No, said Aziraphale, it's ineffable.

underwaterporcupines asked:

Mr Gaiman, why do you mention breasts so much in American Gods? it's like, once per chapter. that might be an exaggeration but that is how it feels as a reader who is very aware of each breast mention. was it a dare??

neil-gaiman answered:

I just did a word search – the word breasts gets used 14 times in the 200,000 words of American Gods, but that total includes chicken breasts, window mannequins, and an extract from the Song of Songs in the Bible. I hope this helps.

The fifteenth word of American Gods is “fuck”, which is to help inform readers of a nervous disposition that they can stop reading there, or at least by the end of the extremely peculiar sex scene that closes Chapter 1. (I figure anyone who goes onto Chapter 2 can cope with breasts, even the ones that aren’t chicken.)

vintageandroid

RELEVANT STORY TIME

I went to a conservative Christian university (partly because I was an Evangelical-raised teenager who wanted to learn more about the Bible, and partly because I was trying to make everyone around me happy) and about halfway through, I was thoroughly disenchanted, no longer believed in Christianity, etc. I also had sunk too many non-transferrable credits in this stupid college, so I stayed and faked it (because you literally had to sign a thing that you believed in Jesus or you might get your ass kicked out) for a few more years.

Chapel was required every weekday, with something like 14 skips allowed per semester (and I think more if you were a commuter student). It mostly consisted of speakers trying to enforce a "Christian worldview," i.e. "make sure you vote Republican like Jesus wants!" occasionally interrupted by worship music. In the last couple years I just sat in the back of the auditorium and read whatever books I felt like; I started actually finding it kind of relaxing. Anyway, one time chapel was more full than usual, so though I sat in the back, there was some dude sitting nearby.

I happened to be reading American Gods.

Specifically, I happened to be reading the weirdest sex scene ever put to paper.

To this day, I don't know if the guy was looking over my shoulder and reading about Bilquis literally eating a dude with her vagina, or if he just objected to the title implying that there were other gods and also that I was reading in chapel, but this guy (my age) actually stopped me on my way out and said, in a very serious, paternalistic way, "Do you really think that what you're reading is edifying to God? Are you reading things that bring your heart closer to Jesus?"

I'm a shy person by nature, and extremely non-confrontational, and back in my early twenties I was far worse. But at this point I was depressed, burnt out, hated where I was, and hated everything about this guy who I'd never met but felt I needed his spiritual guidance, so I looked him dead in the eye and said, "I don't see any problem with it" and left. For all I know he is still standing here, 12 years later.

Anyway yeah so I read American Gods in my super conservative chapel sessions and I am grateful for every mention of breasts, labia, "fuck," and everything else that got me away from that shit.

Also I'm a queer polyamorous pagan liberal who writes about sex for a living so I mean maybe he was right but I'm still grateful.