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tephraThose of you that have had the opportunity to chat with me after midnight know I tend to get a bit verbose and rather philosophical. This has, on occasion, lead to conversations continuing over breakfast (or at least coffee) as the sun somehow managed to leap into the sky while no one was looking. Unfortunately, I rarely have the opportunity to bend someone's ear like that these days.
I recently finished reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I must admit, he's not really one of my preferred authors but I do get a taste for his sort of novel from time to time. Neverwhere was entertaining, as was American Gods, and I did at least spend a few moments pondering assorted "deeper philosophical meanings" after reading them both. That's actually quite the feat for any book with me. It's a strange thing, but books generally don't inspire deep thought with me. I don't go looking for subtext. This is probably why my grades in school took a (very slight) dip when when the English class got to poetry.
Anyway, American Gods. It's actually a pretty well covered idea, what happens to gods when people cease to worship them? My interest in the question is to look at it from the other end, what happens when people begin to worship a new god? Does a new belief, given a personality and worship as god, become a god? Is a god created by belief and worship or does that merely sustain a pre-existing entity that now assumes the name of the new god? Which came first, the god or the believer? It's at this point that my ponderings tend to wind down and drift off. This is not a new idea for me and I've already run it down and poked at it for a while. It doesn't hold my interest enough tonight to go into a long ramble on the nature of gods.
So I ponder the nature of reality, something covered a bit in Neverwhere, and American Gods, and The Caverns of Socrates (by Dennis L. McKiernan). Actually, Caverns actually impressed me enough to start recommending it to friends that have shown a tendency to put up with my after midnight ramblings. Beyond asking "what is reality" it also asked "what is a soul" and debated the connection between consciousness and the soul. Reading it made me think of a friend I haven't spoken to for a couple years now, and how we talked about the relationships between the mind, the soul, and reality. I actually did things like turn off the radio and close out some of my chats and mucks to focus my whole attention on what he was saying. It's nice to have to focus on a concept and really think about it. I think too few people take the time to do so. I know I don't do it as much as I would like, and that's probably nowhere near as often as I should.
Well that was a bit of a ramble. And very slipshod and slapdash as well. Ah well, better than the scatter shot rant on how Massachusetts is handling the gay marriage thing. But I'll save that for when I have a real head of steam built up. ;>
I recently finished reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I must admit, he's not really one of my preferred authors but I do get a taste for his sort of novel from time to time. Neverwhere was entertaining, as was American Gods, and I did at least spend a few moments pondering assorted "deeper philosophical meanings" after reading them both. That's actually quite the feat for any book with me. It's a strange thing, but books generally don't inspire deep thought with me. I don't go looking for subtext. This is probably why my grades in school took a (very slight) dip when when the English class got to poetry.
Anyway, American Gods. It's actually a pretty well covered idea, what happens to gods when people cease to worship them? My interest in the question is to look at it from the other end, what happens when people begin to worship a new god? Does a new belief, given a personality and worship as god, become a god? Is a god created by belief and worship or does that merely sustain a pre-existing entity that now assumes the name of the new god? Which came first, the god or the believer? It's at this point that my ponderings tend to wind down and drift off. This is not a new idea for me and I've already run it down and poked at it for a while. It doesn't hold my interest enough tonight to go into a long ramble on the nature of gods.
So I ponder the nature of reality, something covered a bit in Neverwhere, and American Gods, and The Caverns of Socrates (by Dennis L. McKiernan). Actually, Caverns actually impressed me enough to start recommending it to friends that have shown a tendency to put up with my after midnight ramblings. Beyond asking "what is reality" it also asked "what is a soul" and debated the connection between consciousness and the soul. Reading it made me think of a friend I haven't spoken to for a couple years now, and how we talked about the relationships between the mind, the soul, and reality. I actually did things like turn off the radio and close out some of my chats and mucks to focus my whole attention on what he was saying. It's nice to have to focus on a concept and really think about it. I think too few people take the time to do so. I know I don't do it as much as I would like, and that's probably nowhere near as often as I should.
Well that was a bit of a ramble. And very slipshod and slapdash as well. Ah well, better than the scatter shot rant on how Massachusetts is handling the gay marriage thing. But I'll save that for when I have a real head of steam built up. ;>
