In the sixteenth part of Small Gods<\/i>, Brutha tries his hand at world building. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Well, for such a fantastical story, this is pretty realistic.<\/p>\n
Vorbis<\/b><\/p>\n
I feel a sense of poetry has been achieved by Vorbis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s end. It was terrifying to see how bold he got there in the end, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m now more positive than ever that, for the most part, he believed what he said. Deep down, maybe not. But at the very least, he believed that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d get away with what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done. I say that because of this bit:<\/p>\n
Vorbis waved his hand to the great facade of the temple. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Men built this. We built this,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And what did Om do? Om comes? Let him come! Let him judge between us!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
First of all, I can now fully appreciate the irony of him saying this because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s precisely what Om does. Still, look at the arrogance! Look how certain he was! Ultimately, certainty is what undoes Vorbis. I think Pratchett was smart to give us the point of view of Vorbis in the Great Desert because it provided me with the exact<\/i> amount of closure that I needed. I wanted to know that Vorbis was aware of what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d torment himself with the knowledge, but did he ever know?<\/p>\n
Now he had to cross the desert. What could there be to fear\u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/p>\n
The desert was what you believed.<\/p>\n
Vorbis looked inside himself.<\/p>\n
And went on looking.<\/p>\n
He sagged to his knees.<\/p>\n
I CAN SEE THAT YOU ARE BUSY, said Death.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t leave me! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so empty!<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So Vorbis didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t truly believe in Om or God or anything of the sort. He believed in the emptiness of himself, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll spend an eternity trying to cross a desert entirely by himself<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Good.<\/p>\n
The Commandments<\/b><\/p>\n
A unique opportunity is presented to the Omnians here: they get to meet the god they worship, and they get to figure out how<\/i> they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll worship him. Sort of? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very complicated, which I enjoyed about all of this. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no easy answer given to these people, and even when they want<\/i> to take the easy way out, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re immediately stopped by Brutha.<\/p>\n
On the surface, it seems like a simple task. The Omnians have to come up with their commandments through Brutha. So, what sort of rules should<\/i> a society have? What are basic principles that everyone should follow. A random person suggests forbidding murder, which seemed like a perfect idea to me. Except\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not, is it?<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to explain,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Brutha. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got something to do with how people should behave. I think\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 you should do things because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re right. Not because gods say so. They might say something different another time.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Whew, Brutha. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re talking about Ethics<\/i> now, aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t we? Brutha is trying to prevent the same problems from reoccurring, and he knows if they rely on some sort of ironclad morality, then people will just twist it to their own needs. Again<\/i>. And Brutha goes a step further: he demands that Om actually do<\/i> something from time to time. Because the truth is that gods require people to believe in them or else they die, and that means this system has<\/i> to be reciprocal in nature.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a brilliant move, but I wish that Brutha\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s other<\/i> attempt at fixing everything went better.<\/p>\n
Total War<\/b><\/p>\n
Who had forgotten that every nation surrounding Omnia was coming for revenge? THIS GUY RIGHT HERE. I thought that the presentation of Vorbis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s body would be enough, but I understand <\/i>why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not, not by a longshot. Vorbis and the Church did TERRIBLE things to these people and their nations, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no evidence that without Vorbis, this won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t start all up again. Except that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly<\/i> what Brutha is trying to stop:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You will probably defeat us. But not all of us. And then what will you do? Leave a garrison? Forever? And eventually a new generation will retaliate. Why you did this won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean anything to them. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be the oppressors. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll fight. They might even win. And there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be another war. And one day people will say: why didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they sort it all out, back then? On the beach. Before it all started. Before all those people died. Now we have that chance. Aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t we lucky?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
GODDAMN, BRUTHA. Watching this change come over him has been incredible, and I just respect him so much. It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough just to get rid of Vorbis; Brutha wanted to change this entire part of the Discworld for the better, to stop the cycle of violence that had plagued these nations (and many others) since forever. He wanted to open up Omnia to other religions, to trade, to reduce the size of their army, and all of these are brilliant suggestions that would have made Omnia so much better. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just too bad that no one told Urn and Simony or anyone else not to charge the beach. WHOOPS. My gods, how the hell is that<\/i> going to be resolved? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think Brutha could stop either side from fighting, and then the whole cycle will begin again.<\/p>\n
Lord. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m scared.<\/p>\n
The original text contains use of the words \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stupid\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mad.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=E0A0_JJHMnE<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– I am now on Patreon<\/a><\/b>!!! MANY SURPRISES ARE IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU SUPPORT ME<\/a>.
\n– The Mark Does Stuff Tour 2015 is now live and includes dates across the U.S. this summer and fall Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be the remainder of\u00c2\u00a0The Legend of Korra<\/i>, series 8 of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the sixteenth part of Small Gods, Brutha tries his hand at world building. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[451],"tags":[463,501,248],"class_list":["post-3546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-small-gods","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}