The Four (Not The Nine)

My first post on this blog tied the book we were reading (Paradise Lost, by John Milton) to The Lord of the Rings. For my last post on this blog, I will again be tying the current text (this time Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett) to The Lord of the Rings, but in a different way. The first time, I pondered whether scenes in the films by Peter Jackson could possibly have been directly influenced by Milton. Tonight, I will talk about how a specific group of characters in Good Omens is not like a group found in The Lord of the Rings.
What am I talking about? For as long as I can remember, I always visualized the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as appearing very much like the Nine Ringwraiths in The Lord of the Rings: armored riders cloaked all in black on black steeds with fiery red eyes. I'm not exactly sure why I imagined them this way, but that was my image and I was sticking to it. However, while reading Good Omens and encountering the Four Horsemen (riding motorcycles!), I did a bit of exploring. Apparently, Gaiman and Pratchett were closer to the correct image than I was.
In Good Omens, the Four Horsemen appear all decked out in different colors, with motorcycles to match. In looking at The Bible, both Zechariah and Revelations make reference to the Four Horsemen, and it turns out that the colors end up corresponding: War is red, Pestilence (Pollution) is white, Famine is black, and Death is pale green. Indeed, even their names match (Famine's chosen first and last names, Raven Sable, are both shades of black), and the parcels they recieve correspond to things they are reputed to carry in Revelations: War the sword, Pestilence (Pollution) the crown, Famine the scales, and Death just himself.
I think it's very interesting how, in addition to not actually looking like I imagine, The Horsemen in Good Omens have evolved to come almost unnoticed into the present day. War takes the form of an arms dealer, spreading and perpetuating armed conflict throughout the Third World; Pollution has replaced Pestilence since the invention of penicillen and through industrial waste is choking the environment; Famine is creating a worldwide sensation by making people think they're actually eating healthy when in reality they are inducing death by starvation; Death blends in amongst the crowds and is everywhere at all times. This was a really clever way of re-casting and depicting these ancient harbingers of the Apocalypse, and it makes you wonder if perhaps they're riding among us today.
(For more, check out Emily's post.)