A Blink of the Screen Read online

  And settled down, and was just a bonfire.

  ‘I never said nothin’ about forgettin’,’ said Granny.

  When Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg walked home through the dawn, their boots kicked up the mist. It had, on the whole, been a good night.

  After some while, Nanny said, ‘That wasn’t nice, what you done.’

  ‘I done nothin’.’

  ‘Yeah, well … it wasn’t nice, what you didn’t do. It was like pullin’ away someone’s chair when they’re expecting to sit down.’

  ‘People who don’t look where they’re sitting should stay stood up,’ said Granny.

  There was a brief pattering on the leaves, one of those very brief showers you get when a few raindrops don’t want to bond with the group.

  ‘Well, all right,’ Nanny conceded. ‘But it was a little bit cruel.’

  ‘Right,’ said Granny.

  ‘And some people might think it was a little bit nasty.’

  ‘Right.’

  Nanny shivered. The thoughts that’d gone through her head in those few seconds after Pewsey had screamed—

  ‘I gave you no cause,’ said Granny. ‘I put nothin’ in anyone’s head that weren’t there already.’

  ‘Sorry, Esme.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘But … Letice didn’t mean to be cruel, Esme. I mean, she’s spiteful and bossy and silly, but—’

  ‘You’ve known me since we was girls, right?’ Granny interrupted. ‘Through thick and thin, good and bad?’

  ‘Yes, of course, but—’

  ‘And you never sank to sayin, “I’m telling you this as a friend”, did you?’

  Nanny shook her head. It was a telling point. No one even remotely friendly would say a thing like that.

  ‘What’s empowerin’ about witchcraft anyway?’ said Granny. ‘It’s a daft sort of a word.’

  ‘Search me,’ said Nanny. ‘I did start out in witchcraft to get boys, to tell you the truth.’

  ‘Think I don’t know that?’

  ‘What did you start out to get, Esme?’

  Granny stopped, and looked up at the frosty sky and then down at the ground.

  ‘Dunno,’ she said, at last. ‘Even, I suppose.’

  And that, Nanny thought, was that.

  Deer bounded away as they arrived at Granny’s cottage.

  There was a stack of firewood piled up neatly by the back door, and a couple of sacks on the doorstep. One contained a large cheese.

  ‘Looks like Mr Hopcroft and Mr Poorchick have been here,’ said Nanny.

  ‘Hmph.’ Granny looked at the carefully yet badly written piece of paper attached to the second sack: ‘“Dear Misftresf Weatherwax, I would be moft grateful if you would let me name thif new championfhip variety ‘Efme Weatherwax’. Yours in hopefully good health, Percy Hopcroft.” Well, well, well. I wonder what gave him that idea?’

  ‘Can’t imagine,’ said Nanny.

  ‘I would just bet you can’t,’ said Granny.

  She sniffed suspiciously, tugged at the sack’s string, and pulled out an Esme Weatherwax.

  It was rounded, very slightly flattened, and pointy at one end. It was an onion.

  Nanny Ogg swallowed. ‘I told him not—’

  ‘I’m sorry?’

  ‘Oh … nothing …’

  Granny Weatherwax turned the onion round and round, while the world, via the medium of Nanny Ogg, awaited its fate. Then she seemed to reach a decision she was comfortable with.

  ‘A very useful vegetable, the onion,’ she said, at last. ‘Firm. Sharp.’

  ‘Good for the system,’ said Nanny.

  ‘Keeps well. Adds flavour.’

  ‘Hot and spicy,’ said Nanny, losing track of the metaphor in the flood of relief. ‘Nice with cheese—’

  ‘We don’t need to go that far,’ said Granny Weatherwax, putting it carefully back in the sack. She sounded almost amicable. ‘You comin’ in for a cup of tea, Gytha?’

  ‘Er … I’d better be getting along—’

  ‘Fair enough.’

  Granny started to close the door, and then stopped and opened it again. Nanny could see one blue eye watching her through the crack.

  ‘I was right though, wasn’t I,’ said Granny. It wasn’t a question.

  Nanny nodded.

  ‘Right,’ she said.

  ‘That’s nice.’

  THE ANKH-MORPORK NATIONAL ANTHEM

  BBC RADIO 4, 15 JANUARY 1999

  In 1998, the BBC, or at least part of it, asked me if the Discworld had a national anthem.

  I said no, but the city of Ankh-Morpork had one.

  And they said: Would you write it for us?

  And that led to the first ever national anthem of a fictional city state being played nationally on BBC Radio 4 on 15 January 1999, as the rousing close to a week of programmes about, yes, national anthems.

  Carl Davis was asked to do the music and we had several long phone conversations about how the thing should sound, culminating in him ringing me up from a taxi in New York, I think, and playing a stylophone at me.

  It was wonderful. It was exactly what I’d asked for – ponderous, slightly threatening, and full of the joyful pomposity of empire. I think it was the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra that played it, with a wonderful soprano who tackled it cheerfully and made ‘ner hner ner’ sound like something by Wagner.

  It was never officially played again, for complicated reasons to do with money and copyright, although I think a version did end up on-line. Some people are such scallywags …

  The anthem of the sprawling mercantile city state of Ankh-Morpork was not even written by one of its sons, but by a visitor – the vampire Count Henrik Shline von Überwald (born 1703, died 1782, died again 1784, and also in 1788, 1791, 1802/4/7/8, also 1821, 1830, 1861, staked 1872). He had taken a long holiday to get away from some people who wanted earnestly to talk to him about cutting his head off, and declared himself very impressed at the city’s policy of keeping the peace by bribery, financial corruption, and ultimately by making unbeatable offers for the opponents’ weapons, most of which had been made in Ankh-Morpork in the first place.

  The anthem, known affectionately as ‘We can rule you wholesale’, is the only one that formally has a second verse consisting mainly of embarrassed mumbling.

  The Count, who visited many countries in the course of his travels, noted that all real patriots can never remember more than one verse of their anthem, and get through the subsequent verses by going ‘ner hner ner’ until they reach an outcrop of words they recognize, which they sing very boldly to give the impression that they really had been singing all the other words as well but had been drowned out by the people around them.

  In classical renditions, the singing is normally led by a large soprano wearing a sheet and carrying the flame of something or other and holding a large fork.

  When dragons belch and hippos flee

  My thoughts, Ankh-Morpork, are of thee

  Let others boast of martial dash

  For we have boldly fought with cash

  We own all your helmets, we own all your shoes

  We own all your generals – touch us and you’ll lose

  Morporkia! Morporkia!

  Morporkia owns the day!

  We can rule you wholesale

  Touch us and you’ll pay

  We bankrupt all invaders, we sell them souvenirs

  We ner ner ner ner ner, hner ner hner by the ears

  Er hner we sing ner ner ner ner

  Ner ner her ner ner ner hner the ner

  Er ner ner hner ner, nher hner ner ner

  Ner hner ner, your gleaming swords

  We mortaged to the hilt

  Morporkia! Morporkia!

  Hner ner ner ner ner ner

  We can rule you wholesale

  Credit where it’s due.

  MEDICAL NOTES

  NAC MAC PROGRAMME BOOK, DISCWORLD CONVENTION, AUGUST 2002

  What can I say? Vario
us conventions ask for stuff like this as part of the whole business: it’s part of how the whole thing works, and usually they get it, and occasionally – possibly – it’s good.

  FROM HOUSEHOLD MEDICINE, HAIR CARE, AND SIMPLE SURGERY, PUBLISHED BY THE ANKH-MORPORK GUILD OF BARBER-SURGEONS, AM$2

  Discworld, while hosting a large number of well-known plagues and other ailments, also boasts – if that is the word – a number of medical conditions of its own. In Ankh-Morpork in particular, population pressure has helped create a whole range of completely original yet curiously familiar complaints, such as:

  ATTENTION SURPLUS SYNDROME

  Teachers find this just as bad as the other sort. No one likes a child who pays attention too hard, whose eyes follow your every move, and who listens very carefully to everything you say. It’s like talking to a great big bottomless ear.

  Advanced cases correct spelling and pronunciation in a clear piping voice, and point out errors of fact to the rest of the class. They also have the infuriating habit of reading all the way to the end of the classroom reader on the first day of term, instead of having the decency to read at the geological speed considered correct for the rest of their age group. Expel at the earliest opportunity.

  FLORABUNDI’S SYNDROME

  Erratic and uncontrollable attacks of politeness and good manners. This may not at first sight appear to be an affliction at all, but can be deadly if you are a fish porter, a prisoner, a trooper, or a member of some other profession where incivility is bloody well expected. So called after Sergeant-Major Charles ‘Blossom’ Florabundi, who in times of stress lost control of his vocabulary and, for example, refused to fire on any enemy that he hadn’t been introduced to. He was pensioned off when the entire barracks mutinied after being called ‘you quite vexing gentlemen’. As Corporal Harry ‘Sharpey’ Pointer said afterwards, ‘No one minds being called a “—ing —er of a —ing ——”, but that sounded like he —ing meant it! What does —ing “vexing” mean, anyway?’

  ANNOIA, OR PARANOIA INVERSA

  The belief that you are out to get everyone. This is extremely rare amongst people who are not Dark Lords or similar, since those that by profession are indeed ‘out to get everyone’ do not count. However, Mrs Everita Pewter, of Dolly Sisters, did visit her doctor complaining of feelings that she was oppressing people, spying on them, reading their mail, picking up their thoughts via strange waves, and so on.

  After extensive tests at Unseen University’s Department of Invasive Medicine, it was found that Mrs Pewter had in fact been born as one of Them but had never been taught to use her powers. The Them is the secret, unknown, but certainly suspected organization of people whose job it is to interfere with everybody else, ruin their lives, and, in short, mess up the world and then go home laughing. She sought advice about declaring herself as one of Them, but once it was explained to her that doing so would involve wearing hooded black robes, conducting secret meetings in vast underground caverns, and manipulating the destiny of millions on a twenty-four-hour basis, possibly while fondling a fluffy white cat, she realized that this would mean missing bridge club on Wednesdays; and since in any case cats gave Mrs Pewter hay fever, she opted instead for a decoction of willow bark for whenever the voices in her head got too bad.

  PLANETS

  An ailment peculiar to people working in conditions of stress in high magical environments. This can sometimes cause a breakdown in the inhibitory circuits which prevent every individual’s belief that he or she is the centre of the universe from being broadcast to the universe at large. The usual result is that small imaginary planets will appear and begin to orbit the sufferer’s head. Strictly speaking the whole universe will eventually begin to orbit them as well, but the effect is so slight that it is in practice restricted to small items within a few feet.

  History records that the wizard Roraty Williams suffered from chronic planets for several years, and one of them developed quite an advanced civilization which sent a small fleet of flying ships to colonize his head. A helpful and caring man, for some years he never wore a hat.

  SCROOPISM

  Many people know about Thomas Bowdler, who published an edition of Shakespeare’s works with all the offensive bits cut out. Few remember Male Infant Scroop, who had an overwhelming urge to add rude bits to books and songs not originally intended to contain any. This began at quite a young age, with the scrawling of words like ‘nikkers’ and ‘bum’ in the margins of his schoolbooks (his problem was exacerbated by a lifelong inability to spell) but, after he received a large legacy at the age of 21, he was able to reprint entire books that had been ‘scrooped’. These were substituted for the publisher’s copies, which they otherwise resembled in every respect, when bookshop staff were not looking.

  For several months the only result was a noticeable upsurge in the sales of several titles. Things came to a head, however, when a Miss Epetheme Slaybell’s small, privately published volume entitled Thoughts from a Country Garden won several highly contested literary awards, and was praised by a judge for its ‘bold and controversial stance on the subject of primroses’.

  Mr Scroop died aged 84, and is buried in Small Gods Cemetery, Ankh-Morpork. His tombstone, including the inscription, may be inspected by private arrangement with the head gravedigger, since in deference to public opinion it is kept wrapped in plain brown paper.

  SIGNITUS

  A minor but chronic ailment, which causes the sufferer to groan and sometimes run away at the sight of anyone holding more than three books. Brandy has been found to relieve the symptoms, possibly with the addition of more brandy.

  BURSARITIS (CHRONIC CON-TINENCE)

  The illusion that you have brought hundreds of people a long way in order to celebrate something that doesn’t really exist. Symptoms are manic-depression, a fixed waxy smile, and a tendency, unless physically prevented from doing so, to sell T-shirts at people. Those afflicted may shout things like ‘Only 1,978 mugs to sell before we break even!’ WARNING: sufferers may spontaneously combust if woken suddenly from their trance-like state, and it is best to humour them until they wake up of their own accord. Be kind to these people. It is not their fault.

  These notes were supplied by Dr Peristyle Slack, Ankh-Morpork Guild of Barber-Surgeons – ‘Come to Us for a Close Shave’.

  THUD: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

  THUD: THE DISCWORLD BOARD GAME, TREVOR TRURAN, 2002

  We get at least one approach every month about Discworld board games. Many of them are fine, but too often the Discworld name has been pasted on to something generic, or Discworld history would need a major rewrite in order to fit the game. Letters burble: ‘In this game there is a big war between the wizards and the witches …’ Uh, no, I don’t think there is.

  But Trevor Truran, who designs games the way other people breathe, came up with something good in ‘Koom Valley’ – the game’s working title. It was what I’d asked for: a true Discworld game, a game that could reasonably exist and be played there. It pitches dwarfs against trolls – a conflict hallowed by time – and, in order to play a complete game you have to play both sides, which was a specification I hadn’t laid down but which was exactly what I wanted. A game which forces you to think and play like your hereditary enemy could be extremely useful to a thoughtful author. It had the right feel, in short, and slotted neatly into Discworld history.

  It looked easy to play, but championship players have told me it can stretch the mind more than chess. It also gave me the germ of a plot, which quite soon afterwards got written.1

  All that remained was to choose the name, which was obvious …

  The role of games in the histories of both dwarfs and trolls has been very important.

  Perhaps the most famous was the dwarfish game of Hnaflbaflsniflwhifltafl, devised by the cunning inventor Morose Stronginthearm for Hugen, Low King of the Dwarfs. Hugen had asked for a game that would teach young dwarfs the virtues of preparedness, strategy, boldness, and quick thinking, and M
orose came up with a board game that has some early resemblance to the Thud board.

  The game swept through the dwarfish world, and was very popular. Hugen, being well pleased, asked Morose what he wanted as a reward. The inventor is on record as saying: ‘If it please you, your majesty, I ask for nothing more than that you should place one plk [a small gold piece then in general circulation] on the first square, two on the second, four on the third, and so on until the board is filled.’

  The king readily agreed to this, and had a sack of gold brought from the treasury. However, the count had not been going on for very long before it became clear that what Morose had asked for was, in fact, all the gold in the universe.

  This presented a problem for the king, who had given his word, but he solved it by producing his axe and ordering two of his servants to drag Morose over to the window, where the light was better. At this point Morose hastily amended his request to ‘as much gold as he could carry’, whereupon Hugen agreed and merely had one of Morose’s arms broken. ‘For,’ he said, ‘all should know that while Hnaflbaflsniflwhifltafl teaches preparedness, strategy, boldness, and quick thinking, it is also important to know when not to be too drhg’hgin clever by half.’

  Troll games are closely bound up with troll religion and some are quite hard to understand. There is a game like a simplified form of chess, in which play consists of putting the pieces on the board and waiting for them to move, and another in which stones are thrown up into the air and players bet on whether or not they will come down. Quite a lot of money can be won that way.

  Koom Valley

  The traditional enmity between dwarfs and trolls has been explained away by one simple statement: one species is made of rock, the other is made of miners. But in truth the enmity is there because no one can remember when it wasn’t, and so it continues because everything is done in completely justifiable revenge for the revenge that was taken in response to the revenge for the vengeance that was taken earlier, and so on. Humans never do this sort of thing, much.