Terry Pratchett is the author of more than 50 novels, many set in the wonderful lands of Discworld. Writer and comedian Marc Burrows explore the author’s life in his recent book Terry Pratchett’s Magicfirst full-length Pratchett biography.
“He has a compelling story,” said Burrows in Episode 501 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy audio file. “It starts and ends in really, really interesting ways, and in the middle, he’s briefly the best-selling author in the series. [Britain]. So it’s a good story that no one has told before.”
Pratchett became famous in the mid-1980s with humorous novels, puns such as Color of magic. The decade was a peak for the “funny fantasy” movement, in which authors like Pratchett, Robert Asprinand Craig Shaw Gardner poke fun at many of the absurdities of the fantasy genre. “The reason Pratchett was successful is because fantasy was popular and he had the idea to do what fantasy Douglas Adams Burrows said. “It was the elevator pitch for the first Discworld novel.”
But as the Discworld series progressed, Pratchett’s approach became more and more thought-provoking. Across dozens of books, he has used fantasy and youth literature as a playground to explore a range of serious topics such as discrimination, dictatorship, and death. Attention readers. Towards the end of his life, Pratchett achieved bestseller status, inspired a fervent fan following, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
“He started getting major awards and critical acclaim,” says Burrows. “Which I think he’s very, very pleased with on the one hand, but on the other hand, he’s always defended himself as a genre writer, and always feels that instead of saying he’s not. is a fantasy writer – rather than a fantasy comic. a writer or a science fiction writer — fantasy and science fiction in themselves are worthy of praise. ”
The Second Terry Pratchett Biography, Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes, to be released later this year, is written by Rob Wilkins, Pratchett’s longtime friend and assistant to Pratchett. Burrows is looking forward to seeing what details the new episode brings. “I like the idea that the two books will really complement each other and my book will be a really nice addendum to the official story,” he said. “So I hope that instead of dismissing or making mine redundant, they will actually work together.”
Listen to the full interview with Marc Burrows on Episode 501 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.
Marc Burrows on the Terry Pratchett anecdote:
Pratchett is a conscientious storyteller. It was his gift. He’s a great storyteller, and he can never resist the urge to polish his own anecdotes. It made him a very interesting interview – he prepared for interviews rigorously. He can really quote in interviews, because before starting to press for a new book, he will prepare lines that he knows will be great quotes. He was once a journalist, so he knew exactly what to say. But yes, he will always polish his stories… His only knack is to know how to tell a story, and why not apply that to your own life? No one checks until you die and some scammer comes and writes a book about you.
Marc Burrows on publishing:
The German publishing house dissected Pratchett’s work. The stuff between the 80’s and 90’s, it’s really funny. They don’t like the cover to Mort— The fourth Discworld novel — for some reason, so they used the cover for the next book in the series instead, The Wyrd Sisters. … Mort is a book about the apprentice of the God of Death, and The Wyrd Sisters is a Shakespeare parody of witchcraft. There are basically no witches in Mort-Yes One witch, in short. Apparently it was the cover of a completely different book. Then of course they have to publish the next book, which is The Wyrd Sistersand they need a new cover for that, so they just reuse it. So there are two Discworld novels in the German 90s work with identical covers.
Marc Burrows on fandom:
Terry Pratchett never wanted to be ‘cool’. He really thrives and enjoyment is not cool. That’s not who he is. He likes to play outsiders, he likes to play nerds. He likes the fact that he to be its audience. He is writing for himself… He knows that his books are read by a mainstream mass – you can’t be that successful and only the readers are nerds. But he also knows that the core audience, the people who drive the fandom — and the fandom is what drives its success — he knows that they he. They are exactly the kind of people he was in the 60s when he went to conferences and was nervous about meeting Arthur C. Clarke in the toilet, and write letters to sci-fi authors. He is that person.
Marc Burrows on marketing:
My publisher was great, but they weren’t a big name, so I realized that I know how to sell this book probably better than anyone else, in that I know the Discworld fandom. … I ended up doing 500 pre-sale from me alone — not from Amazon or bookstores or directly from my publisher or anything like that, just through me — that was amazing. , but I can’t quite predict what it’s like to have 500 copies of a book in your house. They arrived in a van, and the lorry driver seemed so confused that he was delivering what turned out to be a residential flat in north-east London and not a warehouse. So yeah, we lived in the middle of cardboard for a while, and getting them all in the mail was an industrial practice.
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