*ponders his T-shirt with a massive X on the front and a fish symbol on the back*

Can't speak for all the Christians out there, by Xtian doesn't bother me in the least. Heck, the word was originally intended to be a pejorative term, and we took care of that pretty handily. Shouldn't be a trouble to assimilate "Xtian."

Actually, I should have written "Xian" I guess, as "Xtian" would come out being "Christtian." Ah well.

Maure.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Maure:


It wasn't a cheap dig, it was for all intents and purposes an abbreviation. The use of X for Christ has been explained already -- if you find offense in it, it's not my problem, it's yours.

Maure.

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I'm so damn sick of this "Xian" digression I want to let it lie. But I am done arguing about that. My problem here is that the best thing about this Neil Gaiman forum is that we all treat each other with a certain level of respect. If someone were to call me, say, a cracker, I would probably be offended. The person making that remark might not find it offensive, but I would. And it would not be okay simply because that person was not offended by it. I think it would be EXTREMELY gracious of you to go ahead and apologize despite your own feelings about it, and to refrain from similar things that others might feel belittle them. But you don't have to. In any case, I am feeling EXTREMELY out of character and think it's time we got back to the real purpose of this forum, the exchange of our brilliant ideas so that we can come to a better understanding of Neil's work.

You know what? That is just ridiculous. It is an abbreviation. "Cracker" is not. If you can't see the difference, I have nothing more to say about it.

Gah. I am sick of people grasping at straws in order to take offense at something. I agree: let's get back to the enchanging of ideas, which is what my original post with the abbreviation "xtian" in it was before someone decided to make an issue where none logically existed, thus circumventing the whole purpose of this thread.

Maure.

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Obfuscations and Inconsequentials: a journal

Good grief, people commonly say Xmas. What's the difference?

As for the gods in this book, I got the impression that the whole story was depicting the relationship between all the false/pagan/minor gods that have existed down through the ages. And now they're up against the modern-day gods, very prevelant in America, and literally taking the place of any sort of heavenly supreme being. There are many many different gods, and this book points to that explicitely. Money, sex, the media, Hollywood, these are all modern gods that are more powerful than all the other preceding gods that had power over people. And once it was determined who Shadow was, it was intimated that he was indeed a corresponding diety to Jesus himself.

This book is still vibrating strongly in my mind and I'm tempted to read it again straight away.

Hrm... but large portions of the Jesus mythos do bear a striking resemblance to that of Odin.

i'm not certain it was Neil's intent to make Shadow = Jesus. there are similarities, but the same essential truths underlie all great stories and myths...

(and "Xian" is my official shorthand while taking notes in class... )
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I'm surprised to hear that Gaiman was modeling Shadow after a specific mythological figure. I mean, I assumed that he was just making up his own new classical mythology-style Fool's Journey/Hero's Quest story. Odin's story isn't really all that similar Jesus' story, no more then those of Hercules or Achiles or Cuchulainn or Luke Skywalker or Neo or Buffy Summers or even Jay and Silent Bob are: they're all the same basic, archetypal adventure retold a thousand different times in a thousand different forms.

I don't think anyone can really draw th connection between Jesus and Shadow simply because it doesn't follow the thread of the novel. If it were meant to be, then the connection would be highly inconsistent as the deities and legends are generally of Pre-Christianity with the exception of Wednesday's comment. I suppose that a person in this society could juxtapose Shadow hanging on the tree "pierced" with the spear to Jesus on the cross, but it is much more likely that that shadow hanging on the tree is meant to emulate the nine day sacrifice of Odin to himself. It's also important to remember that Norse mythology, and in fact most Old World mythology greatly influenced Christian mythology, and so many connections you find to Christianty can be traced back to the mythology of another culture.

There was actually a mention of Jesus in the book, where someone (not quite sure who) mentions that even he doesn't do quite so well in some places, like Afghanistan.

Hmm, should have read the whole thread before I posted...

The way I see it, Xtian is to Christian as Brit is to British. It's short and endearing, not derogatory in the least.