Not Anonymous

Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" is being adapted to Television.

I find the fact that Supernatural's Eric Kripke has his thumb in this pie, distressing. Mainly because I find Supernatural to be derivative in the most unoriginal way, the writing horrendous and the gore not particularly entertaining.
Also the fact that it bleeds into other fandoms via crossovers in such a chronic way very irritating.

Let it be known, I'm not judging anyone who likes Supernatual (Hello, Torchwood fan!) but the actual show is just vomitous.

So anyone involved with that show touching anything to do with Sandman is very upsetting.

Of course at this point there is nothing but this announcement as far as I'm aware, so it would appear that there isn't even a proper pitch.
Still...

In the words of the Interwebs: Do Not Want.

Sandman in many ways was what got me to be a critical thinker. To doubt the world around me, note not reality, but the way the world is constructed. Mainly, how the world is narrative. It helped that the story itself is layered, multi functional as both text and image and the lines blurring between Morpheus' arc and the rest of players is really gorgeous.
Dream may have been the Sun of the solar system of Sandman, but everyone else was also a planet.

I like that metaphor.

Sandman also helped me, over reading it over and over for ten years, to rid myself of the idea that I needed to believe in a power greater than the story. Because even though I kept on trying to have faith in various and sundry gods, powers that be and even that good ole' time religion which believes that Earth and the Universe is a Libra eventually coming to the conclusion that myths of god, are just stories about people.

It's a great comfort of mine.

In relation to that, I don't remember my dreams, sometimes, very rarely, I'll remember a feeling I dreamt, but the actual plots I live through in my subconscious mind are locked away and put forth in the snippets of scenes I write and the characters who talk to me when I'm awake.
I think, much like Watchmen, that there are some stories that can't be translated into a different medium without losing something that made the original story an important turning point in that medium. Because while Watchmen the movie was terrible (except for the opening credits, which was absolute movie making genius!) the comic was a punch in the gut of everything that had come before it.
Samndman is seminal because it crosses genres, breaks them, talks about them consciously and is (was) presumptuous enough to talk about human nature without being condescending.

I fear that Sandman, should a television adaptation actually happen, will be dumbed down to suit the palate of what ever demographic television show makers think actually watch television.

And so I ask... for the love of all that I hold dear, why?

Here, have a song.
Day 6: Your favorite band.
Allow me to be completely cliché and give you…
"Norwegian Wood" by the Beatles!


( The Days )

I am an admirer of those who use words. Those who convey a world Next Door as though I can walk by it and know I just need to reach out and be there.

Neil Gaiman is one of those word-smiths.

I don't want to rehash the incident, which you can read about here, as context is important and should be known, but for the benefit of those who haven't been in the conversation: ( See me rehash )

Now, my thoughts.

The biggest problem, beyond the obvious of Gaiman's Tweets (which is just a ghastly thing to do), is the implication of Gaiman's comment on Reese's blog post in which he apologised for his response in 2008 and continued to put his foot in his mouth by flippantly saying sorry to the Vikings and Norwegians who he may have misrepresented in the comment.

It is humour politics done very badly.

It is also a very Euro-centric mode of thought, that until the America's were settled by white people there wasn't anything there.

I myself am guilty of such thought, it's a white privilege thing (and not living in the North American continent thing as well, for some).

"A few dead Indians" is a bad turn of phrase. Very, in fact.
I ponder if Gaiman would ever make a Holocaust joke of a similar ilk, but then the only people I've ever heard make Holocaust jokes are Israeli Jews and not other kinds of Jews.

Sorry, derailing. It is however, the power of the joke. The notion that the issue is not important enough for anything other than a laugh. Historical narrative is complicated in what it includes, more so in what it excludes.

When I hear talk of America, my automatic knee-jerk thought is Discovery and not Invasion. This is because I am indoctrinated, period.

When I think of Gaiman and his treatment of America, I think of American Gods, in which he had a PoC (who I always thought was mixed race black/white, but later realised was native/white) protagonist who uses a name that is descriptive and not literal, in which the bloody history of American "immigration" (From the First Nations who cross the Bering Straight to the kidnapped Tribes from Western Africa to the Impoverished Farmers of Eastern Europe. And of course, his beloved Vikings) is detailed in the "interval" chapters found throughout the book between moments of the main plot.
The book is conceptually problematic in the way Spirit of America (The Buffalo Man IIRC) is framed, but I would argue that it's about the defeat of that spirit by the invading colonialist religions than anything else.
Sorta, a large point of the book is that the land itself is no good for the colonising gods, hence... the whole plot of the book.

It is Eurocentric, it's also self-indulgent in a way that managed to speak to a great many people who like the philosophy that Gaiman presents in his work overall.

Problematic yes, bad in and of itself, I don't think so.

Still, Gaiman uses his privilege as a famous author, as someone known to have a dry sense of humour and as a writer who has been known to write the Other to deflect this necessary criticism.

This is not about his knee-jerk reaction to the aforementioned posts regarding what he said in interviews, but regarding what he said about American history.

Writing this is difficult for me, you see I'm a fan. A huge fan. A fan who *squeed* quite a lot when I met him four years ago and I still admire his writing. Even when I heard about the premise of The Graveyard Book which is conceptually based on Kipling's The Jungle Book, I ate up the critique because I love being informed and thought that what Gaiman did in The Graveyard Book was truly brilliant - intertextuality is a kink of mine.

I also think it's important to know where authors and creators fall short. And it this instance, it is Gaiman.

It's disappointing and still... I feel a loyalty towards him. His work has inspired me, changed my way of thinking and is one of the reasons I managed to think about religion and faith more critically and in a way that satisfied me both intellectually and emotionally.
Meeting Neil was one of the best moments of my short life.

I always considered Neil Gaiman to be one of those authors who got things right, who wrote the world with a certain Truth. It is a talent that has garnered him great acclaim and fame. It helps that he himself is a pretty funny guy, self-deprecating but arrogant at the same time, a dry sense if humour that belies the notions of superiority he has about himself.

I always liked that kind of humour, it's uniquely British and makes me nostalgic about Black Adder, French and Saunders and P.G Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster (just to name a few, I could go on).
(Dear god, yes I know of the problematic dynamics in these programmes... I'm an Anglophile and everything that suggests. *sigh*).

But this is a fail and as a loyal and adoring fan I have to take this into account. I have to look at the works of this author, his words on and off the page and wonder, how is it that mainstream historical narrative (i.e. racist and elite oriented) is so pervasive that a the notion of genocide that continues to this day is viewed as nothing more than a cavalier utterance? That those deaths continue to haunt America and that the death of a Nation is an absence felt all the time, not only by those who survived the killings but by the cultural and narrative vacuum of that death.

Genocide lingers, either as an traumatic imprint or as the absence that I mention. There is more to this than "a few dead Indians" and European tombstones.

Oh, Neil...

I'll be paying attention to this. I may write some more.

Ever!!!!

Neil Gaiman to write Batman and DC's Dan DiDio is talking about it.

My brain has imploded.

There isn't anything else that I can say that can be remotely coherent to the awesomeness of Neil Gaiman back in comics and he's going to write freakin' Batman.

It really, really doesn't get any better than this.

I. Want. These.
Now!
( Fangrrl Squeee! )

Wouldn't you want something like that on your book shelf!

First sight of them here.

I found this little tidbit.

Lego Endless.

Thought I'd share with all of you.

I'm just finding the cutest things lately, I wonder if it's an omen for something... shouldn't be so negative, but then again, an Omen always seemed like such a funny thing to me.

In addition, the genocide in Darfur must be stopped.

וכמו כן, צריך לעצור את רצח העם בדרפור.

Via antongarou.

Neil Gaiman, as most of his fans know, has in recent years been quite a contributer to the movie industry. He wrote the script for "MirrorMask", "Beowulf" and "Stardust", the latter will be airing in cinemas quite soon and "Beowulf" is scheduled for the Christmas season.
It is also known, that is his fans know, that he directed a short film called, ha ha, "A Short Film About John Bolton" (personally I've never seen it and am not that interested in it).

But I just read that he will be directing a full length feature film about his most loved characters.

Death.

Beautiful, Siouxsie Sioux look alike, Ankh wearing, sweet, friendly and comforting Death.

May I just say: *SQUEEEE!!!!!*

Lalalalalalalalalalalalalala!

Okay.
I'm done.

In addition, the genocide in Darfur must be stopped.

וכמו כן, צריך לעצור את רצח העם בדרפור.

Neil Gaiman found this and I'm spreading it around, watch it, agree and spread it around and if you want to sing in Finnish, just remember, even the Fins think their language is hard!

Wired magazine put out a six word short story challenge to writers with excellent results.

Here are my ( favourites )

And my one ( least )
I mean really man, that was totally written before!

And of course, my own little ( attempts )

What a fun little exercise.

And one from my ( Mother )

One of my greatest fears is that I am an insufferable person.
That my presence is oberbearing to other people.
I know it isn't so, since I am not that keen on sharing everything with other people and then I end up appearing aloof to a certain degree.

This week I tried very hard... very, very hard not to be an annoying fangirl, I suspect I managaed not to be annoying, since I trust my friends to smack me when I become too annoying, but you never know.
In that respect I only asked Mr. Gaiman for one picture, even though there were more photo ops in later days.
My one picture (eight signed items!) with the Dream King.

( Hanging with the Dream King )

And so it ends.
A week of incredible experience and unsullied fun.
I think the week of Sukkot 2006 will be etched in my memory forever as one of the best so far, I sincerely hope to have more such gratifying experiences.
Neil Gaiman is a wonderfully pleasant and kind hearted man. Today at Comikaza he was practically asleep has he signed books, posters and comics for people.
I told him he inspired me.
He told me he was glad.
He signed more stuff for (eight sighned items by the Man) and I said goodbye.

It was lovely.

I have eight signed items:
#1 Sandman: Season of Mists (his sig with a little picture of Dream
#2 Sandman: A Game of You (his sig with a speech bubble coming out of a figure saying "Melody")
#3 Sandman: The Wake (his sig and "sweet dreams")
#4 Endless Nights (his sig and "Dream"
#5 Black Orchid (his sig with a little flower)
#6 American Gods (his sig and "Believe"
#7 Shogoth's Old Peculiar (the 5000 copies edition one, with his sig and "because Cthulu squeaks - with pictures of tentacles)
And
#8 A poster of "A Study in Emerald" (his sig and "Dream safely")

I am right now very, very happy.