OT: Which Discworld character are you?

Renegade 13 · #1 June 18th, 2007, 12:34 AM

Awww....I wanted to be death!

Randallw · #2 June 18th, 2007, 01:43 AM

I wouldn't have minded Death actually. I like the quote he had from Hogfather.

"YOU HAVE TO START OUT WITH THE SMALL LIES, SO YOU CAN HANDLE THE BIG ONES. LIKE JUSTICE AND MERCY"
"Bu they're not the same thing"
"REALLY.TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER, THEN SIEVE IT WITH THE FINEST SIEVE, AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY, AND YET YOU HUMANS GO ABOUT AS IF THESE THINGS EXIST"
"Yes, but you have to believe those things or what's the point"
"EXACTLY"

narf poit chez BOOM · #3 June 18th, 2007, 04:59 AM

Justice and mercy are found in humans, not physics.

Randallw · #4 June 18th, 2007, 05:29 AM

I agree, the quote just appeals to me that they are concepts to be believed in not tangible objects.

narf poit chez BOOM · #5 June 18th, 2007, 06:42 AM

That's quite a difference from 'lies', though.

Heh. Try classifying fiction. It contains truth, but didn't actually happen. It's not a lie, because everyone knows it didn't happen and there is no intent to decieve.

It can't all be stuck under titles like 'Metaphor', because some of it deals with self-contained concepts that aren't ways of teaching real-life lessons.

And then you get into things like 'If I imagine something, just how real is it - And what is it about the imagination that allows it to concieve of things that are impossible?'

Which leads to the idea that the mind is, in fact, at least in potential, infinite.

How else do you classify the ability to concieve of impossibilities and the entirely new?

Randallw · #6 June 18th, 2007, 06:58 AM

That it says "lies" does give it a different dimension.

I think of it as applying to nature. We think that there is a fairness to the universe, do right by others and everything will be alright for you, but Mother nature doesn't answer to the excuse "It's not fair". Think of a saint who goes through life being kind to others and being chartiable. Then they develop cancer. Where's the justice in that?. Me personally, things happen, there's no point being upset at what you can't change.

A similar topic is from the Moral Philosophy class in Starship Troopers. Imagine a man floating in the middle of the ocean. Eventually he will tire and drown. The sea doesn't care. There's no mercy from nature.

Another quote, from a Science of Discworld book,although I can't exactly remember it, is that literature is necessary for mankind to strive. It is where the grasping ape becomes the hand that grasps the stars, or something like that. It proposes we shouldn't be Homo Sapiens "the knowledgable man" but Pan Narrans "the storytelling ape".

Edit: Intellectually, which after all is what I consider this whole discussion to be, I get that last bit, although I do have some trouble with the two learned authors whole atheist angle.

Atrocities · #7 June 18th, 2007, 04:13 PM

Now it says that I am a Barby Doll. WTH man?

MrToxin · #8 June 21st, 2007, 10:09 PM

Quote:

Randallw said:
I wouldn't have minded Death actually. I like the quote he had from Hogfather.

"YOU HAVE TO START OUT WITH THE SMALL LIES, SO YOU CAN HANDLE THE BIG ONES. LIKE JUSTICE AND MERCY"
"Bu they're not the same thing"
"REALLY.TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER, THEN SIEVE IT WITH THE FINEST SIEVE, AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY, AND YET YOU HUMANS GO ABOUT AS IF THESE THINGS EXIST"
"Yes, but you have to believe those things or what's the point"
"EXACTLY"

NO, IT ISN'T FAIR. THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME.