Reading Wednesday
Oct. 23rd, 2019 02:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unicornsprinklesPoking around on the Latest Things section of Dreamwidth, I'm seeing lots of people posting about 'Reading Wednesday' and talking about the books they're reading. I thoroughly approve of this trend and am happily joining in!
I watched Good Omens - again - at the weekend and it's made me want to read the book again. Now, I know the books is somewhat different to the show, and there's a lot less of the Aziraphale and Crowley story in the book.
The show faithfully follows the zany and devilishly funny blueprint, and reams of dialogue are copied almost word-for-word - but the Gaiman is the showrunner and I've heard him talk about defending/protecting the parts written by Terry.
However, in any screen adaptation there are going to be changes, and Good Omens is no exception: there are some welcome additions, some characters left on the cutting floor, and an incident during the finale involving a bathtub of holy water...
I think my favourite addition is the prophecy that Agnes wrote for Aziraphale, correctly describing him sitting in his store filled with books “written by other men,” before warning him that... his cocoa his growing cold. As he reads the prophecy, Aziraphale looks over and, lo and behold, his cocoa is growing cold right then and there. It’s a brilliant moment, made all the more memorable given that it’s not actually in the book. In the original novel, the angel made cocoa and “read a prophecy at random.” The original passage continues: “Forty minutes later, the cocoa was still untouched.”
I don't often say I prefer the show to the book, but this is one of those situations where I do. Sorry, Neil. Sorry, Terry. That's not to say I don't love the book. I do. It's still a bloody fantastic book. The show just has that added bzing courtesy of Michael Sheen and David Tennant.
I seem to have talked far more about the show than the book as well... Oops?
I watched Good Omens - again - at the weekend and it's made me want to read the book again. Now, I know the books is somewhat different to the show, and there's a lot less of the Aziraphale and Crowley story in the book. The show faithfully follows the zany and devilishly funny blueprint, and reams of dialogue are copied almost word-for-word - but the Gaiman is the showrunner and I've heard him talk about defending/protecting the parts written by Terry.
However, in any screen adaptation there are going to be changes, and Good Omens is no exception: there are some welcome additions, some characters left on the cutting floor, and an incident during the finale involving a bathtub of holy water...
I think my favourite addition is the prophecy that Agnes wrote for Aziraphale, correctly describing him sitting in his store filled with books “written by other men,” before warning him that... his cocoa his growing cold. As he reads the prophecy, Aziraphale looks over and, lo and behold, his cocoa is growing cold right then and there. It’s a brilliant moment, made all the more memorable given that it’s not actually in the book. In the original novel, the angel made cocoa and “read a prophecy at random.” The original passage continues: “Forty minutes later, the cocoa was still untouched.”
I don't often say I prefer the show to the book, but this is one of those situations where I do. Sorry, Neil. Sorry, Terry. That's not to say I don't love the book. I do. It's still a bloody fantastic book. The show just has that added bzing courtesy of Michael Sheen and David Tennant.
I seem to have talked far more about the show than the book as well... Oops?
