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In the book, Shadow's race is supposed to be mixed but you can't tell just by looking what the mix is composed of. One of the guards in prison says, "And what are you? A spic? A gypsy?" To which he replies, "Not that I know of, sir. Maybe." People can't tell if he's Hispanic or Roma, and even Shadow himself doesn't know his own race since he never met his dad. The show is bringing American racism to the forefront by making him explicitly black. I like this choice. If you read the book and thought he was white, it's because he's never described as black and he's the son of Norse god. I always imagined him looking like Joe Manganiello or Dominic Purcell.
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May 3, 2017 01:10
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| # ¿ May 7, 2024 20:31 |
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TV Shadow is more talkative than book Shadow, basically because he has to be. The book gives you so much of what he's thinking about but he never says a word. On TV, Ricky Whittle has to blurt out, "My wife makes great chili!" That was kind of sad. In the book, you get a whole flashback vignette about him trying to duplicate the recipe and failing cause her chili was just so special. Gillian Anderson looks great as Media. Can't wait for that!
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May 3, 2017 01:51
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I felt Anansi's introduction was far more predatory than his personality in the book. It makes sense for Odin to thrive on bloodshed since you sacrifice lives to him in war and on the gallows. But Anansi thrives on songs and dancing and storytelling. It would have made more sense if Anansi the Spider whispered into the slave's ear telling him what to do, and the slave then engineered a bloody uprising using everybody else as his pawns while he manages to escape in a rowboat. Anansi is like Bugs Bunny, a trickster and survivor. I don't think he would have screwed over his own worshiper. He's supposed to encourage cunning. I felt one slave should have made it to shore, bringing his loyalty to Anansi with him. If all the Old Gods demand blood sacrifice, and Technical Boy and Media just want our time and attention, then this narrative is skewed in favor of the New Gods. They are more benign compared to this bloodthirsty version of the Old Gods. In the books, a lot of the old ones were more likable and less parasitic, which made the New Gods seem more sinister. What if this show is Media's propaganda retelling of the book designed to smear the Old Gods? That would be very meta.
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May 12, 2017 03:18
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:If there's one thing Anansi hates more than anything though it's to be confined, trapped and chained. A good chunk of the stories where he's the butt of the joke involve him getting trapped into something and even a few of the ones he's the hero of too. The life of a slave is anathema to Anansi, in his mind he's gifting the believer with a true reward. Death is nothing to a trickster, they do it all the time and are quite good at it. This is a good point. Thanks for explaining it. I was a little put off by how malicious Anansi seemed, but in this interpretation, he's still the good guy since death is freedom. Also the book Anansi Boys goes to show how little he cares about dying himself.
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May 12, 2017 06:22
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I think the fact that everyone here has sacrificed at least ten bucks and countless hours to this forum is proof that goons are firmly in Technical Boy's camp. Participating in a discussion of this show is a tribute to Media and doing it on the Internet is feeding Technical Boy. The New Gods don't need traditional prayers or rituals. Just sitting down to watch a cool TV show is worshiping Media. Being a goon means sacrificing minutes of your life on Technical Boy's altar. No matter how much we condemn the New Gods as characters in a TV show, our actions show that really, we're totally fine with the sacrifice. Are our souls ruined by consuming media and using technology? It seems like the New Gods' demands of humans are pretty reasonable compared to the old school bloody sacrifice.
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May 12, 2017 12:43
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Mr. Wednesday's talk about our collective faith in aviation makes me think there ought to be a New God of Airplanes. Like the Railroad God of the 1800's. He tells Shadow never to take the highways, because that's the territory of a Transportation or Freeway God, maybe it's just the God of Cars. Automobile fatalities are one hell of a vehicle for human sacrifice, so Car God is probably really strong. Think of how car enthusiasts fetishize the latest models, or fawn over classic cars. Lots of blood and money for the Car God. I bet there is a Spectator Sport God, like some NBA/NFL/NHL/NASCAR/WWE hybrid superfan. Maybe he's Media's brother.
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May 13, 2017 02:12
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Toast Museum posted:Am I seeing things, or was Mr. World going into and slightly out of focus during his scene, especially during closeups? That's a nice subtle visual cue that something's off with him. It looked to me like they used image stabilization on him to make his face unnaturally immobile while all of the vibrations and movements of his body cause the screen to jitter instead. It's very subtle. They probably used the tip of his nose or some other part of his face as the tracking point. The only other film I can think of that used this technique is one of the transformation sequences in Ang Lee's Hulk, where the frame is pinned on Eric Bana's pupils and remains locked on his eyes while he moves and writhes and turns into the Hulk.
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May 30, 2017 05:37
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| # ¿ May 7, 2024 20:31 |
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I have to admit that I am another goon that found Lakeside to be my absolute favorite part of the book. I know that's weird, but it's true. It's hard to even explain why. I think maybe it taps into a fantasy of stepping into another life with a new name, no debts, a stack of hundred dollar bills, and no responsibility. I like that Shadow just meets the townsfolk and buys boring old books and reads them because he has literally nothing better to do. He eats pasties and practices his coin tricks in a barren almost totally unfurnished apartment in a Fargo/Twin Peaks kinda town. Reading the Lakeside section fills me with the same cozy feeling as playing Stardew Valley. Or beginning any other kind of sandbox-style RPG where there's no sense of impending doom. In video games, and even media in general, that's kind of rare. There's always some loving crisis lighting a fire under my rear end, so by comparison, it's this relaxing sinking-into-a-bath feeling to be totally free to be bored if you want to be, with no negative consequences.
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Jun 16, 2017 04:31
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