Laughing at religion is a lot more dangerous when gods are corporeal. Sir Terry Pratchett is a well-known satirist and writer, is known for using satire to commentate on society. Small Gods, was Pratchett’s religious satire, which has been described as the finest satire in the twentieth century (Heath, 2012) and an extraordinary novel of biting but compassionate satire (Wagner, 2001), which for a satire of religion can be difficult. Using Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods it is possible to explore the importance of satire in order to assist the populous to question dominant traditions. Successful religious satire surrounds the audience understanding the root problems, for which religion holds a lot of common experiences (Hoover, 2003), and within popular culture satire is a vehicle for challenging authority (Polhemus, 1982). There are several examples of religious satire within modern popular culture including The Simpsons and South Park however these have been argued as more contentious depictions than Pratchett’s he argues that the main reason for this is that “It’s amazing what you can achieve when you disguise it as fantasy” (Pratchett, Terry Pratchett on Life and Death, 2011).
Pratchett was a journalist before a novelist, which arguably had a direct influence on not only his satire but the “compassionate” approach he takes to contentious issues (Mendleson, 2008). Pratchett himself, affirms that journalism has allowed him a depth of knowledge and the ability to tactfully handle situations and events that maybe negative or hard to express. Although social commentary in literature is not new, until the Discworld series it has been suggested that satire surrounding social commentary tended towards a bleaker narrative (Littau, 2006). The Discworld however, allows Pratchett to “stir in the unpalatable truth.” Pratchett covers everything from death to the postal service, although there maybe similarities there, satire and fantasy allowed him to explore the more difficult issues without bringing the wrath that other religious satire has gained (Pratchett, Terry Pratchett on Life and Death, 2011). As part of satire he makes situations and questions more manageable (Hunt, 2011). Mendleson and Pratchett himself argue that a fantasy world “removes the sting” of hard questions (Mendleson, 2008). Armitt has suggested fantasy allows the opportunity to see issues that maybe in the “real” world from a different perspective (Armitt, Fantasy Fiction, 2005) and the audience can play out the structural issues in current society without explicit use of religious terminology or symbols like other series like the Dark Objects series and Narnia (King, 2000).
Small Gods is the thirteenth novel in the Discworld series, it was Pratchett’s second and more explicit satire of religion and has been argued as one of the finest satires of the twentieth century (Heath, 2012). Its popularity led to it being changed into a graphic novel, radio episodes and to Pratchett’s glee a favourite of Amateur Dramatics (Pratchett, Small Gods, 2018). As a standalone novel, although Pratchett explores religion in his other novels, Small Gods specifically concentrates on organised religion, demonstrating Pratchett’s strength of feeling (Pratchett, Terry Pratchett on Religion, 2010). As the thirteenth instalment, it appears he had a strong fan base to attempt a more contentious issue and with contemporary events, this novel may have been a product of its time, with Salman Rushdie and religious terrorism in the UK and the rise of the Branch Dividians culminating in Waco in the US, which according to Vultee, inspired an increase in coverage of religion in the media in the 1990s (Vultee, Craft, & Velker, 2010).
As an ex-journalist Pratchett would have seen this increase and arguably either took the opportunity to satirise his opinion of the religious organisation (Mendleson, 2008) or as Vultee infers use the popularity of religious coverage to sell books (Vultee, Craft, & Velker, 2010). Pratchett argues, however, that his novels never begin as specific satires (Pratchett, Terry Pratchett on Life and Death, 2011). Pratchett’s previous career is also noticeable in his approach to satire within the Discworld novels, he writes a well-rounded satire which mocks everything rather than concentrating on just the main feature. Before mentioning any questioning of religion, he challenges the limitation of philosophy,
“Does a falling tree in the forest make a sound when there is no one to hear? Which says something about the nature of philosophers, because there is always something in the forest.” (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998) (Pratchett, Small Gods, 2018)
Case Study: Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
“Now consider the tortoise and the Eagle ”
Small Gods is Pratchett’s challenge to organised religion, in the Citadel of Omnia the God Om is the dominant and only religion. In this repressive city the the Quisition and the leader Vorbis, a parody of the Spanish Inquisition of the Christian religion, became paramount for “punishing ” sin. Vorbis throughout the novel reveals himself as the main power behind the Omnian religion and the introduction of a very weak Om as a character proves that fear of the organisation became the belief over that of the god. Polhemus, writer of Comic faith, suggests that with the addition of humanity, religion is likely to become a prison for a god (Polhemus, 1982) and Philip Pullman explores this is his explicit satire in the His Dark Materials series (Oliver, 2012), in fact in Small Gods the shell of a religious organisation is referred to as Om’s tomb (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998).
The organised religion within Small Gods caused Om to come back to the Disc, he wanted to come back as a large white bull to match his normal appearance but only made it as a turtle (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998), which is ironic as the Omnian Quisition tortures people for believing that the Discworld was flat and on the back of a turtle swimming through space (Pratchett, The Colour of Magic, 1983), despite the fact that it’s true on the Disc. This is a carnivalesque use of the real life as it directly opposes the religious idea that the world is flat and the scientific argument the world is round (Bakhtin, 2009). The novel uses the event of the coming of the eighth prophet when the church “redoubles its efforts” to look holy, which in Vorbis’ eyes is a matter of redoubling the amount of people tortured in the name of Om to wipe the slate clean, “Blood is generally considered very efficient for this purpose (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998).”
The repression of Omnia is complete, you can only read the book of Om, you can only look at statues of the god Om, images are only depicting Om and all other beliefs are belittled and seen as inferior which Pratchett in a Guardian interview suggests was his inoculation against Judeo-Christian religion. This is all parodying the Judeo-Christian traditions from the old testament to which he suggests that if it were true we would be in the hands of a maniac (Pratchett, 2009), an opinion which is noticeable in his portrayal of Om. Om is a stubborn, narcissistic character to begin with, he threatens Brutha on many occasions to smite him and even when he gains his powers back the first thing he wants to do is smite people. However, as with Pratchett’s belief (Pratchett, 2010), the interaction between god and man allowed the two to transcend the pomp of the religion and on several occasions, Om reminds him that the books are manmade and may have been embellished by man and god as he says he exaggerates himself. This idea appears to be an exploration of Leet’s suggestion that as god is fundamentally unknowable the construction of religious ideology limits the divinity of a “god,” removing the mystery removes the need for questioning (Leet A. , 2005). As affirmed by Capek when he suggests that the church does not bring a god to the world but merely confines him and satire reintroduces the reflection upon religion (Capek, 1975) which is Pratchett’s aim when he gives god a voice (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998).
Since the time of jester’s humour has been used as a tool to critique (Clark L. , 2007) that has been reviled by authority as potentially dangerous, but able to portray the negative. The Jester was the only one that was able to tell the king bad news. Griffin argues therefore satire has become important and the main features of satire has the need for inquiry and provocation, satire is more complex than comedy of jesters but plays a similar function in contemporary society (Griffin, 1995). The provocation from Griffith’s satire however has always been assumed mean spirited and in many cases, satire can be for example the explicit mocking of South Park (Feltmate, 2012). However, as this case study proves explicit provocation is not essential for biting satire to challenge religion. As Clark states, satire is not meant to set out to offend but challenge dominant authority and encourage thought (Clark L. , 2007), which Pratchett achieves in his novels particularly the compassionate (Hunt, 2011) satire of Small Gods. Satirists offer the opportunity to critically think for themselves as Smith affirms when suggesting satire works not to shore up ideas but to question and challenge them (Smith, 2015). In comparison to South Park and other satirical humour Pratchett tries not to use tired stereotypes but imposes certain traits on to his characters to parody the ideas of religion but on a fantasy world (Griffin, 1995).
Clark suggests that satire tends to cover three main topics of Politics, religion and sex (Clark T. R., 2012), two of which Pratchett covers in his novel Small Gods which are politics and religion as he attacks the organisation of the church and the futility of religious wars and abuse of the systems for power (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998). In the 1960s, as opposed to earlier times, religion, political activism and sexual liberation were tolerated more and religion was moving into a private sphere (Bruce & Glendinning, 2011) but as Devine argues it was still a part of everyday life (Devine, 2011). Bruce argues however, that the 1990s became a time of contention surrounding religious coverage and the media began sensationalising the negative areas of religious belief including Salman Rushdie furore, terrorism of the IRA in Britain and the beginning of the Branch Dividians in the US (Bruce, 1996). Humour in this circumstance according to Lewis became a way of placating the social tensions (Smith, 2015) and help people cope with the suffering within society and Pratchett himself professes to trying to bridge the gap between atheists and theists (Pratchett, 2013). Feltmate also suggests that this use of humour to relieve social tension is imperative to understand the significance of certain issues and help society cope with its fears (Feltmate, 2012).
Religious satire, therefore, is never as simple as just questioning a belief system highlighting the hypocrisy (Mitchell, 2003), but as with Pratchett’s example religious satire may not have an issue with the idea of “gods,” as with Devine (Devine, 2011), Pratchett understands that whether he agrees or not gods and religious belief are a part of everyday life for a large population (Ammerman, 2013). However, Hodgart suggests that the satire of religious institution is not a religious satire at all but one of politics (Hodgart, 2017), because as with any institution it is manmade and surrounding the need for power, aptly shown in Small Gods via Vorbis’ lack of individuality regarding his religious power and concentrates more on what he can do with the power (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998). Alternatively, Habermas argues that without genuine questioning of the religious institution only brushes the surface of religious satire, because it’s true that the authority of “the holy” is gradually replaced by an authority achieved through consensus (Habermas, 2002). This is apparent in Pratchett’s Small Gods when he explores Om’s relationship with his church, referring to the shell organisation as his own tomb (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998).
Satire, according to Sikka, also helps with the accessibility of the subject, removing any convoluted or confused ideas simplifying in this case religious belief and ritual (Sikka, 2016). With emphasis on the religious, satire subverts the dominant traditions and reveals the misguided ideas of manmade organisations. Bahktin suggests that the use of the carnivalesque through laughter and role reversal allows the audience to see that the ideas that are imposed through religion may not seem as justified when viewed from a different perspective (Bakhtin, 2009). Pratchett uses this function when he reverses the idea that the earth is flat, the Discworld is in fact a flat disc on the backs of four elephants, swimming through space on a turtle, which the great god Om knows is true but Brutha, the devout follower of Omnism, has always been told the world is round. In many of the Discworld novels Pratchett explores the search for and proof of the world’s orientation and in the Discworld the science behind a “discworld” makes perfect sense but the Omnians refuse to believe that the world is flat. Pratchett argues this idea was to try and reveal the stubborn nature of religious belief and uses the subversion to show the folly of blind belief (Pratchett, 2005). Particularly when it is revealed to Brutha that even the god was aware that the world was flat and the more knowledge Brutha gained the more that was revealed to him to be folly (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998).
Religion appears to have a tenuous relationship with satire as it is assumed that ridicule is not only frivolous but dangerous. Polhemus, however, portends that religion and satire are very similar in their intentions. As the 19th Century brought about the beginning of secularisation of society and religion began to feel inadequate for the suffering of society, satire began to help make the pains of the world manageable (Lynch, 2007). The way the two ideas become almost interchangeable comedy offered new strategy for dealing with life through laughter and positivity, over the belief in heaven at the end (Polhemus, 1982). Both religion and humour encourage a willingness to perceive reality in an alternative way (Lynch, 2007) with the exception that religion is arguably more limiting than humour in that, certainly with Pratchett’s examples, religion is stubborn in its belief. Pratchett shows that philosophers, despite not “having any truck” with gods, they still believe in them (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998). They are more open minded than the hierarchy of the organised religion of Omnia as even when there is a spark of another god within Omnia, that is what the Quisition deals with (Pratchett, Terry Pratchett on Religion, 2010). However, the philosophers of Small Gods, particularly Didactylos, suggests that the philosophers were in fact offering a service that meant the population didn’t have to think for themselves (Company, 2015) (Michaud, 2016).
Satire and religion mirror in their aims to offer a new level of escapism and offering hope. Pratchett imposes his religious satire onto a fantasy world, which according Armitt in her introduction to fantasy fiction, the imposition of sensitive issues on to a fantasy world allows an audience to perceive the ideals that are within the satire without an attack on the religion itself (Armitt, 2005). Clement affirms this when arguing that the fantasy of Discworld becomes recontextualising societal problems of the dominant thought from class, war and in this case religion (Clement, 2013). This also follows the above argument that satire and comedy allows the author more freedom to explore religion in a less contentious manner (Clanton, 2012) and as Clement suggests Pratchett can deflate an idea without it losing its appeal (Clement, 2013). This theory has been imposed on popular culture like The Simpsons and South Park, although their juxtaposition is via their animation. Both those shows are more explicit about religion but because they are based in a world of animation it seems to remove some of the offense (Davidsen, 2013).
Pratchett’s Small Gods is arguably the epitome of religious satire (G, 2015), the Disc shows gods in corporeal form and challenges the beliefs of not only the religious institution but the belief of the atheist, as there can be no real atheists in the Discworld (Pratchett, 2009). He argues that this along with Brutha’s innocence, goodness and strength of faith allows not only the satire of religion to be attractive to the atheist or agnostic but the religious, he mentions the letters he receives from the religious congratulating him on his appropriate portrayal of the religious follower in Brutha (Pratchett, 1997). Pratchett’s addition of gods into his universe and his use of biblical language in both the beginning of Small Gods and his Science of Discworld novels show that despite his being “a confirmed agnostic (Terry Pratchett, 2012)” and the argument that his work is grounded in atheism he has a personal connection to his gods, as affirmed in Lords and Ladies “I aint against gods..., in their place. But they’ve got to be ones we make ourselves.” (Pratchett, Lords and Ladies, 1994). However, the character or Vorbis and the more pathetic image of the great god Om have caused some contentions within the religious community (McVeigh, 2015). Dickieson, however despite suggesting that Pratchett himself is an atheist praises the idea that gods are born through belief. He understands that despite his religious belief Pratchett was insightful when it came to the creation of gods and certainly since there has been religion there has been critiquing of them (Dickieson, 2017).
Mendleson proffers though, that the use of corporeal gods is an attempt to justify the idea of faith. In a world where gods are knowable, the idea of religion is not strange (Mendleson, 2008). Small Gods is not only Pratchett’s attempt to reconceptualize the notion of religious organisation but also the fact that with compromise religion and secularization can work together (Pratchett, 2012). For Pratchett man and gods have a symbiotic relationship, he understands Leets idea that innate human nature requires something to believe in (Leet, 2012), which the gods in Discworld take for granted as perceived in Om’s stubborn and narcissistic attitude towards his followers but Om also becomes more grounded when he realises that he only exists because people believe in him and the reason he’s only a turtle, is because only Brutha believes in him. He spends the entire story attempting to return to his full power in order smite again but along the way as he spends time with the pure goodness and understanding of Brutha he notices that he has to change his ideas of being a god to keep the belief (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998).
Durkheim argues that the sacred and the profane are two separate entities (Durkheim, 2008) but satire and specifically Pratchett’s Small Gods attempts to bridge the gap between religion and secularisation as he attacks both sides and infers the folly of both (McVeigh, 2015). He shows both Brutha and the philosophers at different intervals being confused about the nature of the world, the difference being that the philosophers are aware of their confusion and the reason Om wants to find them is he is aware that they are spending their time trying to find the truth whereas the religious are set they do not wish to change, apart from Brutha. The more that Brutha learns about life and the more books he reads and people he interacts with outside the church, the more he realises the futility of the church and war for religious purposes (Michaud, 2016). Brutha is happy to believe in a higher power but he believes that to please a god you should life a long and busy life. He spends one hundred years beyond the story doing good deeds and even in death his heaven gives him one last opportunity to save someone (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998).
The idea of the afterlife is another interesting use of satire in Pratchett’s work not only does he use McVeigh’s idea of the atheist desert he was taught through his religion (McVeigh, 2015) Pratchett uses the carnivalesque role reversal to put his religions afterlife into a desert, Omnians believe that you must cross a desert in order to be judged but as in Eric (Pratchett, Eric, 2000) Pratchett believes that you are only damned if you believe you are, which follows Sagan’s idea that human impact is just as important as the religious on the human mind (Sagan, 1980). As shown by the above afterlife of Brutha and in the death of soldiers who although having to cross a desert are ready for it. The death of Vorbis is the most telling as because of his religious zeal, and need to punish the “infidel” meant he had nothing else, no identity and in the afterlife he becomes lost in the desert unable to find the power to move towards judgement and the desert for him becomes a hell (Breebaart, 2019). This follows Pratchett’s general belief that the individual is the one who has control over his own future and his own beliefs (Oliver, 2012) (Pratchett, 2015).
Vorbis’ character is the definition of the problems with the religious institutions, and the dangers of collective interference in religion. He explores this in a later novel Good Omens when Crawley shows that humanity can be capable of malignancy worse than demons and more grace than heaven ever dreamed of (Gaiman, 2014), something he shows with the characters of Brutha as despite Vorbis’ evil murderous ways he helps him cross the desert and even persuades a god to do good rather than smite with no fear for himself. Brutha show humility, innocence and love, confirming Pratchett’s belief that personal belief and feeling are more important than being informed of belief through consensus of a hierarchy (Capek, 1975). As Mendleson suggests salvation lies in knowing yourself and religion, to Pratchett, seems to be a distraction from self-awareness, along with politics. He also calls the idea of justifying death for either hypocritical as both preach the sanctity of life but expect you to die for them if you need to, in Interesting Times Rincewind says “You’ve only got one life but you can pick up five other causes on any street corner (Pratchett, Interesting Times, 1996).” Whereas Vorbis is an almost two-dimensional evil, a parody of the Spanish Inquisition, and a murdering, creator of murderers. He is one of the few characters in Pratchett’s Discworld who has no redeemable features although Devine suggests that the redeemable quality is that the image of Vorbis as a religious zealot and lost in the idea of religious power is relatable even if it is in a negative way (Devine, 2011).
Pratchett also explores the idea of religious brainwashing, as the Branch Dividians were coming to a dramatic conclusion, Pratchett was writing this novel. He uses the Quisition to portray the idea of being forced to believe in the ideas of Om. Vorbis as with the cults like the Branch Dividians uses force to instil ideology, create new murderers in the name of religion and use innocent people to do his dirty work. Pratchett reinforces this idea when he uses the image of “World’s Greatest Dad” mug, holiday souvenirs and leaving letters to show that despite the horrible jobs they have to undertake Vorbis is using normal men who just have jobs to do (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998). In the ideology of a repressive religion the individual becomes the collective, Pratchett showed that to Vorbis people became objects and his need for power and control of people was paramount. This may be an archaic view of the Christian church or dominant religion because the Inquisition was a medieval institution however the manipulation of the church was the most important awareness (Graham, 2016).
Mendleson defines his satire as that against the institutions of religion (Mendleson, 2008), it was at no point dismissive of it, suggesting that the followers and leaders of religious organisation are hiding within self-deception (Percy, 2012). Religion as with any tyranny tells you what to believe but religion hides it behind a god to do it (Dawkins, 2016). In Small Gods Pratchett portrays both Vorbis as a religious tyrant and the leader of Ephebes as a democratic tyrant, although in essence they are the same in that they both rule the satire lies in that the Political tyrant is quite open and honest when it comes to his tyranny whereas Vorbis is underhand and manipulative (Botton, 2012). Pratchett ends with the god returning to power and an emphasis on faith being a part of the here and now and appreciating the human life all because of Brutha’s innocence and true belief. “You can die for your country or your people or your family but for a god you should live life fully and busily everyday of a long life (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998).”
Finally, many religious satires and as Aldridge argues academia, find that religion is the relic of a bygone era and in many aspects of popular culture this is true (Aldridge, 2013). If you look at specifically technology and video games where religion is portrayed it is either as mad, bad or ancient (Argyle, 1975). For example, in Fallout 4 a post-apocalyptic Role-Play Game traditional religion is almost non-existent except for the “Children of Atom” who are a cult surrounding the Atom Bomb, they are portrayed as mad (Bethesda, 2015). In the Halo series (Microsoft, 2015) you have a war with the covenant and in Final fantasy X the leader of the religious faction is a manipulator and a devious man, the bad (SquareEnix, 2015). and in Dante’s Inferno the religious ideas are the ancient relic of the crusades (ElectronicArts, 2010) (Anthony, 2014). Although in Small Gods the philosophers agree, they must adapt as the gods assert themselves (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998) and according to Glendinning this is the change that happens as religion begins to move into the private sphere.
In the “real world” the assertion comes from members of the faith community, as religion is challenged and marginalised he argues that those who are still active members begin to challenge the remove of religion from the public sphere (Bruce & Glendinning, 2011). This intrusion of actual gods into the Philosophers tirade against religion parodies this and it also furthers the belief Pratchett had that the main religion is individual but there was always Leets air of mystery (Leet A. , 2005) and no-one can truly say one way or another whether god (or gods) exist in the real world. In fact, Berger proffers that Judeo-Christian religion was an inheritance from Western Society and that familiarity has bred the satires that came and as aforementioned for as long as there has been religion there has been critique (Berger, 1990). Although, some religions are more contentious than others as with recent events, terrorism because of satirical views has become more apparent in contemporary society which has enforced more limitations on comedy. However, with Christianity as Jimmy Carr so eloquently says “No-ones scared of you, seriously…what are you going to do? forgive me? (Carr, 2016)” and as de Botton suggests the satire of religion, may have marginalised religion further and Christianity is a target because of its dominance (Botton, 2012).
Heinegg, alternatively mentions even the bible, specifically Old Testament, has religious satire running through it reflecting that religious satire has been embedded in society, and the bible and the Qur’an both have attacks on alternative religions (Heinegg, 2015). These were slightly less subtle and complex attacks but show how important religious satire is, even within religion although the motives behind religion being satirical about alternative religion are very different (King, 2000). It is less likely that this would be satire to open the mind and bring any awareness but to turn you away from other religions which ironic particularly considering the Small Gods case study as Vorbis on several occasions ridicules the society of Ephebes because the gods are like “Shifting sands” and they are “primitive” in comparison to Om, which the Tyrant in Ephebe describes as a rock (Pratchett, Small Gods, 1998). Although as a rock it seems more stable and parodies the parable of the wise and the foolish builders, but the rock is also an immovable and stubborn object, that never changes (Matthew, 2016). In this case the shifting sands were the more liberal idea, the movement beneath the feet or Ephebe meant that the gods were accepted and encouraged.
In conclusion, Pratchett’s Small Gods is a biting satire that mocks organised religion is the epitome of a religious satire. It takes the familiar in the monotheistic dominant religion and a specific event in it, the Spanish Inquisition, super-imposed on his universe, the Discworld, to create an Invented religion. This has allowed him to explore the problems with not only the dominant tradition of contemporary society but all manmade religious movements. His use of a pseudo-invented Religion has meant that he could implicitly challenge the hypocrisy and oppression of religion, along with suggesting it is outdated, as it is set in an ancient backdrop. All aspects of this novel do not solely reveal the limitations of organised religion but also a sole belief in atheism and philosophy. Pratchett uses balanced satire to encouraging questioning. His previous career allowed him a compassionate approach and a knowledgeable background in religion and the ability to challenge a dominant idea without removing the appeal unlike other satires showing a well-rounded and strong satire, with audience appeal and strong questions.
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