Worldbuilding error-correction: Learning from the Master

[aldersprig]

I've been re-reading The Thief of Time, by Terry Pratchett, in part because I just found it in a used book store when cluudle visited Ithaca.

And in this re-read, I discovered that Pratchett had very cleverly explained all of the storyline divergences in Discworld in one tidy plot device.

There are many chronological inconsistencies on the Disc. Creatures and contraptions from a hundred different time periods exist side by side. This is how it's always been... or is it?... -the Discworld Compendium

This is brilliant. The Discworld books were written over such a large span of time, inconsistencies (or things that the writer just didn't like anymore) were bound to sneak in. In one fell swoop, Pratchett wrote a wonderful, readable book, and made any and all consistency errors canon.

Love it!

Comments

[inventrix]

This reminds me of this, though in a much less... headachingly complex way. >.>

[inventrix]

On an entirely unrelated note, every time I see this post's title, I think you're talking about the Master.

[aldersprig]

*laugh*
I don't need to learn worldbuilding from my husband! :-D

[inventrix]

Your husband is a power-hungry rogue psychic alien? That would explain so much (and yet so little).

[inventrix]

On an entirely different, but relevant topic, I like going the unreliable narrator/translation route to explain inconsistencies, if such inconsistencies exist in the work. Time shenanigans are fun but don't work for every setting, not really.

[aldersprig]

White Wolf did that awesomely

I don't think Pratchett's technique would work for everyone or anything; I just thought it was neat to notice.

(And spousal unit looks rather like the Master, or did before he chopped his hair)