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Small Gods
"I like the idea of a democracy. You have to have someone everyone distrusts," said Brutha. "That way, everyone's happy. Think about it."
"The world was a funny place. And, he thought distantly, it really was. Here people were about to roast someone to death, but they'd left his loin-cloth on, out of respectability. You had to laugh. Otherwise, you'd go mad."
"Humans! They lived in a world where the grass continued to be green and the sun rose every day and flowers regularly turned into fruit, and what impressed them? Weeping statues. And wine made out of water! A mere quantum-mechanistic tunnel effect, that'd happen anyway if you were prepared to wait zillions of years. As if the turning of sunlight into wine, by means of vines and grapes and time and enzymes, wasn't a thousand times more impressive and happened all the time."
Gone Girl
"I waited patiently—years—for the pendulum to swing the other way, for men to start reading Jane Austen, learn how to knit, pretend to love cosmos, organize scrapbook parties, and make out with each other while we leer. And then we'd say, Yeah, he's a Cool Guy."
"It's a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless automat of characters."
"There’s something disturbing about recalling a warm memory and feeling utterly cold."
Head-to-Head
Characters: I've detailed previously that Small Gods boasts a cast that's up there with the timeless gang from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide series: multifaceted, hilarious caricatures that are perfectly insane sociopaths sometimes and just like the rest of us some other times (and those things aren't mutually exclusive). It's sort of hard for Gone Girl to compete; Nick and Amy, despite being trapped in a thrilling narrative, are two of the least pitiable characters I've read. It's harsh, but I can't help feeling like both of their situations are their own damn fault. (I can be judge-y when they're fictional characters, right?)
Advantage: Small Gods.
Setting: Gone Girl happens in a real world. Small Gods happens in a magical cartoon BCE landscape. Both authors make great strides to set up their world, and I really can't pick one over the other, citing the ol' too-different-copout.
Advantage: Push.
Plot: Like a good knock-knock joke, Small Gods spent about 60% of its time setting up jokes, another 20% fostering bemused anticipation, and the last 20% on hilarious payoff. A solid format for a humour book, no doubt—but Gone Girl is a wild ride that appeals to the story-hungry and elaborate book student alike.
Advantage: Gone Girl.
Ending: I've aired my hesitance with Gone Girl's ending at length. Competent, but a letdown to me after the dandy plot. But then, the denouement to Small Gods is happy ending-ish (as most humour is), but didn't really do it for me either. Both books had happenings & thoughts throughout that were almost too good for their respective conclusions.
Advantage: Push.
Writing/Language: Contrary to the ending category where both were weak, here both are strong. Gillian Flynn matches the best of modern authors (also immediate in my mind: Palahniuk, McEwan) for writing prose that reads like a cool, relatable stream of consciousness from the characters' perspectives. Pratchett isn't as elaborate on his characters' inner workings, nor do I feel like I know Brutha or Vorbis or any of his characters, but the man writes a mean punchline—and that's the point.
Advantage: Push.
Philosophy: Small Gods' ruminations on the failings of organized religion and the merit of true faith are hefty, heavy thoughts that aren't yet and may never be irrelevant. Gone Girl holds a mirror up to media coverage (and the societal roles thereof), to patriarchal models, to originality and its long overdue obituary... again, relevant and weighty. Gone Girl's themes may not maintain their relevance forever, but here and now, both are valid.
Advantage: Push.
Winner Winner Turkey Supper
Once again, Gone Girl meets spectacular comedy novel and pushes almost every category.
As I tend to do, I'll break the tie with the part of the book most important to me here and now: generally plot or philosophy, depending. Small Gods is a riot, but it's hard to argue the merits of a comedy in the face of a well-written drama.
As I tend to do, I'll break the tie with the part of the book most important to me here and now: generally plot or philosophy, depending. Small Gods is a riot, but it's hard to argue the merits of a comedy in the face of a well-written drama.
Or, at least, that's what the Oscars keep telling me.
Gone Girl goes to round three.
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