Terry Pratchett (was: Smell of Cabbage)

[bluesqueak]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "abigailnus" 
<abigailnus at y...> wrote:
> I wrote: 
> > > Death is the only Discworld character to appear in every 
single 
> > one of the Discworld novels.  
> 
> To which Pip replied: 
> > He seems to have broken that rule with the 'Wee Free Men', 
> > possibly because he couldn't work out how to get Death in the 
> > book in a child-friendly way.
> > 
> > Unless he has a non-speaking role somewhere, and I just didn't 
> > spot it on the first reading.
> 
> Well, does the Death of Rats appear?  Because, technically, the 
> Death of Rats is a part of Death.  He was created when Death was 
> fired, and later when Death was reinstated, he allowed the Death   
> of Rats to remain seperate from himself.
> Now that I think of it, I don't think Death himself shows up in 
> The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, but I know that the 
> Death of Rats does.

No, Death is in the Amazing Maurice. I can't say to whom he appears, 
as it would give a lot of the ending away.

> And, by the way, you would know if Death appeared.  He's a seven-
> foot tall skeleton who TALKS LIKE THIS.  Pretty noticeable.  Also, 
> the first thing most people tend to say to him is, "Here, you're 
> Death, aren't you?"

Yeah, that's why I assume he's not in Wee Free Men, because, as you 
say, you do tend to spot him when he appears. It's a bit difficult 
to believe that I missed him.


WARNING: VERY SMALL SPOILER

AS IN THIS ITEM APPEARS WITHIN THE FIRST THREE PAGES OF WEE FREE MEN

SO IT WON'T RUIN MUCH FOR YOU ANYWAY















It's very weird, because one of the major subplots in the book is 
the 9 year old heroine, Tiffany, trying to come to terms with her 
much loved Granny's death (which happened two years before the book 
opens).

So death (small 'd', non-personified) is a big subject in the book. 
But I did not spot Death (capital 'D', personified, looks like he's 
been on a *very severe* diet).

Wee Free Men's a very good book, btw. I suspect the publisher's 
willingness to let Terry experiment with children's novels owes a 
certain amount to good old JKR. PoA and GoF proved that children 
will read fantasy novels dealing with big serious subjects and, more 
important to a publisher, said novels sell by the bucketload.

There is also a very small joke about schools for teaching magic in 
it ;-)

Pip