From 571288ecd3f432b2cc93157b3767593492eae0c7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: PatR Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2016 18:37:43 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] tribute: Pyramids --- dat/tribute | 216 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 209 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) diff --git a/dat/tribute b/dat/tribute index f27afc7a6..44d9eab15 100644 --- a/dat/tribute +++ b/dat/tribute @@ -1554,16 +1554,215 @@ The past used to be a lot better than it is now. # # # -%title Pyramids (2) -%passage 1 -The trouble with life was that you didn't get a chance to practice before -doing it for real. +%title Pyramids (11) +# p. 218 (ROC edition) +%passage 1 (passage ends mid-paragraph) +What a chap needed at a time like this was a sign, some sort of book of +instructions. The trouble with life was that you didn't get a chance to +practice before doing it for real. [Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett] %e passage +# p. 128 (passage starts mid-paragraph and ends mid-paragraph) %passage 2 -Mere animals couldn't possibly manage to act like this. You need to be a -human being to be really stupid. +Mere animals couldn't possibly manage to act like this. You need to be a +human being to be really stupid. + + [Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# pp. 9-10 ('tlingas' is accurate) +%passage 3 +It was a full-length mirror. All assassins had a full-length mirror in +their rooms, because it would be a terrible insult to anyone to kill them +when you were badly dressed. + +Teppic examined himself critically. The outfit had cost him his last +penny, and was heavy on the black silk. It whispered as he moved. It was +pretty good. + +At least the headache was going. It had nearly crippled him all day; he'd +been in dread of having to start the run with purple spots in front of his +eyes. + +He sighed and opened the black box and took out his rings and slipped them +on. Another box held a set of knives of Klatchian steel, their blades +darkened with lamp black. Various cunning and intricate devices were taken +from velvet bags and dropped into pockets. A couple of long-bladed +throwing /tlingas/ were slipped into their sheaths inside his boots. A +thin silk line and folding grapnel were wound around his waist, over the +chain-mail shirt. A blowpipe was attached to its leather thong and dropped +down his back under his cloak; Teppic pocketed a slim tin container with an +assortment of darts, their tips corked and their stems braille-coded for +ease of selection in the dark. + +He winced, checked the blade of his rapier and slung the baldric over his +right shoulder, to balance the bag of lead slingshot ammunition. As an +afterthought he opened his sock drawer and took a pistol crossbow, a flask +of oil, a roll of lockpicks and, after some consideration, a punch dagger, +a bag of assorted caltraps and a set of brass knuckles. + +Teppic picked up his hat and checked its lining for the coil of cheesewire. +He placed it on his head at a jaunty angle, took a last satisfied look at +himself in the mirror, turned on his heel and, very slowly, fell over. + + [Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 30 +%passage 4 +He'd always remember the first night in the dormitory. It was long enough +to accommodate all eighteen boys in Viper House, and draughty enough to +accommodate the great outdoors. Its designer may have had comfort in mind, +but only so that he could avoid it whenever possible: he had contrived a +room that could actually be colder than the weather outside. + + [Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 92 +%passage 5 +A few stars had been let out early. Teppic looked up at them. Perhaps, he +thought, there is life somewhere else. On the stars, maybe. If it's true +that there are billions of universes stacked along side one another, the +thickness of a thought apart, then there must be people elsewhere. + +But wherever they are, no matter how mightily they try, no matter how +magnificent the effort, they surely can't manage to be as godawfully stupid +as us. I mean, we work at it. We were given a spark of it to start with, +but over hundreds of thousands of years we've really improved on it. + + [Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 96 (Ptaclusp the pyramid builder, sons Ptaclusp IIa and Ptaclusp IIb) +%passage 6 +Descendants! The gods had seen fit to give him one son who charged you for +the amount of breath expended in saying "Good morning", and another one who +worshipped geometry and stayed up all night designing aqueducts. You +scrimped and saved to send them to the best schools, and then they went and +paid you back by getting educated. + + [Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 136 +%passage 7 +It's a fact as immutable as the Third Law of Sod that there is no such +thing as a good Grand Vizier. A predilection to cackle and plot is +apparently part of the job spec. + +High priests tend to get put in the same category. They have to face the +implied assumption that no sooner do they get the funny hat than they're +issuing strange orders, e.g., princesses tied to rocks for itinerant sea +monsters and throwing little babies in the sea. + +This is a gross slander. Throughout the history of the Disc most high +priests have been serious, pious and conscientious men who have done their +best to interpret the wishes of the gods, sometimes disembowelling or +flaying alive hundreds of people in a day in order to make sure they're +getting it absolutely right. + + [Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# pp. 206-208 (text has 'that's now it happened'; 'now' changed to 'how' here) +%passage 8 +Copolymer, the greatest storyteller in the history of the world, sat back +and beamed at the greatest minds in the world, assembled at the dining +table. + +Teppic had added another iota to his store of new knowledge. 'Symposium' +meant a knife-and-fork tea. + +"Well," said Copolymer, and launched into the story of the Tsortean Wars. + +"You see, what happened was, /he'd/ taken /her/ back home, and her +father--this wasn't the old king, this was the one before, the one with the +wossname, he married some girl from over Elharib way, she had a squint, +what was her name now, began with a P. Or an L. One of them letters, +anyway. Her father owned an island out on the bay there, Papylos I think +it was. No, I tell a lie, it was Crinix. /Anyway/ the king, the other +king, he raised an army and they.... Elenor, that was her name. She had +a squint, you know. But quite attractive, they say. When I say married, +I trust I do not have to spell it out for you. I mean, it was a bit +unofficial. Er. Anyway, there was this wooden horse and after they'd got +in... Did I tell you about this horse? It was a horse. I'm pretty sure +it was a horse. Or maybe it was a chicken. Forget my own name next! It +was wossname's idea, the one with the limp. Yes. The limp in his leg, I +mean. Did I mention him? There'd been this fight. No, that was the other +one, I think. Yes. Anyway, this wooden pig, damn clever idea, they made +it out of thing. Tip of my tongue. Wood. But that was later, you know. +The fight! Nearly forgot the fight. Yes. Damn good fight. Everyone +banging on their shields and yelling. Wossname's armour shone like shining +armour. Fight and a half, that fight. Between thingy, not the one with +the limp, the other one, wossname, had red hair. /You/ know. Tall fellow, +talked with a lisp. Hold on, just remembered, he was from some other +island. Not him. The other one, with the limp. Didn't want to go, he +said he was mad. Of course, he /was/ bloody mad, definitely. I mean, a +wooden cow! Like wossname said, the king, no not that king, the other one, +he saw the goat, he said 'I fear the Ephibeans, especially when they're mad +enough to leave bloody great wooden livestock on the doorstep, talk about +nerve, they must think we was born yesterday, set fire to it,' and, of +course, wossname had nipped in round the back and put everyone to the +sword, talk about laugh. Did I say she had a squint? They said she was +pretty, but it takes all sorts. Yes. Anyway, that's how it happened. +/Now/, of course, wossname--I think he was called Melycanus, had a limp--he +wanted to go home, well, you would, they'd been there for /years/, he +wasn't getting any younger. That's why he dreamt up the thing about the +wooden wossname. Yes. I tell a lie, Lavaelous was the one with the knee. +Pretty good fight, that fight, take it from me." + +He lapsed into self-satisfied silence. + +"Pretty good fight," he mumbled and, smiling faintly, dropped off to sleep. + +Teppic was aware that his own mouth was hanging open. He shut it. Along +the table several of the diners were wiping their eyes. + +"Magic," said Xeno. "Sheer magic. Every word a tassle on the canopy of +Time." + +"It's the way he remembers every tiny detail. Pin sharp," murmured Ibid. + + [Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 211 +%passage 9 +"I'd love to stay and listen to you listening to me all day," he said. +"But there's a man over there I'd like to see." + +"That's amazing," said Endos, making a short note and turning his attention +to a conversation further along the table. A philosopher had averred that +although truth was beauty, beauty was not necessarily truth, and a fight was +breaking out. Endos listened carefully.(1) + +(1) The role of listeners has never been fully appreciated. However, it is +well known that most people don't listen. They use the time when someone +else is speaking to think of what they're going to say next. True Listeners +have always been revered among oral cultures, and prized for their rarity +value; bards and poets are ten a cow, but a good Listener is hard to find, +or at least hard to find twice. + + [Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 278 (perhaps ought to end this one with the first paragraph...) +%passage 10 +In the middle of the firestorm the Great Pyramid appeared to lift up a few +inches, on a beam of incandescence, and turn through ninety degrees. This +was almost certainly the special type of optical illusion which can take +place /even though no-one is actually looking at it/. + +And then, with deceptive slowness and considerable dignity, it exploded. + +It was almost too crass a word. What it did was this: it came apart +ponderously into building-sized chunks which drifted gently away from one +another, flying serenely out and over the necropolis. Several of them +struck other pyramids, badly damaging them in a lazy, unselfconscious way, +and then bounded on in silence until they ploughed to a halt behind a small +mountain of rubble. + +Only then did the boom come. It went on for quite a long time. + + [Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett] +%e passage +# p. 280 (passage starts mid-paragraph and ends mid-paragraph) +%passage 11 +Man was never intended to understand things he meddled with. [Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett] %e passage @@ -7072,7 +7271,7 @@ IF YOU ASK ME, said Death, NOBODY COULD DO ANY BETTER THAN THAT... # Death Quotes are always one line, and '%e passage' can be omitted. # %section Death -%title Death Quotes (22) +%title Death Quotes (23) %passage 1 WHERE THE FIRST PRIMAL CELL WAS, THERE WAS I ALSO. WHERE MAN IS, THERE AM I. WHEN THE LAST LIFE CRAWLS UNDER FREEZING STARS, THERE WILL I BE. %e passage @@ -7153,6 +7352,9 @@ I SAID WAS. IT'S CALLED THE PAST TENSE. YOU'LL SOON GET USED TO IT. # p. 13 %passage 22 DON'T LET IT UPSET YOU. +# Pyramids, p. 57 (ROC edition) +%passage 23 +I CAN SEE THAT YOU HAVE GOT A LOT TO THINK ABOUT. %e title %e section # -- 2.40.0