The History Book Club discussion

American Gods won the 2002 Hugo, Nebula, SFX Magazine Award and Bram Stoker awards, all for Best Novel, and likewise received nomination for the 2002 BSFA Award, World Fantasy Award, International Horror Guild Award and Mythopoeic Award.[3:] It won the 2004 Geffen Award. This book is by Neil Gaimon

I am setting up a thread to discuss this book because it is another book which uses Herodotus as a spring board to tell and offset its plot. This is not a book of non-fiction and I am only setting up this thread to discuss this book in relationship to Herodotus and The Histories

All group members are welcome to post and discuss this book in this ancillary thread. This is not a no spoiler thread.

This topic area discusses those books which are heavily influenced or cite Herodotus frequently.

Here is a brief descriptor of the book itself below.

Bentley

Has anybody read this previously? I just started this along with everything else that I am reading and found the following semi preface humorous. It was obviously written by Gaimon and was titled: Caveat, and Warning for Travelors.

He says this is a book of fiction not a guidebook (lol). He ends it sarcastically by saying that all of the people are fictional; but "Only the gods are real".

After reading Herodotus, I got a chuckle out of that.

He used as his epigram to the book a quote of Richard Dorson who wrote, "A Theory for American Folklore" (University of Chicago Press - 1971)

"One question that has always intrigued me is what happens to demonic beings when immigrants move from their homelands. Irish-Americans remember the fairies. Norwegian-Americans the nisses, Greek-Americans the vrykolakas, but only in relation to events remembered in the Old Country. When I once asked why such demons are not seen in America, my informants giggled confusedly and said, "They're scared to pass the ocean, it's too far," pointing out that Christ and the apostles never came to America." (smile - my own)

Here is the synopsis on the back cover:

"Released from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a mysterious stranger offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming - a battle for the very soul of America...and they are in its direct path.

One of the most talked-about books of the new millenium, American Gods is a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an American landscape at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. It is, quite simply, a contemporary masterpiece."

This may be a different kind of book for me; but I will be on the lookout for Herodotus (smile). There are some great reader guide questions in the back which I will also post if folks want to take a stab at any of them.

Bentley

Here are the questions in the Readers' Guide:

Please feel free to post regarding responses to any of these. Just indicate which question you are responding to.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: (SOURCE: GAIMON'S READERS GUIDE)

1. American Gods contains both the magical and mundane, a fantastic world of divine beings and bizarre happenings and a world of prisons, rundown roadside attractions, and quaint small towns. How is Gaiman able to bring these worlds together in the novel? How does he manage to make their coexistence believable?

2. What is the cultural significance of the war between the gods of old and the "new gods of credit card and freeway, of Internet and telephone, of radio and hospital and television, gods of plastic and of beeper and of neon"? In what ways have Americans transferred their devotion from spiritual to material and technological gods? What are the consequences of the shift?

3. Gaiman, who now lives in the U.S., is originally from England. How might his perspective as a relative outsider affect his view of America? In what ways can American Gods be read as a satire or critique of American life?

4. What makes Shadow such a compelling protagonist? What are his most appealing qualities? At what crucial points in the novel does he demonstrate courage, compassion, intelligence, a willingness to sacrifice himself? What does his relationship with Laura reveal about him? What is the significance of his obsession with coin tricks?

5. What role do dreams play in American Gods? What are some of Shadow's more vivid and unusual dreams? What does the Buffalo Man tell him in a dream to "believe everything"?

6. The narrator, discussing how we relate to the suffering of others, writes that "Fiction allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out through other eyes. And then in the tale we stop before we die, or we die vicariously and unharmed, and the world beyond the tale we turn the page and close the book, and we resume our lives." What does American Gods reveal by letting readers see through the eyes of a collection of down-at-heel and nearly forgotten divinities? What vicarious deaths does it allow us to experience?

7. After shortchanging a waitress, Wednesday tells Shadow that the American people "don't sacrifice rams or bulls to me. They don't send me the souls of killers and slaves, gallows-hung and raven-picked. They made me. They forgot me. Now I take a little back from them. Isn't that fair?" What are the implications of a god like Odin becoming essentially a con man? What is the biggest con he tried to pull of in the novel?

8. What do the old gods need to stay alive and vital? What means do they use to get what they need? What is Gaiman suggesting about the nature of divinity, sacrifice and devotion?

9. Late in the novel, the narrator says that "Religions are, by definition, metaphors...Religions are places to stand and look and act, vantage points from which to view the world." Would you agree with this assertion? What are the gods in American Gods metaphors for? What is the difference between a world view based on the accumulation of material wealth and comfort?

10. What are some of the more colorful and vividly drawn secondary characters-human and divine- in the novel? What do they add to the overall impression of the book? How do they affect Shadow?

11. What does the novel imply about the reality of life in small-town America? What darker truth lies behind the pleasant idyll of Lakewood, Wisconsin?

12. At the end of the novel, Shadow thinks to himself: "People believe...People populate the darkness; with ghosts, with gods, with electrons, with tales. People imagine and people believe: and it is that belief, that rock-solid belief, that makes things happen." Would you agree that what people believe in are largely projections of their own needs and desires? In what ways does the novel itself conform or refute this idea?

Bentley

POTENTIAL SPOILER:

CHAPTER ONE:

I will most likely not post tidbits about this book which do not in some way parallel Herodotus (which is the main purpose in having a side discussion on American Gods). So far this is my impression; this is not my usual read and it seems in part irreverent to organized religious beliefs (so that part troubled me); it clearly is calling forth gods and myths of Gaimon's creation with references to the ancient past. The question I had when I started reading this very different work is how does this have anything to do with Herodotus?

In the first chapter we learn that our protagonist Shadow is getting out of jail, that he does coin tricks and loved his wife Laura. He worked out and wanted to take a bath, put on a bathrobe and slippers, smoke a pipe, be with his wife and stay out of trouble for the rest of his life. We learn that Low Key Lyesmith (not sure if his name has any connotation to how Gaimon felt about Herodotus) lent Shadow his copy of The Histories and actually gave it to him when he was transferred with a coin buried in it. Lyesmith thought The Histories was cool and not boring. Shadow spouts out while they are making bird feeders: "Call no man happy until he is dead." (another Herodotus truism). He gets out early because something happens which will put a dent in his future life and happiness and allegedly by chance stumbles upon a guy who calls himself Wednesday (who appears to have some supernatural and mythical powers). So far that is the sum total of the Herodotus connection; maybe there is some karmic repayment which Shadow will have to do because one of his ancestors did something that has to be repaid (but right now the reader does not know that). It appears that Wednesday is following him and able to keep tabs on his whereabouts (how - not sure).

My first impression is that this book is going to be a combination of horror, fantasy, sci fi, mystery, etc. For others who have read Gaimon what is your take on this or his other books?

POTENTIAL SPOILER:

CHAPTER TWO:

Wednesday has some controlling powers so we sort of believe at the beginning that he or someone else has had something to do with recent events and maybe has played with Shadow's fate (not unlike the gods, etc that Herodotus refers to when he is telling the tales of ancient Greece). Gaimon refers through one of his characters that Herodotus was Greek (not entirely the complete picture). Wednesday admits to Shadow that he is a liar; about the best that Shadow will ever meet; I am not sure if that reflects on how Gaimon felt about Herodotus and the truthfulness of his stories or the stories we tell ourselves. Will have to read on to find out more on this.

I tried to read this book, but just couldn't get through it.

It is one of those books - zillions love Gaiman.

Neil Gaiman

Bentley wrote: "It is one of those books - zillions love Gaiman.

So true, and I do love some of his writing -- but it is hit and miss with me.



Neil Gaiman