Apps

Overview

Interesting Times is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the seventeenth book in the Discworld series, set in the Aurient (a fictional analogue of the Orient). The title refers to the common myth that there exists a Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times". Plot Two gods, Fate and the Lady, oppose each other in a game over the outcome of the struggle for the throne of the Agatean Empire on the Counterweight Continent. The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork receives a demand that the "Great Wizzard" be sent to the distant Agatean Empire, and he orders Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully of Unseen University to comply. As the spelling, "Wizzard," matches that on Rincewind's hat, the faculty decide to send him. Using the machine Hex, which has seemingly been augmenting its own infrastructure, they teleport him to the University from a desert island where he has been living since the events of Eric (just before being rescued by beautiful Amazons). They offer him the right to call himself a Wizard, which he never actually earned, if he will let them send him to Agatea; he agrees. Teleportation requires an exchange of mass, and they end up exchanging him with a very heavy live cannon (which they extinguish upon its arrival); this results in Rincewind arriving in Agatea at a very high speed, but he lands safely in a snowbank.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“Fate wins. At least, so it is claimed. Whatever happens, they say afterwards, it must have been Fate.‡”
— ‡When someone is saved from certain death by a strange concatenation of circumstances, they say that's a miracle. But of course, if someone is killed by a freak chain of events—the oil spill just there, the safety fence broken just there—that must also be a miracle. Just because it's not nice doesn't mean it's not miraculous. (p. 1)
“Over the last year or so Tiffany’s mother had been quite surprised, and a little worried, at Tiffany’s sudden thirst for education, which people in the village thought was a good thing in moderation but if taken unwisely could lead to restlessness.”
— Chapter 1, “Leaving” (p. 24)
“Presumably he was insane, by the usual human standards, but it was hard to tell; the phrase “differently normal” might do instead.”
— Chapter 7A, “Post Haste” (p. 223)
““The king is insuring against ‘what everyone knows’ being wrong. It so often is.”
— Chapter 1 (p. 3)
“His hands had closed automatically into fists because he had always been a man who thought with them. Soon he would try to use them; she knew it, because it was easier to punch than think.”
— Chapter 2, “Rough Music” (p. 27)
“There are quite a lot of reasons why that course of action might not, with ease, be rescued in any coherent way from the category of the insanely unwise, Dean.”
— Ponder Stibbons, in Ch. 11

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Notable quotes

“Fate wins. At least, so it is claimed. Whatever happens, they say afterwards, it must have been Fate.‡”
— ‡When someone is saved from certain death by a strange concatenation of circumstances, they say that's a miracle. But of course, if someone is killed by a freak chain of events—the oil spill just there, the safety fence broken just there—that must also be a miracle. Just because it's not nice doesn't mean it's not miraculous. (p. 1)
“Over the last year or so Tiffany’s mother had been quite surprised, and a little worried, at Tiffany’s sudden thirst for education, which people in the village thought was a good thing in moderation but if taken unwisely could lead to restlessness.”
— Chapter 1, “Leaving” (p. 24)
“Presumably he was insane, by the usual human standards, but it was hard to tell; the phrase “differently normal” might do instead.”
— Chapter 7A, “Post Haste” (p. 223)
““The king is insuring against ‘what everyone knows’ being wrong. It so often is.”
— Chapter 1 (p. 3)
“His hands had closed automatically into fists because he had always been a man who thought with them. Soon he would try to use them; she knew it, because it was easier to punch than think.”
— Chapter 2, “Rough Music” (p. 27)
“There are quite a lot of reasons why that course of action might not, with ease, be rescued in any coherent way from the category of the insanely unwise, Dean.”
— Ponder Stibbons, in Ch. 11

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Overview

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Interesting Times

Comments

Interesting Times

Comments

Interesting Times across IJR

Overview

Notable quotes

Notable quotes

Interesting Times across IJR

Overview