Terry Pratchett: I'm slipping away a bit at a time ... and all I can do is watch it happen »
Posted By Wil 1 year, 2 months ago in Health & FitnessWhen author Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with dementia, he was shocked to discover doctors could do little to help. For despite the fact that the condition affects more than 700,000 Britons (a million by 2025), research into its causes and treatment has been chronically under-funded.
Patients and their families also have to cope with the stigma and ignorance surrounding dementia, as a report published today by the Alzheimer’s Society has revealed. In the belief that the only way to change this is to talk openly about the disease, here Terry Pratchett describes his own experiences.
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Wil
I was a Propeller Scout, and I ran the Geeks Group. AOL sent me to the land of Wind and Ghosts, though, so I don ...
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Rollic1 year, 2 months ago
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This is just painfully sad. Pratchett is my comfort author, the one writer who can always bring a smile to my face and hearing about him watching as his mind fades away from him... insanely sad.
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I've never understood why Pratchett a). doesn't have a bigger non-UK following or b). why his works haven't warranted more critical attention. The man accounted for something like 6.5% of all book sales in the UK during the 1990s. Until JK Rowling came along, he was the best-selling British author in decades... the man deserves more credit than he's been given. Sad, sad, sad. -
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CRYMTYPHON1 year, 2 months ago
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Some writers bring some time and place of the 'real' world to us;
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the lonely 18th century moors of Wuthering Heights ;
the dream-like rainforest of 100 years of solitude;
the black-and-gray of 30's Chicago in Native Son .
But some writers bring us new worlds.
Dune; Oz; Earth-Sea; Barsoom; The Shire.
Building a world is harder; a higher challenge; and much more likely to fail.
For every Oz or Shire, there are a hundred sad, failed worlds with special language, a map crammed with sinister markings, and 1 guaranteed inn filled with weathered travelers.
At best these failed worlds build in our minds as pastiches of other novels; a bit of Tolkien, a bit of Oz; a bit of Dune.
Pratchett built a world, more complete in detail and expression than anyone has done before. If quantity and quality are factored together, - his is the greatest invented world yet done.
Not by compiling a dreary history and long, long list of bit characters,
- but by telling delightful story, after delightful story, creating characters you would love to meet, and love to meet again.
The Discworld deserves major recognition; and will receive it.
Someday.
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