5 ms·
> "if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning. No one ever said elves are nice. Elves are bad." Wait, so he's saying
by technothrasher 5y ago
> "if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning. No one ever said elves are nice. Elves are bad."
Wait, so he's saying that words can change meaning but mythical creatures cannot change character? It would seem to me that those are two sides of the same phenomenon.
- monkeydreams 5y agoI think the commentary is that people who twist the meanings of words in order to charm and beguile are "bad". Like most of Pratchett's work, the subtext is pretty heavy.
- dcminter 5y agoBad, at least in British slang of a moderately recent era, can mean cool.
- ludston 5y agoIt's a quote from one of his ficticious Discworld novels that introduces elves in his specific universe.
- smegsicle 5y agoelves ("daemons") cannot be trusted beyond their own goals- humanizing them can be a costly mistake