Good Omens and Pratchett's themes

[knivesout]

I recently read Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

I was very, very impressed. The humour was alternately dark and whimsical and always clever and hilarious. The plot was great, too - a lot of characters and subplots seemed to be going nowhere in particular, only to tie in to the ending in a very believable way. It felt like a well-laid trap springing into palce rather than a desperate tying-in of threads.

I did notice that, apart from being an elaborate parody of The Omen, the book also had a certain message on its own - the young boy who was destined to be the Antichrist was left alone by the powers of both good and evil due to an identity mix-up - and when the time for his final confrontation came, he chose to side with humanity over either good or evil, feeling that if the instrumentalities of divinity and evil would just leave us alone for once, we could sort things out on our own.

For all its light setting, I found this to be a very compelling and powerful message. A core of serious thought to underly and give strength to the fun and games.

I was wondering how much of this was Pratchett and how much Gaiman. I've certainly seen some hilarious satire of bureaucracy in Pratchett works, but does he as a rule have a real (not necessarily the same as overbearing and sollemn) message or theme behind all his wit and whimsy?

[LadyFel]

Originally Posted by knivesout

I was wondering how much of this was Pratchett and how much Gaiman. I've certainly seen some hilarious satire of bureaucracy in Pratchett works, but does he as a rule have a real (not necessarily the same as overbearing and sollemn) message or theme behind all his wit and whimsy?

I haven't read any of Gaiman's other work, but I'm a HUGE fan of TP...I think the first couple of Discworld books he wrote were the only ones that didn't have a message of some sorts, their whole point was to take the mickey out of straight fantasy...

Most of the rest say something...not necessarily straight out, but you catch yourself reading Vimes and totally agreeing with something radical he's just said, that sort of thing...Or when Granny goes to put the world to rights...

Pratchett just seems to have the gift of making statements even when he's apparently just laughing at the world...A similar way to Tolkien and the destruction of Middle Earth being almost visibly influenced by the rise of the industrial age, black skies over England etc (Tolkien purists feel free to flame me )

[dwndrgn]

I haven't read enough of Gaiman's works to know much about him (Good Omens and American Gods being the only ones so far) but as far as Pratchett goes, Lady Fel is correct, he sort of sneaks a message in with the laughter. As a matter of fact, I would even suspect that anyone who would have disagreed with his message beforehand, but found themselves laughing at his presentation of it would actually think about that message more. Laughter really is good medecine (unless you have a broken bone somewhere, then it just hurts ).

[The Master™]

Having read Good Omens a couple of times, it is a typical Terry Pratchett story... Putting an unusual twist to an existing well known story...

I would say a lot of the the darkness and dark humour comes from Gaiman, and the underlying silliness is pure Pratchett...

[BandSmurf]

I've read American Gods, Good Omens, and Neverwhere by Gaiman. Very, very good author by the way. Anyway, I was wondering the same thing the first time I read Good Omens, which is why I went on to read other Gaiman books. I've since read GO probably close to 15 times (yes I re-read books a lot) I can pick out more and more. I wouldn't necessarily say that the darker humour comes from Gaiman solely, look at the character of DEATH and you'll see hints of him in all of the Four Horsemen as well as Crowley. And some of the lighter humour comes from Gaiman and not Pratchett. I don't think I've ever seen Pratchett so obviously reference recent artists like the references to The Best of Queen tapes, or the James Bond bullet-hole-screen-transfers. Anyway, I also agree with everyone else, that the messages in the book came from both minds. The whole good versus evil and being left alone was mentioned, but another message is the whole interaction between Crowley and Azraphile (misspelled, I know) and the idea that everyone can get along. I doubt I could identify who each message came from like I can with specific parts of the humour, but both obviously contributed.

BandSmurf

[Rane Longfox]

Gaiman is a brilliant author. I've read almost all his tuff, and enjoyed in immensely.
Good Omens is far more Gaiman than Pratchett. Crowley is almost completely his, I suspect, exactly the kind of character he revels in producing. Like the Marquis de Carabas (Neverwhere), or Mr. Wednesday (American Gods). Aziraphale seems more Pratchett to me.

But yes, the darker humour in GO is heavily influenced by Gaiman I suspect. But whats the betting hardly anyone would have heard of it if only Gaiman had written it though? It certainly wouldn't have been in the BBC Big Read top 50... Discworld has cemented Pratchett's position of one of our favorite authors. Its such a shame that better, funnier authors are overlooked. Lets hope he does some more collaborations...

[BandSmurf]

I don't know about Pratchett making GO the success that it was. Whenever I talk about books to people who aren't quite so avid readers as the people are here, Gaiman comes up far more often than Pratchett. What with his Sandman book especially I think he's reached as broad an audience as Pratchett. I would like to see both do more collaborations though!


~BandSmurf

[wonko]

After reading Good Omens as a bit TP fan the question also arose in my mind, so I've started reading Gaiman as well. Now I've come to the conclusion that Crowley is definitely more Gaiman and Pratchett plays the Aziraphaele part, although you can tell in what parts of the characters they've influenced each other. Also - I'm not sure if I'm right here - I see a little influence from Douglas Adams, as Gaiman wrote his biography... The part where Crowleys hidden holy water is described - that's just Adams for me

[alicebandassassin]

I have to say that you can alway tell pratchets involvment in a book but i think if an auther desides to do a book with someone,its going to be someone he feels story telling style will blend with or improve a book you could do alone.But its also opens up an auther you may not have noticed before. Always a bonus.