americangodstalk

[americangodstalk]

And now for something comply different…

How are things going on Anansi Boys?

Really well.

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Mr. Gaiman sir how aware were of the term vore when you wrote Bilquis’ character in American Gods?

Nope. But given that all the uses of the term I can find online date to after the writing and publication of American Gods (published in 2001) that's not particularly surprising.

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Hi Neil, my friend got me the Sandman as a birthday gift and I was reading it yesterday when I discovered something. Roderick Burgess’s birth year is different in two locations. Is this a goof or am i losing it? Thanks c:

Neither. Never trust newspapers or gravestones.

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Hello Mr Gaiman,

Yesterday I went to the bookstore and spontaneously purchased a copy of American Gods with a book token I found laying around - I’m 14 years olds and I haven’t finished a book in several years - but already I am 150 pages in, and I have a simple question. Should I be imagining Mr Wednesday as a personified, Jeffrey Dean Morgan-esque man? Or am I picturing the wrong sort of image? Sorry for the notion that I might be answered by the author himself - love your work.

If you want, yes!

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Location: Centralia, Pennsylvania, United States Story: The entire city of Centralia was condemned by the state of Pennsylvania and its zip code was revoked. The road that once led to Centralia is blocked off. It is as if the city does not exist at all, but it does, and it has been on fire for almost fifty years. In 1962, a fire broke out in a landfill near the Odd Fellows cemetery. The fire quickly spread through a hole to the coal mine beneath the city, and the fires have been burning ever since. Smoke billows out from cracks in the road and large pits in the ground randomly open up releasing thousand degree heat and dangerous vapors into the air. The city has been slowly evacuated over the years, though some residents have chosen to stay.

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If American Gods 2 is ever written, will it take place ~3 years post the first book as the novellas imply, or will it take place in present day?

I hope you’re having a good one Neil!

I'll find out when I write it.

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Hello, Mr. Gaiman.

I'm sorry if this this question is too silly.

In Sandman the Netflix show, episode 6 we see Lord Morpheus feeding birds (pigeons to be exact) with bread (!!!). Is it becouse he does not know it is bad for them? Was it put in the show on purpose, for some bigger, unknown reason, or by accident?

It seems odd to me, becouse in Good Omens season 2 Crowley knows that bread is bad for ducks (different kind, but still birds) so I'm wondering wether you learnt sometime between making Sandman season 1 and Good Omens season 2 that you shouldn't feed ducks bread?

Kind regards, and have a great day/night whenever you're reading this. Thank you!

Ah, in the comic of Sandman it ends with him giving the pigeons grain, but on the TV it went over to the Hob Gadling plot....

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Hi! Is the Dead Boy Detectives show in the same universe as the Sandman show or the Doom Patrol show?

Sandman.

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I'm reading The view from the cheap seats, and I just came across a bit from 1999 where you said American Gods was a working title, and not what the book would be really called. At what point and how did you decide it would be the official title after all?

When the editor sent me a mockup of the cover, and it looked like the cover. This was before I had written the book, though.

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Hello! I have been thinking about the Kindly Ones recently and I was wondering if there was a specific reason that you chose to include Eric Needham though he was dead in comic canon at the time of Sandman's release. Did he leave from Hell when Lucifer closed up shop? Or is he just there to be a reference to the main DC Universe?

I figured he’d died in pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, and Sandman was happening in post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, and in that one he was a successful although somewhat suspicious businessman (why was he trying to hire Lyta anyway?)

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Dear Mr. Gaiman, I’ve just finished your series American Gods and I’ve wondered when the next season is released. There are so many fans waiting for it and honestly I’m too after these two brilliant seasons. Can you give any further information on it which will shorten the time until we can finally watch this new masterpiece? Thanks for your answer! Yours Niklas Hellmann

We were fortunate: Season 3 of American Gods wrapped shortly before the world went into lockdown. Obviously there is post-production, but a lot of that can be done by people not working together. I'm not certain yet when it will air, but I'd expect it to be ready by the Autumn.

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In American Gods, why did you choose for Wednesday to use a violin for the two-man con instead of the more traditional choice of a fiddle?

I’m not sure I understand the question. It’s the same instrument.

https://www.zaretandsonsviolins.com/blog/what-is-a-violin-and-what-is-a-fiddle-25312

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Which version of the text does the Annotated American Gods use?

It uses a corrected version of the Author's Preferred text, but it also talks as it goes about the difference between that and the original text, and even my original typescript and my handwritten version.

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I've always been curious about the decision to give Desire it/it's pronouns instead of they/them. Can you offer any insight?

Mostly, the lack of a Time Machine. In 1987, when I was creating the characters, I’d never come across the use of the singular they to signify a nonbinary pronoun, or even heard of it as a thing, and I was widely read and had a lot of trans and genderqueer friends. “It” was the word we had back then, so it was what I used. (I really like “they” for Desire, given that Desire isn’t gendered because Desire contains all possible genders, so would have used the word with delight if it had been around, or if it had crossed my path.)

(I had to fight mighty battles with copy editors just to be allowed to use the singular they in those long ago days. It wasn’t a concept that copy editors were familiar with, and I would have to wave an essay by Ursula LeGuin at them, which pointed out that the OED had uses of singular they going back to the 14th century.)

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I'm in the middle of reading American Gods, so ignore me if this is answered clearly at some point, but are the gods in the book all American copies of their native incarnations? For example, is there still a separate Scandinavian Odin who never left Europe, and Mr. Wednesday is a (relatively) new Odin who split off from the original when his worshippers came to America? Just wondering the mechanics.

I hope this will all be clear by the last page of the book...

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I thought that’d clear it up 😉

Daniel is not Murphy reborn with white hair and white robes (that’s why I’m personally not into depictions/fanart that make him look like Tom, soz).

But he is Dream.

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#MatthewAndMaskedMorpheusMonday