American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Fire_bird

New Member
American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Hi, im Sarah...im new here *waves enthusiastically* =)

I would be interested in hearing what sparked your interest in mythology.
I have been interested in mythology and religion for a while now. As far as i remember i first became aware of mythology when i was quite little; i had a big book with nice juicey illustrations in it of the minotaur and medusa. Then, for a long while, i took more of an interest in religion than mythology - untill i read 'American Gods' by Neil Gaiman a few years ago. I enjoyed that book so so much and it wetted my appitite for mythology once more. So far i have taken an interest in Greek mythology mostly but am interested in anything and everything that is as creative and inspiring. I'm like a sponge ready to soak up all the magicality (my word i think) =D
 

frang

with minty fresh powers
I really enjoyed American Gods... what an intriguing concept, to follow the gods of the immigrant cultures to this country... although I think Gaiman missed (intentionally) the role of Christianity in American culture.

I enjoyed Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys even more.
 

AcadianSidhe

New Member
American Gods.... now that's one of those books that I love like it's a friend. It's up there with The Red Tent.

When I was almost 9, my grandmother began a mission to turn my cousin that was my age and I onto mythology. I became deeply entrenched almost immediately- she bought us both a copy of D'aulaire's Greek Myths. I was easily sated for every Christmas after, while, my cousin's attention wavered. Which sucked, cause she kept getting cool stuff like the game By Jove, while I kept getting books I could have gotten myself :)

But I recognized when I was a pre-teen that I wasn't going to learn much more about Greek Mythology without getting into classical literature (which I wasn't ready for)- so that's when I branched out.

I will say, though, The Red Tent is what sparked my current passion for Near East Mythology.
 

VS Prasad

Junior Member
Indian myths are much more creative and inspiring. Each one has more
meanings than the apparent. They are so many in number that it will
take a life time to read them.
 

figment

New Member
I appreciated that Gaiman didn't include Greek or Roman mythology, in favour of the mythologies less represented in Western literature, i.e. Egyptian, Hindu, Norse, etc.

If he'd merely been concerned with representing the "immigrant gods" he'd have included Roman mythology at least, since America has a large Italian population.
 
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