I think Terry Pratchett humor needs a more sophisticated adult knowledge base, with culture references that are dating badly.′
Good points I hadn’t considered. Do you think that applies as much to a kid who reads encyclopedias? I wasn’t an encyclopedia reader and started reading Pratchett at around 14, and didn’t really have issues following the references. And aren’t most of the cultural references more centuries-old than decades-old? I am sure there are some that are aging badly, and it’s been a long while since I’ve spent time around 11 year olds, but I really don’t remember anything contemporary when I read them in the 90s and early 2000s.
Also some of the later books, especially the Tiffany Aching arc, are specifically written with a younger audience in mind, to the point that when I read them in high school and college I felt I was too old for them.
It is the literary, TV and movie references, a lot of stuff also tied to technology and social developments of the 80′s-00′s (particularly Ank-Morpork situated stories) and a lot of classical and allusions. ‘Education’ used to lean on common knowledge of a relatively narrow corpus of literature and history Shakespeare, chivalry, European history, classics etc for the social advantage those common references gave and was thus fed to boomers and gen-x, y but I think it’s now rapidly slipping into obscurity as few younger people read and schools shift away from teaching it in face of all that’s new in the world. I guess there are a lot of jokes that pre-teens will get, but so many that they will miss. Seems a waste of such delightful prose.
Good points I hadn’t considered. Do you think that applies as much to a kid who reads encyclopedias? I wasn’t an encyclopedia reader and started reading Pratchett at around 14, and didn’t really have issues following the references. And aren’t most of the cultural references more centuries-old than decades-old? I am sure there are some that are aging badly, and it’s been a long while since I’ve spent time around 11 year olds, but I really don’t remember anything contemporary when I read them in the 90s and early 2000s.
Also some of the later books, especially the Tiffany Aching arc, are specifically written with a younger audience in mind, to the point that when I read them in high school and college I felt I was too old for them.
It is the literary, TV and movie references, a lot of stuff also tied to technology and social developments of the 80′s-00′s (particularly Ank-Morpork situated stories) and a lot of classical and allusions. ‘Education’ used to lean on common knowledge of a relatively narrow corpus of literature and history Shakespeare, chivalry, European history, classics etc for the social advantage those common references gave and was thus fed to boomers and gen-x, y but I think it’s now rapidly slipping into obscurity as few younger people read and schools shift away from teaching it in face of all that’s new in the world. I guess there are a lot of jokes that pre-teens will get, but so many that they will miss. Seems a waste of such delightful prose.
And here I was hoping it would prompt someone to look things up or talk about them with the person who recommended the book.