Friday, September 08, 2006

Statement of faith

"I can believe things that are true and I can believe things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen--I believe that people are perfectible, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkledy lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline of good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the Big One comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like the Martians in War of the Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't open the box eventually it'll just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it." She stopped, out of breath.

--Neil Gaiman, "American Gods"

13 comments:

Zan said...

That is a fucking awesome quote. That is all :)

transitorrie said...

One of my favorite books. I love Neil Gaiman ... but I have to say, of all his books, Neverwhere holds the biggest chunk of my heart.

belledame222 said...

I love 'em all, but American Gods is probably #1 so far. although "Coraline" is rather special. and i do love "stardust," although it really was by far the best the first time through.

Toastedsuzy said...

This pleases me.

Especially this: that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't open the box eventually it'll just be two different kinds of dead)

And now I have some more books on my reading list.

TS

Renegade Evolution said...

ah, excellent...

Bimbo said...

I write just like that. In my head.

belledame222 said...

TS, that is one of my favorite bits as well.

transitorrie said...

Coraline was special. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did and I love when that happens. His Sandman graphic novel series was also wonderful.

transitorrie said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
antiprincess said...

His Sandman graphic novel series was also wonderful.

that was him? I loved that!

belledame222 said...

o yes. in fact most people or well a lot seem to get hooked on the comics first, then the books (if at all).

also i just recently got the Mirrormask DVD: great stuff.

yeah, Coraline was, well, i think if i HAD been a child reading it i would've been rather severely haunted. maybe in a good way at the end of the day, but: godDAM that is, well, as one of the reviewers says, "the real thing."

Anonymous said...

Awesome quote, I love Neil Gaiman. I read The Sandman in middle school and was never quite the same.

Alex said...

Hooray for Neil.