Discworld Annotations (7) - Pyramids - part 1

[p. 5/5] The Titles of the Books

Pyramids is split into four 'Books', a structure that gives it a
unique position amongst the otherwise chapterless Discworld novels
(The Colour of Magic doesn't really count -- it's a collection of
linked novellas, not a single novel with chapters or sections).
Book I is The Book of Going Forth, which refers to The Book of
Going Forth By Day, (see the annotation for p. 9/9 of The Light
Fantastic ).  Book II is The Book of the Dead, a more direct
reference to the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Book III is The Book
of the New Son which puns on the title of the Gene Wolfe SF novel
The Book of the New Sun (perhaps there is an earlier title both
authors are drawing on, but I haven't been able to trace it). Book
IV, finally, is The Book of 101 Things A Boy Can Do, which gives a
nod to the typical titles sported a few decades ago by books
containing wholesome, innocent, practical, but above all
educational activities for children.

[p. 7/7] "[...] the only turtle ever to feature on the
Hertzsprung- Russell Diagram, [...]"

The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram depicts the evolution of stars,
plotting luminosity (how strongly they emit light) versus surface
temperature (determined from their colour).

[p. 8/8] "Some people think a giant dung beetle pushes it."

The ancient Egyptians did, for instance.

[p. 10/10] "Morpork was twinned with a tar pit."

A reference to the concept of twin cities.

Following the horrors of the Second World War, and in the spirit
of egalitarianism and common feeling for our fellow men which
prevailed at that time, it was decided that the best way to cement
bonds between the people of the world so that they would never
ever even consider dropping big noisy things on each other again,
was to have every town, village and (apparently) cowshed in Europe
'twinned' with an equivalent one which had previously been on the
other side.

With these new-found unities, the merry laughing people of Europe
would engage in fraternal and sporting activities, school-
children would go on two-week exchange visits to discover that
they couldn't stand sauerkraut, and the respective mayors of the
towns would be able to present each other with touching and
expensive symbols of international friendship and get in the local
paper, all on other peoples' money.

The most visible effect of this accord is the presumptuous little
legend under the sign at the entrance to towns and villages saying
"Little Puddlebury -- twinned with Obermacht am Rhein". Some towns
(Croydon springs to mind) got a little over-enthusiastic about
twinning, with the result that they are coupled to several towns,
which makes the sign saying "Croydon welcomes careful drivers"
look reminiscent of a seventeen-year-old's jacket at a Guns n'
Roses concert.

You may -- or may not -- care to know that the UK town of Cowes
has a twin relation with the New Zealand township of Bulls.

[p. 11/11] "Teppic paused alongside a particularly repulsive
gargoyle [...] He found himself drumming his fingers on the
gargoyle, [...] Mericet appeared in front of him, wiping grey dust
off his bony face."

It may not be immediately obvious from the text, but Mericet was
the gargoyle. Teppic had been leaning on his camouflaged
instructor all the time. This is another annotation which I am
only putting in after repeated requests from readers. Personally,
I feel that 'getting' this is simply a question of careful
reading. But a quick straw poll of a.f.p. readers showed most were
in favour of explicitly annotating it, so in it went.

Terry was once asked at a talk if he was always fully in control
of his characters and events or if they tended to run away with
him.  The answer was: always in control -- with one single
exception.  The whole of the assassin examination sequence in
Pyramids was written "almost in a trance" with no idea of what was
to happen next. It is one of his favourite bits.

[p. 12/12] Teppic's test.

Teppic's examination is heavily modelled on the British Driving
test, which, as with the other important tests in British life
such as 16- and 18-plus exams, undergraduate finals, and doctoral
vitas is not actually intended to test whether you are actually
any good at what is being tested, concentrating instead on your
proficiency at following arbitrary instructions.

Many of the elements of a driving test are present in the passages
which follow: The short list of questions, the sign on a small
card (often held upside down), the clipboard. Mericet's rather
stilted language, "Now, I want you to proceed at your own pace
towards the Street of Book-keepers, obeying all signs and so
forth", is almost a direct parody, as is the little speech at the
end of the test. The 'Emergency Drop' (p. 42/42) is the 'Emergency
Stop', where you have to stop the car "as if a child has run out
into the road, while keeping control of the vehicle at all times".
Finally, the back of the Highway Code has a table with minimum
vehicle stopping distances, which examiners almost never ask
about.

[p. 14/14] "He [...] jumped a narrow gap on to the tiled roof of
the Young Men's Reformed-Cultists-of-the-Ichor-God-Bel-Shamharoth
Association gym, [...]"

Refers our world's YMCA youth hostels. YMCA stands for 'Young
Men's Christian Association', and is often made fun of (e.g.
Monthy Python and their 'Young Men's Anti-Christian Association').

See also the annotation for p. 88/88 of The Light Fantastic .

[p. 15/15] "[...] the narrow plank bridge that led across Tinlid
Alley."



In our world, Tin Pan Alley is the popular name for the area in
New York City near 14th Street, where many publishers of popular
songs had their offices in the late 19th / early 20th century.
Aspiring composers would audition their new songs, and the din of
so many songs being pounded out of pianos up and down the street
gave the district its name. Another theory has it that the name
derived from the rattling of tins by rivals when a performance was
too loud and too protracted.

In England, Denmark Street, off Charing Cross Road, was also
called Tin Pan Alley.

Today the phrase simply refers to the music publishing industry in
general, and it is therefore no surprise that later, in Soul
Music, we learn that the Guild of Musicians have their
headquarters there.



[p. 17/17] "Oh, Djelibeybi had been great once, [...]"

The name Djelibeybi puns on the sweets called Jelly Babies. See
also the annotation for p. 109/82 of Soul Music .

It has been remarked that there are quite a few parallels between
the country of Djelibeybi and the castle of Gormenghast as
described by Mervyn Peake in his Gormenghast trilogy (which we
know Terry has read because in Equal Rites he compares Unseen
University to Gormenghast, and in Wyrd Sisters he does the same
with Lancre Castle). The hero of Gormenghast, Titus, also has a
mother with a cat obsession, and his father died because he
thought he was an owl. Furthermore, the atmosphere of decay,
ancient history and unchanging ritual pervades both Djelibeybi and
Gormenghast, with in both cases the presence of arbiters of
tradition who are almost as powerful as (or even more so than) the
actual ruler.

For those interested in pursuing Gormenghast further (people who
have read it almost invariably seem to think it's a work of
genius), the names of the three novels are Titus Groan (1946),
Gormenghast (1950) and Titus Alone (1959, revised 1970).

[p. 19/19] "[...] the Plague of Frog."

Refers to the Biblical 'Plague of Frogs' from Exodus.

[p. 20/20] On the subject of the Assassin's Guild School, Terry
has this to say: "Yes, the whole setup of the Assassin's Guild
school has, uh, a certain resonance with Rugby School in Tom
Brown's Schooldays (note to Americans: a minor Victorian classic
of school literature which no-one reads anymore and which is
probably now more famous for the first appearance of the Flashman
character subsequently popularised by George MacDonald Fraser)."

Teppic and his friends map directly to corresponding characters in
Tom Brown's Schooldays: Teppic is Tom, Chidder is Harry "Scud"
East, Arthur is George Arthur and Cheesewright is sort of
Flashman, but not exactly.

The line on p. 27/26 about "'If he invites you up for toast in his
study, don't go,'" may refer to the incident where Tom is roasted
in front of the fire by Flashy and his cronies. The reference to
blanket-tossing on p. 45/44, which Arthur puts a stop to, is also
an incident in Tom Brown, on Tom's first day. The scene in the
dormitory on the first night, when Arthur gets down to say his
prayers, also has an equivalent in the book.

[p. 39/38] "'Truly, the world is the mollusc of your choice...'"

The oyster is, of course, a mollusc.

[p. 45/44] "[...] the day when Fliemoe and some cronies had
decided [...]"

Someone on a.f.p. noticed that 'Flymo' is a brand of lawnmower,
and wondered if there was a connection. Terry replied:

"Er. I may as well reveal this one. That section of the book is
'somewhat like' Tom Brown's Schooldays. A bully (right hand man to
the famous Flashman) was Speedicut. Speedicut is (was?) a name for
a type of lawnmower -- I know, because I had to push the damn
thing... Hence... Fliemoe.

Well, it's better than mugging old ladies..."

[p. 45/44] "It transpired that he was the son of the late Johan
Ludorum [...]."

At a British public school/grammar school sports day, the pupil
who overall won the most, was declared 'Victor Ludorum' -- "Winner
of the games".

[p. 45/45] "He could send for Ptraci, his favourite handmaiden."

Should be pronounced with a silent 'p'. Note also that in the UK
the name Tracey (Sharon, too) is often used to generically refer
to the kind of girl immortalised in the "dumb blonde" jokes, or
Essex Girl jokes as they are known in the UK.

This annotation may also help explain why over on
alt.fan.pratchett people regularly and affectionately refer to
their Favourite Author as 'Pterry' (although the lazier
participants usually just refer to him as TP, conforming to the
sometimes bloody annoying Usenet habit of acronymising everything
longer than two words or four characters, whichever comes first.
Hence DW stands for Discworld, TCOM for The Colour of Magic, and
APF for Annotated Pratchett File -- but you already knew that).

I was later informed that 'Pterry' was also the name of a
pterodactyl on a kids' TV program called Jigsaw, but as far as I
can recall Terry's nickname was not coined with that in mind.

[p. 50/49] "It's rather like smashing a sixer in conkers."

Conkers are the nuts of the Horse Chestnut -- not the one you eat,
the other one with the really spiky outer covering. It is a
regular autumn pass-time in England for school-boys to put conkers
on the end of bits of string, and commence doing battle.

The game of conkers is played by two players, almost always by
challenge. One player holds his conker up at arms length on the
end of its bit of string, and the other player tries to swing his
one with sufficient force to break the other player's conker.
After a swing, roles are reversed.

Since this is a virtually solely male sport, whose participants'
average age is about seven (although there is a bunch of nutters
who regularly get on local news programmes with their "world
championship"), there is of course much potential for strategic
'misses' against the opponent's knuckles, or indeed against almost
any other part of his anatomy.

In the (rather unlikely, usually) event of one conker breaking the
other one, the winning conker becomes a 'one-er'. A conker which
has won twice, is a 'two-er'. Hence a 'sixer' (although it must be
remembered that there are of course the usual collection of bogus
seventeeners and sixty-seveners which circulate the black market
of the playing field).

There is a black art as to how to ensure that your conker becomes
a sixer -- baking very slowly in the oven overnight, is one
approach, as is soaking for a week in vinegar. Most of these
methods tend to make the conkers, if anything, more rather than
less brittle. There's probably a lesson for us all in there
somewhere.

[p. 50/49] The legend of Ankh-Morpork being founded by two
orphaned brothers who had been found and suckled by a hippopotamus
refers to the legend of Romulus and Remus who were two orphaned
brothers raised by a wolf, who later went on to found Rome (the
brothers did, not the wolf).

[p. 58/56] "Hoot Koomi, high priest of Khefin [...] stepped
forward."

The name Koot Hoomi (or Kuthhumi) is a Sanskrit word that means
'teacher'.


Koot Hoomi is the author of a series of letters that were
published as The Mahatma Letters To A. P. Sinnett, and which form
the basis of many theosophical teachings.

[p. 63/62] "'Look, master Dil,' said Gern, [...]"

Since not everyone is familiar with all those weird English food
items, this is probably a good place to point out that there is a
red line that runs from 'Dil the Embalmer' to 'Dill the Pickler'
to 'dill pickle', a British delicacy.

[p. 64/62] "'Get it? Your name in lights, see?'".

"Your name in lights" is generally a term indicative of achieved
fame and success. In this context, however, not everybody may be
aware that 'lights' is also a word originally describing the lungs
of sheep, pigs, etc., but more generally used for all kinds of
internal organs.


Presumably Gern has taken various parts of the dead king and spelt
out Dil's name.

@~To be concluded next issue















                              - o -