Another protagonist is Azraphael, a rare bookseller and amateur magician. He is an angel who works for God.
There is also a protagonist named Adam, an ordinary child. Of course, there are few ordinary people in this book, especially this one. His true identity is: the enemy of God, the destroyer of kings, the angel of bottomless abyss, the beast named dragon, the prince of this world, the father of lies, the descendant of Satan and the prince of darkness. In short, Satan's own son.
This book tells the story of the end of the world, that is, the Armageddon between good and evil. The problem is that Azraphael and Cruli (angel and devil) are old friends for thousands of years. They often drink and chat, and they form an alliance and perfunctory tasks assigned by their respective bosses. Also, Adam, the son of Satan, thinks that the earth is fine, and it is a pity to destroy it. ...
The characters in the play
This documentary, which records some events in the last eleven years of human history, is completely consistent with the forthcoming "Agnes Pose's Excellent and Accurate Prediction" edited and revised by neil gaiman and terry pratchett, and is accompanied by educational footnotes and wisdom proverbs.
Supernatural God (God) Mirenda (Voice of God) ① Azraphael (angel, part-time rare bookseller) Satan (degenerate angel, enemy of God) ② Beelzebub (degenerate angel, prince of hell) ② hasta (degenerate angel, duke of hell) ③ Ligule (degenerate angel, duke of hell) Cruli (not degenerate, but more like an angel walking down slowly).
Death of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Death) War (War) Famine (Famine) Pollution (Pollution)
Humans cannot commit adultery. Pasifa (witch hunter) Agnes Fengzi (prophetess) Newton Pasifa (paid part-time witch hunter second class) Anna Sima (practical mystic and professional successor) Shadwell (witch hunter sergeant) Mrs. Tracy (slutty woman [every morning only, Thursday can be arranged for a whole day] and psychic) Sister Mary Rap (the devil worship nun of St. Beril's nagging order) Mr. Yang (a father) Mr. Taylor (chairman of the residents' Committee), a messenger Adam (antichrist) (a girl) Wensley Dai (a boy).
Note: ① Mirenda is said to be the agent and clerk of God, symbolizing wisdom and erudition. Beelzebub: The ghost king recorded in the Bible, whose name means the king of flies. (3) hasta is an evil image in the Cthulhu myth written by American novelist howard phillips lovecraft. Hasta's alias is also called "Unspeakable Man" or "Lord of Deep Space Stars". God smiles when human beings think.
-A brief comment on "Good omen" (Jewish proverb)
This proverb inspired me. I often imagine that one day rabelais suddenly heard the laughter of God and the first great novel in Europe was born. The art of fiction is the echo of God's laughter.
Why does God laugh when people think? Because the more people think, the farther the truth is from him. The more people think, the farther the ideological distance between people is. Because people will never be what they think. When people crossed the threshold of modern society from the Middle Ages, he finally saw his true colors: Don Quixote thought and thought, and so did his servant Sancho. Not only did they fail to see through the world, but they could not even see clearly themselves. The earliest novelists in Europe saw the new situation of mankind and established a new art, that is, the art of fiction. (Milan Kundera) I admit that this is a bad habit. When reading Good omen, I still have many commonly used reference books at hand: Bible in Chinese and English, Christian Creeds of Past Dynasties, History of Christian Thought by Peng Peter, Dialogue between Natural Religions by Hume, Theory of Human Nature by Feuerbach, Essence of Christianity and Religious Experience by James. In the middle of reading, I simply threw away all the information and concentrated on reading the story while laughing. This is a very simple story: Adam ate the fruit of wisdom by mistake and was expelled from the Garden of Eden. Then, with the birth of the antichrist, the 666-year-old beast (Adam's house number ...) destroyed the world in Revelation, and the predicted Millennium Judgment Day came. The lamb opened the first of the seven seals, and one of the four living creatures said, Come! "A winner with a bow and a crown appeared on the white horse; The lamb opened the second seal, followed by a "come!" " "A red knight appeared, and was given the authority and a big knife, indicating that he could seize peace from the ground and make people kill each other; At this moment, the third seal was opened, and a man appeared in front of John, with a balance in his hand and riding a dark horse. He also heard a voice from among the four living creatures saying, a liter of wheat and three liters of barley. Oil and wine should not be wasted. The fourth seal was opened, and the fourth creature said, "Come!" A knight on a gray horse appeared. The rider's name is "death", and he is with the underworld. They have the right to destroy a quarter of the people on the earth with swords, famines, plagues and wild animals. "(Apocalypse) is probably like this. The four horsemen of the apocalypse gathered together, and the world was in chaos. It seems that heaven and the underworld will start a super gorgeous war that has been prepared for a long time according to fate ... and then ... and then the antichrist Adam (name, hey) said, "You adults are so bored, I don't want to play, so go home. "So the war is over and everyone is happy.
(Some comments by Douban users)
Collage, Irony and Parody
Guo weiwen
/kloc-Milton, a great English poet in the 0 th and 7 th centuries, made people appreciate the charm of Satan in his large-scale narrative poem Paradise Lost. Although Satan in the poem represents greed and evil, his indomitable and powerful spirit of challenging authority and betraying God makes him the most plump and moving artistic image in his works. Adam, another rebellious hero in the poem, bravely tasted the forbidden fruit, and his inner world became increasingly rich, gradually filled with reason, emotion, fantasy and "free will". In Milton's works, the crime of "stealing forbidden fruit" has become a turning point for human beings to get rid of ignorance and move towards civilization. The moral of this story is: without resistance to authority, there will be no human progress.
The fantasy novel Good omen, written by neil gaiman and the popular British writer terry pratchett, has the same theme-paradise lost, the same theme-only by relying on "free will" and "love" can human beings get rid of the doomsday crisis and move towards happiness. Surprisingly, the tragic mood in Milton's Lost Garden is transformed into a light comedy style in Good omen. Readers all know that excellent comedies can help us discover the stupidity, absurdity and irrationality of human beings, thus enhancing our ability to recognize ugliness, reflecting on our historical responsibility and bravely bidding farewell to our ugly history. However, it is indeed a thankless thing to express traditional tragedies in the form of comedy without damaging the seriousness of the theme. Especially when two people write together, it is easy to make a vulgar farce if they are not careful.
To tell the truth, in my limited personal reading experience, I have never seen fantasy novel written by two famous authors like Good omen. Generally speaking, novel creation attaches great importance to the individuality of narrative perspective, which is like a camera lens, leading readers to appreciate the scenery. For the narrator who controls the camera, every little gesture of pushing, pulling and shaking will directly affect the readers. From the perspective of literary theory, the writer's creative personality is often reflected by the characteristics of narrative action. Because of this, maintaining the consistency of narrative action (or narrative voice) has almost become the hidden rule of narrative literature creation. Even in China's traditional narrative art "Crosstalk", it seems that there are two narrators and two voices on the surface, but there is a clear division of labor between "teasing" and "holding", which actually control the narrative action, and there are not many opportunities to express personality. But this time "Good omen" gives us a chance to see two "funny" performers on the same stage.
The two stars who happened to appear on the stage were both flamboyant and sharp-edged: terry pratchett, who is famous all over the world for the series Mission Impossible, left a deep impression on fantasy literature lovers with his witty remarks. In recent years, neil gaiman has been shining brilliantly, releasing many works such as American Gods and Utopia. Writing is light, story machine changed one after another. Even Stephen King, who has always been arrogant, sincerely praised him as a "treasure house full of stories". A search with "Google" and "Baidu" shows that the number of fans of the two stars in China is amazing.
On the title page (preface) of the novel, the two stars solemnly stated that the book was edited and revised by neil gaiman and terry pratchett, with educational footnotes and wisdom proverbs. This boastful annotation emphasizes to readers that "footnotes and wisdom proverbs" are the greatest attraction of the book, and the story itself is not important. The real highlight is that we two "editors" turn decay into magical narrative action. Let's use the joke title as a reference coordinate when reading. In addition, it is worth noting that, corresponding to the narrative actions of the two writers, the main characters in Good omen are all opposed to each other except Adam. Angels Azraphael and Cruli, enemy angels, descendants of witch hunters Newton Parsifa, descendants of prophets Anna Simayich, Shadwell and Ms Tracy, and of course, God and Satan hidden behind the scenes.
I really want to know the specific division of labor between the two writers in writing, but unfortunately I can't find relevant information. In the process of reading, I can't help speculating that maybe two writers decided what they wrote by drawing lots. For example, one painted Cruli and the other wrote Azraphael; Or one can write Newton first, and one can only write Anna Sima. The part about "Adam" and other fragmentary fragments are probably written by neil gaiman, because his name ranks first, and when describing children's play and jokes, I feel that the narrative style is vaguely similar to Caroline published in the past translation.
The two writers chose the most effective montage structure in their joint writing: collage and mosaic. The two authors make parts according to the preset scheme, and then polish the finished parts into a whole, similar to the film production process. In fact, the writing grammar adopted by the two authors is also scripted: progressive tense is used to describe pictures similar to movies. This collage structure has three main characteristics. First, it is convenient to increase narrative points and lines, broaden narrative horizons (such as the chapter where Atlantis emerges from the sea in the novel), and make the plot show a multi-dimensional evolution trend; Second, adjust the narrative rhythm to make the narrative action appear relaxed; The third is to leave a reading blank for readers and make the narrative itself more flexible. Nabokov, a famous American writer, likes the fun of collage very much. Taking Picasso-style painting as an example, he pointed out a trick to appreciate the post-modern collage art: "When the small pieces recombine in your mind to show a whole, its beauty can be truly tasted by you."