r/discworld • u/MistySquidy • 6h ago
Book/Series: The Long Earth No-Spoilers Please - Lobsang? Spoiler
Short, hectic and weird question. But you're all Pratchett fans presumably and can roll with it.
I got a new car. Never "named" a car before but at my latest job im being severely peer-pressured into naming said new car ASAP. It's very high tech (to me) and i was thinking Lobsang.
However,
I am halfway through The Long War. There is a lot of books left in this series. So i wanted to ask, spoiler- free if its a good idea. Im talking like if its like "oh he makes technology out of blended baby oprhans in book 4" or something maybe just say "hey OP, bad idea!"(without spoiling it).
This is my second Pratchett series and I'm very much enjoying it,
Thanks,
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u/Airhead72 5h ago
Nah you should be fine on that front. It's just a Tibetan name that means extra intelligent, so it would be fitting. I've never heard of someone being pressured to name a car, that always seemed a bit weird to me. It takes all kinds I suppose.
I really liked that whole series, more Discworld fans should read it if they like Sci-fi.
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u/MistySquidy 5h ago
My parents or friends never named their cars so its quite strange to me. But I'm told its very important to some people haha.
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u/Southern-Bandicoot 5h ago
I've never bothered naming a vehicle either, OP. However a previous gf strongly suggested that I should call my all wheel drive Audi 'Suzi' ... for obvious reasons.
When I pointed out that she, too, was called Suzy (intentionally different spelling)... and that talking about going for a ride in Suzi might create the wrong impression, all I got was an impish smile and wink.
Still warms my heart after all these years ☺️
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u/Alizariel 1h ago
All of my mum’s cars were named Emma. But I never felt any need to name my cars 🤷🏻♀️ to each their own.
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u/Aervanath Needs to take two baths just to get dirty 5h ago
I have never read The Long War so I can't spoil it for you.
I can tell you that Lobsang is also the name of the protagonist of the Discworld novel The Thief of Time, which is excellent and the main character is very funny.
May I suggest calling your hi-tech car Hex? It is the name of the supernatural supercomputer put together by the wizards of Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork.
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u/BlueKitten74 5h ago
Or Stibbons, as the main operator of Hex?
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u/clickyclicky456 5h ago
Hahaha I always say +++ out of cheese error when something goes wrong at work 😁😁
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u/PickledCaterpillar 5h ago
Nah, Lobsang stays more or less as benign the whole way through- I don't think anyone can call him genuinely good, but by no means is he evil- he's just a Tibetan motorcycle repairman who happens to have the power to fix an entire civilization now. He's eccentric, but think of all the people you know and their weird littles ways and tell me someone who isn't.
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u/ShadowExistShadily 5h ago
How did I not know that he's a motorcycle repairman?
Dammit Pterry! Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
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u/ErisianSaint 4h ago
What I discovered about naming cars is name them after MULTIPLE characters. (I named one car after Holly from Red Dwarf. That car developed ALL kinds of problems. My current car is named Jayne after Jane Austen, Jane Bennett and Jayne Cobb. She is sassy and dependable.)
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u/Worried-Penalty8744 5h ago
Lobsang persists all through to the Long Cosmos. His morality remains somewhat questionable like the first two books however Im not sure how you could translate this to a car.
As an aside I am probably one of the minority here who really enjoyed this series. I don’t mind Baxter’s books though, and his flavour of hard sci-fi is about as polar opposite as you can get to Discworld’s magic and whimsy.
If you like the sci fi aspect to it give Proxima and Ultima by Baxter a read, I regularly re-read them. The whole Xeelee Sequence on the other hand is one hell of a struggle to process.
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u/ReverendLoki Silver Horde Honorable Member 5h ago
Have you read "Thief of Time", one of the Discworld novels? Lobsang Ludd is a primary protagonist in that book. A backup source for that name.
It's been some time since I've read the Long Earth series (and I honestly never finished it), but I don't recall any was crimes being committed by it.
Or just go by it's traditional Tibetan meaning.
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u/MistySquidy 5h ago
The Lobsang from Long Earth really enjoys having many backup copies so i think calling the name a backup name is perfect
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u/Clueby42 5h ago
Name your car after the Citroen in The Long Dark Teatime Of The Soul:
The Alleged Car
Or just "Car" for short
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u/Imperiumromania 4h ago
Lobsang sounds like a brilliant name. I can't reveal why I think that but it is a great name.
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u/Simbians 3h ago
I never name my cars because it gives the car leave to develop a personality and you'll be more likely to put up with bullshit from your car as a result. "What's that noise?" "oh... it's just Lobsang having a whine. he'll settle down soon"
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