NEIL GAIMAN: debunking the myth
Before I publicly criticize a New York Times best seller, a cult icon, a writer whose words I admire, let me just say — I wanted to love this event. It sold out within days; we waited to hear if we could get in, not getting the call until the last minute. We were in.
Sometimes you just don’t want to know what’s behind the words you like so much. Authors always have had strange reputations apart from their work. Writers, as a whole, are pretty useless apart from the page; that is, if they’re good, channeling every ounce of their being into words. Neil Gaiman is a good author, no doubt — maybe that’s why he seemed so shallow in person.
On June 27, it was the tenth anniversary of American Gods, Gaiman’s bestseller. The line wrapped around the quiet Berkeley block leading right into the courtyard of the First Congregational Church. His fans were buzzing, dedicated, waiting to get their hardcover copies signed and scramble to the front pews.
Adam Savage, from MythBusters fame, came out onto the stage first. The premise was he would be interviewing Gaiman about aspects of his novel in an intimate retrospective climate. (An echoing and sterile church with frequent audio malfunctions.) Savage proposed discussing the immigrant journey through America and the alleged nonexistence of folklore in American history. If you’ve never read American Gods, the protagonist, Shadow, traverses the country while encountering mythological entities posed in a modern setting.
So: excellent opening question for the author. In response, Gaiman delved into a monologue rife with British witticisms and platitudes and ended on a discussion about the weather in America. THE WEATHER? He did mention some inside information about his personal travels and the things that have inspired him to create these characters. How, while driving through American landscapes, the author had “American Gods moments” when he felt compelled to document his experiences in his novel. He spoke at length about trips to Iceland and New Hampshire where he saw things “you wouldn’t possibly believe.”
Next Gaiman read an excerpt, the part where Shadow and Wednesday go to a café on Haight Street to meet Easter and a pagan waitress. The words were great, and only widened the gap between his genius and his mouth. As a preamble to the excerpt, he joked about the stereotypical Haight Street symbols: hippies, pagans, apathetic waitresses, etc. I kept wondering if it was just me thinking he sounded like a caricature of himself, going for the easy laugh rather than insight. The audience was eating it up, and I wondered if I had missed the cups of Kool Aid on the way in.
Adam Savage salvaged this experience for me with his grounded, well-researched questions. After Gaiman finished the excerpt, Savage brought up the similarities between American Gods and Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita: the romantic American road trip written by a foreigner. Gaiman glossed over, saying how he and Nabokov were “coming from the same place… in America if you want to find something, just drive until you find it.”
Getting a glimpse into the real life eccentricities of a great author will not prevent me from enjoying his fiction. It only reaffirms his humanity. It’s even comforting to know that writing is the supreme form of communication to a widespread audience and if you excel in that then how you communicate outside the art is irrelevant.
I was able to film, albeit from the back of the church because the crowd was at capacity. The videos don’t quite do the event justice, but I think you will see what I mean.
i wonder if by having a mythbuster interview him, mr. gaiman was giving a subtle nod to your well-placed and well-rendered thoughts. i also wonder what mortal could possibly tour around being magical along every stop of a spiraling book tour. my brain turns to mush after short hop from sfo to burbank airport. maybe his success on twitter or the very existence of a medium like twitter, is perfect for an author. a way to communicate with fans real-time, in a sort of transom between the written and spoken word. cheers, maureen.
I really found this brief piece to be as flat as the argument, if there even was one here.
I actually found Adam Savage to be simply proposing quotes from other artists, instead of posing actual questions. However, they were good quotes and spurred wonderful stories as responses. You didnt even reference the really astute questions he received such as when he was asked which negative feedback had he received in the past, and grown from. I appreciate that you took the time to see him, but it honestly seems there wasn’t a genuine interest in the author. Some readers prefer just to buy the literature and not know much of the author. This particular author has a really wonderful mind, which spans art forms, and poses great inspiration for all ages. If thats not you, absolutely understandable. Coming to one of his readings can be very intimidating, by the turnout alone. Its logical that you simply weren’t in the state of mind perhaps, to appreciate the human being behind the tales.
Although Gaiman may be a great author, this event was a total let down. If I wanted him tell me some jokes and hear what he thought about the weather here in the midwest and elsewhere, I’d read his twitter (watch the first video). If he had spent half the time he spent trying to appear charming and funny really getting into the book we were all there to celebrate, I would have been satisfied. I was surprised and kind of grossed out by how eager the audience was to applaud at everything he said-even if it was simply because he said the word “shit”. Watching them sort of felt like watching teenage girls giggle their heads off over Justin Bieber. As it was, the twenty minutes he spent reading the passage about SF out loud were probably the most rewarding part of the night. Bummer, bummer, bummer. I wanted to like this so much.