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Ask Neil Gaiman
A very special "call for questions" today: Neil Gaiman, author of The Sandman, a series whose long-awaited resurrection was -- not coincidentally -- announced last week. Neil is also winner of the uncoveted Roblimo's favorite book of the 21st Century so far award for American Gods, and a free speech activist who has concentrated -- again, not coincidentally -- on comic book and graphic novel authors' and vendors' freedoms. Please read this interview, listen to this NPR interview, and check other material about Neil before you ask questions, in order to avoid triteness. We'll send 10 of the highest-moderated questions to Neil tomorrow, and post his answers when he gets them back to us.
I thought it was funny that there is an Ask Slashdot with Gaiman, since he is so open and responsive in his journal. I'm glad to see that somebody mentioned it.
Also, Neil used to post a hell of a lot (and maybe still does) on inkwell.vue, the Well's free, open-to-the-public conference. This kind of interaction with one's fans seems extremely rare.
In any case, I'm sure he's tickled to have been asked.
What is this about? American Gods is only 2 years old! I don't think 2 years would radically alter how Neil Gaiman would write his book.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
He's been asked this a lot. The answer was that "Good Omens" was somethign that happened before either of them had really made it. To do a sequel now would involve really high expectations, probably a lot of much to wade through, and they'd both pretty much rather just leave the wonderful "Good Omens" as the result of their collaboration, rather than risk tainting the process in some way.
"You can take our lives, but you can never take our Flerbage!!!!"
Please read "The Sandman Companion," which covers this Frequently Asked Question very, very nicely. It's a wonderful book for anyone who loved the series, containing interviews with Neil Gaiman, the artists who drew the books, and several others along with very insightful essays on the meaning and symbolism behind many of the events in the series.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
I guess you guys don't RTFA:m l
http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/gaiman.ht
Linda Richards: There's been a lot of muttering in the UK press about J.K. Rowling "borrowing" ideas for her Harry Potter books from you. Would you care to comment on that?
Neil Gaiman: Last year, initially The Scotsman newspaper -- being Scottish and J.K. Rowling being Scottish -- and because of the English tendency to try and tear down their idols, they kept trying to build stories which said J.K. Rowling ripped off Neil Gaiman. They kept getting in touch with me and I kept declining to play because I thought it was silly. And then The Daily Mirror in England ran an article about that mad woman who was trying to sue J.K. Rowling over having stolen muggles from her. And they finished off with a line saying [something like]: And Neil Gaiman has accused her of stealing.
Luckily I found this online and I found it the night it came out by pure coincidence and the reporter's e-mail address was at the bottom of the thing so I fired off an e-mail saying: This is not true, I never said this. You are making this up. I got an apologetic e-mail back, but by the time I'd gotten the apologetic e-mail back it was already in The Daily Mail the following morning and it was very obvious that The Daily Mail's research [had] consisted of reading The Daily Mirror. And you're going: journalists are so lazy.
What was it of yours they were accusing her of stealing from you?
Neil Gaiman:My character Tim Hunter from Books of Magic who came out in 1990 was a small dark-haired boy with big round spectacles -- a 12-year-old English boy -- who has the potential to be the most powerful wizard in the world and has a little barn owl.
So there were commonalties, for sure.
Neil Gaiman:Well, yes and as I finally, pissed off, pointed out to an English reviewer who tried to start this again, I said: Look, all of the things that they actually have in common are such incredibly obvious, surface things that, had she actually been stealing, they were the things that would be first to be changed. Change hair color from brown to fair, you lose the glasses, you know: that kind of thing.
Change the owl to a gecko.
Neil Gaiman:Yes. Or to a peregrine falcon. And I said to her that I thought we were both just stealing from T.H. White: very straightforward. But then I saw an online interview with the mad muggles lady where they were asking her about me and they said: what about Neil Gaiman? And she said: Well, he's been gotten to. [Laughs]
By the Harry Potter conspiracy? [Laughs]
Neil Gaiman:I guess, yes.
It's better to burn out than to fade away