The Dreaming: Archive for August 2001

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Monday, August 27, 2001
	Rambles.Net Reviews American Gods Posted by puck at 7:40 PM PDT \| Comments (0) Another great American Gods review at http://www.rambles.net/gaiman_amgods.html. Thanks to Tom Knapp for sending that one in.
	Yet Another American Gods Review Posted by puck at 7:38 PM PDT \| Comments (0) Spectator Online has a review in their now-working archives at http://www.spectatoronline.com/080201/artforum_books.html

Sunday, August 26, 2001
	American Gods Review - Sunday Star-News - Wilmington, N.C. Posted by lucy_anne at 3:00 AM PDT \| Comments (0) Steelman, Ben, "Old World deities vie with TV for Americas soul", Sunday Star-News, 26 August 2001, 1D, 8D AMERICAN GODS, by Neil Gaiman, William Morrow, $26. In the summer's hottest new fantasy, Bilquis, the onetime queen of Sheba and an avatar of Isis/Ishtar/Astarte, is hitting the pavement as an L.A. hooker. Mr. Ibis and Mr. Jackal (er, Jacquel), the master embalmers of Ancient Egypt's pantheon, run a rundown mortuary in Cairo, Ill. Czernabog, the Slavic god of death, retired as a butcher in a Chicago slaughterhouse. And Wotan? Well, he's up in Minnesota and Wisconsin, mostly, behaving much as he did in Wagner's Ring operas. The deities of the Old World followed their believers across the Atlantic, and according to Neil Gaiman's American Gods, they're still around, often at roadside tourist attractions. (You'd be amazed who, or what, you can run into in Vegas.) They're facing competition, though from the gods of modern technology: From Television, the All-Seeing Eye (and its handmaiden, Saint Lucy Ricardo), from the Internet (personified as a pudgy techno- geek), from Media and those mysterious Men in Black. And a showdown is rumbling. It's not exactly a new idea. The late Douglas Adams (A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) put the Old Gods in new clothing for his Long, Dark Tea-time of the Soul (1988). Mr. Gaiman, however, fills out the concept, with Arabian Nights djinns driving taxis through Manhattan and ginger-haired leprechauns turning up on the next barstool, wearing obscene T-shirts. (Leprechauns, incidentally, are among the tallest of the faerie folk.) An Englishman best known for scripting the Sandman comic books, Mr. Gaiman brings mordant, cyberpunkish wit to his mythologizing. His hero, Shadow, a former fitness trainer, is just getting out of prison after three years, as the novel opens - only to learn that his wife, Laura, has just been killed in a car crash. Like the Hollywood screen goddess from the 1944 thriller, though, this Laura won't stay dead. Though Shadow watched her burial, she keeps popping up, in the well-embalmed flesh. With nothing to do, Shadow drifts into employment with an overweight, aging drifter who calls himself Wednesday. (Check your dictionary: The name was derived from "Odin's Day.") Exactly what he's doing for his boss is hard to determine, even by Shadow, but it involves jawboning with beautiful women, getting beat up and interrogated on a regular basis and looking for mysteries without any clues, just like Sam Spade. Meanwhile, the narrative flashes back and forward, to A.D. 813, to the 1700s, when indentured servants brought the banshees and the piskis from Ireland and Cornwall, and African slaves delivered Elegba, the voodoo lord. As you might gather, American Gods is a little denser than, say Dungeons & Dragons. Besides introducing arcane divinities from Russian, gypsy and even Hindu folklore, Mr. Gaiman throws in enough allusions to T.S. Eliot, Julian of Norwich, G.K. Chesterton (see: The Man Who Was Thursday) and other dead white mortals to keep an English major busy for a whole semester. Unlike Kilgore Trout, the sci-fi hack in Kurt Vonnegut's novels, Mr. Gaiman can actually write. He gets off quite a few bon mots in the course of American Gods: "Chicago happened slowly, like a migraine." "The important thing to understand about American history ... is that it is fictional, a charcoal-sketched simplicity for the children, or the easily bored." Or (my favorite), "Opiates have become the religion of the masses." Like poor Kilgore, however, he does better with his concepts than with his execution. The Gotterdammerung that Wednesday has been plotting never quite comes off, and the novel ends more with a whimper than a bang. Any book that can see trolls beneath freeway underpasses, though, and identify Rock City as an occult power center will not be a complete waste. In its best moments, American Gods is magical. Ben Steelman: 343-2208 or ben.steelman@wilmingtonstar.com
	Fantascienza a Trieste (Italian) Posted by lucy_anne at 3:00 AM PDT \| Comments (0) "Fantascienza a Trieste", La Stampa, 26 August 2001. La moglie di Stanley Kubrick, Christiane, il regista Joe Dante (nella foto) e il comic writer Neil Gaiman, saranno gli ospiti principali di ScienceFiction, il Festival della fantascienza, ideato e curato dalla Cappella Underground, che si svolgerà al cinema Excelsior di Trieste dal 21 al 30 settembre.

Wednesday, August 22, 2001
	American Gods Review - The Big Issue in the North Posted by lucy_anne at 6:03 PM PDT \| Comments (0) Maria Siu-Lee was kind enough to transcribe this 4 star review of American Gods from The Big Issue in the North. American Gods Neil Gaiman Rob Haynes - The Big Issue in the North, August 6 - 12 2001 When waves of immigrants - Norsemen, African, Irish - came to America across the millenia, they brought with them their gods who, for a short while, prospered in their fertile new environment. Now though, human faith has withered and the gods are stranded, left pathetic and near-powerless, unnourished by worship. Odin travels the country, working low-level scams on banks. A Slavic trio of guardian goddesses ply an undignified living as fortune tellers. Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead, works as an undertaker. And now the modern technological pantheon - the media, the Internet - has joined forces with a half-legitimate government assassination bureau in order to wipe out the old gods altogether. During his stint as writer for the influential Sandman comic in the Nineties, Neil Gaiman devoted one episode to the tale of a man who begs the gods to give him the gift of storytelling - they do, but the man cannot stop and ends up insanely scrawling stories on to brick walls with his own bloodied fingers. One suspects that there was a little metaphorical autobiography there, because Gaiman seems similarly overburdened with stories. In the expansive tapestry of American Gods he has constructed a darkly entertaining soap opera of belief, a mythology of mythologies, more Stephen King or Clive Barker than Terry Pratchett. As always Gaiman's prodigious reading shines through. There's fun to be had playing Spot The Deity (I kept my dictionary of mythology to hand throughout) and there's a nice underlying metaphor, treated warmly and kept on the right side of earnestness, about the power and necessity of the human imagination. Overall, 500 pages are an appropriately broad canvas for the sheer scale of the plot but not necessarily a good length for a consistently paced adventure. Still, for sheer ambition, erudition and imagination, this takes some beating.
	Three Reviews and an Interview Posted by puck at 4:08 PM PDT \| Comments (0) http://www.folk-tales.com/americangods.html http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/gaiman.html http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=208192&thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=books (In this one, we learn that Shadow is imprisoned for a crime he "predictably" did not commit... except of course that he did commit it.) http://lifeamgood.com/01julybooks.htm

Tuesday, August 21, 2001
	Clippings Posted by lucy_anne at 6:08 PM PDT \| Comments (0) From toriamos.com: In the coming weeks we will be introducing a new character that Tori portrays on Strange Little Girls including video interviews of each character and essays by author and good friend of Tori, Neil Gaiman. There's also supposed to be a Neil interview at the site, but sadly I am not finding it.

Monday, August 20, 2001
	IReadPages.com Interview Posted by puck at 4:28 PM PDT \| Comments (0) IReadPages.com has a short interview/article on Neil at http://ireadpages.com/newissue/gaiman.html
	Oh! Magazine Review of American Gods Posted by puck at 4:14 PM PDT \| Comments (0) Oh! Magazine has a review of American Gods in their downloadable PDF magazine.
	SMEG Radio Interview Online Posted by puck at 4:06 PM PDT \| Comments (0) Peter Bryant from SMEG Radio sent this in: As mentioned in Neil's journal, Smeg Radio interviewed Neil last week. The 45 minute in-depth interview will be broadcast in its entirety on Smeg Radio in Sydney on Wednesday 22nd August and Wednesday 29th August 6.30pm AEST 2RRR 88.5fm Segments will go up on the Smeg website in a week or two. http://www.boo.zipworld.com.au/smeg/ I don't see the segments (smegments?) up yet, but give it some time.
	Harlequin Valentine Posted by puck at 4:02 PM PDT \| Comments (0) Thanks to John Parker who caught this news at http://www.paperbackbazaar.com/comicsnews.htm GAIMAN ROMANCES READERS WITH HARLEQUIN VALENTINE HC Best-selling author Neil Gaiman is currently heating up bestseller lists with his new novel, American Gods, but his passion for the medium that helped establish his reputation remains as strong as ever, as will be proven this fall when Dark Horse Maverick presents his newest comics tale, Harlequin Valentine HC ($10.95). Gaiman's The Sandman set new standards for mature, sophisticated graphic fiction and charmed readers. His works of fiction outside comics -- including American Gods, Neverwhere, and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish -- have garnered favorable notices, and attracted many prose readers into comics shops for more of his visions. In Harlequin Valentine, Gaiman and illustrator John Bolton will offer a modern re-telling of a classic commedia dell' arte legend of tomfoolery and hopeless love, the story of the buffoon Harlequin and the beautiful, oblivious Columbine, to whom he has given his heart unsuccessfully. The 40-page book will also contain an eight-page backup feature on the commedia dell' arte, written by Gaiman and illustrated by Bolton. The book is scheduled to ship on November 21.

Saturday, August 18, 2001
	American Gods Review - Courier Mail Posted by lucy_anne at 3:00 AM PDT \| Comments (0) Clark, Graham, "AMERICAN GODS", Courier Mail, 18 August 2001. AMERICAN GODS, by Neil Gaiman (Hodder, $29.95) EX-CON Shadow has done his time, his wife's dead, and he's on the road with Mr Wednesday, who might well be a god or at least king of the United States and righter of society's wrongs. Deep in the American soul there's always a need for a Mr Wednesday and his brutal mission; or a Shadow, all muscle and little regret, for on Neil Gaiman's unsettling odyssey, a road novel tapping the darkest dysfunctional remnants of American civilisation, Shadow watches over murder, impending Armageddon, shrill distant war and deadly roadside bars. An enforcer performing for his weekly stipend, a puppet in the hands of gods yet unmet. When you wonder about modern American madness, look no further than this.

Friday, August 17, 2001
	Daily Oklahoman Posted by lucy_anne at 3:00 AM PDT \| Comments (0) Price, Matthew, "'American Gods' author to send 'Valentine' tale", Daily Oklahoman, 17 August 2001, p12-B. "Sandman" author Neil Gaiman has hit The New York Times best-seller list with his "American Gods" hardcover novel. But Gaiman isn't neglecting his comics roots. Dark Horse Comics will publish "Harlequin Valentine," a fully painted story teaming Gaiman with illustrator John Bolton ("Black Dragon"). "Harlequin Valentine" is a retelling of the classic commedia dell'arte tale of Harlequin and Columbine. The bittersweet romance was adapted from a short story of Gaiman's originally printed in the 1999 World Horror Convention program book. Harlequin pins his heart to the door of a lady named Missy, and "Harlequin Valentine" explores what she does with the Harlequin's heart. Following the story will be an illustrated prose essay by Gaiman about the commedia dell'arte. The commedia dell'arte is a style of drama originating in 16th century Italy. It is characterized by improvisation from a written plot. The Harlequin is a standard character of the commedia dell'arte. Adapting myths, legends and literature is a strength of Gaiman's. In "American Gods," Gaiman weaves a tale of the old forgotten gods raging against the emerging new ones. Ex-con Shadow makes a bargain with the mysterious Mr. Wednesday following the death of Shadow's wife. Shadow agrees to work for Wednesday. Wednesday, however, is more than he seems (as is nearly everyone in the book), and Shadow soon finds himself a key player in a coming Ragnarok. Though Gaiman has had critical success in the book market with "Good Omens" (with Terry Pratchett), "Neverwhere" and "Stardust," the sales surge of "American Gods" may put Gaiman on a short list of top-selling fantasy novelists. Gaiman holds status in the comics world as a writer who has brought prestige and acclaim to his medium. "Sandman," created by Gaiman and original artists Sam Kieth ("The Maxx") and Mike Dringenberg, became the flagship of DC's Vertigo line and a comic that kept adult readers returning to the comic shop month after month. The 10 volumes of "Sandman" graphic novels, collecting the 75-issue series, remain among DC's best-selling graphic novels years after their original release. Gaiman's "Mid-Summer Night's Dream" story in "Sandman" No. 19, illustrated by Charles Vess and Malcolm Jones III, won the World Fantasy Award for best short story - a first for a comic book. In 1999, Gaiman teamed with the highly regarded Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano ("G-Force," "Vampire Hunter D") to write an illustrated prose epilogue to the "Sandman" saga. The resulting book, "Sandman: The Dream Hunters," tells a fable of a badger and a fox that eventually ties in to Morpheus, the Sandman of Gaiman's comics. "Dream Hunters" won a Bram Stoker Award for illustrated narrative and was nominated for a Hugo. And Gaiman isn't necessarily done with the Endless. The chief characters of "Sandman," seven constant forces personified in the story, are the Endless - Dream (Morpheus, or Sandman), Despair, Destiny, Delirium, Desire, Death and Destruction. DC Comics have announced but not scheduled an Endless hardcover to be written by Gaiman. "Harlequin Valentine" is available for pre-order and is set for a November release.

Thursday, August 16, 2001
	Clippings Posted by lucy_anne at 9:02 PM PDT \| Comments (0) I think this review of Stardust from Spike Magazine is new.
	Questionnaire - National Post Posted by lucy_anne at 8:49 PM PDT \| Comments (0) Gaiman, Neil. "Avoid the Archerly-Claviot Hydraulic Plot Adjuster", National Post, 4 August 2001, B12. WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON? I'm on a signing tour, which means my writing is confined to occasional dispatches from the front -- entries on the journal at neilgaiman. com. Luckily, my next book -- Coraline, a strange children's story -- is already written. IS THERE A SHORT SENTENCE FROM YOUR PREVIOUS WORK YOU FIND PARTICULARLY PLEASING? WHY? From American Gods: "Chicago happened slowly, like a migraine." For a novel that's fundamentally an American road trip novel it seemed like a quintessentially American sentence. WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR? Depends on my mood. It's often a toss-up between James Branch Cabell, Shirley Jackson, R. A. Lafferty, Gene Wolfe and Hope Mirrlees. But John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, or John Aubrey or David Quammen, or the lunatic Harry Steven Keeler can often leap to the front of the line. Robert Aickman was good enough to scare me. WHAT BOOK DO YOU WISH YOU'D READ BY NOW? The Complete Short Stories of R. A. Lafferty -- of course, that would mean that someone would have collected them and published it. Lafferty was a living national treasure while he was writing, and nobody ever noticed. WHAT BOOK SHOULD BE RESCUED FROM OBSCURITY? WHY? The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, by Count Jan Patocki. He killed himself amid rumours of incest and lycanthropy, and the book is hugely flawed, but it's a wonderful Arabian-Nights-like experience, filled with stories of all kinds that interconnect and flow, as we learn why a Spanish nobleman's dalliance with two lovely sisters becomes a nightmare, as he wakes beneath the bodies of two dead robbers. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE QUOTATION? "First you dream. Then you die." Cornell Woolrich said that. I want to keep dreaming as long as I can. DO YOU HAVE ANY UNUSUAL WORK HABITS? Is it unusual to write novels in fountain pen and then do the second draft on the computer? I suspect it may be. I like to alternate ink colours while I'm writing a manuscript so I can see how much I did in a day. WHICH PLOT DEVICE IS MOST OVERUSED? The Archerly-Claviot Hydraulic Plot Adjuster. As devices go, they can adjust a plot to within an inch of its life, but I think the books can suffer in the long run.
	Article - Entertainment Weekly Posted by lucy_anne at 8:34 PM PDT \| Comments (0) That Blogger article by Glenn Gaslin from Entertainment Weekly that was mentioned in the blog is now online. The relevant bit: ''AMERICAN GODS'' JOURNAL Gaiman's daily road posts read like a gothic suspense tale, complete with stormy weather and a sense of foreboding. He tells EW that the journal, nonstop since February, has evolved into ''a combination of reports from a war zone, late breaking news, and strange observations on the signing and publicity process.'' Don't worry: We won't give away the ending. A
	American Gods Review - Richmond Review Posted by lucy_anne at 8:25 PM PDT \| Comments (0) Josh Lacey's review of American Gods for the Richmond Review is at http://www.richmondreview.co.uk/books/americangods.html

Sunday, August 5, 2001
	American Gods Review - San Antonio Express-News Posted by lucy_anne at 3:00 AM PDT \| Comments (0) Thomas, Harry "'American Gods' a study in details", San Antonio Express-News, 5 August 2001, 06H American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, Morrow, $26 "American Gods" is so intricately detailed in its imagery that even its stand-alone chapters would get an A+ from any creative writing professor. The reader can almost smell and taste the scenery that acclaimed author Neil Gaiman ("Neverwhere," the Sandman graphic novel series) paints. His fans will undoubtedly relish it. The main protagonist, Shadow, comes off as a strong, silent type who has seen a little too much in the world to be moved by it. Released from prison three days early to attend the funeral of his wife, who has died in a car accident, he is a man haunted by what might have been. On the flight home, he meets the enigmatic Mr. Wednesday, who offers the ex-con a job as an errand boy. Shadow initially refuses, but when he finds out that his late wife died while consummating an affair with the man who was going to give him a job after leaving prison, he reluctantly accepts. Wednesday introduces Shadow to a number of strange old characters, all of whom seem to know a great deal about him, more than he knows about himself. Wednesday is attempting to recruit them for the upcoming battle, while they are content to enjoy their retirement. Shadow is also introduced to the opposing forces, which are trying to recruit him to come over to their side, or kill him if he doesn't. Shadow takes in what is happening around him rather phlegmatically, as he is dealing with his own issues of grief tempered by the revelation of his late wife's infidelity. As the events unfold leading up to the battle, he slowly realizes the extent of the holy war that is about to take place, and how much he is caught up in it. Wednesday, his boss, is a con man trying to enlist others in a cause they would rather ignore. And the visits by Laura, Shadow's late wife, are eerily conversational. For the casual reader, "American Gods" comes under the heading of sensory overload. Perhaps there is such a thing as too much detail; this novel has that. Some of the sequences are almost Kubrickian in their complexity; and knowledge of other religions is required. Still there is some worthy material here: The idea that America has replaced its old religious icons with the trappings of a modern society is rich in its possibilities, and the old gods reduced to poverty and odd jobs to survive has artistic merit. Law enforcement would also be advised to read the chapter where Wednesday pulls off an ingenious method of bank robbery. hmt3@express-news.net

Thursday, August 2, 2001
	Clippings Posted by lucy_anne at 7:01 PM PDT \| Comments (0) I knew this would happen, eventually. Work picked up, and so all the interesting bits this week (like the fact the New York Times finally reviewed American Gods, the first Neil book they've done so with since Good Omens) were found either by Puck or Neil has them up in the blog. Perhaps you'll be entertained by the fact that American Gods is one of the "premier" titles you can select for free from when you purchase a RCA portable eBook? Or that the DC Online newsletter mentioning the Collected Editions CD ROM is in the middle of the page at CBEM? Or the fact that American Gods is on CBRs summer reading list although it looked like Bill Sienkiewicz was trying to keep his recommendations to books with 'pitchers'? Or that American Gods was on the recommends list at Netsurfer a few weeks ago? And you don't even want to know about how old the articles I missed on Wired News were. Sigh. Bad researcher. No tim tam.
	American Gods Review - Oregonian Posted by lucy_anne at 5:47 PM PDT \| Comments (0) to be removed by request or once I find a link -la AMERICAN GODS, Portland Oregonian, 07/29/2001 p D09 Steve Perry Ever wonder what happens to the old gods people have mostly forgotten? In "American Gods," Neil Gaiman takes us on a fascinating tour through a U.S. chock-full of has-been deities. As each wave of immigrants from the Old World arrived, they brought their idols with them -- and those idols are still here, surviving on what crumbs of belief they can find. These aren't can't-touch-me spiritual forms either, but undertakers, taxi drivers and con men. These are legends destitute and almost faded, and like Tinkerbell, they need belief to exist. This premise alone makes for an interesting novel, but Gaiman goes further -- the new icons of our popular culture, Internet wraiths, the spirits of shadowy government black helicopters, the gods of television, don't want competitors, even those in steep decline. There is a war brewing, a final showdown between gods old and new. Gaiman creates a rich tapestry of intriguing characters and includes much material that many readers may not recognize. Even so, he provides readers with a rich and entertaining allegorical tale.
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