American Gods

Hello, dear readers! Today, we have an oldie, but goodie: Neil Gaiman‘s American Gods.

What if gods walked among us? In traditional myth the gods created the land, the sea, the sky, the animals, and finally the humans. But what if they didn’t? What if the gods are the ones who are made? What if they sprung forth from the human mind and the reason that these creations need worship and sacrifice is not to appease them, but to keep them alive? These questions and more are what Neil Gaiman tackles beautifully and not without that famous Gaiman dry humor. It all begins when a quiet and strong giant of a man called “Shadow” is let out of prison early. Normally this would be a good thing, but unfortunately the reason is not. His beloved wife Laura and his best friend Robbie were killed in a drunken road-head related car crash.

After losing both his cheating wife and his potential job all at once, Shadow is left with few options. On the plane to the funeral he meets a strange old man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday, who asks Shadow to work for him. At first Shadow turns it down, but soon he is cruising the highways and byways of America, doing different jobs and tasks for Mr. Wednesday, meeting both old and new gods along the way. Throughout the novel the unlikely duo try to convince the old gods to fight in the war against the new gods. Some of the new gods include technology, media, celebrity, along with many other modern conveniences.

Though Gaiman is English he manages to portray America with understanding, and even sometimes affection. Though the novel can get a bit heavy at times it is still a delightful book that would appeal to any Gaiman fan, and if you like mythology and theology, so much the better. I highly recommend this novel and its sort of sequel Anansi Boys. Anansi Boys is a bit sillier and won’t have as many philosophical questions, but it is still a good read. Also in American Gods, Shadow fights a ridiculously tall drunken leprechaun named Mad Sweeney, so that is something to look forward to.

And for those of you who are based in Pittsburgh, PA, Neil Gaiman will be lecturing in the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, November 14, 2012. Tickets will be available August 27th. Hope to see you there!

I wrote this and much more besides! What have you done with your life?

Is there a book, television show, or movie you would like me to review? Just leave your suggestions in the comments section and I will do my best to review them.

Oh, My Pop-Culture Trickster: Loki in Pop Culture

I’m pretty sure the Avengers is still in theaters, and if you haven’t seen it already get your ass there or we can’t be friends anymore.

Are you humming the Avengers theme music now? because I am.

… You’re back. Did you enjoy it? Damn straight you did. Now you may have noticed the guy in the silly hat and the green and gold armor that did all that bad stuff.  Loki has gone from a figure in Norse mythology to a full-on badass villain in the Marvelverse, but you can see him or variations of his trickter god character elsewhere too. Spoilers for both American Gods and Supernatural below.

American Gods

The Loki of this story bears little resemblance to the Marvel villain, at least as far as daddy issues are concerned. In this book by Neil Gaiman, the characters Low-Key Lyesmith and Mr. Wednesday (secretly Loki Liesmith and Odin) cook up an elaborate, decades-spanning scheme to sacrifice the gods of the new world (media, the Internet, etc.) and the gods of the old world (Anansi, Bast, Ganesh) at once to restore themselves to the power they once knew.

Really, though, how can you hate on a guy with this fab of a false moustache?

Supernatural

When does Supernatural not feature in an OMPCJ discussion? It’s just so rife with unpackable religious imagery! Anyway, the main trickster in Supernatural turns out to be not Loki, but (spoilers for S5) Gabriel, but he plays the trickster game up until (and a little bit after) the big reveal; even the other non-Judeo-Christian gods who appear in season five’s “Hammer of the Gods” believe him to be Loki, inviting him to their anti-Apocalypse pow-wow and referring to him with the Norse god’s name.

Where else do the trickster gods lurk? I was tempted to include the kooky-sounding anime Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok but having not actually watched it I feared doing it injustice. Let me know in the comments, and as always, tune in next time to get some religion!

Oh, My Pop-Culture Pantheon: Gods Alive!

Many stories circle around one particular religion or mythology. However, I think it can be equally interesting when a book or show addresses multiple mythologies simultaneously—when a story posits that all the gods and goddesses from various religions exist and interact. What are the politics like between these groups? The power dynamics? Let’s look at a few examples.

Percy Jackson/The Red Pyramid

The original Percy Jackson quintet doesn’t touch on any sort of gods outside the Greek pantheon, and on its face, The Kane Chronicles (of which I’ve only read The Red Pyramid) is entirely about Egyptian mythology. However, there was one really interesting moment in The Red Pyramid when the two main kids are hiding out in New York and they look over to Manhattan, seeing thunder and lightning over the Empire State Building (new home of Mt. Olympus in the Jackson books). When they ask their mentor about it, they are told that Manhattan is Greek territory and Egyptian deities don’t go there. This suggests a world where all the pantheons of previous civilizations still exist, are aware of each other, have at some point agreed upon divisions of American territory between themselves, and respect each other’s power. This one throwaway line made me wonder what other pantheons Riordan will eventually delve into—Norse? Aztec? Hindu? I’m excited to see.

Supernatural

Lady Geek Girl touched on the fail of Supernatural where it concerns Hinduism last week, but I’d say that it fails concerning pretty much any non-Christian religion. The idea that the show appears to work from is that the gods of all other traditions, including ancient ‘pagan’ (the name they give to any sort of Druidic or less-well known gods, mostly Anglo-Saxon) traditions, still exist, but their power is derived from their worshippers, and they no longer have as much clout in the modern world because of the rise of Christianity. LGG pointed out that in this mindset, the Hindu and other Asian gods should be much more powerful than they are portrayed, but most deities of non-Christian mythologies, although more powerful than the average ghost or demon, can usually be killed with a fancy stake or bled-upon ram’s horn. Nothing from a non-Christian pantheon can come close to the power of the angels or other Christian powers, and the non-Christian deities are portrayed as having to band together to protect themselves from complete destruction.

American Gods

American Gods is a wonderful book by Neil Gaiman.  It also works from the idea that gods are only as powerful as the population of their worshippers can make them, but takes this concept in a far different direction from Supernatural. This story posits that the gods of the Old World immigrated to the US like so many other groups in the last two centuries, and have lost much of their power. Now, the old gods are banding together, and they are massing to make war against the New Gods of America—not Jesus or the Judeo-Christian God, but rather powerful personifications of Media, Celebrity, Drugs, and other fascinations of modern culture. The focus of this story is on Norse myth, but many other traditions’ gods are portrayed, in what I think is a realistic way: they all are aware of each other’s powers and are justifiably suspicious of each other, but have grudgingly put aside their differences to defend their place in America.

What stories have I missed? Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comes to mind, but I figured I’d focus on the more topical of Gaiman’s works here. Anyway, let me know in the comments, and, as always, tune in next time to get some religion!