Alternate History and Terry Pratchett. Part 1. The Carpet People.

[David Flin]

Comment on this article by @Thande here.

 

[Redolegna]

That opening always stayed with me.

They called themselves the Munrungs. It meant The People, or The True Human Beings. It’s what most people call themselves, to begin with. And then one day the tribe meets some other people and gives them a name like The Other People or, if it’s not been a good day, The Enemy. If only they’d think up a name like Some More True Human Beings, it’d save a lot of trouble later on.

Dunno if he wrote it when he was 17 or 43, but damn.


The trousers of time giving rise to watching all the people you care about dying is going to come back with Jingo and the imp detailing to Vimes how all the Watch would die if he had stayed in Ankh-Morpork.

 

[Alex Richards]

I do also appreciate the concept of 'yes if you've always known exactly what the future would be, then suddenly having nothing is going to be extremely disconcerting.

 

[Charles EP M.]

God, it's really been eight years?

 

[Redolegna]

I do also appreciate the concept of 'yes if you've always known exactly what the future would be, then suddenly having nothing is going to be extremely disconcerting.

Seen also with the seeress of Kell.

God, it's really been eight years?

Yeah, it doesn't feel it. The anniversary was a few days ago, lots of GNU messages going up and down Twitter in memoriam.

 

[Thande]

That opening always stayed with me.



Dunno if he wrote it when he was 17 or 43, but damn.


The trousers of time giving rise to watching all the people you care about dying is going to come back with Jingo and the imp detailing to Vimes how all the Watch would die if he had stayed in Ankh-Morpork.

I also really like the opening, I referenced it in "Well Met By Starlight" even. He wrote that part was when he was 43, pretty sure. I would like to read the original but it's understandably hard to get hold of (it being hard to get hold of in the first place, and people asking about it on By The Same Author lists, was what prompted him to rewrite it). And yes, we'll be coming back to that for Jingo.

 

[Stateless]

Despite having not read it, I can tell you that the war cry of the Vortgorns would not have been 'On Epen Ny' in 1971, as the penny would have read 'New Penny', or the pre-decimal (decimalisation having occurred in 1971) penny which would have read 'One Penny' would have had Britannia, rather than the crowned portcullis.

 

[Charles EP M.]

The fact it starts off as a joke in Jingo is what makes it - "ha ha it's the wrong story" and then steadily getting grimmer until it's a litany of your favourite characters being dead, the farce about jingoistic idiots looking for a war and our heroes trying to avoid a war showing us a glimpse of what the war would have actually looked like and why it was important to avoid it.

 

[Stateless]

Despite having not read it, I can tell you that the war cry of the Vortgorns would not have been 'On Epen Ny' in 1971, as the penny would have read 'New Penny', or the pre-decimal (decimalisation having occurred in 1971) penny which would have read 'One Penny' would have had Britannia, rather than the crowned portcullis.

Or, of course, Pratchett didn't realise when writing it that the decimal pennies said 'New Penny' rather than 'One Penny', and it was a happy coincidence that by 1992 reality had caught up.

 

[OwenM]

I also really like the opening, I referenced it in "Well Met By Starlight" even. He wrote that part was when he was 43, pretty sure. I would like to read the original but it's understandably hard to get hold of (it being hard to get hold of in the first place, and people asking about it on By The Same Author lists, was what prompted him to rewrite it). And yes, we'll be coming back to that for Jingo.

I think there was a collection of the short stories he wrote for the local paper's children's section at that point published fairly recently but I'm not sure if it included the original of this (which IIRC was originally a serial there).

 

[Thande]

Despite having not read it, I can tell you that the war cry of the Vortgorns would not have been 'On Epen Ny' in 1971, as the penny would have read 'New Penny', or the pre-decimal (decimalisation having occurred in 1971) penny which would have read 'One Penny' would have had Britannia, rather than the crowned portcullis.

Possibly that was changed in the second edition, which is another reason to hunt it up. I remember actually wondering that as a kid as I knew about the Britannia pennies.

 

[Incognitia]

Ooh, lovely, I'll be enjoying this run of articles.

I definitely read the Carpet People at some point but have few memories of the plot.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Carpet People, Truckers and Johnny and the… series were so good and somewhat overlooked in later years. Johnny in particular helped me get through teenage life in many ways.

I should revisit Strata at some point as well, with its proto discworld that explicitly apes real history

 

[Charles EP M.]

Carpet People, Truckers and Johnny and the… series were so good and somewhat overlooked in later years.

I still keep thinking of bits in those, like "I think the Abbott believes in abbotts", "I reckon Ronald McDonald is like Jesus Christ", and "everyone was afraid and what they were afraid of was each other".

 

[FriendlyGhost]

Good article and I'm certainly looking forward to the others.

That opening always stayed with me.
Dunno if he wrote it when he was 17 or 43, but damn.

I agree - it's one of the most powerful openings I've ever read - and in an ostensibly children's book no less. He wrote it for the later version. The 1971 opening was more a generic fantasy opening and not nearly as impactful.

I haven't read the original version, but Trinity College Dublin has a very interesting page on the Carpet People (as part of its 'Pratchett Project') which analyses the differences between the 1971 and 1992 versions: https://libguides.tcd.ie/c.php?g=675377&p=4807907

 

[RyanF]

Haven't read Pratchett (Discworld at this stage and at my age needs all the planning of a military operation to consume for the first time) but enjoyed this at the level of comparative fantasy.

Might note The Carpet People as a standalone title that could serve as a gateway drug. Feel that fantasy looking at a "micro" world (such as The Borrowers or Mice and Mystics) is one of the many styles that has been buried under the Tolkien imitation tsunami.

I'm always fond of interesting ways of dealing with prophecies and future knowledge as a storytelling device. Sounds like Carpet People addresses it from many aspects, including one reminiscent of Red Dwarf's "Cassandra". So much more interesting than just playing it straight with or without a small pun.

 

[Alex Richards]

Haven't read Pratchett (Discworld at this stage and at my age needs all the planning of a military operation to consume for the first time) but enjoyed this at the level of comparative fantasy.

Might note The Carpet People as a standalone title that could serve as a gateway drug. Feel that fantasy looking at a "micro" world (such as The Borrowers or Mice and Mystics) is one of the many styles that has been buried under the Tolkien imitation tsunami.

I'm always fond of interesting ways of dealing with prophecies and future knowledge as a storytelling device. Sounds like Carpet People addresses it from many aspects, including one reminiscent of Red Dwarf's "Cassandra". So much more interesting than just playing it straight with or without a small pun.

Pratchett had something of a fondness for that 'micro' style- as well as The Carpet People there's the entire Bromeliad trilogy (Truckers, Diggers, Wings) plus the Wee-Free Men in the Tiffany Aching series for Discworld proper.

 

[Thande]

Haven't read Pratchett (Discworld at this stage and at my age needs all the planning of a military operation to consume for the first time) but enjoyed this at the level of comparative fantasy.

The books are more or less standalone with some recurring characters and settings, and I ended up reading many of them out of order due to my school library's limited selection (e.g. Men at Arms before Guards! Guards!) so I wouldn't necessarily worry about that.

 

[Stateless]

Good article and I'm certainly looking forward to the others.


I agree - it's one of the most powerful openings I've ever read - and in an ostensibly children's book no less. He wrote it for the later version. The 1971 opening was more a generic fantasy opening and not nearly as impactful.

I haven't read the original version, but Trinity College Dublin has a very interesting page on the Carpet People (as part of its 'Pratchett Project') which analyses the differences between the 1971 and 1992 versions: https://libguides.tcd.ie/c.php?g=675377&p=4807907

That answers my numismatic ponderings - in the original, High Gate Land was named for the reverse of the threepenny coin, a crowned portcullis, like the 1971-2008 penny.

 

[Ncw8]

That answers my numismatic ponderings - in the original, High Gate Land was named for the reverse of the threepenny coin, a crowned portcullis, like the 1971-2008 penny.

That would make sense. The old penny was a bit too large and flat to look like a fortress. The thrupenny bit was thicker, with a smaller diameter, and the twelve sided shape made it look more like a castle.