Tiger Stories versus Anansi Stories

[liralen]

I read Anansi Boys last night. I feel more myself, as I stayed up until nearly 2 am to do so. *grin* A bit of sleep dep mixed with caffeine and sugar and *wham* I'm back to really being Liralen again.

But the distinction between Tiger stories and Spider stories made me blink a bit and think a bit. Back when I was doing VLSI contracting, I created a business for myself called "The Curious Spider". Back in the days when I knew Dog and Gator, I tried, very hard, to be a Tiger, but it never quite felt right. They tried calling me Mouse, but I'd have to go back another step to my Chinese Astrology and think more about Rabbit. Brier Rabbit is very much related to Anansi. Sometimes too clever for his own good, but never mean or truly *bad*.

And I remember when Jet was born a Snake (or, in some versions, a Cat), thinking that, perhaps, a pair of old, experienced Rabbits (John is one, too) were going to be smart enough to just deal with a Snake. Not antagonize it, not be terrified of it, but teach and deal and not get hurt.

Anyway... I'd rather tell Anansi stories (where thought and imagination can end well for everyone) than Tiger (where it's just blood and ruin all around) stories, and, perhaps that was always why I loved Carl's and much of the Hordes' games so much. You had to really think and choose in his games, you couldn't just hack your way out, it wasn't about power or despair, it often was about cleverness and will and sometimes turning enemies into friends, or vice versa for a laugh. Turning Model 66 on its head was like that. And why I like being with John, as with John there's *always* a way. Something for me to ruminate on.

Comments

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

That one is one the list to buy as soon as it comes out in mass-market. I was underwhelmed by American Gods, so I was reluctant to risk Anansi Boys in hardcover.

How was it?

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I borrowed it from the library for those very reasons.

It is not Gaiman's best work by far. It's good, I enjoyed it. And while I was struck by the way he deliniated why Anansi got all the stories and why it was a good thing, the story itself was... thin...

It's in the same world as American Gods, but only, kind of, follows Mr. Nancy.

It has a few good images, a few striking phrases. A couple of interesting characters, and a path of tranformation, but some of the steps were murky. It had a good dose of the right kind of terror and courage; but almost the whole first half was... well... embarrassing, and a great rendition of the embarrassment some children feel for their parents. *grin* I kept having to put the book down during that part of it, though.

I don't think I'll buy it.

I may borrow it again, though.

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah; libraries exist. I sometimes forget, because my house practically is a library :)

Actually, I think I have some kind of mild obsessive-compulsive thing where I have a hard time with the concept of books that I don't get to keep -- because, you know, some night at 3:00 AM I may suddenly want to re-read part of that book, and if it isn't on my shelves what would I do then?

But I know what you mean about "thin." When I saw the first trailer for Mirrormask, and it had the names "Neil Gaiman" and "Jim Henson Workshop" on the same movie, the fan lobe of my brain had some kind of overload seizure. But then when I finally saw it... it was fun, sure, it had lots of spiffy visuals and the story had some interesting concepts; but it wasn't the work of sublime genius that I'd been hoping for. It felt thin in what I suspect is the same way you're talking about.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yes.

It's hard to do what he did in Sandman. *grin* Because, back then, he hadn't done it yet.

[palinade.livejournal.com]

I'm tired of Gaiman's passive protagonists. And the plot had a sort of, "Ho Hum, now that's all neat and tidied, let's go have a nice cupa."

His books are well-written and quite NICE, but they no longer carry an edge. It's as if all the neat stuff that was in Sandman, all those provocative scenes and unasked questions never made it out of the comic series. It's disappointing.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Good point!

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

...and yet, after saying all of that, I picked up the hardcover of Fragile Things on the way home.

The hobgoblin of little minds, and all that.

Actually, though, I trust Gaiman a lot more as a short story author than as a novelist; it seems to me that he tends to work better in a smaller space.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grin*

I was thinking more about this last night... and while I think Gaiman has lost the ability to *shock* me, I'm okay with that. I never loved the horror aspects and I've got a much deeper reader experience as well due to lots of other authors.

I've always loved his active female characters and his take on magic and not using it as the easy way out of trouble.

I think the thing that's been lost, however, with some of the fringe items has been the "Unexpected Choice". Choices like handing the keys of Hell over to the angels... like the woman whom he had tortured for 1000 years not only forgiving him but pitying Dream... like...

Those kinds of unexpected choices aren't in the novels. I think that's what makes them thinner for me, the choices the characters make (not all of which are passive) are far more obvious to me.

But, as you say, he hasn't totally lost my trust, at least of bringing me to new ways of thinking.