Talk:Roundworld

From Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki
Revision as of 03:16, 26 December 2012 by Osiris (talk | contribs) (1 revision: Talk Namespace)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Just a thought that nags at me.

In The Colour of Magic, it is established that Rincewind has an alter-ego on Planet Earth (Roundworld). When he manifests on Earth out of his desire not to be killed by falling through a dragon that has just lost corporeal integrity at great height, he re-appears inside an airliner. (Either he is transported to Earth or a little bit of Earth is temporarily relocated to the Discworld. As all appears well on the plane and the pilot isn't babbling about "where the Hell am I?", I would suspect they are temporarily transported to Roundworld and everything is going according to schedule. (Until the Luggage turns up)

Dr van Rijnswand, (who perplexingly has a South African-sounding name but is given Swedish identity), has a few confused thoughts about dragons and some outlandish "hublandish" language, as well as a moment's confusion about the weird clothes, but inertia soon restores his full Roundworld identity with the odd thoughts being dismissed as some sort of dream.

The question is - if Rincewind is sent into Roundworld to explore and discover, how come he doesn't assume the aspect of himself which is already there, and forget his Discworld identity? (Would this only apply during the brief span of Dr van Rijnswand's lifespan on Roundworld?) In which case he would have had the Professor's knowledge of nuclear physics to confuse the Faculty with.

This may also be a temporal paradox - the wizards have not called Roundworld into existence at this point, so it is possible Rincewind and Twoflower's personal timeline was wound forward to the time of the Roundworld for this brief span, and then back again on their return to the Disc.

The mind fairly boggles...--AgProv 15:45, 3 May 2007 (CEST)

Rincewind's "timeline" is a something of an external golden braid cat's-cradle. Dunno about Twoflower, but tourists aren't actually involved, after all. 207.112.84.33 03:43, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Is the term "Roundworld" a misnomer?

Although the term “roundworld” has been well established for a long time, wouldn’t “sphereworld” be a better reference than “roundworld”?

(The Discworld IS round at the circumference.)

Maybe, but the term "Roundworld" is used in the The Science of Discworld books, making it official. And it doesn't just refer to Earth, it also refers to the entire universe the wizards create in that book. TC01 19:37, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

Roundworld characters

Should historical Roundworld characters featured in the The Science of Discworld books get their own pages? After all, William Shakespeare, John Dee and Charles Darwin are all characters with large roles (and various scientists are mentioned in passing in Nation). ASK ME ABOUT STAMPS 18:49, 7 May 2012 (CEST)