Creator of the flat "Earth" and the Apostle of the Cat God: the most interesting facts from the life of Terry Pratchett
Dreamed of becoming an astronomer
As a child, the boy was very interested in astronomy and stars in general. In adulthood, he not only did not lose interest in this topic, but also built an observatory in his garden.
The first story and a typewriter for earned money
Terry's first work was written when he was 13 years old, and a year later it was published in a school magazine called The Hades Business. On this story, the future writer earned £14 and used them to buy his first typewriter.
The first published novel
In 1971, when Terry was only 23 years old, the world saw his first novel The Carpet People. It is a comic fantasy novel about a tribe of tiny people living on the carpet. When the writer became more famous, he decided to rewrite it by adding an updated text, original black and white illustrations and an exclusive story written when he was 17 years old
From journalism to electricity production
After the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in March 1979, Pratchett left journalism to become a press officer for four nuclear power plants at the Central Electricity Production Council.
He lost in popularity only J.K. Rowling
In 1996, the Times declared Pratchett a best-selling author in the UK. He sold 70 million books worldwide and was the second most read author in Britain, second only to the J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
The award he was most proud of
It may surprise you, but most of all Pratchett was proud of the Carnegie Medal, which was awarded to his children's book The Amazing Maurice and His Raised Rodents. He got it in 2002.
Illness
At the peak of popularity, Pratchett was diagnosed with a severe form of Alzheimer's disease, posterior cortical atrophy. He had gradual degeneration of the cortex, the outer layer of the brain, on the back of the head. The disease leads to difficulties in reading, estimating distance, using tools and spelling. However, the disease did not stop Pratchett's success: in addition to continuing to write, he also became a patron of Alzheimer's Research UK and actively supported fundraising efforts and advocated raising awareness of the disease.
Own sword
The writer has always had an eccentric personality and imagination. Now that he became a knight, Terry needed the right sword he made himself from meteoric iron. The writer found a field with iron deposits near his home in Wiltshire, he himself dug up ore – 81 kilograms. Then he smelted iron ore using a homemade clay and hay furnace. A local blacksmith killed Pratchett's handmade iron rods into a silver-trimmed sword.
The last book
Pratchett's Alzheimer's disease has progressed. However, despite brain atrophy, he still continued to produce books. A few months before his death in March 2015, he finished his last novel about Discworld. Many Pratchett fans keep the book unread on their shelves in his honour.
There were 10 unfinished novels on the hard drive of his computer at the time of his death, but we will never know what they are about. According to the writer's last desire, Pratchett's unfinished works were destroyed. The hard drive was not only broken with a steam roller, but also passed through the stone crusher.
Good Omens season 3, but it is not Good Omens at all. It is The Sandman: The Kindly Ones, where Lucifer just reminds me of Crowley and Remiel of Aziraphale. That’s all.
Happy Birthday to the brightest, kind and talented David 🥳🎉❤️ Incredibly positive, sweet and attentive and his laughter can save me from depression 🥰 His attitude to the family makes me cry🥹 Be happy Star man and live a long and busy life❤️
The Ineffable Detective Agency presents more Ineffable Discontinuity and Suspicious Moments: Hawaiian Shirt / Pub Table Guy
Introducing... the extra/background character who makes Aziraphale do THIS, and then immediately has his table at the pub miracled away:
Jon Dan Duncan's imdb profile doesn't list Good Omens, not even as "uncredited" - which seems strange, because his profile does include the above photo of him. Since the actor isn't credited in GO, we don't have a character name or know anything more than what we can see onscreen. So, what DO we see?
First of all, when Aziraphale sees this person, he definitely has A Reaction. We were probably all too distracted by Azi stroking the thin dark duke to notice (as an aside, IS Crowley a Duke? Of what? Hell? Something else??), but after the 90th rewatch, it gets a bit easier to focus on these background details that are probably critically important to the story in ways we just don't understand yet. Look at this:
Did he mouth "stop" when he's supposed to be saying "sherry"? Maybe. These LOOKS, though:
We all know that Michael Sheen's expressions, no matter how tiny or fleeting, are very intentional. Who IS this mystery person??! Immediately after taking his table:
After whoever-he-is loses his pub table, he lingers nearby, and there's an interesting "ineffable discontinuity" - what he's holding in his right hand abruptly changes twice between camera cuts (sound on, if you want context for this small zoomed-in part of the screen, and try watching from your browser if the Tumblr app is cutting off the right edge of the image):
So far, our best explanation for the "ineffable discontinuities" - things that inexplicably and improbably change, like which hand is holding his drink or (coming up next) when he's behind Gabriel and then suddenly in front of him - is that we're seeing multiple timelines that are being knitted together in production to make them look seamless - but who knows? We'd love to hear your ideas! (Also, see the appearing Honolulu Roast sign in the coffeeshop, or Crowley's tattoo and sideburns, or the fandom's newest discovery (from @kimberleyjean and @bbbitchvibbbez) about Gabriel visiting his statue with "both" s1 and s2 Beelzebubs, plus the way the statue's cross is sometimes missing - just to name a few!)
Was the point in this scene with Hawaiian shirt/pub guy's right hand to draw our attention to this page of his newspaper?
"Unearthed mysteries of sealed library basement" - when Crowley told Shax that Aziraphale was "stock taking in the basement", was it true that there IS a basement in the bookshop? Basements apparently aren't that common in most of the UK, but London is famous for having "iceberg" buildings (where the basements are actually bigger than what's above-ground).
"Government approves funding for citywide charging stations" - We don't know, but it makes us think of all the electric cars used in s2 (it was an indoor set) and of Crowley throwing lightning in the street.
And the smaller headline on the right ... Hmmm. Can you read it? 😅 Maybe "Neighbor says New ------ park gate is ' too --- ' "
And it's not just the pub during episode 2! This mystery character is everywhere!
E1: He somehow starts out behind Gabriel, and then ends up in front of Gabriel with another extra on his arm:
E2: In addition to his appearance in the pub, he's also watching when Saraqael, Uriel, and Michael arrive:
E3: Our mystery character is there again when Crowley makes it rain, wearing his e1 shirt:
E4: We didn't spot him in this episode, but there are only a few minutes of present-day SoHo. Did anyone else see him?
E5: He has a doppelganger in a different Hawaiian print shirt! (Notice the different facial hair, among other things.)
Later in e5 he does actually make an appearance in the bookshop window for a quarter of a second (!!), wearing his e2 pub outfit, and maybe it's his presence that elicits this similar-to-the-pub reaction from Aziraphale?
E6: And back again to his black e1 and e3 shirt with the red flowers, while in line behind The Metatron, and then sitting at a table on the sidewalk, where he remains with the person in the turban who was in line behind him (and who also shows up quite a lot during s2) right up until Crowley drives away:
So, why have him wear such a noticable black shirt with red flowers on what are supposed to be three different days? Is he connected, with his Hawaiian print shirt, to the appearing Honolulu Roast sign? Why does he get a doppelganger in e5 - to distract us from his presence outside the bookshop before the ball? Why does Aziraphale react like this - TWICE - upon seeing this person?? (Much to Crowley's great confusion!)
And why does it seem that Aziraphale is keeping this person's presence/ identity/ importance a secret from Crowley?
As always, we'd love to hear your ideas!
Also, here's an earlier post from @theastrophysicistnextdoor about him, with gratitude for the inspiration to write all this up.
With appreciation for contributions from @noneorother, @thebluestgreen, and @embracing-the-ineffable at the @ineffable-detective-agency
Want to see more interesting posts, plus Good Omens clues and metas from all over the fandom? There's a huge collection here!
My God! You did really big work! I never noticed that 🤯 I think someone is watching Aziraphael and Crowley. Who? Don't know. That could be an angel or maybe Jesus?! It seems to me that Jesus would like to wear bright shirts😃 But this guy is surely not human. Why? Because of stupid newspaper and clothes and his 'omnipresence'. This guy is obviously don't know what people exactly wearing or reading in newspapers. So, I believe we'll see more of this man in S3 and maybe he will help Azi and Crowley? Actually, he may be God in human form.
As for Aziraphael, I think he could really 'conjure' a place to sit. If this man is an angel, then he is lower in rank than Aziraphael, so Azi could have given him the signal to leave. Perhaps the angel knows this guy and that's why he stopped Crowley for a second with his hand. This is not the first time Azi has done something like this. In season one, he touched Crowley's arm when they arrived at the 'hospital' to stop him.
Yeah, sometimes it's funny, but most of time you just don't trust your own brain and your family calls you lazy and stupid... You're alone with your stupid disorder and you can't sleep normally, you forgetting things after 5 seconds and you have 10 remainders for one appointment because you can forget about it after 10 minutes after remainder. Time after time you hate yourself because you can't be bloody normally and just be responsible and do job like everyone else 😅
PEOPLEEEE! I've just watched some of edits with AziCrow and noticed something I've never seen before 🤯
This man is an angel 🤯 We hear the same sound as in 1S, when angels were called by Heaven and this man just leaving his newspaper and going out of the pub. I've never seen this before! What the hell?!!! What's he doing in this pub? Was he spying on Azi and Crowley?
You know what, I'm updating the sign because everyone said "oh Neil, please let them kiss in season 2!" and he simply smiled as another finger on the goddam monkey's paw curled
Just leave that man alone with his script 😅 we already have big multiverse with possible solutions for S3 and none of them will really happen in Neil's story, so stop asking 😬
I just wanna say thak you for creating job's episode in season two. Yesterday in religion class (i know it sounds weird but its not like we pray is more a class where we talk about thing like "what in this life can bring you happiness" or similar question and then we discuss about it. But the prof is a priest and sometimes he reads passages from the bible) my prof started reading parts of the book of job and I went crazy thinking about good omens and wanting to talk so badly with someone about bildad the shuhite but my classmates are all homophobic idiots so I was near explosion. But then the prof was reading the questions job asked to god and I laughed thinking of "come back when you can make a whale". He saw me and asked why was i laughing and i wanted to tell everybody to watch good omens but I couldnt so I just said "oh no its just that I know how the story ends" and he was so surprised. And nothing. This is the story. Nothing happens i just wanted to say thanks to you and terry pratchett for creating this beautiful story and the amazing community that this show brought together.
gamechangershow
stormborns
vaporwave
tangentwithtanner
gummygunk
