The Annotated Pratchett File, v9.0 - The L-Space Web

The Annotated Pratchett File
Guards! Guards!
– [ p. 10/10 ] “ ‘Hooray, hooray for the spinster’s sister’s
daughter.’ ”
This recalls the ritual question “Is there no help for the
Widow’s Son” in Masonic ritual.
– [ p. 16/15 ] “ ‘Let’s say a skion turns up, walks up to the
Patrician [. . . ]’ ”
The correct spelling is actually ‘scion’, meaning “young
descendant of a noble family”.
– [ p. 18/17 ] “ ‘Yea, the king will come [. . . ] and Protect
and Serve the People with his Sword.’ ”
This is Terry having fun with foreshadowing again. The
prophecy of Brother Plasterer’s granddad describes
Carrot to a tee, with the “Protect and Serve” tying in
neatly with the motto of the City Watch (see the
annotation for p. 51/48).
– [ p. 20/19 ] “ ‘They were myths and they were real,’ he
said loudly. ‘Both a wave and a particle.’ ”
Reference to the wave/particle duality theory of e.g. light,
which appears to have the properties of both a wave and
a particle, depending upon what context you are working
in.
– [ p. 21/19 ] “ ‘That was where you had to walk on
ricepaper wasn’t it,’ said Brother Watchtower
conversationally.”
Reference to the old David Carradine TV series, Kung Fu.
In one of the earliest episodes our Shaolin
monk-in-training was tasked to walk along a sheet of
ricepaper without ripping it or leaving a mark.
– [ p. 26/24 ] “It wasn’t only the fresh mountain air that
had given Carrot his huge physique.”
Someone on a.f.p. asked Terry if the name or the
character of Carrot was perhaps inspired by an old
American comic called Captain Carrot and his Amazing
Zoo Crew. Terry answered:
“Never heard of it. The TRUE answer is that when I was
writing the book an electrician was rewiring our house
and the nickname of his red-haired apprentice was
Carrot. It kind of stuck in my mind.”
– [ p. 29/27 ] “ ‘And Bob’s your uncle.’ ”
Some people have been wondering just where this
expression comes from (the joke also occurs on p. 16/15
and p. 108/98). Terry himself gives the following answer:
“Apparently from a 19th Century Prime Minister, Lord
Robert Stanley, who was a great one for nepotism. If you
got a good Government job it was because “Bob’s your
uncle”. It came to mean ‘everything’s all right’.”
– [ p. 52/48 ] The fizzing and flashing illuminated sign
outside Captain Vimes’ office is a reference to the tired
old visual cliché from most film noir. The seedy
detective’s office or apartment always has a big neon sign
just outside the window.
– [ p. 51/48 ] The motto of the Night Watch, “FABRICATI
DIEM, PVNC”, is dog Latin for “Make my day, punk”.
“Go ahead, make my day” is a well-known Clint ‘Dirty
Harry’ Eastwood quote. The ‘punk’ comes from another
famous Dirty Harry scene (see the annotation for
p. 136/124)
Notice also that the translation Terry supplies (“To
protect and to serve”) is actually the motto of the Los
Angeles Police Force.
My source tells me that Hollywood writers and directors,
notorious for the accuracy of their movies and TV shows,
tend to have all police cars bear this motto. In a sort of
reverse formation, this has caused some individual police
forces across the USA to adopt it, so that by now the
motto has become fairly wide-spread.
– [ p. 53/49 ] “ ‘The E. And the T sizzles when it rains.’ ”
The magic tavern sign Brother Watchtower is stealing has
a burnt-out ‘E’ and a sizzling ‘T’ just like the ‘HOT L
BALTIMORE’ sign in the play of the same name.
– [ p. 54/49 ] “[. . . ] a certain resemblance to a
chimpanzee who never got invited to tea parties.”
For the entertainment of their younger visitors, British
zoos used to have the tradition of holding Chimpanzees’
Tea Parties, where the chimps were dressed up and
seated at a table, drinking and eating from a plastic tea
set.
Chimp tea parties have remained in the British
consciousness due to the TV advertisements for PG Tips
tea bags featuring chimps pouring tea.
– [ p. 55/51 ] “ ‘Shershay la fem, eh Got a girl into
trouble’ ”
“Cherchez la femme” (“look for the woman”) is a cliché
phrase of pulp detective fiction: when someone’s wife has
been murdered one should always search for signs of
another woman’s involvement.
– [ p. 60/55 ] “ ‘Good day! Good day! What is all of this
that is going on here (in this place)’ ”
Carrot’s actions and words in this scene mirror the
behaviour of the stereotypical British friendly
neighbourhood bobby attempting to break up a family
argument or innocent street brawl. Nearly all my
correspondents trace this stereotype directly back to the
sixties BBC television series Dixon of Dock Green, where
every bobby was your friend and it was perfectly
acceptable for a copper to walk into a room and say
“ ‘Ello! ‘Ello! What’s going on ‘ere then”. Calling people
‘sunshine’ (next footnote on the page), and signing off
with “Evening, all” are apparently also Dixonisms.
– [ p. 62/56 ] “ ‘Evenin’, Detritus.’ ”
‘Detritus’ is a word meaning “any loose matter, e.g.
stones, sand, silt, formed by rock disintegration”.
– [ p. 64/59 ] “ ‘What’d he mean, Justices’ he said to
Nobby. ‘There ain’t no Justices.’ ”
This annotation has been the subject of some heated a.f.p.
discussion (and if you think that this is a silly thing to get
worked up over, you are obviously not familiar with
alt.fan.pratchett. Or with Usenet, for that matter).
36 DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS