They say that the eyes of some paintings can follow you around the room, a fact that I doubt, but I am wondering whether some music can follow you for ever.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that while paintings may seem to have a life of their own, music has a more profound and lasting impact on us.
Terry Pratchett reflects on the idea that while visual art, like paintings, may create an illusion of being alive by 'following' the viewer, the emotional and psychological resonance of music can linger in our lives far beyond the moment it is experienced. This highlights the profound connection music can forge with our memories and emotions, making it an ever-present influence in our lives.
In practice
In a speech about the influence of art on culture, one could quote Pratchett to emphasize the lasting power of music.
And then Jack chopped down what was the world's last beanstalk, adding murder and ecological terrorism to the theft, enticement, and trespass charges already mentioned, and all the giant's children didn't have a daddy anymore. But he got away with it and lived happily ever after, without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done...which proves that you can be excused for just about anything if you are a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions.
They've got something they do it with, I think it's called a mocracy, and it means everyone in the whole country can say who the new Tyrant is. One man ... one vet. ... Everyone has ... the vet. Except for women, of course. And children. And criminals. And slaves. And stupid people. And people of foreign extraction. And people disapproved of for, er, various reasons. And lots of other people. But everyone apart from them. It's a very enlightened civilization.
Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it.
You can't trample infidels when you're a tortoise. I mean, all you could do is give them a meaningful look.
Any fool could be a witch with a runic knife, but it took skill to be one with an apple corer.
People look down on stuff like geography and meteorology, and not only because they're standing on one and being soaked by the other. They don't look quite like real science. But geography is only physics slowed down and with a few trees stuck on it, and meteorology is full of excitingly fashionable chaos and complexity. And summer isn't a time. It's a place as well. Summer is a moving creature and likes to go south for the winter.
Monet is only an eye, but my God, what an eye!
I lack the magnificent richness of color that animates nature.
From the reader's view, a poem is more demanding than prose.
Writing is a process, a journey into memory and the soul.
Yet, it is true, poetry is delicious; the best prose is that which is most full of poetry.
The Arts are man's most useless ... and essential ... activity.
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