Interesting Times (Discworld, #17; Rincewind, #5)

by Terry Pratchett

This is the Discworld, which goes through space on the back of a giant turtle. Most worlds do, at some time in their perception. It’s a cosmological view the human brain seems pre-programmed to take. On veldt and plain, in cloud jungle and silent red desert, in swamp and reed marsh, in fact in any place where something goes “plop” off a floating log as you approach, variations on the following take place at a crucial early point in the development of the tribal mythology . . . “You see dat?” “What?” “It just went plop off dat log.” “Yeah? Well?” “I reckon . . . I reckon . . . like, I reckon der world is carried on der back of one of dem.” A moment of silence while this astrophysical hypothesis is considered, and then . . . “The whole world?” “Of course, when I say one of dem, I mean a big one of dem.” “It’d have to be, yeah.” “Like . . . really big.” “’S funny, but . . . I see what you mean.” “Makes sense, right?” “Makes sense, yeah. Thing is . . .” “What?” “I just hope it never goes plop.”