Required Reading · 8:21am Mar 31st, 2013
Sometimes, I just wan to strangle some people. Other times, I don't. But all the time, I want them to percieve things in a manner similar to the way I do.
Have any of you heard of Terry Pratchett? My absolute favorite author, does amazing stories which mock our own world in a fantasy setting. One of the theme's common throughout his books is the power of belief. His characters trust blindly in such things as gods, and since they believe and trust in them the gods exist in the first place. And you know those special moments, right before the hero is about to die, and he has an idea. A one in a million chance of success. And he always wins. It's because they trust in belief; they believe that an outnumbered, overwhelmed hero has to win. One simple man with a possibly royal bloodline is worth an army.
Because of belief.
And all this from an atheist author who believes less in god than he does in his car keys. "Because I can find those every morning," he says.
Just go read his books. They're good stuff, and maybe you'll get some of what I write better.
Is he mocking religion?
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He's mocking everything. I picked his theme of belief to talk about because it is relevant to a recurring idea in some of my stories (that belief sustains reality; take away the belief, reality falls apart). He also reflects upon the natural tendencies of the bystander, the bandwagon effect of political movements, and tons of other far less serious stuff.
Example of the latter: one of his reccuring characters is a wizard named Rincewind, the most inept wizard to never graduate the wizard school, who is constantly thrust into the center of events which effect the world. Despite his ineptetude (sometimes because of it) Rincewind always manages to "win" the day.
In all honesty, Pratchett parodies the real world in a fantasy setting, then procedes to parody the fanstasy elements that the world is based on.
And stuff.