(SPOILERS) Questions for those who read the book
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — American Gods
Gurbachen_Dynamite — 9 years ago(January 17, 2017 09:16 AM)
Just finished the book, must've missed some details or not made the mental leaps, so a couple questions.
Did they ever explain how Shadow made it snow early in the book? Seems an ongoing theme of the book is weird beep happening and Shadow just shrugging and moving on without questioning it.
Was Shadow supposed to be someone important in the end? He was just kind ofthere. I suspected he would be Baldur after Loki was talking about putting his eyes out with mistletoe. But again, Shadow just kind of went "whelp that's over, who cares about answers and explanation, I'm going walk-about". Or I thought he was somehow going to turn out to be the fictional King of America that's mentioned a few times, again without any elaboration.
Who were the Buffalo headed people supposed to be in the end? America itself? Are Shadow and Sam supposed to be some sort of super native Americans or something?
Why did Mister Town have thoughts and memories of his outside life if he was a created entity? He mentions having been in one of the alphabet agencies before transferring to the private sector, was he actually killed like Henzelmann seems to have been and then was changed into a god-like thing?
And more of a general thought about the book, why wouldn't the American gods just go back to their homelands when local belief failed? I feel like there wasn't a whole lot of background on the actual belief structures and nature of the gods in this book that is largely about them. I was going to say they were shown to be perfectly capable of traveling by air, but then I remembered an errant line where Wednesday said he hadn't seen as many countries as Shadow would have thought. So perhaps they're tethered to the land, despite having traveled there in the first place. -
Ranguvar18 — 9 years ago(January 17, 2017 10:48 AM)
Idon't think it was Shadow that made it snow, I think it was just snowing.
2. Shadow is exactly who you suspect he is, but that's not confirmed until a later story. It's left deliberately vague in American Gods.
3. They were the gods of the Native American tribes.
4. To make him seem more convincing to outsiders.
5. For many reasons-their homes no longer exist in the way they remember, there's not any believers left, etc. We don't need long, complicated backstories as to the how and why of gods. Most myths don't have them to begin with.
Geek Girl -
Gurbachen_Dynamite — 9 years ago(January 17, 2017 03:19 PM)
- I thought it was pretty clear it was him, didn't it get way heavier in the seconds he was focusing on it? I assumed it was connected with his unexplained psychic nonsense.
- Yeah I just read Monarch of the Glen, what a non-event. I mean, I guess they couldn't have called him Baldur without you immediately guessing he's Wednesdays' son, but still. Could've been a bigger deal in the main book.
- They seemed a lot more switched on and smashing than the other old gods, I assumed they must've been a bigger deal. I assumed it was leading to Shadow being a Native American god, with all that 'find your tribe and chase thunderbirds and blah blah'.
- the others didn't seem to care about fake backstories, but then we didn't see inside their heads. Bit of a weird detail to include, just on the off chance someone happens to read their mind. Thought the whole point of the spook squad was they're weird faceless agent nobodies shrug
- I guess it just depends on how your mind works. I often have trouble getting into books that don't go in-depth on lore and whatnot. I like to really dive into a world. Seems shallow otherwise (IMO).
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Ranguvar18 — 9 years ago(January 17, 2017 04:44 PM)
- I honestly don't remember.
- Well, the whole point of Shadow is that he's a mystery.
- At some point all the gods, both old and new, are a 'big deal'.
Besides, the whole war is a con anyway. - You just answered your own question.
- This book is very much rooted in Americana. That's a world all its own.
Geek Girl
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AlexWard — 9 years ago(January 31, 2017 05:46 PM)
Shadow has powers, its just difficult for him to use them. It seems it has to be an unusual situation before he can. Causing the snow gave him a horrible headache. He plucked the idea of committing suicide out of Chad Mulligan's head but he was only able to do it because Chad was his friend and he was gravely concerned for him. He was also able to make Sam and her girlfriend unable to see him when he gave Sam flowers at the end. He could do that since he had nothing left to worry about he thought he was going to die.
He WAS important in the book. He was the key to Wednesday and Low-key's plan. He was a pawn that was getting moved around the board, not a king or queen making things happen. That's why he was just sort of there and didn't get involved until he had to stop the war. He also learned that when he asked questions he didn't like the answers he got so he quit asking and just went with it.
IMO The Buffalo headed guy et al were Native American gods.
I don't think that Mr. Town was any kind of created entity. I think he was a regular guy that worked for the CIA or NSA or DHS or something. Either Mr. Town and Mr. Stone and Mr. Wood are just coincidental names or they are aliases. It's also possible that all the spooks working for Low-Key are a kind of god. If enough people believe in something in the AG world it becomes reality, so the spooks could easily be "Men In Black". That's how they could exist and have outside lives yet still actually work for a government agency.
The gods are stuck in America because that's where they were 'born'. When they had enough believers in a new land, they just kind of "pop in". They can't leave the land they originated in. It's not covered but
maybe
they could go to the country of their origin. Mr. Wednesday might have been able to go to Norway, but it seems unlikely or he would have already gone.
Oderint Dum Metuant