Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's

Gutted...

Nuff said

Millenium hand and shrimp..

Buggrit...

Insert title here ...

"re: "Unseen Academicals" not part of the diskworld series.

Are you sure? Sounds like it is."

Yeah, but remember that the Tiffany Aching books aren't part of the 'proper' Discworld series despite being Discworld books ... kind of like The Last Continent not being a book about Australia, but being a bit Australian.

Bad news aside, I'm really hoping that he's got another Tiffany Aching book in the pipeline - Rob Anybody and the Nac Mac Feegle never fail to make me smile. What makes this news worse, for me at least, is that all of his books since Thief of Time have been absolute belters (on the off-chance that you've not read Going Postal and/or Making Money then run, don't walk, to your nearest book emporium) - to be hit with something like this when you're on a run of good form really is an embuggerance.

I choose the smiley icon because, like PTerry, I'm trying to stay optimistic.

Crivens!

Thats the Spirit TP

With 59 years experience of not suffering from Alzheimer's, I fancy your chances.

Just get smoking them Pantweed Slim Panatellas, or something with a little more THC!

Typical...

Has anyone else noticed, but given the number of complete a**eholes on this planet, you'd expect a few of them would contract something like this, but no, they'll still be there p*ssing us off well into their 90s.

National treasures like Mr P don't deserve this.

"Death isn't on line. If he was, there would be a sudden drop in the death rate. Although it'd be interesting to see if he'd post things like: DON'T YOU THINK I SOUND LIKE JAMES EARL JONES?"

Oook!

Oook!

I asked and got this answer

"I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS, I HAVEN'T GOT HIM ON ANY LIST ANY TIME SOON!"

How very sad.

I love his work, and I am saddened to here this. I am glad to see though that he seems to be retaining his unique and incredible sense of humour.

My thoughts with you PTerry!

No one has mentioned.........

Wot? No one has come up with the dried frogs pills - seems to work for everything else. Or maybe it's just us fans who should be taking them cos he ain't dead yet and will be around for a while yet (we hope). If he is having trouble with the keyboard I feel confident there would be a legion of fans who would take dictation!

Sad? Why so sad?

Why is everyone saying this is "sad" and "bad news".

I personally think that it's brilliant news that on this very day, Terry Pratchett isn't dead!

PS. Rob, I've never read any of John Peel's literature, but I bet it's nowhere near as good as Terry's work!

Waily, waily!

As Daft Wullie might say:

Ach crivens! Ye're already deid so whut's the problem eh?

Ever since being introduced to the Discworld 15 years ago I've been an avid fan (and also a fan of the non-Discworld stuff especially Good Omens so I was pleased to see someone quote that!) and had the pleasure of meeting him albeit briefly to get my copy of Soul Music signed. The queue was outrageously long but still he suffered all manner of oddballs, students and other assorted fans with excellent humour and all round affability for hours on end.

Glad he's keeping a positive outlook and planning to carry on writing as long as possible because there's no point in just giving up. Like the Feegles, if there's a fight to be had then a fight should indeed be had.

Shame

It is sad to have such a disease attack some one so undeserving. But that seems to be life (think lottery winners). Few could manage the wit of calling it "an embuggerance" under the circumstances, but then he is a remarkable guy.

Lets hope for some (working) dried frog pills, ideally without much frog...

What difference will it make?

It is rather sad that the gentleman has Alzheimer's disease but it doesn't mean the end.

Simply blu-tak a new title onto several of your existing Discworld books every year and pretend that they're newly written masterpieces.

If you have the luxury of being able to alter the order of the "jokes" as well then you could become the new TP (it seems to be just about all he does and it put me right off his books rather sharpish once I noticed)

Where's the Paris Hilton angle?

Gutted!!!

Theres no justice!!!

Terry Pratchett got me through my childhood :) Lets hope he releases some of his titles to be made into big budget movies!

An Embuggerance indeed

One of my all time favourite authors.

Good to see he's positive about such bad news, a fine example to set.

Best wishes to Terry and family from one of many, many fans.

and remember, "I ATEN'T DEAD" is for life, not just for Christmas!

Ah sh*t...

can't add to the quality of the comments so just adding to the quantity - good luck, mate

(tooltip aside, the down thumb just didn't seem right...)

The NeXXXXt Level Playing Field? ..... Open Source MetaDataMining

I was knocked down by a Leipzig tram once..... that was a blow that cracked a few ribs, but I had the last laugh though, for the tram never hit me again for I was always avoiding its attentions by being as many steps ahead of the Game as possible. Such is Life when you tell IT IT2 is ill, for then does Future Perfect Memory Imagine 42 Open whole new Chapters for the Virgin Brain to XPlore and leave behind as a Chronicling Text Book of First Impressions, Second Helpings and Third Party Offerings in the Fourth E.State of the Fifth Column ..... ITs Underground Leanings and Clandestine Learnings........ Glorious in Sanity and nary an Affliction but a Blessing in Disguise.

ie Share the Journey, Terry, IT is most likely many have travelled ITs Path before and found IT paved in newly Minted Gold and Kindred Deadhead Team Teen Spirits.

"Just get smoking them Pantweed Slim Panatellas, or something with a little more THC!" .... Now there's a Novel approach, Antony, with more than a few grains of ancient wisdom in furtherance of the truth. Inhaling is, I am advised, obligatory 42 heighten the DNA reaction although that must be tempered with the fact that a cup cake can create a Similar Space for you "away with the fairies". Just ask Jacqui Smith or any plodding beatnik.

He aten't dead!

Thanks for those pointing out that he's still alive. I first read Pratchett in 1993, somewhere in Denmark (it was The Carpet People) and he'd only written a few of the Discworld ones by then. Since that time I've gotten them all and followed his works and his characters - and if he is to die before his time, I'm sure that he'll give Death a run for his money.

I wouldn't worry too much....

...he'll die, come back as a Zombie, and continue writing Discworld for the next 400 years.

"Just because you're a zombie doesn't mean you're a bad person"

Cheer Up You Miserable Bastards

He aten't dead yet.

He is still lucid, creative, active, interested and cared for. And he'll get get the best medical advice to be found on the disc...

Okay "hurry up and reincarnate" probably isn't that great as advice goes, and we'd have to wait a couple of decades before he started writing again, but the second best advice might be quite good as well.

life is like a gorilla’s left hand...

>why does this always happen to the talented people who are genuinely nice?

It doesn't. We just tend to hear about it more when it's someone famous than we do when it's some anonymous street-sweeper from Nottingham.

Yet it’s a typically human trait to feel the tragedy of talent struck down in its prime is somehow worse than the tragedy striking the ordinary man or woman. Somehow we feel it’s worse if someone born disabled is also born beautiful. We feel more comfortable if they’re ugly. It fits our image of how things “should” be so much more closely.

But to the individual concerned it's no worse. Anyone with Alzheimer's is in for a rough time of things, and from their individual perspective it's probably no different if they're Terry Pratchett or the abovementioned anonymous street-sweeper from Nottingham.

Life is like a gorilla’s left hand: it’s neither fair nor right. Shit happens. Not a lot we can do about it save take it philosophically. As Pratchett himself puts it, “I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else”; more often than not, we don’t know when this is going to be and there’s bugger all we can do about it.

An “embuggerance” indeed.

Since there’s nothing we can do about the ultimate destination, the only choice we have is how we make the journey.

What I really want to know is who nabbed embuggerance.com yesterday.

-- Jon

Bad taste joke

Yesterday, Terry Pratchett announced that he is suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Today, Terry Pratchett announced that he is suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

OK, it is probably poor taste. But in my experience, a little humor goes a long way. Not long after my then-fiance/now-wife's mother was diagnosed, she asked me "What do you get for Christmas for somebody with Alzheimer's?", to which I replied "Same thing as last year. She won't remember." My wife shot back with "Yeah, in fact I could just get last year's out of her closet and re-wrap it."

As long as TP still isn't dead, there will be hope and there will be humor.

Expert, textpert

"I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry"

There is a geek overlap between the worlds of computers and medicine. Think of all those thirtysomething, fortysomething high-end experts in brain chemistry who grew up reading Terry Pratchett. I always thought that if Douglas Adams or Arthur C Clarke etc fell sick, there would be crowds of surgeons etc rushing to provide free care. There wasn't a chance with Douglas Adams, because he died suddenly, and Arthur C Clarke is of course immortal, but I can picture Terry Pratchett not wanting for expertise, even if he was poor.

I am worried, after writing those words, Arthur C Clarke will die in the night, and I will be responsible.

Damn :(

Well, damn. I expected Pratchet's books to allways be around somehow. Sad.

Good news is he isn't dead yet and I hope he won't be for at least 10 or more years.

The Martian bot has failed in it's mission.

I notice that the amanfromMars bot failed in every way this time.

It keyed in on the early mentions of Douglas Adams and peppered it's post with 42s. Not a single on topic bit to the rant, even the quoting was poorly done. The author of it needs to work better on context as it made a post about IT (and IMO it was actually somewhat coherent in the IT related part).

Also I hope that recent news about mental exercises/games helping to slow the onset/advance is shared far and wide.

Such A Shame

This story has more comments attached to it than any other I've seen in my time of reading El Reg. I think that tells you all you need to know about the impact Terry & his work has had on our world.

I for one will be raising a toast tonight to this giant of his art.

There is only one word that can sum it up really, Oook....

@Danny

"This is for people who want to wish him well and thank him for the entertainment he has provided them over the years."

No, this is a place for making *comments*. That you don't approve of some of them is neither here nor there.

Just for the record, I have no opinions about anyone's comments, including my own. Not even this one.

-- Jon

Well...

... I'm going to be at the 2008 Discworld Con and the 2010 one and very probably the 2012 one as well as many more, and even if Pterry doesn't make any of them I'll still have a collection of inventive and original works of humour and gentle satire that make you realise that you just need to learn to be able to laugh at the world.

From "Affordable Graham" ;-)

Very Sad

I don't normally feel obliged to post here, I am happy being a lurker, but this time I have to say something.

For the Pratchett bashers - grow up! If you feel you can justify your use of oxygen on this planet by slagging off other peoples' life work then you are beyond contempt.

To Terry - one of the main reasons I persevered through months of brain stretching installing AmiTCP on my old A1200 all those years ago was to allow me to read Alt.fan.pratchett. I have bought and kept just about everything you have written (including the Unadulterated Cat) and you are probably the only author who can make me laugh out loud.

I also naively thought Terry would be writing forever and never considered the day I would not be waiting for the next fix of Pratchett wit. My best wishes to Terry and his family and may he entertain us all for many years to come.

<quote>Did any of them kids have some space alien with a face like a friendly turd in a bike basket?</quote>

Bugrit, bugrit, bugrit...

Isn't that just about the unkindest thing possible for God/god/gods/fate/Fates/chance/other (delete according to your preferences) to do to Pterry of all people???

Not being a brain chemistry expert of any level, I can only wish the best of luck to somebody I've hugely respected and admired for... is it really dacedes now?... yes I suppose it must be!

New dictionary entry

Only TP could come up with 'embuggerance'. It is an excellent description of so many lefe, erm, embuggerances.

It is now irrevicably etched into my vocabulary!

Gone to a Better Place

Firstly,I'd like to point out that with his phenomonal memory, Pterry in the throes of full-on Alzheimer's may well be indistinguishable from any bloke who doesn't have Alzheimer's at all; he just won't remember you from that book signing back in '89.

That said, a short tribute in (I hope) Pterry's own style:

I'd come to the King's Head looking for Tony Padsmueller, who owed me a few quid, after I'd heard he'd won a tidy sum in the lottery. His sister and I were on good terms, and she'd said he was known to spend his evenings there drinking and playing darts with the locals.

"Tony?" replied a florid-faced gentleman, when I enquired after him. "Oh, Tony doesn't come round here any more. He's gone to a better place."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know he'd died. His sister never said," I blathered, a bit embarrassed to be looking for a man to collect such a small debt, and find him passed on.

"Died? Don't be daft, mate! I never said he was dead! He's just gone to a better place; they won't let the likes of us in, but he's got money now, and they're not too proud to take it from him!"

Well...

He is my favourite author, and I am sad to hear this, however terry is treating it positively, so it would be an insult to him to treat it any other way. He also has made more of an impact on the world to date, than most people make in their entire lives. He is only of the lucky few who cannot say their life has been wasted. In addition to which, he still has a good while left yet.

@Danny

"Common decency would say that this comment page should be left to those who wish him well."

Wishing him well has nothing to do with saying good -- or bad -- things about his books. Terry getting Alzheimer's is no more or less awful than it is for anyone else whose kind and decent (and if you think it's somehow worse because he's intelligent, then that says more about you than you perhaps would like to reveal).

I wish him well. Why would I not?

I might be a tit, but I'm my own tit.

-- Jon

Rarg

"Common decency would say that this comment page should be left to those who wish him well" - this is The Register, for heaven's sake. It's not decent, and it's not for commoners.

Use it...

or lose it.