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Journal Entry 2 by phantomreader42 at Warner Robins, Georgia USA on Saturday, September 10, 2011
 I had brunch with fanclub recently, and gave her some books including Pratchett's Going Postal. Talk turned to Pratchett's Alzheimers and death-with-dignity ideas, so I started on this book quickly, remembering a quote I'd read from Granny Weatherwax on growing old:
You call yourself some kind of goddess and you know nothing, madam, nothing. What don't die can't live. What don't live can't change. What don't change can't learn. The smallest creature that dies in the grass knows more than you. You're right. I'm older. You've lived longer than me but I'm older than you. And better 'n you. And, madam, that ain't hard.
Such a unique perspective on elves:
Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvelous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad.
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Journal Entry 3 by phantomreader42 at Warner Robins, Georgia USA on Saturday, September 10, 2011
This is one of the best of Discworld. Granny Weatherwax shines, and the Lords and Ladies are something otherworldly and dangerous, a look back at the old ways of thinking on elves before Tolkien made them the good guys.
"But look," said Ponder, "the graveyards are full of people who rushed in bravely but unwisely."
"Oook."
"What'd he say?" said the Bursar, passing briefly through reality on his way somewhere else.
"I think he said, 'Sooner or later the graveyards are full of everybody',"
...a look. It was such a look that a microbe might encounter if it could see up from the bottom end of the microscope. It said: You are nothing. It said: You are flawed, you have no value. It said: You are animal. It said: Perhaps you may be a pet, or perhaps you may be a quarry. It said: And the choice is not yours.
"I don't hold with paddlin' with the occult," said Granny firmly. "Once you start paddlin' with the occult you start believing in spirits, and when you start believing in spirits you start believing in demons, and then before you know where you are you're believing in gods. And then you're in trouble"
"But all them things exist," said Nanny Ogg.
"That's no call to go around believing in them. It only encourages them."
Books by Terry Pratchett:
Rincewind the Wizzard
Pyramids
Equal Rites
Mort
Reaper Man
Soul Music
Feet of Clay
Small Gods (2nd copy) (3rd copy)
Interesting Times
Lords And Ladies
Maskerade
The Fifth Elephant
Going Postal
The Truth
Night Watch
Monstrous Regiment
Good Omens (with Neil Gaiman)
The Wizards of Odd edited by Peter Haining
Knights Of Madness edited by Peter Haining
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Lords and Ladies
