I missed this notification 16 weeks ago so am just getting to it now. I didn't actually know that Winter Light was just named for lighting choices. Now I want to go in and check on all the endless "[modifier] [season]" Ozus. I've seen WL but not FR. I didn't actually know that First Reformed was playing with the same type of story (I mostly just knew "anxious priest") but that makes sense.
I have one social media acquaintance who posts regularly about the Aziraphale/Crowley ship, and it does occur to me that the A/C story is the one thing in Good Omens that is *least* time-sensitive, in that they're immortal beings. The non-heteronormativity is something that is easier to portray on TV now than 20 years ago, certainly, but I think it does maybe hint at some of the ways in which the show's deep focus on that ship is somewhat at odds with commenting on our current troubles as individual humans, like if BtVS were just the scene where Anyanka explains the inevitability of the proletariat uprising to Halfrek. Which is only a problem insofar as GO does seem to be trying to be that for us.
But anyway yeah, along the lines of what you're saying, Aziraphale and Crowley dropping out in order to live out their (indefinite) lives quietly rather than having to actively work to bring about the Apocalypse is more appropriate for a time in which the primary problem was the intractable war between two behemoths, where if everyone just stopped and hung out with each other instead everything would mostly be okay. That's not really our problem now. I mean, it wasn't *really* our problem then either. But the message was probably more internally coherent for the major problems of the time. It's still true that it's better to drop out and have quiet, pleasant lives than to actively make things worse, but as you say there's a certain need for action now that there wasn't before. (Though in reality it's also unclear whether we aren't as powerless as we were in 1962/1990, or more so, but still....)
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Date: 2019-10-23 09:39 pm (UTC)I have one social media acquaintance who posts regularly about the Aziraphale/Crowley ship, and it does occur to me that the A/C story is the one thing in Good Omens that is *least* time-sensitive, in that they're immortal beings. The non-heteronormativity is something that is easier to portray on TV now than 20 years ago, certainly, but I think it does maybe hint at some of the ways in which the show's deep focus on that ship is somewhat at odds with commenting on our current troubles as individual humans, like if BtVS were just the scene where Anyanka explains the inevitability of the proletariat uprising to Halfrek. Which is only a problem insofar as GO does seem to be trying to be that for us.
But anyway yeah, along the lines of what you're saying, Aziraphale and Crowley dropping out in order to live out their (indefinite) lives quietly rather than having to actively work to bring about the Apocalypse is more appropriate for a time in which the primary problem was the intractable war between two behemoths, where if everyone just stopped and hung out with each other instead everything would mostly be okay. That's not really our problem now. I mean, it wasn't *really* our problem then either. But the message was probably more internally coherent for the major problems of the time. It's still true that it's better to drop out and have quiet, pleasant lives than to actively make things worse, but as you say there's a certain need for action now that there wasn't before. (Though in reality it's also unclear whether we aren't as powerless as we were in 1962/1990, or more so, but still....)