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For those that didn't hear yet, one of the greatest StoryCrafters of all time has been diagnosed with (in my opinion) the most heartbreaking disease anyone can end up with. Here are a couple of links with information:
( BBC News )
( Discworld News )
If you don't know who Terry Pratchett is, he's the amazing author of the DiscWorldâ„¢ series, a comedy series of stories set in a fantasy realm, where the world is a disc, set upon the backs of four humongous elephants, and those upon the back of an even more awe-inspiringly large tortoise, the Great A'Tuin. Magic and mayhem, senior citizen barbarians, a wizard that knows only one spell, ... more than worth reading, even if you're not a fantasy fan. The series is even written scattershot, so that after the first two books, you don't have to read them in any certain order. They can be read backwards, forwards, sidewards, even jinkwards, and it'll be just as good. Those first two, by the way are (1) The Colour of Magic and (2) The Light Fantastic.
Terry
Very heartbreaking for someone so creative. :(
Hugs
grover
He doesn't seem to think so
Reading the blurb on the BBC, he sees this as a buggerance and seems quite philosophical about it.
In the front of his books, he describes himself as "not dead yet" and has from the beginning. I suspect he will outlive us all!
He also describes writing as being the most fun you can have without taking your clothes off.
I guess living near Wincanton - incidentally twinned with the fictional Ankh Morpork of the Discworld books, seems to make it more poignant, but I can't claim to know him.
He seems to think that he will die, just the same as everyone else - eventually, but he has no plans to do so just yet and feels he has a few more books in him before that happens.
Let's hope so.
How very very sad
Prachet is one of the most imaginative and subversive writers publishing today. On the surface his stories are based on a flat world where magic is normal and science is ... magic, but, in reality, they all about the world we all live in seen from his own quirky point of view.
Altzeimer's is a cruel disease that robs families of loved ones and replaces them with often violent disabled strangers. My mother-in law changed from being an intelligent retired school head mistress into a harridan who spit out her food at the carers trying to feed her. It changed my technically aware father into a person who couldn't even operate the electronic devices he used to be able to repair and I lost my source of technical advice as well as the only parent I'd had for 50 years.
It's one of the major reasons that prevents me from believing in a deity that even notices, let alone loves any individual being.
I have huge sympathy for Prachet, but even more for his friends and family who will ultimately bear the brunt of the illness. I'm sure his millions of fans will hope his great humour will help him to face up to the condition. I can even imagine his writing one of his insightful comedies to highlight his situation and the disease.
Geoff
If the road must be traveled...
... this is the way to do so. That is, of all the variants of Alzheimer's out there, not only does he have the only one they've managed to be able to control a bit (not cure, but control) with medication, but they caught it quite early. So if he has to go down the Alzheimer's Road, at least he's doing it in the most comfortable way possible.
Edeyn Hannah Blackeney
Wasn't it Jim Henson who said, "Without faith, I am nothing," after all? Wait, no, that was God. Sorry, common mistake...
TG
One of the Discworld books is even appropriate for here: Monstrous Regiment is about a girl who dresses as a boy to join the army. I'd say more but I don't want to spoil anything.
Not the first ...
... to notice this. Have you seen how much Terry Pratchett resembles Robert Jordan, who died earlier this year? It's almost freaky.
http://randytayler.livejournal.com/43363.html?nc=2
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi