Terry Pratchett Starts To Say Farewell

[filkertom]

Dammit, the bad news keeps coming. Cory Doctorow reports that Terry Pratchett, suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's, is beginning the process of assisted suicide.

I have never understood why some people are so adamant in preventing other people who are suffering from ending the suffering once and for all. The man wants to die before his quality of life, his very mind, is compromised too much. This shouldn't be a choice at all, nor a situation for the law.

May things go well, sir, and may you go when and how you choose, with all the dignity you deserve.

If you feel inspired to share favorite lines, characters, or scenes from Mr. Pratchett's works, I don't think he'd find that amiss.

Comments

[niqaeli]

Because it's not actually that simple. Who decides when quality of life is too poor to continue? It should be the person whose life is in question, obviously.

But when society tells them repeatedly that they are useless and accomplishing nothing because of their disorders or disabilities and makes it impossible to participate in society, was it really their decision? Would their decision have been different if society allowed for them as valuable members?

I don't disagree with the right to choose your own death. I just also think that disability is societally constructed and that a great many people who may wish to die now, might not if society were constructed to accommodate them.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

If you follow him on Facebook, you'll also note that the documentary Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die is airing tonight, on BBC2 at 9PM local time. I would be shocked if this wasn't connected; it certainly seems, from the description of the show, as if it was setting this up.

When he goes, I certainly hope that he has a book on his tombstone, inscribed "Still reading me? I aten't dead."

[fair-witness.livejournal.com]

In these circumstances, one line immediately comes to my mind:

"See how they rise up, rise up, rise up."

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I discovered Pratchett's Discworld in December of 2009 and have become a great fan since. Thank you sir for that world and all the wonderful characters who populate it. I hope the torch will be passed to someone worthy. Thank you for your effort and dedication even in the face of death and for saying "I have a bloody book to finish". (And on a selfish note, I hope that book is either Snuff or Raising Taxes.)

I can't begin to talk about favorite lines since they are so many of them. I admire Lord Vetenari (sp) for his shrewdness and ability to lead by putting the city first. I admire Sam Vines for his dedication to justice and fairness. In fact all the characters have their own admirable qualities that make them come alive. It's a place where common sense and foresight are more easily found than in the real world.

[ladyotterfae.livejournal.com]

Snuff is finished, and will be out in October. :) He (or rather, Rob), will be reading from it at NADWCon next month.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Thanks for the news. But too bad it will likely be the last Watch book.

*sigh* I'm working my way through Unseen Academicals now. It's a bit long and I wish he would focus on existing characters instead of creating new ones. But this version of orcs is one of the better I've seen. One thing that drives me away from fantasy is the "innate evil" of some races. Not people races. Orcs ARE evil. Ogres ARE evil. Red dragons ARE evil. There's no free will or way one can break their nature and that just doesn't sit right with me. I'm glad Pratchett's books moves away from that (to an extent, I would like to see a continuation of Equal Rites).

continuation of equal rites

[paul krausnick (from livejournal.com)]

Check out I Shall Wear Midnight, the latest Tiffany Aching book for a continuation of Equal Rites

[rowangolightly.livejournal.com]

That is such sad news but I totally support his decision; I saw my mother go through that and it was horrific.

There are so many good quotes: "God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time."

[bedlamhouse]

We've known he had decided to choose this path for some time, see the 2010 Richard Dimbleby Lecture. The process brings it closer but, as has been said, he isn't at the decision point yet.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I, too, wish him success. The fact that Britain doesn't have separation of church and state, and given who controls parliament at the moment, may give him a long row to hoe... but I think it's the *right* row. The forced abdication of control of one's own life... isn't that called slavery?

That, and I watched what happened to Vixy as her mom wasted away... and she had help. secanth didn't... it nearly killed her spirit. I think I can safely say that when you mandate that kind of thing, the patient is not the only one needlessly suffering. I do think it needs to be the individual's decision... but I've not been shy about telling folks close to me that if I get that way, I'm *going* to want out. And I know that for sure; I've experienced hypothyroid-induced cognitive shutdown. I couldn't think straight.. and it was the worst half hour of my life.

And, actually, it should be a matter of law. The point of good government is to preserve your right to live as you see fit, including when to move on. If you don't write that into your legal code, somebody's gonna get charged with accessory to murder, and that shouldn't be happening. In general, you are right, what goes on between consenting adults - whatever that is - behind closed doors is their business. But there are too damn many busybodies knocking about, who would take too extreme an action, to NOT say something explicitly.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Terry has noted that the decision is based on the making of the documentary. He also notes that 70% of the people who sign the form he is about to sign do not actually commit suicide.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

I'm sad for the whole situation but I admire him for choosing to life.. and die on his own terms.

Man, some authors will go to some amazing length to meet their favorite characters.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Dear man. I met him and he was terribly sweet.

My favorite is about Headology. "A psychologist tells you there are no monsters. A headologist gives you a bad and a chair to stand on."

I have devoted my spiritual life to handing out chairs and bats.

[capplor.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, we were about to start reading "Men at Arms" as a family tonight. I suppose one of the "Death" stories might be more appropriate All things considered, but we are working through the catalog in order of publication.

I wish him an easy passing & an undisturbed rest. & am waiting to see what he creates in the next life beyond.

[ladyotterfae.livejournal.com]

I'll get to see him next month. He's a wonderful man, and I hope we have a few more years to enjoy his intelligence, charm, and whimsy, before he decides it's time to leave us. Working with the NADWCon committee, many of whom get to call him a friend, you get an idea of some of the challenges he's facing, and how fast they're getting worse, alas.

For now, I'm going to keep prepping for the Con, and look forward to hopefully getting to chat with him again. (I made Terry laugh in '09, which may go down in my personal logs as one of my great achievements. Yes, I know he laughs a lot, but it still felt awesome.)

[alverant.livejournal.com]

Could you do me a favor and tell him he still has fans out there discovering his work and that he's a fantastic writer please?

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Sad news - but thanks for the update.

[kudilu.livejournal.com]

omg, icon love. may i steal it (and possibly poke through your others)?
I will credit either you or whoever you credit, if you credit someone.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

By all means! I have several, all borrowed from (and attributed to) other people. They're very useful. :-)

[arensb.livejournal.com]

I have never understood why some people are so adamant in preventing other people who are suffering from ending the suffering once and for all.

I suspect it's simplistic reasoning entangled, as it so often is, with religion. I suspect it goes something like this:

Peasant: I don't want to die.
Priest: That's okay. When you die, you go to a magical place with puppy dogs and rainbows made of bacon.
Peasant: That sounds cool! I think I'll kill myself right now to go there!
Priest: [realizes that if everyone drew that logical conclusion, there wouldn't be any more people] Uh, wait. New rule: you can't kill yourself.
Peasant: Oh, okay.
Terminally-ill person: I can't take it anymore. Please help me end it all.
Peasant: You mustn't! The rule is, you can't kill yourself.

If you feel inspired to share favorite lines, characters, or scenes from Mr. Pratchett's works

He has a lot of memorable lines that, apart from everything else, are useful in illustrating serious principles. I like

"Oh, obvious," said Granny. "I'll grant you it's obvious. Trouble is, just because things are obvious doesn't mean they're true."

in skeptical circles. And I've used

Most witches don't believe in gods. They know that the gods exist, of course. They even deal with them occasionally. But they don't believe in them. They know them too well. It would be like believing in the postman.

in discussions with theists. And most people here will appreciate

People were stupid, sometimes. They thought the Library was a dangerous place because of all the magical books, which was true enough, but what made it really one of the most dangerous places there could ever be was the simple fact that it was a library.

And a non-Discworld one that I just found in my quotes file:

Oh dear, I'm feeling political today. It's just that it's dawned on me that
'zero tolerance' only seems to mean putting extra police in poor, run-down
areas, and not in the Stock Exchange.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

"INTERESTING CHOICE, MR. PRATCHETT. OUR APPOINTMENT ISN'T FOR SEVERAL YEARS, YOU KNOW."

"I know. It's just that...well, you can see what is supposed to happen in the meantime, can't you."

There was a slight pause.

"I...SEE. HARD TO BELIEVE IT'S THE SAME MAN, EVEN. VERY WELL. I WILL COME AGAIN AS SOON AS YOU ARE READY.

"...AND, MR. PRATCHETT?"

"Yes?"

"THANK YOU. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING."

[eustaciavye.livejournal.com]

This is beautiful.

[dbcooper.livejournal.com]

Wow. I like this a lot.

[juglore.livejournal.com]

"For some it is better to light a flamethrower than to curse the darkness." - Men at Arms

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

One description I've seen of the progress of Alzheimer's is the patient eventually gets to a "mute, incontinent state" (assuming they don't die of something else in the meantime). While it was pointed out to me that the patient isn't really aware of their circumstances at that point, the thought of either being in that state or having somebody I love in that state scares the crap out of me.

[realinterrobang.livejournal.com]

My paternal grandfather died with dementia, and it was incredibly hard on him and all of us, especially my father. My grandfather would call my dad at all hours of the day and night, terrified that he was lost somewhere, and pleading for my dad to come and rescue him. (Often, my grandfather would claim he was somewhere specific, which he actually wasn't -- one particular case I remember was his saying he was lost in Toronto.) Other times, Grandpa would call my parents' house and curse at my mom and dad for various imagined offenses -- this from a man who never swore in his life, as far as we knew. He spent the last several years of his life in a haze of confusion that deepened into perpetual paranoia, anger, and terror, and at the end, didn't recognise anybody. I'm an atheist, but his mental state was about the closest thing to hell I can imagine.

I can certainly understand why Mr. Pratchett doesn't want to go through that, because having seen what the long, drawn-out version does to a family, being able to set a date, say one's goodbyes peacefully while one is still compos mentis, and die quietly with one's family around seems infinitely preferable.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I remember one of his quotes during a Q&A section.

"I would rather be an elevated ape than a fallen angel."

Now that I think about it, I don't remember many angels in Discworld. Mostly they were people who did something that were later called angels. (Then there was a Valkyrie at the end of Interesting Times but that only appeared in the Great Beyond to one of the Silver Horde who died in battle.)

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

He did have the angel in Good Omens, the book he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman. Well, there's the angel, along with Crowley, a demon who kind... sauntered vaguely downwards. I like all of his books, for all kinds of fabulously varied reasons, but that one is pretty accessible for new readers.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

There is a very practical reason to be damn careful about assisted suicide.

You see, if the decision is just between the patient and the doctor assisting, then at the end of it we only have the doctor's word that the final decision was the patient's.

Euthanasia has been controversial for ages for exactly that reason- was it really the patient's will? Did the patient have a chance to change his/her mind at the last moment? Or was a doctor taking life on his own views, saying, "You've had your lot, buddy, time to check out"?

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

The only circumstances under which a remotely ethical doctor would act on a patient's wish to die in seclusion, without having others witness the decision, are the ones we have today, where it's illegal and the doctor can plausibly pass it off as natural.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Yes... but not all doctors have always been ethical.

Which is the problem.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Nor are all families, with money and timing at stake, always ethical about joggling the doctor's elbow pretty hard, too.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

"Ook."

Bon voyage, Mr. Pratchett - and thanks for that lovely holiday I spent in Argyll in 2009 (reading 19 of his books in 5 weeks).

[arakasi1.livejournal.com]

I only met PTerry once face to face. It was at the National Book Festival back in 2007. My wife and I waited for hours with our 14 month old son. The aides went though the line to remind us of the rules - one book per person, and autographs only - no dedications. We finally got to the front of the line with our three books (Making Money, Night Watch, and Where's My Cow?) and got the nastiest glare from the aide when we told him that one of the books was for my son - I guess that he thought we were trying to scam an extra autograph.

Mr. Pratchett had been signing for something like 3-4 hours straight by then. He had a bag of frozen peas on one wrist to numb the pain. And he said "Anyone that young who would wait this long for me deserves a dedication" and he wrote "E______, Here's your cow." In that moment, he changed in my mind from being a "Great author" to being a "Great person"

Unfortunately, that was just a few months before he discovered that the "stroke" that he suffered back in 2004 was actually Alzheimer's.

As for an appropriate quote - I think that it would be hard to beat the official motto issued to him by the Royal College of Arms:

Noli Timere Messorum

"Don't Fear the Reaper"

(The entire coat of arms can be found here (http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/Newsletter/026.pdf) (go about 2/3 of the way down)

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

I've only seen Mr Pratchett once. It was WorldCon 2005 in Boston. During the first night of the con, the con staff put him on mock trial for various offenses in his books. Mr Pratchett chose to defend himself, pleaded insanity, then went on to PROVE it. I don't know what the "judges" had planned for a script, but they weren't expecting that. God it was fun to watch!!