Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods"

by Seeker4 17 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Stephanus

  SS, Pratchett spends a large part of the book building up the image of "Om" and the Mosaic religion he supposedly inspired. The plot of the book is that when Om tries to manifest for a "smiting", he can only manage tortoise form and finds there is only one true believer left, a brother named Brutha. Without Brutha he'd be back to elemental form, so to speak. The start is quite funny, where the god talks to Brutha in tortoise form, Brutha assumes it is a demon and goes running to a senior monk, a dirty old man who's experience with demonic seduction is somewhat more seductive than a tortoise, for advice on how to handle it...

  The man at the top of the Omnian religion is a senior Bethelite JC kind of guy, who like Rutherford turns the rules of the org around to help himself to the position of head honcho.

  "You've got the brain of a four-year-old boy, and I'll bet he was glad to get rid of it."
  - Groucho Marx
• 

  Abaddon

  The latest book by Prachett is 'The Truth'.

  This nearly made me choke on my breakfast when I heard the title, but it's about journalism... 'Small Gods' is a fun enough view of religion, the idea of Pratchett on cults is delicious.

  However, the guy is amasing; 25 books, and the last few have been as strong as the first few - there were a few that were less funny, but the consistant level of quality is so high.

  Does anyone like Bill Bryson? Harry Harrison? Julian May? Larry Niven? George McDonald-Frasier?

  People living in glass paradigms shouldn't throw stones...
• 

  Tina

  Hi Ab,
  I loved In a Sunburnt Country! lolol......that had me laughing aloud. I have another of his on order.
  His trip to OZ,lol now Im gonna hunt it up and re-read it,lol.hugs,T

  Vive Bene
  Spesso L'amore
  Di Risata Molto!!!
• 

  Seeker4

  Tina - Great to hear from you. And thanks for the hugs. Right back at ya!

  Stephanus - Nice summation. The part I loved was that Brutha - this poor, stupid monk and sole true believer - also happens to have a photographic memory. In order to save the pagan library, which is about to be burned, he memorizes all the important books. Despite being illiterate, the "ideas" from the books actually "leak" into his own consciousness, and his transformation is wonderful to behold. Vorbis did remind me of some elders or COs I've met!

  The idea that a religion, once it becomes established, takes precedence over the god it worships became very clear to me as I started to question the Witnesses about ten years ago. There was this THING nagging at me, this feeling that something fundamental was wrong. Suddenly one day it just hit me that protecting and preserving the Watchtower Society was really the most important thing that Jehovah's Witnesses were doing. Nearly every brother I talked with felt that changes should be made, that there were serious things wrong - but most felt that we should just put up with these things and "wait on Jehovah" so that nothing damaged the WTS.

  That's part of what makes Small Gods so good. Here the god Om is in the midst of his worshippers, and can only find one real believer. The rest worship the religion.

  Abaddon - I've read some Bryson. He lives about 40 minutes from me.

  S4
• 

  GinnyTosken

  Thanks for the recommendation, Seeker4!

  I see that Scott Adams of Dilbert fame has a nonDilbert book out now called God's Debris. The sample chapter offered online sounds interesting, as does the table of contents:

  http://icommerce.digitalowl.com/preview/0_1986/default.html

  Has anyone read it?

  Ginny
• 

  RunningMan

  It sounds great.

  On a similar note, I highly recommend the books of James Morrow. He
  writes fiction that often has a religious base. For example:

  Towing Jehovah - God dies and falls into the ocean, where a sea captain
  is hired to haul him to his grave.

  Blameless in Abbadon - Sequel to Towing Jehovah. It turns out God is not
  dead after all, merely comatose. He is towed to Europe where he stands
  trial for crimes against humanity.

  The Eternal Footman - Third book in the series, which I haven't read yet.

  Bible Stories for Adults - Kind of like "My Book of Bible Stories", but with
  the contents that you knew should have always been there, such as the
  story of the lascivious sinner fished out of the water by Noah.

  Great reading.
• 

  Pubsinger

  I read "Small Gods" about 4 years ago while still a JW.

  Such a funny book, as are most of Pratchetts.

  I'm actually reading "Jingo" by him. I'm just about 70 pages in. Its a Carrott and Angua "Police Force" one.

  Abbaddon. I did the same thing when I saw "The Truth" on the supermarket shelf.
• 

  Stephanus

  That's part of what makes Small Gods so good. Here the god Om is in the midst of his worshippers, and can only find one real believer. The rest worship the religion.

  And predictably, the one true believer ends up on death row for being a heretic!

  "You've got the brain of a four-year-old boy, and I'll bet he was glad to get rid of it."
  - Groucho Marx