B.S. Johnson

I love this character. I'd love to see a book in which he is alive and well, and designing melting lawnchairs and rocket-powered sundials. anyone else?

Now that is a novel idea. Scary for many reasons, but novel.

It would be looking at Ankh-Morpork's past and that has always been one of the things I like about Pterry's stories. B.S. Johnson might be too much to focus on but it could be fun. Maybe he was what happened to Lord Snapcase.

[quote:2996968012="TamyraMcG"] Maybe he was what happened to Lord Snapcase.[/quote:2996968012]

Or one of his inventions at least. Maybe a 500 foot long back scratcher fell on him or something.

Bloody Stupid seems like a fun character to explore, yes.

There are many interesting side characters in the Dicsworld series, I deeply enjoy any parts that focus on Leonardo Da Quirm, the librarian is another great one, especially for dialogue... But a whole book centered around one of them ? Meh, dunno... Could be brilliant, could be stretching a short joke too far...

He's an amusing aside, but a whole book devoted to one running joke, his ineptitude with scale and numbers, could get very old very fast.

There have been many various 'Follies' (constructions/devices that were a good idea when proposed but bankrupted/made a fool of their sponsor in later years) over the centuries. There have been some collected works of rare and stupid patents too. These in combination would make a good base for a Not the Science of the Roundworld study. Maybe B.S. had ancestors.

[quote:e35334ebed="Katcal"]There are many interesting side characters in the Dicsworld series, I deeply enjoy any parts that focus on Leonardo Da Quirm, the librarian is another great one, especially for dialogue... But a whole book centered around one of them ? Meh, dunno... Could be brilliant, could be stretching a short joke too far...[/quote:e35334ebed]

The Patrician is another great side character whom I would not like to see the subject of an entire novel. His Uber-Coolness is derived largely from his mysteriousness.

As For B. S. Johnson, I think he would get old fairly quickly.

[quote:e511e058ce="Watchman"]He's an amusing aside, but a whole book devoted to one running joke, his ineptitude with scale and numbers, could get very old very fast.[/quote:e511e058ce]

'going postal' was essentially one running joke, as was 'moving pictures' and 'hogfather' and 'the last continent' and 'the last hero' and to greater or lesser extent all of the discworld books. Everything has to start from a single concept. I just think that B.S. Johnson could make an interesting character to build upon.

I think a whole book about our favorite unventor would be too much. I wouldn't mind, and don't mind, his apperances in various books that describes his... um... acomplishments. And having a ground-to-air missile... I mean, an ornamental fountain in the garden would be cool.

Well if he was to appear more in detail, as Leonardo did in Jingo, or Vetinari in Night Watch, that would be fine, but I'm not sure a whole book would be that much fun, I mean there's not all that much suspense in the fact that whatever he makes won't work as intended... The running jokes that were the center of the books you mentioned, Darkbane, were more about things than just one character... Jokes about the post office, or Hollywood, or Australia, are wide enough to be developed throughout a whole book, but catastophic inventions ? Unless this was tied in with something else to create a real plotline, I can't see it making a good thick book...

Edited for saying joke too often and in the wrong place...

I think you'll find that if you look at human history closely, B.S. Johnson is just a placeholder for an incredible range of engineering follies commited by various well meaning inventors.

Perhaps you're right in saying that Johnson himself might not be a rich enough character to sustain a good thick book, but I'd like to see someone challenge the wizards and alchemists, dragging them kick and screaming into the century of the fruitbat.

After all, no one new has come onto the scene to tear holes in the fabric of the universe in a while.

Isn't B.S. Johnson dead already? I seem to recall everyone always talking about him in the past tense in the books.
Unless he's pulling a Mr. Slant at us I don't think he's going to drag [i:08a6d805ee]anyone [/i:08a6d805ee]kicking and screaming into the century of the fruitbat...

The only book I could see featuring B.S. Johnson exclusively would have to be a "Ripleys believe it or not"-style book, or one of those oversized coffee table books, illustrated by Kidby.

Not a novel.

I'm sure he's dead, even wiki says he's dead. I think Tephlon's right, apart from him featuring exclusively in that "Believe it or not" book. Plenty of other characters to feature there.

Thing is, he wouldn't be new on the scene. He's been featured in the books for ages. He has torn his holes in the universe. It wouldn't exactly be a "new" threat.

He is indeed dead. Shot by Sybil Ramkin's father before he could do too much damage to the garden...

I just don't think there's enough to the character and going back in time to do it would also probably screw up the character arcs and development of other characters if they were to be included and I don't know how they couldn't be.

The History monks.

I'd love to see a cameo, but as said I don't think he could pull off a whole book.