American Gods Source Material

Published May 9, 2017 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hi guys,

I followed you over from Taboo and I have to say; I loved the podcast and Taboo Season 1 is still my favorite season of television for 2017. A couple of my other TV podcasts were moving on to American Gods as well and the podcast community is really what convinced me to read this book and actively watch the TV show. So now that we’re back I need to come back with a lengthy email, and I do apologize for that.

First of all, I did read this book. I immensely enjoy being a “smug book reader” of A Song of Ice and Fire while watching Game of Thrones but I find myself wishing that I had not read American Gods before going into the TV adaptation. For me the joy, and frustration, of Neil Gaiman’s writing (in the two novels I’ve read – Neverwhere and American Gods) has been the constant confusion of what is actually going on. These stories are completely set in our world and the fantasy elements come on so subtly, we are unsure of what is reality and what isn’t until we can work out the new view of the world we live in.

This is why I enjoy the lack of world building in this first episode, to comment on the virgin viewer’s perspective. Things will start to make sense to us as they start to make sense to Shadow. This is a good call on behalf of the show as it gives us the same sense of “I don’t understand what is happening, just go with it” that we get in the book through Shadow’s first person perspective.

I also want to touch on “the eye-thing” you guys come back to a couple times in the deep dive episode. Big D is asked if it would make a difference if Mr. Wednesday had a scar or a fake eye, because Wednesday has a false eye in the book. On the plane with Shadow Mr. Wednesday says “I have an eye for these things, just the one” and points to his left eye. A subtle, and very curious call back to the Vikings vignette. Also, Mr. Wednesday says that he can fall asleep anywhere… which I find interesting.

Finally, you asked for listener feedback on the format of the show. I believe you’re heading in a good direction and the best way to enhance the experience of book readers and virgin viewers alike using book knowledge without spoiling anything is to use the source material anywhere that it can help the viewers to understand what is happening on screen but not as a basis for critique. I don’t want to see “inconsistencies with the book” become a regular idea explored on the show in depth. Book purists rarely enjoy the adaptation as much as those who do not take source material as seriously, and I personally am less interested in picking apart inconsistencies than I am with exploring everything the show is adding to the American Gods story. As a book reader, I may know what the inconsistencies are already and as a non-book reader I wouldn’t care about it.

Until next time…

Melissa

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