|  Terry
Pratchett's best-selling Discworld series is famous for its laugh-out-loud
humor, wide-ranging satire, and surreal setting. (The books take place
on a disc-shaped world which is supported on the backs of four giant
elephants, which stand atop an enormous turtle swimming through space.)
The novels are also conspicuous for their libertarian sensibilities;
Pratchett sprinkles them with wry potshots at government, taxes, and
politicians. Some examples:
• On the role of government: "Trickery is
what humans are all about... They're so keen on tricking one another
all the time that they elect governments to do it for them." --
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (2001)
• On taxation: "Genua had once controlled
the river mouth and taxed its traffic in a way that couldn't be called
piracy because it was done by the city government." -- Witches
Abroad (1991)
• On gun-control laws: "Confiscate all weapons,
and crime would go down. It made sense. The flaw though...was this:
criminals don't obey the law. It's more or less a requirement for the
job. They had no particular interest in making the streets safer for
anyone except themselves." -- Night Watch (2002)
• On politicians: "Neilette: 'We put all
our politicians in prison as soon as they're elected. Don't you?' Rincewind:
'Why?' Neilette: 'It saves time.' " -- The Last Continent
(1998)
• On the purpose of government: "He was part
of the government, wasn't he? Governments took money off people. That's
what they were for." -- Going Postal (2004)
This libertarian perspective is no fluke. His novel Night Watch
won the 2003 Prometheus Award, given by the Libertarian Futurist Society
for the best libertarian science fiction novel of the year. A post on
the English libertarian blog samizdata.net (October 20, 2003) reported:
"Terry Pratchett won this year's Prometheus Award... I was there
when he accepted it. He said explicitly in his acceptance speech that
he is a libertarian..."
The creator of Discworld was born in 1948 in Beaconsfield, England.
At age 13, he published his first short story in his school magazine.
After graduating from college, he worked as a reporter for several newspapers
in southwest England. In 1971, he published his debut novel, The
Carpet People, a fantasy about a tiny civilization living in a
carpet. In 1983, he published his first Discworld novel, The Color
of Magic. The Discworld books quickly became popular, allowing
Pratchett to start writing full-time in 1987.
On his web site (www.terrypratchettbooks.com), Pratchett said the Discworld
series "started out as a parody of all the fantasy that was around
in the big boom of the early '80s, then turned into a satire on just
about everything." He's not exaggerating. The Discworld novels
satirize Shakespeare, the British driving exam, folk songs, journalism,
Pulp Fiction, ethnic strife, religion, educational bureaucracy,
Greek philosophy, and H.P. Lovecraft -- and that's just for starters.
If you look hard, you'll also spot commentary on today's world. Pratchett
told Locus Magazine (December 1999), "The last 10 books,
maybe, have been subtly influenced by moderately current affairs."
The Discworld books feature a dizzying array of characters: dwarfs,
trolls, witches, Death himself, vampires, werewolves, Cohen the barbarian,
and zombies. Add Pratchett's humorous footnotes, adroit plotting, and
clever one-liners -- and you have the recipe for massive success. The
books have spawned a lucrative merchandising industry, several plays,
board and computer games, and regular Discworld conventions. In fact,
thanks to Discworld, Pratchett has become one of his generation's most
popular fantasy/science fiction writers. In 2003, in a national poll
conducted in the U.K. by the BBC, five of his novels made the list of
100 all-time "Best Loved" books -- tying him with Charles
Dickens. And as of 2005, his books had sold an estimated 40 million
copies around the world and had been translated into 33 languages.
Popular Discworld books include Mort (1987), Wyrd Sisters
(1988), Reaper Man (1991), Small Gods (1992), Carpe
Jugulum (1998), The Fifth Elephant (1999), Monstrous
Regiment (2003), Going Postal (2004), and Thud!
(2005). Pratchett's non-Discworld books include The Dark Side of
the Sun (1976), Strata (1981), and The Unadulterated
Cat (1989). With Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, he wrote The Science
of Discworld (1999), The Globe: The Science of Discworld II
(2002) and Darwin's Watch: The Science of Discworld III (2005).
With Neil Gaiman he wrote Good Omens (1990).
In 1989, Pratchett's novel Pyramids won the British Fantasy
Award. In 1998, he was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British
Empire (OBE) for services to literature. In 2002, his The Amazing
Maurice and His Educated Rodents won the Carnegie Medal for best
children's novel.
Here's one final example of Pratchett's trademark wit -- and libertarian
distaste for politicians. In a July 24, 2001 interview on the German
Web site, www.schmoekerecke.de, Pratchett was asked if there was any
politician who was similar to him. No politician "could be like
me," Pratchett responded, "because MY parents were married."
--
Bill Winter
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