Status Updates From The View from the Cheap Sea...

So far this has been a joy

5:20  I pass a McDonald’s. Already the McPeople who work there are in, McScrubbing the McCounters and unloading McMillions of McBuns from the McTruck.

“To be eccentric,” says Miss Webster, dead for fifteen years, in the back of my head, her voice dry, her elocution perfect, “you must first know your circle.” Know the rules before you break them. Learn how to draw, then break the rules of drawing, learn to craft a story and show people things they’ve seen before in ways they’ve never seen.

Miss Webster leaned back in her chair (...) and said, “Neil, dear. I think there’s something you ought to know. Listen: to be eccentric, you must first know your circle.” And I—for once—heard, and listened, and understood. You can fuck around with the rules as much as you want to—after you know what the rules are. You can be Picasso after you know how to paint. Do it your way, but know how to do it their way first.

We have been telling each other tales of otherness, of life beyond the grave, for a long time; stories that prickle the flesh and make the shadows deeper and, most important, remind us that we live, and that there is something special, something unique and remarkable about the state of being alive.

We writers—and especially writers for children, but all writers—have an obligation to our readers: it’s the obligation to write true things, especially important when we are creating tales of people who do not exist in places that never were—to understand that truth is not in what happens but in what it tells us about who we are. Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all.

Eu poderia passar todos os dias da minha vida ouvindo e lendo o Neil Gaiman

I’ve almost cried so many times

I will never get tired of listening to Neil Gaiman tell stories.

Started jumping around chaps in my reads (how to log now idk). Read the one on Terry, Fahrenheit 451, and Comics & Tulips. Love his description of sci-fi, positing What if, If only, and If this goes on. How sci-fi is more about the present than the future: "taking an aspect that's troubling, extrapolating it so the present can see what they are doing from diff angle and diff place." The essential metaphor of sci-fi.

Listened while sewing SNK straps; also read while making tarot letter to Neil a bit ago. His speech to the fairy tale symposium is YESS: fairy tales aren't dusty & academic but powerful & relevant things. How fantasy isn't escapism all the time: "it is the function of imaginative lit to show us the world we know, but from a different direction." The power of fantasy! To isolate/reflect the world & explain it.

Finished on 12 Feb 2022

Nearly finished with this wonderful book. I am taking a double shot here 😁. Reading the e-book and listening to Gaiman's magical voice at the same time.

One of my (many) favorite chapters so far: Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheir 451 and what science Fiction is and does.

Gaiman talks about the importance of telling stories in this chapter - and it’s a big eye opener for me. I’ve always known that reading is important but i haven’t really bern able to put my finger on why. But in this chapter Gaiman explains it as clear as crystal.

This is kind of boring, not gonna lie...

SO. CLOSE.

Started this one ages ago in hardback. Bought the paperback at B&N recently (for xmas), & listened to the first chapters while drawing Coraline for the tarot after finishing vol 1 of Audible's Sandman and crying. Neil is such a compassionate and humble human being; I guess it'd be a life goal to collaborate on smt w/ him, or adapt one of his works. Or just publish smt everyone will know was inspired by his work. <3

I know I was very effusive with my first update, however this book has started to get a little bit dry for me. The descriptions of books that I will never read (because they’re not interesting to me) is hard to get through, and I find that Gaiman’s spark is lagging a little bit for me. A lot of these intros also say the same thing, making whole sections feel redundant.

Mina tankar just nu: det här är en bok jag kommer att läsa igen - jag borde köpa den för 16.90 från Akademen - den här boken bär på erfarenheter jag vill gå tillbaka till i ett senare skede

Läst: ”Why our future depends on Livraries, reading and daydreaming: the reading agency lecture, 2013”
Ärligt talat, det här talet är något alla borde läsa. Gaiman talar om vikten av att barn och vuxna läser för skojs skull, för ens fantasi.
Jag önskar jag kunde publicera talet för alla att läsa… det va verkligen så bra!

It was dumb of me to think this might be a chore to read simply because it’s long and nonfiction. I’ve barely started and it’s already a delight, like having coffee with a good friend.

Lots of chapters about comics were packed together. It was a bad decision. They should have been sprinkled throughout the book.

So much respect and admiration for fellow authors, teacher and colleagues. I feel fascinated by his humble gestures throughout. Really liking the read so far.

Nobody inspires better than Neil Gaiman. Nobody. And he knows the things I wanted to say, and he can say it much much better than I ever could. He makes the world complete. He understands what he is saying. And this read is so far enchanting.

Oh Neil, Neil, Neil, Neil. You are a precious gem and must be protected.

View From the Cheap Seats is a heartbreaking-ly warming story about Neil going to the Oscars a year after his father past away. The only real picture of him there is him bending down to look at potential footprints on Rachel McAdams dress. x.x

:O Coraline was originally a typo! That's amazing

The first chapter is brilliant, and I enjoyed the rest as well. I recommend it to everyone who reads for pleasure - and perhaps even more to those who don’t.

«Si queréis saber quiénes somos, dadme la mano y pasearemos juntos, y observaremos fijamente cada pintura y cada objeto hasta que, por fin, empecemos a vernos.»

Neil Gaiman has been my favorite writer for years and this book, which I should have read long before now, is making me fall for him all over again. As a former teacher and hopeful writer, his words are a balm on my battered aspiration.

«Cuando murió me hicieron muchas entrevistas, me preguntaban por Douglas. Yo decía que no pensaba que fuera un novelista, a pesar de haberse convertido en un novelista de éxito internacional que había escrito varios libros que, un cuarto de siglo después, empiezan a considerarse clásicos. El oficio de novelista era algo con lo que se había tropezado, se había sentado encima de ello, de repente, y lo había roto.»