I found it interesting that the story was based on the Anansi stories. I remember seeing a play and reading stories about Anansi when I was in elementary school, but it wasn't something I had thought about since then, so as I was reading Anansi Boys, it slowly came back to me. The story of the book is based on the Anansi stories, fables about a prankster spider/god in Africa who played tricks on the other animals. Anansi is represented as Fat Charlie's dad. When their father dies, Fat Charlie and Spider come together and craziness ensues. Spider is also a god, so basically he is super cool and can do some amount of magic. He is really good at picking up studs, whereas Fat Charlie is as hopeless as a leftover piece of blubber when it comes to picking up studs. The worst happens when Spider, posing as Charlie, manages to have sex with Fat Charlie's fiancé, who was previously a virgin who kept insisting to Fat Charlie that she wanted to wait until marriage. Spider again posed as Fat Charlie when he went to work in his place, and was again completely convincing, which shows his power. As the story goes on, the ties to the original fables get stronger. Bird Woman is after Spider, and eventually gives him to Tiger, who cuts out Spider's tongue, and Charlie has to negotiate with Bird Woman in a very supernatural, mystical landscape. Even though I could see that the story was based heavily on the old Anansi stories, it didn't really hurt my experience reading the book that I am not really well-versed on those stories at this point because here and there they were retold throughout Anansi Boys.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
The Reinvention of Myth in Anansi Boys
I was able to find a few people on Youtube who put up the audiobook of Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, so that was nice. I was happy to see that this was basically Neil Gaiman week because I had been meaning to read a book by him for a while now, and finally I had a good excuse to do so! Over the summer, I'd also started Stardust and I really liked it, but I didn't have time to finish it... maybe someday. I also remember when Neil Gaiman came to our school during the spring of my freshman year and read some of his work. I really liked it, which is what initially made me want to read more of his stories. I really like him because he seems like a really smart person who has a great mind for fantasy and creativity, plus a true understanding of humanity. So obviously I really enjoyed Anansi Boys... I could relate to Fat Charlie because Fat Charlie is like super uptight and awkward and bad in social situations, and sadly I am very similar. However, I think my favorite character was Daisy. It seemed like whenever they were together, interesting/funny things happened and cute dialogue ensued. She kind of reminds me of Lucy from Despicable Me 2 because they unsuccessfully try to be kind of badass authority figures and are both super lovable. I liked the little injections of humor in the story. They were really funny to me. They seemed like British humor, which makes sense I guess since Neil is English. It helped that the guy doing the recording for the audiobook did great voices for the characters.
I found it interesting that the story was based on the Anansi stories. I remember seeing a play and reading stories about Anansi when I was in elementary school, but it wasn't something I had thought about since then, so as I was reading Anansi Boys, it slowly came back to me. The story of the book is based on the Anansi stories, fables about a prankster spider/god in Africa who played tricks on the other animals. Anansi is represented as Fat Charlie's dad. When their father dies, Fat Charlie and Spider come together and craziness ensues. Spider is also a god, so basically he is super cool and can do some amount of magic. He is really good at picking up studs, whereas Fat Charlie is as hopeless as a leftover piece of blubber when it comes to picking up studs. The worst happens when Spider, posing as Charlie, manages to have sex with Fat Charlie's fiancé, who was previously a virgin who kept insisting to Fat Charlie that she wanted to wait until marriage. Spider again posed as Fat Charlie when he went to work in his place, and was again completely convincing, which shows his power. As the story goes on, the ties to the original fables get stronger. Bird Woman is after Spider, and eventually gives him to Tiger, who cuts out Spider's tongue, and Charlie has to negotiate with Bird Woman in a very supernatural, mystical landscape. Even though I could see that the story was based heavily on the old Anansi stories, it didn't really hurt my experience reading the book that I am not really well-versed on those stories at this point because here and there they were retold throughout Anansi Boys.
I found it interesting that the story was based on the Anansi stories. I remember seeing a play and reading stories about Anansi when I was in elementary school, but it wasn't something I had thought about since then, so as I was reading Anansi Boys, it slowly came back to me. The story of the book is based on the Anansi stories, fables about a prankster spider/god in Africa who played tricks on the other animals. Anansi is represented as Fat Charlie's dad. When their father dies, Fat Charlie and Spider come together and craziness ensues. Spider is also a god, so basically he is super cool and can do some amount of magic. He is really good at picking up studs, whereas Fat Charlie is as hopeless as a leftover piece of blubber when it comes to picking up studs. The worst happens when Spider, posing as Charlie, manages to have sex with Fat Charlie's fiancé, who was previously a virgin who kept insisting to Fat Charlie that she wanted to wait until marriage. Spider again posed as Fat Charlie when he went to work in his place, and was again completely convincing, which shows his power. As the story goes on, the ties to the original fables get stronger. Bird Woman is after Spider, and eventually gives him to Tiger, who cuts out Spider's tongue, and Charlie has to negotiate with Bird Woman in a very supernatural, mystical landscape. Even though I could see that the story was based heavily on the old Anansi stories, it didn't really hurt my experience reading the book that I am not really well-versed on those stories at this point because here and there they were retold throughout Anansi Boys.
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ReplyDeleteI also listened to the audiobook, it was such an infectious story. I especially enjoyed it when the narrator gave all the character a unique voice. He did a great job at interpreting each person so the listener had a good idea of where they came from and who was talking. Also you did a great job summarizing such an intricate story, so if someone had never read the book they would have a good idea of what it was about.
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