#Mr Riordan I’m sure everyone is trying their best

[rustic-space-fiddle]

Lil rant (MAYBE PJATO SHOW SPOILERS?)

Lots of opinions up ahead so uh, look out.

I’m watching the PJATO show and I really love some parts. The casting—they’re all wonderful (literally everyone, Mr D is hilarious) and any fears I had have been quelled because they’re all amazing and the trio fit their characters well (even IRL and they’re so precious). Camp Half Blood — so well done. The cabins are huge, the colosseum is just what I imagined, and they really did great on making it properly large and vibrant. I love it. Some of the extra beats they’ve added to make it better expanded beyond the strictly Percy POV in the book have been good. Annabeth and Grover chucking Percy into a fountain to try to heal him was hilarious and totally in character—probably my favorite part so far. Also: AHHHH SEAWEED BRAIN!

But is anyone just feeling… like the pacing is super slow? Like I get that us “zoomers” have tiny attention spans and stuff but “The Horse and His Boy” was my favorite Narnia book and I read LOTR when I was 11 so I don’t think my attention span is quite so bad. These kids got ADHD and it feels like every talk and every scene just drags. Every time I think the energy is gonna rise, it gets smacked back down by lackluster scene climaxes. Again, I’m not trying to say we need more explosions or booms or arguments, just that I]it isn’t even remotely eliciting the same kind of goose-pimple/heart thumping moments I remember from the books. I reread them constantly and it’s always thrilling.

And the music… someone I was watching it with said it sounded like generic Marvel music, and they’re kinda right. I can’t remember a single note from the score at all, and I’m always listening to movie/TV scores because they’re like listening to the story in music format! PJATO’s score though? Can’t even remember it. I can’t remember any of it even being used in certain places. I thought they’d try to get older instrumentals to make it unique, like lyre AND electric guitar in the mix, but honestly I can’t even remember what it sounds like. That’s bad, right?

[[EDIT: I just looked up the score on Spotify and it was literally made by the people who did the “God of War” game score. There’s no freakin way this music is bad. I’m gonna listen to it alone later. Maybe it’s just set really low in the mix… ]]

The “death” of Sally Jackson was so lackluster. Just a standard medium long shot, can’t even remember if the music flourished or dropped or anything. Their acting was great, but it was framed so poorly that it just felt… idk…

The pacing feels like it’s something I would do as an amateur who doesn’t yet understand how to edit on my first few write-up’s of a script. I’m not trying to be mean or unfair because I REALLY wanna love this show and I genuinely love a lot of stuff about it and I can tell that so many people are working so hard on it, but holy moly I feel my brain begging for someone to do something impertinent and just slap the show into a roll whenever I’m watching it.

There’s another issue I have with the timing of the most recent episode but I don’t wanna go much further.

Again, this is all opinion and not meant to say anyone shouldn’t like the show or that the people in it are stupid because they aren’t at all and people should like it! I’m just saying that as someone that really appreciated the pacing of the books (that was quick but never sacrificed the storytelling and slowed down when it needed to), I am really feeling that this show isnt shaping up like that. Additional note: I’m not even saying that the pacing of the show needs to BE the pacing of the books. I’m just saying that the pacing of the books is one of the things that made it so good and I really haven’t read many things with pacing of that quality.

Aaaanyway feel free to disagree with me or roast me alive. I just haven’t seen anyone talking about it and I wanted to rant a little and see what other people thought. I’m still gonna keep watching because I think if they can fix the pacing, imma really freaking enjoy this and in case they do, I don’t wanna miss it. And because I’d rather have more PJATO show than less!

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

how would you do a percy jackson adaptaion?

okay, so I know this is a controversial opinion right off the bat: I really don’t think it should be an animated series.

A large part of the appeal of the series is that it’s a fantasy series set very very firmly in reality. Literally, apart from the camps, you could go to every location hit in the books. Riordan mentions specific streets, buildings and landmarks, and that was cool when I first read them. I remember being a kid and waiting for him to set a scene in a place near where I lived! I remember trips to New York and being able to envision an epic war happening in the streets. So I think any adaption needs to be live action just to keep that same feeling alive, while I’m not knocking on animation, I just feel like taking the story out of real life would make it loose a little of the charm. Like, the scene where Manhattan is completely frozen in time? It would be haunting to see that in real life, but I feel like it would be less impactful if it didn’t…you know…look real? The series should be done in a way that makes you truly feel like you could just turn a corner and walk straight into a snake woman going about her day. 

Now: another large part of the appeal of the series is how funny it is, but a lot of that…is Percy’s inner monologue. He doesn’t actually voice most of it, there was even a book where Annabeth described him as being quiet. So, I think the best way to work around this: make it Interview With A Demigod. 

Imagine it’s got an interview with a vampire-esque setup- and this even works because within the riordanverse, the books canonically exist because Percy sat down with a ‘camp scribe’ and had his quests recorded. So, like, this isn’t even entirely out of left field. But just imagine, a college-aged, maybe a little older Percy, I can see it so clearly in my head, he’s wearing a sweatshirt that at first glance looks like it says NYU but a trained eye will see it actually says NRU for a camp jupiter easter egg, he’s sitting in some dinky little diner (maybe it can even be a monster donut or something with a clever greek myth related name) with a guy who’s recording the conversation on some old-ass tape recorder that keeps acting up but they can’t record on a phone because of the whole technology thing. Every now and then it’ll cut back to them to get some great Percy thoughts out there. They open with older Percy saying the ‘look, I didn’t wanna be a halfblood’ and then explaining where he was when the whole mess started. Once he get’s to “was I a troubled kid?” the screen fades from older Percy to 12 year old Percy getting in a fight with Nancy and her gang, and the voice over says the ‘Yeah, you could say that’ part as we see him get threatened by the principal to behave on the field trip. Boom, we’ve got an opening. Lowkey….I’m seeing Jordan Fisher as older Percy, but I’m not 100% married to the idea. 

And before anyone tries to argue that showing an older Percy would spoil he’s not gonna die in last olympian- like, reading the books, we all knew he wasn’t going to die. It was a first person narrative and he was consistently speaking in past tense lmao like we Knew he was gonna make it. We still enjoyed the series. It won’t ruin anything.

I want part of the score of the adaptation to be instrumental versions of songs from the musical, I think that could be a sweet nod to that team. 

They really need to nail camp halfblood. I know that goes without saying, but in order to keep the pacing of the story decent we can’t spend as much time falling in love with it like we got to with the book. The book is like, 24 chapters and the quest starts at chapter 12- for a movie or tv show, that’s just gonna feel like it’s dragging. So, the insanity of the camp needs to smack you in the face right away, and then it needs to endear itself to the viewers quickly after that. Don’t try to ease the viewers (or Percy) into the mythology is real thing, rip it off like a bandaid. He’s on his way to meet Chiron and Mr. D for the first time and even if he’s not comprehending what he’s seeing, there’s nature spirits and harpies all around going about their day. Hestia waves at him and then disappears into the flames. Hecate kids can be seen casting a spell on the porch of the Hermes cabin. The Stolls are seen pranking some Aphrodite kids. He sees someone surely die on the climbing wall but then you hear a faint ‘I’m okay!’. The Apollo kids put a rhyming curse on another cabin. Pure chaos all before he gets the ‘so, gods are real’ speech. And then after that…show how warm Luke is to him at the cabin and at dinner. Show the kids all goofing off at the campfire and really make it clear that they’re children. Show the strawberry fields rolling in the wind and Percy sitting on the beach. The whole couple weeks where he’s searching for powers and learning greek and latin with Annabeth can be a montage. Make it clear how hurt and scared he is when he finds out he needs to leave.

It needs to really get you feeling how Percy’s feeling, every laugh, every tear, every moment of fear or confusion needs to shine clear through. Like…think of Spider-Man Homecoming, the Washington monument scene. All things considered, it’s not the most high-stakes scene we’ve ever seen in that franchise, and when it cuts to the kids in the elevator, they’re worried but not quite freaking out, but that scene feels very high stress to watch because the movie is good at getting the viewers to feel what Peter feels. A Percy Jackson adaptation needs a touch like that, because Percy’s a very emotional kid and that’s what a lot of the scenes hinge on.

Lowkey- I’d love it if the casts of both the previous movies and the musical had cameos or bit parts (the movie cast did Nothing Wrong, it was the rest of that team). It’d be hilarious to see, like, Jake Abel as the owner of the poodle, or Logan Lerman as Older Percy and the reporter’s waiter that keeps trying to get in on the conversation, or Brandon T. Jackson as a satyr who’s still stuck grooving out in the Lotus Hotel and Casino. Kristen Stokes as a nature spirit, Chris as one of the ghosts stuck in the waiting room of DOA Records, just like any of those casts having small parts would be fun and sweet. 

There should be a lot of easter eggs for the bigger riordanverse. Promotions in the background for the new Tristan McLean movie. Gabe’s got a true crime documentary about the missing Grace children playing during his poker game. Mr. D is reading a paper about Rachel Dare’s father’s newest project. At some point while they’re still in New York they pass the Kane family’s mansion or whatever it was called. Annabeth keeps a picture of little her and Magnus on her nightstand. The barest of hints about the Triumvirate. Seeing kids in camp jupiter gear in some background shots, just out of notice of our main characters but implying the camps are going through similar problems (BITCH….if we got a titan’s curse adaptation…and we had a shot of Thalia in the foreground….but in the background we saw a blond boy in purple with a golden sword….well I would simply loose my Goddamn mind).

And show us how easily the mist lets things blend in, too- like, everyone thinks ‘Monster Donuts’ is just a normal chain, it’s just on an average street block, but if Percy looks through the window he can see who’s behind the counter. Show someone swindling some guys in a park and you have to look twice to realize he’s a gegeines. Like…how people are still trying to find all the background ghosts in haunting of hill house. I would LOVE to see a bunch of background monsters and mythical beings just going about their day as much as the mortals are while the gang’s questing. 

The effects need to be fun. The whole story needs to be fun, but one weird thing about the past movies are that like…in their attempt to make it gritty, none of the fantastical things happening on screen actually felt that exciting. We need bright colors and interesting choices, consistently cool action shots, a liveliness that makes you feel like you’re in the center of the action. I have absolutely no doubt Disney easily has enough funds to pull off great effects.

The characters need to be….in character lmao. Annabeth needs to be cocky and bratty with the skill set to justify it. Percy needs to be a sweetheart who pretends to be hardened because that’s what people assume he’s like. Grover needs to have dry humor and a Too Old For This Shit attitude whenever percabeth start bickering. Luke needs to be nice and friendly but in a specific way that you can look back after the betrayal and see he was trying to groom everyone. Sally needs to be loving, protective and strong. Chiron needs to feel defeated and determined at the same time. Mr. D needs to….be Stanley Tucci lmao

Also, I’d love if the adaptation could expand more on things that got brushed along in the books- Percy and Beckendorf’s friendship, Silena and Clarisse’s dynamic, make Nico’s crush on Percy a little more obvious, give Rachel some more development. One thing that haunts me about the books is Sally never found out that Gabe hit Percy. Absolutely they don’t need to make the abuse explicit, but I also personally feel like a lot of Percy’s mindsets throughout the series are somewhat a result of Gabe, and I’d like if that got, you know, acknowledged. Maybe in the scene where he figures out Gabe abuses Sally he could say ‘does he hit you too?’ or something to that effect. They could also go more into detail about Annabeth’s family, give Zoe some more depth….like the possibilities I’m screaming.

Okay this is already long and I’m getting tired but I can so clearly see a great adaptation in my mind….Disney please come through….It’s what we deserve…. 

[deliciousdetectivestranger]

Notes from the Winter Solstice Meeting

Phew! Just back from the winter solstice meeting on Mount Olympus. I promised you a report. I don’t have any solid news yet, sorry, but I did petition the gods directly, so we’ll see what happens! The transcript of my talk with the Olympians is below.

Notes from Winter Solstice Meeting 2019,

Mount Olympus

600th Floor, Empire State Building

New York City

 

INT. MOUNT OLYMPUS – THRONE ROOM

We see an aging mortal writer in the midst of a great chamber. He is dwarfed by a semicircle of giant thrones inhabited by the Olympian deities.

 

Rick Riordan: Thank you for seeing me, O great Olympians.

Zeus: We understand you want . . . (checks notes) a reboot. What is wrong with your present boots?

RR: No, Lord Zeus, a reboot adaptation of my books about Percy Jackson.

Zeus: I knew that. Percy . . . Yes, he’s a good lad. Those movies, though –

Ares: Oh, gods! No. Just NO. I wanted to KILL somebody.

Hermes: To be fair, Ares, you always want to kill someone.

Ares: THAT’S NOT THE POINT!

Athena: Mr. Riordan, we already rained fire and pestilence upon that studio.

RR: Yes, Lady Athena, and I appreciate that.

Athena: The particular division that made those horrendous adaptations has been dismantled. And the remainder of the company has been . . . (dramatic pause) acquired. (Glances at Zeus) Which corporate hydra did we send to devour it? Starbucks? Amazon?

Hephaestus: (grumpily) Disney. I made a very competitive bid with Hephaestus-TV, but I was rejected! Bah!

Athena: I remember now. The hydra of the Mouse God. A powerful force indeed! At any rate, Mr. Riordan, after your first movie experience, didn’t you swear on the River Styx that you would never go to Hollywood again?

RR: I may have made some rash statements to that effect.

Hades: We take oaths on the River Styx very seriously, Riordan. Don’t make me claim your soul before its time!

RR: No, Lord Hades. Of course not. I just thought . . . well, honestly, I’d be happy to just write books and ignore Hollywood forever, but my fans really, REALLY want me to try again, seeing as there are so many new opportunities now that Disney has acquired the rights –”

Artemis: I loved Frozen. Oh, gods. Elsa is Hunter Squad goals!!!

Ares: I preferred Mulan. The new live action version looks lit — like nuclear bomb lit.

Aphrodite: You are all silly. The Little Mermaid is the best. (sighs)

Poseidon: For once, I agree with you. (clears throat). But we’re getting off track. Riordan needs to appease his fans. That is something we gods can understand. What would you have us do, mortal writer person? A hurricane against Los Angeles? A tsunami? This is, after all, my son Percy’s reputation we’re talking about!

RR: No, Lord Poseidon, nothing so dramatic. The executives I have talked to so far have been interested. I think they’ve listened to me. But there are many people that must give their input. Many executives to speak with.

Hermes: True. The servants of the Mouse God are myriad.

RR: Right now, they are considering my words, and talking, and pondering.

Athena: That is wise. Such actions must be carefully considered.

Hermes: Ugh, but pondering, though. That could take months. Years. Decades.

RR: (sighs) True, Lord Hermes. It is a very long process. That’s why I was hoping you gods could give me your blessing. Perhaps send some good omens our way? Really, any support could help.

Zeus: (stroking his beard) We could get a hashtag trending on social media.

RR: Actually, my fans already did that, without me even asking. It shot to #1 worldwide on Twitter.

Demeter: (busily sorting different kinds of cereal in a large bowl) You could spend more time meeting with people in Hollywood.

RR: I have already done that. I’ve gone to L.A. twice this fall, each time for a full week of meetings.

Artemis: (winces) That is a lot of time in L.A.

Athena: Perhaps we could show Disney how beloved these books are. We could grant you tremendous success and years on the bestseller lists.

Hermes: (waves his hand impatiently) Guys, Riordan’s already got huge success. Those Percy books have been on the bestseller list for ten solid years. That should be a strong enough message!

Ares: Well, I suppose that leaves us no choice but a full frontal assault. I will summon the war chariots!

RR: That’s not necessary, Lord Ares! Just your blessings are all I ask. May I continue to negotiate and push for a new adaptation? Will you favor my efforts?

Poseidon:

Absolutely! Those books have brought me incredible publicity. Er, I mean, they’ve brought all of us incredible publicity.

Ares: Hmm. I didn’t come across as a very nice guy.

Silence.

Athena: Anyway, what would this new adaptation look like, Riordan?

RR: I have some very specific ideas, but it’s too early to say. We have to wait to see what the minions of the Mouse God are willing to consider. The most important thing is to do a faithful adaptation that makes the fans of my books happy. They’ve been waiting for over ten years, and I really don’t want to let them down.

Hermes: Yes, fine, but what’s our cut?

RR: Your cut? Um, well . . . you get lots of publicity. New readers hearing about you, learning your names and your deeds. I’ll even burn a sandwich in your honor.

Hermes: Peanut butter?

RR: Sure.

Hermes: You are a shrewd negotiator, Riordan. I will support you.

Zeus: Would you be willing to take some notes on the script, though? For one thing, I should be played by Brad Pitt.

Ares: No, I’m Brad Pitt!

Demeter: (looks up from her large bowl of cereal) No, Brad Pitt is mine! (blinks) Wait, what are we talking about?

Hera: (glances up from her Good Housekeeping magazine) Go back to sorting your Frosted Flakes, Sister. (narrows her eyes at Riordan) I always come off looking like the villain in your books, Riordan. Why is that? Why should I support you?

RR: Ah. Well, Lady Hera –

Zeus: Don’t be touchy, my dear. He took artistic liberties, that’s all.

Hera: Hmmm.

Zeus: Speaking of artistic liberties, what if – hear me out – what if we made Percy Jackson a teenaged vampire?

Poseidon: Never! But I think the story would work well if we made all the characters be in their early twenties. And we turned it into a sort of spy thriller meets romantic comedy.

Athena: Or perhaps you could just let the author do what his millions of fans want and be faithful to the source material.

Zeus: Well . . . I suppose you’re the goddess of wisdom for a reason.

Athena: Also, I want to be played by Brie Larson.

Hermes: Dibs on Benedict Cumberbatch.

Hades: I want Stan Lee to have a cameo.

Zeus: Stan Lee is dead; may the gods rest his soul.

Hades: You’re talking to the Lord of the Underworld, here.

RR: (under his breath) Suddenly an animated adaptation isn’t sounding so bad.

Aphrodite: I just want to know when the casting calls are.

RR: (confused) My lady?

Aphrodite: Well, I know I don’t have any acting experience, but I look perfect for the role of Aphrodite and my friends all tell me I’m very dramatic.

Artemis: You are Aphrodite, you nitwit.

Aphrodite: Don’t be rude! I just want an audition.

RR: Uh . . . okay. So then do I have your permission to keep pressing for a new adaptation?

Muttering and whispering among the gods.

Zeus: Very well, mortal writer person, but even with the gods on your side, this will be a difficult struggle, and it may be a long time before you get a clear answer. Unlike the Olympians, Hollywood does not work during the winter holidays. Everyone is out of the office until after New Year’s.

RR: Yes, Lord Zeus. But I must keep trying. For the fans! For the children!

Hera: (rolling her eyes) You’re as dramatic as Aphrodite. By the way, I expect my part to be played by Elizabeth Taylor.

RR: But she’s – (catches a warning look and a shake of the head from Zeus.) – I’ll see what I can do, Lady Hera.

Zeus: Excellent! Now if you’ll excuse us, Riordan. We have other business to attend to. These climate disasters aren’t going to create themselves.

 

Riordan exits, bowing and scraping.

 

Zoom out from Mount Olympus to an aerial view of Manhattan.

 

Fade to black.

[professorlockhart]

march book wrap up

more than this by patrick ness (4/5 stars). this was a book i’ve been saving for a while, knowing that i would love it. and i really did love it!!! patrick ness does it once again, he’s a genius. i love the deep meaning written between the lines in the story, i love the characters, the plot was so captivating and thrilling, and i just enjoyed reading it. read my review of the book here.

the dinner by herman koch (4/5 stars). another well-written book, so i can say that this month was quite a good reading month, despite the fact that i only read two books. this one is set in the netherlands and originally written in dutch, about a family having dinner on a restaurant and the events that happen, from the entree to the dessert. it was very well thought of, i like how it only happens in a span of around 3 hours maybe? but it moved back and forth throughout the story so it wasn’t very boring. i didn’t particularly like the main character and the narrator of this book, he was definitely troubled and mentally unstable, but amazingly he was bearable and actually made the story even more interesting. the food mentioned was also interesting. another thought i had is that you can tell that this book was translated, but you can still really enjoy the story, which is great! i will definitely write a better and more coherent review and post it on my goodreads some time soon.

currently reading

mr fox by helen oyeyemi. i started this book in march after i finished the dinner on my new kindle! so far it’s great, i’m around a third through and the story is quite weird and all over the place, i’m not sure which characters are real and which are not, but i just try not to think about it too much and enjoy the ride.

the hidden oracle by rick riordan. i’ve been reading this one for quite a while, ever since the middle of march, i think. i don’t know why, i thought i would just fly through a rick riordan book, but for this one i’m just not really feeling it. maybe it’s the lack of recognizable characters (although i doubt that is the main reason, since i really don’t mind reading about new characters and getting to know them), maybe it’s just not the right time to read it. what i know for sure is that one of the main things holding me back is the narrator slash main character, apollo. i just don’t like him, he’s so whiny and so full of himself and annoying, i especially hate how he looks down on everyone and complain about every single thing. but i’ll try my best to continue reading it until the end, however i’m not sure i will be reading the rest of the books on the series.

to be read

i honestly have no plans for the future of my reading this april. i am loving having a kindle, i’ve stocked quite a lot of books inside there, some of the books i’m most excited to read are jurassic park, stephen king’s works, john girsham’s works, you can’t keep a good woman down, aimee bender and gillian flynn’s works, some classics (from bronte, dracula, maybe even jane austen bc it’s been a while). i think i haven’t read a classics in a while so i might give some period pieces a shot, and maybe try to read something else in between.

conclusion

my reading is not very extensive last month, i’m not sure why. but the two books i read were quite good reads, so i am very satisfied. my goal is to read 3 books next month! my goodreads reading challenge shows that i am 1 book behind schedule, which is not good. i also have exams next week and so my reading might be a little paused these next two weeks of april.

[jurakan]

I meant to post this on Tumblr when I posted this on Facebook, but I never got around to it. Since @moochiethinks was going to finish replying to that thread on the book I thought I’d post something a little closer to my full thoughts on it.

I’ve been meaning to talk about American Gods for a while, because I’ve had a lot of thoughts since the show came out. I think that this will mostly be about the book, though I don’t know if I can go without mentioning the show, its style of adaptation, and reactions to it. It’s like trying to talk about A Song of Ice and Fire without discussing the impact the show Game of Thrones has had on its perception.

---

On American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman was once my favorite book. But it was a difficult book to recommend. There wasn’t yet a guide or annotations that were completely comprehensive (although this guide was online and it was helpful), and there are parts of the book that were difficult. Not just difficult in that they were intentionally strange and repulsive (although there are plenty of those; readers of the book always refer to That Scene, in which Bilquis eats a man through her lady parts), but difficult in that there are tons of references that are bound to fly over most reader’s heads. It’s difficult to get into a book that you don’t know all the details of what’s going on, especially if no one else does either.

But Gaiman had made something I really loved: mythology in the modern day. So did Rick Riordan, who was also one of my favorite authors at the time (and still is, in many ways, though I don’t think he’s as good these days but that’s another essay), but this felt like it was much bigger. Not just Greek mythology, but all mythologies, and the way they struggle to find a place in the modern world.

The gist of the book is this: Shadow Moon, our main character, just got out of jail and his wife has died. Having nowhere else to go, he’s picked up as an employee of a con man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. Wednesday, of course, turns out to be the American incarnation of the Norse god Odin, and he’s doing his best to organize the Old Gods, the deities and mythological figures of the belief systems carried to the US by its immigrants that cling to tradition, so that they can stand united to fight the New Gods. The New Gods are, of course, the things that Americans worship and believe in  now: the Media, Technology, the government’s Men in Black, the cars and computers and big brands.

[Also I feel the need to clarify because a bunch of watchers of the show don’t seem to get this: the gods we see in the story are almost all American incarnations. Mamma-Ji, the American Kali, specifically refers to her Indian counterpart as doing better than her, and Mr. Jacquel, the American Anubis, says that Jesus is doing great in the United States but terrible in Afghanistan.]

The entire story is a journey through roadside America, with contemplations on what it means to be American, what it means to be a believer, and challenges our ideas of worship and deities. It’s pretty gutsy for an author who is neither religious nor American to write, but I think in the end it works. The conclusion of the end of the book is that “America is a bad land for gods,” not that there cannot be gods here, but that they don’t grow well here. We’re always eager to move to the next best thing, and so often questioning our national identity, and since it’s a massive country not everyone’s going to agree on all of these points.

And while I obviously didn’t agree with the idea of gods being created and shaped by believers (as a religious person I think you by necessity can’t agree with that notion), I thought it was an interesting premise. Sadly it’s become overused in fantasy these days, and most people can’t use it anywhere near as intelligently as Gaiman or Pratchett. But when applied well it’s an intriguing thing to think about. The anniversary edition of the book, for instance, has a deleted scene in which Shadow meets Jesus, who is wearing clothes that don’t match and talks about how He looks contradictory because so many people have different ideas of who He is and how He looks.

[The show decided to play with this and say that there are several different incarnations of Jesus, coexisting at the same time, one for each rite, race and denomination. This is an interesting style and leads to great dialogue and visual gags, but it ultimately causes more questions as one wonders where the alternate incarnations of of Odin, or the other Old Gods, could hanging out. It’s not that I was offended as much as it raised too many questions about worldbuilding.]

I remember growing up Catholic there were several times that we were told that the whole ‘Don’t worship idols’ thing doesn’t just apply to pagan deities, it applies to everyday things. Don’t put more value in things like money and fame and television than in God. And for a while that really rang hollow for me, because why would we worship television? No one does that. Except as American Gods points out… we do. We totally do. As Gaiman points out through the character of Media, people will happily sacrifice their time at the “altar” of television.

American culture is terrible for gods, especially nowadays. Someone on Tumblr argued against this point, saying that we came up with the Hollywood movie star and the cowboy archetype and that we still talk about God and His place in the public sphere, so no, we’re just fine when it comes to growing gods. But while I see her point, I think that Gaiman’s not wrong. Because our ideas of celebrity and the like are so...easy to pass through. The concept of the One Hit Wonder comes to mind. We build celebrities up like gods and heroes, sure, but we get over them. We constantly raise up someone as a hero and then demonize someone we previously elevated.

And...just look at this last presidential election. Look at how this (cringeworthy) article right after the election ends with the line “Hillary is Athena” and says that we should start devoting homage to Clinton as if she were a religious figure. Look at this (even more cringeworthy) picture someone took of a person’s van with art comparing Donald Trump to Jesus as a messiah who descended down to the common people to help us out. And both of them are vilified by significant portions of the populace, and ran on campaigns that demonized each other and other prominent members of their parties, past and present, in order to build support for themselves. How often did we talk (on my end of the rainbow, mostly to criticize) Trump saying he was smashing the established system? Or of Clinton desperately trying to appeal to young people through popular memes? And let’s not even get into the causes they supported or fought against, and how those were elevated as deities in and of themselves.

Now I’m depressed about the state of this country again. I mean really guys, we have Donald Trump as a president.

My point was that we are all about elevating people and things as deities and tearing down their predecessors to either forget or make into demons. We happily do it. And in the next election I’m sure we’ll tear those people and ideals down and build new ones instead.

Neil Gaiman’s take on America isn’t flawless, but it’s more insightful than some people give him credit for.

I’ve seen one review claim that the story (and albeit, this was based off of the show) was about being an atheist in a religious country, but...while I don’t want to say they’re wrong (Neil Gaiman’s rule of reading interpretations comes into play here), it’s certainly not the obvious point of the story. The story is about the fickleness of American culture, and how we’re loathe to stick to one type of worship. Another review claimed that American Gods, like Handmaid’s Tale, is about the dangers of religious extremism, which… again is a very odd way to look at the story, considering there isn’t an organized religious group that’s imposing a certain lifestyle on anyone in the story.

But maybe it’s rather telling that people are imposing their own beliefs on a book that is itself about how everyone in this country is obsessed with their own beliefs. Within the novel, reality is shaped by what people believe; likewise in real life, people see through the lense of what they believe, whether it’s something as small as a television show or as large as who’s running the country.

Yes, the novel’s a bit dated, and the series misses several of the really big picture bits of the story (though it’s only the first season, so it could become truly great going forward), but I think American Gods has a lot to teach us about our culture and worship. It’s rough, but it’s worth it. Seeing the discussions arising from the recent adaptation remind me of how much I love the story and how much it influenced my own writing and perceptions of the world.