27

In 1990, on their book tour for the original release of Good Omens, Pratchett and Gaiman gave an interview where the interviewer did not realize that Good Omens was a work of fiction, and thought that they truly believed that the book was a faithful depiction of the apocalypse.

From a Neil Gaiman interview in 2015

“[Terry] said ‘Well, you remember we were on the Good Omens author tour in February 1990’ … He said ‘We were in New York and we went to that ABC affiliate radio station, and the interviewer had not actually read the book … so when we started telling him about Agnes Nutter … we started explaining about this 17th century witch who all of her predictions were true … He did not realise this was fictional. We realised he had not read the book, and the engineers in the control room behind the glass panel who we could see and he could not, were lying on their backs kicking their legs against the walls.’

And I said, ‘Of course I remember. I was willing to let that go on for the entire interview’.

I think that this interview sounds hilarious, but I can't seem to find hide nor hair of it. I don't know if that is because it was never saved, or because it's drowned out by all the other more recent search results, but I'd quite like to read/listen to it if I can.

Can anybody find it, or prove that it no longer exists?

1

2 Answers 2

6

I heard it; it was absolutely hilarious (but also quite puzzling without the in-studio context) and my first introduction to both Neil himself and PTerry. I'd love to find either a recording or a transcript. Neil also blogged about it at one point, and mention is made of it in the interviews contained in the 2007 republication of Good Omens. Not that any of that info will likely help too much in tracking a transcript down, unfortunately.

The first mention of the interview that I'm aware of was published in 1991 in Locus magazine, so that might have a bit of info not contained in later interviews with the authors.

One bit I believe I recall from the interview which I don't remember reading was that the interviewer had gathered that they were award winning authors (perhaps of some serious scholarly work on prophecy) presumably gleaned from Neil's bio blurb. There was a lot of laughter from both Pratchett and Gaiman, of course. And I also recall a few Salman Rushdie roommate jokes at the end of the interview just in case everyone listening/reading didn't get the message that what they were writing was humor.

4
  • This is a nice find but it isn't the transcript the OP is looking for.
    – TheLethalCarrot
    Dec 31, 2019 at 12:40
  • 1
    Agreed; just trying to recall everything I've read about that radio interview in case something might assist in locating a transcript of it.
    – Tom Cooley
    Dec 31, 2019 at 13:02
  • As I recall it, there was also a bit of historical discussion of some of the Infamous Bibles, see the note here for p.26 for more info on those: lspace.org/books/apf/good-omens.html
    – Tom Cooley
    Jan 1, 2020 at 12:21
  • My overall impression of the interview in hindsight was that Neil and Terry were attempting humorously (between seemingly random fits of laughter) to stick to either nonfictional reference source material for the book or to Agnes Nutter's prophecies while clueing their listeners in to the fact that there was a bit more going on here than the interviewer had caught on to.
    – Tom Cooley
    Jan 1, 2020 at 12:37
4

Just for completeness:

Another user over on Literature asked the same question as you, @ArcanistLupus, and a third user actually just went and asked @neilhimself, who responded that:

There are dozens of interviews with us about this and it's even mentioned in the afterword to one of the current editions. He didn't think we were religious looks, just that we believed in Agnes and her prophecies.

humans are awesome

All credit goes to @Jos (and, well, Neil).

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.