American Gods

Gaiman, Neil. American Gods. New York City: William Morrow, 2001. UK: Hodder Headline 2001. See Internet Speculative Fiction Database for reprints, translations, awards, and reviews.[1] Note that the tenth anniversary edition (William Morrow, 2011; available in an audiobook, which we use) gives the author's preferred text. "A comic book series, American Gods: Shadows, was published by Dark Horse Comics starting in March 2017. A book of the same name, collecting issues 1 through 9 of the comic book series, was published by Dark Horse Books in February 2018."[2] There is also a TV series on Starz ("Stars Originals Presents), three seasons as of this date: 2017, 2019, 2021,[3] with announcement of cancellation.[4] See below.

Theological fantasy, relevant here for the New Gods, including "Technical Boy" — god of technology and the Internet — and Media, opposing the more traditional Old (Odin, Loki, Bastet, Thoth, Anansi, Kali, et al.).[5] Significant scene at the House on the Rock, which houses among much else a carousel — billed as "world's largest" — that is a portal to the real reality of the Old Gods; so there is both opposition of the technological and low-level divine and an overlapping (for which see J. Riskin's The Restless Clock, including the discussion on Leibniz in ch. 3).

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Of interest in the TV series for visuals and audio:

* Season 1, episode 2, "The Secret of Spoons": The protagonist Shadow is in the electronics aisle of a big-box store and then — from Devan Coggan's "recap" on Explore Entertainment (7 May 2017):

There’s an old I Love Lucy rerun airing on the TVs, and Lucy herself [...] is calling out to Shadow in crisp black and white. [...]

“The screen’s the altar. I’m the one they sacrifice to,” she explains [...]. "Then ‘til now, golden age to golden age. They sit side by side, ignore each other, and give it up to me. Now they hold a smaller screen in their lap or in the palm of their hand so they don’t get bored watching the big one. Time and attention, better than lamb’s blood.”

And so begins our introduction to Media, one of the most powerful and omnipresent new gods. If Technical Boy [introduced in episode 1][6] was all holograms and vaping, Media is far more charming — and seductive. She’s the personification of television, of film, of every piece of content we devote our time to.[7]

* Season 1, episode 6, "A Murder of Gods": Episode features Vulcan (not in the novel), described in a useful review (at link) as "god of weaponry and fire." In the earlier "Coming to America" part of the episode, we've seen the murderous potential of weaponry as firearms and bullets, so Vulcan as an arms-producer, especially of bullets, will be problematic. More traditionally, Vulcan also forges a sword. Note that "a murder of crows" is just the expression for a small flock of crows; "A Murder of Gods" has additional possibilities. We see Mexican Jesus — Jesus comes in different ethnicities — shot down earlier in the episode; in a literalizing of a figure of speech (a standard move in satire), "Those who live by the sword die by the sword" and making "gods" into a plural, blood-thirsty Vulcan is murdered with the sword he has forged.[8] So note episode for the interface of the old gods and the industrial, specifically the weapons industry, from the archetypal Vulcan/Hephaistos at his forge to a cutting-edge bullet factory.[9]

* Season 2, episode 1, "House on the Rock":[10] • In this carnivalesque/carnival space, Mr. Wednesday (now more clearly Odin) takes Shadow and some others to consult the Norns,[11] incarnated, so to speak, in nothing like flesh but as a mechanical carnival fortune-teller, with the visual stressing the mechanism. • We see the carousel — see above — in colorful detail, with the carousel sequence intercut with Mr. World at an equally subterranean military space, with few people but some ominous electronic equipment, suggesting a launch site for missiles, in properly subdued colors or variety of grey.

RDE, finishing, 16Ap21, 8/27May22