Week8: Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy

Week8: Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy

I finished reading "Anazi Boys" and "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman and I really admire him for making his books so rich and interesting. 

Start with "American Gods. "It doesn't tell any stories about the future, and it doesn't feature superheroes with magical powers and high technology. It's very different from most of the science fiction that you get used to. Instead of putting these gods on a pedestal, he turned them all into living beings, and arranged these characters in a very reasonable way in every corner of American society. The author has created a completely fictional America, a crazy world that is outside the boundaries of the real world and cannot exist at all. It made me wonder, if faith didn't exist, if all the gods were just a dream created by man, where would we be?

In "American Gods" you can see mythical figures from all over the world. In addition to the familiar Norse and Irish myths, you can also see stories from Africa, South America, and Slavic lands. In the world view of the ancient Slavic people, the origin of the world was the confrontation and struggle between white and black, light and dark, good and evil. Similar to the ancient mythology in other regions, Slavic mythology was also a polytheistic system with more primitive belief in gods. That's the world view in Neil Gaiman's story. Neil Gaiman made a lot of gods in a completely personified way and put them in the world, which is interesting.

Then I would like to talk about "Ananzi Boys", a really funny novel. I don't know why I really like the character of spider. The story seems strange but full of logic, which seems to tell us that each of us is our own god. Ananzi Boys should be linked with American Gods, and also connect the modern with mythology. Without divine power, this book adds more modern atmosphere and gives me more insight into life.