From: leo@unseen.u.A-M.edu (Leo Breebaart)
Subject: The Annotated Pratchett File, v4.0, part 1 of 2
Followup-To: alt.fan.pratchett
Summary: This file documents and explains some of the more obscure
    	jokes and references in Terry Pratchett's novels. It is 
    	updated and posted every month. It contains many SPOILERS.
Originator: leo@galaxy
Supersedes: <anno1_719035203@ph.tn.tudelft.nl>
Reply-To: leo@ph.tn.tudelft.nl
Organization: Unseen University
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 21:27:36 GMT
Expires: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 21:27:01 GMT

Archive-name: annotated-pratchett
Last-modified: 1992/11/05 21:21:28
Version: 4.0
Maintained-by: Leo Breebaart (leo@ph.tn.tudelft.nl)


*** Welcome to the Annotated Pratchett File! ***


 --- What's all this, then?

"This" is the Annotated Pratchett File (or APF for short).

Discussions in alt.fan.pratchett have made it clear that sometimes people
are not 'getting' all of the jokes and references in Terry Pratchett's
work. If you have never read Tolkien, you won't know when he's parodying
Tolkien. If you are American, you might not understand some of the
typically British references. And so on.

This file is an ongoing attempt to document and explain some of these
references, so that we might all enjoy Terry's books even more than we
already do.

Where appropriate, this file also incorporates selected passages from
articles that Terry himself has posted to alt.fan.pratchett. As an active
contributor to the group he often provides us with inside information on
many aspects of his writing, and it would be a waste to let this first-hand
knowledge just disappear into the vacuum of Usenet history. The APF tries
to preserve all the interesting bits of Terry's postings, as far as they
deal with his writing.

Instructions on how to obtain the latest version of the APF appear near the
very end of this file, by the way.


 --- Great idea, this APF; how can I help?

Glad you asked. Input from a.f.pratchett and all other readers is the only
thing that is going to make the APF grow into something truly useful, and
earn it its pretentious 'annotated' claim. You can mail your explanations
to:
    
    leo @ ph.tn.tudelft.nl

if you want to be sure I see them, but I scan a.f.pratchett as well, so
just mentioning something in an article on the net should also work fine.


 --- So, didya notice that "Cohen the Barbarian" is a pun on "Conan the
     Barbarian"?

In the first versions of the APF, I had the following answer to this
question:

"No kidding. But let's try to avoid explaining the blindingly obvious,
shall we? Now if Cohen, on page 98 of "The Light Fantastic" did something
hilariously similar to what Conan did in a 1957 issue of "Conan Comics" --
that would be something else."

In retrospect an unfortunate paragraph, which has caused more than 90 % of
the submissions I get to start out with: "This is probably too obvious,
but...".

The fact is simply that everybody has different (and sometimes *vastly*
different, believe me) ideas of what is trivial and what is obscure.  So
please just keep sending me everything that might warrant inclusion, no
matter how glaringly obvious you think it is, and leave it to me to make
the decision on whether to actually include it or not -- that's what I'm
editor for.


 --- Will you get on with it, already?

Ok, ok. Here are the annotations I have collected so far. Note that I am
merely editor of this stuff: most of it has been supplied by or stolen from
various Usenet correspondents. All the credits are theirs; all typos and
other mistakes are mine. Page numbers refer to whatever version of the book
in question I happen to have. Use them as a rough estimate. A '+' prefixes
all new or non-trivially expanded/changed entries; a '-' prefixes all other
entries.

Be aware that the information below by its very nature contains many
SPOILERS, so read the APF only if you're sure you don't care about that.

***************************************************************************

THE COLOUR OF MAGIC

- [p. 9] The two barbarians, Bravd and Weasel, are parodies of Fritz
  Leiber's classic fantasy heroes Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. However, Ankh
  Morpork is *not* derived from Leiber's similar sounding city Lankhmar
  from the same series. Terry says: "Bravd and the Weasel were indeed
  takeoffs of Leiber characters -- there was a lot of that sort of thing in
  TCOM.  But I didn't -- at least conciously, I suppose I must say --
  create Ankh-Morpork as a takeoff of Lankhmar.  Originally it was just
  Morpork, then Ankh just sounded nice..."

  Finally, the name "Ankh Morpork" also does not have anything to do with
  the Australian and New Zealandian birds (a species of frogmouth and a
  small brown owl, respectively) that go by the name of 'Morepork'.

+ [p. 12] "Since the Hub is never closely warmed by the weak sun the lands
  there are locked in permafrost.  The Rim, on the other hand, is a region
  of sunny islands and balmy days."

  A presumeably knowledgeable source tells me that actually, if you do the
  calculations, it turns out that it would be the other way around (on
  average, the sun is closer to the hub than the rim, so the hub would be
  warmer).

- [p. 18] The inn called 'The Broken Drum' gets burned down in this book.
  The later Discworld novels all feature an inn called 'The Mended Drum'.
  The novel STRATA contains (on p. 35) an explanation of why you would
  call a pub 'The Broken Drum' in the first place: "You can't beat it".

- [p. 24] Terry has this to say about the name 'Twoflower': "[...] there's
  no joke in Twoflower. I just wanted a coherent way of making up 'foreign'
  names and I think I pinched the Mayan construction (Nine Turning Mirrors,
  Three Rabbits, etc)."

+ [p. 44] "Reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits" 
  Incredible as it may seem, there are quite a few people who do not
  understand this cryptification of 'economics', even though Terry explains
  it himself on p. 71: 'echo-gnomics'. Some of the confusion perhaps arises
  because we don't associated gnomes with spirits, as in: ghosts.  But I
  think Terry here simply means spirits (as in: souls) living underground,
  with the emphasis on the word 'underground'.

- [p. 117] "I'LL GET YOU YET, CULLY, said Death [...]"  
  Death is addressing Rincewind here, so the use of what looks like another
  name is confusing.  Terry explains: "Cully still just about hangs on in
  parts of the UK as a mildy negative term meaning variously 'yer bastard',
  'man', 'you there' and so only. It's quite old, but then, Death is a
  history kind of guy."

- [p. 169] After Rincewind and Twoflower escape from the Wyrmberg they are
  flying a dragon one moment and a modern jetliner the next. 
  Clearly they have been "translated to another plane" (the last few
  paragraphs of that section seem to support this theory). Note also the
  "powerful travelling rune TWA" appearing on the Luggage: Trans *World*
  Airlines.

- [p.171] 'Zweiblumen' is the literal German translation of 'Twoflower'.
  'Rjinswand', however, is merely something that was intended to *sound*
  Scandinavian -- it is not a word in any language known to the readers of
  alt.fan.pratchett.


THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

- [p. 7] The philosopher Ly Tin Weedle makes two other cameo appearances in
  Discworld novels, once in a MORT footnote on p. 24, and once in
  SOURCERY, on p.212.

+ [p. 8] Many people have commented on the last name of the 304th
  Chancellor of Unseen University: Weatherwax, and asked if there is a
  connection with Granny Weatherwax. In LORDS AND LADIES, Terry supplies
  the following piece of dialogue (on p. 161) between Granny and
  Archchancellor Ridcully as an answer:

    "There was even a Weatherwax as Archchancellor, years ago," said
  Ridcully.
    "So I understand. Distant cousin. Never knew him," said Granny.

- [p. 37] "Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper."  
  From the first Arnold Schwarzenegger "Conan the Barbarian" movie: "Conan!
  What is good in life?"  "To crush your enemies, drive them before you,
  and to hear the lamentation of the women." This quote, in turn, is lifted
  more or less verbatim from an actual conversation Genghis Khan is
  supposed to have had with his lieutenants.

+ [p. 153] The idea of a peculiar little shop that appears, sells the most
  peculiar things, and then vanishes again first appears in short story by
  by H. G. Wells, called "The Magic Shop".


EQUAL RITES

+ For an explanation of the 'Liber Paginarum Fulvarum' mentioned in the
  dedication, see the not for p. 262 of GOOD OMENS. The "dumb redheads
  in Fifties' sitcom" refers to Lucille Ball.

+ A central theme of this book (as well as of the other witch Discworld
  novels is the contrast between on one side the (female) witches or
  wiccans, who are in touch with nature, herbs, and headology, and on the
  other side the (male) wizards who are very ceremonial and use elaborate,
  mathematics-like tools and rituals. This conflict rather closely mirrors
  a long-standing feud between occult practicioners in our real world. (And
  all the infighting within each camp occurs in real life, as well.)

  My source for this also mentions that Pratchett's witches, especially,
  are obvious stereotypes of the kinds of people one can run into at wiccan
  festivals.

+ [p. 45] "'I've seen the thundergods a few times,' said Granny, 'and
  Hoki, of course.'"

  The name Hoki derives from 'hokey' in combination with the Norse god
  Loki. The description of Hoki is pure Pan, however.

+ [p. 80] "If broomsticks were cars, this one would be a split-window
  Morris Minor."

  A Morris Minor is a British car that non-Brits might be familiar with
  through the TV Series "Lovejoy". In that series, Lovejoy's car 'Miriam'
  is a Morris Minor. For the rest of you, here's a description:
  
  Imagine a curvaceous jelly-mould in the shape of a crouching rabbit, like
  Granny used to use. Turn it open-side-down and fit four wheels, near the
  corners. On the rabbit's back build a cabin, with picture windows and a
  windscreen in two parts at an angle to each other.  Add turn indicators
  consisting of little arms which flip out of the body at roof level, just
  behind the doors. Furnish the cabin in a post-War austerity style, and
  power the result with a 1935 vintage 850cc flat four engine pulling about
  30bhp. In its day, in 1948, this was the height of desirability - so much
  so that for its first few years it was only available for export.
  
  Even in the Nineties, a fair number of Moggies are still going, err,
  strong. You can actually pay a couple of thousand pounds for a good one
  which works, because they're so easy to maintain. And the split-screen
  ones are very definitely collectors' items. 

+ [p. 122] "'Yes, that's it,' said Treatle. 'Alma mater, gaudy armours
  eagle tour and so on.'"

  Treatle refers here to an old student's (drinking) song, which goes back
  at least as far as Brahms's Academic Festival Overture (it's the last
  melody), and is still in use at many universities where it gets sung
  during graduation ceremonies. The actual lyrics are:

	 "Gaudeamus igitur, iuvenes dum sumus.
	 Post iucundam iuventutem,
	 Post molestam senectutem,
	 Nos habebit humus, nos habebit humus."

  Which roughly translates to:

	"Let us be merry, therefore, whilst we are young men.
	After the joys of youth,
	After the pain of old age,
	The ground will have us, the ground will have us."

+ [p. 133] The maid at the Unseen University is called Ksandra, which puns
  on Troy's Cassandra; but also refers to Sandra being yet another typical
  'Tracey/Sharon' sort of name in England. See also the entry for p. 117
  of PYRAMIDS.

+ [p. 143] "[...] the Creator hadn't really decided what he wanted and was,
  as it were, just idly messing around with the Pleistocene."
  Obviously refers to the Pleistocene geologic era (a few dozen million
  years or so ago), but also to Plasticine, a brand name that has become
  (at least in Britain and Australia) a generic name for the modeling clay
  children play with.

+ [p. 163] Some folks thought they recognized the duel between Granny
  Weatherwax and Archchancellor Cutangle from T. H. White's description of
  a similar duel in his "Arthur, the Once and Future King" (also depicted
  as a very funny fragment in Disney's "The Sword and the Stone", which was
  an animation film based on this book. However, Terry says:

  "The magical duel in Equal Rites is certainly not lifted from T H White.
  Beware of secondary sources. Said duel (usually between a man and a
  woman, and often with nice Freudian touches to the things they turn into)
  has a much longer history; folkies out there will probably know it as the
  song The Two Magicians."


MORT

[ WHAT?? Only *one* annotation for the entire MORT? People, you succeeded
so beautifully in coming up with EQUAL RITES annotations when I asked you
for those in the previous APF version. Let's try to repeat that now for
MORT. Your homework for next month is to find me some cool MORT
annotations. I will be awaiting your input anxiously. ]

+ [p. 183] "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards because a refusal often
  offends, I read somewhere."  

  Ysabell probably read one part of this in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings"
  where we find (in "The Fellowship Of The Ring", Book One, Chapter III)
  that Gildor Inglorion the High Elf says: "Do not meddle in the affairs of
  wizards because they are subtle and quick to anger". The other part she
  got from a sign often seen in British pubs: "Do not ask for credit,
  because a refusal often offends".


SOURCERY

- [p. 122] "'It looks like someone has taken twice five miles of inner city
  and girded them round with walls and towers,' he hazarded."
  From Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Xanadu": "So twice five miles of fertile
  ground / With walls and towers were girded round".

+ [p. 122] 'Sherbet' is an oriental cooling drink as well as a fizzy sweet
  powder children eat as a sweet, and which comes in a cardboard tube with
  a liquorice 'straw' at the top. To get to the sherbet you bite off the
  end of the liquorice and suck through it. [ Somewhere in "Sourcery" I
  believe there is an actual reference to the liquorice straw, but I
  couldn't find it. Anybody? ]

- [p. 125] "My name is Creosote, Seriph of Al Khali, [...]"  
  Ok, lessee: Creosote puns on the proverbially rich Croesus (king of Lidya
  (which lies in what now is Turkey) in the 6th century BC), 'Serif' is a
  typography term which also puns on 'caliph', and 'Al Khali' is pronounced
  'alkali' (just covering all the bases here, as my original source put
  it).

- [p. 126] Creosote's poetry is all based on Edward Fitzgerald's
  translation of the "Rubayat" of Omar Khayyam (probably the third edition
  -- each of the six or so translations Fitzgerald published is very
  different, even to the point of different rhyme schemes). The poem
  parodied on this page goes:

    "A book of verses underneath the bough
     A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou"

+ [p. 126] The hashishim as the "original Assassins".

  From "The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (a
  19th century book, still in print today:

  "Assas'sins. A band of Carmathians, collected my Hassa, subah of
  Nish'apour, called the Old Man of the Mountains, because he made Mount
  Leb'anon his stronghold. This band was the terror of the world for two
  centuries, when it was put down by Sultan Bib'aris. The assassins
  indulged in haschisch (bang), an intoxicating drink, and from this liquor
  recieved their name."

  For more info, see also the Hawkwind song "Hassan I Sabbah" on their
  album "Quark, Strangeness and Charm".

  Finally, Terry has this to say on the subject of reference books:

  "I've got Brewers, of course, and if I need an instant reference it's a
  handy book.  He also did a 'Reader's Companion' which is even better. But
  Ebenezer is only the tip of an iceberg of similar books, of which the
  Victorians were very fond."

- [p. 129] "Get up! For the morning in the cup of day, / Has dropped the
  spoon that scares the stars away."
  The "Rubayat":
  "Awake! for morning in the bowl of night / Hath flung the stone that
  puts the stars to flight."

+ [p. 132] "The Seriph's palace, known to legend as the Rhoxie, [...]"  No
  connection to the original Croesus here, but rather to the Alhambra, the
  palace of the Emirs of Granada in 15th century Spain. As Terry says:

  "Incidentally, the Seriph's palace, the Rhoxie, is indeed a 'resonance'
  with the Alhambra -- a famous Moorish palace which became a synonym for
  an impressive building, and later became a common cinema name as in Odeon
  and, yes, Roxy."

- [p. 141] "Nijel the Destroyer" may be a suitably heroic-looking name, but
  'Nijel' is of course pronounced as 'Nigel', a name that is traditionally
  associated with wimpy rather then heroic guys.

+ [p. 162] "He asked me to tell him a story."

  This is the first, but not the last time in the book that Creosote
  asks Conina for a story. This refers to 1001 Nights, and the stories
  Sheharazade had to tell to *her* Caliph each night.

- [p. 167] "'I'm looking up the Index of Wandering Monsters', said Nijel."
  'Wandering Monsters' is a phrase that comes from the world of fantasy
  roleplaying games such as "Dungeons and Dragons", and it more or less
  means just what you think it means. Nijel is of course exactly the type
  of nerd who would, in our world, actually play D&D.

- [p. 215] Significant Quest --> Trivial Persuit.

+ [p. 259] "For a moment the ape reared against the darkness, the shoulder,
  elbow and wrist of his right arm unfolding in a poem of applied leverage,
  and in a movement as unstoppable as the dawn of intelligence brought it
  down very heavily."

  This is a rather subtle reference to the scene with the bone and tapir
  skull in the "Dawn of Man" portion of Kubrick and Clarke's movie "2001: A
  Space Oddysey".


WYRD SISTERS

- This whole novel brims with Shakespearian references, to the Scottish
  Play and Hamlet in particular (the three witches, the blood that won't
  come off, the king's ghost, etc.). Some of the more striking references
  are documented below, but the list is far from exhaustive.

- Throughout the book, Hwel the Playwrite suffers from flashes of
  inspiration that come from plays and movies in our world. Most of these
  references are easy to understand (Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel
  and Hardy, etc.), and need not be listed here. Three entries that seem to
  me (slightly) less obvious are documented in this section.

- [p. 36] The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered At All. 
  Terry invented the song; he has *not* written any complete words to it;
  but many fans (including a folk singer called Heather Wood) have; and
  there *did* turn out to exist an old Oxford drinking song that also uses
  the key phrase of the hedgehog song. See the end of this file for one
  documented version of that song. Terry pleads parallel evolution, and
  observes that: "There is a certain, how shall I put it, natural cadence
  to the words."

- [p. 58] The play's subtitle: "Please Yourself" probably refers to
  Shakespeare's "As You Like It".

- [p. 60] "It was the cats and the rollers skates that were currently
  giving him trouble..."
  Refers to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals "Cats" and "Starlight
  Express".

+ [p. 75] "A faint glow beyond the frosted panes suggested that, against all 
  reason, a new day would soon dawn."

  The first scene of the first act of Shakespeare's Hamlet starts at
  midnight, and describes a scene lasting about fifteen minutes -- yet the
  act ends at dawn. Likewise, the summoning of WxrtHltl-jwlpklz the demon
  takes place at night, but ends with the quote given above.

- [p. 133] "'I have no recollection of it at this time,' he murmured."
  Duke Felmet is echoing the words of Richard Nixon during the Watergate
  affair.  [ But I'm still looking for definite confirmation of this
  annotation. Anybody? ]

- [p. 142] "Greebo's grin gradually faded, until there was nothing left but
  the cat, This was nearly as spooky as the other way round."
  Refers to the Cheshire cat in Lewis Caroll's "Alice's Adventures in
  Wonderland", who is famous for slowly vanishing until only the grin
  remains.

- [p. 158] "[...] the hero had been born in a handbag"
  The protagonist in Oscar Wilde's "The Importance Of Being Earnest" was
  found as a baby in a handbag.

- [p. 160] The Dysk. The famous theatre build by Shakespeare & Co. was
  called "The Globe".

- [p. 193] "1ST WITCHE: He's late.  (Pause)" [Etc.]
  Refers to Samuel Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot".

+ [p. 213] "I'd like to know if I could compare you to a summer's day.
  Because -- well, June 12th was quite nice, and ..."
  One of Shakespeare's more famous sonnets (known simply as sonnet XVIII,
  because he didn't name them) starts out:

  "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
   Thou art more lovely and more temperate"


PYRAMIDS

- [p. 14] The Young Men's Reformed-Cultists-of-the-Ichor-God-Bel-Shamharoth
  Association puns on our world's YMCA youth hostels. YMCA stands for Young
  Men's Christian Association.

- [p. 17] Djelibeybi. A pun on the sweets called Jelly Babies.

- [p. 20] On the subject of the Assasin's Guild School, Terry has this to
  say: "Yes, the whole setup of the Assassins Guild school has, uh, a
  certain resonance with Rugby School in "Tom Brown's Schooldays" (note to
  Americans: a minor Victorian classic of school literature which no-one
  reads anymore and which is probably now more famous for the first
  appearance of the Flashman character subsequently popularised by George
  MacDonald Fraser)."

+ [p. 50] The legend of Ankh Morpork being founded by two orphaned brothers
  who had been found and suckled by a hippopotamus refers to the the legend
  of Romulus and Remus who were two orphaned brothers found and suckled by
  a wolf, and who later went on to found Rome.
  
- [p. 95] Pteppic's dream about the seven fat and seven thin cows is a
  reference to the Bible's Joseph's, who had to explain a similar dream
  (which did not have the bit about the trombone, though), to the Pharaoh.
  "Pyramids" is of course riddled with religious references, most of which
  are too obvious or too incomplete to warrant inclusion here.

+ [p. 117] Ptraci. Should be pronounced with a silent 'p'. Note also that
  in England the name Tracey (Sharon, too) is often used to generically
  refer to the kind of girl immortalized in the "dumb blonde" jokes.
  
  The stereotype may have arisen because of Keith Waterhouse who has been
  using the names for many years in his Daily Mail columns to represent
  typical innumerate rude shop assistants. There also exists an adult
  satirical comic called Viz which features two characters called 'the Fat
  Slags' whose names are Sharon and Tracy. Etcetera...

- [p. 127] Notice the sound accompanying the pyramid flares. It
  phonetically spells "Cheops".

+ [p. 156] "[...] distilling the testicles of a small tree-dwelling species
  of bear with the vomit of a whale, [...]"

  Until not so long ago, animal substances were extensively used as
  fixatives in perfume. Examples include musk (from deer-testicles; 
  'musk' is Sanskrit for 'scrotum'), ambergris (from the intestines
  of whales) and castor (from a beaver's perineal gland).

+ [p. 157] "...Phi* 1700[u/v]. Lateral e/v. Equals a tranche of seven to
  twelve..."

  Some confusion has arisen here, because the symbol '*' is the same
  asterisk used in at least some of the editions of "Pyramids" as a
  footnote marker. This has caused a few people to wonder if there's a
  'missing footnote' intended for this page. Matters are not helped much by
  the fact that the American paperback edition *does* contain the text of a
  footnote on (their equivalent of) p. 157. This footnote is simply
  misplaced and the marker for it occurs on the *previous* page (see also
  previous annotation).

  We'll let Terry have the last word in order to remove any remaining doubt:

  "I'm pretty sure the missing footnote in Pyramids doesn't exist.  If it's
  what I'm thinking of, we just bunged in loads of gibberish maths and
  among the symbols was, yes, '*'."

- [p. 176] The philosophers shooting arrows at tortoises are discussing
  their own special version of Zeno's paradox, involving Achilles and a
  Tortoise.  See also Hofstadter's "Godel, Escher, Bach". Or Zeno.

+ [p. 179] Philosophers' names. Xeno refers to Zeno, of aforementioned
  paradox. Copolymer ("the greatest storyteller in the history of the
  world") refers to both Homer (because of the name) and Herodotus ("the
  father of history"), who was known for his very chatty and discursive
  style, and who basically made his living as a story-teller/dinner guest.
  Pthagonal ("a very acute man with an angle") refers to Pythagoras. Iesope
  ("the greatest teller of fables") to Aesop. Antiphon ("the greatest
  writer of comic plays") to Aristophanes. And Ibid is actually short for
  ibidem, which means, when citing literature references, to mean 'same
  author as before'. Hence: "Ibid you already know".  

  The only one left is Endos the Listener, who is perhaps meant to portray
  the standard second-man-in-a-socratic-dialogue -- the man who spends the
  entire dialogue saying things like "That is correct, Socrates", "I agree",
  "you're right", "your reasoning appears correct", and the like.

  Also, an 'antiphon' is a name for a versicle or sentence sung by one
  choir in response to another (e.g. in a comic play: "No you can't /
  Yes I can!" repeated many times with rising pitch.

  [ Finally, my source also suspects that Copolymer's monologue may be a
  take off on a particular translation of the "Histories". Anybody?]

- [p. 197] The Tsortean wars refer to the Trojan wars (read also ERIC. Or
  Homer.)

+ [p. ???] "Go tell the Ephebians..."
  This is a parody of "Go tell the Spartans...", which is the beginning
  of the memorial for the Spartan soldiers who got massacred by the Persians
  at Thermopylae as a result of Greek treachery. The full quote is
  given by Simonedes (5th century BC) as:

	"Go, tell the Spartans, thou who passest by,
	 That here obedient to their laws we lie"
  
  [ Can someone find the page number for me? ]

+ It has been remarked that there are quite a few parallels between the
  country of Djelibeybi and the castle of Gormenghast as described by
  Mervyn Peake in his Gormenghast trilogy (which we know Terry has read
  because in another Discworld novel he compares the Unseen University to
  Gormenghast). The hero of Gormenghast, Titus, also has a mother with a
  cat obsession, and his father died because he thought he was an owl.
  Furthermore, the atmosphere of decay, ancient history and unchanging
  ritual pervades both Djelibeybi and Gormenghast, with in both cases the
  presence of arbiters of tradition who are almost (or more) powerful than
  the actual ruler.

  [ Can someone give me information about when 'Gormenghast' was written? ]
  

ERIC

- [p. 21] The book Eric uses to summon his demon has the title
  "Mallificarum Sumpta Diabolicite Occularis Singularum", or the Book of
  Ultimate Control. But note the initials.

+ [p. 41] The name of the Tezumen god, 'Quetzovercoatl', puns on
  the actual Aztec god 'Quetzalcoatl'.

- [p. 51] Ponce da Quirm, looking for the Fountain of Youth is a pun on
  Ponce de Leon, the 15th century Spanish nobleman who did the same.

- [p. 75] Lavaeolus is not only a dog-latin translation of 'Rincewind', but
  the character is also a parody of Ulysses, tragic hero of the Trojan
  wars.


GUARDS! GUARDS!

Many references to well-known detective novel and cop action movies here.

+ [p. 48] The motto of the Night Watch: "FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC" is dog-latin
  for "Make my day, punk", a well-known Clint Eastwood quote. Notice also
  that the translation Terry supplies ("To protect and to serve") is
  actually the motto of the Los Angeles Police Force.

  My source also tells me that Hollywood writers and directors,
  notoriuos for the accuracy of their movies and TV shows, tend to have
  *all* police cars bear this motto. In a sort of reverse formation,
  this caused some individual police forces across the USA to adopt
  it, so that the motto by now has become fairly wide-spread.

- [p. 94] "'Just give me the facts, m'lady,' he said impatiently."
  "Just the facts, ma'am", is a famous quote from the Dragnet TV series
  (later a Dan Ackroyd/Tom Hanks movie).

- [p. 104] "Pour encourjay lays ortras".
  Discworld version of the well-known French phrase "pour encourager les
  autres". The phrase originates with Voltaire who, after the British
  executed their own admiral John Byng in 1757 for failing to relieve
  Minorca, was inspired to write (in Chapter 23 of "Candide"), a sentence
  that translates to: "in this country we find it pays to shoot an admiral
  from time to time to encourage the others".

- [p. 104] The bit about the hero killing a monster in a lake, only to have
  the monster's mum come right down the hall the next day and *complain*,
  is a reference to Grendel and his mother, two famous monsters appearing
  in the Beowulf saga.

- [p. 108] "Once you've ruled out the impossible then whatever is left,
  however improbable, must be the truth. [...] There was also the curious
  incident of the orangutan in the night-time ..."
  This paraphrases a famous piece of Sherlock Holmes dialogue found in the
  story "Silver Blaze" [and it perhaps also refers to Edgar Allan Poe's
  "The murders in the Rue Morgue". Terry??].

- [p. 124] "This is Lord Mounjoy Quickfang Winterforth IV, the hottest
  dragon in the city. It could burn your head clean off."
  Vimes replays here one of the best-known scenes in Clint Eastwood's first
  Dirty Harry movie.

- [p. 257] The scene where Errol's supersonic boom smashes the dragon out
  of the air is possibly lifted from another Clint Eastwood movie,
  "Firefox".


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 femme fatales 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 two notes further) 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 "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. 28] "'[...] what is the name of the outer-dimensional monster whose
  distinctive cry is 'Yerwhatyerwhatyerwhat'?' '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" (apparantly Mark Twain once
  said: '"hey are not firt to be called boys they should be called yobs").

  [ I would appreciate some more info on the 'yerwhatyerwhatyerwhat'
  phrase. Obviously, it denotes the stereotypical conversation of the
  English football supporter (Terry also uses it in "Only You Can Save
  Mankind"), but I fail to really understand it.

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

  In this scene, Ponder and Victor are studying the 'Necrotelicomnicon'.
  See note for p. 145 of MOVING PICTURES for the Lovecraft connection.

  One of the entities in Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos 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, shows suspicious parallels to a similar situation described
  in Roger Zelazny's (highly recommended) 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" also 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 quote "Can't act. Can't sing. Can dance a little" about
  Fred Astaire, reputedly said by a studio-executive after Fred's first
  screen test.
  
- [p. 62] "[...] Victor fights the dreaded Balgrog". 
  In Tolkien 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' probably refers to our 'Richter', of the
  earthquake scale.

- [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. 145] We learn that on the Discworld, the "Necrotelecomnicom" (see
  also the entry for p. 262 of "Good Omens") was written by 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 "Necromnicon", 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...'"

  A well-known qoute from the "Blues Brothers" movie, right near the
  beginning, just after Jake gets out of jail, and Elwood comes to pick him
  up:

  "It's a hundred and sixty miles to Chicago, we've got half a tank of gas,
  a packet of cigarettes, it's the middle of the night and we're wearing
  sunglasses.  Lets go!"  [note missing ']

  "We're 106 miles from Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack
  of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it!"  While
  we're at it, Elwood only says the part up to "...sunglasses.".  It's
  _Jake_ who says "Hit it!".

  [ Editor's note: this is incredible. I got two quotes from two different
  people who both sounded *very* sure of themselves, yet the quotes are
  almost completely different. And notice how each provides a convincing
  detail about that last 'Hit It/Lets Go' part... Please, somebody tell me
  which is the correct quote]

- [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. 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. 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 used the roaring lion.

+ [p. 276] "'Uselessium, more like,' murmured Silverfish."
  The paragraph where this quote occurs of course describes how Silverfish
  discovers the Diskworld 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 the Straight Dope on
  this?]

- 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...


REAPER MAN

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

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

+ [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".
  
+ [p. 35] 'Senior Wrangler' is the title of the top maths graduate at
  Cambridge University. Apparantly, 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 from the movie "Ghostbusters".

+ [p. 94] "Or sporting a Glad To Be Gray badge"
  'Glad To Be Gay' was the well-known slogan from 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, but for the life of me I
  can't recall who that was. Anybody? Furthermore I am pretty sure
  'Lupine' is the French word for wolf. Ixolite somehow makes me think
  of some kind of fuel, or am I reaching here?
  
+ [p. 97] "Every full moon I turn into a wolfman. The rest of the time
  I'm just a ... wolf."
  There is a fantasy short story by a famous author [somehow Larry Niven
  comes to mind. Anybody?] that has exactly the same idea for a punchline.

+ [p. 129] "LAST YEAR SOMEONE GOT THREE STREETS AND ALL THE UTILITIES."
  The game "Exclusive Posessions" refers of course to Monopoly.

- [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. 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 target.  Many
  quotes and events have direct counterparts: "Yeah, but secreted from
  what?", "No one touch *anything*", "It's coming from *everywhere*!", "We
  are *going*", are only a few examples, and of course there is the matter
  of the Queen...

+ [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 SMALL GODS, [p. 170].

+ [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 fantasy movie "Ladyhawk", starring
  Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer.

+ [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. Terry says: "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. 246] "'And who was that masked man?' They both looked around. There
  was no one there."
  Refers to the Lone Ranger.


WITCHES ABROAD

- [p. 42] The section dealing with dwarves (and in fact, almost
  *everything* Pratchett writes about dwarves) 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
  dwarves, they have an encounter with a wretched creature mumbling
  something about his birthday...

- [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. 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" stories.

- [p. 134] "Not a Ronald in sight"
  Terry says: "Yep...direct use of existing East London rhyming slang there
  (Richard the Third = turd)."

+ [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
  even later (in LORDS AND LADIES) we also find out that he is an
  Outrageous Liar.

- [p. 218] "The maiden, the mother and the crone."
  Traditionally, the wiccan (see EQUAL RITES notes) goddess is indeed
  viewed as the triple entity maiden/mother/crone, and our witches indeed
  echo this model. Neil Gaiman also often uses the tripple godess 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 that 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 apparantly borrowed from Fritz Leiber's Hugo award winning
  novelette "Gonna Roll The Bones" (which title inspired the Rush
  album "Roll The Bones").

  [ I'd like more precise info on this. 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. ]


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 latin translates
  more literally as "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's 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 Minerva/Pallas Athena, 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 downward in a reversed 'V for Victory' sign.  The origin of
  this rude gesture dates back to the battle of Agincourt.

+ [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?"
  Avis Domestica = latin name for chicken.

- [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' 'Platitudes'"
  Aritocrates = Aristotle + Socrates.

- [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 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. 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 one in ten times,
  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. 262] The home of the Gods at the top of Cori Celesti, is referred to
  as "Dunmanifestin" on several places in the Discworld novels [I am trying
  to chase the earliest appearance. Anyone?]  This is not only a reference
  to the many British placenames that begin with 'Dun' (a Gaelic word
  meaning castle or fort and hence town) but also a reference to the
  supposedly traditional name for a twee retirement bungalow in the
  suburbs. When people (especially the bourgeous middle classes) retire to
  the suburbs, they always, according to the stereotype, give the house
  some 'cute' punning name. Since the Dun/Done association is well-known,
  one of the more common names (though it is a matter of discussion if
  anyone has ever actually seen a house with this name) is 'Dunroamin' -
  that is "Done Roaming" - i.e. the owners of the house have finished
  "travelling the world" (sic) and are now settled down to a life of the
  Daily Mail, golf and coffee mornings. From this, we get that a retirement
  home for gods not possessing much taste, might just be named
  "Dunmanifestin".

- [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 SG, or put in, and there was no pressure to
  do either"


LORDS AND LADIES

+ [p. 178] "Quite a lot of trouble had once been caused in Unseen
  University by a former Archchancellor's hat, [...]"

  Refers back to the events in SOURCERY.

+ [p. 180] "Jane's All the World Siege Weapons"
  'Jane's' is a well known series of books/catalogues for military
  equipment of all sorts and types. There is a Jane's for airplanes,
  for boats, etc.

+ [p. 216] "[...] the only other one ever flying around here is Mr Ixolite
  the banshee, and he's very good about slipping us a note under the door
  when he's going to be about."

  If you haven't read REAPERMAN yet, you may not realize that the reason
  why Mr Ixolite slips notes under the door is that he is the only banshee
  in the world with a speech impediment.

***************************************************************************

[ Here end the first part of the APF. The second part was posted at
  the same time, don't miss it. ]
-- 
Leo Breebaart  (leo @ ph.tn.tudelft.nl)
-- 
Leo Breebaart  (leo @ ph.tn.tudelft.nl)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett