embracing-the-ineffable

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Hi Neil, did you know there's a note on their bench in St James's Park that says not to bother you? (I do understand the irony of asking this)

I did not know that.

#ineffable fandom #neil gaiman #good omens #good omens fandom

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Why are there Infinity Loops or Möbius Strips in Good Omens?

The infinity loop, it's the idea of something that is unlimited and endless, you know...

In this post, I'm going to explore some of the symbols in the show that I think relate to this concept of eternity. For example, have you noticed that the infinity loop shows up amongst the symbols at the start of Season 1? While God's narrates about her "ineffable game" of her own devising, here it is on screen:

Why do we see so many infinity symbols here? Where else can we see this same symbol?

Read on for the places I've spotted it in both S1, S2 and the book. I’m hoping you’ll let me know if I missed any, and what you think it all means!

Eternity in Good Omens

In the book, when Crowley is explaining the concept of eternity to Aziraphale, he uses the idea of a bird which flies every thousand years to the same mountain to sharpen it's beak. Here's the conversation, with Aziraphale's interruptions edited out (pg. 55 - 56 in my hardcopy):

“Just you think about it," said Crowley relentlessly. "You know what eternity is? You know what eternity is? I mean, d'you know what eternity is? There's this big mountain, see, a mile high, at the end of the universe, and once every thousand years there's this little bird—” “Okay. And every thousand years this bird flies—" "flies all the way to this mountain and sharpens its beak—” “Sharpen its beak on the mountain," said Crowley. "And then it flies back—” “And after a thousand years it goes and does it all again," said Crowley quickly.”

This story originally came from a folk tale called the Shepherd Boy. It's very short and you can read the Brother's Grimm version here.

If we take Crowley at his word, then eternity in Good Omens is represented by repeating the same thing over again, whether that's flying forever to the same mountain, or having to watch the Sound of Music "over and over and over and over and over and over and over" into infinity.

The Infinity Loop

The common symbol for infinity, ∞, was invented by the English mathematician John Wallis in 1655. Being an extremely popular symbol, it shows up in a lot of places, including the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. Several other uses are detailed on the wikipedia page.

So, where does it appear in Good Omens? In addition to God's monologue, we also see it during the S1 baby swap sequence as part of the Satanic nun's costumes. Here it is on the upside-down watches they wear:

Here it is again on Newt's belt buckle in S1:

Here's another possible infinity symbol on Newt's computer screen, when he's working at United Holdings:

Outside of the show, it also appears on the merch released post-S2 (though a little bit disguised in the form of the snake wrapped around them). Included is the tagline of "The end was just the start".

There are also two references to infinity in the book. Here's the first very near the start (pg. 14 of my 2015 hardback edition):

“He [God] plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, [ie., everybody.] to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.”

And here's the other, closer to the end, at the airfield (pg. 363 of my edition):

“Adam glanced up. In one sense there was just clear air overhead. In another, stretching off to infinity, were the hosts of Heaven and Hell, wingtip to wingtip. If you looked really closely, and had been specially trained, you could tell the difference.”

So, Good Omens makes a few references to infinity, which I find interesting in itself. But wait, there's more!

The Ouroboros

There is another symbol which also appears in Good Omens and also suggests a form of repetition - the ouroboros. The ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail and depicts an eternal cycle of renewal - an end which comes back to the start again. I recommend taking a look at the whole wikipedia page, which is quite fascinating:

Now, this would be a rather abstract representation, but I think this appears on the wall of Nina's cafe. Unfortunately, in my image Terry's name has been cut off, but it does say Terry and Neil within those segments of the loop:

So we have the infinity symbol, the ouroboros... anything else? Well, yes, there is a third symbol for us to ponder over.

The Mobius Strip

Closely related to the idea of the infinity symbol is that of the mobius strip. To oversimplify things, the mobius strip is a object which is a continuous surface in a loop. At first glance, it appears to have two sides, but these are indeed all part of the same side (maybe we should call this "our side"?). As shown in the below gif, an object traversing the surface of the strip can repeat in a continuous loop.

Where does the mobius strip appear in Good Omens? Well, it appears in the book. Here it is being used to refer to Anathema's broken bike wheel (pg. 92 in my 2015 hardback edition):

“Behind the Bentley a bicycle lay in the road, its front wheel bent into a creditable Mobius shape, its back wheel clicking ominously to a standstill.”

And again, describing the discussions of the Them, while Adam is coming into his powers (pg. 229 in my hardback):

“Serve everyone right if all the nucular bombs went off and it all started again, only prop'ly organized," said Adam. "Sometimes I think that's what I'd like to happen. An' then we could sort everythin' out." The thunder growled again. Pepper shivered. This wasn't the normal Them mobius bickering, which passed many a slow hour. There was a look in Adam's eye that his friend couldn't quite fathom—not devilment, because that was more or less there all the time, but a sort of blank grayness that was far worse.”

Not only does the word "mobius" appear twice in the book, but Neil has continued to be interested in such ideas, releasing the song Mobius Strip in April 2023 (as brought to my attention by @embracing-the-ineffable). The song is a meditation on the nature of time, magic and how things tend to repeat. In the song, the grandfather shows the boy a trick to creating a mobius strip using paper, tape and some scissors. Here's how the song concludes:

"I'm... Somewhere on the strip We all are, walking the sign of infinity into the darkness And I'm looking for signs of a life, in a memory Reflected in the mirror I'm a mobius strip We all are We only ever see one face It's the twist that brings you back where you started"

If you're unfamiliar with the idea of creating a paper-based mobius strip, here's a video on how it works:

Is the loop Aziraphale and Crowley?

To form a mobius strip, you need to cut the paper first, flip it, and then join the ends back together.

To me, this reminds me a lot of the S2 opening sequence, when we see the bridge disconnect, separating Aziraphale and Crowley on either side, only to then reconnect at another place.

Does this mean the bridge, and perhaps the loop, represents our ineffable duo? This merch sure seems to suggest so...

That could be one interpretation of this sequence, though I'm sure there are others. What do you think? Does the loop say anything about Crowley and Aziraphale's relationship to one another?

Put it all together and...

In summary, we have at least three different symbols signifying some sort of repetition in Good Omens - the infinity loop, ouroboros and mobius strip. So, what might they mean? Why do you think it's been included, and so often? Even more importantly, have I missed any? There's endless details to be mined from this show, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are more.

I have a few theories, but nothing concrete yet, so I'm really interested in hearing everyone's ideas!

#good omens meta #ineffable mystery #good omens clues #good omens analysis #good omens season 2 #good omens season 1 #good omens #infinity symbol #infinity loop #mobius strip #newton pulsifer #ineffable husbands #ouroboros

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Good Omens' alien parking ticket - translated!

Curious about the “Alien Parking Ticket”? (Or only hearing about it for the first time?) You’ve come to the right place!

A little background first: there were 690 tickets originally released with the Ineffable and Celestial Editions of the Illustrated Good Omens as part of the “Folio of Ephemera” in 2019. 

One more was a prize in a 2021 giveaway, where it was identified as an “alien parking ticket” - https://discworld.com/seven-day-instagram-giveaway/.

More were available with the campaign for the graphic novel, though they are now sold out, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dunmanifestin/good-omens/posts/4080374. 

What does it actually look like? This is the front and back of a ticket from an Ineffable Edition, image credit to Reddit user lywinis.

The front looks a bit fuzzy because it’s done with lenticular printing (the image appears to move as you tilt it, like this:)

Interestingly, the photo on Kickstarter showed a very slightly different version of the front of the ticket, image credit to Discord user jennythepenny13. It’s still being called an alien parking ticket, and now we know it was issued to Newt by the aliens in the flying saucer.

So what does it say? Spoilers ahead!

Each symbol can be matched one-to-one to the Latin alphabet, or to a digit. After converting, it reads (with a few misspellings):

Most of the digits don’t have enough information to match them up – only 2 and 4 can be inferred from the source material.

The Kickstarter version changes “rotations of your planet” to “temporal units” for unknown reasons.

So it’s not really a parking ticket – it doesn’t even mention parking. But it is a violation ticket issued to humankind for excessive carbon dioxide emissions, high levels of atmospheric hydrocarbons, harnessing artificial wormholes without the proper permits, and insufficient planetary albedo for long-term climate stability. I guess we’ve got work to do!

#parking ticket #ineffable fandom #ineffable mystery #good omens clues #good omens analysis #good omens #good omens fandom #good omens meta #violation ticket #aliens #ineffable detective agency #good omens season 1 #good omens bts

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Voyager 1, the little space probe that could 🤩

Y'all, the world is sleeping on what NASA just pulled off with Voyager 1

The probe has been sending gibberish science data back to Earth, and scientists feared it was just the probe finally dying. You know, after working for 50 GODDAMN YEARS and LEAVING THE GODDAMN SOLAR SYSTEM and STILL CHURNING OUT GODDAMN DATA.

So they analyzed the gibberish and realized that in it was a total readout of EVERYTHING ON THE PROBE. Data, the programming, hardware specs and status, everything. They realized that one of the chips was malfunctioning.

So what do you do when your probe is 22 Billion km away and needs a fix? Why, you just REPROGRAM THAT ENTIRE GODDAMN THING. Told it to avoid the bad chip, store the data elsewhere.

Sent the new code on April 18th. Got a response on April 20th - yeah, it's so far away that it took that long just to transmit.

And the probe is working again.

From a programmer's perspective, that may be the most fucking impressive thing I have ever heard.

#space exploration #impressive #People are amazing #voyager 1 #The little space probe that could

[embracing-the-ineffable]

"To the world" 🤩

I had to put these two images together. Just too ineffable. 🥂

#neil gaiman #terry pratchett #gnu terry pratchett #aziraphale #crowley #good omens #to the world

[embracing-the-ineffable]

NEW THINGS ABOUT SEASON 3 👀❤

“I knew where I needed them at the beginning of Season 3; that was something that I’d known for a very long time,” Gaiman told TV Insider at the Writers Guild Awards in April 2024. “I remember sitting with John Finnemore, with whom I co-wrote Season 2 and talking maybe in 2019, 2020, about the shape of the story. And John was saying, ‘Well, we need an ending. We’ve got everything planned out, but we don’t have the last 10 minutes. How is it going to end?’ And when he asked me, I knew exactly how it was going to end and I explained to him that it was going to end with a kiss and suddenly everything fell into place.”

“I’m writing it currently, so I don’t know what I can say other than I got a video message from David Tennant this morning asking me where the scripts were, because he wants to read more of them. He’s only read the first three and he’s very excited to find out what happens next,” Gaiman told TV Insider in April 2024. “It’s going to be fun. Some people that you love will be coming back; some that you expect, some that you don’t. And it’s more like the high-paced, high stakes madness of Season 1, I think, than it is like the sort of gentle, romantic, funny, sweet Season 2.”

[embracing-the-ineffable]

((No matter what happens, I'm going to keep putting out the content I want to see in the universe!))

[embracing-the-ineffable]

What a glorious thought, that maybe, just maaaaybe, Neil could return to the world of Good Omens again someday after season 3 💖

Neil,

Not that you would want to, but I was just curious. When the GO series is complete, would you be allowed to engage with fancontent without fear of legal recourse or reprisal?

I guess. But that would also mean I could never again go back to Good Omens. So although things like Coraline are complete, I still don't read the fan fiction.

#good omens #neil gaiman #good omens fandom #love #ineffable husbands

[embracing-the-ineffable]

I wasn't tagged, and there's no way for me to choose just one favorite, but it's easy to include "Smitten" on the list 💖

#good omens #crowley #aziraphale #david tennant #michael sheen #ineffable husbands #good omens fandom #ineffable fandom #neil gaiman

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Today Crowley surprised Aziraphale by making him breakfast in bed– a full English, with a steaming hot cup of tea. He even sliced some fresh fruits into little hearts for Aziraphale to delight in.

[embracing-the-ineffable]

I've been tired and bussy, trying not to die in The process jaja...nvm. some more Good Omens here :3 chibis happy dancing :3

#ineffable dance #good omens fanart #good omens #aziraphale #crowley #chibi art

[embracing-the-ineffable]

"invisible and unbreakable" 🥹🥰

What’s your favourite line from good omens?

The invisible and unbreakable one that joins Crowley and Aziraphale.

#good omens #crowley #aziraphale #invisible and unbreakable connection #gorgeous #neil gaiman #good omens fandom #ineffable husbands #love

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Today Aziraphale gently tipped Crowley’s chin up, and kissed him tenderly.

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Hello, bit of a weird question but I just started another good omens rewatch and I can’t get it out of me head. When Adam and Eve are shown leaving the garden, eve is visibly pregnant, God then says that there has been 7 days so far. My question is how does Eve have the appearance of someone who is 5-6 months pregnant after a maximum of 7 days of pregnancy???

Also Thankyou so much for all of your incredible work, I am reading Neverwhere right now and got American Gods for my birthday :)

Watch again. God says there have been "rather more than seven days".

#good omens #good omens season 1 #good omens timeline #good omens clues #neil gaiman

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Reading these signs definitely put the fear of Mother Nature into me!! Thank goodness we've invented heat, air conditioning, plumbing, electricity, and the internet. I'll be secluded in my cozy indoor refuge and refusing to go outside today, if anyone needs me 😅

this is by far my favorite safety/warning sign btw. they really went off with this one

#ominous signs #mother nature #be careful #ffs #tw: death #tw: dark content

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Today Crowley didn’t digest a single word of Aziraphale’s elaborate story, too lost in his angel’s animated expressions to give the words his full attention.

[embracing-the-ineffable]

You're 63??? I thought for sure you were in your thirties!

I've been writing professionally since 1982ish.

#Neil Gaiman appreciation #neil gaiman #Parents are superheroes