I had two questions about content in “Good Omens”. 1) Aziraphale is said to have not sworn for several thousand years save for “bugger” and “fuck” when trying to deceive and avoid the Metatron. But earlier in the book when drunk he says the phrase “full of bugger all dear boy”. Is that not swearing according to the British? I am confused. 2) Could you explain the bit about Crowley’s “real Soul music” not including James Brown? Thank you!

neil-gaiman:

neil-gaiman:

No, the “bugger” in “full of bugger all” is not swearing. Nor would it have been swearing for Aziraphale to have publicly discussed the Bugger All This Bible.

People have looked on this post askance and maintain that it is swearing. However, they are wrong.  I know they are wrong, because when Terry Pratchett and I turned up late one night in late 1990 to do the Hour 25 show with Joe Straczynski on KPFK, the programming director came over and told Terry and me that we were NOT ALLOWED TO SWEAR. She explained that English people often swore and that no swearing was allowed to occur on live radio or they would lose their broadcasting license. So Terry and I naturally and immediately asked if we could say bugger, because there was the Bugger All This bible in the book, and we might mention it, and she went away to ask. She was gone quite a long time, but when she came back she said she had taken it all the way to the top, and it wasn’t swearing, and we could say Bugger on the radio.

brendaonao3:

tea-and-liminality:

This is for all the unsung fic writers; the ones who don’t make the must-read lists, the ones who don’t get recced, the ones who don’t get hundreds of kudos, the rarepair writers out on the peripheries of fandom, the ones who toil away quietly for the handful of people who read and love them. You matter – you’re a writer too, and don’t you ever forget it. 🙂

Amen.  You ALL matter.  Every word you write matters.  Whether you know it or not, your words have made someone’s day better or brighter or made their life a little easier to bear.

And yes, I’m talking about YOU. And YOU. Yeah, and YOU, too.