Just glad that Sir Pterry isn’t around to see this whole thing, whatever it is.
Ugh.
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Having read several recent pieces of investigative reporting on that shithead, I have no doubt that his claim that it was all consensual is yet one more lie. I’m holding on to hope that unlike say, our incoming presidential monster, Neil “Call me master” Gaiman will get his due.
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I’m glad of that too; it occurred to me that Pterry may have had to fulfill his duty as a knight and that probably wouldn’t have gone over well.
Initially I was ready to just dump all of Gaiman’s books into the recycling and be done with it. My nesting partner, a professional librarian, talked me out of that. As she put it, he’s less than scum, but many of those stories still have personal meaning to her and she’s not going to let anyone, even the author, take that away from her. He’s already done enough harm.
We talked a bit about various authors, poets, singers, and other creators, their relative views and actions as people, and those parts of them color their works. In both our home and public library we have Ogden Nash, Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, Sid Vicious, and a host of others that were also, frankly, pretty detestable people that made things many people enjoy anyway. (Well, okay, many not Sid, but still …) I was reminded of my reactions to book challenges about not only content, but about the character of the author in question.
Well fuck, she’s right. Hoisted by my own petard, I guess. I left the books and graphic novels where they were, although I did delete albums and stories from my own music collection. (The original CDs are still in the household collection.) I’ll never be able to read those again, but I have to agree that acting out in anger and having my own personal book ban probably isn’t consistent with my more rational stance. Dammit.
As I started to look on our shelves I noticed quite a few of the books that I had mentally classed as “Gaiman” were not his alone. Honestly that made me feel better, even if I do still consider them at least a little tainted. Obviously Good Omens is very much not his alone, neither the book nor the television show. (I was actually relieve to find that he was only a co-editor on When We Were Sick, as apparently that’s a very limited edition!)
All this lead to me giving some reassurance to someone on a different forum last night. They’re non-binary, fairly young, and had gotten so much joy out of one of the very rare instances of gender nonconformity and other queer representation in the tv version of Good Omens. They were sickened over this not only because of the events, but because of the shadow those cast across the work. They additionally expect a backlash over anything connected with it due to Gaiman. (I wish I could argue with that: thanks Neil, that’s fucking great. Anything else you’d like to harm on your way out?)
I could at least say that they were still free to enjoy Good Omens – Gaiman did not create that alone. Hell, he didn’t even write the book alone. Enjoy it despite him; enjoy it to spite him. Give credit to everyone but Gaiman and be public about how all the others involved help save the show from his involvement.
Whew. Okay, so maybe I have a few feelings about this, huh?
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Similar. I guess i see it as the books are the children of the authors sent out into the world. I likely won’t buy new copies of his books, just to avoid enriching him any more, but the ones i own are like good friends who have shitty parents. Keeping them does nothing to benefit him, and does benefit me. Like some other artists, i wish it were different, but it ain’t, gotta deal and move on, i suppose.
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That’s an analogy that works!
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Of the same mind. I will definitely have negative feelings towards the author going forward, and my relationship with the material i’ve already read is now compromised in a way and i’d be lying if i said that i’m not bitter about it. Some day i’ll get rid of the books but for now i’ll leave them be.
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as of yet, there is no concrete evidence that the daughter herself took actual part in the operation.
Buried at the end of the article, despite the inflammatory headline. If the daughter didn’t actually take part, it’s a pretty messed up message to send her, firing her mom on made up charges with no evidence. And if she did take part, she did a great job because the patient dude is fine and only found out that it might have gone down this way much later.
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Oh I see that’s by John Scalzi.
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By “no concrete evidence,” could they mean that there was no physical evidence, like videos or fingerprints? Perhaps witnesses are all they have.
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Yes, but I would consider multiple first-hand accounts to be fairly concrete. I’m just dubious about the whole thing. In my quick search, it looks like the story has been mostly carried by right-wing news outlets (Kronen Zeitung, Daily Telegraph, The Sun, etc) and I haven’t seen any reporting on an actual criminal case, and it seems like there should be since this happened in the spring of '24. 
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If this is correct, it sheds some light.
(according to Ground News, nationalworld.com has high factuality and leans left by US standards. I’m not familiar with them)
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A true mensch, a decent human being. I used to follow him on that-bird-site and he was reliably hilarious. I am a fan.
He wrote this:
Got Starter Villain for my partner’s birthday. A romp. Funny.
This book is also a comedic romp, and fun, with plenty of sly in-jokes for Trekkies:
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Please pardon my lack-of-coffee-brain, but I’m more confused now! That article states that she’s suing to be fully reinstated to her position because she claims she confessed, the hospital should have fired her immediately, but they waited three months instead. And she won’t accept a settlement, she’s demanding to be fully reinstated. Because they didn’t fire her fast enough.
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Yep, I share your interpretation and confusion.
ETA: The article also says
Now the medic is suing the hospital for unfair dismissal, claiming they dismissed her without following proper employment law procedure.
I don’t know whether the problem is procedural (i.e. she absolutely would’ve been fired, but they did it wrong), or there really are mitigating factors (can’t imagine any, but the world doesn’t depend on my imagination). It’s a strange one, for sure.
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He also wrote an amazing piece about growing up in poverty.
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This one? Thanks for the tip. I hadn’t read it, and he nails it.
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Yep, that’s the one. It resonates with anyone who grew up poor.
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