From: PatR Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2015 09:15:15 +0000 (-0700) Subject: tribute: Thief of Time X-Git-Tag: NetHack-3.6.0_RC01~146 X-Git-Url: https://granicus.if.org/sourcecode?a=commitdiff_plain;h=822b372644777a092c51d291fef89511f7bd91a7;p=nethack tribute: Thief of Time For passage 4, I ended up including a lot more than originally intended. The text is only two full pages (top of 74 to bottom of 75) though. --- diff --git a/dat/tribute b/dat/tribute index c4cce10fe..d6b375d08 100644 --- a/dat/tribute +++ b/dat/tribute @@ -556,15 +556,15 @@ But, on the whole, there are worse places to be buried than inside a lion. %title Lords and Ladies (12) # p. 122 (Harper Torch edition) %passage 1 -Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder. -Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels. -Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies. -Elves are glamorous. They project glamour. -Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment. -Elves are terrific. They beget terror. - -The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, -and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have +Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder. +Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels. +Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies. +Elves are glamorous. They project glamour. +Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment. +Elves are terrific. They beget terror. + +The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, +and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning. No one ever said elves are nice. @@ -2988,12 +2988,210 @@ EYES... # # # -%title Thief of Time (1) +%title Thief of Time (8) %passage 1 "No running with scythes!" [Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett] %e passage +# p. 24 (Harper Torch edition) +%passage 2 +Silver stars weren't awarded frequently, and gold starts happened less +than once a fortnight, and were vied for accordingly. Right now, Miss +Susan selected a silver star. Pretty soon Vincent the Keen would have a +galaxy of his very own. To give him his due, he was quite disinterested +in which kind of star he got. Quantity, that was what he liked. Miss +Susan had privately marked him down as Boy Most Likely To Be Killed One +Day By His Wife. + + [Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 53 ('... with the chorus:', '"Do not act...' are separate paragraphs; +# 'challanger' has been cowed after finding out that the little old +# man he challanged--for entering the dojo--is actually Lu-Tze) +%passage 3 +As Lobsang followed the ambling Lu-Tze, he heard the dojo master, who like +all teachers never missed an opportunity to drive home a lesson, say: +"Dojo! What is Rule One?" + +Even the cowering challanger mumbled along with the chorus: + +"Do not act incautiously when confronting a little bald wrinkly smiling +man!" + + [Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 74-75 (the novices didn't know that the little old man known as Sweeper +# is actually Lu-Tze; see passage 3 regarding Rule One) +%passage 4 +One day a group of senior novices, for mischief, kicked over the little +shrine that Lu-Tze kept beside his sleeping mat. + +Next morning, no sweepers turned up for work. They stayed in their huts +with the doors barred. After making inquiries, the abbot, who at that time +was fifty years old again, summoned the three novices to his room. There +were three brooms leaning against the wall. He spoke as follows: + +"You know that the dreadful Battle of Five Cities did not happen because +the messenger got there in time?" + +They did. You learned this early in your studies. And they bowed +nervously, because this was the abbot, after all. + +"And you know then that when the messenger's horse threw a shoe he espied +a man trudging beside the road carrying a small portable forge and pushing +an anvil on a barrow?" + +They knew. + +"And you know that man was Lu-tze?" + +They did. + +"Surely you know that Janda Trapp, Grand Master of /Oki-doki/, /Toro-fu/, +and /Chang-fu/, has only ever yielded to one man?" + +They knew. + +"And you know that man is Lu-Tze?" + +They did. + +"You know the little shrine you kicked over last night?" + +They knew. + +"You know it had an owner?" + +There was silence. Then the brightest of the novices looked up at the +abbot in horror, swallowed, picked up one of the three brooms, and walked +out of the room. + +The other two were slower of brain and had to follow the story all the way +through to the end. + +Then one of them said, "But it was only a sweeper's shrine!" + +"You will take up the brooms and sweep," said the abbot, "and you will +sweep every day, and you will sweep until the day you find Lu-Tze and dare +to say 'Sweeper, it was I who knocked over and scattered your shrine and +now I will in humility accompany you to the dojo on the Tenth Djim, in +order to learn the Right Way.' Only then, if you are still able, may you +resume your studies here. Understood?"(1) + +Older monks sometimes complained, but someone would always say: "Remember +that Lu-Tze's Way is not our Way. Remember he learned everything by +sweeping unheeded while students were being educated. Remember, he has +been everywhere and done many things. Perhaps he is a little... strange, +but remember he walked into a citadel full of armed men and traps and +nevertheless saw to it that the Pash of Muntab choked innocently on a fish +bone. No monk is better than Lu-Tze at finding the Time and the Place." + +Some, who did not know, would say: "What is this Way that gives him so +much power?" + +And they were told: "It is the Way of Mrs. Marietta Cosmopolite, 3 Quirm +Street, Ankh-Morpork, Rooms To Rent Very Reasonable. No, we don't +understand it, either. Some subsendential rubbish, apparently." + +(1) And the story continues: The novice who had protested that it was only +the shrine of a sweeper ran away from the temple; the student who said +nothing remained a sweeper for the rest of his life; and the student who +has seen the inevitable shape of the story went, after much agonizing and +several months of meticulous sweeping, to Lu-Tze and knelt and asked to be +shown the Right Way. Whereupon the sweeper took him to the dojo of the +Tenth Djim, with its terrible multibladed fighting machines and its +fearsome serrated weapons such as the /clong-clong/ and the /uppsi/. The +story runs that the sweeper then opened a cupboard at the back of the dojo +and produced a broom and spake thusly: "One hand /here/ and the other +/here/, understand? People never get it right. Use good, even strokes +and let the broom do most of the work. Never try to sweep up a big pile, +you'll end up sweeping every bit of dust twice. Use your dustpan wisely, +and remember: a small brush for the corners." + + [Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 102 ('coming here': to the remote mountains where the monks live) +%passage 5 +"But did not Wen say that if the truth is anywhere, it is everywhere?" said +Lobsang. + +"Well done. I see you learned /something/, at least. But one day it +seemed to me that everyone else had decided that wisdom can only be found a +long way off. So I went to Ankh-Morpork. They were all coming here, so it +seemed only fair. + +"Seeking /enlightenment/?" + +"No. The wise man does not seek enlightenment, he waits for it. So while +I was waiting, it occurred to me that seeking perplexity might be more +fun," said Lu-Tze. "After all, enlightenment begins where perplexity ends. +And I found perplexity. And a kind of enlightenment, too. I had not been +there for five minutes, for example, when some men in an alley tried to +enlighten me of what little I possessed, giving me a valuable lesson in +the ridiculousness of material things." + + [Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 286 (food in general, and chocolate in particular, has proven to be an +# effective 'weapon' against Auditors who've taken on human form) +%passage 6 +"Let's get up into Zephyr Street," said Susan. + +"What is there for us?" + +"Wienrich and Boettcher." + +"Who are they?" + +"I think the original Herr Wienrich and Frau Boettcher died a long time ago. +But the shop still does very good business," said Susan, darting across the +street. "We need ammunition." + +Lady LeJean caught up. + +"Oh. They make chocolate?" she said. + +"Does a bear poo in the woods?" said Susan and realized her mistake right +away.(1) + +Too late. Lady LeJean looked thoughtful for a moment. + +"Yes," she said at last. "Yes, I believe that most varities do, indeed, +excrete, as you suggest, at least in the temperate zones, but there are +several that--" + +"I mean to say that, yes, they make chocolate," said Susan. + +(1) Teaching small children for any length of time can do this to a +vocabulary. + + [Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 308 +%passage 7 +Kaos listened to history. + +There were new words. Wizards and philosophers had found Chaos, which is +Kaos with his hair combed and a tie on, and had found in the epitome of +disorder a new order undreamed of. /There are different kinds of rules./ +/From the simple comes the complex, and from the complex comes a different/ +/kind of simplicity. Chaos is order in a mask.../ + +Chaos. Not dark, ancient Kaos, left behind by the evolving universe, but +new, shiny Chaos, dancing in the heart of everything. The idea was +strangely attractive. And it was a reason to go on living. + + [Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 355 (starts mid-paragraph, with a clause about eating in class omitted) +%passage 8 +[...] Susan [...] took the view that, if there were rules, they applied to +everyone, even her. Otherwise they were merely tyranny. But rules were +there to make you think before you broke them. + + [Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage %e title # #