Retro News: Pratchett interview (08 November 2008)--From Rim to Hub

Retro News: Pratchett interview (08 November 2008)

28 December 2008 (18:07)

In a Daily Mail interview titled I’m not beaten yet: Terry Prachett on the frustration and fury of Alzheimer’s, Terry Pratchett shared with the interviewer some more about his attitude towards the “embuggerance” of Alzheimer’s. To quote the article:

Although he calls it a ‘wretched disease’, since disclosing that he has it, he has retained his dark sense of comedy. He began an address to his latest convention of fans by cracking a joke. ‘I said, “Hello my name is…” Then I retrieved a crumpled piece of paper from my pocket and read out my name,’ he recalls.

The audience laughed because Terry, afflicted by an illness that steals both memory and identity, was permitting them to do so.

… He’s done nothing but talk about dementia, every permutation and implication of it, since September last year, and he’s practically run out of things to say. ‘I haven’t for a moment regretted coming out, as it were, because it does look as if that’s done some good,’ he says…. ‘Nevertheless, it’s amazing how I’ve ceased to become an author and have now become Mr Alzheimer’s.

‘But to answer your question, I’m fine. I just had a test that showed I was pretty much the same as the last time I was tested. It cheers me to find the creative process still works: my last book, Nation, was definitely written by a bloke with PCA - I’d got halfway through it before I was diagnosed - and it got excellent reviews. I know it was good. That’s not a boast. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have sent it to the publisher.’

… ‘I had to give up driving. That would be a big thing for most men, but I didn’t bat an eyelid. It doesn’t interfere with my core business. My wife drives; my PA drives; I can hire a cab. The real embuggerance is that my typing and handwriting are all over the place, and I sometimes lose track of spellings completely.

‘I also have the odd moment when my brain has to pause to sort things out. The quintessential one is the glass revolving door. I have to approach it very carefully. It’s glass. It’s full of reflections. It’s coming towards me and going away at the same time. I have to wait for a second or two before I go through. But I’m still coherent on just about every news channel, just more and more tired as the day wears on. Which isn’t what you’d normally expect from someone with dementia, but I was diagnosed very early.

‘If I didn’t tell you anything was wrong, you’d have to know me very well indeed to tell anything was amiss. You’d probably have to watch me getting dressed. Retrieving a shirt sleeve that’s been turned inside-out can be tricky.’

He has told his fans, who are legion, worldwide and mostly women, that he wants to retain a sense of optimism and cheerfulness. ‘But people still tend to come up and talk in hushed voices. I say, “We’re not in church, you know.”‘

He also talks briefly about his part in The Colour Of Magic adaptation and shares an anecdote from a convention meeting.

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