Neil Gaiman

[firecat]

Neil Gaiman was recently accused of sexual assault. I’ve been consuming his works and occasionally reading his blogs for 25 years. I’ve gradually lost some of my respect for him as a person but I think The Sandman and American Gods are really great works and he has created some absolutely amazing characters.

Opinions and discussion of sexual assault after the cut. No SA details in the post, there might be details in the comments, if any.


One of the incidents occurred when he was 62 years old. I read his account and her account, and I asked myself, “I’m 62 years old. Would I get into a tub naked with a 20-year-old I had just met, who was my employee (or my spouse’s employee), and trust that neither of us would be harmed?”

(Spoiler: No!) I have enough experience to know there’d be a high risk of harm. I don’t know yet how well they and I will be able to communicate or how much they know about what they want. Combining employment and romance/sex is risky even when the people know they get along as colleagues/pals, never mind before they know each other.

Neil fucking wrote The Sandman and one of the things that makes it a masterpiece is how much insight into human nature it has. So I’m convinced he knew the risk of harm too, or he would have if he’d put one microjoule of thought into it. That strongly suggests he didn’t care whether he harmed her, and/or he sought out the risk.

That’s why I’m sure that regardless of what happened, which I’ll never know, and regardless of the quality of the journalism that unleashed the current shitstorm, the lion’s share of the fault is his.

Comments

[einhornmaedchen]

That sucks, he always seemed like a good person to me. This all is pretty iffy to me, especially with the power imbalance between employer and employee.

[minoanmiss]

I still feel ridiculous, but I cried over the news. His Tumblr persona was so warm and encouraging. I am far from a teenager and I should have known better, known it was just another fiction, but I was honestly disappointed to find out he would crush vulnerable women with his power like this.

You would not believe how many Sandman fics I had lined up in tabs. *bitter little laugh*

As another friend of mine said, "What he admitted to is sufficiently horrifying for me to believe the rest."

[firecat]

It’s not ridiculous. There are a number of celebs I’m fans of where I’d cry if I found out they’d done something like this.

[helen_keeble]

My own thoughts are that while the situation seems somewhat more complex than some of the overly reductive headlines, at best Gaiman is an arrogant, powerful man convinced of his own desirability and unashamed to use highly manipulative methods to get what he wants. At worst...well.

I suspect his noteable silence on the matter is due to legal advice, but I'd think a lot more highly of him if he made a public apology.

I've seen some calls on social media calling for people to boycott his works, but I have mixed feelings on that. He does not seem to be currently using his money and fame to actively cause harm, like JK Rowling. Personally I'll still be watching the continuing TV adaptations of Sandman and Good Omens, but I'm not likely to pick up any new novel he puts out. And if I was still active in SFF fandom, I'd be avoiding any conventions that continued to invite him as a guest.

[helen_keeble]

And I think you're right that he cannot possibly have failed to see the risk, and for him that was a feature rather than a bug. I was actually most disturbed by the text exchanges between him and the nanny later, when he implied he'd kill himself if she went public. That's absolute classic abuser behaviour.

[kshandra]

HE DID WHAT

Well, there goes the last shred of anything resembling sympathy I might have had for the man.

no need to provide me with links; I'd prefer to remain blissfully unaware of the actual content of said messages

[firecat]

I’m sorry to be the bearer of this news to you.

[beaq]

Welp. So much for benefit of the doubt.

[greghousesgf]

uugh. My mean crazy ex used to pull that crap.

[firecat]

Yeah that was awful.

[firecat]

Yes, your first and second paragraphs sum up exactly what I think.

I’m also not going to boycott his works that I’ve already spent time with. A huge number of the fandoms and characters I’m currently interested in are connected to him in some way. I’m not sure what I’ll do with new stuff he does.

[sabotabby]

I feel horribly betrayed. He was one of my formative influences from when I was a teenager onward, and someone I had a ton of respect for. He was the writer who made comics accessible to me as a woman and as a queer person. He should know better.

[firecat]

His works have been super meaningful to me too. There were always things about his works and his online persona that I side-eyed a bit but I had no idea he’d go as far as he admitted to having done.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I didn't know about this, but I am very saddened by it. I don't want to know the details. What you've said is enough. I watched his Master Class on writing and enjoyed it. But, yeah, sigh.

[firecat]

Entirely valid.

Sigh

[silveradept]

That's regrettable. I had usually seen Neil as someone who had managed to avoid many of the possible plagues of power, but that's no longer the case, and probably hasn't been for some time.

Still does good writing, which is always one of those things that makes people who want pure experiences grumble.

[firecat]

Well said about the plagues of power.

I don’t expect pure experiences, but I grumble when creators I value are problematic in particularly egregious ways instead of more ordinary ways.

[silveradept]

Very much so. This one seems like it would have been eminently avoidable at the application of the smallest amount if sense.

[tylik]

I adored Good Omens. (Got it when it first came out, in hardcover.)

I adored Sandman and kin. I never really got into his novels?

I wouldn't go as far as saying that I expect this of any many who has power and/or fame - but it's largely lost its ability to surprise.

[firecat]

I haven’t been impressed by his novels other than American Gods.

When I first encountered him he seemed like one of the celebrities who didn’t believe his own PR.

[noelfigart]

At this point... I think I am going to have to stop caring about fandom. Not because I think fandom qua fandom is bad. I don't.

But my "relationship" with any creator, even the quasi-parasocial stuff you see on social media, is going to be limited to keeping an eye out for my favorite authors to put out whatever work they put out.

Of course, I am deeply disappointed. No, I do not buy someone who seems to have such a good understanding of human nature was unaware of power imbalance or anything of the sort. I do not buy that he did not understand that what he did was a deeply sketchy risk at best, and manipulatively unethical at worst. I am sorry to say I think it was most likely that he was being manipulatively unethical.

But I will not allow myself to be invested in the personalities of anyone who I've "hired" to provide me with entertainment any more.

[firecat]

That’s a valid choice to make