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"Yep, it's time to talk about Terry Pratchett." Bless her for knowing we were all waiting for this

This is a strange remake of the Loose Canon episode

I was going to make a joke about how Lindsay already covered Death in her Loose Canon series but at the end when she started talking about Terry Pratchett and the kids who would send him letters I almost started to cry. So here's a wholesome comment instead wishing you all well lived and satisfying lives.

This is just giving me flashbacks to her Loose Canon episode on Death. I miss that series. And Terry Pratchett.

Now I need to see taxes personified.

I mean, ill take a book version of that loose canon episode

All iterations of Death should have a skateboard tucked in one hand and a scythe in the other

Couple of things on Death in Terry's books; he was able to prevent his daughter's death, she and Mort refused his offer of immortality. Also he does know what happens after SOME deaths; he knows when people are going to be reincarnated or ghosts but he doesn't know what lies beyond the black desert that serves as Pratchett's representation of purgatory, which people cross to reach the other side.

I'm not having a particularly good day, and then Lindsay descends from the clouds in her critical godliness to bestow unto me this gift. And what a happy subject too…?

Did you . . . consciously do a Velma cosplay for this episode?

I just read The Book Thief last month. Such a damn good book.

"LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?"

I'm glad you didn't gloss over Neil Gaiman's version of Death. Comics mostly aren't but have the ability to be literature.

Flashes back to when Lindsey did a loose canon on death. I like that she added more on that topic in literature.

Mictlan - Meek-tlan - one of the underworlds. Mictlantecuhtli - Meek-Tlan-Te-ku-(asperation h)-tlee - Male personified ruler of the underworld. Mictecacihuatl - Meek-te-ka-see-watl - Female personified ruler of the underworld. Nahuatl - Na-watl I have tons of videos that I make Nahuatl easy. I usually overstress my lips when I pronounce it since many native speakers don't do that, but hard for a non-native speaker to pick up the sound. Update: I uploaded on how to pronounce them on my KZfaq channel.

I did NOT tear up seeing the last tweets on Terry Pratchett's account. Not at all. Excuse me, I have to go remove a twig that was thrown into my eye by a ninja wearing onions

I'm so glad Lenore got a mention! I spent a period of my early adolescence slightly obsessed with that poem, and almost nobody knows about it. Like...I memorized it. In two languages.

Oh God. I never saw that Twitter feed. That legit made me cry. Because it was only recently that I decided to take the plunge and fell in love with Discworld. And the first book I bought, was the Hogfather. Because the idea of Death, a being who “takes”, giving something to humans instead was such a novelty for me, I couldn’t put it down in the book store. The pretty cover illustration by Joe McClaren didnt help either

I'm not sure if there is an english translation. But in Jose Saramago's "Las intermitencias de la muerte", a country suffers a great problem when death just decides to stop working and in the end becomes a woman. It's one of my favorite books ever.

Honestly, I think one of the reasons Book Thief ended up being my favorite book is because I love that particular personification of Death so much.

Death in Discworld was my favorite. R.I.P. Terry, I hope you and Death are having a good time full of laughs together :)

"Come on say it come on say iiiit..." "Yep, it's time to talk about Terry Pratchett." "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS QUEEN!"

I've really come to love the Discworld's Death. I'm agnostic but I dearly hope that if there is an afterlife it's as comforting as I find Pratchett's black sand walk with such a delightfully odd fellow. We could talk cats . I'm always pro personifications who love cats!

True confession: I spent the entire video waiting for the mention of Pratchett's Death.

Persephone is hands down my favorite of the greek pantheon. A lovely flower maiden who is the personification of spring time itself and also the queen of death and whose job it is to make all curses made by any man's dieing breath come to pass. Don't let anyone put you in a box children. Shoot for the stars

one day I’ll stop tearing up every time someone mentions Terry Pratchett but today is not the day

Something that took me multiple readings of Pratchett to get was that in the Death focused books the main antagonists were beings described as "those who see to it that gravity operates and that time stays separate from space. Call them auditors. Auditors of reality.". Without ever saying it out loud, Sir Terry had multiple books that were Death Vs Taxes. Also I'm going for Immortality. 100% success rate so far.

This was freaking delightful. I really enjoy how she casually throws out phrases like "Edgar Allen Poe's Big Mood". PBS, you did real good by hiring Lindsay.

"Edgar Allen Poe, and his big mood" Did you just-? I give up. I'll never write anything as brilliant as that one line

"Lenore inspires the likes of Edgar Allen Poe and his big mood..." [3:54] I immediately paused the video to click the 'like' button.

And don't forget, guys, Maven of the Eventide aka Elisa Hansen has her new novel The Company of Death coming out soon! Check out her KZfaq channel for more info!

Its weird for me to see death being refered to as a He, because in Portuguese, Death is a female noun. In latin literature, death is almost always portraited as a woman, usually sometimes seductive, like in Marvel and DC comics.

Best depiction not listed: Der Tod (literally “The Death”) in Michael Kunze’s German-language musical Elizabeth, which follows the eponymous empress of Austria through the mid-to-late 19th century, whom she has a literal affair. He also interacts with the other characters, such as her son Rudolf.

Lindsay, it makes me unreasonably happy that you co-wrote this episode with Lisa and Nella. I know you're distancing yourself from your old NC videos, but you three always did great and solid work together. Add Angelina to that mix and you've got an amazing collaborative team!

Always felt Dicken's Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come was actually Death. Another favorite of mine is Pier's Anthony's "On a Pale Horse".

Pratchett’s iteration of Death is one of my favorites, though I do also enjoy Piers Anthony’s take on Death in his book On a Pale Horse. It’s similar to A Dirty Job where Death is an occupation that anybody can conceivably step into, but the catch is that you have to kill the previous Death. A man named Zane is done with life and resolved to kill himself, Death shows up just as he’s about to, Zane then freaks out and ends up shooting Death in the head instead of taking his own life, effectively taking up the occupation of Death in the process. The story is basically about him figuring out how to be Death while also thwarting the machinations of Satan, the incarnation of Evil (who also gets his own book much later in the 8-part series).

The Terry Pratchett thing made me tear up.

As one of the many fans who openly weeped at Terry's death, magnified by the poignancy of the Twitter announcement, I always appreciate Discworld analysis, and have always loved your spreading the world about probably the best portrayal of Death in fiction.

bless you for referencing "the book of revelation," Singular. every time someone talks about "the book of revelationS," i die a little inside.

"A Dirty Job"" sounds pretty similar to the TV Show Dead Like Me, which I hope someone will eventually reboot since apparently EVERYTHING gets rebooted nowadays.

Excellent timing on this video, as I'd just started reading Pratchett's Reaper Man. I've recently been reading through the series (roughly in publication order) and it's cool how, even though the stories are largely independent, there's still a sense of character progression even for Death.

LINDSAY ELLIS ON PBS IS THE BEST THING EVER.... now I have a reason to live.

Showing those Pratchett tweets again definitely DIDN'T make me tear up.

My favourite literary Death is definitely Sir Terry’s. But my favourite film/tv death is the Death on Supernatural. “I’m old, Dean, very old.” He loves fried foods, and he has the best character introduction of all characters ever put on film. Ever.

Not going to lie, the Terry Pratchett tweet got me crying.

ALWAYS HERE TO TALK ABOUT TERRY PRATCHETT

Der Brandner Kaspar is a story that I always felt to be one of the most Bavarian stories ever with one of the most Bavarian sounding titles and the author has just a typical Bavarian name. But I have never heard a non-german speaking person try to pronounce its title and author. You did your best and I am impressed you made it seem so effortless, but it was still very funny :-D

Lindsay is a national treasure. I'm only subbed because of this series honestly.

4:01 that story aged so well!

I love "the kindered" from "LoL" as a death concept. Death grew lonely for everyone feared them, so they split themselfs in half to never be alone again. Now they are the wolf and the lamb, opposite but the same, the brutal death you fight and the peaceful one you embrace. Everyone will meet them, but one can chose which one of them takes you.

The Book Theif was one of my favorite novels!

I remember watching Jim Henson’s “the storyteller” when death was captured. People were miserable because they could not die and eventually death had to be freed. One of the scariest things I saw as a kid.

Love Lindsay watch all her videos

That "Ahem" had me rolling! Oh Lindsay , don't ever change :D

The interpretation here of Poe's 'The Masque of the Red Death', maybe the most spectacularly terrifying thing I've yet seen on KZfaq. !

It's so funny that this comes out today; I just got Elisa Hansen's novel "The Company of Death", which has a personified Death in it!

Lindsay you're killing it.

In Spanish, I read a book called "la ciudad de los tisicos" which means "the city of the ill" and there is an interesting desceiption of the types of personified death. The andean death is a strong man with a drum. He is gentile and he takes the souls as old friends. I like that idea too.

WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?

Lindsay on PBS, this is amazing! GO LINDSAY!

Daaamn Lindsey, you really pulled off that German pronunciation for Der Brandner Kaspar's author. Nice job 👌

How many writers do you have working on a single video? The number of references per episode is really impressive

There's an amazing portrayal of Death as a wise old and rather sympathetic woman in the second book of the Saga of the Borderlands series, The Days of the Shadow, by the late Argentinian writer Liliana Bodoc (Los días de la sombra, Saga de los Confines, by their names in Spanish). I think it's a wonderful depiction of the idea of Death in the Latin American cosmovision: the entire series is a fantastic retelling of the Spanish Conquest of American lands where the Native tribes of every reach of Latin America come together to face Misáianes, the son of Death, fast approaching to the Fertile Lands from the Ancient Lands (Europe). If anyone gets a chance to read it, you really won't regret it. There's even a cool Gandalf-like character to satisfy your Tolkien cravings.

I was getting close to the end and was wondering, "are we really going to talk about Death and not Terry Pratchett???" Thank you, this was lovely.

I let out an audible yay when Terry Pratchett's Death was mentioned. I now realize I was waiting the entire video for it.

My favorite representation of death is the Lone Power from The Young Wizard series by Diane Duane. Complex and scary.

Warhammer 40.000 gave us the stunning idea that all depictions of death in various cultures and species are an imprint left by a mighty alien being known as the Nightbringer, an entity that consumes individuals and entire civilations and even suns with ease

I should not feel spoiled but the realization of "people die when they are killed" is still rather strange at times when talkng aobut literally works

Another book for anyone in a Grim Reaper-sorta mood has to be Piers Anthony's "On A Pale Horse", book one of the Incarnations of Immortality series.

This was really great Lindsay! just wonderful work

Sad that José Saramago's Death from "Death with Interruptions" didn't make the cut, she's one of the best ones! Still a lovely video though, thanks!

My absolutely favourite (short) story about death is "Death and the Ugly Woman" by Bruce D. Arthurs in the 1987 "Sword and Sorceress IV" Anthology presented by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I've read it so many times - and it always sends shivers down my spine and moves me deeply. Thank you for a very informative and well edited video!

Isn’t the point of the game of chess in the seventh seal that Antonius can’t win the game, only stall the inevitable. So I’d argue that the seventh seal might be the inspiration to, but isn’t the origin of the game-playing/gambling reaper trope since the game is lost before it’s even begun, the outcome inescapable.

Death from the Discworld novels is exactly how the reaper should be to me.

One of my favorite Books with a protagonist Death is Piers Anthony's "On A Pale Horse" Where the main character is about to commit suicide, but then Death appears (that Death got sloppy) and instead turns the gun on Death. Killing Death. And in doing so, he becomes the new Death Incarnation.

Years after my first encounters with Sir Terry Pratchett's work, I still feel comforted when I think of Death as just Bill Door.

The Twilight Zone had an episode where Death was a nice young man played by Robert Redford, helping an elderly lady cope with her upcoming death and stop being afraid.

At the perenial costume party that is "The Renaissance Faire," I'm told one of the more authentic traditions is "the dead parade" where folks wear black shrouds and march all spooky, and folks who work there are supposed to look the opposite direction. I'm told this style of parade was a service performed at the zenith of the black death outbreak. Onlookers could snub death and choose to look away, the way they could not do with the for-real death, and that was meant to comfort. It's not a literary embodiment, as such, but it is quite old. Or something someone made up for the faire itself before Snopes a was a thing. Still a terribly cool idea.

It's great you're working for PBS. You really deserve it.

I kind of live under a rock and I had no idea Lindsey Ellis was doing stuff with PBS. Pretty damn cool

I can't tell you how much I love PBS and their Science/literature shows on youtube...

I simply love Lindsey

One of my favorite current YA book series is the Arc of the Scythe, which takes place in a future where people can no longer die naturally. In order to keep the population under control there are Scythes, who were once regular people but now have the job of having to kill people in order to maintain the population. It is really interesting because it explores how our mortality shapes us and takes a critical look at technology without being like "hurr durr technology bad". It also sheds light on the problem of people just blindly accepting things at face value instead of thinking critically.

Personally, one of my favorite books on the topic of the grim reaper is "On a Pale Horse" by Piers Anthony. It's the first book in the Incarnations of Immortality series and I really enjoy how death, time, and even God works in this universe. It's a good read and I highly recommend it.

Gaiman's interpretation remains my favorite.

I always get excited when there is a HP reference

Piers Anthony also has a heroic depiction of Death in his book, On a Pale Horse.

"Because I could not stop for Death - He kindly stopped for me - The Carriage held but just Ourselves - And Immortality." - Emily Dickinson

To extend a touch on the four horseman thing - Death was arguably the most popular of the four in the writing itself, in that he was the only one explicitly named. If you go by the pure literal text of the book of revelations, the horsemen are technically less "Conquest, War, Famine, Death" and more "Unamed Rider with the power of conquest and with a crown and a bow, Unamed Rider with the power to take peace and with a big sword, Unamed Rider with the power of, er, offering wheet for wages and with a pair of scales, and DEATH! (Who basically cribs his powers off of the other three as well as animals, the cheeky bastard)".

See, now I just want to see a collab with Caitlin Doughty. Your respective presentation pacing is similar in a way that would fit together really well.

You have a miraculous talent for summating such a grand concept in 9 minutes, completely amazing Lindsay

Actually what I need to hear now, I love to hear you Lindsay ellis

My favorite depiction of death is that of the office of death in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series.

Does anyone else watch all of these twice? Once just to enjoy the video and the second time to note down books to add to your "to read" list... :)

Need more Lindsay Ellis! PBS Digital Studios take note!

Lindsay, amazing to see you put your movie analysis skills to books. Always makes me think. I'm sure it does you too.

:eyeroll:When I got youtube to finally STOP showing me suggestions to watch her channel, you hire her.

That last one made me cry

Shoulda cut a really straight fringe for this, Lindsay. Also, just seeing the death bunny made me cry.