Week 8: Anansi Boys (6)

 

In his novel American Gods, Neil Gaiman asserted the theme that belief was the force that made something true, whether the circumstance really was true or not. In his spin-off novel Anansi Boys, this idea is explored to its extreme. Anansi Boys’ magic system basically amounts to: if you say something with enough authority and confidence that people believe you, you can change the state of reality. The reason most people aren’t changing the state of things as easily as breathing is because most people don’t have enough authority and confidence, because of petty human things like embarrassment. More godly beings like Spider and Mr. Nancy can effortlessly change the world around them, because they don’t easily get embarrassed. Fat Charlie suffers from a tragic case of secondhand embarrassment due to several pranks played on him as a child by his father and his general humanity. This tendency towards embarrassment has led to his life being incredibly pathetic. Through Fat Charlie, Gaiman criticizes embarrassment, and the power it has to ruin the enjoyable parts of someone’s life. Part of living a good life, Gaiman says, is letting yourself look a little bit ridiculous and not minding if people notice. Luckily, he also says that confidence is a simple thing to have, after all, “all you need to wear a hat is attitude.” (Anansi Boys 152) He also says that When Fat Charlie sheds his embarrassment, he becomes a little bit more godly, effortlessly serenading Daisy, singing the song at the beginning of the universe. His newfound confidence enables him to live a good, happy life.