This week Queermunity joins our Managing Editor, Harriet Steele, in her review of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens - rated 5 stars.
At its core Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, is a love story, being shown through the events leading up to an apocalypse. A love story between an angel and a demon, Aziraphale and Crowley respectively. Whilst throughout the book it is clear that there is a strong relationship established between the two characters the subtextual nature of this relationship has long been debated within the Good Omens fandom. On the one hand many argue that reading it as a Queer romance is part of an essential understanding of the plot of the book, whilst others argue that the romance and love is mere queer subtext that has been expanded and built upon by fans (Coleman 2018). In an essay on ‘the Intertextual Relationship between Fanon and Canon in adaption’ Coleman argues that Pratchett and Gaiman's authorship of the book shies away from writing about their own canonically queer characters and seems to miss the fact that they have written them as such. It is therefore through fan interpretation and extraction that the queer representation is explored and brought to life in a more pronounced way. For example, well-known fan author irisbleufic is ‘often treated as an authority on fandom history due to their status as one of the oldest remaining members and their involvement in an infamous part of Aziraphale/Crowley lore’ - infamous in their establishment of Crowley and Aziraphale as two asexual characters engaging in a Queer Platonic Relationship (Ibid:16). Such fanfiction writing is reminiscent of Eve Sedgwick's exploration of the importance in the queer community of attaching ‘intently to a few cultural objects’ and investing them ‘with fascination and love’ as a ‘prime resource for survival’ and identification (1994:3). Something which, as a newly identifying asexual individual when I first read and watched the story, I can certainly attest to - the amount of Good Omens related guilty secret asexual readings I found is beyond count at this point!
However, whilst it is true that much of the explicit queer representation associated with the book comes from fan theories and stories this is not to say that the text itself is devoid of any representation or presents queer-baiting. Instead many fans ‘do not see a romantic relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley as an appropriate headcanon but rather a natural extension of the text’ (Coleman 2018:11). Take for example the dialogue between Crowley and Aziraphale just before The Devil arrives in Tadfield;
‘"I'd just like to say," he said, "if we don't get out of this, that . . . I'll have known, deep down inside, that there was a spark of goodness in you."...Aziraphale held out his hand... Crowley took it. "Just remember I'll have known that, deep down inside, you were just enough of a bastard to be worth liking"’ (Pratchett and Gaiman 1990:209-210).
Not only do they time and time again seek each other out when crisis is brewing, but, as Tumblr user futureevilscientist suggests, these two lines are exchanged like wedding vows. It is not through a subtextual reading of the book then that the queer representation can be found but simply in reading it.
"It is not through a subtextual reading of the book then that the queer representation can be found but simply in reading it."
As well as their many moments of queer interaction, both in the book and in the recent TV show, Crowley and Aziraphale can be viewed from a queer perspective in many different ways. One of the most popular interpretations of them is as an asexual couple, a group in the LGBTQ+ community that is often overlooked, making Gaiman’s own tweet in support of this reading of the relationship incredibly significant: “I wouldn’t exclude the ideas that they are ace, aromantic...it’s a love story”. Apart from Bojack Horseman, Good Omens is one of few TV shows that displays a love story between two people without having either physical intimacy or the classic hallmarks of a romantic relationship and which does not leave fans questioning as to the nature of the relationship. This has been further emphasized by the actors, Michael Sheen and David Tennant, in their discussions of how they wanted to present the characters and the choices made in various scenes, many of which were designed to show the love existing between the two characters. As Sedgwick comments ‘one of the things that ‘queer’ can refer to [is] the open mesh of possibilities’ and what better way to explore this than through 6000 years of character development and the end of the world?
"Good Omens is one of few TV shows that displays a love story between two people without having either physical intimacy or the classic hallmarks of a romantic relationship."
Article Written By Harriet Steele
(She/Her)
Photo courtesy of Harriet's Bookcase.
Works Cited:
Coleman, K. (2018). Good Omens, Greater Results: the Intertextual Relationship between Fanon and Canon in Adaption. Google Scholar.
Pratchett, T. and Gaiman, N. (1990) 'Good Omens'. United Kingdom: Victor Gollancz Ltd.
Sedgwick, E. (1994) Queer and Now. In ‘Tendencies’. London: Routledge.