The Truth (novel)
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| Terry Pratchett The Discworld series 25th novel – 4th individual story  |
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| Outline | |
| Characters: | William de Worde |
| Locations: | Ankh-Morpork |
| Motifs: | Newspaper journalism, Watergate |
| Publication details | |
| Year of release: | 2000 |
| Original publisher: | Doubleday |
| Hardback ISBN: | ISBN 0-385-60102-6 |
| Paperback ISBN: | ISBN 0-552-14768-0 |
| Other details | |
| Awards: | |
| Notes: | |
The Truth is the twenty-fifth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, published in 2000.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The book features the coming of movable type to Ankh-Morpork, and the founding of the Discworld's first newspaper by William de Worde, as he invents investigative journalism with the help of his reporter Sacharissa Cripslock. The two investigate the charges of murder against Havelock Vetinari and help vindicate him.
The Ankh-Morpork City Watch characters also appear in this novel, but have limited roles and are seen mainly from de Worde's perspective - not a flattering one. C.M.O.T. Dibbler also puts in an appearance.
In the novel the criminal group The New Firm (Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip) are employed by a group of so called "concerned citizens" to frame Lord Vetinari, in a conspiracy to get a new Patrician of Ankh-Morpork.
To accomplish this the New Firm found a shopkeeper who happened to be the spitting image of Vetinari and planned to use him as a double to make it seem as if Vetinari was trying to abscond from the city with a large amount of gold.
While the ploy worked, it was touch-and-go for a minute or two--the New Firm's employers had neglected to tell Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip that Vetinari "moved like a snake". They improvised, stabbing Vetinari's clerk, Drumknott, and pushing their Vetinari look-a-like into the hallway to "confess".
The only wrinkle was the escape of Wuffles, Vetinari's terrier, who tried but failed to get rid of the intruders by biting them at the ankle. The New Firm didn't think much of this, but as Mr. Slant of the Lawyer's Guild was quick to point out, Ankh-Morpork had myriad ways to talk to anything, so the New Firm was forced to search for Wuffles.
When the Ankh-Morpork Times offered a AM$25 reward for Wuffles, hundreds of people showed up to attempt to get the reward, and Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip quickly took advantage of the situation, and arrived disguised as Omnian clergy members.
They were about to kill William de Worde when the Times iconographer took a picture using "Dark Light" exposure, which caused Mr. Pin to become aware of the large number of ghosts that were following him, waiting for him to die.
He ran from the scene, and threatened Mr. Slant in order to increase their fee, after which went to his employer's house, where he found the Times reporter Sacharissa Cripslock.
Taking her with them, the New Firm went down to the Times office to wait for William to show up. A scuffle broke out, which led to a fire, from which Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip took refuge in the basement. When this began to fill with hot lead as the printing press in the floor above melted, Mr. Pin took advantage of his partner's trust and, under the guise of a plan, he shoots him and stands on his body in order to survive.
When Mr. Pin finally got out of the basement, out of habit more than anything else, he tried to strangle William, who accidentally ran him through with a paper spike.
Following this Mr. Pin ends up in the Desert of the Dead, where met with Death, who obliged Mr. Pin's wish to be reincarnated by sending him back to life as a potato.
[edit] Pop culture references
This novel contains some interesting pop culture references. Besides the Watergate references in the plot (which may have been based on All The President's Men), most reflect the 1995 movie Pulp Fiction, which contains two well dressed assassins remarkably similar to Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip. Some dialogue that may have been taken from the movie include Mr. Tulip saying "I'm gonna get medieval on his arse" which is said by Marsellus in Pulp Fiction, and a discussion about what they call a sausage-inna-bun in Quirm. Also the duo are informed by their lawyer contact Mr. Slant that having a dog as an eye witness is dangerous because "Dogs have personality, personality means a lot", another line from the film. Mr Pin also has a wallet with "Not a very nice person at all" written on it in pokerwork, analogous to Jules' wallet embossed with "Bad Motherf*cker".
[edit] Dark light
Introduced in this book, dark light is described by Otto Chriek as being the original form of light that all other forms of light came from. Otto was experimenting with dark light in order to take "obscurigraphs", iconographs using dark light given off by the Ubervaldian Land Eel instead of normal light given off by salamanders. There were a few unintended side effects of using dark light. The first stemming from the fact that dark light is detached from time resulting in iconographs that not only show the present but the past and even the future. Dark light is also said to be "seen by the dark eyes of the mind". This results in any one exposed to dark light to feel like they've had an icicle hammered into their head. Iconographs taken with dark light apparently show either dark part of the subject's psyche (such as Mr. Pin's past murders) or hidden motivations (such as William De Worde's urge to not be like his father).
[edit] Translations
- Истината (Bulgarian)
- Pravda (Czech)
- De waarheid (Dutch)
- La Vérité (French)
- Die volle Wahrheit (German)
