Terry Pratchett has walked into the Country of the Dawn

Very sad news today....Terry Pratchett has died at aged only 66.

 He had suffered from early onset alzheimers for 8 years... in other words he wasn't even 60 years old when he got Alzheimers... in the same way Pat Summitt, Lady Volunteers basketball coach, also was diagnosed with this awful, awful disease when she was in her late 50s...not even 60 years old.

His obituaries say he died of natural causes, rather than taking his life... I find that difficult to believe as a healthy person (except in mind) could live for 90-years with this awful disease.

I wonder if the media didn't want people to know that Mr. Pratchett took his fate into his own hands and welcomed Death on his own terms, as he'd said he would - and I admire him for it.

If your quality of life is absolutely zero - if you can't read, can't remember how to put on your clothes, etc., why go on living?

He had a fantastic life - touched millions of people.

His work has long been very important to me...

I am sad that he is gone, but glad that he left on his own terms and did not suffer unnecessarily from the indignities of Alzheimer's.

I hope people will continue to contribute to the fight against Alzheimer's so we can find a cure for this awful disease.

Tuesday on BBC Radio 7

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2010/01/19 (Tuesday, and available to listen to for 6 more days.)

Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards!
4/6. Captain Vimes tries tracking the dragon and the Librarian travels in time.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
2/5. Hyde is wanted for murder and disappears. But what is his connection to Dr Jekyll?

And that's it for Tuesday!

Part 2 of Part 4 of The Summoning Dark

Fred and Nobby complete their chat with the museum curator over the missing painting, Angua introduces Vampire Sally to the Watch locker room, and Vimes learns that Hamcrusher has been killed.

The Summoning Dark Part Four

Parts 1 and 2 of Part Four of The Summoning Dark, a film treatment of Terry Pratchett's Thud!

(Had to break it into 2 parts because of YouTube's rule restricting videos to 10 minutes.)

The Summoning Dark Part III

Here is the next part of The Summoning Dark. Vimes interviews the vampire recruit, Sally, and the goverment inspector, A.E. Pessimal. Then Carrot comes in and tells him that Hamcrusher the dwarf has been killed, and they think a troll did it!



To see all parts to date, check out: http://thethunderchild.com/SummoningDark.html

The Summoning Dark Scene 2

I continue to work on my film treatment for Terry Pratchett's Thud!, which I call The Summoning Dark, and you can view it here:



See all scenes on one page at The Summoning Dark

Small Gods: Disappointed!

As I said four weeks ago, I was very disappointed in the adaption of Small Gods - my favorite Terry Pratchett book. (A very powerful book about the ridiculousness of religion (any religion), among other things.)

It has just completed this Saturday. (The episode will be available at BBC Radio 7 for the next 7 days. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/saturday/

I just listened - or rather tried to listen - to the last five or so minutes of it. In the book, it's a great scene, Om zooms up to Dunmanifestin, has a fight with the other gods who are using the humans as playthings, and convinces them to appear in front of their followers, and bring peace. They say, "This is not a game. Here and now, you are alive."

Okay..unless you've read the book -- (and it appears in several of Pratchett's works) -- you might not recognize the phrase, "Here and now, you are alive," but Pratchett revisits this concept again and again throughout his work - about the preciousness of an individual's life, of the "here and now," and the different paths that can be taken...and the different futures that will result.

But..yeah..it really needs a bit of expansion for a radio episode and - the adaptor has no problem rewriting Pratchett's text throughout this adaption - but he can't expand on those two sentences here at the end??

The voicework of Barlow at this point also is, I'm sorry to say, disappointing. Well...it's not how I heard Om speaking in my own head while reading the scene, anyway! Also, they mess around with his voice...putting it in an echo chamber. That's not necessary - Barlow could have, and should have, done it all with his own voice.

At the very end of the book. ..... SPOILERS


One hundred years have passed, and as soon as Brutha is reminded of this -- and Brutha never forgets everythingm but he had forgotten this -- he dies, as Om had foretold.

"I forgot," he says in the book. He laughs, and says again "I forgot."

But the voice actor in Small Gods doesn't laugh. He's not amused that he forgot, he's surprised. That's not the way Brutha would react.

And then...the BBC version goes silent. There's got to be at least two more minutes of the program, where Brutha meets Death, walks into the desert, and finds Vorbis, who died a hundred years ago, but has not had the courage to walk across the desert. Brutha holds out his hand, Vorbis takes it, and they begin the journey.

It's not that the radio version cut this out... it just isn't there! Something happened to the tape or something, and all we get is silence! (It also happens in a 15-minute episode of something called Brian Appleton's History of Rock and Roll, on friday, so it's got to be somethign going on with the BBC7 website...)

Anyway...I've recorded all four episodes, but I doubt if I'll ever listen to them. Small Gods deserves a much better adaption than this.

The ways of adaptors are woundrous [stet] strange

Yes...woundrous strange. That's my conflation of the word wounded and the word wondrous.

The average audience member has long been puzzled as to why adaptors of books to film have to change everything around...sometimes jettisoning the source material altogether. I am certainly one of those. I refuse to watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy because of the shabby way Peter Jackson treated Christopher Lee's Saruman in The Return of the King, for example. [Well, also because I didnt' actually like any of the movies, but that's a different kettle of fish.]

Anyway, in England, the BBC produces quite a few book dramatisations each year for radio. And many of these books are given a lot of time - relatively speaking. Running from 1 1/2 to 2 hours for most of 'em. Still not enough time to get through a complete book, but enough to do it justice, one would assume.

Which brings me to Terry Pratchett's Small Gods, currently playing every Saturday at BBC Radio 7. (Each episode is online for 7 days, so if you're reading this blog, you have no exuse to miss it!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/saturday/

Earlier today I tried to listen to it, and turned it off after 10 minutes in a fury. Small Gods is my absolute favorite Terry Pratchett book, and one of my top 10 favorite fiction books, period. And Patrick Barlow, who plays Om, is one of my favorite actors. So I hoped for great things. But knowing the quirks of adaptors, I was a bit nervous.

And in the first 10 minutes two rather vital changes had been made that just ticked me off. However, after calming down, I decided to return to the episode, and it turned out to be not that bad. Lots of the original dialog and prose was left "as is" and Patrick Barlow has a lot of fun with the role.

But the changes - oh the unneccessary changes - or.... were they unneccessary? Did this adaptor, Robin Brooks, have some motive in my mind? In other words, why did he change what he did?

There is a lot of narrative in a Terry Pratchett novel. This narrative voice provides much of the humor. In this adaption, Anton Lesser does the narrating, and he's excellent at it. (I don't know that American actors will know who he is - or indeed anyone in this cast, except for those fortunate enough to have been theater goers and London tourists during the late 1990s, as I was. Visited London, and saw the play Richard II, starring Anton Lesser as Henry, and Alex Jennings as Richard II. And here they are almost 20 years later, in a radio play together, Lesser as Narrator, Jennings as the evil Vorbis.)

Anyway, Brutha is a novice monk in the Citadel. A teenager, he can neither read nor write, but he has an eidetic memory. He remembers everything he sees, and has done since the day he saw a bright white light and somebody hit him.

The Citadel, in the land of Omnia, is the home of the Quisition, which makes sure that the Great God Om is properly worshiped. Om, who normally appears in the form of a great Bull, had come to earth one day three years ago to do some smiting...and when he had metamorphosized found that he had the shape of a small, one-eyed tortoise instead.

An eagle, intending to crack open his shell and eat him, has lifted him up to a great height, and dropped him. But he lands in a garden which is being hoed by Brutha.

And, as will become apparent in this episode, only Brutha can hear Om, because only Brutha, of all the people in the Citadel,( and indeed the land of Om) really believes in him.

So, below is the first change that really set me off, because there was no reason for it:

Om is telling Brutha to go fetch a high priest. If he doesnt, "there will be a shaking of the earth, the moon will be as blood, agues and boils will afflict mankind and diverse ills will befall." This is where the radio version stops. Pratchett adds another sentence - which is absolutely hilarious. "I really mean it." It's perfect. It's hilarious. It would have taken another second or two to say. Why leave it out? Especuially considering the inflection Patrick Barlow could have given it.

Next, we get something more egregious.

Brutha hears the voice of Om, and runs to tell Brother Nhumrod, Master of the Novices about it.

In the book, Nhumrod says, "Sometimes, as He in His infinite wisom sees fit, the God speaks to chosen one and he becomes a great prophet. Now, I am sure you wouldn't presume to consider yourself one of them?"

Brooks version has it:
"Sometimes, as in His infinite wisdom sees fit, the God speaks to chosen one and he becomes a great prophet. Do you consider your voice to have been in that category, Brutha?"

Do you see the difference?

Pratchett is saying that in this religion, there are no real prophets. It's just the religious hierarchy who decides someone is going to be a prophet, and they choose that person.

Then Brooks has Nhumrod going on --- adding a couple of sentences that Nhumrod never said in the book, about nighttime manipulation, etc. (Brutha thinks this, Nhumrod never says it.]

Then, when Brutha brings Nhumrod to hear what Om has to say, Om calls Nhumrod a pederast. Nhumrod is not a pederast. Moreover, Pratchett never uses this word in the book. Pratchett's words are these: Sometimes demons and devils did put disquieting thoughts in his head, but he saw to it that they stayed there and he did not in any literal sense deserve to be called what the tortoise called him, which, in fact, if he had heard it, he would have thought was something to do with feet.

Again, why the change? Pratchett assures his readers that Nhumrod is not a pederast, and so why even mention it in the radio version? Why not have Om call him an "old fool" instead. Unless Brooks wants to make some kind of a point linking Omnian priests to Catholic priests... but it's simply unfair. And at the end of the scene, Brooks has Nhumrod say another couple of sentences that are not in the book - a bit about cucumbers - another hint about Nhumrod's sexuality that simply does not exist in the book -- and therefore should not be introduced into this radio program. (Indeed, in the book Nhumrod' obsession is with melons - ie women's breasts, ie women...)

Then, things are really altered when Brutha and Om talk about religion. Brutha points out all the things that Om had done in the past, and Om points out that he never did any of that stuff.

"He [Ossory] said that you spoke unto him from out of a pillar of flame."

"..."

"And you dictated to him the Book of Ossory, which contains the Directions, the Gateways, the Abjurations, and the Precepts. One hundred and ninety three chapters."

"I don't think I did all that...."

"What did you say to him, then?"

"As far as I can remember, it was, "Hey, see what I can do."

Hilarious and quite a smiting at religion, with its one man seeing the burning bush, or the this and the that, and everyone else believing what this one man has to say...

There's no reason at all why Pratchett's dialog here should be changed...yet Brooks changes it. Very annoying!

Obviously, the point about the Omnian religion being created by men and not by Om himself has to be made, in less time than it takes to do in the book. Although, if you leave out Brother Nhumrod's extraneous added dialog, you have more time to say Pratchett's dialog here.

As for the voice work... that's fine.

I would've had Patrick Barlow use a different voice inflection in a few of his lines during that religion quarrel... but then he was saying Brook's lines, not Pratchett's, but overall he does a great job... has a lot of fun with it.

Everyone else does fine as well. Alex Jennings in particular as the cold Vorbis is excellent. Anton Lesser does a good job as the narrator.

So... three more episodes to listen to. Three more chances to hear Robin Brooks interfere with perfection.

April 28 - May 1 will be Terry Pratchett week at BBC Radio 7

I am very pleased to report that BBC Radio 7 will be having a Terry Pratchett tribute, for his 60th birthday, coming up the week of April 28-May 1.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/drama/pratchett.shtml

The more so because I will finally be able to hear the dramatisation of my all-time favorite Pratchett book, Small Gods, and starring a favorite actor of mine - Patrick Barlow, as the Great God Om. (Indeed, see my blog for him, The Patrick Barlow Experience - still under construction.)

Three years ago the Great God Om decided to pay a visit to his believers and do a little smiting, but when he materialized on Earth he was not a gigantic, ravening bull as he expected, but a small, one-eyed tortoise. He comes to learn that in all the great land of Omnia, crushed under the heels - and racks and pincers - of the Inquisition, the only person who still truly believes in him - is a young man named Brutha.

This was first broadcast about 3 years ago, and I missed it, and I have yearned to hear it ever since.

[I have to admit I'm a bit apprehensive about it. Adaptions are really a hit and miss affair. I'm sure I'll enjoy Barlow's performance but I hope they do justice to this - my favorite Pratchett book.)

Also to be broadcast is an adaption of Mort (one of my least favorite Pratchett's - I'll skip this one) and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - an excellent adaption which I'd listen to if I hadn't already recorded it.

Also, Philip Pickard will read Truckers, an excellent Young Adult book written by Pratchett, the first in a trilogy.

Match It For Pratchett

A few months ago, the great Terry Pratchett - author of the Discworld series of fantasy novels, revealed that he had Early Onset Alzheimers - one of the most cruel diseases you can ever hope to have, both for the person suffering from it and for that person's loved ones.

Recently, he gave 500,000 pounds to the Alzheimer's Research Trust, and I can only hope that that Trust spends that money more wisely than most research places seem to spend the money they get.

Author Terry Pratchett attacks the NHS over Alzheimer's policy

Anyway, there's a movement afoot by Mr. Pratchett's fans around the world to "Match it for Pratchett" - donate as much or as little as you can, so that another 500,000 can be given to organizations researching this terrible disease.

Well, I suggest that all American fans of Pratchett make donations to the Alzheimer's Association.

However, before you give to this OR ANY OTHER CHARITY, make sure you check out that charity at this site:

http://www.charitynavigator.org/

which will tell you how much of your donation goes to the people who need it, and how much goes to the people at the top, who do the "schmoozing".

Problems of a Tentacular Nature

Another new blog I've started consists of links to external movie reviews of science fiction and fantasy movies, beginning with March 2008.

http://problemsofatentacularnature.blogspot.com/



http://allaboardamerica.blogspot.com/ is a combination History of train (and automobile) travel in the US, but a chronicle of my goal to ride around the US on Amtrak.

The health of Terry Pratchett

I was shocked today to read that Terry Pratchett, only 60 years old, has been diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimers.

Here's the news from his website:
http://www.paulkidby.com/news/index.html
11th December 2007

AN EMBUGGERANCE

Folks,

I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's, which lay behind this year's phantom "stroke".

We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism. For now work is continuing on the completion of Nation and the basic notes are already being laid down for Unseen Academicals. All other things being equal, Iexpect to meet most current and, as far as possible, future commitments but will discuss things with the various organisers. Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there's time for at least a few more books yet :o)

PS I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think - it's too soon to tell. I know it's a very human thing to say "Is there anything I can do", but in this case Iwould only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.

If anyone's looking for any charitable giving to do this year, may I suggest donating to a reputable firm that is researching this horrible, horrible disease.

Terry Pratchett's work holds an important part in my life - for many reasons I won't go in to.

Let's all send positive vibes and good thoughts to him.