#gaiman

[dyke-will-graham]

Sometimes I get weird about labeling my gender then I remember Crowley exists and I’m like omg gender doesn’t even fucking matter I can go through life as Crowley would and then I’m fine again

[elspethdixon]

I’ve been deeply disappointed by things I’ve learned about people whose creative work I loved before (MZB, Johnny Depp, Vic Mignona, Sophie from Mars, plus a long list of writers and artists and actors who went off the MAGA deep end or who revealed themselves as homophobes or transphobes or racists or abusers), but the information that’s come put over the past month about Neil Gaiman has been especially distressing because Neil has been present in so many different internal social circles I’ve been on the edges of. It feels more personal than previous discoveries because his creative work and that of people adjacent to him or inspired by him has shaped so much of my adult fannish life. I’m a “death of the author”/“separate the artist from the art” type when it comes to fiction, so unlike many this doesn’t ruin Sandman or American Gods or Good Omens for me, just as MZB’s Sword and Sorceress anthologies and Darkover books remain beloved teenage memories of mine, but I’ll never be able to look at Gaiman’s interactions with fandom in the same way again. No more reblogging his tumblr posts or following his blog or any other parasocial interaction. Not now that I know how he’s treated people in his personal life.

I think this tweet says it best:

That’s the best case scenario, and the actual truth is likely much worse:

[thegaygrimreaper]

y’all, I’ve been sitting on the news abt Neil Gaiman for a few days and I wanted to vent to the void.

I believe the victims. That is a hard rule, I don’t want to say anything that comes off as these women are lying. But all the news has been copy pasted from one article written by a vocal transphobe, poorly summarizing a four episode podcast, on a media site I have never heard of before in my life and was founded by a former BBC head to make ‘slow, fully researched news’ which is not evident in this article. It repeats descriptive phrases, it does not give the full story, and I feel that if it was meant as a summary of a more indepth podcast, it should at least be a full summary. I watched a brief trailer for the podcast (which, in my opinion, is a really weird thing for a media site to push. These are not movies, it is news. Why are we publishing trailers with sensational words and phrases), and that still did not provide what sources they used for research, there are no sources other than a victims name, an extremely general term of ‘New Zealand Police’ what station? What officers? What town? The whole country? And any quote from Gaiman is not “stated” by Gaiman, the writers simply “understand” what his stance is. Did you interview him?

Until someone with actual new information comes in, rather than every news station rephrasing one article over and over again, I am not going to jump on the train of Neil Gaiman being a horrible person. We do not know that. We have gotten no information other than one article from a bigot. I believe the victims, not the news. No one close to Gaiman has even spoken on this, it is simply news repeating each other.

I understand other people are hurt by this, and I get that. But please, do not jump to conclusions when all we have to go on is unsourced research from a Rowling apologist.

Anyway. Please don’t be angry with me, I’m trying to process all of this too. I just want to enjoy my books without feeling like I’ve killed someone.

Feeling crazy, thanks for reading (or not, idk, this was a self soothing method, if anything)

[adinelleggreeo]

I'm honestly surprised that Gaiman isn't being talked about as much on here.

No, actually I'm not. He's on here isn't he? So he probably has a fan mob here as well.

I'm not on Twitter, so I have no idea what's happening there. I found out through a random video popping up on my YouTube.

I'm not surprised tbh. Wasn't he a male feminist? An oxymoron if I ever heard one. A man that truly supports women won't put a label on it, because it's called 'being a decent human being'.

This has me side eyeing other well known/popular white male authors 👀 👀👀👀👀

[ghost-nugget-11]

BILDAD THE SHUHITE!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111!!!!!!!

this was like a 20sec sketch ignore the fact that i did david tennant DIRTY

anyway!

BILDAD! THE SHUHITE!

[thewindowofthesummerhouse]

Carlos Dearmas

[snitling]

Hiiiii I just want to say Edwin was so brave, for real someone told him he was in love with Charles and immediately he was like I have to tell that boy even if it costs me everything, even if I have to do it on the staircase on the way back up from hell, I haven't been so proud since Crowley's hmmm

[unrighteousbooks]

Be Warned: An Impostor is Among Us

I recently finished reading Oliver Darkshire's book Once Upon a Tome. Mr. Darkshire is an antiquarian bookseller at Sotheran's Rare Books in London. While I greatly enjoyed the book, I was deeply disturbed to read this passage:

"Of all the nice letters I've ever received, the ones I hold particularly close to my heart were sent from a mysterious stranger masquerading as the bookshop-owning angel Aziraphale from the novel Good Omens."

I do not understand why Mr. Darkshire describes me as being "from the novel Good Omens," as though I were some sort of fictional character. Setting that aside, however, it is unnerving to realize that a complete stranger is wandering the streets of London, writing letters and pretending to be me.

I can offer no proof, but I believe that the likely suspects can be narrowed down to a very short list.

A few years ago -- well, I suppose it was actually many years ago -- there was a book called History of New York. It was subsequently revealed that the author of this book, one Diedrich Knickerbocker, did not in fact exist. Perhaps "Mr. Knickerbocker" has moved on from creating fictional personas, and is now hijacking the identity of legitimate booksellers such as myself. (Regular readers will recall that I have previously commented on Mr. Knickerbocker: https://www.aziraphale.com/post/143753123162/a-curious-bit-of-satire-in-an-unvisited-corner-of)

Meanwhile, I have also been informed that there is a man named Buster Poindexter who is notorious for falsifying his identity. I have it on good authority that Mr. Poindexter has openly confessed that he is suffering from a personality crisis. It should also be noted that the name "poindexter" is often used to refer to someone who is enamored of books. Coincidence? I think not.

Another likely suspect -- or possibly "suspects," plural -- is a person or persons going by the name Pratchett Gaiman, or possibly Gaiman Pratchett. Again, I have no proof, but I have lost count of the times someone in the shop has asked me about so-and-so Gaiman or such-and-such Pratchett.

Finally, I cannot completely discount the possibility that my friend Crowley might be playing some sort of elaborate prank. He insists that this is not his doing, but it is just the sort of device that he would employ to rile me. He knows that pranks are anathema to me.

[veronica-rich]

It's concerning to see people come blazing out of the gate at fans of someone who's just been reported to be majorly problematic or criminal, or outed themselves as such, with sentiments like "If you're not wholly invested with the victims and shed immediately of that thing you loved, I hope you choke on a dick!" It's not helpful, it's not productive - and it's not realistic.

Even when a fan reads the news and is willing to accept their fave did the thing, it's hard to process. It's like grieving that someone died. You shouldn't expect someone to get over their mom in 24 hours, and you can't expect them to throw away part of their psyche so fast.

At my age I've unfortunately seen a LOT of Regarded People fuck themselves into revilement or obscurity, yet there are times I'm still surprised when news comes out, even if I'm not personally invested in their work. When you see a fan still struggling to come to terms and it's only been hours or a few days, especially, take a breath.

[seapiglet]

lmaoooo not the sentence tacked on at the end. shut the fuck up. please PLEASE shut the fuck up. just keep your self-pitying on discord or in the priv gc or something.

[crowleys-aziraphale]

Sir Terence David John Pratchett, known to all of us as Sir Terry Pratchett. Was an english author, humorist, satirist and novelist. Best known for his work such as good omens, Discworld, night watch and many more. Sir Terry Pratchett was the UK's best- selling author of the 90s.

The good omens series was Sir Terry Pratchett's dying wish to Neil gaiman, he wrote Neil a letter, in the letter he told Neil to make the tv adaptation of good omens. Unfortunately he passed away before he ever got a chance to see it. He will always be part of the good omens series, his hat and scarf is in the show, and so is his spirit.

"If you trust in yourself... and believe in your dreams... and follow your star... you’ll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren’t so lazy"

@neil-gaiman

[luci-the-android]

Did several tumblr users decide to gaslight tumblr today about Gaiman? I saw a screenshot of a tweet or whatever the hell their called now, went to X/Twitter, it doesn't fucking exist. I see a news article screenshot, I go to the news website the screenshot is of, the article doesn't exist. They claim there was a blog post that is now deleted, but again there is only screenshots.

But then again why would anyone on the internet lie?

[how-the-feathers-have-fallen]

shirley gaiman new goncharov of 2024 real not clickbait?

[pademelonluck]

*Sends Neil a weird ask for fun*

*Neil replies*

*Instant regret*

[yoursghouly]

yeaaaah soooo i guess i’ll just be over here for the next few years clinging to the spiked coffee theory like it’s the last lifeboat on the titanic if you need me…