The Turtle Moves! (29 page)

But neither Pratchett nor Rowling reads fantasy these days. Mr. Pratchett
used
to—he's spoken highly of
The Wind in the Willows
, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Fritz Leiber, Jr.—but no longer keeps up with the field, in part to avoid being accused of plagiarism.

There's this idea in many literary circles that literature is a sort of giant, very slow conversation among authors, that every book comments on earlier books that the author has read
¹⁸⁶
; there's something to this in many cases, though it's nowhere near as universal as many English lit professors would have you believe. In some cases, it's fairly obvious that an author was responding to what had gone before in his genre—in science fiction, for example,
¹⁸⁷
it's clear that Norman Spinrad's
The Iron Dream
was a comment on much of the old pulp SF he had read, and that Harry Harrison's
Bill, the Galactic Hero
was a similar reaction. Many fans believe that Joe Haldeman's
The Forever War
was written as a deliberate reply to Robert A. Heinlein's
Starship Troopers
.
¹⁸⁸

But if someone doesn't read in the genre he writes in, he can't very well hold up his end of this “conversation,” can he?

Well, yes, he still can, after a fashion, by not limiting himself to the one genre. Or to books. The earliest Discworld books are indeed a part of the fantasy-novel conversation, responding to Leiber and McCaffrey and the
Weird Tales
gang, but later on it's obvious that while Discworld is still being used to respond to other stories, they aren't fantasy novels, but movies, fairy tales, history, Shakespeare's plays, current events, etc.

It's still fantasy, but it's not necessarily what one might call
category
fantasy.
¹⁸⁹
It's part of the larger conversation of all popular culture, rather than just that bunch sitting in the corner talking about Tolkien and Howard. Terry Pratchett is the guy at the party with something clever to say about
everything
, whether it's music or movies or politics or whatever comes to hand, and not just his own specialty.

That may be a part of why it's so much more popular than the average fantasy novel—it's commenting on stuff
everyone
knows, not just the stuff fantasy readers are familiar with.

That doesn't make Terry Pratchett an outsider, though. He's been active in the science fiction/fantasy community since childhood, and he still is, attending conventions (and not just Discworld conventions), participating in the online fantasy community, and so on. He may not read much in the field anymore, but he certainly hasn't cut his ties to it. He's actively defended the genre in the press. Fantasy fans are proud to claim him as their own.

But there are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of Discworld readers who don't consider themselves fantasy fans, and who read no fantasy
except
Discworld.
¹⁹⁰
His appeal is broader than that of the genre he works in—and fantasy isn't exactly an unpopular genre.

Must be nice.

There have been efforts in the press to start a feud between Pratchett and Rowling—after all, they're #2 and #1 in their field, surely they must be rivals! There have also been polls asking fans to choose between Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. Journalists have accused Pratchett of swiping Ponder Stibbons's appearance from Harry Potter, ignoring the detail that the first portrait of Stibbons appeared a year before
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
saw print. They have suggested that
Rowling has stolen ideas from Pratchett, or that Pratchett has stolen things from Rowling.

This is stupid.

Writing isn't a competitive exercise, and generally speaking, names and concepts don't belong to anyone. If Rowling and Pratchett have used similar ideas, it doesn't mean either one stole from the other, only that they drew on the same sources in our shared culture. No one has to choose between Rowling and Pratchett; we can read them both. There's no need for a loser; they can both win. The pantheon of modern fantasy writers isn't monotheistic; there's plenty of room for all the gods you want to put in it. Sit J.K. Rowling on the throne of Zeus, and Mr. Pratchett can still take the role of Apollo, while Stephen King rules Hades. There's still room for nine more Olympians, and scores of titans, demigods, and the like. . . .

That metaphor's getting a bit out of hand, isn't it? Sorry.
¹⁹¹

At any rate, to sum up—Terry Pratchett's place in the fantasy pantheon is assured, in part because he's not staying securely within the usual genre boundaries. His stories have a broader appeal than most fantasy because even though they're full of wizards and dragons and trolls and witches, that's not what they're
about
.

They're about people.

And stories.

And everyone loves a good story.

S
O, IN THE INTRODUCTION I said I was doing the research for this book because I wanted to figure out just how Terry Pratchett could take an idea as absurd as Discworld and turn it into a series of novels that sold millions of copies and became an international phenomenon. Here we are at the end, and you may well be asking, “So, did you figure it out or not?”

Very clever, but now ask yourself another question: If I
had
figured it out, would I tell you?

After all, we can't
all
write fantasy series that sell millions, and if I've figured out how it's done, I don't want
you
lot cashing in on it before I do!

But I'll take pity on you, and tell you
part
of the secret of Discworld's success—or really, four parts.

First, Mr. Pratchett writes about people, not things. I already knew that part; in fact, I'd called it the First Law of Fantasy in an article I wrote back in 1989, which you could find on my webpage
¹⁹²
if you wanted to look it up. Magic spells and enchanted swords are all very well, but it's the people wielding them who hold the reader's interest.

Second, Mr. Pratchett doesn't just steal from Tolkien, the way some fantasy writers do; he steals from
everywhere
. Books, songs, TV, movies, history, news, anything and everything. If you steal from one source, it's plagiarism; if you steal from a dozen, it's research. The more sources you draw on, the better. And Discworld draws on a
lot
.

Third, Mr. Pratchett doesn't just write stories, he writes
about
stories. Too often in fiction the characters never seem to have heard any stories in their lives; the idiots in horror movies, for example, have
no idea
what's going to happen if they split up to cover more ground, or when they go down into the basement. The people of Discworld, though—they
know
. And they react accordingly. Which makes them look less stupid, and more like real people, than many writers' characters ever manage.

One could argue that that's the natural result of combining the first two, and shouldn't be listed separately, but hey, it's my book, and I'm listing it separately. So there.

And that brings us to the very last point I'm going to mention—the last part of the secret I'm going to tell you: Fourth, and finally, Terry Pratchett wears a cool hat.

I can't tell you why that's important, but I'm sure it is. So I've bought myself a cool hat, too. Bestseller lists, here I come!

NOTE: For the actual Discworld™ books, I have listed the first edition, with ISBN, in case anyone wants to track it down, and have then listed the edition(s) I actually used while writing this book. In a very few cases, these are the same and there's only one entry.

 

Bensen, D.R.:

Brunner, John:

Davidson, Avram:

Fforde, Jasper:

Frazer, Sir James George:

Grahame, Kenneth:

Henry, O.:

Howard, Robert E.:

Hughes, Thomas:

Johnson, June:

Langford, David:

Le Guin, Ursula K.:

Leiber, Fritz, Jr.:

Leroux, Gaston:

Lewis, C.S.:

Lovecraft, H.P.:

MacDonald, George:

Machiavelli, Niccolo:

McCaffrey, Anne:

Moore, John:

Pratchett, Terry: