I’ve never read anything by Neil Gaiman. Does that make me a bad person? People are always recommending his books/graphic novels to me but I just never feel like reading his stuff. Anyway, Gaiman’s American Gods has been made into a Starz TV show, and Gaiman sat down with NY Magazine to discuss the show, his books, his religion, his politics and more. Just FYI: Gaiman is a British author, but he’s lived in America going on two decades. So, he actually knows a lot about America and our politics. I actually sat down and read this whole piece and I really like him now (and I might read one of his books). You can read the whole piece here, but I just wanted to talk about Gaiman’s answer to the question about how the show is relevant to the rise of Trump:
Vulture: American Gods is largely an immigrant story, as well as the story of a nonwhite person traversing a majority-white country. When did you realize that the show was going to take on a weird political significance due to the rise of Trumpism?
Gaiman: It really wasn’t until the latter days of the election. I got a phone call on the day before the election, from The Guardian, saying, “Will you write us an editorial for what’ll happen if Trump wins?” And I said, “No.” [Laughs.] I didn’t want to go there. And I didn’t want to go there mostly because I was terrified it would happen. I have this mad theory about American elections. There is a reality-TV quality to them, in that they tend to go to what people think would probably be the most interesting story. “Who’s more interesting? Who’s a better story? Bob Dole or Bill Clinton? Let’s go for Clinton, it’ll be more interesting!” And there is that point where you’re going, “Okay, so is it Hillary, who still feels kind of like a rerun? Or is it Trump?” Even articulating that as a theory means that people are going to mishear what I’ve said. It will turn into a clickbait headline and people will be going, “You said that Trump was a better story!” No. I think Trump is an out-of-his-depth idiot. Who is possibly criminal. And certainly incompetent. I think that, actually, having a sane and functional right wing is a good thing. Having what we’ve got right now is a bad thing.
When the novel was written, it was written about America as a country of immigrants, of people who either came here of their own free will, or escaped here, or were brought here against their will. And what that meant — talking about the religious traditions and talking about the cultural traditions and talking about what that became. And having a lead character who was racially — and in all other ways — a melting pot. That, when I wrote the novel, didn’t seem to me to be particularly problematic, difficult, or even praiseworthy! Things that I did not think were praiseworthy or sensible included writing about indentured servants and transportation. Writing about the slave trade. Writing about a gay, Muslim salesman encountering a genie who drives a cab in New York.
I wasn’t doing it for the credit. I was doing it because it all feels right if you’re talking about America. Suddenly, Trump came in and now I’m reading articles in Vanity Fair about, “This is the most political stuff you’ve ever seen.” Well, I guess that’s all true, but it’s not like we sat down and went, We are the opposition. We simply started telling our f–king story and then the world changed. It would be like telling a pro-Jewish story in Berlin in the 1930s, and suddenly you’re looking around going, “We’re apparently doing something big and important.”
“I think Trump is an out-of-his-depth idiot. Who is possibly criminal. And certainly incompetent. I think that, actually, having a sane and functional right wing is a good thing. Having what we’ve got right now is a bad thing.” I agree! And I like how he says it, although I would go with “absolutely criminal” rather than “possibly criminal,” although British people are always the masters of understatement. They’ll never say, “That Trump chap, quite an unhinged lunatic.” Also: having a sane and functioning right-wing would be amazing. Too bad it’s not going to happen any time soon.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
