Pratchett anger at Rowling's rise (at Harry Potter 's author)

BBC ^ | 7/31/05

[TASMANIANRED]

Envy is an ugly thing.

[50sDad]

I would follow Carrot past the Gates of Hell and back again, and would report it all to Mr. Vimes. Pratchett writes his characters with great depth and beauty, and in his own way makes me feel their joys and pains no less than Rowling...but it's still the difference between Gilbert & Sullivan and Carmen.

[50sDad]

Oh, he's an incredible writer if you like the Douglas Adams-style light wit...very clever with a turn of phrase, on the order of...

Granny was very careful of asking questions in Ankh-Mapork. She knew that in a city like this, curiosity didn't mearly kill the cat. It killed it, tied rocks to it, and dumped it in the river."

Or

"The Ardchancellor of the Unseen University had very powerful intellect, but it was powerful like a locomotive; forceful, unstoppable, and very hard to steer."

[50sDad]

Xanth: One good book, followed by ten pretty good books just like it, followed by twenty bland ones just like it with the same exact formula, followed by.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

[JenB]

Heh... I once saw a praise quote from Piers Anthony about Terry Pratchett that managed to be condescending and insulting at the same time. When good ol' Piers invents a second plot and a fourth character, tell me.

Meanwhile, Discworld's full of characters as memorable as those which inhabit Rowling's world, but in different ways. Am looking forward to a new Guards novel immensely.

[from occupied ga]

Pratchett needs to spend a little more energy on his writing and less on sour grapes. Rowling is vastly more popular than Pratchett for a reason.

[altura]

Love Douglas Adams and will try the Pratchett books.

It's so much better if one doesn't know too much about authors personally. (that goes for movie stars and singers, too)

I once worked for an acclaimed poet. It sure ruined his poetry for me!

[stocksthatgoup]

Soon all writers will be unionized so that we can all get a standard product to gather dust.

[Androcles]

I'd have to agree with that. My one addition is that I'd definitelyt reverse my normal policy regarding books to films and hope that Pratchett had no involvement with the screenplay but that's beacause he doesn't really have the bitter edge you need for that now. Gilliam on the other hand is perfect for that subtle mix of farce and fear...I hope its true - it'd be the best news I'd had in a long time.

I miust confess I'd like to see him do a Discworld novel to a different format in terms of structure and length - ie not racing it along to same breakneck conclusion in the smale length as he always does but breaking it across two books or one much larger one. On his best day he's very good but duplicating his patterns brings out his worst attributes.

[grellis]

How sad I am...I just googled "good omens gilliam" and the most recent info I found was from 2002. Seems as if the project is DOA. Sad, sad, sad! He would have done a marvelous job with the book.

[RightWingAtheist]

I wouldn't be surprised that Isaac Asimov did write such a essay; he would frequently in his F&SF columns make little quips over the media misunderstanding over what SF is and what it isn't. I've noticed that whenever the MSM does an article on the genre, the one SF writer they always seem to bring up is Philip K. Dick. And the only reason they know about him at all is that he has been the subject of more recent movie adaptations than any other American SF writer (non-Americans Wells, Verne and Doyle all far exceed him in that regard, tho). I wonder what Neil Gaiman's reaction to all of this has been. He's my choice for the best living fantasist, and he always has something intelligent and insightful to say.

[RightWingAtheist]

Don't worry, Gaimain is making his way into the film industry. In addition to three other projects in production, his movie Mirrormask, done in collaboration with Dave McKnight, is coming out later this year. I've seen the trailer; it looks just incredible.

[grellis]

It's not so much the Gaiman angle I'm sad about--when I first heard, several years back, that Gilliam had been tagged to direct Good Omens I had the feeling it would never come to pass. I love the book. I can't imagine any director besides Gilliam doing it justice.