Terry Pratchett's The Light Fantastic

Until I started watching the DVD I did not realise that I had two 90 minute episodes to enjoy - wizard!

Despite my limited travels in Fantasy I had recognised some of the parodies of typical fantasy themes, eg horse lords and so forth. However the director threw in a couple of extra visual parodies: I'm sure that the Docks of Ankh-Morpork also appeared in The Golden Compass and there was a brilliant reference to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy in the sequence when various characters galloped aimlessly over hills and moors.

Additionally the casting was a joy throughout - David Jason was brilliant and with not a hint of south London on show. It would be interesting to construct a flow diagram that linked the actors to other key fantasy films and series they have appeared in: from my quick calculation David Bradley has one of the highest scores with major roles in all the Harry Potter films, Game of Thrones and Doctor Who.



 

Turtles All The Way Down

One of the real joys of my current situation is that I am finally able to make a start on the list of books I've never had a chance to read. My current reading is A Brief History Of Time: I'd read reports that it is a difficult read, but I've not had any issues during the first few chapters.

However it was the opening that really struck me: a description of Bertrand Russell being interrupted in a lecture by a lady who insisted that the world was flat and carried on the back of a tortoise. Surely Nanny Ogg cannot have escaped from the Discworld?

Subsequently I did some research and found this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down

For some reason some people ignore the elephants and think in terms of multiple turtles!

The Light Fantastic

Time to move on: The Light Fantastic was published in 1986 with an initial print run of just 1034 copies.

1986 was a busy year as my then fiancée (now wife) decided to merge our libraries and buy a house together. Strangely enough there was little overlap beyond Tolkien and Susan Cooper  (The Dark Is Rising quintet) but we did our best to rehome the duplications.

Meanwhile in the real world Pixar Animation Studios opened for business, Microsoft held its IPO and Dragon Quest was released.

On the book front it seems to have been a pretty quiet year, with only a few fantasy novels published/recognised:

HP Lovecraft: a corrected version of Dagon and Other Stories. I'd read HPL as  teenager so this was not something to follow up.

In the US the wonderfully weirs Illuminatus Trilogy won an award, but I'd read it many years earlier.

Postscript

There is one other book published this year that is worth mentioning: Howl's Moving Castle by Diane Wynne Jones. I've not read the book but loved the animated version from Studio Ghibli:

Several years ago I read The Tough Guide To Fantasy Land by DWJ: apparently some institutions have categorised it as a dictionary, but in fact it is a wickedly funny spoof guide book to the standard characters and situations you find in some fantasy stories. I have a copy on my shelf and refer to it regularly on my travels: what I had not realised until today is that it was shortlisted for a Hugo award for Best Nonfiction Book, and it is a shmae that it did not win.

Best Terry Pratchett Novel?

I've seen various "best of" lists in terms of the Discworld novels, and from what I've seen I have some great treats in store.

From this early point in my expedition all I can say (with certainty) is that The Colour of Magic is the best Discworld novel I have read so far. It has also given me an incentive to explore much further into Discworld.

Shall I go on? I must go on.

Science Fiction or Fantasy

Since I wrote my last post there's been something niggling me: I described Star Wars as science fiction but on reflection I don't think I was correct.

I've just consulted the most authoritative source I could find - i.e. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination by Margaret Atwood - where she records a discussion that she had with Ursula Le Guin (and I'd love to have been present for that) about the difference between science fiction and fantasy.

Both Atwood and Le Guin define "science fiction" as speculative fiction about things that really could happen, whereas things that really could not happen are fantasy. Thus Star Wars belongs in fantasy along with Doctor Who and dragons.

On this basis the Discworld, although many of its elements strangely echo similar elements in the Roundworld, is definitely a creation of fantasy. I'd love to see a dragon for real but it's far safer just to read about them or watch them on a screen.

Films in 1983

1983 was a good year for film. the top grossing film was The Return of the Jedi:

The top ten also included Trading Places and Wargames, which I enjoyed at the time but which I'm not too keen to see again.

I've lost count of the number of times I've seen the original Star Wars trilogy, but am pleased to confirm that I have only seen the prequel trilogy once. However I did enjoy The Force Awakens and am looking forward to the spin-off movie later on this year.

Following the success of the Star Wars films the cinema was full of sci-fi films of various quality: from Flash Gordon to Battle Beyond the Stars. However it was not until the success of the Harry Potter films and the two Tolkien trilogies from Peter Jackson that fantasy became a subject for cinema. If a big name film director "discovers" Discworld all I hope is that he/she is able to do it justice: Peter Jackson's vision of Middle Earth ties perfectly in with my imagination, and some of his casting was perfect (Galadriel and Gandalf especially).








 

American Spellings

I'm pleased to see that the DVD Cover has the following:

Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic

IMDB  and Wikipedia both have the same spelling and it makes me happy: Sir Terry Pratchett's novels are definitely English, in the long tradition that includes PG Wodehouse and JRR Tolkien.

When the first Harry Potter book was published in the US the publishers changed the title from "Philosopher's Stone" to "Sorcerer's Stone" (on the basis that Americans do not understand philosophy presumably). The film follows the same naming convention, but my recollection is that the relevant dialogue was dubbed to make it work in the US.

My other grumble about name changes in books that I like involved Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The title of the first novel is Northern Lights (quite apt bearing in mind the action and plot) but for the US market it became The Golden Compass. Any fule kno that the item in question is an Alethiometer not a compass (golden or otherwise), and with this fidelity to the book the film bombed, although this was in part due to the pernicious efforts of evangelists who railed against its supposedly irreligious storylines.

I was fortunate enough to see both parts of the NT production of His Dark Materials in one wonderful day, and it will remain a high spot in my memories of plays that I have seen. I have also seen a one-man version of The Lord of the Rings, which while not particularly memorable was definitely brave.

Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic

Last night I started watching the DVD of  Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic (as it says on the box) and was delighted to find that it is 189 minutes long, i.e. two films for the price of one. In effect I watched The Colour of Magic and still have The Light Fantastic to come.

The film was made for TV with (presumably) a TV budget but within these constraints it was excellent. The casting of the main roles was superb (I think David Jason gave a definitive Rincewind) and I finally know how to pronounce his name. inevitably there was some editing of the story but that is standard for any adaptation (especially in the disaster called The Golden Compass) but the effects were good, well up to the standard of Doctor Who (and I mean that as a compliment).

Film of the Book

For me the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy came many years after I'd read and loved the books, but nonetheless managed to capture both my view of Middle Earth and its inhabitants:

I loved all the films and watched them all at the cinema and subsequently several times on DVD. I've even been to a concert performance of the soundtrack to The Fellowship of the Ring where a live orchestra accompanied the screening.

I came to Game of Thrones via the books, but watched all five series soon afterwards. I was impressed by the compression but  the lack of budget sometimes showed: my imagination filled the screen with horsemen (like views of Rohan) although the screen showed a line of riders on the horizon.

Thus I'm approaching the film version of The Colour of Magic with caution, although the casting looks good and the reviews I've read seem positive.

Here's the trailer: