I'm new here. If anyone's already discussed this, feel free to ignore me.

Emile Durkheim, a terribly famous French sociologist/philosopher posed the question that this novel explores. That the old Gods have died, and he feared the future of society, because he could not imagine what new Gods could come along and replace them. He was concerned with collective morals, etc. You can look him up if you want to know more.

I wondered as I devoured the pages of American Gods whether Mr. Gaiman had any of this in mind as he wrote the novel. Or perhaps it is merely another manifestation that great minds indeed think alike.

Furthermore, what are the new Gods? Both in social reality and as they are portrayed in the novel?

i think the idea came from a hindi belief that gods are like players in a world of unsuspecting people. It might be your taxi cab driver, or your mail man, or the old guy whose sitting at the other end of the bar. That these bodies can and will die and if enough people believe in the God, he can reform, other wise....

Of course, there are very obvious connections to Indian gods within the novel...not to debunk your idea.
I'm not trying to open up a religious discussion here...I just wonder if Mr. Gaiman might have been inspired by Durkheim a bit. I posed the question once to him...but it was never answered.

quote:

Originally posted by laracan'tread:
Of course, there are very obvious connections to Indian gods within the novel...not to debunk your idea.
I'm not trying to open up a religious discussion here...I just wonder if Mr. Gaiman might have been inspired by Durkheim a bit. I posed the question once to him...but it was never answered.

I dont know, he's never mentioned it. I know he dedicated the book to roger zelensky or who ever who wrote a book where the gods were born and reborn over agian, which probably helped form his idea for the novel, the book im talking about is the mask of loki, which is acctually a pretty good book.

Mr.Gaiman really reads a lot and surely he has read Durkheim..and we know that Durkheim has a very intresting style which makes people thinks about the things they never thought or even imagine before.

but also i don't think that Mr.Gaiman wouldn't confuse(heh) about One God or Gods before. it's such a famous point on relegion.

"What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

Has anyone read Jose Luis Borges' (extremely) short story, THE GODS? I hope this isn't to 'spoilery', but it is sort of a prose poem about a day when the old gods from antiquity stroll into town and announce their return. Everyone rejoices that the dieties from mankind's "Golden Age" have come to bring us out of the profane darkness of the modern era.

Then the jubilant crowd takes a close look at the "gods" and sees exactly how notorious and villianous their appearances are. Recognizing the old gods for the con artists and cheats they actually are, the crowd pulls their revolvers and shoots them down.

A few interesting ideas stood out when I read the story. The first was that know matter how much society learns about the world or how to manipulate it, at heart culturally and spiritually we aren't much more advanced than pagan days. Possibly we are even less advanced since we don't acknowledge there being any "reality" to "the gods" except maybe in a psychoanalytical sense.

Second, I thought it was a great idea that the gods could've been little more than immortal charlatans who used their long experience and illusionists' tricks to convince human beings they had some higher status in the universe and naturally lorded it over the younger race.

In some ways, I think that American Gods is almost the same story except Gaiman gives them a little more magic and a lot more sympathy.