Two home truths from Terry Pratchett

Lucy Maud Montgomery, Stella Benson and August Strindberg have inspired many articles to date, and there are still more to come - eventually.

Although it was very interesting to find more independent confirmation of some of my ideas and familiar features and scenarios in their lives and works, it was very depressing to read about the suffering they endured, self-imposed or otherwise.

I needed to take a break from these people as it was all getting too much. Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels were one of the best antidotes that I could think of.

I decided to take a second look at the books featuring the young witch Tiffany Aching and her little friends the Nac Mac Feegle. In addition to distraction and entertainment, I hoped to find some more wise words about magic and witches.

I soon found some article-inspiring material in The Wee Free Men, the first book in the Tiffany Aching series. Terry Pratchett makes some good points here.

He says that doing is better than dreaming in that working, thinking and learning are more beneficial, productive and effective than just wishing for things and repeating vague motivational phrases about following our star.

He also says that getting what we need is usually better for us than getting what we want.

Doing is better than dreaming

There is a scene in The Wee Free Men where the senior witch Miss Tick gives the young witch Tiffany some very useful advice:

Miss Tick sniffed. “You could say this advice is priceless,” she said. 

“Are you listening?”

“Yes,” said Tiffany.

“Good. Now…if you trust in yourself…”

“Yes?”

“…and believe in your dreams…”

“Yes?”

“…and follow your star…” Miss Tick went on.

“Yes?”

“…you’ll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren’t so lazy.”

This is very true. I have seen it for myself.

Believing in dreams is not an advantage even for the Queen of Fairyland, who lives in worlds of her own creation, when dealing with people like Tiffany, who uses her eyes and her brain. Tiffany questions everything, thinks things over carefully, solves problems for herself and investigates things she doesn’t understand.

The Fairy Queen does none of these things:

“You’re not very clever, thought Tiffany. You’ve never needed to be. You can get what you want just by dreaming it. You believe in your dreams, so you never have to think.”

The Wee Free Man Rob Anybody agrees with her:

 “What’s magic, eh? Just wavin’ a stick an’ sayin’ a few wee magical words. An’ what’s so clever aboot that, eh? But lookin’ at things, really lookin’ at ’em, and then workin’ ’em oout, now, that’s a real skill.”

Rob Anybody Feegle:

Getting what we need

Tiffany’s baby brother is stolen by the Fairy Queen; he is trapped in Fairyland where she gives him whatever he wants, which is just an unending supply of sweeties.

A Nac Mac Feegle wise woman tells Tiffany that although her brother may get what he wants, the Queen will not give him what he needs, which is to be brought up properly. He needs nurturing, instruction and discipline. Left to his own devices and without the right sort of care and attention, he will never grow up. He will never grow strong inside. He will just live on sweeties forever.

Tiffany soon sees the truth of the wise words for herself. She says to the Queen:

“I know what you are... You’re something that’s never learned anything. You don’t know anything about people. You’re just… a child that’s got old.”

Who wants to stay a child in Fairyland forever? We need to grow and develop; we need to get things and solve problems for ourselves by using our personal resources.

Books with no nourishment

Miss Tick's advice and the sweets make me think of the sugary and superficial self-help books and articles  full of feel-good New Age platitudes that some young, naïve, immature, misled and/or lazy people devour and rely on for improving themselves and their lives.

Such books are mostly full of empty words and useless suggestions, at least for people who can think for themselves. Studying critical thinking is much more likely to have positive effects than just reading certain best-selling books, mindlessly repeating meaningless mantras, indulging in wishful thinking and hoping for the best.

This is not to say that all self-help books are useless - I have posted extracts from a few good ones in the past - but they do need to be evaluated and classified. Some contain food for thought while others have no nourishment at all for people who use their minds.

Tiffany Aching is only nine years old in The Wee Free Men, but she has the right idea:

“She’d never really liked the book. It seemed to her that it tried to tell her what to do and what to think.”

Mind over magic

When Tiffany Aching sets out for Fairyland on a mission to free her baby brother, she is armed with nothing but her wits and a large iron frying pan. With the right attitude and the help of the little Feegle men, she defeats the Queen and succeeds in rescuing the little boy.

Tiffany Aching is a walking advertisement for Terry Pratchett’s ideas.