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

The Annotated Pratchett File
– [ p. 23/19 ] “They often didn’t notice them, or thought
they were walruses.”
Sometimes people send me annotations that are so
beautifully outrageous that I simply have to include them.
For instance, the walruses may be connected to the
boiling mercury mentioned earlier in the text, via the
chain: boiling mercury → mad hatters → Lewis Carroll
→ walrus.
Isn’t it a beauty
– [ p. 34/28 ] “ ‘[. . . ] what is the name of the
outer-dimensional monster whose distinctive cry is
“Yerwhatyerwhatyerwhat” ’”
I had been getting some conflicting stories concerning
this annotation, so I hope that this time I have managed
to get it right.
Apparently “Yer what” is a common London phrase,
used when you didn’t catch what someone said, or you
want them to repeat it because you can’t believe it.
The longer form is more typically associated with soccer
fans, as part of a chant, usually made in response to an
opposing supporter army’s war cries in an attempt to
imply a certain lack of volume (and hence numbers) to
the other side’s support:
Yerwhat (pause)
Yerwhat (pause)
Yerwhatyerwhatyerwhat.
– [ p. 34/28 ] “ ‘Yob Soddoth,’ said Ponder promptly.”
Yob Soddoth should be pronounced: “Yob sod off”. ‘Sod
off’ is a British form of ‘bugger off’, and ‘yob’ is an old
term now almost entirely synonymous to the phrase
“English football supporter” (apparently Mark Twain once
said: “they are not fit to be called boys, they should be
called yobs”). The word probably derives from ‘back-chat’
— a 19th century London thieves’ argot in which words
were turned round in order to confuse police
eavesdroppers. Not so far removed from Polari, in fact
(see the Words From The Master section in Chapter 5).
At the same time it is also a pun on H. P. Lovecraft’s
‘Yog-Sothoth’, one of the chief supernatural nasties in the
Cthulhu mythos (see especially the novelette The
Dunwich Horror and the novel The Lurker at the
Threshold ).
Finally, Ponder and Victor are studying the
Necrotelicomnicom in this scene. See the annotation for
p. 111/109 of Equal Rites for more information on the
Lovecraft connection there.
– [ p. 34/28 ] “Tshup Aklathep, Infernal Star Toad with A
Million Young”
Another one of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos nasties is
‘Shub-Niggurath’, The Goat with a Thousand Young. (‘The
Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young’ is the
full, but less common, title).
– [ p. 35/29 ] Victor Tugelbend’s university career, with
his uncle’s will and all that, shows parallels to similar
situations described in Roger Zelazny’s (highly
recommended) science fiction novel Doorways in the
Sand, and in Richard Gordon’s ‘Doctor’ series of medical
comedy books/movies (Doctor in the House, Doctor in
Love, Doctor at Sea, etc.)
I had noticed the Zelazny parallel when I first read
Moving Pictures, but thought the reference was too
unlikely and too obscure to warrant inclusion. Since then
two other people have pointed it out to me. . .
Terry later remarked, in response to someone mentioning
the Doctor in the House movie on the net: “I remember
that film — the student in question was played by
Kenneth More. All he had to do, though, was fail — the
people who drew up the will involving Victor thought they
were cleverer than that. Maybe they’d seen the film. . . ”
– [ p. 41/34 ] Movie producer Thomas Silverfish is directly
modelled on movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn, whose real
name was Samuel Gelbfisch, and who spent a short time
as Samuel Goldfish before changing his name a second
time to Goldwyn.
Goldwyn was responsible for a whole sequence of
malapropisms known collectively as Goldwynisms, some
of which are so well known now as to have passed into
the common parlance. A number of Goldwyn quips are
repeated (in one form or another) by Silverfish
throughout the book (“you’ll never work in this town
again”, “include me out”, “a verbal contract isn’t worth
the paper it’s printed on”, etc.).
– [ p. 50/41 ] “No-one would have believed, in the final
years of the Century of the Fruitbat, that Discworld
affairs were being watched keenly and impatiently by
intelligences greater than Man’s, or at least much
nastier; that their affairs were being scrutinised and
studied as a man with a three-day appetite might study
the All-You-Can-Gobble-For-A-Dollar menu outside
Harga’s House of Ribs. . . ”
This paragraph is a word-by-word parody of H. G. Wells’
War of the Worlds, which begins with:
“No one would have believed in the last years of the
nineteenth century that this world was being watched
keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s
and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied
themselves about their various concerns they were
scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a
man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient
creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.”
– [ p. 56/47 ] “ ‘Can’t sing. Can’t dance. Can handle a
sword a little.’ ”
Refers to the quip: “Can’t act. Can’t sing. Can dance a
little.”, made about Fred Astaire, reputedly by a
studio-executive at RKO after Astaire’s first screen test.
When somebody once asked Astaire’s producer about the
story, however, he was told that it was complete and
obvious nonsense, since Fred Astaire already was a
established major Broadway star at the time.
– [ p. 58/48 ] “ ‘This is Gaffer Bird,’ beamed Silverfish.”
‘Gaffer’ not only means ‘old man’, but a gaffer is also the
head electrician in a film production unit, charged
principally with taking care of the lighting. Gaffer’s tape
is a less sticky form of duct tape, used universally in the
theatre, concert and movie worlds to keep people from
stumbling over cables.
If you enjoy annoying people, go over to the Kate Bush
42 DISCWORLD ANNOTATIONS