Ég fann gamla ritgerð frá því í fyrra og datt í hug að skella henni hingað inn. Ég skrifaði hana fyrir ensku (ENS 103) svo hún er auðvitað á ensku. Kannski er uppsetningin ekki góð því ég skrifaði hana í Word en ég reyni að laga.

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The book I’m going to tell you about is the first book in a fantasy triology by Terry Pratchett. Terry Pratchett is a great writer. Trough the years he has sold about 40 million books throughout the world. His most famous books are the Discworld series, containing over 30 books. But he has also written a number of other fantasy or science-fiction books.
The triology is about a race of small men called nomes and their way home. I’m just going to discuss the first book but the last two books are very good as well.

Nomes look just like men, usually a bit more chubby. The only difference is that nomes are small, only about 4 inches high. Because of their size they live a lot faster than humans. To a nome, one year is like 10. They don’t just live shorter lifes, they live much faster and move faster than humans. Nomes think that the humans are slow and stupid and they don’t understand them. Nomes aren’t stupid. They can learn to read and write and many other things. But because they are so small and live in a different world than humans, they don’t understand humans or anything that the humans do. They can read human books but they often don’t understand them.
Masklin, Grimma and the other outside nomes go on a lorry that brings them inside the store. There they meet many nomes. When the thing come’s near elecricity it begins to talk and tells them that the store will be destroyed. All the nomes get on a lorry and drive it, with a great effort, to an old and abonded quarry to live there.
Masklin is the main character in the book. We see the story from his point of view and we know his thoughts. When he lived outside, he had to hunt every day for food for the other nomes, while Grimma, another young nome, took care of the older nomes. He had been responsible for the other nomes but he was not the leader. Torrit, the oldest nome, was the leader. (The oldest one is always the leader.) But when they went inside with the lorry, Masklin had to be their leader because no-one else wanted to or they were too scared. Masklin didn’t like to be the leader but he had to. At first he felt strange, not having to hunt or protect the other nomes. There were not many dangers inside and there was always enough food. But then the Thing began to talk to him and telling him the history of the nomes and that they had come from a spaceship that was still up there in the sky, waiting for the nomes to come home. Masklin is the only one that knows that. He’s also the only one that knows how to get all the nomes out of the store. And one day he’s gonna get them all home. All the way home.
In the start of every chapter is a small chapter from “The book of nome”, which is really funny. They use old formal english and it always is about something that seems stupid, but it can sometimes show us how humans look stupid when you look at them as a nome. Nomes don’t understand things like metaphors or proverbs and they don’t get it when humans write books about something that’s not true. That reminds me of a really honest child. The nomes don’t know things like lying or making things up that aren’t true. That shows us how we humans are.
The thing talks a very complicated english and uses strange words that, of course, nomes usually don’t use or understand. Here is an example of how the thing talks.

“Vitally important I communicate information of utmost significance to community leaders, concerning imminent destruction of this artefact,” intoned the Thing (Pratchett, Terry 1989 : 77)

On the next page the thing tries to use different words so that the nomes would understand what it was saying. He was telling the nomes that the store would be destroyed.
Most of the nomes live in a big store. They think that the store is the whole world but there are stories about life outside or in other stores. It’s like when we humans think of life on other planets. Some belive it, some don’t. We can never really know if it’s true or not. But the nomes get a visit from the Outside, nomes that bring them bad news: The store, their whole world, is to be demolished.
The nomes belive that Arnold Bros (est. 1905) made the store and “has put All Things under one roof” (Pratchett, Terry, 1989, 42) just for them. Arnold Bros (est. 1905) is the company that built the store and runs it. He is their god and they are very religious. Like in other stores, there are signs all around and the nomes think they are messages from Arnold Bros (est. 1905). But they don’t always get what the signs mean.

III. And Arnold Bros (est. 1905) said, Let there be Signs, so that All whithin shall know the Proper Running of the Store
IV. On the Moving Stairs, let the Sign Be: Dogs and Pushchairs Must be Carried;
V. And Arnold Bros (est. 1905) waxed wroth, for many carried neither dog nor pushchair;
VI. On the Lifts, let the Sign Be: This Lift to Carry Ten Persons;
VII. And Arnold Bros (est. 1905) waxed wroth, for oftimes the Lifts carried only two or tree:
VIII. And Arnold Bros (est. 1905) said, Truly Humans are Stupid, who do not understand plain language.

From The Book Of Nome, Regulations v.III-VIII
(Pratchett, Terry 1989 : 106)

Because nomes live inside, they have never seen the weather, the grass and the seasons. Nor have they seen the sun, or day and night. That seems strange to us that they can be so intelligent and don’t know these things excist. But they use things that are common to them to define things like time; The seasons are called Christmas Fayre, Spring Into Spring Fashion and Summer Bonanza, but the night and day are called opening and closing time.
I like this book in particular, because it’s clever and it’s also quite silly at times. I like the way the author makes a new race of small people, the nomes. And it could work. Nomes could actually live right in front of our nose and we would probably not notice. I also like the way the nomes see humans and it shows us how stupid we can look from another point of view. The book seems silly and funny like children’s books are but you can also see a message in between the lines. I think this book is brilliant and I recommend everyone to read it.



Bibliography

Pratchett, Terry, 1989. Truckers, The First Book Of The Nomes. Brekshire, Cox and Wyman Ltd, Reading.

Terry Pratchett Biography, Wikipedia, author unknown, http://www.answers.com/Terry%20Pratchett 28. nóvember 2005