tribute: Mort

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2016-01-09 18:17:15 -08:00
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@@ -800,11 +800,260 @@ shelves, but not to prevent them being stolen....
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%title Mort (1)
%title Mort (11)
# p. 136 (Signet edition; passage is a footnote;
# Vetinari doesn't show up as recurring Patrician until /Sourcery/)
%passage 1
Ankh-Morpork had dallied with many forms of government and hand ended up
with that form of democracy known as One Man, One Vote. The Patrician was
the Man; he had the Vote.
Ankh-Morpork had dallied with many forms of government and had ended up
with that form of democracy known as One Man, One Vote. The Patrician was
the Man; he had the Vote.
[Mort, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 11
%passage 2
Mort was getting interested in the rock. It had curly shells in it, relics
of the early days of the world when the Creator had made creatures out of
stone, no-one knew why.
Mort was interested in lots of things. Why people's teeth fitted together
so neatly, for example. He'd given that one a lot of thought. Then there
was the puzzle of why the sun came out during the day, instead of at night
when the light would come in useful. He knew the standard explanation,
which somehow didn't seem satisfying.
In short, Mort is one of those people who are more dangerous than a bag
full of rattlesnakes. He was determined to discover the underlying logic
behind the universe.
Which was going to be hard, because there wasn't one. The Creator had a
lot of remarkably good ideas when he put the world together, but making it
understandable hadn't been one of them.
[Mort, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 18
%passage 3
"But you're Death," said Mort. "You go around killing people!"
I? KILL? said Death, obviously offended. CERTAINLY NOT. PEOPLE /GET/
KILLED, BUT THAT'S THEIR BUSINESS. I JUST TAKE OVER FROM THEN ON. AFTER
ALL, IT'D BE A BLOODY STUPID WORLD IF PEOPLE GOT KILLED WITHOUT DYING,
WOULDN'T IT?
[Mort, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 25
%passage 4
"Is it magic?" said Mort.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? said Death. AM I REALLY HERE, BOY?
"Yes," said Mort slowly. "I... I've watched people. They look at you but
the don't see you, I think. You do something to their minds."
Death shook his head.
THEY DO IT ALL THEMSELVES, he said. THERE'S NO MAGIC. PEOPLE CAN'T SEE ME,
THEY SIMPLY WON'T ALLOW THEMSELVES TO DO IT. UNTIL IT'S TIME, OF COURSE.
WIZARDS CAN SEE ME, AND CATS. BUT YOUR AVERAGE HUMAN... NO, NEVER. He blew
a smoke ring at the sky, and added, STRANGE BUT TRUE.
[Mort, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# pp. 48-49 (Binky is Death's white horse, who was left 'parked' on a
# castle's roof; Mort is Death's novice apprentice)
%passage 5
They were on the roof before he spoke again.
YOU TRIED TO WARN HIM, he said, removing Binky's nosebag.
"Yes, sir. Sorry."
YOU CANNOT INTERFERE WITH FATE. WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE WHO SHOULD LIVE AND
WHO SHOULD DIE?
Death watched Mort's expression carefully.
ONLY THE GODS ARE ALLOWED TO DO THAT, he added. TO TINKER WITH THE FATE OF
EVEN ONE INDIVIDUAL COULD DESTROY THE WHOLE WORLD. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?
Mort nodded miserably.
"Are you going to send me home?" he said.
Death reached down and swung him up behind the saddle.
BECAUSE YOU SHOWED COMPASSION? NO. I MIGHT HAVE DONE IF YOU HAD SHOWN
PLEASURE. BUT YOU MUST LEARN THE COMPASSION PROPER TO YOUR TRADE.
"What's that?"
A /SHARP/ EDGE.
[Mort, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# pp. 59-61 (in Ankh-Morpork, Mort has accidentally walked through a wall
# into an immigrant Klatchian family's dining room; 'the creature
# who was not there' refers to Death during an earlier event)
%passage 6
"I'm no demon! I'm a human!" he said, and stopped in shock as his words
emerged in perfect Klatch.
"You're a thief?" said the father. "A murderer? To creep in thus, are you
a /tax-gatherer/?" His hand slipped under the table and came up holding a
meat cleaver honed to paper thinness. His wife screamed and dropped the
plate and clutched the youngest children to her.
Mort watched the blade weave through the air, and gave in.
"I bring you greetings from the uttermost circles of hell," he hazarded.
The change was remarkable. The cleaver was lowered and the family broke
into broad smiles.
"There is much luck to us if a demon visits," beamed the father. "What is
your wish, O foul spawn of Offler's loins?"
"Sorry?" said Mort.
"A demon brings blessing and good fortune on the man that helps it," said
the man. "How may we be of assistance, O evil dogsbreath of the nether
pit?"
"Well, I'm not very hungry," said Mort, "but if you know where I can get a
fast horse, I could be in Sto Lat before sunset."
The man beamed and bowed. "I know the very place, noxious extrusion of the
bowels, if you would be so good as to follow me."
Mort hurried out after him. The ancient ancestor watched them go with a
critical expression, its jowls rhymically chewing.
"That was what they call a demon around here?" it said. "Offler rot this
country of dampness, even their demons are third-rate, not a patch on the
demons we had in the Old Country."
The wife placed a small bowl of rice in the folded middle pair of hands of
the Offler statue (it would be gone in the morning) and stood back.
"Husband did say that last month at the /Curry Gardens/ he served a creature
who was not there," she said. "He was impressed."
Ten minutes later the man returned and, in solemn silence, placed a small
heap of gold coins on the table. They represented enough wealth to
purchase quite a large part of the city.
"He had a bag of them," he said.
The family stared at the money for some time. The wife sighed.
"Riches bring many problems," she said. "What are we to do?"
"We return to Klatch," said the husband firmly, "where our children can grow
up in a proper country, true to the glorious traditions of our ancient race
and men do not need to work as waiters for wicked masters but can stand tall
and proud. And we must leave right now, fragrant blossom of the date palm."
"Why so soon, O hard-working son of the desert?"
"Because," said the man, "I have just sold the Patrician's champion
racehorse."
[Mort, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 139-140 (passage ends mid-sentence)
%passage 7
"You don't know much about monarchy, do you?" said Keli.
"Um, no?"
"She means better to be a dead queen in your own castle than a live
commoner somewhere else," said Cutwell, [...]
[Mort, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 158
%passage 8
"You mean you won't help?" said Mort. "Not even if you can?"
"Give the boy a prize," growled Albert. "And it's no good thinking you can
appeal to my better nature under this here crusty exterior," he added,
"'cos my interior's pretty damn crusty too."
[Mort, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 159-160 (Death has come to an employment agency--a new concept in
# Ankh-Morpork--looking for a job)
%passage 9
"And what was your previous position?"
I BEG YOUR PARDON?
"What did you do for a living?" said the thin young man behind the desk.
I USHERED SOULS INTO THE NEXT WORLD. I WAS THE GRAVE OF ALL HOPE. I WAS
THE ULTIMATE REALITY. I WAS THE ASSASSIN AGAINST WHOM NO LOCK WOULD HOLD.
"Yes, point taken, but do you have any particular skills?"
I SUPPOSE A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF EXPERTISE WITH AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS? he
ventured after a while.
The young man shook his head firmly.
NO?
[Mort, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 205
%passage 10
Death raised his skull and sniffed the air.
The sound cut through all the other noises in the hall and forced them
into silence.
It is the kind of noise that is heard on the twilight edges of dreams,
the sort that you wake from in the cold sweat of mortal horror. It was
the snuffling under the door of dread. It was like the snuffling of a
hedgehog, but if so then it was the kind of hedgehog that crashes out of
the verges and flattens lorries. It was the kind of noise you wouldn't
want to hear twice; you wouldn't want to hear it /once/.
[Mort, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 207
%passage 11
"Well, that was a lesson to all of us," the bursar continued, brushing dust
and candle wax off his robe. He looked up, expecting to see the statue of
Alberto Malich back on its pedestal.
"Clearly even statues have feelings," he said. "I myself recall, when I
was but a first-year student, writing my name on his... well, never mind.
The point is, I propose here and now we replace the statue."
Dead silence greeted this suggestion.
"With, say, an exact likeness cast in gold. Suitably embellished with
jewels, as befits our great founder," he went on brightly.
"And to make sure no students deface it in any way I suggest we then erect
it in the deepest cellar," he continued.
"And then lock the door," he added. Several wizards began to cheer up.
"And throw away the key?" said Rincewind.
"And /weld/ the door," the bursar said. He had just remembered about The
Mended Drum. He thought for a while and remembered about the physical
fitness regime as well.
"And then brick up the doorway," he said. There was a round of applause.
"And throw away the brick layer!" chortled Rincewind, who felt he was
getting the hang of this.
The bursar scowled at him. "No need to get carried away," he said.
[Mort, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
@@ -6390,7 +6639,7 @@ IF YOU ASK ME, said Death, NOBODY COULD DO ANY BETTER THAN THAT...
# Used for interaction with Death.
#
%section Death
%title Death Quotes (17)
%title Death Quotes (19)
%passage 1
WHERE THE FIRST PRIMAL CELL WAS, THERE WAS I ALSO. WHERE MAN IS, THERE AM I. WHEN THE LAST LIFE CRAWLS UNDER FREEZING STARS, THERE WILL I BE.
%e passage
@@ -6443,7 +6692,8 @@ I HAVE COME FOR THEE.
# including them here wouldn't fit with the rest)
%passage 14
DARK IN HERE, ISN'T IT?
# p. 14 (Equal Rites; 2nd sentence continues 'said the deep, heavy voice...')
# Equal Rites, p. 14 (Signet edition; second sentence continues
# 'said the deep, heavy voice...')
%passage 15
THERE IS NO GOING BACK. THERE IS NO GOING BACK.
# p. 15 (contradicts later descriptions of Death as existing outside of time;
@@ -6453,6 +6703,12 @@ I HAVEN'T GOT ALL DAY, YOU KNOW.
# p. 15 (same page)
%passage 17
LIFE IS FOR THE LIVING.
# Mort, p. 148 (Signet edition)
%passage 18
NO-ONE EVER WANTED TO TALK TO ME BEFORE.
# p. 149
%passage 19
I HAVEN'T GOT A SINGLE FRIEND. EVEN CATS FIND ME AMUSING.
%e title
%e section
#