![]() The device means that good characters can die without outrage, though I remember being shocked by the first death I encountered - that of an ordinary, brave dwarf in Men at Arms who, by normal fairy-story rights, should have survived to triumph over evil. These matter-of-fact deaths are curiously comforting - people shake themselves and stagger or stroll off in the direction of the horizon. ![]() They are met by Pratchett's personified Death - a skeleton with a scythe, an hourglass and a white horse called Binkie - who has organised himself to resemble what human beings think he is, is courteously inhuman, but has increasing bouts of oddly caring behaviour, prompted by his long association with our agitated species. When they do, they take time to realise what has happened. But unlike many creators of fantasy worlds he makes sure his readers know death is real, while at the same time finding ingenious devices to help us to accommodate that knowledge. Like all good storytellers he writes against death, creating impossible escapes, thrilling dangers, the come-uppance of the wicked and so on.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |