Discworld Questions

[blademaster42]

I was thinking. shocking, perhaps, but not completely unprecedented.
Feel free to ask about anything you've missed.
Has anyone had something go completely over their head in a discworld novel? I know it has happened to me.
So I ask you this:
What on the disc is the Lancre Stick-and-bucket dance?

[JabberwockySupafly]

I was thinking. shocking, perhaps, but not completely unprecedented.
Feel free to ask about anything you've missed.
Has anyone had something go completely over their head in a discworld novel? I know it has happened to me.
So I ask you this:
What on the disc is the Lancre Stick-and-bucket dance?

While never truly described, the Stick-and-Bucket dance is what's called Morris dancing. I'm going to take a stab in the dark here and say you're from the US or Canada? It's hard to explain, but to break it into extremely general terms, it's akin to folk dancing... with a hey nonnie nonnie and a ho ho ho. (Fun trivia: The company that publishes Discworld in the US thought the Morris Men were (American) Football/Rugby players.)

Basically Morris Men are as much a staple of traditional spring festivals and other celebrations as things like maypoles, greased pigs, and copious amounts of beer. Morris Dancing Wiki Fun! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_dance)

It's only ever inferred that the Lancre S&B is not only a dance, but almost a form of martial arts, designed to test the body and mind of the dancer, as well as prove physically harmful to the opposition at competitions. But yeah, to put it in the broadest of terms. It's rhythmic folk dancing.

[VanBuren]

I just finished Interesting Times, and I have two questions about the timeline. There are comments like "years ago", which imply that The Colour of Magic and Sourcery were a long time in the past.

So... about how long was it from The Colour of Magic to Interesting Times?

And also, how many years were between Sourcery and Faust? (i.e. How long was Rincewind stuck in the Dungeon Dimensions?)

[Mx.Silver]

I just finished Interesting Times, and I have two questions about the timeline. There are comments like "years ago", which imply that The Colour of Magic and Sourcery were a long time in the past.

So... about how long was it from The Colour of Magic to Interesting Times?

And also, how many years were between Sourcery and Faust? (i.e. How long was Rincewind stuck in the Dungeon Dimensions?)

There was a hefty time-skip during Wyrd Sisters, where Lancre was placed outside the time-stream of the rest of the Disc for about 15 years or so. There is probably more (bearing in mind Susan has aged a fair amount, as has Vimes) but that will account for quite a bit.

[Hyrael]

The Disc's history has been shattered multiple times by madmen with glass clocks. time has been warped around, and characters jump backwards and forewards sometimes. coming up with an accurate chronology is impossible, because the author himself didnt hold himself to one.

In early books, the world was mideival and ****ty, and had way too many muscle-bound heroes with magic swords.

Later, there were less muscle-bound barbarian heroes (save for a few very old ones), and society had moved to the early modern period.

then, things went victorian. Propriety, crime mysteries, schoolteachers, christmas stories.

now, it's post-victorian, with clacks everywhere, a modern watch, subways, and that book of etiquette in Making Money is considerd old-fashioned and stodgy.

between Mort and Hogfather there's about a 25 year interval (susan's age, plus however long Mort and Ysabelle were married before they had a kid), and vimes goes from early-forties in guards guards to late forties. (In Night Watch, he was confirmed as 46). Rincewind cant be used as any sort of measuring-stick, because he's time-hopped so much that even Death doesnt know when he should die.

[Nerd-o-rama]

The first rule of Discworld chronology: you do not talk about Discworld chronology.

[Hyrael]

Except in broad strokes, and how the various stages of circle-sea civilization parallel real-world western society, but speeded up rediculously fast.

rather like the south park joke in which stan's parents divorce, his mom gets a new boyfriend, the boyfriend attempts to befriend stan, stan rebuffs him, the boyfriend breaks down, and stan is sent out to chop firewood, all in the space of a single day.

[Tengu]

The first rule of Discworld chronology: you do not talk about Discworld chronology.

Completely offtopic, but for some reason that reminds me of many, many people who spout nonsense like "the first Discworld book was the best, it went downhill after that". In fact, you can replace Discworld with almost any other fiction series (for example, "early OotS"), and this statement will probably still be as stupid. It's extremely rare for a series to start great and then only get worse! The top of the quality almost always happens only after a certain time. In most cases such people only show their lack of good taste as they like the thing less when it becomes more refined.

[The_Snark]

Completely offtopic, but for some reason that reminds me of many, many people who spout nonsense like "the first Discworld book was the best, it went downhill after that". In fact, you can replace Discworld with almost any other fiction series (for example, "early OotS"), and this statement will probably still be as stupid. It's extremely rare for a series to start great and then only get worse! The top of the quality almost always happens only after a certain time. In most cases such people only show their lack of good taste as they like the thing less when it becomes more refined.

Off on a tangent from that off-topic comment, I've always thought it was interesting to see how Pratchett's writing style changed from book to book. I think I remember someone commenting that the first two books were good, but that thirty more books like them wouldn't have been good.

[JDMSJR]

For anybody who has not got some of the jokes or references in Prattchet's books, here is a great resource.

http://www.ie.lspace.org/books/apf/index.html

[dehro]

Completely offtopic, but for some reason that reminds me of many, many people who spout nonsense like "the first Discworld book was the best, it went downhill after that". In fact, you can replace Discworld with almost any other fiction series (for example, "early OotS"), and this statement will probably still be as stupid. It's extremely rare for a series to start great and then only get worse! The top of the quality almost always happens only after a certain time. In most cases such people only show their lack of good taste as they like the thing less when it becomes more refined.


DUNE... I'll say no more

[VanBuren]

Completely offtopic, but for some reason that reminds me of many, many people who spout nonsense like "the first Discworld book was the best, it went downhill after that". In fact, you can replace Discworld with almost any other fiction series (for example, "early OotS"), and this statement will probably still be as stupid. It's extremely rare for a series to start great and then only get worse! The top of the quality almost always happens only after a certain time. In most cases such people only show their lack of good taste as they like the thing less when it becomes more refined.

To be honest, I only thought that the Color of Magic was OK. Same thing, but a little bit less so with The Light Fantastic -- the climax made up for everything and more -- but Equal Rites was the one that really started doing it for me.

[Adumbration]

What are the lyrics for the Hedgehog song?

[dehro]

What are the lyrics for the Hedgehog song?

there you go (http://www.speakeasy.org/~mamandel/filks/Hedgehog.html)

[Adumbration]

there you go (http://www.speakeasy.org/~mamandel/filks/Hedgehog.html)

I thought... I thought... :smalleek:

That there actually weren't any lyrics for it....:smallbiggrin:

[Eldan]

Call it fan fiction.

[VanBuren]

According to Lspace's fan-timeline, about 22 years pass between the beginning of The Colour of Magic and Interesting Times, with Rincewind being trapped in the Dungeon Dimensions for about 6 years (around the same time as the events of Equal Rites).