Alternate History and Terry Pratchett, Part 2: Mort.

[David Flin]

Comment on this article by @Thande here.

 

[Alex Richards]

It's a very good representation of these ideas yes.

As for the Duke of Sto Helit

Spoiler: Spoiler

There's a brief mention of him being one of the collateral casualties from the fight in the hourglass room- or possibly not so collateral, Death literally suggests he could be merciful before making an easily telegraphed swing that smashes it.

I've always assumed this sort of opened up the possibilities- somebody has to be brought back to life now, and somebody has to be Duke...

 

[Redolegna]

Of course, Pratchett understood butterflies, he literally made them into plot-altering devices in a later book.

 

[Incognitia]

I think Mort is where Discworld clicked, for me.
I hadn't then read enough of the works being pastiched for Colour of Magic or Light Fantastic to be that great - I'd read some Pern so the Wyrmberg landed, but a lot flew straight over my head.
Mort though, was something distinctive and different, that didn't require familiarity with the genre at large to get to grips with - and as covered well in the article, it has some great ideas around time and history.

 

[Thande]

Nice choice of picture David, I spent seven years of my life staring at that across the road. (The library, not the skeleton).

It's a very good representation of these ideas yes.

As for the Duke of Sto Helit

Spoiler: Spoiler

There's a brief mention of him being one of the collateral casualties from the fight in the hourglass room- or possibly not so collateral, Death literally suggests he could be merciful before making an easily telegraphed swing that smashes it.

I've always assumed this sort of opened up the possibilities- somebody has to be brought back to life now, and somebody has to be Duke...

Of course, completely forgot that!

I hadn't then read enough of the works being pastiched for Colour of Magic or Light Fantastic to be that great - I'd read some Pern so the Wyrmberg landed, but a lot flew straight over my head.

I also had not read any of the works pastiched in those, with the side effect that I am now utterly unable to take any of them seriously.

 

[Charles EP M.]

Like Incognita, I think Mort is the first Discworld where it felt like it was clicking (I'd read Equal Rites first and not got it), though Men At Arms is the one that properly got me into things.

 

[Ncw8]

It’s a very good point about the difference in weather between the inside and outside of the bubble.

There’s a scene in one of H Beam Piper’s Paratime Police stories where an agent is returning home, crossing over various timelines on the way. The scenery outside is described as changing from one timeline to the next with only the weather remaining constant. Of course the stories were written in the Fifties, before the butterfly effect had been discovered, so Piper can be forgiven for that one.

 

[FriendlyGhost]

Great article again, thanks. Mort is one of my favourite Discworld novels (I've got lots of favourites, as they're just so good).

Once again, the importance of plot/characters over setting is made clear:

Discworld is a flat world carried on four elephants standing on a turtle’s back, as in some versions of Hindu cosmography, but this fact is almost always irrelevant to the story taking place. What matters is the people who live there.

 

[Thande]

It’s a very good point about the difference in weather between the inside and outside of the bubble.

There’s a scene in one of H Beam Piper’s Paratime Police stories where an agent is returning home, crossing over various timelines on the way. The scenery outside is described as changing from one timeline to the next with only the weather remaining constant. Of course the stories were written in the Fifties, before the butterfly effect had been discovered, so Piper can be forgiven for that one.

Even today we routinely get timelines where, e.g., John Kerry wins the 2004 US presidential election and then he is the one who has to deal with Hurricane Katrina. No, lads, if you have a POD more than a few days ago (maybe weeks with hurricanes I suppose) you don't get the same weather-related natural disasters on cue. In LTTW I deliberately do a thing where volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are the same as OTL while weather-related disasters aren't, because I find that a fascinating dichotomy, although some people have suggested ways that the former might get affected by butterflies as well.

 

[Pete U]

Like others have said, Mort is where Discworld really hit its stride, and then just kept running (until the embuggerance starts to show).

It is also a great representation of the idea that history has an inevitability about it (which is often linked to the Great Man idea, oddly enough), that individuals cannot change the weight of 'progress'.

Another excellent article, and a reminder I must get back to rereading Night Watch, which is where I'm at on my nth reread

 

[frustrated progressive]

Great article, and it feels very validating to have something on this when "POD" was the word running through my head all through reading the book.
I'm a bit confused about something in the article tho. @Thande said that "(It’s never actually discussed how the original Duke died)". But, checking my copy of Mort, his death is actually explained quite specifically. He dies when his hourglass is smashed in Mort's duel with Death, whereupon he keels over of what's implied to be a fatal heart attack.
I would normally chalk this up to a difference in editions or something, but since this article was written by Thande I'm blaming him.

 

[Thande]

Great article, and it feels very validating to have something on this when "POD" was the word running through my head all through reading the book.
I'm a bit confused about something in the article tho. @Thande said that "(It’s never actually discussed how the original Duke died)". But, checking my copy of Mort, his death is actually explained quite specifically. He dies when his hourglass is smashed in Mort's duel with Death, whereupon he keels over of what's implied to be a fatal heart attack.
I would normally chalk this up to a difference in editions or something, but since this article was written by Thande I'm blaming him.

Yes, I mentioned that upthread - oversight on my part due to thinking 'oh the relevant bit for the article is finished now' when I was re-skimming the book to prepare for writing it.

 

[frustrated progressive]

Yes, I mentioned that upthread - oversight on my part due to thinking 'oh the relevant bit for the article is finished now' when I was re-skimming the book to prepare for writing it.

Ah, sorry I missed that in turn.