The Ownbey Sibling Book Group for Kids Who Can't Read Good and Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too discussion

For to discuss AG

Bout to start reading it tonight, is Sarah done with the SLP?

I think Dwayne Johnson is Shadow...

I didn't know they'd started casting.

They did. In my mind.

I dont know why but I usually picture characters as loose versions of movie stars.

LOL, I do that too, but since HBO is developing this to do a TV series of I wasn't sure if you'd heard something. I can see him as Shadow.

How far are you now? It makes me want t read up on Norse and other mythologies.

On page 85.

starting tonight.

Bud, when you leaving?

Leaving on the 10th

Here are some discussion questions I found. We don't have to use them, but I thought maybe they would provide deeper discussion topics, per Adam's punny suggestion.

Discussion Questions

American Gods contains both the magical and the mundane, a fantastic world of divine beings and bizarre happenings and a world of prisons, rundown roadside attractions, and quaint small towns. How is Gaiman able to bring these worlds together in the novel? How does he manage to make their coexistence believable?

What is the cultural significance of the war between the gods of old and the "new gods of credit card and freeway, of Internet and telephone, of radio and hospital and television, gods of plastic and of beeper and of neon"? In what ways have Americans transferred their devotion from spiritual to material and technological gods? What are the consequences of such a shift?

Gaiman, who now lives in the U.S., is originally from England. How might his perspective as a relative outsider affect his view of America? In what ways can American Gods be read as a satire or critique of American life?

What makes Shadow such a compelling protagonist? What are his most appealing qualities? At what crucial points in the novel does he demonstrate courage, compassion, intelligence, a willingness to sacrifice himself? What does his relationship with Laura reveal about him? What is the significance of his obsession with coin tricks?

What role do dreams play in American Gods? What are some of Shadow's more vivid and unusual dreams? Why does the Buffalo Man tell him in a dream to "believe everything"?

The narrator, discussing how we relate to the suffering of others, writes that "Fiction allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out thorough other eyes. And then in the tale we stop before we die, or we die vicariously and unharmed, and in the world beyond the tale we turn the page and close the book, and we resume our lives." What does American Gods reveal by letting readers see through the eyes of a collection of down-at-heel and nearly forgotten divinities? What vicarious deaths does it allow us to experience?

After shortchanging a waitress, Wednesday tells Shadow that the American people "don't sacrifice rams or bulls to me. They don't send me the souls of killers and slaves, gallows-hung and raven-picked. They made me. They forgot me. Now I take a little back from them. Isn't that fair?" What are the implications of a god like Odin becoming, essentially, a con-man? What is the biggest con he tries to pull off in the novel?

What do the old gods need to stay alive and vital? What means do they use to get what they need? What is Gaiman suggesting about the nature of divinity, sacrifice, and devotion?

Late in the novel, the narrator says that "Religions are, by definition, metaphors.... Religions are places to stand and look and act, vantage points from which to view the world." Would you agree with this assertion? What are the gods in American Gods metaphors for? What is the difference between a world view based on worship, sacrifice, and belief in the divine and a world view based on the accumulation of material wealth and comfort?

Who are some of the more colorful and vividly drawn secondary characters -- human and divine -- in the novel? What do they add to the overall impression of the book? How do they affect Shadow?

What does the novel imply about the reality of life in small-town America? What darker truth lies behind the pleasant idyll of Lakewood, Wisconsin?

At the end of the novel, Shadow thinks to himself: "People believe.... People populate the darkness; with ghosts, with gods, with electrons, with tales. People imagine and people believe: and it is that belief, that rock-solid belief, that makes things happen." Would you agree that what people believe in are largely projections of their own needs and desires? In what ways does the novel itself confirm or refute this idea?

I like these. I will think on them

Kat, how are you coming on AG? I should make some progress here soon.

I'm a little behind you. Around 170 I think. I'll read on it this weekend. I forgot to try and email you and Sarah the next book! Will you be able to receive attachments on the boat?

Yes, james.a.ownbey@uscg.mil
I discovered that my boats morale server has thousands of kindle books on it. So thats good as far as book sharing.

Sweet!

So I am on or around 350. Yall? Did Mal talk to either of you about listing mom on a flight to SD for me around 10JUL?
Thoughts on the book, like it dislike it? I like it. But I'm ready to finish it up.

and yall need to post more stuff on here. I dont have much to do round here, hear?

PS, alaska is pretty.

I like it so far. I've been swamped lately so its been slow going but it should pick up here soon. Why do we need to list ma?

As her birthday present I was going to list her on a flight to San Diego round about the time I was getting back. Mal and I want to go to Neb. when I get home too, so we were going to see if anyone else wanted to go to the fair.

oh! I'm down for NE

Aw, that would be fun! We are going to Mom and Dad's the first week in July but that's all the vacation we're taking this year. When do you get back?

early july

Done BTW.

how is everyone else coming???

Great Odins raven that escallated quickly.

I'm emailing the next books, FINALLY figured out removing the protection. Will be done with AG by EOB tomorrow.

Adam, I'm not sure your Postmaster likes attachments.

Maybe it doesn't like zip files. It took it when I unzipped. So far.

Gone Girl was the problem, I think its too big. Maybe the morale folder has it.

I have to transfer the file with a CD, we arent allowed to plug flash into these computers. But then I'll get on it.

Also how do you remove DRM?

Using a program called Calibre. Google "Calibre Plugins" and then it's like the 2nd link down at apprenticeelf.wordpress.com for the instructions. It didn't work for me just downloading the book to my computer like I was going to transfer it via usb cable to the Kindle, I had to use the Kindle for PC files. I guess they are a different extension type. Warning though, you don't want to do that on a work computer, downloading the plugins also made me download some spammy programs including an AOL search bar, which was annoying. Of course, now I have the spam free plugin, so if you want to download Calibre when you get home I can send the DeDRM plugin to you in an email.

How are you going to get it from a CD to your Kindle?

laptop

sweet. Yea I was going to read count of monte cristo and it told me it was registered to another user, that had never happened before.

And about AG, I liked it. I love all the gods, I wish I had an antiquaited gods info book and could just read about them. The plot of the actual story was less interesting than the back stories of the gods. I liked the story about the African twins.

I also like the notion that America is no place for gods. Our melting pot of a society has done a fairly good job of melting so many colorful and interesting dieties into practically one God whose popularity is waning anyway. I think Gaiman is pretty correct about our worship of new technology, and the transience of those new dieties. If there's one thing I don't like about America it's that lives are too easy and thus terribly dull and unromantic. Back in the day we literally had to fight for survival, and made all these cool gods to pray to and to explain why life was how it is. Now we know why, and how, so we don't need gods; we don't really have to worry about food on the table, so what do we do? We tweet. What a profound age we are in. At least in the renaissance they used their period of enlitenment and relative prosperity to make leaps and bounds in really all aspects of humanity. We make new smart phones. And we cure some disease so that old people get older. That's...about it...
I blame 9/11. I feel like the last ten years have been a waste of America's time. Instead of solving problems and doing, we've been busy chasing our tail all over the world. I started thinking about that because of Austin Powers. I watched it the other day (it was made in '97) and seeing Austin go from the 60's to 97 reminded me how very progressive the 90's were. There was a phrase..."the 90's" as in "what a ignorant/racsist/chauvinist, doesn't he know its...the 90's...". I feel like we've lost that progressive spirit and are in a sort of technology and material worship limbo. And I guess I think on some level religion plays some part in that. Nietzsche talked about how Martin Luther killed the Renaissance, I guess the effects of that linger.
I like Shadow. And still think he's Dwayne Johnson.

Whomp. Adam just got real book club up in here.

We are in the 'information age.' Gods really dont seem to have a place in our society as a whole anymore unless when pitted against eachother. Or when used as means of political gain or oppression (ie: Westboro Baptist or the likes of prop 8)

I like your response, and will respond more deeply after I think on it a bit, but superficially for now I will say that I find people still say "This is 2013!" in a tone of outrage over things like Wilcox Co Ga still having a segregated prom. Or women having to fight for birth control and access to healthcare...again. I think our moral outrage is still there, but we've gotten lazy with it as a whole. You still have some people who will march on the capitol, but it's like 10% of those who RSVPed on Facebook. It's easier to be outraged on the internet than to actually try and change things. Or to write it off with hipster snark all together and just check your privilege by hashtagging #firstworldproblems to bitch about our petty problems. I feel like that went off on a tangent.

2nd-Sarah, that's true too, but it's not just extremists like the WBC...regular churches have gotten far too involved in politics. I've said it before and I will keep saying it, churches should lose their tax exempt status if they keep inserting themselves into the political sector. Churches will also keep losing members, including a lot of our generation, if they don't change their stance on some things (see also, the GOP).

Someone posted this article on Facebook, and I feel like it fits here.

http://bananenplanet.wordpress.com/20...

Sarah wrote: "Whomp. Adam just got real book club up in here.


Yea, I have a lot of time on my hands...

Kat wrote: "Someone posted this article on Facebook, and I feel like it fits here.

http://bananenplanet.wordpress.com/20..."

In a nutshell doesnt really fit, but yep.

so Adams book is next yes?

It sort of fit with the "state of America today" theme. My brain links what it wants, ok?

Yes, Adam's book is next, then Gone Girl, then whatever I pick.

I agree that I liked the Gods backstories better than the main story. AG was weird for me because I liked it, yet was ready to move on for most of it.

I just meant that it was a long ass article. And I felt the same way, I enjoyed it but never was I caught up in the book. And it was a lot of book to n ot be caught up in.

Also only one gillian Flynn book is on the morale network and it isn't gone girl, its Dark Places

I'll try putting it in a zip file when I get home by itself and see if that compresses it enough that your mail server will take it. Alternatly, do you know your Kindle email address? If you have the 3G one I can just email the file to your Kindle.

lol. go ahead and send it, but 3g isn't an option. I'm not allowed to say exactly where we are but look up 60N 170W in google maps. But I may be able to find wifi when I pull into port.