Neil Gaiman works

I think that was also there just to emphasize the grime of ordinary life. The story was, in a lot of ways, just about the mundane touching the mythological and bringing it down to its level. These grand stories became ordinary people with ordinary uneventful lives.

Odin was a grifter, for crying out loud. There's nothing romanticized about that.

Except grifters are always romanticized. The guy had a lot of superficial charm.

Not the way Gaiman depicted him. He was crude and self-centered. He has sex with a girl, she's never going to fall in love with anyone else ever again. There's nothing valiant or heroic about these characters. They're slowly dying gods.

I agree there's nothing to admire in Wednesday at least, although some of the others seem cool; Anansi in paticular. But Wednesday doesn't come off as a total bastard the page we meet him. He has charming qualities, and frankly the con tricks are one of them.

@Maridee: Yeah, that's probably it, and it worked the first few times. But after that it just seemed as if Gaiman just thought we urgently needed to know every time Shadow emptied his bladder.

Anansi is cool. But honestly I think part of that is because he came over with slaves. They clung to figures like him, and Aunt Nancy became part of a richer, deeper culture that focused on survival, life and living.

Wednesday can be charming, but the things he does are always despicable. I don't find him a likable character.

The one book. And now we know why they don't include it in other books!

Neil Gaiman did something fascinating on Twitter today. He had a lot of help.

Sent mine in. Just a weird little reversal of sorts.

I loved reading those...was too busy to do more than contribute to October.

edited 5th Feb '13 9:44:41 AM by Willbyr

Bought American Gods today. Good, I expect?

Good. Depressing, tho.

...well, if you're an American.

edited 5th Feb '13 3:09:30 PM by Maridee

Yeah, it's good.

Speaking as an Australian, though, I don't think America is as unique as the book sort of implies. There are other countries which are a mish-mash of the many beliefs of its colonists.

That is kind of the mythos of my country, tho? That we take anyone. (shh forget about slavery and racism and the quota on Jewish refugees before WWII because WE TAKE EVERYONE) we have an iconic green statue, by golly. the American dream. anyone can come over and make it big! and then for some reason or another, most don't. and dreams slowly wither and die. or maybe that's just the getting older thing.

and obviously none of these things are special to america. you can go anywhere and do that. we just...hyped ourselves better. (and also we weren't colonized by criminals. TAKE THAT, AUSTRALIA.)

(...okay so we had puritans and john smith. whatever.)

(we also had a bigger continent.)

I think America is rather ethnically diverse as countries go (at least until more recently), and it's not like the novel brushes over slavery and other negative aspects- several of the gods are a product of those.

My Doyleist take (and I think Gaiman himself has commented to this effect) is that it's not so much that the novel is "America Fuck Yeah"- it's actually more like Gaiman, as a naturalized American citizen having a "wonder" for aspects of America that an American-by-birth probably wouldn't give as much attention to (i.e. the various tourist trap places visited as shrines).

And this personal aspect is reflected in the characters- the gods are (like Gaiman) originally from the "Old World". Fat Charlie, the protagonist of the sort-of-sequel Anansi Boys was born in the United States but then became naturalized British (the opposite of Gaiman obviously) but reflects a similar cultural mix as his creator.

edited 5th Feb '13 8:43:48 PM by Hodor

And the Chinese Exclusion Act. Make sure you forget that, too.

On the criminals thing, wasn't one of the people in American God's random vignettes transported to America because she was pregnant and couldn't be executed?

edited 5th Feb '13 8:44:02 PM by rikalous

Yes. IIRC, she was the one who brought over Mad Sweeney (or did she bring over like fairies, I forget). Come to think of it, my sense is that many if not all of the gods were "created" by hardship/oppression (probably because a) someone non-oppressed would likely have remained in their home country and b) there seems to be an implication that people turn to gods/God in desperation).

And part of the Great America Myth is that it's the desperate coming over to make a new life. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."

thanks for reminding me. I'll be especially sure to forget that.

interesting. yes. the gods seemed to be created by belief. but they stick around even when they aren't believed in.

Easier to maintain than to create, for pretty much everything ever.

A Calendar of Tales read by Neil himself.

i'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but my favourite of his was Stardust. American Gods was good, a little creepy and fascinating, but i felt it was too long and meandering. Stardust however, i felt was like a perfect blend between Pratchett and Tolkien, it was humourous, interesting and had an engaging plot and characters. it was nice and short as well, in contrast to the doorstopper that was american gods. the movie version was decent, one of the better fantasy movies that you see recently, but i far preferred the books.

edited 11th May '13 3:29:45 AM by VincentQuill

I am currently reading Good Omens. Well, it's also a Prachette book, but whatever.

So far I like it. Very easy to read and funny. I think there are a lot of Genius Bonus, just that I can't actually recognize.

Apparently Crowley slept through 19th century, only waking up at 1832 for restroom. Does anyone if this is a hhistorical reference?

1832 was a pretty tumultuous time in Britain: the passage of an important and controversial electoral reform bill was preceded by some pretty serious rioting across the country as well as lots of public campaigning and political conflict. So it could be a joke on the lines of 'all that stuff going on and he just woke up to use the bathroom!' But that's a bit tenuous and considering that the first part of the nineteenth century was dominated by two decades of a major European war, I wouldn't have picked 1832. It's probably just a random date.

Read American Gods a year ago, forgot most of the elements. I remember my English teacher got turned off by the second chapter.

And how Irish and Germans were treated originally. And what the colonists did to the Natives. And the Japanese internment camps. And how Hispanics are currently treated.

Basically, be sure to forget about anyone who's not a WASP.