Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Buffalo heads
Do you think Gaiman was, in the end, trying to boost Shadow's perception that behind it all, behind the spiritual scene, that there was either a Native American motif or even just an idea that land was the ultimate god? Nature? I think of all the gods Shadow asked about bringing Laura back, and how they indicated there was this central figure/concept/experience he'd need to find the answer to that question.
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3 comments:
Oh, that's very astute, C. I had the sense that the Native American scenes somehow trumped the rest in terms of wisdom. It did feel that there was an implicit superiority to their views, maybe because of an apparent lack of self-interest. As you say, it was more of a force of nature, more like something that defies personification. And it's so fitting for America, whose history has turned into this huge long struggle between the celebration of the land and the subduing of the land.
That's so well put. Exactly. Maybe if the setting of the battle is the land, then it's the land itself that matters.
Everyone else will come and go. They'll have their time and fade into irrelevancy.
And only the law of nature could save Laura, and the answer is, yeah, sorry, those are the rules.
No petty deity to wish the rules away.
I loved this element. When it was revealed that the Buffalo man was The Land, my reaction was, "Yes! Of course!" This felt like a very authentic understanding of what America is beneath the surface.
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