Unseen Academicals
by Terry Pratchett · first published 2008
15% recommend62% neutral23% critical
The wizards at Ankh-Morpork's Unseen University are renowned for many things_wisdom, magic, and their love of teatime_but athletics is most assuredly not on the list. And so when Lord Ventinari, the city's benevolent tyrant, strongly suggests to Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully that the university revive an erstwhile tradition and once again put forth a football team composed of faculty, students, and staff, the wizards of UU find themselves in a quandary. To begin with, they have to figure out just what it is that makes this sport_soccer with a bit of rugby thrown in_so popular with Ankh-Morpo
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…[Rincewind] 10. Moving Pictures [Independent] 12. Witches Abroad [Witches] 18. Maskerade [Witches] 19. Feet of clay [The City Watch] 23. Carpe Jugulum [Witches] 32. A Hat Full of Sky [Tiffany Aching] 37. Unseen Academicals [Wizards] 38. I Shall Wear Midnight [Tiffany Aching] Brilliant series, highly recommended. Whenever I feel down, I re-read one of the Witches series - I spot something I never noticed before - an immediate…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗I thought Unseen Academicals was his best book.
on “Terry Pratchett's unfinished novels destroyed by steamroller” ↗…about evil. It is built in to the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.’ -- Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett
on “Wasps: If you can't love them, at least admire them” ↗Being worthy is a much higher goal than many. Reminds me of Pratchett's character Mr Nutt in Unseen Academicals.
on “The problem with ‘follow your dream’” ↗…built in to the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior." -- Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals
on “On the Shortness of Life - Seneca (50 AD)” ↗…built in to the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior." -- Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals I find that paragraph to be a perfect rebuttal to appeals to nature. Hat tip to ChronoDAS for bringing it to my attention: http://lesswrong.com/lw/1ud/rationality_quotes_march_2010/1p...
on “What You Can't Say (2004)” ↗I admit there are a couple I've never read (they're sitting on the shelf next to me - Raising Steam, Unseen Academicals, Making Money). That way I'll always have another Terry Pratchett novel to read. I felt that Carpe Jugulum was a retread of Lords & Ladies, and the formula was getting stale by that point. If Monstrous…
on “Royal Mail to Issue “Terry Pratchett’s Discworld” Stamps” ↗…is built in to the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.’ - Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals
on “The scary sound of Aztec skull whistles” ↗…all of us to become his moral superior.” > The two wizards exchanged a glance. Vetinari was staring into the depths of his beer mug and they were glad that they did not know what he saw in there. -- Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett
on “First live birth using Fertilo procedure that matures eggs outside the body” ↗> it felt like there was more and more philosophising If you're referring to the much-later books like Unseen Academicals, then sadly I think Terry's alzheimers affliction was probably to blame. As I understand it he reached a point where he was no longer able to type, but could still dictate. Certainly somewhere in that…
on “Discworld on Page and Screen, Part 1: Serious Comedy” ↗…I believe Pterry was not actually physically writing himself, but working through an amanuensis. I can easily imagine that this massively complicated the revision process and the novels, probably from Unseen Academicals onwards read to me more like earlier drafts than finished productions.
on “Terry Pratchett’s hard drive steamrolled in 2017 had '10 unfinished novels'” ↗…formal diagnosis. The diagnosis was announced in 2007, meaning the shift occurred in 1997. 1997 was after Jingo and before Carpe Jugulum and The Last Continent, and 2007 was after Making Money and before Unseen Academicals. The Last Continent is the first identified in the paper as below the cutoff for adjectives which they use to identify the start of the decline. My own feeling is that many of his strongest works were…
on “Detecting Dementia Using Lexical Analysis: Terry Pratchett's Discworld” ↗I own the full set of books, and I have to say that Unseen Academicals is such a chore to read that I've only finished it twice. Quality varied throughout the run, but that was the only one that I actively didn't like. Even the last few, getting simpler, or more verbose,…
on “Discworld on Page and Screen, Part 1: Serious Comedy” ↗