Not advice. Not a prescription. Just me trying to find a way forward for myself. www.npr.org/2025/01/18/n... - ThreadSky

ghweldon.bsky.social • 42 days ago

Not advice. Not a prescription. Just me trying to find a way forward for myself.

https://www.npr.org/2025/01/18/nx-s1-5265623/neil-gaiman-sexual-abuse-allegations

Comments

adambonin.bsky.social•42 days ago

This is really thoughtful, and I particularly had to go through a similar process with Woody Allen. I did draw a line that I wasn't going to introduce my daughters to his work, and I haven't done more than catch a section of one of his films while flipping around on cable. It's a personal choice.

katvelayo.bsky.social•42 days ago

Wish you would have made mention of his plagiarism of Tanith Lee in the Sandman. More than being usurious of Stephen King, he ripped the entire concept from her.

kcoke.bsky.social•42 days ago

I have often felt similarly when I listen to Michael Jackson songs I enjoyed so much years ago or thinking about Bill Cosby and his routine on giving Chocolate Cake to his children for breakfast.

molleo.bsky.social•42 days ago

I read your article—thank you. I understand your position. I’m definitely less of a fan of Gaiman’s work than you, but I wonder whether the suggestion that his Sandman has great similarity to another author’s work would weigh more or less heavily than the accusations regarding his personal life.

kawehilani2.bsky.social•42 days ago

Thoughtful. Thank you.

deliriouskitten.bsky.social•42 days ago

Thank you, this was helpful in my processing

rlgrey.bsky.social•42 days ago

I'm in roughly the same place. My books are coming off the shelf until an unspecified future time when I feel however I feel about them.

I also have a personalized postcard he kindly sent me years ago. And that hurts more than anything else he wrote.

lairddinnaken.bsky.social•42 days ago

Good article: I think my approach to any new material from him is the same.

Enjoyed so much of his work, and will keep it, but that’s it, nothing new at all.

dtownsend.bsky.social•40 days ago

Thanks for writing this. For now, I approach these horrible discoveries in a similar way to you (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Joss Whedon is my painful one.) Maybe I’ll shut out all these works/creators in the future. The important thing to me is to not ignore the horrible acts or excuse them.

scaredsane.bsky.social•42 days ago

Thanks for sharing this, Glen. This is the first time I’ve had to consider this question with a creator so near & dear to me. Gaiman is irrevocably tied up in my journey coming to terms with my sexuality. My first exposure to complex & nuanced Queer characters. Reading this was very helpful.

spacecitymarc.bsky.social•42 days ago

Ages -- AGES! -- ago, I wrote a blog post arguing in favor of separating the art from the artist, keyed to a renewed interest in Roman Polanski's case. It did tremendous business; at one point, it was the lead story on the NPR homepage.

I would not write the same story now.

heymikesharp.bsky.social•41 days ago

Why? Have your views changed, or do you feel differently about Gaiman than you did Polanski, or do you not want the perception of defending them in 2025?

spacecitymarc.bsky.social•41 days ago

I'll assume this question is in good faith and say that my views have evolved. "Separate the art from the artist" feels like a naive perspective to me nowadays and ignores the fact that celebrating and foregrounding the work of creeps continues the psychological harm they caused to their victims.

amy4opus.bsky.social•41 days ago

I reflect sometimes on how lonely and agonizing, in an ongoing way, it must be for victims of people (a certain comedian/ tv star also comes to mind) who are being lauded all the time... not just as creative geniuses, but as marvelous people.

spacecitymarc.bsky.social•41 days ago

It's possible to drop someone from the canon -- which is far more mutable than we like to pretend -- and make room for something that never got the chance. Which isn't to say it's as simple as switching to "dump the art AND the artist." It's not. But the art comes from the artist. They're linked.

andrewcraig.bsky.social•41 days ago

What a disgusting thing is is to equate Ms Rowling's defence of female-only spaces, organisations and sports with Mr Gaiman's abuse of women.

You seem to embrace the proposition "trans women are women". In what way are trans women women? What criterion for being women do they meet?

tequilamoquingbird.bsky.social•41 days ago

This argument is specious hate speech. "Womanhood" is defined by the person and informed by their culture, internal dialog, and their experience of gender norms. The onus is on you to define "womanhood" in a way that doesn't alienate a vast swath of your own base.

andrewcraig.bsky.social•40 days ago

That's like saying "Being 21 is defined by the person and informed by their culture, internal dialog and their experience of age norms." Whereas in fact, as we all know, it depends on being born 21 years ago.

butdiscourse.bsky.social•42 days ago

This is pretty much where I've landed as well. I can't unread or unwatch, and I don't want to. But I can choose my future consumption.

amyleland.bsky.social•42 days ago

It makes me happy to find us in agreement on this issue. This is exactly how I approach it. I still watch DVDs of movies I already own involving people revealed to be horrible, mostly because they include so many OTHER artists I admire. I'm less likely to reread a book, the work of a single person.

leannschneiderwebb.com•42 days ago

I appreciate this! I read MONSTERS by Claire Dederer recently and I was left with: I don’t want to put money in living monsters’ pockets. If their work impacted my life, I can’t pretend it didn’t. To ignore that would mean I’m not grappling with it and, like, societal complicity or something.

jrobbinsmullin.bsky.social•39 days ago

If Sandman meant so much to you, I suggest you seek out the largely uncredited source material, Tanith Lee's The Flat Earth series.

jeremymdoan.info•42 days ago

thank you for this, Glen. It's really helpful. I've basically taken the same approach with W.Allen and R.Polanski, and also A.Munro (who I've only recently started reading) and C.McCarthy. God, is it really that many people?

meelissa.bsky.social•42 days ago

Thank you for this Glen.

waynebeamer.bsky.social•39 days ago

If you had told me in 1990 that the guy who wrote the story, Calliope, in Sandman 17 would be accused abusing women 35 years later, I wouldn't have believed it. Now...

Thank you Glen. I needed to read this.

lajamnikita.bsky.social•42 days ago

I can't imagine reading American God's ever again even though I regard it as the perfect book. How could I enjoy it.

pumpkinshirt.bsky.social•42 days ago

Thoughtful and helpful. Thanks as always.

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