Farewell, Sir Terry

Sir Terry Pratchett has passed away.

I'm actually in tears.  I regret that I never got to meet him in person. 

One of my greatest writing influences is gone.  I've been reading his books since I was 14.  I must have at least fifty of them.  I reread them from time to time. 

I started reading Discworld when I was in high school.  I saw bits and pieces of the animated version of Wyrd Sisters on Channel 4 and I liked what I saw and was annoyed that I kept missing bits so I bought the book.  I absolutely loved it and I started to collect the books... I had braces when I was teenager and I was ill a lot.  Whenever we went to have my braces adjusted I would ask if we could go into the local bookshop and I would buy a new Discworld book.  The advantage to being 14 years late to the party (Colour of Magic was published the same year I was born) meant I had plenty of books to catch up on.  No waiting for new books for me for a few years.  When I did catch up, by whatever happy coincidence, the new book was always published around my birthday, so I would almost always get a new Discworld book every year as a birthday present.  I only get two or three birthday presents, but I made sure one of them was always the new book.  My Christmas is affected by Sir Terry, too.  When they made Hogfather into a two part drama, and it was amazing, that was it.  It's now my personal tradition to watch Hogfather every Christmas. 

There were things in his writing that really spoke to me.  Reading Discworld was like visiting old friends.  I suppose that is partly why I am so sad.  It means the end of so many of my 'old friends'.  It means no more advice from them, no more good times.  I usually separate the author from the work, because one does not necessarily equal the other, but I had a great deal of respect for Terry Pratchett.  There are not many famous people I actually care about because so much of the media image is all glitz and glamour, smoke and mirrors.  But there were so many good messages in his writing.  Trolls and dwarves used to hate each other, now they're friends.  Female dwarves started to be openly female.  Just because someone isn't nice doesn't mean they're not good.  Old people are badasses. 

And they were entertaining.  A friend once told me it was bad for me to be influenced by Sir Terry because aside from his voice, his work was very pedestrian (I wasn't impressed) but I don't think you can separate a book from its voice.  It's voice is its soul.  He taught me that rule one of making a piece of entertainment is TO ENTERTAIN.

And I think that is what we all want to thank him for. 

Thank you for the many, many hours of enjoyment in my life, Sir Terry.  Though you are no longer with us, your books will always be.  I can always revisit them any time. 

I don't normally make a big deal about things like this.

But this is Terry Pratchett.  So how can I not?

Thank you for reading,

Alicia