From 154c9f164fc4c6434f048b040ae172e13795a0b6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: PatR Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2015 15:33:58 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] tribute: The Last Continent --- dat/tribute | 169 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 166 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/dat/tribute b/dat/tribute index 527085711..295ddcea4 100644 --- a/dat/tribute +++ b/dat/tribute @@ -2441,10 +2441,19 @@ him and he's warm for the rest of his life.' See my point?" # # # -%title The Last Continent (2) +%title The Last Continent (10) +# p. 260 (Harper Torch edition) %passage 1 -PEOPLE'S WHOLE LIVES DO PASS IN FRONT OF THEIR EYES BEFORE THEY DIE. THE -PROCESS IS CALLED 'LIVING'. +"Is it true that your life passes before your eyes before you die?" + +YES. + +"Ghastly thought, really." Rincewind shuddered. "Oh, /gods/, I've just +had another one. Suppose I /am/ just about to die and /this/ is my whole +life passing in front of my eyes?" + +I THINK PERHAPS YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. PEOPLE'S WHOLE LIVES /DO/ PASS IN +FRONT OF THEIR EYES BEFORE THEY DIE. THE PROCESS IS CALLED "LIVING". [...] [The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett] %e passage @@ -2454,6 +2463,160 @@ Rest of Your Life." [The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett] %e passage +# p.3 (Harper Torch edition) +%passage 3 +All tribal myths are true, for a given value of "true." + + [The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# pp. 13-14 +%passage 4 +Ponder /knew/ he should never have let Ridcully look at the invisible +writings. Wasn't it a basic principle never to let your employer know what +it is that you actually /do/ all day? + +But no matter what precautions you took, sooner or later the boss was bound +to come in and poke around and say things like, "Is this where you work, +then?" and "I thought I sent a memo out about people brining in potted +plants," and "What d'you call that thing with the keyboard?" + + [The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 21 (passage begins mid-paragraph) +%passage 5 +[...] Any true wizard, faced with a sign like "Do not open this door. +Really. We mean it. We're not kidding. Opening this door will mean the +end of the universe," would /automatically/ open the door in order to see +what all the fuss was about. This made signs a waste of time, but at least +it meant that when you handed what was left of the wizard to his grieving +relatives you could say, as they grasped the jar, "We /told/ him not to." + + [The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 22 (the books are acting up while the Librarian is incapacitated and +# now it's unsafe to go into the library) +%passage 6 +"But we're a university! We /have/ to have a library!" said Ridcully. "It +adds /tone/. What sort of people would we be if we didn't go into the +Library?" + +"Students," said the Senior Wrangler morosely. + +"Hah, I remember when I was a student," said the Lecturer in Recent Runes. +"Old 'Bogeyboy' Swallett took us on an expedition to find the Lost Reading +Room. Three weeks we were wandering around. We had to eat our own boots." + +"Did you find it?" said the Dean. + +"No, but we found the remains of the previous year's expedition." + +"What did you do?" + +"We ate their boots, too." + + [The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# pp. 45-46 +%passage 7 +Death had taken to keeping Rincewind's lifetimer on a special shelf in his +study, in much the way that a zoologist would want to keep an eye on a +particularly intriguing specimen. + +The lifetimers of most people were the classic shape that Death thought +was right and proper for the task. They appeared to be large eggtimers, +although, since the sands they measured were the living seconds of +someone's life, all the eggs were in one basket. + +Rincewind's hourglass looked like something created by a glassblower who'd +had hiccups in a time machine. According to the amount of actual sand it +contained--and Death was pretty good at making this kind of estimate--he +should have died long ago. But strange curves and bends and extrusions of +glass had developed over the years, and quite often the sand was flowing +backwards, or diagonally. Clearly, Rincewind had been hit by so much +magic, had been thrust reluctantly through time and space so often that +he'd nearly bumped into himself coming the other way, that the precise end +of his life was now as hard to find as the starting point on a roll of +really sticky transparent tape. + +Death was familiar with the concept of the eternal, ever-renewed hero, the +champion with a thousand faces. He'd refrained from commenting. He met +heroes frequently, generally surrounded by, and this was important, the +dead bodies of /very nearly/ all of their enemies and saying, "Vot the hell +shust happened?" Whether there was some arrangement that allowed them to +come back again afterwards was not something he would be drawn on. + +But he pondered whether, if this creature /did/ exist, it was somehow +balanced by the eternal coward. The hero with a thousand retreating backs, +perhaps. Many cultures had a legend of an undying hero who would one day +rise again, so perhaps the balance of nature called for one who wouldn't. + +Whatever the ultimate truth of the matter, the fact now was that Death did +not have the slightest idea of when Rincewind was going to die. This was +very vexing to a creature who prided himself on his punctuality. + + [The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 61 +%passage 8 +A black and white bird appeared, and perched on his head. + +"You know what to do," said the old man. + +"Him? What a wonga," said the bird. "I've been lookin' at him. He's not +even heroic. He's just in the right place at the right time." + +The old man indicated that this was maybe the definition of a hero. + +"All right, but why not go and get the thing yerself?" said the bird. + +"You've gotta have heroes," said the old man. + +"And I suppose I'll have to help," said the bird. It sniffed, which is +quite hard to do through a beak. + +"Yep. Off you go." + +The bird shrugged, which /is/ easy to do if you have wings, and flew down +off the old man's head. It didn't land on the rock but flew into it; for +a moment there was a drawing of a bird, and then if faded. + +Creators aren't gods. They make places, which is quite hard. It's men +that make gods. This explains a lot. + +The old man sat down and waited. + + [The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 186 +%passage 9 +She had a very straightforward view of foreign parts, or at least those +more distant than her sister's house in Quirm where she spent a week's +holiday every year. They were inhabited by people who were more to be +pitied than blamed because, really, they were like children.(1) And they +acted like savages.(2) + +(1) That is to say, she secretly considered them to be vicious, selfish +and untrustworthy. + +(2) Again, when people like Mrs. Whitlow use this term they are not, for +some inexplicable reason, trying to suggest that the subjects have a rich +oral tradition, a complex system of tribal rights and a deep respect for +the spirits of their ancestors. They are implying the kind of behavior +more generally associated, oddly enough, with people wearing a full suit +of clothes, often with the same sort of insignia. + + [The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 187 (last paragraph truncated) +%passage 10 +"I suppose he wouldn't have done anything stupid, would he?" he said. + +"Archchancellor, Ponder Stibbons is a fully trained wizard!" said the Dean. + +"Thank you for that very concise and definite answer, Dean," said Ridcully. + + [The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage %e title # #