Terry Pratchett's Self-Made Meteorite Sword 188
jamie writes "Fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett says he was so excited after being knighted by the Queen that he decided to make his own sword to equip himself for his new status... the author dug up 81kg of ore and smelted it in the grounds of his house, using a makeshift kiln built from clay and hay and fueled with damp sheep manure."
Of all the author's out there (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm the least surprised that it was Terry Pratchett that made himself a sword.
Re:Of all the authors out there (Score:2)
GAH. Stupid apostrophe...authors*
Re:Of all the authors out there (Score:5, Funny)
Apostrophes.
Elegant weapons for a more civilized time.
Original Article (Score:5, Informative)
The article on which this news story seems to be based, complete with picture of Sir pTerry and his sword is at
http://www.paulkidby.com/news/apr2010.html [paulkidby.com]
Re:Original Article (Score:5, Informative)
It appears to be in the Gladius Style (Roman Legion) and is a Short Sword. Keep in mind, this isn't the size of Excalibur or what Conan would use. Instead it's based on a practical design developed by the roman legions for use by Centurions in their shield wall formation. Practical and short enough not to interfere with your neigbors sword.
Re:Original Article (Score:5, Informative)
Clever buggers, they were.
Re:Original Article (Score:5, Insightful)
You might want to try that before spouting it as fact.
First, if you don't have room to draw a sword, how are you throwing the pilum that proceeds drawing it?
Second, you can draw a sword from the left hip, point down, raise your hand overhead, then either stab straight from there or rotate it point up without changing your grip. You can do this in the tightest close order shieldwall, with a sword in excess of the length of a gladius. Been there, reenacted that, many times.
Third, try drawing from your right hip. Go on, stand up and try it. If you draw in the natural orientation (thumb down), where does your elbow go? <Morbo>JOINTS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY</Morbo>. Alternatively, you can draw with your thumb up and then have to juggle the sword to flip it over. It's always a more awkward draw, under any circumstances, and never takes less room than drawing across your body.
Where this myth came from, I have no idea, but I've yet to see any real world evidence that it's anything other than a myth, and that includes demonstrations from Roman reenactors trying desperately (and often hilariously) to justify it.
Re:Original Article (Score:5, Informative)
Where this myth came from, I have no idea, but I've yet to see any real world evidence that it's anything other than a myth, and that includes demonstrations from Roman reenactors trying desperately (and often hilariously) to justify it.
Ignoring the argument of why the Romans wore their scabbards on the right, there's plenty of conclusive evidence that they in fact did so.
Roman art is, as usual, our best source of information on Roman culture.
Look at this, for instance: http://www.romanarmy.net/images/Pages/articles/artweapons/artwep2.jpg [romanarmy.net].
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Not that I'm any expert, but it was alway my understanding that the Roman Legion favored short swords because they spent so much time fighting the Gauls and other barbarian tribes around Europe who favored long and heavy weapons that needed to be swung for momentum or brought down from overhead, which left them extremely vulnerable to someone who closed in fast with a short blade. I thought the Gauls also favored chain mail armor, which is easier to punch through with a small blade than to chop through wit
Re:Original Article (Score:5, Informative)
It's as much metallurgy as anything else. Until pattern-welding became widespread around 800AD, blades much longer than 24" just didn't have the strength needed in combat, particularly for swords intended for slashing motions.
There are some excellent websites for smiths doing reproduction historical swords with well-researched historical techniques which make for a fascinating read (to nerds like myself anyway). Start with Patrick Barta at www.templ.net and Jim Hrisoulas at www.atar.com, then move on to www.myarmoury.com for hands-on reviews and photos.
Re:Original Article (Score:5, Informative)
It depends on your definition of phalanx.. is the key factor the overlapping shields, many ranks deep with close order, fighting in a single line or using spears? In the classical hoplite phalanx met all four criteria, with everybody fully armored in bronze, each soldier had a spear (~10ft) and short thrusting sword, and were typically arranged between 6 and 24 men deep with the most experienced soldiers in the front and the back rows (to prevent less experienced soldiers from fleeing). Battles were typically decided by whose front rank broke first, which was more a function of pushing from behind than individual skill up front. It was not uncommon for bodies to be wedged upright from the pressure until one side broke. The spears were essentially double tipped, which would give you two shots if you're spear broke, which was fairly common. The hoplite was named for his shield, the hoplon, which was large, and and designed to overlap with his neighbors, making a shield wall. As the Greek empires expanded into Thrace and Asia minor, where most of the soldiers were likely to be professional rather than land-owning citizens, the amount of armor was decreased while the spear grew in length. This made the formation cheaper and more maneuverable, but these phalanxes had to be supported by sling and javelin equipped auxiliary troops since there armor wasn't sufficient to protect against ranged attack.
That eventually evolved into the Macedonian phalanx (by way of Thebes), where professional, drilled soldiers wearing breastplates and chain skirts, who carried ~18ft pikes and short swords in an 8-deep formation. They were drilled to not let opposing infantry close under their pikes, and as long as they could do this, they were extremely effective. However, due to the size of their spears, they used much smaller shields, which did not fully overlap (so fit 3 of the 4 possible criteria). Back rank soldiers holding their pikes upright or at an angle also served to break up incoming missile fire. The problem with these formations was they were not very maneuverable, and their cohesion could be broken up by rough terrain. This was fine for the Macedonians, who used phalanxes to hold enemy infantry in place while their cavalry flanked it, but ran into problems when they were used by Greek armies without excellent cavalry or skirmisher support.
The early roman legions were essentially an evolution against phalanx and shield wall formations employed by the Italian tribes. Originally legions were arranged into three cohorts: hastati (poorest, youngest and least experienced, with usually without full armor), principes (prime troops, usually equipped with chain mail) and triarii (veteran solders, all excellently equipped). Prior to the Polybian reforms, all these troops fought with hastae (short spears, ~7ft) and the gladius short swords. The main difference was the organization: instead of having one line of phalanx, the Roman formation was organized into three lines (hastati, principes, triarii) in which each line was further subdivided into 60 or 120 man units who fought as shallow (6 ranks) phalanxes, with large overlapping 'scuta' shields (this also fits 3 of the 4 criteria). The enemy would first have to fight through the hastati, who retired behind the principes, and then if necessary the triarii. The main advantage of this formation was that the front-line of troops didn't have to fight throughout the battle, and it was easier to keep small units together while maneuvering. These formations turned out to be ineffective against Macedonian and Carthaginian phalanxes, so Polybius reformed them so that the hastati and principes carried several pilums (throwing javelins) rather than thrusting spears, which could break up the Macedonian phalanxes from beyond the range of their pikes and allow the shallow Roman formations to close quickly, or flank as required. The Triarii still fought as a traditional phalanx. This essentially replaced the pike with a longer ranged weapon, without changing the essence of the close order form
Short swords in the Shield Wall (Score:3, Funny)
Partly correct. The Gladius was favoured by the Legions because it was short enough for the scabbard to be hung on the same side as the wielding hand. This prevents the act of drawing the sword from taking any more room than one man standing upright, maintaining their tight shield wall formation.
Clever buggers, they were.
It's not that they were clever, so much, as the fact that they'd learned from their mistakes.
Prior to adopting the shorter swords, there was a fair chance that each man drawing his sword in the shield wall formation would kill the man to his left... And so the entire formation could be reduced to one man in the space of seconds. This only happened eight or nine times before they decided to rethink their approach.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
See also the "Katzbalger" sword carried by the Landsknecht mercenaries in the German provinces of the Holy Roman Empire (16th century). It also served the same purpose - a short blade for close combat when there no longer was room to swing pikes or the big two-handed jobbers. The hilt reminds me of some Frankish swords, though, so to me it looks like a modern version of an 11th century blade.
But yeah, it's an infantry blade, not a cavalry one. Also looks like it has just the right centre of gravity for actu
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You mean that article dated "April 1st"? :s Though he's a very smart guy, I'm sure he would be perfectly capable of making his own sword were he so inclined :)
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Somehow, I don't think he wrote an article largely about the death of his mother and his thoughts on assisted suicide as a prank.
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Haven't time to read the article since I'm at work, but you have to admit he does have a warped sense of humour at times ;)
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Well he was talking about this at the last DWcon so I'd say it's true.
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Have you seen his monitor setup? I'm jealous, and I'm supposed to call myself a geek.
It's made of Octiron! (Score:2)
Advance Australia Fair (Score:4, Informative)
For the benefit of the rest of the world, Wiltshire is East of Redmond and West of Moscow...rant over.
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"The South of England" is a pretty broad brush to use, I think "West of London" is useful.
I live in Aberdeen (North of London).
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In my experience, most people in London would say they live in South East England -- at least if they're aware of anything outside the M25.
Officially [wikipedia.org], there's only a South West and South East, no South. Unofficially, when someone says "South" to me I tend to think of not-especially-west and not-especially-east, e.g. Southampton, Portsmouth, Basingstoke, Reading.
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South is anything past the Watford Gap.
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Including oddly Watford which is 60 miles south of Watford gap ....!
Watford Gap is a service station near the Village of Watford in Northamptonshire ....
Energy density of 'damp sheep manure' (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Energy density of 'damp sheep manure' (Score:5, Informative)
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I think it almost certainly got garbled by the media.
If I remember correctly one procedure is that manure is used to add carbon to the blade to form steel rather than to actually heat the sword up: you put the blade in a air-tight box with a handful of manure and then heat the whole lot up to high temperature, and when you open the box after some time, the manure is apparently gone, but the carbon from it has soaked into the blade.
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Oh no. I'm saying that the sword can easily fuck your shit up, too.
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Small-enough wood chippings and a decent pair of bellows can make a brilliant Iron-Age blast furnace. Indeed, this is how early metalwork and baked ceramic work was done. It is highly plausible that Sir Pratchett has refined the basic approach or obtained information from the excellent living history and archaeological communities that showed how to make such refinements. I am much impressed. Now, whether the iron was truly meteoric - that's a tougher question. Mind you, one could argue that it hardly matte
Wow (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds like he just made a real life Thunderfury [thottbot.com].
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Authors love forging swords and knives (Score:2, Insightful)
I can't wait (Score:2)
I can't wait for RMS [xkcd.com] to get knighted.
Of course I believe he'd have to become a subject of the Queen to do so, and given his predisposition, I doubt he'd be particularly inclined to do so.
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Americans can be knighted, Ronald Reagan was knighted.
Besides RMS might not want one after Bill Gates got his
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/01/29/uk_knighthoods_for_foreigners_what/ [theregister.co.uk]
Though it was in recognition of Gates charity work, not computers.
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I can't wait for RMS [xkcd.com] to get knighted.
Of course I believe he'd have to become a subject of the Queen to do so, and given his predisposition, I doubt he'd be particularly inclined to do so.
He just needs citizenship of one of the Commonwealth realms [wikipedia.org] - these include Canada & Australia; I don't think he'd mind being subject to the Queen's jurisdiction in that sense, but I doubt he'd accept a knighthood even then. He wouldn't be the first [wikipedia.org]
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And he'd have to move. Americans can't have dual citizenship.
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LOL. In theory, yes. In practice -- have you ever asked some naturalized U.S. citizens if they renounced their other citizenship(s)? I don't know of any who did the latter, even though I do know many of the former.
fire is cool (Score:5, Funny)
This past weekend I put a huge steel ninja sword I got for 12 bucks into a campfire we were having, and it glowed red after a short few minutes. I easily bent it into a full U shape.
This simple, moronic drunken act made me feel connected to countless other drunken, moronic ancestors before me, all equally intruigued by how fire is able to temporarily confuse physics. I suppose this is why alchemy makes sense, since some form of math has to work inside of a fire. Still, I felt very enlightened to hold one of the four elements so close to my will and desires.
He's keeping its location secret... (Score:2)
somewhat appropriate (Score:2)
- "Perhaps they start out straight and go bendy with use. A lot of things do."
(Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures)
I see a novel in this (Score:2)
Far future. Civilization has collapsed. A small band of likable people are fending off bad people.
One of the good people stumbles upon Sir Terry's home and discovers a magic sword allowing him to fend off the bad people, get the girl, live happily ever after.
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Modifiers? (Score:2)
What are the to hit and damage modifiers? Since its magical I assume it would be more than +1 in both categories.
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+1 to Krisma ....?
I want to see pictures! (Score:2)
I should hope it's a really nice sword. I recall watching a national geographic or discovery channel thing that described how iron was extracted from pete moss. Fascinating stuff... okay almost completely unrelated, but using ancient techniques to make ancient weapons interests me.
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I don't know who this Pete Moss guy is. He seems to be either a DJ [discogs.com] or a rock musician [myspace.com] depending on which guy you're referring to. He doesn't seem to be into heavy metals. I'd say it would be far easier to use peat moss
Meteorite? (Score:2, Insightful)
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One of the articles on this said that it mostly was just ordinary ore, but he tossed in some bonafide meteorite iron as well.
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His website says ...
"made from iron ore he collected on Salisbury Plain (with the addition of a little bit of ‘thunderbolt iron’ from the Sikhote Alin meteorite to give it that special extra-terrestrial ‘something’),"
lame (Score:2, Flamebait)
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The Black Sword of Nargothrond rises again!!! (Score:3, Funny)
Three cheers for Anglachel!!!
Sorry about your sister though, was she good?
I have much respect for this man (Score:2)
I always liked him as a comically kitschy author--I like really bad fantasy and skiffie.
He went out and did it.
Doesn't matter what "it" is (OK, maybe not infantaphagia or similar...)--kudos to anyone these days who gets off their butt and goes out and does it.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Pratchett has stored the sword in a secret location, apparently concerned about the authorities taking an interest in it.
Knife Crime.
Knife Crime (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, in Seattle, if you're a homeless woodcarving man of the First Nations, hard of hearing, and you have a PERFECTLY LEGAL folding knife if your hand, some cop will shoot you to death within 40 SECONDS of stopping his car. Nevermind you weren't using the knife for anything other than carving and there were no citizens who were being threatened. You are sitting on the curb, some jackbooted thug with a badge pulls up, and you are dead and talking with your ancestors.
Knife Crime.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The man allegedly got up, walked towards the officer, ignored multiple commands to drop the weapon and then lunged, at which point witnesses say they heard up to four gun shots.
If you are approaching police with a weapon, you're going to be shot, and honestly, if the choice is between a cop dying and a wannabe cop-killer dying, the cop-killer is the one who should die.
Now, another witness said something different happened, and if that is the case, that cop should be brought to justice.
Re:It's made of magic (Score:5, Funny)
"It annoys me that knights aren't allowed to carry their swords. That would be knife crime."
Indeed, if knight-authors were allowed to carry swords, the world would be a much better place.
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With a sword you need to be able to chop
Wrong [wikipedia.org]
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Actually, it varies.
Swords don't just "randomly look different ways to look cool"
The cross section and the shape of the blade reflect the intended usage.
Some swords are piercing, some are slashing, some are stabbing, some are chopping.
It depends on your size, what kind of armor you are going to be wearing (plate guy with a rapier won't be very effective) and the type of armor your opponent will be wearing, and your likely fighting environment (are you surrounded by trees and bushes or out in the grass or in
Re:It's made of magic (Score:5, Informative)
Some rapiers were *very* stylized (the ridiculous blade lengths that became popular among courtiers, for example). But "deep bellied" or "broad bladed tip" designs are not the only form for effectual swords and chopping is not very efficient for defeating armor, thrusting is. And for thrusting a triangular blade is desired.
One place to start educating yourself about swords and the various types is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakeshott_typology [wikipedia.org]
You will notice that Type X "taper toward the tip" rather than becoming broader. Or the Type XII which is improved for thrusting. Or the Type XIII which, while not especially adapted for thrusting, fails to have the "broad toward the tip" design you aver is the only functional sword type. Note when and how common this sword type was.
In fact, you won't find much in the way of sword blade types meeting those limited criteria.
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"They didn't were armor and in a lot of ways it was more about form and style than it was about killing efficiency."
After the word armor, that sentence is quite uninformed.
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You cou
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So by your way of thinking, the rapier [wikipedia.org] and foil [wikipedia.org] aren't swords either.
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That's why modern fencing has different categories for foil and sword.
Re:It's made of magic (Score:4, Informative)
Re:It's made of magic (Score:4, Informative)
How do you want the balance to be? For a well-balanced sword, the center of gravity is near the cross guard. It has to be, if you want to swing it around easily. And swords are just not intended for chopping through armour. When people started wearing more and more armour, knights started using axes, maces and warhammers, and foot soldiers started using halberds and various other polearms.
Personally I don't see what's wrong with the balance of Sir Terry's sword (as if you could tell what the balance is like just from looking at it). It's certainly a bit of an odd design, and probably not the most effective sword ever, but it definitely counts as sword. It even looks properly double edged (which is what used to distinguish swords from long knives and sabres in medieval Europe, though not in other parts of the world).
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-1 is a bit harsh, but he's more wrong than informative.
Presumably (Score:3, Funny)
He'll need at least one old lady, dressed in black, to carry it for him...
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I wouldn't care about gender, age and dress color, as long as I don't have to haul the stuff.
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Pratchett has stored the sword in a secret location, apparently concerned about the authorities taking an interest in it.
Owning a sword isn't illegal, though carrying one in public usually is.
Re:It's made of magic (Score:5, Informative)
Owning a sword isn't illegal, though carrying one in public usually is.
In Spain, carrying a sword in public is legal if it's not concealed. But you've got to have a reason to be carrying it, like "I just bought it and I'm taking it home", "I'm going to my bastard sword class" or "I'm going to the woods to take pictures of my sword collection".
You can also carry a non concealed hunting knife of any size or form, including two bladed.
What you can't carry is any pocket/concealed weapon over 11cm, two bladed or with an automatic aperture system based on internally stored force (mass, for gravity or inertial automatics is ok).
Re:It's made of magic (Score:5, Funny)
Is "I'm looking for the man who killed my father" a valid reason in Spain?
Re:It's made of magic (Score:5, Funny)
That reason is inconceivable.
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That reason is inconceivable.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
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Is "I'm looking for the man who killed my father" a valid reason in Spain?
You would probably have to add "he was carrying a sword just like this one, so I was bringing it along for comparison".
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Is "I'm looking for the man who killed my father" a valid reason in Spain?
Only if your name is Iñigo Montoya.
NO, NO AND NO (Score:3, Funny)
NO absolutely NOT under NO circumstance,
Signed, the man who killed your father.
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Is it hard to type with 6 fingers on your right hand?
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with an automatic aperture system based on internally stored force (mass, for gravity or inertial automatics is ok).
Not familiar with the terminology, are you referring to something like a switchblade?
It's a shame that a lot of places have banned those, because I find that they are VERY useful. I have one and it became my favorite knife to use while working in places where my hands are occupied. I can get it in my hand, disengage the safety and open it with my thumb, do the work, and then close it again e
Re:It's made of magic (Score:4, Informative)
Not familiar with the terminology, are you referring to something like a switchblade?
Yes.
It's a shame that a lot of places have banned those, because I find that they are VERY useful. I have one and it became my favorite knife to use while working in places where my hands are occupied. I can get it in my hand, disengage the safety and open it with my thumb, do the work, and then close it again easier than a typical lockback knife.
There are other kinds of folding knives that can be opened with one hand, the only difference is whether they'll stab something on the opening movement, which is not justifiable for a tool, thus the internally stored force limit that includes springs and even bullet cartidges (without the bullet).
A typical folding knife can be nice, but I hate how loose the ones with blades you can open with one hand are.
A good knive can have a perfectly firm and locked blade that you can open with one hand. They may be expensive, though.
The awesome thing about a spring loaded knife is that the spring keeps positive pressure on the blade (even after you release the lock to close it) This positive pressure, combined with a dull 'back' to the blade (not double sided) lets you do the following:
To close the knife:
1. Hold the release to unlock the blade
2. push the back of the blade against a convenient surface
3. It locks in place, re-engage the safety.
With a typical folding knife, once you release the lock on the open blade, the sharp side is free to move and, in my opinion, is slightly harder to manipulate in a safe way, especially with one hand. If you have ever had the chance to use a quality switch blade (Not double edged), they are damned useful tools.
I own several Benchmades, Spidercos, etc and I've never had a problem handling them with one hand but I think what you want is a fireman's folding knife, made to be opened with one heavy gloved hand. You may want to lock into CRKT's kind of assisted opening.
Having said that, I'd use a fixed blade if at all possible.
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I'll look into the fireman's knife, thanks. I also agree about the point first method of force assisted opening, I wouldn't touch one of those as that would be dangerous to me and of marginal benefit.
I just get tired of tools being demonized because they get featured in movies or become the latest media fear fad.
Re:Alzheimer (Score:5, Informative)
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in much better (mental) shape than i expected him to be.
Alzheimer's is degenerative & he's only been relatively recently diagnosed; he's had Unseen Academicals and I shall wear midnight both published this year - if you can have two books published you're bound to still be in good mental shape - it's when he stops publishing that we'll know his Alzheimer's has got his mind.
Re:Alzheimer (Score:5, Funny)
I don't think he'll need to stop publishing, he can just start writing some books from the point of view of the Bursar* :)
*no offence meant, I'm as sad about the situation as anyone else here..
Re:Alzheimer (Score:4, Informative)
Alzheimer's is degenerative & he's only been relatively recently diagnosed; he's had Unseen Academicals and I shall wear midnight both published this year - if you can have two books published you're bound to still be in good mental shape - it's when he stops publishing that we'll know his Alzheimer's has got his mind.
Not just that, but it seems to be mainly progressing in parts of his brain that aren't needed for producing stories. (Before watching a TV programme about TP's Alzheimers, I didn't know that it could differentially affect different areas of the brain. Just goes to show that TV can be educational after all.)
Re:Alzheimer (Score:4, Interesting)
Careful reading of his more recent works, not just the two you mentioned but going back 5-10 years, you do notice some things in his works degrading; not enough to hurt the overall quality of the book, but enough that you can tell something is happening. The largest change is a reduction in vocabulary, but there is also the fact that tend to be more straightforward, with less metaphors and colorful language.
Like I said, the ideas are all still sound, the humor is fun and entertaining, there are no gaping plot holes left unfilled, but I suspect that you could make a pretty interesting study on the effects of Alzheimer's on language by studying his books. And you'd certainly have a good sample of his writing (what is he up to now, 30 books? 40?
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Actually, I've noticed a similar kind of degradation over the careers of many authors, without (as far as I am aware) any degenerative mental disease. Which is not to say that you're wrong about Pratchett's work; I'm not familiar enough with it to say, having only read a handful of his books.
I certainly don't disagree that this would be an interesting area to study, I'm just not convinced that you can necessarily attribute such changes in his work to the disease.
Re:Alzheimer (Score:4, Informative)
Careful reading of his more recent works, not just the two you mentioned but going back 5-10 years, you do notice some things in his works degrading; not enough to hurt the overall quality of the book, but enough that you can tell something is happening. The largest change is a reduction in vocabulary, but there is also the fact that tend to be more straightforward, with less metaphors and colorful language.
Like I said, the ideas are all still sound, the humor is fun and entertaining, there are no gaping plot holes left unfilled, but I suspect that you could make a pretty interesting study on the effects of Alzheimer's on language by studying his books. And you'd certainly have a good sample of his writing (what is he up to now, 30 books? 40?
38 Discworld Novels alone, multiple Discworld spin-offs (I can recommend the three "Science of Discworld" books as fun pop-sci books, they're hard science mixed with a story about the Wizards "roundworld" project in alternate chapters, they're not like the "Science of star-trek" type books), he's done quite a bit of non-Discworld stuff as well IMO the best being Good Omens with Neil Gaiman.
Has his work gone down hill? I'm not so sure, his style has defiantly changed, but I think a lot of it was him maturing as a writer. Both Thud! and Night Watch are far better pieces of writing than The colour of magic ever will be. having said that my favourite is actually one of the older books - Guards! Guards!
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Were you at the con in ireland last year by any chance?
(He talked about it then as well, this isn't very up to date news)
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Yeah, he looked good. Says that the condition is progressing very slowly -- slower than expected, or words to that effect. Aside from the fact that he no longer reads out the bedtime story (part of an unreleased book) at the Discworld Convention himself (Rob, his PA, did that), he seemed, if anything, much more cheerful than he was in 2008. Which is awesome.
MozeeToby's comment later in the thread, suggesting that someone make "a pretty interesting study on the effects of Alzheimer's on language by studying
Re:Alzheimer (Score:5, Insightful)
This story is a complete fantasy. Pratchett has advanced Alzheimer
No, he's got a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's; it's still in it's relatively early stages so he's still quite in control of all his faculties & capable of making a sword - as evidenced by the fact that he had not one, but two books published this very year. However as Alzheimer's is degenerative how long he will remain free of dementia is not something that's been made public knowledge (if his doctors have even been able to give him a reliable estimate).
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
My Organic Chemistry professor had a similar diagnosis when I was in college. He was still fully able to function to the point of lecturing and running a lab, he simply could not answer any questions. As long as he had a day to prepare his notes, look off his notes, and not get interrupted he was normal. When people asked questions mid-lecture (or any time) he would get off-track and get confused. He lasted for two years like this before he had to stop teaching.
It was particularly sad, because he knew w
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He didn't make the sword; He contacted a swordsmith. He did smelt the unrefined ore into bars himself, though
He who smelt it, dealt it...
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I thought he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, but that it had not yet advanced very far yet. I had the impression of a man aware of the impending gradual loss of his cognition who was trying to make the best of what he had left.
Perhaps I'm mistaken.
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I thought he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, but that it had not yet advanced very far yet. I had the impression of a man aware of the impending gradual loss of his cognition who was trying to make the best of what he had left.
Perhaps I'm mistaken.
No, you're quite right, the GP is wrong
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This story is a complete fantasy. Pratchett has advanced Alzheimer and is not capable of making anything.
I'm not sure if this story is generated by his publisher to get a last moment of fame and sell more books, or that someone is playing a cruel joke on Terry.
Leave the man be, he has enough worries.
Aw I'll bite!
I just saw him in an interview on the BBC and he seemed pretty clear headed to me. Plus of course there's the fact that he is still publishing bestsellers while all you can do is post anonymously in Slashdot.
Pratchett with Alzheimers > You.