In the twelfth part of Small Gods<\/i>, Om begins to panic once Brutha stops believing. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I love that there are so many contradictions and conflicts within just this singular journey. Om is utterly opposed to returning to Omnia, yet insists on helping Brutha reach there. Brutha\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s belief in Om slips as he gets closer than ever to the god. And through it all, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got Vorbis, the one character deserving of the least amount of sympathy and kindness, getting the most of those very things from Brutha. I love that even though Brutha appears to be losing faith \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and quickly \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean he suddenly becomes an immoral asshole. Look, Brutha is LITERALLY dying of thirst while crossing this desert, and he most certainly would make it further if he were not lugging a full-grown man with him, but you know what?<\/p>\n
He does it anyway.<\/p>\n
Along the way, he and Om have a number of vital conversations that address Om\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s godhood and the nature of gods in general. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been really fascinating to see how Brutha has gotten more comfortable questioning everything around him, and in this specific section, we see how he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already begun to perceive the world differently. When he asks Om about the Great Gods and Cori Celesti, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not doing so in an accusatory tone. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s asking about them with the inherent acceptance that they do<\/i> exist. He wants to learn. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an entirely different context than the questioning he was doing a couple hundred pages ago, you know? Still, I admit that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a slight aggression to Brutha\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tone, though I would never say it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because he is an aggressive person by nature. I think that Brutha is seeking out the sense in a bunch of nonsense. When Om tries to tell Brutha that philosophers are more like kings and not gods, he knows it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bullshit. Deep down, he knows<\/i> this. He might not have formed the proper way of communicating this thought, but he works through it with Om.<\/p>\n
Which leads us to this:<\/p>\n
He heard Om, slightly peevish, say: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to believe in something. Might as well be gods. What else is there?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Brutha laughed.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You know,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I believe in anything any more.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But what does that mean<\/i>? I get asked that often as a self-identifying atheist. Do I really believe in nothing at all? More or less, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say. I can believe in people in terms of trusting them, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t put much stock in anything else. Systems, religions, faiths\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 none of it works for me. Is this the same sort of path that Brutha is on? I mean, he definitely believes in a god, but just doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the full extent of it. But believing something is real, like Om, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the same as believing in<\/i> them. That distinction is important because I think it directly informs what happens next.<\/p>\n
I was confused why the small gods chose this<\/i> moment to assault Om, threatening him with their desire for Brutha. The scene is super creepy, especially since these gods \u00e2\u20ac\u0153remnants,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or whatever they are, speak of Brutha as if he is a soul to be claimed<\/i>. Why? Why do they want him? My guess is that they realize he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a soul who has lost faith, and they want him as their own. Is this something that happens<\/i> between gods? Do they fight over believers??? Is there some big, creepy Great God Who Once Was Great coming to get Brutha?<\/p>\n
AND HOLY SHIT, THE PEOPLE ON THE UNNAMED BOAT<\/i> SURVIVED. HOLY. SHIT. (I feel weird using \u00e2\u20ac\u0153holy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in this context now.) I honestly thought they were dead, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pleased they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not, especially since they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re now on a JOURNEY OF REVENGE. They want nothing more than to destroy the Citadel. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe Brutha survived, and honestly, they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really care. They have one goal in mind and enough foolish ambition to actually do something. So while Brutha and Om deal with lions (and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be fine), I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be patiently awaiting the next update from Urn, Simony, and Didactylos. I do enjoy multiple storylines converging on one place. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of my favorite story devices.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JVHRfQKZj2I<\/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 twelfth part of Small Gods, Om begins to panic once Brutha stops believing. 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-3540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-small-gods","tag-terry-pratchett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}