Small Gods :: essays research papers fc

â€Å"Small Gods† The World rides through space on the back of a turtle. This is one of the great ancient world myths, found wherever men and turtles were gathered together; the four elephants were an Indo–European sophistication. The idea has been lying in the lumber rooms of legend for centuries. All I had to do was grab it and run away before the alarms went off. Discworld is based on a slew of old myths, which reach their most 'refined' form in Hindu mythology, which in turn of course derived from the original Star Trek episode 'Planet of Wobbly Rocks where the Security Guard Got Shot' (Pratchett, Terry. Equal p 216). Terry Pratchett is the author of a popular fantasy series that is set in Discworld, a planet that is as flat as a pancake. It sails on forever, a flat, circular world carried on the backs of four elephants supported on the back of A’tuin, the giant space turtle. The turtle doesn’t stand on anything, so don’t ask. It swims on through the infinite universe (Huckaby n.pag.). In his book Small Gods, Terry Pratchett succeeds in satirizing most of the world’s major religions and a few ancient political policies by expressing his thoughts and feelings through his own brand of humor and witticism. In the Discworld, there are a numerous amount of gods, powerful and weak. Small Gods takes a look into the realm of Ominia, a vast empire devoted to the Greater Glory of their god Om. The Gods of Discworld have a very unique power source. Their power depends upon having believers; a god with no believers fades into a powerless, wandering spirit or dies. The Great God Om has a powerful church, yet has only one real believer, a novice monk named Brutha. Drained of supportive power, he finds himself trapped in the body of an ordinary tortoise. Imagine the discomfiture a god might experience if confronted with some of the beliefs taught in his name -- and some of the "divinely inspired" actions taken by his followers as a result. Om, in his little tortoise shell, also comes to the disconcerting realization that, while his religion is vast and has many zealous worshippers, he has very few actual honest-to-Om believers. One, actually (Knapp n.pag.). Pratchett shows a struggle between a god and his religion, which no has no room for him. He shows a cynical side like most British humorists in that there may be religions existing whose god died out long ago from lack of belief.