Vince is correct that the original statement is in the plural, and intended to be read that way, and significant.
the interesting part is that if he checks the original MMPB of OOS, he'll find "brother's". but, it was confirmed years ago on the Bar that _that_ was the typo, introduced by the copy-editor assuming that the singular was intended, which slipped past Himself during his review of the edits. entirely understandable, since it is a very subtle difference. the TPB and current e-books both contain the corrected text that Vince is citing. [BTW, the ancientness of that discussion is an indication of just how long this debate has been going on ]
what i can't say, because i've never seen it mentioned anywhere, is whether the the version in WGO is a second typo, propagating the first one in the interest of continuity, or if, as Vince suggests, it shows that Brandark himself didn't understand it correctly at first. it's an interesting thought, and entirely plausible. unfortunately, since i read WGO first, and the two then matched, it never occurred to me to ask either Richard or Himself for clarification when the error was first brought to light.
fallsfromtrees wrote:I didn't bother copying the previous post, in order to save electrons. I still think you are grasping at straws - and from some of the other posts, I am now inclined to believe that his God will turn out to be Semkirk.