Neil Gaiman works

Well, I think Gaiman is dealing with the "myth" of America, the idea of it. It's been said before, and quite a lot actually, that America is as much, if not more so, an idea and a dream as a nation. Gaiman has tackled that notion in a number of his works before (the difference between the idea of something and the reality of it is one of his favorite themes). And you have to remember, regardless of how any group was (or is) treated or what the government's policy on them was, they kept coming, and most of them that came stayed.

There's not a nation on Earth that hasn't treated SOME group or another like crap. There was a time where it was illegal to be Jewish in England. The Japanese as a culture have a deeply ingrained racism, but they're usually so polite it seldom comes up for visitors (if you want to STAY there, however...). The US gets nailed for this stuff in particular because we're on record as saying we don't want to be this way, even if we frequently are, and we live in an age that documents everything.

Happy birthday!

Thought would be relevant here since Gaiman is a friend/collaborator of Susanna Clarke. There's a tv adaptation being made of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and I've made a thread about it in Live Action Tv, and am updating about castings as I find out about them.

Neil Gaiman is an amazing man. Talented in amazingly diverse areas of arts, he is one of my idols. I love his stuff. All of it.

I tore through The Ocean at the End of the Lane last week and it hurt to finish...while I loved it, it reminded me of the two most bitter notes about our existence - that the magic he creates so effortlessly in his writings isn't real, and how growing up robs our lives of the magical quality we see them with as kids. The Graveyard Book did the same, but not quite as intensely.

So far, I've only read Good Omens (which he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett, and I rather liked their foreward/afterward they did) and I'm reading through American Gods right now.

I don't know if all Gaiman's works are as dark and edgy as American Gods. Maybe it was because I jumped from the relatively light-hearted Good Omens straight into that book, and it shocked me.

Never the less, I am interested in what's going to happen to Shadow, even if I'm starting to develop a distrust/distaste for Mr. Wednesday.

I'm at the part where Shadow uses his pseudonym Mike Ainsel, so... no one spoil it for me.

^His short stories tend to be similar in tone, but some of his other novels such as Anansi Boys, Neverwhere and The Graveyard Book are lighter.

Neverwhere's light? Even with Vandemar and Croup?

Although I suppose there's an odd bit of murder in the "light-hearted" Good Omens, as well.

^Lighter than American Gods, which is pretty heavy!

Is it? It goes to some dark places, but it has its lighter moments too.

That's his style; he writes fairy tales. Proper fairy tales, with all the sex and blood and death. And, in roughly equal measure, the jokes and happy endings.

Snow, Glass, Apples is probably one of the darkest things he's written. That or the bits of The Sandman; Preludes and Nocturnes or The Doll's House.

edited 21st Aug '14 2:28:26 AM by AndrewGPaul

I convinced a friend recently to read How To Talk To Girls At Parties (the first story by Gaiman I ever read, I think, and still one of my favourites). Somehow, the resulting conversation turned into, umm...

"Hey, girl - are you a poem perpetuating the final cultural record of a long-extinct alien race? Because I can't get you out of my head."

edited 2nd Sep '14 2:21:58 PM by Noaqiyeum

I can't really comment beyond yeah I read that too.

Apparently it's being adapted to film!

Sounds interesting.

Recently finally got around to American Gods. It was a bit grosser than I was expecting but pretty cool- I always was fascinated with myths and the nature of America (being American myself). I think Anansi Boys was much more to my taste (it's probably not standard to read Anansi Boys first but I did, so there you have it).

How has everyone been enjoying Sandman: Overture? The first two issues were awesome, I need to figure out what schedule they're exactly releasing the series on though.

I'm not really interested in Sandman prequels. What I want are more stories featuring the new guy that took over from Morpheus As Was.

His name was Daniel. (Is?) I think he's been in some Vertigo or main DC stuff. Or I might just be thinking of JL8.

The prequel is about what Morpheus was doing immediately before the Sandman series, which was implied to have weakened him enough to get caught at the beginning of the series IIRC. So I find it interesting, plus it's Gaiman himself who's writing it.

edited 10th Sep '14 4:24:05 PM by pulpfreebookworm

Yeah, it does have the original writer making it, which is a change from what D.C. did to "The Watchmen" with THOSE prequels. Hmmm.

Just finished American Gods, my first Gaiman book. I find that the plot was straightforward but good, the prose was serviceable, but the themes were the real standout. The interlude chapters in particular were excellent. It could have had better pacing, but the way the mythologies were interwoven was a real pleasure to read.

Now read Anansi Boys. It's better, IMO. Not to say American Gods was bad by any means.

Shadow felt really aimless to me in the first half of the book, but once things got going it was really a pleasure. That and the side characters and plots were a joy.

Yes Shadow is a bit of (well okay a lot of) a Pingball Protagonist, and that bugs some people.

I just finished reading "The Thing About Cassandra"

I find that Anansi Boys really kinda bothers me these days because of Spider. He basically raped Rosie, and everything was fine and she fell in love with him.

I know part of the point of the books was sort of 'old gods don't do things according to modern morality and there's nothing you can do about it', but if I'm supposed to like this guy as a protagonist you could, you know, pay some attention to the fact that he's a rapist.

If I remember rightly, American Gods did kind of address the rapiness of Odin's insta-seduction. So it's not like Gaiman doesn't understand how creepy it is.

edited 25th Sep '14 7:37:27 PM by LoniJay

If I remember right, don't the characters sort of meditate on how it's sort of skeevy that they're okay with it but they kind of just are anyway? Specifically the ex-fiance in question? I might be remembering wrong.

Basically, just imagine Spider as Zeus and the lady as any of the many women he tricked into sex. Or Ganymede. Spider's got that sort of morality, at least at the point that the rape happens. (It was quite a shock as I grew up to realize that when gods abduct mortals for 'marriage' it is often called a rape- the Rape of Persephone, the Rape of Europa, etc. and it put quite a spin on these previously-assumed-to-be-consensual slightly bestial weird sex acts.) Yeah, it sucks that none of the women (or young men) in question ever object to being sexed up presumably without consent (it's not possible to give a "shower of gold" your consent), but that's how the myths go. And this sort of small series of novels heavily relies on the myths.

And truthfully, I never saw Spider as likable in pretty much any way. I'm not much of a believer in the redemption of terrible people so those sorts of plots are lost to me. BUT, I don't think the rape was ever meant to be seen as good or forgivable in any way, but rather a symptom of his 'flawed godly/inhuman morals' that he could 'cure' by becoming his own (human) person instead of just part of Fat Charlie.

I'm with Loni here — it was definitely creepy, and it was not really addressed as much as I'd have expected. I liked the book anyway, but still...

On a different note: so far, I've read American Gods, Neverwhere, Anansi Boys and Stardust (and Good Omens, of course). Which Neil Gaiman book would you suggest next?