The most watched programme on the BBC, after the news, is probably 'Doctor Who.' What has happened is that science fiction has been subsumed into modern literature. There are grandparents out there who speak Klingon, who are quite capable of holding down a job. No one would think twice now about a parallel universe.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the significance of science fiction in contemporary culture and its integration into everyday life.
Terry Pratchett highlights how science fiction has transcended its genre boundaries to become a fundamental part of modern literature and culture. He notes that concepts once considered niche or fantastical, like alien languages or parallel universes, are now accepted and even embraced by society, indicating a profound shift in how we view speculative fiction.
In practice
In a speech on the influence of literature, I might quote Pratchett to illustrate how fiction shapes our understanding of reality.
And then Jack chopped down what was the world's last beanstalk, adding murder and ecological terrorism to the theft, enticement, and trespass charges already mentioned, and all the giant's children didn't have a daddy anymore. But he got away with it and lived happily ever after, without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done...which proves that you can be excused for just about anything if you are a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions.
They've got something they do it with, I think it's called a mocracy, and it means everyone in the whole country can say who the new Tyrant is. One man ... one vet. ... Everyone has ... the vet. Except for women, of course. And children. And criminals. And slaves. And stupid people. And people of foreign extraction. And people disapproved of for, er, various reasons. And lots of other people. But everyone apart from them. It's a very enlightened civilization.
Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it.
You can't trample infidels when you're a tortoise. I mean, all you could do is give them a meaningful look.
Any fool could be a witch with a runic knife, but it took skill to be one with an apple corer.
People look down on stuff like geography and meteorology, and not only because they're standing on one and being soaked by the other. They don't look quite like real science. But geography is only physics slowed down and with a few trees stuck on it, and meteorology is full of excitingly fashionable chaos and complexity. And summer isn't a time. It's a place as well. Summer is a moving creature and likes to go south for the winter.
I'm fascinated by musicians who don't completely understand their territory; that's when you do your best work.
Time broadens the scope of verses and I know of some which, like music, are everything for all men.
Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during the moment.
It's not a filmmaker's job to explain his technique but to tell his story the best way he can.
A lot can be said with just a look, or the way the body moves. Each song is a different character. So each song takes on a different movement of the body. And the body has to go with the subject and the attitude that you have toward that subject.
The role of the artist is to not look away.
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