It would be harder to believe it's been 5 years to the day Sir Terry Pratchett went without the Luggage if I hadn't spent the time consuming Discworld novels as though he has only just cooked them up.
And why do I read so much Pratchett? Because life is very frustrating, and life is full of stupid people and of awful things you can't avoid simply by Putting It Off And Leaving It To More Qualified Persons. Every day, something scary and unnecessary is happening that makes it more difficult for you, your loved ones, the hot dog vendors, and total strangers, to live life without hurting someone else. Yet Despite That, Pratchett Wrote An Entire Universe Into Existence that is brimming with magic and hope and a wry grin and a swing at how very normal it is that life is so unaccountably bad at Standing Up For What's Right. Pratchett told stories that weren't just escapes, were never mere scathing criticisms of the fallibility of humans, but adventures of passably-common folk with their own weird habits and talents, or stubbornness, that got swept up in their own current events and made a difference for the world around them and themselves because they Owed It To Circumstances To See The Thing Done.
Pratchett is important because he gave us stories of entire worlds, not unlike our own, that gently prod the reader on the noggin to Read And Consider.
He's irreplaceable, sure, but he gave us so much life and so many laughs and lessons that it would be wrong to say he can ever be gone. For most of us, Sir Terry was another stranger who Did A Thing For Money That We Didn't Do, but for all of us Sir Terry is a human being that shared himself and shared ourselves with everyone else.
He is missed every day, sure, but he is also missed by the people that looked to all that life he created as well as the worlds his creatures and characters inhabited. He is missed because he was a man who Made Death Something to Laugh At.
So on this, the fifth anniversary of the passing of Sir Terry Pratchett, I do not count the remaining Discworld novels I have yet to read. Instead, I remember how many Discworld novels I have to read, and that I can always find a new adventure or bit of wisdom or laugh waiting for me in the pages Pratchett left us all with. #SpeakHisName #GNUTerryPratchett - thank you, Pratchett. Truly.
- Frank
- Frank
