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Falloy
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12 Mar 2015, 2:29 pm

It's a bit of a sad time to be a geek.

Leonard Nimoy last week and now Terry's gone:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31858156

Rest in peace.



luan78zao
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12 Mar 2015, 2:38 pm

Right, all the people I like in the world can stop dying now. Seriously. :(


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12 Mar 2015, 5:53 pm

I just saw this when reading the news, really sad. It's awful that a person who writes such witty novels gets a disease that attacks the mind.
My favorites were Rincewind and Death, both of them are great philosophers. I learned from Rincewind that it doesn't matter what direction you run in when you flee, it only matters what you run from.



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12 Mar 2015, 6:00 pm

Quoting something I read in a Facebook comment:

Quote:
"I would like my pudding now nurse. And then I think I'd like to... write... something... I don't remember what."

Standing in the corner, he waits. The sand slowly flows, but it nears it's end. The old man still glows, as thousands of threads spread away from him.

SQUEAK.

I AGREE. IT IS A SHAME TO SEE HIM THIS WAY.

SQUEAK.

NO. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN.... BUT I CANNOT WAIT TO ASK HIM HOW IT ALL ENDS.

The old man looks up, through them at first... and then he sees them. For once, the smile on the hooded figure's skull is genuine.

"I... I remember you. The anth... ant..."

ANTHROPOMORPHIC PERSONIFICATION.

"Yes, that. We knew each other?"

ONCE. AND WILL AGAIN, SIR.

He so rarely said it, and these feelings... remembering his young aprentice, and beloved daughter. The beautiful child they have.

"There... is a girl, yes?"

SHE IS SPEAKING TO THE AUDITORS, SIR. THEY ARE UNWILLING TO LISTEN.

"Well then. You know what they say, two things you cannot avoid. Taxes and..." He looks into the firey blue eyes, and becomes aware.

SQUEAK.

"Quite right. Is it time already? I have so much left to do."

YOU HAVE GIVEN ALL YOU CAN SIR.

"No, not cancer. Alzheimers."

I AM AWARE.

"So, where is the boy? I remember a boy."

CARRIAGE ACCIDENT.

"Ahh. Never much trusted cars. Or horses."

THEY GET YOU WHERE YOU WANT TO GO.

"Must I?"

SOON. BUT WE MAY SIT HERE AWHILE.

SQUEAK

DO YOU HAVE ANY BISCUITS?

"No. Shame really."

YES.

"Is it truely turtles?"

ALL THE WAY DOWN. I HAVE SEEN THEM.

"Ahh. I would love to see it. Perhaps a small trip before?"

IT WOULD BE MY PLEASURE.

"The light is slower there... and there's a monkey...."

ORANGUTAN. SAME PRINCIPLE.

"Yes... will they remember me?"

SQUEAK.

"What was that? I could not hear you."

HE SAYS WE WILL, SIR.

"I never much liked the trouble people had with you. You seem like a nice fellow."

I HAVE MY DAYS.

"Don't we all?"

SOME LESS THAN OTHERS.

"Is it quick?"

YES. AND I BROUGHT THE SWORD. CEREMONY DICTATES IT.

"Ahh. How about a cup of tea?"

I WOULD ENJOY IT. DO YOU PLAY CHESS?

"No. how about checkers?"

And so they sat, two old friends regaling each other, though the old man could not remember all of the details, the cloaked man and his rat filled him in, when it was needed.



The_Walrus
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12 Mar 2015, 6:06 pm

By all accounts, the particular brand of Alzheimer's he had left his conscious memory intact. He just couldn't remember how to move his fingers.

Rest in peace.

(His final Tweets were majestic. Read at your own peril though, they're incredibly sad)



Kraichgauer
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13 Mar 2015, 7:43 pm

This is the first I've heard of his passing. Though I've never read any of his fiction, my late dad had been a big fan of his Disc World books.


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14 Mar 2015, 4:51 pm

I did not know.

Now I do, and am feeling such loss...

He was truly a genius, and his characters were more real to me than many people I see daily.

We have lost so much.....

May he have peace now, and live forever on his Discworld, becoming each of his characters as he chooses to be.

:cry:


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GoonSquad
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14 Mar 2015, 5:52 pm

Thanks to Magneto for that repost.

I did a paper on his documentary, Choosing to Die, last year for a class on Death & Dying.

I'm glad he did not have to off himself... Of course, being the author of Death, maybe he did after all.


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clotonia
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14 Mar 2015, 6:29 pm

He was a great, great man. It is a very sad loss for humanity.

RIP Sir.



Strawberry5
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15 Mar 2015, 5:57 am

RIP, Terry Pratchett. xx



Prof_Pretorius
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16 Mar 2015, 6:56 am

Interesting article about why none of Terry's stories were ever made into a movie....

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/t ... rse-781580


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Magneto
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16 Mar 2015, 9:08 am

Mort was the first book I read, so I found it funny when Eliezer Yudkowsky (author of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality) suggested that anyone wishing to start reading the Discworld novels begin with that one.

Of course, now that Rhianna Pratchett holds the reins, we might see the Discworld a lot more through other media. Maybe she can team up with Yudkowsky and develop an MMORPG based on the Discworld, with powerful AI characters including an Orangutan who serves as the front end of a database containing all the lore...