{"id":1069,"date":"2015-03-17T18:54:01","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T17:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/?p=1069"},"modified":"2015-03-17T17:57:55","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T16:57:55","slug":"what-i-learned-from-terry-pratchett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/03\/17\/what-i-learned-from-terry-pratchett\/","title":{"rendered":"What I learned from Terry Pratchett"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been thinking about this for quite a long time now, and this seems like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/entertainment-arts-31858156\">a good time<\/a>. I\u2019ve spoken about this any number of times with students in clinic, and with doctors in training. \u00a0The thing is, as soon as they hear me mention Terry Pratchett, I get the judgement. Or, to be more fair, I get the social profiling. \u00a0The disguise I wear as a moderately competent 46 year old paediatrician with greying (OK, grey) hair and comfort in my surroundings slips away and there he is &#8211; the awkward, spotty, 14 year old. \u00a0Actually, I didn\u2019t come to Terry Pratchett until my university years but that\u2019s almost too trivial to mention. \u00a0The main point is that the stereotype is probably fair. \u00a0This was an author with tremendous reach but with a core readership of the awkward, the geeky, the clever but, well, those with limited life skills.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>So, I go on to try to explain why it is that I thought (and think) Terry Pratchett a genius. \u00a0I illustrate it with a scene from one of his books. \u00a0I\u2019ll share it with you, but throughout this I want you to remember the readership.<\/p>\n<p>The scene I\u2019m interested in involves Granny Weatherwax, one of the recurring characters on Discworld. \u00a0Granny Weatherwax is a witch &#8211; and here many people\u2019s eyes glaze over. \u00a0\u00a0The book in question is called Lords and Ladies, and in this scene Granny is attending a terrible accident; in a very rural setting an expectant mother has been kicked by a cow. \u00a0The local midwife, Mrs Patternoster, has learned mostly from animal craft and tradition. \u00a0She is out of her depth, which is why she\u2019s called for Granny. \u00a0Very quickly it becomes clear to Granny &#8211; and to us the reader &#8211; that either the mother or unborn child is going to die, and maybe both.<\/p>\n<p>(Once again, I remind you. \u00a0Spotty, geeky 14 year olds. \u00a0Spotty geeky 14 year olds.)<\/p>\n<p>Mrs Patternoster wants to involve the father in the decision around which life should be saved. \u00a0Granny decides not to. \u00a0Instead she dispatches Mrs Patternoster\u00a0to comfort the father. \u00a0Some time passes; Death &#8211; another of Pratchett\u2019s recurrent characters &#8211; passes through with dignity, and a little while later the midwife returns to find the expectant mother alive, the baby dead. \u00a0Pratchett handles this scene a good deal more delicately than I\u2019m capable of, and have done here, but that\u2019s the blunt truth of it. \u00a0Granny has also busied herself in discovering why the cow was behaving as it was &#8211; there was a thorn in its flanks. \u00a0Noting Mrs Patternoster\u2019s disapproval of \u00a0Granny\u2019s failure to involve the father in the decisions, Granny asks \u201cYou don\u2019t like him? \u00a0You think he\u2019s a bad man?\u201d \u00a0\u201cNo!\u201d. \u00a0\u201cThen what\u2019s he ever done to me, that I should hurt him so?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s it. \u00a0We hear no more from any of these characters &#8211; except Granny and Death. \u00a0There is no further discussion. \u00a0And there\u2019s the genius. \u00a0Into a book about witches, and vampires, and elves and trolls, he\u2019s slipped something which reveals important things to think about in regard to compassion, paternalism, honesty, bravery. \u00a0You can go further &#8211; you can think about the twin burden and privilege of delivering health care. \u00a0If you want to, you could even work in root cause analysis. \u00a0You don\u2019t have to agree with Granny &#8211; but you can\u2019t be neutral about what she\u2019s done. \u00a0You have to think about it. \u00a0You have to be a spotty 14 year old geek thinking about issues like this.<\/p>\n<p>Isn\u2019t that amazing?<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been thinking about this for quite a long time now, and this seems like a good time. I\u2019ve spoken about this any number of times with students in clinic, and with doctors in training. \u00a0The thing is, as soon as they hear me mention Terry Pratchett, I get the judgement. Or, to be more [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/03\/17\/what-i-learned-from-terry-pratchett\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2681],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-practice-of-medicine"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What I learned from Terry Pratchett - ADC Online Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/adc\/2015\/03\/17\/what-i-learned-from-terry-pratchett\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What I learned from Terry Pratchett - ADC Online Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019ve been thinking about this for quite a long time now, and this seems like a good time. 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