A reader writes to share her experience of Neil Gaiman as a teenage fangirl.
I met him when I was in college at his book reading of one of his books: The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and after meeting him, that was the last book of his I ever had any desire to read. It took me a month to read his American Gods book. I had to keep putting it down. At the time, I attributed it to some deficiency in my own ability to crack into his prose, but given what we know now, it was my brain’s way of informing me that I was reading shit. For comparison, I was able to read War and Peace in a week.
But I was a sixteen year old goth girl at the time, so I dutifully brought a copy of that goddamn awful book along for him to sign. The red flag of an unoriginal mind was that he signed every copy of AG with the tagline of “Believe,” and all copies of Sandman with something along the lines of “never stop dreaming.’
When I reached the man himself, things just got worse. I noticed too his preferential treatment of female fans. I was a big B5 nerd at the time, and wanted to discuss the screenplay he had written for it; it became evident during our very brief conversation he had NEXT TO NO IDEA what was in the script. The script he purportedly wrote. I had assumed he’d be happy to discuss a script that was the ONLY episode from seasons 3 to 5 to be written by anyone other than the showrunner. He, on the other hand, sought to change the subject as quickly as possible, and was a complete wet blanket to my projected hopes of mental stimulation with a man up until that point I had respected. He signed me quickly and I was on my way.
There is more at r/NeilGaimanMemes if you’re interested. She also added this:
By the time my cohort reached him (we were a group of four) he was complaining about his sore wrists. I had time to read his entire little shitty novella, in the auditorium he had given a self-congratulatory speech, because of the hold-up for him to rest his wrists for stretches of time. Now, my friend was an osteopath and offered Neil Gaiman full access to his services for free. He gave him his number, which Gaiman behaved as if he was extremely grateful for, and he promised he would avail my friend of his services.
You already know that my friend never heard from the pervert. I thought it was due to the vagaries of the parasocial contract, but now I know better:
He just wasn’t tubcuddly enough!!!!
I have to admit, I find it both ironic and amusing that certain people still, to this day, pine over a parasocial predator like Neil Gaiman, while simultaneously attempting to deplatform, ban, and otherwise ostracize me, an author who rejects both parasociality and social predation, disdains all public appearances, and whom even my die-hard critics in the media have admitted to be gracious, polite, and impeccably well-behaved.
Which is to say I have now been banned by X, YouTube, Blusky, r/NeilGaimanUncovered, and r/NeilGaiman. And I will wager that not one of those places have banned Neil Gaiman despite the gravity of the sex crimes he is credibly accused to have committed. Note that despite what has been publicly reported about his alleged behavior in the presence of his young son, still no one has even begun to investigate any link between that and his obvious association with his co-editor Ed Kramer, the convicted SFWA pedophile.
Contemplate the significance of that, if you will.
UPDATE: The BBC reports that Coraline: The Musical has been cancelled.
A new musical based on Neil Gaiman’s book Coraline has been scrapped following sexual misconduct allegations against the author. The show had been due to open at Leeds Playhouse in April before being staged at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, the Birmingham Rep and Manchester’s Home. In a joint statement, the theatres said: “After careful consideration, we feel it would be impossible to continue in the context of the allegations against its original author.” It was announced last May and had been due to be a major production for the four theatres, but its cancellation will leave a major hole in their schedules and finances. However, the theatres said they had no option after further allegations emerged in recent weeks.