Strata

Terry Pratchett interview in the Irish Times

8 January 2009 (23:49) Comment!

Donal Clarke of the Irish Times interviewed Terry Pratchett when he was in Dublin for his honorary degree from Trinity College in mid-December, and just recently released the article. Terry Pratchett talks about his characteristic hat:

“There’s no significance to the hat,” he says in his focused way. “I just happened to see it in a shop one day and thought: ‘Bing! I am going to have a hat like that.’ Charlie Chaplin always said that there was no great plan to his image. He just looked into a wardrobe and saw this bowler hat, baggy pants and a cane.”

He also spoke of his Alzheimer’s campaigning:

“I do feel like something of a fraud,” he laughs. “I am sitting here talking to you and I guarantee that you would not guess there is anything wrong with me. What I have is posterior cortical atrophy, an early onset form of Alzheimer’s that happens on the rear of the brain. You have a whole bridge hand of problems, but initially they are all to do with visual acuity or sight in general.” … “Several people have told me I have been getting better recently,” he says. “Well, unless there has been a minor miracle that has not really been happening, but I am learning to cope. There is not really the language to explain how it affects me. I have to think before approaching a revolving door. My typing has got quite bad and my spelling has deteriorated. I also have a problem with my short-term memory.” He pauses and plays with his teacup.

“I also have a problem with my short-term memory. And then there’s my short-term . . . ” Yes, yes, yes. I can see where this is going.

Asked about his view of Death as described in the books and whether it’s changed since his diagnosis, he responded:

“No. I wouldn’t say I have changed my view,” he says. “Death is not a buffoon in the books. He’s still Death, but he has a certain amount of compassion. As he points out, it is the falling rock, the microbe or the bullet that kills you. Death’s job is just to take you away.”

He also says something we’ve never heard before about his rise to prominence in his early writing career:

“The Colour of Magic was serialised on Woman’s Hour and that brought some attention,” he said. “When I wrote the second one I really began to sense something moving out there. Later, I remember being summoned to my boss’s office at the CEGB. He had three of my books in front of him and he said: ‘Did you write these?’ I thought I was in trouble, then he asked me to sign them for his sons.” Pratchett quit the job shortly afterwards.

He also spoke about the marginalization of fantasy in literary circles:

“Alternate worlds are now the stuff of Booker winners, but they call it ‘magic realism’ not that ‘awful fantasy stuff’,” he says.

And he reiterates the fact that not all of his fans are 14-year-olds named Kevin (as the runners of this site can attest to):

“The first thing I would say is that 70 per cent of the people who come to my conventions are female,” Pratchett retorts. “Look, the stereotype lacks any accuracy. The stereotype fan is a 14-year-old in an anorak called Kevin. If that ever was true then Kevin is now long married to Daphne and he is beginning to wish he’d started his pension plan a little earlier. If you have parents who are Discworld fans then you will, most likely, be surrounded by books. Fantasy fans tend to read everything.”

And about the media interest in what is Britain’s most high-profile Alzheimer’s patient:

“Now, if somebody phones up and says, ‘I am from Radio WANK, tell me about Alz-heimer’s’, then I know they just want to fill an hour with Pratchett. I tell them to piss off. But it never occurred to me not to announce it.”

There’s much more in the article itself, including a powerful observation: “They say, ‘Don’t let them see you bleed’. But I say, ‘If you let them see you bleed then one of them might offer you a bandage’.”

Tim White, cover artist for early Terry Pratchett novels, now on-line

23 December 2008 (22:36) Comment!

The website for Tim White, the cover artist for the early Terry Pratchett novels The Dark Side Of The Sun and Strata (New English Library paperback editions), is on-line again after a hiatus. The site features his cover art for Terry Pratchett’s novels as well as for Neuromancer by Gibson, Hothouse by Brian Aldiss, and an anthology of Asimov’s works.

The artwork for The Dark Side Of The Sun (shown left) is available as a print and a postcard. Interestingly, as the website says, “The robot fly is a miniature surveillance device disguised as an insect. An earlier drawing of a robot fly by the artist coincided almost perfectly with the story and was used with few alterations for the final cover design.”

The cover art for Strata is shown at the right.

Custom prints (of various sizes), cards, t-shirts, jewelry, mugs, and other miscellaneous items are available on the website.