Giants

Q: I heard somewhere that the book is about giants, the tower of Babel, and religion. As a Christian, I come to your book cautiously wondering how I should read it or even if I should. Your previous novel was JESUS BOY which I cautiously read to my surprising pleasure. I am certain you are a good writer and knowledgeable about the bible. Will I understand it?

A: I am rereading your email to see if if I understand the question. Are you saying will you get it? Well, if you are a religious person of any Judeo-Christian faith you are most certainly familiar with the things the book refers to.

What follows is probably going to be used later on in high school and college essays about the book. So me just say--SPLOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

You mentioned giants. I've always had a fascination with mythological giants as well as giants in popular lore and art. Thus, I am offended and much disappointed that Marvel Comics in making the Avengers movie left out one of the originals. Hank Pym. Giant Man. And of course his wife Janet, the Wasp.

In Norse mythology, there were the Jotnar, among them Fafner who I think played an important role in Ragnarok, or twilight of the Gods, a doomsday that saw the deaths of several major gods of the Aesir, such as Thor, Odin, Loki, Baldr, Frigg, and so on. But I'd have to look that up to be sure, which I will do later and come back and edit this post. Oh, and there is the Basque giant Olentzero (who appears in the novel as Olentzlero with that "L" stuck in the middle).

You remember your Greek and Roman myths? You have the Titans that are giants as well as the Gods themselves, though I think the Titans are larger and ironically less powerful and less important as far as cosmology is concerned. Even so, the giant Prometheus gives fire to man and another Titan, Atlas, bears the earth on his shoulders. Then there is the one-eyed Cyclops who is described as a giant but may not be as large as the Titans.

In the bible, you find the Nephilim, who are fallen angels, perhaps, or simply angels, some of whom got their forbidden sexual groove on with the daughters of men (check out Deuteronomy 2:10-11, 2:21, and 3:11 Numbers 13:31-33), which produced offspring who like their pappies before them were enormous in size. From this groove came David's gigantic opponent Goliath (Check the Books of 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles).

I have fun with this in the novel's apocrypha with the giant of giants, the largest giant ever, named Gewargerulf and a regular-sized boy giant named Wiftet (sort of like the biblical David). Their episode is about courage, about faith in the great creator, and about . . . music.

By the way, you may recognize Gewargerulf's father Uulf. He is the book's Samson. The biblical strongman who was brought down for the love a woman.

After the apocrypha, the book ends with a character based on the tallest man that we know of, or rather whose height was documented by modern means, Robert Wadlow. The way his story is told, I hope it will remind you of what I said about the Nephilim.

So yeah, it's a book about giants. Sort of.

I don't think the book will offend you as a Christian.

It will, I hope, make you think about . . .

Heidelbergensis.

About what? Heidelber-what?

Don't ask me. If you want that "A" on your essay, go look it up.

Preston