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Quote of the Day: ‘Good and Hard’
‘“When you break rules, break ’em good and hard,’ said Nanny, and grinned a set of gums that were more menacing than teeth.” – Wyrd Sisters, by Terry Pratchett.
“Nobody ever told me it was hard” – Terry Pratchett, (possibly slightly paraphrased from an interview).
Being good doesn’t have to be hard. That’s a lesson I try to hold on to from Terry Pratchett. Sometimes people are just good at something, and that’s when the rules meant to teach how to do it really get in the way.
Sometimes it’s better to be expressive (as an art book I came across recently put it) than to be accurate. (As someone whose drawing efforts fall into that category rather better,[1] I found this encouraging.) Sometimes “the rules” seem made more to discourage beginners than to help them. This has never seemed quite honest to me.
Terry Pratchett (whom I’ve long held to be, at the time, the greatest living writer in the English language)[2] was among the best examples of someone who didn’t see the need to make being good be hard and who, in breaking the rules good and hard himself, provides encouragement to the rest of us.
‘Nobody ever told me it was hard,’ he said. And I say to you, nor does it have to be. Go out and enjoy.
[1] Though I am learning how to notice some of the other things, too.
[2] To rank with Shakespeare – whose plays the book the first quote is drawn from has some gentle fun with.
Published in Group Writing
(Or however that went.)
A modestly brief post of kindly, casual brilliance, like welding sparks. That’s the way it goes around here. Ricochet, I mean.
A scholar and a gentleman, I see!
You’re very kind, maestro.
Really? Where? Did I scare them off? Sorry about that.
Ruleses? Ruleses! We don’t need no steenkin’ ruleses!
Oh, well, that’s that taken care of. Cup of tea? The kettle’s just boiling. There may be biscuits* ahead (speaking of good and baked hard).
*: Teatime, not breakfast or dinner.
Ah, the pun-tain police! One moment while I think up a good one, then we can all enjoy bananas in custardy together!
It’s better than mustardy.
Unless we’ve got any pork pies about. But then it takes a bit of crust to make that joke— “And there we go, we have our bananas!”
It is good to obey all the rules when you’re young, so you’ll have the strength to break them when you’re old.
— Mark Twain to Dorothy Quick
Twain was at least 69 when he told Dorothy that, and she was no older than 14.
All artistic rules come with a Golden Caveat: “… unless you can make it work.” Of course, knowing what will work when you do break the rules, that’s part of the mystery of artistry.
“Have you got any coppery caveats . . . ?”