Terry Pratchett Could Save the World

by Rebecca Ann Bach

This monograph contends that attending to Pratchett’s work could help to save our world. It draws attention to the astonishing capacity of Pratchett’s novels to inspire and argues that Pratchett’s fantasy novels directly address many of the most significant challenges people in the world the explosion of weapons technology; the myriad issues involved in the envelopment of human life by corporatized information technology; the destructive human inattention to, and interactions with, the Earth and its life forms; and the problem of devalued labor. Paradoxically, it is Pratchett’s choice of fantasy that lets him address the reality of major issues that humanity and the rest of life confront now. Pratchett’s novels show us how to better understand and confront the problems the world is contending with. The book will interest both scholars and fans.

158 pages, Hardcover

Published May 22, 2023

Reviews

[Nicholas Smeaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terry Pratchett's writing has been the subject of academic analysis since the turn of the centaury if not before that. The main thing holding many scholars back is that there is not 'set texts' of his work (There are so many different printings and editions that using a page number as a reference is very hit or miss), this is probably about to change as I believe an annotated edition of Nightwatch is about to be released, and this will likely be the first such academic edition of Pratchett's work to come out. In this work Bach shows how Pratchett addressed issues as diverse as Gun Control, Worker Exploitation, Fake News and the rise of social media in his work and in doing so often did in an empathic manner raising points that often many on both sides of the issue concerned miss. In fact many of his rebuttals pre-date the argument been raised in the wider public domain. Ironically I've seen Mr Pump's rebuttal to Moist Von Lipwig's claim that he'd never hurt anyone used against Elon Musk recently, showing that Pratchett's insights to modern society were prescient and that they're starting to come to the attention of wider audiences. This is an entertaining read, both for a fan of Pratchett's work, such as myself, and the serious scholar, especially one who may or may not be a fan of Pratchett's work and is looking for an excuse to start including his work in their teaching.