(no subject)

[madbaker]

I read Terry Pratchett's Colour of Magic shortly after it came out in the US. '84 maybe? I loved it. It was different from anything else out there at the time - fantasy that didn't take itself seriously, except that it was written with all due seriousness. It read like something Piers Anthony might have put out had he not stuck himself permanently at an 11-year-old level. (But I digress.) The sentient pearwood luggage! Inept wizards who weren't the same old doddering Merlin clones. It was great fun, and I devoured it quickly.

The next book? Not as fun, but I still read it. And the next, which was the same. And the next. At some point, I realized I was reading them out of obligation because it was a series. (Although I enjoyed most of Mort, which finally felt original.) By the time I got to Moving Pictures in 1990 or so - which read like a self-parody written as a contractual obligation rather than inspiration - I'd had enough. I stopped. I never went back.

I've heard that he got much better afterwards. It didn't matter: I was done. (I did read Good Omens, because by then I'd discovered Gaiman; but I didn't like it. It was too Pratchett in tone for me.)

There's a related personal aspect here, which is a certain amount of cussed contrariness. When I don't like something and people tell me "Oh, you must love this!" I have a tendency to react negatively. No, I don't must. I said I didn't; and I definitely will not now. Not an incredibly positive trait perhaps but there it is. The more I'm pushed, the more I may push back. I had lots of friends who kept rhapsodizing about how great Pratchett was. Any tendency I might have had to try later books completely vanished.

So, I note Pratchett's death because he was part of the literary universe I inhabit. It was not my part, but it still lessens the whole.

Comments

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

I didn't like Colour of Magic or any of the books with Rincewind.
I've occasionally thought of Pratchett's work as what Piers Anthony wanted to be when he grew up, so I am immensely amused with your comment about PA being stuck at 11 above. :)
I hope you have a happy pie day tomorrow.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

I originally wrote 8 - which is when I loved Anthony - but 11 or 12 is probably a more representative number. I went off Anthony by the time I was 14ish.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I'm there with you. I've had too many experiences with friends raving over books that left me cold to take the volume of squee as a personal recommendation. I've never read any Pratchett because past experience has indicated that there's a certain flavor of British madcap fantasy humor that misses me entirely, and every indication was that he would fall in that category. But I can acknowledge that many people I respect greatly experienced his work otherwise.

[joycebre.livejournal.com]

I didn't read Pratchett either, which sometimes causes me to feel a vague sense of disconnect with other people. But yeah, when I tried it it reminded me so much of PA, that I just couldn't. But he obviously touched a great many people, and I'm sorry for them.

Authors change

[learnteach.livejournal.com]

of course, I'm a drooling fanboi, with my own towel, of Pratchett. Powers was better when he was less adult, slowly growing more tortured and torturing to the point that I don't read his recent stuff. Pratchett grew more adult; I would recommend his "Wee Free Men" and in general the Tiffany Aching books--but your tastes are set, time is known, and madcap British Fantasy is still madcap. I wouldn't know if Piers Anthony died, although I remember him fondly, and I will miss Gaiman. I mourn Pratchett. Cest la vie.