How the gods actually operate

It is said that whomsoever the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.  In fact, whomsoever the gods wish to destroy, they first hand the equivalent of a stick with a fizzing fuse and Acme Dynamite Company written on the side.  It's more interesting, and doesn't take so long.

---from Soul Music by Terry Pratchett.

Comments

[Daniel]

So when are we going to get a Terry Pratchett essay, Lance? I mean, you were asking for topics earlier. I keep reading one of the pull quotes at the front of what seems like every Pratchett book these days that says something along the lines of "Terry Pratchett isn't Shakespeare, but he's good in his own right." This is the sort of thing critics write about books that they're not supposed to like: anything with gunshots totalling more than one or less than The Civil War, anything with fantastic creatures who are not metaphorical stand-ins in magical realism, or anything ever set in space post-1979.
And I keep thinking, "Gee, he sure reads like Shakespeare to me. Incredibly insightful yet common sense insight into human nature; a sense of humor that can tell jokes about quantum physics and high finance but isn't above the occasional penis joke; fully realized characters that manage to be archetypes at the same time; and he always seems to manage his own versions of Rosencratz and Guildenstern. So how about it Lance? How about a Pratchett essay?