American Gods by Neil Gaiman

In contemporary times, it’s sometimes hard to think in the headspace of myth, usually associated with the ancient and dusty past, and usually means the idea of myth is hard to wrap your head around. Interestingly enough, American Gods seem to be playing with the existence of myth in our modern society and how it interacts with it. Obviously, Gaiman chooses to do this in very literally means where gods and magic actually exist in that space. In this literal manifestation of myth, it feels easier to understand and feel for the themes and ideas that usually surround myth and fantasy as a genre. Something that I thought was interesting in this work, in particular, was the manifestation of gods to represent things “worshipped” in contemporary times, like technology. In this commentary, I realized that how contemporary society interacts with technology is almost religious in nature, and it manifests itself very well in this story. The old “pagan” religions of the old world historically manifest in object/idol worship, physical objects that bind the gods to this world. Thinking about a phone, Television, or a computer, in the same way, seems strange at first but is quite a decent metaphor for our relationship worship in the contemporary world. A technocratic world would we worship the tech in our pockets and the gods among men who created them like likes of Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, the question is where do the religions of old fit into this new space? That’s where this story truly excels in exploring this dilemma. It even seems apt to consider that as well as the “pagan” religions of Norse and Egypt, where does the existence and worship of Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism fall into this equation. I don’t feel that it’s that far of a stretch that in the manifestation of the religious myth in the work American Gods, there is a place for question the relationship with worship whether its tech, old, or new in our contemporary society. 

Lastly, on a side note, I find it super fascinating how our protagonist Shadow interacts with the divine and magical space. With an almost apathy and "going with the flow", this could just be a story device, an affinity to it because of his origin (spoiler), or because of how most modern society acts with apathy to most things. Even the extreme and magical. Who knows? I couldn't figure it out myself.