American Gods coming to TV

HBO is planning on turning American Gods into 6 seasons of premium television goodness.  See details here.

Some interesting thoughts on casting too.


Unrelated: Here are some cool takes on Mr. Jacquel (Anubis) and Mr. Ibis (Thoth).

Some Thoughts at the Halfway Point

Hi, I'm back.

So, what is this book about? New Gods versus Old Gods, yeah?

A god can only exist if that god is believed in. As belief wanes, a god's power is diminished. If a god is forgotten, that god is dead and gone as if it never existed. For some reason, Gaiman's gods have physical bodies, and can be physically killed, which seems a little (VERY) inconsistent with the whole idea of this book, but let's put that aside for now.

So the old gods (Odin, Loki, Kali, etc.) are languishing in an unbelieving modern America. New gods are rising (The Internet, TV, Media, Celebrity, Drugs) and seeking to wipe out the old.

• By the way, here is a great guide to each character and the god they represent: http://www.frowl.org/gods/gods.html

It's interesting to note that Gaiman is English and the book seems very cautionary and subtly anti-american. The old gods (mostly Norse, European, and Eastern) are shown as the wise old gods of tradition. The new American Gods are shown as immature, young, cocky, violent things. Wednesday (Odin) says "this country needs it's legends" meaning "this country is worshiping the wrong gods and forgetting about the right ones."

I'm halfway through the book. It's an interesting idea and obviously Gaiman did his homework on a huge number of myths, gods, dwarves, elves, leprechauns, and other spirits. I just don't know if he can pull it all together. It feels like he is playing WAY too lightly with big heavy ideas. I want to say he's completely out of his depth here but maybe the rest of the book will prove me wrong.

A Little Break

Dear Blog Readers:

I am going on vacation for two weeks. I'll be in Iceland. Please enjoy the Gaiman book and we'll talk about it when/if I come back.

Gleðilegt lestur!

Selection for September/October

American Gods

by Neil Gaiman

"I," she told him, "can believe anything.

You have no idea what I can believe."

Statistics

BIG NEWS:
We had our 1000th blog view sometime over the weekend! Happy Labor Day!

SMALL NEWS:
I started a Pinterest board for American Gods: pinterest.com/winpublib

Mayonnaise

Thanks for reading, you guys. Trout Fishing is a weird little book and RB was a pretty weird guy but I think it was worth the time. But now we find ourselves at the end of the summer and we're moving on.

I'm going to finish up with a little music from a band called Trout Fishing in America. They are 2 extremely gooofy dudes that sing silly songs to kids. Somehow, it's perfect.



Farewell Richard Brautigan. You wrote a bunch of books. Maybe we'll read another one sometime.

P.S.
Mayonnaise.

One morning last week

"One morning last week, part way through the dawn, I awoke under the apple tree, to hear a dog barking and the rapid sound of hoofs coming toward me. The millennium? An invasion of Russians all wearing deer feet?"


pg. 94

That's the spirit

"Go on ahead and try for him. He'll hit a couple of times more, but you won't catch him. He's not a particularly smart fish. Just lucky. Sometimes that's all you need."


pg. 90

The Surgeon

There's a chapter called The Surgeon about 2/3 through the book. The narrator is fishing and talking with a young surgeon who is bitter and frustrated and struggling to find happiness. He is moving around the country, searching for the ideal place to hunt & fish because he is tired of working. He's looking for a place to match the picture in his head and he becomes more and more disillusioned every time reality falls short of the ideal.

I think that's really what Trout Fishing in America is all about - RB's idea of America, how it clashes with reality as he experiences it, and how they, rarely but sometimes, line up perfectly.

The chapter ends like this:

"I talked to the surgeon a little while longer and then said good-bye. We were leaving in the afternoon for lake Josephus, located at the edge of the Idaho wilderness, and he was leaving for America, often only a place in the mind."


ALSO

Sturgeon is a fish and that's close to Surgeon, so...

ALSO

If you look at the word "surgeon" for too long it starts to look like it's spelled wrong even though it's not and I know because I checked.

A good sentence

"I'm visiting some friends, a young burglar and his wife."

pg. 76