(no subject)

[egypturnash]

Sometimes the Internet leads me to strange places. One thing leads to another.

Some of these things I found today remind me of the central idea of Harlan Ellison's Deathbird Stories - that so many old gods are dead or as good as dead, and that those spaces are being filled by newer gods made from the modern world. It's a concept that stayed in my head ever since I read that nasty, twisty collection of stories somewhere in my early teens. Harlan being the bitter bastard Harlan is, of course, all his new gods were blind, hungry, dark things. ("Rather like corporations," I add snarkily.)

As usual with a handful of Mystick Linkqs, take the content with as many grains of salt or as much experience-grounded belief as you like.

Comments

[silverblue.livejournal.com]

And THAT reminds me of American Gods...

I have a 100,000 word novel that still isn't finished because I read American Gods at the end and realised everyone would think I'd copied Neil Gaiman :/

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Except for the people who already think that American Gods is a pale shadow of Roger Zelazny's stuff.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

... so many old gods are dead or as good as dead, and that those spaces are being filled by newer gods made from the modern world.

When Walt Simonson was wrapping up his brilliant run on Orion, he asserted that this was exactly what Jack Kirby's New Gods were. Jack hinted at this in some of his text piece, but he never came right out and had one of his characters say it.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember that Jack hinted PRETTY STRONGLY at this kind of ORIGIN of the NEW GODS as the series WOUND ON! Of course, the NEW GODS had to INTERACT with the rest of the MIGHTY MARVEL UNIVERSE, and became somewhat DOWNGRADED to the status of mere SUPERBEINGS among many OTHER SUPERBEINGS over TIME.

Come to think of it, this theme wound through a lot of what Kirby did once he quit working with other people's narratives. He drew a lot of revised gods. I suspect there is, at the very least, a good article for the Kirby Collector in comparing his 'official' religious affiliation with the pantheons he created...