Love to see old gods adapting to the times. But bro, when was somebody going to tell me Aphrodite and Nefirtiti had OnlyFans? And they collabed!
More seriously, I love this sort of shit in fiction.
Lots of words about a few books that do this
Douglas Adams’s Long Dark Teatime of the Soul covers (among other things) just how hard it would be for immortal beings to try and survive in modern bureaucracy. Try getting a photo ID, social security card, passport, etc when you have no birth certificate. Then try getting a job, bank account, etc. He uses it as the most fun twist on homelessness I’ve seen, which is to say it’s still quite emotionally dark, but sometimes they turn into an eagle or destroy something with lightning.
If you can pirate it or buy it used, and can put aside the author’s transgressions, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is an interesting one as well. Lots of different takes on how different gods have and haven’t adapted to modern life.
My favorite though is probably Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series. MC is intentionally kind of a chauvinist, out of trying to protect women due to past trauma of thinking he’s responsible for the death of his first love, so you do have to put up with that.
But back to the point it treats godhood as a sort of mantle that can be taken up by carefully embodiment of what the particular role stands for. And if you are made into a god through other means, the mantle will generally change you to be more like the role over time for better or worse, unless you have a strong enough will to change what people think the title represents by your own actions.
Plus, a lot of these “roles” are actually being covered by the same people. It’s not entirely clear if they’ve always been three different gods/mythological figures, if they took up the job over time as a power play, or took it to keep the balance of things.
The rulers of the Winter Court of the Fae are also the Greek fates, Odin runs a security company employing all of the creatures that he rules over. He also moonlights as Santa, and the leader of the Fae’s Wild Hunt. The first “classic” transforming and blood sucking vampire was originally an Aztec god.
Yep! In fact I might be mixing up some of Tea Time of the Soul with it. Been quite a while since I read either of them. I’m due for a re-read of Adams (both Hitchhikers Guide and Dirk Gently), plus the “professionally made fan sequel” of And Another Thing.
Love to see old gods adapting to the times. But bro, when was somebody going to tell me Aphrodite and Nefirtiti had OnlyFans? And they collabed!
More seriously, I love this sort of shit in fiction.
Lots of words about a few books that do this
Douglas Adams’s Long Dark Teatime of the Soul covers (among other things) just how hard it would be for immortal beings to try and survive in modern bureaucracy. Try getting a photo ID, social security card, passport, etc when you have no birth certificate. Then try getting a job, bank account, etc. He uses it as the most fun twist on homelessness I’ve seen, which is to say it’s still quite emotionally dark, but sometimes they turn into an eagle or destroy something with lightning.
If you can pirate it or buy it used, and can put aside the author’s transgressions, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is an interesting one as well. Lots of different takes on how different gods have and haven’t adapted to modern life.
My favorite though is probably Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series. MC is intentionally kind of a chauvinist, out of trying to protect women due to past trauma of thinking he’s responsible for the death of his first love, so you do have to put up with that.
Have you read And Another Thing? It doesn’t live up to Douglas Adams but it’s not bad and old gods adapting to the times is a major theme.
Yep! In fact I might be mixing up some of Tea Time of the Soul with it. Been quite a while since I read either of them. I’m due for a re-read of Adams (both Hitchhikers Guide and Dirk Gently), plus the “professionally made fan sequel” of And Another Thing.
Reminder for people to check the rules.
No Atenism in chat.