URBAN FANTASY
In Anansi Boy, songs are the eternal medium which immortalizes old legends. Fat Charlie's family name, Nancy, is an obvious nod to the Anansi of legend. The original Anansi is a spider god who plays tricks on humans; the character of Spider is no different, as he sees the people around him as ephemeral and, in the case of women, interchangeable.
As an African folktale character, Anansi is less familiar to English audiences than figures such as Zeus and Hercules. Instead of choosing a more familiar subject, Gaiman chose to center the story on Anansi and his descendants, thus forcing uninitiated audiences to adopt at least a rudimentary grasp of the original story.
Urban fantasy is often about humanizing the mythological figures addressed in their stories and reshaping them according to new, industrialized environments. Anansi's death is played out through hospital rooms and funerals; in stages that mortals can relate to. The family dysfunction is a human element that audiences can understand. There's an emphasis on uniting the pedestrian with the fantastic. Anansi, or Mr. Nancy, is an extravagant clown whose unceremonious cause of death causes no end of embarrassment for Charlie.
As an African folktale character, Anansi is less familiar to English audiences than figures such as Zeus and Hercules. Instead of choosing a more familiar subject, Gaiman chose to center the story on Anansi and his descendants, thus forcing uninitiated audiences to adopt at least a rudimentary grasp of the original story.
Urban fantasy is often about humanizing the mythological figures addressed in their stories and reshaping them according to new, industrialized environments. Anansi's death is played out through hospital rooms and funerals; in stages that mortals can relate to. The family dysfunction is a human element that audiences can understand. There's an emphasis on uniting the pedestrian with the fantastic. Anansi, or Mr. Nancy, is an extravagant clown whose unceremonious cause of death causes no end of embarrassment for Charlie.
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