On the Topic of Imposters

Just so I don't end up disturbing any more of Neil's Facebook fans, I want to clear up the quasi-joke I made last post with a few... well... quotes. That's what I do here. It should at least explain the impetus behind the comment, if not the actual fact, which I'll address at the end.


Q: "Does Neil have an official myspace page? If so what is the adress?”
A: "No, I don't. There's an unofficial one, or more than one out there. I keep meaning to set up official myspaces and facebooks, but really tend to feel that keeping this place under control is more than enough for one author, and it never happens.” – Neil Gaiman 07/02/08


“A small, shamefaced and very nice apology came in... (Apology from guy posing as Neil on MySpace can be read HERE) Not actually a problem. It's just that it's the internet, and it has, like the night, a thousand eyes, the owners of which immediately write to me and each other to find whether something is really me or not. If anyone decides they need to role-play as me (shakes head, blinks, shrugs, mutters oh god why?) then it's probably best if you just announce right up front that you aren't me, to get that out of the way. (Several people have already sent me this one -- although not surprisingly none of them thought it was me at all.)” – Neil Gaiman 05/04/06

“There are lots of Neil Gaimans on Facebook, and a fan site that's nothing to do with me.” – Neil Gaiman (on Twitter) 01/25/10

Q:“Dear Neil, I was wondering if you read your fan page on facebook, (because most people seem to think that you do) but I couldn't find an answer on your site.”

A: “I'm afraid not. And Neil Gaiman Not the real Gaiman. An unofficial fan page. at Myspace... that's not me either. (Every now and again I (get) grumpy messages from friends and relatives who are convinced that it is.)
I'm me here at www.neilgaiman.com. I'm me at Last.fm -- http://www.last.fm/user/neilhimself.I'm me at Goodreads. Sooner or later I'll be me at librarything.” – Neil Gaiman 10/26/08

Q:“Hey, Neil. Facebook says that you're on the faculty of UChicago. Is that you or just someone else with the same name and using your picture?”

A:“Well, I suppose technically I'm a University of Chicago Presidential Fellow in the Arts from last year, but no, I don't have a Facebook account.” – Neil Gaiman 02/15/06

All of which are all good indicators that at various times in history, our dear Mr. Gaiman has been impersonated by various sundry individuals of dubious moral character. It's not been unheard of. The joke comes in because he has also recently posted (and because it's pretty obvious that the most recent Neil on Facebook has the kind of knowledge that only someone to access to his innermost thoughts, and hopes, and dreams, and worth-it-to-murder-a-relative type secrets would have) this:

“Dan Guy, webgoblin of this parish, and I, have put up a proper Facebook fan page to replace a couple of ones people had put up in the past that everyone seemed to think was actually me. Not a lot of content there, and there are no plans to put up anything you can't find here. It's at http://www.facebook.com/neilgaiman”

- Neil Gaiman 02/11/10

Raises His Head and Waves Feebly

Not sure why the older posts have all degraded into weird hypertext vomit, but I'll try to clean the place up a bit since Neil (or someone eerily like, but possibly NOT, him) has linked to this site from Facebook.

I've toyed around with the idea of picking up this blog again, and going on quote-hunts again now that a few years have gone by. There's one quote I certainly hope to never post here though: The one where Neil tells us he's finished with his blog.