'-Unseen Academicals- 22/11/09 Poem by Margaret Alice

Pratchett’s Unseen Academicals was a
joy from beginning to end, the author is
a prince among men

Ridiculed fashion items like six-inch
stiletto heels and all kinds of bling,
empty-headed models

Remunerated exorbitantly for glittering
while toiling labourers doing necessary
things are paid next-to-nothing

Pratchett’s depiction of the Discworld
is bathed in a golden light of happiness
everybody joyously engaged

In activities normally depicted as unmitigated
Misery; does Pratchett realize how much the
positive attitude of his main characters

Contrast with his cynical omnipresent narrator
perspective, does he see the juxtaposition
between two aspects

His protagonists acting with integrity and his blasé
narrative voice, the dualism must cause a war
in his mind – verily, I suspect

That is happening at present, while Pratchett is
telling a world-weary tale of human nature, his
characters are presenting a morality play

He cannot subdue them, cannot force decadence
on his characters, they are whiter than snow –
how much does this irk him?

I would love to know...

Terry Pratchett ‘Unseen Academicals’ Doubleday 2009