Original artwork, not a still
Small Gods · 1992
It’s a god-eat-god world.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Pratchett's joke is that divinity runs on the same rules as any food chain: a god lives only as long as people believe in them, so the big ones feed and the small ones starve. Om says it with the swagger of a god who is, at that moment, a tortoise. Fans quote it as a dry comment on any cutthroat business, fandom or office, and as the doorway into the novel's real idea that gods need believers more than believers need gods.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Small GodsShow the scene
In Terry Pratchett's Small Gods (1992), the thirteenth Discworld novel, the Great God Om wakes up as a small one-eyed tortoise with exactly one true believer left: Brutha, a slow, devout novice in the theocracy of Omnia. The book's premise is that gods on the Disc grow with belief and shrink to nothing without it, so they compete for worshippers like animals for food. Om has been worshipped through habit and fear rather than faith, and the story follows the two of them across the desert as he learns what that has cost him. The line is Pratchett's twist on dog-eat-dog for that economy of faith.
Sources (2)
- Small Gods, Wikipedialead and Plot sectionsReference checked
- Goodreads reader highlight from Small Godshighlight at 83%Reference checked
Context reviewed
