americangodstalk

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By the way, Bruce Langley held his word! Remember when he promised to eventually release some of the pictures he had from the deleted scenes about the previous incarnations of Technical Boy? (The 80s/90s Tech Boy I personally nicknamed "Game Boy"). Well he posted a few days ago said pictures! It is right here if you are interested

In a more general way, I plan to make in the future some more analysis posts, and I might begin with the New Gods and their treatment in the show vs the book. Now that we have three whole seasons (and that I had some times to get out of the heat of the releases and instant discoveries), I think I can take a more neutral and complete look at the adaptation. Anyway, see you all soon!

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Hello, I was wondering about a chapter in Sandman vol. 6 Fables and Reflections, specifically the Parliament of Rooks; in the chapter baby Daniel while dreaming wanders to Cain and Abel's house with the help of Matthew and as Eve and Abel (while Cain tells a mystery) tell their stories, I was actually curious about Eve's story- was there a wife between Lilith and Eve or was she made up for the story's purpose?

No I didn't make her up. Here's a link to Midrashic commentary on the creation of Eve. The section on Two Eves may help.

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/eve-midrash-and-aggadah

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Hi Neil, quick question, are you a fan of Kurt Vonnegut? I ask because I recently showed my dad American Gods and the first thing he said while reading was that he was constantly reminded of Breakfast of Champions while reading. He loved American Gods and is now reading Anansi Boys.

I love Kurt Vonnegut. Some years ago (er 2010) I was awarded the Kurt Vonnegut Award for Fiction and it made everything sparkle and glitter.

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This photo (which I saw in 1988) was the original inspiration for Despair, and I have been looking for it for years.

I remembered the book it was in was called Modern Primitives, but couldn't find that it was a book of photos by Chris Wrobelewski, and the existence of the Modern Primitives books by RE/Search just confused me whenever I'd do a web hunt.

Someone just posted it to Bluesky and I got so happy. I'd started to wonder if I'd imagined it.

I know nothing about the subject of the photograph, who they were, how old they were, their gender. I just remember seeing the image and not being able to get it out of my head, and deciding that was what Despair looked like. Mike Dringenberg then took the photo (did I send him the book or a photocopy?) and used it to make the first images of Despair in The Doll's House.

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Hello Neil, I was wondering if you've read Gravity's Rainbow in it's entirety? I picked it up after you referenced it in American Gods and I was immediately very perplexed by it. Is it worth toughing it out?

I loved it, and finished it somewhere in my early twenties. So it was good for me. But nobody has to like every book, or finish every book. And some books you can come back to when you are ready for them.

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Hey Neil, in your moving tribute to Rachel Pollack, in this year's DC Pride, you mentioned that she'd had some polite disagreements over how Wanda's story ended. I'm curious if you'd be willing to say more about the conversations the two of you had? I'm a genderqueer person who really loved that arc of Sandman fwiw, I'm just v curious what those convos were like.

It wasn’t so much about how the story ended as about Wanda not walking the moon’s road. My attitude was that the Gods and Goddesses of Sandman were all idiots and fallible when they weren’t actually dangerous, and that this was another instance of the Triple Goddess doing the kind of thing that would come to a head in The Kindly Ones; Rachel’s was that the Moon should be infallible and recognise Wanda as a woman anyway. (I am probably not doing justice to either side of a 32 year old conversation.)

She felt I’d got that wrong, so told me she would remedy that by putting her own trans character, Coagula, into Doom Patrol.

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hola señor gaiman i love the sandman and american gods, and one quote that came up in both of them was "liberty is a bitch that must be bedded on a mattress of corpses". is that an original quote? were you really proud of it and wanted to use it twice? i mean i sure wouldve. its a badass quote.

It's not original -- I originally read it in a book on the French Revolution, attributed to St Just, although when I researched it further the quote and the person who said it became, if I remember, somewhat slipperier.

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Wisconsinite here-- how did you find out about House on the Rock of all places? Was it less obscure 22 years ago? Now whenever I bring it up with people and find out they haven't been there, I say "the place with the carousel from American Gods" and about 90% of the time they know right away what I'm talking about.

I think it was a lot more obscure back then. But then, I moved to Wisconsin in 1992 and lived there for two decades. I saw the signs nearby for The House on the Rock, and decided to go and look, urged on by fellow Wisconsinite, Maggie Thompson, from the Comics Buyers Guide.

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The Graveyard Book cover ask reminded me of something I’ve been wanting to ask for a long time.

Is there a comprehensive list of your books that have Pulp Fiction covers? As far as I can tell from my *extensive* googling, it’s only said that Anansi Boys, American Gods, Stardust, and Neverwhere were released with the pulp cover (according to articles from 2016) but I bought a brand new Ocean at the End of the Lane w/ the pulp cover in 2020. So do you know if it’s only those 5 books with the pulp style covers?

Are there plans to release more of your works in the pulp style covers? If not, can there be? Because, if I may be so bold, pulp fiction style covers of Good Omens and The Graveyard Book would be two very cool additions to my bookshelf.

Sorry for this incredibly nerdy and inane ask but I’m dying to know.

There are seven out so far, with an eighth being painted:

Robert McGinnis, the artist, is 95 years old. I’m grateful for every painting he does for us.

Here’s his website: http://www.mcginnispaintings.com/

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A few days ago I mentioned that I've started "American Gods". I mean, I already am very invested, even if I'm reading at a very slow pace because of not having much free time.

But, I wanted to thank you for one specific thing, even before finishing it. You've mentioned Kali, and specifically, the place Kalighat. I'm from Kolkata, the city where Kalighat is located, and it made me feel seen in a very specific way I've never felt before. I didn't feel represented like a generic Indian, but as a Bengali. And, I'm not sure why or even how, but that has indeed made a difference.

The story is so personal to me now. I feel so involved because you mentioned that one place. I don't think I've ever understood how and why representation matters on such a personal level.

I don't know how to express what I felt in words, but I can tell you that I let out a squeal of delight and felt my heart swell in so much emotion. Because of one word.

Thank you so much for making me feel seen, sir. Thank you so so much.

You are so very welcome!

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Hi Neil,

Are there particular reasons why the coin Zorya Polunochnaya gives to Shadow is a 1922 Liberty Head Silver Dollar? If so, would you care to share them?

Best,

Duncan

Because there are two versions of the 1921 Silver Liberty Head Dollar...

and

But by 1922 they were exclusively

...also, there are some wonderful American Gods coins at Shire Mint, one of which is a reproduction on one side, the moon on the other:

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Reblogging the thesis earlier made me search quickly through Google, and if you are interested here are a few more thesis about American Gods disponible for free on the Internet. 

Two short thesis, thirty pages or so.

One called Mythological Melting Pot: A Study of the Use of Simulacra and Myth in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods: https://studenttheses.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/20.500.12932/17059/Mythological%20Melting%20Pot%20-%20A%20Study%20of%20the%20Use%20of%20Simulacra%20and%20Myth%20in%20Neil%20Gaiman%3Fs%20American%20Gods.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Another called  Neil Gaiman's American Gods: An Outsider's Critique of American Culture: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1315&context=td

And a third, longer, 60 pages long, “Folklore and mythology in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods”: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/22735/Dixon_oregon_0171N_11943.pdf

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Neil Gaiman’s handwritten first draft of my favorite novel, American Gods.

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Hello～I just watched the first ep.of American Gods and I must say that it is everything I hoped for and so much more!This book guided me through so much shit in my life and I am oh so thankful for it.I hope you are happy with the adaptation♥Anyway, it's been a year since I wrote a final thesis on A.G. and maybe someone will find it helpful? It can be found via google on Academia edu page under "Appropriations of mythologial figures in Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods"Thanks again for everything

I’m so glad – and I thought your thesis contained a lot of excellent pointers. It’s at https://www.academia.edu/29364000/Appropriations_of_mythologial_figures_in_Neil_Gaiman_s_novel_American_Gods

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American Gods Alphabet: Antinous

I really love American Gods and mythology so I made an alphabetic list of every reference made in the novel.

Read the whole encyclopedia here

Antinous (461)

Antinous (Roman) Lover to Roman Emperor Hadrian, Antinous was known for his extraordinary beauty. He was often compared to Adonis, or a living angel. When the Emperor Hadrian visited Bithnyia in 123 CE, the two fell in love, and Antinous was admitted to the Imperial court. When visiting Egypt in 130 CE, Antinous drowned in the Nile, coincidentally, the same day of the commemoration of Osiris’ drowning in the Nile. Hadrian’s grief caused him to deify Antinous, and the young man quickly became the object of a new cult. However, this cult and the god Antinous often came into conflict with Christianity, and as a result Christianity will condemn his relationship with Hadrian as immoral and cast off any acceptance of homosexuality.

All names/terms are depicted with the page in which they first appear in the American Gods Tenth Anniversary Edition of the author’s preferred text.

Read the whole encyclopedia here

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I’m researching some mythology for a project, and I cannot find a source for the story about Anansi and the tiger balls that isn’t you. Can you point me towards a source for this, or did you make it up for American Gods?

It's been 23 years. I hoped I would have listed it in the bibliography I put up at

But I didn't, unless it's in the Treasury of African Folklore I mention there. I'd check that out and also the Penguin/Pantheon Book of African Folktales. But it's not something I made up, it's something I retold.

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American Gods’ incomplete bibliography (4)

And here we reach the last of Neil Gaiman’s proposed bibliography for American Gods!

10) Books about American folklore

A Treasury of American Folklore

Neil Gaiman describes it as a “wonderful collection of extracts, jokes, songs, essays and tales”, and points out that most of the quotes used in the chapter headings of American Gods come from this book.

Great American Folklore

Neil Gaiman only has to say that it is a “readable” book, though he also adds that he actually didn’t use anything from it for “American Gods”.

Myths, Legends and Folktales of America: An Anthology

Neil Gaiman points out that this book was heavily inspired by and basically borrows a lot of “A Treasury of American Folklore” - but despite this, the book actually adds a lot of new and good stuff in here (Gaiman notably remembers the “lyrics to Greg Brown’s ‘Jesus and Elvis’). 

American Folklore: An Encyclopedia

Neil Gaiman loved this book, because he is “a sucker for encyclopedias” and it is an excellent one. His only regret was that it was only published as he had written half of American Gods already, and so he couldn’t use it for half of the novel. 

11) Additional mythology books

[Could not find the cover of the book]

Gods and Goddesses of India, by Anjula Bedi, Eeshwar, 1998

In Neil Gaiman’s own words: “Some potted bios of Indian gods, along with nice pictures printed on translucent paper”. 

Hathor Rising: The Power of the Goddess in Ancient Egypt

Neil Gaiman only used this one because he wanted an “Egyptian book with plenty of photographs and illustrations, and this one was the nearest to hand”.