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 ? ) 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...

Sorry Ive actually never read the book, so maybe I should go read it?
Dont you think? :?:

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"!

'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. )

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.

I remember hearing that Terry did the 'Them' bits and Niel did the Four Horsemen.

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

[quote]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 ? ) 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... quote]

But Aziraphale wears a camel coat... and does Crowley not wear a black buisness suit? I uess it really doesn't matter for a mantal picture.
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There's something I mentioned on the other thread that never seemed to catch the discusion. That is - Do the kids in Good Omens scare anyone else? They think that Romeo and Juliet is a history book, and Mercutio's famous line 'A plague on both your houses' was 'A Plaque on both your houses'. And that's the 'smart one' of the group. These kids are 11. We're talking 6th graders here. I have a friend who play Viola from 'Twelth Night' or 'As You Will' when she was 11. At my school we read a different Shakespeare play, in full, every year 6th grade and up. And we preform scenes from his plays for years before that. The 4th graders did a scene from 'Midsummer Night's Dream' last year. The level of ignorance the Them show is scary to me.

Have a look at these. New Year's resolutions for Aziraphale and Crowley.

http://newyears.discworldmonthly.org/

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...

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"! It's more mundanely known as "Gladly, the Cross I'ld Bear", of course!

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 And well, he does often wear a nighty, apparently, so it was a pretty logical mistake

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.

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 , so hey...

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