azdak

This news about Terry Pratchett being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's is, as the man himself says, an "embuggerance". His official announcement of the news is a model of wit and generosity and stiff-upper-lippishness and frankly made me want to cry. It was the Discworld that got me into internet fandom, many years ago, when a colleague introduced me to alt.fan.pratchett, and I whiled away many a tedious hour avoiding research by writing yards of meta on Theme and Character and all that stuff. And it was the Discworld that got me back into theatre, when I answered Stephen Briggs' call for people to act in one of his adaptations of Pterry's books, and ended up as a Studio Theatre Club regular. The Man Himself used to hang out on alt.fan.pratchett, and was witty and intelligent and kind; and he used to come to the first night of the plays, and was as witty and intelligent and kind in person as he was in pixels. I still love the books, especially Small Gods; I still think Lord Vetinari is one of the coolest characters ever invented; I still buy each book as it appears. Terry Pratchett was, and is, responsible for huge quantities of very pleasurable experiences in my life, and this news is one of those Uncaring Universe moments when all I can think of is Auden: "Looking up at the stars, I know quite well/That, for all they care, I can go to hell." I tell you, if I were God, this place would be run differently.