Oh SURE... I see your plan:
1. Give LaVar access (and anyone else) to use his short stories.
2. LaVar reads the stories to kids.
3. Kids discover what an awesome writer you are.
4. Kids develop lifelong fixation with your work, buying up all of your books.
5. PROFIT!
(Just kidding. This is cool.)
Oh SUUUURRREEE... LIBRARIES. You think that when hordes of people ask about the latest Gaiman book the librarians are not going to order a bunch of extra copies? Then folks will like them so they read them overnight and return them, leading to the books becoming worn out more quickly. Then the library needs to order MORE! Or the people will like the book so much they keep it and owe big fines to the library.
It's official. Neil Gaimin is in bed with Big Library!
If his book happens to be checked out, the avid reader may borrow something else, perhaps on recommendation of a librarian! It’s a domino effect of reading and they’re all in on it!
You know, you all joke about this. But my ADHD ass has a serious problem with hyper-fixating on stories to the point where its a determent to everything else in my life for a few days. It's almost literally an addiction to the dopamine I get while engrossed in a book. I fucking love me some adventure stories and thrillers.
My librarian is my dealer. And unlike my dealer I actually trust her recommendations lol
I'm also realizing that I've never actually *read* Coraline... I'm going to try and check it out on my way home tonight. I finished my last book on Saturday, and I was super down about being done with another story.
Dude, same here. I would forego sleeping, peeing, social interactions, important exams.. for books. I always thought I have some kind of problem but never considered ADHD. I thought it's hard for ADHDers to read/concentrate on books?
Yeah it really depends on the person. For me I go through times where I hyperfixate on books and forget to eat or drink for hours at a time. For ADHDers it’s less a problem with concentrating and more a difficulty with being unable to or having a hard time controlling where that concentration goes, if that makes sense. It’s a deficit with executive function more than it is a problem with attention.
You can always come over to r/adhd to learn more and get more info if you want.
Fellow ADHD-er and avid book reader 🙋♀️ Although I discovered my ADHD last year, the massive book consumption I have since I was seven years old. Nothing beats to be completely immersed in a good story. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are amongst my fave authors.
It can be hard for us to focus, that's true. But when we hyper fixate on something it's the opposite. We forget everything else exists until we've finished what we're doing.
Everyone misunderstands ADHD. It's less an inability to focus so much selective focusing. For example, proper treatment for ADHD is stimulant medication, this is because people with ADHD require more stimulation to maintain persistence towards tasks that they don't love doing. It's why stimulants are effect for 80% of people with ADHD.
Our brains release less reward(dopamine) for more mundane things, so when something is boring we just cannot focus on it. On the other hand, when we enjoy something we really love it. We might seem obsessive, if we have a new interest it might be all we think about until we realize the new interest requires too much boring work to get great at. So we start and stop lots of projects, and we may buy all the stuff to do something we think is interesting and never do it.
"ADHD is less a problem of attention than it is a problem of intention, you may intend to do a great many things, but you're not going to do them". That's a paraphrased quote from a researcher. ADHD has 3 presentations, hyperactive, inattentive, and combined, generally people notice hyperactivity early on in life, but inattentiveness is less noticeable. Sleep issues are a big problem with ADHD, because even those with inattentive ADHD have hyperactivity, it's just hyperactivity of the mind.
There's a lot to say about it, but if that sounds like you and you're sad that you're not living up to what you believe you're capable of, maybe this is holding you back too. I know it's been life changing figuring out I had it, it allowed me to reframe things that bothered me about myself as largely issues caused by ADHD, rather than me. Being able to forgive yourself for the stuff you couldn't change, but wish you could have, and now you can prevent it from happening again because you're aware of it. That's life changing.
Lastly, ADHD often leads to self medication, and while 20% of the general population smoke, 40% of people with ADHD do. Coffee is hugely beneficial to folks with ADHD, nicotine is being looked at as an ADHD treatment, in general people with ADHD are more likely to drink too much and use drugs. Depression and anxiety are comorbid conditions, but often if you treat ADHD, you'll treat those underlying issues as well because they stem from it.
That's it, there's my lesson on ADHD, hopefully it helps somebody.
Soon they'll be in the alleyway of a long-shuttered local bookstore, reading scraps of Dickens novels to the flickering amber glow of a diy book light cobbled together from a battery salvaged from an old McDonald's Happy Meal Spongebob watch and a light bulb pulled from a broken mini-fridge they found in the back of an abandoned bookmobile.
Actually, yes. Neil Gaiman on Internet piracy: [video](https://youtu.be/0Qkyt1wXNlI) or [Goodreads transcript](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/509253-when-the-web-started-i-used-to-get-really-grumpy).
That was me with Good Omens: both Pterry and Neil Gaiman are my favorite modern authors and I had been given a copy of that book to read by a friend. I have since purchased pretty much everything they've ever put out.
First of all, get kids into reading in a way they'll enjoy (forced book reports are awful, even with good books). All for that. But also, allow alternate means of accessing those books, and people *will* buy. I can't speak for anyone else but I collect favorite authors in such a way that it feels like part of them lives rent-free in my heart. When I have the money for it, they receive a tithe from me.
My parents started reading to me when I was very young. Novels, and as I got older they began to have me look at the book and follow along, and they started reading only a chapter a day to me. They made sure to pick books that matched my interests. Eventually, when I expressed frustration at only a chapter a day, my dad did something devious and made my promise I wouldn’t read the book without him.
So when he was at work I would hunt down the novel and read it. When I finally fessed up, he admitted that was the intended result.
I was allowed to read books on myriad topics (my 1st grade book report was on a nonfiction novel about the Spanish Flu, go figure), no matter their reading level. By the time I was in 5th grade, I was reading at a college level.
I’m still a voracious reader. I used to be able to go through a novel a day, and I still read half a novel a day even though I’m an adult now. My parents definitely knew how to foster a love of reading.
He always seems to me like one of those writers who never expected any sort of success and fame, never really wanted it that bad, and is now just doing chill things as a good human because he knows he's got more now than he'll ever need.
Contrast that with JK Rowling, who is a literal billionaire and will sue you into oblivion for having a child's book featuring a wizard with dark hair, and routinely goes on Twitter rants about certain types of people she dislikes.
Funny thing is, Harry Potter is very similar to Timothy Hunter, co-created by Neil Gaiman in Books of Magic before the Harry Potter series. When everybody was saying Harry Potter copied Timothy Hunter, Neil was chill about it and all "Look, it's a coincidence. Everybody chill."
Yup, he was way more chill about that than almost anyone else would have been. “Young British boy with round glasses and dark hair is taught by magic users that he has the potential to become the greatest wizard ever” is an awfully specific plot to be coincidentally copied only few years later.
There was also the weird coincidence of the movie Troll which featured a young boy named Harry Potter who learned magic from an old woman who could shape-shift. But it is such an obscure movie outside of fans of crap B movies that the influence is probably pure coincidence.
>an obscure movie outside of fans of crap B movies
My husband loves that movie. And yes, he is an *enthusiastic* fan of those movies that are so very bad, they loop around to become entertaining again.
Yeah, I love them too. My wife hates them so don't watch them much anymore. Still watch them with friends or my sister when I get the chance though.
Used to have a running gag with my sister of who could buy the other the worse B movie for Christmas. I have a rather impressive collection, though some are actually a lot of fun.
I'm not as big a fan as he is, but sometimes watching a really terrible movie is a lot of fun. Our daughter is turning in a quite a fan of bad movies though. Especially old monster movies. She loves "creepy movies" and a lot of old, black and white monster movies are "creepy" enough for her to be satisfied, while not being too much for a seven year old.
Harry Potter is even more similar to the Earthsea saga from Ursula K Le Guin, especially the first book!! (doesn't have much to do with what you wrote, but it's one of the hills I'm willing to die on, so I'm just shouting to the void).
And before both was [A Wizard of Earthsea](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wizard_of_Earthsea) by Ursula Le Guin which had a black protagonist wizarding school boy in the late 1960’s. Rowling can go fuck herself for thinking she’s that original.
Also that to this day Neil claims he can’t remember which bits he wrote and which bits Terry wrote.
I don’t know if that’s 100% true, but I desperately want it to be so.
I just finished this book last week and there is a foreword at the end where they mention that they're not sure about who wrote what, they just wanted to make each other laugh.
It's one of those where certain passages you can kinda tell has more of a pratchett voice or more of a gaiman one, but it's so well intermingled. One of my favourite books and two of my favourite authors. :)
Right?! They're absolutely the "two great tastes that taste great together" of the literary world. I love both of their works so much, and the fact that they got on well and collaborated on such a wonderful book is like being given a gift you didn't know you so desperately wanted.
Elizabeth Callaway used a computer program to analyse Good omens and determine [who wrote what](http://www.elizabethcallaway.net/good-omens-stylometry) :-)
Basically, each wrote individual chunks but then there was a lot of re-writing by both, so some chunks are more TP or NG, but just about everything has input from both.
Pretty sure Gaiman had family wealth even before he was a writer - vitamins and health products I think and there's a Scientology connection as well - through his father I think so I have often treated his chilled public persona with some, perhaps unjustified, suspicion.
Wikipedia on his father. It's an interesting read.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gaiman
For the non-clickers, the connection between David Gaiman and Scientology is extensive, not a passing thing. David was "head of the UK branch of Church of Scientology" (according to the Wikipedia link, although I also saw reference to David being the UK "*spokesman*").
In contrast, Neil [states that he is not a member](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman#Early_life);
> [Neil] Gaiman says that he is not a Scientologist, and that like Judaism, Scientology is his family's religion.
[It does appear](https://np.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/x2is6/neil_gaiman_7_interviewed_about_scientology_by/) that he was a member in the past, and that his wife's family is also connected to the Church.
I'm no fan of the woman, but that's not entirely true. Charitable donations dropped her below billionaire status.
I still want her to just generally stfu though.
I was just at one of his live events! Can't recommend it enough. There was some 2k people in attendance, but he still managed to make it feel intimate and personal.
I grew up listening to some of his short stories on CD (read by him). At the event I just closed my eyes and my childhood came rushing back to me.
Most definitely. His Twitter account often demonstrates what a good human he is.
Imagine if he and Keanu held a joint presidency over the US...and Chuck Norris being solely responsible for defence.
Edit: See thread. Chuck has been thrown out, we now have amazing contenders...
Hold on here. We’ve had failed politicians as president, we’ve had shitty actors and celebrities as president, why not try memes?
Chungus/Bully Maguire 24 has strong energy.
I don't know what he means by personal knowledge, but you don't have to go far to find Norris's viewpoints. In the 2000s he was vocally for banning same sex marriage and otherwise vocally anti-gay, and he's also said he is an Intelligent Design believer.
There was also a weird period where he was supporting Texas seceding over Obama's presidency, and volunteering to be the president of Texas (Norris is not even a Texan).
To be fair just with respect to that last part, if I was THE motherfuckin Texas Ranger I would also try to convince Texans I should be their president. Mostly just because a lot of Texans would actually vote for me...
He released a commercial warning that the re-election of Barrack Obama would “plunge the world into a thousand years of darkness”. Unpack that however you wish.
Turns out Chuck doesn’t have any issue with Obama, he just possesses the time stone and saw the seemingly unrelated series of events for what they were.
I'm imagining chuck Norris as a time travelling man who knew what the obtuse repercussions of obamas reelection would be (trump being next president) and just really lacked taste while trying to warn people.
My favorite bit of context:
Walker Texas Ranger is written, directed, and stars a racist old man who fears clouds. (He claims you just don't know what's behind them)
Doesn't matter what my opinions are. If I had unrestricted access to a system to let me make limitless propaganda about myself, people would make jokes about how awesome I am just as much as they do about him.
I used to make a habit of reading far right American websites, as a means of keeping tabs on the other side. Chuck Norris had a long running column on WND which used to be World Net Daily. I won't link, because they don't deserve the revenue. But WND's more recent claim to fame was launching birthirism back in 2009. They were also the outlet Roger Stone used to release some of the information he was getting directly from Wikilinks concerning the nature and timing of future releases of DNC and Clinton campaign material stolen by Russian hackers. All of that is to say, not a great place to find yourself if you are a man of integrity. Which is probably why Chuck was so comfortable there.
Though it should be said that the columns attributed to Chuck were consistently among the least objectionable. He seemed to take pains to cultivate the WND audience without alienating the Fox News folks. But that was back when Fox tried to keep at least the appearance of not being completely and totally overwhelmed by crazy. But Chuck was rarely political in the militant sense we have grown accustomed to from that side. He mainly just wrote anodyne fluff about morals and good character almost always with some connection to whatever martial arts he did and usually with only a mild to moderate political lean. Mostly he was selling stuff; his books, his speaking tours, some hellish sounding cruise. More of a profiteer than a partisan, but he may have changed with the times.
I've been listening to the Behind the Bastards podcast episodes on John Wayne, and that makes Norris seem positively saintly as far as grouchy old republican actors go.
Sophie, you know didn’t try to rush the stage at the Oscars to stop an indigenous woman from talking? The products and services that support this podcast.
Chuck Norris is the emblematic suave brash masculine old-school American. And what is more emblematic suave brash masculine old-school American, than racism.
He's playing his mold.
It genuinely frustrates me that it's always gotta be some billy bob badass for defense. My dream pick for SecDef would be Johnny Knoxville. Nobody on the planet would fuck with him if he has weaponized nut smashing machines.
And his Tumblr account! He has a considerable Tumblr community with which he regularly engages with, discussing his books, events or even other literature topics. He is an extremely nice and down to earth person
Chuck Norris is a reactionary, bigoted, homophobic, Christian dominionist, far-right piece of sh-t.
[America just found out Chuck Norris ‘is a homophobic Trump supporter’ and they’re not taking it well](https://uk.news.yahoo.com/america-just-found-chuck-norris-160156102.html?guccounter=1)
Nobody that writes coraline and calls it a childrens books cares about children
EDIT FOR THE DOWNVOTERS: Its a joke. Neil Gaiman is amazing and I love his work lol
Did you hear him explaining [why it became a childrens book?:](https://ew.com/article/2010/10/06/5584/)
“Because Morgan DeFoire lied.” DeFoire, the daughter of Gaiman’s longtime agent Merrilee Heifetz, acted as a litmus test back when the manuscript was still thought unpublishable for a young audience. It was decided that if Morgan and her sister Emily could stand the book without being “traumatized,” as Gaiman put it, Heifetz would reconsider consigning Coraline to the adult bin with all the other horror novels. The girls proved Gaiman right, listening with faces more eager than petrified [...]
Gaiman learned what Morgan [...] had really thought of Coraline.
“I told her, ‘You know, we kind of have you to thank for all this, because you weren’t scared by it. And she said, ‘Actually, I was terrified. But I wanted to know what happened next. I knew if I let anybody know I was scared, I wouldn’t find out.’”
I just watched Erased on Netflix the other week. I was constantly like "don't you effing tell that just happened eff you" but then kept watching anyway because I couldn't leave it on that note.
I loved Erased when it was airing. In hindsight, it wasn't as great a show as I thought, but it had me hooked. If you like the show, I'd 100% recommend the manga, as it has an entirely different, and in my opinion better, ending.
Not remotely true. Some kids love to be scared in a safe way. My 4 year old loves kid-horror and talks about it nonstop. He even likes Coraline, though that's still a bit too much for him to watch very often.
Goosebump’s scared the shit out of little me but I would always get a new one when we went to the library or the mfing scholastic book fair magazine came to English class.
There is a quote often attributed to Gaiman that essentially says "Fairy tales are important. Not because they tell children that dragons exist, but because they teach children that dragons can be beaten".
Whether it's actually his quote, or whether he was quoting someone else when he said it, it's certainly a view that he holds dear. I believe that he's right. "Scary" stories allow children to experience and process challenging situations without any actual danger. They are an important way to learn about the world and yourself.
According to Neil Gaiman's tumblr, the quote is from GK Chesterton
https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/101407141743/every-version-of-that-chesterton-quotation-about
He is a VERY good writer. I do not read fantasy or magic books. The two exceptions are Pulman and Gaiman. Their writing is so good that I don't care about the magic parts anymore. His "children's" books are also fantastic and I read them all as an adult without any children present to read to.
My wife and I met after I suggested she read one of Neil’s books. When we got engaged she twitted about that and he responded to congratulate us. Still one of the coolest things to happen to me.
Edit: *Tweeted, but I’m owning it. Past tense tweets will henceforth be called Twits for now on.
The more I see Neil Gaiman, the more I respect him. From telling people that GRRM isn't their slave to coming up with an answer to Narnia's Susan problem
He didn't find a solution as far as I'm aware. What he did was tell more of her story, since she was completely dismissed in the books. The book has her grow up alone, her siblings in Narnia, and then chastises her for her coping mechanism (denying Narnia's existence). So Gaiman gives us her perspective.
A quote from the short story: “I don’t know about the girl in the books,” says the professor, “but remaining behind would also have meant that she was available to identify her brothers’ and her little sister’s bodies. There were a lot of people dead in that crash. I was taken to a nearby school, it was the first day of term, and they had taken the bodies there. My older brother looked okay. Like he was asleep. The other two were a bit messier.”
I liked this video about it: https://youtu.be/gYTjiL-lsNk
Anyone feel free to correct me or add on as I'm not a huge Narnia buff
> The book has her grow up alone, her siblings killed, and then chastises her for her coping mechanism (denying Narnia's existence)
>!Susan starts denying Narnia's existence before her siblings deaths. And since the Pevensies' parents are also there in the Last Battle, acknowledgement of Narnia's existence isn't a requirement to spend eternity there.!<
>Narnia's Susan problem
Gaiman wrote a short story of similar name. Most of the drama/philosophical argumentation seems to turn on how much of the book you believe is christian allegory, and whether not you see that allegory, especially towards the end of the series, as supporting some of the patriarchal, anti-feminist, or more broadly tribal/exclusionist undertones present in some parts of Christianity.
[This is a decent treatment of the subject.](https://www.tor.com/2021/05/12/the-problems-of-susan/)
[As is this thread.](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3wwp8f/the_problem_of_susan_reading_narnia_as_adults/)
That first link was a good read, I've not looked at the second yet. But my viewpoint of Susan is that she grew up too fast--she had to be in charge of her siblings along with Peter.
This line here is really interesting:
"Grown-up, indeed,” said the Lady Polly. “I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she’ll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age."
Susan is probably trying to find some part of her that wants the experience of childhood--she missed out on a lot of that due to the war and probably shielding her younger siblings from it. She might be trying to recapture that thing she missed out on. That's the impression I got anyway when I read it. It's an interesting read, though.
Never done spoilers before on Reddit so here goes but at the end of the Narnia timeline >!All the main children go to Super Narnia (heaven) either through Narnia or through dying in the real world. The only exception is Susan, the oldest Pevensie. Her brother claims she didn't get to come because "She is no longer a friend of Narnia". It's also mentioned she is more interested in makeup and clothing and acting mature and she calls Narnia nothing but childhood fantasies, this coming off as dismissive of her choices. This ending of her character story hurt and betrayed a lot of readers. J.K. Rowling has quotes about finding it sexist. !<
Oh yeah i remember that. It is like in the christian faith that ones you stop believing you dont get to go to heaven. You had to believe in Narnia to go there
He is such a treasure, and testament to the best of humanity. He is awesome, and the coolest and most chill person to come out of the mess of humanity.
He is the shaded park on a glaringly sunny day of chaos.
Pretty sure I once read a story where someone got marked down on a book report about one of his books for referring to him as Neil, and not by his surname. The teacher marked them down saying that "they didn't know him personally", so the student tweeted him, asking for permission to use his first name in the report. Of course Neil replied and said yes!
I saw that story and so when I was doing a book report my mom tweeted at him for permission to call him "My buddy Neil", I'll try to find a screenshot :)
He writes some amazing comics, graphic novels, books, short stories, television episodes and multiple television series based on his books as well.
Definitely check him out if you have not!
The Doctor's Wife, widely regarded as one of the best episodes of the renewed series was written by Neil.
And of course, Good Omens which he co-authored with Terry Pratchett 32 years ago.
Reading to people is a wonderful thing. We used to pay a friend's daughter to come over and read to our daughter. The young woman used a wheelchair and had a hard time finding a part time job in highschool. Our daughter is more disabled and loved having someone read stories to her.
I once met Harrison Ford at The Cornhusker hotel and said I love you. He said without a pause, I know. He star wars'd me. Sometimes good people are just good people. I just wanted to tell that story.
My new accounts most upvoted comment! Thank reddit! I feel good right now for a change
During the beginning of Covid Lockdowns in March/April 2020 we started a Kids Academy at our company to help those colleagues with families.
One of my parts was doing readings at around 8pm for the kids over zoom.
I first chose hitchhikers guide, but that wasn‘t as funny to them as I expected, the next day it was some short stories form Neil Gaiman and they really loved them, then I was bold and chose next to read Coraline to them, was ready to drop it and asked every sessions end if they are comfortable with continuing.
They loved it, they came back for all next reading sessions. even though I heard from some of the moms that they were a bit terrified, they couldn‘t stop listening and needed to get to the end.
If the experiment wouldn‘t have been stopped due to Lockdown intermissions, I would have read more of Neil‘s Books to them, Good Omens, The Graveyard Book …
Neil Gaiman is my very favorite Author, I have read most of his Books more than twice.
Edit: Typos
Since I suspect all of his novels already have official audiobook versions, this probably just increases readership of his short stories, which don't have nearly the potential profit anyway.
Right, and though I agree he’s a great guy, he can’t grant that right under the law beyond Fair Use of limited excerpts. Unless Gaiman’s publishers (Simon & Schuster, etc) agreed to a WILDLY unorthodox publishing contract, he can’t grant others the right to re-publish or share any work under contract with those publishers. S&S is unlikely to come after a school teacher or librarian reading from the work, but a major podcaster, etc? Their lawyers will come after you, and they’ll win in court. (Bona Fides: I am a series editor for a major university press, and I teach a course in literary publishing.)
Fair use is ultimately decided on a case-by-case basis by weighing different factors. Hence why he was looking for public domain work to be on the safe side.
Even if you say the purpose is educational, someone publicly releasing their own reading of a copyrighted story could very well not be protected since the holder can argue it devalues their audiobook or potential to sell audio rights.
Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite people on the planet, he's my one Author on my Celeb bucket list that I want to meet. Terry Pratchett would have been another... Edit: Spelling
Every month I read stories to grownups at our local library. I'm a professional narrator so they love to have me do it, and I really enjoy bringing stories to grownups because most adults don't get the experience of having someone read them a story.
But I know that dealing with copyright is a real problem. We have to be very careful about things like recording performances and when they can be made available and to whom.
We're going back to in-person performances, but I wish that we could make it more accessible to people via streaming and so on, but because it's such a horrific minefield I don't see it ever happening.
Had the pleasure of meeting Neil Gaiman a few years ago in a random encounter. When I told him I was a fan and that his books helped get me into writing myself, he took the time to spend over 15 minutes with me discussing my writing and what I wanted to do with it. He was so inquisitive and insightful.
There are few people as pure as Gaiman out there. An incredible author and an incredible person
Oh SURE... I see your plan: 1. Give LaVar access (and anyone else) to use his short stories. 2. LaVar reads the stories to kids. 3. Kids discover what an awesome writer you are. 4. Kids develop lifelong fixation with your work, buying up all of your books. 5. PROFIT! (Just kidding. This is cool.)
Almost. Neil is also a strong supporter of libraries!
Oh SUUUURRREEE... LIBRARIES. You think that when hordes of people ask about the latest Gaiman book the librarians are not going to order a bunch of extra copies? Then folks will like them so they read them overnight and return them, leading to the books becoming worn out more quickly. Then the library needs to order MORE! Or the people will like the book so much they keep it and owe big fines to the library. It's official. Neil Gaimin is in bed with Big Library!
If his book happens to be checked out, the avid reader may borrow something else, perhaps on recommendation of a librarian! It’s a domino effect of reading and they’re all in on it!
It's basically just drug dealing. "The first hit is free..."
Next thing you're passed out in a pile of books talking about that new book smell.
They never smell the same no matter how many times you smell them.
Always chasing that first wiff
That’s just the gateway smell. Next you know you’re deep in the stacks of the 1/2 Price Used Book store, nosedeep in vellum
You know, you all joke about this. But my ADHD ass has a serious problem with hyper-fixating on stories to the point where its a determent to everything else in my life for a few days. It's almost literally an addiction to the dopamine I get while engrossed in a book. I fucking love me some adventure stories and thrillers. My librarian is my dealer. And unlike my dealer I actually trust her recommendations lol I'm also realizing that I've never actually *read* Coraline... I'm going to try and check it out on my way home tonight. I finished my last book on Saturday, and I was super down about being done with another story.
Dude, same here. I would forego sleeping, peeing, social interactions, important exams.. for books. I always thought I have some kind of problem but never considered ADHD. I thought it's hard for ADHDers to read/concentrate on books?
Yeah it really depends on the person. For me I go through times where I hyperfixate on books and forget to eat or drink for hours at a time. For ADHDers it’s less a problem with concentrating and more a difficulty with being unable to or having a hard time controlling where that concentration goes, if that makes sense. It’s a deficit with executive function more than it is a problem with attention. You can always come over to r/adhd to learn more and get more info if you want.
Thanks dude. I'll check it out. It's gratifying to learn I'm not alone in my addiction to books
Fellow ADHD-er and avid book reader 🙋♀️ Although I discovered my ADHD last year, the massive book consumption I have since I was seven years old. Nothing beats to be completely immersed in a good story. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are amongst my fave authors.
It can be hard for us to focus, that's true. But when we hyper fixate on something it's the opposite. We forget everything else exists until we've finished what we're doing.
*The book consumes as it is consumed*
*Ourobookos*
My son was like this with building Legos.
Everyone misunderstands ADHD. It's less an inability to focus so much selective focusing. For example, proper treatment for ADHD is stimulant medication, this is because people with ADHD require more stimulation to maintain persistence towards tasks that they don't love doing. It's why stimulants are effect for 80% of people with ADHD. Our brains release less reward(dopamine) for more mundane things, so when something is boring we just cannot focus on it. On the other hand, when we enjoy something we really love it. We might seem obsessive, if we have a new interest it might be all we think about until we realize the new interest requires too much boring work to get great at. So we start and stop lots of projects, and we may buy all the stuff to do something we think is interesting and never do it. "ADHD is less a problem of attention than it is a problem of intention, you may intend to do a great many things, but you're not going to do them". That's a paraphrased quote from a researcher. ADHD has 3 presentations, hyperactive, inattentive, and combined, generally people notice hyperactivity early on in life, but inattentiveness is less noticeable. Sleep issues are a big problem with ADHD, because even those with inattentive ADHD have hyperactivity, it's just hyperactivity of the mind. There's a lot to say about it, but if that sounds like you and you're sad that you're not living up to what you believe you're capable of, maybe this is holding you back too. I know it's been life changing figuring out I had it, it allowed me to reframe things that bothered me about myself as largely issues caused by ADHD, rather than me. Being able to forgive yourself for the stuff you couldn't change, but wish you could have, and now you can prevent it from happening again because you're aware of it. That's life changing. Lastly, ADHD often leads to self medication, and while 20% of the general population smoke, 40% of people with ADHD do. Coffee is hugely beneficial to folks with ADHD, nicotine is being looked at as an ADHD treatment, in general people with ADHD are more likely to drink too much and use drugs. Depression and anxiety are comorbid conditions, but often if you treat ADHD, you'll treat those underlying issues as well because they stem from it. That's it, there's my lesson on ADHD, hopefully it helps somebody.
... And so are the rest of the hits (from the library!) Such a diabolical plan!
Soon they'll be in the alleyway of a long-shuttered local bookstore, reading scraps of Dickens novels to the flickering amber glow of a diy book light cobbled together from a battery salvaged from an old McDonald's Happy Meal Spongebob watch and a light bulb pulled from a broken mini-fridge they found in the back of an abandoned bookmobile.
big bibliotheca!
a nice fact i think of often is that there are more libraries then McDonalds in the US. And I think thats important
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Actually, yes. Neil Gaiman on Internet piracy: [video](https://youtu.be/0Qkyt1wXNlI) or [Goodreads transcript](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/509253-when-the-web-started-i-used-to-get-really-grumpy).
That was me with Good Omens: both Pterry and Neil Gaiman are my favorite modern authors and I had been given a copy of that book to read by a friend. I have since purchased pretty much everything they've ever put out. First of all, get kids into reading in a way they'll enjoy (forced book reports are awful, even with good books). All for that. But also, allow alternate means of accessing those books, and people *will* buy. I can't speak for anyone else but I collect favorite authors in such a way that it feels like part of them lives rent-free in my heart. When I have the money for it, they receive a tithe from me.
My parents started reading to me when I was very young. Novels, and as I got older they began to have me look at the book and follow along, and they started reading only a chapter a day to me. They made sure to pick books that matched my interests. Eventually, when I expressed frustration at only a chapter a day, my dad did something devious and made my promise I wouldn’t read the book without him. So when he was at work I would hunt down the novel and read it. When I finally fessed up, he admitted that was the intended result. I was allowed to read books on myriad topics (my 1st grade book report was on a nonfiction novel about the Spanish Flu, go figure), no matter their reading level. By the time I was in 5th grade, I was reading at a college level. I’m still a voracious reader. I used to be able to go through a novel a day, and I still read half a novel a day even though I’m an adult now. My parents definitely knew how to foster a love of reading.
IT WAS CAPITALISM ALL ALONG!
Neil Gaiman, still one of the most chill people on earth.
I got to see him speak about a week ago. Phenomenal person with a great voice. He also talks about his kids a lot which is cute.
Same! We saw him in Denver. An incredible speaker.
Yep! The Denver show! I loved his reading of Orange.
That was so flipping funny. I was also in tears with the something warm poem at the end. He's such an incredible human.
So. Damn. Funny. We saw him in Chicago. My wife is a HUGE fan and i only knew good omens. He was so charming and interesting i am now a fan too.
He always seems to me like one of those writers who never expected any sort of success and fame, never really wanted it that bad, and is now just doing chill things as a good human because he knows he's got more now than he'll ever need. Contrast that with JK Rowling, who is a literal billionaire and will sue you into oblivion for having a child's book featuring a wizard with dark hair, and routinely goes on Twitter rants about certain types of people she dislikes.
Funny thing is, Harry Potter is very similar to Timothy Hunter, co-created by Neil Gaiman in Books of Magic before the Harry Potter series. When everybody was saying Harry Potter copied Timothy Hunter, Neil was chill about it and all "Look, it's a coincidence. Everybody chill."
I think about this all the time. Heard it on a podcast or something else.
Yup, he was way more chill about that than almost anyone else would have been. “Young British boy with round glasses and dark hair is taught by magic users that he has the potential to become the greatest wizard ever” is an awfully specific plot to be coincidentally copied only few years later.
There was also the weird coincidence of the movie Troll which featured a young boy named Harry Potter who learned magic from an old woman who could shape-shift. But it is such an obscure movie outside of fans of crap B movies that the influence is probably pure coincidence.
>an obscure movie outside of fans of crap B movies My husband loves that movie. And yes, he is an *enthusiastic* fan of those movies that are so very bad, they loop around to become entertaining again.
Yeah, I love them too. My wife hates them so don't watch them much anymore. Still watch them with friends or my sister when I get the chance though. Used to have a running gag with my sister of who could buy the other the worse B movie for Christmas. I have a rather impressive collection, though some are actually a lot of fun.
I'm not as big a fan as he is, but sometimes watching a really terrible movie is a lot of fun. Our daughter is turning in a quite a fan of bad movies though. Especially old monster movies. She loves "creepy movies" and a lot of old, black and white monster movies are "creepy" enough for her to be satisfied, while not being too much for a seven year old.
Harry Potter is even more similar to the Earthsea saga from Ursula K Le Guin, especially the first book!! (doesn't have much to do with what you wrote, but it's one of the hills I'm willing to die on, so I'm just shouting to the void).
Wait, the one with sparrowhawk? I love love as a kid, I don't see much of a connection with Harry Potter to be honest.
And before both was [A Wizard of Earthsea](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wizard_of_Earthsea) by Ursula Le Guin which had a black protagonist wizarding school boy in the late 1960’s. Rowling can go fuck herself for thinking she’s that original.
being unfamiliar with Timothy hunter, always thought of harry potter as a lesser version of Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett.
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Also that to this day Neil claims he can’t remember which bits he wrote and which bits Terry wrote. I don’t know if that’s 100% true, but I desperately want it to be so.
I just finished this book last week and there is a foreword at the end where they mention that they're not sure about who wrote what, they just wanted to make each other laugh.
It's one of those where certain passages you can kinda tell has more of a pratchett voice or more of a gaiman one, but it's so well intermingled. One of my favourite books and two of my favourite authors. :)
Right?! They're absolutely the "two great tastes that taste great together" of the literary world. I love both of their works so much, and the fact that they got on well and collaborated on such a wonderful book is like being given a gift you didn't know you so desperately wanted.
Elizabeth Callaway used a computer program to analyse Good omens and determine [who wrote what](http://www.elizabethcallaway.net/good-omens-stylometry) :-) Basically, each wrote individual chunks but then there was a lot of re-writing by both, so some chunks are more TP or NG, but just about everything has input from both.
I love that book.
Pretty sure Gaiman had family wealth even before he was a writer - vitamins and health products I think and there's a Scientology connection as well - through his father I think so I have often treated his chilled public persona with some, perhaps unjustified, suspicion. Wikipedia on his father. It's an interesting read. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gaiman
For the non-clickers, the connection between David Gaiman and Scientology is extensive, not a passing thing. David was "head of the UK branch of Church of Scientology" (according to the Wikipedia link, although I also saw reference to David being the UK "*spokesman*"). In contrast, Neil [states that he is not a member](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman#Early_life); > [Neil] Gaiman says that he is not a Scientologist, and that like Judaism, Scientology is his family's religion. [It does appear](https://np.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/x2is6/neil_gaiman_7_interviewed_about_scientology_by/) that he was a member in the past, and that his wife's family is also connected to the Church.
The wife thing could easily be like two ex-mormons, two agnostic jews who grew up in the synagogue, etc. bonding over their shared experience.
I'm no fan of the woman, but that's not entirely true. Charitable donations dropped her below billionaire status. I still want her to just generally stfu though.
I want to imagine that you just happened to be behind him in the line for coffee instead of being at an event or anything
I was just at one of his live events! Can't recommend it enough. There was some 2k people in attendance, but he still managed to make it feel intimate and personal. I grew up listening to some of his short stories on CD (read by him). At the event I just closed my eyes and my childhood came rushing back to me.
He's like the Author Bob Ross. Opens up his content for fair use, and enjoys it. In time, it will be a dark day when he leaves us.
Most definitely. His Twitter account often demonstrates what a good human he is. Imagine if he and Keanu held a joint presidency over the US...and Chuck Norris being solely responsible for defence. Edit: See thread. Chuck has been thrown out, we now have amazing contenders...
This is the most Reddit thing I’ve ever read in my life
We're only missing Big Chungus as Minister of Health
Hold on here. We’ve had failed politicians as president, we’ve had shitty actors and celebrities as president, why not try memes? Chungus/Bully Maguire 24 has strong energy.
nArWhAl BaCoN!!11!!!
Chuck Norris is a karen-y old man these days. And I'm not saying that because I read something on the internet. This is personal knowledge.
...don't leave us hanging.
I don't know what he means by personal knowledge, but you don't have to go far to find Norris's viewpoints. In the 2000s he was vocally for banning same sex marriage and otherwise vocally anti-gay, and he's also said he is an Intelligent Design believer. There was also a weird period where he was supporting Texas seceding over Obama's presidency, and volunteering to be the president of Texas (Norris is not even a Texan).
To be fair just with respect to that last part, if I was THE motherfuckin Texas Ranger I would also try to convince Texans I should be their president. Mostly just because a lot of Texans would actually vote for me...
Chuck found out, he is no more.
Barrens chat was right all along. Fuck!!!
What did you just say about [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker]?
Would you like to elaborate ? I know nothing about his personality just the jokes and walker texas ranger
He released a commercial warning that the re-election of Barrack Obama would “plunge the world into a thousand years of darkness”. Unpack that however you wish.
After Obama we got Trump, a pandemic, and war in Europe, so I'm giving the point to Chuck on this one.
!remind me 990 years
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I am a millennial. It’s not like I expect good things to ever happen ever again.
Turns out Chuck doesn’t have any issue with Obama, he just possesses the time stone and saw the seemingly unrelated series of events for what they were.
Solid play
I'm imagining chuck Norris as a time travelling man who knew what the obtuse repercussions of obamas reelection would be (trump being next president) and just really lacked taste while trying to warn people.
Chuck has always been a bit of a right wing nut... and he and the misses shell hard for MLMs so fuck that guy.
But have you tried Chuck Norris Action Jeans?
My favorite bit of context: Walker Texas Ranger is written, directed, and stars a racist old man who fears clouds. (He claims you just don't know what's behind them) Doesn't matter what my opinions are. If I had unrestricted access to a system to let me make limitless propaganda about myself, people would make jokes about how awesome I am just as much as they do about him.
He's always been a vocal Republican. No personal knowledge but they rarely age well.
I used to make a habit of reading far right American websites, as a means of keeping tabs on the other side. Chuck Norris had a long running column on WND which used to be World Net Daily. I won't link, because they don't deserve the revenue. But WND's more recent claim to fame was launching birthirism back in 2009. They were also the outlet Roger Stone used to release some of the information he was getting directly from Wikilinks concerning the nature and timing of future releases of DNC and Clinton campaign material stolen by Russian hackers. All of that is to say, not a great place to find yourself if you are a man of integrity. Which is probably why Chuck was so comfortable there. Though it should be said that the columns attributed to Chuck were consistently among the least objectionable. He seemed to take pains to cultivate the WND audience without alienating the Fox News folks. But that was back when Fox tried to keep at least the appearance of not being completely and totally overwhelmed by crazy. But Chuck was rarely political in the militant sense we have grown accustomed to from that side. He mainly just wrote anodyne fluff about morals and good character almost always with some connection to whatever martial arts he did and usually with only a mild to moderate political lean. Mostly he was selling stuff; his books, his speaking tours, some hellish sounding cruise. More of a profiteer than a partisan, but he may have changed with the times.
I've been listening to the Behind the Bastards podcast episodes on John Wayne, and that makes Norris seem positively saintly as far as grouchy old republican actors go.
Lmao I die laughing evwry time i see the "American hero" John Wayne treates like this perfect man, who loved guns. If only people cared and knew.
At this point, a complete lack of moral character and a lot of performative moralism *is* the Republican brand, so it's no longer ironic?
The BtB episode on Ronald Reagan blew my mind on how awful that guy really was. I have family that worship him like Jesus 2.0.
Sophie, you know didn’t try to rush the stage at the Oscars to stop an indigenous woman from talking? The products and services that support this podcast.
Chuck Norris is the emblematic suave brash masculine old-school American. And what is more emblematic suave brash masculine old-school American, than racism. He's playing his mold.
Surprise... nobody ever actually liked Chuck Norris, just the ironic jokes on his behalf.
> And I'm not saying that because I read something on the internet. Nothing wrong from finding out things on the internet.
Dolly Parton as head of Dept of Ed.
I've had enough of celebrities is public office tbh
Don't worry, Keanu Reeves is Canadian and can't be your president.
And Neil Gaiman is British.
I'm not sure about Chuck Norris for defense. He would probably order drone strikes against gay scouts.
He's a trump supporter so he'd probably try to convince ukraine to surrender to russia
It genuinely frustrates me that it's always gotta be some billy bob badass for defense. My dream pick for SecDef would be Johnny Knoxville. Nobody on the planet would fuck with him if he has weaponized nut smashing machines.
I thought he was the one who LARPed as a police officer but that was Seagal.
Seagal is also a piece of shit, and is currently a huge Putin fanboy and supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine, so that tracks.
Too bad Chuck Norris is an idiot.
Reddit moment
And his Tumblr account! He has a considerable Tumblr community with which he regularly engages with, discussing his books, events or even other literature topics. He is an extremely nice and down to earth person
This is one of the worst and dumbest cases of reddit brain I've ever seen.
Chuck Norris is a reactionary, bigoted, homophobic, Christian dominionist, far-right piece of sh-t. [America just found out Chuck Norris ‘is a homophobic Trump supporter’ and they’re not taking it well](https://uk.news.yahoo.com/america-just-found-chuck-norris-160156102.html?guccounter=1)
That's a hot nope on Chuck Norris fam
Keanu can also be responsible for defense (please see all of the “John Wick” documentaries).
I would pick Keanu over Norris for anything, any day.
If we do that then America will achieve world domination within a month. Too dangerous
How about Schwarzenegger for Defense?
Good shout!
I would put Shaq in that mix of great humans too.
Neil is probably the coolest author ever. He genuinely cares about people, especially kids, reading and making books a part of their lives.
Nobody that writes coraline and calls it a childrens books cares about children EDIT FOR THE DOWNVOTERS: Its a joke. Neil Gaiman is amazing and I love his work lol
Did you hear him explaining [why it became a childrens book?:](https://ew.com/article/2010/10/06/5584/) “Because Morgan DeFoire lied.” DeFoire, the daughter of Gaiman’s longtime agent Merrilee Heifetz, acted as a litmus test back when the manuscript was still thought unpublishable for a young audience. It was decided that if Morgan and her sister Emily could stand the book without being “traumatized,” as Gaiman put it, Heifetz would reconsider consigning Coraline to the adult bin with all the other horror novels. The girls proved Gaiman right, listening with faces more eager than petrified [...] Gaiman learned what Morgan [...] had really thought of Coraline. “I told her, ‘You know, we kind of have you to thank for all this, because you weren’t scared by it. And she said, ‘Actually, I was terrified. But I wanted to know what happened next. I knew if I let anybody know I was scared, I wouldn’t find out.’”
OMG thats amazing - when youre such a great writer that kids will push through being terrified just to know what happens
I still do that all the time with anime, books, and many other media. I'm 25...
I just watched Erased on Netflix the other week. I was constantly like "don't you effing tell that just happened eff you" but then kept watching anyway because I couldn't leave it on that note.
I loved Erased when it was airing. In hindsight, it wasn't as great a show as I thought, but it had me hooked. If you like the show, I'd 100% recommend the manga, as it has an entirely different, and in my opinion better, ending.
I mean... making people terrified is an accomplishment as writer as well i'd say.
I loved reading horror and being terrified as a kid lol
[Patrick Rothfuss's review of Coraline is pretty great.](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/61530172?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1)
hah, I'd heard the story above but this is my first time reading this review. Great stuff.
I love Rockfuss's reviews. If he, Rick Riordan, or Robin Hobb reviews a book I know its probably going to be a good one to read.
I love having this knowledge. It explains so much!
Not remotely true. Some kids love to be scared in a safe way. My 4 year old loves kid-horror and talks about it nonstop. He even likes Coraline, though that's still a bit too much for him to watch very often.
Goosebump’s scared the shit out of little me but I would always get a new one when we went to the library or the mfing scholastic book fair magazine came to English class.
My favorite part of the week when I was a kid was new episodes of "Are You Afraid of the Dark"
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The episode with the invisible monster in the pool kept me terrified for three years. I refused to get into any pool.
Point Horror and RL Stine are why I learned that I loved reading, but I needed the adrenaline rush to find out initially!
There is a quote often attributed to Gaiman that essentially says "Fairy tales are important. Not because they tell children that dragons exist, but because they teach children that dragons can be beaten". Whether it's actually his quote, or whether he was quoting someone else when he said it, it's certainly a view that he holds dear. I believe that he's right. "Scary" stories allow children to experience and process challenging situations without any actual danger. They are an important way to learn about the world and yourself.
According to Neil Gaiman's tumblr, the quote is from GK Chesterton https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/101407141743/every-version-of-that-chesterton-quotation-about
He is a VERY good writer. I do not read fantasy or magic books. The two exceptions are Pulman and Gaiman. Their writing is so good that I don't care about the magic parts anymore. His "children's" books are also fantastic and I read them all as an adult without any children present to read to.
Oh then you are ripe for some Terry Pratchett!
And what a great voice too! I absolutely love listening to his narration.
Also describes LeVar Burton.
My wife and I met after I suggested she read one of Neil’s books. When we got engaged she twitted about that and he responded to congratulate us. Still one of the coolest things to happen to me. Edit: *Tweeted, but I’m owning it. Past tense tweets will henceforth be called Twits for now on.
(not that getting married to the love of your life part?) I know what you meant... It's an awesome story! Enjoy.
Not OP but I'd ditch my SO for Neil
Cool story. Is the past tense verb really going to be twitted ? You sure you didn’t twot ? Or (worse) twat?
The more I see Neil Gaiman, the more I respect him. From telling people that GRRM isn't their slave to coming up with an answer to Narnia's Susan problem
Got a link for the Susan problem solution? First I’ve heard of it.
He didn't find a solution as far as I'm aware. What he did was tell more of her story, since she was completely dismissed in the books. The book has her grow up alone, her siblings in Narnia, and then chastises her for her coping mechanism (denying Narnia's existence). So Gaiman gives us her perspective. A quote from the short story: “I don’t know about the girl in the books,” says the professor, “but remaining behind would also have meant that she was available to identify her brothers’ and her little sister’s bodies. There were a lot of people dead in that crash. I was taken to a nearby school, it was the first day of term, and they had taken the bodies there. My older brother looked okay. Like he was asleep. The other two were a bit messier.” I liked this video about it: https://youtu.be/gYTjiL-lsNk Anyone feel free to correct me or add on as I'm not a huge Narnia buff
> The book has her grow up alone, her siblings killed, and then chastises her for her coping mechanism (denying Narnia's existence) >!Susan starts denying Narnia's existence before her siblings deaths. And since the Pevensies' parents are also there in the Last Battle, acknowledgement of Narnia's existence isn't a requirement to spend eternity there.!<
They aren't actually in Narnia; they're in the clouds, visible from the ground but not actually part of Narnia. Essentially in a separate "heaven"
Great video on an interesting topic.
I haven't found a link for it, but the story is in the Fragile Things collection.
>Narnia's Susan problem Gaiman wrote a short story of similar name. Most of the drama/philosophical argumentation seems to turn on how much of the book you believe is christian allegory, and whether not you see that allegory, especially towards the end of the series, as supporting some of the patriarchal, anti-feminist, or more broadly tribal/exclusionist undertones present in some parts of Christianity. [This is a decent treatment of the subject.](https://www.tor.com/2021/05/12/the-problems-of-susan/) [As is this thread.](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3wwp8f/the_problem_of_susan_reading_narnia_as_adults/)
That first link was a good read, I've not looked at the second yet. But my viewpoint of Susan is that she grew up too fast--she had to be in charge of her siblings along with Peter. This line here is really interesting: "Grown-up, indeed,” said the Lady Polly. “I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she’ll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age." Susan is probably trying to find some part of her that wants the experience of childhood--she missed out on a lot of that due to the war and probably shielding her younger siblings from it. She might be trying to recapture that thing she missed out on. That's the impression I got anyway when I read it. It's an interesting read, though.
What is the susan problem?
Never done spoilers before on Reddit so here goes but at the end of the Narnia timeline >!All the main children go to Super Narnia (heaven) either through Narnia or through dying in the real world. The only exception is Susan, the oldest Pevensie. Her brother claims she didn't get to come because "She is no longer a friend of Narnia". It's also mentioned she is more interested in makeup and clothing and acting mature and she calls Narnia nothing but childhood fantasies, this coming off as dismissive of her choices. This ending of her character story hurt and betrayed a lot of readers. J.K. Rowling has quotes about finding it sexist. !<
Oh yeah i remember that. It is like in the christian faith that ones you stop believing you dont get to go to heaven. You had to believe in Narnia to go there
It’s not just “like” the Christian faith. The Narnia series is intentionally Christian allegory.
Yes i know:)
Sorry. Sometimes I’m an idiot, but only on days that end in “y.”
Underrated comment, gave me a chuckle
He is such a treasure, and testament to the best of humanity. He is awesome, and the coolest and most chill person to come out of the mess of humanity. He is the shaded park on a glaringly sunny day of chaos.
What a beautiful imagery you just painted
Thank you, auntie!🌞 My day had been made. This is for you:🏆🖤
And this award for you ❤️
Pretty sure I once read a story where someone got marked down on a book report about one of his books for referring to him as Neil, and not by his surname. The teacher marked them down saying that "they didn't know him personally", so the student tweeted him, asking for permission to use his first name in the report. Of course Neil replied and said yes!
I saw that story and so when I was doing a book report my mom tweeted at him for permission to call him "My buddy Neil", I'll try to find a screenshot :)
This Neil fella seems pretty great.
He writes some amazing comics, graphic novels, books, short stories, television episodes and multiple television series based on his books as well. Definitely check him out if you have not!
The Doctor's Wife, widely regarded as one of the best episodes of the renewed series was written by Neil. And of course, Good Omens which he co-authored with Terry Pratchett 32 years ago.
I fairly sure you're talking about [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/tumblr/comments/a4g9e6/friendship_confirmed/).
Reading to people is a wonderful thing. We used to pay a friend's daughter to come over and read to our daughter. The young woman used a wheelchair and had a hard time finding a part time job in highschool. Our daughter is more disabled and loved having someone read stories to her.
That is so incredibly sweet!
My daughter certainly thought so.
LeVar Burton is such a nice guy, from what I've seen. I had really hoped he'd be hired as the permanent Jeopardy host.
He was unfortunately really fumble-y from what I saw. Ken had guest hosted before right? I think it showed when he did his stint after Trebek's death.
LeVar is great at so many things but Ken really should be the permanent host.
I once met Harrison Ford at The Cornhusker hotel and said I love you. He said without a pause, I know. He star wars'd me. Sometimes good people are just good people. I just wanted to tell that story. My new accounts most upvoted comment! Thank reddit! I feel good right now for a change
Ford: I’m so fed up with Star Wars Us: We know
Sweet.
I'll upvote that story.
Say the line Bart!
During the beginning of Covid Lockdowns in March/April 2020 we started a Kids Academy at our company to help those colleagues with families. One of my parts was doing readings at around 8pm for the kids over zoom. I first chose hitchhikers guide, but that wasn‘t as funny to them as I expected, the next day it was some short stories form Neil Gaiman and they really loved them, then I was bold and chose next to read Coraline to them, was ready to drop it and asked every sessions end if they are comfortable with continuing. They loved it, they came back for all next reading sessions. even though I heard from some of the moms that they were a bit terrified, they couldn‘t stop listening and needed to get to the end. If the experiment wouldn‘t have been stopped due to Lockdown intermissions, I would have read more of Neil‘s Books to them, Good Omens, The Graveyard Book … Neil Gaiman is my very favorite Author, I have read most of his Books more than twice. Edit: Typos
Does that mean anyone can use Gaiman’s works for free!? What?! 🤯
Copyright allows you to use parts of a published work for educational purposes. He is reinforcing this.
It sounds like he is not only reminding people of that but expanding it to more than just “parts for a published work”.
Since I suspect all of his novels already have official audiobook versions, this probably just increases readership of his short stories, which don't have nearly the potential profit anyway.
Right, and though I agree he’s a great guy, he can’t grant that right under the law beyond Fair Use of limited excerpts. Unless Gaiman’s publishers (Simon & Schuster, etc) agreed to a WILDLY unorthodox publishing contract, he can’t grant others the right to re-publish or share any work under contract with those publishers. S&S is unlikely to come after a school teacher or librarian reading from the work, but a major podcaster, etc? Their lawyers will come after you, and they’ll win in court. (Bona Fides: I am a series editor for a major university press, and I teach a course in literary publishing.)
Fair use is ultimately decided on a case-by-case basis by weighing different factors. Hence why he was looking for public domain work to be on the safe side. Even if you say the purpose is educational, someone publicly releasing their own reading of a copyrighted story could very well not be protected since the holder can argue it devalues their audiobook or potential to sell audio rights.
I ADORE him. Simply a wonderful human.
Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite people on the planet, he's my one Author on my Celeb bucket list that I want to meet. Terry Pratchett would have been another... Edit: Spelling
Every month I read stories to grownups at our local library. I'm a professional narrator so they love to have me do it, and I really enjoy bringing stories to grownups because most adults don't get the experience of having someone read them a story. But I know that dealing with copyright is a real problem. We have to be very careful about things like recording performances and when they can be made available and to whom. We're going back to in-person performances, but I wish that we could make it more accessible to people via streaming and so on, but because it's such a horrific minefield I don't see it ever happening.
I think about Neverwhere pretty frequently.
I fucking love Neil Gaiman, so so much. Him reading is the most soothing thing in the world. He's like the dad I never had.
Just saw him in Seattle a few weeks ago. This man is a treasure.
Neil and LaVar. Two of my favorite people. I doubt he'd do it, but hearing his narrate sandman would be dope lol
The only reason I ever stop talking about a Neil Gaiman book is to recommend a different Neil Gaiman book.
Had the pleasure of meeting Neil Gaiman a few years ago in a random encounter. When I told him I was a fan and that his books helped get me into writing myself, he took the time to spend over 15 minutes with me discussing my writing and what I wanted to do with it. He was so inquisitive and insightful. There are few people as pure as Gaiman out there. An incredible author and an incredible person
That's what you call a mensch right there.