Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Martha/-N/Linda: Thanks much for the technical legwork.  Since I'm
relatively cyber-illiterate, I would have been wandering around
wondering why I couldn't find them for some time.

I'll just put the quote into the pile with a note that it needs to be
verified someday if I use it in any official capacity.

I first associated Forgettable Guy with the idea of the mentally
elusive Sidhe king.  But then the money association in Vegas confused
me.  I wasn't sure that his anonymity wasn't actually supposed to be
the point--that he'd advanced so far into the territory of the
Forgotten Gods that he was barely still here.  Especially since, isn't
he the only one we see Wednesday offer Soma to?  (Trying to remember,
sans book, if that's the right word for the Liqeur de Distilled
Worship).
  

    

I confess that I am a little unsettled at the idea that gods can die.
  

    
But, Linda, isn't that the whole thing behind the Nordic Pantheon -
Valhalla, and then Ragnarok, and then they all die?

I love the phrase (Gotterdammerung) 'Twilight of the Gods' so much
that I once wrote a Haiku about a Maxfield Parrish painting using it...
and to me, dieties are much more interesting if it's possible for them
to get killed, or fade away from neglect like in the Trek Classic
episode...
besides, how can you be reborn if you don't die? 

(From Cameron)
The death/rebirth cycle is common in antiquity. Jesus Christ is a good
example of this. 
(Cam was unaware of the constant Shadow/Jesus comparisons. When I told
him, he said, "Well, Jesus is still a good example because everyone
knows that Aslan is Christ.")
  

    
Gail – not really. I like to read interesting reviews – the kind that
make you as an author stop and think. But I don’t go out of my way to
accumulate them.

Dan – to some extent. Sometimes you only realise what you were saying
months or years after the event.

But mostly you know while you’re doing it.

Will – thanks

Pamela – you are welcome. I’d love to know what you think reading it a
second time.

Martha – I think that what JaNell was most frustrated about (I may
have got this wrong and I don’t want to put words into her mouth) was
whether there were things going on under the surface of American Gods,
or whether the story was the one you see on top. Was the Tree a Tree,
or was it Really The World Tree?  And I worry that you may have given
her the wrong idea with your line about the crossword puzzle...

I just don’t see why the two things are mutually exclusive. Anything
good should be capable of being read with pleasure and then re-read
with increased pleasure, which means that it shouldn’t give everything
up on first reading. That doesn’t mean a novel is a code or a puzzle to
which you can then get a list of right or wrong answers. It means that
it should give you more the second time – more imagery, more story,
different story, more ideas, more going on beneath.

And to answer your question – the biggest difference was the length of
time between starting and finishing it, and the worry that, if it was
rubbish, I’d’ve been gone from the world for 20 months without a
reason. I was worried about finding the end, mostly.

Mary – it’s not that the book’s “avoiding the whole judeo christian
thing” – after all, the book talks about Jesus, there are a number of
mentions of churches, of religious stations, there’s a rabbi and a
golem, the queen of Sheba’s in there...

I think reviewers compare Shadow to Christ because they don’t know
much about solar myths.

Linda – Laura’s pretty honest all the way through. Even when she lies
to Town, it’s not what she says but what he hears that’s the problem.

Rani – now that is a very good question, and I am glad you asked it.

Charles – not really. It was a lot more to do with the English
language.

JaNell – exactly. I think she was too distanced to be bothered to lie.
We get glimpses of the other Laura when she’s with Town.

Oddly enough, about halfg way through the book, I offered
HarperCollins that option – but they said they’d rather wait for the
whole book. And I liked doing the whole book thing too. I spent 8 years
on Sandman writing serial fiction.

Maggie – I think non-perception, not confusion. It’s just that things
aren’t important in the same way any more.

Linda – most gods die at some point or other. Honest.
  

    <scribbled>
  

    
Email from Kathy Li:

Tiny comment: I loved the fact that not only was the Queen of Sheba
present, but that she said exactly what the Bible says she says, and even
more that what she didn't say was just as telling.  I *liked* that Bilquis
wouldn't admit to not finding her lover.

Was also tickled pink on reading that way-back in topic 73 (post #430)
Neil said he looked up the quote in a replacement hotel Gideon's bible.  
I suddenly got this mental image of Neil as Sky Masterson ...
  

    
Neil: I'd be honored to let you know.  It'll be a while, though, as
I'm still pretty overwhelmed.  I'd want to come back to it with a clean
palate.

>most gods die at some point or other. Honest.

Says you.  Me, I've been in the Jotunheim and I'm not so sure.

(For varying values of "die," anyway.)
  

    
Neil -AAARGH!! That's terribly mean of you. Out of all of the
questions flitting about my head, the question of "one of who the
Forgotten One is" has taken hold the most. 

Hint, please? Pretty please? I promise, no more David Bowie love child
cracks.
  

    
Neil - The sun-god mythos figures deeply in most of the world's
religions and yet each time a new religion rises to dominance the whole
concept is presented as a new idea. What is your opinion of the
collective historical amnesia that seems to dominate our culture?  Are
you of the opinion that there is only one great creation myth that
keeps being recycled for each succeeding era in human history? 
Furthermore, when you wrote AG, did you deliberately write it in such a
manner that would demand several readings?  I ask this last question
because the only other writer, imho, who has a similar facility with
language and symbolism is Tony Morrison. With her as with you, one
tends to get caught up in the beauty of the structure of a sentence
before actually deciphering the meaning. And the subtext is always a
critical part of the story. It always feels as if you are reading two
books at once. 

JaNell - I interpreted Laura as being quite literal and honest
precisely because she was dead.  She had nothing to lose by telling the
absolute truth. Something that we the living can't afford to do. And I
disagree with you, Christianity *is* the official religion of America.
However, my thoughts about it tends to run along the lines of Pink
Floyd's "What God Wants". ;>

[Had a rough day and probably thinking too much..]
  

    
Roxy - Don't I know it, about telling the truth. I'm amazed Neil's
still talking to me... or anyone else I know, for that matter. But you
know, I am who I am, abrasive or no... hopefully worth it, too. :?

Neil - I think that, for me, it's not that I get *more* with each
reading of a good book; the information is always there; it's a
function of time, and what *I* bring to the book each time I read it.
The act of having read a book changes me, and my perception of things,
so the next time round will by necessity be a different experience.

I don't do one night stands with books (or people); if that happens, I
feel ripped off. The unfolding of a relationship, even with a book, or
a piece of music, the remembered and anticipated pleasures, that's
what interests me. Especially when it's not new, and I can meld into it
'cause I already know the story, my curiosity is assuaged, I can just
experience it.

All this may mean is that we're saying the same thing different
ways...
  

    
Oh, Neil, I'm going to *pout*!  What must I do for a tiny little clue?
Homemade baklava?  Ghirardelli chocolate chip cookies?  Cheesecake?

Hand massage for the tired author's exhausted hands?

Sushi at Kotobuki if we're ever lucky enough to get you into Toledo?

<*sigh*>

I feel like I should know who it is, there's that faint whisper of
"You know who this is" at the back of my mind.  You're very good at
making us squirm!
  

    
Neil--Sorry, I know you weren't avoiding it, just that it's not what
the book is about.  When I reread my post the next day  realized that I
had not said what I meant.  I've gotta stop posting at 2 a.m. ;-)

I guess that I just think of Julian as an obscure corner of
Catholicism, and was pleasantly surprised to see her dusted off & sent
out to meet the nice people.  The only other person I know who quotes
her is my friend Denny the priest, and he is a bottomless pit of
religious historical knowledge....well, so are you, come to think of
it.   I shouldn't have been so surprised at all, at all.

I'm about 200 pages into my second reading, and am quite enjoying
watching the misdirection.  I really love the sleight of hand images--
I was an apprentice magician a long time ago, and you made me miss it. 
We really do love to be fooled......

Rani--my friend Mark says he thinks he knows who it is--the Soma is a
clue.  

There, I hope I didn't give too much away......M.
  

    
Neil, I like your remark, because it's the way I enjoy reading myself: a
story's more interesting if it can be read on two (or more) different
levels, and work on each just fine.

I think there must be something more that is different between writing a
short book and a long book, but then I've never written anything longer than
10,000 words so it's all foreign territory to me.

One thing I've always wondered about long works is whether they accrue bits
and pieces of esoterica from what you're reading and experiencing while
you're writing the book, that you would never have anticipated; and if this
book has any notable incidences like that that you found interesting.
  

    

I just finished the book.
There were a few points where there would be a description and I would
think, that was just totally Neil. I wish I remembered what any of them
were.

I also thought Shadow was going to turn out to be Baldur- I figured he was
probably going to be a member of the Family/pantheon as soon as I made the
connection with Low Key. I thought that maybe somehow he was a Norse god
reborn- and Baldur, as I recall, dies and is reborn in time for Ragnarok, so
it fit. Wasn't true, but it fit.

I still don't know who Hinzelmann is. Aside from what is explained in the
book. He's not from a mythology I'm familiar with, which is odd to me.

I had questions, but at the moment, I don't recall most of them.

There was one scene, from The Kindly Ones, that came to mind at one point,
so I'll leave you all with the quote from it:
Loki: "You don't HAVE to believe in God. But what about gods? Eh? The
plurality of powers and dominions. The Lords and Ladies of field and thorn,
of asphalt and sewer, gods of telephone and whore, gods of hospital and car-
crash?"

As we started meeting the "new" gods, I thought of that quote.

And I just thought of one other comment- when I wasn't suspecting him of
being Baldur, I suspected him of being the son of the Fenris Wolf. I thought
that would be interesting.
  

    
JaNell - Rocky please.  The other makes me flashback to the 70's when
"foxy" was in vogue. Arrrgh! ;p
  

    
        What I enjoyed most about Hinzelmann were his lies.  Neil, you have a
fundamental grasp of folklore and oral tradition that's just plain
stunning.  I've studied American folklore and tall tales somewhat, and
the tone of Hinzellmann's codswallop was dead-on perfect.  Speaking of
oral traditions, one thing I've seen in your work a lot are old jokes,
often medieval jokes, made new.  If a non-AG question might be
permitted, though, the only one of these I haven't recognized is from
way back in Sandman, the "...are you hunting rabbits again, vicar?"
joke that follows Hob Gadling for six hundred years.  Is that a real
joke, and if so what's the rest of it?  I've never been able to track
the bloody thing down.
  

    
Sorry, Rocky. I was tired, and worried - but I dimpled at you. 
Now, don't make me come over there with Cthulu in tow, Foxy Lady...

Soma - I keep thinking "Brave New World", and the song:
"Kiss me, honey, snuggle bunny,
Love is better than Soma."

I wonder how I would have read AG if I hadn't read Tom Robbins'
_Jitterbug Perfume_ several times first?

Hinzelmann - check at the AG:Annotations message board; I think that's
where I saw a discussion about that name...
  

    
Madman- I found the second paragraph of your post to be really slick.
You know what I mean? Just thought I would say so.;)
  

    
Wow. Neil and Terry interviewing at the same time now. We are so
honored. 
  

    
(Dismissively) "Neil WHO? Oh, yeah, that's one of my WRITERS..."

Anyhow, I just received a second copy of AG (thanks, Jon) that will
allow me to read it to death without ruining the one with the wonderful
inscription from the Lex signing that, up until about thirty minutes
ago, I had treasured too much to mess up with sugary tea spills and
chocolate fingerprints.

On Topic, now:

Does anyone here think that any Old Gods (other than Mammon) are
seriously being worshiped in America today? I guess maybe some of the
Santa Ria... but what real life experiences in this have any of y'all
had?

And, what do any of you think about the effect of climate/harshness of
day-to-day life has on the mythos of the different pantheons around
the world? 

Is life just too easy (for most of us in America) to have a need for
mythic deities?
  

    
I've known several practicing Wiccans, but I don't have any experience with
that ancient religion personally.

There's another issue, too, that I haven't seen mentioned yet, and that is
that there are a lot of ethnically and racially mixed people in the U.S.  My
own ancestors came from more than a dozen regions and countries, and I don't
put myself in any particular hyphenated-American category.  I'm not even
purely European-American.

However, I did come from a very religious family, although I haven't
practiced The Family Religion in more than 25 years.  I sometimes wish that
I had something to replace it with, but it's not a compelling need.
  

    
Fleur- while Wicca may be based on some ancient beliefs, the religion
itself is relatively new - sometime in the last century, I believe.
  

    
Also, about the Wicca/pagan bit, remember the funny thing in the
coffee shop with Wednesday, questioning the waitress about Eostre (or
whichever name she was using...), to prove that She wasn't still on the
mainline of worship?  Funny, sad, true...
  

    
Oh, yes, it was Easter, duhh.
In any case, it seemed to really underline the extreme
youthfulness--toddlerhood, perhaps--of Wicca as a religion, at least in
relation to the others populating the book.  It is only about a
century old.
How did this ("I don't know anything about Easter.  I'm a
pagan."--sorry no book at hand) develop as a scene, Neil?--it reads
like something of a quote of a real event, one of those horribly ironic
things...it made me squirm.
Rebecca
  

    
Eostre... Easter... same goddess, if I recall.  ;-)

I think some of whether an old religion is being practiced depends on
whether it's still alive... that is, I don't really see Norse mythology
being practiced, even tho I live near one of the larger Scandinavian
settlements in the US (Ballard, outside of Seattle) ... but Hinduism,
quite old, is definately being practised all over the place.

Huh. Interesting side note - offhand, it seems like the eastern
religions are more successful at staying around... wonder if that's
just because Christianity was so insidious (and plain sneaky), or for
other reasons...

Something to contemplate while I watch the beautiful people dance...

-Kelly