Professor Sir Terry Pratchett Inaugural Lecture "The Importance of Being Amazed about Absolutely Everything". 4 November 2010, Trinity College Dublin Also see video at • Video
I watch interviews, documentaries, lectures by Sir Terry Pratchett and I think I admire him most for his personality, his disposition, his courage and tenacity in the face of the greatest challenges facing him. Then I read another book of his and remember that what I most admire about him is what a damn fine writer he is.
I predict this man will be as famous as Shakespeare, Lewis Carol and Doctor Who over an equal amount of time. The man has wit wisdom and humility, and the combination makes it hard to take him serious as a writer. But he will be loved by many generations to come.
I'm new to terry's work, saw The Color of magic and i thought it was great so i said "I'll check out the book and that was the beginning of the adventure for me and later my daughter because i can later read them to her. Sir Terry Pratchett you are a WORD SMITH a LITERARY WIZARD and I say THANK YOU! for everything.
The first time I watched this, almost 3 years ago, I thought "Oh, he can't give his own speech, that's so sad"... until I witnessed the wonder of the Terry and Rob double act. Now I have realized the Rob Wilkins is one of my favourite people, and I had to come back and watch this again.
A true genius, a wonder of our time. There will never be another like him, and I thank all the powers that I was around to read his works in his lifetime.
@Kingscrib I wholeheartedly agree with you. And I am aware of his awards. The point I was making is that the *'mainstream literary world'* still views Sir Terry's work as an oddity. I do not share their reserve. I for one think of him as one of the great minds of our time. Seriously. ;^)
first of all, love your name :D and i totally agree. i am in love with his books. read everything he wrote. and most of his books i have read scores of times. literally.. God bless this man. he is amazing.
I appologize the lateness of this reply, but even if you don't agree with someone, you don't have to disrespect or even dislike them. That goes for belief as well. Even if you do not respect their faith or religion you don't have to disrespect the person.
in case you have not read Carlyle, look at it this way. Someone calling sir terry a hero, is not talking about a soldier, freedom fighter, philanthrop or such. He is talking about a writer, in which case his opinion can be supported if you keep in mind what sir terry has done for the entire genre of postmodern speculative fiction. What do you expect him to do? Run into a burning house to save a child? What has that to do with his writing?
If you don't think Pratchett has done noble work, and that's discounting any alzheimers and assisted death / suicide work, which I suppose you can label as self serving, even if they do help millions of others - he has done a hell of a lot of work, be it fighting to avoid orangutan extinction, to raising the issues his books raise. He may not have thrown his life away, but he's done something far more noble by living, writing and speaking.
@PuppyZwolle 'Hard to take seriously as a writer'??? Well, Trinity College Dublin, known for some of the world's great 'wits' would disagree...as would the myriad readers who have found his books indispensible reading. To say nothing of the awards & honors he's been acredited over the years. Unfortunately, I won't have the chance of seeing him interact with the audience & 'stunt Pratchett' mid-speech, as he does at critical moments & to much audience delight! So I enjoy these videos. Seriously!
i agree, questioning authority is our responsibility, the government however feels threatened at this. The reason behind their fear is because they have been lying to us. So we should look up whatis-theplan
Wats depressing is the fact that this man now has such severe alzheimers that he keep on trying to write books that he's already written, and is soon going to die. This man is a genius, and great author
I love Pratchett's books, they're my favourites. But he pisses me off when he willingly accepts to peak in places such as Trinity College. Religiously entwined. It's hypocritical and you don't see him being so flippant as in other previous videos.
As a writer, no-one has had as much influence on my life as Terry Pratchett, to the point where I struggle to read anyone else! I thought it was because the humour was so close to home, but then I read "Nation" and realized what a wonderful storyteller he was.
This is beautiful, sounds like my school days! Even though I was an 80's child. Terry has been an inspiration to me - to the point that I've even got my dad writing at 60+.
