Book Review: Neil Gaiman’s American Gods

“Hey,” said Shadow. “Huginn or Muninn, or whoever you are.”

The bird turned, head tipped, suspiciously, on one side and it stared at him with bright eyes.

“Say ‘Nevermore'”, said Shadow.

“Fuck you,” said the raven. It said nothing else as they went through the woodland together.

Every summer I re-read my favorite books. A lot of it is, admittedly, complete trash (mmm.vampire romances) but there are a few that fit in with the theme I’m trying to stick to here: what is our mythology? Is it the legends of the past, the heroes and heras of today or something completely different? Will the witches of the future be building altars to the great goddess Hillary? I already do, but that’s my own weird thing.

Years ago, I remember reading a book, I think it was by Raven Grimassi, but I couldn’t tell you which one, in which he recounts a myth that says that the old gods are still here, still watching us and still active. As long as just a single human still pays them homage, they are satisfied, but once that last worshiper goes away, it will be the apocalypse. The idea really resonated with me and I planned to write a sci-fi/fantasy opus one day about the last goddess lady left on earth after a Christian Coalition right wing takeover.

Neil Gaiman wrote a better book about this than I ever could.

American Gods is a story about gods and goddesses and what happened to them once their worshipers migrated to the New World. America has not exactly been a land of opportunity for these deities; part of the assimilation of new immigrants has been the gradual forgetting of the rites from the old country.Ultimately they have to fight the new gods: the gods of the combustion engine, the gods of cable television, the gods of technology who are, let’s say, philosophically opposed to the veneration of anything not shiny and new.

The United States is a relatively young country as these things go, and really doesn’t have a culture of its own. Even the nation’s capital is filled with reproductions of architecture reminiscent, if not downright imitative, of ancient Greece. The things that are truly American don’t normally get classified as culture. An example would be rock music.

“So, what is this place?” asked Shadow, as they walked through the parking lot toward a low, unimpressive wooden building.

“This is a roadside attraction,” said Wednesday. “One of the finest. Which means it is a place of power.”

“Come again?”

“It’s perfectly simple,” said Wednesday. “In other countries, over the years, people recognized the places of power. Sometimes it would be a natural formation, sometimes it would just be a place that was, somehow, special. They knew that something important was happening there, that there was some focusing point, some channel, some window to the Immanent. And so they would build temples or cathedrals, or erect stone circles, or…well, you get the idea.”

“There are churches all across the States though” said Shadow.

“In every town. Sometimes on every block. And about as significant, in this context, as dentists’ offices. No, in the USA, people still get the call, or some of them, and they feel themselves being called to from the transcendent void, and they respond to it by building a model out of beer bottles of somewhere they’ve never visited, or by erecting a gigantic bat house in some part of the country that bats have traditionally declined to visit. Roadside attractions: people feel themselves being pulled to places where, in other parts of the world, they would recognize that part of themselves that is truly transcendent, and buy a hot dog and walk around, feeling satisfied on a level they cannot truly describe, and profoundly dissatisfied on a level beneath that.”

“You have some pretty whacked out theories,” said Shadow.

“Nothing theoretical about it, young man,” said Wednesday. “You should have figured that out by now.”

We’ve been building our own mythology in America. We have our own unique notions of belief and faith. We are the Puritans but we are also the slaves practicing Voudoun in secret. In Europe, you’ll find standing stones at places of power. In America, you may find the world’s largest ball of twine.

American Gods likes to play with the idea of belief, faith, sacredness, and power. It’s an excellent story, with a long list of guest stars from various world myths including European, Indian, East Asian and African.

Also! The Hannibal (oh, I’ll miss you so!) guy, Brian Fuller, is developing this for a miniseries on HBO! There are rumors of Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo, Conan, savior of volcanoes) playing Shadow!

 

This guy! I mean, come on!