Skip to main content

Questions tagged [american-gods]

Questions about the novel 'American Gods' (2001) or the way it relates to its adaptations. Use with the [neil-gaiman] tag.

3 votes
1 answer
157 views

What does "the balance of this paragraph" mean in the annotated American Gods?

In Gaiman's Annotated American Gods, the annotator often refers to the balance of a paragraph. For example annotation #73 says "The balance of this paragraph does not appear in the first edition&...
David Meehan's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
4k views

What does Wednesday mean by "the flowers in your hair are optional"?

When Shadow is trying to tell Wednesday about his dream with the thunderbirds, Wednesday gets quite angry and then says they're heading to San Francisco: "I dreamed of thunderbirds...," ...
Mithical's user avatar
  • 26.1k
7 votes
0 answers
248 views

What does Mr World represent in the American Gods book?

The American Gods Wikia site claims that Mr World is a personification of globalisation. That definitely seems to be true in the TV series (see the creepiest rant ever made about salsa), but in the ...
Rand al'Thor's user avatar
  • 74.1k
10 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why is there so little character to the character of Shadow in American Gods?

I recently finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Among the criticisms I felt fair to level at it was that Shadow, the central protagonist, is very much a blank slate. We rarely get any insight to his ...
Matt Thrower's user avatar
  • 23.1k
12 votes
1 answer
285 views

Why is the Omani trinket salesman story "female", and what does female mean here?

American Gods contains interludes named "Coming to America", which describe how certain gods and other entities arrived to the country. One of those stories features a djinn (a fire spirit, sort of), ...
Gallifreyan's user avatar
  • 8,474
3 votes
1 answer
1k views

What was the purpose of Sam Black Crow in American Gods?

In Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods, many of the characters Shadow encounters turn out to be somehow part of the world of the gods, even those like Low-Key Lyesmith who'd seemed innocuous. Most of ...
Rand al'Thor's user avatar
  • 74.1k
8 votes
0 answers
312 views

Are the new gods not aware of the appearance of this character?

There will be very heavy spoilers - do not read further if you haven't finished the novel. Mr. World is the leader of the new gods, though his exact area of influence is left somewhat ambiguous in ...
Gallifreyan's user avatar
  • 8,474
9 votes
0 answers
855 views

What exactly was Shadow's crime, and what was Laura's part in it?

There may or may not be unhidden spoilers from the novel here. While watching the fourth episode of American Gods, where Laura and Shadow's mutual history has been revealed (to be the first major ...
Gallifreyan's user avatar
  • 8,474
7 votes
1 answer
109 views

Is it implied that anyone can cause a storm with their will, or was it something about Shadow?

There will be unmarked spoilers from American Gods here. Pretty much the first job Mr. Wednesday and Shadow pull together is the ATM job; before it, Wednesday asks Shadow to cause a snowfall - by ...
Gallifreyan's user avatar
  • 8,474
8 votes
1 answer
9k views

Were there any clues given about Shadow's father?

The protagonist of American Gods, Shadow Moon, has never met his father. His mother had refused to share information about his father with him as well: — Tell me about my father. — He’s dead. Don’...
Gallifreyan's user avatar
  • 8,474