Spacehamster’s Blog

I first heard about Neil Gaiman about 5 or 6 years ago. The first book of his I ever bought and read was Death: The High Cost of Living. After that I plowed through the entire Sandman collection. To this day, it is still my favourite comic. Heck, the scope is so epic I’m not sure if it even qualifies as a comic anymore!

So imagine my surprise when I heard that Neil Gaiman - the writer of huge movies like Mirrormask, Stardust and Beowulf - was coming to Tasmania. Unfortunately, it appears that many other people were just as surprised as I was and the tickets sold out within a few short days. One day before the actual event, I received a clandestine offer from the organisers to attend the event - naturally I accepted.

And here is Neil’s recap of hsi trip! And I have no idea why the car would be called Darlene either. Just a few more things to add to Neil’s recap:

Neil said that it’s the first time he’s ever read these works in public before. But what the heck, it’s Tasmania! If it doesn’t work, who’s going to know? He’d never read the Bad Fairy Godmother poem before, apparently because it contains the word “Unmannerliness”. Several times, as I vaguely recall. And from Neil’s blog, here’s the background for the poem “Before You Read”:

I’m slowly catching up with things I’ve promised people, one thing at a time. Todd Klein asked if I would do the signed Todd-lettered print after the Alan Moore one, and there was no way I could say no. Then I kept him waiting on tenterhooks until I had an idea, and then I made him tenterhook longer while I worked on it, but eventually I finished something called Before You Read This, which begins

Before you read this familiarize yourself
with the text. Note the position of the escape hatches,
the candles that will light in the event of a forced landing
to show you the way out.

Neil told us how he came up with the idea for the Graveyard Book: Many years ago, he used to live in a Spindly house with many stairs . As he couldn’t take his son (in the pram) around the house, he took him to the graveyard instead. Because he feels his talent isn’t going to get any better than it is right now, he decided to write it. If Chapter 4 is any indication, this book could be fantastic.

He also took some questions from the audience:
Why do you write so much about death?
He had been told there were only two great themes to write about: love and death. Since he was terrible at writing about love, he writes an awful lot about death.

Does his children like his books?
Sometimes. Maddy loves Coraline. Thought Anasi Boys was “weird”. Mike is 24 and works for Google in California, and has read all of them. Which is ironic because when he was 13 he thought daddy wasn’t cool for not writing Spiderman. Neil said “Wait until you’re 15, then I’ll be cool.”.

How did you feel about the success of Stardust.
Publicists lectured them about The Princess bride publicity strategy - and then proceeded to copy that strategy precisely. Told Matthew he thought this was a film that people would pull from the shelf (on video) and show their children in fifteen years(sic?), rather than a film that was important for its opening weekend.

What’s it like to collaborate with people?
Neil used to be nocturnal (which he rather liked and missed sometimes). Terry Pratchett would wake him up on his answering machine with “Wake up you lazy bastard! I’ve written another good bit!”. That’s what Good Omens was - just the two of them trying to make each other laugh. Crowley threatening pot plants might’ve been his idea but was written by Terry (sic?). When he was at the Publisher’s basement reading the “trial run”? He thought a line was funny. Terry said “I didn’t write it.”. Both of them privately thought the book might’ve been quietly writing itself.

What’s his philosophy on life?
He rather likes it! He liked music, and dancing, and food and sushi. He then wondered why he listed food and sushi as separate things)?

What’s the craziest thing you’ve been asked to autograph by a fan?
Mentioned when Jason wanted Neil to sign Maya’s book “Neil says Jason would like you to marry him.”. It might’ve been a disaster because what if there was more than one Maya in the line? “I’ve never heard of this Jason before.”. When Neil autographed Maya’s book she stammered “Thank you so much!” and was about to close the book and walk away. Neil said (playfully) “Just fucking read it!”. Maya read it. Maya looked at Jason. Jason looked at Maya. And 200 people pulled out their cameras and videos to probably put the whole thing up on youtube.

I was only allowed 3 books to sign, due to Neil having jet lag.
The autograph line doubled back on itself through the entire room. I was lucky enough to be among the first 20-30 people in the line, and got there within half-an-hour. One of the girls told another (who was shepherding the line) that Neil prefers to autograph the books directly rather than copy the post-it-notes.

Neil: This is for David?
Me: Yes, thank you. This is my first autograph signing.
Neil: And this as well?
Me: Yes thank you. (Points to Death: High Cost of Living). That was the first book of yours that I ever bought. Thank you for writing it.
Neil: You’re very welcome.

And then I walked out of the hotel, floating on cloud nine. I think there are writers, and authors, and there are people I call storytellers who have the ability to weave worlds from prose. Alan Moore has done it. I think Terry Pratchett can do it. And for one glorious evening, I was privileged and honored to hear a Master of his craft do just that. I will never forget it.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything on this blog. Mostly because I’ve actually been living a life rather than just writing about having one. Blu-Ray won the Hi-Def format wars, which means HD-DVD movie titles were sold for bargain basement prices. I bought myself an XBox 360 HD-DVD drive for only ~$50. As my PC was able to play Hi-Def films, I got a low-budget introduction to the wonders of HD movie viewing.

My mum and I took a trip to Canberra to visit my brother Mark. He seems to be enjoying life in Canberra. I’ve advised him to try and make new friends while he’s there. Something that’s hard to do for a young professional who’s just starting out in a new and busy career. Fortunately Mark has done just that: He’s been going to an amateur orchestra once every week. And this Sunday he played paintball with a few friends. I’m really happy to see that he’s doing so well - not just profesionally but socially too.

The Australian and US economies seen to be on the brink of a global recession. The result of far too much borrowing and not enough prudent and responsible investment. We’re seeing the result of 11 years of John Howard-style “greed is good” philosophy.
I took into account future interest rate rises when I was calculating my deposit for my beloved house. My father scoffed at my precautions. Fortunately my cautious planning has paid off. I’ve calculated that interest rates would have to rise to 15% before I would have to look at divesting my assets. So I’m feeling insufferably smug right now.

My own social life is more active than ever. I’m seeing my cousin Giap on weekends on a regular basis. I’m going to attend an Adult Ed art class, starting this week, in an attempt to expand my creative horizons. I don’t expect to be Van Goth by the time this is over, but I expect to have a better appreciation for art.

Anna Paquin, along with Claire Danes, is one of my favourite actresses. So I’ve taken a passing interest in ‘The Squid and the Whale’ - a film about the breakdown of an overly intellectual family and the impact it has on their two children. Having never seen the film, this article fascinated me -

“Interesting” is the highest compliment The Squid and the Whale’s family patriarch, Bernard (Daniels), can give something. His constant overuse of this one non-commital, cold, academic word for everything made me feel a pang of shame since it is also one of the first adjectives I myself jump to to describe a work of art I admire. The film as a whole made me feel somewhat ashamed to be the kind of person who says “interesting”.

This is due to the fact that the film feels one of the most impassioned, persuasive, and yet even-handed, arguments against ‘intellectuals’ I have recently come across, one that combines a number of different styles and influences, most of which could probably be described as variations on stories of New York intellectual life. I want to look at these influences in relation to Squid to try to find out quite how it made me ashamed of the part of me that wants to call everything I like not “wonderful”, or “beautiful” but “interesting”.

I’ve always rued the fact I was always less “intellectual” than some of my University counterparts. My life up til’ now seems to value intelligence more than intellectualism. “Intellectualism is the facets of the jewel”, as someone once said. So this argument in the article fascinated me. I’m so in awe of overly-intellectual people, it never occurred to me that there could be a personal downside to that kind of personality.

It was precisely for that reason - valuing intellectual thought processes over very human reactions - that caused me to stop visiting Doctor Who forums. Hardcore Who fans pride themselves on being more “intellectual” than a mainstream audience. Ideas are more important than mere emotion. No wonder why intellectual hardcore Who fans hate the new series. New Who values emotional intelligence - something which is anathema to the intellectual way of thought.

I often enjoy visiting websites like CHUD.com, mostly for the snarky remarks and reviews on the latest movies. It’s not very often that I find anything politically-related on those websites tha remotely interests me. This interview with real-life ex-CIA agent Robert Baer is an exception. If you’re of a patriotic mind, you might want to prepare yourself - not everything Baer has to say about the CIA or international politics is pleasant to listen to.

Grateful thanks to Dave Davis at Chud.com for a very wry observation regarding the titles of recent or upcoming superhero films -

I hope the utilization of third-person singular present tense will become a recurring theme for film titles of DC heroes: Batman Begins, Superman Returns, Wonder Woman Arrives, Hawkman Soars, Power Girl Jiggles, etc.

We’re really only given a small taste of what’s in store - with a far too brief but spectacular shot of Superman hovering several thousand kilometres above Metropolis, in a sequence straight out of an Alex Ross painting.

So can Bryan Singer really bring the Man of Steel to the big screen? The signs look promising, but we’ll all find out in 2006.