I'm building all these little matchbox transistor radios. I had a transistor—it cost me seven shillings and sixpence—that was one-third of a pound in those days. And transistors were so valuable that you bought little sockets to plug them into your circuits. You know, you saved up your pocket money and bought one transistor. And I thought, "OK, I wonder if I can actually make it so that the resistor, the capacitor and the transistor and the diode are all part of the same thing," so that you didn't have to wire between them. I was only 13 at the time, but if I'd been a bit older and a bit quicker to the patent office, who knows?

I'm reminded of Arthur C. Clarke's story that if he'd patented the concept of communications satellites, he would have retired in, say, 1947.

Pratchett: All this SF brought me the same kick I was getting from all this stuff. That, and the fact that via the book The Wind in the Willows [by Kenneth Grahame], I was getting interested in the fantasy side. I was rolling all around that curve of mass that distorts space, but ultimately I was going to go down the hole marked "science fiction."

Those were the days when it was quite possible to have read all the SF that was published in hardcover. Not all the SF published in magazines, perhaps, but you'd go to a convention and everyone else had read what you had read. And the girls were not allowed! But sometimes wives and girlfriends would sort of tag along.

Most people wore sports jackets, as I recall. And they were called Ken. Unless they were called Ted.

And speaking of Ted, your first sale was to Ted Carnell.

Pratchett: That was a magnificent segue.

I try.

Pratchett: I was 13 years old. After school I used to go round to an old bomb site in High Wickham, and there was this little kind of garden shed on it called "The Little Bookshop," where this elderly lady sat knitting and making tea all day—and sold eye-watering pornography. But in order to have something to put in the window she seemed to have an unlimited supply of reasonably good quality secondhand British and American SF. I think it must have come from the air force base nearby. I'd go in there about twice a week after school. I was aware that the upper shelves were of a certain pinky nature.

But around the floor, in cardboard boxes, unsorted, there were even copies of Unknown Worlds and things like that. God knows, I think my mum threw those out as well. Anyone knowing what this shop sold must have been a bit puzzled at this 13-year-old kid going in there twice a week and coming out with a very full satchel! I mean, how the hell did he find time to do his homework?

Yes, I made a sale and I found out about fandom, and I went off to my first convention in 1963 or '64, and that was it. I dropped out after three or four years because I got my job—I was a trainee journalist on the local paper, which meant that you were a trainee, and therefore a drag on their resources. And they work you very hard and they pay you practically nothing, but you're the traditional apprentice, and you are actually learning a trade. I was working the evenings, and I was courting, and I was studying for the exams that you have to pass to get your training certificate, and life just became very full.

But I always had a book sort of on the go, and it would take me about five years to write it. After I'd done The Color of Magic [1983], at the same sort of speed, they actually began to sell. And so, nothing if not greedy, I wrote Light Fantastic [1986], and suddenly life shifted. By Mort [1987], which was the fourth book, I was making more than enough to leave my job, which was, as everyone knows, a press officer for some nuclear power station.

Am I correct in recalling that you took the job immediately after the Three Mile Island incident?

Pratchett: [Nods.] I joined the industry not long after Three Mile Island [in 1979], and I was there all the way through Chernobyl [in 1986]. But we had our own local incidents. About every Friday one of the reactors would blow up—again. It was my job to say, "Well, we didn't leave much radioactivity. You could barely see it!" In fact, nothing much every really happened, but sensitivity to nuclear issues was so high that even a planned shutdown became a big deal.

I learned a lot on that job. You know, when you put scientists and engineers and bureaucrats all in the same building, kind of interesting things emerge. Dave Langford wrote a book called The Leaky Establishment, which I thought was actually a work of nonfiction because it was exactly as I remember the Central Electricity Generating Board. For example, everything that you wrote had to be typed by the young ladies in the typing pool. But word processors and printers were becoming so cheap that the scientists would actually type out their own reports with long equations in them. And then the printout went down to the typing area to be retyped by these young ladies who had been to typing school and nothing else. With any luck there'd be several days of sending them back and forth to get all the equations right. It was extremely silly.

They had to change the rules for me because I said, "I am the press officer. I have to type press releases. On the whole, if a reactor explodes, I don't think people want to be told about it next week."

So I was allowed to do my own typing.

Discworld is possibly the most successful and sustained mythos of the age.

Pratchett: Well, there is this woman—I don't know if you've heard of her. ... If you narrow the parameters a bit, like "written by a bald guy," that sort of thing, well, maybe. It has done OK. It's sold about 40 million copies worldwide so far.

Now, how did I start out? It was to have fun with some of the cliches. It was as simple as that.

And also I just built up over the years, from all of the random reading I was doing, a kind of serendipitous research—research not knowing what it is you're researching. The nature of Discworld gave me the opportunity to do all kinds of things. I could fit more or less anything into it. By about book four, I discovered the joy of plot. (That was Mort.) I went back a bit with Sourcery [1988], because I knew the fans wanted more of Rincewind. I didn't particularly enjoy writing Sourcery, but it stayed on the best-seller list for three months. And then I said, "Sod the fans, I'll do what I like."

Now, I kind of do my own thing, and that has indeed changed a lot over the years—and so have I. I think on the whole I write better now than I did. There was to a certain extent more freedom in the early books, because the biggest problem with a created universe like this is that it fills up.

The city watch, which is now quite a force to be reckoned with, represents a kind of a problem; it's like having Superman in place—there isn't actually much room for Batman until Superman is out of town for a while. It will be the sheer weight of history and geography that will probably bring Discworld to an end.

There are a number of themes that keep re-occurring in your work. Obviously, Death is ever-present—in a sort of a jovial, uncle-ish kind of way. And that prompts me to ask about your attitude toward peoples' beliefs that are, as it were, not related to the reality around us.

Pratchett: When I worked as a local and regional journalist, many years ago, for some reason I used to get the "nut" jobs. I remember one particularly, very believable, elderly couple who had seen this strange craft land in the woods. This was in October or November. They were a thoroughly believable couple. And they said that at such-and-such a point it landed, and they had watched it land just behind this wood, but they were a bit frightened to go and have a look. So I went out on my motorbike that evening at the same time, and there it was—I saw it. It was a sort of orangey-red color, and it actually did glow. Once again, it landed behind the woods, and then, obviously, it went further down, and then indeed—finally darkness fell. You know, that one probably was a no-brainer, really; the sun sets every day.

You meet the occasional people who are perfectly normal, except that for the electrical fluids, the woman sometimes woke up to find herself floating four feet above the bed. "Good," I said, "but how do you know it's four feet, by the way? Could it be three feet, nine inches? I'd like to write this down." And then there was the woman who kept her window open so she could look out for the flying saucers. ...

How did the concept of witchcraft come to your attention as a kid?

Pratchett: The thing about England is that the numinous is all around you. Certainly in the chalk area, where I live now—and I was born on the chalk—the mounds in fields and standing stones have legends about them. Every hill is Arthur's seat.

Every other well ...

Pratchett: ... is holy or something, or probably belongs to fairies or saints—or both. Time-share, you know. Where we used to live in the Mendips was within easy walking distance of the Wimblestone. On Midsummer's Eve it would get up and dance around the field, and if it saw you—exactly how, I don't know—it would crush you to death. And there are tales of a farmer who tried to move it, and teams of horses couldn't budge it. In fact, it is a lump of dolomitic conglomerate, if you happen to know what that is.

And I have to ask, how near is it to the pub from that stone?

Pratchett: They say that all the pubs on the Mendips are connected by straight lines. What they mean is that they probably aren't officially, but you just set out across the fields and walk through the fences and things, because the cider does very strange things to your brain.

That's what we would call hard cider on this side of the Atlantic.

Pratchett: Actually, it's scrumpy. At a cider house locally, one tourist was taken to hospital and stomach-pumped after drinking two pints. In 1973, my wife Lyn and I were at a cider house. It had settles—benches with a high back—and I could listen to the old boys behind us, and they were discussing how you could tell the difference between fox footprints and cat' footprints in the snow. One of them said, "Well, yer cat', you see, he'd a' walked like this." [Pratchett gestures with his hands in imitation of a cat' walking.] "But renard, he'd a walked like that." And I said to Lyn, we better remember that because it was possibly just about the last time in these islands where somebody will unselfconsciously refer to a fox as "renard." They were a great bunch of guys; they all had weatherbeaten faces and one tooth.

The reason is that cider eats your teeth away. It also eats away at your brain. Here's a little test for those of you scientifically oriented people. To make scrumpy, you press it on big wooden presses down on the farm on the Somerset levels, and it goes into the metal runnels, and from there it goes into the vats where it begins the fermentation process.

It's very, very acidic apple juice. And you make your runnels out of the easily worked metal available in large quantities on the Mendips—it's lead. And then possibly you put a side of beef into the barrel to give it something to feed on.

One day the county analyst published something about the levels of lead in the rough cider. After that I went to see old Harry, the guy from whom we used to buy our cider. I said, "Harry, do you think there's anything to the rumor that rough cider damages your brain?" [Pratchett puts on an expression reminiscent of one of the characters from the Goon Show.] "Ooh, I dunno 'bout that, ol' boy!" [He gurgles on for a few lines in nearly incomprehensible Mendips speech.]

On the other hand, wherever he went, Old Harry had in his back pocket a roll of 20-pound notes. So he may only have had a few brain cells left, but bloody hell, they were good ones!

You're more aware of the continuation of history there, and witchcraft and stuff like that comes naturally. I read up on it a lot when I was a kid, and added to it more and more with my interest in folklore.

Granny Weatherwax evolved from all that.

And I used to know Nanny Ogg. She was a little old lady with the most filthy laugh you could imagine, and she had had several husbands, was a widow, and she was kind of small and dumpy and walked with a stick. She really loved her booze. She was just a lovely character, and so I put her in the books almost without any changes. Granny Weatherwax, on the other hand, is actually a made-up character but seems real. She's always seemed very real to me. But I have to be kind of careful. It's their job to believe in this stuff [he says, gesturing toward the audience at the convention]. If I start believing in it too much, then I'll be a candidate for the white blazer with the optional long sleeves.

Terry, did you do national military service?

Pratchett: No, it stopped about three years before I would have done.

I ask because of the many acute observations in your books about the military—for instance, the way young soldiers smoke cigarettes.

Pratchett: Well, yes. I've actually seen a guy who, when someone was coming and he shouldn't have been smoking, do this. [He mimes a man hiding a lit cigarette in his mouth.] It's just observation of life. I get it all the time, you know; people say how do you know the military, how do you know about the witch stuff? Well, they're all people. It's about the dynamics of a group. Like the dynamics of a group with an officer class above them, for example. It's just the way people act.

Let me ask: Are any of you familiar with the word "twaddle," meaning rubbish or nonsense? [The audience generally acknowledges it is.] Oddly enough, I went to an old lemonade factory that had been preserved from the 1930s, and it had the room where they made the twaddle, which was the basic syrup from which you made all soft drinks. You started with 10 gallons of twaddle, and added a hundred gallons of water, and then added the flavorings. And we had a long discussion with the curator as to what had come first—and clearly twaddle meaning nonsense is very, very old. This is the sort of thing I like doing. Because somewhere in there you'll find a really great fact that will fit beautifully in a story. I follow these little leads—how the factory works, how they made the lemonade in these great big glass carboys. I've got something planned for another book from it.

You know, when I was a kid I used to get books like The Romance of the Postage System or The Romance of Steel Making. And these things are romantic! They really are—but we don't think like that any more. There was a very famous poem—"This is night mail crossing the border,/ Bringing the cheque and the postal order." And it was done to the rhythm of the train going faster and slower. It is absolutely amazing that you can post a letter and it arrives the next day.

I go off and research clocks, or gas making or something, and invariably you'll find something in it that's not about clocks or gas making, but it's a fact that's just thrown to you. For example, this is a spoiler for those who haven't yet read Feet of Clay [1996]. I was reading a book about alchemy and read about how you could slowly poison someone using a candlewick soaked in arsenic. It's a perfectly good way of poisoning someone very slowly. And the nice thing was, the people searching the room for the source of the poison had to carry it around with them to see where they were going. This is exactly the kind of thing that springs out at you and becomes part of a plot.

I'm fascinated with steam engines, and the telegraph, and intricate mechanisms. I think technology was at its very best just before the electronic age, because what you could use electricity for was just turning motors. By the time telephony replaced telegraphy, they had found ways of getting 12 messages simultaneously along one telegraph wire. Real, genuine, Jules Verne ingenuity had been applied to a world of cogwheels and vibrating reeds.

It was more fun than integrated circuits.

You've won many awards, and there's one in particular that remains more mysterious to those of us born in America than any other. And that is that in 1998 you were granted the Order of the British Empire. Now, if I understand it correctly, didn't you have to go to Buckingham Palace and meet the queen?

Pratchett: It was Prince Charles that day. And he's the one who has been identified to me as a Discworld fan.

And how did the conversation go?

Pratchett: Well, I put him at his ease. I said, "Well, how long have you been a prince, then? That long?" Well, he asked a few small questions. He did not say, "Hey, I'm one of your greatest fans. Will you sign this book for me?" The royal family do not do that kind of thing.

Let me explain how it all works. You get this letter from the prime minister's office, and the first thing you do is to phone up your agent and say, "This is a joke, isn't it?" And he does a bit of ringing around and calls back to say, "It's not a joke."

It was a great day when it happened. It was a day in May. My latest book had got to number one. Then I walked out in our garden and a wild orchid had come up. And then I opened this letter saying I had got the OBE. So that was sort of like, monarch, readership and God were voting for you in one day.

The letter from the prime minister's office is very strange. It says, "Now, look, if we were to give you an award, and we're not saying we will, would you—if we did, and we might not—say yes?" All that's to save embarrassment. And so I wrote back a letter saying, "If you did—and I understand you might not—I would in all likelihood say yes." And then you have to keep very quiet about it. Which is a bit hard.

Like when I won the Carnegie, which is possibly the highest children's book award. You know about it for about two months beforehand. And it's very difficult for the phrase "I've just won the Carnegie" not to insert itself in every sentence. You have to keep quiet about it.

So my mom came. And you can imagine my mom walking around Buckingham Palace. [He mimes his mother wiping dust away from the tabletop and shaking her head in displeasure.] And my wife and my daughter came along. It was great.

But it was sort of weird. All the OBEs go in, and all the CBEs and the MBEs, and IBEs, HGI, HIVs—all go in at once. And there's no alcohol. Buckingham Palace have been doing this for a very long time. There is no alcohol. And the Chief Goldknobstick in Ordinary comes and chats with you. Great lad. They are good at this. He tells you what's going to happen, and there's Air Vice Marshal So-and-So, "We call him Charlie, you'll go up there and stop when you get level with him." And there's this jolly RAF guy, with gold braid all over him, standing there. They've all got what the British aristocracy are very good at—not exactly the common touch, but they talk to you and you get on with them.

There were also no lavatorial facilities. They have what must be called the Chief Watcher of the Bladder, however, who looks for anyone who is beginning to search, you know. And you realize that there is this area of wall with this very thin door line around it. Sort of like a James Bond door. You push it and you go into this lovely Victorian lavatory.

Then there's the Band of the Royal Horse Artillery—and I think, frankly, that shooting horses is not something the military should be doing. And the band were playing songs from Les Miserables. You know, there's a lot of songs you shouldn't be playing in these circumstances; there's a song about the downtrodden masses, for instance. La-la-la la la-la-la.

By the way, I was in a morning suit and looked bloody stylish.

And you finally go up and have a little chat, along the lines of, "Well done."

And then what you want is a brandy.

It's kind of weird, because the only service I've ever done for literature was to declare on every possible occasion that I don't like it. I'm not quite certain why I got it. It's quite fashionable to turn it down. But it's only worth turning it down if you can tell people that you turned it down; there's no point turning it down and no one knows, eh? And I thought, when people asked me why I accepted it, for the best reason: It made my mum proud.

The other thing is, we've always been going on about SF getting out of its ghetto and that sort of stuff. Well, if they're going to hand you a gong, well, be there when the medals are handed out. Never refuse a medal or a promotion.

**************

Świetny wywiad. Ale jak czytacie te słowa, to pewnie też to wiecie i nowiną dla was nie jest :wink:

Wywiad wzięty z serwisu: http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue449/interview.html

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

'Wywiad', a raczej krótkie wypowiedzi zebrane w jednym miejscu odnośnie gadżetów, które pomogły T. Pratchettowi ukształtować Świat Dysku.

Pratchett`s gadgets that help mould the Discworld

]Reprinted by popular demand! In an exclusive interview, Britain`s best-selling author and the planet`s leading fantasy writer Terry Pratchett tell Gadget about the gadgets that help mould his writing...

"If I didn`t use computers, would you ask me about my pens?" is Terry Pratchett`s testy response to the obvious Gadget question about his writing tools.
And the answer, frankly Terry, is Yes.*

Eventually, Pratchett succumbs. Perhaps it`s the Italian food we`re eating. Perhaps it`s the chemicals in the Johannesburg air. It`s certainly not the the fact that this interviewer has been introduced to him as "a fan". He dreads being asked questions by fans who remember obscure punchlines long after he has retired them from his best-selling Discworld series of satirical fantasy novels. Or questions about his computers.
But persevere, and he begins to wax lyrical.

"If I still used a typewriter, it would be an old old Imperial 58. That`s the one I had most fun with. After that I got an electric typewriter, but typing a page was so final. You felt you had control of the Imperial 58; it was purely manual."

"When computers became available I began using a computer immediately. My first computer was a ZX-81, but I did word processing on it only for fun. The first computer I used for writing was an Amstrad 464. It was really a games machine with a tape dr ive built in, so my first word processor was on a cassette."

Pratchett then "graduated" to the personal computer:

"In the last 10 years I got through six PC`s, six portables and a couple of handhelds. Which is less odd than it sounds, since the real life of early machines was very short - from the XT to the AT and then pretty soon the 386, which let one use Wind ows with one window open. No one would expect an author of my input to use a PC bought 10 years ago."

"I always had a policy of having two machines to work on and at the moment it is a low end and a high end Pentium. If one blows up, I want a maximum of 10 minutes before I am working on the other machine."

Pratchett likes his computing as portable as possible, but is not wildly impressed with Windows CE. "It looks nice," he says, "but it just doesn`t have the capacity."
Instead, he uses a Toshiba Libretto when travelling.

"The nice thing about the Libretto is that I am writing a novel on it, I have all my other novels on it and my letters are on it, so if I need to check on something, I`ve got it there. With CE you can`t have that. And the Libretto is not much heavie r than a high-end CE. I`ve also got a Palm Pilot with me. It`s fun and quite useful."

A little more useful, indeed, than Hex, the hilarious, elaborate computer housed at the Unseen University in the Discworld series. Although Pratchett might disagree...

Pratchett`s gadget put a Hex on his work

Hex is a computer like no other the world has ever seen. Or rather, that the Discworld has ever seen. For it is the one and only computer on the bizarre world created by Terry Pratchett, Britain`s best-selling author and the world`s favourite fantasy writer.

In the Discworld series, Hex evolves under the watchful eyes of apprentice wizard Ponder Stibbons, who by default becomes what we might think of as the IT manager at the Unseen University in the city of Ankh-Morpork.

As Pratchett puts it in his Christmas send-up, Hogfather, "Hex worried Ponder Stibbons. He didn`t know how it worked, but everyone else assumed that he did."

Sounds like most IT managers we know, doesn`t it? But this is different: Hex is activated by initialising the GBL, which Stibbons reluctantly admits stands for "pulling the Great Big Lever". This releases millions of ants into a network of glass tubing, hence the sticker on Hex that reads "Anthill inside". And it is all powered by a waterwheel covered with sheep skulls. That is, male sheep. In other words, ram.

"Hex is a lot brighter than most computers," says Pratchett, discussing the properties of this very insane machine in the very sane light of a Johannesburg afternoon.

In The Last Continent (his new book, set in Australia), Stibbons says that after he has been working with HEX for a long time, it is easier to talk to senior wizards, because he has to break every idea into small bits and mustn`t leave any room for ambiguity.

"It always amazes me that people who spend a great deal of time programming computers don`t spend time programming their fellow human beings."

The inspiration for Hex, which evolves through seemingly unexplainable upgrades like extra cheese, a CWL (clothes wringer from the laundry) and "small religious pictures" (i.e. icons), came from Pratchett`s own early experiments with unfathomable upgrades.

"I started off with a ZX-81 which I put together myself. It was very easy to add things to it. By the time I was finished with it, it had a speech card, a sound card, and 8 or 9 sensors: a barometer, solar sensor, temperature sensor and various light sensors. I invented Paged RAM; effectively, I gave ZX-81 lots and lots of memory, but it could only access a certain amount of it at one time. It was important that information was at specific memory locations and stayed there. I had lots and lots of 2kb memory chips. One program would dump all kinds of sub-routines on all these RAM chips, and the next routine would run the whole damn show."

"I no longer knew why that sub-routine was there or what it was doing there but it was vitally important that it was there. I couldn`t figure out why, except that it stopped working if I took it out."

This Hex prototype still exists today, and would probably be a fine exhibit in a literary museum, if they ould prize it from Pratchett`s grasp. But he does not share the same respect for it.

"It`s still lying in a shed. It`s a real rat`s nest, and I no longer know how I got it to work."

Pratchett got the ZX-81 do do things that the computer industry is still trying to get right in the consumer versions of multimedia PCs and artificual intelligence. In those early days, the world "multimedia" did not even exist.

"I would get up and it would sense me when I went into the office and say good morning, tell me what the weather conditions were, and whatever the forecast for the day was. It had a wind sensor too. If you know the wind direction and what the barometer is doing today, and you have a lookup table, it`s not difficult to forecast the weather."

"It had a lovely sound card with the sound of waves breaking. It had to do things all the time. Eventually thre was too much to do, and BASIC (the computer language that founded Bill Gates` empire) couldn`t keep up."

He pauses, and with a practised sense of timing that would have done a stand-up comedian proud, adds: "The voice recognition system was probably a mistake."
But it did provide inspiration for the Discworld.

"Hex is pretty much the same thing. The wizards are not quite sure why it works and not sure that everything it`s got is what they added. For instance, someone gave me a box of relays, so relays became part of the system. I`m not sure why. It was all done with a soldering iron and a box of spares and a bit of BASIC. Once I stopped using it for a while, I completely forgot how it worked."

One can never be sure if Pratchett is being serious, but there is no denying that he has a unique view - if rather a strange one in a way that would interest the medical fraternity - of the world and the things in it.

While it is almost comforting to know that our reality helped shape his lunatic ideas, perhaps we also need to look at it from the opposite perspective: if the Discworld is inspired by the real world, we have to question the sanity of our own existence .

As the Unseen University`s Archchancellor, Mustrum Ridcully, would probably say, "Sanity? Now there`s an interesting concept. Totally impractical, of course..."

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

Terry Pratchett został zaproszony 9 grudnia br. na forum << Writers' Dock >>
[forum poświęcone pisarzom, pisarstwu; taka przystań dla młodych twórców].

Użytkownicy zakładając nowy temat, zadawali w nim pytanie, i na niektóre z nich (dokładnie, na 36) Pratchett odpowiedział. Nawigacja na forum jest tragiczna, dlatego wasz kochany mod zkompilował te posty w jeden wywiad [chcę za to banana i dwa fistaszki :mrgreen:

]:

* * *

1) Hi Terry - love your work. So much of it seems to be inspired by history and real events, I'm guessing you're an avid non-fiction reader. As the truth can be stranger than fiction, have you ever wanted to write about something that really happened, but felt it was too bizarre, even for the Discworld?

T. P. All the time! And you are right -- I doubt if 15% of my reading is fiction these days. Reality is more interesting.

2) I find the most fascinating thing about your books Terry. Holding society up to a mirror and seeing the weirdest things in the reflection.

T. P. Thank you. That's G K Chesterton's definition of fantasy -- taking humdrum reality and twisting it around so that , once again, you see it for the first time.

3) I've noticed a big change in tone from your early works to later books, in particular Nightwatch (while being less comic or funny was probably the best book you've writen). Was this deliberate choice or a natural evolution of your style?

T. P. Hmm. A book has got to be more than a string of gags. Yes, I did discover tragic relief. It's all a matter of evolution and, I think, better writing.

4) Hi Terry. My question is twofold. Do you ever have days when you will do absolutely anything to avoid writing? If so, how do you motivate yourself to work through those days?

T. P. I bang my head on the keyboard until I beg for mercy! Usually what I want to avoid is a tricky bit, but after messing around for a while I just get on with it. It's like a cold swim -- it's fine when you're in! I think that, at some cost, I've got myself to the point where being alive is motivation enough.

5) I keep being told publishers won't look at anthologies from relatively unknown writers. That you have to have a novel or two under your belt. What do you think?

T. P. I think you have been correctly informed.

6) Your novels always appear very carefully-plotted. To what extent do you plot the course of the narrative before you start?

T. P. 'Appear' is the key word. I don't sit and plot -- I shuffle ideas in my head until I thinkI'm ready to play. The key is in draft 0. That's where I play with things to see what emerges. Heard of emegent behaviour? It's when the plot and characters interact to produce elements that the author had not originally thought of. Draft 0 is where I tell myself the story, and the story itself takes an active part. The skill lies in controlling the process.

7) Hi Terry, I'd like to ask how you come up with your plotlines and how long it takes you to write a first draft then how long it takes to edit your novels?

T. P. A plotline -- or at least enough of one to get me started -- might take years to gestate. The actual process of writing takes about six months, of which the last six weeks are ferocious, head-banging editing. there might be some editor-led change after that.

8) What would be your main piece of advise to aspiring fantasy/SF writers?

T. P. Read something else. Keep up with your genre, of course, but you should be importing new things. And skew your reading towards non-fiction -- biographies, popular science, history...it's amazing what you will trawl.

9) In my lowly, knuckle-dragging opinion, The Truth and Going Postal are examples of your best work. Do you feel a greater level of enthusiasm when creating entirely new protagonists, than you do when returning to old favourites? Or does everyone get equal love and attention?

T. P. Thank you! I like to ring the changes, but when I'm writing a book all characters are equal. The Watch and the witches are, if you like, tool boxes for handling different types of plot. New character are fun and allow for new directions, but the very familiarity of older characters can itself be an important key to the story.

10) Does the hat you always wear help you write or is it an image thing?

T. P. Well, I don't write with it on! It was just a hat for years, and then photographers always wanted it on for pix. so it became an 'image thing'. I jus like hats.

11) Hey, how long do you spend editing/re-writing your novels after your first draft? and have you got any methods when proof reading your work?

T. P. When you write with a w/p the concept of 'draft' is fluid. I go up and down the text all the time. Some parts will be re-done many times, some only once. But there are in any case about three top-to-bottom edits. I'm a terrible proof-reader of my own stuff. I just try!

12) Do you have a 'reader' in mind when you're writing?

T. P. Yes. Me.

13) How do you remind yourself of all your character's names? Are you a pen and ink, or, a laptop man?

T. P. Well, I take notes. And I'm a keyboard man through and through.

14) When you absolutely HAVE to get away from the computer and make a drink, what is your first choice, tea coffee, a stiff alcoholic drink?

T. P. I drink tea. But whatever floats your tonsils...

15) I have times when I'm in the middle of a brilliant idea, speeding along and suddenly hit a dead end with no way of getting around it. What do you do when you come to this point, what is the best technique (or whatever) to get you back on track?

T. P. When you are stuck, work the problem. I either go back to kill the cause of the block early on, or leap ahead to some part of the story I'm sure of. One or other of these usually works. When all else fails, I see in the characters themselves can help...it can work!

16) What is your cure for the curse that is writers block?

T. P. Um...there some days when you just have to go and do something else, so that the brain can function. Insofar as I understand what writer's block is, though, I don't think I've ever had it. Mind you, I used to work on newspaper, where it's not allowed.

17) One of the biggest things I struggle with it taking hold of an idea and really running with it, committing myself to making it a piece of writing. You are an author who has worked within an idea for many years - how do you ensure that your ideas become something real?

T. P. I don't know how much help this is, but I take things logically. What happens if X is true? If Y is the case, how does that change the world?

18) Would you say you found your writer´s voice during your published years or well before?

T. P. I suspect I've always had the voice, but have trained it over the years -- often by reading better writers than me.

19) It is often said that first novels are a hellish experience for the writer. ?

T. P. Not by me. No-one is watching, and there are no expectations. But when you realise that X million people will read the next word that you write, then you get a small whiff of sulphur. I don't have sudden attacks of inadequacy and self-doubt; they're permanent fixtures, believe me. I just dodge them.

20) How did you find working with Neil, both as a person and as a writing partner? Did your styles marry easily? IMO, Good Omens doesn't lean heavily toward either of your styles and seems like a real hybrid. Was that easy?

T. P. When Neil and I wrote the book, it flowed. There was no system exccept for a lot of excited phone calls. We were friends, we've got similar tastes in reading and, above all, it didn't matter if it went wrong. It was like a holiday job. We just thought we were having fun.

21) How much character and world building do you need before you start your novel?
Can you write your novel's first draft and then build what you need around that?

T. P. You said it. Map first workd for JRRT, but I think the story runs and that shapes world and character. All the DW maps were drawn after the event!

22) You have been involved in several collaborative works. Do you find this easier or harder than writing alone. What are the main advantages / disadvantages of such work?

T. P. I've only done one real collaboration, which was Good Omens. Because we weren't serious, it was fun.

23) On a more specific note, many of your books show an appreciation of folk music and song and morris dancing - is this a genuine interest, or down to research?

T. P. Folklore, dance, myyh-- yes, major interests since childhood. And, for a fantasy writer, very useful ones!

24) Hello. You've written so many books, each one different all of them very good. How do you find the time to eat/sleep/have a social life?

T. P. Every days contains 24 hours -- and I don't watchmore than one hour of TV on any given night.

25) My online question is this: There have been many rumours of a Discworld movie or movies being made and varying reports of how you felt about this.
As a huge fan I think that if it was made true to the books with fantastic casting (overseen by yourself, Mr Briggs and Mr Kidby) then it could be woonderful.
You have commented that you imagine your books taking place like the scenes in a film….I know that a lot of us readers do too. Ooh wouldn’t it be fantastic to actually SEE them happening?! Some of the comedy, horror, suspense and visual effects that you create with your words would be astounding on screen! However I can also see the other side…. the books are so fantastic and powerful on their own that they don’t need to be a film! So I guess either way is good. What do you think?

T. P. There are several movie/TV projects around. I think at least two will happen, but nothing is certain. I can't really say more at the moment!

26) I would love to know the kind of books you read as a child,

T. P. Until the age of 9-10, none. Then suddenly I read everything. I went to the library twice a week and reash books for adults as well as for kids. It was a storm of reading that didn't slow for six years. Chilren's author I recall with fondness include Tove Jansson, T H White, 'BB' and Richmal Crompton. I read Narnia all the way to the end, but didn't not like it much. TLOTR, on the other hand, hit me like a brick when I was 13.

27) Some of the characters who appear regularly in your books have the 'feel' of being caricatures of real people. True or False? PS My wife is going to ban me from reading your books in bed next time I laugh so much that she falls out of it!

T. P. Buy a bigger bed! Very, very few of my characters are based on real individuals. Hoever, many are I hope based on real types. That's why so many of my readers say they've met Nanny Ogg.

28) Hi Terry, Do you have legal help if you want to use characters similar to an existing character (eg Conan the Barbarian)

T. P. No-- and especially not when it'd done for the purposes of parody. besides, in a genre, things will often remind you of other things. No-one has the copyright on heroes and unicorns...

29) I was wondering whether you planned the characters that were going to develop across the series, whether they were identified as popular from fan feedback, or whether they took off as you wrote them and are your favourites as well as ours?

T. P. Many of the favoutiye characters began as minor characters (includingVimes and Granny Weatherwax) bur what caused their longevity was the fact that they grew. Fan feedback played a part, but mostly I brought them back because they were fun to write for. Currently, no characters are destined fo extinction.

30) I'm writing an essay at the moment about 'what it takes to be a good writer.' I was just wondering what you think makes a good writer, and what qualities you have that have aided you in becomming a writer.

T. P. If there is one quality, it's the ability to trick the brain into allowing you to sit there and write 100,000 words. The foundation of my success was the writing of six novels in three years. I wrote a minimum of 400 'finished' words a day -- if I was away, I had to catch up. It worked.

31) Hello Terry! So, I wonder, do you draw upon what you gleaned from others? Or are they spontaneous as you write them? Or, do you lie awake at night 'thinking?'

T. P. Oh, some are real folk sayings, other derive fromsome ancirnt slang dictionaries, and some, like the one you quoted, are made up. Read enough and you get the hang of it!

32) How do you get your charactors to be so 3D. I mean I can imagin Vimes as a real person and i was just wondering how to make my own the same way?

T. P. In my head, he is real. It's kind of scarey, I suppose I took a lot ot time to visualise him. And I'm pretty good at writing his internal monologue.

33) I've noticed when I read your books that they have several levels e.g science fiction and normal story lines. Did you intend for them to be this way, or have you always prefered this sort of story?

T. P. I know what you mean. I think each thread helps and highlights the other.

34) Hello Mr Pratchett, I have read your books for years, and particularly enjoy your subversion of the traditional Death character, does this come from your personal approach to life and death and an expression of this through the character or is it just a character you found worked well and has just developed from an non emotional straightforward character, to a lovable, complext one. Apologies for Grammer she's not feeling too good.
Sadsack

T. P. Good question. Initially death was there as a gag, He startrf to evolve in Mort, and the rest you know. It's what I said elsewhere about emergence. Once I'd got Death as a walking, talking character, he had to evolve. It happend automatically, from where I was sitting. I couldn't help it.

35) To what extent do you think that writers / publishers/ agents might use these sites to discover talent.?

T. P. I'm not in a position to know, but I doubt that they do. They can't handle the slush piles as it is.

36) Hi Terry, Do you keep a book or a database of characters so that you know everything about a character if they re-emerge in another story. Or do you just have a good memory?

T. P. I don't keep a database but I know a man who does!

Folks, I hope this works this time... It's been a nice day, but I've got to bet back to my editing! All the best.
Terry

* * *

I to byłoby na tyle. Niektóre pytania podobne do tych zadawanych w tradycyjnych wywiadach, a niektóre całkiem świeże. Jeszcze może tylko wkleję avatara,
jaki przybrał T. Pratchett na forum:

A wyobrażałem go sobie jako chudego blondyna :mrgreen:

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

4 stycznia br, Terry Pratchett pojawił się jako gość specjalny w programie telewizyjnym BBC p. Blue Peter. Blue Peter to najstarszy program dedykowany dla dzieci w telewizji BBC, lecący 5 dni w tygodniu, na żywo.

Zdjęcia z programu (trochę małe) są tutaj: http://www.paulkidby.com/news/

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A oto transkrypcja wywiadu:
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Q How do you choose the name for your books? (From Charlie)

Terry:They seem to turn up, they turn up by themselves but I try to pick a name that sounds interesting.

Q What has been the highlight of being an author? (From Molly)

Terry:Um... flying first class to Australia. That was jolly good fun.

Q Where do you get your ideas from and when did you start writing books? (From Alibob)

Terry:Everyone gets ideas, authors just listen to the ideas and play with them and make them go a bit further. I started writing my first novel when I was 17 and it was published when I was 22.

Q Do you read other people's books to get ideas for your books? (From Chelly)

Terry:Haha! I read lots of books, but on the whole authors don't get ideas from other author’s books.

Q I am a budding author can you give me any tips please? (From Sassy sista)

Terry:Write 400 words every single day. That way you'll learn to write, and you won't learn unless you sit down and write.

Q When you wrote 'The Amazing Maurice', where did you get the idea for a plague of talking rats? (From Torchwood)

Terry:It just struck me one day that being the Pied Piper could be an incredibly good confidence trick if you knew a load of intelligent rats, because you could move from town to town setting up fake plagues which the piper would then take out of the town and everyone would make some money! That was years and years ago. Then one day a painting of the Pied Piper inspired me, the kid in the painting looked as if he knew exactly what was going on, and I thought, I know exactly how to write this book!

Q My dad loves you! He's got all of your books! I was just wondering if you were bringing out any more? (From Roxy)

Terry:There's always another book. I'm working on one now for next year, which is called 'Winter Smith' and that's another book about Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men.

Q What kind of books do you like to read and do they inspire you in any way? (From Lottie)

Terry:I read an awful lot of history books about how people lived and how society worked and they inspire me in all kinds of ways. You normally have to be a reader first before you become a writer.

Q Hi Terry, do you like being an author and if you weren't an author what would you be? (From Lolly Lea)

Terry:I like being an author - I can't imagine being anything else. When I was young I wanted to be an astronomer as you got to stay up late, but then I found out you had to do maths and I wasn't any good at that. I became a reporter on a newspaper and that got me thinking in the right kind of way.

Q Why did you decide to start writing children's books? (From Devon)

Terry:The first novel I ever wrote was a children's book. I've written quite a lot of children's books over my career. It's harder to write for children than it is for adults, but sometimes that makes it more fun.

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

Zaczerpnięte z rochester-citynews.com (US). Wywiad z 10-latkiem o najnowszej książce z serii ŚD - Thud! i o samym ŚD.

(Q)
So, what have you been reading lately?

(A)
Thud!.

(Q)
What is that?

(A)
It's the latest book written by Terry Pratchett. It's funny fantasy. He is a very good writer from Britain. The other ones I remember are Truckers, about these teeny little people who live inside this store. Wee Free Men is about a witch who realizes that there are little blue people that live in this hill and are a bit smaller.

(Q)
He seems to have a thing about little people.

(A)
Yes, I'm not sure why.

(Q)
"Thud!" seems like a very big book.

(A)
Yes, it's the biggest book I've ever read by myself. I wanted to know what happened and things did happen and it was fun. The Discworld series has a very good creation myth: like some Godly figure made this turtle and its four elephant bothers and they jumped up on its back and its ectoplasm jumped up and formed the world. It was something like that. Every book he tells about different people. Thud! is about the Watch in Ankh-Morpork, a city in Discworld. They're kind of police. Trolls don't usually wear clothes. I guess clothes are not a troll-y thing. Death always appears in all of his books at least once. He has to in every book. He just does.

(Q)
So you're reading about death.

(A)
It isn't exactly. He's a character. Death said that Vimes (Commander of the Watch) was having a near-death experience and Death was having a near-Vimes experience.

(Q)
Would you recommend the book?

(A)
Yes, I would. It has humor and adventure.

Kor · Moderator Wiek: 30 Dołączył: 25 Kwi 2004 Skąd: Mstuff

Wywiad poczyniony 8 listopada, 2001 roku podczas corocznego Festiwalu Literatury w Cheltenham.

W wywiadzie brał udział jeszcze jeden autor - Gerald Seymour, lecz pytania do niego i jego odpowiedzi wyciąłem. Jak ktoś chce przeczytać słowa pana Seymora, to wywiad jest pod >> tym linkiem. Poza tym do Terry'ego i tak jest 2x wiecej pytań :wink:

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David Freeman: Terry Pratchett, do you have a knowledge of the world that's reflected in your books? Do you have to research them in the way Gerald researches them?

Terry Pratchett: It's very rare that I ever go and research a particular subject. I did it recently for the making of chocolate and also for the construction of clocks, because I didn't know enough about these subjects. Mostly I do serendipitous research, I read stuff, things spinning out of the page.

Here's the sort of thing that happens with serendipitous research. Picture the scene, London 1846, a young lady is going to a ball. She has a new dress, it's made of something called tarlatan. It's the most beautiful green and it's a kind of foam silk. She has shoes made of it, a dress, a fan of tarlatan. It's a warm evening, she needs that fan as she dances, the windows are closed, it's rather humid, but she has a wonderful evening. She goes home feeling a bit tired and 24 hours later she has died a horrible death because the main component that makes tarlatan so green and shiny is copper arsenate, or to put it another way she has gone to the ball wearing enough arsenic to kill 50% of all the people there.

This was in the London Daily Post or something, 1866, and it's just a fact that somehow I enjoy the terrible death. I could see the scene, I could see her dancing, I saw it as a movie as I read it. I haven't the faintest idea if I'll ever use anything like that in a book, but the best research is the research that you don't know that you are doing. I'm sure we've both had the experience of thinking: I know about this, I know about this, I've read it somewhere. You turn round and look at your library - in my case my reference library is one wall of my office - and think it's somewhere in there and I haven't a dog's chance of remembering where I read it.

DF: When you have an idea, how long has it been sitting in the cavern of your mind, before you find the angle on it?

TP: This could be a tricky one. When people say "How do you write a book, how does it all happen?" I say, you line things up, and you line them up as actually as you possibly can, but sooner or later the book has got momentum and it's moving along under that momentum. It's like a sculpture, if you're working with the grain of the wood, the wood will start defining what shape it's going to become. What did worry me slightly was that I knew with the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse that the book would contain the fifth horseman who left before they became famous, creative differences and that sort of thing, but I didn't know what he represented. I had a few ideas - I gave him a name, a funny name, and there was a point in the book where a third party sees something which makes him realise what the true name of the fifth horseman is, and I realised that the funny name I had given him, because it was a funny name, actually contained that clue. Had I known what I was doing? Had I known all along who the fifth horseman was?

DF: When you read up about you, it says that you seem to spend your life in Wiltshire, writing. Do you sit there in front of your computer making yourself giggle?

TP: No.

I'm pretty sure I speak for both of us on this. First of all you are a writer, a writer is what you are, so it doesn't actually stop the moment you leave your desk, your computer, your keyboard, whatever. Something is operating the back of your mind; in fact, it took me a long time to find this out. There are times when the best writing you can do is to go for a walk or drive, a long drive is ideal. Before now I have phoned up friends and said, "Have you got a piece of paper? Write this down quickly", because I can't stop and it's an idea...

DF: Terry, you think that Gerald does 'place' very well. What do you have in mind?

TP: The last book I read of his was Holding the Zero, and I recall it cinematically. The grey landscape, the dust, the cold, the heat. I could almost trace the sniper across the Kurdish countryside. But I was thinking that the best research you can do is to talk to people. Before I wrote part of Carpe Jugulum, I spoke to a couple of old ladies who had been midwives before the last war. Can you imagine what it's like when you are the only real, practical source of medical knowledge for the people around you?

The decisions they had to make in some cottage bedroom, at the beginning of a life or at the end of it... when someone says, "Is there anything you can do for grandfather?" when he's screaming upstairs, they don't mean give him another pillow. They were saying that a lot had to go on that wasn't talked about because someone had to make a decision and it was always going to be the 'wrong' decision. Some of my best sources are ex-policemen, just to get a feeling of what it's like to be one. And it's quite different from being a civilian - except, of course, that I believe that policemen are just special sorts of civilians. Things like how hard it is to hold someone that doesn't want to be held. They probably need six people - or five if one can sit on his stomach - to hold him. This is the kind of thing that is worth knowing.

I was also on a paper for many years, and I spent a lot of that time in small towns. I would get to know the police and a lot of what was going on. One of the important things about being a small-town reporter is knowing what not to put in the paper. I once went for a walk with a guy who'd been working for a small newspaper for 50 years and I said to him, "Wasn't it rather dull?"

He said, "Well, let's see now. See that house there? That's where they caught a man doing something he shouldn't with a common barnyard fowl. And I remember that because in court he said, 'Well, it's my hen.'"

DF: That didn't make a page lead?

TP: Absolutely not. We're talking local newspapers here.

"That's where they locked a girl up in an attic for having a double-headed baby." Obviously the town deserved to be run by the Soddom and Gomorrah district council.

Some of the stuff he knew you just couldn't report. How the hell would you do it? He'd been turning in the copy about the flower shows and the obituaries for years and years.

DF: You were the front man for the British nuclear industries for a while, weren't you?

TP: I spent far more time spinning lies for newspaper editors than I did for engineers, that I can tell you. By and large, I worked for the nuclear industry during a period when we were telling the truth. Because they'd tried telling everything else and it hadn't worked.

DF: I have this vision of you being a sort of spin doctor...

TP: No. At that time the Central Electricity Generating Board did employ journalists as press officers, which meant that you came with a pretty good idea of how newspapers would react to certain bits of news. It got to the point where I would ring up the Western Daily Press and say, "I have to tell you, we lost a generator tonight but it should be back on tomorrow. But no one's going to die."

And they would say, "Why are you telling us, if it's not important?"

"Because if you hear it from some other contact at midnight that there's a great hoo-haa at the power station, I'm now telling you exactly what it is. If you have any questions, ring me up."

DF: Were you a consumer of fantasy in your spare time?

TP: I discovered fantasy and science fiction when I was about 10, and read nothing else for about three years. I ran out of all the books that there were to read in the library. So I started reading palaeontology, because that's practically science fiction. So is archaeology, so is ancient history. I did not differentiate. I was just keen on reading stuff that took me to other places.

Sometimes the 'other place' can be this place, 65m years ago. So I got myself an education. Certainly in the late 70s and early 80s there were a lot of bad copies of Tolkien around. Just as Douglas Adams could only write Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when enough people knew what the cliches were in science fiction so it was worthwhile parodying them, I started writing Discworld when fantasy imagery had been on heavy-metal covers. It was time to start having fun with it.

DF: Terry, you spoke about talking to people, but what we really mean is we listen. If we can get people to relay those secret anecdotes...

TP: The important thing is to not show how important the thing they've just told you is, in case they get frightened...

I think the biggest accolade is to become part of the language in some way. "It's like something out of..." I remember thinking that on September 11th - we're now in a Tom Clancy novel, and the worst news is that Jack Ryan isn't president. Lots of people were saying that. Though Tom Clancy said he wouldn't write a novel that was quite as far-fetched as that.

For quite a long time, 42 will be the secret of life, the universe and everything. I don't know how long it will survive, but it will probably survive for as long as 1984 is a relevant date. Movies come and go - in my case they come and go but never get made... Authors on the whole don't make huge amounts of money out of films.

DF: I was looking through the Pratchett chatrooms, and you seem to have the ability to write for an audience that thinks that you're writing for each of them individually. They seem to have a personal relationship with you. Is that how it feels?

TP: I don't quite know how it happens. If you work on local newspapers then there is a complicity - both you and the readership believe that Preston is a really important place. The rest of the country does not. People expect their wedding or funeral - of course, they don't complain if their funeral isn't mentioned - but they expect to see things in the newspaper, and the smaller the town, the more this happens. I don't know whether that lends something to one's writing, but you're always, as a journalist, aware that there's a readership out there. The book is not completely written until someone else has read it.

I occasionally do read some books that were written in order to have been written. Some of them get awards. Genre authors, by and large, write books that are meant to be read.

Young fans send me slices of their birthday cake.

DF: I think that's wonderful, don't you?

TP: Ever since the cannabis incident I've thought it is.

DF: Terry, do you find endings difficult - do you find it hard to stop?

TP: There's what I call the cigarettes. Most novels have them. What happens after the end of the action - the things necessary to bring the whole thing to a conclusion. I think what drove me away from being a reporter was an inability to accept that the world came in neat stories. You'd do a 150-word story about something, but that's not the real story. Every story you have to report is just part of something bigger. The news isn't what happened last night - it's some cumulative thing that's happened over centuries. I found it hard to think of one event and drag it out of a bubbling pot and present it as the story that explains it all.

With endings, I want to cover all the loose ends, every possible one. With Small Gods, I did not know how it was going to end until the last page. I felt that my options were narrowing and the story actually bought itself to the only conclusion that it could possibly reach; once I finished it I realised it had to go like that.

DF: Do you find that you spend more time actually redrafting a book than you do coming up with the original idea?

TP: I, on the other hand am a technophile, so there is no such thing as a first draft. The first draft plunges on, and about a quarter of the way through it I realise I'm doing things wrong, so I start rewriting it. What you call the first draft becomes rather like a caterpillar; it is progressing fairly slowly, but there is movement up and down its whole length, the whole story is being changed. I call this draft zero, telling myself how the story is supposed to go.

Perhaps a third of the way through or more something will happen as a direct result of the characters and situations I have set up - emerging behaviour, something that I have not planned for when I started the book. By the time you write the last page you have done half the book. The other half tends to get done in about five weeks; I do several drafts, very, very furiously rewriting. I literally do more or less nothing else and I stick with it and go through it and I begin to hate it. After you've been working fairly intensively on a novel for six months you never want to see the damn thing again.

A dreadful thing starts to happen - you start rewriting good passages because you've read them so often that they are now becoming dull. You have to keep saying: someone who is reading it for the first time is probably going to enjoy that bit. Towards the end of a book I start holding out a promise to myself, "If you're a good boy and do all your editing..."

For The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents there was with an editor in America, an editor in the UK, and two managing editors who were taking a lot of interest, and everyone was having opinions about it. I was going mad. I thought it was going to be a children's book that I could write simply in three months, but it took about seven months of incredibly hard work. I say to myself, "If you're a good boy and eat up all your editing lacquer - you'll be allowed to write another book afterwards."

There;s that lovely thing for the first month or two of writing a new book: OK, I don't know what that character's going to do, but we'll find out later. After about three or four months you come to that bit where you've got to put some plot in before it's too late, and you have to go back and start inserting plot, and, ooh, I've left out the literature, OK, lets put some in. It's actually true that I keep myself going by constantly promising myself that in response for the hard work I will be allowed to do some more hard work later on.

DF: Mr Pratchett, what gave you the idea for Discworld?

TP: This is a good example of serendipitous research. When I was about 10 or 11 I was very interested in astronomy because you were allowed to stay up all night.

I later found out that you had to do maths as well, and astronomy largely consisted of doing maths in a small room in Cambridge. I subsequently found out that all science is doing maths somewhere, even oceanography is probably doing maths in a small room in Southampton. I realised what I really wanted to be was a journalist, so I could take an interest in astronomy without having to do all the hard bits. In the books of astronomy, you've always got a little chapter that in the 50s probably had a heading that meant, even though it didn't say, "Let's have a laugh at all those silly old Greeks and the kind of things they believed." Invariably there would be a description of what effectively is the Discworld.

I've seen a 16th-century woodcut of something like the Discworld. The idea that the world goes through space on the back of an enormous turtle is something that's common to a large number of cultures, past and present, from this planet. I don't know why. It's not an obvious beast to carry the world through space, I mean they go underwater quite a lot. I don't know if there's a turtle-shaped hole in our racial consciousness. When I needed a ridiculous world... I wanted to write, in effect, an antidote to fantasy. I thought let's take a ridiculously, self-evidently foolish world, but put the people on it, and make them as real as possible. The Discworld was ready made. It belonged to world mythology but I stole it and ran away before the alarms went off.

DF: Terry? Birthday cake?

TP: The next time someone offered me birthday cake I asked if it had cannabis in it. The following year the same guy turned up with a big cake with a cannabis leaf iced on it and the words "Not a cannabis cake" written on it.

QbaJak

Kolejny wywiad z Terry, o tyle ciekawy, że na temat piractwa

źródło: http://www.alcs.co.uk/

19 May 2006
Terry Pratchett: tackling the invisible crime
A full transcript of the interview with Terry as part of the Piracy feature in the May edition of ALCS News.

Terry Pratchett is a world-renowned author of fantasy fiction. Both his acclaimed adult and children’s titles have sold over 45 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 33 languages. However he is a key victim of book piracy, and ALCS spoke to him about how he would like to see things change.

How involved are you personally in the combat of piracy of your work and do you feel supported?

“I’m relatively ‘internet savvy’ but I think publishers have taken a long time to get to grips with technology and to get wise to the risks. We have felt lonely in the pursuit of pirates of my work – there is no obvious backing.”

What do you feel most affected by when you find someone selling an illegal copy of one of your books online?

“It is not so much the theft that annoys me as the justification of the theft. I’m annoyed to be told by arrogant people that ‘information longs to be free’. I reply that, in that case, maybe they would like to ‘free’ their bank account details and shunt them in my direction! I think that it must be relatively easy for large companies to battle piracy, but it is tough when you are on your own. You feel like one goalie being faced by a thousand centre forwards!”

I understand that your fans are very helpful in supporting your fight against piracy – do you think this makes a significant difference in the amount of illegal copyright infringements that you find?

“I suspect that a lot of people who have copies of my books online are actually fans, and also have a hard copy on the shelf. Fandom itself is a sort of socially acceptable piracy.”

Piracy often stems from ignorance. At what level do you feel education about piracy needs to be aimed at?

“This education needs to start at playground level. The general impression is that because it’s digital it’s therefore free, generated from the ether, and has no owner. Things are additionally complicated in my genre, which has a traditionally benign attitude to ‘fan fiction’, which is a sort of socially acceptable copyright infringement. The question of ‘who owns what’ can become a little problematical. The author’s attitude has normally been a benign lack of doing anything as long as there is not too much evidence of piracy, but problems are arising. It’s bit of a quandary when you find out that your latest pirate is 13 years old!”

Have you tried approaching your publishers about this piracy?

“I am not aware that they have been particularly ‘hyperactive’ on the matter. It feels like an industry problem but at the moment this tends to be an authors’ problem. Each individual author having to learn the ropes is not the ideal way to deal with it.”

Have you spoken to other authors about piracy? Do you feel a community of effort would make a difference?

“I have spoken to a few other authors within the Science Fiction genre, some of whom are savvy to the problems of piracy, but that this is mostly where it ends. I would welcome anything that ALCS or any other body could encourage in terms of a collective and coordinated effort by authors, but the fact is that people are inventive – they don’t intend to be a pirate, but they relish the challenge in breaking the technology.”

Currently the popularity of the iPod has meant that audio books that are one of the most common forms of copyright infringement of literature on the internet. It is possible that in the future the e-book reader will be the new device in everyone’s homes. Does this concern you?

"Nowadays the new generation finds it natural to read from a screen. This is a quantum problem – we do not know the outcome of things. Unforeseen outcomes emerge from the technology. It’s thrilling, in a nervy kind of way.”

Have you ever used legal action against any ‘pirates’?

“I have nearly resorted to legal action, but ‘hints’ were made and a spontaneous donation to charity meant that the charges were dropped. This is OK for a one-off case, but piracy is hugely prevalent and often abroad – who is therefore responsible for dealing with this? It is currently a bit of a nightmare.”

ALCS is currently working on several levels to increase copyright awareness. A Rights Awareness Programme is under development, and Jane Carr has written a letter to Ruth Kelly regarding school awareness programmes, and has also recently been in talks with the QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority). What do you think of this, and what more would you like ALCS to do in the future for protection against piracy for its members and authors in general?

“I will be incredibly pleased if ALCS can reap some results from these activities! I feel that it is a long road ahead – this is about taking something invisible. People do not understand the value of written work as ‘property’ – ie what harm are they doing? The internet has encouraged, maybe passively, the thought that it’s not really stealing since the work has not been ‘removed’ entirely. This is about trying to deal with a digital age using analogue laws. The mechanisms we have to use and the awareness levels aren’t appropriate to the situation in which we live.”

Do you use the internet much in terms of research?

“Yes I do. But mostly in terms of jogging my memory! I am from a generation that is doubly blessed, in that I have read extensively in the past and have a huge research library, but have been able to keep up with the evolving technology and so have both resources at my fingertips. You have to learn to develop an editor’s eye. The Web is not a library; a library has librarians, and on the whole the real trash does not make it to the shelves.”

Your children’s novel ‘The Wee Free Men’ is due to be released as a film. Does this leap from the page to the screen concern you in terms of more piracy?

“Not directly, but I am becoming very aware of the need for clear contracts. Regrettably, in a genre where there is traditionally a lot of fan activity, I have to be formal in areas where I was once very easy-going. People have always sent MSS to authors in the hope of advice, but now they take pains to say that they have mailed a sealed copy to themselves, too, the very definite inference being that they fear being plagiarised. In that case, why send it in the first place? So I simply make sure the stuff never gets as far as me now. It’s a shame, but I believe that it’s the only way to prevent problems, given that a mere allegation can be damaging if made loudly enough. “

This month, plagiarism has been in the news with regard to university students – “A third of students in the survey for The Times Higher Education Supplement said that they had copied ideas that they had read in books or online.” Have you ever come across plagiarism as part of your fight against piracy and what are your views on combating this?

“There are so many shades of plagiarism, from outright copying to, well, the mere fact that we’re probably subtly influenced by every book we read. But I remember the promotional video for Windows 95: it showed a kid completing a school project by cutting and pasting from the ‘net. I don’t recall him hitting an alphanumeric key. And this was a good thing? Microsoft seemed to think so. It didn’t look like that to me. It seemed to be knowledge as a commodity, a thing to be moved about, not absorbed. But we’re riding the tiger now. I just hope our kids learn how to steer it.”

On a lighter note: What are you currently reading?

“The Bible. I am a humanist but I thought I would read it all the way through. It’s… interesting.”

Would you ever appear on a general knowledge show, such as “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”?

“No, I happen to be one of those people whose memory shuts down under pressure. The answers would come to me in the middle of the night in my sleep! Besides, I am a millionaire.”