The Terry Pratchett Test

For the longest time, I've had to suffer the greatest indignation and discrimination, simply over what I read.

The story begins, actually, quite long ago. Way back in secondary school, my classmates already began expressing disbelief at the supposed junk I was feeding my brain. 'Terry Pratchett?!?' they would exclaim. 'Why on earth do you insist on reading that garbage?'

My protests fell on deaf ears. I would shake one of his books in what came to be known as a Righteous Support For Pratchett Rage, and decry the sublime genius of his writing. Yet, every time, I would only see sad eyes looking back at me, as if somehow pitying the way madness had seized my mind.

JC wasn't much better. Hardly anyone heard of Pratchett, and of those who did, rare was the brave soul who would cast away the shackles of peer pressure and acknowledge The Truth. And so onwards I plod, in my lonely search for those who thought like me.

And oh, how the greatest despair descended upon me. Everywhere I went, not a single brother or sister could I find, who could think the way I did, feel the way I felt. As the hope I harboured dwindled and grew feeble, the more I resigned myself to belonging where I truly did not belong.

The final straw came not too long ago, when dear dear Haoyun described to me, to my face, what she thought of him. 'Complete utter rubbish. A wizard with no powers? A Luggage with a hundred little feet? What nonsense!'

Aye. The snow slowly settled on the desolate landscape of my world.

Things changed at a recent Law orientation group outing. I found myself reading a Pratchett book whilst waiting for my friends to arrive. When they did, and caught me in the act of enjoying a Pratchett, I instinctively hid the book behind me in a desperate act of defense, and unbidden, a wild crazed look leapt into my eyes.

'Stopsss! Goes away, youss who hurtsss me and my Preciouss...'

And with the gentlest, warmest hands, my friends reached out and drew me into their fold. Their understanding and concern, like the unimaginable radiance of the Sun, flowed forth and stripped away the darkness that penetrated the furthest corners of my life.

'But why? We read Pratchett too! And we think he's brilliant.'

As Haoyun noted later on, I have finally found a faculty where I belong. My search has come to an end.