So I am attempting to read this book straight-through, cover to cover. I’ve started it twice before, but eventually gave up. (For a novel predicated on such a fantastic idea, the plot seriously draaaaaaggs.)
But what I want to know is the identity of the whore / goddess from an early chapter? It’s one of the aside vignette chapter in which she is working as a prostitute (or maybe just hooking up with some random guy?) and asks her ‘john’ to worship her as they get it on. The sex is the most fantastic sex of the guy’s life, but unfortunately also the last - the whore quite literally consumes him as they mate.
Who is she supposted to be? Is she based off a real mythological figure? The wikipedia page for this novel alludes to her being based off the Queen of Sheba from the Old Testament, but that doesn’t sound right to me. The Queen of Sheba was a human being and this being is very definitely NOT human. Anybody know or even have a theory about what mythological being she is supposed to be?
Right. Gaiman is using non-biblical mythological sources, which he also does with some of the other characters in the book. (And just in case anybody else wondered [because weirder things and weirder cults have happened in American religious history, so I looked it up], there wasn’t really briefly a cult of Czernobog worshipers in Kansas- Gaiman made that up as well.)
The show has been bought by HBO for a series. I think and hope they’re going to go off book. I generally gave the novel A+ for concept and C- for execution; some great scenes but on the whole it didn’t work for me.
I think **Grey **has the main question covered, but I want to comment on your interest and trouble with this book. I would say a lot of the point of the novel is to enjoy seeing these traditional figures, well-established in their various longstanding cultures, take root in the weird mishmash of American culture and grow and morph accordingly. (Come to think of it, maybe that does go to your specific question, too. If people got used to thinking about the Queen of Sheba as a sexually voracious temptress, that would be how she came to be expressed - in this case, literally voracious!)
Anyway, it does meander a bit. It *is *a road-trip story after all. There is an overarching plot that really does have payoff (and a subplot that does as well), but it is kind of sprawling.
If you like the idea, but want something with a little more velocity and focus, do check out Anansi Boys. I’m partial to the audiobook, read by Lenny Henry with immense entertainment value added.
If you like the idea, but want something with a little more velocity and focus, do check out Anansi Boys. I’m partial to the audiobook, read by Lenny Henry with immense entertainment value added.
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I’d love to see a movie of Anansi Boys.
Trivia from a radio interview with Gaiman: there were talks, but the studio execs wanted to Americanize it, which Gaiman didn’t like but was flexible on, until they mentioned their first choice for Fat Charlie:
Matthew McConnaughey
They wanted a white surfer dude as the son of an African trickster god.
Love connection never happened.
From the Tafseer of Ayah of Surah Naml from Ma’ariful Quran:
27:23 The name of this woman is given in the history as Bilqis, daughter of
Sharaihil. But in some other narrations, it is mentioned that her mother
was a jinni whose name was Bal’amah, daughter of Shisan. (Wuhaib b.
Jarir has reported this from Khalil Ibn Ahmad, Qurtubi) Her grandfather,
Hudahud, was a great king and controlled the entire land of Yemen. He
had forty sons. All these sons became kings. Her father, Siirah, had
married a jinni woman, who gave birth to her (Bilqis). Different reasons
are given for his marriage to a jinni. One of them being that he used to
say with arrogance “No one from you is a match for me; hence I will not
marry. It is because I do not like marrying outside my matching clan”. As
a result of this, people got him married to a jinni woman. (Qurtubi) Perhaps
it was his conceit that he deemed his own people as not his equal. This did
not go well with the Divine writ and he was made to marry a jinni
woman, who was neither from his family nor his kind or race.
Neil may have read this, may have heard something about it, may have decided to just make up his own stuff. I, myself, read him assiduously, and my daughter even more so.
Interesting stuff. I did not know this of the mighty Queen. But where does the part of “swallowing” partners up come in? I know it’s not explicitly stated, but ISTM that it is strongly inferred that the woman in AG is swallowing the guy like a python might swallow a small animal - albeit not using her mouth, but - well - another part of her. Are Djinns reputed to do anything like this?
If so, it certainly casts “I Dream of Jeannie” in a whole other light!
Czernobog was a slavic, middle European god right? Basically, the pagan Satan. Well don’t quote me on this but I do kind of, sort of recall reading about how there was a huge influx of middle European immigrants who settled in Kansas territories in the post-Civil War years. If I am correct, it is not entirely out of the question that one or two eccentrics who stuck to “the old ways” might have…revered him. So, even if it didn’t actually happen, Kansas might have been the place it would’ve happened if it had.
It’s details like that that are the most frustrating thing with this book - and most of Gaiman’s novels in general. He’s so much better at short stories or episodic TV scripts (essentially short stories) in which character portraits and nuances take precedence, and plots are by necessity brief and to the point. The interminable conversations between Shadow and his zombie wife get to be grating after a while. But stuff like Mr. Nancy or the Native American “backstage realm” are fascinating ideas.
My guess would be that he came up with the idea for the scene first, with “generic fertility goddess to be filled in later” in the starring role, then did some research to come up with someone who was suitably obscure.
"Don Draper: Interesting stuff. I did not know this of the mighty Queen. But where does the part of “swallowing” partners up come in? I know it’s not explicitly stated, but ISTM that it is strongly inferred that the woman in AG is swallowing the guy like a python might swallow a small animal - albeit not using her mouth, but - well - another part of her. Are Djinns reputed to do anything like this?
If so, it certainly casts “I Dream of Jeannie” in a whole other light!"
In Richard Burton’s (the explorer) unexpurgated translation of The Arabian Nights, the Jinn (both male and female) often have sexual acts with humans, generally initiating it. While they don’t “swallow” their partners as in American Gods, one of the main reasons they do it is to corrupt the human’s soul.
I think the bit about swallowing the partner was something Gaiman cooked up. He likes to use ancient gods and give them superhero like abilities or tricks.
In Sandmanhe uses the Egyptian goddess Bastet, whose real persona is now that of an arthritic old anthropomorphic cat but she does have the power to see through the eyes of cats and feed some when people act worshipful towards them. The goddess Ishtar works in a strip club and when she goes into full-on dance men ejaculate blood and die.
So it’s probably as much Gaiman as mythology.
Though I don’t recall him giving Mr. Wednesday any particular supernatural powers other than immortality; he’s just an old grifter. (I pictured Brian Blessed when reading the book, btw.)
I’ll spoiler this about a minor character in American Gods, but it’s not going to give anything major away even if you don’t already know it (and you might already know it if you’ve gotten to that part of the book):
There is a jinn in American Gods- not a major character, but a memorable scene- and he does not have any resemblance to the ‘consuming men’ power
I once wrote a novel about tenage monsters beating the snot out of each to prove dominance i a world that had largely forgotten them entirely, and even I feel these descriptions of Gaiman’s work really depressing for some reason. Is it actually that, well, miserable? Not the writing - it jsut seems that the plot and characters people describe are like Frank Miller writing mythology.
I’d say it’s pretty gritty. The whole premise is kind of “What if mythology wasn’t something from the past involving golden fleeces and glorious, muscular marble statues, but was happening in modern America?” When you take off your fifth-grade mythology filters, all the gods and heroes are horny, violent, venal, petty, and immature. So in the book, a trickster god whose antics are kind of endearing and fun in a “long time ago in a far away culture” way becomes instead a grifter running a change-making con on a 7-11 cashier and having one night stands in seedy hotels.
(And by the way, I read that first as “teenage mothers beating the snot out of each other to prove dominance,” and boy was that a different mental image!)
Gaiman’s work varies. American Gods is dark and over-the-top gory in a lot of places. Anansi Boys deals with some of the same themes and has some violence and gore, but is generally a lot more light-hearted.
I gotcha. My only intro to Gaiman was via Good Omens, in which I really just didn’t see that much that wasn’t strongly Pratchett-flavored until the end… which I thought was overwrought and not well done. Aside from a modern setting, I didn’t see how Gaiman influenced the book, although obviously I can’t say I know much about his work in novels. (Comics are a different story.)
(And by the way, I read that first as “teenage mothers beating the snot out of each other to prove dominance,” and boy was that a different mental image!)
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Sorry about the spelling. When I get in a hurry I complete lose typing control. No teenage mothers in my story. Hell, half the beasties don’t breed in the normal sense.
If he did cook it up he’s not the first with that idea.
A long time ago in middle school I spent the night at a friends’ house and we went and rented some movies. One of them was something, “Three Short Horror Films On One VHS Tape.” And one of them was a story set in the old west where this town is putting this woman on trial for murder, or something, there may not have been a trial, but basically they thought she was up to no good and they kicked her out of town. She was heading to the next town when she ran into a cowboy and they camped for the night together. She initiated sex and as he was climaxing he started getting sucked into her cooz. This goes on until he has been consumed. The next scene is her packing up the campsite and heading off towards the next town looking like she was 9 months pregnant.
I remember it because my friends dad thought that was the funniest thing ever and laughed his ass off and was still talking about it the next day.
