The Gods at Work

12 Works

The institutional register in full: gods embedded in public infrastructure, civic systems, and working life — narrated from inside the institution. Includes the ferry, the chain-up, the strata, the hospital, the legislature, the water source, the airport, the postal walk, and the electrical grid.

1. The Hungry Gods Go to Work
   A Halifax civic-government novella — public works, 311, planning, bylaw — set against a wildfire season and a family opening a bakery. Explicit thesis line: 'what do gods do all day? … they carry the water … it is only not the bread.'
2. The Hungry Gods Go on a Ferry
   A BC Ferries route during an engine breakdown and cascading schedule delay. Uniquely, no epithets are ever used on the page — the gods appear only as unnamed recurring figures. Includes a script-formatted terminal-booth scene and engineering-log documents.
3. The Hungry Gods Go to the Chain-Up
   The Coquihalla Highway during a multi-day winter closure, organized by highway status signage rather than day or seat, with radio-transcript interludes. Epithets are repurposed as literal call signs and roster labels; god presence runs sustained and scene-length.
4. The Hungry Gods Go to IKEA
   A single day at a big-box store; a young couple building a bookcase while hiding a pregnancy. Shortest volume in the catalogue; each of the seven gods gets one dedicated first-person section paired with the human narrative.
5. The Hungry Gods Go to the Hospital
   A BC emergency department across one dawn-to-dawn shift, told from five recurring seats — charge nurse, administrator, paramedic, porters, and an 811 phone line — plus a porter chorus in script form. Overcapacity crisis, a stand-down declared while the numbers get worse, six of the seven gods present.
6. The Hungry Gods Go to the Strata Meetings
   A 16-unit industrial strata corporation over a full year of meetings and a Civil Resolution Tribunal dispute. Uniquely, only five of the seven gods appear — no Companion, no Seeker — and the sole POV is a human owner.
7. The Hungry Gods Go to the Library
   A shared library/rec-centre building over one heat-warning week. The most document-dense volume — board minutes, heat warnings, volunteer logs. Notably, 'the Allfather' is listed by name as a meeting attendee in the board minutes.
8. The Hungry Gods Go to the Legislature
   A provincial legislature from Throne Speech to Royal Assent, narrated by Hansard staff, then facilities and vendor staff underneath the same session. Gods are tracked entirely through institutional paperwork — sign-in registers, duty rosters — rather than description.
9. The Hungry Gods Go to the Source
   The access coordinator for three closed BC watersheds — Capilano, Seymour, Coquitlam — narrates a year of refusals, a nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine-year lease, and the eleven-year phone call that has not changed. The gods appear as contractors, surveyors, and the people who maintain the gates.
10. The Hungry Gods Go to the Airport
    A new director of the Vancouver Airport Authority completes her orientation — eight and a half weeks, five briefings, six operational areas — while the gods move through the terminal as ground crew, access control officers, and ground transportation supervisors. Told from the director's field notes.
11. The Hungry Gods Go Door to Door
    A Canada Post community mailbox conversion, narrated by a letter carrier of twenty-two years and the conversion project officer who approved the site. Two hundred and nine notification cards, one discrepancy on page nine, and the part of the job that was never in the four hundred and seventy-two.
12. The Hungry Gods Go Down the Line
    A regional electrical utility across a full year — capital procurement, outage scheduling, right-of-way arborist work, and a major storm restoration — narrated by the people who keep the system running. The gods appear as crew leads, inspectors, and the Allfather who signs the submission without writing in the comments box.