GOOD OMENS QUESTION, please to be responding

[nny]

It's weird because despite my ridiculously untidy bedroom and my disorganisation gene and the fact that I'm quite ridiculously slack, I'm actually a bit of a pedant. I really love combing through canon and checking up on things, getting references, that kind of thing. Never anything related to my course, because I don't like my course (oh I should have done English lit) but things I'm fond of? Yes. Definitely.

So what I was thinking was that I'd make a journal purely for Good Omens resources. So, say, a post on Crowley's physical appearance with quotes from the book. Every quote concerning his appearance in one place, which could then be memoried. Lots of bits and pieces of canon - appearance, residence, family facts of the Them, all that sort of thing. I think it could be potentially useful, for me, and for anyone else who could choose to use it.

A couple of things that worry me. I vaguely wonder if it would be used as an excuse not to read the book, which is NOT something I want to encourage. Not even slightly. It's an amazing book, the book is why the fanfiction exists, and I wouldn't want that coming about as a result of this.

Secondly, I worry that it would appear prescriptivist and entirely too egotistical, which I never want to appear. I would like people to get it right because I love this fandom and I love the characters and sometimes I have to wince slightly at some assumptions or mistakes, but I'm completely not above making them or even encouraging them. I'm rather fond of Crowley's black wings in milliways_bar, for instance, which are probably not what was intended in canon. But colour's not explicitly stated. So it CAN be argued. So I guess even if this was all done there's still room for interpretation, and I'm not creating or enforcing anything, just making things slightly easier.

Hmm.


I could use some opinions. Is this a good project to do (not until the summer, though, NO WAY)? Would anyone reading this find it useful? Should I really not bother?

If you're in GO fandom please, please respond to this.

Comments

[fahye.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hear you on the canon-combing <3 I do the Milliways version all the time, rereading old threads and using quotes. Hurrah for pedants!

Personally I'd find it a godsend, because you know that I love to drabble spontaneously on your journal and Sophie's, and canon snippets would be wonderful when all I want to do is produce a brief moment of wit without rereading the entire book.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

The genius was because of the old milliways fic in which OMG Lucifer stroked Aziraphael's wings and OMG HOTTEST THING EVER.

[runcible.livejournal.com]

That would be immensely helpful.

[fahye.livejournal.com]

*grins* The original Millific! I remember that!

[ashen_key]

I typed up all the times Delia appears in her canon, and most of her mentions, as well.

*beat*

Go forth, I say! I do it all the time as well. Even if I don't type up the entire passage, I summerize the main points with a chapter and page reference.

[sophistry]

Um... OMG YES YES YES?

[villainny.livejournal.com]

*sighs*

*goes looking for GO*

[sophistry]

Pssst.

I may have an .rtf file of the entire text that I could send to you, if you wanted to use the 'find this word' function...

[villainny.livejournal.com]

*grins* I was just gonna read it again. I haven't read it in ENTIRELY too long.

[sophistry]

Oh, same here. I just thought it might be useful, if say, you were looking for every reference to Mr. R. P. Tyler or somesuch. Pausing to take notes on every single thing that might need to be put into the factfile would kind of interrupt the flow of one's reading.

[fahye.livejournal.com]

Hey, could you send that to me?

I shall give you Brown Derby Jump, if you don't have it already.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Point, can you send it me anyway? :)

[sophistry]

Ta-da!

[sophistry]

*points down to YSI link*

[fahye.livejournal.com]

Say thankya!

And for you - best CPD song in the world. (http://s34.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1DDUPLSBUB5U92OS82GNBFGQ61)

[nepheliad.livejournal.com]

Yes. I am much liking this idea. :D

[sophistry]

Here's hoping it will soothe my sudden and overpowering RAGE. You'll never guess what (neither will you care, but omg, have to vent). The government just gave the go-ahead for a shiny new four-lane commuter motorway to bulldoze through one side of Tara Hill.

FURY.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

there's a hill in Winchester with a road through it. It's the ugliest thing ever. I'm sorry. :(

[sophistry]

TARA FUCKING HILL. It... it's the fucking SACRED CAPITAL. CEREMONIAL CENTER OF OUR LAND FOR FOUR MILLENNIA. One news article said it best - they won't be destroying the Hill itself, but it's like saying you'll preserve St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, and then building a motorway through the square.

[fahye.livejournal.com]

I dunno about rage-soothing but, um, it's fun to tapdance to?

That sounds hideous :( Our government keep threatening things like that, but Canberra has an insane amount of bushland to spare.

[tammaiya.livejournal.com]

I am liking this idea too, yes'm!

Although... isn't there one bit which says angels and demons both have white wings? Or am I thinking of a completely different fandom? *confused* *all her fandoms: melt into one*

[villainny.livejournal.com]

It says there's no real difference between the two, 'though demons wings tend to be better groomed. If you squint at it, that can be interpreted as them both being feathered rather than the bat-style wings Lucifer has in Sandman.

*halo*

[chains-of-irony.livejournal.com]

That would be useful! Especially for spontaneous writing (though, of course, one should carry one's copy at all times.)

If you're worried about it taking up too much of your study time it doesn't have to be a one-person project; you could asign certain aspects of the book to different people.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

*grins* Oh, this is going to be a summer project. When I won't, in fact, HAVE study time any more, because I'll be done with uni. Essentially I'm trying to fill up the summer to prove to myself that there will be life after uni, and this'll be a good way to do that. ;)

[saturnalia.livejournal.com]

It would be especially useful for occasions when, for example, you've lent your well-read and much battered copy to a friend. I've been pining over my lack of it for a month now. (The things we do to get new people into fandom... *sigh*)

[corporal-katz.livejournal.com]

Very nice idea! Have you visited Temptation (http://www.boukenshin.net/crowley/index.html)? It's a shrine to Crowley, with lots of canon-Crowley facts. It may be of some help? :)

[tammaiya.livejournal.com]

Hee! You are master of sneaky canon interpretation AND knowledge. I bow down! *is impressed*

[ajodasso.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone who tends to keep the book on her desk at all times for checking in case something comes up, I'm more likely to just reach for the book than to get online than go looking for a reference primarily because, at this point, I know where nearly everything is (though there was some readjusting to be done when I left my U.S. edition with jennaria in favor of getting a British one). I think that, however, for people who are more prone to using online resources or who would find having everything in one place more convenient, it sounds like a good idea.

Too early for analysis or coherent thought, really

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

But I think it's a good idea.

[chains-of-irony.livejournal.com]

My friend Katie lost the front pages to mine on some Greek island! No Eden scene for me. *growls* But I did convert her, so it was worth it.

[cluegirl.livejournal.com]

Just like the Harry Potter Lexicon is no substitution for reading the books, a Good Omens Lexicon would be an incredibly valuable resource, and no substitution for reading the book.

Nobody who just hears about that book ever thinks it's a good idea, unless they're already a Pratchett fan or a Gaiman fan. They have to have the book PUT into their hands by a friend, who stands there and watches them read the first page or so before they're hooked in. Conclusion? People who don't read the book will not write the fandom.

And I think you should do the Lexicon.

[minkhollow]

Sounds good to me. Maybe if you're still not sure ask on lower_tadfield?

[fire-and-a-rose.livejournal.com]

I think it's a wonderful idea.

(Course, please note, I'm in a fandom that has over 30 RL years of canon, at this point. So in general, ANY resources in ANY fandom like this make me happy.)

(...Hell, I'm in Batman comics fandom. That's, like, 60 years? Something like that. No wonder it makes my head hurt. Damned comics.)

So. I slightly tilted PoV and all, but I still think it's a great idea.

[silveraspen]

...

Tara Hill?

TARA HILL????

*weeps for the soul of the world*

Can this be STOPPED somehow?

[silveraspen]

If you think that it would be useful to you or as a reference, and there's not a thing like that out there, I say go for it.

This opinion brought to you by someone who clings to the DT concordances as if to a lifeline, and who is eternally grateful for the WoT sites that cross-reference and allow concordance-type searching for characters and details and the like for TEN BOOKS of canon.

[dopplegl.livejournal.com]

I think it is an excellent idea!

And on the bit about Crowley's wings, when I read the book, I always saw them as black, and what really made me feel it was canon was in one of the chapter drawings, he is depicted with black wings. It's him hovering over the 'C' and watering the plant.

[bethos.livejournal.com]

I surely wouldn't stop rereading the book periodically just because a detail resource existed out there and it would be nice if there was a resource available if only for the sake of readers who catch a lot of little nibbling mistakes and don't want to be jarred out of their reading experience anymore.

[unravels.livejournal.com]

I have the tendency to flip through the book looking for some detail or other, then realize half an hour later that I've completely stopped what I was doing and started reading Chapter Whatever. So yes, a resource like that would be wonderful, even though I will probably still use 'research' as an excuse to re-read. Like I need an excuse. :D

Fairly exactly what you've said above.

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

Aha, and so *I* get to be the one with a dissenting opinion! Well, sort of.

Whenever someone announces such a project, I look at them warily and narrow my eyes a bit. I've seen too many of these helpful little 'guides' start to include things like the writer's interpretation/biases and bits of fanon creep in... (and, in a couple cases, a spirit of extrapolation). Which are all fun things, of course, but not when they're pointed to as the fundamental fandomic foundation of facts because people just coming in to the fandom will believe [you]. And they are probably more likely to use it. I mean, I have a fairly good idea of what my Aziraphale looks like by now. (He doesn't, for example, wear glasses.)

If you're thinking about just a list collecting quotes... (1. Crowley's Appearance: 2. Adam's Appearance.) Yes, that sounds like an excellent resource. If you start to include qualifying statements, however, I shall sigh and, well, continue fairly exactly as before.

Re: Fairly exactly what you've said above.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

I've already started - essentially slicing up Good Omens for the relevant quotes. In each case I shall probably make a summary post, with bullet points, followed by a post with the actual quotes. I don't intend to put any interpretation of my own on there, just precisely what it says in canon. I'm not interested in pushing my opinion on anyone, because I do that through the (rare) fics I write. :)

Re: Fairly exactly what you've said above.

[odditycollector.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I trust you fairly well. I had to complain anyway though, just 'cause I've seen statements the equivalent of "And Crowley wears a leather jacket and has a forked tongue" included in these sort of projects...