The Color of Magic

One of the more difficult things to do in fantasy is to create a system of magic that works in a consistent and believable way. Pratchett embeds real-world rationale into The Color of Magic by showing his characters employing the scientific method to study their magical world. The scientific method is the process of observation and experimentation used to gather data and develop theories about the world. On the Disc, this means that cosmochelonians debate the Steady Gait theory versus the Big Bang: “the theory that A’Tuin had come from nowhere and would continue at a uniform crawl, or steady gait, into nowhere, for all time” versus the idea that “A’Tuin was crawling from the Birthplace to the Time of Mating” along with other giant space turtles, who would mate and create new turtles carrying new worlds (4). These theories, of course, are parodies of creation myths and scientific hypotheses of our actual universe.

Pratchett’s science of magic parallels the science of Roundworld (our earth). Magical fields replace gravity and influence the speed of light. They also act like radiation, causing mutations and strange effects on their surroundings. Instead of the law of conservation of mass, the Discworld has the “Law of Conservation of Reality; this [demands] that the effort needed to achieve a goal should be the same regardless of the means used” (82). This interesting take on magic also frees readers from wondering why characters can’t simply magic themselves out of sticky situations.

In Part 4, Pratchett satirizes both science and religion. The Discworld cosmology is based on various creation myths, specifically ones that refer to the world being carried on the back of an enormous creature, like a turtle or elephant. Pratchett especially draws on Hindu cosmology, which teaches that the world is carried by four elephants, who in turn stand atop the turtle Kachhapa (Smithsonian Ocean). Before scientific inquiry expanded, ancient people had to use their imaginations to come up with explanations for natural phenomena. For example: since everything falls unless it rests on something else, and since the world is not falling, the world must rest on something large, like elephants. Since elephants would also fall, they must be standing on something else—a turtle floating in an endless ocean. The ocean satisfies the problem of falling. This could also explain other natural events: earthquakes, for example, could be attributed to the steps of giant elephants or the jostling of a turtle through the endless sea.

The people of the Discworld, while “ancient” to modern readers, don’t have to guess at what keeps their world from falling. Pratchett takes the myth of the world-turtle and turns it into scientific fact. The people of Krull go about the study of Great A’Tuin in a methodical way, testing hypotheses and building tools to make observations. However, as another nod to religious myths by Pratchett, the Krullians also ensure the success of their experiments by propitiating assorted gods with ritual sacrifices. On the Discworld, that’s just good sense; the gods are very real, and they don’t have much sense of humor about atheists. In the real world, science and religion are often pitted against each other and presented as polar opposites; in The Color of Magic, they coexist, and creative myths to us exist as basic fact for Discworlders.

Pratchett once said there was no science on the Discworld. However, in effect, he made religion and magic into sciences. By continually testing how magic works in his world, Pratchett forces his readers to continue thinking, never allowing them to make assumptions. Much of what readers learn about the Disc then spills over into Roundworld science, training readers in the scientific method at an intuitive level. Some readers may feel that Pratchett is poking fun at the ancient concepts of world-elephants and world-turtles; but had those ancient philosophers investigated earth like the Krullians investigate the Disc, we likely would never have had Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.