I don't quite understand why the gods just leave America to their homeland. They say that people don't have much belief in them in America so why don't they just buy a ticket or "follow" one of their natives over the atlantic, where the belief in them is strong.

I've got a theory on this. Two reasons: their homelands already have gods. Much more powerful gods. I don't think they'd take kindly to a lesser manifestation of themselves feeding from their belief.

Second: I think it's to do with names. Shadow is arguably a manifestation of a god, as demonstrated elsewhere. He leaves America at the end. He loses his real name when he dies. I think the two are interrelated. I mentioned this elsewhere, maybe a god's real name is what ties them to America, ties them to the belief they have here. Could be that if they let go of that (if it was possible) they'd become mortal and be able to leave America, but that might mean not being a god and all that. Can't imagine many of them being willing to let go of it.

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Originally posted by looceefir:
I've got a theory on this. Two reasons: their homelands already have gods. Much more powerful gods. I don't think they'd take kindly to a lesser manifestation of themselves feeding from their belief.

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Not only that, but I don't think there could be two different versions of them in the same place, at least in a place where one of those versions is really believed in. The two aspects would merge or something. And anyway, the belief shapes that which is believed in, and the American versions are quite unlike the originals. If the American gods returned to their homelands, they wouldn't be them anymore.

There is another thing. Odin is not the same as Wednesday. He says so himself. American Gods are american "versions" of the gods the people brought with them. America is their land. In such an inter-racial environment, people are in the process of not denying their roots, but clearly choose to become "american" versions of their ancestors. I guess that is what happens to gods in the US after a fashion.

It's not exactly a matter of where the gods can't go - because there are gods there already or otherwise - but rather, they can't leave. They can't just get an airplane ticket and walk away. They are bound by rules.

Well, appearently most of them conform to these rules. To quote Morpheus, rules bind and empower. If they pulled a Destruction (that means to leave), propabaly they'd lose their powers, maybe even die. A God must be where her believers are or something ...

The gods are simply ideas...it says so at the beginning of one of the chapters (how none of this can really be happening). The god in america are simply american versions (manifestations) of the "original" gods.

The gods cant "go home" because they are home. They are the products of people moving from the old world to the new world. Wed. is Odin, but Odin isnt Wed. Wed. is a cheat and a liar, and therefore a creation of the new world. Odin at the end, is calm, and reflective, and almost childlike.

The Ifrit cab-driver returned to Oman, however. So he was able to leave america./

it's been awhile since I read it, but didn't the Ifrit and the man switch places (ala Troll Bridge)

i think basically the gods couldnt leave because they are "born" there. it's where they belong, even if its not a good place for them.

I think the reason the gods can't leave is because they are personifications of ideas. The Odin in america is the personification of all the ideas of odin in america. And every who believes in odin in america, believes that he is IN america. that he followed them to the new homeland, just like thor gaining control of thunder and carrying around a hammer because that is what people's beliefs dictate.

Re: Why don't the gods leave? America has gone from a nation centered around theology and ideas in the Torah, Talmud and the Bible to a highly varied hotch-potch of ideas, theologies, beliefs and other forms of worship. Second there is immense freedom in America to worship
(or not worship) and believe (not believe) any thing you want. Take a look at some other nations. India has almost one billion Hindus,
a few hundred million Moslems and only 3%Christians yet the three major faiths there are riven with different sects, factions and configurations that are often at swords points
with each other. Kinda tough to be one thing when your neighbor thinks it's an expression of unredeemable evil and acts on it without regard for how anybody believes thinks or lives.
Third this leads to the ultimate chicken-egg argument: what canme first, the gods or the people who believed them? (Edith Hamilton points out in her classic "Mythology" that the
ancient Greek gods did not create the universe but the universe brought them into being).
If a god or a goddess was unpredictable, unfair,
lusty, power hungry, jealous, selfish, blood thirsty, unreliable and unconcerned with mortal
people, what good is THAT kind of deity?
So, the gods are like water, they follow the path of least resistance and go where they get
the maximum return on minimal effort.
Who needs a god like that?! I sure don't!

I think the gods will leave when people stop holding on to them or when people create their own gods, rather than following the one's already established.

I think it's physically possible for them to leave- Shadow does, after all, and Jenny from Monarch of the Glen- but America will always be "home," since that's the country that made them. Also, leaving home is hard, adapting to a new culture is harder, and moving accross oceans is expensive. A lot of these people (gods) seem to be in rather desperate straits, financially, and the ones that aren't are probably comfortable enough that they don't need to move.

I also agree with the idea of a god showing up in another god's territory, particularly if that god was another version of itself, might be against ettiquitte or possibly dangerous. Gods seem to be rather solitary animals... even the ones who live in pantheons usually don't get along real well.

Incidentally, I mentioned Shadow as a god who leaves his country- I think this was actually true at the time he left. He did have believers, and the beleivers were gods. That's what Soma is, I think. Honey wine distilled from mead. Belief distilled from beleif. See?

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Originally posted by pilgrim:
I don't quite understand why the gods just leave America to their homeland. They say that people don't have much belief in them in America so why don't they just buy a ticket or "follow" one of their natives over the atlantic, where the belief in them is strong.

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cause America's so fucking cool.

In my opinion, the gods do not leave because this is not an option. I don't mean that this is something that they refuse, but simply something that cannot even occur to them.

I see the gods in American Gods (and, I think, in general, as well) as manifestations of their believers. In the world in which the book takes place, it is quite apparent that people's belief in the gods is what empowers them- basing on this, it would only make sense that people's belief is what initially created them. If the people will not believe, the gods will disappear. Does that not mean, then, that the appearence of gods was influenced by people?

The belief is what keeps them going, anyway, and as long as the people in America still believe in those gods, they will be there- because the beliefs will keep them there. A god cannot leave a place without first leaving the minds and hearts of the local people who worship or believe in him/her.

In my mind the Gods cant leave because the people who worshipped them brought them with them and dont worship them anymore so they cant even be brought back because there is nobody to bring them with...The Iffriti returned because the taxi driver heard of ifritis and believed in them and they switched places...