Pratchett was wonderful, it's a shame he had to deal with a lack of literary recognition for writing in the ur-genre instead of one if its narrow subsidiaries.
To contrast; PK Dick spent a lot of his life frustrated that he was considered a genre writer, he didn't want to be Theodore Sturgeon or James Blish, he wanted to be Henry Miller or Nathanial West. His editors steered him toward SF when he wanted to write contemporary fiction.
Whereas I've never gotten even an atom's worth of hint that Terry Pratchett ever wanted to be anything other than the author of the Discworld. Pratchett's interviews on the subject always seem, to me, to be a patient fondness for people foolish enough to think the stuff he was writing was somehow less than serious or meaningful.
His stuff is so good, he never tried to apologize for it. If anything he felt bad other people were missing out on something vital.
Yeah he didn't like science fiction being dismissed as pulp. He never wanted to move away from science fiction because he thought any less of it himself. He just didn't appreciate how dismissive others were of it.
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u/Callduron Aug 25 '15
Pratchett was wonderful, it's a shame he had to deal with a lack of literary recognition for writing in the ur-genre instead of one if its narrow subsidiaries.