Talk:American Gods

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Would it be possible for someone to write up a list of mythologies Gaiman references?


Contents

[edit] Spoilers

Somebody please put some of these spolier marks in the book plot because I just read a bit through it and I think I know way too much already. Sorry for not editing it myself —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.147.54.3 (talk) 06:12, 22 October 2007 (UTC)


I would if I knew how to add spoiler tags, I figured since they didn't have them, it would be safe.

68.229.55.89 (talk) 04:15, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Per WP:NDA, Wikipedia does not use spoiler tags. Dreadstar † 04:23, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Media Distribution of Book

It says that the book was only done in hardcover and softcover print format, yet I have the audio book on CD, can someone find a reference online and update the article? Thanks. 71.225.125.176 15:45, 23 January 2007 (UTC) --Stexe

[edit] Shadow as Baldur

Rewrote this after a review of the edit history here. I believe that if "Shadow is alluded to be Balder" is included in the article, then it should also be included that Gaiman himself said that Shadow's real name is Baldur Moon, although he has not (and doubtless, given his love of keeping the mysteries of this story intact, never will) said that Shadow is Baldur. Is there a reason I'm not able to find in the various edit histories for why this little fact was removed from the article? I want to open it for discussion before I add it back in, especially since I'm having some trouble finding a cite for Gaiman's statement about Shadow's real name. RaCha'ar 20:59, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

I removed Paul Bunyan from the "for instance" of folk heroes line, because this character is specifically mentioned as NOT being a folk hero; rather he is an artificial construct for marketing. Myrrander 08:02, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Question. Where did Delirium appear? I don't remember her in the book. JethroElfman 17:34, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

She's the girl with crazy hair and a dog (Barnabas) in the park when Shadow and Wednesday meet with Easter, if I remember rightly. Don't have the book on me or I'd give a page cite... -RaCha'ar 17:48, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Okay, I see her there on page 306 of my paperback, thanks. JethroElfman 04:46, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
Isn't that a bit far fetched? OK, the vague description might suit Delirium, but it could just as well be an illustration of everyday San Francisco life and its drifters. Having a homeless person of any age and gender be accompanied by a dog is an established combination, after all.
Not at all. It's not at all unusual for Gaiman to self-reference in that way. However, some searching has turned up that Gaiman's only comment on the subject of whether that really was Delirium or not is that he doesn't know, and the conclusion that it is in fact has largely been among his fans, never confirmed. So I'm going to remove it as unsourced original research, although I certainly personally think that Gaiman works in several references to his past works. -RaCha'ar 22:07, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
Well, I'll agree that it's a return to previous themes, but would argue that the parallels between the Sandman and the American Gods / Anansi Boys universes are largely constructed by the community. See the rather different characterizations of several key figures such as Bast and Odin in 'Seasons of Mist', for example. Thanks for removing the paragraph.

[edit] citeneeded

I have never before heard the assertion that Stardust and Sandman are intended to be part of the same world as American Gods and Anansi Boys. I'm going to leave this tagged with citeneeded but if the user who added it or someone else doesn't point to some proof for this I'm going to remove it as original research. -RaCha'ar 00:02, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Removed after more than a week of waiting with the IP going on to no further activity on WP. Feel free to re-add if you can find some assertion from Gaiman that this is true. -RaCha'ar 22:10, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Balder Moon

I have issues with the character being referred to as Balder "Shadow" Moon in this article. I understand that the character article is at Balder Moon (which I also have some problems with); however, Shadow is never referred to as Balder in this book. It's only from comments made in interviews by Gaiman, and later Monarch of the Glen, that we know that this is Shadow's real name. I'm having trouble figuring out how to point this out while still linking to the character's real name; any help? -RaCha'ar 15:50, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The guy no one remembers

The guy who no one remembers, who tells a waiter about her futere, anyone who know who this is? Is it ever explained?

It's emphatically not explained. Lots of fan speculation, but Gaiman has not and likely never will say who it is. -RaCha'ar 23:07, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Long long list

Do we really need this long list of every god who appears or is even briefly mentioned in the book? It's taking up the bulk of the article now and it looks sloppy. I vote to cut it down to major characters only. -RaCha'ar 18:43, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

The List is essential, it should stay. However I think many of the characters listed are not, in actuality, mentioned in the book. I move the List be trimmed to include only characters mentioned. -G.Hargreaves

Yep, pretty much exactly what I was thinking. I'm not suggesting that the list be removed entirely, but it's definitely too long and trivial right now. -RaCha'ar 22:31, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
I think it's also beginning to edge on OR, as User:GrahamHardy has been adding dozens of new entries to the list, most of which were never explicitly named and probably described in minimal detail. --Pentasyllabic 00:11, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

They are all explicitly named; I think the list may be nearly complete now though (I'm getting sick of it at least !) Can it not be separated off ? The title of the list is "Gods and legends appearing in the novel", If the list is to be trimmed then the Title needs to be changed. I beleive the list is now more or less complete so the 'Incomplete' note could be removed... GrahamHardy 00:14, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

I appreciate your hard work, but I think this is an absolute excess of information. I believe this list should be limited to those who have major roles in the book, not every single god who is at all named or appears. Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information and care must be taken to cover the important information without verging into trivia. Can we work together. here to construct a list of those gods that have major roles in the book? -RaCha'ar 02:22, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

I have no problem with that; I just went with the current title of the list "Gods and Legends appearing in the Novel" saw that it was incomplete and was asking for help so completed it ! I Change the title and slash the list; I've taken the book back to the library though so I cannot do it ! Thanks, GrahamHardy 12:53, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

  • Personally I find it kind of useful, although I guess I could have just typed the unfamiliar gods names in the search box. Lisiate 00:49, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
Myself, I think that a list like it could be useful, but without any context or identification, a lot of these entries are not obvious. I can remember when I finished the book and wanted to know if that dead child that the proto-humans were carrying around across the tundra was based on something, so I popped in here to check and was disappointed to find nothing, but even now, I wouldn't know which of those it would be (my suspicion is none of them, but shows how much I know about the subject) without clicking through about half to find out what they were in the first place. Unfortunately, if you start providing long explanations of from whence the character is identified, the list starts growing out of control and you end up with a fork that ends up getting deleted, so I'm not sure what the solution would be. A lot of Gaiman's mythology is outside of that which some of his readers might be familiar with, but I've got no idea whether this is the right place to help novices understand what he's talking about.Cool moe dee 345 19:20, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

The list is too long an cumbersome to be useful in its current form. If it's going to be left up in its current form, the more obscure references should probably include a footnote that lists the page number the figure appears on and a line or two that refers to it. I do question the list's compiler regarding what exactly qualifies as "appearing in the novel". Specifically, Jaquel makes passing reference to Jesus. That shouldn't qualify as an appearance, though. I don't recall any appearance by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, either, although the same do play a large role in another Gaiman body of work, "Good Omens."ChipEverwood 21:06, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cthulhu?

Peter Vasiljev 02:40, 13 October 2007 (UTC): AFAIK, Cthulhu was never mentioned in the novel. Gaiman did write a somewhat spoofish short story of him/her/it giving an interview to a reporter ("I, Cthulhu", if I remember correctly).

I just read a line in the book. It says "A young girl, no older than fourteen, her hair dyed green and orange and pink, stared at them as they went by. She sat beside a dog, a mongrel, with a piece of string for a collar and a leash." Anyone else think this is a reference to Delirium? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.137.177.46 (talk) 18:07, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Gaiman has indeed written various stories referencing the Cthulhu Mythos, but American Gods doesn't contain any direct reference to Cthulhu or any other Lovecraft creatures. The reference to Cthulhu does not belong on the list.ChipEverwood 20:47, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Delirium

I just read a line in the book. It says "A young girl, no older than fourteen, her hair dyed green and orange and pink, stared at them as they went by. She sat beside a dog, a mongrel, with a piece of string for a collar and a leash." Anyone else think this is a reference to Delirium? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.137.177.46 (talk) 18:11, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Another Piece of the Universe?

I was thumbing through Fragile Things and something in the introduction caught me. More so for the back ground of "Pages From A Journal Found In A Shoebox Left In A Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, And Louisvile, Kentucky" where Neil writes,"I wanted to write something about identity and travel and America, like a tiny companion piece to American Gods, in which everything, including any kind of resolution, hovered just out of reach." So would that make it part of the same universe of American Gods? It's worth a thought, maybe not a mention, but a thought.--Pony English 21:49, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Difference

So, what is the difference of the 12,000 word extra version to that of the retail? Pony English 07:32, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sam = Morrigan?

What is the basis for listing Sam Black Crow as Morrigan? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.1.17.5 (talk) 19:06, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

I was wondering the same thing, i just reread the novel and although black crows were associated with the Morrigan, and only very briefly at that, there seemed to be no connection between Sam and the Morrigan —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.14.239.249 (talk) 23:45, 6 November 2007 (UTC)