The L-Space Web: Analysis

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Department of English
East Tennessee State University
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in English
by
William T. Abbott
May 2002

Roberta Herrin, Chair
Sonya Cashdan
Doug Burgess

Keywords: Terry Pratchett, Allusion, Fantasy, Myth, Folklore, Science Fiction

ABSTRACT

White Knowledge and the Cauldron of Story: The Use of Allusion in Terry Pratchett's Discworld

In the last twenty years, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series has become very popular. Pratchett's success hinges in part on his use of allusion, in what Tolkien called the "Cauldron of Story," and what Pratchett refers to as "white knowledge." This paper explores the Discworld novels and illustrates Pratchett's use and success of storytelling through a few key directions: folk tales, fantasy literature, movies, and rock music.

Pratchett has received limited critical review, mostly of a negative nature, while producing a strong literary series, one crafted with both obvious and subtle recognition of his genre's sources. While standing on the shoulders of giants, Pratchett both respects and scrutinizes the myths and stories that construct our reality. Critically, Pratchett's fiction deserves more respect and closer study; this paper attempts to give him his due.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For their patience and guidance in the completion of this work, thanks go to Drs. Roberta Herrin, Sonya Cashdan, and Doug Burgess.

Terry Pratchett is a remarkable writer, one who would need no introduction in Britain, and only an occasional one to the rest of the world that is involved in popular literature. He has become the bestselling living fiction author in England for the past ten years (White par. 1), with no signs of losing popularity anytime soon. While at first dismissed as a genre writer of humorous fantasy, Pratchett has become his own industry, and he has done so, in part, by his successful use of what he refers to as "white knowledge" and creative allusion to popular culture.

In the past eighteen years, Pratchett has released twenty-eight Discworld novels (along with several supplemental Discworld works [maps, computer games, an encyclopedia, comic book adaptations, etc.] and at least eight non-Discworld novels). One bookseller report said that "ten percent of all science fiction sold in 1993 was fantasy, and ten percent of all fantasy sold was Terry Pratchett" (James 202). Pratchett himself has received letters from librarians that say, "What is so marvellous is that you get people into the library so that we can introduce them to real books" (Pratchett and Briggs 1994, 266). There is also "a lot of evidence that he has a big following among young teenage boys-particularly those who, as we saw in one librarian's happy phrase, 'don't read'" (Pratchett and Briggs 1994, 286). With this success rate, one might wonder what sets Pratchett's works apart from others.

One of the primary features that Pratchett's fans appreciate is his use of allusion. He states,

A Handbook to Literature states that allusion "seeks, by tapping the knowledge and memory of the reader, to secure a resonant emotional effect from the associations already existing in the reader's mind. [. . .] The effectiveness of allusion depends on a body of knowledge shared by writer and reader" (Harmon and Holman 14). Pratchett has created the term "white knowledge" to describe the concept of myth and white noise. White knowledge, the building blocks of knowledge that weave and bind a culture together, creates the best and most important reference base for an author, and Pratchett has tapped it masterfully. In the process, Pratchett has connected his novels to the reader through the cultural fabric, making them more recognizable and more interesting, whether as parody, satire, pun, or generalized allusion. Pratchett alludes widely, including such topics as Shakespeare, fantasy literature, movies, rock music, mythology, Arthurian Legend, modern authors, literary genres (mystery fiction, for example), and computers.

While some may suggest that Pratchett excludes part of his readership by having heavily allusive books, others would argue that the range of his allusions gives all readers recognizable reference points. Obviously, readers will not understand all of Pratchett's allusions, but more literate readers will take great pleasure from them. The less "culturally aware" reader will still get the feeling that Pratchett has planted these ideas, and will often search them out actively. As reviewer Tom Shone stated in 1992, "what has ensured Pratchett's success is that you don't have to have read Tolkien to know what he's poking fun at. As he has happily admitted, his fiction requires no specialized knowledge on the part of the reader whatsoever" (23). Though his fiction requires no specialized knowledge, a broad knowledge base does enrich a reader's enjoyment. Even without the references, though, Pratchett produces quality writing that people enjoy and reread frequently. Pratchett states, "With Moving Pictures, the film industry is common to everybody; fairy tales [Witches Abroad] are common to everybody; with Wyrd Sisters everyone knows Macbeth even if they've never read or seen it" (qtd. in Enright, Million Article par. 62). While some of Pratchett's references remain more obscure than others, this paper will focus on and illustrate his use of white knowledge for popular effect, and will examine the connection between allusion and Discworld readers.

Terry Pratchett, born in Beaconsfield, Bucks, England, on April 28,1948, began to write novels in 1971 with The Carpet People. Before that, he had written a few short stories while he was still in his early teens. He became fascinated with literature at age ten, when his uncle gave him a copy of The Wind in the Willows (Enright, Arena par. 78). "The Hades Business," published in Science Fantasy magazine two years after it was published in his school magazine (Smythe, Terry Pratchett-A Biography pars 1-6), began his short story career when he was thirteen. However, until the Discworld books, he only wrote books or stories on occasion, remaining focused on other work.

He claims that most of his education originated with the Beaconsfield Public Library, where he read and absorbed as much information as he could. Pratchett says, "The official schooling system merely prevented me from reading as many books as I would have liked" (qtd. in Olendorf 350). Late in school, he offered his services to The Bucks Free Press, the local newspaper of Buckinghamshire. He hoped to start working after receiving his "O" levels (the British equivalent of a high school education), but the editor told him that he would be hired only if he could start immediately, so Pratchett quit school a few days short of his graduation in order to start work. He reported for and worked on all sections of the newspaper, and two others, the Western Evening Mail and the Bath Chronicle, over the next few years (excepting sports reporting, claiming that he had some dignity). He eventually worked as a sub-editor for the Free Press, then left in 1980 to work in public relations with the Central Electric Generating Board, eventually becoming press officer for the nuclear branch of the Board. He remained in that position until 1987, when he retired to dedicate his life to writing. In recent years, Pratchett was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Warwick, as well as membership in the Order of the British Empire, which Pratchett explains, "At best, its [sic] kind of a knighthood light" (Silver, Conversation-Part 2 par. 15).

Before he retired from the Central Electric Generating Board in 1987, Pratchett published four Discworld novels. After retiring, he has published twenty-four more, and continues to release new ones on a steady basis. Besides his Discworld novels, a number of supplementaries have been produced either with his assistance or by his direct hand: four Discworld maps coproduced with Stephen Briggs (which were the first maps to reach the British bestseller list); a Discworld companion, co-produced with Stephen Briggs and followed by an updated version; a portfolio of artist sketches of a number of major characters (by Paul Kidby); and comic book/graphic novel adaptations of Mort and The Light Fantastic. A Discworld quizbook, The Unseen University Challenge, has been designed by David Langford.

Three computer games have been created with his permission and creative input (Discworld, Discworld II, and Discworld Noir) (Smythe, Videos, Games, Etc.). A series of plays has also appeared based on the novels Mort, Wyrd Sisters, Guards! Guards!, Carpe Jugulum, Men At Arms, and Maskerade, with scripts available for purchase (Smythe, Playtexts), and a number of acting groups perform these plays with increasing frequency across Europe.

All of this illustrates Terry Pratchett's status as a remarkably popular writer, and there must be a reason for that popularity. The literary world would do well to take notice, because Pratchett is capturing the attention of numerous people. He deserves closer study by writers, for craft reasons; by science fantasy fans, for quality writing; and by popular culture/postmodern students, for creative and masterful use of popular culture in a literary setting.

Part of his popularity results from the successful use of allusion to make his stories relevant and recognizable by a large number of readers. By keeping allusions in focus, the Discworld novels often attract a literate audience. However, Pratchett works with literary references in an unusual way: "In my story, it's not Chekhov really, but it's what people that don't know much about Chekhov think Chekhov is" (White par. 10). Restated, he alludes to the white knowledge of the source, not directly to the source. This allows for more of his readers to latch onto the allusions, letting them either "get the joke" or think in a more logical way about the sources (vampires, dragons, fairy tales, and so on).

Some American readers may question why so many of Pratchett's allusions deal with American rather than British culture. In an interview with The SF Site, he says, "The average Brit knows infinitely more about the minutiae of American culture than the average American knows about British culture-simply because Western culture is now largely American culture, so you just learn about it, pick it up from the movies and the television" (Silver, Conversation-Part 1 par. 11).

Pratchett has proven remarkably versatile, not just in his genre. He has, instead of locking himself exclusively into writing Discworld novels, produced two true science fiction novels (The Dark Side of the Sun and Strata) and two children's series (the Johnny books and the Nomes trilogy); he has co-written a humorous satire on the Apocalypse (Good Omens) with British author Neil Gaiman; has co-written a humorous "documentary" on cats (The Unadulterated Cat) with Gray Jolliffe; and has rewritten his first novel (The Carpet People). Two of his books, Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music, have been turned into television shows in England. Pratchett has also done a few short stories, occasionally set in the Discworld, but they have been rare, while he dedicates most of his writing to novels.

A further illustration of Pratchett's versatility and wide appeal is the recognition he received from Richard K�hler, who discovered an extinct species of leatherback turtle in New Zealand in 1995. Because the Discworld rides through space on the back of a turtle, K�hler, a Discworld fan, named the species Psephophorus terrypratchetti and sent plaster copies of two vertebrae to Pratchett, who keeps them on his desk as a sort of paperweight (Pratchett and Briggs 1997, 464).

This thesis proposes to illustrate a number of his allusions and show that their diversity has a strong attraction to Pratchett's audience, using relevant sections from selected books in the Discworld series. The first chapter will explore Pratchett's background, review science fiction and fantasy to date, and provide a quick overview of his works so far. The second chapter will deal with Pratchett's allusions to folk literature, including myth and folk tales. The third chapter will cover his allusions to fantasy and movies. Chapter four will deal with allusions to rock and roll music. Conclusions and final analysis will be given in chapter five.

Assuming that Pratchett works in the fantasy genre (and he has changed his own title from humor to fantasy writer over the years), then some knowledge of fantasy and science fiction is necessary in understanding where he fits into it.

High fantasy contains more elements of the whimsical and fantastic creatures and settings, while urban fantasy takes place with fantastic elements, but also blends more realistic (and occasionally grimy) elements into the story. High fantasy frequently uses more archaic or flowery language and terms, while urban fantasy uses normal speech and even occasional swear words (Tymn, Zahorski, and Boyer 5-12).

A brief review of science fiction and fantasy, their history, and how they impact Pratchett's writing will aid the reader in understanding Pratchett's fiction. Fantasy has, in some form, existed for all of recorded history. In the beginning, it took on religious and mythological significance. Even the earliest narratives, such as the epic story of Beowulf, featured a great warrior facing mythical monsters that threatened others. Early Greek and Roman mythology, while focused upon the gods that the Greeks and Romans worshipped, later evolved into a solid realm of fantasy. From there, the early Greek stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey gave a rich basis for fantasy stories, featuring more heroes and monsters, wars and gods. In the British Isles, the stories of King Arthur and Merlin became thoroughly embedded in both the fantasy and the history of the region. After that, fantasy claimed the realm of fairy tales and children's stories. In more modern times, it worked its way back from folk tales to modern literature, spawning in turn the realm of science fiction.

Jonathan Swift produced Gulliver's Travels as a satire of his time, but fantasy played a serious part in the story. Lewis Carroll may have written Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as a children's fantasy book, but it fascinated the adult imagination as well. So fantasy grew, taking its place in the realm of serious literature as well as children's tales. Novels like Dracula and Frankenstein, while based in horror, dealt with fantasy and fantastic creatures.

Fantasy came fully to age in the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. Under Tolkien, it took on a flavor that captured Western culture's collective imagination. Through these books, myths and fairy tales changed into a sort of reality for a large number of readers, something that they could recognize and enjoy as believable yet heroic, and the books sold successfully. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, originally released in Britain between 1938 and 1955, defined fantasy literature from 1965 (American paperback release date) forward (James 180-81), and every author of fantasy since then has had to recognize or go against Tolkien's influence.

After The Lord of the Rings, fantasy grew exponentially. The Christian overtones of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series (1950-1956) played some role in this growth, as did a number of "children's stories," such as L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time (1962) and Fritz Leiber's Saga of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series (1968-1977). Fantasy continued to produce original stories without losing the humor that science fiction seemed to lose along the way, including frequentlyhumorous writings by Piers Anthony (the Xanth series [1987-present]) and Robert Aspirin (the Myth series [1978-1994]). Fantasy also had more serious writers (less interested in producing humorous stories) such as Michael Moorcock (the Elric saga [1984]), Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (the Dragonlance series [1984-present] based on the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game), Marion Zimmer Bradley (The Mists of Avalon [1982]), and Neil Gaiman (Stardust [1999]).

From early fantasy, science fiction grew, at first awkwardly (with Edgar Allan Poe, as Thomas Disch asserts, as the embarrassing ancestor [32-56]). The realm of science fiction came to its own in the mid-20th century, becoming a serious form of writing under such authors as Isaac Asimov (the Foundation series, 1951-1953), Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles, 1958), and Frank Herbert (Dune, 1965). Anne McCaffrey combined science fiction and fantasy skillfully in her Dragonriders of Pern series (1968-1978). Other authors took the concept of writing about the future to design and produce such well-known dystopian novels as George Orwell's 1984 (1949), Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1946), or Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1986); these all would classify as a sub genre of science fiction, that of characters trying to survive in the perfect world gone wrong (dystopia). Some other authors, rather than using the future for science fiction, opted for the past. Harry Harrison's West of Eden (1984), for example, placed mankind in a world of dinosaurs.

Science fiction readers, delighted that such interesting literature was available, took to the genre quickly. The academic world, however, did not warm to it quite so quickly. Science fiction writers, hoping to be taken seriously by the academic world, continued to produce serious and very well-written stories, maintaining that they were producing true literature. After a few decades of trying to establish themselves as serious, however, the writers were faced with a new dilemma: Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (1979-1982) dared to challenge the idea that science fiction had to be serious, and it sold extremely well from the outset. Devoted readers of this genre, growing tired of serious and frequently-propagandized science fiction stories (which attempted to reflect political issues, such as the Cold War), loved this new concept.

The concept, however, was not entirely new: British television had already produced the irreverent yet serious Doctor Who (1963-1989), which treated science fiction as pulp adventure theater (similar to old serial films such as The Shadow [1940]) as well as the influential British comedy styles of Monty Python. Adams, a British author, simply extended British humor into the literary world, with no regard for conveying a serious message. Since that point, science fiction has taken itself less seriously while still producing a number of quality authors who wrote serious stories (Nancy Kress, Greg Bear, Timothy Zahn, Orson Scott Card).

Science fiction and fantasy also moved into a new medium starting in the 1950's: movies. At first, the stories were highly political, such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) (Disch 22), or ominous, as in the ant movie Them! (1954). Even the early Godzilla movies, Japanese propaganda after World War Two, predicted that monsters would be unleashed on the world because of nuclear testing (Disch 78-83).

The Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983) captured the imagination and hearts of a generation through science fantasy, or "soft" science fiction, which relies on story crafting and fantasy elements, such as fantastic creatures, chivalry, and clear good vs. evil conflict, leading many viewers into the literary genre. Working with "hard" science fiction, which relies more on the science involved, the original Star Trek television shows (1966-1969) and movies (1979-1994) also had a very noticeable impact on the public. Star Trek also spawned a number of spin-off shows and movies after Gene Roddenberry created it, including The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Enterprise.

Science fiction further grew in the 1970s and 1980s through movies such as the dystopian Blade Runner (1982), based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) by Philip K. Dick; the computer-game setting of Tron (1982); the post-holocaust Road Warrior (1982); the world-gone-mad future of Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985); and the dissident-hunting future of Logan's Run (1976). The post-holocaust movie Planet of the Apes (1968) provided serious social commentary from a distance and became very popular, spawning a large number of sequels. On television, Battlestar Galactica (1978-1980) and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979-1981) ran successfully for a brief time, as did longer-running British television shows such as The Tomorrow People (1973-1979) and Doctor Who (1963-1989).

In more recent years, high-tech science fiction began to be fully realized as computer technology caught up with the imagination, with movies like Alien (1979) and Terminator (1984). As movie-making and computer technology have improved, science fiction movies have grown more popular, spawning a variety of films like Starship Troopers (1997), based on the 1959 novel by Heinlein. The Fifth Element (1997), through solid special effects, brought the griminess and realism of Blade Runner or Brazil back into modern science fiction movies.

The Star Wars series, re-released with improved special effects in 1997, ran because creator George Lucas wanted to re-create it into what he had originally envisioned but could not create with the technology of the time. Since that time, Lucas has begun the prequels to the original Star Wars trilogy, with The Phantom Menace (1999) as the first of the new trilogy.

Alongside the growth of science fiction movies, fantasy made its own way into theaters. Early fantasy movies revolved around the Arthurian story, with such efforts as Camelot (1967). Screenwriters often attempted to deal with fantastic elements through fully-animated movies such as Tolkien's The Hobbit (1977) and Lord of the Rings (1978) or C. S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. As technology and special effects in cinema progressed, puppets often played a part, such as in The Dark Crystal (1982). In other cases, however, special effects efforts were made, such as in the epic story of Jason and the Argonauts (1963), the mythical Clash of the Titans (1981), or Arnold Schwartzenegger's Conan movies (1982-1984). Children's fantasy evolved in cinema through The Neverending Story (1984), and more humorous fantasy found its way to light through Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), The Princess Bride (1987), and Willow (1988).

As with science fiction, when special effects improved, fantasy movies grew more elaborate and more spectacular. Computers allowed for a dragon to be a major character in Dragonheart (1996), and for impressive fantasy monsters to appear in the "sword and sorcery" film Krull (1983).

The preponderance of films and television shows points to the popularity that science fiction and fantasy have gained over the years. Even movies that do not claim to be strictly genre media clearly work within the fantasy category. Because this science fiction and fantasy world developed during Pratchett's lifetime, and because this world of literature and movies has popularly re-created folk stories and myth, it has become the world that he plays with most frequently in his novels.

Terry Pratchett began writing books that got noticed in the early 1980s, when Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, which started in 1979, had reached a serious level of popular interest. Pratchett began the Discworld series along the same lines as Adams, taking a satirical approach to fantasy. Because Adams had opened the field for writing in this style, readers took to Pratchett almost immediately. However, Pratchett produced books that provide a "quality of engagement with the character [. . .] which Adams isn't even particularly interested in achieving" (Enright, Million Article par. 13). In other words, Adams' characters remain static and slightly cardboard while Pratchett's characters have depth and develop throughout the Discworld novels.

Before 1983, the release date of The Colour of Magic, Pratchett had written a number of lesser-noticed books, but the release of this book permanently changed his position in the science fiction and fantasy genre. While it paid a humorous homage to more classic fantasy (Tolkien, McCaffrey, Leiber) and myth, it also worked with modern popular culture (Star Trek, for example), and this formula successfully captured the science fiction audience's attention.

In an essay from The Monsters and the Critics, Tolkien explains that stories borrow from different origins. Pratchett willingly admits that his ideas spring from historical and literary sources. Pratchett thoroughly mixes both fantasy and modern elements from what Tolkien calls the "Cauldron of Story," and he does it skillfully. As Tolkien says, "But if we speak of the Cauldron, we must not wholly forget the Cooks. There are many things in the Cauldron, but the Cooks do not dip in the ladle quite blindly. Their selection is important" (Tolkien, The Monsters and the Critics 125-127). Pratchett simply has recreated and reworked Tolkein's Cauldron of Story in an original form, white knowledge. This masterful use of allusion has led Pratchett to popular sales and quality storytelling, a combination that successfully engages readers.

While the Discworld followed the old stories from literature and myth, it also challenged them and developed in original directions. The Discworld's originality began with an old mythological setting: the world rested on the backs of four giant elephants who stood on the back of the Great A'Tuin, a celestial star turtle swimming through the cosmos. Pratchett writes,

He also states, "And once you get into Indo-European mythology you get the elephants, too" (Pratchett and Briggs 1994, 277).

So how does Pratchett use the Cauldron of Story to create such a popular and successful fantasy series? He does so by taking what we already know, the white knowledge of Western society, and making it new. He keeps his readers' interest by writing about, for example, the dayto- day life of a werewolf, using logic and thought to examine and challenge the preconceptions that we already have regarding werewolves. In the process, he intrigues readers, both in recognizing his allusions and in examining more closely the world we think we know.

While this paper will examine his use of white knowledge through cultural myth in its different forms (mythology, folk tales, fantasy literature, movies, and rock music), Pratchett also writes with a wider eye on the world, including such topics as philosophy, history, and novels by popular authors such as Steven King. These other topics would make admirable fodder for future scholarly research, but are too broad to pursue here.

The folk narrative structure has embedded itself in the human consciousness, and it has done so to such an extent that it assumes power and takes on a life of its own. Pratchett writes his novels with a number of folk echoes and allusions in mind, often exploring or debunking the ideas found within them. For example, readers may notice that the Discworld has a large number of dwarfs with the name Glod. In the opening pages of Witches Abroad, Pratchett explains by commenting on the fact that

Here, Pratchett has twisted the Greek legend of King Midas, who was exceptionally greedy until a god cursed him with the ability to turn everything he touched into gold. This situation suited Midas fine until he touched his daughter, turning her to gold, and he repented of his greed.

By taking the Midas story and using the twist of misspelling, Pratchett has led the reader in a humorous direction, based on the effect of ignorance combined with power. The logic behind the allusion has a long-reaching effect in Pratchett's books as well, as Glod Glodsson and Glod Glodsnephew appear regularly as descendants from the originally-cloned dwarf.

In the novel Small Gods, Pratchett introduces a number of gods of the Discworld, including Patina, the goddess of wisdom. The name "Patina" clearly comes from the merging of the names of the Greek goddess of intelligence, Pallas Athena. Whereas Athena's symbolic animal is an owl (signifying wisdom), Patina was cursed with a penguin solely because an inept sculptor had messed up the bird on her statue, and the power of belief by the goddess' followers took over from there (138). But the Patina reference also has another twist: her name. The word "patina" is defined as "a surface formed on metal by long exposure to the air, or produced artificially by an acid" (Webster 293), and it is a word used frequently by antique store hunters, implying material on the surface. Thus, Pratchett has created a Discworld goddess of intelligence whose name implies only surface matter.

Pratchett also includes other mythological gods in slightly altered form. Herne the Hunted is a reverse of Herne the Hunter, a horned legendary figure of British (but mostly untraceable) ancestry (Herne the Hunter). Hoki the Jokester refers both to the word "hokey," and to the Norse god of trickery, Loki; Hoki has even been expelled from the home of the Discworld gods for playing a trick once too often on Blind Io, the Discworld version of Odin (with the "eyes" of Odin being two ravens, and the eyes of Io being floating eyeballs that hover around him) (Pratchett and Briggs 1997, 122-26). Fedecks appears in Small Gods as the messenger of the gods, and directly reflects the Roman messenger of the gods, Mercury, while also parodying the commonly-known abbreviated name and logo of the shipping company Federal Express.

Near the end of The Colour of Magic, Tethis the sea troll tells Rincewind that he fell off his homeworld of Bathys (Greek for "deep") and finally landed on the Discworld. On the way, though, he passed near another planet, one that mirrors the Norse concept of the world, where the Midgard serpent connects all the planes of existence. As Tethis explains, "I think it was the one with what I thought was this strange ring of mountains around it that turned out to be the biggest dragon you could ever imagine, covered in snow and glaciers and holding its tail in its mouth" (149).

Pratchett also references the epic of Beowulf, a story that most students have had to read at some point in their education, and one that a majority of Pratchett's readers would recognize instantly. During a conversation between wandering heroes in Pratchett's novel Guards! Guards! one of them comments on how the hero business has changed over time. He specifically cites that, "Monsters are getting more uppity, too. I heard where this guy, he killed this monster in this lake, no problem, stick its arm up over the door. [. . .A]nd you know what? Its mum come and complained. Its actual mum come right down to the hall next day and complained. Actually complained. That's the respect you get" (104). This comment mirrors the scene when Beowulf ripped off the arm of the monster Grendel, killed it, and faced down and killed Grendel's mother the following day after she returned to attack the hall of Heorot.

In Jingo, Pratchett makes a passing reference to both the myth of Icarus and the drawings of wings that would allow man to fly, by Leonardo da Vinci (while the drawings of da Vinci are not presently considered science fiction, they seemed so in da Vinci's time). The genius inventor, Leonard of Quirm, has been locked in the Patrician's palace tower (somewhat willingly, because it gives him plenty of time to invent), and the Patrician muses over a flying machine. "Giant bat wings hung from the ceiling even now. The Patrician had been more than happy to let him waste his time on that idea, because it was obvious to anyone that no human being would ever be able to flap the wings hard enough" (68).

The gods' use of a hero in a game reflects most directly the movie Jason and the Argonauts, where the gods also sit around and play games using human heroes and monsters as game pieces. Many readers will also connect the gods' games with the 1981 movie Clash of the Titans, where the gods use humans as the playing pieces. In the Discworld, this concept works as well: At the climax of Small Gods, the gods of several bordering kingdoms bring their followers together so the gods can play war with the human lives assembled. The god Om, having been given a taste of humility in the novel, breaks up the game before the fighting really begins (331- 33). The character of Rincewind has also played a pawn in the games of the gods in the novel Interesting Times. The Lady (Luck) chooses him as a favored piece against Fate in a game of Mighty Empires (10), and that luck does play out on occasion by allowing Rincewind to escape from all-but-impossible situations.

Even the home of the gods in the Discworld reflects mythology: They live on the mountain known as Cori Celesti, located in the center of the Discworld, in Dunmanifestin, described in Guards! Guards! as a "stuccoed Valhalla" (238) atop a sort of Mount Olympus. Thus, Pratchett combines two mythical (and very similar) homes of the deities, easily making them recognizable to any reader that has any familiarity with mythology or movies dealing with mythical stories, while also creating a pun of "done manifesting," where the gods have stopped taking bodies (manifesting) in order to wander among mankind, and retired to their home on the mountain.

Knowledgeable readers will appreciate Pratchett's twisting of mythology, due to his easily-recognizable allusions to Greek, Roman, and Norse myth. These allusions may exclude some readers, but the majority of readers (especially those even slightly versed in myth and fantasy) will recognize several of the references, either from the literature of myth or movies that are based on mythology. He writes in a universal language, that of "white knowledge," and uses his folk and fantasy situations to attract and draw in his readers.

But Pratchett has a literary interest in more than myth. From the start of the Discworld series, Pratchett has played with folk tales. For example, in The Light Fantastic, Rincewind and Twoflower find a gnome named Swires (though Twoflower refuses to believe that it is a gnome, because it does not wear a little red hat) that leads them to a gingerbread house (owned years before by one of the Discworld's witches, Granny Whitlow). They examine the house, and Rincewind talks about how the "confectionary school of architecture" never caught on. The gnome tells Rincewind of how Granny Whitlow had been "done up good and proper by a couple of young tearaways" (55). This situation reflects the fate of another Discworld witch, Black Aliss, who was pushed into her own oven by a couple of young children, and also refers indirectly to the folk tale of "Hansel and Gretel."

Glod, discussed above, gets mentioned again by the witches in Witches Abroad as they discuss Black Aliss, who spelled poorly. Aliss cursed princesses to spin straw into Glod, at which point people had to pay him a lot of money to go away and not make a scene (126). Pratchett has again taken the old folk tale theme of fascination with and greed for money or gold, and parodied it through this unfortunate dwarf. Through this process, not only does Pratchett establish an allusion to a folk character, but he also makes the character into a running joke (one that occurs across his series).

A number of novels later, Pratchett returns fully to the concept of folk tales in Witches Abroad, in which one of the Lancre witches, Magrat Garlick, inherits the position of fairy godmother and the wand of office. The majority of this novel hinges on folk tales and how they operate.

The stories derive from early origins and evolve into folk tales. In the same essay, Tolkien states, "[. . .]the Pot of Soup, the Cauldron of Story, has always been boiling. [. . .] History often resembles 'Myth,' because they are both ultimately of the same stuff" (Tolkien, The Monsters and the Critics 125, 127). Restated, stories all have origins in the distant past, basic structures that are followed repeatedly, and they gain a certain power over a reader's life simply by existing. While the power of folk tales has impact on a reader, it has a much bigger impact on Pratchett's characters, which have to deal with the narrative causality (stories controlling the reader or listener) as a true reality.

Pratchett's plot technique of certain events happening because they've always happened before appears often as a theme in his works, though never as centrally as in Witches Abroad. Against this force (the power of story), the three Lancre witches travel to the distant country of Genua in order to stop the princess who lived in rags from marrying the prince. Not only do they face the power of the stories, but also of the second fairy godmother, Lilith, who uses the stories to give herself more power over the kingdom (Lilith knows that someone at the right place, with knowledge of how stories work, can manipulate reality).

At one point in Witches Abroad, the witches find their way into an overgrown castle where all of the inhabitants sleep, and Granny Weatherwax says "There'll be a spinning wheel at the bottom of all this, you mark my words" (126). They break the story pattern (the "Sleeping Beauty" story), releasing the story occupants from their fates. Their efforts to interfere with the stories that are taking place in Witches Abroad reflect their belief that people should have the freedom to live their own lives without the outside interference that the stories create. The story patterns that they break are tyrannical to the "actors" involved, and the witches act as agents of free will. While the people stuck in the story patterns might not have better lives outside of the rigid narrative structures, the witches know the stories take away the choice of what sort of lives people can have.

After arriving in the city, the witches attempt to sabotage opposite-fairy-godmother Lilith's plans for Emberella's (a parody of Cinderella) attending the ball, and the Cinderella references work their way through a significant part of the novel. Ella's guardians in the story are "the sisters," two snakes that have been transformed by Lilith into humans (a common mechanism of folk tales, where small creatures frequently get turned into footmen or carriage drivers, but the sisters retain their serpentine nature in their new bodies). On the night of the ball, the witches shred the evening gown, get the coachmen drunk, and turn the coach into a pumpkin (the only thing Magrat could change anything into, owing to problems with the wand). Lilith turns the pumpkin back into a coach, changes some mice into coachmen, and changes Emberella's dress of rags into an evening gown (the classic "Cinderella" story retold), then sends her on her way to the ball.

The witches, discovering that it has been too easy (and thus, cannot have worked), overtake the coach and send Ella to a safe place. Granny and Nanny alter Magrat so she appears to be Ella, then send her on to the ball so as to disrupt the story. They discover the Duc's bedroom, and find that the Duc is a frog (the "Frog Prince" story) that has been given a human shape by Lilith until he can receive a kiss from Ella, who happens to be a princess (though she doesn't know it). Granny says, "Then that means there's more than one story here. Lily's letting several things happen all at the same time" (Pratchett, Witches Abroad 249).

The two witches go into the ball, and Nanny Ogg meets Casanunda, a dwarf and "the Discworld's second greatest lover," a nod to our world's Casanova. After only a few minutes, however, the Duc and Lilith arrive. The crowd parts and the Duc makes his way to Magrat. Granny looks for a weak point in the story, but fails to find it at first. Nanny and Casanunda realize that the spell that makes Magrat think she's a princess stops at the stroke of midnight, so they rush to the clock tower and move time ahead, breaking the spell. Magrat returns to her old self, realizes that she's dancing with something not quite human, and flees. In the process, she loses a slipper. The Duc picks it up, but Granny finds the weak point in that section of the story path, takes the shoe from him, and shatters it. All of these events mirror the events of "Cinderella," as most readers will recognize.

Lilith steps forward and faces Granny, while the sisters carry Magrat back into the room. Tearing the mask off, Lilith realizes that Magrat is not Ella, but she still has the right shoe to match to Ella. Nanny Ogg steps forward and says, "We know how this bit goes, see. The Prince goes all round the city with the slipper, trying to find the girl whose foot fits. That's what you're plannin'. So I can save you a bit of trouble" (Pratchett, Witches Abroad 274). Nanny, it turns out, fits a five and a half narrow as well. Lilith freezes the partygoers in time, saying that after they have been unfrozen, they'll only remember "the flight and the slipper and the happy ending" (the standard ending to the "Cinderella" story), not the witches' efforts to change it (Pratchett, Witches Abroad 275).

Because Lilith has claimed good fairy status, then the correct ending for the story would be for her to succeed. After a number of events, the ending occurs, but it is not the story ending that has always happened before (with Lilith's results succeeding). Granny has broken the story thread, freeing the participants from the story's control by breaking the pattern (thus taking Lilith's "good will prevail" power away), and has only to face down Lilith before the kingdom can control itself instead of being controlled by narrative structures. At the showdown, Granny defeats Lilith. Deciding that she no longer wants to be a fairy godmother, Magrat throws her godmother wand into a pond, and the witches return to Lancre, leaving Ella to run her new kingdom.

This novel plays with an interesting concept - the power of a narrative pattern to control reality. While fairy tales and old stories can control reality in the Discworld, Witches Abroad has followed a storyline that might make a reader think not only about the structure of stories in general, but also about this novel's plot. The story follows the expected story framework (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement), and by the end of the book, the witches return home after having reached a sort of happy ending.

Pratchett primarily, but not exclusively, uses the witch novels to explore the structure and crafting of stories while exploring the Discworld "rural legend" (as compared to reality's "urban legend") of folk narratives and how they affect the reality of the reader. Folk tales remain the truest white knowledge, the myths that cultures live by, and the Western folk structure has become a major focus for Discworld allusion. In the process, the Discworld has linked itself to the reader's reality while providing well-written quality fantasy literature.

Pratchett calls fantasy the "Ur-literature, from which, manifestly, all other literatures have evolved" (Ingham par. 27). Modern fantasy, therefore, has become one of the strongest bases for the evolution of new folk narratives in the modern consciousness. For that reason, the Discworld began as a parody of fantasy. "I was doing it for the fun of seriously parodying a lot of bad fantasy, and, indeed some good fantasy, which nevertheless is worth parodying" (Silver, Conversation Part 1 par. 7).

Pratchett has always recognized the influences of other fantasy writers, primarily through his satirical nods in their direction. For example, in the opening of the first novel, The Colour of Magic, Bravd the Hublander and Weasel watch the city of Ankh-Morpork burn (one of several times the city fails to burn down). Despite their brief appearance in this novel, their interplay and description (as well as their names) make them quickly recognizable in the fantasy genre as Fritz Leiber's famous heroes, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (the Swords series).

Fantasy readers will catch McCaffrey's Dragonriders-of-Pern setting through one section of The Colour of Magic with little trouble (as readers of myth will recognize the dragons as characteristic of mythology). In the novel, main characters Rincewind and Twoflower come into contact with the Wyrmberg, which contains large quantities of residual magic from the Mage Wars. The Wyrmberg, a mountain standing on its own head, houses a group of dragons (which exist only because of the magic in the area) and their human riders. The primary warrior is a female rider named Liessa, while in the Pern series, the primary female rider is Lessa; and there are other riders with unusual names that pass through the section, Lio!rt and K!sdra. These names reflect McCaffrey's tendency to name people with an apostrophe (F'lar and F'nor). Also in this section, the dragons talk or think in italics, which also follows the McCaffrey style: Pern dragons talk to their riders through telepathy, expressed in italics. Another comparison is the home of the dragons and their riders: a series of caverns within a mountainside, where a main hall houses the roosting dragons.

Pratchett also offers a number of satirical moments that revolve around the writings of Tolkien. The most thorough scene, though, takes place in Witches Abroad where the witches, on their travel to Genua, stop in the middle of a mountain range during a bad snowstorm. Granny Weatherwax "stood back, hit the rock sharply with her broomstick, and spake thusly: 'Open up, you little sods'" (53). Granny's actions (until she speaks, anyway) reflect heavily on the way in which Gandalf, in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series, uses the magic invisible runes to open the door by saying the correct word, "friend" (Breebaart, Witches Abroad pars. 49-50). A brief exchange takes place between the "dwarfen" (Pratchett's spelling) doorkeeper and Granny, where the dwarf complains that "We put writing on the door. In invisible runes. It's really expensive, getting proper invisible runes done" (54). This section reflects on the invisible runes in The Hobbit, which appeared at one exact moment every year, showing the secret door into the "dwarven" (Tolkien's spelling) mountain caves that the dragon Smaug had taken as his lair.

The witches help the dwarfs to rescue a caved-in section of mine and the dwarfs give them a boat that will lead them through an underground river until they escape the mountains. They also give the witches a loaf of dwarf bread, modeled after Tolkien's dwarven bread, cram, 32 (Breebaart, Witches Abroad pars. 47-48), which (in the Discworld) is a totally inedible item that most resembles a rock (with the side benefit of never spoiling).

As the witches travel along the tunnels in their boat, they hear a paddling sound approaching their boat.

The being here, as any Tolkien reader will recognize, is the underworldly creature, Gollum, who lost his ring to Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. Every detail, from skin color to appearance of eyes to the comment about his birthday, reflects purposefully on Tolkien's lonely but vicious monster that ends up trailing first Bilbo and then Frodo through the entire Lord of the Rings series. In The Hobbit, Gollum refers to the magic ring as "My birthday-present!" (77), thus the birthday comment in Pratchett's version. Because most readers will have read Tolkien if they have read fantasy, or at least will have seen The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings movie, they will be aware of, and likely amused by, Pratchett's light satire of one of fantasy's most recognizable characters.

Pratchett frequently targets Tolkien. According to Colin Manlove, "Pratchett's first novel, The Colour of Magic (1983) [. . . gives] us a [. . .] directionless story [. . .] intended in part as a parody of the journey of Tolkien's Frodo and the wizard Gandalf across Middle-earth. Parody of Tolkien, and some of the more preposterous invented worlds of science fiction and fantasy, is continually present" (135-36). But Tolkien makes an excellent target, as he has become such a heavy influence on fantasy, creating the most white knowledge of the genre; for Pratchett to dip into the Cauldron of Story, then there is no better source than the author who established the phrase. In the process, Pratchett has both recognized and poked good-natured fun at the master author of modern fantasy, which most readers will understand.

A major Tolkien allusion occurs in Guards! Guards!, when a dragon takes over the city, and the city watch attempts to kill it as it flies to a particular event (the virgin sacrifice to appease it). In The Hobbit, the dragon Smaug attacks the town of Esgaroth, and the warrior Bard is one of the archers who stand against him. Tolkien's narrative reads:

In comparison, Pratchett's guards debate how best to get rid of the dragon that plagues their city, and the story turns out differently:

In both books, the vulnerable spot on the dragon is the weakness that would bring it down with a magic arrow. In both books, a figure on a rooftop fires the arrow. In Tolkien's universe, Bard slays the dragon with one shot. But Bard is a hero; he has fate on his side. Thus, in Pratchett's version, the impossible shot does not work, because the Discworld is a place of "reality," not of high fantasy. Pratchett satirizes Tolkien liberally at this point both for the humorous effect, and for the commentary that high fantasy, while glamorous and exciting, is unrealistic.

Near the beginning of Soul Music, the band goes to eat together at Gimlet's Hole Food, which serves dwarfen cuisine (fried rat). Lias (later Cliff) says, "Gimlet? Sounds dwarfish." The name Gimlet matches the National Lampoon name of a dwarf in its spoof book, Bored of the Rings, which mocks Tolkien's dwarven character, Gimli (Breebaart, Soul Music par. 54). A gimlet, as a side note, is also a device that digs holes ("hole food").

More references to Tolkien (directly or indirectly) exist, of course, but the examples given will suffice to illustrate that Pratchett has more than acknowledged the influence of fantasy's most popular writer of the past century. These examples summarize a few of the more obvious allusions to fantasy's most popular writer, because, as Pratchett says, "I suppose you can 'blame' Tolkien: Lord of the Rings was so powerful it set an image" (Enright, Million Article par. 65).

Pratchett's allusion to fantasy writers such as McCaffrey, Tolkien, and Lieber reflects his willingness to draw from society's basic memory, using white knowledge to the best effect. He alludes both to fantasy writing in general and to other writers of the genre at the same time, creating a stronger initial interest for the reader.

References to fantasy literature do the same thing as references to folk literature and myth-they draw in the reader by connecting with the white knowledge of our culture. Pratchett uses the reader's connection to literature to connect the reader to his stories. This is important, as he will draw in more readers based on general recognition of the story, rather than drawing a smaller percentage because they have specific knowledge of an exact work.

Pratchett has created some of his novels around well-known literature, using them as a framework for his stories. In reference to these novels, Pratchett says,

In Witches Abroad, Pratchett re-works the Dracula/Nosferatu story in a way that people who have seen any vampire movie would recognize. In the witches' travels to Genua in Witches Abroad, they come across a castle and small town, where the inhabitants fear the night, because the castle's inhabitant is a vampire. The witches fail to understand what anyone says, because they don't share a common language, and they blunder their way through a night in the inn with their window open. The vampire, stunned by a garlic sausage thrown out the window at the wrong time, is killed and eaten by Nanny Ogg's cat, Greebo. This scene makes an amusing allusion that connects easily to our culture's basic knowledge of horror and mythic creatures.

But if folk narratives generated fantasy literature, establishing patterns of myth and belief through prose, the popular mind shifted from literature to cinema, and many modern storytellers worked with that medium to continue the mythic template through movies. As such, cinema has become a source for Pratchett's allusive writings.

In the novel Moving Pictures, the Discworld discovers a substance known by alchemists as "octo-cellulose," which captures pictures that, when moving quickly in front of a light, will create the illusion of movement. At the same time, they stumble across the concept of "banged grains" (popcorn), and begin to design the first movies of the Discworld.

Within a few weeks of the invention of the "clickies," a shady entrepreneur (Cut-Me- Own-Throat Dibbler) persuades his way into the upper echelon of the movie-makers and changes the entire movie concept from documentaries to action, adventure, and romances. The makers of movies find themselves drawn inexplicably to a place in the desert, a few miles outside of town, known as "Holy Wood," which any Western reader would recognize as the Discworld version of Hollywood.

The point of highest cinema for the Discworld occurs when Dibbler decides to film the Ankh-Morpork civil war. He plays it up extremely, including chariot races (paying homage to Ben Hur) and even wants to try to include a shark (a small nod to Jaws), but finally decides against the addition. During the shooting, director Soll Dibbler (Cut-Me-Own-Throat's nephew) is asked what he wants put into the big scene; he replies, "Frankly, I don't give a damn" (Pratchett, Moving Pictures 162). In the end of the movie, titled Blown Away, the city set gets burned down to imitate what happened in the real Ankh-Morpork Civil War (which in Discworld history only lasted overnight) years before. This "clickie" mimics Gone with the Wind, where the love story is set against a backdrop of the Civil War, including the burning of Atlanta and Clark Gable's famous quote, only slightly altered by Soll Dibbler as a passing comment.

The hero of most of the "clickies" (and the main character of the book) is a young actor who happens to be named Victor. Besides being a properly masculine name for a leading man, his name also reflects that of the director of Gone with the Wind, Victor Fleming. He becomes friends with a talking dog (Discworld magic affects animals around Holy Wood, giving many of them the ability to talk) named Gaspode, and ends up with a non-talking photogenic dog named Laddie. Almost any reader will recognize the character of Lassie immediately, but will also recognize the talking dog from movies such as Disney's The Shaggy D.A.

In the end of the novel, the creatures from the Dungeon Dimension attempt to get into the Discworld through the movie screen, and one manages by assuming the shape (and screen size) of the movie's scantily-clad heroine. It then grabs the wizard university's librarian, who, a number of novels earlier, had been turned into an orangutan, and flees through the city. The creature climbs the tallest building in the city, the university's Tower of Arts, still carrying the librarian. Two braver wizards climb onto a broomstick and fly around the monster, firing a crossbow at it until it gets distracted enough and falls to its death.

The allusions here, though somewhat obvious, are dual. The most obvious concept that Pratchett has inverted comes from King Kong, where the ape climbs the tallest building (the Empire State Building) while carrying the beautiful heroine of the movie. At the end, he also falls to his death. While many readers have not seen King Kong, most have seen the famous clip of the giant ape atop the Empire State Building, so the white knowledge holds true. Also, by giving the creature a giant woman's body, Pratchett includes elements of another movie, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman (Breebaart, Moving Pictures par. 133). The wizards on the broomstick, to further mix the movie references, allude both to the airplanes in King Kong and to the wicked witch riding her broomstick in The Wizard of Oz. This scene demonstrates not only Pratchett's use of allusion, but also of multiple allusions in the same section of a story. After the Creature falls to its death, the Bursar from the wizard college says "'Twas beauty killed the beast," which refers to the last line from King Kong (Breebaart, Moving Pictures pars. 142-43) and to the folk tale, "Beauty and the Beast."

In Witches Abroad, Pratchett plants the idea early in the novel that the three broomsticktraveling witches imply a more-than-passing connection to The Wizard of Oz, first surfacing in the choice of Nanny Ogg's footwear (red boots). Later in the story, when they first reach Genua, Granny Weatherwax complains of the bricks being yellow, and Nanny suggests that the wind is too harsh to fly in, so they walk down the yellow brick road.

During a fight between two of the witches, Magrat says, "What some people need is a bit more heart," and Granny follows up with, "What some people need is a lot more brain." Nanny Ogg, the outsider in the fight, thinks to herself that what she could use is a drink. This argument mirrors the list of things that the Tin Man (heart) and Scarecrow (brain) need in the movie, as does the less obvious reference, that of a drink, because alcohol has also been called Dutch courage (fulfilling the Cowardly Lion's need). A few minutes later, a farmhouse falls on Nanny's head (Breebaart, Witches Abroad pars. 103-06).

Nanny survives the collapsing farmhouse because of the willow reinforcement in her hat (Pratchett, Witches Abroad 155-56), and a number of brightly dressed dwarfs arrive outside the house, singing a song that mostly repeats the lyric "dingdong." They approach the house and ask if the old witch is dead, and Magrat asks, "Which old witch?" This scene plays out the song from early in the movie The Wizard of Oz where the Munchkins (also colorfully dressed) sing when Dorothy arrives in the tornado-carried farmhouse that kills the Wicked Witch of the East. The Munchkins sing, "Ding dong, the witch is dead. Which old witch? The wicked witch" (Breebaart, Witches Abroad pars. 105-06), after which they give Dorothy the Wicked Witch's ruby slippers (parodied by Nanny Ogg's red boots). Pratchett parodies the movie instead of Baum's book because more people are familiar with the movie, qualifying it more directly as white knowledge.

Even after the dwarfs realize that Nanny has not died, they ask for her red boots because "We've just got this . . . feeling . . . that we ought to have her boots" (Pratchett, Witches Abroad 159), especially because they're "ruby-colored," like Dorothy's slippers in The Wizard of Oz. When Granny asks, the dwarfs cannot think of any reason that they want the boots, except it seems the right thing to do, and they leave satisfied when Granny gives them the loaf of dwarf bread instead. All of this section follows the early part of The Wizard of Oz closely, and anyone who has seen the movie will quickly recognize what Pratchett has done. In addition, the dwarfs' feeling that they should act differently than usual reflects the earlier discussion of stories influencing Discworld reality.

Also, at the end of Witches Abroad, Nanny Ogg, riding her broomstick, taps her red boots together and says, "Well, I suppose there's no place like home" (320), mirroring the action and phrase that carried Dorothy back to Kansas at the end of The Wizard of Oz. This seemingly tired and offhand phrase has been thrown in for comic effect, giving the reader one more connection to the cultural white knowledge with which Pratchett works.

In The Light Fantastic, the barbarian warrior Cohen first appears. Though he bears obvious resemblances to Conan, the barbarian warrior that Robert E. Howard made famous through the fiction series of the same name, he has the added benefit of age. It turns out that Cohen, the Discworld's greatest barbarian, has reached the age of eighty-seven without retiring (and without any of his teeth left). When he first appears, he sits with a tribe of nomadic Hubland warriors as they discuss the greatest things that a man may find in life. Cohen, upon being asked for his respected opinion, says, "Hot water, good dentishtry, and shoft lavatory paper" (Pratchett, The Light Fantastic 48). This quote reflects directly on the movie, Conan the Barbarian (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger), where he replies, "To crush your enemies, drive them before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women." This clearly establishes for the reader that Pratchett intends for Cohen to parody not just Conan, but the more modern Schwarzenegger version of him (Breebaart, The Light Fantastic pars. 39-40); as most readers will have seen the movie adaptation even if they have not read any of the novels.

Another movie to which Pratchett alludes is Star Trek. The most obvious example comes at the beginning of Moving Pictures, where his opening scene describes the approach of the great star turtle. Pratchett writes, "This is space. It's sometimes called the final frontier" (1). In The Colour of Magic, Rincewind sees two suits for the first Discworld astronauts and thinks, "Whoever would be wearing those suits [. . .] was expecting to boldly go where no man [. . .] had boldly gone before" (170). These sections echo the beginning of the Star Trek television shows, where William Shatner's voiceover of the approaching U.S.S. Enterprise says, "Space: The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations-to boldly go where no man has gone before" (Breebaart, The Colour of Magic pars. 119-21). Pratchett states that Star Trek has become white knowledge to a defining degree in the recent past: "Star Trek became science fiction, and that seemed to reflect badly on the mass of genuine literary, written science fiction" (qtd. in Robinson par. 70).

In Witches Abroad, the witches arrive in the fairy-tale land of Genua just in time to participate in the festivities of Samedi Nuit Mort. The festival, while resembling Mardi Gras in many ways, has its own translation that has nothing to do with "Fat Tuesday." Samedi Nuit Mort literally translates from French as "Saturday Night of the Dead," a clear take-off on the longrunning television show, "Saturday Night Live." The name here has the implication, however, of dead things, and the zombie Baron Saturday supplies that aspect when he arrives during the climactic battle between the godmothers, throwing the balance to the witches' side.

Pratchett also has brief commentary about children's movies. In Carpe Jugulum, for example, Pratchett tells of Agnes' singing, but states, "she sang in harmony. Not, of course, with her reflection in the glass, because that kind of heroine will sooner or later end up singing a duet with Mr. Bluebird and other forest creatures and then there's nothing for it but a flamethrower" (7). The reference here stems not from the folk tale of "Snow White," but from the classic Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, where Snow White sang along with the birds and woodland animals. While the reference remains to a movie that has strong folk literature elements in children's cinema, Pratchett's statement in this quote suggests that the strongly cheerful and unrealistic tone of that type of scene is repugnant.

In Carpe Jugulum, Pratchett plants a passing reference to the Highlander movies and television shows, as one of the Nac mac Feegle pixies yells out, "Dere c'n onlie be whin t'ousand!" (2), which, sounded out, translates into, "There can only be one thousand," the number of pixies in their clan. The catch-phrase for the Highlander series, as most readers would easily recognize, is, "There can be only one" (Highlander). Also worth noting, the accent of the Nac mac Feegle strongly resembles the Scottish dialect, and Highlander primarily involves a Scottish cast of characters.

With so much fantasy, and so many movies, to work with, Pratchett has used white knowledge to explore and create successful quality fiction. He has taken the modern folk narrative and explored it, creatively and skillfully working through concepts with both humor and wisdom that involve readers. While myth has been acknowledged and expanded through the fantasy genre, Pratchett explores and further expands it, building on what has come before and what most fantasy readers already recognize. He examines the mythic stories and creates a new world through his examination. By using movies that build on myth and fantasy, he also expands modern interpretation of the fundamental collective consciousness, and alters the reality that the ingredients of the Cauldron of Story have established. Readers, looking for quality literary entertainment that also challenges their thinking, rarely find disappointment in the Discworld.

While readers with an interest in folk literature will appreciate Pratchett's allusions to myth, nearly everyone will appreciate the allusions to popular culture. Pratchett, wanting both to amuse and to draw in readers, has done a masterful job of seasoning Tolkien's Cauldron of Story with popular culture. Because popular culture creates modern world's myth (as folk tales did in the past), Pratchett's use of it both grounds the reader in the familiar and explores that mythic base logically, often humorously. Through this exploration and creation of modern myth, Pratchett's stories involve readers in popular culture, and in the process, connect readers more directly to their own lives.

Pratchett frequently alludes to rock music but fully recognizes it in the novel Soul Music. This novel works with a strong plot thread that relies on the reader's knowledge of rock and roll's history. As Pratchett himself says, "The beauty of Soul Music is that if you miss one humorous reference, there's always another along in a minute. You'd have to be a very strange person to get all of the jokes. But I hope you'll get between 80 and 90 per cent, and the ones you don't get, you won't actually notice are there" (qtd. in Enright, The Grin Reaper par. 5). Rock music has been in existence long enough for the majority of his readers to recognize his references, and Pratchett has included references from early 1950s rock to the present. Even if Pratchett readers have not heard a rock song on the radio, it is possible that they have heard it on a commercial, on muzak, or an orchestral rearrangement; musicians have gained the spotlight alongside television and movie stars on talk shows and news magazines such as Entertainment Tonight, Extra, Access Hollywood, and E! News Daily. Given the emphasis placed on the famous in our country, Pratchett's alluding to their lifestyles and traits in his characters makes them more easily recognized, thus, more connected to the reader.

The formulaic "rock and roll lifestyle" has become white knowledge as well, where the musician forging a career becomes a standard traceable story of fast success, glory in the spotlight, and tragic endings (examples including Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, Patsy Cline, and Randy Rhodes). Other tragic endings play out in rock songs such as "Tell Laura I Love Her," "Leader of the Pack," and "Dead Man's Curve." Of course, there are other rock lifestyles, such as the self-destructive anti-hero, but Pratchett opts for the character who has no choice (because the narrative structure has taken control) and no desire to die tragically (or to follow the "live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse" lifestyle). Because the mythic rock star life and tragic death have become so engrained in the collective consciousness, they are excellent material for Pratchett to rework.

The main character in Soul Music, a bard from the country of Llamedos, has become disillusioned and dissatisfied with the old ways of making and playing music and strikes out on his own to become famous. He moves to the cultural center of the Discworld, Ankh-Morpork, with dreams of making music in an exciting new way. Unable to afford the Musician's Guild fees, he joins two other "failed" (unable to afford dues) musicians, dwarfen horn-blower Glod Glodsson and troll percussionist Lias (later nicknamed Cliff) Bluestone. They play in small bars for a time, then become famous, and do a brief tour of the surrounding towns before returning to Ankh-Morpork to headline a major "Music With Rocks In It" [sic] (rock and roll) festival.

The story builds upon the most obvious references to rock music. Every section of the plot plays out one "rock and roll lifestyle" of reality: the meeting of the band, the first shows taking place in a low-class bar, the agent taking over and setting up concerts, the hiring of the roadie, the touring, the appearance of groupies, the major outdoor concert, and the tragic end of the lead singer in a wreck involving a section of road called "dead man's curve" (which most readers will recognize as a song, even if they do not know the authors as Jan and Dean). All of these events contribute to the myth of the fast-living, dying-before-his-time rock star, and readers with any knowledge of rock and roll will easily draw the connection between Pratchett's story and that myth. This connection will give Pratchett's readers an entire storyline based on the white knowledge of rock music. Readers may not be able to predict what is going to happen throughout the book, but they will believe the story should progress in the way that it does, as it will seem "right" according to what they know about how the story should work (as previously established by white knowledge).

Another obvious series of references, brief, like many of Pratchett's references, has to do with the name of the main character of Soul Music, Imp y Celyn, which in Llamedese means "bud of the holly" (120). Upon becoming famous, he decides to change his name to reflect his native name's meaning and becomes known as Buddy. This name change alludes to Buddy Holly, one of the first rock stars, the archetype that Pratchett works with in this novel. Another less obvious reference strengthens Buddy's naming: Near the end of the novel (during the festival), he plays a classic ballad on his harp called "Sioni Bod Da." Though this reference doesn't get thoroughly explained in the same way as his name, and is not a white knowledge connection to the main character, a curious reader could discover that "Bod Da" means "be good" in Celtic, and that "Sioni" would sound much like "Johnny." Therefore, Buddy is playing Chuck Berry's rock and roll song "Johnny Be Good" (a contemporary artist and song to Buddy Holly's career) for the crowd, and the reader can recognize it, though it sounds completely different from the original version (Breebaart, Soul Music pars. 301-02). While the reference has no direct claim to white knowledge (because it is not widely known), it does make an obscure allusion to the white knowledge that Pratchett has built around character Buddy. At the beginning of the novel, Imp's harp is described as "fresh and bright and already it sang out like a bell" (Pratchett, Soul Music 9). This directly mirrors a line in "Johnny Be Good"- "but he could play his guitar just like ringing a bell" (Breebaart, Soul Music pars. 18-20)-and provides foreshadowing for the attentive reader. Later in the novel, Cliff asks Buddy if a particular town reminds him of home. Buddy says it does not, and when asked if he had a nice house, he says "Just a shack. Made of earth and wood" (Pratchett, Soul Music 277), which also draws from the opening verse of "Johnny Be Good," where Johnny's home is "a log cabin made of earth and wood" (Breebaart, Soul Music, pars. 254-55). All of these allusions tap into the white knowledge throughout the novel, sometimes obviously and sometimes more obscurely, of Buddy Holly as the archetypical rock star.

Another interesting reference to music (in this case, jazz) occurs when the band considers quitting. Buddy discusses the possibility of fame with Glod. He then asks Glod who the most famous dwarf horn player of all history was, and Glod replies quickly that it was the dwarfish monk, Brother Charnel, who had stolen the altar gold from a temple and made it into a horn. "Right," said Buddy. "But if you went out there now and asked who the most famous horn player is, would they remember some felonious monk or would they shout for Glod Glodsson?" (Pratchett, Soul Music 223)

The rather convoluted pun in this conversation has to do with the words "felonious monk," a reference to the famous jazz musician Thelonious Monk (though he was famous for playing jazz piano, not horn) (Breebaart, Soul Music, pars. 210-11). While this pun may seem unrelated, jazz, blues, and soul music are the primary influences for the birth of rock music. The references to Buddy Holly and "Johnny Be Good" deal heavily with early (1950s) rock music, so an obvious jazz allusion suits the story.

Pratchett also borrows ideas from the now-defining rock movie The Blues Brothers, especially in Soul Music, because it has become so well-known as a movie about rock and roll, and the jokes in the movie have largely become clich�s for the rock lifestyle. It has become white knowledge, to the point that people who have not seen it can quote lines from it. With such an excellent source of cultural focus on rock music (as compared to movies like This Is Spinal Tap, which never quite became as engrained in the culture), Pratchett alludes widely to it. This becomes Pratchett's allusive source because he knows the average reader will have at least some knowledge of the movie, and he works with that knowledge to entice the reader to continue.

In Soul Music, for example, the band decides that it can round out its sound by including an organ in the setup and that two band members will have to steal an organ from a local temple. Glod sends Buddy and Cliff to get the organ, and they take it in the middle of the night. They are waylaid briefly by a city guard but convince him that the organ is simply going for a walk, and the guard wanders off. Cliff and Buddy talk about the guard, and Cliff says, "He can't stop us. We're on a mission from Glod" (Pratchett, Soul Music 126). This line is almost identical to a line from The Blues Brothers: "They can't stop us. We're on a mission from God." After saying it, Cliff looks up and asks why he had said that, and Buddy can only offer the obvious explanation that Glod sent them to get the organ but cannot explain why Cliff said they couldn't be stopped.

At a later point in Soul Music, Glod and Cliff return to the magical music shop where Buddy's guitar was bought, and they get accosted by the shop owner, who asks "Are you the Watch?" Glod answers with "No ma'am. We're musicians," (Pratchett, Soul Music 247) which directly reflects a line in The Blues Brothers. Pratchett includes this line again in Witches Abroad, where the witches are asked if they are taxgatherers, and they reply, "No. We're . . . fairies" (133) (Breebaart, Witches Abroad, par. 88-89).

Near the beginning of Soul Music, when the band first forms, it goes to Gimlet's Hole Food for a meal, and Glod orders four fried rats (standard dwarf cuisine). When Gimlet asks if he wants rat heads or legs, Glod says, "No. Four fried rats." Buddy adds, "And two hard-boiled eggs" (Pratchett, Soul Music 31). The whole conversation in this section of the novel mimics the restaurant scene in The Blues Brothers, where the band orders four fried chickens, and Elwood Blues adds, "And two slices of toast" (Breebaart, Soul Music, par. 58-59).

Another allusion to the movie occurs in Moving Pictures, when a character says, "It's fifteen hundred miles to Ankh-Morpork. [. . .] We've got three hundred and sixty elephants, fifty carts of forage, the monsoon's about to break and we're wearing . . . we're wearing . . . sort of things, like glass, only dark . . . dark glass things on our eyes . . ." (133). This quote paraphrases another famous moment in The Blues Brothers, near the end of the movie, as the famous chase scene is about to begin and Jake and Elwood are sitting in their car. Elwood says, "It's a hundred and six miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses." Jake replies, "Hit it" (Breebaart, Moving Pictures pars. 114-16).

Pratchett references modern rock music as well, through another band in Soul Music, notorious for playing very badly, which changes its name constantly. In the beginning, it calls itself Insanity (a Discworld-renamed version of Madness), then Suck (KISS), followed later by The Surreptitious Fabric (the Velvet Underground), The Whom (a grammatical inversion of The Who), The Blots (The Inkspots), and Lead Balloon (Led Zepplin). Though the words "rolling stone" pass in a comment, the members completely fail to latch onto the idea that they could adopt that name (the Rolling Stones). They finally end up being called "Ande Supporting Bands" on the festival poster, which seems to be the only name they can keep for any significant length of time.

This band, despite the lack of a definite name (or any talent at all), symbolizes more contemporary rock music. For instance, Crash thinks that leather jackets will make for good Music With Rocks In It [sic] attire, and sends Scum to check into leather. Scum thinks of leopardskin pants instead but manages only to get a leopard, one with a hearing problem, thus making it a deaf leopard and a pun on British metal rockers Def Leppard. In the process of dealing with the leopard, Crash gets his hand hurt and later plays guitar while wearing one glove over that hand. He then complains, "Whoever heard of a serious musician with a glove?" (Pratchett, Soul Music 322), referring to the "fashion statement" made by pop rock star Michael Jackson, whose Thriller sold the largest number of albums in the 1980s. The joke behind Crash's statement is that practically everybody has heard of a non-serious (in other words, pop, not rock and roll) musician (Michael Jackson) with a glove.

In the novel Jingo, Pratchett sets up a convoluted reference to a song by Paul Simon that requires several dozen pages. The reference begins when Sergeant Colon explains to Corporal Nobbs that the Klatchians use a lot of words that begin with "al"; they supposedly invented all things that start with those letters, according to Colon's thinking, such as algebra and alcohol (Pratchett, Jingo 28). Much later in the book, the pair have been conscripted into going to Klatch, and Nobbs asks Colon a question, calling him "Al" to keep from sounding like they come from Ankh-Morpork (Pratchett, Jingo 202). Shortly after that, Nobbs has to dress like a woman as part of his disguise, and the name of the woman whose clothes he stole was Beti, so he has little choice but to assume the name (Pratchett Jingo 204). The gag finally unfolds when Colon, talking to Klatchian natives, says, "You can call me Al" (Pratchett, Jingo 219). The whole reference goes back to Paul Simon's hit song of 1986, "You Can Call Me Al," the chorus of which says "I can call you Betty / And Betty when you call me / You can call me Al."

The Soul Music story works in exactly the same method as Witches Abroad and Moving Pictures, in that the characters in the stories are controlled by the elements of the story, and that only aware and focused characters can break the story patterns (or harness the story, in the case of Moving Pictures) for a happy ending. The story elements, while known to the reader, remain mysterious and only occur because they "feel right" to the characters involved, such as in the dwarfs' desire for Nanny Ogg's red boots or Buddy's confusion as to why he says they can't be stopped.

The allusions to rock and roll in Pratchett's writings will draw in many readers who listen to both "classic" and modern rock music. Pratchett constantly refers to movies and rock musicians or bands that have reached a high level of popularity or notoriety, making them more easily recognized by the average reader. Furthermore, Pratchett thoroughly explores the Buddy Holly archetype, while commenting humorously about other rock stars, always binding the readers to his novel through the stories they already know - their white knowledge.

Regarding his novels, Pratchett says, "I know what I put in; what you get out is between you and your God. You might get out more than I put in" (Silver, Conversation-Part 2 par. 31). With that warning in mind, some educated conclusions can still be reached.

While many would argue that Pratchett has not created a new literary universe so much as lifted it from several other sources, the white knowledge nuggets of Western society, it has to be recognized that no fantasy universe is original. All literary worlds build on elements of past literary worlds, and white knowledge creates the basis for the myths that people live by. Pratchett has masterfully created his characters and cities by "thinking logically about those things which we don't normally think logically about, that we just accept" (qtd. in White, Writers Write par. 8). For example, Pratchett uses the white knowledge of the vampire character and creates a new archetype by looking at it with "logically-skewed" eyes. In doing this, he has fascinated and enthralled a large readership, involving them on a deeper level than they may even recognize. In some ways, Pratchett (like many other quality fantasy authors) has not only referred to the recognizable and well-known, but he has also connected to what Carl Jung calls "the collective unconsciousness" of his readership, using symbols and making deeper connections to readers' archetypes and realities.

Though much of Pratchett's storytelling has moved away from the quick gag and use of white knowledge for a mere laugh, his use of the Cauldron of Story has not stopped. It could instead be argued that he has dipped his ladle deeper into the Cauldron, stirring and seasoning the story in much more subtle ways, playing more with our deeper knowledge of fantasy and the world. He has not stopped creating parody and pun, has not shifted his focus from writing quality humor, but claims "he has become not a better writer, merely a 'more experienced one'" (qtd. in Ingham, Times Interview par. 10).

Throughout this paper, white knowledge has been established and linked to Tolkien's concept of the Cauldron of Story. The white knowledge that Pratchett uses ties to the basic building blocks of myth and folk narratives, from the most ancient to the most modern. Pratchett, far from stealing this knowledge and adding cardboard, yet recognizable, characters to it, has used it to create a complex and enjoyable world that both reflects and questions our own. Because of his storytelling quality, Pratchett has become a remarkable author, one who has held the title of bestseller for much longer than his critics would ever have believed possible.

Pratchett's storytelling quality has also succeeded in doing something else: connecting his novels to his readers. He writes to entertain as well as to create solid quality novels and, in the process, has tied story elements to his readers' culture. He has added to the Cauldron of Story and has established much of the Discworld through white knowledge. Through his masterful writing, Pratchett has become a significant and successful fantasy author, one who crafts his stories with skill and thought. Through the Cauldron of Story and its modern successor, white knowledge, he has done much to redefine our reality.

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White Knowledge and the Cauldron of Story: The Use of Allusion in Terry Pratchett's Discworld

ABSTRACT

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5