Plagerism from Discworld Books

[Tonyblack]

Indeed barrie! One of the joys of Terry's writing is when you make a discovery elsewhere and realise that it may have been the source of Terry's inspiration. He truly has a mind like a sponge that soaks up so many facts.

 

[Jinx]

I usually steal that line from the Night Watch and use on my kids when they want something they can't have. One of my favourites. I also use "Oh wailey wailey" on my wife too. It usually gets me out of hot water. Usually.

Speaking of my wife, she told me about an assignment she had when she was still in school in English class. To write a story based on the Vermicious Knids (from the Glass Elevator). She basically took part of the plot from Spaceballs to explain that the Knids had squandered their own oxygen and needed the Earth's. She hadn't intended to steal the idea, she assumed it was obvious were it came from, but was shocked when her English teacher gave her so much credit for coming up with the idea for the plot. She had to then explain to him where the idea came from.
The point being that had he seen the film first it might've seemed so obvious that he would've seen it for what it was. As he hadn't then if (assuming it hadn't been explained to him) saw the film after he might've seen it differently. It all falls to perspective.

Another example is that when reading any of the Wiz(z)ard books, I understood were the 8th son of an 8th son thing came from. A former colleague of mine didn't. When I introduced her to a book that mentioned 7th son of a 7th son, she couldn't get her head around it. Her first reaction was to call it a "poor man's Pratchett" even though there was no comparison to TP.

 

[Tonyblack]

And of course, seventh son, of a seventh son, predates Discworld books by a long way.

 

[=Tamar]

OK, then the seafood line is originally about cake, and it's from Nightwatch

I always got the feeling that line was a reference to something else, but never worked out what.

Me, too, and it's been driving me nuts. When I read, I "hear" lines, in the voice of the person who spoke them, and I don't hear that line in a Discworld voice - I hear it in a voice I associate with the annoying little man in "The Princess Bride" (the one who kept saying things were "inconceivable").

 

[Dotsie]

Vizzini! But it doesn't ring a bell for me, and I've seen that film a lot

 

[Discworldpadawan]

What about J K Rowling Plagerising the look of harry potter from Ponder Sibbons, fare cop? I think Ponder was doing the rounds long before the boy who lived, come to die?!

 

[Tonyblack]

I think the similarity comes more from the Paul Kidby illustration than any clear description we have in the books. Ponder is meant to look like some sort of computer geek. The only real similarities are they both wear glasses and don't have beards.

 

[Discworldpadawan]

That's fair enough, we'll let Ms. Rowling off this time then I've just started reading Unseen Academicals, and couldn't help noticing the Ponder - potter similarities on the front cover

 

[Tonyblack]

 

[RolandItwasntmyfault]

Ah, err ... some time ago I have shown the illustration of Ponder in "The Last Hero" ... her comment: Oh, Harry Potter!