OT: Which Discworld character are you?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

That's quite a difference from 'lies', though.

Heh. Try classifying fiction. It contains truth, but didn't actually happen. It's not a lie, because everyone knows it didn't happen and there is no intent to decieve.

It can't all be stuck under titles like 'Metaphor', because some of it deals with self-contained concepts that aren't ways of teaching real-life lessons.

And then you get into things like 'If I imagine something, just how real is it - And what is it about the imagination that allows it to concieve of things that are impossible?'

Which leads to the idea that the mind is, in fact, at least in potential, infinite.

How else do you classify the ability to concieve of impossibilities and the entirely new?

[Randallw]

That it says "lies" does give it a different dimension.

I think of it as applying to nature. We think that there is a fairness to the universe, do right by others and everything will be alright for you, but Mother nature doesn't answer to the excuse "It's not fair". Think of a saint who goes through life being kind to others and being chartiable. Then they develop cancer. Where's the justice in that?. Me personally, things happen, there's no point being upset at what you can't change.

A similar topic is from the Moral Philosophy class in Starship Troopers. Imagine a man floating in the middle of the ocean. Eventually he will tire and drown. The sea doesn't care. There's no mercy from nature.

Another quote, from a Science of Discworld book,although I can't exactly remember it, is that literature is necessary for mankind to strive. It is where the grasping ape becomes the hand that grasps the stars, or something like that. It proposes we shouldn't be Homo Sapiens "the knowledgable man" but Pan Narrans "the storytelling ape".

Edit: Intellectually, which after all is what I consider this whole discussion to be, I get that last bit, although I do have some trouble with the two learned authors whole atheist angle.

[Atrocities]

Now it says that I am a Barby Doll. WTH man?

[AgentZero]

I too am a Carrot Ironfounderson. What's up with that?

Edit: Changed a couple responses based on what my sister told me and wound up with a 100% match for Death. Oh yes.