From: leo@cp.tn.tudelft.nl (Leo Breebaart)
Subject: The Annotated Pratchett File, v5.0 - part 2 of 3
Followup-To: alt.fan.pratchett
Originator: leo@cygnus
Reply-To: leo@cp.tn.tudelft.nl
Organization: Unseen University
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 23:12:47 GMT

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This is the beginning of part 2 of 3
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MOVING PICTURES

This one has uncountable references to classic Hollywood movies and
anecdotes.

- Terry actually meant for Gaspode to die at the end of the book, but his
  editors/publishers/beta-readers made him reconsider.

- People have noticed that the two femmes fatale of this novel are called
  Ginger and Ruby, both names signifying a red color. Terry Pratchett says
  that he did *not* intend this as a reference to "Gone With The Wind"'s
  Scarlett.

- Instead, Ruby got her name because like all trolls she needed a mineral
  name. Ginger got her name because Terry wanted to use the Fred Astaire
  quote (see a few notes further down) about her partner, and so Ginger was
  an obvious choice for the leading lady's name.

- [p. 15] Archchancellor Ridcully's wizard name is 'Ridcully the Brown'. In
  Tolkien's "The Lord Of The Rings" there's a (relatively) minor wizard called
  'Radagast the Brown', who was also very well in tune with nature, and
  definitely of the "roams-the-high-forest-with-every-beast-his-brother"
  type. Talked to the birds, too.

+ [p. 15] "'Not now, man,' snapped the Archchancellor. 'Got to see a man
  about a horse, what?'"

  Opinions are a bit divided as to where this phrase comes from. On the one
  hand we have someone who remembers that Groucho Marx used to say: "Gotta
  see a man about a duck", but we have no further context on that.

  On the other hand, I have been told by various correspondents that "Got
  to see a man about a horse":

  (a) is an old English excuse for making your departure; 
  (b) originates from prohibition America, where the illegal alchohol
      drops where conducted by people "walking" dogs;
  (c) is an English euphemism for going to the bathroom;
  (d) originally had to do with dog fighting and people popping
      out to put a bet on the illegal sport.

  Personally, I'm inclined to go with option (c), but that's just
  intuition. Surely there is somebody out there who can clear this matter
  up for me?

+ [p. 18] "And then a voice said: 'That's all, folks.'"

  Anybody out there who has never seen Porky Pig use this phrase to end one
  of those classic Looney Tunes animated cartoons?

+ [p. 19] "'You know what, lordship? They liked them. They actually liked
  them!'"

  Refers to Sally Field's acceptance speech at the 1985 Academy Awards (for
  her role in "Places In The Heart"), where she burst into tears and kept
  saying (to the audience): "you like me, you actually like me!".

+ [p. 28] "'[...] what is the name of the outer-dimensional monster whose
  distinctive cry is 'Yerwhatyerwhatyerwhat'?'

  'Yerwhatyerwhatyerwhat' is a typically Liverpudlian expression, whose
  literal (well...) translation is "excuse me, would you mind repeating
  that phrase?"

  It is stereotypically associated with Liverpool soccer fans (see also the
  next note), and nobody with an IQ over 90 uses it except in parody. The
  phrase was popularized by the British TV show "Grange Hill" (kind of a
  British counterpart to "Beverley Hills 90210"), although my source is not
  sure if the show influenced the soccer fans or vice versa.

+ [p. 28] "'Yob Soddoth,' said Ponder promptly."

  Yob soddoth should be pronounced: "Yob sod off". 'Sod off' is a British
  form of 'piss off', and 'yob' is an old term now almost entirely
  synonymous to the phrase "English football supporter" (apparently Mark
  Twain once said: "they are not fit to be called boys, they should be
  called yobs").

  At the same time this is also a pun on H. P. Lovecraft's 'Yog-Sothoth',
  one of the chief supernatural nasties in the "Cthulhu Mythos" (see
  especially the novel "The Dunwich Horror").

  Note that Ponder and Victor are studying the "Necrotelicomnicon" in this
  scene. See the note for p. 145 for more information on the Lovecraft
  connection there.

- [p. 28] "Tshup Aklathep, Infernal Star Toad with A Million Young"

  Another one of Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos" nasties is 'Shub-Niggurath',
  The Goat with a Thousand Young. ('The Black Goat of the Woods with a
  Thousand Young' is the full, but less common, title).

- [p. 29] Victor Tugelbend's university career, with his uncle's will and
  all that, shows parallels to a similar situation described in Roger
  Zelazny's (highly recommended) science fiction novel "Doorways In The
  Sand".

  [ I had noticed this when I first read "Moving Pictures", but thought the
  reference was too unlikely and too obscure to warrant inclusion. Since
  then *two* other people have pointed it out to me... ]

- [p. 34] Movie producer Thomas Silverfish is directly modeled on movie
  mogul Samuel Goldwyn, whose real name was Samuel Goldfish. Many
  well-known Goldwyn quotes are repeated (in one form or another) by
  Silverfish throughout the book ("you'll never work in this town again",
  "include me out", etc.).

- [p. 41] "No-one would have believed, in the final years of the Century of
  the Fruitbat, that Discworld affairs were being watched keenly and
  impatiently by intelligences greater than Man's, or at least much
  nastier; that their affairs were being scrutinised and studied as a man
  with a three-day appetite might study the All-You-Can-Gobble-For-A-Dollar
  menu outside Harga's House of Ribs..."

  This paragraph is a word-by-word parody of H. G. Wells' "War Of The
  Worlds", which begins with:

  "No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century
  that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences
  greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied
  themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and
  studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might
  scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of
  water."

  [ The Jeff Wayne musical album "War Of The Worlds" contains a slightly
  abbreviated narration of this paragraph. It is not known which of the two
  Terry used as a source. ]

- [p. 47] "'Can't sing. Can't dance. Can handle a sword a little.'"

  Refers to the quip: "Can't act. Can't sing. Can dance a little.", made
  about Fred Astaire, reputedly by a studio-executive after Astaire's first
  screen test.
  
+ [p. 48] "'This is Gaffer Bird,' beamed Silverfish."

  A gaffer is not only an 'old man' (according to the dictionary), but also
  the head electrician in a film production unit, charged principally with
  taking care of the lighting.

- [p. 62] "[...] Victor fights the dreaded Balgrog". 

  In Tolkien's "The Lord Of The Rings" you can find a very nasty monster
  called a Balrog.

- [p. 67] Ginger's real name is Theda Withel, which probably refers to
  Theda Bara, famous movie star of the 1920's, a kind of Elvira, Mistress
  of the Dark, avant la lettre ('Theda Bara' is an anagram of 'Arab
  Death'!). Her portrayal of evil women in movies like "The Blue Flame" and
  "Kiss Of A Vampire" caused the current meaning of the word 'vamp' to be
  added to the English language.

- [p. 69] The resograph built by Riktor the Tinkerer.

  Terry says: "The reality meter in Moving Pictures is loosely based on a
  Han dynasty (2nd Century AD) seismograph; a pendulum inside the vase
  moves and causes one of eight dragons to spit a ball in the direction of
  the tremor."

  Also, the name 'Riktor' refers to our 'Richter', of the earthquake scale
  fame.

+ [p. 73] "'We just call it the 'Hiho' song. That's all it was. Hihohiho.
  Hihohiho.'"

  The best-known song in Walt Disney's "Snow White" full length animation
  movie is sung by the seven dwarfs and goes:

        "Hiho, hiho
         It's home from work we go"

  
+ [p. 80] "The Boke Of The Film"

  Traditional (if somewhat archaic by now) subtitle for movie
  novelizations.

+ [p. 84] "'And my daughter Calliope plays the organ really nice, [...]'"

  Calliope is not only the name of the Muse of Epic Poetry, but a calliope
  is also a large, organ-like musical instrument consisting of whistles
  operated by steam. There exists an incredibly fun Donald Duck story,
  called 'Land of the Totem Poles (and written by the one and only
  Duck-meister Carl Barks), in which Donald somehow manages to become a
  travelling calliope salesman. This one is definitely required reading for
  people with a sense of humor. All in my opinion, of course.

+ [p. 95] "[...] Victor couldn't understand a word."

  The duck's incomprehensibility brings to mind the animated incarnation of
  Donald Duck. In fact, all of the Holy Wood animals have begun to act a
  bit like famous cartoon animals (e.g. the cat and the mouse acting out a
  Tom & Jerry scene).

+ [p. 95] "'What's up, Duck?' said the rabbit."

  One of Bugs Bunny's catch phrases: "What's up, doc?".

+ [p. 126] "'A rock on the head may be quite sentimental, [...], but
  diamonds are a girl's best friend.'"

  In the movie "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", Marilyn Monroe sings:

        "A kiss on the hand may be quite sentimental
         But diamonds are a girl's best friend"

  [ I haven't been able to verify this quote. Is it correct? ]

- [p. 132] Film studio names. 

  Untied Alchemists is United Artists. Fir Wood Studios is Pinewood
  Studios. Microlithic Pictures is Paramount (tiny rock vs. big mountain),
  and Century Of The Fruitbat is Twentieth Century Fox. Terry says: "I've
  already gone electronically hoarse explaining that Floating Bladder
  Productions was just picked out of the air [...]"

+ [p. 137] "It was about a young ape who is abandoned in the big city and
  grows up being able to speak the language of humans."

  The Librarian's script is of course a reversal of Edgar Rice Burroughs'
  "Tarzan" story. Since Tarzan is supposed to be one of those five or so
  cultural icons that are so truly universal that *everybody* in the world
  is familiar with them, I expect this may well turn out to be the APF's
  Most Unnecessary Annotation of all...

+ [p. 143] "'It sounded like 'I want to be a lawn', I thought?'"

  Ginger echoes movie star Greta Garbo's famous quote: "I want to be
  alone".

  Garbo later claimed, by the way, that what she had actually said at the
  time was "I want to be *let* alone", which is of course not quite the
  same thing at all...

- [p. 145] We learn that on the Discworld, the "Necrotelecomnicom" (see
  also the entry for p. 262 of "Good Omens") was written by the Klatchian
  necromancer Achmed the Mad, although he preferred to be called Achmed the
  I Just Get These Headaches. In real life, horror author H. P. Lovecraft
  tells us of the evil book "Necronomicon", written by the mad Arab Abdul
  al-Hazred.

+ [p. 148] "'It's fifteen hundred miles to Ankh-Morpork,' he said. 'We've
  got three hundred and sixty elephants, fifty carts of forage, the
  monsoon's about to break and we're wearing... we're wearing... sort of
  things, like glass, only dark... dark glass things on our eyes...'"

  Paraphrases a well-known quote from the "Blues Brothers" movie, fifteen
  minutes before the end, just as the famous chase scene is about to begin
  and Jake and Elwood are sitting in their car:

  Elwood: "It's a hundred and six miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank
  of gas, half a packet of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing
  sunglasses" Jake: "Hit it!"

  [ Ok. Readers of previous APF versions know how much trouble I'm having
  to nail this quote down *exactly*. My cry for help the last time resulted
  in a lot of response, which was nice, because I'm now pretty sure that
  the above version isn't far off. Unfortunately and amazingly I *still*
  haven't had two exactly identical quotes yet, and I am therefore left
  with two small, yet burning detail questions: is it 'packet' or 'pack' of
  cigarettes, and should it be an exclamation mark or just a period (or who
  knows, maybe even ellipses) after Jake's "hit it"? All info appreciated,
  as usual. If we don't get it right this time I'm going to buy a TV and a
  video-recorder and rent the bloody movie myself. ]

- [p. 164] "'In a word -- im-possible!' 'That's two words,' said Dibbler."

  Another Goldwyn quote: "I can tell you in two words: im-possible."

+ [p. 178] "'It starts off with this mountain, only it's not a normal
  mountain, because --'"

  Rather vague, but Ginger's dream may describe the beginning of Paramount
  movies.

+ [p. 184] "'Just one picture had all that effect?'"

  Dibbler and Gaffer don't put a name to it, but they are explaining the
  theory of subliminal messages here. It's one of those theories that
  somehow manages to sound so 'right' you just *want* it to be true. As far
  as I understand, though, nobody has ever shown e.g. subliminal
  advertising to actually have any measurable effect on an audience.

+ [p. 191] "'And Howondaland Smith, Balgrog Hunter, practic'ly eats the
  dark for his tea,' said Gaspode."

  Puns on Indiana Jones, and for the explanation about 'Balgrog' see the
  note for p. 62.

- [p. 235] "Twopence more and up goes the donkey!"

  Terry explains: "[...]  In Moving Pictures and Reaper Man a lot of use is
  indeed made of, god help me, Victorian street sayings that were the
  equivalent of 'sez you'. 'Tuppence more and up goes the donkey', a
  favourite saying of Windle Poons, comes from the parties of strolling
  acrobats who'd carry their props on a donkey. They'd make a human pyramid
  and collectors would go around with the hat declaring that 'tuppence more
  and up goes the donkey' as well. But the donkey never got elevated
  because, of course, the collectors always needed 'tuppence more'."

- [p. 249] The climactic scene of the novel is not only a "King Kong"
  reversal spoof. Terry says the 50 ft woman also refers to the protagonist
  from the 1958 movie "Attack Of The 50 Ft. Woman".

- [p. 255] "YOU BELONG DEATH, he said."

  This is based on Boris Karloff's final words in "Bride Of Frankenstein":
  "We belong death".

+ [p. 255] "'Careful,' said the Dean. 'That is not dead which can eternal
  lie.'"

  Apparently this is an H. P. Lovecraft quote:

        "That is not dead which can eternal lie
         But over stranger eons even death may die"

  I would appreciate information about the exact place this quote can be
  found, and whether it is correct.

- [p. 266] Detritus hitting the gong in the underground theatre refers to
  the Rank Organization's man-with-the-gong trademark, which Rank used at
  the front of each film just as Columbia used the Statue of Liberty and
  MGM the roaring lion.

- [p. 276] "'Uselessium, more like,' murmured Silverfish."

  The paragraph where this quote occurs of course describes how Silverfish
  discovers the Discworld equivalent of Uranium. In this light, it may be
  interesting to recall that before he became a full-time writer Terry
  Pratchett worked as press officer for nuclear powerstations.

- As far as the giant statue is concerned, and the running gag about it
  reminding everyone of their uncle Oswald or Osric etc.: the nickname
  'Oscar' for the Academy Awards statuette supposedly originated with one
  of the secretaries involved in the organization saying that the statue
  looked like her uncle Oscar. [ People have also been mentioning Bette
  Davis as a source. Does anybody *really* know? ]

- I am not going to attempt listing the correspondences between the click
  names in "Moving Pictures" and their movie counterparts in our world --
  even I have better things to do, and most of them are not particularly
  difficult to understand. If somebody else supplies me with a nice,
  complete list, though...

+ [p. ???] "You can't get the wood."

  This was Henry Crun's standard excuse for not actually building anything
  he'd invented, in the Goon Show.



REAPER MAN

+ The title "Reaper Man" is a play on Alex Cox's 1984 cult movie "Repo
  Man".

  More accurately, "Repo Man" is a pun on 'reaper man', a very ancient name
  for Death (compare also e.g. 'the grim reaper'). But apparently Terry has
  said elsewhere (i.e. not on the net), that his 'Reaper Man' was indeed
  meant as a pun on the movie-title (much to the chagrin of his publishers,
  who would have probably preferred it if he had called it "Mort II").

- The 'Bill Door' sections of this novel have many parallels with classic
  Westerns, e.g. "High Plains Drifter".

+ If you liked the idea of the trolley life-form, you may also want to
  check out a short story by Avram Davidson called "Or All The Sea With
  Oysters". It's all about the life cycle of bicycles and their larval
  stages: paperclips and coathangers.

- [p. 9] Azrael is not a reference to Gargamel's cat in the Smurfs. Rather,
  both Azraels are references to the Islamic Angel of Death, supposedly the
  very last creature to die, ever.

- [p. 16] "The pendulum is a blade that would have made Edgar Allan Poe
  give it all up and start again as a stand-up comedian [...]"

  Refers to Poe's famous story "The Pit And The Pendulum" in which a victim
  of the inquisition is tied up beneath a giant descending, sweeping,
  razor-sharp pendulum.
  
- [p. 35] 'Senior Wrangler' is the title of the top maths graduate at
  Cambridge University. Apparently, in maths, those who get firsts are
  called Wranglers, seconds are senior optimes, and thirds are junior
  optimes.

- [p. 87] "Who is he going to call! *We're* the wizards around here".

  A reference to the catchphrase "Who're you gonna call?!" from the movie
  "Ghostbusters".

+ [p. 94] "'Don't stand in the doorway, friend. Don't block up the hall.'"

  This is an almost verbatim line from Bob Dylan's 'The Times They Are A
  Changin'.

- [p. 94] "Or sporting a Glad To Be Gray badge"

  'Glad To Be Gay' was the well-known slogan of the Gay Liberation
  movement, a decade or so ago (as well as the title of an excellent Tom
  Robinson song). [ I know this reference, but was this slogan British,
  American or both? ]

+ [p. 95] The names of the Fresh Start Club members.

  Count Notfaroutoe refers to Count Nosferatu, the working-class vampire
  from Friedrich Murnaus classic 1922 movie "Nosferatu" (remade in 1979 by
  Werner Herzog, starring Klaus Kinski). 'Lupus' is latin for wolf, so
  'Lupine' means 'wolfish', similar to e.g. 'feline'. Ixolite somehow makes
  me think of some kind of fuel, or am I reaching here? Note by the way
  that banshees are traditionally supposed to be female creatures.
  
- [p. 97] "Every full moon I turn into a wolfman. The rest of the time I'm
  just a ... wolf."

  This interesting twist on the age-old werewolf idea has been thought off
  and used by others a few times before. I'd particularly recommend 'What
  Good is a Glass Dagger', an excellent short story by Larry Niven. (I
  realize that merely by mentioning it here I may have spoilt it for you,
  but I think the story is still very enjoyable, regardless).

+ [p. 120] "I EXPECT, he said, THAT YOU COULD MURDER A PIECE OF CHEESE?"

  Echoes p. 24 of "Mort", where Death says to Mort: "I DON'T KNOW ABOUT
  YOU, BUT I COULD MURDER A CURRY".

- [p. 129] "LAST YEAR SOMEONE GOT THREE STREETS AND ALL THE UTILITIES."

  The game 'Exclusive Posessions' refers of course to Monopoly.

+ [p. 132] "On the fabled hidden continent of Xxxx, somewhere near the rim,
  there is a lost colony of wizards who wear corks around their pointy hats
  and live on nothing but prawns."

  'Xxxx' refers to Australia, where I understand they have a brand of beer
  called 'XXXX'. I don't quite know where the corks and the prawns come in,
  though. Anybody?

- [p. 138] "[...] especially if they *do* let the younger wizards build
  whatever that blasted thing is they keep wanting to build in the squash
  court."

  This is a reference to the fact that the first nuclear reactor, built by
  Enrico Fermi, was indeed erected on a squash court.

+ [p. 153] "Behind him, the kettle boiled over and put the fire out.
  Simnel fought his way through the steam."

  The joke here is that Ned Simnel is trying to think of a new, better way
  to power his Combination Harvester, when he is interrupted by the
  "pointless distraction" of his kettle boiling over. This refers to our
  world's anecdote about James Watt, who supposedly got his idea for
  improving the steam engine when he watched the condensing steam from a
  kettle on the boil.

  (Note that contrary to popular believe, Watt *didn't* invent the steam
  engine itself: what he did was have revolutionary new ideas (e.g. the use
  of a condenser) on how to make the steam engine really (cost-)efficient,
  practical and portable.)

- [p. 179] "Remember -- wild, uncontrolled bursts..."

  From the movie "Aliens": "Remember -- short, controlled bursts...". This
  entire section is filled with action-movie references ('Yo!'), but
  "Alien"/"Aliens" seems to have been a particularly fruitful source. Many
  quotes and events have direct counterparts: "Yeah, but secreted from
  what?", "No one touch *anything*", "It's coming from *everywhere*!", and
  "We are *going*" are only a few examples, and of course there is the
  matter of the Queen...

+ [p. 215] "'Bonsai!'"

  A typical Pratchettian mix-up of two different things: 'Banzai!' is the
  Japanese war cry shouted by kamikaze pilots as they performed their
  suicide runs. It means 'ten thousand years', and was originally an
  honorary greeting used in front of the Emperor, whom the kamikazes were,
  of course, dying for.

  'Bonsai' is the art of growing very tiny potted trees shaped and stunted
  into very particular patterns.

- [p. 226] "'I'm just going out,' he said. 'I may be some time.'"

  A quote that Terry uses again in another, similar situation. See the
  annotation for p. 170 of "Small Gods".

- [p. 226] The idea of a were-man and were-woman who fall in love, but
  whose animal and human phases are out of sync with respect to each other
  was the main plot element in the 1985 fantasy movie "Ladyhawke", starring
  Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer.

+ [p. 230] "Azrael, the Great Attractor, the Death of Universes, [...]"

  A Great Attractor is a mathematical concept known from Chaos Theory.

+ [p. 231] "LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE
  REAPER MAN?"

  Some folks thought that this line sounded familiar and wondered if it was
  a quote, but Terry has assured us that he made this one up all by
  himself.

- [p. 232] "*YES*"

  In the hardcover edition of "Reaper Man", this super-large word appears
  on a left page, so that it takes the reader by surprise as she turns the
  page. In the paperback edition this is not the case, thus spoiling the
  effect a bit.

  When questioned about this, Terry said: "Do you really think I'm some
  kind of dumbo to miss that kind of opportunity? I wrote 400 extra words
  to get it on a left-hand page in the hardcover -- then Corgi shuffled
  people in the production department when it was going through and my
  careful instructions disappeared into a black hole. Go on... tell me more
  about comic timing..."
  
  The American paperback edition, by the way, also gets it right.

- [p. 235] "To deliver a box of chocolates like this, dark strangers drop
  from chairliffs and abseil down buildings."

  A reference to a UK TV commercial for 'Milk Tray' chocolates, in which a
  James Bond-like figure does death-defying stunts, only to leave a box of
  chocolates in some place where a woman finds them at the end of the ad.

- [p. 235] "'DARK ENCHANTMENTS', he said. I *LIKE* IT."

  A reference to a brand of chocolates called 'Black Magic'.

- [p. 237] "'Chap with a whip got as far as the big sharp spikes last
  week,' said the low priest."

  Refers to the "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" movies, in which Indiana Jones
  (with trademark whip) always steals stuff from sacred temples loaded with
  spikes, big rolling balls, and nasty insects.

+ [p. 238] "The priests heard the chink of a very large diamond being
  lifted out of its socket."

  This is the sequence where where Death enters the Lost Jewelled Temple of
  Doom of Offler the Crocodile God and purloins the massive diamond called
  the Tear of Offler from the statue therein.

  On p. 109 of the "The Light Fantastic", however, Twoflower tells Bethan
  the story of Cohen the Barbarian stealing this sacred diamond.

  There are ways around this inconsistency, of course (the most reasonable
  one seems to me the fact that there is no reason why we should assume
  that all the stories told about Cohen are necessarily true).

+ [p. 242] "'Let's see ... something like 'Corn be ripe, nuts be brown,
  petticoats up ...' something'"

  This is a paraphrase or alternate version of an existing "ould Sussex
  Folk Song", quoted in Spike Milligan's autobiography "Adolf Hitler: My
  Part In His Downfall" as follows:
 
        "Apples be ripe, nuts be brown,
         Petticoats up, trousers down."

+ [p. 243] "'I know this one! It's the Quirmish bullfight dance! Oh-lay!'
  'WITH MILK'?"

  'Oh-lay!' = pronunciation of the Spanish cry 'Ole!' = sounds the same as
  the pronunciation of the French phrase 'au lait' which means 'with milk',
  as in e.g. 'cafe au lait'.

- [p. 246] "'And who was that masked man?' They both looked around. There
  was no one there."

  Refers to the Lone Ranger.

+ [p. 249] "'You know,' said Windle, 'it's a wonderful afterlife.'"

  "It's A Wonderful Life" is the title of Frank Capra's classic 1946 movie
  about a special kind of undead (or rather: unliving) man.


WITCHES ABROAD

+ [p. 41] "No one ran up them wearing dirndls and singing. They were not
  nice mountains."
  
  Refers to the opening scene of "The Sound Of Music", where Julie Andrews
  does just that: running up the mountains, and singing, and wearing
  dirndls (if you want to know just what a dirndl is, go see the movie).

- [p. 42] The section dealing with dwarfs (and in fact, almost *everything*
  Terry writes about dwarfs) is a parody of Tolkien's dwarves. 

  In particular, compare the witches' musings on mine entries and invisible
  runes to Tolkien's scenes outside Moria. Dwarf bread is a direct
  reference to Tolkien's elven bread. And as the witches leave the dwarfs,
  they have an encounter with a wretched creature mumbling something about
  his birthday...

+ [p. 42] "The witches flew along a maze of twisty little canyons, all
  alike."

  This refers back to a message that appeared in one of the earliest
  computer adventure game of them all, Crowther & Woods' classic "Advent",
  now known as "Colossal Cave".

+ [p. 59] "'Der flabberghast,' muttered Nanny. 'What's that?' said Magrat.
  'It's foreign for bat.'

  Well no, it isn't, actually. The German word for bat is 'Fledermaus'.
  'flabberghast' seems to derive more from the plain English
  'flabbergasted' (meaning: astonished beyond believe). Also, 'die
  flabbergast' apparently was some sort of Wagnerian sketch that Dudley
  Moore did in "Beyond The Fringe".

- [p. 75] The names the witches are considering for themselves are puns on
  existing airline companies or their acronyms. Nanny Ogg starts to say
  "Virgin Airlines", but is rudely interrupted by a gust of wind.

- [p. 79] "What does cojones mean?"

  'Cojones' is Spanish for balls. The whole 'Thing with the Bulls' section
  spoofs the annual bull running festival of Pamplona in our world. Ernest
  Hemingway was very impressed with this macho activity, and used the word
  'cojones' to describe the bravery displayed by the young men
  participating in the event.

+ [p. 83] "''S called the Vieux River.' 'Yes?' 'Know what that means?'
  'No.'  'The Old (Masculine) River,' said Nanny. 'Yes?' 'Words have sex in
  foreign parts,' said Nanny hopefully."

  The Mississippi River is often known as 'Old Man River', for instance in
  Paul Robeson's classic song from the musical film "Showboat."  Near the
  mouth of the Mississippi is New Orleans, on which Genua seems to be
  largely based. And then there are the riverboats, with the gamblers...

+ [p. 84] "[...] Samedi Nuit Mort, the last night of carnivale, [...]"

  Samedi Nuit Mort = Saturday Night Dead, a pun on the television comedy
  show "Saturday Night Live".

- [p. 122] The farmhouse landing on Nanny Ogg, and the subsequent events
  involving dwarfs looking for ruby-colored boots are references to "The
  Wizard Of Oz".

+ [p. 123] "'You know, Greebo,' she said. "I don't think we're in Lancre.'

  Dorothy to her dog in "The Wizard Of Oz": "Toto, I don't think we're in
  Kansas anymore."

- [p. 134] "Not a Ronald in sight."

  Terry says: "Yep... direct use of existing East London rhyming slang
  there (Richard the Third = turd)."

+ [p. 155] Emberella --> Embers;  Cinderella --> Cinders...

+ [p. 201] "'...my name is Colonel Moutarde...'   

  'Moutarde' is French for 'mustard'. Colonel Mustard was the name of one
  of the players cum characters in the board game "Clue" (or "Cluedo").

- [p. 201] Casanunda, "the world's greatest lover", refers to our world's
  Casanova. Notice that Casanova is often roughly pronounced as 'Casanover'
  (emphasis on the 'over'), and that Casanunda is a dwarf...

  Actually, Casanunda is lying, because we later find out he's only the
  world's *second* greatest lover. But this should not surprise us, since
  yet even later (in "Lords And Ladies") we also find out that he is an
  Outrageous Liar.

+ [p. 207] "Nanny Ogg's voyages on the sea of intersexual dalliance had
  gone rather further than twice around the lighthouse, [...]"

  A popular way of staving off boredom at typical British seaside holiday
  resorts is to take a trip in a small boat, which will often journey out
  as far as the local lighthouse and circumnavigate it. Hence the above
  colloquialism, implying that Nanny's experiences were not limited to the
  inshore waters of male/female relationships.

- [p. 218] "The maiden, the mother and the crone."

  Traditionally, the wiccan goddess (see "Equal Rites" note) is viewed as
  the triple entity maiden/mother/crone, and our witches indeed echo this
  model. Neil Gaiman also often uses the triple goddess in the "Sandman"
  series.

- [p. 252] "Nanny kicked her red boots together idly. 'Well, I suppose
  there's no place like home,' she said".

  Another "Wizard Of Oz" reference (kicking her boots together three times
  and saying a similar sentence invokes the spell that transports Dorothy
  home from Oz).

- [p. 252] "But they went the long way, and saw the elephant."

  This bit is apparently borrowed from Fritz Leiber's Hugo award winning
  novelette "Gonna Roll The Bones" (which title inspired the rock band Rush
  to record an album called "Roll The Bones". Fascinating, huh?).

  [ I'd like more precise info on this, by the way. We know that Terry
  reads Leiber, so this is entirely possible, but I myself have never read
  this particular Leiber story, so I don't know just where the similarity
  lies. ]

+ [p. ???] "'Anyway, you can't trust those voodoo gods. Never trust a god
  who grins all the time and wears a top hat, that's my motto.'"

  This god is Baron Samedi (or Saturday), the most important (and
  best-known) voodoo god or loa. He is the God of the Dead, and is
  traditionally associated with crossroads.
     


SMALL GODS
      
- [p. 8] The name 'Brutha' is of course pronounced as a jive-ified
  'brother'.

- [p. 9] Brother Nhumrod's name is an obvious pun on the man's sexual
  problems.

- [p. 12] The Cenobiarch. 

  This title is presumably derived from 'arch' (as in -bishop) and
  'cenobite'. A cenobite is a "member of a religious order following a
  communal way of life".

- [p. 23] "De Chelonian Mobile [...] The Turtle Moves."

  This whole theory parodies Galileo Galilei's struggle to get his theory
  of a moving earth (around the sun, that is) accepted by the Christian
  Church.

- [p. 85] Terry Pratchett translates the book title "Ego-Video Liber
  Deorum" here as "Gods: A Spotter's Guide".

  Actually, the dog-latin translates more literally to "The I-Spy Book Of
  Gods". I-Spy books are little books for children with lists of things to
  look out for. When you see one of these things you tick a box and get
  some points. When you get enough points you can send off for a badge.
  They have titles like "The I-Spy Book Of Birds" and "The I-Spy Book Of
  Cars".

- [p. 110] "[...] if Xeno the Ephebian said, 'All Ephebians are liars --'"

  This is the famous Liar paradox, originally involving Epimenides the
  Cretan.

- [p. 112] A running gag in the book is the penguin associated with Patina,
  the Goddess of Wisdom. This refers to Minerve or Pallas Athena (*Pal*las
  A*thena*, get it, get it?), who was the Roman/Greek goddess of wisdom,
  and whose symbol was an owl.

+ [p. 115] The name Didactylos translates as 'Two-fingers'.

  In England a slightly milder from of "giving someone the finger" consists
  of extending two fingers upwards, palm facing the gesturer, in a kind of
  inverted 'V for Victory' sign.

  The origin of this rude gesture dates back to the battle of Agincourt.
  In those days the French used to cut the index and middle fingers off the
  right hands of any British archers they happened to catch, in order to
  render them useless for further bow-shooting should they e.g. ever manage
  to escape and rejoin their army.

  When the English finally won the battle (largely thanks to their
  longbowmen) the gesture quickly evolved from a Frenchmen-ridiculing "look
  what I still got" statement into a more general rudity, which actually
  has only caught on in England again over the last decade or so.

- [p. 118] "Candidates for the Tyrantship were elected by the placing of
  black or white balls in various urns, thus giving rise to a well-known
  comment about politics."

  That comment probably being: "It's all a load of balls".

- [p. 121] "Nil Illegitimo Carborandum" is dog latin for "Don't let the
  bastards grind you down".

- [p. 122] Urn's name is a reference to the old joke:

        Q: "What's a Greek urn?"
        A: "About $2,50 an hour!"

  Or, as the Goon Show put it:

        -- "What's a Greek urn?"
        -- "It's a vase made by Greeks for storing liquid."
        -- "I wasn't expecting that answer."
        -- "Neither were quite a few smart-alec listeners."

+ [p. 128] "Worried, eh? Feeling a bit Avis Domestica? Cluck-cluck?"

  Actually, the Latin name for 'chicken' is "Gallus Domesticus" -- even
  though 'avis' by itself does mean 'bird'.

- [p. 130] "'Ah,' said Didactylos. 'Ambi-sinister?'  'What?'  'He means
  incompetent with both hands,' said Om."

  Ambidextrous means able to use both hands equally well. 'dextr-' is the
  prefix meaning "right" as in "right hand". 'sinistr-' is the prefix
  meaning "left". Hence: ambisinister = having two left hands.

- [p. 132] Aristocrates = Aristotle + Socrates + aristocratic.

- [p. 138] Didactylos carrying a lantern and living in a barrel are
  references to Diogenes, famous philosopher who is reputed to have done
  the same.

- [p. 162] "'Life in this world,' he said, 'is, as it were, a sojourn in a
  cave.'"

  This paragraph is a very loose parody of a famous Socratic dialogue in
  Plato's "Republic", Book VII. I quote (and edit down a wee bit) from
  "Labyrinth Of Reason" by William Poundstone, p. 203:

  "Behold! human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth
  open toward the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been
  from childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot
  move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from
  turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a
  distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way,
  like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over
  which they show the puppets.
  
  [...] and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another,
  which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave? [...]  And of the
  objects which are being carried in like manner they would see only the
  shadows? [...]  And if they were able to converse with one another, would
  they not suppose they were naming what was actually before them? [...] To
  them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the
  images."

- [p. 162] "Go on, do Deformed Rabbit ...it's my favourite."

  Reference to the art of making shadow animals with your hands, as
  described on p. 36 of "Moving Pictures": "'Mainly my uncle did 'Deformed
  Rabbit'', said Victor. 'He wasn't very good at it, you see.'"

- [p. 166] Didactylos' anecdote about the royal road to learning parodies a
  similar one told about Aristotle and Alexander the Great.

- [p. 170] "'I'm just going out,' said Brutha. 'I may be some time.'"

  Brutha here repeats the last words of Captain Oates, who walked out in a
  blizzard on Scott's unsuccessful Antarctic expedition, in order to try
  and save food for the remaining expedition members. He was never seen
  again. It didn't work.

+ [p. 186] "'Something that'd open the valve if there was too much steam. I
  think I could do something with a pair of revolving balls.'"

  Urn's steam engines are more or less identical to the ones that were
  described by Archimedes and in ancient Ephebe, eh, I mean Greece. These
  engines also used copper spheres as heating vessels, and these spheres
  did, in fact, have a regrettable tendency to explode, which is what
  limited their use until some bright person thought of adding overpressure
  relief valves.

  These steam engines never really caught on, because of various practical
  problems and the greater cost-effectiveness of slave-power. See also the
  James Watt annotation for "Reaper Man".

- [p. 232] "I don't know what effect it's going to have on the enemy, he
  thought, but it scares the hells out of me."

  Paraphrases a comment made by the Duke of Wellington immediately before
  the Battle of Waterloo, about his own troops.

- [p. 241] "It was a million-to-one chance, with any luck."

  Refers back to a running gag in "Guards! Guards!", but one that Terry
  used as early as "Equal Rites": million-to-one chances come up nine times
  out of ten, on the average.

- [p. 244] "When you have their full attention in your grip, their hearts
  and minds will follow."

  'Testiculos' does not *quite* translate as 'full attention'.

- [p. 255] Could the name Fasta Benj possibly be derived from 'Faster, Ben
  Johnson'?

- [p. 270] "REMIND ME AGAIN, he said, HOW THE LITTLE HORSE-SHAPED ONES
  MOVE".

  Refers back to a joke on p. 12 of "Sourcery", where we are told that
  Death dreads playing symbolic last chess games because "he could never
  remember how the knight was supposed to move".

- There is a rumour going round that there was to be a crucifixion scene at
  the end of this book but that the publishers made Terry take it out. To
  quote Terry on this: "Crucifiction in "Small Gods": this is a familiar
  thing to me, a DW 'fact' that's gone through several retellings.
  Nothing's been taken out of "Small Gods", or put in, and there was no
  pressure to do either."

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This is the end of part 2 of 3
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-- 
Leo Breebaart  (leo @ cp.tn.tudelft.nl)