American Gods

When the book was made, there was a much more distinct difference between tech and media. The show tried to keep old media the same and update techboy to better match today, but in doing so they crossed over into newer media. He was more 4chan and Facebook.

Updating media makes sense. Techboy therefore needs to be remade as well. While media and tech will always be connected, techboy should be remade to better match technology worship: the idea that everything and everyone can be improved by technology and the idea of progress behind it. Newer, better. The old quickly becoming obsolete.

Cybsled said:

When the book was made, there was a much more distinct difference between tech and media. The show tried to keep old media the same and update techboy to better match today, but in doing so they crossed over into newer media. He was more 4chan and Facebook.

Updating media makes sense. Techboy therefore needs to be remade as well. While media and tech will always be connected, techboy should be remade to better match technology worship: the idea that everything and everyone can be improved by technology and the idea of progress behind it. Newer, better. The old quickly becoming obsolete.

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Yea, which I'd like to see them do something like that with the character. Instead of being about 'digital technology', ala the gameboy and such, he becomes more about progress and advancement as a whole. That could even include more analog technologies, such as bio-tech or chemistry. They could even keep the same actor potentially, just change his style and attitude.

In reading a review of the episode and an interview with the Tech Boy actor, I didn't realize they were insinuating that was his birth at the asian dude's funeral. Everyone was 'praying' to the song (like the father said), which is implied to have been made by the kid's AI, and that helped bring that version of Tech Boy fully into existence. I just figured he was there watching over the kid because he was his most devout worshipper.

Gods don't exist until people believe/worship/whatever in them. He basically stole it from Terry Pratchett's Small Gods, and took it from Discworld to America. Sad because I think it's Neil's best solo work, and it's just a ripoff haha.

Also, because of this, I cannot wait for Good Omens. I hope they do Death and the gang well.

Enzee said:

Yea, which I'd like to see them do something like that with the character. Instead of being about 'digital technology', ala the gameboy and such, he becomes more about progress and advancement as a whole. That could even include more analog technologies, such as bio-tech or chemistry. They could even keep the same actor potentially, just change his style and attitude.

In reading a review of the episode and an interview with the Tech Boy actor, I didn't realize they were insinuating that was his birth at the asian dude's funeral. Everyone was 'praying' to the song (like the father said), which is implied to have been made by the kid's AI, and that helped bring that version of Tech Boy fully into existence. I just figured he was there watching over the kid because he was his most devout worshipper.

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Yeah I took it as Tech Boy was conceived as the kid's AI and grew into a God through worship in the music that AI made. I really enjoyed that and while the actress for New Media is meh, I like the direction they are going with making this more relatable to current day compared to when the books were written. I also hope they keep the Tech Boy actor and just change his personality/wardrobe considerably to make him more about technological progress. I didn't like their portrayal of money; I was kinda hoping for more of a calculating/Wall Street numbers cruncher type of person - cold and calculating.

Kiki said:

Gods don't exist until people believe/worship/whatever in them. He basically stole it from Terry Pratchett's Small Gods, and took it from Discworld to America. Sad because I think it's Neil's best solo work, and it's just a ripoff haha.

Also, because of this, I cannot wait for Good Omens. I hope they do Death and the gang well.

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it's an old idea, pratchet had it from him and he from someone else.

I remember as a kid I read something from fred saberhargen. The book of swords or something like that. YA fantasy that has this as a central theme.

Gaiman just did a modern variant of it. But he did it well.

Zajeer said:

I didn't like their portrayal of money; I was kinda hoping for more of a calculating/Wall Street numbers cruncher type of person - cold and calculating.

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I was also left wondering where Darryl and Darryl were...

iannis said:

Gaiman just did a modern variant of it. But he did it well.

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I agree. I really think it's his best (solo) work. Anasi boys comes 2nd.

I don't mind taking inspirations from classics, but to straight up jack it from one of your good friends is a bit strange to me. I'm glad he did however. I wouldn't respect him as much as an author had he not written it.

huh? He's not 'jacking it' from anything. It's a somewhat common idea. That'd be like getting mad he stole the idea of a God from the bible.

Huh? You are comparing a classic work of literature to a book your best friend and a fantasy author wrote 5 years before you. We won't even mention who had a quirky Death character first either.

The idea that gods get power from belief doesn't seem to be "somewhat common" to me. I don't seem to remember that in Greek mythology. Comparing that specific concept to a general idea like 'gods' is disingenous.

How many books can you name that flesh out this idea?

Books or not, it was a view of old societies in pagan times. Gods falling out of favor/being forgotten could be seen as loss of power/death of a god.

Kiki said:

The idea that gods get power from belief doesn't seem to be "somewhat common" to me. I don't seem to remember that in Greek mythology. Comparing that specific concept to a general idea like 'gods' is disingenous. How many books can you name that flesh out this idea?

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I know from playing D&D that this has been a concept for quite sometime.

Kiki said:

The idea that gods get power from belief doesn't seem to be "somewhat common" to me. I don't seem to remember that in Greek mythology. Comparing that specific concept to a general idea like 'gods' is disingenous.

How many books can you name that flesh out this idea?

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Ome said:

I know from playing D&D that this has been a concept for quite sometime.

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Legends and Lore, 1984.



I had this geezer orthodox Jewish philosophy teacher that had long winded discussions about belief in relation to godhood. My knowledge of DnD was of key use in participating in the discussion.

Honestly, the idea that belief = power goes as far back as cave paintings.

The idea that a god only exists if people believe in them transcends literature. It's been discussed in philosophy for centuries. It's not like stealing a specific character that an author created, it's a concept.

I mean, did the greek pantheon exist in Asia in 2,000 bc? The earliest we think they were mentioned in Greece was somewhere around 1,800 bc, through poems and stories. Any written or physical evidence of them came later than that. So, did they exist before anyone ever spoke a word about them? If I invent a god today, and thousands of years from now people happen to be worshipping it as part of a religion, did that god already exist before today?

Obviously, 'existence' is a little abstract in this scenario, as we aren't talking about physical things. But, if you assume gods are somehow real first, then it becomes very easy to take the next step towards them existing because they are believed in. It's a bit of a chicken/egg situation, obviously.

Well.. that episode seemed kinda uneventful. Sure, there was some nice T&A with the revelation about laura/sweeny, but no new gods and nothing really happened with the war. Or, maybe just nothing to further the overall arc happened to Shadow. It was like a bottle episode kinda.

I saw the next two episodes show up on piratebay, but idk if they actually got leaked or its just some scammer. The comments didn't look promising.

So apparently I watched the two leaked episodes and not the newest episode. Whoops. I was wondering why they were referencing New Orleans. Then I figured it out.

Leaked episodes are really good. I don't want to give any spoilers, but one episode goes into something the book briefly mentions but people were surely interested in. The last leaked episode has really good background on one of the better current characters.

Honestly this show is just building up all the characters then on season finales shit goes down. That's the formula. If you're expecting a Red Wedding every episode you're not going to get it. This is probably a show that's really good binged. If you need a ton of action or something, this ain't for you. But the mythology is interesting and if they decide to basically expand this into a huge Pantheon of mythology brought to life (mystical weapons, more demi-gods, etc) this could be a pretty cool show for people who love that type of stuff. I think the end of the book is probably going to be the season finale of season 2. After that I think they're just going to wing it. Could be cool, but most likely just get muddied like the free-writing on current Game of Thrones.

Enzee said:

Sure, there was some nice T&A with the revelation about laura/sweeny,

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Nice? Ugh, Laura has the body of a child.

Soygen said:

So how was season 2 of this(is it still airing)? I have it on my Plex server, but haven't started it yet.

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It's still airing. I guess we're about half way through?

It's just "okay". Cool visuals, but lots of blabbing with nothing much going on.