A Few Words on Fandom From Mr. Gaiman
I have to say, as evil as Neil Gaiman may be behind closed doors, in public and online he is a very gracious and dutiful man when it comes to his fans. Always respectful and even, may I say it, downright friendly. He even, sometimes, goes so far as to allow fans to create blogs based on his wit and wisdom. So here's a few comments from Mr. Gaiman on his fan-base (sort of). Sorry if I've spoiled you with all the longer posts lately, this week's colection is sorta small... but worth it.
“Wouldn't it just be easier if you came over and said "Hi, I read your blog. I think you're keen"? And then I'd say "That's very kind of you, I'm glad you enjoy it," and you could say "Lovely weather we're having" or "It's raining" or "Are you having fun?" and I could say "Yes, isn't it?" or "I suppose I must be," and before you knew it we'd've had a conversation, and the world would be a better place.
I'm not very scary, and will happily talk, unless you catch me at the wrong time (eg. on my way to a panel/signing/the toilets/bed). And it probably would work better than secret signals, which are always liable to misinterpretation. (You, thinks: I have flicked my earlobe at him several times, yet he has failed to respond by tapping his cheek. Perhaps he hates me. Me, thinks: I wonder what's wrong with that person in the third row's earlobe? Probably an ill-fitting earring or something.)”
– Neil Gaiman 01/31/02 (When asked if fans could have a “secret wave” to greet Neil in public, so as not to bother him.)
“So far, whenever I've encountered the papparazzi, they've always wanted to take photos of whoever I was with, and I was just the bloke standing beside the famous person. Which is a nice place to be, if you ask me.”
--Neil Gaiman 04/24/06
“I remember Frank McConnell grumbling magnificently that he would have got Sandman a Pulitzer the year he was a Pulitzer fiction judge, if only I'd had the courtesy to be a US Citizen. I doubt it, but it was a nice thing of him to have said.”
-- Neil Gaiman 11/07/02
“According to the Washington Post, I did the extra hours of signing because I am "a savvy businessman". I'm still trying to figure this one out. I thought I did it because there were about 500 people in that line at 10:00am, many of whom had come a very long way, and it seemed like the right thing to do.”
-- Neil Gaiman 10/09/04
“So I wander into a bookshop, and am browsing the children's area at the back, looking for books to read to Maddy (eventually purchased The Ogre Downstairs by Diana Wynne Jones, Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg) and a young man -- I estimate his age at about eleven -- asks if I've seen Holes by Louis Sachar. I point it out for him. "You took our parking space," he tells me.
"Sorry."
"It's okay."
He looks at the small pile of books I'm accumulating in my arms. "You must like reading," he says, with awe in his voice.
"I do," I admitted. "I like it better than anything."
His eyes opened wide. "Are you an author?"
I felt like a species of exotic fauna that had just been correctly identified by a naturalist. "Yes," I said.
His eyes narrowed. "Have you written anything I could read?"
I suggested Neverwhere. "You'll find it in Science Fiction and Fantasy," I told him.
He caught up with me five minutes later, in the CD area, picking out a motley bunch of CDs (including Suzanne Vega's Solitude Standing, as background for the thing I'm writing right now, as is Patti Smith's Land and Tori's Hey Jupiter single with the live Somewhere Over the Rainbow on it, The Langley Schools Music Project , which is even odder than I'd hoped, Bowie at the Beeb, and the remastered Heroes) and said "Er... science what and what?"
"Huh?"
"The place where that book you wrote is?"
"Science Fiction and Fantasy. I think it's over that way."
"Oh. Okay."
I don't think he'd ever been out of the children's area before. Arms piled high with stuff I wandered over toward SF and Fantasy. He approached me with a copy of Neverwhere, and I signed it for him (he was Brian with an i and I had to write Hi to Tina in it as well), and left the bookshop hoping that he likes it, or that he puts it on one side until he does.”
-- Neil Gaiman 04/03/02
“Actually the not posing for photographs thing has been my call. You can take any photos you like of me scribbling, you can take photos of you next to me, if you're lucky I'll try and look up when it's time for the flash to go off, but these days everyone has a camera/cameraphone, and while it doesn't add a long time to each signing, if you multiply it by hundreds of people, it can add a few hours to the signing line. (Also, the continual flashes were starting to hurt my eyes.)
(Having said that, tonight Borders put a staff member onto fulltime camera duty, and it went smooth as clockwork.)”
-- Neil Gaiman 09/26/05
“Elizabeth Hand is a marvellous writer and a perceptive critic, and she gave me a decidedly mixed review for American Gods in the Village Voice some years ago, but it was the kind of review that, though it wasn't entirely positive, left me happy that she had at least read and was criticising and had understood the novel I had written, even if she didn't feel it was particularly successful.
Still, remembering that review, my heart sank a little when I saw that she'd reviewed Anansi Boys in the Washington Post. And then I read her review, and by the end of it I was prepared to battle her enemies or whitewash her fence…
And what made it so good for me was not that she likes Anansi Boys or that she says good things about it but that again, reading her review I felt, with a sense of giddy happiness, that she had read and was describing the novel that I'd written -- that she liked it, and it had worked for her, was a bonus.”
-- Neil Gaiman 09/24/05
“I've never had a stalker, I'm glad to say, and am very happy for it to stay like that. I know a handful of authors who have had stalkers or unhinged fans hiding in their attics or whatever, though, so I think I'm either very lucky, or more likely, that I just have very nice fans.”
-- Neil Gaiman 04/24/06
And here's a little challenge for you kooky Gaimanites: Drop a comment here and tell me if you'd rather see a collection of quotes about The Ballad of the Black Socks or The Saga of the Satanic Salsa... and whichever topic gets the most votes will get posted here next week. --RRNN
“Wouldn't it just be easier if you came over and said "Hi, I read your blog. I think you're keen"? And then I'd say "That's very kind of you, I'm glad you enjoy it," and you could say "Lovely weather we're having" or "It's raining" or "Are you having fun?" and I could say "Yes, isn't it?" or "I suppose I must be," and before you knew it we'd've had a conversation, and the world would be a better place.
I'm not very scary, and will happily talk, unless you catch me at the wrong time (eg. on my way to a panel/signing/the toilets/bed). And it probably would work better than secret signals, which are always liable to misinterpretation. (You, thinks: I have flicked my earlobe at him several times, yet he has failed to respond by tapping his cheek. Perhaps he hates me. Me, thinks: I wonder what's wrong with that person in the third row's earlobe? Probably an ill-fitting earring or something.)”
– Neil Gaiman 01/31/02 (When asked if fans could have a “secret wave” to greet Neil in public, so as not to bother him.)
“So far, whenever I've encountered the papparazzi, they've always wanted to take photos of whoever I was with, and I was just the bloke standing beside the famous person. Which is a nice place to be, if you ask me.”
--Neil Gaiman 04/24/06
“I remember Frank McConnell grumbling magnificently that he would have got Sandman a Pulitzer the year he was a Pulitzer fiction judge, if only I'd had the courtesy to be a US Citizen. I doubt it, but it was a nice thing of him to have said.”
-- Neil Gaiman 11/07/02
“According to the Washington Post, I did the extra hours of signing because I am "a savvy businessman". I'm still trying to figure this one out. I thought I did it because there were about 500 people in that line at 10:00am, many of whom had come a very long way, and it seemed like the right thing to do.”
-- Neil Gaiman 10/09/04
“So I wander into a bookshop, and am browsing the children's area at the back, looking for books to read to Maddy (eventually purchased The Ogre Downstairs by Diana Wynne Jones, Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg) and a young man -- I estimate his age at about eleven -- asks if I've seen Holes by Louis Sachar. I point it out for him. "You took our parking space," he tells me.
"Sorry."
"It's okay."
He looks at the small pile of books I'm accumulating in my arms. "You must like reading," he says, with awe in his voice.
"I do," I admitted. "I like it better than anything."
His eyes opened wide. "Are you an author?"
I felt like a species of exotic fauna that had just been correctly identified by a naturalist. "Yes," I said.
His eyes narrowed. "Have you written anything I could read?"
I suggested Neverwhere. "You'll find it in Science Fiction and Fantasy," I told him.
He caught up with me five minutes later, in the CD area, picking out a motley bunch of CDs (including Suzanne Vega's Solitude Standing, as background for the thing I'm writing right now, as is Patti Smith's Land and Tori's Hey Jupiter single with the live Somewhere Over the Rainbow on it, The Langley Schools Music Project , which is even odder than I'd hoped, Bowie at the Beeb, and the remastered Heroes) and said "Er... science what and what?"
"Huh?"
"The place where that book you wrote is?"
"Science Fiction and Fantasy. I think it's over that way."
"Oh. Okay."
I don't think he'd ever been out of the children's area before. Arms piled high with stuff I wandered over toward SF and Fantasy. He approached me with a copy of Neverwhere, and I signed it for him (he was Brian with an i and I had to write Hi to Tina in it as well), and left the bookshop hoping that he likes it, or that he puts it on one side until he does.”
-- Neil Gaiman 04/03/02
“Actually the not posing for photographs thing has been my call. You can take any photos you like of me scribbling, you can take photos of you next to me, if you're lucky I'll try and look up when it's time for the flash to go off, but these days everyone has a camera/cameraphone, and while it doesn't add a long time to each signing, if you multiply it by hundreds of people, it can add a few hours to the signing line. (Also, the continual flashes were starting to hurt my eyes.)
(Having said that, tonight Borders put a staff member onto fulltime camera duty, and it went smooth as clockwork.)”
-- Neil Gaiman 09/26/05
“Elizabeth Hand is a marvellous writer and a perceptive critic, and she gave me a decidedly mixed review for American Gods in the Village Voice some years ago, but it was the kind of review that, though it wasn't entirely positive, left me happy that she had at least read and was criticising and had understood the novel I had written, even if she didn't feel it was particularly successful.
Still, remembering that review, my heart sank a little when I saw that she'd reviewed Anansi Boys in the Washington Post. And then I read her review, and by the end of it I was prepared to battle her enemies or whitewash her fence…
And what made it so good for me was not that she likes Anansi Boys or that she says good things about it but that again, reading her review I felt, with a sense of giddy happiness, that she had read and was describing the novel that I'd written -- that she liked it, and it had worked for her, was a bonus.”
-- Neil Gaiman 09/24/05
“I've never had a stalker, I'm glad to say, and am very happy for it to stay like that. I know a handful of authors who have had stalkers or unhinged fans hiding in their attics or whatever, though, so I think I'm either very lucky, or more likely, that I just have very nice fans.”
-- Neil Gaiman 04/24/06
And here's a little challenge for you kooky Gaimanites: Drop a comment here and tell me if you'd rather see a collection of quotes about The Ballad of the Black Socks or The Saga of the Satanic Salsa... and whichever topic gets the most votes will get posted here next week. --RRNN
posted by Really_Rather_Not_Nice at 9:01 PM
6 Comments:
I definately want both (please), but as salsa is inherently more interesting than black socks, I would prefer The Ballad of the Black Socks.
(uninteresting things are decidedly more interesting, yes?)
sockses, please! Partially because it spans a greater time frame.
Black socks, please. Maybe the Salsa next time? The Salsa is also a fun little saga.
Socks yes! And salsa another day yes?
Socks! Socks!
*waves pitchfork* :p
Also, I've enjoyed reading this a great deal, from the time you asked him in his blog to right now.
I found the Satanic Salsa thing boring as anything. So socks for me please.
I wanted to ask you, too, if you remember Neil Gaiman once posting something along the lines of: "it was me, Alan Moore and someone else in a restaurants and someone gave a such disturbing detailed description of some sort of torture that the third guy ended up weeping by the restaunrant's back door". Using the search function on neilgaiman.com doesn't help.
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