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From Science Fiction-Bokhandeln. Translated by Patrik Linell thekinglives@hotmail.com.
We met with Terry Pratchett at the Göteborg book fair, early in the Saturday morning. He sat in a small booth in the B Wahlström display, amongst piles of books and papers and publishers. Pratchett didn't seem to suffer from morning tiredness and welcomed us in recognition (he had a book signing in SF-bokhandeln a number of years ago). He's a responsive interviewee as he talks continuously and is also very entertaining. We were going to ask questions about the two latest books - The Last Continent and Carpe Jugulum - but first we had to ask...
SF-bokhandeln: Jingo?
Terry Pratchett: Damn good book title! Do you know what it means?
SF: We looked it up in an English dictionary. It means either "patriot" or "chauvinism".
TP: Yes, a lot of English people had to look it up as well. Like I said, damn good title for a book! It could mean reckless, idiotic, warlike nationalism. The stuff that resulted in the British Empire.
SF: The Last Continent, the book after Jingo, takes place in Australia, and...
TP: No, no, definitely not Australia. Many readers think there are big bits of Australia in the book, but it's not something I can help. On my way to Australia to sign books, I stopped at New Zealand. The New Zealanders loved the book and thought it was very funny. But they said the Australians didn't like it, because they don't have any sense of humour. But the Australians loved it as well, so I'm not sure. Anyway, in The Last Continent there are a lot of weird characters - and I think they really liked that - that you just don't get if you're not Australian, or are very at home in their culture, much more than the average person. For example, there is a famous Australian poem called "The Man from Snowy River". Even if you never heard of the poem, and miss all the references to it, you can still read The Last Continent without difficulty. Do you remember where Rincewind gets a horse with unusually short legs? If you don't know that the horse is mentioned in the poem, it's just an unusually funny horse. It doesn't matter.
SF: But these days there is The Annotated Pratchett on the internet, where there's continuous work done to comment everything you've written. Pretty remarkable, really...
TP: Remarkable? Sometimes I get really, really worried. Every sentence I've written is analyzed in the smallest detail. Sentences that I thought were brilliant and new have already been declared by a Polish poet in Warsaw an evening in 1923... And so on.
SF: You're more intelligent than you think.
TP: Oh yes. I once read that I must have stolen from a TV show, aired two years after the book came out. And that is definitely very intelligent. Not many people can do something like that.
SF: Did you get inspiration from the vampire trend of the last few years when writing Carpe Jugulum?
TP: Naeh, I don't really like vampires all that much. Well, vampires are OK, but not cool vampires. But I think Anne Rice is OK, because she likes what she's doing, she gets familiar with her subject and she even dresses right. There are so many cool vampires these days, but there are also many that wish nothing more than to be Anne Rice vampires. Just because they look good in ponytails and vests they're still vampires, and I don't have the time for a species that thinks the human race can be likened to cattle.
SF: You really make that clear in your new book.
TP: That's right, it was a very interesting book to write, and actually the book I'm writing on now - The Fifth Elephant - well, I'm really writing on two books now, but the novel I'm writing on - The Fifth Elephant, also takes place in the Uberwald, and there are werewolves in it.
SF: Werewolves aren't as popular as vampires, are they?
TP: Well, there are lots of werewolves, they are the classic Halloween creatures. If you take your time and study werewolves, think about how they live, they are really interesting.
SF: Halloween creatures?
TP: Halloween has had a very interesting development in Great Britain. It used to be a very solemn holiday. It started with someone trying to blow up the Parliament. Everyone thought it was an excellent idea and decided to celebrate the event on the fifth of November every year, which is pretty close to Halloween. They lit fires and shot off fireworks, and Halloween was reduced to an insignificant holiday. But the fireworks manufacturers got bad press, because people said "Hang on! If a child that likes fireworks sticks a rocket in its mouth, it could get hurt!". So they put warning labels on the rockets, along the lines of "Don't attempt to eat this rocket if it's lit". And they reduced the amount of gunpowder in the rockets, and passed laws that said that only people in flame-proof security gear and leather gloves could light the fuses, and everything got very, very silly and the fireworks very expensive. So we ignored the fireworks and all the other stuff, and Halloween was intentionally reinstated, because it was deemed a safer alternative - little witches, pumpkins, is there anything nicer? Especially in the USA. When American children ask "trick or treat?" it's disgustingly cute and the children get candy. But if the same thing happens in England, you're very likely to run into a brat who says "OK, hand over your wallet (that's the treat) or I'll cut your throat (that's the trick)". And then we're ready to give anything to have small, cute kids who go around the neighborhood knocking on doors instead. Everything has a negative side- but Halloween in the USA is so pleasant, pumpkins and all that. But Halloween is not at all about that, that's Disney, not Halloween. Halloween is gorier, nastier and a lot more fun.
SF: You mentioned that you're writing on two books?
TP: I'm writing on, eh, you're familiar with the SF genre, you must have heard of doctor Jack Cohen, the biologist? I'm working together with him and professor Ian Stewart, a matematician, on a book called The Science of Discworld. It's called The Science of Discworld, but it's really about the science of our world, but seen from the point of view of Discworld, so to speak. As Ian says: Logic and common sense aren't the same thing. It's the kind of thing that Jack loves doing - a description of the history of planet Earth; a planet that happens to be created artificially by the Unseen University. And wizards spend a lot of time studying it carefully, they're trying to figure out what the hell is going on, because it's so obviously a malformed universe. It lacks certain necessary substances, present in every other universe. For example, there is no colonium, which means that the giant turtles could never arise. This means that matter must form great balls in space, together with fittingly flat worlds, and from there it just gets worse and worse. We haven't given up yet, however. I've written the Discworld story itself, and Jack wrotes the bit to squeeze in. I've gotten as far as the time of the extinction of the dinosaurs. By the way, I find the dinosaurs the most boring creatures ever to exist on our planet. Just imagine, a hundred million years of dumb, slow creatures fighting each other. If someone ever writes the history of our planet, that's the page he's going to skip. Nobody will be interested in it. But I think you'll like the bit where a fish, struggling immensely, crawls up on the beach, breathing heavily, and Rincewind immediately throws it back into the ocean with a few words of advice: "You're alright down there in the water, why get up, it's not worth the bother".
SF: When's the book coming out?
TP: Next year.
SF: Yes, we hear there's no new book coming out this April. There usually is.
TP: That's right. The Science of Discworld is a lot of fun to work on, but it takes a lot of time. Besides, I'm working on The Fifth Elephant at the same time, in order to keep the deadline on both books. But there isn't always enough time, and in any case there will probably be only one Discworld novel a year in the future. It's like this right now, you see. I left at noon last Thursday, and now I'm sitting in my hotel room writing, because no matter what you do there are only 24 hours in the day.
SF: We have a theory... that the Discworld gets to be more and more like Earth.
TP: I don't think... what makes you think that?
SF: The characters get deeper and start acting more like "ordinary" people.
TP: I can't deny that, but on the other hand they've always done that. Discworld has always been - to some degree - anti-fantasy. Nobody in this world would go out on a "quest", a "search". Not voluntarily, anyway. But they have a way of acting like nutcases all the time. In the future I would like to write another book about Cohen the Barbarian and the Silver Horde. I'm going to send him on a quest, the most complete quest you can imagine, the best known quest ever to take place. It's not the Lord of the Rings, it's much more well known.
SF: But it has always felt like the Discworld has been reminiscent of Earth, and the books have gotten darker.
TP: Yes, the books have gotten darker. That is an accurate description. More serious. Especially when it comes to the development of our life form.
SF: Have you never thought about writing a "normal" novel? A "mainstream"?
TP: Taking place in the real world? Well, you're nice people, I guess you can keep your lives. I learned something while writing on The Science of Discworld. I've always thought I was decently educated scientifically, but lately I've had to read lots that I didn't know about Earth's history, and it was a lot of fun. I sat in a time machine at the time of Earth's birth, and then I jumped forward, 20000 years at a time. What can you see? Well, millions of years of nothing, and then millions of years where quite a lot happens that's too small to see. Algae and suchlike, and then the dinosaurs that lived for a long time. Finally it's quite logical that you miss human beings completely, because we have only been leaving visible marks on the Earth's surface for 10000 years. Without being too pessimistic the likelihood for the Apollo project on the Moon being the only visible evidence of our existence in 10000 years is overwhelming. So which world is really the real one? I understand what you mean by writing a "normal" novel, but I hold that a Discworld novel is a "normal" novel that can have some or many fantasy elements. Compare it to, for example, Fatherland by Robert Harris that was released a while ago. It was considered a "mainstream" novel, but you and I would consider it a science fiction novel because it takes place in an alternate universe and, which can be of interest, because it's pretty much like any other "what if Hitler had won the second World War" novels. I write mainstream novels better in the Discworld... WHAT THE HELL IS A MAINSTREAM NOVEL ANYWAY? Every other writer uses pictures and expressions taken from the science fiction and fantasy literature. And even if I were to become an unemployed university teacher, I like what I'm doing. Besides I'm not a good enough writer.
SF: Do you really think so?
TP: No, no. (laughs)
SF: Is there anything particular that inspires you? Or influences you?
TP: Oh, not necessarily books. But I read a lot of thrillers and mystery novels. It's not as strange as it sounds. A leading SF bookstore in Britain also specialises in mystery novels, because many SF readers have that interest as well. Many people start with Sherlock Holmes, and their interest gets wider and wider. Most SF writers have read Sherlock Holmes. Anyway, I don't read all that many novels, but I read a terrible lot of nin-fiction books. A lot of biographies. Every now and again I really get involved in a subject. This year I intend to read everything I can find about the history of western America. It's amazing how much you can learn, and how much of what you thought were true isn't true at all. Right now I find fact more interesting than made-up stuff. And I don't read much fantasy. I used to, for ten years or so. It's the same thing when it comes to SF, only more often - you pick up a fantasy book, look at it and say "oh, another book where they fight the dark god, that's interesting, I just finished one of those this morning".
SF: What about role playing games? Have you been into those?
TP: Yes, for almost thirty years. The Luggage was created for a role playing game. I like role playing games, and live role playing? I like live, because it's only one step from historical reenactment. I used to write scenarios for role playing games for my friends. Have you seen all the Discworld stuff? For some shady reason I think you haven't tasted the Discworld beer! I went to a Discworld convention a month ago, and I was completely flabbergasted by all the Discworld merchandise. I mean, you could buy a complete Unseen University. You can't anymore, because it was a limited edition. Sold out. There was the Mended Drum dollhouse. They're going to make Death's house as a dollhouse. Imagine, with Death comes a complete set of robes, you get a "My Little Binky" set, different black robes, evening suit, gowns and so on.
At this point we were laughing and forced to stop the interview. It was time for the next journalist, who stood outside the door, tapping his foot impatiently. A boy and a girl, dressed as Death and a witch, ventured out into the book fair crowd to let it be known that Terry Pratchett was going to sign books soon. We lingered for a while in the display, and soon a long queue snaked its way toward the signing table. We said farewell, having been promised that Terry Pratchett would swing by Stockholm the next time he was in Scandinavia.
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