The ‘wonderful world of childhood’
is really quite awful: the same world
of grown-ups written big, everything
is MORE* - in a negative way
Mad with terror, without compass or guiding
light, children interpret the world, choose for
or against disciplines and for the rest of their
lives pay the price
Learning which situations and places evoke
certain mental states, which they prefer to
retain and which to discard, childhood is
such a sorry state
Prey to aberrations of parents and siblings
suppressed by society’s neuroses, so much
better to grow and broaden horizons, make
up one’s own mind, choose one’s own star
Create one’s own visions, dream, learn and
seek wisdom, do one’s own thing – Pratchett
buries profound insights in a welter of imagery,
similes and striking comparisons
Needs many readings to elicit the gems
he scatters throughout his texts, though he
laughs at foibles, absurdities, his beautifully
carved characters are full of integrity
Delightfully eccentric, describing experience
as I feel it using hyperbole and hilarious
metaphors; his lessons in Particle Physics
and comments on modern Cosmology
Become wonderful games, puzzles to be un-
ravelled by reading scientific material which
acquires a new glow that changes them into
fascinating tales making me laugh
Changing everyday life into fun most superb!
* Quoted from p. 253, ‘The Hogfather’ – Terry Pratchett,
Victor Gollancz, Sixth impression 1996
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