If you’re not willing to remove your invaders, you fully merit the subsequent occupation and eventual loss of your property.
A theatre in Paris which is known for its radical shows and exhibitions has been occupied by more than 250 African migrants after they were let in for a free event five weeks ago.
The Gaîté Lyrique theatre in Paris staged the conference, entitled Reinventing the welcome for refugees in France, on December 10. It involved talks hosted by academics from top universities and Red Cross officials, and saw activists welcome in the migrants. But when the conference was finished, the migrants, who mainly come from France’s former west African colonies, refused to leave the venue.
Still occupied, the leftist theatre now faces going out of business after weeks without revenue from ticket sales, and has had to cancel all performances until at least January 24. Its management said in a statement last week that the number of people taking shelter in the theatre is ‘continuing to increase’ and has swelled to around 300 people. ‘The sanitary conditions are deteriorating day after day and the teams are facing this situation alone,’ it said as it called for the local authorities to find a housing solution for the occupiers.
‘Although this occupation is forced, it is unthinkable for the Gaîté Lyrique to throw these people out onto the street in the middle of winter,’ the statement added.
This is a metaphor for Europe and the USA writ small. Like the gods, the governments only help those who help themselves. When they’re not actively obstructing the way, of course.
I read 66 books to completion in 2024. The best novel was Before the Dawn by Toson Shimazaki, the best non-fiction book was a draw between Princes of the Yen by Richard Werner and Absolutely on Music by Haruki Murakami. The worst novel was an easy decision this year as John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces was a long and tedious waddle through an extraordinarily unpleasant Gamma’s perspective. The best new-to-me author was Rika Ondu, as her Honeybees and Distant Thunder was very good indeed.
I’m hoping to actually write a few book reviews in 2025, starting with The City and Its Uncertain Walls, Haruki Murakami’s latest, which I’ve just finished.
The WoW Diary, John Staats 50 Years of Text Games, Aaron A. Reed Losing Military Supremacy, Andrei Martyanov Shitamachi Scam, Michael Pronko The Final Curtain, Keigo Higashino Disintegration, Andrei Martyanov The Wizard of the Kremlin, Giuliano da Empoli Strange Weather in Tokyo, Hiromi Kawakami The Nakano Thrift Shop, Hiromi Kawakami Monster Hunter: Vendetta, Larry Correia Monster Hunter: Nemesis, Larry Correia Monster Hunter Memoirs: Fever, Jason Cordova Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge, John Ringo Monster Hunter Memoirs: Sinners, John Ringo Monster Hunter Memoirs: Saints, John Ringo People From My Neighborhood, Hiromi Kawakami Dragon Palace, Hiromi Kawakami Practicing History, Barbara Tuchman House of Assassins, Larry Correia Destroyer of Worlds, Larry Correia Breasts and Eggs, Mieko Kawakami The Viceroys, Federico De Roberto Beer in the Snooker Club, Waguih Galil La Fleur de Illusion, Keigo Higashino Princes of the Yen, Richard Werner The Aosawa Murders, Riku Onda Dappled by Sunlight, Riku Onda Honeybees and Distant Thunder, Riku Onda The Jack Vance Treasury, Jack Vance How to Talk to Girls at Parties, Neil Gaiman The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman Where Angels Fear to Tread, E.M. Forster A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole Araminta Station, Jack Vance Ecce and Old Earth, Jack Vance Throy, Jack Vance The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu The Dark Forest, Cixin Liu Death’s End, Cixin Liu Shogun, James Clavell Gai-Jin, James Clavell Noble House, James Clavell Gai-Jin, James Clavell Tai-Pan, James Clavell Disintegration, Andrei Martyanov Margin of Victory, Douglas MacGregor N.P.: a novel, Banana Yoshimoto Pirate Freedom, Gene Wolfe The Last Yakuza, Jake Adelstein The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford The Speculative Short Fiction, John M. Ford The Sound of Waves, Yukio Mishima The Land of Blood and Honey, Martin van Creveld Un Lun Dun, China Mieville Absolutely on Music, Haruki Murakami The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami, Matthew Carl Strecher After Dark, Haruki Murakami The Complete Stories, Evelyn Waugh Newcomer, Keigo Higashino Before the Dawn, Toson Shimazaki Tales of the Sun Eater Vol. 1, Christopher Ruocchio Tales of the Sun Eater Vol. 2, Christopher Ruocchio Demon in White, Christopher Ruocchio City of Refuge, Kenzo Kitakata Invisible Helix , Kenzo Kitakata The Silent Cry, Kenzaburo Oe
A New York Times article about Neil Gaiman’s first public response to his accusers draws some much-needed attention to the non-response from his various publishers:
HarperCollins, which has published many of his most notable works, and Marvel, the comic book publisher, have no new books forthcoming with Gaiman, according to representatives from the companies.
His literary agent at Writers House, which represents blockbuster authors like Dav Pilkey, Nora Roberts and Ally Condie, did not respond to requests for comment about whether the agency would continue to represent him. Norton, which published an illustrated edition of Gaiman’s “Norse Mythology” last November, did not respond when asked whether the company would publish Gaiman’s works in the future. DC Comics, which published his blockbuster comic book “The Sandman,” along with other works, declined to comment when asked whether DC would continue to publish him.
For some of the women who have accused Gaiman of misconduct, the muted responses from his publishers and collaborators are a bitter disappointment…
In an interview with The Times, Kendall described the “culture of secrecy” around Gaiman. “Neil’s works were his bait, and promotional events were his hunting ground,” she said. “As long as his publishers and professional collaborators remain silent, Neil will continue to have unrestricted access to vulnerable women.”
“The silence of the community around him — his fandom, his publishers — is loud and disturbing,” Stout said in an interview with The Times. “I’ve heard that it was an open secret that he was a predator, but that whisper network did not reach me.”
I think it is unfair, unreasonable, and wrong for anyone to fault the bookshops for ordering books that their customers come in and request. The books are published, they are in the system, and the whole purpose of the bookstore is to satisfy their customer’s preferences. And as one executive at a very large book distributor once told an SJW employee who was complaining that they were distributing Milo Yiannopoulos’s books: “seeing how we carry 50 different editions of Mein Kampf, where do you propose we draw the line? We’re a distributor, we’re not the Book Police.”
However, it is absolutely fair, reasonable, and correct for people to be holding the book publishers accountable. The publishers make it very clear that they stand for certain principles and oppose other principles; unlike Castalia, most of them even have mission statements that they claim defines their very purpose. And precisely none of those statements are in line with publishing an author who is quite credibly accused of having committed a series of rapes and sexual assaults over a period of more than 25 years.
When publishers are deplatforming and refusing to publish authors whose politics they don’t like, they really have absolutely no room for continuing to publish serial sexual assailants and sexual harassers simply because they approve of their politics. This isn’t something that is simply going to blow over and go away because the alleged crimes are too serious and the hypocrisy is too blatant.
We’ll be holding an early Arkhaven Nights tonight to discuss both the latest developments in #GaimanGate and the bankruptcy of Diamond, the comics distributor.
The man accused of sexually assaulting and/or raping 8 women and counting finally breaks cover to issue a denial that directly contradicts his previous dictate to believe all women. Fandom Pulse provides the text and the context:
Over the past many months, I have watched the stories circulating the internet about me with horror and dismay. I’ve stayed quiet until now, both out of respect for the people who were sharing their stories and out of a desire not to draw even more attention to a lot of misinformation. I’ve always tried to be a private person, and felt increasingly that social media was the wrong place to talk about important personal matters. I’ve now reached the point where I feel that I should say something.
As I read through this latest collection of accounts, there are moments I half-recognise and moments I don’t, descriptions of things that happened sitting beside things that emphatically did not happen. I’m far from a perfect person, but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.
I went back to read the messages I exchanged with the women around and following the occasions that have subsequently been reported as being abusive. These messages read now as they did when I received them – of two people enjoying entirely consensual sexual relationships and wanting to see one another again. At the time I was in those relationships, they seemed positive and happy on both sides.
And I also realise, looking through them, years later, that I could have and should have done so much better. I was emotionally unavailable while being sexually available, self-focused and not as thoughtful as I could or should have been. I was obviously careless with people’s hearts and feelings, and that’s something that I really, deeply regret. It was selfish of me. I was caught up in my own story and I ignored other people’s.
I’ve spent some months now taking a long, hard look at who I have been and how I have made people feel.
Like most of us, I’m learning, and I’m trying to do the work needed, and I know that that’s not an overnight process. I hope that with the help of good people, I’ll continue to grow. I understand that not everyone will believe me or even care what I say but I’ll be doing the work anyway, for myself, my family and the people I love. I will be doing my very best to deserve their trust, as well as the trust of my readers.
At the same time, as I reflect on my past – and as I re-review everything that actually happened as opposed to what is being alleged – I don’t accept there was any abuse. To repeat, I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone.
Some of the horrible stories now being told simply never happened, while others have been so distorted from what actually took place that they bear no relationship to reality. I am prepared to take responsibility for any missteps I made. I’m not willing to turn my back on the truth, and I can’t accept being described as someone I am not, and cannot and will not admit to doing things I didn’t do.
And once more, we see conclusive evidence that Neil Gaiman is a mediocre writer of fiction. I very much hope that some of his accusers will take him to court for defamation, because his absurd statement literally stinks of evasiveness, Machiavellianism, spin, ex post facto revisionism, and lies.
Perhaps the most amusing claim is that the objectively biggest fame-whore in BOTH comics and science fiction over the last four decades has “always tried to be a private person”. Think about the massive scope and scale of that obvious and so easily disproven lie, think about the chutzpah required to conclude that your naked assertion will outweigh the literally tens of thousands of items of evidence to the contrary, and then consider the probability that he is telling the truth about anything else.
I think Reddit might actually melt down in response to this. I cannot believe either his legal team or his PR team thought this was a good idea, no matter how completely the news of his alleged crimes has broken contain.
UPDATE: Even his biggest fans from the subreddit devoted to him aren’t buying this. They’re not buying ANY of it at all.
When Arkhaven Comics launched, we made a non-obvious decision to stay out of the comic stores and the traditional distribution system. This significantly slowed our growth and our exposure to potential customers, but it has proven, over time, to have been the right decision. The reason we can say that is because, as Fandom Pulse reports, the primary distributor of comics to the comics stores, Diamond Comic Distributors, filed for bankruptcy today:
Diamond Comic Distributors has been on the decline for years as the former monolith in comic book store distribution, but now a message from their CEO revealed the company is filing chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Dear Valued Customer, I’m writing to share one of the most challenging messages of my career. Earlier today, Diamond made the difficult but necessary decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This step is intended to stabilize our financial foundation and protect the most vital aspects of our business. This decision was not made lightly, and I understand that this news may be as difficult to hear as it is for me to share. The Diamond leadership team and I have worked tirelessly to avoid this outcome but the financial challenges we face have left us with no other viable option. Chapter 11 will provide us with the opportunity to restructure and address our financial obligations. This process will likely include the sale of key assets of Diamond Comic Distributors.
This means that there are a lot of publishers who are wondering if they are going to get paid for the comics they delivered to Diamond over the last six months. Fortunately, Arkhaven is not one of them.
There can be absolutely no doubt that a) the Los Angeles fires were not organic and b) they were part of a plan to rebuild the city in accordance with the principles and preferences of the ruling elite. It’s exactly the same situation as Maui, only on a larger scale. The property is too valuable to be left to the plebs, so the insurance policies have been cancelled, and various other legal machinations will be created in order to incentivize homeowners to sell their properties for dimes on the dollar.
The corrupt California governor, Gavin Newsome, has been caught on camera talking openly about how the planning teams for LA 2.0 are already in place and at work, which means that they were being put together long before the first fire even started.
Neither the Maui nor the LA fires were an accident.
UPDATE: Miles Mathis knew something was afoot very early on:
I saw the first reports Tuesday evening, then followed it over the next few hours. Before I went to sleep I checked overnight wind predictions from Weather Underground, since the mainstream was saying wind would remain high overnight. That would be extremely rare, since wind normally dies down at night. Weather is not completely predictable, of course, but they are very accurate just a few hours out, and the professionals were confirming to me winds would drop down to about 5mph overnight. That would last at least 14 hours, so I assumed hotshot teams would fly in from all over the state and knock this thing down overnight. There are no other fires in the state, since northern California has gotten a lot of rain in the past two months. Where I am we have gotten a thorough soaking since November. So all the planes and helicopters across the entire state should have been free to assist. Besides, this was Pacific Palisades, home of the rich, so you would expect the response to be at maximum. No expense would be spared.
But of course we all know that isn’t what happened. When I woke up about noon, I checked both Calfire and Wunderground first thing. Wunderground confirmed the winds overnight had been very calm all across the LA area, and wouldn’t be as strong on Wednesday as they had been on Tuesday. Tuesday peaked about 25mph, and Wednesday was supposed to peak at about 15mph. Brisk, but not too strong to fight fires very successfully. But when I went to Calfire, I was in for a shock: zero containment. Not only that, but the mainstream and alternative reports were both full of downright lies, trying to push 100mph winds on me, high overnight winds, and no fall-off on Wednesday. So I knew immediately the usual mischief was afoot, mischief that had to be something like we saw in Lahaina.
Neil Gaiman had an extraordinary career. And I mean that literally. It was Extra Ordinary.
Writers who’ve hit it big all have the same complaint. Some rando will come up to them and make the following offer; “I’ve got this absolutely amazing idea for a story. Here’s the deal, I’ll tell you about the idea, then you write the book and then we split the money.” Gaiman’s biggest successes were in getting people to actually do that for him. Anyone who’s read Terry Pratchett knows damn good and well who did all of the heavy lifting in Good Omens. Even Gaiman admitted it. As for Sandman, the most amazing comic book of all time, how much of that comic’s success was due to the artwork? Without Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Jill Thompson, Shawn McManus, Marc Hempel, Bryan Talbot, and Michael Zulli, would anyone have the vivid impressions of that title that they do? They were the real storytellers, Gaiman just had the ‘amazing idea.’ Which half the time were retreads of somebody else’s work.
As for the King of Dreams, let’s be honest here, Morpheus was nothing more than a Mary Sue and a pretty obvious one at that. And one that no one can look at now without seeing the true horror it was masking. Sandman is about to be swept under the rug alongside his “creator.”
It is over. It is ended.
But Larry Correia most definitely won the best quote competition:
Years ago John Scalzi declared me teaching armed self-defense classes to women was “victim blaming”. Turns out Scalzi just didn’t want his friend Neil Gaiman to get shot.
And speaking of John Scalzi, he managed to both a) avoid condemning Gaiman and b) make the entire scandal about himself and his feelings. Again. The man really chose the wrong career, as instead of a mediocre pop SF writer, he could have been the greatest White House press officer the world has ever seen.
I hate every single possible thing about this, and I’m heartbroken about all of it.
I’ve admired Neil’s work immensely, but my connection is, we’re friends and have been for some time. All this has been a set of punches to the gut. I’ve been (reasonably) criticized about not being louder sooner, but processing bad news about friends is a thing, and it hurts.
This is at odds with my public persona of “moderately famous nerd has opinions online,” plus there are folks who believe that the SF/F field has been unusually silent on Neil and find that troubling. So, some backlash for me on it. Fair enough. There’s no response that’ll make everyone happy. If I don’t comment there will be “his silence is telling,” and if I do respond there will be “way to make it about you,” and if I acknowledge any grief, I’ll get knocked for my “processing,” etc. I accept a ration of crap is mine no matter what.
And finally, two women on Reddit reveal that women on the science fiction tour circuit have known about Gaiman for 25 years, but it’s been swept under the table and kept quiet by a conspiracy of bookstore owners and people working in the publishing industry.
I was warned to stay away from Neil Gaiman when I was in college. So approximately 25 years ago. Despite never having been at an event he was present at. Women in the science fiction and con communities have been trying to keep each other safe from him for a long time. When the public allegations came out, the reaction I heard from a lot of women was “good, we’re allowed to talk about this now”.
I had the same experience in the early aughts. I was a pratchett fan, found good omens through that route, and was talking to an older woman in the sci fi community about the book. She warned me to stay away from Neil Gaiman and said he liked to take advantage of young fans. Now that all this news is coming out I’m so, so grateful to her but horrified that nothings come to light sooner.
And to absolutely no one’s surprise, the meme masters at Neil Gaiman Memes do not disappoint.
L’il Benny has come a long way from his days as the openly imperialist Littlest Chickenhawk, and as the Hollywood Reporter – which is famous for its panegyrics to conservatives and Republicans – breathlessly reports, his massive success is totally real, totally organic, and not at all fake and manufactured:
Shapiro admits that, yes, he was once a Never Trumper. “In 2016, I didn’t vote for either candidate because I didn’t know if President Trump was going to be conservative,” he says in a bit of self-serving revisionism. Like many other right wing media figures at the time, he eloquently spoke about Trump’s many moral failures and called him a joke — but eventually caved. He maintains, however, that his take on Trump as a person is basically the same. As he puts it to me on the plane, “My opinion of Trump characterologically has not changed.”
But once Trump was in office, “right away he nominated Justice [Neil] Gorsuch, and I put on a MAGA hat,” says Shapiro. “In 2020, obviously, I backed him. And in 2024, I gave money to his campaign, I fundraised for him. I campaigned in six states. If we back him and if he does the right things, which I think he will, then America will be great.”
It’s mildly amusing that even a puff-piece article about Ben Shapiro can’t help but show what a complete fraud he is. The thing is, I knew Ben Shapiro back when he had a conscience. He made a conscious, informed decision to sell his soul and his mind for fame and money. And I can assure you, he knows better than anyone else what an intellectual imposter he is.
As for the so-called “fastest-growing conservative empire”, the Daily Wire, well, conservative Boomers have always been suckers for those who despise them pretending to be one of them. But the Daily Wire has never been able to conserve its professed positions and principles any more than conservatives managed to conserve marriage or the Ladies Room.
Universal Press Syndicate signed my WND column because they thought I was the intellectual heir to William F. Buckley. As it turns out, it’s Ben Shapiro who was his true heir. In more ways than one..
New York Magazine publishes a cover article going into copious detail on Neil Gaiman’s alleged sex crimes. There is only one new accuser, and the article abruptly shies away from the obvious question about his current relationship to Scientology and how that has benefited his career, but the details of the existing accusations are worse than even those of us with longtime suspicious about the man had imagined. Note that the quoted section below is about as innocuous as it gets, be warned that Gaiman’s described behavior isn’t merely immoral, illegal, and offensive, but very literally disgusting.
Around four in the afternoon on February 4, Pavlovich took the ferry from Auckland to Waiheke, then sat on a bus and walked through the woods until she arrived at Gaiman’s house, an asymmetrical A-frame of dark burnished wood with picture windows overlooking the sea. Palmer had arranged a playdate for the child, so not long after Pavlovich arrived, she found herself alone in the house with the author. For a little while, Gaiman worked in his office while she read on the couch. Then he emerged and offered her a tour of the grounds. A striking figure at 61, his wild black curls threaded with strands of silver, the author picked a fig — her favorite fruit — and handed it to her. Around 8 p.m., they sat down for pizza. Gaiman poured Pavlovich a glass of rosé and then another. He drank only water. They made awkward conversation about New Zealand, about COVID. Pavlovich had never read any of his work, but she was anxious to make a good impression. After she’d cleaned up their plates, Gaiman noted that there was still time before they would have to pick up his son from the playdate. “‘I’ve had a thought,’” she recalls him saying. “‘Why don’t you have a bath in the beautiful claw bathtub in the garden? It’s absolutely enchanting.’” Pavlovich told Gaiman that she was fine as she was but ultimately agreed. He needed to make a work call, he said, and didn’t want Pavlovich to be bored.
Gaiman led Pavlovich down a stone path into the garden to an old-fashioned tub with a roll top and walked away. She got undressed and sank into the bath, looking up at the furry magenta blossoms of the pohutukawa tree overhead. A few minutes later, she was surprised to hear Gaiman’s footsteps on the stones in the dark. She tried to cover her breasts with her arms. When he arrived at the bath, she saw that he was naked. Gaiman put out a couple of citronella candles, lit them, and got into the bath. He stretched out, facing her, and, for a few minutes, made small talk. He bitched about Palmer’s schedule. He talked about his kid’s school. Then he told her to stretch her legs out and “get comfortable.”
“I said ‘no.’ I said, ‘I’m not confident with my body,’” Pavlovich recalls. “He said, ‘It’s okay — it’s only me. Just relax. Just have a chat.’” She didn’t move. He looked at her again and said, “Don’t ruin the moment.” She did as instructed, and he began to stroke her feet. At that point, she recalls, she felt “a subtle terror.”
Now that a mainstream magazine is willing to directly address the issue, and now that it’s apparent from the details provided that this guy is not merely bumping up against the borders of consent, but is a full-fledged predator and rapist, it’s going to be a lot harder for publishers like Harper Collins, Folio Society, Easton Press, and Penguin Random House to blithely continue publishing his work while simultaneously asserting their dedication to social justice.
In fact, I was reliably informed that the Folio Society didn’t want to have anything to do with me because their executives believe I am a Very Bad Man, and yet they continue to market and sell Neil Gaiman’s books despite the fact that they know perfectly well multiple women have been publicly accusing Gaiman of raping them for more than six months.
I suggest that Folio Society executives like Lauren Juster and Joanna Reynolds take the time to read today’s New York Magazine article which details, at great length, their publishing partner’s crimes against women. And there is absolutely no way that there isn’t more, and quite possibly worse, forthcoming.
That picture is both apt and hysterical, especially after decades of media images seeking to present him as some sort of dweeby neo-rock star. How the foul are fallen! But the physiognomy was warning us all along. And even though there isn’t much in the way of new accusations, the sheer volume of detail is apparently proving enough to convince some of Gaiman’s most stubborn defenders, such as this disappointed fan.
Neil Gaiman has been one of my favorite creators since I first picked up The Sandman with issue #7. His work has been a constant in my life since, and I treasured everything the man has written. He seemed like a truly decent human being. I even got to interact with him once on Tumblr, that felt like a really great moment in my life. Since the allegations of SA surfaced last year, I have been quietly hoping against hope, that my impression of his decency would survive. Now that I’ve taken the plunge, reading this article, and diving into this rabbit hole with other sources, I have to admit to myself that Gaiman is likely guilty of what he’s accused of. And while it’s disappointing to learn the awful truth about an artist you respected (adored), my deeper sorrow lies with these women he most likely assaulted and abused. And I feel more than a touch of shame for burying my head in the sand because I didn’t want to be dissapointed in yet another person.
It’s also remarkable to see the pictures of his accusers and observe how all the women upon whom he allegedly preyed look so much alike. If you were a Gaiman fan who was young, plain, insecure, brown-haired, and weren’t overweight, you were in trouble.
UPDATE: /pol/ has taken notice. If the weaponized autists get rolling on the subject, a lot of things will be learned that the investigative journalists haven’t uncovered yet.
UPDATE: Fandom Pulse is on it as well. Please note that they were a little less delicate with regards to the quotes from the article regarding Gaiman’s alleged violent perversions.
UPDATE: JK Rowling calls out the SJWs who are normally so quick to denounce people, but have been uncharacteristically reticent to call for Gaiman’s cancellation and deplatforming.
The literary crowd that had a hell of a lot to say about Harvey Weinstein before he was convicted has been strangely muted in its responses to multiple accusations against Neil Gaiman from young women who’d never met, yet – as with Weinstein – tell remarkably similar stories.
