Book: American Gods
Basic Information :
Synopsis :
Characters :
Expectations :
Thoughts :
Evaluation :
Book Group :
New Words :
Book References :
Good Quotes :
References
Basic Information:
Author:
Neil Gaiman
Edition:
epub on Libby from
Publisher:
William Morrow
ISBN:
B004YW4L5K
Start
Date: August 13, 2021
Read
Date: August 28, 2021
635
pages
Genre:
Fiction, Fantasy, Book Group
Language
Warning: Yes
Rated
Overall: 3 out of 5
Fiction-Tells
a good story: 5 out of 5
Fiction-Character
development: 4 out of 5
Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
A
mortal gets out of prison to find that his wife has been killed while
having an affair with his future employer who has also died. He gets
hired on as Odin’s bodyguard and chauffeur. Unknown to him, he has
more of a role than he is counting. The old gods who have migrated to
America is now in competition with the newer gods. The newer gods
kill off Odin which launches a war between the two side, The mortal
dies, but comes back to stop the war.
Cast of Characters:
-
Shadow
Moon, aka Mike Ainsel,
-
Mr.
Wednesday (Odin), Also Grimnir and Gondlir. Also Emerson Borson.
-
Mr
Nancy, Spider, Anasai
-
Laura
Moon-Shadows dead wife
-
Hinzelmann
-
Easter
-
Whiskey
Jack
-
Loki
(Mr World. In prison, he was LowKey)
-
Mr.
Ibis
-
Samantha
Black Crow
-
Bilquis-based
upon the Bible’s Queen of Sheba
-
Media
-
Mad
Sweeney
-
Czernobog
-
Mr.
Jacquel
-
Chad
Mulligan
-
Margaret
Black Crow
-
Mr.
Town
-
Technical
Boy
-
And
more
Expectations:
-
Recommendation:
Book Group, both Peter and Laura
-
When:
Summer 2021
-
Date
Became Aware of Book: I had seen the title before Summer of 2021, but
not paid attention
-
How
come do I want to read this book: Book Group book
-
What
do I think I will get out of it? Unknown, maybe a critique of some of
the things Americans have as idols.
An
Introduction to the Tenth Anniversary Edition
Interesting
intro in that he observes he has never read this book, American
Gods,
he has only written it. I think this is a true observation. The
author can never see something as if he was a reader. He will only
process it for what he thought as a writer.
Gene
Wolf: You
never learn how to write a novel,.... You only learn to write the
novel you’re on.
A
Note on the Text
This
is the expanded version, closer to the unedited version.
Part
One
Chapter
One
Shadow
has been in prison for three years on a six year sentence for being
an accomplice to an armed robbery. He is being released. One of the
things he has learned in prison is coin tricks.The three things he
was going to do when he got out of prison was:
-
First,
he was going to take a bath. A real, long, serious soak, in a tub
with bubbles in it.
-
Second
he was going to towel himself off, put on a robe.
-
Third,
after he and Laura had come out of the bedroom, maybe a couple of
days later, he was going to keep his head down and stay out of
trouble for the rest of his life.
He
also learned to appreciate older writings, particularly Herodotus.
Such as the quote from Histories:
“Call no man happy,” said Shadow, “until he is dead.”
Actually
Herodotus is quoting Solon here. This quote gets used towards the
end of the book.
Shadow
became a materialist: Shadow
was not superstitious. He did not believe in anything he could not
see.
Shadow
gets told in a few days he would be released. He knows to keep his
head down and stay out of trouble. Too many people got this knews and
then got in trouble before they were about to be released. Then he
was going to be released sooner because his wife had been in an auto
accident and died.
He
tries to get back home for the funeral. But misses a connection. He
meets Mr Wednesday who offers him a job.
In
a second section of the chapter, a prostitute named Bilquis takes a
John. As they have sex, she devours him.
Chapter
Two
His
job which he was looking forward to having when he came out also was
no more-the owner died in the same crash as his wife.Wednesday takes
him to a bar. They meet Mad Sweeny there, an acquaintance of
Wednesday. They fight. Sweeney shows Shadow a coin trick and
mistakenly leaves a gold coin which is one Sweeney did not want to
give up.
Wednesday
takes Shadow to his wife’s funeral. He finds out that Laura, his
wife, was cheating on him with his future employer. He went to the
burial. There
was something he wanted to say to Laura, and he was prepared to wait
until he knew what it was.
He gives her the coin he won from Sweeney.
As
he was walking to his motel, he was taken by a group in a limo. They
are trying to take over whatever Wednesday has going on. They give
him a warning to give to Wednesday. Tell
him that language is a virus and that religion is an operating system
and that prayers are just so much f__ spam.
Chapter
Three
He
is in a hotel room. He thinks: Every
hour wounds. The last one kills. (A
Latin proverb).
Dreams
about:
-
Leucotios-
a Gallic god known from the Rhine-Moselle region, where he was
invariably identified with the Roman Mars.
-
Hubur-a
Sumerian term meaning "river", "watercourse" or
"netherworld"
-
Hershef-an
ancient ram deity whose cult was centered in ancient Heracleopolis
Magna.
Ideas
are more difficult to kill than people, but they can be killed, in
the end.”
He
then sees his dead wife Laura.
Chapter
Four
Shadow
and Wednesday leave town. They go to Chicago and meet three old
sisters as well as their brother, Czernobog. Czernobog and Shadow
play checkers. Shadow loses and forfeits his life. Shadow wins the
second game and Czernobog needs to go to the meeting Wednesday wants
him to go to..
the
truth is not what people want to hear.
Shadow
realizes he is
in a world with its own sense of logic. Its own rules.
In other words, he is no longer in Kansas (or anyplace he is familiar
with).
-
Grimnir-One
of Odin's names, specifically the one he uses in Grímnismál
(Sayings of Grímnir),
-
Czernobog-Slavic
deity, whose name means black god, about whom much has been
speculated but little can be said definitively
-
Bielebog-White
God", reconstructed as *Bělobogъ or *Bělъ Bogъ, from *bělъ
("white") + *bogъ ("god")) is the assumed name
of the alleged god of auspicious fate worshiped by the Polabian Slavs
Chapter
Five
Wednesday
robs a bank, more accurately he con’s people into giving him the
money they would deposit into the night deposit by tricking people
into thinking it is out of order. This may have been the best “story”
in this book.
Gaiman
is infatuated with “places of power”. I do not think he quite
knows what he means by that. But he talks about the quality of a
place, not necessarily where there are powerful places. The House
on the Rock
is one of those places according to Gaiman. He meets Mr Nancy. This
was to be a meeting of the old gods. They ride a carousel, like a
prayer wheel, it gains power as it goes around.
The
quickest way is sometimes the longest
Chapter
Six
On
the carousel he sees both the person who he has met in the flesh and
the image of the god. Calling of the gods in America to defend
themselves against the new gods.
They
go to a restaurant. He chauviers them back and forth. Then he is
kidnapped after he has them all inside.
In
his captivity, he occupies himself with coin tricks. It looks like
some federal agents have kidnapped him. Shadow
found himself suspecting that, on some level, possibly cellular, the
two men were identical.
This sounds very much like the Matrix. The agents beat him up trying
to get information. But they do not reveal where they are from.
Laura
comes. She has killed everybody. He finds he has been in a boxcar. He
starts walking. Laura reveals all she wants is to be alive again.
-
Huginn
and Muninn - a pair of ravens (hawks??? thunderbirds???)that fly all
over the world, Midgard, and bring information to the god Odin.
-
Valaskjalf
- one of Odin's Halls, a great dwelling built and roofed with pure
silver
-
Compé
Anansi - an Akan folktale character. He often takes the shape of a
spider and is sometimes considered to be a god of all knowledge of
stories.
Chapter
Seven
He
starts walking away into the forests of Wisconsin. He is given
instructions by a couple of ravens-Huginn and Muninn(?). Find Jackal
in Cairo. He buys a car. Dreams. He picks up Samantha Black Crow who
knows where Cairo is and is going in that general direction. He drops
her off. He stops in a motel further on. In his dream the TV shows
are old reruns. Lucy Ball starts coming on to him. One of the few
redeeming lines is about TV being an idol which people sacrifice
their time to. The reason why Shadow likes the old gods more than
the new ones is because the new ones speak in cliches.
Then
there is sort of a meaningless story of a guy coming to America to
sell trinkets. Seems like it is thrown in as a way for Gaiman to get
a short story which he liked, but could not publish separately.
Chapter
Eight
Mr
Ibis and Jackal run a funeral palor. Thoughts on death, dying, and
the funeral business. Gaiman thinks that there were more
cross-oceanic wanderings than a few Slavic people before Columbus:
Columbus
did what people had been doing for thousands of years. There’s
nothing special about coming to America.
Wonder how much of this is true: ...
here’s a skull that shows the Ainu, the Japanese aboriginal race,
were in America nine thousand years ago. Here’s another that shows
there were Polynesians in California nearly two thousand years later.
There is some thoughts that this might be true.
While
Shadow stays, he works for the mortuary.
On
a morning walk, he meets up with Mad Sweeney. Sweeney wants his gold
coin back. Cannot give it to him since Laura has it. Sweeney dies.
During the wake Shadow gives Sweeney, he
showed Shadow how to do the thing. This time Shadow got it.
Wednesday shows up and they are gone.
-
Mithras-worship
in the Roman Empire was characterized by images of the god
slaughtering a bull.
-
Bast-Her
name also is rendered as B'sst, Baast, Ubaste, and Baset. In ancient
Greek religion, she was known as Ailuros (Koinē Greek: αἴλουρος
"cat").
-
Bean
Sidhe, the banshee-the bean sídhe is a fairy woman who fortells the
death of a family member. To hear her keening is a sign that a member
of your family will die that night. According to folklore, she is
usually dressed in a gray cloak and green dress, and her eyes are red
from weeping.
Part
Two
Chapter
Nine
Discussion
on who is the “right” side. Wednesday notes: There’s
never been a true war that wasn’t fought between two sets of people
who were certain they were in the right.
Description of some grifts. Wednesday notes, in connection to a
barely legal aged waitress, that he has never been too concerned with
legalities.
Wednesday
and Shadow depart. Shadow goes to a fictional town called Lakeside as
Mike Ainsel on a bus. Two girls get in and talk between themselves.
He is met by Hinzelmann. Hinzelmann points out that a town
isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but
unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.
Wednesday has gotten Shadow an apartment in Lakeside for the next
several months.
The
police or agents question Samantha Black Crow about Shadow. She does
not tell them anything.
This
is not a land for gods-said
to Shadow in a dream.
Chapter
Ten
Like
in Lakeside. He meets the town sheriff, Chad Mulligan. He has his
first pasty
for breakfast. He goes into the town lottery about when a klunker
falls into the ice pond during the Spring melt. Wednesday comes by
for a visit and to pick up Shadow for a task. They go to Vegas to
meet some of Wednesday’s people.
Chapter
Eleven
More
of life in Lakeside. He had dreamed about thunderbirds and now
visited the library to find out about them. Wednesday comes and
takes him to San Francisco. He meets Easter-not the Christian one,
but the predecessor-and yet there is a lot of the renewal qualities
in Easter. Wednesday tries to recruit her. He shows her that people
do not know who she is. Wednesday and Shadow get into a discussion
that Wednesday is just recounting everybody’s wrong doing.
Wednesday says: They
all do the same things. They may think their sins are original, but
for the most part they are petty and repetitive.
Wednesday
is so used to taking from people, he will do this without thinking.
Shadow sees this and calls him on it and tries to correct the
situations which he says. Wednesday say May
your choices always be so clear,” he said, and once again, he
sounded totally sincere. It’s true what they say, thought Shadow.
If you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made.
One
of the girls in the bus Shadow came on vanished. The other girl
recounts to Shadow a series of girls who have disappeared.
does
not have the faith and will not have the fun.’ Chesterton
from the poem The
Song of the Strange Ascetic
I am impressed that he could reference a poem by GK.
We
need individual stories. Without individuals we see only numbers
This
sentence encapsulates a lot of the storyline-it is about an
apprentice who is being shown the ropes by a true believer. She
had no real interest in the gods, though. Not really. Her interests
were in the practicalities
Chapter
Twelve
Wednesday
and Shadow are traveling again, this time in a WInnebago, going west
to the Dakota’s. When they come to a roadblock, Wednesday does some
sort of magic and they take off to who knows where. Wednesday says
they are now behind the scenes (Is this Matrix again?) They encounter
mechanical spider things. (more Matrix)
They
come out from backstage and meet Whisky Jack. He will not join the
battle. They trade the Winnebago for a Buick. Then back to Lakeside.
Another Laura episode on a walk.
Bilquis
is killed, along with several others.
Chapter
13
Shadow
is invited to his next door neighbor for dinner. Samantha Black Crow
is the neighbor’s sister and is there as well. This is what
Wednesday is battling against-Shadow is explaining to Samantha: “And
that there are new gods out there, gods of computers and telephones
and whatever, and that they all seem to think there isn’t room for
them both in the world.
Coincidences
abound-but look at the last chapter as Gaiman tries to patch up the
need for these coincidences. First Smantha being the sister of his
neighbor. He takes her to a bar. At the bar is the wife of the guy
who Shadow’s wife was cheating with. She exposes him and announces
that he killed two agents. The sheriff arrests him, even though he
does not think Shadow did anything.
Wednesday
goes to a neutral site for negotiations. He is assassinated. it’s
still God’s Own Country,” said the announcer, a news reporter
pronouncing the final tag line. “The only question is, which gods.
Mr
Nancy and Czernoberg impersonate officers and collect Shadow out of
jail.
Part
Three
Chapter
Fourteen
They
switch cars with a dwarf who says: And
if the vigil falls to you, my admiration, and my sympathy.
The next chapter or two is setting up to this. Arrangements are made
to transfer Wednesday’s body. They are going to the center
of the continental USA.
People
only fight over imaginary things.
All
things have rules
Then
Shadow is tempted-Gaiman seems to be making Shadow into a Christ
figure: We
can make you famous, Shadow. We can give you power over what people
believe and say and wear and dream…..“I offered you the world,”
she said. “When you’re dying in a gutter, you remember that
he
was willing to die, if that was what it took to be alive.
Shadow
realizes that his cellmate in prison (LowKey Lyesmith) is the
chauffeur and his real name is Loki.
They
hold a short service for Wednesday. The commission Wednesday gave him
to hold a vigil in case of his death. They are taking the body to
Virginia, to the world tree. The vigil has a person tied to a tree
for nine days with no food or water. Why would Shadow do it? It is
the kind of thing a living person would do. he
was willing to die, if that was what it took to be alive
Three
women make the arrangements, including tying Shadow to a tree, five
feet off the ground.
Chapter
Fifteen
Describes
what it is like hanging on the tree. Another Christ like
representation. He
was alive. He had never felt like this.
Chapter
Sixteen
Shadow
has died or it could be another dream. He goes down from the tree.
Shadow’s questions can be answered, but he cannot unlearn the
answer. He was being led down the path of hard truths. What
good were books, if they couldn’t protect you from something like
that?
The “that” is seeing his mother die from lymphoma. He realizes
that he is Wednesday’s son. All
revelations are personal,” she said. “That’s why all
revelations are suspect.
Mr Ibis escorts him through the underworld. Shadow’s life is
examined. But
the examination did not stop. Every lie he had ever told, every
object he had stolen, every hurt he had inflicted on another person,
all the little crimes and the tiny murders that make up the day, each
of these things and more were extracted and held up to the light by
the jackal-headed judge of the dead.
Gaiman
goes into life and death being two sides of the same coin. Also in
his thinking there are no happy endings or even an ending. Mr
Jacquel opened the last door for Shadow and behind that door there
was nothing. Not darkness. Not even oblivion. Only nothing.
Shadow has chosen the way of nothingness. He wants to rest after the
turmoil and trauma he has been through since being released from
prison.
Chapter
Seventeen
The
war is going to be held on Lookout
Mountain, Georgia. Rock City.
Described the convergence of the gods.
Scene
changes to Laura going into a farmhouse to get the water Shadow had
said was there. Death
hurt Laura, although the hurt consisted mostly of absences, of things
that were not there.
When she drinks, it is not the water of life, but pretty strong water
as it feeds the world tree.
water of time, which comes from the spring of fate.
Mr
Town was sent to get a small branch from the world tree. He sees
Shadow hanging, dead. He
imagined that he was holding a spear and twisting it into Shadow’s
guts.
Another Christ figure.
In
talking about Shadow, the outcome of the war depends on him. Easter
goes to rescue him.
Loki
and Odin are into chaos and killing, not into the war.
Chapter
Eighteen
Gaiman’s
thoughts on religion: Religions
are, by definition, metaphors, after all: God is a dream, a hope, a
woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms, a
watchmaker who left his prize chronometer in the desert, someone who
loves you—even, perhaps, against all evidence, a celestial being
whose only interest is to make sure your football team, army,
business, or marriage thrives, prospers and triumphs over all
opposition … Religions are places to stand and look and act,
vantage points from which to view the world.
This last sentence is interesting. I think in terms of that religion
is a description of the world we live in, like a scientific
description is also. It brings things into focus. The question is
does the description match reality/
Whisky
Jack finds Shadow and they discuss that the gods both old and new
will revive him, to make him something different. Shadow asks what is
real-no answer given. Shadow sees what the real objective was-it is a
con to get chaos and blood. Shadow thinks being with Whisky Jack is
a good place-Whiskey Jack says there are many good places. I think
so. we
never built churches. We didn’t need to. The land was the church.
The land was the religion
Easter
and the thunderbird revive Shadow. Easter says that bringing back
things is what she does. In a lot of ways, Christianity looks at the
old traditions and understands them better than those who practice
them. If only we understood our own tradition. The thunderbird
carries him to Lookout Mountain.
Laura
travels with Mr Town. She kills him.
It
was Mr World who set up Shadow to die. Mr World says: It’s
never a matter of old and new. It’s only about patterns.
The reason why he wanted the stick, is it is a symbol of what he is
doing. It would become a spear of chaos. Sort of like Mars in Greek
mythology. World wants his stick. In Laura’s hands, it turns into
a spear which she plunges through her and through Mr World, process
of killing him-she is already dead.
Shadow
finds Wednesday. Wednesday says that there
is power in sacrificing a son.
Is Gaiman talking about Shadow or Christ?
Loki
and Odin were in it together to bring blood and chaos among the gods.
Shadow has figured this out. He calls Wednesday the Judas
Goat.
Shadow
goes backstage. He sees the fighting. He makes a speech laying out
how they all have been manipulated into fighting so that Odin and
Loki would have their blood and chaos. Shadow says: I
would rather be a man than a god. We don’t need anyone to believe
in us. We just keep going anyhow. It’s what we do.
Shadow
takes Laura’s gold coin and returns it. Laura is now at rest.
Part
Four
Chapter
Nineteen
Driving
in Florida. Mr Nancy asks Shadow if he is happy? Answer: Not dead
yet. It
means that you can’t judge the shape of someone’s life until it’s
over and done.
Mr Nancy has Shadow stay at his place. He dreams and is told he did
well. Shadow realizes that he needs to go to Chicago to see
Czernoberg.
Chapter
Twenty
Shadow
returns to Lakeside. He goes straight to the klunker which had not
yet sunk. He opened the trunk and the missing person was there. At
that moment the ice cracked and the car, the body and Shadow sank
into the water.
In
his time unconscious he dreamt that he was being refused death. He
was saved by Hinzelmann. It was Hinzelmann who killed all the town’s
kids which disappeared. The town sheriff kills Hinzelmann and burns
down the house. Shadow relieves the sheriff’s guilt. (Jedi mind
trick)
Shadow
goes to see Samantha Black Crow. She is with a girlfriend.
Shadow
now goes to his final meeting with Czernoberg. Shadow says the only
thing he learned by being around the gods is that once you make a
deal with the gods, you keep it. Czernoberg carries out his end of
the deal.
… there
is blood. But there is also gratitude. And it has been a long, long
winter
Postscript
Scene
is now Iceland on the 4th of July. He
liked the idea of independence.
He
wondered whether home was a thing that happened to a place after a
while, or if it was something that you found in the end, if you
simply walked and waited and willed it long enough.
He
meets an old man. Shadow declares he is Wednesday/Odin. He
was me, yes. But I am not him
Appendix
This
is a chapter which Gaiman wanted to put in there, but upon
consideration, it did not fit. It is a chapter about meeting Jesus. I
can see why Gaiman did not put this in. I think it would need a lot
more development.
what’s
a stranger but a friend you haven’t met yet?”
Suffering
is sometimes cleansing
Evaluation:
One
thing we learn from reading mythology is that when humans get
involved with the affairs of the gods, usually the human does not
come out for the better. But what happens when the old and impotent
gods have been dormant for centuries want to wake up in a land which
does not worship them? That is the theme of Gaiman’s American
Gods.
Gaiman’s
story takes us through Shadow’s dealings with the old gods, mostly
Norse, in particular Odin-in the story he is known as Mr Wednesday.
The story has the “new” gods such as technology, money, sex,
guns, bombs and the like are pitted with removing the older, retired
gods. Shadow is mixed up in this as Wednesday’s bodyguard and
chauffeur.
I
think Gaiman writes a good story. Particularly after I went through
it a second time to get my notes down. But then Gaiman soils it with
stuff which does not need to be there. The gods are portrayed as lust
happy-they were also portrayed this in Greek myths as well-devouring
their partners. Much of the story seems like Gaiman did not know
when to stop or edit his work. So I got the sense that many of the
stories in this book could have been edited out without losing any of
the overall story. But then what would make it 600 pages?
As
I was reading this story, I got to thinking of John Irving. Not so
much in substance, but in my reaction to how Gaiman develops the
story. There is a dependence on sex and violence which I think tends
to weaken where he wants to go. Also the oddballness of many of the
side stories left me thinking “get on” with the main plot.
American
Gods
is meant to be an epic story like those told in the old Norse tales.
This is not a tale on the level of Lord
of the Rings
rather a read which is a decent adventure tale. The man has talent as
a writer but not my style.
Notes from my book group:
Shadow
thinks he is a materialist. He thinks: Shadow
was not superstitious. He did not believe in anything he could not
see.
What fallacy is there in this line of thinking? What strengths?
There
are many thoughts and wise words which come through in Gaiman’s
story. Is this a book which you would look to find wisdom? Or do you
see the wisdom as more truisms?
What
is the significance of the coin tricks which Shadow engages in?
It
seems like Gaiman makes use of several stories. Which ones were you
able to identify?
In
chapter 11, Wednesday says that
They may think their sins are original, but for the most part they
are petty and repetitive.
What does Wednesday mean by this?
Gaiman
quotes Chesterton: does
not have the faith and will not have the fun.
What does Chesterton mean? Why does Gaiman use this quote?
How
do you want your life to change because you read this book?
Many
of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
Why
the title of American
Gods?
Which gods are the American ones?
Does
this story work as a fantasy?
Did
the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?
Which
character was the most convincing? Least?
Which
character did you identify with?
Which
one did you dislike?
Every
story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s
world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
In
what context was religion talked about in this book?
Was
there anybody you would consider religious?
Why
do you think the author wrote this book?
What
would you ask the author if you had a chance?
What
“takeaways” did you have from this book?
What
central ideas does the author present?
Describe
the culture talked about in the book.
How
is the culture described in this book different than where we live?
What
economic or political situations are described?
Does
the author examine economics and politics, family traditions, the
arts, religious beliefs, language or food?
How
did this book affect your view of the world?
Of
how God is viewed?
What
questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
Talk
about specific passages that struck you as significant—or
interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
What
was memorable?
Reading
Groups General Fiction Guide
New Words:
-
Oubliettes
(1): a secret dungeon with access only through a trapdoor in its
ceiling.
-
Bufotenin
(2): a tryptamine derivative related to the neurotransmitter
serotonin. It is an alkaloid found in some species of toads
-
Maudlin
(3): self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental, often through
drunkenness
-
Scraeling
(3): the name the Norse Greenlanders used for the peoples they
encountered in North America
-
Patois
(5): the dialect of the common people of a region, differing in
various respects from the standard language of the rest of the
country.
-
Masticating
(8): to grind, crush, and chew (food) with or as if with the teeth
in preparation for swallowing
-
Grifts
(9): engage in petty or small-scale swindling.
-
Prestidigitation
(11): magic tricks performed as entertainment.
-
Quadroon
(11): a person who is one-quarter black by descent.
-
Voudon
(11): also known as Voodoo, or Voudou, is the national folk religion
of Haiti. Voudon is practiced in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora and
is
-
Anchorites
(12): a religious recluse
-
Baraka
(12): n Judaism, a blessing usually recited during a ceremony; in
Islam, the beneficent force from God that flows
-
Patchouli
(14): a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, commonly
called the mint or deadnettle family
-
Psychopomp
(16): the spiritual guide of a living person's soul
-
frisson
-
Modalities
(17): a particular mode in which something exists or is experienced
or expressed
-
Gyre
(18): a spiral or vortex
-
Miasma
(20): a highly unpleasant or unhealthy smell or vapor
-
Kobold
(20): a sprite stemming from Germanic mythology and surviving into
modern times in German folklore
- Geas
(20): an obligation or prohibition magically imposed on a person
Book References:
-
Histories
by Herodotus
-
he
Murder of Roger Ackroyd
by Agatha Christie
-
Perplexing
Parlour Illusions
my not be a real book
-
Stranger
in a Strange Land
by Robert A. Heinlein
-
War
of the Worlds by
HG Wells
-
What
My Heart Meant
by Jenny Kerton probably not a real book
-
Gravity’s
Rainbow
by Thomas Pynchon
-
Bleak
House
by Charles Dickens
- Modern
Coin Magic
by J.B. Bobo
Good Quotes:-
First
Line: I don’t know what it’s like to read this book
-
Last
Line: He walked away and kept walking on.
-
There’s
never been a true war that wasn’t fought between two sets of people
who were certain they were in the right. Chp Nine
-
a
town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town,
but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a
soul. Chp Nine
-
They
all do the same things. They may think their sins are original, but
for the most part they are petty and repetitive. Chp Eleven
-
We
need individual stories. Without individuals we see only numbers…
Chp Eleven
-
People
only fight over imaginary things. Chp Fourteen
-
Religions
are places to stand and look and act, vantage points from which to
view the world. Chp Eighteen
- It
means that you can’t judge the shape of someone’s life until it’s
over and done. Chapter Nineteen
References:
