The Neil Gaiman situation just got MUCH darker...

**********

Buy my book here:

#neilgaiman #books #news

[pixelbomb]

What makes me sick is that he knew. The Sandman story "Calliope" is a story about an author who bills himself as a progressive champion whilst taking sexual advantage of the titular character. He knew the kind of hurt that he could've done. He did it anyway.

[schindermania]

i'm going to recommend Diana Wynne Jones if you haven't read her. She's my all time fave and was Neil's mentor (she's rolling in her grave). Everything he did that you like, she was better at and did first.

[Androsynth]

I just read the article. It's beyond vile. This dude isn't some clueless, entitled, asshole celeb who maybe didn't understand power dynamics and cheated a bunch. He's a straight up monster out of one of his books. Gods, my heart goes out to those poor victims. Seriously, if you have triggers for abuse do not read that vulture article. It's absolutely *horrifying*.

And it's yet another example of how badly Scientology hurts people. The article makes it very obvious that most of this monstrous behavior probably stems from abuse he suffered there. Which in NO WAY excuses what he's done, mind, but Gaiman is one seriously, deeply disturbed person. It's a shame he never got help before he himself became an abuser. So much harm could have been avoided.

I'll never be able to read his works again. Just... vile.

[poe.and.theholograms]

About the parallels to Whedon there's that quote that went something like, "Before you judge Neil Gaiman, remember all the warmth and humanity in his work. Then judge him even more harshly because you know he knows exactly how to be a decent person and does the opposite." I think that's one way to reconcile the underhanded, manipulative monster who abused women and children in the disguise of a sensitive soft-spoken artist.

I notice people bring up the Sandman author character Richard Madoc who abused Calliope, as an example of how obviously Gaiman identified with Madoc, and how Gaiman was bragging in plain sight about doing those awful things by writing that or he wrote that story to normalize celebrity or artist abuse of their muses/fans or human playthings. I definitely disagree with the sentiment that sort of goes "gotcha! readers of Sandman should have known better the whole time only from reading that" when some of his victims were fans of his. The alleged hidden meaning of that fiction story sounds to me as though it comes from working backwards from an answer of having nonfiction information, and something really doesn't feel right to me about doing that (like the implied, "he wrote this so you should have known better what he was like".)

There was silence during the late 2010's Me Too on Gaiman, as the article says. Apart from a malicious misuse of a Non-Disclosure Agreement, I still remain unsatisfied at the lack of answer to the question that the article raised: How did the whisper-network around him remain at a whisper for so many decades?

[yggdrasil]

Step one: Don't idolize people beyond praising their talent.
Step two: Please refer to step one.
EDIT: Obviously you're not an idiot for once emotionally resonating with work you can't see the same way again.

[fireinthesky]

"Believe all women" except the ones accusing me of abuse!" Male feminist Neil Gaiman

[ellebarron]

"don't worry my nda signed and paid off relationship was conseual" yeah okay

[TheCatsWhiskers]

I started to read but the first incident mentioned triggered me too much, it was too reminiscent of what happened to me. Men like this (and like the man who raped me) may not (this is no excuse, but is a sad indictment on humanity) may not even know/realise, that they are rapists. We don't talk about rape openly, we talk of "sa" and "grape", so videos aren't demonetised, meanwhile generations and generations of humans are ignorant to what 'rape culture' is, and how we stop it. It starts with transparency, and education, specifically to kids and young people, about what consent is. AND that for good and healthy sex you need the 4 C's of consent; consistent, clear, conscious and coercion-free. For fellow survivors out there: you are not alone, this was not our fault, please be kind to you.

[jokatal]

Putting someone else's abuse (by your husband) in your song lyrics and then keeping it quiet is a uniquely evil act. I wouldn't blame her for not talking to police without without a lawyer, though.

[clovewright]

Something I saw another article mention is that he’s hired the same PR crisis firm that represented Danny Masterson and Prince Andrew which speaks volumes itself.

[RhiDElton]

Terry Pratchett is rolling in his grave. If these allegations are found true, Gaiman hasn't just betrayed his audience but one of the best writers to ever help him.

[tangerine]

And about that Amanda Palmer song: who complains about a “suicidal mass” on her doorstep like the problem is him annoying *Amanda* and not necessarily making people suicidal?

[IntotheBangtanUniverseWormhole]

After a lot of thinking, and after learning about the new allegations, I've decided to get rid of all my Gaiman books. I'd invested a lot of money into them, so maybe I'll sell them and donate the money to a local abused women's shelter.

[raymondbenadictine]

One of the worst parts of this is that they knowingly had a child together despite them both being deeply broken. Everything AP has ever done has been for attention. She's so afraid of obscurity she'll exploit anything and anyone as long as she can be the centre of attention. She told a tale on tour about how she was left tied up naked as a 'gift' for a total stranger by an abusive boyfriend. They both enabled each others behaviour under a facade of progressive piety. I have met and spoken to them both and whilst he was exactly as one might expect, she was vain and dismissive with a huge Messiah complex.

[loxley]

I think there has been this reputation built up around Neil Gaiman from folks who weren’t around in the nineties for his original work and maybe only know him from the extremely sanitised Netflix type versions of his work that as an author he is a producer of whimsical charming children’s books and all this is so out of character. But The Sandman was a horror comic and was far more disturbing than anything that they produced for the Netflix series. He was known for incredibly dark and disturbing stories and having very dark and unsettling tastes and interests . These allegations may be jarring when trying to square them with the children’s fantasy author of weird tales he ended up portraying himself as but honestly, as someone who was a fan back when Sandman was first being published, none of this is at all surprising. He was known as a narcissist with a massive ego back then as a young comic writer but before the internet authors lives were generally a lot more private so they remained largely hidden from view. With social media he managed to put forward this image of everyone’s favourite uncle but seriously it never squared up right with the young arrogant edge lord who wrote Sandman and was famously a twat to people at conventions!

[vocabulauren]

i’m absolutely reading the full article this evening. Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer were incredibly influential to my childhood and as a young adult. it was so upsetting to hear that they both (potentially) are responsible for such heinous acts.

[EmlynBoyle]

I was dismayed and disgusted hearing the original podcasts, if keeping a tiny benefit of the doubt...but the Vulture article finally cemented it for me. Gaiman is dead and gone for me now completely. Of all the vile things, what I think is worst is that he had his little son in the room sometimes...to the point of the child starting to call these women 'slave'?!? I feel like he's been grooming us all for decades...with a well built persona he shed when he was with these poor, venerable women. I remember reading how he once dreamt about being a werewolf as a child (or something to that effect), well it turns out he really is one. Oh and as a trans person myself, thanks so much too Neil, for possibly giving JK Rowling yet another reason to vilify us. Creep.

Also to add...Amanda Palmer turning that into a song, like Alice Munro put her daughter's plight into a story. So they were willing to use someone else's trauma to create, but not actually do anything about said traumas (from abusive partners).

[mrrysngstrss]

I read the article *once* and that was all I needed. Any one of the described incidents would be horrific enough, the fact that this happened to multiple women is an extra layer of sickening, especially with Scarlett saying she's not even into men anyway.

[SharkieTheDork]

Last year i watched the Stardust movie for the first time with my girlfriend (and later Coraline, which quickly became one of my favorite movies) and started reading some of Gaimen's works. Im glad I only got through Stardust, Coraline, and Good Omens before this first came to light so I didn't find myself more attached to him. I realised I enjoyed the adaptations more than the actual novels, but I still respected him a lot. I even had a dream where I met him and he encouraged me to continue writing. That felt magical when it happened, now it feels disgusting.

I'm tempted to keep enjoying the Stardust and Coraline movies, because there were plenty of talented people that made them into things I ended up liking better than the originals anyway. But I can't bring myself to try watching the second season of Good Omens, and I feel like next time I try watching those movies I love so much I'll get a pit in my stomach.

It goes without saying that all of this is small potatoes compared to what his victims experienced. I'm sure I'm not even feeling half of what lifetime fans of his are going through either. But I still feel sick and like I was tricked.

[justineetzkorn]

Thank you for making this. The whole situation is so terrible and upsetting. I've been following it since July, and knew a lot of the details, but the stuff about his kid was new, and it's... very bad. I hope the kid is safe, and away from his father.