Revelations indeed

[branchandroot]

You know how some authors, especially fantasy authors doing the whole spiritual-magic gig, will bring forward the "all gods are really one god, because uber-god is Goodness/Light/Love/Insert-virtue-here" trope? (Eg. Katherine Kurtz and Mercedes Lackey.) You know what that really reminds me of? That deeply horrifying short story Barbara Hambly wrote for Gaiman's Sandman anthology, "Each Damp Thing". There's just something intensely cannibalistic about the sentiment, especially in the mouth of a member of a culturally imperialist group. It's like syncretism turned inside out--not preserving individual practices, but taking away their weight until they can be waved off as surface trappings.

I've seen the principle argued persuasively in actual theology, notably some branches of Judaism. But the Western literary expression of it generally seems to be all about appropriation and how reincarnation can magically erase ethnic, cultural, and religious boundaries, totally ignoring the implications of actual lived experience and memory in each life.

Comments

[chronolith]

Bypassing the serious discussion of theology because I can't talk about it long and still stay gruntled: i really do want to read a story about cannablistic gods and the only reason the West has one god is because he ran around eating all the others.

[branchandroot]

...That would actually make a fantastic remix of "Each Damp Thing" and also be /extremely/ Gaiman.

[chronolith]

I have never read this short story, but if I get some breathing room I might be tempted to do so.

Honestly, the only reason that Christianity is so all over the place is because 'His' follows ran around 'eating' other cultures. No reason the god shouldn't follow the followers, yes/no?

[adalger]

That would be ... Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett, more or less.

[chronolith]

Yes, but that isn't the West, that's Discworld. And I do know about Terry Pratchett.

What I want is the Judeao-Christian god being the One God only because he ate everyone else. A wee bit darker than Mr. Pratchett generally goes. (Though lord knows he got pretty dark in someways with Night Watch

[adalger]

Ah, you want to see it more literal. American Gods ventures into that territory, darkness and all, but doesn't quite go all the way where you're looking.

Now I have a plot fox. It's skulking along the baseboard, behind the bits and pieces of furniture disassembled for storage, stalking the bunnies and waiting its moment. Soon, like a cannibalistic Judeo-Christian-Muslim God, it will be the One True Plot giving orders to my Muse as its prophet.

[branchandroot]

I love you just for that metaphor.

[love]

Not quite exactly the same thing, but The God Engines by John Scalzi ventures very closely into this territory. He doesn't go so far as to actually say the One God is Judeao-Christian, but there are hints.