Twoflower's Eyes

[ShadowNinjaCat]

Twoflower.Does he wear glasses or does he really have four eyes?

 

[Doughnut Jimmy]

I think he wears glasses, will have to look up the description again though

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

I think there is a literally 4-eyed Twoflower in Josh Kirby's cover illustration on the UK paperback of Light Fantastic (or perhaps CoM) but he also did another where he was definitely wearing specs.

When I first read CoM the novel approach and the fact that one pair of eyes were never seemingly taken off I visualised Twoflower as having 4 proper eyes, but it does look weird

 

[Tonyblack]

- [p. 16/16] "[...] found himself looking up into a face with four eyes in it."

On the covers of the first two Discworld books, Josh Kirby actually drew Twoflower with four physical eyes. Consensus on alt.fan.pratchett has it that Terry was trying to get across the fact that Twoflower was wearing glasses ('four-eyes' being a common insult thrown at bespectacled folks), but that Josh Kirby simply triggered on the literal text and went off in a direction of his own. Whether this action essentially shows Kirby's interpretative genius (the KirbyFan explanation) or his inability to get the joke / read very carefully (the NonKirbyFan explanation) is a matter still under discussion.

I'm not sure where I read it now, but I remember reading that Terry said to Josh something like: 'Did you have kids in school who wore glasses? What did everyone call them?'

I think that the suggestion is that Twoflower wore glasses rather than actually having four eyes.

 

[Sjoerd3000]

I certainly read it as Twoflower having spectacles

 

[ShadowNinjaCat]

Thanks for the answers .When I read it I imagined him wearing glasses...I like him better with glasses then four eyes

 

[cici88]

Thanks for the answers .When I read it I imagined him wearing glasses...I like him better with glasses then four eyes

I feel a little inconsistent for your words,with glasses then four eyes,if he wears glasses, called 4-eyed man, isn't?

 

[ShadowNinjaCat]

Welcome cici88

I must say though, I don't understand what you mean

 

[Tonyblack]

Welcome cici88

I must say though, I don't understand what you mean

It wasn't just me then?

Welcome to the site!

 

[CrysaniaMajere]

Is it written in the books that Twoflower had glasses? When I read ColourOfMagic I thought he had 4 eyes.. he came from a distant almost legendary place at the time and he was instantly recognised as a stranger.. and in the cover of COM he had 4 eyes too

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Josh Kirby went for the literal interpretation Crys - but it's open to interpretation as Terry did mean Twoflower wore glasses.

A schoolyard insult in the UK for kids with glasses is to call them 'Speccy Four Eyes'....

 

[Bouncy Castle]

4 eyes = somebody who wears glasses, which is what I'm sure Twoflower wore, though the memory lets me down with regard to the Sky movie version.

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Sean Astin wears glasses/sunglasses in CoM and the usual two eyes underneath

 

[Dotsie]

And wasn't there a reference in Interesting Times to him wearing glasses?

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

And no mention of his children having 4 eyes

 

[Sjoerd3000]

And wasn't there a reference in Interesting Times to him wearing glasses?

Cohen calls him four eyes in Interesting Times

 

[Marco]

Didn't any of the wizards wear glasses.

 

[Tonyblack]

Since Twoflower's visit it seems like glasses have become pretty common in Ankh-Morpork. Whether this is because of Twoflower or not though, we don't know.

 

[J.S. Lopes]

Four-eyed Twoflower

In Brazilian Portuguese translation , Twoflower is called "four eyed", but I think translator didn't catch the real sense (in Brazil it's also use this pejorative expression four-eyed for people with glasses) due the influence of Josh Kirby's art. Josh also depicted Rincewind as an old-aged white-bearded man, while in the book he's clearly described as a 20 to 30-year-old nerdish guy.

 

[Tonyblack]

Re: Four-eyed Twoflower

In Brazilian Portuguese translation , Twoflower is called "four eyed", but I think translator didn't catch the real sense (in Brazil it's also use this pejorative expression four-eyed for people with glasses) due the influence of Josh Kirby's art. Josh also depicted Rincewind as an old-aged white-bearded man, while in the book he's clearly described as a 20 to 30-year-old nerdish guy.

Welcome to the site, J.S. Lopes!

It's always interesting to read what the characters are called in different versions of the books. I think we've got a thread about it ssomewhere.