Inconsistencies in Discworld books

[TheMole]

In "Mort", Ysabell is sixteen, right?
And she has been sixteen for 35 years, right? (the time stands still in the Death´s House)
AND, when the Death had saved her in the avalanche, she was a small girl, right?
SO, how could she possibly grow old until sixteen??

 

[Tonyblack]

In "Mort", Ysabell is sixteen, right?
And she has been sixteen for 35 years, right? (the time stands still in the Death´s House)
AND, when the Death had saved her in the avalanche, she was a small girl, right?
SO, how could she possibly grow old until sixteen??

I'm pretty sure that it says (maybe in Light Fantastic where we first meet Ysabelle) that Death allowed her to grow to a teenager because he thought that an older child would be easier to deal with...

Presumably Death can allow localised time in his domain - otherwise such things as digestion of Albert's fry-ups wouldn't work - would they?

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Ewww yeah - imagine having indigestion for eternity! :twisted:

 

[Tonyblack]

By the way Mole - Ysabelle's parents died in The Great Nef - the driest desert on the Disc. An avalanche seems a little unlikely.

 

[swreader]

In "Mort", Ysabell is sixteen, right?
And she has been sixteen for 35 years, right? (the time stands still in the Death´s House)
AND, when the Death had saved her in the avalanche, she was a small girl, right?
SO, how could she possibly grow old until sixteen??

It seems to me that Terry varies the effects of time in DEATH'S DOMAIN as he finds convenient in each book. While it's important for Albert, and to a lesser extent Ysabelle to be held at a given point in time, as Tony pointed out, time exists in other ways. Cups fall to the floor and break, as do lifetimers (in Mort). And in Thief of Time, Death of Rats goes through the effort of showing DEATH the effects of malignancy that changes the ratio of times the toast lands buttter side down.

In other words, the question of time in DEATH's DOMINION is entirely variable, according to what point Terry is making.

 

[poohbcarrot]

Explain this one then.

This is from Darwin's Watch page 205;

"There was a small cannon only a few feet away. Rincewind knew about them. He was the only wizard to have seen one, over in the Agatean Empire, where they were known as "Barking Dogs".

 

[poohbcarrot]

...and how did Rincewind and Ponder know what an Auditor was? As far as I can remember no wizard has seen an auditor.

 

[Tonyblack]

Don't know about the Barking Dog - when the wizards sent Rinso to the Agatean Empire, a cannon appeared in the magic circle in his place - they sent it back.

As to the Auditor - Sharlene and I seem to think that in Reaper Man, when the wizards perform the Rite of Ashekente, an Auditor turns up in place of the missing Death.

 

[poohbcarrot]

Don't know about the Barking Dog - when the wizards sent Rinso to the Agatean Empire, a cannon appeared in the magic circle in his place - they sent it back.

I agree, so ALL the wizards have seen one, have poked one about, tried to get the ball out, realised it's purpose and that it's dangerous!

 

[Tina a.k.a.SusanSto.Helit]

By the way Mole - Ysabelle's parents died in The Great Nef - the driest desert on the Disc. An avalanche seems a little unlikely.

Mort nodded. "Your daughter," he said. "Mine? Ha," said Albert, " You're wrong there. She's his." Mort stared down at his fried eggs. Theystared back from their lake of fat. Albert had heard of nutritional values, and did'nt hold with them. "Are we talking about the same person:" he said at last. "Tall, wears black, he's a bit ... skinny ...." "Adopted," said Albert kindly, "It's rather a long story--" ..."My parents were killed crossing The Great Nef years ago. There was a storm, I think. He found me and brought me here, I don't know why he did it." ( said Ysabell to Mort ((The Boy)) abridged from HarperTorch paperback 2001

Yup, that is correct. How Mort and Ysabell died is another story.

 

[kakaze]

Yup, that is correct. How Mort and Ysabell died is another story.

Carriage crash on Dead Man's Curve.

 

[The rat]

The one inconsistancy that has changed has been Igor in Beers. From the ealier books we are lead to believe that he is the classic Igor from Frankenstien moives. But as it eveloves we saw two types of Igors from 5th Elephant and the one in Beers.

But I think in Thud! this character has been changed to someone who calls himself as Igor to give the bar a certain feel. An since 5th Elephant there hasn't been an Igor in A-M so the bartender in Beers had no one to say that he wasn't a proper Igor.

But now PTerry has fixed that troublesome little knot! So as stated ealier in this thread that this just shows that characters can evolve at the writers descretion, which is fine by me. Since we as a reader evolve with them and our experiences in life change as well in our views.

Does that make any sense what I just wrote? Working all night and trying to make sense does not make good bed fellows!

 

[Belphegor]

I don't know if this thread's the right one to ask this, but I'd like details on Unseen University (from a student's point of view) and Rincewind in particular. Assuming it's a mirror to British universities isn't exactly much help, because I know very little about them (being French) except that Oxford is absolutely gorgeous (at least it was 6 years ago when I visited it )

Do you enter as a student at 18? How long are you supposed to stay? Do you "graduate"?

Consider Rincewind - doesn't have a first name (though that's probably due to CoM and LF being more "straight" fantasy parodies than the next books), no family as far as he knows - where was he until he enrolled at UU? How old was he in CoM and how many years since he got out/was kicked out?

 

[Dotsie]

I seem to remember there was some stuff in Equal Rites about application processes, & exams get a brief mention in Moving Pictures. Possibly someone somewhere has compiled detailed inner workings of the UU system.

As for Rincewind - the man's an enigma

But really, with a few exceptions, we don't get a lot of backstory for other characters. Otherwise, what would happen to all the fanfic?

 

[Tonyblack]

If you use Equal Rites as a model then it seems that you can join at quite a young age so long as you qualify. And to qualify you need to be an eighth son of an eighth son or you need to have performed some sort of magical feat as was the case with Simon.

BUT - then you get students like Rincewind and Victor (in Moving Pictures) who don't seem to have any magical abilities.

So the simple answer is - I don't know.

 

[Dotsie]

Probably Terry doesn't know either, & that's why he's been deliberately vague

 

[Tonyblack]

Probably Terry doesn't know either, & that's why he's been deliberately vague

Yes, Terry only visits Discworld, he doesn't live there.

 

[Tina a.k.a.SusanSto.Helit]

Probably Terry doesn't know either, & that's why he's been deliberately vague

Yes, Terry only visits Discworld, he doesn't live there.

As our beloved author and inventor of this lil planet/universe says, " My readers know Discworld far better than I do" and he describes it as a Geological Pizza, hold the anchovies... but we keep insisting on packaging it into something we can hold on to. We are the ones who NEED discworld, and NEED him to keep being able to write them so we can get our "fixes" before withdrawal sets in. :twisted:

Can you stretch your imagination to just entertain the idea of what prices would be like if it were a REAL commodity that could be parceled out and sold?? Oh by all the small gods, imagine the KAOS that would ensue... it boggles the mind, eh? hehehe I like to think that Terry's description of two neighbors who go bonkers on each other with the hedge clippers would DEFINITELY ensue. Muahahahaha :twisted:

 

[Tina a.k.a.SusanSto.Helit]

P.S. I loved it when he described coming up with the idea of KAOS being SOAK backwards and had to write it down and run to the bathroom mirror to check if it was truly real.

 

[chris.ph]

i saw it straight away but my brain works a little strangely