The Truth

1

Pin and Tulip enter Ankh-Morpork via the Water Gate, which is oddly appropriate, considering both Gaspode’s later pseudonym (see the annotation {42}) and the name of the organisation that hires Pin and Tulip (see the annotation {19}).

2

Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese design philosophy in which the positioning and physical characteristics of the items within a residence are believed to affect the fortunes of the owner.

3

The characters of Pin and Tulip are somewhat frustrating for Terry in the sense that many, many people feel that they are ‘obviously’ based on Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar in Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere (who refer to themselves as the Old Firm, and call each other ‘Mr’). Or ‘obviously’ based on the thugs Jules Winfield and Vincent Vega from the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction (and there are a good number of Pulp Fiction references in The Truth). Or obviously based on Mr Wint and Mr Kidd from the James Bond movie Diamonds are Forever. Or obviously based on the two Rons (who called themselves ‘The Management’) from the BBC Hale and Pace series. Or…

Terry himself had this to say:

“1. The term ‘The Old Firm’ certainly wasn’t invented by Neil. I think it first turned up amongst bookies, but I’ve even seen the Kray Brothers referred to that way. Since the sixties at least the ‘the firm’ has tended to mean ‘criminal gang.’ And, indeed, the term turned up in DW long before Neverwhere.

2. Fiction and movies are full of pairs of bad guys that pretty much equate to Pin and Tulip. They go back a long way. That’s why I used ’em, and probably why Neil did too. You can have a trio of bad guys (who fill roles that can be abbreviated to ‘the big thick one, the little scrawny one and The Boss’) but the dynamic is different. With two guys, one can always explain the plot to the other…”

“A point worth mentioning, ref other threads I’ve seen: Hale and Pace’s ‘Ron and Ron’ worked precisely because people already knew the archetype.”

4

Goodmountain — > Gutenberg. Johann Gutenberg is the German (claimed) inventor of movable type in the 1450s, most famously responsible for the Gutenberg Bibles.

5

Caslon is a well-known typeface named after its creator William Caslon, who released it in the 1730s. It was a highly successful and popular typeface throughout Europe and America: the first printings of the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution were set in Caslon. See also the annotations {15} and {31}.

6

Winston Churchill said “In war-time, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies”. Any book called The Truth should therefore have one.

7

The story of this particular war has been told in great detail in Jingo.

8

A development of the chain letter, ‘Make money fast’-pyramid schemes (often literally with that title, and with the ‘$$$’ spelling) formed a major part of the first waves of Internet spam (or unsolicited bulk messages).

9

C-commerce resonates with e-commerce, or doing business electronically, e.g. over the Internet.

10

In the 1997 movie Men in Black, Tommy Lee Jones’ character says: “1500 years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was the centre of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was flat. And 15 minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know… tomorrow.”

11

As well as referring to the cooking in the previous sentence, this also refers to Printer Pie, a term for jumbled-up type, which will be sorted for the next job or recast into new type — very much in context.

12

This fiasco is detailed in Moving Pictures.

13

And this story is told in Soul Music.

14

An H. P. Lovecraft reference.

I’m rather proud of figuring this one out, because I really hadn’t a clue as to why this Fish Bar would be such a bad idea. Then it occurred to me to look up the word ‘Dagon’. Webster’s doesn’t have it, but luckily Brewer saves the day, as usual: ‘Dagon’ is the Hebrew name for the god Atergata of the Philistines; half woman and half fish.

It was actually a Dagon temple that the biblical Samson managed to push down in his final effort to annoy the Philistenes (Judges 16:23, “Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.”)

After including this annotation in earlier editions of the APF, there have been numerous emails from people pointing out that H. P. Lovecraft also uses the entity Father Dagon as the leader of the Deep Ones in some of his horror stories. Terry has confirmed, however, that the inspiration for his Dagon goes back to the original source, not Lovecraft’s incarnation.

15

Another very aptly named dwarf: Bodoni is a well-known typeface designed at the end of the eighteenth century by Italian printer Giambattista Bodoni, who became the director of the press for the Duke of Parma, and who seems to have a reputation for elegance rather than accuracy.

16

A reference to the old ventriloquist “bottle of beer” routine. Ventriloquists who want to demonstrate their skill will include the phrase “bottle of beer” as part of their patter. However, as it is impossible to pronounce the ‘B’ without moving your lips, it usually comes out as “gottle of geer”.

17

The tons are troll heavies, the equivalent of Mafia capos or dons. But they are also trying to join The Ton, an eighteenth century term for leaders of fashion.

18

‘Peggy Sue’ is the title of one of Buddy Holly’s many hit songs.

19

The Watergate scandal break-in at the offices of the Democratic National Committee in 1972 was eventually traced back to the Committee to Re-Elect the President. Nixon denied any personal involvement, but tape recordings proved otherwise.

20

Riffs on the famous “Quarter Pounder with Cheese” dialogue from Pulp Fiction:

21

A boxing troll called Rocky, who keeps getting knocked down… It’s really astonishing that it took Terry so long to come up with this particular troll name. The reference is, of course, to Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky movies.

22

A famous bible quote, from John 8:32: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

23

“Taking the pledge” is what one used to do when joining Alcoholics Anonymous (or any other temperance movement / Methodist tee-total congregation).

24

A saying attributed to Mark Twain, as well as to James Watt, the Scottish inventor.

25

People have been speculating that this may be a reference to various earlier occurrences of a similar theme (in H. P. Lovecraft’s work, for instance), but Terry said:

“AFP, eh? Look, some ideas are just so damn obvious no one has probably lifted them from anyone. Vampire crumbles to dust, you sweep up the dust, you get the vampire back — mixed up with all the cat hairs and breadcrumbs, maybe.”

26

Equivalent to the National Enquirer in its coverage of highly inventive news.

27

‘The King of the Golden River’ is a classic fairy tale written in 1842 by John Ruskin.

Terry adds:

“And let me say right now that practically everything in the career of Harry King is fairly based on fact (except for the trolls).”

28

Another Pulp Fiction quote from Jules: “I wouldn’t go so far as to call a dog filthy, but they’re definitely dirty. But, a dog’s got personality. Personality goes a long way.”

29

There are several historical examples in our world of animals being arrested, excommunicated or killed for various crimes. Articles in the October 1994 issue of Scientific American and in The Book of Lists #3 give several examples: a chimpanzee was convicted in Indiana in 1905 of smoking in public; 75 pigeons were executed in 1963 in Tripoli for ferrying stolen money across the Mediterranean; and in 1916, “five-ton Mary” the elephant killed her trainer and was subsequently sentenced to death by hanging — a sentence that involved a 100-ton derrick and a steam shovel. But the law is fair, and sometimes the animals get the better of it: when in 1713 a Franciscan monastery brought the termites who had been infesting their buildings to trial, a Brazilian court ruled that termites had a valid prior claim to the land, and ordered the monks to give the termites their own plot.

Note that Soul Cake Thursday in later Discworld novels becomes Soul Cake Tuesday, after previously having been Soul Cake Friday in The Dark Side of the Sun.

30

A quote from Pulp Fiction, spoken by Marcellus Wallace as an indication of his intended course of action concerning the person who had, um, displeased him.

When asked why he changed the original word ‘ass’ to the more British ‘arse’, but kept the American spelling of ‘medieval’, Terry replied:

“Because I prefer it, and it’s optional. But ass is a weak, sad word.”

31

This dwarf brings to mind Frederic William Goudy, the American type designer who designed several Goudy fonts, as well as Berkeley Old Style.

32

A reference to king Sisyphus of Corinth, who betrayed Zeus to the father of the girl Aegina, whom Zeus had abducted (the girl, not the father).

33

This scene spoofs the Antiques Roadshow type television programs, where people bring their old items to be identified and appraised by experts.

When asked if the reference was deliberate, Terry said:

“My god, I don’t think I could have made it more obvious… ‘You’d get more if you had a pair’ and ‘have you still got the box it came in?’ and the piggy little gleam the owners get when they realise that it’s worth a wad. Except on ARS the owner isn’t clubbed to the ground at the end, which I often think is a shame.”

34

The “Mothman” was a large creature (man-sized, but with wings) seen by several people in West Virginia in the second half of the 1960s, and reported on extensively by the regular newspapers at the time as well as by the Fortean Times).

35

Clearly, Willie Hobson has built the Disc’s equivalent of a multi-storey car park.

This becomes especially significant (as confirmed by Terry himself) in light of the fact the original Watergate Deep Throat used to deliver his information in a… multi-storey car park.

Also, Thomas Hobson (1544–1630) was the Cambridge stable manager after whom the concept of “Hobson’s choice” (the appearance of giving someone a choice, when actually there is but a single option) was named. People renting horses from him would be shown all available horses, but in the end they always had to take the one nearest the door, so that all his horses were exercised.

36

Deep Bone — > Deep Throat, the named used by the Watergate informant. See also the annotation {19}.

37

Schüschien — > Shoe Shine.

38

A person such as Jules from Pulp Fiction might. Only his wallet read Bad Motherfucker.

39

Very reminiscent of Honey Bunny’s sudden and unexpected yelling at the cafe denizens in Pulp Fiction: “Any of you fuckin’ pricks move and I’ll execute every motherfuckin’ last one of ya!”.

40

The Shadow Knows!

This question and answer made up the opening lines from one of the most popular radio shows in history, Detective Story (later quickly renamed to The Shadow).

41

“Every day, in every way, I am becoming better and better” was the mantra introduced as a form of auto-suggestion psychotherapy by Emile Coue in the 1920s.

42

Reference to Alexandre Dumas’ 1846 novel The Man in the Iron Mask.