Neil Gaiman answers Twitter's mythology questions

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Originally published at: Neil Gaiman answers Twitter's mythology questions | Boing Boing

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This is cute and all, but I get the feeling that no one told them Neil already does this on Tumblr.

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Does he answer questions about mythologies from African countries, or anywhere in Asia? Or just the mythologies that white men care about?

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yes, considering he does write on both Asian and African myths in his work… Anansi is a character in American Gods (and a couple of other African Gods) and fits into Anasi’s boys. :woman_shrugging: I believe one of the questions here is about Anansi.

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:sweat_smile: That’s good to hear. Gaiman seems like a good apple but I got worried by the screenshots talking about Vikings and such. Those are dog whistles these days.

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I’m sure he’s like the rest of us, and not perfect, but I think he’s always tried to be representative in his works. I mean, it’s still clear he’s a British chap (and of course, he does pull from northern European myths quite a bit), but I think that having lost relatives to the holocaust likely shaped him and the topics he wants to tackle in his work, and who he wants to represent. I’d think that working with Terry Pratchett for as long as he did also helped.

I watched this a couple of weeks back, and it’s worth the time. He knows his mythologies.

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One of my very favorite Sandman stories from the comics was about the rich legends of Baghdad.

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You may be interested to hear that one of the questions was “Wasn’t Loki genderfluid?”, and the answer was “Loki was really fucking genderfluid.”

The “I want my sonnenrad” “Viking” stans aren’t going to be hugely pleased by that answer.

(For extra points, which I don’t think Neil goes into, Odin was also genderfluid: at one point in the Eddas, Odin says that he’s mastered all forms of magic. All forms of magic, including Seiðr, which is so strongly associated with femininity that it was basically understood that you almost have to be a woman to practice it. Casually accusing a man of seiðmaðr was not something you did without repercussion.)

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