American Gods

[Aes Sídhe]

American Gods

All this talk of Baba Yaga has reminded me of some great news we got recently of a new TV series planned by HBO, driven by the success of Game of Thrones, which I want to share incase you haven't heard.

Neil Gaimans American Gods is being made, apparently into a six series production from Playtone, and everything i've been hearing about it sounds fantastic, including the fact it is causing Gaiman to write more stories about the well known & the obscure gods of numerous world cultures, and how they might survive in the present.

I suspect many TW forumites are fans of Gaimans mature & complex mythologies, and if you haven't read him yet... check him out !

That book, and his Sandman graphic novel series are amazing works (it was in a Sandman story that I encountered Baba Yaga).

Anyone else hyped for this?

 

[Garrison72]

Awesome. It's a good book.

 

[Kodaemon5924]

Incidentally, most of Gaiman's books are published in Poland in the series "Andrzej Sapkowski presents:"

 

[FoggyFishburne]

Incidentally, most of Gaiman's books are published in Poland in the series "Andrzej Sapkowski presents:" />

Wow that is freakishly coincidental!

Sounds interesting. Haven't read the book myself but if the show ends up being any good, I'll give it a watch.

 

[soldiergeralt]

"...well known & the obscure gods of numerous world cultures, and how they might survive in the present..."

gods aren't real

 

[Aes Sídhe]

gods aren't real

What is?

What we think of as "real" are those things we can perceive, but we can't perceive everything, for instance the very small, or very large, and even those things we can perceive we may misinterpret through ignorance or disbelief, or lack of imagination.

Some people look and see the virgin Mary, others see UFOs or marsh gas.

Gaimans mythos revolves around the idea that a conscious believer can create what they believe in, similar to the concept of Tulpa.

Personally I find this a much more approachable concept than the other way around.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

I wonder who will try to make more decent Witcher film / series? The last attempt didn't work out that well.

By the way, how does it usually work? Film makers need to get a permission from Sapkowski first (I guess the same goes for CDPR)?

 

[volsung]

"...well known & the obscure gods of numerous world cultures, and how they might survive in the present..."

gods aren't real />

You mean people have been fighting, killing and hating each other for ages for no reason!?

but no really, ideas are real. Or else any other thing you perceive through your senses isn't real, since it could be a product of your own mind, or external manipulation.

Sadly, gods are real enough for some people to hate others in their name. If only altruistic ideals were half as real for these people.

 

[chromie92]

"...well known & the obscure gods of numerous world cultures, and how they might survive in the present..."

gods aren't real />

Morpheus...

 

[TheSilver]

I am very glad to hear that HBO is doing American Gods. Any other... what are they actually? A channel? A Film Company? I dunno. Any other Company, and I'd be upset. I trust HBO to make a decent if not good adaption. Maybe even a great one.

I'll have to admit though, I'm kindof a American Gods fanatic. The book has, quite literally, changed my life. Every single time I've read it. Or maybe I just tend to re-read it during times of change. Which is quite appropriate.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

HBO is good at implementation, but really bad at distribution.

 

[GuyNwah]

HBO is good at implementation, but really bad at distribution.

? I'm not sure how 30 million premium-price subscribers in the US, and distribution in 151 other countries, is "really bad at distribution".

Anyway, @The Silver, HBO might be best described as a television network that does original production. But HBO is not producing American Gods; Playtone (also produces Electric City), which is run by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, is producing.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

The bad part - regional limitations, no timely and DRM free delivery and etc. The only way to buy it is to subscribe to a very expensive network. I.e. no way to buy just the series in timely fashion. Even the director of the Games of Thrones admitted it himself: https://twitter.com/glynmoody/status/306692994222915584

David Petrarca: The issue is a distribution system that gets content to viewers legally in a timely manner. People want to pay if made available.

This comic is pretty known: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones

 

[GuyNwah]

Since the object of the game HBO is playing is greatest possible profit, not widest possible distribution, I am still not sure what can be said to be deficient about their operations. If theirs is bad, it could well be said that everybody else's is worse. But that's beside the point. HBO isn't even producing. Tom Hanks's Playtone is. (Playtone also bought the movie rights to The Ocean at the End of the Lane.)

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

They probably have some reasons to limit distribution, thinking that will increase their profits. I'm just commenting on the fact that their distribution is bad for potential buyers of their films. Whether it's good for HBO themselves or not and whether their limitations make any sense in reality is a separate question. Naturally their limitations are a huge incentive for piracy.

 

[GuyNwah]

They probably have some reasons to limit distribution, thinking that will increase their profits. I'm just commenting on the fact that their distribution is bad for potential buyers of their films. Whether it's good for HBO themselves or not and whether their limitations make any sense in reality is a separate question. Naturally their limitations are a huge incentive for piracy.

Yes, they have a big reason to limit distribution. Their principal line of business and their principal distribution channel is premium-priced cable and satellite TV. Putting their products in other distribution while they are still current on TV is undercutting their core market and could just as well be said to be unfair to their subscribers.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Their susbcribers would only welcome lower prices and "pay for what you want" model, rather than "pay a fixed price". And it's not a solid argument that they can't sell their shows without "premium" crazy pricing on cable network and not being able to make profit on that. So I won't call their reason "big". But that's a different and long topic.

 

[Dona.794]

gods aren't real

I highly recommend you read the book, I think you'll like it. It plays with the idea of 'realness' of gods.

This is awesome news! I'm happy and a bit scared because it's one of my favourite books, the kind that one re-reads every few years... and now another re-read is in order, hah.

 

[secondchildren]

"...well known & the obscure gods of numerous world cultures, and how they might survive in the present..."

gods aren't real />

Stick on the topic plz, the rest is totally out context.

 

[Aes Sídhe]

I'm happy and a bit scared because it's one of my favourite books, the kind that one re-reads every few years... and now another re-read is in order, hah.

Its natural to feel a little trepidation when a favoured novel is converted into moving pictures, but in recent times these conversions have been done quite faithfully. Gaiman is fully on board with this although likely not the sole writer for what looks like 60 hours of storytelling. That is much more time than you could possibly fill with the American Gods, Anansi Boys, and the sequel he is apparently currently working on.

The prevailing theory is that we will get back-stories of the various gods set in their heyday to accompany the tale set in modern times, so the series will hopefully expand to give us exemplary tales of the gods who, in the books, aren't always immediately identifiable. Or possibly follow a gods journey from the Old World to the New via a self contained tale of different emigrant nationalities.

I hope this is so, I think that would be a grand style to explore our myths & legends.