{"id":353,"date":"2010-07-29T20:00:48","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T20:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/?p=353"},"modified":"2010-07-29T20:00:48","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T20:00:48","slug":"the-colour-of-magical-prose-pratchett%e2%80%99s-humour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/2010\/07\/29\/the-colour-of-magical-prose-pratchett%e2%80%99s-humour\/","title":{"rendered":"The Colour of Magical Prose: Pratchett\u2019s humour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I’ve loved Terry Pratchett\u2019s Discworld<\/em> sequence of novels for years, without really knowing why. I\u2019ve always avoided trying to pinpoint exactly what it is about Pratchett\u2019s prose that is funny: analysing humour is a bit like prodding a balloon with a pin \u2013 at some point, it\u2019s going to burst.<\/p>\n

But a moment of revelation struck me recently whilst reading Jingo<\/em>, the twenty-first instalment in the prolific series.<\/p>\n

People\u2019s Exhibit A:\u00a0 Corporal Nobby Nobbs, a member of the City Watch<\/a>, is so awful to behold that he has been given a certificate to prove he\u2019s actually human. He is endeavouring to express some difficult sentiments \u2013 i.e. his lack of attractiveness of girls \u2013 to Sergeant Angua, a female colleague.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m sayin\u2019 is, as you get older, you know, you think about settlin\u2019 down, findin\u2019 someone who\u2019ll go with you hand in hand down life\u2019s bumpy highway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I just don\u2019t seem to meet girls,\u201d Nobby said.\u201d Well, I mean, I meet<\/em> girls, and then they rush off.\u201d (p.56).<\/p>\n

Brilliant. Here, it\u2019s what\u2019s missing in the last sentence that\u2019s the key to the humour. Left unsaid is the whole \u2018I meet girls but they\u2019re traumatised by my being hideous\u2019 sentiment; what the reader gets is the first part and the last part, but without the middle section linking the two. This means that the bit about girls leaving in horror comes a lot sooner that we expect; and\u00a0 what a wonderfully concise manner of expressing it. \u2018They rush off<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n

People\u2019s Exhibit B:\u00a0 two more officers of the City Watch, Commander Vimes and Captain Carrott, have just had one of their number kidnapped, and need to give chase in a boat. But they don\u2019t have one, so they need to commandeer one from a disreputable smuggler named Captain Jenkins. Vimes, ever the figure of reasoned action, opens proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh, Captain Jenkins! This is your lucky day!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is ?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, because you have an unrivalled opportunity to aid the war effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have ?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd also to demonstrate your patriotism,\u201d Carrott added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do ?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to borrow your boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBugger off!\u201d (p.217)<\/p>\n

In this passage, it\u2019s the juxtaposition of smooth legalese-speak and blunt coarseness that creates the humour; Vimes\u2019 wonderfully articulate, law-abiding sentences offering the ship\u2019s captain a chance to redeem himself, and the captain missing this completely, comprehending only what is expected of him when told directly \u2013 we need to borrow your boat \u2013 and his blunt response.<\/p>\n

\"\"It\u2019s the ideas of concision and conflation operating in Pratchett that gives rise to the humour: juxtaposing two ideas which imply an awful lot that is left unsaid, and expressing them in a brief yet telling manner. And often these two ideas collide because they are almost antithetical: articulacy and vulgarity, logic and confusion, grace and slapstick, great wisdom and downright stupidity (the latter usually, in Pratchett, The Law).<\/p>\n

Pratchett\u2019s humour also implies that his readers are intelligent and able to work out the parts that are left unexpressed; you admire his humour and are also able to pat yourself on the back for having worked it out (as he wants you to). Clever, eh ?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m fully aware that this brief examination of how the humour works in Pratchett\u2019s writing may not have convinced you. It may not have worked At All. But the real way for it to get you, as with music, is to experience it for yourself. \u00a0Read the books. They won\u2019t let you down.<\/p>\n

Posted by\u00a0Daniel Harding<\/strong>, Deputy Director of Music at the\u00a0University of Kent<\/a>. \u00a0Click\u00a0here<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>to view his Music Matters blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve loved Terry Pratchett\u2019s Discworld sequence of novels for years, without really knowing why. I\u2019ve always avoided trying to pinpoint exactly what it is about Pratchett\u2019s prose that is funny: analysing humour is a bit like prodding a balloon with a pin \u2013 at some point, it\u2019s going to burst. But a moment of revelation … Continue reading “The Colour of Magical Prose: Pratchett\u2019s humour”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":620,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1201],"tags":[1331,1330],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/620"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions\/360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}