One might wonder why God has seen fit that his most devout followers are often not blessed with an abundance of brains. The Guardian:
More than 20,000 Christians have signed a petition calling for the cancellation of Good Omens, the television series adapted from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s 1990 fantasy novel – unfortunately addressing their petition to Netflix when the series is made by Amazon Prime.
…
[T]hey say that Good Omens is “another step to make satanism appear normal, light and acceptable”, and “mocks God’s wisdom”. God, they complain, is “voiced by a woman” – Frances McDormand – the antichrist is a “normal kid” and, most importantly, “this type of video makes light of Truth, Error, Good and Evil, and destroys the barriers of horror that society still has for the devil”. They are calling on Netflix to cancel the show.
I’m not sure that Good Omens makes satanism appear “normal, light and acceptable,” but as embodied by David Tennant’s Crowley, satanism sure does come across as fucking sexy. But sexy is bad, right?
I take their point, however, that Good Omens does mock the very nature of religion by saying outright that notions of good and evil do not come from any sort of deity but from within us all. That is indeed a very humanist concept. And Good Omens is deeply humanist in that it insists that morality and ethics have fuck all to do with God.
Anyway:
The publisher and science fiction critic Cheryl Morgan tweeted: “Miraculously God has already done it. Don’t tell them She put it on Amazon instead.”
LOL.
What does it matter? Everyone knows that all the media companies are really controlled by the International Bankers anyway.
Continuing the long tradition of calls to ban something acting as great publicity, now I have to have a look at this series.
It’s good; have loved the book for decades, the show is just as good.
It’s better than the book.
It’s much, much better than the book. Or is that sacrilege?
*chuckle* For some reason, I initially assumed this thread was about the show being better than the Bible. I was thinking, “Woah, that’s bold praise!” The real question is, is the book better than The Book?
No, it’s not better than The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Oh, it’s definitely better than *that* book!
Ha. Gaiman is like Dan Brown and John Grisham: a great storytelling but not such a great prose stylist. Their stories are perfect for adapting to the screen.
I actually think Gaiman is a terrific prose stylist (with the exception of Neverwhere, which was written on an unusually short deadline), but he’s not like Lorrie Moore or Kelly Link, whose books I can read just to enjoy the individual sentences. His prose isn’t showy, but the words are always the right ones. He just tries to keep the narration spare enough that it doesn’t distract from the story. For some people, that might be a distinction without a difference, but for me it’s hugely important.
It’s funny that you say that because, compared to, say, Stephen King, I find Neil Gaiman quite eloquent — even — no, especially — in the work he did on the DC/Vertigo title Sandman.
Then again author Peter Straub has a reputation for being a great prose stylist — and yet, apart from his first novel Ghost Story and his collaborative effort with Stephen King — I find his work to be mostly disappointing.
Oh, well. I didn’t read Anna Karenina for the prose and I was already familiar with the main storyline and yet I still enjoyed it.
And my idea of great prose style is likely to be different than yours, anyway.
I disagree about Gaiman, but even if I conceded the point, Terry Pratchett was a master stylist. I like the book better, and I don’t just say that because I’m an English teacher (hey, I liked the LOTR movies better than the books). I found some of the added elements, particularly Crowley and Aziraphale’s love story, charming, but there were so many places where they cut off a bit of dialogue or narration RIGHT before the funniest line. I do appreciate that they worked in the “sauntered vaguely downward” line, though. I wasn’t expecting them to, and I love that line.
I just finished watching the series. Funny! Seriously, those people need to get a life.
These people think they’re getting an afterlife…
HA! O snap! :D
Oh, no! Next thing you know, we’ll have a TV show in which Lucifer himself is the hero…
Now that one they can send a petition to Netflix for. Looking forward to season 5, season 4 was too short.
You mean The Good Place? :-)
https://www.tor.com/2019/01/30/the-good-place-theories-will-they-wont-they-romance-trope/
(Scroll to the end.)
Obviously not. :-)
But that’s a good guess.
For what it’s worth, I meant Lucifer.
And Lucifer was also created by Neil Gaiman, at least according to DC/Vertigo.
Speaking of DC/Vertigo:
https://www.polygon.com/2019/6/21/18700918/dc-comics-vertigo-shutting-down-black-label
It was a spinoff of the DC/Vertigo title Sandman, which was where Gaiman first introduced his idea of the Lucifer character.
The “fundies” would probably insist that Neil Gaiman didn’t create Lucifer, but they might say that Lucifer created Neil Gaiman.
I know, Tonio. I’m not THAT bad at catching references. :-)
Speaking as a Christian, I’m so sad that so many people are missing out on the brilliance of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Seriously, even if you don’t agree with everything they have to say on the topic, they are incredibly thoughtful and put forth thought-provoking material. And they’re friggin’ hilarious.
Sadly, I still haven’t had a chance to check out the show yet (though I’ve read the book several times), but I’m so pumped to see it.
Knowing that this show was a fulfillment of Terry Pratchett’s dying wish to Neil Gaiman just solidifies that. Excuse me while I go weep.
Posted without comment:
https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/186076176556/on-the-list-of-things-absolutely-nobody-has-ever
Awesome!