Pratchett has Alzheimer's

The bad news never stops for fantasy writers. Or so it seems. But bad news nonetheless.

Didn't see it mentioned here, and you may already know this, but Pratchett has been diagnosed with early Alzheimer's, and while he maintains that he 'isn't dead yet', it's still a blow especially for his legions of fans.

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Man, all my favorite writers are getting f'ed up or dying. This sucks. Pratchett has always been a sortof light read for me. His books are small, generally satirical in nature, and mostly hilarious. While I'm sure there are other books like this out there, he is the only one I know of who manages this in the fantasy genre.

Whenever I felt the need to take a break from reading a long series, I could always go to the library and pickup a Pratchett book and know that I would enjoy it, and I could get through it relatively quickly.

I bought some of his books for my cousin for xmas last year as something for her to try after she put down some easier reads like Potter and Narnia.

Obviously as direstraights said, the man is not dead, but knowing the disease from when my grandmother had it, I can say with certainty that it is likely they didn't even know he had it until he started acting oddly to begin with. In other words, I wish I could say this with a little more tact, but its basically all down hill from here.

Mathius

 

Apparently it started with a 'phantom' stroke.

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With respect, that "especially" is ridiculous. It's bad news for his fans, yes, but to suggest that it's "especially" bad for his fans, thus implying that it's even worse than it is for the man himself and his family and loved ones, is plain crass.

 

That's exactly how it happened with my grandma. She started acting funny one day, and then the doctors said she had a stroke.

Alzheimers is a very odd disease and really there is relatively little known about it.

I have actually heard an interview on the radio where a guy said that you actually can't tell for sure if the person HAS Alzheimers until the person is dead an some kind of autopsy is done on the brain.

Mathius

 

If I thought having the misfortune of being hit with such a disease is somehow 'worse' for his fans than for himself, then I would have (tastelessly, I might add) said so.

So let me clear it up for those who might have misunderstood: I was merely suggesting that the news would hit his legions of fans harder than others who are unfamiliar with his work.

I'm not a Pratchett fan, simply someone who is sad at hearing such bad tidings befalling another human being.

Mathius, my granddad had Alzheimer's as well.

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Terry Pratchett speaking at the Hay Literary Festival:

 

One of the best. Discworld is like Middle Earth if Douglas Adams or Monty Python were writing it.

 

Beautiful quote. Thanks for sharing that one beergood.

 

I've just ordered the first three books of both the "Death" and "Witches" series. These will be our first Discworld books for us but they sound like something my family will really enjoy. Alzheimers sucks. It steals so much of your life from you before it complete's it's dirty work.

 

be sure to read "Colour of Magic" and "Interesting Times." those were the best two for me.

 

I believe Reaper Man was the first death book I read - that, or Mort, or possibly both close together. I loved them to bits. And the Witches books are great - I didn't enjoy them so much when I was younger but really get into them now.

 

Thank you for that. I have a long list of the Discworld books so it's hard to know where to start and how to proceed. My books arrived yesterday and my daughter has already confiscated Mort so I will be starting with the witches this weekend. Darn kids.

 

Terry Pratchett sets up TV company | Media | guardian.co.uk

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