pargery

[pargery]

"Just remember you're not alone here."

I never know what to say to that. I am, actually, alone in my head, and that's where ninety plus percent of my problems are.

-- "Network Effect" by Martha Wells

[pargery]

[pargery]

[pargery]

Please call this recession the Trump Slump.

We need to put Trump's name on this.

[pargery]

"I want a school, sir. I want a school here on the Chalk. I've been thinking about this for a long time--in fact, for longer than I had worked out the name for what I wanted. There's an old barn on Home Farm that isn't being used right now, and I think we could make it quite acceptable in a week or so."

"Well, the traveling teachers do come through every few months," said the Baron.

"Yes, sir, I know, sir, and they're useless, sir. They teach facts, not understanding. It's like teaching people about forests by showing them a saw. I want a proper school, sir, to teach reading and writing, and most of all thinking, sir, so people can find what they're good at, because someone doing what they really like is always an asset to any country, and too often people never find out until it's too late. [...] There have been times lately, when I dearly wish that I could change the past. Well, I can't, but I can change the present, so that when it becomes the past it will turn out to be a past worth having."

Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight

[pargery]

There should be a word for the microscopic spark of hope that you dare not entertain in case the mere act of acknowledging it will cause it to vanish, like trying to look at a photon.

Terry Pratchett, Mort

[pargery]

“You took an oath to uphold the law and defend the citizens without fear or favor," said Vimes. "And to protect the innocent. That's all they put in. Maybe they thought those were the important things. Nothing in there about orders, even from me. You're an officer of the law, not a soldier of the government.” -- Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett

[pargery]

Some PTerry quotes that feel especially salient at the moment:

"He asked you to shoot at people who weren’t shooting back,” growled Vimes, striding forward, “That makes him insane, wouldn’t you say?”

“They are throwing stones, Sarge,” said Colon.

“So? Stay out of range. They’ll get tired before we do."

- Night Watch

Odd thing, ain't it... you meet people one at a time, they seem decent, they got brains that work, and then they get together and you hear the voice of the people. And it snarls.

- Jingo

It always embarrassed Samuel Vimes when civilians tried to speak to him in what they thought was “policeman.” If it came to that, he hated thinking of them as civilians. What was a policeman, if not a civilian with a uniform and a badge? But they tended to use the term these days as a way of describing people who were not policemen. It was a dangerous habit: once policemen stopped being civilians the only other thing they could be was soldiers.

- Snuff

The poor devils. They thought a king would make them free.

- Feet of Clay

Beating people up in little rooms…he knew where that led. And if you did it for a good reason, you’d do it for a bad one. You couldn’t say “we’re the good guys” and do bad-guy things. Sometimes the watching watchman inside every good copper’s head could use an extra pair of eyes.

- Thud!

[pargery]

"Did I?... hear things? or can that little dog speak?" said Dibbler.

"Uh, he says he can't," said Victor.

Dibbler hesitated. The excitement was unhinging him a little. "Well," he said. "I suppose he should know."

[pargery]

"Then if you persist in playing games I will say that before a knight is created he must spend a night's vigil watching his armor-"

"Practically every night of my life," said Vimes. "A man doesn't keep an eye on his armor round here, that man's got no armor in the morning."

"In prayer," said Rust sharply.

"That's me," said Vimes. "Not a night has gone by without me thinking, 'Ye gods, I hope I get through this alive.'"

"—and he must have proved himself on the field of combat. Against other trained men, Vimes. Not vermin and thugs."

Vimes started to undo the strap of his helmet.

"Well, this isn't the best of moments, my lord, but if someone'll hold your coat I can spare you five minutes..."

Vimes antagonising Rust at any given moment

This man’s never taking Vetinari’s role again

[pargery]

If there's more of us, then we're not rebels.

[pargery]

Spend the Money for the Good Boots, and Wear Them Forever - The New York Times

Vimes boots theory quoted in NYT article by Carl Richards Feb. 1, 2016

[pargery]

‘Inside a pocket of his coat there was the flinch of his phone as it gathered a text, the small noise that warned him of incoming communications.’ A.L. Kennedy, “Serious Sweet” (Little A, 2016), Page 56

--quoted in 2017-03-14 NYT column by Sam Anderson

New Sentences: From ‘Serious Sweet’ by A.L. Kennedy - The New York Times

[pargery]

this is the PDF linked in my reply to my previous post re: Venice and Ankh-Morpork being women.

There's the link again:

& oh duh there are also Biblical examples. I should have remembered. Here's another link: https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/11039/Woman-as-Symbol-City.htm

[pargery]

Ankh-Morpork and now Venice

[pargery]

“Don’t worry, I’m not drunk. I’m diversifying my posture.”

-- LostInAThread

https://www.threads.com/@lostinathread/post/DJHQZO0Ibap?xmt=AQGzXp947n2l-BENRhONKZQkAw4MNnzmYx1Raf6Lds3Prg

[pargery]

Jasper Fforde's description of Douglas Coupland at the Harbourfront Festival in Toronto, October 2003:

When he finished speaking he closed the book and went straight on to a story concerning the Colombine Massacre where once the fire alarms were suddenly quietened past midnight, the emergency services were suddenly able to hear the trilling and beeping of the cellphones as the living tried to communicate with the dead. He postulated that whenever we next hear a mobile phone ringing near us that we look at it not as an annoyance or a distraction but with a positive line of thought, that here was one human being wanting to talk to another human being, something that should be celebrated.

He then asked everyone to get their mobiles out and find the button that makes them ring, then, after asking for dimmed lights from the lighting manager, proceeded to ask everyone to make their cell phones ring and witness a 'Cellphone Sonata' that might have been heard that night after Colombine. It was a strange and eerie sound, and was immensely powerful.

Quoted from Jasper Fforde's free substack email, 2025-05-01.