Terry Pratchett: Moving Pictures

Once again Terry has delivered a fantastic book full of action, intrigue, adventure and most of all, humor. He starts out the book with what I think is the most fantastic description of reality I have ever heard. He describes reality not as a digital, on-off, yes-no state, but an analog state. Something that is measurable, where some have less than others. Like weight, or volume. Some have more, and some have less. Discworld, naturally has less…much less. He states “Discworld is as unreal as it is possible to be while still being just real enough to exist. This falls well in line with my theory that reality doesn’t exist except in the mind of the beholder. No I am not talking about the floating orb with ten eyestalks that will as soon disintegrate you as look at you, but good thought. Well, naturally each beholder will have a different level of ability to make things real, so each reality will be a little more or less than all the others. Makes perfect sense right? No, I didn’t think so.

Moving Pictures is about a young student wizard named Victor who gets the bug to go to Holy Wood and be a star after a group of alchemists come up with a way to make moving pictures (movies). Naturally in Discworld the very idea of moving pictures has its own level of sentience and ability to influence the minds and hearts of others. Which it does of course. Unfortunately, as I stated earlier, seeing is believing, and believing is creating reality. So naturally as the moving pictures, called clicks, become popular more people see them. And as more people see them, more people believe them, and reality itself is altered. Unfortunately reality being altered causes tears in the fabric of reality, and nasty creatures from beyond time and space try to get through. Fortunately our young hero and his lady fair, (in the clicks anyway) arrive to save the day, using Holy Wood’s magic itself. Which is of course, observation is belief which creates reality. So all he has to do is convince himself of its reality, just like he was acting in a click and it will become real, right down to the fiery steed, and arriving in the very nick of time. It’s all a part of the Holy Wood magic. So naturally when the evil creatures from beyond break through, the magic of Holy Wood and the ingenuity of our young hero combine to save the day, in the nick of time…again. Overall another great book by Terry Pratchett. Humor, thoughtfulness, and quantum physics.