Old Geezers vs. Cocky Newbies

There’s only one thing that’s as old as the gods—sex and war. And there’s plenty of that in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, where the gods of old struggle against the new wave of technology-empowered gods.

Mythology is adapted to modern day in the portrayal of gods on both sides of the war. For example, Anansi, the West African god associated with spiders, is an old man with yellow gloves and a sports jacked named Mr. Nancy. I appreciate the inclusion of gods from around the world, as they are true to America’s diverse population.

Firstly, it seems only fitting that Thoth, Egyptian god of writing, and Anubis, god of death and embalming—now Mr. Ibis and Jacquel—run a funeral home in Cairo, Mississippi. Both men are named after animals sacred to their gods. Mr. Ibis has a gift with words, writing detailed accounts of the deceased, while Jacquel’s job is to “…kick the corpse” (Gaiman 176).

Of course, they have a cat, suspiciously similar to Bastet, goddess of cats and the home, who visits Shadow in a dream as a human and—let’s just say—shows him why she’s associated with fertility.

Plus, Gaiman’s interpretation of the Jinn, spirits thought to be evil in Islamic mythology, reflects modern values. The Jinn, struggling to make a living as a male taxi driver, sleeps with Salim, a depressed salesman. While the LGBTQ community isn’t entirely accepted, the world has evolved to create many welcoming spaces. Since Jinn can assume any human shape, it would only make sense that they have the capacity to be LBGTQ.

Religion has been used to oppress others, like the idea of the Jinn in the book, The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali, but by reinterpreting the myth, Gaiman not only gives the Jinn a modern perspective, but creates a sense of normalcy around LGBTQ life. (Gay people can get screwed over by demons, too!)

Lastly, the powerful Norse trickster god Odin’s modern definition is a scammer named Wednesday. The man charms blondes into sleeping with him and runs an effective yet simple ATM scam. Odin is associated with war, so it makes sense that Wednesday rounds up the gods from the past to fight the new gods.

But the fact that Wednesday sleeping with a 17-year-old virgin disturbs Shadow (and the reader, or at least me) shows the shift in values between past and modern day.

On the other hand, these new gods are not a reinterpretation of mythology but represent what present mythology would be. The fat, acne-riddled kid in the limousine, a depiction of technology, comes across as cocky and indulgent. As we discussed in class, gods, like most forces in today’s world, have their own plans. They don’t care about you. A possible message from Gaiman’s gods is that just because the old gods are outdated doesn’t mean we can’t learn from the past. But we also must be weary of who we trust as the world matures.