16 ms·

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand this was his wish, but on the other hand I am sure that future generations of pratchettologists will mourn the

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand this was his wish, but on the other hand I am sure that future generations of pratchettologists will mourn the loss.

laumars 9y ago
As a Pratchett fan I welcome his wish as it means his legacy is left as he had intended it to be written.
- loopbit 9y ago
  Not only that, there's one of his (many) quotes that fits nicely with this way of thinking: "I save about twenty drafts — that's ten meg of disc space — and the last one contains all the final alterations. Once it has been printed out and received by the publishers, there's a cry here of 'Tough shit, literary researchers of the future, try getting a proper job!' and the rest are wiped." On one hand, as a long time Pratchett fan, it would be interesting to see what ideas he was working on (I'll miss many of his characters), on the other hand and looking at other examples (cough, cough, Tolkien, cough), I prefer his legacy to be what it is today.
  - mcv 9y ago
    I just read an article about George R.R. Martin's writing process, and apparently he's done some extreme rewrites to some of his books, and submitted all his intermediary manuscripts to some archive. As for Tolkien, I'm quite happy that the Silmarillion got published.
- paulajohnson 9y ago
  Its not just about the release of an unfinished novel with lots of rough edges, its our understanding of how the Diskworld evolved in Pterry's mind over the years. TCOM was a simple spoof of swords-and-sorcery epics, but by Going Postal it had become a complex world that fused magic with steampunk. The rough drafts, abandoned dead-ends and private notes that presumably inhabited those disk drives would have provided insights into how this happened. Update: just read loopbit's response to the same post. Good point.
Ntrails 9y ago
It's interesting the parallels I see between this and right to die. He didn't want to destroy his work whilst he could still work. But if he waits too long and misses the opportunity to take action whilst in good health he may lose control over it. Without the other limiting factors - this feels like a very easy call. I'm thrilled that he trusted people to see his wishes through - and as importantly that they've shown themselves to be deserving of said trust
- gambiting 9y ago
  I'm really annoyed that Pope John Paul's II wishes were not respected by his life long friend and right hand - Cardinal Dziwisz - Pope asked him to burn all his notes after his death, which the cardinal promised, and then released all the notes in a book after pope's death. I can "sort of" get his reasoning - that these notes were extremely valuable to the church and people in general - but a personal wish, especially such as this, should be respected in my opinion.
  - sambe 9y ago
    I think the important thing is that it's a form of deceit. It's not about the value to the public vs the value of the person's wishes: if you don't intend to go through with the wishes or believe there is a good chance that you will not be able to, then you should recuse yourself at the point of the request (or as soon as you realise). Deciding to stay involved and make your own choice is simply duplicitious - it completely defeats the point of having the legal power. It wouldn't surprise me if someone could sue the executor, since they are clearly acting against the best interests of the person.
  - dingaling 9y ago
    That's an interesting example of where personal wishes cross over the 'corporate' boundary. The person is subsumed by the job and unless they display huge self-restraint it will be difficult to separate personal notes from their corporate thinking. Presidential diaries would be another example, or a CEO's Rolodex.
    - 9y ago
mirekrusin 9y ago
For cases like this there should be Long Bearded Commissioner who decides to split the country in half - one side would get the papers and the other would pretend they were destroyed. Each citizen should be given a choice in which reality to live in.
- robin_reala 9y ago
  Please, no more referendums.
  - mirekrusin 9y ago
    Exactly, jokes aside, most referendums could be avoided completely by giving people the control over where their tax money should go.
    - KGIII 9y ago
      That would make it difficult for minorities and unpopular services. Nobody is going to want their taxes to pay the tax collector's salary, after all.
      - ZeroGravitas 9y ago
        One of the many conundrums of modern politics is that the tax collectors could indeed collect more tax if they were better funded, so every tax dollar spent would recoup more than one tax dollar, yet this is resisted by the people who are presumably not currently paying what they should under current laws, and they've convinced people who do pay what they should under current laws, that this is a good thing.
        KGIII 9y ago
        I'd suspect there wouldn't be much funding to provide access to impaired people, either. Most people probably aren't all that interested in paying for things in Braille. I live in an unincorporated township, with just a few residents. My road would never get plowed or maintained.
userbinator 9y ago
but on the other hand I am sure that future generations of pratchettologists will mourn the loss. It might not be a stretch to say that future generations would have the technology to recover the data, if past trends are any indication: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ancient-scrolls-blackened-vesuvius-are-readable-last-herculaneum-papyri-180953950/ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ancient-scrolls-blacke... As far as physical destruction goes, this isn't even that extreme.
- Houshalter 9y ago
  By the time we get the technology to do that, we could probably build an AI pratchett that generates great works perfectly within his style and quality. Like that black mirror episode but slightly less creepy.
  - mattkevan 9y ago
    Ooh, I wonder what would happen if someone fed all of Pratchett's books into a RNN? Would it generate new Discworld stories, or would it rip a portal into the Dungeon Dimensions releasing the eldritch horrors that dwell within?
    - gnode 9y ago
      It would produce superficially Pratchett-sounding prose with no coherent plot.
      - LeifCarrotson 9y ago
        Presumably, the RNN would be deep enough to recognize that "a coherent plot" is a component of the work on which it's being trained and which it must generate. But not so deep that it generates eldritch horrors.
        OtterCoder 9y ago
        That would be a fantastically deep network. Current AI can sometimes keep track of what's going on until the end of the paragraph. A novel's worth of threads to track is simply too much for the naive toss-it-in-a-wood-chipper approach.
roceasta 9y ago
What's the opposite of a Pratchett novel? If it were a matter of losing this then Pratchett fans and experts would presumably not mourn. However now consider the case of an almost-but-not-quite Pratchett novel. Though this is not-a-Pratchett novel, it is deceptively and misleadingly not-a-Pratchett novel, because it still resembles one. It therefore stands the greatest chance of leading fans down the garden path and distorting the overall body of work.
tjwds 9y ago
Did a bit of poking around, it looks like there's a substantial collection of his materials at the Senate House Library at the University of London. [1] These materials include quite a few interesting research angles: draft manuscripts of published works, unpublished stories, other ephemera including letters, & biographies by other authors. [1] http://www.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/resources/Pratchett.pdf http://www.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/resources/Pratchett.pdf
klipt 9y ago
> pratchettologists Re Terry's opinion on 'pratchettologists', may I point you to the following in the Pratchett Quote File: https://www.lspace.org/books/pqf/alt-fan-pratchett.html https://www.lspace.org/books/pqf/alt-fan-pratchett.html "I save about twenty drafts -- that's ten meg of disc space -- and the last one contains all the final alterations. Once it has been printed out and received by the publishers, there's a cry here of 'Tough shit, literary researchers of the future, try getting a proper job!' and the rest are wiped." -- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand this was his wish, but on the other hand I am sure that future generations of pratchettologists will mourn the loss.

laumars 9y ago

As a Pratchett fan I welcome his wish as it means his legacy is left as he had intended it to be written.

loopbit 9y ago
Not only that, there's one of his (many) quotes that fits nicely with this way of thinking: "I save about twenty drafts — that's ten meg of disc space — and the last one contains all the final alterations. Once it has been printed out and received by the publishers, there's a cry here of 'Tough shit, literary researchers of the future, try getting a proper job!' and the rest are wiped." On one hand, as a long time Pratchett fan, it would be interesting to see what ideas he was working on (I'll miss many of his characters), on the other hand and looking at other examples (cough, cough, Tolkien, cough), I prefer his legacy to be what it is today.
- mcv 9y ago
  I just read an article about George R.R. Martin's writing process, and apparently he's done some extreme rewrites to some of his books, and submitted all his intermediary manuscripts to some archive. As for Tolkien, I'm quite happy that the Silmarillion got published.
paulajohnson 9y ago
Its not just about the release of an unfinished novel with lots of rough edges, its our understanding of how the Diskworld evolved in Pterry's mind over the years. TCOM was a simple spoof of swords-and-sorcery epics, but by Going Postal it had become a complex world that fused magic with steampunk. The rough drafts, abandoned dead-ends and private notes that presumably inhabited those disk drives would have provided insights into how this happened. Update: just read loopbit's response to the same post. Good point.

Ntrails 9y ago

It's interesting the parallels I see between this and right to die. He didn't want to destroy his work whilst he could still work. But if he waits too long and misses the opportunity to take action whilst in good health he may lose control over it. Without the other limiting factors - this feels like a very easy call. I'm thrilled that he trusted people to see his wishes through - and as importantly that they've shown themselves to be deserving of said trust

gambiting 9y ago
I'm really annoyed that Pope John Paul's II wishes were not respected by his life long friend and right hand - Cardinal Dziwisz - Pope asked him to burn all his notes after his death, which the cardinal promised, and then released all the notes in a book after pope's death. I can "sort of" get his reasoning - that these notes were extremely valuable to the church and people in general - but a personal wish, especially such as this, should be respected in my opinion.
- sambe 9y ago
  I think the important thing is that it's a form of deceit. It's not about the value to the public vs the value of the person's wishes: if you don't intend to go through with the wishes or believe there is a good chance that you will not be able to, then you should recuse yourself at the point of the request (or as soon as you realise). Deciding to stay involved and make your own choice is simply duplicitious - it completely defeats the point of having the legal power. It wouldn't surprise me if someone could sue the executor, since they are clearly acting against the best interests of the person.
- dingaling 9y ago
  That's an interesting example of where personal wishes cross over the 'corporate' boundary. The person is subsumed by the job and unless they display huge self-restraint it will be difficult to separate personal notes from their corporate thinking. Presidential diaries would be another example, or a CEO's Rolodex.
  - 9y ago

mirekrusin 9y ago

For cases like this there should be Long Bearded Commissioner who decides to split the country in half - one side would get the papers and the other would pretend they were destroyed. Each citizen should be given a choice in which reality to live in.

robin_reala 9y ago
Please, no more referendums.
- mirekrusin 9y ago
  Exactly, jokes aside, most referendums could be avoided completely by giving people the control over where their tax money should go.
  - KGIII 9y ago
    That would make it difficult for minorities and unpopular services. Nobody is going to want their taxes to pay the tax collector's salary, after all.
    - ZeroGravitas 9y ago
      One of the many conundrums of modern politics is that the tax collectors could indeed collect more tax if they were better funded, so every tax dollar spent would recoup more than one tax dollar, yet this is resisted by the people who are presumably not currently paying what they should under current laws, and they've convinced people who do pay what they should under current laws, that this is a good thing.
      - KGIII 9y ago
        I'd suspect there wouldn't be much funding to provide access to impaired people, either. Most people probably aren't all that interested in paying for things in Braille. I live in an unincorporated township, with just a few residents. My road would never get plowed or maintained.

userbinator 9y ago

but on the other hand I am sure that future generations of pratchettologists will mourn the loss. It might not be a stretch to say that future generations would have the technology to recover the data, if past trends are any indication: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ancient-scrolls-blackened-vesuvius-are-readable-last-herculaneum-papyri-180953950/ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ancient-scrolls-blacke... As far as physical destruction goes, this isn't even that extreme.

Houshalter 9y ago
By the time we get the technology to do that, we could probably build an AI pratchett that generates great works perfectly within his style and quality. Like that black mirror episode but slightly less creepy.
- mattkevan 9y ago
  Ooh, I wonder what would happen if someone fed all of Pratchett's books into a RNN? Would it generate new Discworld stories, or would it rip a portal into the Dungeon Dimensions releasing the eldritch horrors that dwell within?
  - gnode 9y ago
    It would produce superficially Pratchett-sounding prose with no coherent plot.
    - LeifCarrotson 9y ago
      Presumably, the RNN would be deep enough to recognize that "a coherent plot" is a component of the work on which it's being trained and which it must generate. But not so deep that it generates eldritch horrors.
      - OtterCoder 9y ago
        That would be a fantastically deep network. Current AI can sometimes keep track of what's going on until the end of the paragraph. A novel's worth of threads to track is simply too much for the naive toss-it-in-a-wood-chipper approach.

roceasta 9y ago

What's the opposite of a Pratchett novel? If it were a matter of losing this then Pratchett fans and experts would presumably not mourn. However now consider the case of an almost-but-not-quite Pratchett novel. Though this is not-a-Pratchett novel, it is deceptively and misleadingly not-a-Pratchett novel, because it still resembles one. It therefore stands the greatest chance of leading fans down the garden path and distorting the overall body of work.

tjwds 9y ago

Did a bit of poking around, it looks like there's a substantial collection of his materials at the Senate House Library at the University of London. [1] These materials include quite a few interesting research angles: draft manuscripts of published works, unpublished stories, other ephemera including letters, & biographies by other authors. [1] http://www.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/resources/Pratchett.pdf http://www.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/resources/Pratchett.pdf

klipt 9y ago

> pratchettologists Re Terry's opinion on 'pratchettologists', may I point you to the following in the Pratchett Quote File: https://www.lspace.org/books/pqf/alt-fan-pratchett.html https://www.lspace.org/books/pqf/alt-fan-pratchett.html "I save about twenty drafts -- that's ten meg of disc space -- and the last one contains all the final alterations. Once it has been printed out and received by the publishers, there's a cry here of 'Tough shit, literary researchers of the future, try getting a proper job!' and the rest are wiped." -- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)