Gaiman, on Terry Pratchett

Neil Gaiman sharing his memories of Terry Pratchett and writing, with Michael Chabon. It's funny, and touching, and makes me want to re-read Good Omens.

Welcome 2014

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. 

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something. 

 So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it. Make your mistakes, next year and forever.” 

 ~ Neil Gaiman

FORA.tv with a Neil Gaiman video

I just discovered FORA.tv, which allows me to stream video of talks and interviews with writers, thinkers and other personalities on various topics across politics, culture and technology - things that matters.

I spent about an hour watching Rebecca Solnit read from her book, Storming the Gates of Paradise, and answering questions. It was enjoyable. (If you're interested in Rebecca Solnit's talk, it's here.)

I decided it was a good idea to sign up for an account with FORA.tv - which will allow me to download the talks on audio or video files. I was running through their archive of videos, and that's where I found this talk with Neil Gaiman in 2006, where he spoke at Cody's Books, on Fragile Things.

I thought maybe somebody would be interested. So here's the video:

An Evening's Entertainment with Neil Gaiman celebrating Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders.

In this dazzling new collection of more than twenty-five pieces of short fiction including a novella featuring the hero of his masterpiece "American Gods," Neil Gaiman charts the terrain between life and death, perception and reality, darkness and light. Guaranteed to dazzle the senses, haunt the imagination, and touch the heart, "Fragile Things" is a gift of wonder from one of the most unique literary artists of our time. Neil Gaiman is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of the novels "American Gods," "Neverwhere," "Stardust," "Coraline," and "Anansi Boys;" "The Sandman" series of graphic novels; and "Smoke and Mirrors," a collection of short fiction - Cody's Books

BOOK | The Graveyard Book

Thank you to the nice people at HarperCollins for this Advance Reader's Edition of The Graveyard Book. It was a breezy, fun read, and I should have finished the book earlier - but life interfered with my reading plans. *sigh*

The story begins on a cheery note - with a family massacre. The father, mother and daughter were killed in their sleep. The youngest son, a toddler, survived because he was the sort that liked to crawl out of his crib and wander. His adventurous spirit saved him, as his wandering brought him to a graveyard where he was saved from the murderer in pursuit. The late Mr and Mrs Owens, who had no children when they were alive, adopted the young boy, who was named Nobody Owens. What better name is there for this child, who is living but lives amongst the dead? So the little boy is named Nobody, although they call him Bod, for short - because Nobody is kind of a stupid name, no matter how apt it is.

Because of the unique circumstances of the boy's existence, he also gains a guardian: Silas - the enigmatic figure who is neither of the living or the dead.

In the realm of The Graveyard Book, there are the living, there are the dead, there are day-folk and night-folk, there are ghouls and mist-walkers, there are the high hunters and the Hounds of God. Then there are the Silases of the world; they are the solitary type.

Little Bod grows up in the graveyard where he is loved and cared for by the dead. He is educated in the magic of Fading, of Fear and Dreamwalking - and on the whole he is happy. Except Bod has never been the kind of boy to stay still. He starts to venture out to the world of the living, even attends a real school - where the living seems a nastier place than his graveyard home. On top of it all, Jack, the man who killed his entire family, comes closer to locating Bod, and to finish the job.

This is the story of Bod, and Gaiman takes his time to explore the magical world of the graveyard denizens, and what happens when the world of the living and the dead collide. Gaiman knows his myths and fantasies well enough so that these elements in his story reads like familiar memories of stories we have been told before. He proves again that what he does best is how he uses the old stories, gives them a good spin so that they become fresh and new when he tells them in his own voice.

I admit, there are some scenes in the book that feel like "fillers" to the plot. These are the moments that feel like they do nothing more than to provide Bod an adventure. They slow down the momentum of the story a little - but they are never boring. I would have preferred a leaner book, one with a tighter plot - but that is because I am an impatient reader. But on the whole, it was an enjoyable read without a dull moment.

_________________

Afternote: I was re-reading what I wrote about The Graveyard Book, and I don't feel like I did justice to the book. I'm not good at writing about a book without spoilers.

There are a few things I would have liked to mention, but that might give away some of the suspense and mystery when you guys read it yourself. So, we'll discuss it on your blogs when you guys are done, okay?

Scheduled Reading For This Weekend

I am Aries; we hate to wait. ;p

CHALLENGE | Stardust SPOILERS

Once Upon A Time Challenge 2007

Stardust: Being A Romance Within the Realms of Faerie
Words by Neil Gaiman & Pictures by Charles Vess
[Fantasy; Illustrated Novel]

***SPOILERS GALORE***

Stardust is a book of delight. It has all the elements of the faerie story, the hero, the maiden, the quest, the little helpers and the romance. The story starts, not with Tristan Thorne, but rather with Dunstan Thorne, the father. It tells of a broken wall that separates the faerie land from the world as we know it. The hole in the wall is guarded, but every seven years there is a faerie market where faerie merchants come to ply their wares. It is during one of these market fair that Tristan Thorne came to be, a faerie-human child, though he knew it not at first.

When he grew up, he fell for the beauty of spoiled Victoria, and in a moment of youthful rashness, agreed to bring back a fallen star. In return, Victoria promises what he desires. It is the typical fairy tale, a hero's quest for love, where he will be tested but find helpers along the way.

Turns out the fallen star becomes a young woman, Yvaine ― one with a quick temper. Add a witch-queen who seeks the heart of a star to regain her youth, and three scions of Stormhold, contesting to be the first to find the fallen star to claim lordship of Stormhold. The different threads come together gradually in a bloody confrontation in an inn. In between there were some violence, murder by poison, cutting of throat, a lion and unicorn battles for a crown ― fairy tales are not for the faint-hearted when it is Neil Gaiman.

What gives this archetypal plot a life of its own is the details that Gaiman provided ― from the goat chariot of the witch-queen, to the tricking of the witch-queen by Dishwater Sal to utter the prophecy, and the hint of future events unfolding in a mundane thing as a squirrel hiding an acorn. All of it come together to make it an exceptional tale.

At the end, Tristan Thorne finds love not with Victoria, but with a fallen star. They have no children, because she is not human. He becomes lord of Stormhold, but before that he wandered the world with his true love. But what remains with me at the end is the fate of Yvaine:

They say that each night, when the duties of state permit, she climbs, on foot, and limps, alone, to the highest peak of the palace, where she stands or hour after hour, seeming not to notice the cold peak winds. She says nothing at all, but simply stares upward into the dark sky and watches, with sad eyes, the slow dance of the infinite stars.

It is not a happy ending. But so much more beautiful because of it.

COMICS | Sandman A Midsummer Night's Dream

Once Upon A Time Challenge 2007

The Sandman: Dream Country
Written by Neil Gaiman, Illustrations by various artists

Dream Country collects a few Sandman stories, the cream among them is the World Fantasy Award winner: A Midsummer Night's Dream. It won, and it riled a lot of people who declared never again shall the award be given to a *comic book*. Oh well. For some of us, Adam and Eve rode the dinosaurs to church.

(Okay, okay. Unfair. Overly-critical. Self-righteous. Below the belt. Totally irrelevant to the intended subject of this post.)

I decided to read Sandman: Dream Country specifically for the Midsummer Night's Dream short story. I thought it will make a good idea to kick off the Once Upon A Time Challenge with an interpretation of Midsummer Night's Dream, and end with the Shakespeare original ― like a pair of bookends. I believe The Sandman was the most successful graphic novel series to date to bring the medium into mainstream awareness and literary esteem. It might be contradictory to call something both "mainstream" and "literary" ― yet this is precisely what Gaiman has achieved: bringing comic art and literature together. What The Sandman series represent, is a lifetime of reading filtered through Gaiman's imagination. And Gaiman's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a tribute to the Bard, and perhaps a tribute to the Dream King himself. Afterall, who can truly separate the dreamer from the dream?

It is Midsummer's Eve, the year 1593. It is the time of the playwright, William Shakespeare, who made a bargain with a figure out of myths and stories: in return for his inspirations, for words that will echo through time after him, Shakespeare promised to write two plays for his mythical patron, Morpheus ― King of Dreams. The first of these is "A Midsummer Night's Dream", to be performed on Midsummer's Eve on Wendel's Mound, which was a performance space before the humans came to the island.

Morpheus asked for a play to be written and performed by Shakespeare's troupe. Unknown to the human actors of Shakepeare's company, the play will performed for Auberon of Dom-Daniel and his queen, Lady Titania, and the Faerie folks. The world has changed, and the Faerie folks determined it will be their last sojourn to this earth; Auberon tells Morpheus:

AUBERON: Things have changes, and will change more; and Gaia no longer welcomes us as once she did.

And so the faerie folks are passing. Though one wonders what they will bring with them in their passing? Yet Morpheus will have his say in some things. And he will achieve them through the power of words and creation:

MORPHEUS: You have asked me why I asked you back to this plane, to see this entertainment.

I ... During your stay on this Earth the faerie have afforded me much diversion and entertainment.

Now you have left, for your own haunts. And I would repay you all for this amusement. And more:

They shall not forget you. That was important to me: that King Auberon and Queen Titania will be remembered by mortals, until this age is gone.

AUBERON: We thank you, shaper. But this diversion, although pleasant, is not true.

Things never happened thus.

MORPHEUS: Oh, but it IS true.

Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.

Remember the words of Morpheus: "Things need not have happened to be true." That is the power of fantasy and stories. A lot of us signed up for the Once Upon A Time Challenge, perhaps all of us in our enthusiasm serves as witness to the power of fantasy and stories in our lives.

Morpheus is one of The Endless, each of them serving to represent an aspect of existence. Morpheus's domain is Dream, and with it the creative unconsciousness where all inspiration springs. Yet all things cast a shadow. Dream, by its existence serves to define its opposite ― perhaps Reality. Perhaps Truth. Recall that Midsummer Night's Dream runs on the deceiving qualities of magic, of falling in love with an Ass-head because we could not see what is in front of us. The play is played out, with the real Puck coming onstage to play himself, and drama ensures both onstage and offstage. Players and play, on Midsummer Night's Eve, the lines between the two are blurred, and so as the Puck closes the play with his speech, which could have come from the real Puck, Shakespeare, or even Neil Gaiman himself:

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

All is play, and in the spirit of play is this story written. But Gaiman's or Shakespeare's? No matter what, Gaiman and his team did put up quite a good show. Let's just end this post with these thoughts:

Perhaps the passing of the faerie folks is the reminder that once we believed in something beyond our physical senses. The world changed, we changed it. Perhaps we can remake it better.

If Neil Gaiman's Midsummer Night's Dream makes you want to drop by the library for a copy of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, who is to say who is the greater storyteller: Shakespeare or Gaiman?