The photos that NASAHubble & NASAWebb took of The Pillars of Creation inspired me deeply. I had to draw what I saw in the formation: A hand reaching into the universe. What an accomplishment for humankind and what a symbol for exploration and knowledge. Credit 2nd image: NASA
Good Omens has always been my favorite book. I've seen some posts from people wondering about the prevalence of ducks. I wanted to share my interpretation of why the ducks keep popping up* so that other people can appreciate how clever the writing in my favorite book is.
The word duck is in the book a lot. Aside from the actual ducks in the duck pond, there are several references to popular expression about ducks. Notably all the duck quotes are botched or incorrect in some way, so the reader has to know what the correct expressions actually are in order for the joke to work. For example:
Crowley forgetting the phrase "like water off a duck's back": "Ducks!" [Crowley] shouted. "What?" "That's what water slides off!" Aziraphale took a deep breath.
The same phrase is referenced later: whenever she tried to think about him beyond a superficial level her thoughts slipped away like a duck off water.
And we have "like a duck to water" to describe Aziraphale's dancing while he had initially taken to it like a duck to merchant banking, after a while he had become quite good at it
The English language has a lot of expressions about ducks and the book expects the reader to be familiar with them. The one that I think is significantly conspicuously absent from the book is "If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, then it's a duck." I think that the point of the other duck expressions is to evoke this one, since it's the whole thesis of the book. Good Omens is about humanism and self determination. Adam isn't human, but he is shaped like a human so grows into being a human. He looks like a human and quacks like a human. He is a human. His parents are his parents. His hellhound is a cute dog. And he chooses to keep it that way. Aziraphale and Crowley get so used to being human shaped they'd prefer to keep doing that. They don't have to be enemies and can determine their own fate, just like Anathema and Newt and all their other mirrors. So by choosing humanity and embracing what I guess you could call human performativity, they all get to be what they want to be. So I think that's the significance of the ducks. *despite Crowley dunking them
My first pen drawing! Mr. Anthony J. Crowley in shades of dark grey ๐ฉถ๐
Back on the bench
And again, and againโฆ
Clacomat, she/hermassive Good Omens fan
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