American Gods is one of my favorite novels by Neil Gaiman. I like how he managed to include a theme of change between old mythology and new traditions without coming off as pretentious or condescending. The overarching theme of needing to worship something, whether that something is the old gods or something like technology, was interesting and well done. Gaiman has an interesting message about the human need to believe in something, and that this culture can be double edged. The gods in American Gods are only powerful as long as people believe in them. The gods and their destructive attempts to make humans continue to believe in them is an allegory for people and their ability for believe to become destructive and their ability to negatively affect their lives and the lives of others.
Despite the destructive capabilities of belief, Gaiman also shows that this belief and these stories and mythologies are essential to human's ability to form a community. Having something that is a common interest among a diverse group of people allows societies to form a better community. American Gods illustrates that the common interest could be a number of different things, and that societies view and belief in these different things grows weaker or stronger throughout time.
American Gods also focuses on the growth and change prevalent in American culture. There is a generational divide between the people who brought to life the "old" gods and the "new" gods that formed with modern American culture. The gods show the divide between wanting constant change in the name of progress and clinging to the past.
So, I'm wondering what you think about this. Is belief a cultural pendulum swinging back and forth along planes of faith or are we, your generation for example, moving towards or away from belief. Or maybe as Gaiman may suggest, we are just replacing the old gods, the old myths with shiny new ones recycled for us by the Disney corporation and made safe for work.
ReplyDelete