In the eighteenth chapter of American Gods, the storm arrives and my preparedness level was actually higher than usual AND I WAS STILL UNPREPARED. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read American Gods.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
WELL. WELL. I can’t imagine how much some of you must have squirmed with delight and laughter when I said that thing about cons early in my reviews and then laughed even harder when I didn’t connect the dots RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY FACE.
We’ll get to that later. But seriously, Gaiman takes so much of what he’s given us over the course of seventeen chapters and essentially punches my face with awesome. I started to feel a bit of dismay, though, at the opening of the chapter, where Gaiman states:
None of this can actually be happening. If it makes you more comfortable, you could simply think of it as metaphor.
It seemed so blatant, spelling out what was apparent, but what I didn’t want to say. Okay, dude, I know this can’t happen, but I am suspending my disbelief to enjoy it. I was so confused by the inclusion of this section until this:
So, none of this is happening. Such things could not occur in this day and age. Never a word of it is literally true, although it all happened, and the next thing that happened, happened like this:
Oh, you. You were just toying with me, because of course this didn’t happen! It just happened, that’s all. It’s not literal, just actual. GAIMAN HOW DO YOU CONTROL WORDS LIKE THIS AND HOW CAN I TAP INTO THAT POWER OF YOURS
We jump right into the moments before the storm, and in terms of setting up the tension, Gaiman is a master. The sentences become shorter, more abrupt, and the narration is matter-of-fact, almost containing a list-like quality: This is happening. These gods are there. This is what it looks like. There is no attempt at grandeur, despite that this is a grand occurrence. There are so many gods assembling on this place that it is impossible to list them if one tried. There are so many gods that Gaiman just provides us with succinct visual descriptions of them, leaving all of the actual work to us to find out who they are. Do you know how much I love that he does this? We are not reading a passage littered with names. These are creatures and gods and demigods, probably some angels, too, and I’m sure the devil is around here somewhere.
And they are all here for war.
There was no way Gaiman was going to write the war of the gods without Shadow being involved in it somehow, so the issue became how he was going to pull this off. Shadow is in his form of eternity, having chosen to exist in nothingness forever; it’s not like he’s playing hide-and-go-seek. OR…well I guess he is? Only no one is supposed to find him.
Yet of all the characters we’d been introduced to who ends up showing up in Shadow’s version of the “afterlife,” I was pleasantly surprised that it was Whiskey Jack. I was pleased that all it took to get Shadow out of that place was a beer. (And the reasoning for that is explained later in the chapter, too.) I was pleased that Whiskey Jack takes him back to his place, and his home has changed; there’s a waterfall now, fresh snow patched on the ground, the water running by in a furious trickle.
“Where are we?” asked Shadow. “Am I on the tree? Am I dead? Am I here? I thought everything was finished. What’s real?”
“Yes,” said Whiskey Jack.
“Yes? What kind of answer is Yes?”
“It’s a good answer. True answer, too.”
This is not just wordplay. I mean, YES, it is a play on words, which Gaiman is quite good at, but at the end of the chapter, I realized the answer to every question Shadow just asked: It’s Yes. So Whiskey Jack isn’t even lying to Shadow. It really is a good answer and a true one as well.
I think that there are multiple moments where different characters elaborate on the many questions I (and Shadow) had at this point in the story, and they finally do sodirectly. It’s a good thing that it does feel like the gods are finally done hiding any secrets from Shadow because I think a lot of the info-dumping could have come off as a bit blatant without it. In the first case of it, Whiskey Jack waxes about the idea that gods simply don’t have it good in the United States. He uses the fact that America possesses a wide array of natural foods and plants that only seem to grow in one part of the country. You can find fresh avocados in southern California, but they’re a rarity in Bangor, Maine. And it doesn’t mean that this is a bad place; it’s just that it’s not as simple to just grow things wherever one wants them to grow:
“What I’m trying to say is that America is like that. It’s not good growing country for gods. They don’t grow well here. They’re like avocados trying to grow in wild rice country.”
And it proves to be a shockingly astute observation about the history of this place. There were plenty of indigenous people who lived in America long before white men came to bring disease and genocide, and I think that’s what he’s referring to. We are a nation built on imperialism and immigration, and what gods we did have that were grown here were lost in the genocide against the Native peoples. (Obviously not entirely, because there are still Native Americans living all over this country, many who still believe in the same gods, some who believe in new ones, and some who don’t believe in any at all. I’m not a fan of language about Native peoples that paints them as if they just up and ~disappeared~.) Our gods are the result of imperialist white men and women, of those of diaspora, of the slave trade, of those seeking the American Dream, of international business and education. The majority came from somewhere else.
This proves to be integral to what is to come.
“It’s a two-man con,” said Shadow. “It’s not a war at all, is it?”
Whiskey Jack patted Shadow’s arm. “You’re not so dumb,” he said.
OKAY. As soon as I read, I thought back to the past. That was a huge part of the beginning of the novel, but what did this mean for the war? I hadn’t quite put this all together yet, but I knew that my suspicion earlier was ACTUALLY RIGHT. OH MY GOD, I WAS TOTALLY RIGHT ABOUT SOMETHING FOR ONCE. “I’m prepared!” I thought.
And then Gaiman promptly slapped me in the face for even suggesting such a thing.
Because I forgot that Shadow was still dead. So Easter and Horus arrive to resurrect him. Should I type that again? Easter resurrects Shadow. This is the best thing ever. But I’m not clear on one thing. Is he backstage? Or, I should say, is this tree backstage? Because he’s only been “dead” for maybe a day or two and there is this:
The wet ropes that held Shadow to the tree had long ago weathered and rotted, and they parted easily as the two people pulled on them.
So….this isn’t happening on our side, right? It would also explain Mister Town’s flashes of the three sisters in the barn as well. It’s also a neat reference to how this chapter opens: This cannot happen, but it is happening.
And as fantastical as this all is, I can’t ignore the beauty of it all, that these gods treat Shadow this way, that Horus burns away the clouds above to heat up this man’s body, that Easter gives Shadow a literal kiss of life, that this kiss is one of spring:
Her kiss was gentle, and it tasted of spring rains and meadow flowers.
Which, to me, seems quite fitting for the god of Easter. Despite the beauty, though, Shadow isn’t exactly ready to be resurrected from death, especially since…well, death seemed like a pretty awesome place for him. I love what Gaiman does with this moment, too; Shadow has just come from pure nothingness, and he takes time to show us how this man has to re-adjust to the concept of existence, to apologies, to flowers, to a farmhouse, to the weather. These are things we take for granted, that we are so accustomed to that we cannot even comprehend the act of having to acclimate ourselves to the conceptual idea of them.
Gaiman contrasts this with the war of the gods, switching rapidly at this point between the battle, Shadow’s journey their, and Laura’s perspective. We are handed the suspense of the moment sentence after sentence, and I tried as best as I could to savor all of this. Not only did I know this was going to end soon, but I also knew if I wasn’t paying attention, I might miss the crucial details. The gods head up the mountain and it’s a surreal image to be given by an author, but it’s not played that way. It’s a march to war that just happens to include snow foxes and cyclops. Seriously, this book has allowed me to type sentences I never would in any other context!
But that’s half the charm of American Gods. This might technically be a fantasy novel, but it rarely feels fantastic. It feels like the very best history lesson I could ask for, or perhaps a fireside story told with sincerity and heart, or maybe even a tale handed down over the centuries. It’s comforting even if it is disturbing at times, and I found myself feeling like this was all being shared with me out of respect for me as a person. It’s not often that I feel that way about a book; it’s like Gaiman is a close friend who trusts you, so he hands you this as a gesture that he thinks you’re an all right person, that he feels safe in saying that you deserve this.
It feels even more like this as the characters introduced over the course of this novel begin to converge. It’s one of those things I enjoy about a book that’s sprawling. I like using that word to describe fiction because it gives me a sense of a much larger fictional world than most authors are comfortable writing. Even if we are honing in on the action occurring in just one place, American Gods really does feel quite expansive as a whole. It helps that we’ve gotten so many character perspectives as well, as if this is a gigantic, asymmetric chessboard, and the final pieces are moving in for the kill.
One of those pieces (and a character that has been transformed wonderfully into the most intriguing of the bunch) is Laura, who is now riding in a car down to Rock City with Mister Town. I am so happy that we’ve been able to see her experience dealing with being the walking dead. (I know that phrase heavily implies that she is merely a zombie, but technically she is dead and she can walk around!) Her post-life existence has been one of confusion and guilt, but we get to see how she is able to move beyond these to do what’s necessary to heal herself and to help her husband. (And both of those are equally as important.)
I felt it was pretty obvious that Mister Town was being played, that Laura was preying on both his loneliness and willingness to be around her as they headed down to Rock City. At this point, having ingested the water of time, I imagine she knows everything about what is going on. Did the three sisters do this on purpose? Did they want a wild card in the war? Whatever the reason (as it’s entirely unspoken), she plays the part well. This made me laugh:
“Well,” confided Laura, “I hated the idea of getting stale. I was just rotting away where I was.”
LOL GET IT SHE WAS DEAD. Oh, Mister Town, you fool. You have no idea what’s going to happen, do you? No, of course he doesn’t, and he falls right into her con:
“Mack…I keep thinking. You must really want to know what happened to those friends of yours,” she said. “Woody and Stone. Do you?”
“Yeah, he said, moving his lips down to hers, for their first kiss. “Sure I do.”
So she showed him.
Laura, you lovable badass.
I adore that Laura is busy murdering gods while Shadow is figuring out what a tree is. I understand that he is reacquainting himself with life again, but it made me smile at the contrast when we switch perspective again. After an extended ceremony of sorts where he learns how to put clothes on again, appreciating the very feel of them, Shadow gets to ride a thunderbird. There are real thunderbirds in this novel. This is fantastic. And I don’t care how clever it is that it’s described as like “riding the lightning,” because now I want to listen to one of the best thrash records of all time while riding a giant condor-like bird that flies me to Georgia. Which will never happen, but WHATEVER.
And while Shadow is on his way to Georgia, Laura knows exactly what she needs to do at Rock City. We don’t know what that is, but I could tell she had a very distinct purpose. Why else would she know to grab the stick that Mister Town was bringing? How else would she know to go straight to Mister World? That water gave her a special kind of knowledge; I don’t understand it, but it has to be the only explanation.
That’s when I became confused:
“Of course. The lovely Laura,” he said. “I should have recognized you. He had several photographs of you up above his bed, in the cell that once we shared.”
But. But this is Mister World? I went back and read the passage before this, and no nameis ever used. There’s just a man sitting in the room, so it’s Loki, not Mister World.
“It won’t last,” said Mr. World. “The Norns gave you a little taste of the past.”
But. But you just said that they shared cells, Neil Gaiman. That was Loki. Now you’re saying it’s Mr. World? Is this a mistake?
“Why did you want him?”
“Patterns, and distraction,” said Mr. World. “When this is all done with, I guess I’ll sharped a stick of mistletoe and go down to the ash tree, and ram it through his eye. That’s what those morons fighting out there have never been able to grasp. It’s never a matter of old and new. It’s only about patterns. Now. My stick, please.”
WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON. Shadow was set up? But I don’t get this! He sat that vigil entirely on his own. IT WAS HIS CHOICE. What the fuck I DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS.
But Laura does. And even if this water runs out soon and the present catches up with her and she does rot away, this very moment is important. She knows that the symbol doesmatter, that there are no sides, and that this stick is much more than a souvenir. And she plans to use this stick to kill Mr. World.
“Please. My stick,” he said, in her ears.
“Yes,” she said. “It’s yours.” And then, not knowing if it would mean anything, she said, “I dedicate this death to Shadow, and she stabbed the stick into her chest, just below the breastbone, felt it writhe and change in her hands as the stick became a spear.
WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE?!?!?!? Oh my god, WHAT JUST HAPPENED. SHE JUST STABBED MR. WORLD THROUGH HERSELF.
He now had a knife in one hand, she saw, and he stabbed her chest and breasts randomly and wildly with the knife, unable to see what he was doing.
She did not care. What are knife-cuts to a corpse?
She brought her fist down, hard, on his waving wrist, and the knife went flying to the floor of the cavern. She kicked it away.
I CAN’T. I CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS. LAURA, YOU ARE MAKING ME FEEL PRIDE AND TERROR AT THE EXACT SAME MOMENT. WHAT HAS THIS BOOK TURNED INTO?
And now he was crying and wailing. She could feel him pushing against her, his hands fumbling at her back, his hot tears on her neck. His blood was soaking her back, spurting down the back of her legs.
“This must look so undignified,” she said, in a dead whisper which was not without a certain dark amusement.
I just have this rush of respect and admiration for Laura, and this sense of inescapable horror at what has just happened. How is this going to affect the war? What has sheactually done? I know that Mr. World wanted to dedicate the battle to Odin with that spear, but now it’s been dedicated to Shadow, so…OH GOD.
The convergence happens. Right here, when it has become utter chaos, Shadow finally arrives at Rock City. And much to my surprise, it’s empty. There is a car in the lot with Mr. Town in it, but there are no gods. As Shadow makes his way up into the gardens, he comes across no battles. He sees no snipers, no gods dying at his side, no fights. Nothing. I started to panic: Did Shadow arrive too late? Did the war already happen? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?
A voice from behind him, in the shadows, said, very quietly, “You have never disappointed me.”
Shadow did not turn. “That’s weird,” he said. “I disappointed myself all the way. Every time.”
what. what. what the fuck. what is happening.
“It was crooked,” said Shadow. “All of it. None of it was for real. It was just a set-up for a massacre.”
“Exactly,” said Wednesday’s voice from the shadows. “It was crooked. But it was the only game in town.”
WHAT THE HOLY FUCK IS GOING ON. Wednesday is dead. How is this a set-up? A set-up for what???
This revelation of the endgame is horrifying to me, because the information is given to the reader through violence and chaos. As I tried to figure out who these people actuallywere, I had to re-adjust everything I’d accepted as fact up until this point. I had to acknowledge an absurd truth: Mr. World was actually Loki. And if you had told me that earlier in the novel, I would have laughed in your face and told you that it made no sense at all. If you had told me that Mr. World dedicating a battle to Odin was a bad thing, I would have mentally punched you in the throat. STFU WEDNESDAY IS AWESOME HOW DARE YOU. And if you had told me that Wednesday and Loki were villains who set up the entire world of gods to annihilate one another in a bloodbath that would actually give the two some sort of monopoly of power, I would have–
No, I can’t tell you what I would do. Like my recent trip through the A Song of Ice and Fire series, this was one of those revelations that was so far from any frame of reference in my brain that I had to stop, put my book down, and just not read for ten minutes. I feltbetrayed for even remotely cheering for Wednesday, for mourning his death or even feeling a modicum of sadness at what happened to him. Which I imagine is a lot like what Shadow was going through, too, though his moment of revelation was before this precise moment.
As much as I wanted to deny that this was even possible, I fucking knew that this was true. I sensed that Wednesday’s talk of two-man cons was far too significant to just be a throwaway line. Gaiman has shown us how poorly the “old” gods fared in this country, and even how the new gods were desperate for a monopoly. He told us of the importance of symbols, of belief, of sacrifice. And he made it so goddamn clear that a war between the new gods and the old gods did not make a whole lot of sense. What’s the one question I kept asking this whole time?
Why?
Why did the new gods need to snuff out the old ones? Why not just let them fade away and disappear on their own? There was no need to actually go to war with them.
AND THAT ACTUALLY TURNED OUT TO BE THE FUCKING ANSWER oh my god w;klejr a;kj as;dklfh a;;lkasjdf Odin gains his power from have deaths dedicated to him. He tricked thousands upon thousands of gods to kill each other in his name. Loki tricked thousands of gods to go to war so he could feed on their chaos.
So it now became an issue of resolution: How would Shadow possibly find a way to stop this? Could he even stop it? When Wednesday confirms my suspicion from earlier, that he fathered Shadow himself, he makes a critical error: he pisses off Shadow. For all his talk of understanding his son, knowing what makes him tick, it’s a fault that he didn’t see how Shadow could get an idea in his head and stick with it, at least not in this context. He reveals too much before the battle has truly begun, and Shadow finds a way to exploit this.
I was reminded of the way that Lyra “read” the alethiometer in His Dark Materials, of how she was able to access a certain plane of concentration, when Shadow basically does the same thing to do the impossible: he accesses the “backstage” of the gods. Which explains why there was no battle going on around him. He was in the right place and the wrong place at the same time.
And really, now, how absolutely fantastic is the backstage battle scene? There is a streak of lightning sitting across the sky, lighting that place, because TIME HAS STOPPED HERE. One of those flashes of lightning from the storm in our world has been paused to light this “natural amphitheater.” And the scene that spills out below might be my favorite passage of all of American Gods. I’m not going to quote it here; it’s pages long, but Gaiman cycles through the unbelievable number of gods who are here, in this space, some of them dead, some of them bloodied, all of them awaiting the final rush of attack that will send it all into chaos, unknowingly feeding both Loki and Odin when the do.
I still don’t know how I feel about Shadow giving a speech to the gods to explain to them why they shouldn’t fight. After learning the endgame, it feels a bit repetitious to me. We already know everything that he is saying, so it’s weird to read it again. I did like this part, though:
“You know,” he said, “I think I would rather be a man than a god. We don’t need anyone to believe in us. We just keep going anyhow. It’s what we do.”
It’s a wistful statement, one that’s true in the moment, but kind of sad when you think about it. Human life can continue on without anyone believing in us, at least on an individual level. But it’s that individualism that can ultimately save us, too. A double-edged sword of existence.
To Shadow’s shock (and my own), his words work. The gods begin to leave, to dissipate, and Mr. Nancy himself (in his spider-form) help guides Shadow back to the “real” world. We don’t deal with the vast majority of the fallout of this war, though there’s mention of injured and maimed gods appearing all around. Shadow concerns himself with the last thing that matters in this place, the holiest spot in the southeastern United States.
His dying wife. Who is dying. A second time.
Knowing that Laura will be judged and might even choose where she can end up is a bit soothing, but I can’t deny that I was sad to see her go. But if she was going to truly die in this book, not to return again, I’m glad it was at the hands of a willing Shadow this time. He takes the golden coin that was mistakenly given to him by Mr. Sweeney away from his wife, using a final coin trick to make it disappear, his wife dying instantly. (THAT IS SO ROMANTICALLY POETIC IT HURTS.)
The storms had cleared. The air felt fresh and clean and new once more.
Tomorrow, he had no doubt, would be one hell of a beautiful day.
Goddamn. What a chapter.
*FLAIL* YOU FINALLY GOT THERE AND I TOLD YOU YOU WOULD FREAK. Oh, Neil Gaiman. How do you words.
Mistletoe.
Loki wants to kill or inconvenience Shadow with MISTLETOE.
WAT.
In Norse mythology, Loki killed Odin's son, Baldr, with Mistletoe. It's sort of like his Achilles heel: the only plant that hadn't promised not to hurt him. So now we've finally learned Shadow's "real" name
Wait, seriously? Baldr is Shadow's name?!?!!!
No, his name is Shadow, but he is Baldr. Well, a version of Baldr.
I'm not sure if this is a spoiler or not so I'm going to ROT13 anyway, but actually uvf anzr unf orra erirnyrq gb or Onyqre Zbba (be vg jnf hagvy ur tnir vg njnl ba uvf wbhearl va gur nsgreyvsr). I think it was revealed in either Fragile Things or a fan interview.
That is awesome. I shall have to finish reading Fragile Things!
Ohh, I didn't know that! Awesome.
I thought he said they called him Shadow because when he was a kid he would follow the adults around instead of hanging out with other kids?
Gaiman wrote a short story called "Monarch of the Glen" which gives us Shadow's real name, juvpu gheaf bhg gb or onyqre zbba.
Oh, I know that. THAT'S WHY I WENT WAT.
Guys, spoilers! Tag it please
Spoilers for stuff that was revealed in this chapter that Mark just read?
Sorry, I was meaning more of naming stuff (since it pops up in future stories that he hasn't read where its pointed out) I may be acting over cautious though D:
Oh, I didn't know it'd been confirmed elsewhere. Sorry ^.^
Never underestimate the power of mistletoe 😉
Mark, Mark, Mark. Do you know how much I laughed last chapter, and at the beginning of this one too? Because you completely missed all the clues that Mr. World = Loki. The physical description. The mention of him playing chauffeur in Kansas. You are so silly, and I love you for it. 😀
Laura is wonderful. <3 I love her line about how that must look so undignified. Sad to see her go – she was so interesting and badass and I loved her. :'(
Really, Whiskey Jack? Budweiser? Really? Trust me, we have better breweries than that here in the States.
You were never, ever prepared, Mark. And it is folly to think you are now. Because there's still book left, and that means that preparedness level is still low. 😀
What? This isn't even the last chapter? HOLY CRAP! How the hell can Gaiman top this? o.0
Yeah, there's two more left to go. As I've said before, you're (general you) not prepared for a book until it's over. 😀
"Call no book awesome until you have finished it."
I was thinking about that. Yes, we do have better breweries, but there's something so *American* about Budweiser and Coors and Miller. The cheap, watery, mass-marketed beer that you can find anywhere in this country. Breweries like Sam Adams and New Belgium are starting to gain more traction, but they really aren't as pervasive as Bud
What's really funny/sad about it is that those aren't even the oldest breweries in America: a fantastic East Coast one called Yuengling is. And okay, technically Blue Moon is made by Coors, but the cheap watery crap is more pervasive as you say. Still, I wanna tell a god/cultural hero like him not to settle. 🙁
Haha, I had to switch from Fat Tire (New Belgium) to Yuengling when I moved across the Mississippi River. It's kind of funny how those two breweries seem to have split market control. You can usually only find one or the other wherever you happen to be, though I've seen Fat Tire popping up in Virginia recently, so maybe Yuengling is making its way west, too.
I care way too much about beer. I blame living in Boulder for a year.
I would LOVE it if Yuengling came out west! Such a great beer. Fat Tire's pretty good too, yum.
We can care together. 😀
It just came out this very month in Ohio, so it sounds like it might be moving further west.
I don’t even drink beer, but no one in the state will shut up about it!
I liked Yuengling more before they went all union-busting on their workers.
Really? Ugh, I hadn't heard about that. :@ I'd say they won't get any of my business, but their stuff isn't available out here anyway, so it's a useless statement.
The thing about Budweiser is that it’s probably the best of the cheap, watery, mass-marketed beers. I’m the snobbiest beer snob who ever paid twenty bucks for a six-pack, but if I’m drinking somewhere that doesn’t cater to my ~*impeccable tastes*~, Bud’s a dependably inoffensive fallback.
Beer snob high-five!
I'd drink Coors over Bud any day, but personal preference. I have heard Coors described as "real Colorado beer, filtered through real Coloradans" which I've found to be more or less true. But it has less flavor than Bud, which I've found to be a good thing, at least when it comes to beer pong.
Really, Whiskey Jack? Budweiser? Really? Trust me, we have better breweries than that here in the States.
Right? I was like "seriously?" I'm from Milwaukee where we CARE about our beer! (I don't actually drink. But even I know that Bud is crap.)
Yeah, Bud is for people who don't care.
Mark, Mark, Mark. Do you know how much I laughed last chapter, and at the beginning of this one too? Because you completely missed all the clues that Mr. World = Loki. The physical description. The mention of him playing chauffeur in Kansas. You are so silly, and I love you for it.
This. When I realised Mark hadn't spotted the clues before, I was almost giddy for the bigger reveal in this chapter. GIDDY I TELL YOU.
Yeah, Laura's death is pretty heartbreaking. 🙁
My reaction to this chapter:
WHAT THE HOLY EVERLIVING FUCK DID I JUST READ
(I believe I got that phrase from you, Mark…thanks for letting me borrow it for a while!)
And then I finished the book. Guys, my brain is mush right now.
by the way! You were right about the mistletoe quote! It is in the original too! The internet is full of lies 🙁
Oh internet. So helpful and so misleading.
Well, that's why the god of the internet was an asshole.
I imagine the god of the internet these days would be 4chan.
Yeah. I picture that god as being something of a shapeshifter, who could look like anyone, just regular, unremarkable people that don't make much of an impression. Because, you know, Anonymous.
UGH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
but you're probably right
4chan's mascot is Yotsuba, so… the god of the internet is the incarnation of cute? I'm okay with this.
The Internet is such a big thing I'm not sure it would be just one god. Like, I think you'd have a god that was the idea of The Internet, but you could also have a god of 4Chan, a god of Facebook, a god of Google, etc, because those are all sorts of powerful (but separate) ideas in their own right.
The pantheon of internet.
Cheezburgr, the somewhat absent minded goddess of memes and internet cats.
Anon, The trickster god of 4chan, anonymous, and all who desire chaos on the internet, whose shape changes by the hour.
Wikitrope, the goddess of useless yet fascinating information. While seeming benign, she is truly a dark deity, subsuming devout followers.
Wat Privacee, the god of social media.
That’s not to mention KCDX, the god of “knows more than you” and “your opinion is uninformed”. There’s also ANON’s twin sister, Pinkie, who is the keeper of all cute things that do not fall under Cheezburgr’s purview. ANON is very protective of his tiny sister.
However, we cannot speak of the gods of old, for few remain who remember them. One was in the shape of a construction worker, another burst into song whenever you approached, one was a small child, never aging, always dancing.
There are more gods than one could count in a single lifetime.
And above them all, there is Chuck Norris.
There just has to be a fandom wank god…
Wikitrope feeds on sacrifices of productive time.
Man, that means the God of Usenet probably offed himself 🙁
I bet there's a god of spam.
I love how everything just comes together in this book. All those little hints along the way. If you're really paying attention, the entire plot is laid out by the fifth chapter. We've met Odin and Loki, learned about the war and Odin's defining characteristic as a con-man. We've seen the importance of both two-man cons and coin tricks. The entire book is just one big coin trick to mask a con-job. Here, look at Shadow. Pay no attention to the gods behind the curtain. And it's brilliant.
It feels like the very best history lesson I could ask for, or perhaps a fireside story told with sincerity and heart, or maybe even a tale handed down over the centuries. It’s comforting even if it is disturbing at times, and I found myself feeling like this was all being shared with me out of respect for me as a person.
This right here is why I love this book so much
Oh wow! Shadow was the misdirection! I didn't think about it like that before, but now I love this book even more!
“I’m prepared!” I thought.
And then Gaiman promptly slapped me in the face for even suggesting such a thing.
Awww, I just had this image of a chibi-Mark looking all cute and innocent only to have Gaiman slap some sense into him 🙁
I love Laura's line about looking undignified <3 She's so fantastic! When I first read the book I didn't really like her until this chapter- for shame 🙁
RIP Loki and Odin, you slimy bastards
Ditto about Laura. And considering Loki's comment that they needed to get rid of her, I wonder how much the gods interfered. Did they cause the car crash? Did they push Laura into cheating on Shadow hoping she would decide to leave him? I'm so curious.
I always took it as them causing the car crash. I don't know how it reads in the Anniversary edition, but in the original, the "If it could have been any other way" line is followed up by Loki saying "And if she'd had the grace to stay dead", which I interpreted as "We killed her, and if she'd stayed dead like she was supposed to, this shit wouldn't have happened and Wood and Stone wouldn't be dead."
It reads the same in the Anniversary edition. I guess it's just wishful thinking on my part that there was some external influence pushing Laura to cheat on Shadow. Except for that detail, they do seem pretty good together. But I suppose she had her reasons, as she talked about in the graveyard outside Lakeside
I like to think that they pushed Laura into cheating, because it makes me feel better, but maybe she always secretly had feelings for Robbie, but would never, EVER act on them. I guess Odin/Loki could have manipulated those feelings and orchestrated the crash so that Shadow would have more of an incentive to leave with Wednesday. If she had just left him, Shadow might reject Wednesday’s offer to try to get her back, and if she had died alone somehow Shadow would still have a job back at the Muscle Farm. This way he loses everything.
You know, back in the chapter when Shadow meets Wednesday on the plane, with a job offer and knowledge of his wife's death, I thought that he had arranged for that to happen. I didn't know he was a god then, but I already saw him as the sort of people with a lot of influence and means to do that. I couldn't see his motivations, and then I forgot about my suspicion with the whole gods at war and people coming back from the dead. Poor Shadow, he didn't stand a chance.
I took it as Laura's cheating was all her own, but Wednesday was driving the truck or otherwise involved in setting the scene for the actual accident to make sure that her cheating ended in death.
Same interpretation here.
I actually really like that the fact that she cheated on him isn't diminished by anything. I also love that despite that she still loved him. I think a lot of stories play it as the cheater didn't really love the cheated, but this book shows how complicated an issue it really is. She made a mistake and regretted it and was able to try to atone for it after her death. Though I have to wonder if Shadow ever really forgave her. He still loved her, but is that something you can ever completely forgive?
"In terms of setting up the tension, Gaiman is a master. The sentences become shorter, more abrupt, and the narration is matter-of-fact, almost containing a list-like quality" – Mark, your love of lists is adorable.
The thing about the tree is basically explained in a previous chapter: it's the Water of Time that feeds the tree. So just as the Water gave Laura a second chance at the afterlife, and Town had a weird time discrepancy when he got back to his car–the Tree distorts time, changes it. That's the impression I got, anyway. So Wednesday's corpse is all gone because a lot more time has passed under the tree than in the outside world. The farmhouse is gone for the same reason. I dunno what happens to the three ladies in that case. I imagine they're still around somewhere.
I like that Shadow knows how to communicate with the thunderbird. HE SCREECHES AT IT TO SAY HI.
The one complaint I have with this chapter is it seems a little too easy for Shadow to thwart Wednesday's and Loki's plans. He just… gives a speech to the gods and they go away. Wouldn't Wednesday be incredibly pissed off and want to do something about this? Or maybe he can't, because he's just, as he says, "a ghost"? He was relying on the battle to give him power to take physical form again, but now the battle isn't happening. Still, usually in books when the hero thwarts the bad guys, the bad guys do something to retaliate.
But I haven't re-read the next chapter yet and it has already been shown that even though I've read this book before, I'm still not prepared. SO WE SHALL SEE.
BY THE WAY
WordPress totally decided it was in another country???? Hence why this review is late. SORRY ABOUT THAT.
Haha, I figured shit got so real you were still in shock <3
I actually worried you'd had a literal head asplosion.
The god of the Internet must have been jerking you around. 🙂
Oh, Mark. We've been waiting for you to get to this chapter. Nearly every bit of rot13 has essentially been about this, wanting you to get here. Welcome to it! We're glad you're here! 😀
If Neil Gaiman cackled quietly to himself every time his writing blew someone's mind, it would have long ago reached to the point where he never stops cackling. ^_^
Now I have a mental picture of J.K. Rowling and Neil Gaiman just sitting around drinking tea and cackling about how much they like to trick their readers WHAT IS MY BRAIN
And Terry Pratchett is there somewhere, chilling with an orangutan. And George R.R. Martin is sitting in a dark corner with the biggest trollface you've ever seen, although Moffat's is coming in at a close second.
Also, booya! I WAS RIGHT, IT WAS MEDUSA. 😀
The fact that Wednesday and Loki are behind the war is a really fascinating way of using the mythology of Ragnarok. In Norse mythology, Ragnarok (translated as either the Fate or the Twilight of the Gods) was a predestined time when all the gods and supernatural beings would rise up to destroy one another. The death of Baldur, Shadow's true name/self, was the harbinger of this time. One of the strange things about Ragnarok is that all the gods basically know what is going to happen and yet can do nothing to stop it from occurring.
In this novel, there is a constantly recurring sense that the gods know their time is limited, i.e. they are in their twilight and fated to fade away. Wednesday and Loki twist the whole concept of Ragnarok to ensure that it's purpose comes true-the gods, including themselves, will die- BUT because they add on the extra dimension of dedicating the sacrifices of the gods to themselves, they will be reborn. Because Shadow does not stay death, he can no longer stand in as the harbinger for the war and is personally the mediator who intervenes to stop it.
It really is a brilliant take on the concept of Ragnarok, yeah.
The great thing is that Odin, Loki, and everyone else on both sides are destined to die in Ragnarok… but Baldur is one of those few gods destined to be reborn after the battle, when everything is peaceful and warm and sunlit and perfect. ^_^
Yes, it's the coming of spring after Fimbulvetr (rendered sometimes in English as Fimbulwinter), the long winter. Which – Easter revived Shadow, and the bulk of this book has taken place in winter. I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE, NEIL.
EXACTLY. ^___^
Thanks for bringing those points up Saphlinh and arctic_hare! I'd forgotten those parts – it's been awhile since I read deeply into Norse mythology. 🙂
Wait… how is Shadow Baldur? I get that there are parallels between them, but isn't Shadow human? Isn't that one of the most important things about his character? Like that great line he has at the end about how he's glad he's human because he doesn't need anyone to believe in him to keep going?
I is confused.
But then how does he get himself backstage? And Wednesday is his dad? And… things.
Well, I figured he had some abilities due to his genetics, but that he wasn't a god. After all, he got sick by being backstage, right? So he must be at least MOSTLY human. Maybe going backstage is something anyone can do if they know how. But nobody ever tries.
feltbetrayed for even remotely cheering for Wednesday, for mourning his death or even feeling a modicum of sadness at what happened to him.
Well – he *is* Odin. Who is with every fibre a trickster god. The Norse pantheon is not filled with nice people.
(Apart from that, I remember being rather disgusted with Wednesday because he kept magicking these young women into fancying him, thus giving him a small amount of worship, so I felt rather vindicated when he turned out to be the guy behind everything. 😛 )
So, basically everyone has already said what I was thinking. I have no other words for what this book has caused me.
And I think it may be one of the only times that people who were reading along with Mark and equally unprepared were cackling with evil glee as well, as I for one realised Mr. World=Loki last chapter.
God this man's a genius. I can't wait to read more from him!
Haha. I was just as clueless as Mark. Possibly moreso. I'm a little disappointed in myself that I didn't catch on even a little bit.
As soon as I read about Mr. World's lips being sewn together, I knew he was Loki. One of my favorite moments in the Norse myths I read as a kid.
Somewhere, Neil Gaiman is chuckling to himself and twirling an imaginary moustache.
Mark, we only laughed as hard as we did because most of us went through the exact same thing when we read the book.
This is one of the most perfect examples of a “twist” ending, as everything is set up ahead of time and yet it takes a most intuitive and attentive reader to figure it out.
Now, Mark, I thought you'd realised by now; you are never prepared. If you think you are, than clearly you are wrong or have stumbled into another universe.
Somewhere out there is a universe in which Mark is always prepared. And they have zeppelins.
Zeppelins are nothing special. Alternate universes generate them as a matter of course.
(As Kenneth Hite points out, this means that our universe was alternate back in the 1920s and 30s.)
Yeah as much as I looove this book for some reason, this chapter isn’t one of my favorite chapters. But I just have to say Neil Gaiman is brilliant. I mean like honestly a real genius. I think one of my all-time favorite literary devices is using physical appearances to trick the audience because its something that wouldn’t work in an other medium. Because I am sorry, but for the television series in 2013 there is NO way they can show Loki and Mr.World and it have it work unless they only have Mr.World communicate by telephone like they do when Shadow enters Mr.Town’s mind Backstage.
For Low Key in prison with Shadow, they could probably shoot it so that we never see all of his face. Or something. Just his feet. Or his hands. Orrr something
It feels even more like this as the characters introduced over the course of this novel begin to converge. It’s one of those things I enjoy about a book that’s sprawling. I like using that word to describe fiction because it gives me a sense of a much larger fictional world than most authors are comfortable writing. Even if we are honing in on the action occurring in just one place, American Gods really does feel quite expansive as a whole. It helps that we’ve gotten so many character perspectives as well, as if this is a gigantic, asymmetric chessboard, and the final pieces are moving in for the kill.
The way I describe it is that the last 200 pages make the first 400 pages retroactively more awesome. IT WAS ALL A LONG CON. THE WHOLE THING WAS A LONG CON RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR NOSES. FUCKING AMAZING.
“Mack…I keep thinking. You must really want to know what happened to those friends of yours,” she said. “Woody and Stone. Do you?”
“Yeah, he said, moving his lips down to hers, for their first kiss. “Sure I do.”
So she showed him.
THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE PARTS EVER. In four fucking words, Gaiman conjures up so many terrifying images. Four simple fucking words.
My post from Friday, un-rot13ed:
OK, first of all: Mr. World was easily amused. Mr. Town had noticed this on several occasions. It had amused him to play chauffeur, in Kansas, after all.
ASD;GGJHFHJHGLFTL MR. WORLD IS LOW KEY/ LOKI. LOKI IS MR WORLD.
When I was reading about dedicating the deaths to Odin, I suddenly remembered Wednesday talking about how sacrifices gave him power, and it hit me. So a death dedicated to him basically is a sacrifice, right? So by dedicating the death of the technical god, and anyone who dies in the battle, to him, LOKI IS TRYING TO RESURRECT HIM. Right? I don’t know who the voice from the shadows was… another Norse God? Maybe Thor is actually alive after all? And I still don’t know what the importance is of Shadow basically reliving Odin’s experience (hanging from the tree, getting a wound in his side). But I know this has to be important somehow.
OMG I was right!!! Well, right about some things, anyway. I was still surprised the find out Wednesday was still around, if only in spirit form. BUT I was right about the deaths being sacrifices to him!
This is just me feeling good about myself, because, really, I fell for the con just like everyone else. Gaiman is pretty brilliant to make coin tricks such a prominent part of Shadow’s character, while he was essentially performing one himself.
I kind of wish we’d gotten to see more of the actual battle, but the simple descriptions of all the various gods assembling before the battle were delicious enough. Eventually I stopped trying to figure out who they all were and just went with it.
Poor Laura. At least she took out Mr. Town and Loki before she died (and how badass was it to STAB LOKI THROUGH HERSELF?) And it probably wouldn't have been fun to go through the process of deteriorating a second time.
Well, most of it has been said except for this:
I miss the gifs. Moar I-was-unprepared gifs? =(
First, he's Mr. Wednesday because one of his other names is the root for wednesday. It's a little known fact, but 4 english names for the days of the week are derived from norse gods. As in,
Tyr's Day
Woden's Day
Thor's Day
Frija's Day.
So yeah, pretty interesting right?
also, this is my first time reading "Mark Reads", and I absolutely loved it. I've read American Gods before, but i really love hearing another person's analysis and experience of it. Everyone makes different insights into a book, and it's really interesting to hear his. so thanks, mark.
Finally, I really think that Mark should read summerland by michael chabon next. It has a lot of similar elements and stories with american gods, but it is a different kind of Fable. It's definitely worth reading. Anyone agree?