{"id":942,"date":"2016-05-20T09:45:20","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T09:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=942"},"modified":"2026-07-17T13:55:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:55:46","slug":"terry-pratchett-discworld-kim-kardashian-salman-khan-chetan-bhagat-lord-of-the-rings-amitav-ghosh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=942","title":{"rendered":"Terry Pratchett for the Teenage Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span><\/p><\/div>

n 2016, Chetan Bhagat\u2019s pandering editorial<\/a> on the need to build a Ram Mandir at the spot where Babri Masjid once stood was rewarded. The author secured a spot in Delhi University\u2019s English literature syllabus. His novel, Five Point Someone: What not to do at IIT!<\/em>, was included in the \u201cpopular fiction\u201d category, while actual writers like Amitav Ghosh and Rabindranath Tagore were dropped to accommodate him. This seemed to be the government\u2019s way of saying that even if you aren\u2019t a complete square and have endured parental and societal pressure to study the arts, you should know more about the IITs.\n\nOf course, all of this was couched in talk of updating the university syllabus to reflect current authors. But really, if the contention was that arts students were reading outmoded literature, then may I put forth a humble suggestion? Today, on what would have been the author\u2019s 70th birthday, I argue \u2013 with the authority of a former literature student and all-round fan boy \u2013 that Terry Pratchett, the author of the Discworld series, should be included in that syllabus.\n\nFor the uninitiated, Discworld is an imagined universe: A flat disc spins on the backs of four elephants that stand on a giant turtle flying through space. The universe is home to several characters like werewolves and vampires that are stock-in-trade for fantasy fiction. Yet, for all its grand imagery, Discworld is suspiciously similar to Earth. The real estate prices are just as high, the police officers are just as corrupt, and people are just as greedy.\n\nEven if you haven\u2019t read the books, there is a wealth of insights and real-world truths to be gleaned off of Pratchett\u2019s quotes alone. There\u2019s relationship advice: \u201cAnd what would humans be without love?\u201d \u201cRARE, said Death.\u201d There\u2019s counsel for Facebook warriors: \u201cFive exclamations, the sure sign of an insane mind.\u201d But more importantly, his writing is always relevant. Given our current dispensation\u2019s habit of either disregarding<\/a> or scorning<\/a> anyone who doesn\u2019t live by their belief system, a conversation in The Truth, <\/em>a novel about journalism in Discworld, sticks out like a trishul in the bathroom. William de Worde, an editor of a newspaper, while speaking to Lord Vetinari, the Patrician of the city, says, \u201cI\u2019m sure we can all pull together, sir.\u201d It\u2019s delivered as a sincere, pacifist statement that there could hardly be an objection to. Still the Patrician replies: \u201cPulling together is the aim of despotism and tyranny. Free men pull in all kinds of directions.\u201d\n

I didn\u2019t realise how important Terry Pratchett was to this change in my behaviour until about a year ago, when I moved back to Mumbai from Delhi and began re-reading Mort<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote> \nAll it takes is one simple, light-hearted conversation for Pratchett to bombard you with the deepest insight \u2013 especially at a time when there\u2019s a general uptick in \u201cnationalism\u201d and \u201cpatriotism\u201d across the world. The Truth <\/em>serves as a great reminder to not trust everything you read on the internet.\n\n\u201cHumour fantasy\u201d is not a genre most people tend to pick up when they want to do some serious reading. But to call Terry Pratchett a common humourist is like calling Mahatma Gandhi just a pacifist. The most famous fantasy epics, such as Lord of the Rings<\/em> and the Wheel of Time, often offer satirical observations on our own universe cloaked in immensely complex storylines and character interactions. Pratchett\u2019s satire, meanwhile, doesn\u2019t just needle you with a point. Instead, it throws the needle away, steals a chainsaw, and shoves it into your chest before stealing your iPhone out of your back pocket.\n\nSometimes, to have a greater understanding of our world, as the author once wrote, \u201cIt\u2019s useful to go out of this world and see it from the perspective of another one.\u201d This is increasingly important today as people on the internet continue to get more polarised over issues like Kim Kardashian\u2019s bubble butt, or Salman Khan\u2019s bubble arms, or Chetan Bhagat\u2019s bubble brain. A Discworld character would avoid confrontation, laugh, and walk away.\n\nThat\u2019s where I found Discworld most relevant to my own life. As a child with a tendency to suffer mild anxiety attacks, I often found myself overthinking the most minor of setbacks. The smallest complication would put me in a state of immediate panic, and leave me in situations where I would often feel helpless \u2013 unable to deal with the pressure of growing up, of having responsibility, eventually make money, and have a life. Discworld, where uncomfortable situations were treated with a certain amount of levity, offered me a way out.\n\n\"Terry\n

\n

Terry Pratchett’s Discworld is an imagined universe: A flat disc spins on the backs of four elephants that stand on a giant turtle flying through space.<\/p>\n

Dave Hogan \/ Getty<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\nI didn\u2019t realise how important Terry Pratchett was to this change in my behaviour until about a year ago, when I moved back to Mumbai from Delhi and began re-reading Mort<\/em>. One month later, I got the Discworld tattooed on my arm as a permanent reminder that however bad my situation may be, I would one day look back at it and laugh it off.\n\nEntire studies are devoted<\/a> to the profoundness of Pratchett\u2019s philosophy. One author of the study says, \u201cSo much of Pratchett\u2019s writings deal with value in the world, its origin, its origin in our beliefs, in our desire and need to value the world, and how it needs to be rigorously maintained through our practices.\u201d Word. In my opinion, Pratchett\u2019s work packs in literature, history, philosophy, sociology, logic, economics, political science\u2026 well\u2026 the arts.\n\nAnd yet, future arts students will not have an opportunity to be acquainted with Pratchett in the classrooms. They will have an author of dubious credibility, full to the brim with stereotypical stories of love he picked up from an \u201980s rom-com. Instead of a contemporary literary genius, we are making college students read a man who probably spent more time on his Nach Baliye<\/em> outfit than he did in attempting to steal the story<\/a> of his last book. I send out an earnest prayer to the heavens or whoever the hell makes these decisions: Junk C\u2019Bag in favour of Terry Pratchett. Make actual literature great again.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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