Terminal Benevolence

Finished reading “The Truth” the 25th Discworld
Novel by Terry Pratchett, rereading my notes to
decide what to report about this, deciding to jot
them down as they are, a memory of the best
satire by an author worth his weight in gold…

p162
“The philosopher Heidehollen says the universe is
a cold soup of time, all time mixed up together, the
passage of time being merely quantum fluctuations
in the fabric of space-time” - “in another country the
psychotropic scenery knows that thunder, lightning,
drum rolls and organ music are expected of it”
Pratchett combines German philosophy with
Hollywood movie conventions

p199 & p200
Mr Pin with an expression of terminal benevolence
Mr Tulip from Little Flowers of Perpetual Annoyance
Mr Pin saying the way to send a soul to heaven is to
give the body hell; two characters reminding of the
two criminals in “Diamonds Are Forever”, James
Bond, now I KNOW why I hate false altruistic
benevolence so!

p205
“A subject’s own morphic signature aligns the thing-
particles in phase-phase according to the Temporel
Relevance Theory, creating the effect of multiple di-
rectionless windows which intersect with the illusion
of the present and create metaphoric images accor-
ding to the dictates of quasi-historical extrapolation”
Ah, adorable, Pratchett uses quantum physics to
explain the illusion of material reality

p210 & p235 & p286 & p314
Saying with “horrible cheerfulness: You can tell as many
lies as you like if it’s advertising”, phenomenology
as explained by Heidegger, what a thing LOOKS
like and “a Lecturer in Vindictive Astronomy”,
oh yes, kill them with theories, delightful!

P319
“Reincarnation enjoys a joke as much as the next
philosophical hypothesis” – ending with a brilliant
observation: “Nothing has to be true for ever, just
long enough, to tell you the truth…” my truth for
today making me happy, need not last till
tomorrow…


“The Truth” the 25th Discworld Novel by Terry Pratchett
Published 2000 by Doubleday