User:Ewaiin

"GNU" is an abbreviation commonly used by Terry Pratchett/Discworld fans in social media groups across the Internet to remember fallen friends and/or family. The origin is the 33rd Discworld novel 'Going Postal'; Usually posted in the form of "Can I ask a GNU for ..." which is understood as a request to share their loss.

“G” means that the message must be passed on, “N” means “not logged”, and “U” means the message should be turned around at the end of a line.

The book explores (among other things) the impact on community of 'the clacks' - a system of semaphores - which enables a faster-than-by-horse method of communication, most commonly used to get ahead of the market, such as finding out the price of wheat in far-off countries in order to buy fast and sell with a profit*. The operators of the clacks, however, invent GNU as a way to remember their fallen fellows. Every so often, a GNU will be received, and the name of someone who died falling off a tower will be passed on and remembered instead of being lost to history.

An earlier quote from Pratchett declares that "No one is truly dead as long as his name is spoken"


 * Earlier litterarly works on this theme include 'The Merchant Prince' by Raymond E. Feist.