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War/Red/Scarlett
Famine is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. While posing as human, he takes the form of a tall, slim, dark-haired man named Mr. Sable. Wherever he goes, people suddenly find themselves hungry. As Mr. Sable, Famine popularizes the trend in expensive restaurants of serving miniscule portions. He’s also the mastermind behind the meal products CHOW and MEALS, which contain only filler and no nutritional value—so people who eat enough of them ultimately die of malnutrition. He takes special delight in seeing wealthy people go hungry by choice (rather than famine and hunger affecting mostly poor people, as has often been the case historically). In the hours before Armageddon (the end of the world) is supposed to begin, Famine receives a set of scales (which symbolize the way food might be weighed out during a famine). His young counterpart in Adam’s gang the “Them,” Wensleydale, vanquishes Famine with his own makeshift set of scales.
Famine/Black/Sable Quotes in Good Omens
The Good Omens quotes below are all either spoken by Famine/Black/Sable or refer to Famine/Black/Sable. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Saturday Quotes
And then it was Pigbog’s turn.
“I, uh...I think I’ll be them answer phones. They’re pretty bad,” he said.
“You can’t be ansaphones. What kind of a Biker of the Repocalypse is ansaphones? That’s stupid, that is.”
“S’not!” said Pigbog, nettled. “It’s like War, and Famine, and that. It’s a problem of life, isn’t it? Answer phones. I hate bloody answer phones.”
“I hate ansaphones, too,” said Cruelty to Animals.
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As four bikers ride behind the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, they come up with new names. While some of them, like Cruelty to Animals in this passage, take names that don’t make much sense, Pigbog tries to choose a name that best encapsulates the failings he recognizes in the modern world. This passage is intentionally humorous—it’s one of many times that Good Omens encourages readers to consider the modern world and all the ways in which it’s actually absurd. Two of the characters in this passage hate ansaphones (early answering machines) and perhaps other seemingly normal technology that makes Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque o
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND, he said. SURELY YOUR VERY EXISTENCE REQUIRES THE ENDING OF THE WORLD. IT IS WRITTEN.
“I dunt see why anyone has to go an’ write things like that,” said Adam calmly. “The world is full of all sorts of brilliant stuff and I haven’t found out all about it yet, so I don’t want anyone messing it about or endin’ it before I’ve had a chance to find out about it. So you can all just go away.”
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When Adam confronts Death and the other Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he refuses to lead them into starting Armageddon (the end of the world). For Death (who speaks in all capital letters with no quotation marks), this is confusing—it’s “written,” after all, that as the Antichrist, Adam is going to lead the Four Horsemen and bring about the end of the world. For Adam, though, what’s been written is essentially just a matter of opinion. He doesn’t like what’s been written about what he’s supposed to do—so he goes into this with the understanding that he can change it and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Si
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Famine/Black/Sable Character Timeline in Good Omens
The timeline below shows where the character Famine/Black/Sable appears in Good Omens. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Eleven Years Ago
A man named Sable is having drinks with his accountant on the top of 666 Fifth Avenue in New...
(full context)
Friday
Sable sits in the back of his limousine. He’s on the phone discussing the launch of...
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Saturday
...every biker in the café is ravenous—but the kitchen is out of food. The category Famine pops up on the trivia game. As Red and Black discuss the brewing thunderstorm and...
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Now, the available categories are War, Famine, Pollution, and Pop Trivia. The tall biker refuses to press any of the buttons that...
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...the stage and tells the cameras what’s going to happen, according to Revelation. War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death will ride out and bring about nuclear destruction, and then the Rapture will...
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...he can’t be Ansaphones, even if ansaphones are problems of modern life. They follow Death, Famine, War, and Pollution toward Tadfield.
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...Three of them remove their helmets. War wishes they could crash through the fence, but Famine notes that if people react logically to what seems like a terrorist attack, the whole...
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...One of them says that they’re here for a surprise inspection, and after some haggling, Famine and Pollution talk Sergeant Deisenburger into letting them in. No one stops the four generals...
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Inside, War looks around. She, Pollution, and Famine know what computers are, but Death doesn’t. She thinks that there might one day be...
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...on the air base, Death straightens up and says that he’s here. War, Pollution, and Famine now seem to have “ill-fitting bodies.” Only Death hasn’t changed. As the Four leave the...
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...Adam that he’s part of them, while Pollution says that they’re making the world anew. Famine says that Adam is supposed to lead them. Adam hesitates. He hears voices inside saying...
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...as Wensleydale raises something that, with imagination, might be scales. He whirls it around, and Famine disappears, his scales falling. Then, Brian pulls a circle of grass from his head and...
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Wensleydale asks where War, Pollution, and Famine went, and Death says that they’ve gone where they belong—back into people’s minds. With a...
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