Good omens

Discussion in 'MORE TERRY PRATCHETT NOVELS' started by Katcal, Dec 13, 2005.

  1. Katcal I Aten't French !

    Hey, I know you guys only moved here recently, but hell, what can possibly be the excuse for not having a Good Omens Thread in this part of the board ?? It gets mentioned in discussions about the Movie or in peoples introductions or favourite book lists, but so far, there is't a specific thread for it... And that's a pity, 'cos it's a damn good book ;)

    I have a hardback edition, and on the back is a picture of Terry and Neil standing in a deserted graveyard kind of place, Pterry in a white suit and hat (of course a hat you stupid girl, who has ever seen Pterry without a hat, eh ? :D ) and Neil in black jeans, t-shirt and leather jacket, with shades, of course... And I have never been able to imagine Crowley and Aziraphale any other way...

    This book was my introduction to Terry Pratchett, and I thank my big brother for giving it to me for christmas, I think this probably was the best present ever...
  2. koshu New Member

    Sorry Ive actually never read the book, so maybe I should go read it?
    Dont you think? :?:
  3. janible New Member

    I agree; definitely a must-read! You can see some of Neil in this one, similar to his book, Neverwhere, but I think that Terry's voice is the strongest here. Or, maybe the blend is done so well that the "flavor" of Neil didn't stick out for me!

    One of my favorite moments: when the hound of hell goes through a "change of life"! :)
  4. Rincewind Number One Doorman

    'Good Omens' is one of my favourite books. Terry and Neil Gaiman compliment each other excellently. The last paragraph of the book always brings a smile to my face.


    (Just a quick note on the lack of topic, Like you say this is a relitively new board, but an old community, on the old board from which we moved cuase it got flooded with spam, we'd pretty much said all there was to be said about the books, hence off topic being the most popular. So if there isn't a thread on a book you like all the more reason for you new guys to just jump in an start it up. We'll always be more than happy to throw in our 2 pennnys worth. :))
  5. Maljonic Administrator

    There are a few articles on this site that talk about Neil Gaiman and Terry in the Terry Pratchett/Discworld related news: http://www.terrypratchettbooks.org/topic5.html

    I think Neil mentions somewhere how people always assume that he wrote the dark bits and Terry did all the comedy when in fact that is not the case at all. :)
  6. Rincewind Number One Doorman

    I remember hearing that Terry did the 'Them' bits and Niel did the Four Horsemen.
  7. sleepy_sarge New Member

    Here's a good interview with the man himself (April 2000), in which he alludes to "who wrote what". It may already be in the news area Mal directed you to, but this will do as a shortcut.

    I found it an entertaining article, the Good Omens bit is about half way down.

    http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/apr00/pratchett.htm
  8. Sir_Gawain New Member

  9. jaccairn New Member

  10. Katcal I Aten't French !

    I must say they don't particularly scare me... I can remember misunderstanding or interpreting loads of stuff when I was that age, and I guess an adult watching a kid that age would notice a whole lot more funny things than I would from myself at that age...
  11. janible New Member

    I have a feeling they are more normal, than not. Children, as well as occasionally adults, may have learned things by rote, but have a disconnect when it comes to the actual meaning. Makes for an interesting world, doesn't it?

    Besides misunderstanding things that they have read, kids will sometimes misunderstand what they are hearing. Example: the great, old Christian hymn, "Gladly, the Cross-eyed Bear"! :lol: It's more mundanely known as "Gladly, the Cross I'ld Bear", of course!
  12. Katcal I Aten't French !

    That reminds me of my little sister, when she was about 6 singing "My God is so big so strong in his nighty" instead of "and so mighty" at pram service :D And well, he does often wear a nighty, apparently, so it was a pretty logical mistake :D :lol:
  13. Sir_Gawain New Member

    You are patronizing them. I was an 11-year-old not so long ago, and have several friends who are currently 11 years old. My nine-year-old friend could correct the Them's mistakes. Quite a few of my friends aged seven or eight years could tell you more about the things the Them discuss than the Them could. The average 11-year-old is smarter than that. Or perchance going to a private school has upped my standard for intelligence?

    Though Adam does seem to mature some through the book. And in all fairness there a quality to Adam that makes sure things never change. That changes the world around him to be like he thinks it should be. To basically turn it into the wonderful world of Dick and Jane and suchlike.
  14. Katcal I Aten't French !

    Well, if I am, then I'm also patronizing myself... Sorry if it sounded like that...

    But well, yes, maybe going to a public school does change your point of view, not that it makes people more intelligent, but it may just open a wider (or just a different) cultural horizon. I was still in England at age 11, and a lot of our teachers in secondary school just couldn't care less about actually teaching kids interesting things. Of course, there ARE dedicated teachers, with a real talent and interest in what they're teaching, but they aren't ALL that good, and if the Them had had a couple of bored and therefore boring teachers, I'm not all that surprised that they could be really wrong or just plain not know about a lot of things...

    And don't forget their parents too, I personnally learned a lot about the cultural world from my parents who are both interested in all sorts of things, but I have a lot of friends who's parents' taste for culture doesn't go much further than Coronation Street or Big Brother, and therefore, I'm not all that surprised if even at 20+ they don't know anything much about classic littterature. It doesn't make them less intelligent, and to be quite honest, they'd beat me in any quizz on modern TV culture :lol: , so hey...
  15. Electric_Man Templar

    We never learnt Shakespeare at primary/middle school - which went up to age 12 - and even at a grammar school, which which was for the top 25% or so in the area, we didn't touch it until about 14.

    As for Mercutio... he never cropped up in my lessons at school at all.

    Sir Gawain, I don't think it's patronising to think that they wouldn't know this. Probably the majority of 11 year-olds know less. You're just lucky to go to such a smarty-pants school and have such smarty-pants friends :p
  16. Maljonic Administrator

    I agree, I didn't read stuff like that when I was 11ish either. I grew up in a similar rural/semi-rural environment to those kids, and Terry I think, where you spend most of your time climbing trees, building dens, digging holes, fishing in streams and rescuing half-dead birds et cetera. Your whole life is pretty much filled with these occupations and being intellectual hardly ever gets a look in. Perhaps for short periods when relaxing in a newly constructed bunker.

    I think Terry and Neil have merely expanded on this life-style and parodied a Famous Five/Swallows and Amazons-type scenario. :)
  17. Sir_Gawain New Member

    Nah, going to a privite school doesn't make you smarter. It's just mostly people who go to privite school care about their education, an the pubic school population is made up at least somewhat by people who are attending because it's the law

    And I actually grew up in the sticks, as well. Acres of land behind my house before you ran into another, and that was a half-built, unoccupied one. There was a pond we went swimming in, and a swamp beyond that. Fun times with my sister...

    But I see that no one agrees with me on this subject. (I've posted this thread on three messae boards, and haven't been agreed with once... >>)
  18. KaptenKaries New Member

    GOOD OMENS SPOILER WARNING!

  19. Bonsai New Member

  20. Hsing Moderator

    Except that from PTerry, the possibility of a sequel sounds a lot more unlikely than from Neil Gaiman.
    The new cover is nice.
  21. Pixel New Member

    Can anyone with an early edition of Good Omens check something for me, please (I cannot find my early edition)? As I remember it, when Sable signs his name it is referred to as "seven letters, rhymes with examine" thus giving rise to the in-joke in Maskerade about having to engrave a page again because "Mr Cripslock has spelled famine with seven letters". In the new edition of Good Omens I have, it says "six letters, rhymes with examine", rather killing the joke. Am I imagining things, or has some mad editor been at work between editions?
  22. Ba Lord of the Pies

    Well, if it led to a joke in Good Omens, then Ba could see being upset about them changing it. But it's a mistake that was made fun of in another, unrelated book. Most likely, PTerry or Mr. Gaiman wanted it to be correct for future editions. Nothing wrong with that. Most people wouldn't make the connection in any case, without checking the Annotated Pratchett File.
  23. Katcal I Aten't French !

    I have a 1990 edition, and it only has 6 letters... But I guess the joke in Maskerade still works..
  24. Rincewind Number One Doorman

    The joke in Maskerade only works if you have the Good Omens Typo, but if not you don't really mis out on anything.
  25. roisindubh211 New Member

    I had another thought on the kids: they do act like I imagine eleven year olds to, but I don't know a whole lot of them. Are either Gaiman or Pratchett parents? That could explain a lot.
  26. Maljonic Administrator

  27. Katcal I Aten't French !

    And that is so unfair, because Rhianna was on our list of names for future children before I even knew that, and now I can't use it or I'll look like some crazy fanatic person... (which I am not, of course...)
  28. KaptenKaries New Member

    You pregnant, Kat?
  29. mowgli New Member

    :lol: Naming your daughter Rhianna isn't crazy/fanatical Naming her Esmerelda might be pushing it, however.
  30. Maljonic Administrator

    My brother used to have a girlfriend called Esmerelda, well it was Esme actually - sounds like Ezmay - which is short for Esmerelda.
  31. roisindubh211 New Member

    somehow I had it in my head that he had no kids. Wonder why? Rhianna's a pretty name.
  32. Katcal I Aten't French !

    Nope, you'll be able to tell if/when I finally am, my avatar will be jumping up and down for joy ! We have been working on it for quite some time, unfortunately it's rather difficult and complicated, so we have had plenty of time to think about names and things.
    Esme isn't that odd a name, especially in this contry since the "musical" the Hunchback of Notre-Dame had a big success a few years ago. Gytha. That would be pushing it :D
  33. Pixel New Member

    Surely it's "Magrat" that would really be pushing it!

    (Or possibly "Note Spelling")
  34. Sir_Gawain New Member

    Or Agnes. Or Perdita.
  35. Hsing Moderator

    I always took them as your stereotypical rascals. I mean, isn't the hellhound even turning into a small terrier with one black circle around the eye, like the one in that ancient tv series you see parodised (sp?) everywhere? They're not meant to portrait actually 11-year-old personalities, but an idyllic perception known from TV, I guess. That's why Adam seems to mature in the book: He gets a few dimensions added.
  36. Katcal I Aten't French !

    Well, yes, of course they're stereotypes, as are all the characters in the book, they're real people but pushed a bit further in the direction of a caricature, in the same way that Aziraphale is pushed towards the effeminate bookshop owner, and Newt is the lame would-be geek, etc. But still, you have to actually observe people before doing a caricature, that's what makes a good one...
  37. gabba New Member

    Not Omens related but

    Back to topic, this is really a fantastic book that i remember being in tears laughing at.. however ive not read it for a while because i miss being a kid in Wales at the moemnt, i live in a city in another country and the gang of kids "Them" remined me so much of being a kid in Wales, im homesick enough
  38. scif1girl New Member

    I think it depends what public school you're talking about, and the parents that send the kids there. I won't mention any names, but my friend went to a cheap private school because it was in a safer area than where she lived, and the students there weren't very focused on schoolwork.

    Not unless you count a discussion about what color hair dye to use or what tanning salon to go to an intellectual or scholastic conversation, that is.


    The Them reminded me of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in terms of their lifestyle, but they weren't nearly as in tune with nature. If the Them had been more into literature they might have recognized the peril involved in recreating the world by developing their intellect, or just by avoiding the mistakes of antagonists.
  39. Pixel New Member

    The Them have always put me in mind of Richmal Crompton's "Just William, combined with Enid Blyton's "Famous Five" with a touch of Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons" (although without the boats in the last case!) - but avoiding the updating effects of Robert Heinlein's "Space Cadet" and "Tunnel in the Sky" - among others.
  40. Katcal I Aten't French !

    Yarrr !! The swallows and Amazons were Ruthless !!! :D (The one called Ruth was renamed Nancy so they could be TRULY Ruthless :D - if I remember the names right... )
  41. Alfonz New Member

    I think it was one of the first Pratchett books I read from the library. It was a famntastic book. my favorite part was when death was playing the question game in the bar.
  42. Miellyn New Member

    My ex veto-ed Esme for a girls name. I had a boy anyway, and calling him havelock would be going too far.
    A bit like pippin galadriel moonchild, if you get my drift.

    Miellyn
  43. TamyraMcG Active Member

    Neil Gaiman has three children, Michael, Holly, and Maddy. I think the oldest are teenagers now and Maddy is nearly so, if she isn't already. Michael might even be in his twenties?

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