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Nov. 12th, 2009 02:02 amIn the Pratchett novel Thud!, the Low King is talking to Sam Vimes (probably Sir Samuel, as he's all being formal and stuff) about the axe of his father. It's an old axe, has had the handle replaced, many sharpenings, head replaced, etc. Low King asserts that it is still the axe of his father, changing slowly, slowly, to accomodate these our modern times. I thought it was a neat idea, a good concept. One of that style of thing, anyway.
Come to find out today (in a smart-ass article about the britpop group Sugababes) that the axe of his father is one form of the philosophical paradox called the Ship of Theseus. Theseus, as everyone knows, was a Duke of Athens who was going to get to bed Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, after suffering through a Very Bad Play done by rude mechanicals wherein moonshine would be signified by anthropomorphic representation. (See here, about a quarter of the way down the page, where Quince says, "Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to present, the person of Moonshine.)
Or perhaps it was a different Theseus with the ship. Maybe Theseus was the Athenian equivalent of "John" or "David".
Anyway, the point here is that I still get things out of Pratchett novels well past when I've read them. They're nice that way. It's past becoming one of my favorite things about them and is rapidly moving toward being my most favorite thing about them. On a related note, M at work today pointed out to me that the megapode (a critter whose chase is enshrined in UU tradition) is actually a real kind of bird.
Come to find out today (in a smart-ass article about the britpop group Sugababes) that the axe of his father is one form of the philosophical paradox called the Ship of Theseus. Theseus, as everyone knows, was a Duke of Athens who was going to get to bed Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, after suffering through a Very Bad Play done by rude mechanicals wherein moonshine would be signified by anthropomorphic representation. (See here, about a quarter of the way down the page, where Quince says, "Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lanthorn, and say he comes to disfigure, or to present, the person of Moonshine.)
Or perhaps it was a different Theseus with the ship. Maybe Theseus was the Athenian equivalent of "John" or "David".
Anyway, the point here is that I still get things out of Pratchett novels well past when I've read them. They're nice that way. It's past becoming one of my favorite things about them and is rapidly moving toward being my most favorite thing about them. On a related note, M at work today pointed out to me that the megapode (a critter whose chase is enshrined in UU tradition) is actually a real kind of bird.
