#jimmmm short for gabriel

[demontobee]

Parallels between Lord Jim and Good Omens (2)

I have rewatched GO2 at least 10 times now (still counting, obvsly), and every time I notice new easter eggs that emerge from the massive web of intertextuality that Neil Gaiman created for us here.

So today, I wanted to focus on the way Aziraphale came up with the “undercover” name “Jim” for Gabriel. He read it on the spine of a book: Lord Jim.

That book was written by Joseph Conrad (a Polish-British writer with dubious ideas about colonialism) and published in 1900. The plot basically follows the life of a young idealistic seaman called Jim who has to defend himself in a trial that concerns a sinking ship which he and other members of the crew abandoned in a storm, leaving it and the helpless passengers to their fate. The ship did not sink in the end, and he was the only member of the crew who was held accountable for his deeds by stripping him off his naval certificate. The trial is where he meets the narrator of the story, Marlow, who is strangely intrigued by the young man, who seems to be engulfed by guilt and shame over his morally wrong decision to leave the boat. The narrator tries to help Jim to his feet and lands him a job as a post manager at some remote colonial outpost. There he becomes a hero by capturing a local bandit. Later he falls victim to a scheme against him, and a pirate raids a neighbouring community and kills the son of their chief, Jim’s close friend. Jim then goes there, and the chief shoots him as a revenge for his son.

I mean, the most obvious parallel is that Gabriel gets named after Jim. He, too, abandoned his ship (Heaven; and the question here is, did he know it might be a sinking ship as well?) and was put on trial and lost his position as archangel before he came to Aziraphale for help. But that’s not all there is to it.

Let us start with the formal (concerning style and structure) aspects:

narrative structure:

“Marlow has complete control over the story … and he exercises his power in increasingly complicated ways. Time is broken up: in a single paragraph of narration, Marlow will reference the past, the present, and the future. By manipulating the flow of the narrative, Marlow is able to create juxtapositions and contrasts that highlight particular aspects of the story. He is a master at withholding information …” (Source: Sparknotes)

As I have already discussed in another post, this is more or less how narrative structure works in GO, too (S2 maybe more than S1, but this still applies to both). We get minisodes from the past that directly reference and juxtapose situations in the story that takes place in the present. Take, for example, the Job minisode, which gives us information about the development of Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationship, but we also see how devastating and hard it was for Aziraphale to realise that sometimes he had to lie (or do something considered wrong in heaven) to do the morally right thing. This sequence is juxtaposed with the relative ease he exhibits in the present day when he has to lie to heaven on a regular basis (in this case, about the miracle and hiding Gabriel, which is kind of a big lie, too). The show also plays with our understanding and expectations of how time works, as S2 starts with a scene that takes place “before the beginning,” which undermines dramatic structure as it has been known and accepted since Aristotle. It is also interesting to note that in S1, we have a strong sense of an almighty narrator, since god herself is narrating the whole time and she sure lets us know that she is playing her own ineffable game here. In S2, however, we don’t have a clear narrative voice. This might make it seem like the narration is more neutral or less meddled with, but in reality, it just makes things even less reliable and situations more ambiguous, as we have no single voice to interpret them for us. Someone is definitely “withholding information” here, and I guess we’ll have to wait for S3 to get the full picture.

language/style:

“Marlow constantly ponders the "message"--the meaning of Jim's story. His language is dense with terms like "inscrutable" and "inexplicable," words that denote imprecision and indecipherability, but which also possess a certain quality of uncertainty in themselves, as words. He struggles to name things, and is often reduced to wondering if there even is a meaning to Jim's story and his fascination with it. Sometimes he concludes that the meaning is an "enigma"; sometimes he decides there is no meaning to be found at all. Words are constantly being contested in this novel; at least three major episodes center around the misinterpretation of a single spoken word.” (Source: Sparknotes)

I mean, “inscrutable” and “inexplicable”? Why not just call it “ineffable”? I also love how Crowley seems to wonder about the meaning of things (especially the distinction between “good” and “bad”), as one of the first things we here him say in S2 is something like: “Do you ever ask yourself what’s the point. I mean angels, demons, heaven, hell … it all seems a bit … point … less.” And obviously, the whole show is full of misinterpretations of words (e.g., “what does your exactly mean, exactly? I feel like my exactly and your exactly are different exactlies”), or, as we are all painfully aware, a whole way of communicating with one another (“aim for my mouth, but shoot past my ear”).

Now for some similarities concerning informal (aka content) aspects:

moral balance and “naïve heroism”:

“Even more tortured is the analysis of idealism and heroism that lies at the center of Lord Jim. Jim is a young man who enters the world motivated primarily by fantasies of daring and noble deeds lifted from cheap novels. His ideals break down, however, in the face of real danger; they are, in fact, untenable when applied to any form of reality.” (Source: Sparnotes)

That sounds like both Crowley and Aziraphale in a way. They both set out as naïve idealists, and both of them learn (Crowley earlier and faster that Aziraphale) that their (heavenly) ideals do not hold in the complex reality of life. A lot of what we see in S2 is Aziraphale coming to terms with accepting that doing the “right thing” on earth often involves breaking his heavenly rules and allowing for “shades of grey.”

struggling to comprehend own identity and moral consequences of own actions:

Both the narrator, Marlow, and the protagonist of his tale, Jim, are trying to figure out their identity. Marlow seems to tell the story mainly to kind of make sense of identity itself but also of him personally, while Jim tries to make amends for his morally wrong behaviour and tries to manifest his identity (as a hero) through action.

In GO2, we have a lot of identity struggles and questions of “who am I?”: Jim the amnesiac angel is the most blatantly obvious case, but we also have Aziraphale negotiating his identity constantly, e.g., in the Job episode when he asks “Then what am I?” after having lied to heaven for the first time . And I mean Crowley is just on another level of liminal identity entirely, isn’t he?

As a bonus (and I am probably going overboard here, but well), this is the description of Jim’s death:

“Then with his hand over his lips he fell forward, dead.”

  The imagery reminds me of something…ahhh yes:

Feel free to add your thoughts in the tags or comments!

[februaryberries]

okay live blogging my reaction to gomens 2 ep 1

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD ANGEL CROWLEY THE HAIR KH MY GOD

oh my god are they making the OH MY GLD THEY HELPED MAKE IT THE COLORS KH MU HOD THIS JS BESUTJFUK

crowley happy stims

OH NO HES SO SAD

crowley sweaty

HOW MUCH TROUBKE CAN I GET INTO JUST FOR ASKING A FEW QUESTIONS ?????? what if i kill myself

IM GOWING TO THROW UP

im going to vomit and die CROWLEY DID UT FIRST AT THE BEGINNING WHEN HE WAS STILL AN ANGEL??????? IM GOING TO FUCKING DIE NEIL WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK

im less than ten minutes in and i feel like i’ve been sucker punched in the face LMAO

god the colors and the costumes and the set of this show are so gorgeous ugh the COSTUMES

he says hello maggie so gently if he spoke to me and said my name like that i might cry i love u aziraphale

GOD RHE DESJGNS

i took one (1) set design class and now ever

single show i look it im like 👀 it’s so pretty LOL

he’s so

he’s such a dork i love him

the clarinet

he knows the benches that’s so funny

bro her red outfit slays so hard

nooooo crowley depression era poor thing

continuing the delayed duck facts god i love him so much

AUGH YHE COSTUMES THE COLORS IM GONNA DIE

SHES SO GAY

i love the way they say holy shit

OH MY GOD

I wonder how many times they busted up laughing filming this

ZIRAS GAY LITTLE SHOES I LOVE THEM

he’s so good at being like forgetful and annoying

LESBIANS

i love the blowing on phones to end call

he’s so anxious zira sweeitie

i have no idea what that feels like why would u say that

the box 👀

is that all? oh?

there’s a single fly in there

you’re funny i love you

what’s gabriel

JIMMMM short for gabriel

this is so funny criminal minds heaven version w this matchbox LMAO

HE KNOWS HIM SO WELL

CROWLEY CHUGGING THE COFFEE LMAO

oh she has a partner rip :((

HES SO MAD

i… am… dusting… HES SO FUNNY

the exactly is so funny

you’re at liberty to go

i would love you to help me

HES SO PETTY ANGEL LMAO

they’re sooooo married fighting

just breathe that’s what humans do

gasp a material object

THE WAY MICHAEL POKES IT LOL

she’s so baiting him

ERASED FROM THE BOOK OF LIFE

SCHOOL OF LOVERBOYS GOOD GOD

oh yikes lindsey is TOXIC

WITH THE LITTLE DANCE

HES DONE THE LITTLE IM WRONG DANCE

LMAOOOOOO

he’s literally a child

standing on the chair so dramatic

no one will have noticed a thing

ALARM BELLS AND HEAVEN GOES RED

uh phhhhh

also okay moving on to episode 2!!!