this is unbearable i can’t believe we live like this
Good for Sir Milton!
Unfortunately, England had already been claimed by Indigenous Australian man Burnum Burnum on the 26th of January 1988 with The Burnum Burnum Declaration, so it was technically already found.
astrangertomykin asked:
Hi Neil, I just finished reading the book and the Milton Keynes footnote in the book killed me (its definitely terrible)! I was just wondering at where does "The South" start for Shadwell? Is he a "just a mile" from his home town kind of guy or does he say York or maybe even Leeds?
neil-gaiman answered:
According to the book, Shadwell hated all Southerners and, by inference, was standing at the North Pole.
So probably somewhere North of Kemi, in Finland.
smolskyfri-deactivated20200512 asked:
Can you confirm that the mug that Aziraphale uses when he reads Agnes Nutter's book at the end of episode 2 is on amazon? I may have found it.
neil-gaiman answered:
That’s probably the same mug, yes.
devine-emissions asked:
Are you aware of the show Supernatural? The creator has admitted that he took a lot of inspiration from Good Omens and named his own King of Hell character Crowley after your Crowley 😊 The show is of course a massive success at 15 seasons now.
neil-gaiman answered:
Yes, definitely aware of it. I’ve always had a vaguely soft spot for it, for the same reason I have a soft spot for Dogma. The creators had borrowed or were inspired by things I’d made, or that Terry and I had made, but were always very upfront about having done so. Which meant that when I met Eric Kripke, or met Kevin Smith, it was lovely.
I wonder if some of the bigger differences in the characterization of Aziraphale and Crowley from the books to the series are due to the shift from a late Cold War era to the current shitshow. So we go from jaded operatives dealing with the bankrupt ideologies and goals of their respective side to discontented employees dealing with extremely powerful employers colluding to bring about disaster.
This is an incredibly good take, especially bringing in the expanded role of Gabriel who was, initially, “that stuffy, posh Brit who can’t get out of his own way.” and then re-imagined as an American, “the guy from head office who is like, ‘Hey, what are you doing? Go to work! ‘” We’ve had so much pop culture material (Office Space was released in 1999, Glengarry Glen Ross in 92, the list could go on) to fill in the space for a character like him, and a fundamental shift of what the current idea of a ‘representative’, someone in the corporate wheelhouse looks like to take the place of what Aziraphale and Crowley need to be to accommodate. Horrible bosses and their underlings vs a more le Carre inspired scenario.
I absolutely love this and hope you don’t mind me dogpiling on for a slightly adjacent thing, because yes! The book was written as everyone’s pulling out of the Cold War because they realized mutual destruction was the only result. Everyone took a collective look around and said ‘nope, there’s no winning here, we’d just eat ourselves faster that way’, and that was it. That’s what the Johnsonite gang is, that’s why Crowley and Aziraphale are shamed a little by Adam for trying to influence human nature in the first place. They’re not needed and that’s the point.
Right now we’re in a time of open hostility and aggression. Everyone feels very divided into specific echo-chamber loyalties (sometimes for good reason, but often to fuel paranoia or discontent), and the powers that be are only stoking those fires harder because it serves them and their egos. The show’s got a much bigger emphasis on the marriage (literal and figurative) of differences and embracing friendship and basic kindness in order to bring about change.
It wouldn’t narratively work at this time in our lives to say “leave people alone to thrive without dogma.” So instead our heroes are told they’re weak or traitorous for not wanting to continue on a self-destructive road. And their world-changing act (aside from choosing to love each other to start with) is to give humanity-as-Adam a moment outside the noise to make a decision, to remind him that power is in his hands to say no to this. And to say he’s cared for no matter what he does.
Good Omens the book is very grounded in the Cold War. In the first major section (which covers the eleven years before they realize they have the wrong kid), every time that Crowley and Aziraphale meet there is a reference to some spy shenanigans occurring in the background. Specifically, the sort of spy shenanigans where nominal enemies are working together. In the park, the head of MI7 and the Russian Cultural Attache are feeding the ducks and feeding each other information while standing studiously far apart. At the British Museum, the second in command of MI9 and the local KGB officer are having a working lunch, and amusingly are arguing about who is going to deduct the bill for business expenses.
It really gives the sense that those Cold War spies are their closest earthly comparison.
Because of the passage of time, this metaphor is mostly lost, and I think the very corporate imagery of Heaven especially is a good replacement. It keeps that sense that the people in charge are completely out of touch with the realities of field work, and have goals that don’t really seem good to anyone else involved.
pommywhirl
