The Tower represents sudden upheaval, destruction, chaos, trauma, disaster, destroyed foundations, obliteration of the status quo, and pain without purpose. Reversed, it indicates resisting change, averting disaster, delaying the inevitable, stagnation, running from tragedy, denial, comfortable misery, and avoiding loss.
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I've been putting off writing about this one for a while. Hell, I'm three quarters of the way through Lords and Ladies already, wondering what, if anything, I can say about Small Gods that hasn't already been said a hundred times, if it's even worth saying anything.
There's barely a single wasted line in the whole thing. Every word, every door of punctuation serves to build up the story, the characters, the setting. Everything feels laser sharp, focussed to the point of white heat. The message was the medium when Pratchett wrote this, and no idle thoughts were going to work their way through the cracks.
I have a long history of this book, but much of that was from the very-abridged audiobook version with Tony Robinson. Every time I come back to the full text there's still revelations to be had, new details to discover. The repeated motif of the tortoise and the eagle may be an obvious one, being as it is the opening narration and the climax of the story, but something that I noticed this time around was that the eagle is always present throughout all the scenes in Omnia, even where it might not have a direct impact on the plot. Just constant reminders that up there, in the sky, is a circling eagle.
It would be overly simplistic to say that the eagle represents just Vorbis, despite the occasions where Vorbis is compared to an eagle in looks and attitude. I think the eagle is more of a cipher for the corrupted Omnian church itself, the hollowed-out religion devoid of real faith while the tortoise (Om) is faith without the structures of religion.
Or another detail, the way dishonest and corrupt figures use physical touch, usually a pat on the shoulder, to display their desire for control over Brutha. Again, this is mostly Vorbis, but it's chilling when Simony does the same thing, entirely unbidden.
Both of these details were lost in the abridged version.
And yes, this is Pratchett's masterpiece. Not just in the detail, but the beautiful shape of the story as a whole, in the perfect realisation of the characters, in the absolutely impeccable pacing, and the way that the events of the story (particularly the desert sequence) could be imagined as chapters from a real holy book, only we get to see it at ground level where Brutha and Om are bickering the whole time.
A man walks the wilderness with his god. The god nourishes and protects the man the man carries and protects the god. They learn to appreciate how they depend upon each other for survival, and on their return home they create the first constitutional religion. It's so beautiful.
Because in a hundred years we'll all be dead. But here and now we are alive.
I really liked your Vorbis analysis!! Especially the part about him not receiving some kind of Eternal Punishment (like he threatened so many others with)... because obviously that would be completely against the theme of the book.
I find it fascinating how Vorbis's mind is repeatedly described as impenetrable ("like a steel ball," I think is the simile). No ideas in or out. It evokes an inhumanity, almost an automaton-ity. He flips a turtle on its back simply because he can. I wonder if that's why he shuts down at the end? Because there's nothing to do in the black desert except introspect... something Vorbis is utterly incapable of.
It seems ambiguous to me whether Vorbis really believes in the tenets of Omnianism in any form (even the corrupted institution of The Church, which stole the belief of Om). I don't really think he believes in anything at all.
My reading is that he's mechanical, unspiritual, not fully human, on account of his disconnection from sincerity and idealism (the things that fuel Brutha). And thus, when there's no more material reality for him to connive about, he's rendered inert.
you knowwww i've been mulling this one over for a bit now and i think i've got my interpretation of vorbis figured out, which is funny because i've landed on sort of the opposite side of the spectrum of interpretation?? i think?? bare with me pls lol
pratchett opens Small Gods by describing a torture chamber, the workplace of the inquisitors. with cards from family pinned up on the wall, everybody's mugs (world's best dad, etc) lined up in the break room. immediately, we are offered a theme: anyone can be a horrible person. you don't need to have a special kind of mind.
with vorbis, i don't believe there is anything deeper than what we are told. mind like a steel ball yes- but i don't find that to be indicative of concealment. with a steel ball, there's nothing to penetrate into. moreover, it can't be dented or changed in any way. it just sits there, shining coldly, and it's cold steel all the way through.
now i think this is still really interesting, because we are given certain cues to indicate how seriously harmful this state of mind is to Vorbis the Man.
A conversation about Vorbis's presentation and authenticity is had .
Brutha shoots this down with certainty. And we're meant to trust Brutha, i think. Otherwise anything goes, narrative-wise. Brutha also explains elsewhere that Vorbis waits for bread to get stale before eating it.
this truth is all but proven when Brutha finds Vorbis in the desert. Vorbis is described as incredibly frail and brittle. Pratchett states that Brutha could break him in his hands. that is not the body of a healthy man. I believe that he truly gave his life to the church, i believe that he lives by the rules of Omnianism to the letter. and i also believe that
I also don't believe that Vorbis is unthinking or unfeeling, or even unspiritual. No... i think it's way scarier to imagine that he is a completely "normal" person. I believe his brain operates normally- he is human, just like everyone else in the quisition. but Vorbis is the highest extreme of what it means to give everything you have to a corrupt belief system.
IE, he is a representation of what occurs when one becomes entirely mentally closed-off from the world. Instead of healthy human behavior, he derives the only pleasure he can ever feel from having power over others.
An important point: he literally dies to save Omnia. His death is the lynchpin in the development of the country.
So, let's run this down. Vorbis is shown to deny himself all earthly pleasures, including things like food which are physically necessary to live. His death upon the symbolic turtle (cross) was the sign of the age of the new prophet. Also, he was said to have nails (βοΈ!!) sewn into his underclothes. I believe he feels: i believe he feels incredible suffering at all times.
I'm Keeping in mind the story's biblical themes, I believe that Vorbis is actually meant to be read as the story's martyr.
Now, it becomes more complicated when considering Brutha's role in all of this- i have yet to crack that one. But i'll have to keep thinking about it. And i understand that this isn't proof that Vorbis isn't some kind of human robot - he could be described that way still.
But all things considered, this is the reasoning for my own interpretation.
monsters are scariest when they're desperate.
sidenote: I also believe that in chapter 92, we are meant to draw a semi-direct parallel between Vorbis and the starving desert lion. It may be the furthest look we get into Vorbis's psyche. I may be way off, so take that how u will.
other sidenote: i have a mental thing about vorbis and brutha both being martyr. but. i'll come to that eventually
I was patiently following your Vorbis Posting, waiting with bated breath for you to get to The Part At The End, in the black desert.
Have you read another Discworld book, titled Pyramids? I think you would also like Dios.
thank you for the ask anon!!
putting my vorbis stuff here to illustrate.
OK. OK OK OK listen. yes ive read pyramids, i really liked it! dios is definitely very similar, but very different. the idea of needing things to stay the same, needing to 'keep things running'. though i believe that dios was spurred on by his sense of duty, whereas vorbis is motivated by self-interest.
on to vorbis. it's a chunk of text π
note: i'm currently giving small gods a second listen-through, just to get some things straight. i'm filling up a doc with vorbis stuff which i'm hoping to do something with eventually- but his character is so complicated it's been a bit of an exercise to get everything straight.
re: the part at the end. i think it's good and right that it happened that way, and it also gives me the feels in a huge good way. BUT i also am struggling to reconcile it with the rest of vorbis's character! he looked inside himself and immediately became lost. and he stayed at the edge of the desert until brutha came to him, and they walked the desert together. that is how i understand the actual plot points.
all i can think of is that- when vorbis's personal belief system was dismantled entirely, he was left with nothing. he was not equipped to be left alone with no power, no influence, and only his own mind for company. part of what makes it feel so sad to me is that it feels like brutha became his caretaker in the desert originally- and even more so when they walked together into the black desert. it felt to me like vorbis almost regressed back to a childlike mindset, since he never learned any other way of being if that makes sense? it seems like the only way vorbis could cope.
the point of importance here is the narrative's magnaminity: vorbis might be shocked, scared, or lost- but he is not being 'punished for his sins'. the narrative allows vorbis to be forgiven. vorbis has paid, "just-us" has been served, and now vorbis is just left with nothing. effectively, he becomes innocent again.
now, i am still processing vorbis's original journey through the desert with brutha and Om. i can't decide on what level of lucidity he was at throughout, as different interpretations greatly change the narrative!
you'll hear more vorbis stuff from me as i continue to relisten. i'm really impressed with small gods if you couldn't tell. i'm so happy to find some intelligent fiction that really resonates for me. :D
tiny edit: i would really appreciate corrections to any points i might have missed/misconstrued.
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Bored in class so here's a quick sketch of Vorbis from Small Gods. Yes he does look suspiciously like the grand inquisitor from star wars because that's how I imagined him reading the book.
What gets to me about Vorbis is that he's sincere. He's not corrupt, he's not a hypocrite; he is a pious follower of the Church of Om who obeys every rule. And yet he is one of the evilest people on the Disc.
I'm only casually familiar, but I get the feeling that there's a common plot where there's a corrupt and decadent religion that is returned to its good roots by a humble believer. The villains are often priests who put up a veneer of piety in public while they secretly hoard wealth and get drunk in violation of their religion's tenets.
Small Gods is not that plot. Brutha isn't fighting the corruption of Om's words, nor is he fighting people who use religion as a means to wealth and power. If anything, he's the one who 'corrupted' Omnianism into a religion of peace and debate.
The church under Vorbis isn't a corruption of Om's words as much as a distillation; at the very start, Om only cared about getting new followers and putting unbelievers to the sword, and now he has countries conquered in his name and heretics put to the knife. And Vorbis doesn't seek wealth or power for himself; he denies himself pleasures of the flesh, and dedicates himself entirely to his religion (or so he thinks).
When Vorbis kills the porpoise, not even Brutha can find a word in the books of the Prophets against that. When Didactylos burns the Library of Ephebe, he says it's in part a way to keep its knowledge out of Vorbis's hands, but Brutha knows that Vorbis would not read a single scroll. And the scene where Om and Brutha are eating the melon in Ephebe hits me every time; Om thinks that Vorbis is feasting, while Brutha says that he only eats stale bread. He adds that he sits and waits for the bread to get stale.
