An encouraging sign

[mirrorbrothers.livejournal.com]

"'Are you, er, Pickles or Pointer?' said Vimes, as a last resort.

'I'm Miss Pickles, dear. Miss Point-'

She stopped. Her expression changed, became slightly younger and considerably more alert.

'And I'm Miss Pointer, dear,' she said. 'Don't worry about Pickles, she just runs the body when I've got other things to do. Are you Commander Vimes?'

Vimes stared. 'Are you telling me you're two people? With one body?'

'Yes, dear. It's supposed to be an illness, but all I can say is we've always got along well.'"

- Thud, by Terry Pratchett

And wasn't I glad to read that. No fireworks, no sensationalism, thank God no dysfunction. The multiplicity isn't even remotly relevant to the plot. Pickles and Pointer get about a page and a half each, and then they're gone. Pratchett just needed an interesting character there, and no skinflint he, he used two.

I'd heard of Pratchett using multiplicity before, but I hadn't read it and didn't know if I'd like it. But that was, for its length, as nice a piece of accurate exposure as I've ever seen. And the book was an NYT bestseller, and probably even bigger in England. Gotta love it.

Johnny

Comments

[asterism.livejournal.com]

I loved that excerpt. Right to the point. :) Plus, Thud! is one of my favorite Pratchett novels.

:D

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

http://community.livejournal.com/multiplicity/357809.html

http://community.livejournal.com/multiplicity/93867.html

Re: :D

[mirrorbrothers.livejournal.com]

Wow, late to the party, am I? That's the exact same quote in the first link. Ah, well, always was a late bloomer.

Re: :D

[kangetsuhime.livejournal.com]

That said, we (myself and Lu) love the author, as does our fiancé, so we get the books pretty much opening day at times.

Loved that character. And yes his books tend to be pretty big over here. Thud! did well IIRC. I keep forgetting it as something just to throw at people to show how multiplicity should and can be (an incidental and 'normal' thing). I should do that more.

[aquilawolf.livejournal.com]

I know I have read some of Pratchetts work years ago. This is motivating to read some more.

[liedownlovely.livejournal.com]

I absolutely adore Pratchett's writing. Just more proof that he's amazing!

-R

[crystalseraph.livejournal.com]

That was pretty interesting. That's also the way we tend to handle it irl xD. It's suprisingly effective.

[kamikaze-queens.livejournal.com]

Pratchett also has more than one character that is one person, two bodies...sort of anti-multiplicity.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

That's often known in science fiction as a gestalt entity. You might be interested in Theodore Sturgeon's book More Than Human, and Gene Roddenberry's concept, in his novel of Star Trek, the Motion Picture, of the "new humans".

[kamikaze-queens.livejournal.com]

I think I've had Sturgeon's book recc'd to me before. I'll check it out.
Thanks for the tip! :)

[igemelli.livejournal.com]

I love Pratchett.

He has a couple of other mentions of multiple systems in various books too - Agnes & Perdita in Maskerade and Carpe Jugulum, and Altogether Andrews in The Truth (I think) as well as the reverse-multiple mentioned by kamikaze_queens. Nanny Ogg also at one point tells an anecdote about a man who had "seven other people in his head" (apparently they mostly left him on his own when there was work to be done, but would all crowd up front and start "fighting for a tastebud" when he had a drink. XD)

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

There are a bit more details on that here (http://community.livejournal.com/multiplicity/357809.html?thread=4863665#t4863665).

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[1spartak.livejournal.com]

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