Until “American Gods” swept up most of the significant SF and horror writing awards in 2002, Neil Gaiman was known for his work on the DC comic series “Sandman”. He was writing for print all along. His online biography provides details for the curious.
The premise of “American Gods” is that the gods of all the peoples and cultures who came to America are still around, and that new gods like Media and Technology are rising. The story is that Mr. Wednesday – the Norse god Wotan – enlists recently released convict Shadow as his aide. Wednesday travels across America, meeting several old gods and trying to enlist them in a battle against the new gods.
The premise that the old gods are still active was explored by other SF writers, like Roger Zelazny, to whom the novel is dedicated. Zelazny explored the mythic gods of India in some of his fiction.
Because Gaiman is a good writer, he devotes himself to the story, and avoids the temptation of displaying his erudition through lecturing characters. He does however demonstrate considerable research into myth and folklore, and acute understanding of the importance of myth in culture.
He carries the story at a decent pace, although his continuing effort to get a dark and brooding atmosphere often carry the story into eddies and backwaters. His characters are unusual, bizarre, grandiose, larger than life. Even the human characters live on surface of the deep pools of an implied collective unconscious. The gods have many human attributes, but their needs and motives are mythic and their actions are wildly unpredictable.
The plot becomes cluttered with too many characters and too many subplots, which interferes with a clean climax and conclusion. Gaiman ends up having to keep writing past the natural end of the story to resolve loose ends.
This book deserved the genre awards it earned. It explores ideas – in this case cultural, sociological, psychological ideas – in an engaged and entertaining way.
Snapping
The first edition of Snapping was published in 1978, which was the year of mass suicide of cultists at Jonestown, Guyana. While authors Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman did not predict such an event, their book was on the shelves at the right time.
Snapping, America’s Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change was not about cults as such, but it made Conway and Siegelman into instant cult experts. At one point, they were sued by Scientology for labeling that movement/religion as a cult. They continue to serve with anti-cult groups like the Rick Ross Institute.
The book was actually supposed to introduce and explain a theory of personality change based on communication and information storage theory. The theory is speculative, but the book is worthwhile for its careful journalism of the experiences of ex-cult members and their families and its careful exposition of the cultural factors that led to the greatly increased popularity of cults and cult-like movements in the second half of the 20th century.
Winnipeg Festival Countdown
The Winnipeg Folk Festival is only 3 weeks away, Thursday July 8 to Sunday July 11.
This year, I asked to be a Folk Festival Volunteer. I volunteered to become more actively engaged in the Festival, to try to avoid drowning in memories of attending as a happily married husband and father, and to meet new people. My application seemed to go into limbo for a while. I was told that the coordinators need to check with past volunteers on their crews, and to give priority to returning volunteers.
I got the call yesterday. I’m on Site Security, which is divided into a number of crews. I am joining the collateral crew which has some shifts supporting the Main stage crew, and some shifts supporting the Site West (Daytime stages) crew. I expect to walk and to use sunscreen and bug repellent, answer questions, rescue lost kids and capture fence jumpers.
Where’s the Lost Boy?
N.has been back in Winnipeg for nearly a month. He held out in Edmonton until May 18 or 19 and visited a shelter. His name was on a watch list and an Edmonton Child Care worker gave him a one way bus ticket to Winnipeg. He came back Thursday evening May 20 and spent the next five days on the street, and the nights in the emergency youth shelter. On Tuesday May 25 he was admitted to a Group Home at 240 Garfield in Winnipeg, operated by B & L Youth Services. He is the youngest kid in the home, which specializes in training kids to live independently in apartments, when they have a job or when they are eligible for Social Assistance.
N. came to see me on Thursday May 27, at my office. He was not hostile, and we didn’t look back at the demands and threats he made when he last spoke to me a few weeks ago. He assumed or knew that I had visited the Winnipeg CFS office after he ran away to Edmonton, and that I had retrieved his Warhammer models and his remaining clothes. I agreed to drive him to my house, pick up the stuff he wanted, and drop him at the Group Home.
Changing Views of Religion
My parents were immigrants to Canada from rural Zeeland, the province of Holland nearest the Belgian border. They were Catholics and saw to it, with some personal sacrifice, that my siblings and I attended a Catholic parochial school. I remember getting up to go to Mass and serving Mass in Latin, before the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. We had to take breakfast to the Church and eat our breakfast before school – which was in the basement of the Church. In those days a fast of at least three hours before Communion was observed. I went on to a Jesuit High School. As a child and teenager, I accepted being Catholic as part of my identity.
Enlightenment Bazaar
Soon after I started my blog, I wrote “Fakirs” and set up an Archive category called Fakirs for essays about New Age spirituality, New Age science and cults. I have been writing about strange beliefs, and trying to understand why people embrace them. A few weeks ago I read Wendy Kaminer’s book Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials, The Rise of Irrationalism an the Perils of Piety. She has a Chapter about the New Age called “Gurus and the Spirituality Bazaar” which addresses many of the issues I wanted to address.
Jennifer Government
Australian writer Max Barry’s second book, “Jennifer Government” is a well-crafted light satire. It could be called speculative fiction or science fiction. It’s set in a dystopian near-future in which governments have been downsized and government functions privatized. People take the name of their employer as their surname – Hack Nike, John Nike, Billy NRA, Jennifer Government. Profits rule. Employees are dehumanized and brutalized. There is no respect for quality in work and art – it’s a bottom line world, catering to whims of the consumer.
The story starts when Hack Nike, a low level Merchandising agent, is hired by John Nike, the Vice-President of Guerilla Marketing to kill 10 teenagers to give a new product street credibility. He goes to the police who offer to subcontract for him. The story takes off from there. Kids are killed, and Jennifer Government investigates the case. There is a heartbreaking scene early in the book in which she has to ask parents of a victim to fund the investigation. It becomes personal when she discovers the link to John Nike, whom she knew before her career in government.
The dialogue is snappy, the plot lines are tight and well connected. There are moments of ironic dialogue, some absurd comical scenes and a budding romance to carry the story over its dark premises. It’s worth reading for enjoyment, and for the satirical commentary on where modern neo-conservatives might take us if they had their way with government and the economy.
It’s not great literature. The characters are basic and act for simple motives. Character development is largely eschewed in favour of plot movement.
Barry has links on his web page to a number of reviews and news stories about Jennifer Government. In reading his page, we can see posts and newsletters going back well before the book was released. He used the Web to promote himself and the book before it was released. One of his strategies was creating the Nation States on-line game.
It’s hard to say if this book has staying power. It fits into the anti-globalization, anti-corporate movement, and it appeals to people who reject right-wing American politicians. For the time being, it’s topical, enjoyable and mildly provocative.
White Teeth
“White Teeth” was British writer Zadie Smith’s first novel. It was critically acclaimed, it won awards and it was turned into a mini-series on British television. We saw it last winter on PBS – Masterpiece Theater. My daughter was caught by the story and bought the book. In searching Smith in a search engine, I found fan sites, literary sites, and book trade sites which mention her work (see selected links at the end of this post). Some of the sites indicate that she sold the book aon the basis of the outline and first 80 pages.
Smith writes very well. Her characters are well drawn, distinctive, complex people with interesting impulses, feelings and ideas. The characters carry the novel and tell the story. The social and political themes are presented through the stories of the characters.
Chains, Gears and Pedals
As we reach the end of May, we have only been able to wear shorts 4 times. The temperatures have generally stayed under 10 degrees (Celsius). However, we have been riding steadily. We didn’t ride in the evenings during the week of May 10-14 due to a spring blizzard. I passed on one ride this week to make soup and pudding for Claire, who had just had her wisdom teeth out. But otherwise I have been out nearly as much as Mike whose odometer for the year is at 872 kilometers since March 28. Steve, who rides to work and rides at lunch (but can’t ride most evenings in May and June since he is a responsible dad with three kids playing soccer) is at 921 kilometers.
We rode to the gravel quarry in Bird’s Hill on Sunday May 23, and we had the rare excitement of a steady, strong tailwind on the way home. I was riding my Giant Yukon, and the ride exposed a shortcoming of this bike. I found that I did not have the top end gear combinations to keep up with Mike and Steve. I suspect that Mike and Steve have smaller top rear rings – 11 or 12 teeth. Mike clearly has a bigger front ring.
Remembering Sister Jane
Sister Jane’s drop-in Center, Chez Nous, operated in an old bank building at the corner of Main Street and Higgins Avenue. When Jane was sick, the Center was frequently closed. When Jane died, her friends and supporters on the Board of directors of the non-profit corporation were left with a decision to sell the building, or to try to carry on Sister Jane’s work.
They have carried on. Jane’s therapist and friend Vicki Frankel helped the Board to reorganize itself. The Board members trained themselves to work in the drop-in Center, and they found and trained more volunteers. They raised money, and they kept the doors open. The Archdiocese of Winnipeg has been recognizing their work, and Sister Jane’s work in taking collections and publicizing the work of Chez Nous in its internal newsletter in May 2004.
On Sunday May 16, 2004, Chez Nous held an open house to unveil a plaque in memory of Sister Jane. I arrived late and missed the unveiling. The Archbishop of Winnipeg was there, which meant a lot to Jane’s Catholic friends who saw it as supportive of Jane and her calling to work with the poor. I spoke with some of Jane’s friends about how they were handling work with addicts and street people, and how they managed their safety and emotional boundaries with needy and sometimes dangerous people. I looked at the comfortable old furniture, the posters, the pictures of visitors and volunteers. Again, I was moved to realize that while Chez Nous offers little in the way of financial support, it tries to provide a safe respite from the street, with respect and love. I realized again that Sister Jane, from her own pain and confusion, had been true to her calling and true to the Gospel message of loving the poor.
I wasn’t able to stay long because I found myself breaking down into tears. I don’t think it was honest grief for Sister Jane, although I believe that her life and death were painful and sad. It was a more personal grief, of a self-pitying kind.
Jane’s case also marked some turning points in my life. When I met Jane in late 2001 I was a few months past a series of surgical procedures and a diagnosis – incorrect as it happened – of colo-rectal cancer. I had started to go to Church again, after years of skepticism and anger at the Church. I was rejoicing in not having cancer, and in having had an explanation and an end to years of GI tract problems. However, my son was growing away from the family, and my wife was becoming desperately sad about n. and angrily disappointed that I was more skeptical than ever about her favoured spirituality – the New Age. As I worked on Jane’s case, I read about questionable Alternative therapies and human growth movements. Some books and articles directly indicted my wife’s parents, friends and counsellors. For instance Singer and Lalich’s book “Crazy Therapies” had a chapter on Neuro-Linguistic Therapy which was one of my mother-in-law’s strong interests. My wife and her parents did not like my research into cults and quack therapies. My wife became convinced that my negative and skeptical attitude to life was the main cause for our son’s estrangement and rebellion and our daughter’s emotional problems during her childhood and mid-teen years. Eventually she said that I was hurting her by criticizing the New Age, and demanded a divorce.
Visiting Chez Nous this past Sunday brought that sharply and painfully into focus. I don’t blame my decision to take Jane’s case for the changes in my own life. I think working with and for Jane has helped me, then and now, to understand what I believe in, and to accept that life comes with pain and loss.